Chapter 55: Roman Holiday (Finale) |
"...From the moment he walked into the school, everything has been under our control. See how slow he's walking? That's because this man is cautious by nature—cautious to the extreme. I'll bet you he's even got his face covered."
The boy and girl stood by the window in the middle of the hallway. The night seemed to dull their senses—they appeared oblivious to the man's approach, merely whispering to each other as if they'd chosen this empty evening hour for a secret rendezvous, exchanging sweet nothings.
"Then why isn't he hurrying over?" Gu Qiumian asked quietly.
"He's afraid we'll call the police. Ideally, we'd still be watching the movie when he suddenly enters through the back door of the classroom and makes his move. As long as he can control one of us first, the rest becomes easy."
"What about now?"
"Now the first variable has appeared—he's discovered we're not in the classroom, so he's hesitating."
"He won't just turn around and run, will he? That would be terrible."
To this question, Zhang Shutong merely answered softly:
"What gambler who's already sat down at the table would leave mid-game?"
When he'd left the classroom earlier, he hadn't closed the door. Roman Holiday was still playing—who knew which scene it had reached by now. Class 1 of Grade 9's classroom was right next to the stairwell. In his peripheral vision, the faint light emanating from the classroom doorway outlined a man's silhouette.
Actually, the other party now had two choices: either charge directly at them, or continue observing. Although either choice made little difference to Zhang Shutong, since the young miss had specifically requested the "cheerful version," he couldn't scare her.
So the boy turned around at precisely this moment, his flashlight beam illuminating the man's face, causing him to instinctively halt. The boy then called out: "Who's there?"
The girl also muttered nervously, "Who would come here this late at night? A teacher...?"
The two huddled together, mustering their courage as they walked a few steps toward the stairwell, until—
"He really does have his face covered..." Gu Qiumian lowered her voice.
"Didn't I tell you? I can even predict his next move."
So the boy and girl froze in place, asking several times, but the man didn't respond. He just squinted in the light, his brow tightly furrowed.
"Why isn't he saying anything?" Gu Qiumian's voice was hidden beneath the movie's dialogue.
"Afraid of leaving evidence," Zhang Shutong said casually. "And isn't it just like I said? He's starting to hesitate now, because he's lost his absolute certainty. Even for a gambler, going all-in is a process—let alone for a desperate criminal."
"Then what do we do?"
"Let's add some chips to the pot."
As if these two youngsters weren't foolish—after just a moment's pause, the boy blurted out, "Are you that arsonist?" He immediately urged the girl to call the police.
But the girl said urgently:
"My phone's dead too! Did you forget I played games all day?"
The two looked at each other, then turned and ran.
"That excuse is terrible," Zhang Shutong whispered.
"It really is dead."
"Talking Tom Cat uses that much battery?"
"I forgot to exit the game and just locked the screen..."
"Idiot."
"You're the idiot!" Gu Qiumian glared. "What's next?"
"The more we say, the more mistakes we'll make. This is enough—we just need to maintain a subtle misunderstanding. Enough to make him chase after us headlong. You know about fishing, right?"
Zhang Shutong had just finished fishing today and really wanted to share his insights: "Sometimes when crafty old fish see bait in the water, they won't rush to bite. You have to gently pull the rod a bit—then they'll take the hook."
As they spoke, the boy and girl had already run to the far end of the hallway. Behind them was another stairwell leading to the school rooftop. The man apparently knew this—he pressed forward step by step, gradually quickening his pace.
"Has he taken the bait now?"
"Yeah, he's hooked. And he knows the school layout well too—he knows the rooftop door is locked, so he wants to break down our psychological defenses first, cornering us bit by bit."
"Then what do we do?" The young miss was in a good mood and asked a rather silly question, as if deliberately letting him show off.
"Just do what I said before. It's not like you don't know." But Zhang Shutong knew Gu Qiumian had mischief in mind.
His eyes had adapted to the darkness enough to make out the girl's lips forming words: "Did you forget what you promised me? Be. More. Humorous!"
Zhang Shutong bit the soft flesh inside his mouth—this was the third time today. If he kept this up, he suspected he'd get mouth ulcers. Actually, by nature he was purely an action-oriented person, but who told him to be humorous today?
So he deliberately raised his voice, explaining: "Don't forget I have a trump card."
"What trump card?" Both of them turned around simultaneously—surprisingly, it was the man who asked this.
This was the first time the other party had spoken. His voice held no particularly memorable characteristics. And when he said this, the man had already stopped moving.
Zhang Shutong and Gu Qiumian had already climbed the stairs, with the man close behind them at the bottom.
"The key on the rooftop, of course. You didn't actually think it was locked, did you?"
Zhang Shutong tilted his head, asking strangely.
Theoretically the rooftop door was locked, but in his second year of junior high, the janitor had carelessly left the key in it. Back then, emboldened, he'd directly made a copy, gaining a secret hideaway ever since.
Who knew this hideaway, hidden for so many years, would finally serve a purpose—like Batman's Batcave or Iron Man's bombed mansion.
This was why Zhang Shutong chose the school as the final location.
As he spoke, he pulled Gu Qiumian's hand and rapidly rushed up to the rooftop. The man realized what was happening and immediately started to charge upward, but Zhang Shutong used this time to lock the door from the inside. The two stepped back, immediately hearing the dull thud of the man's body heavily hitting the door.
"So exciting!"
Now they were finally safe. No need to deliberately suppress their voices. The girl let out a breath of relief, the night wind tousling her hair. Only then did she realize her heart was pounding.
She said with lingering excitement:
"Do you think this guy is really frustrated? He almost caught us, but then got separated by another door?"
Although they were safe, the rooftop was quite cold at night—this had always been a place cool in winter and warm in summer. The boy nodded:
"Let's just stay here for a bit. He'll probably leave soon."
"What if he doesn't leave?"
"Then we'll call the police and wait. I don't believe he dares to keep guard at the school." The boy spoke while taking out his phone, pressing the power button several times before saying awkwardly, "Damn, I just remembered my phone is off... Guess we'll have to tough it out."
What had been a safe situation suddenly became tense again. The man seemed to have heard their conversation, so not only did he not leave, he applied even more force.
That door was just made of plywood—fine for keeping out mischievous students normally, but when an adult man used his full strength to ram it, it couldn't hold for long.
The boy and girl clearly noticed this problem. After a moment of silence, Gu Qiumian asked: "What if he breaks the door down?"
As if her words were prophetic, with a ripping sound, the door panel immediately split with a crack.
Zhang Shutong said quietly:
"Like I said before, he won't give up easily. I just don't know how long the door can hold..."
His crow's mouth struck again. As soon as he finished speaking, the door panel, unable to withstand the assault, finally burst open with a bang as the man rammed through.
"Where else can you two run?" The man gasped heavily, finally sneering coldly through clenched teeth.
On the rooftop, in plain sight, only the silhouettes of the boy and girl stood.
"What do we do, what do we do?"
They retreated step by step, Gu Qiumian urgently giving Zhang Shutong meaningful looks.
Zhang Shutong knew why she was anxious—
So he steeled himself and played along to the end with an expressionless face: "Don't worry, I still have a trump card."
The girl indeed doubled over with laughter, while the boy simultaneously shouted to the side:
"If you don't come out now, someone's really going to die!"
So under the man's stunned gaze, from behind the small room by the stairwell, from what had seemed an empty rooftop, four more figures suddenly appeared.
Zhang Shutong played four cards in one breath: They were one adult and three students.
None other than Zhang Shutong's homeroom teacher and his gang of friends.
Heaven knows how long they'd been lying in ambush there, all of them cracking their knuckles eagerly.
When it came to numbers, they'd never been afraid. In an instant, the situation reversed.
"You kept me bottled up, Shutong. Why'd you only call out now?" This was Du Kang.
"You two just now—were you acting like idiots?" This was Ruoping.
"A man's gotta have trump cards. So cool!" This was Qingyi, giving a thumbs up as he spoke.
Zhang Shutong returned the thumbs up, saying to Gu Qiumian, "Hear that, idiot?"
"You're so mean..." Gu Qiumian laughed until her body trembled.
Zhang Shutong reminded her this wasn't the time to let their guard down: "Look, isn't it just like I said? He's starting to hesitate again. If he reacted faster now, he could still grab a hostage in time."
Zhang Shutong pointed toward Ruoping's position:
"Ruoping's closest to him. If he rushed over, he could probably catch us off guard, though the probability of him actually doing it is close to zero."
"Why?"
"After all, he hasn't shown his face this whole time. Why not run? Why fight desperately when he can't even take you hostage? Besides, this guy's personality determines everything—he likes hiding behind the scenes, that's true. But to put it nicely, it's called waiting for the right moment; to put it bluntly, it's called looking forward and backward. I told you, I've guessed everything he's thinking. If you don't believe me, watch—"
Sure enough, the man instinctively touched the cloth covering his face, looking around vigilantly as he retreated step by step.
"If he runs, won't all our efforts be wasted?" Gu Qiumian was truly a qualified straight man. She bounced up and down like a little fangirl: "Oh no, think of something! Do you have any more trump cards?"
Zhang Shutong sighed helplessly: "Can't you just let me show off at the end?"
"Play your card!"
Zhang Shutong really regretted agreeing to this earlier.
Gu Qiumian beamed, Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes, and said to the man, "Mr. Criminal, hold on a moment."
Honestly, he felt that playing cards was really much harder than catching criminals.
But who told him to casually say earlier that pig livers and duck livers didn't matter, that the criminal didn't matter, that whether the opponent was clever didn't matter either—anyway, he'd already predicted his every move perfectly. What mattered? Half of Roman Holiday told him: making the princess happy.
As the other party's footsteps halted, he muttered:
"Sorry about this, but why do I seem to have an endless supply of trump cards... Du Kang, bring out his son."
"You got it!"
The boy pulled another dark figure out from behind the stairwell room.
Zhang Shutong very considerately shone his light to help the father and son recognize each other.
"Why are you here? Didn't you say you were having dinner with your teacher?" The man finally panicked.
"Dad, they knew everything from the start. It was all an act for us..."
"How did they find you!" The man roared incredulously in a low voice, then instinctively looked at Zhang Shutong.
And in this moment, the line he'd been waiting so long to use could finally be deployed.
But somehow it suddenly felt lackluster.
Zhang Shutong shrugged, saying with little enthusiasm:
"If you want to blame something, blame Oreos. Who told me I'm fated with them?"
...
Time rewound to the afternoon a few hours earlier.
"Why hasn't Old Song come back from buying water?" Du Kang looked left and right.
"Did you tell your family you're eating out tonight?" Qingyi suddenly asked.
"It's fine, my dad knows I'm not coming home."
"I need to tell my family."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean my phone's dead too." Qingyi innocently waved his phone, then asked, "Can I borrow yours to make a call?"
But he didn't ask Du Kang—instead, he asked the boy next to them, who had just come out of the bathroom.
"I... you... you could borrow your friend's..." The boy stammered, instinctively protecting where his phone was.
"So Shutong was right after all—it really is you." Qingyi exhaled. "Du Kang, grab him."
...
"Fuck, I knew you were usually shady, but I didn't expect you to be hiding something this big. You've got some real balls!"
Du Kang spat. The boy had just taken a punch from him and was rolling on the ground, unable to speak.
Only then did Du Kang remember to ask his buddy in shock what was going on.
"He's the one who wrote the name on the stall divider and instigated Li Yipeng to act."
As Qingyi spoke, he made a phone call. "Hello, Teacher? You can come back now. We've caught him."
"Wait, bro, what's going on?"
"Don't rush, I'll explain it piece by piece, starting with this guy."
Qingyi's face finally showed a relaxed smile: "Do you remember what I emphasized before—that business with Li Yipeng's mother was a time bomb planted in advance, and the best place to plant that bomb was at school.
"So he passed a note to Li Yipeng, instigating him to act. Get it now?"
But Du Kang immediately shook his head:
"No, no, wait. I remember the three of us caught the guy who vandalized the castle together. What does that have to do with him? And that's not really a time bomb—without us, how would the bomb even detonate?"
Qingyi said:
"That's another place where this father-son duo miscalculated. Li Yipeng was exposed by Shutong, but didn't you notice? It doesn't actually matter who exposed him.
"Since he was the one who instigated it, in a sense, only he knew in advance who vandalized the castle. Even without us, he would have taken the initiative to expose him. This guy's style is exactly like his dad's—habitually hiding behind the scenes, throwing the mess to others while clearing himself.
"So he not only had to write the name on the divider, but to completely clear his own suspicion, he actively told Gu Qiumian about it. Remember? When Shutong went to find him back then, his behavior was very abnormal. He refused to say anything no matter what."
"That was deliberate too?" Du Kang was dumbfounded.
Qingyi nodded: "Right, just to establish the image of a secret admirer. If he had a crush, there'd be no reason to do something to get revenge on Gu Qiumian. If he warned her in advance, there'd be no reason for him to be the mastermind who instigated Li Yipeng. But think about it the other way—he cleared his own suspicion too thoroughly. When countless coincidences pile up together, it becomes inevitable."
At this point, Qingyi looked down:
"Actually, you never had a crush at all, did you? Your whole family hates Gu Qiumian so much. Growing up in that environment, where would affection come from? Whether sitting as deskmates, showing concern, or anything else—it was all just a means to understand Gu Qiumian at 'school,' this location."
"Am I right?"
Qingyi kicked the boy lying on the ground, spitting out three words with disgust:
"Zhou Ziheng."
...
"So you, Shutong, and Old Song had already discussed everything in advance? Only the two of us were kept in the dark?"
The girl was dumbstruck.
She'd just followed the homeroom teacher back. Not long ago, her heart had been up and down, but who knew that as soon as Song Nanshan left those three boys' line of sight, he'd stop first—this wasn't the look of someone going to buy water.
The man turned around, bent over with his hands on his knees, and smiled bitterly at her:
"Ruoping, I'm sorry for worrying you, but the teacher had no choice in this matter..."
She was about to ask what was going on when Old Song received a phone call. Not knowing what the other party said, he immediately nodded with a stern face, waving his hand: "Let's go, we'll talk when we get back!"
He started running back urgently.
Then Ruoping saw that one of the three boys who'd just been chatting and laughing together had suddenly fallen. Just moments ago they'd seemed like gossiping good buddies.
Old Song went directly to talk with Qingyi. She could only ask Du Kang, but even he was a bit confused, taking a while to explain what had happened.
Turned out only the two of them had been kept in the dark.
Only now did Qingyi have time:
"Yeah, Old Song is external support that Shutong brought in. Otherwise why would he suddenly call the three of us and deliberately not bring Shutong and her?"
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Ruoping moved to pinch him.
"Wait, wait, wait! I was afraid you two would give something away, slip up somehow. Besides, didn't Shutong ask you? Whether you wanted to know the answer in advance or wait for a surprise."
"What a surprise that was!" Ruoping was so angry her teeth itched. "I almost suspected Old Song of something. No wonder you acted like an idiot all afternoon!"
Qingyi spread his hands: "No choice. It's not that I wanted to scare you on purpose. Think about it—at this time on a weekend, we needed to bring Zhou Ziheng out without raising suspicion. The only one who could legitimately call out students is him, since Old Song is the homeroom teacher. We couldn't just go find Zhou Ziheng directly, could we?"
"So what Old Song said before about fishing, dead phone batteries, watching movies—all made up? Deliberately said for Zhou Ziheng to hear so he'd report back to his dad?"
"Pretty much." Qingyi nodded. "Though watching the movie wasn't—that was Shutong's own suggestion. He said he'd set the location for catching the criminal on the school rooftop anyway, since he has the key there. Plus it's more spacious—if the criminal got desperate, there'd be no chance of accidental injuries. Though that possibility was slim, you know Shutong's personality—just in case."
Ruoping was convinced, though reluctantly: "So now it's mission accomplished?"
"Basically, yeah. His dad's already taken the bait—look." Qingyi waved Zhou Ziheng's phone, showing Ruoping the father and son's chat history. "Though it's not completely settled yet, we really are just one small step from success."
"Now I can finally explain the whole case clearly. Not just you guys—I was dying to explain too."
Qingyi said excitedly:
"Let me count how many incidents there've been so far. Wow, actually five or six! The name in the bathroom stall, the castle revenge incident, Li Yipeng being called in, the arson case, plus today's whole day of operations—the nanny, fishing, moving desks... Those last few don't really count. Let's just start with the earlier ones.
"The most crucial thing among these is Li Yipeng's mother's situation. I won't repeat that since it's the key connecting point between both ends.
"Everything before that incident was the son's preparations at school.
"Everything after was the father's revenge actions outside school. See? Suddenly it's much clearer.
"The first suspicious point is why Zhou Ziheng did this. After all, he cleared himself from the start, even had a 'crush' on Gu Qiumian and played the 'good guy.' No one would suspect him as the mastermind behind it all.
"When you try to deduce Zhou Ziheng's motive, you'll inevitably hit a wall: if he wanted to get revenge on Gu Qiumian at school, why not just do it directly? Why go through such a huge roundabout? That's where Shutong got stuck initially.
"But what if you don't view the castle incident as an isolated event? What if you connect it with everything that followed? You'll discover that from the very beginning, he didn't care about petty things like tearing a scarf or breaking some building blocks. Everything he did was to create an escape opportunity for his dad."
"You mean—?" Ruoping understood and suddenly felt a chill.
"Exactly."
Qingyi also nodded seriously:
"Just like Shutong said, there isn't just one criminal—it's two people conspiring together. This whole case, from start to finish, was a carefully planned series of actions revolving around revenge against the Gu family, extending from inside to outside the school."
Here Qingyi laughed again:
"But what good is careful planning? We still exposed them. Especially Shutong—don't you think he's like heaven sent him specifically to stop this father and son?
"First, Zhou Ziheng wanted to be Gu Qiumian's deskmate, but Shutong got there first. Then when he tried to clear his suspicion by exposing Li Yipeng, Shutong exposed him first. When his dad instigated those five people to burn down Gu Qiumian's villa, Shutong got them arrested. And now, when he tried to tip off his dad, Shutong saw through that too.
"So wouldn't you say he's been doing a pretty competent job as her flower guardian?"
"I'm seriously impressed. If it were me, I probably couldn't even have found Li Yipeng." Du Kang sighed. "That leaves just one last question—"
He asked, puzzled:
"How exactly did Shutong come to suspect Zhou Ziheng?"
"Ah, that." Qingyi smiled mysteriously. "In a sense, it really was coincidence. I mentioned before that Shutong stumbled upon a huge secret at the milk tea shop."
"Stop keeping us in suspense!" Du Kang and Ruoping said in unison.
"Very simple. When he bought milk tea, they happened to run out of crushed Oreos. The shop owner had her son help bring some out. That's when Shutong figured everything out."
"He saw Zhou Ziheng then?"
"To be precise, no."
"What do you mean?"
"Well..." Qingyi thought for a moment, chin in hand. "In his own words, he felt like he might be fated with Oreos."
"Wait, what does this have to do with Oreos?"
...
"What does this have to do with Oreos?"
On the rooftop, the man also shouted in bewilderment. The man who'd just seemed to have everything under control was now on the verge of complete collapse.
His son was in their hands and had already confessed everything. Fighting to mutual destruction served no purpose. He slumped against the stairwell wall, sliding down bit by bit until he sat on the ground.
The rooftop floor was naturally ice cold, just like his heart that had completely frozen over.
"Actually, it has nothing to do with Oreos," Zhang Shutong glanced at him. The other party's reaction didn't differ from his predictions in the slightest. "Crushed Chocobos would work too. I didn't even see his face clearly at the time. Doesn't your shop have a storage room? There's a curtain hanging in the doorway. When he handed out the Oreos, only his hand extended out—his body didn't even show."
"Then why..."
"But—"
Their homeroom teacher once said that if a sentence contains the word "but," everything before it can be considered bullshit.
Zhang Shutong had always remembered this crude saying deeply. When Old Song heard him drag out the word, he couldn't help but smile.
This was probably a tacit understanding unique to teacher and student. Just like how he'd explained the situation to Old Song as soon as he returned from the milk tea shop—back when the teacher hadn't eaten yet and had just left the police station, but without a word of question, he'd urgently driven off to pick up Du Kang, choosing to trust his deductions.
Now the dust had settled. Old Song and the others had already called the police in advance. Zhang Shutong wasn't in a hurry to deal with that man.
Instead, he habitually took out his phone to check the time, only to discover this little device had already reached the end of its life. It had really worked hard today.
When the battery was at thirty-five percent, he'd formally proposed today's operation to his buddies.
At thirty-four percent, Du Kang was already cycling toward Gu Qiumian's villa.
At thirty percent, he'd arrived at the commercial street.
As it dropped below thirty, with Ruoping's assistance, he'd located that milk tea shop.
He hadn't carefully calculated what remained after that.
At twenty-something percent, Qingyi told him they'd confirmed the criminal.
Below twenty, he'd gone to the "Base" to fish, deliberately shaking off the man.
In the teens, he'd called Old Song. At ten and below, he'd received news that Zhou Ziheng had taken the bait.
When the battery hit three percent, he'd brought Gu Qiumian rushing to the final location.
At one percent—the big fish officially took the hook.
That man who'd planned everything behind the scenes had an arrogant personality, always thinking that without his phone, he'd become like a fish on the chopping board—isolated and helpless, driven into a corner.
But what Zhang Shutong hadn't told him was: if it were just about dealing with you, he wouldn't even need to turn his phone on.
So Zhang Shutong turned to look at the boy lying on the ground. It was nighttime now, so naturally he couldn't see the other's appearance clearly.
He remembered the first time he'd seen him was the day they'd switched seats. By some twist of fate, he'd ended up sitting next to Gu Qiumian. Song Nanshan arranged seats by grades, students entering the classroom one by one.
Back then, Zhang Shutong's first impression of him was this:
"A somewhat dark-skinned boy who, for some reason, froze when he saw me."
That initial impression had been so faint that he'd quickly forgotten the other's name after meeting him again the next day.
Of course, there was also one other thing—the castle incident was something that hadn't happened in the original timeline, a change that occurred due to his own regression.
Many supposedly foolproof plans often fail due to a small flaw. The young miss's assigned task was complete. Now he finally didn't need to play cards anymore and could reveal the final answer:
"You want to know how I guessed all this from him handing me Oreos? It's actually very simple."
Under the incredulous gazes of the father and son, Zhang Shutong spoke lightly: "Who told your son to have such dark skin?
"I recognized him just from looking at his hand."