Chapter Twenty-Two Midnight Terror

  After Zheng Wei and others entered the third year, Lao Zhang, who should have graduated with honor, was unfortunately retained due to failing two compulsory courses in the same academic year. This once again confirmed the rumor that the Go Club is actually a "retention club". Lao Zhang has always been a good person, and Zheng Wei and others all expressed deep sympathy for him, but they couldn't understand why he didn't pass the supplementary exams, which were held within the college with great flexibility. With his connections and excellent interpersonal skills, it was impossible for him to be retained. However, he himself seemed unconcerned, often saying, "The mother school is beautiful, the younger brothers and sisters are lovely, how can I bear to leave them ahead of time?" After being retained, his days were still spent happily, doing what he wanted to do. It's said that outside of school, he even partnered with friends to run some small businesses, and most of the time, his whereabouts couldn't be seen within the school.

  Lao Zhang is one of the few people who have a good relationship with Chen Xiao Zheng. Chen Xiao Zheng acknowledges that Lao Zhang's magnanimity is rare, but he still strongly disapproves of his lifestyle and learning attitude. Of course, others can live their lives as they please, but after Lao Zhang's retention incident, this became a negative example that Chen often mentioned to Zheng Wei. He was worried that Zheng Wei's laziness and love for leisure would lead her down the same path as Lao Zhang. Zheng Wei thought he was being overly anxious, as she wasn't diligent, but still far from being retained. However, on the other hand, she secretly felt happy that he was showing more concern for her.

  She often said, "A Zheng, thanks to your architecture being a five-year program, I can spend another year with you, and we can graduate together, it's great."

  Chen Xiao Zheng always said, "It's precisely because of this that I want to suffer another year of torment from you."

  "Am I not a sweet torture?" Zheng Wei said with a straight face, and then asked, "Have you ever thought about what to do after graduation? Why don't we stay in G City? I like it here, and it's close to your home."

  He was taken aback and didn't answer immediately, only saying, "It's still so far away, let's talk about it when the time comes, okay?"

  "How far away it is, time flies so fast, anyway you go where I go, hurry up and say, if graduated, where do you most want to work, speak up!"

  He was swayed by her and said casually, "If you have to choose, then China Construction Group is the best choice. In the country, graduates of architecture and civil engineering majors who enter enterprises should be the best choice for China Construction."

  "That's great, I'll graduate and go to Zhongjian too, then we can work in the same unit." Zheng Wei clapped her hands.

  Chen Xiao Zheng smiled, "It's easy to say, even if G University is already the best science and engineering university in the south, China Construction is not a place where you can just walk in. Every year, tens of thousands of people apply, but only a few dozen are hired."

  Zheng Wei was unwilling to give up, "If you can enter, I can also enter."

  "Alright, even if everyone can get in, it's impossible for me to look at you every day when I go to work and still see you after work. I'll really be driven mad." He said helplessly.

  "What did you say, watching me every day after work? Does that mean you're admitting we'll be together from now on? Haha, is this a promise? Quickly say yes or no." She immediately caught the key words in his sentence.

  He thought for a moment and couldn't help but laugh, then forced himself to hold back his laughter and said, "If you want to get into Zhongjian now, just work harder for me, don't be idle all day."

  Zheng Wei couldn't care less about his warnings, as long as she thought about the future, she would laugh out loud even in her dreams. She wasn't in a hurry, and with the person by her side, they still had a very, very long time together - a lifetime of sharing dawn and dusk, a whole lifetime!

  It wasn't long after the start of the second semester of their junior year that Zheng Wei and Ruan Ruan had a bit of a run-in, and the root of it all was just a phone call.

  That night, when Zhao Shi Yong called for the first time, Ruan Ruan was taking a bath. The phone was answered by Zheng Wei. Zhao Shi Yong also knew that Zheng Wei was Ruan Ruan's best friend in college, and everyone on the phone was familiar with each other, often exchanging pleasantries. Ruan Ruan never thought it was strange.

  Zheng Wei said, "Ruan Ruan is taking a bath, if you have something urgent, call back in a while."

  "Zhao Shi Yong said slowly and calmly, just like Ruan Ruan, 'It's nothing, just casually give her a call to ask about her. When she comes out later, you can tell her that I've called her.'"

  The background noise on his end of the phone was quite loud, and some words were faint and unclear for a moment, so he asked another sentence, "It's noisy on your side, where are you?"

  Zhao Shi Yong seemed to still be chatting with the people around him, and upon hearing Zheng Wei's question, he casually said, "A friend's birthday, celebrating at KTV. I'll hang up first, trouble you to tell Ruan Ruan for me."

  The phone had just been hung up for a short while when Ruan walked out after washing her bath. Zheng Wei told her about the phone call just now, and Ruan responded with an "oh" and wiped her hair before calling Zhao Shi-yong again. Zheng Wei sat beside her flipping through a magazine listlessly until Ruan also ended the call, then she smiled and said, "Are you checking on each other again? Why did you hang up so quickly, in the past you wouldn't stop until the phone was burning hot."

  Ruan Ruan also joked with her, "If we were like you and Chen Xiao Zheng, sticking together all day, we wouldn't need to make phone calls. He said he was eating at a classmate's house and it wasn't convenient to chat, so he hung up."

  Zheng Wei nodded and flipped through a few more pages of the magazine, when suddenly she thought of something. "Ruan Ruan, wait a minute, five minutes ago I casually asked where Yong Yong was, and on the phone it was so noisy, he told me he was at KTV celebrating a friend's birthday, how come just now you said he was eating at a friend's house?"

  Ruan Ruan was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "You must be mistaken."

  "No way, how could I possibly misremember? He really said he was at KTV, and I heard it very clearly." Zheng Wei put down the magazine and said seriously.

  "Oh, maybe I heard it wrong. Where's my comb? I just saw it a moment ago?" Ruan Ruan searched everywhere for her comb.

  "Isn't it right in front of you?" Zheng Wei handed the comb to her, saying with doubt, "How could you mishear this? Ruan Ruan, he wouldn't deceive you, would he? Didn't he tell you that he was having dinner at a friend's house and it wasn't convenient to answer the phone? Could there be such terrifying music sounds at a friend's house?"

  She didn't expect the usually gentle Ruan Ruan to suddenly slam down the comb, "How could he possibly deceive me? I said it might be a misunderstanding, why are you being so serious?"

  Zheng Wei was startled, she had never seen Ruan Ruan speak to anyone with such a stiff attitude, especially not her, who was supposed to be a good friend, and yet she was only speaking out of concern for her friends, saying what she had heard and thought.

  She glanced at Ruan Ruan, muttered, "Okay, I'm overthinking." and threw down the magazine to climb onto her own bed. Ruan Ruan wanted to speak but stopped herself, ultimately saying nothing.

  This cold war came out of nowhere. The next day, Zheng Wei mentioned his troubles to Chen Xiao Zheng in a wronged tone while they were having lunch together.

  Chen Xiao Zheng listened to her without saying a word, then said, "You're just too naive, these things between couples, even if you're good friends, it's better to say less. Ruan Wan is not like you, she's a smart person pretending to be foolish, with a heart as clear as a mirror..."

  "I'm as clear as a mirror too." Zheng Wei hastily retorted.

  "You? You look quite clever, but actually you're just a silly kid." Chen Xiao Zheng finished his evaluation and continued eating.

  Zheng Wei stirred the miserable food in her bowl, picking out all the dishes she didn't eat and putting them into Chen Xiao Zheng's bowl. She said resentfully, "So you're saying I'm the one who's wrong? I tell her everything, but she just gets angry with me for no reason. Fine, you're both smart people, and I'm the only fool. Can't I even play by myself?"

  Chen Xiao Zheng comforted her, "Everything remains constant, so a clever person is usually paired with an idiot."

  At night, when she returned to the dormitory, Zheng Wei was so thirsty that she searched everywhere for water to drink. Ruan Ruan brought a thermos and poured her a cup, but Zheng Wei's anger had not dissipated, "I won't drink yours."

  Ruan lowered her head and smiled, pushing her gently, "Still angry? I said you're being too serious, and you really argued with me?"

  "I won't care about your affairs anymore, whether you live or die, it has nothing to do with me." Zheng Wei said in a huff.

  Ruan's smile faded a bit, "Yesterday was my fault, didn't I just apologize to you? Are you really mad at me?" Seeing Zheng Wei not speaking, she sighed and said, "Let's talk about this outside."

  Zheng Wei held the water cup, reluctantly following her out to a less crowded area in the corridor. It was only then that Ruan Ruan spoke up, "Actually, I know you're doing it for my own good. You didn't mishear, and neither did I. It's just that I wasn't willing to admit it myself. My mood was bad at the time, so I spoke a bit harshly. Don't take it to heart."

  She said that, Zheng Wei's annoyance turned into concern for her, "So he really deceived you? What's going on with you two, weren't things always fine, what happened?"

  She tapped the railing of the corridor and said, "Actually, I know that being apart for a long time is easy to have problems. Really, long-distance relationships are too hard. But I always thought that my boyfriend and I had enough perseverance, and we could definitely make it until the day we were together again. I don't know when it started, but suddenly it seemed like there was no topic between us anymore. He said, "XXX is so stupid, he doesn't even know that his socks are not the same color." Actually, I wanted to ask him who XXX was. I said, "Our college building has more flavor after renovation than before." He said, "I don't even know what your college looked like before..." It's like this, we started not knowing about each other's surroundings, people and things, and the experiences that happened every day, and the people who appeared around us. We didn't know anything. When we were depressed, happy, or sad, the other person was not by our side, so we could only rely on phone calls. Before, one chat would last all night, and I wanted to tell him everything that happened in a day. Slowly, the phone calls became shorter and shorter, and describing things that the other person didn't know about was very boring. The only thing we were both interested in was the memories of the past. But no matter how good the past was, the more times you recalled it, the more flavorless it became. Later, I suddenly realized that I was trying very hard to find topics to talk about, and the more I looked for them, the more I didn't know what to say. I thought he should be the same way too. Now when we make phone calls, the most we talk about is reporting our whereabouts to each other. But he's really stupid, even his lies are inconsistent."

  Zheng furrowed her brow, "So to say, that Zhao Shi-yong guy was really telling lies? Ruan Ruan, why didn't you go ask him clearly and see what kind of bad things he's been up to?"

  "No, I don't want to ask."

  "Why?"

  "Because I don't want to break up yet."

  "What kind of logic is this?" Zheng Wei was puzzled.

  Ruan Ruan said, "Many things are like balloons, they look beautiful, but you can't poke them. Once poked, it's gone with a 'bang'. I don't mind his occasional lies, really, it's nothing. What I'm afraid of is that we become strangers. Sheng Ye, he was the first boy I liked, and hopefully the last one too. I will make things between us go back to normal, before this happened, hopefully without him even realizing there were cracks. To be honest, I just wasn't in a good mood that day, sorry."

  Zheng Wei took a sip of water, "I really don't understand how you guys think. But to be honest, I'm the same way, I truly hope that falling in love with someone can last a lifetime, just like that, so simple, how great."

  That National Day holiday, Ruan Ruan took the train alone to the city where Zhao Shi Yong was. He Lu Gen also went to visit her boyfriend who had just graduated and was teaching at a middle school in their hometown. Li Wei Juan and Zhuo Mei returned home, and even Zhu Xiao Bei went on a trip to Yunnan with a group of friends she met on the campus network because she recently became obsessed with self-help travel. Zheng Wei originally wanted to go home, but couldn't bear to part with Chen Xiao Zheng, so she had no choice but to stay in the dorm alone. On the day Zhu Xiao Bei left, Zheng Wei held onto her luggage tightly and said with a sobbing tone, "Zhu Bei, you're leaving too, leaving me alone in the dorm for seven days, what am I supposed to do?"

  Zhu Xiaobei searched his dormitory for a long time, rummaged out a hammer he made by himself in the mechanical class and handed it to Zheng Wei, "If there's an enemy situation, use this at critical moments, take care of yourself." After finishing speaking, he left with a flourish, leaving only Zheng Wei alone, wanting to cry but having no tears.

  During the long holiday, Chen Xiao Zheng had some free time and decided to help an interior design company rush their customized models. This was his main source of income from part-time work. Zheng Wei didn't dare disturb him, so she could only stand by and act as a little helper, even though she couldn't be of much assistance. At least during the day, the two had each other's company. However, when night fell, she had to return to her cold and empty dormitory. It was then that she realized the entire female dormitory building was almost completely deserted, especially after lights out. The silence felt particularly eerie.

  The first night she couldn't sleep, so she put the hammer sent by Zhu Bei on the edge of her pillow, covered her face with a quilt, leaving only two ears to listen carefully to all the wind and grass movements. Occasionally, there were abnormal rustling sounds, from small to large, all the horror movies replayed in her mind, she felt that in the darkness, there was always a terrible face secretly watching her outside the mosquito net.

  Just as she had finally drifted off to sleep in a daze, Zheng Wei suddenly heard faint voices and intermittent noises outside her dorm room door. She immediately woke up, holding her breath to listen carefully, and indeed, it seemed like someone was sneaking around the door, doing who-knew-what. Upon closer listening, the voices were both male and female, all speaking in hushed tones.

  Zheng Wei's body hair stood on end, she secretly glanced at the alarm clock on her bedside table, it was past two in the middle of the night. How could there be someone chatting on the balcony? It was even more impossible for a man to appear in the girls' dormitory. But that voice existed, her ears wouldn't deceive her, and she dared to confirm that the voice came from right outside her door. Was she really so unlucky, being jinxed by Zhu Bei, something happened on the first day of living alone? Looking at the noise, it was unknown whether it was an attempt to steal or a robbery. There weren't many valuable things in the dormitory, the most precious thing was herself. If those thieves not only robbed her of her wealth but also took advantage of her, what could she do? She touched the wooden stick on her bedside table, Zhu Bei's handmade work had never been great, this one was probably another one of her amateur works, the handle was thin and slender, probably wouldn't be of much use. As she thought about it, her whole body felt cold, all that was left for her to do was shiver under the blanket.

  After being frightened to the extreme, she suddenly turned her fear into anger. Who was she? She was a fearless little dragon with a jade face, and rather than lying in bed trembling, she would rush out and fight them. She wanted to see if there were people or ghosts at her door. Thinking of this, she didn't care about anything else, picked up the hammer and quietly got out of bed, walked barefoot to the door, held her breath and put her ear against it, only to hear a man's voice urging: "Hurry up, hurry up."

  She unexpectedly pushed the door open with force, holding up a hammer and rushed out. There were indeed two black shadows at the door, Zheng Wei let out a sharp cry, only to find that the two black shadows also cried out in surprise, seemingly even more shocked than she was.

  "Who?" Zheng Wei continued to stare at the two figures in the corridor, one male and one female. The woman wearing pajamas was apparently a senior from the neighboring dormitory of the Department of Materials Science and Electrical Engineering, while the man was a stranger.

  "What's going on here?" Zheng Wei's hammer was still not put down, she was so angry that she didn't have time to think about how there could be boys here at this time, anyway, she just felt that they wouldn't do anything good, sneaking around and scaring her half to death.

  The boy was also obviously frightened and stuttered, "We...we are drying clothes!"

  "Are you sick or not, what are you drying at midnight?" Zheng Wei poked her head out to take a look and was even more furious. The thing that was being dried in front of their dormitory door was a man's underwear. She understood now, apparently this couple had taken advantage of the fact that no one was in the girls' dormitory and had done something immoral in the dormitory. For some reason, they washed clothes at midnight, and the senior sister didn't dare to dry her boyfriend's underwear on the balcony outside her own dormitory door. She mistakenly thought that the neighboring dormitory was empty, so she dried this broken thing in front of Zheng Wei's dormitory door. Even if someone saw it, others would not be able to gossip about her.

  "Are you kidding me? You're messing around here and now you want our dorm to take the blame for this, that's just too much! I'm going to let Dorm Auntie judge what's right!" Zheng Wei overcame her fear and stood up straight.

  Those mandarin ducks kept begging for mercy, everyone knew that if they really called Auntie Sheguan, things wouldn't be just a joke anymore. Openly bringing her boyfriend back to the dormitory overnight was something that would get her punished at school, not to mention losing face.

  Zheng Wei scolded them, telling them to take away all the things in front of their dormitory. In the end, they didn't really call the dorm mother, Auntie. Although these two were a bit overboard, they just wanted to seize every opportunity to be together. Letting people off where you can is also letting them off; why make others lose face and reputation?

  She tightly closed the door, still frightened, and didn't care what time it was now. She immediately dialed Chen Xiao's dormitory phone number. When she heard his sleepy voice, she felt at ease and burst into tears, telling him about what had just happened.

  Chen Xiao Zheng listened and his first reaction was, "Are you out of your mind? If it's really a thief, rushing out like this isn't sending yourself to death? Why did you only think of calling now?"

  Zheng Wei cried out, "I don't care, anyway I can no longer stay in this damned place."