Diagnosis: Friend [Rebirth] - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The sky gradually darkened. Jiang Qing crouched on the steps, facing the fading light, and carefully inserted the memory card into the slot of her old phone. She pressed her thumb against the card, pushing it in until a tiny “click” sounded, then long-pressed the power button.

She covered the phone with her school jacket and arms in advance, but the startup sound—coarse and loud as thunder—still burst from the device. Fortunately, there weren’t many students walking around; otherwise, Jiang Qing would have experienced another moment of social death.

The phone turned on successfully. Jiang Qing pressed the buttons, scrolling through different icons on the tiny screen until she finally found the gallery.

Judging by Gu Yining’s reaction and the bullying incidents at No. 9 in her previous life, it was easy to guess what was on the card… A person like Gu Yining, even if the fire didn’t burn her directly, would never stand by and watch coldly.

She opened the gallery, which only displayed a few photos. The resolution of the old phone was poor, but she could vaguely make out several girls gathered together, or a girl kneeling on the ground.

Since Gu Yining had used such a method to give it to her and told her to keep it safe, there couldn’t be just these few photos inside. Perhaps the old phone simply couldn’t read the rest.

Jiang Qing gathered her things and ran toward the dormitory.

The lights weren’t on in the room. As soon as Jiang Qing pushed the door open, Zhang Zixi’s cheerful voice drifted over: “Jiang Qing! You’re back!”

Jiang Qing turned on the light. “Zixi, I have an emergency. I didn’t have time to buy your milk tea.”

Zhang Zixi scrambled down from her bed and sat on a small stool at the desk, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Jiang Qing. “Ah… it’s okay! Thank you anyway! I’m so hungry, I love you so much!”

Jiang Qing put the food on the table. Zhang Zixi pulled out two pairs of disposable chopsticks from the drawer and gestured for her to sit. “Eat with me, Jiang Qing!”

“I already ate, I’m not hungry,” Jiang Qing said. “Zixi, do you have any money on you? I want to borrow some.”

Zhang Zixi: “I do. How much do you need?”

After taking a hundred yuan in cash from Zhang Zixi, Jiang Qing put on her backpack and tucked the SD card into the innermost layer.

Seeing her rushing to leave again, Zhang Zixi looked up from her fried noodles, confused. “Jiang Qing… what’s wrong? You’re in a hurry for money and running out again?” She lowered her voice and frowned slightly. “You aren’t being bullied, are you?”

Zhang Zixi knew Jiang Qing’s family situation wasn’t great, but from the 10th grade until now, Jiang Qing had rarely borrowed money. Today’s situation was indeed very strange.

Jiang Qing looked up, zipped her backpack, and smiled at Zhang Zixi. “I’m not being bullied. If I were, I’d definitely tell Ms. Jian and all of you. I really just have an emergency and don’t have cash on me. Be good and eat; it’ll get cold.”

Leaving the school, Jiang Qing walked into the internet cafe closest to the campus. The boss at the front desk glanced at her and chased her away with a gruff, impatient voice: “We don’t serve minors. Get going. Students from No. 2 should be studying, not running to internet cafes.”

Jiang Qing turned and went back to the street, took off her school jacket, went to a mobile shop to buy a new SD card, and then followed the instructions of colored chalk drawings in an alley to enter a different internet cafe.

After successfully getting in, Jiang Qing asked the boss for a card reader, put the SD card inside, and plugged it into the computer.

The card contained over three hundred photos and more than a dozen videos. It took a long time for her to scroll to the bottom. At the very end were a few selfies of Gu Yining. Under a thick, blurry filter, the girl was making a peace sign at the camera, her hair falling naturally, her smile radiant.

Jiang Qing copied all the images and videos onto the new SD card.

When she walked out of the internet cafe, it was already very late. The city lights were too bright, red and green interlacing to pack the city tight, making it impossible to see the original color of the night sky.

In a deathly silence, a dark shadow slipped into a dormitory door at No. 9 High School.

“Gu Yining? Gu Yining?” Tang Lin felt her way to the window in the dark. “Are you feeling better? Yining?”

Sensing the heat radiating from the body on the bed, Tang Lin reached forward. Feeling her way up the soft blanket, she touched a burning hot hand and immediately started stammering in fright. “Yi… Yining, you… do you have a fever?”

In the darkness, she heard Gu Yining’s voice, weak as a thread: “Leave…”

Tang Lin’s body froze instantly.

But it was too late.

A faint footstep sounded behind her, and cold sweat instantly ran down her shoulders. The next moment, a bright white light stung her eyes, and a cold laugh came from behind.

“How touching.” Tan Baozhu laughed, her body shaking. “Even skipping evening self-study to sneak in and deliver medicine. Aren’t you afraid those three will find out, Classmate Tang Lin? You’ll be next.”

“Or…” She leaned closer to the trembling girl, her lipstick-covered mouth looking like a demon that had just eaten a child. “Do you want to take her place?”

The girl’s eyes filled with tears. She shook her head violently, the crystal drops flying out like beautiful pearls.

“Tan Baozhu.” A weak voice came from the bed. “We’re all in the same dorm. Don’t take things to such a cruel extreme.”

A long silence followed.

“You’re right.” Tan Baozhu snatched the ointment from the girl’s hand and walked slowly to Gu Yining’s bedside, her leather shoes clicking crisply on the floor. “Wasn’t Classmate Tang Lin out using the restroom? Why haven’t you gone back?”

As if receiving a grand pardon, Tang Lin turned to run out, but looked back at Gu Yining one last time. Gu Yining lay on the bed, looking incredibly frail, her face an abnormal shade of red. She offered a small smile. “Tang Lin, go back quickly. I’m fine. I just need to rest a bit.”

The door was soon closed.

Tan Baozhu sat on the edge of the bed and unscrewed the cap of the ointment. “Gu Yining, if I did take things to the extreme, what would you do?”

The person on the bed was flushed, yet her lips were very pale. Below her chin, a tiny black mole was set into her pink skin; Tan Baozhu thought it looked like a piece of half-cooked pork skin.

“Tang Lin is cowardly and timid; a little pressure and she’d head for the rooftop. If you take things to the extreme, it’s no fun anymore, and it just causes trouble…”

She was likely truly sick, as her speaking speed had slowed down, making Tan Baozhu impatient. Squeezing out some ointment onto her hand, Tan Baozhu brought her finger to Gu Yining’s cheek. “True, no one is as fun as you—like an unkillable cockroach. It’s not just them who want to hit you; even I want to hit you.”

Gu Yining turned her face away and took the opportunity to roll her eyes. “There are no wounds on my neck.”

Tan Baozhu snorted coldly and wiped all the ointment onto the girl’s neck in one large, sticky glob. “Expecting me to rub it in for you? Keep dreaming.”

As she withdrew her hand, she slapped the protruding blanket. Hearing a sharp intake of breath, Tan Baozhu remained unmoved. “Quit faking. How could the injuries be that bad?”

Gu Yining took a deep breath and closed her eyes, ignoring the psycho. Anyway, the one who was hurt wasn’t her.

Shortly after, Gu Yining heard the sound of leather shoes stepping away and quickly called out: “Leave the medicine.” This was bought for her by Tang Lin; was she really going to let this person walk off with it?

Tan Baozhu looked back at her. “Open your dog eyes and look. The medicine is on the table. No one but you would care about such a worthless thing.”

The door closed again.

Gu Yining used every ounce of her strength to sit up. Her body was getting hotter and hotter; she felt like a steamer basket for buns, with white steam constantly rising from her. Her body was both painful and itchy. She took a deep breath and reached out for the ointment on the table.

On the sofa in a corner of a cafe, a woman wore a vintage red-and-black plaid dress with an exquisite bow at her chest. Her slender fingers set down her coffee as she looked at the girl opposite her, narrowing her eyes. “Classmate Jiang, please speak.”

Jiang Qing pulled a small transparent bag from her backpack and placed it on the sofa between them. Inside the cheap, grayish-white bag, Zhou Xuening could see clearly—it was a strand of hair.

The woman’s beautiful pupils reflected the plainly dressed girl. Zhou Xuening blinked and looked at the girl with a heavy expression.

“Since Ms. Zhou works at the Gu Group, I’ll get straight to the point.” Jiang Qing looked up at the woman. “The daughter of the Gu Group, Gu Ke, had a daughter named Gu Yue who went missing over ten years ago. There is a sophomore at Anhe No. 9 named Gu Yining who happens to be adopted and is the same age as Gu Yue.”

“Are you trying to say that this girl named Gu Yining is the missing young miss of the Gu family?” Zhou Xuening smiled faintly. “Classmate Jiang, how do you know these things?”

Jiang Qing: “If you don’t believe me, Ms. Zhou, you’ll know once you have a DNA test done.”

Zhou Xuening reached out, picked up the small bag, and laughed softly. “I’m not a member of the Gu family. Why should I do this?”

“Ms. Zhou is currently Mr. Gu’s girlfriend, but neither your family background nor your education has been recognized by the Gu family.” Jiang Qing didn’t actually know the current status of Zhou Xuening and Gu Shao, so she could only guess based on her previous life. “In the end, Old Mrs. Gu is the one in charge right now. She loves Gu Ke the most, and she will certainly love Gu Yue. If you find Gu Yue, the old lady will recognize you out of gratitude.”

The corners of Zhou Xuening’s mouth slowly lowered. She looked down at the hair in the bag, then back at the girl. The girl sat upright, showing none of the guilt typical of a teenager telling a lie. Only when she met Zhou Xuening’s probing gaze did she momentarily look dazed before looking away.

This girl was too suspicious. How could a poor student have the means to know these things—especially when they matched the truth so closely?

“What are you after by telling me this?”

Money… or something else?

Jiang Qing took a USB drive from her backpack and placed it on the table. “Ms. Zhou, I want you to contact the media and the authorities to expose this matter, give the bullied students the response and protection they deserve, and have the Gu family recognize Gu Yining.”

Zhou Xuening opened her laptop and inserted the USB.

“I will continue to send you further evidence. I’ve looked into it; the DNA report takes about seven working days. I hope you can first send someone to protect Gu Yining’s safety to ensure she isn’t harmed before or after the matter is exposed.”

Zhou Xuening looked up at the girl with surprise before looking back at the computer. After a long while, Zhou Xuening looked up again. “This… might not be enough.”

Jiang Qing said: “Of course there’s more. These are just things that could be photographed, the things in the light. Once the first voice is raised and the flashlights focus on the shadows, the cruelty and filth will have nowhere to hide. We only need to be the first.”

“Alright.” Zhou Xuening copied the contents to her computer and returned the USB to the girl, her mind still filled with endless curiosity and doubt. “What is Gu Yining to you? That you would go to such lengths for her.”

Clutching the warm USB drive in her palm, Jiang Qing’s throat moved. She could have made up many excuses, but at this moment, especially in front of Zhou Xuening, she didn’t want to lie at all. She pursed her lips and, after a long silence, could only manage a stiff “No comment.”

Zhou Xuening took a deep look at the girl, as if sensing something.