Zhang Wen rested for a day, and by the time I returned to the dormitory, Zhang Wen's fever had subsided.

It was already 7:30 in the evening, and I asked Zhang Wen:

"Do you want to take a gamble? Let's go out now."

Zhang Wen looked at me blankly, then gritted her teeth and stomped her foot:

"Let's gamble! Let's go!" She changed her shoes and walked out with me.

While going downstairs, we ran into Chen Luoluo, who had just returned from a date. Chen Luoluo looked at the time:

"It's almost 8 o'clock in a little over twenty minutes. Where are you two going?"

"We're going to pick up our roommate from work."

Chen Luoluo glanced at me and chuckled sarcastically:

"Are you pretending to be a good roommate again? Who was the one who accompanied me to find the counselor and accused Qiao Qiao of stealing things in the first place?"

As we passed by Chen Luoluo, I asked her:

"How did you get your current boyfriend? You know better than me."

Chen Luoluo's face changed.

"So what? That Qiao Qiao is very poor. Is he worthy of such a good boyfriend?"

As we walked out of the dormitory building, the dormitory supervisor auntie asked me from behind:

"Hurry back! The dormitory building will be locked late!"

"Got it! Just going to pick up a roommate!"

It wasn't until we walked far away that Zhang Wen remembered to ask me:

"Has Qiao Qiao arrived?"

"No." Zhang Wen fell silent for a moment, then asked me:

"Then why did we come out? Are we openly challenging the dormitory rules?"

"Not really."

I took Zhang Wen to a snack shop outside the school.

There are plenty of snacks around the university town.

The snack shop I took Zhang Wen into was clean and crowded inside.

Snack shops like this often hire college students as part-timers due to a shortage of staff. There's no particular reason, but because it's close and the cost for college students is low.

When I took Zhang Wen in, I saw a job advertisement for part-time workers posted at the entrance. Ten yuan per hour, not much, but there should be a lot of applicants. It's much better than the work-study positions on campus.

Just as we entered, we were bumped into by a girl wearing a T-shirt and jeans. She was wearing a pair of canvas shoes that had turned white from scrubbing, and there was a faint smell of laundry detergent on her.

After bumping into us, she quickly stopped and said "sorry" before running away in a hurry.

The owner of the snack shop came over to smooth things over:

"The girl doesn't know any better, she's impulsive in her actions. I apologize for her bumping into you."

"It's okay."

Then I asked:

"Boss, she should be a part-timer at your shop, right? Do the part-timers in your shop get off work so early?"

The boss wiped his sweat:

"Oh, no way. This is actually the peak business hour. But, that girl is special. Their dormitory has some strange rules, requiring them to return to the dormitory before 8 o'clock every night. Let me tell you, their dormitory is targeting her."

It wasn't until we sat down to eat that I noticed Zhang Wen's hands were trembling.

"The girl just now was Qiao Qiao."

"How do you know?"

"Qiao Qiao asked me to help her verify her academic credentials on the Study Abroad Credit System. I've seen her photo."

I finished ordering the food, then heard Zhang Wen's trembling voice asking me:

"So that was Qiao Qiao, right? So Qiao Qiao is dead, right?"

"Yes."