Chapter 84: Cold Beauty |
"The bad news is, Qiumian's father also called. He had originally booked a direct flight to the city, but the airline said something about a cold front in the area, so all flights are cancelled. He was supposed to arrive tonight, but now it looks like he'll be delayed.
"This snowstorm is bigger than we thought, especially in the urban areas. They're saying it's too difficult to ride bikes there now. Our island has fewer vehicles, but riding a bicycle to school in this weather would be too much to ask, and there's a risk of accidents. Besides, it's Friday anyway, so it's basically an early weekend... Why don't you have any reaction at all?"
"What about the good news?" Zhang Shutong asked again.
"I just said it—no classes," Old Song said, puzzled. "Isn't that good enough?"
What kind of good news was that...
Classes were cancelled.
Gu Jianhong couldn't come back early either.
Zhang Shutong only felt that things were increasingly spiraling out of his control.
"What does Qiumian think?" Old Song simply ignored him and turned to her instead.
"In a bad mood? But don't worry, your father just said that if the plane doesn't work, he'll take the high-speed rail. He'll definitely make it back. He was afraid of waking you up, so he didn't contact you..."
"It's not because of that." Gu Qiumian looked coldly at a certain someone. "It's because he harassed me this morning."
"Really? Shutong?" Old Song was surprised.
Zhang Shutong was surprised too:
"I just knocked on your door once, didn't do anything else."
"But after I got up and opened the door, didn't you run away?"
Zhang Shutong really didn't know about that.
He had come downstairs right after knocking.
Feeling bad about waking her up, Zhang Shutong apologized to her, but Gu Qiumian turned her face away.
"All right, let's eat first," Old Song said, seeing they were fine. "I just called the auto repair shop but he didn't answer. We'll figure out arrangements after the tire is changed."
Zhang Shutong nodded, considering the impact of these two developments.
As for Gu Jianhong... honestly, he was a backup plan. Not being able to come was unfortunate, but even if he did come, it wouldn't necessarily be a good thing.
He was her father after all—he'd certainly have his own arrangements. For example, if he insisted Gu Qiumian stay home for the weekend, what then?
So subconsciously, Zhang Shutong hadn't counted on him as a lifeline—it was just one less option.
As for classes being cancelled, it actually gave him an extra day of freedom.
Both impacts were still controllable.
His mind had already formed a plan:
He'd go home first, get fully dressed and equipped, then head up the mountain.
The mountain path had stone steps, so even with heavy snow, as long as he walked slowly and it was still daylight, he could make it up.
Today's target was the Green Snake Temple.
Old Song urged them to wash their hands again. Zhang Shutong stood up and pulled out his phone to check.
His buddies must have received notice about classes being cancelled too. The group chat was indeed lively, messages reaching 99+. They were all restless types, clearly in a "rejoice and celebrate" mood.
"I was already halfway there when my mom told me there's no school today." Ruoping sounded resentful, and tagged him: "Why did you suddenly disappear yesterday?"
"Too happy to think of home," Qingyi said cryptically.
"So what are we doing today?" Ruoping asked again.
"Let's go skiing. Wasn't that what we agreed on last night?"
But Ruoping had changed her mind, saying why not leave the island to have fun? She'd just checked the weather forecast—only the island had snow; the city was fine. So why not go out and play?
"I can't, I'm stuck here. I'll only have free time later. My parents saw the snow and rushed out to stock up. I'm watching the shop." Du Kang sent a photo. It was in front of his family's restaurant. He'd built a little snowman and took a grinning selfie with it.
Zhang Shutong also wanted to take a picture, but found that no matter how he tried, it didn't look right, so he just lurked instead.
He watched his phone while turning sideways, gesturing for Gu Qiumian to wash first.
The villa's sink was large enough for two people to wash side by side. Zhang Shutong put away his phone and looked at the young woman's face in the mirror, noticing she seemed to have filled in her eyebrows. He commented casually:
"You seem a bit strange today?"
"How am I strange?"
Zhang Shutong came up with an appropriate comparison—
The gentle autumn rain had suddenly turned to freezing rain.
"I shouldn't have woken you up this morning. Grumpy after getting up?"
"You've got some nerve bringing it up." Gu Qiumian frowned. "Who are you chatting with again?"
"My buddies." Zhang Shutong showed her his QQ. "They're asking me to hang out."
Just then a message notification popped up at the top of the screen. The sender had a very girly avatar—a cute little rabbit. It was Ruoping sending a voice message.
Zhang Shutong tapped the voice message:
"Shutong, I know you've been up for ages. Reply when you see this—counting down three minutes."
Ruoping's cheerful voice came through.
But Zhang Shutong knew this was a dangerous warning sign.
However, the timing of this message was perfect. He took back his phone to reply, then said:
"See, I wasn't lying to you."
Gu Qiumian had said last night not to hide things from her. Although he hadn't explicitly agreed, Zhang Shutong still took the initiative to mention:
"I need to go home this morning, then head up the mountain."
However, Gu Qiumian had reverted to cold beauty mode. She squeezed out some hand soap and rubbed it on her hands—it was hard to tell which was more delicate, the foam or her skin. After washing, she just left.
Zhang Shutong looked back, not understanding what was up with her so early in the morning. She'd suddenly gone cold.
Sitting at the dining table, it was another delicious breakfast.
This morning's seating arrangement was also different. Gu Qiumian sat with Auntie Wu the housekeeper, while Zhang Shutong sat with Old Song.
In the center of the four people was a crystal plate with freshly cut fruit—five or six varieties that looked very appetizing.
On the small island, winter fruits were rarely seen. Zhang Shutong aimed his fork at the last cherry tomato, but at the same moment, Gu Qiumian also made her move.
Seeing this, he withdrew his fork, not competing with her. But she also pulled back, leaving the cherry tomato sitting there all alone, until Old Song finally ate it.
A rare quiet breakfast.
Then Gu Qiumian went to sit on the sofa and play with her phone.
Zhang Shutong was the last to finish eating and helped clean up the dishes. The housekeeper said:
"Have you noticed that Qiumian is unusually quiet today?"
Zhang Shutong nodded. Was the housekeeper also worried he'd upset her, giving him a hint?
But thinking back, he didn't think he'd done anything like that. Last night's misunderstanding had been cleared up too.
"She's not in a bad mood," the woman chuckled softly. "She's always like this. She's that kind of very emotional girl. If she did something embarrassing at school yesterday, then after sleeping on it and calming down, she thinks it was too humiliating, so the next day she deliberately puts on a stern face."
Zhang Shutong seemed to understand.
A while later, he ran into Old Song smoking on the balcony. The man said:
"Have you noticed how cold Qiumian is? Do you know what that means?"
Zhang Shutong listened attentively.
"It means she was too nice to you yesterday. She invited you to watch a movie and you didn't go, so of course today she has to change her attitude. So you'd better think about how to handle things later."
He had anticipated this much.
Walking back to the living room, Gu Qiumian was sitting with her legs crossed watching TV. This time she'd chosen a separate sofa, seemingly deliberately avoiding others.
Zhang Shutong asked what her plans were for today.
She said to watch a movie.
Zhang Shutong said don't give me the cold shoulder, didn't we clear things up last night?
She said your friends are looking for you to hang out, so just go ahead. You don't need to ask me.
"I told you it's not about hanging out..."
"Oh, so you have 'important business' again?"
She put special emphasis on those last two words.
"I'm going mountain climbing. Want to come?"
"No." She answered decisively.
So who was right—Old Song or the housekeeper?
But this time Zhang Shutong really hadn't planned to bring her along. Last time at the shopping center was because he suspected the housekeeper and didn't feel safe leaving her home alone.
But this time he was going to the temple. If possible, it would be best to have Old Song take her out for a walk.
Just then Old Song came back in from outside. The man had just hung up a call and sighed:
"All right, now there's more bad news."
"What is it?" Both of them turned their heads simultaneously.
"The tire can't be delivered. That guy just called me. He's at the front of that mountain road now. The heavy snow has completely blocked the road—he can't get up."
"Completely blocked—how serious is it?" Zhang Shutong caught the key point.
"Not exactly blocked, just that regular cars don't have high ground clearance, but that section of road has snow that's too thick. If a car drives on it, it'll bottom out immediately." Old Song was also troubled.
It seemed the issue wasn't the tire. Even if they carried it up, it wouldn't help—the car couldn't drive down.
A form of being trapped, in a sense?
Not quite that severe yet.
Zhang Shutong quickly calculated the distance. On foot, walking that entire winding mountain road would take about half an hour.
At this moment, Gu Qiumian's lips curved slightly, as if mocking, though her expression remained unchanged.
Fair enough. They'd just said one would climb the mountain and one would watch a movie, then Zhang Shutong got slapped in the face. Even nature seemed to be proving that Miss Gu's decision was the right one.
"You're still going mountain climbing?" Gu Qiumian asked coldly, her pale face, red lips, and black sweater forming a stark contrast in this moment.
"Of course I'm going."
"You mean walk all the way from here to the mountain? In this cold, you id..." She stopped herself mid-sentence, her tone turning sharp. "Then do whatever you want."
Zhang Shutong was getting a headache too. He dialed his mom's number, preparing to ask for help.
His family had a car, an SUV. Zhang Shutong definitely couldn't ask his mom to come pick him up—he planned to walk down himself and have her wait at the intersection.
Fortunately, his mom hadn't gone to work.
He greeted his mother, and she only responded with three words:
"Tongtong, out."
Zhang Shutong quickly covered the mouthpiece and rapidly explained the situation.
The voice on the other end was lazy:
"Can't you just stay put at their place? Why are you running around? You're interrupting my beauty sleep." His mother complained that he wasn't being considerate, but he could hear her getting up. "Are you sure there's no problem with you walking down that road alone?"
"It's fine. I checked—about ten minutes." Zhang Shutong deliberately shortened the time.
"An SUV should be able to drive up that road, right?" But his mom didn't take the bait. After thinking, she added that—surprise—she'd had the foresight to install snow chains yesterday.
Her tone was light and casual as she said this.
Zhang Shutong was thoroughly impressed. He hadn't expected her to have a trump card too. Mother and son were practically cut from the same cloth. His mom smugly accepted her son's flattery.
She was a science major. Science majors who wore white lab coats were cool, but women who could install snow chains were even cooler. In comparison, Zhang Shutong was a humanities student—a bit embarrassing.
But there was no need to make her take risks. Zhang Shutong just said he'd contact her depending on the situation.
"All right, I'll wait then." The woman yawned.
Zhang Shutong told her please don't put on makeup, and come as quickly as possible.
His mom said she'd originally planned to go to work, but then her office closed for the day, so she'd lain back down without even changing clothes.
"I'm going downstairs." The crisp sound of her heels on the stairs came through clearly. Mother and son chatted as she descended. Once outside, his mother started complaining again, saying do you know how cold it is out here, your mother's precious day off is ruined, and oh, the car's covered in snow too, I still have to brush it off—just thinking about it is such a hassle...
Zhang Shutong had a strange feeling. Just as there was no clear boundary between women and girls, his mom was similar to Gu Qiumian—sometimes you needed to humor them. The former was filial duty, the latter was... he couldn't quite say what the latter was. Chatting with his mom, Zhang Shutong knew what she liked to hear, though she'd laugh and say "spare me that routine, your mother's past that age."
But her tone was still quite pleased.
Zhang Shutong patiently listened to her brush off the snow. Though his parents were rarely home, whether before or now, whenever he needed help, they always extended a helping hand. He found, oddly enough, a sense of comfort in the sound of snow being brushed away.
But his usually reliable and reassuring mom suddenly shrieked in alarm, her face turning pale with fright. Zhang Shutong jumped in surprise and hurriedly asked what was wrong.
The woman took a moment to recover, still shaken:
"I just saw what looked like a tree branch on our car window and was going to throw it away, but when I picked it up, I realized..."
She let out a breath of relief, in the mood to build suspense again:
"Son, guess what it is? If you guess right, mommy will bring it to you?"
But Zhang Shutong had an ominous premonition. He opened his mouth, words surging to his lips.
Could it be again...
"Never mind, I'll just tell you. It's actually a frozen snake—scared me to death..."