Chapter 71: Lu Qinglian is a Dashing Woman |
It can't be me.
Zhang Shutong silently recited this in his heart.
Most of the time, he didn't bother arguing with Gu Qiumian, so he simply kept his mouth shut.
As the saying goes, happy occasions lift one's spirits. Right now, Gu Qiumian was very... well, at least her mood was better than before.
Zhang Shutong held the lollipop in his mouth, feeling that pulling in Teacher Song, Gu Qiumian, and his three close friends for this little performance hadn't been in vain.
Facts proved he'd overestimated Zhou Ziheng's psychological fortitude, but it was better to err on the side of caution.
The rest wasn't something Zhang Shutong could participate in—
Teacher Song didn't hesitate to call the police rather than the school leadership.
Things were just that strange. At this moment, the school leadership's position was precisely opposite to theirs. Zhang Shutong's side hoped to make the matter as big as possible, while the school leadership wanted to minimize the issue and keep the impact contained within the school.
But if Teacher Song followed the rules, he wouldn't be Song Nanshan.
He indeed chose to call the police, but Zhang Shutong didn't want to make things difficult for Teacher Song. He still wanted to see Teacher Song get promoted—what if he got targeted for this? So he handed over his own phone and dialed Officer Xiong's number. That way, even if the school leadership held someone accountable afterward, they could say the student didn't know any better.
Teacher Song had originally worn a stern expression, but Zhang Shutong's unexpected gesture moved him considerably. However, men didn't need flowery words to express such feelings—a pat on the shoulder was enough.
Zhang Shutong took the opportunity to ask if he could get some practice driving Teacher Song's car sometime, saying he wanted to learn to drive. Song Nanshan choked for a moment and said, "You little punk, look at what kind of situation we're in right now."
Fine, the matter at hand was more important.
The call connected quickly. Teacher Song identified himself and immediately leveraged Boss Gu's name, saying they'd already spoken on the phone. "I have a student here. His family is suspected of retaliating against the Gu family. The evidence is solid, and we have recordings..."
The police were fairly straightforward. After a while, Song Nanshan hung up and gave him an "OK" gesture, then pulled Zhou Ziheng along to report to the grade director.
This time Gu Qiumian went too. In a sense, in front of the school leadership, her words carried more weight than Song Nanshan's.
Only then did Zhang Shutong breathe a sigh of relief and find a place to sit.
Zhou Ziheng's composure was only relative to his peers. Once he got in the police car, he'd probably spill everything obediently.
What came next was simply waiting.
Zhang Shutong decided to report to his close friends. As he walked into the classroom lost in thought, the noisy class instantly fell silent. He paused mid-step, only then realizing times had changed.
He was now the "big villain."
Countless pairs of eyes stared at him, everyone holding their breath. With the lollipop in his mouth, he said flatly, "It's been handled. Stop staring at me, look at your textbooks."
Quite a few people instinctively lowered their heads. The class monitor shot him a grateful look. Zhang Shutong found it utterly baffling.
There was still a bit of time before the long break ended. There really wasn't any need to continue self-study—Teacher Song should have come to lift the lockdown, but he'd forgotten.
Zhang Shutong wasn't one to meddle, so he just returned to his seat.
The four-person mini-conference reconvened, with the meeting location shifting to the area around him.
Zhang Shutong scooted inward and sat in Gu Qiumian's seat, leaving his own stool for Du Kang. Qingyi sat behind, while Ruoping negotiated and moved to the front.
He felt it necessary to share more intel with his three close friends. Otherwise, every time he did something, he'd have to explain. How long could this pattern of getting on the bus first and buying the ticket later continue?
Zhang Shutong turned sideways, leaning against the radiator, properly experiencing what the young miss's throne felt like. Then he turned left and right—who told the three of them to be positioned in three different directions? He explained the entire sequence of events from start to finish. Du Kang said admiringly, "I was wondering why Gu Qiumian suddenly went to the library. So that was part of your plan too—what brilliant strategy!"
"That's the only part that wasn't," Zhang Shutong said sheepishly.
"Then how did you suspect Zhou Ziheng?" Ruoping asked again.
"Well, who told him to be so dark?" Zhang Shutong couldn't help but laugh. "When he was passing a note to Li Yipeng, someone saw his hand. When I asked what it looked like, Li Yipeng only remembered the hand was very dark. Pretty coincidental, right?"
—Of course he'd made that up, but the excuse was oddly reasonable. Ruoping bent over laughing when she heard it.
Qingyi was still trapped in an indescribable sense of shock—who told him to be the only one willing to use his brain?
Generally, in this kind of reveal-the-answer situation, Du Kang and Ruoping were used to treating Zhang Shutong as an external brain. So regardless of whether the reasoning process was difficult or easy, reliable or far-fetched, to them it was all about the same. They just needed to be good cheerleaders on the sidelines.
Only Qingyi understood the difficulty involved. In his words, the building block incident only happened this morning, yet you'd already identified the culprit by afternoon, Shutong, and even got an unexpected bonus. Too impressive.
Close friends never stinted on flattery. Amid the chorus of praise, Zhang Shutong felt a bit embarrassed and was about to say a few humble words when suddenly a voice interjected: "Very impressive."
The four instinctively shut their mouths, looking at each other, all using eye contact to signal "it wasn't me." But there were only the four of them present—could a paranormal event be occurring?
As the atmosphere grew tense, the girl beside Ruoping slowly turned around, her expression composed.
So it was her who'd said it.
But Zhang Shutong couldn't tell whether Lu Qinglian meant it as praise or not. Using a more modern description, it was "monotone reading"—her mouth said "very impressive," but in reality her tone hadn't changed, nor had her expression.
"Sorry, Qinglian, did we disturb your studying..." Ruoping immediately apologized in a low voice, thinking their group had gotten carried away and bothered her.
Lu Qinglian just shook her head, saying it wasn't a disturbance—actually, she was quite interested too.
But she didn't realize at all that her joining had made everyone around her fall silent.
Instead, she swept her gaze across everyone's faces, as if wondering why you all suddenly stopped talking.
At this point, Du Kang had a flash of inspiration and asked the girl if she wanted him to explain it to her again.
Lu Qinglian thought for a moment, then extended three slender fingers: "Someone on Commercial Street wants to harm Gu Qiumian?"
"We just suspect..."
"Zhang Shutong discovered all of this?" Lu Qinglian retracted the first finger.
"Uh, yes, Shutong is pretty impressive, isn't he..."
"Last question." Lu Qinglian's eyes flickered. "When did those two make up?"
Not just Du Kang—even Zhang Shutong was stunned.
He thought, since when are you so gossipy?
Who was it at lunch acting like they couldn't care less about anything?
Talking in riddles after two sentences?
If it were Zhang Shutong, he'd definitely use "you can understand it that way for now" to deflect, but Du Kang had already obediently answered: "Who knows? They came back from one meal together like this. We're puzzled too..."
"I see." Lu Qinglian lightly tapped her chin, politely thanked them, and transformed back into that unworldly fairy, as if the person gossiping just now hadn't been her at all.
She came suddenly and left suddenly. No one knew why she'd initiated conversation or what exactly she wanted to find out.
Only when Lu Qinglian turned around did Zhang Shutong notice the corners of her lips curl up slightly. If you called it a smile, it was too faint. But Zhang Shutong had seen this expression on her before. He frowned: "What exactly are you trying to say?"
This question drew the surprise of his three close friends, because Zhang Shutong's tone had become somewhat serious. Though he usually didn't talk much, his manner was casual—he rarely spoke to people this way.
"Nothing," Lu Qinglian said lightly. "You're quite good at pleasing girls."
The three were completely confused again.
Zhang Shutong was also baffled. Back on the rooftop, Lu Qinglian had questioned his reaction last night, asking what he was investigating. He'd deliberately not told her.
Then he thought, could Lu Qinglian be trying to find out about this, so she'd gotten a few sentences out of Du Kang?
He put himself in her shoes—if he were Lu Qinglian, what useful information could he derive from this: The average person wouldn't connect the poacher with Commercial Street and Gu Qiumian's death.
So in her eyes, he probably just looked like a "flower guardian," which was why she'd made that teasing remark.
At this point, Ruoping silently mouthed, asking what's going on between you and Lu Qinglian?
Zhang Shutong shook his head. Who knew why she suddenly became interested in this matter?
Though he'd let a few things slip, it was harmless. Du Kang's mouth was just too loose—better late than never. Zhang Shutong said irritably, "Look at what you're like now."
Du Kang still asked blankly, "Like what?"
"A bigmouth bass."
"Huh, what'd I do?" Du Kang was bewildered.
"Secrets between men cannot be shared with others," Qingyi chimed in.
"Completely agree." Zhang Shutong opened a carton of student milk and clinked it with him in mid-air.
"Get lost, all of you. Am I not a girl?" Ruoping knew their chuunibyou was acting up again and rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Then secrets between close friends cannot be shared with others?" Zhang Shutong amended.
"Ha, you'd better," Ruoping sneered coldly. "You'd better not share anything with Gu Qiumian. Those are your own words. Want me to record them for you? Remember that."
Zhang Shutong was left speechless.
He seemed to have actually shared quite a bit—the Base, the Forbidden Zone, the Castle. That day while cycling, he'd let everything slip, and even taken Gu Qiumian on a tour of their secret base. He really had no right to criticize Du Kang.
From now on, he must be vigilant against Autumn Rain Lingering.
This wasn't the place to talk. Zhang Shutong pulled the three of them outside and told Du Kang quietly to be more careful in the future. "I'm not managing how you are with Lu Qinglian, but the Gu family situation has too much impact. It's best if only we four know about it."
Du Kang nodded in understanding, saying Shutong, you're so thoughtful. I'll definitely keep my mouth shut from now on.
Zhang Shutong felt reassured.
He asked Qingyi if he thought Lu Qinglian had been a bit abnormal just now.
Qingyi pondered: "A bit, yes."
Zhang Shutong listened attentively, but saw Qingyi also extend three fingers: "Did you notice her gesture just now?"
Of course Zhang Shutong had seen it. Lu Qinglian had asked three questions total, three questions represented by three fingers, retracting one with each question: "And then?"
"Didn't you notice how dashing it was?" Qingyi said while demonstrating.
Zhang Shutong was a bit speechless.
He thought, your next sentence better not be that Lu Qinglian is a dashing woman.
"Just kidding, just kidding." Qingyi laughed. "Didn't you notice you have the same habit?"
"Do I?"
"Yeah. Yesterday after school, Du Kang came to ask you why you switched seats. You also held up three fingers like that and made up three excuses."
Zhang Shutong said puzzled: "Are you saying she's imitating me?"
"Not quite. I'm saying her sequence is very different. Look," Qingyi extended his hand. "When we make this gesture, don't we usually press the little finger with the thumb, leaving the other three exposed, then start retracting from the ring finger inward?"
"More or less..."
"Did you notice Lu Qinglian's gesture just now? She started retracting from the index finger inward, leaving only the ring finger extended at the end. I can't do it anyway. Can you?"
Zhang Shutong tried it too. His fingers felt like they were cramping—it really was a high-difficulty move: "This is the abnormality you're talking about?"
"Exactly."
"What does this prove?"
"Even more dashing."
"..."
Zhang Shutong bit the inside of his cheek.
They were about to head into the restroom when Teacher Song came rushing back from the Academic Affairs Office, saying, "Shutong, come with me in a bit. Let me go arrange things in class first."
Zhang Shutong knew that as homeroom teacher, Teacher Song naturally had to make a trip to the police station, and of course he had to go too—Zhang Shutong had actively requested it. He wouldn't feel at ease until he saw Zhou Ziheng's father arrested with his own eyes.
He'd also discussed this with his close friends. When Teacher Song finished arranging things in class, all three clamored to go, somewhat excited in their words, treating it like some secret mission.
Which was actually true. Everyone else was in class while they got to wander around outside with their homeroom teacher. Student days were like that—even if it was just going out to shovel snow, as long as you left the teaching building, it was definitely better than being cooped up in class.
But Teacher Song refused to take them no matter what, saying he was going to handle serious business—what were they three doing causing trouble? He grabbed Zhang Shutong and rushed out.
Under his friends' disappointed gazes, Zhang Shutong waved goodbye to them. Halfway there, he suddenly remembered to ask where Gu Qiumian had gone—wasn't she coming along?
"Qiumian isn't feeling well, so she's staying in the Academic Affairs Office for a bit. I still need to pick her up after school and take her home. Tsk..." Teacher Song suddenly drew in a sharp breath. "Want to come with me then?"
Here it was again.
Such a familiar invitation.
Last time it was because of this very sentence that he'd been pulled into the car by Teacher Song in a daze. Three people crammed into that little Focus, spent a night at Gu Qiumian's family villa, and many things happened. Zhang Shutong was a bit nostalgic for that bowl of duck noodle soup, but now wasn't the time to discuss that: "Did you get through to her dad?"
"Not yet. Probably a long flight." Teacher Song was still the same Teacher Song, raising an eyebrow roguishly. "What, scared her old man will come home when you go to her house?"
Zhang Shutong didn't engage with his nonsense, just said not to let their guard down—he suspected this matter wasn't so simple.
Then he suddenly said: "Hypothetically, I'm just saying hypothetically, if there's no new progress by Saturday, Teacher, could you take me and Gu Qiumian off the island to have some fun?"
As he said this, they were descending the stairs. Teacher Song suddenly stopped. Zhang Shutong bumped into his back.
Song Nanshan looked absolutely shocked, his eyes regarding him like an alien: "When did you develop this kind of interest, you little punk?"