"Cheng Shuo..." His voice was uncharacteristically anxious. "Cen Zeng committed suicide in his school dorm."

Cheng Shuo didn't process it.

"What did you say?" he asked.

He subconsciously looked at the date. March 9th, 5:18 in the early morning.

'Impossible, it's not the thirteenth yet, what's going on? What is Chen Ziheng talking about?'

"Cen Zeng committed suicide, by hanging, it seems," Chen Ziheng said. "Someone from the School of Medicine said so. Photos of the ambulance have been leaked, and the university is in a total panic."

"Impossible." He frowned. "We agreed to go for a night run together today."

"He's at the hospital. I heard the resuscitation failed and he's been moved to the morgue," Chen Ziheng said.

Cheng Shuo couldn't speak.

He shot up and rushed into Cen Zeng's room.

The clothes in the closet were still there. He looked at the desk; the diary was gone.

He searched everywhere, turning things upside down, but found nothing.

His mind was buzzing. He was inexplicably furious, wanting to punch the whole world.

He ran out in a panic, forgot his phone, and came back. On Weibo, there were recommended trending topics, WeChat news, RedNote, one push notification after another.

X University student commits suicide, trending explosively.

He clicked on it. An ambulance.

As he stared, Chen Ziheng asked, "Are you okay?"

He was not okay.

"Which hospital was he sent to?" Cheng Shuo asked. "The university's affiliated hospital, right? Can I go?"

Chen Ziheng was silent for a moment, then said, "You won't be able to see him even if you go. The police are here, the university administration is calling us for a meeting soon, and that professor's other students have started to leak information."

"Now that someone has died at the university, they're finally panicking."

The moment he said it, he realized he was cursing himself as well.

He deserved to be cursed, he wished he could curse himself more.

Chen Ziheng said, "I'll come find you when I'm done here."

Cheng Shuo couldn't drive. He hailed a taxi. When he arrived, it was already chaotic outside. He grabbed a random person and asked, "Where is Cen Zeng now?"

No one paid him any mind. He asked one person after another.

No results.

He stood by the emergency room, breathing heavily, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst from his chest.

In the silence, he suddenly thought of Cen Zeng's mother.

The contact information Chen Ziheng had left him stared back at him.

He called. The line was busy at first. After who knows how many attempts, someone finally answered: "What is it?"

The tone was still so calm it disoriented him.

"Hello, Auntie..." he took a breath, "I'm Cen Zeng's off-campus roommate. May I see you?"

"There's no need."

"His belongings, may I collect them?" he asked again.

There was no reply for a few seconds. The woman finally answered: "Come find me."

They arranged to meet on the hospital's rooftop.

The woman lit a cigarette.

The sun was about to rise. He looked down and realized he was in his pajamas, a complete mess.

The woman didn't ask what his relationship with Cen Zeng was, nor did she greet him. She just stubbed out her cigarette on her own and finally deigned to give him a glance: "You know him?"

"I'm his roommate."

"Not the one who called the police?" She hadn't remembered their faces.

"That was probably his dorm roommate. I lived with him off-campus."

"The things he left behind are in his dorm room," she said. "That roommate from just now also left his number."

She lit a new cigarette and opened her phone.

Another ringtone sounded, like a death summons.

She ignored it, simply pulled up her call log, and gestured for him to take down the number: "Go contact him."

Finally, she turned back, took a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, and said, "This is the notice for collecting his belongings I just signed. You take it."

Cheng Shuo asked, "What about you?"

"There's a crowd of people outside wanting to interview me," she said. "I'll just stand here for a while."

Although it felt unnecessary, he still added, "You have my number now, too. If you need anything, let me know."

She didn't respond, didn't pay him any more attention, and just kept smoking to herself.

He dialed the number on the spot.

The roommate was still in a state of strange anxiety. Cheng Shuo explained that he had spoken with Cen Zeng's mother and that he would be the one to collect the belongings.

"Who are you?" the person asked.

Cheng Shuo handed the phone to Cen Zeng's mother. The woman finally turned her head and said into the phone, "Contact him."

They arranged to meet at the side of the hospital building. The person who came wore glasses and a T-shirt.

He seemed to recognize Cheng Shuo's face. "You're Cheng Shuo, right? How do you know Cen Zeng?"

Cheng Shuo said, "He was my roommate. We lived together off-campus."

This person was thinking something, but Cheng Shuo couldn't care less anymore.

"How did you find him?"

"The other three guys in our dorm all live off-campus. I'm the only one who stays in the dorm. Yesterday morning, Cen Zeng asked me if it would be convenient for him to come back to the dorm to get something in the evening."

"I told him I had to study today, so I'd probably be at the library with my girlfriend after dinner and would be back late. I reminded him to bring his key."

Morning.

Oh...

Morning.

But just last night Cen Zeng had told him it was only because of a sudden situation with his professor that he had to sleep in the dorm for a night. And now, the person in front of him was saying he'd asked in the morning.