Chapter 94: Showdown |
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm with Lu Qinglian. I'll explain in the car. Please thank Uncle for me..."
Zhang Shutong hung up the phone and rushed out of the room.
In those few seconds, Lu Qinglian had also gotten dressed. She followed right behind him. Both of them had long legs and walked quickly. It was close to noon now, and the sounds of stir-frying weren't audible yet. The quiet stairwell was broken by their two sets of footsteps.
The stairs were neither wide nor narrow, able to accommodate two people at once. Zhang Shutong deliberately let Lu Qinglian have the side with the handrail, while he himself bounded down three steps at a time, descending a floor in an instant.
"Oh, Little Zhang! No class today? Going fishing again?"
Just as he rushed to the landing, he unexpectedly ran into an auntie carrying a vegetable basket. He vaguely remembered she lived on the third floor and was half a colleague of his parents. Zhang Shutong had long forgotten her name. Just as he was about to give her a brief greeting, he caught sight of flying black hair in his peripheral vision.
Zhang Shutong instinctively turned his head. It turned out Lu Qinglian had also rushed to his shoulder in a single bound. The young woman held onto the staircase railing, leaned her body against it to borrow momentum, then pushed off with her toes—
Zhang Shutong froze. The auntie froze too:
"This young lady is..."
Time seemed to freeze.
Her long hair danced in the air, her eyes calm as still water.
The auntie met her gaze and found herself stunned speechless.
By the time she snapped back to reality, Lu Qinglian had already brushed past her without a word. The young woman landed on one foot, her posture steady, her movements practiced, her bearing carefree.
Zhang Shutong could only apologize to the auntie before quickly descending the stairs himself.
Lu Qinglian seemed to have deliberately waited for him. As soon as they left the stairwell, cold wind rushed in. In the vast expanse of white snow, the two of them simultaneously broke into a stride.
"You almost scared the vegetables right out of her basket..."
"Where to?" The young woman just glanced at him, her green robe whipping behind her.
"The utility pole to the left of the residential complex entrance. They're on the way and have just arrived."
"Okay."
"Is your foot all right?"
"I can manage."
Watching Lu Qinglian's increasingly rapid footsteps, Zhang Shutong had to call out to her, saying they weren't in that much of a hurry. But she just frowned, seemingly annoyed by his dawdling.
Zhang Shutong had thought he was already the type to ignore everything else once there was real business to attend to, but he never expected to meet someone even more extreme than himself.
Soon they exited the complex. An SUV was already parked by the utility pole.
The passenger window rolled down, and Ruoping's eyes widened:
"Qinglian, how are you with him?"
Hey, hey, we're supposed to be best friends. Shouldn't it be "Shutong, how are you with her?"
Lu Qinglian had a decent relationship with Ruoping. She greeted her, but now she wasn't in a hurry anymore. Even though she'd been walking ahead of Zhang Shutong just moments ago, she now stepped aside to let him get in the car first.
"Later you should..."
He got halfway through the sentence before swallowing it back down, regretting not having coordinated their stories with Lu Qinglian beforehand. Otherwise it would be hard to explain why she was coming from his house.
But it was too late to say anything now. Zhang Shutong opened the car door and saw Qingyi and Du Kang's faces.
"What a coincidence, Shutong." Qingyi was also a sly little devil.
Du Kang just laughed foolishly. Zhang Shutong thought, please stop laughing—you already have a baby face, and the more you laugh, the more childish you look. Not promising at all.
Nothing more to say. He squeezed into the vehicle, and Lu Qinglian followed him in. With a bang, the car door closed. Zhang Shutong first looked toward the man in the driver's seat.
The man had an imposing build with broad shoulders. Even wearing a sweater, you could see the obvious muscles on his arms. Despite driving a very large SUV, he looked like he was crammed into a small box, hunching his shoulders.
They say the tiger father begets no cowardly daughter—the man who could raise a warrior woman like Ruoping naturally wouldn't be simple.
Zhang Shutong remembered he was a retired athlete from the provincial team who practiced gymnastics. A couple years ago, he came to their school as a PE teacher. Now he'd been transferred to the township and wanted Ruoping to transfer with him, but the young woman stubbornly refused, unwilling to leave the three of them. So he had to let it go.
The man had proper features and must have been quite handsome in his youth, except his mouth was a bit large—a trait Ruoping had inherited.
PE teachers these days needed to command respect, so the man looked very serious and stern. In reality, he was an absolute daughter fool.
Zhang Shutong wasn't shy about it either and quickly greeted and thanked him. The four close friends were all familiar with each other's parents.
The man grinned too:
"Little Zhang! I was just wondering where you were. Turns out you were with your girlfr—"
Before he could finish, Ruoping lightly jabbed him with her elbow.
Zhang Shutong knew she was worried Du Kang would get the wrong idea. The man closed his mouth, just looked at him strangely in the rearview mirror, then turned to look at his daughter before saying with a chuckle:
"Well then, you kids chat. Uncle won't say anything out of turn."
Wait, does he think Ruoping is jealous?
Zhang Shutong felt a slight headache coming on.
"Come clean—what did you do today?"
Swordswoman Feng turned around.
"Yeah, Shutong, you had the three of us dig that pit, all mysterious about it. Qingyi said you were planning to catch a wild boar. True or false? Did you catch one?"
A wild boar...
There really were wild boars in the mountains in earlier years.
Zhang Shutong sneaked a glance at the "wild boar."
Lu Qinglian said nothing. She looked out the window as if none of this concerned her.
"No... I accidentally stepped off the edge of the pit and almost fell in," he said, rolling up his sleeve to show some bruises on his arm. "Look."
"The boar knocked into you?" Qingyi was playing dumb.
"I told you I fell by myself." Zhang Shutong glared at him, signaling him not to talk nonsense.
"Really? Then why didn't you come find us?" Ruoping was suspicious.
Zhang Shutong bit the bullet and said:
"My clothes got all wet, so I went home to change. I called my mom to come pick me up."
"Then how come Qinglian was with you?"
"We just happened to run into each other at the foot of the mountain." Zhang Shutong thought on his feet. "At that little shop. I went to buy water, and she was buying ham sausages. She was feeding the fox—do you guys remember the fox? From that time we ran into the poachers..."
The more Zhang Shutong spoke, the smoother it became. He was preparing to properly introduce the relationship between the young woman and the fox when suddenly:
"He's lying."
A voice sounded coldly from beside him. Lu Qinglian spoke calmly.
The car instantly fell silent.
Several pairs of eyes focused on the young woman in the green robe.
"Uh..." Zhang Shutong froze, not understanding why she was stirring up trouble at this moment.
"He's deceiving you. Don't believe him." Lu Qinglian repeated flatly.
"Aha! I knew something was off the more I listened! I knew you were lying. You had us dig a pit, then after we dug it you told us to leave right away. And another thing—if you went home to change clothes, why did you tell Qingyi you weren't free when he called, but suddenly you're free now?"
Ruoping interrogated him:
"Qinglian, you tell us. I don't believe him."
But Lu Qinglian didn't speak immediately. Instead, she turned to look at Zhang Shutong. Zhang Shutong once again saw that faint, playful smile on her lips.
"Zhang Shutong-tongxue, may I tell the truth?"
Only Zhang Shutong understood the hidden meaning in that sentence, but in everyone else's ears, she sounded as if she'd been coerced by him, her words full of weakness.
"He's even threatening you?" Ruoping was shocked. Zhang Shutong's crimes multiplied.
"Lu-tongxue, just speak freely. With us watching, this kid definitely won't dare do anything." Du Kang chimed in too.
"May I?" The young woman tilted her head to look at him.
Zhang Shutong no longer believed in the concept of solidarity from saving someone once.
He resigned himself with a sigh and simply closed his eyes to rest, thinking, Say whatever you want. Some things the gang would have to know sooner or later anyway.
And once it was out in the open, he'd no longer have any leverage over him in her hands.
Zhang Shutong gave up struggling. Seeing this, the others stopped paying attention to him and all stared at Lu Qinglian, hoping to get some earth-shattering secret from her. The next second, the young woman's red lips parted slightly:
"The truth is, Zhang Shutong-tongxue fell into that pit."
"Uh... what do you mean?"
"He was trapped in that pit and couldn't get out by himself. I happened to pass by and rescued him. So he invited me to his house for a cup of hot water."
Lu Qinglian ignored everyone's disappointed looks and said flatly:
"But he thought this was very embarrassing and didn't want to tell you, so he made up a lie."
"That's it?" Du Kang was confused, while secretly breathing a sigh of relief.
"What do you think, Zhang Shutong-tongxue?" Lu Qinglian asked with pointed meaning.
Zhang Shutong-tongxue quickly nodded.
"Wait, that still doesn't explain why you dug the pit!" Ruoping was still suspicious.
"That I don't know." Lu Qinglian said.
"All right, Pingping, stop twisting around like that. It's not safe." The man in the driver's seat gave a timely reminder.
Ruoping couldn't get anything else out of them and turned around reluctantly.
The interrogation finally came to an end. Everyone was disappointed with the final "truth" and went back to their own business. Ruoping put on her headphones to listen to music. The remaining four squeezed into the back row, seated from left to right: Du Kang, Qingyi, Zhang Shutong, and Lu Qinglian.
Qingyi and Du Kang were discussing this week's Zhiyin Manke, but Du Kang seemed somewhat distracted, probably regretting why he'd sat on the far left.
Zhang Shutong glanced at them, then looked at Lu Qinglian and mouthed irritably:
"What are you up to now?"
"A warning." Lu Qinglian also mouthed back.
"What did I do this time?"
"Don't casually expose other people's private matters."
"Private matters?"
Zhang Shutong was puzzled.
He hadn't mentioned that her ankle was sprained.
"The fox." But she said coldly, "I don't care who else you lied to, but you shouldn't use my business as an excuse."
As if worried he couldn't read her lips fast enough, she added after a long pause:
"Third warning. My relationship with you isn't good enough for that yet."
Zhang Shutong opened his mouth:
"Uh... I'll be careful next time."
Lu Qinglian nodded casually and turned her face back to the window, watching the rapidly receding scenery outside.
She always sat upright with her hands on her knees, like a rule-abiding traveler for whom everyone along the way was just a passerby.
Zhang Shutong studied her for a few moments before withdrawing his gaze.
All right, so liking foxes was also a forbidden topic.
Life was all about learning from mistakes.
After waist, physical contact, and feet, there was now one more taboo.
They were still far from the mountain ring road. Sitting in the back of the SUV, he couldn't help but sway left and right when they hit rough patches.
He closed his eyes to rest for a while, knowing this matter could no longer be hidden from his close friends no matter what.
Even if he could find excuses for the pit and Lu Qinglian;
Next, when they went to the villa and he and Lu Qinglian got out of the car, it would raise even more suspicion.
Once you tell one lie, countless more lies will follow.
Such cycles were endless, seemingly stretching on forever. Zhang Shutong felt exhausted by it.
If he were still that lone wolf from back then, he could keep everything bottled up inside. But as the truth gradually came to light, he found himself increasingly unable to cope.
Human strength has its limits. During the castle case, he could tell no one. During the arson case, he could reveal the secret afterward. With the Zhou father and son, he could keep them guessing... but now it was different.
Since the true culprit had already surfaced;
Therefore, it was time to have a showdown with everyone.
He began typing out the things he needed to explain in his phone's notes app, but noticed Lu Qinglian kept staring at his screen.
"You're planning to tell them?" she asked flatly.