Class Reunion (2)

"Can you settle something like that privately?" Han Peng asked with a frown. "Isn't that a crime?"

Ma Jun downed another glass of liquor and sighed. "Sigh, she just said it was consensual. I caught them, but that was only a moral issue, nothing to do with the law. In the end, I was the one who'd made a false police report. Later, that old bastard found an excuse to fire me. My mom and dad nearly scolded me to death, saying I was sticking my nose where it didn't belong. Sigh!..."

Wang Jinqiu patted Ma Jun on the shoulder. "You can't blame your parents for that. They're getting old, and they just want us to have a stable life!"

"That's true..." Ma Jun sighed.

"What about you two?" Ma Jun changed the subject.

"We're the same as ever, still at the jobs we got after graduation. We're not busy, but we don't make much either. Just scraping by." After graduating with their bachelor's degrees, Han Peng and Wang Jinqiu had both gone back to work at their hometown county hospital. There were no major problems, but they weren't going anywhere great either, just drifting through their days.

"What about you, Fourth? Out of the five of us, only you and Li Zhi got into graduate school. Compared to us, you're high achievers! Hahaha!" Han Peng said with a laugh.

"I can't compare to Li Zhi. He works at a major hospital. I got a job at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic! The pay isn't much, and I don't have many patients right now, so I'm just getting by for the time being!" Su Ziyang didn't mention his extraordinary encounter, only talking about his experience at the clinic.

"That works too. A clinic is a good place to train. You can put more of what you learned to use!" Ma Jun gave a fairly objective assessment.

Before long, they had knocked back a few more bottles of beer. Empty bottles filled the space around them.

"Not bad, Fourth." Han Peng's tongue had already grown a little stiff. "It's been a few years, and you can hold your liquor better now!"

"Boss, another case of 90!" Wang Jinqiu called to the proprietress.

"Coming!"

What they didn't know was that Su Ziyang didn't smell of alcohol at all. With his qi circulating on its own, the alcohol had long since been completely evaporated away.

They had just opened the beers when Ma Jun got a video call. He looked at the screen and saw it was Li Zhi!

"Li Zhi!" Ma Jun found a beer bottle and propped his phone against it at one end of the table, so all four of them could fit in the shot!

"Big Brother! Hahaha. You guys have had a fair bit to drink, huh?" Li Zhi seemed to be walking down the road. The camera swayed back and forth, and the streetlights outside flickered, blurring the image.

"We sure have! What are you up to?" Su Ziyang chimed in.

"Don't even ask! I just got off work. Had to work overtime. I was just helping them resuscitate two patients. I'm exhausted!" Li Zhi did sound a little tired.

"Doctor Li, saving lives and tending to the wounded! Let's have a drink!" Han Peng called out, raising his glass!

"You guys wait. I'll go buy a couple of beers too, and we can have a virtual drink together! A virtual drink! I'll hang up for now. Wait until I get home!" With that, Li Zhi ended the call.

"That guy! Hahaha." The others chuckled!

By the time Li Zhi called again, he was sitting in the little room he rented, with four bottles of beer and some instant food on the table!

"Let's have one, brothers! Pop~ hiss-" Li Zhi opened a bottle of Snow.

"Drink-drink!"

The five of them cheerfully raised their glasses together.

The meal lasted until the early hours of the morning.

The four of them staggered back to the hotel. As for Li Zhi, he had long since fallen asleep on his table.

The next morning, Su Ziyang was awakened by the sound of Wang Jinqiu vomiting.

"Damn! You throwing up?" Su Ziyang patted Wang Jinqiu on the back.

"Sigh, my stomach hasn't been great these past few years. It feels uncomfortable if I don't throw up. Fourth, get me some hot water!"

Su Ziyang hurried to get the electric kettle and boil some water. Wang Jinqiu continued throwing up in the bathroom, while Ma Jun and Han Peng's snores rose and fell in his ears. For a moment, Su Ziyang felt as though he had returned to his college days.

The three of them rested up for a day, then wandered around the neighborhood near the university a few times, reminiscing about the old days. They also went to the crooked-neck tree on campus to pay their respects to the little hamster they had all raised together. When the hamster died back then, they had buried it beneath the crooked-neck tree.

Another day passed amid laughter and chatter.

The four of them came together to the hotel Xing Zhiyu had booked. It was one of the larger hotels in the university's city, and its decor alone showed how grand it was.

They gave Xing Zhiyu's name at the front desk, and an attendant led the four of them into the private room he had booked!

Several people were already in the room. As soon as the door opened, everyone's eyes turned to the four of them in unison.

"Oh... Brother Jun, Ziyang, Jinqiu, Han Peng!" Xing Zhiyu, who was sitting in the middle, stood up to welcome them.

"Brother Yu, Brother Yu!" Ma Jun cupped his fists at Xing Zhiyu.

Ma Jun had spent more time with Xing Zhiyu and was a little closer to him, so the two exchanged jokes.

Su Ziyang and the other two greeted Xing Zhiyu. "Hello, class monitor!"

"Come on, sit down!" Xing Zhiyu nodded.

The four sat down.

Before long, more people began arriving one after another. Those who had been close back then chattered away as they caught up, while those with more ordinary relationships simply greeted each other and said no more.

"Su Ziyang!" A girl sitting beside Su Ziyang greeted him.

"Jiarou! Hahaha. I almost didn't dare recognize you!"

Su Ziyang laughed. Wang Jiarou was the only girl Su Ziyang had been close to at university. Back then, they had taken part in some volunteer work together and had gotten along well in conversation! Later, both of them had gone to graduate school at the same university, and they would exchange a few words when they occasionally met.

"Tch-" Wang Jiarou rolled her eyes. "Just admit you didn't see me. Your eyes were glued to your phone the whole time. How could you see anyone?"

"Hahaha! I was wrong, Young Miss Wang!"

Wang Jiarou was famous for her sharp tongue. Su Ziyang couldn't outtalk her, so he could only hurry to beg for mercy!

"I suppose this young miss will reluctantly forgive you. After graduation, it was like you disappeared. There wasn't a peep from you! Come on, where have you been secretly making your fortune?" Wang Jiarou put on a haughty expression, furrowed her brows, and fired a string of questions at Su Ziyang.

"Haha, I can't compare to you, Doctor Wang. I just found a clinic to earn a living at! What fortune?" Su Ziyang said with a smile.

"A clinic isn't bad either. You must be pretty busy!" Wang Jiarou was studying for her doctorate, still at the same university. Su Ziyang had heard a little about it.

The two of them chatted and laughed. Nearly everyone had arrived by then.

There were two tables in the room, and they were almost full. Su Ziyang remembered there had been sixty-seven people in their class, and now a little over forty had come. It seemed some people hadn't wanted to attend the reunion.

"Excuse me, sir. Shall we start serving the food?" an attendant asked from the doorway.

Xing Zhiyu glanced around and saw that almost everyone was there, so he nodded. "Serve it!"

The dishes had been ordered long ago, and it didn't take long for them all to be served. The men who drank had alcohol, while most of the women had soft drinks.

Alcohol evaporated into the air, and carbonated drinks could also stimulate the mind. The atmosphere in the room gradually grew lively.

At that point, Xing Zhiyu stood and raised his glass. Everyone put down their chopsticks and fell silent, looking at their class monitor as he stood there.

"I was very fortunate to meet such a fine group of friends and classmates as you during our university years!"

The moment Xing Zhiyu opened his mouth, out came the official platitudes. Su Ziyang and his three brothers exchanged knowing smiles.

"It's been more than three years since we graduated, and it's been a long time since we all got together. So I took the liberty of organizing this gathering and inviting everyone to dine near our alma mater! So let's all have a drink first!"

With that, Xing Zhiyu tilted his head back and downed the yellow liquid in his glass. Everyone raised their glasses and drained them in turn.

Seeing that everyone had finished, Xing Zhiyu immediately filled his own glass again.

"There's a second reason I gathered everyone here. As you all know, I'm a counselor at the university now. Recently, our university has been holding an event!" When Xing Zhiyu got to that point, Su Ziyang knew he was about to get to the main point of the gathering.

"Hey, do you know what he's up to?" Wang Jiarou gently poked Su Ziyang in the side.

"What is it?" Su Ziyang saw that Wang Jiarou was acting mysterious, as though she knew something.

"Just listen. It'll definitely disgust you, hehe!" Wang Jiarou smiled softly, her eyes narrowing to slits.

Wang Jiarou took a sip of her drink and motioned for Su Ziyang to listen carefully.

"The university has been working on cultural development lately. It wants to put up some stone statues around the sports field. I was thinking, since our alma mater educated us, and as the saying goes, passing on knowledge, teaching skills, and resolving doubts is a kindness akin to giving us a second life, our class could make a small contribution together. We could make a donation in our class's name. Two thousand yuan from each person, and the statues would be inscribed with our class's name as the donor. We'd even appear in the university's history!"

At those words, everyone fell silent and watched Xing Zhiyu quietly. For a moment, the atmosphere was a little awkward.

"Class monitor, is two thousand yuan enough? I'll transfer you five thousand!" someone said then. Everyone turned to look at him.

Su Ziyang saw that the man was Wang Zhiyong, who had been Xing Zhiyu's loyal follower at university.

He didn't know whether Wang Zhiyong was a plant or had made arrangements with Xing Zhiyu beforehand.

The man actually picked up his phone right away and transferred five thousand yuan to Xing Zhiyu.

After accepting the transfer, Xing Zhiyu immediately took on the look of a veteran leader. "Zhiyong, the university will remember you!"

"See?" Wang Jiarou said softly to Su Ziyang.

Now that someone had taken the lead, Su Ziyang was shocked to find that some of the women really did begin transferring money. More and more people followed, taking out their phones to send money.

Su Ziyang and his three brothers looked at one another, feeling somewhat helpless. Never mind whether the money would really go toward building statues-even if it did, what did that have to do with them?

At most, a line of text would appear on a statue: "Donated collectively by Class xxx, Year xxx." In the end, the credit would still go to Xing Zhiyu, the class counselor working at the university. Who would bother looking into whether Su Ziyang or Ma Jun had been in the class...?

"Class monitor! My academic lineage has already donated one. I won't join the class donation!" Wang Jiarou suddenly called out.

Xing Zhiyu frowned and looked around. When he saw that it was Wang Jiarou speaking, his gaze immediately softened. "Haha, Jiarou. All right, you can donate with your academic lineage! You doctoral students have been pretty busy lately, haven't you?"

Wang Jiarou nodded. "It's all right! Thanks for understanding, class monitor!"

Something unexpected happened. Su Ziyang thought that all forty-odd classmates who had come to the reunion had actually transferred money to Xing Zhiyu. Xing Zhiyu also posted a notice in the class group chat.

After that... some of the people who hadn't come transferred money in the group chat too...