48 Hours a Day - Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Christmas Eve

It had been two days since Zhang Heng reported the supernatural case to the police. After that, he did not come across any cases involving the unknown. Earlier, he was surprised when he received a message from Hayase Asuka. She wanted to invite him to an amusement park on Christmas Eve, where a few of her friends would tag along as well. This was not the first time she asked Zhang Heng out. She was the kind of that could not stay indoors for too long, heading out whenever the opportunity presented itself.

The one thing that surprised Zhang Heng the most was her academic results. Although she always hung out, she still managed to pass her exams with flying colors, never having failed any subjects before. He even saw her fooling around on the eve of the finals.

The way she behaved was actually very similar to someone Zhang Heng knew. Someone he had previously rejected a few times. He had never expected Hayase Asuka to be the persistent kind of girl. This time, he felt terrible that he had always dismissed her invitations, and so, went ahead and asked his friends to join him if they had nothing better to do. Ma Wei was passionate about doing well in his studies. As for Wei Jiangyang and Chen Huadong, they had been attempting to memorize everything that they studied so far. Both of them were dying for some entertainment outside the confines of the dorm room.

“Are you talking about the Japanese girl that you saved at Food Street? The thing is, we don’t speak Japanese.”

“Erm… she’ll be there with a few of her friends. It seems they are from China, Japan, and one of them is actually from Ukraine,” replied Zhang Heng while reading Hayase Asuka’s text.

“Never mind. I don’t think I will join you.”

Though Wei Jiangyang was interested in being friends with girls from different countries, he still thought that his life was his priority. He was not bold enough to abandon his girlfriend and instead have fun with others. As for Chen Huadong, he was devastated that his latest attempt in wooing Xu Jing had once again failed miserably. It would be a nice change for him to go out and distract himself from all the sorrow. Hence, he volunteered to go with Zhang Heng. Lastly, Ma Wei, the genius, was done with studying. He, too, decided to tag along with Zhang Heng.

After that, Zhang Heng told Hayase Asuka that he would bring a couple of friends with him. It was all in good faith, and she was totally fine with it. Both sides had agreed that they would meet at the entrance of the amusement park. Seeing that there was still some time left before they headed there, Zhang Heng played a few rounds of basketball with Chen Huadong on his computer.

After the game, they proceeded to the cafeteria for some food before departing. As the three of them had arrived ten minutes early, they purchased the entrance tickets first. When they came out, they spotted Hayase Asuke and her group of friends walking towards them.

On her head was a beanie with two fur balls hanging from it. They swung around as she ran towards them. She quickly waved her hands at Zhang Heng the moment she saw him. Two boys and five girls were here with her. The handsome blonde bloke should be the exchange student from Ukraine. He might have looked all imposing and cool from the outside, but once they had gotten to know him, he turned out to be actually somewhat timid.

All of them did a simple introduction about themselves. Hayase Asuka even spelled out her name in Chinese. They got to know how good the exchange students’ mandarin was the moment they started the introductions. Amongst them, the guy from Ukraine had the highest proficiency in Mandarin, his great grandmother being from China. So, he named himself Zhang Wei.

As for the rest of the Japanese girls, only one of them could speak good Mandarin. That being said, they could all communicate with each other without problems. The only thing was that they had to say the words slowly, considering it wasn’t their native language. The last Japanese girl had already started using some of the more complex Chinese phrases. Amongst them, Hayase Asuka had the lowest proficiency in Mandarin. Right after she introduced herself, she instantly reverted to Japanese again when she talked with the two girls. Apart from those two, the other two who could understand her were Zhang Heng and another boy that was currently taking Japanese classes.

Seeing that everyone was here, Zhang Heng distributed the entrance tickets to each of them. The amusement park was packed with crowds of thousands because it was Christmas Eve, with most of the visitors being couples. There were even a few Santa Clausus standing at the entrance to give presents to those that were about to enter the amusement park, giving out gifts to the entering visitors.

The group got their presents too, and when they opened theirs, they found out that they had all received different items. Zhang Heng got a nail clipper, and Ma Wei found a key chain. However, Chen Huadong was the luckiest amongst them, receiving a complimentary pass from the amusement park’s management. The moment Hayase Asuke opened her present, her face immediately turned red! She quickly hid it in her bag before anyone saw it.

One of the guys persuaded her to show everyone what she got, though, Zhang Heng could roughly guess the item that she received. Immediately, he looked for a topic to distract everyone. At his quick thinking, Hayase Asuka looked at Zhang Heng gratefully. To be honest, the amusement park wasn’t as entertaining during the night. For safety reasons, rides like rollercoasters and other thrills were shut down. Fortunately, the park made up for it with spectacular live performances.

Zhang Heng and his friends queued up to try some of the games offered at the booths nearby. Seeing that the live show was about to start, some of the girls suggested that they should watch it first.

“You guys go ahead. I will keep her company,” said Zhang Heng when he saw that Hayase Asuka was more interested in the games she was playing.

“I will keep her company as well,” said the other guy that spoke Japanese.

Zhang Heng did not brush him off, noticing that was trying to woo Hayase Asuka. In the direction of giving them more alone time, Zhang Heng volunteered to help hold on to their personal belongings. Hayase Asuka was so excited that she did not suspect anything was amiss. Secretly though, the guy was extremely grateful for what Zhang Heng did.

While Hayase and the guy visited the haunted house, Zhang Heng settled on a bench to answer a call. The call came from Ireland and was his parents. They both wished him a happy Christmas. At the same time, they kept teasing him and asking him to take a picture of the girl that was close to him. Zhang Heng then took a picture of the couple on his left.

“That’s pathetic…”

Now, his parents were nagging him, lamenting about their life in university. Judging from the background noise, Zhang Heng deduced that his parents were probably standing in front of a theater or stadium of some sort. As they were running out of time because the event they were about to attend was about to start, they had to come back to a more serious topic. They informed Zhang Heng that they would return to celebrate the new year with him. They even prepared a surprise for him as well.

Zhang Heng did not entirely trust everything they said. It had been two years that his parents had not celebrated the new year with him. Last year, they were both on holiday but had chosen to travel to Africa instead of celebrating Chinese New Year with their son. Initially, Zhang Heng wanted to ask them about Moresby, Tapio, and the crows that appeared in his mind when he used the wooden sculpture.

Though they most probably wouldn’t qualify as parents of the year, they were still experts in all these mystical stuff. Considering they were coming back in about a month, Zhang Heng decided that he would only ask when they came home. Talking about matters like these on the phone might just turn out to be more confusing.

After hanging up the call, Zhang Heng sat on the bench for a little longer. Suddenly, he saw someone familiar in the crowd. He frowned, when he looked again, the person had disappeared.