Chapter 104: Sheepdog (2) |
"So we..." Zhang Shutong said hesitantly.
"Let's go. It's just like handing over work. By the time her dad arrives, we should head out," Old Song reassured him. "Tonight I'll treat you and Qinglian to dinner, get some proper rest. If there were any entertainment on this island, I'd even take you two to see a movie. Then go back and get a good night's sleep. Come Monday, just go to school and live your life as you did before—go fishing with your friends. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Zhang Shutong indicated he understood.
He unconsciously glanced toward the maid's room where Gu Qiumian was making a phone call.
The moment he turned his head, the girl hung up and came out.
"How did it go, Qiumian?" Old Song asked.
"He's already sent people ahead on the boat. He wants to buy some things in the city first. I told him it wasn't necessary..." Gu Qiumian then asked, "Teacher, what would you like for dinner tonight?"
"We won't stay, we won't stay. Teacher just remembered the laundry I washed is still not hung up. In this weather it's probably frozen solid by now... We'll leave once your family's people arrive."
Gu Qiumian therefore looked at Zhang Shutong.
Old Song tactfully walked away, leaving just the two of them again. Zhang Shutong opened his mouth and found he had nothing to say. Should he say "Actually, I'm still not entirely reassured"? But what right did he have to say such things—that was her actual father after all. After thinking it over, he only advised her to be extra careful, to remember to lock the doors and windows when sleeping... honestly, this was pointless advice.
"Especially Saturday night going into Sunday," Zhang Shutong said seriously. "Tell them not to let their guard down under any circumstances, and keep several people in the house—don't have everyone go out on patrol."
Gu Qiumian nodded gently.
But Zhang Shutong could sometimes be a bit stubborn. He hesitated, then asked:
"Want to come with me, leave the island?"
This time Gu Qiumian fell silent.
After a long moment she finally said:
"I know you've been looking after me from the start, since that day at school. You've been constantly busy, and I need to thank you for what you did about Zhou Ziheng too. But this time there really won't be any problems. You should go back and rest too, and..." she said in a low voice, "I don't want to see you this exhausted either."
Zhang Shutong understood her meaning.
"Then stay safe," Zhang Shutong reminded her one last time, not knowing how many times he'd said the words "safe" and "careful" today.
He returned to the sofa to drink some water. At this point he no longer cared whose cup it was—he just picked one up and used it. Zhang Shutong felt he should be slowly exhaling in relief. He thought that while this murder case wasn't over yet, at least they could see its tail in the distance.
Someone else would help catch that tail.
Soon they heard the roar of engines.
Going outside to look, it was that Land Rover from before, followed by a Prado. Six men got out, each one well-trained, even bigger than Old Song.
These were bodyguards and police officers.
He'd miscounted earlier—including Gu's father and the driver, there should be eight adult men in the villa over the next few days.
Zhang Shutong finally felt at ease.
He instinctively assessed the weapons they carried. What he could see included batons. Would the police have guns? Probably not, but this was reassuring enough.
In this moment Zhang Shutong truly felt his mission was complete.
Someone tapped his shoulder. He turned to see Old Song.
"Get in the car, I want to talk to you." Song Nanshan jingled his car keys. He should have been greeting the bodyguards, but instead he just took off with his student.
Zhang Shutong followed the man to that little Focus, his mindset different from before. In the past, being in this car meant either pursuing a murderer or investigating—this time it was just to chat.
Zhang Shutong assumed a posture of attentive listening, knowing Old Song would surely advise him not to be so fixated. But he wanted to say he really wasn't that stubborn, or rather, being stubborn wouldn't change anything. From the moment Gu's father got off that plane, everything had become set in stone.
"Have you heard the story of the boy who cried wolf?" Unexpectedly, Old Song brought up an unrelated topic.
The boy who cried wolf? Of course he'd heard it. Who hadn't heard that famous fable?
Zhang Shutong thought to himself.
He seemed to understand Old Song's meaning—was he implying that Zhang Shutong was like that shepherd boy, repeatedly telling everyone there was a murderer and danger when he hadn't even seen a shadow of the killer? He also recalled Gu Qiumian's reaction just now. She probably didn't believe him anymore.
That was a bit depressing.
But he didn't know how to explain how the killer entered the villa. It wasn't that Zhang Shutong still needed to hide anything from anyone—he desperately wanted to emphasize how impossible it all was, but they'd practically turned this place upside down and still found no clues.
If he couldn't explain it, people wouldn't believe him. But if he himself didn't understand, how could he explain it to others?
"What are you thinking about now, kid?" But Old Song leisurely lit a cigarette. "I didn't say you were that shepherd boy who only tells lies. Actually, everyone believes you."
"Gu Qiumian doesn't," Zhang Shutong sighed.
Old Song acted as if he hadn't heard that remark. Squinting through the smoke, he said, "Bringing up the boy who cried wolf wasn't to talk about the consequences of your lying. I just thought of that story because it fits the theme. What I actually want to talk about is something else."
"What is it?"
"The story of the sheep and the sheepdog."
"And then?" He was a bit tired now, and since there was nothing he couldn't relax about in front of Old Song, he reclined the passenger seat and lay down.
Old Song told the story with dramatic flair:
"Once upon a time there was a grassland with a flock of sheep. Among them was a little lamb, and a sheepdog circled around it every day, afraid it would get eaten by wolves."
Zhang Shutong understood.
He was somewhat speechless, thinking this metaphor was truly terrible. After all that buildup, this was what he wanted to say. Though Gu Qiumian did quite like sheep, so comparing her to a lamb was fitting enough, but he himself came out rather poorly in this comparison.
He'd actually become a dog.
"You're insulting me," Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes.
"What's wrong with being a sheepdog? Loyal, intelligent, and brave—you're actually turning up your nose at it?" Old Song argued righteously.
"Just continue the story, please. Don't get off track."
"At first the little lamb trusted the sheepdog. Whatever it said, she did. The sheepdog said the wolf is coming, quick, go hide on the eastern hillside, and she'd scamper right over there. Then the sheepdog said the wolf went to the hillside, quick, go to the grassland below, and the sheep followed again. In the end..."
"Stop, stop." Zhang Shutong's head was spinning. "What exactly are you trying to say? Please, really, no more metaphors like this. It sounds so weird."
"Don't they say fables are more effective at making people alert?" Old Song, probably feeling childish himself, gave a sheepish laugh. "Actually, what I'm trying to say is that eventually that sheep stopped listening to the sheepdog so much."
"So?" Zhang Shutong immediately thought, so it's still a story about crying wolf. "Because the wolf never actually came, and after enough times the sheep stopped believing?"
But Old Song said that wasn't it.
"Actually, she never believed there was a wolf from the start, or she half-believed it, or maybe the point wasn't about the wolf at all?"
"What do you mean?"
"Because she just believed what the sheepdog said. If you said there was a wolf, then there was a wolf. If you said there wasn't, then there wasn't. Even if you lied and said the wolf was coming, let's run away—when really you just wanted to frolic around the grassland—she'd still run with you."
"But she doesn't believe me now, does she?"
"How should I put this... it's not that she doesn't believe you, but a little lamb can't keep running after you all the time, right?
"You know, after all, she's not really a sheep, and you're not really a sheepdog. When you apply things to real people, everything gets complicated, especially with young people your age."
"Then why?"
"I don't know either," Old Song very frankly flicked his cigarette ash. "I just know there are somewhat foolish young girls and somewhat clever young girls. But some people aren't inherently foolish—they're actually quite clever. It's just that before, she was willing to play dumb. Now she doesn't want to pretend anymore, so you can't fool her."
Zhang Shutong thought again of that conversation on that rainy night.
But back then Song Nanshan had clearly said Gu Qiumian was a foolish girl, and that the difference between foolish and clever was being able to distinguish what you really wanted. Zhang Shutong had always remembered that statement and unconsciously taken it as truth, getting thoroughly played for a fool.
Now he didn't dare treat Gu Qiumian as a foolish girl anymore.
A clever girl wouldn't just believe whatever you said, wouldn't just leave the island if you told her to. And you couldn't say she was in a bad mood acting impulsively, because with bodyguards surrounding her now, there was genuinely no need to worry about her personal safety. Staying at the villa was a very pragmatic decision. Continuing to persuade her would just be annoying.
"Alright, alright, I'll leave it at that." The man rolled up the car window. "If I say more, your teacher will seem like some kind of pervert. You understand what I mean, that's enough. Of course, you can't let your head get hot and decide not to leave again. I'm saying all this because you seemed a bit down just now, trying to comfort you."
"Did I?" Zhang Shutong sat up in the passenger seat, puzzled.
"I think so? Or maybe not down, but confused?" The man suddenly ruffled his hair, consoling him. "Actually I can understand how you feel. It must have been hard walking down the mountain today, right? Did your shoes get wet? Were your feet freezing? Going up the mountain wasn't easy either. I heard from Ruoping that you accidentally got hurt—bruises on your chest and arms. Then you had to rush back here. It's like a sheepdog that's been running its whole life with its tongue hanging out, suffering so many injuries and bleeding so much, only to be replaced by security cameras and electric fences in the end. Who wouldn't feel confused?"
Zhang Shutong felt that large hand on his head, his hair getting messed up by the ruffling. Suddenly he couldn't speak, could only emphasize once more that he wasn't a dog.
"Actually, Shutong, you once had a fiancée—your teacher's fiancée, I mean. We were about to get married." Old Song abruptly dropped this statement.
Zhang Shutong froze, wondering why the other man was bringing this up on his own.
He knew about Old Song's girlfriend dying in a car accident. Although the Zhang Shutong of this timeline didn't know yet, out of respect he straightened his seat:
"And then?"
But Old Song didn't speak for a long while. After so long that Zhang Shutong thought he'd zoned out, he finally said:
"Then we broke up. What did you think this was, some melodramatic romance?" The man smiled, the smile somewhat lonely, fitting the image of a bachelor. "You know why your teacher has kept believing you these past few days, even though you're constantly startling everyone and occasionally acting crazy?"
Wasn't it because of the love between teacher and student?
Zhang Shutong wanted to crack a joke to lighten the mood, but he seemed to guess what Song Nanshan was about to say, so he fell silent.
"Because I see some shadows of my past in you."
That large hand moved from his head and instead firmly patted his shoulder:
"A person shouldn't let go when they have the ability to hold onto something, or they'll regret it someday."
Will I regret it?
Perhaps.
Zhang Shutong looked up at the car's ceiling somewhat bewilderedly. But right now it wasn't a question of whether he had the ability to hold onto something and chose not to—it was that someone with more ability than him had arrived.
Old Song ultimately didn't tell that story in full.
Zhang Shutong had been getting all melancholy along with him, but then the man casually patted his shoulder again:
"That said, your fiancée and I were about to get married, which is why I've been unable to forget her all these years. But I've never understood why you're so invested in this. Love at first sight?"
"No."
"Secret crush."
"That doesn't exist either."
"Then what is it?" Old Song asked, puzzled.
Zhang Shutong also found this question strange.
Why does saving a girl have to involve romantic feelings?
She's going to die. If she really died in front of you, you'd never see those bright, beautiful eyes again, and that silver pendant would be buried underground with her. That would be very regretful, wouldn't it?
He had just raised this sentiment when he immediately realized he was being presumptuous.
Because what happened next was no longer his concern.