Chapter 54: Roman Holiday (3) |
When they left the rice bowl restaurant, it was around 6:20 PM.
Zhang Shutong was always casual about food. He'd ordered green pepper pork strips, and sure enough, Gu Qiumian had ordered sweet and sour pork.
He couldn't imagine what sweet and sour sauce poured over rice would taste like.
Their appetites were surprisingly similar—yet another surprising thing about her. She'd said she was stuffed this afternoon, but when eating she actually added an extra chicken leg to her order. Of course, she left the rice but ate all the meat.
Zhang Shutong inexplicably felt that such a spirited girl must be a carnivore.
"Let's go watch a movie," he suggested.
Gu Qiumian was carefully wiping her lips. "Where is there a movie?"
"School."
"You want to watch it on the projector?"
Zhang Shutong felt this day had really been unfair to this young lady. He wasn't a very competent errand boy—he'd taken her to eat a meal that barely counted as lunch, spent half the afternoon fishing, napped at a nail salon, and even the most important dinner had been settled at a rice bowl place.
The sweet and sour pork wasn't even good—the coating had long since lost its crispness, going soft and limp under the sauce.
Zhang Shutong didn't really understand romance, but he instinctively felt that on this remote little island with no nightlife, no KTV, no bars, no cinema, a Saturday holiday should end in a better way.
Only then would it be complete.
So he led Gu Qiumian toward the school, though she still wanted to buy some snacks along the way. How could you watch a movie without popcorn and soda?
Zhang Shutong really wanted to say: one, there's nowhere near our school that sells popcorn; two, you're really treating this like going to a theater?; and three, didn't we just finish eating?
He analyzed these three questions from a rational angle, but if the young lady listened to his analysis, she wouldn't be a young lady—or rather, if an errand boy could offer strategies, he should be promoted to strategist.
Gu Qiumian said it would create more atmosphere. The school's facilities were already shabby enough—couldn't she at least make up for it with other things?
Fine, he actually found that quite reasonable.
But there really was nowhere near school that sold popcorn. He glanced at his phone that was about to die and advised Gu Qiumian not to waste her energy, but she insisted they could absolutely find some. Want to bet?
Zhang Shutong wasn't particularly fond of betting, except for sure wins, so he nodded indifferently and accepted the wager.
Then Gu Qiumian stopped mentioning buying anything at all.
At the time he was puzzled—was she planning to deliberately lose to him?
They entered the school. There was no guard at night, and you could squeeze through the electric gate by pushing it hard to one side.
Gu Qiumian easily passed through the gate, but instead of going to the classroom, she headed straight for the library.
Zhang Shutong watched in a daze as she found the backup hidden energy source from a locked cabinet in the library—meaning a whole pile of snacks.
"Who doesn't have a base?" she snorted.
Zhang Shutong had been outmaneuvered. He lost.
Walking back to the teaching building, she kept going on about how he'd lost and better not forget he owed her a wish.
Zhang Shutong didn't remember owing anyone wishes, so he simply pretended not to hear.
The classroom door wasn't locked either, which wasn't surprising. He told Gu Qiumian to sit down while he went to set up the projector. The computer was really slow, still running XP. He clicked open a folder full of ancient movies that Teacher Song had downloaded in advance, wanting them to watch more foreign films to train their language sense.
Zhang Shutong found a "Godzilla" and couldn't figure out for the life of him how listening to that lizard roar was supposed to cultivate language sense. Godzilla-speak? Or maybe the homeroom teacher just wanted to watch it himself.
He asked Gu Qiumian if this one was okay, but she absolutely refused. She'd just eaten and recovered her strength, and started glaring with those spirited, beautiful eyes again.
Too bad the classroom lights weren't on, so Zhang Shutong couldn't quite see her expression clearly.
Come to think of it, girls usually weren't interested in monster movies. He picked out a few more literary ones. First he asked if "Gone with the Wind" would work?
"Too long, it's four hours."
"Then 'Forrest Gump'?"
"No way, who watches an idiot."
"How about 'Titanic'?"
"Can you stop always picking tragedies?"
Then Zhang Shutong was out of options.
The young lady thought he was useless and took matters into her own hands. She walked over to the projector, the computer screen's weak light shining on her face, making the girl's eyes sparkle:
"This one!"
In just one second, the young lady pointed with one finger and declared with finality.
Zhang Shutong looked closely—it was actually "Roman Holiday."
"This one seems to be a tragedy too?"
He hadn't watched it, but when he'd done translation work before, he'd learned about the plot summary. It roughly told the story of a genuine princess and her errand boy who had a chance encounter within a single day.
The male protagonist was a poor reporter who accidentally found the princess sleeping on a bench. At first thinking she was an ordinary girl, he kindly took her home.
But after learning her identity, wanting to get an exclusive scandalous scoop about the princess to make a fortune, he pretended to run into her again and became the princess's tour guide with ulterior motives—or rather, her errand boy.
For a whole day the two wandered through the city of Rome. The two who'd never met before developed feelings for each other. The ending was also classic—the lovers would eventually part. How could a poor guy possibly be with a real princess?
So the film's ending had the princess who'd run away return to her palace, while the male protagonist stood below in his capacity as a reporter, attending the press conference with a large group of colleagues.
But by then the errand boy knew that the girl before his eyes was no longer the little miss who needed his company, but a genuine princess.
In the end he returned the secretly taken photos and slowly walked out of the palace, but the princess never called him back.
Zhang Shutong hadn't seen this movie, but was generally familiar with it. He reminded Gu Qiumian the ending wouldn't be very good, but Gu Qiumian just rolled her eyes and said that's the one.
The two returned to their seats to wait for the movie to start—he'd originally wanted to randomly pick a seat near the front, but Gu Qiumian insisted on going back to her own seat by the window, and forcibly dragged Zhang Shutong to sit beside her. Zhang Shutong was very confused. Normally it was one thing, but tonight there was no one else here—wouldn't the middle be the best viewing position? Why insist on returning to the original spot?
But his current identity was errand boy. The second tenet of managing the destiny goddess of the future young lady was to protect her mood. Just for today, he had to go along with what she wanted.
The main feature soon began.
Old movies typically had slow pacing, sometimes making it hard to concentrate. Zhang Shutong occasionally looked out the window, even finding the situation rather surreal.
He never would have imagined spending the evening like this—in a quiet classroom at night, lights off, the projector shooting out a colorful beam of light onto the screen.
But their school's equipment really was terrible. Although he'd been mentally prepared, Zhang Shutong hadn't expected the film to be this blurry. Come to think of it, when even seeing slides clearly was difficult in good daylight, how could it compare to a real cinema, let alone the screening room in the villa's basement? He'd confidently said they'd go watch a "movie," but now his face felt a bit hot.
Looking over, the girl beside him was quietly lying on her desk, staring intently at the screen.
She really did love watching movies.
Zhang Shutong somewhat admired this hobby. He himself couldn't really get into these old movies. "Roman Holiday" premiered in 1953, and it was now 2012—carefully calculating, it had already passed its 59th birthday, older than their parents.
But a classic was worthy of being a classic. He propped his chin, watching absentmindedly, noting that the film's locations were shot in actual Rome: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Mouth of Truth, Castel Sant'Angelo... Even though the projector's picture quality was absolutely terrible, you could still feel the romance and elegance everywhere through the black and white screen.
Compared to that, his own itinerary today was so crude it made him feel ashamed: a large supermarket that dared call itself a mall despite only having three floors, a clothing store on the third floor selling outdated styles, a desolate commercial street with instant milk tea, eerily quiet wilderness with compressed biscuits... Even the vehicle couldn't compare. The princess in the movie at least rode a pretty little motorcycle, while the two of them rode bicycles that made their butts hurt. Comparing it this way to the movie's protagonists, he really was an incompetent errand boy.
Maybe this was a subtle warning from the young lady? Zhang Shutong thought jokingly. He felt his thoughts were getting a bit chaotic, but Gu Qiumian watched very seriously from start to finish, not saying a word.
About ten minutes in, the two protagonists went to the Mouth of Truth—which was actually a wall with a relief of the sea god Poseidon. Legend had it that if you put your hand inside, a liar's hand would be eaten.
The princess felt a bit guilty, because she'd hidden her identity from the errand boy. Actually the male protagonist had also lied—he'd known early on that the girl was a princess, and had ulterior motives for acting as her errand boy.
Zhang Shutong thought again: good thing there was no such annoying place on the small island. In a sense he'd also lied today, concealing things from this girl all day, taking her wandering around everywhere. Although he'd tried his best, in the end he couldn't say for sure whether he'd actually managed to hide it, but she never asked.
Just like the princess in the movie—maybe most girls knew fairy tales were fake, but they were willing to believe they were real.
You wove an illusory dreamscape for her, and even if it looked full of holes, as long as you didn't actively pierce through it, she'd willingly jump in.
Zhang Shutong felt he'd heard something similar somewhere. Thinking carefully, it was what Teacher Song had said. That rainy night they'd sat in the Focus, and the man who was an expert at chasing girls had said confidently:
"You think they don't know? Wrong—they're willing to believe."
Why?
Because they were foolish.
Zhang Shutong couldn't help glancing at Gu Qiumian, secretly pondering whether she was foolish or not, when he heard the girl suddenly ask:
"Do you think they'll end up together?"
The nice thing about watching movies here was being able to discuss freely without bothering others.
"Don't you already know the ending?"
"But I want to hear you say it."
Before he could speak, Gu Qiumian added:
"Think carefully before you answer."
"They won't." Zhang Shutong thought it over carefully.
"Because a princess and a poor guy can't be together?" Even though she herself was a young lady, she said gloomily, "You're so realistic."
"It's not about being realistic."
Zhang Shutong turned his head. At that moment the movie scene shifted—the two were dancing at a ball, each wearing a hypocritical mask:
"Because neither person is particularly pure. Look, one person is clearly a princess but doesn't say so, while the other wants to trade scandal for fame and fortune."
"What if there's a reason they can't say?" She stared at the screen and asked. "What if the princess told the reporter she's actually a princess, and then he got other ideas? She's not sure of his attitude either. Actually... she doesn't want to be disappointed."
Zhang Shutong was somewhat silent at this. He'd wanted to say if she doesn't tell, who would know—but wasn't this a story of missed connections?
Actually both protagonists knew this day would inevitably end.
This Oscar-winning film was actually about one thing from start to finish:
If you knew something would inevitably end, and the outcome couldn't be changed, what would you do?
Without this day together, they wouldn't have thought about confessing to each other.
But precisely because of this day together, they'd used all their most precious time on it. By the time they wanted to confess, it was already too late—the princess had already returned to her palace, and the brief Roman holiday had ended.
The errand boy was no longer an errand boy. He returned to his position, still that poor reporter.
Zhang Shutong was won over by Roman Holiday, though he wasn't sure whether it was Gu Qiumian who was impressive or the movie itself. The former could find a thought-provoking movie in one second, while the latter had spanned a full fifty-nine years, telling you:
Maybe some words become wrong the moment they're spoken, but some words, if never spoken, will never have another chance.
"So there's something I want to tell you..." Gu Qiumian said softly.
Zhang Shutong nodded to show he was listening, but she had no follow-up. After a moment she said, "Let's wait until the movie's over..."
"Mm."
Zhang Shutong didn't rush her.
He took out his phone again to check—it was just past seven. Generally movie runtimes were controlled to around two hours, and they weren't even halfway through yet.
The iPhone had its last one percent of battery remaining. He confirmed the time one last time, then simply turned off the phone, casting aside all complicated thoughts to quietly watch the movie.
Time passed minute by minute. On this quiet night, below the teaching building, a figure appeared on the empty sports field.
Zhang Shutong spotted that figure.
This movie would never be finished.
And this was something he'd known all along.
...
So Zhang Shutong gently pushed Gu Qiumian and had her look down.
The sky had completely darkened. The distant small buildings were lit up, and further away were black mountain forms. Night was gradually encroaching into the classroom as well, shrouding everything. The girl in the darkness asked:
"It's him, right?"
"Yeah, it's him."
At this moment she was like a clever girl again—not panicking to ask who it was, but directly guessing the culprit who'd plotted the entire case.
"We've been waiting for him all day?"
"More or less."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself that actually waiting for him was just incidental—the main thing was not wanting her to die today, so he'd taken her out for a walk.
Zhang Shutong had wanted to say that—before watching Roman Holiday—but now realized he really was an incompetent tour guide.
"Will you be in danger?"
Gu Qiumian asked worriedly.
Her eyes had originally been reflecting the black and white film, but when she turned to ask seriously, in the weak light, they reflected something else.
The two looked at each other, and Zhang Shutong told her he could guarantee there wouldn't be the slightest problem.
"A close call?"
"Not even thrilling."
"You're being mysterious again..."
Zhang Shutong pulled her out of the classroom. Their footsteps were unhurried. He couldn't be bothered to turn off the projector—just let it keep playing. In the corridor they could still hear the male and female leads' dialogue. Perhaps they were at a segment with gentle pacing where the princess and male protagonist chatted softly, their diction clear, hiding some surging emotion beneath the tenderness, truly paragons of gentleman and lady, like a slowly flowing underground river.
There were no motion-sensor lights overhead, so they walked through this pitch-black, narrow corridor, as if slowly pushed forward by an underground river.
So Zhang Shutong wasn't particularly urgent. He brought Gu Qiumian to the corridor, stopping before a window to look at the figure below. He breathed on the glass and casually drew a silly face. "Look, the lamb has come."
But he really had no sense of humor. The girl wasn't amused, instead wrinkling her nose. "You're the one with a silly face!"
But then she couldn't help asking:
"Can you tell me now? I want to know."
Zhang Shutong nodded. There was no point in hiding it from her anymore. They still had a bit of time left—this was what it was for.
...
So he simply started explaining along the timeline, from noticing something off while washing dishes in the morning, to the arsonist who suddenly didn't show up.
"...Having Du Kang bike to your house was because I was worried that person would run straight there to wait."
"...We went to Commercial Street to find that mastermind."
"...Qingyi and Ruoping went back to the supermarket to confirm suspicions about that man selling cooked food."
"No wonder you suddenly said the plan changed and bought masks and hats..." Gu Qiumian quickly connected these things.
"But how did you suspect Auntie Wu? You even smashed my plant." As she spoke she pouted. "Fine, I forgive you."
"Only now you forgive me?"
"I want to hear your deduction! Hurry up, if you don't I won't forgive you!"
Zhang Shutong pointed at the window:
"Do you know why he didn't come last night?"
"Why?"
"He wanted to remove himself from it. Think about it—he called everyone together, but when it came down to it, only he didn't go. This way he could..." Using "revenge" now would really spoil the mood, so Zhang Shutong changed his wording. "This way he could do bad things while not having to worry about being discovered afterward by the police or your dad or whoever. He'd always be hiding behind the scenes, fanning the flames. Don't you think he's terrible?"
"Terrible!"
"But being terrible is useless. From last night on, his rhythm was completely disrupted, because he hadn't expected one thing." Zhang Shutong pointed again at that tiny black shadow downstairs. The person was about to enter the teaching building. "Those five arsonists were sent in before they even made a move."
"So he took risks today?"
"Not necessarily, but the possibility of wanting to act is high. Of course the biggest variable was still you—who told you to want pig liver, and he just happened to see you."
Gu Qiumian glared at him again. On the glass she drew a new image—this time not a lamb or silly face, but a pig head, silently protesting.
Zhang Shutong didn't know why she'd describe herself that way.
"But thanks to him seeing you, in his eyes all the favorable conditions came together, so I had Qingyi go back to confirm. After we left, he left too. That's when I knew he would definitely make his move."
"And then?"
Zhang Shutong said then there wasn't much to tell—the most interesting part was his planning from start to finish. This person was much more formidable than I'd imagined.
"You remember Li Yipeng's mother, right? Even that was something he instigated."
"Even that?" Gu Qiumian was surprised.
"Saying 'instigated' isn't quite accurate. Didn't I just say? He has an accomplice. That matter was done through that accomplice. If you want to learn about you, there are only three places to start—the mall, the villa, and school. He can't get into the villa, he's already at the mall, so it could only be through school."
Gu Qiumian really was the best listener. No matter what Zhang Shutong said, she held her breath and nodded with conviction.
"So now let's work backward from the start." Zhang Shutong drew a line on the glass. "At the very beginning, didn't someone smash your Legos? And because the Legos were smashed, didn't Li Yipeng get exposed? Then didn't his mother come? His mother let something slip, which led to the arsonists acting early. It looks like accidents kept piling up, but actually..."
He sighed softly:
"Once you start working from the beginning, it's all wrong."
He crossed out that line on the glass:
"This has to be looked at backward."
"The most crucial point is one thing. If you can figure it out, everything becomes clear—why didn't that person come last night?
"Think about it. Since he was the ringleader, it couldn't be that he suddenly got scared, right? That doesn't fit his image. So something urgent came up? That's not right either, too absurd."
Zhang Shutong made a joke. Do you think there's any chance he drank cold water and suddenly got diarrhea?
But Gu Qiumian pushed him. Aiya, why are you like this? Hurry up and tell me!
"Like I said, from the start he never planned to come. For the other five people, Li Yipeng's mother was a variable, but for him alone, it was an 'aggressive strategy' set up in advance."
Zhang Shutong then explained backward from Li Yipeng's incident—the scarf, the castle, the name on the bathroom stall... The more Gu Qiumian listened, the more surprised she became, finally patting her chest with some lingering fear. She really got into character.
Zhang Shutong asked if she'd read Sherlock Holmes?
She said of course.
Zhang Shutong then asked if she knew about "The Final Problem"? It was about how Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty had a life-or-death struggle at the edge of a waterfall, and both finally fell into the river together, perishing together.
Gu Qiumian urgently asked what are you trying to say? Didn't you say nothing would happen? What do you mean perishing together?
"Just an example. I'm saying although I'm not Sherlock Holmes, this person isn't Professor Moriarty either."
He said casually:
"What I mean is, whether he's selling pig liver or duck liver doesn't matter. Who cares what liver he sells—I figured out what he was thinking long ago."
"Then what's important?" Gu Qiumian asked again. She was quite good at grasping key points.
Right, what was important?
This was just something he'd said casually, to indicate the culprit wasn't that dangerous, so she shouldn't worry too much.
Normally Zhang Shutong would have been stumped by this tricky question.
But he felt tonight's Roman Holiday really hadn't been watched in vain. As an errand boy, you might not be able to take the young lady to the most prosperous mall, eat the best food, or play the most interesting things... Whether shabby or luxurious, there was only one thing you absolutely couldn't fail to do.
That was you absolutely had to make her smile.
So-called princesses were just foolish girls who'd been coaxed into a daze.
Question—
If you already predicted an event would end, and the outcome couldn't be changed, what would you do?
Zhang Shutong had known from the start that tonight's movie couldn't be watched to the end. Who told Gu Qiumian to take a nice long nap at the nail salon, wasting time—but it was awkward to say directly that it was her fault.
So Zhang Shutong now had an answer.
He whispered a few sentences by Gu Qiumian's ear, still puzzled why the area around the girl's ear was a bit hot, but that wasn't the point. The point was that after listening she was stunned speechless for quite a while before managing to say:
"You're so bad!"
Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes at her, thinking this person was really hard to please.
Originally he hadn't planned to tell Gu Qiumian about his preparations. That way, deceiving both the girl and the culprit, then revealing the truth at the last moment—the two of them shocking together would of course be double the shock.
"But I like it." The young lady giggled, then asked with bright, curious eyes, "So what are you going to say next?"
"Well..."
She was asking about his lines. Zhang Shutong was indeed a bit troubled. As everyone knew, entrance and exit lines needed to be carefully considered, like a Kamen Rider transformation. For a man, the most important thing was of course being cool. When a person does good deeds without seeking fame, profit, or romance, naturally what they're after is being awesome.
He'd just thought up a cool set of lines while fishing. Although the double shock was now down to single shock, Zhang Shutong was well-versed in such matters—one shock wouldn't prevent him from showing off.
So he was about to speak when Gu Qiumian preempted him:
"Listen to me. You lost the bet, so you owe me a wish."
Zhang Shutong wanted to say I never owed you a wish, and even if I really did owe one, shouldn't it be used for something more important? Young lady, do you really want to "usurp" my entrance line that badly?
He said no, Gu Qiumian said yes.
Zhang Shutong felt she was being unreasonable. But then Gu Qiumian pulled out her trump card, saying if you don't listen I'll tell Auntie about you writing my name on scrap paper. After all, I know her now... Zhang Shutong really hadn't expected his mom and that draft paper could ambush him here. He sighed:
"So what do you think I should say?"
"I want to hear something funny." Gu Qiumian blinked those spirited, beautiful eyes.
"I don't have a funny bone," he felt he was more suited to the cold, aloof style and tried to bargain. "How about something cool? Or we could be serious?"
But she reluctantly said no no, she wanted to hear something fun. Put your ear here, I'll teach you what to say...
Zhang Shutong bit the soft flesh in his mouth and took out the flashlight he'd prepared long ago.