His memory was thus interrupted.
Zhang Shutong thought it was perfect timing. Anyway, he had forgotten his deskmate's name, so he would just greet the new one after they switched.
It was the second class of the afternoon. There would be a long break soon, which was usually for running.
But there was snow on the track field, so it was changed to free time for each class.
Their class changed seats once a month, on a fixed schedule. He turned his head and saw that some people were already prepared, and others were slowly closing their homework, just waiting to put them in their backpacks.
In that case, he was the "last" one to know.
He understood the situation and started to get busy. Only when he glimpsed the scrap paper with the names on it did he pause to think.
He planned to ponder it more when he got home at night. It was always right to be careful. He took out the "Five Years of High School Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulated Exams" and put it away, a habit born of his personality—for a boy his age, it was safer than carrying it on his person.
Just as he was about to stuff a large pile of things into his backpack, Zhang Shutong suddenly found himself in a dilemma.
The backpack was full of test papers, textbooks, workbooks, and folders. Various materials and subjects were mixed together, and he had long forgotten how to sort them.
He had lived alone for many years, and people who lived alone were generally of two types:
Either they lived a very messy life;
Or they kept their lives well-organized.
Zhang Shutong was the latter, with a bit of a compulsive disorder, so he couldn't stand stuffing things in haphazardly.
Thinking this, he moved to the bookcase on one side of the classroom, planning to just put them there for now.
The bookcase was very long, taking up an entire wall. Every student had a cubby, and every class was also provided with a shelf.
The bookshelf, on the other hand, had nothing to do with Gu Qiumian's family. The school wasn't that poor, but the things placed on the bookcase did.
He had mentioned before that she had never made friends in class and her relationship with everyone was very distant, so Miss Gu simply became a circle of her own;
She didn't care about others, and she didn't like others caring about her. Of course, she didn't have a terrible personality, so she wouldn't do anything too outrageous, at most, she was a bit of a maverick.
For example, she loved to build with LEGOs, the authentic ones, and they were ridiculously expensive. As for why Zhang Shutong knew about this hobby, the reason was right here—
Every class would have a few potted plants to decorate the classroom, and they were placed on the bookcase. They were usually Chinese evergreen and snake plants. Only their class had an extra brick castle. It was one of Gu Qiumian's collection pieces.
He still remembered that his cubby was right below the castle. The castle was as big as a washbasin, in a European style, with a LEGO figurine in a dress standing at the entrance;
Hidden among the green leaves, she looked just like a princess living in seclusion in the forest. This was the privilege of a young lady.
He looked towards the window seat again. He couldn't tell what Gu Qiumian was drawing anymore. The ghost face on the window had been layered with who knows how many others.
She herself seemed to have realized this problem. She frowned and propped her face up, staring at it for a long time. In the end, she was amused by the menacing patterns and just erased them and continued to do her homework. The pendant on her hair flickered along with her movements.
Zhang Shutong stared at the pendant and then turned to look at the quiet classroom. Sometimes, the wind would roar past and hit the window, making the glass tremble, giving a sense of unreliability.
The outside world was dim, and the light tubes above their heads were a bit yellow, but they felt warm.
He didn't know how long it had been since he had such a relaxed moment.
But only he knew that in five more days, this reassuring scene would be shattered.
Recalling the details of that murder case, because of Gu Qiumian's special identity, he had heard two versions:
One was that the criminal was short on money, so they kidnapped her for a ransom, but in the end, the negotiation broke down, leading to the tragedy.
There was also a version that said it was an enemy of Mr. Gu, who had done some horrible things when he was making his fortune, and now it had affected his child. This version was more widely circulated, and some people even cheered for it.
But Zhang Shutong didn't believe either. Whether it was for money or revenge, there was no reason to harm Lu Qinglian eight years later.
Since he couldn't use that, he had to recall the information Du Kang had revealed to him.
"The killer in that case was never caught. There were a few fishermen's testimonies who said they saw someone in the Forbidden Zone before the incident..."
It wasn't a very clear clue, but it was better than nothing.
After he had packed up his things, he had pretty much made up his mind.
Of course, he wouldn't be in a hurry to act immediately.
The 16-year-old him, carrying a huge secret, would have immediately skipped class and ridden his bike non-stop to the "Forbidden Zone";
Now it was different. To put it bluntly, his personality had become a bit apathetic over the years, but it was the truth:
There were still a few days before the incident. It wasn't useful to be anxious, and besides, reporting it to the police was better than fighting alone.
Even if he reported it to the police, he would still do it after school. It wouldn't make a difference.
If there was a main quest in life, his main quest should be to cherish this second chance at life.
The side quest was to incidentally find the killer and get a "happy ending."
As for interacting with the two girls, or getting closer to them for this reason, Zhang Shutong had no interest.
Since he didn't have much of a relationship with them eight years ago, it would be the same this time.
In the end, he hated trouble. It would be best to solve the matter in secret rather than arouse anyone's suspicion.
He would rather spend that free time going fishing with his best friends.
Just as he was pondering whether his fishing skills would become rusty after not touching a rod for so many years, the class bell rang.
Yawns, complaints, laughter... The originally quiet classroom burst into a clamor.
The students in their seats stood up one by one, their figures swaying in his view, and the rubber soles of their shoes made a shuffling sound on the terrazzo floor.
Seeing this scene, he felt that the world was real again.
Zhang Shutong also inexplicably wanted to stretch. This was a magical thing, as if his body's memories, which had been dormant for many years, were reawakened, and with it, his mind became much more active.
If he were old enough, what he wanted to do most right now was to get a driver's license and buy his own car. A small, second-hand car would be enough;
Of course, it couldn't be too small. The trunk had to hold fishing rods and a live bait tank. Then he would drive around the country and see all the scenery he hadn't seen over the years.
There were also some regrets he wanted to make up for. He didn't want his parents to worry about him anymore, he wanted to get into a better university, and he wanted to keep in touch with his good friends, but he had no intention of deliberately making new friends. His philosophy about friends was that a few were enough.
Speaking of friends, Zhang Shutong was not in a hurry to catch up with his best friends. He wanted to look around first.
So he left the classroom. Their school was a rare four-year system. He was in Class 1 of the fourth year, at the very front of the hallway, right next to the stairs.
There were two people talking on the stairs.
One was his class teacher, leaning on the railing;
The other was a girl in a light-blue cloth robe, standing across from the teacher.
The girl had a cool demeanor, and her hair hung down to her waist. She was sitting on the steps.
Zhang Shutong couldn't help but stop.
No other reason. If you had just bowed to her photo a few hours ago, and now that person was standing in front of you alive, anyone would stop and look.
The girl named Lu Qinglian seemed to have just returned from outside. Her exquisite face was pale from the cold, and the hem of her coarse cloth robe was still dusted with snow.
An ordinary person's skin would only turn red when it was cold, but she was already very fair. At this moment, she had an unblemished, cold glow like porcelain, which was even more pronounced against the light-blue robe.
He wasn't the only curious one. More and more students were pouring into the hallway, and many were looking over.
No matter how you look at it, having a girl who looked like she had just returned from cultivating immortality outside the classroom, and who was also beautiful and mysterious, was a hit with both boys and girls.
But perhaps she gave off too much of an air of distance, so no one dared to approach. They just whispered from afar.
Lu Qinglian, however, didn't care at all. It was as if the clamor around her had nothing to do with her. She was focused on her own business, bringing her hands to her lips and gently breathing on them to warm them.
Zhang Shutong didn't have that reservation.
Not only did he observe her for a while, but he also noticed that if you looked closely, her disguise was a bit transparent:
She was probably wearing several layers of clothes underneath. It was fine when she was standing. The robe was wide enough. The clothes moved with her body and the sleeves swayed with the wind. This gave her a detached and otherworldly appearance, and she could really pass for a fairy;
But now that she was sitting down, she looked puffy.
The girl's slender figure was hidden within, which was a bit of a contrast and a bit awkward. She didn't look like a fairy, but a penguin who had returned from the immortal world.
Then, Zhang Shutong heard the class teacher ask the penguin:
"Finished shoveling the snow at the temple?"
"Yes. The mountain is too slippery, and some parts are iced over, so it took a while."
Now he understood.
So she had just come back from helping out at the temple.
Their class teacher was a young male teacher with the surname Song. He was a good person who knew about the girl's special family situation, so he always approved her leave with no fuss.
"I told you, you could have come tomorrow. What if you fell and got hurt? I'll talk to your grandma."
"It's not her. I wanted to come myself."
The girl's tone and expression were both indifferent.
Teacher Song could only smile bitterly:
"Even so, you didn't have to rush. Look at you, you came without even changing your clothes..."
"I wore it on purpose. It's too cold outside."
Saying that, the girl took off her long robe, revealing the school uniform jacket underneath.
The conversation had come to a dead end.
"...Alright then. You warm up for a bit. In a while, you can collect yesterday's homework. The next class is mine, we'll be going over the problems."
Teacher Song instructed before leaving.
Lu Qinglian just nodded, folded the long robe and stuffed it into her backpack, and then put the hair tie in her mouth to tie her long, loose hair into a ponytail.
When she looked up again, their eyes met.
"Thank you," the girl suddenly said.
Thank you for what? Zhang Shutong was puzzled. Did I just give her a 500-yuan funeral envelope a while ago? Don't tell me, that would really become a ghost story.
Then, she handed over a pair of gloves.
He took them and looked at them. They had a cool design. They were black, with pads at the joints, and were almost as big as Lu Qinglian's face;
The full name should be outdoor tactical gloves. He had once owned a pair that he bought when he went fishing.
And this pair looked familiar;
It seemed to be his own.
It was a nylon material, not wool, which easily gets wet. He figured it would be good for shoveling snow.
But judging by her wet pant legs, the gloves were clean and had been well-maintained.
He also noticed her hands. Unlike her peers who had delicate skin, her hands were a bit rough, with marks from work. There were also a few cracked spots on her palms and fingers from the cold.
Although he completely couldn't remember this event... he nodded:
"It's nothing."
"Are you looking for me?" Lu Qinglian tilted her head. She added, "I saw you were here just now."
Zhang Shutong really wanted to correct her:
It was clearly you who was looking for me.
To be precise, the you from eight years later, who made a phone call and brought me here.
He figured that phone call would never be heard, but now he didn't feel sorry. After all, she was still alive.
Actually, Zhang Shutong had nothing to say to her. He was about to shake his head to deny it, but before leaving, he couldn't help but feel that fate was a bit strange.
Eight years later, he came to the island to attend her funeral, and after the reversion, although it was a coincidence, she was also the first person he spoke to.
He suddenly wanted to be a mystery man again:
"Do you have a phone?"
"No, why?"
"When you get a phone in the future, remember not to call people in the middle of the night."
The conversation should have ended here. He would then have walked away in a good mood, leaving the other party confused and pondering, just like he had pondered the content of that phone call.
But to his surprise, she actually thought about it seriously:
"Is that a cold joke?"
She said this without even a smile, which was very disrespectful.
"Well... I guess I have no sense of humor."
Zhang Shutong bit the soft flesh in his mouth and walked away.
He should really bring Du Kang to see what true "cool and aloof" was.
...
However, what he didn't expect was that shortly after he left, Lu Qinglian also entered the classroom;
The girl first checked the homework on the seats, and then she came to the seat of the student named Zhang Shutong and looked around.
"What's wrong, what's wrong?"
Suddenly, a boy eagerly dashed out. He had a baby face and was smiling all the time.
The person was none other than Du Kang.
"Just got back from shoveling snow?" He started to make small talk.
"Yes."
"Is it cold outside?"
"A bit."
"I can help you next time?"
"No need."
No matter what he said, the girl's tone remained flat, or rather, a bit perfunctory.
She originally wanted to wait for Zhang Shutong to come back, but he and Du Kang were best friends, and talking to him was almost the same as talking to the person himself, so she explained:
"He's the only one who didn't turn in yesterday's English homework."
She remembered that his grades had always been very good, especially in English, and he was the kind of boy who knew what he was doing. It was very rare for him not to turn in his homework.
"Oh, that..." Du Kang's expression became unnatural.
"He didn't do it?"
"Uh..."
So she had guessed correctly.
"Then I'll just take it over. Teacher Song needs it for the next class."
When these words reached Du Kang's ears, the girl's clear voice was like a death sentence. He quickly said:
"Don't report him, don't report him. He must have done it. Let me look for it for you first."
The names of students who didn't do their homework would be written on a note and reported to the class teacher. He had been reported once before.
Other class reps might plead for them and make an exception, but Lu Qinglian showed no mercy.
And the old class teacher had previously stipulated that whoever didn't turn in their homework would have to be on duty for a week. Although this punishment wasn't a big deal, they had plans for after school today, so they couldn't be delayed by being on duty.
That's what you call a brother. He had to save a life if he could:
"He did half of it last night, and I remember him saying he'd finish it during self-study today. He should have finished it."
Lu Qinglian just found it strange.
Since he hadn't done it, all she had to do was not tell the teacher. Why was he making it so troublesome?
But explaining it would lead to more trouble, so she just waited for him to look.
As for Du Kang, his best friend's backpack was on his desk. There was no need to be polite between them, especially since he often took his work to copy;
While he was looking for the homework, he also tried to find a topic to talk about. It wasn't often that he got a chance to talk to the girl he had a crush on:
"Guess what we did yesterday?"
"Fishing?"
"Exactly."
Du Kang snapped his fingers:
"It was in that wild field in the south, you know? I caught five, Qingyi caught four. Shutong forgot to bring his gloves, and he finally caught a big one, but his hand slipped, and the fishing rod ran away with the fish..."
He was about to stop here. He also knew that very few girls were interested in fishing, let alone someone as quiet as Lu Qinglian. He was racking his brain for the next topic;
But to his surprise, her voice had a hint of curiosity:
"And then?"
Du Kang was a bit excited:
"We went home when it got dark. Oh, right, do you like crucian carp? I'll bring you one sometime?"
"No need. I was asking what happened after his hand slipped."
"Oh, that was pretty interesting too. Then Shutong got pissed off and insisted on going back to get his tent. We couldn't stop him. If it hadn't been snowing so much these past few days and it was too cold at night, he wouldn't have even finished that half of his homework..."
Lu Qinglian nodded and didn't say anything else.
So that's how it was.
She lowered her gaze and saw the cracked skin on her palm.
That should have been on Monday this week.
She and a boy named Zhang Shutong were assigned to move books.
The textbooks were in stacks, tied with plastic straps.
When she picked it up, the strap cut the back of her hand. She lost her grip and the stack fell to the floor.
The boy glanced back:
"How did that happen?"
"It's cold."
"Don't you have gloves at home?"
"Wool. They're too much trouble when I'm shoveling snow."
"Oh."
He picked up the stack of books on the floor, and the conversation ended there.
When school was dismissed in the afternoon, someone walked to her desk.
It was the same boy. He didn't look at anyone. His tone seemed nonchalant. He just stared in the direction of the window:
"Here, take it."
A pair of very exaggerated-looking gloves was handed to her.
The boy then solemnly added:
"But don't forget to give them back in a couple of days. I need them for fishing."
From the beginning of the school year to the end, their conversations seemed to be just these few words.
Lu Qinglian came back from her memories. At this time, she heard Du Kang say in a puzzled voice:
"No way, where's his homework? Isn't it usually in the middle layer of his backpack? Oh, that's right. I saw him carrying a bunch of stuff to the bookcase after class. You wait here. I'll go check there."
The result was naturally a success. Du Kang carefully pulled out a blue workbook—he was mainly afraid of hitting the brick castle on top of the bookcase.
Then, the boy let out a relieved smile and handed the "Five Years of High School Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulated Exams" to Lu Qinglian.
"Thank you for the trouble."
"It's nothing," Du Kang said, grinning foolishly as he watched the girl leave.
He had not only saved his best friend from being on duty, but he had also gotten to talk to Lu Qinglian. This was a win-win situation.
What's more, there was an even more exciting major event coming up—
They were changing seats in the next class. According to the plan he and Shutong had discussed...
Thinking of this, Du Kang left the classroom and found his best friend by the bathroom door.
Now that he had succeeded, he couldn't help but pat his friend on the shoulder hard:
"Brother, you're welcome!"