It can't be me.
Zhang Shutong thought to himself.
Most of the time, he doesn't stoop to Gu Qiumian's level, so he didn't say anything.
As the saying goes, good things make people feel good, and Gu Qiumian was now... anyway, her spirits were better than before.
Zhang Shutong held the lollipop in his mouth and felt that this time, with Old Song, Gu Qiumian, and his three close friends, the play was not for nothing.
It turned out that he had overestimated Zhou Ziheng's psychological resilience, but it was still better to be safe than sorry.
The rest of the matter was not something Zhang Shutong could be involved in—
Old Song called the police without a second thought, not the school leaders.
Things are that strange. At this moment, the school leaders' stance was the opposite of theirs. Zhang Shutong's side wanted to blow the matter up, while the school leaders wanted to downplay it and keep the impact within the school.
When the police arrived, it was hard to say which direction the matter would go, and as a member of this group, Old Song should of course "abide by the rules."
But if Old Song abided by 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 Old Song. He still wanted to see Old Song get a promotion. What if he was given a hard time later? So he handed his mobile phone to Old Song and dialed Officer Xiong's number. This way, even if the school leaders held him accountable afterward, he could say that the student was ignorant.
Old Song's face had been grim, but he was deeply moved by Zhang Shutong's sudden action. However, between men, expressing gratitude doesn't require flowery words; a pat on the shoulder is enough.
Zhang Shutong then took the opportunity to ask if he could practice with his beloved car. He wanted to learn how to drive. Song Nanshan choked and said, "Boy, don't you see what kind of occasion this is?"
Okay, the serious matter came first.
The call was quickly connected. Old Song introduced himself and immediately put pressure on them in the name of Boss Gu, saying that the two of them had already talked on the phone and that he had a student here whose family was suspected of participating in the revenge against the Gu family. The evidence was conclusive, and there was also a recording...
The police on the other side were quite straightforward. Not long after, Song Nanshan hung up the phone, gave him an "OK" gesture, and then pulled Zhou Ziheng to report to the head of the grade.
Gu Qiumian also followed this time. In a sense, in front of the school leaders, what she said had more weight than Song Nanshan.
Zhang Shutong finally breathed a sigh of relief and found a place to sit down.
Zhou Ziheng's calmness was only relative to his peers. He probably would spill everything once he got into the police car.
All that was left was to wait.
Zhang Shutong decided to report to his friends. He entered the classroom while thinking about things. The noisy class instantly became quiet. He paused, only to realize that things were different now.
He was now the "great villain."
Countless eyes stared at him, holding their breath. He held the lollipop in his mouth and said calmly, "It's been resolved. Don't stare at me. Look at your textbooks."
Quite a few people subconsciously lowered their heads. The class monitor gave him a grateful look. Zhang Shutong felt very strange.
There was still some time before the long break ended, so there was no need to continue self-studying. Old Song should have come over to lift the lockdown, but he forgot.
Zhang Shutong wasn't a meddlesome person either. He just went back to his seat.
The small meeting of the four was held again. The venue was now around him.
Zhang Shutong moved inward, sat in Gu Qiumian's seat, left his stool for Du Kang, Qingyi sat behind, and Ruoping, after a discussion, went to the front.
He felt it was necessary to tell his three close friends more information, otherwise he would have to explain everything he did. It was like getting on the bus first and then buying the ticket. When would it ever end?
Zhang Shutong turned sideways, leaning against the heater, and fully experienced the princess's throne. Then he used both hands at once—since the three of them were in three different directions, he explained the whole story. Du Kang admired him:
"I knew it. Why did Gu Qiumian suddenly go to the library? It turns out that this was also part of your plan. You're so resourceful!"
"Only that one wasn't." Zhang Shutong was embarrassed.
"Then how did you come to suspect Zhou Ziheng?" Ruoping asked again.
"Well, because he's dark." Zhang Shutong couldn't help but laugh. "When he passed the note to Li Yipeng, someone saw his hand. I asked about the features? Li Yipeng only remembered that the hand was very dark. Isn't that a coincidence?"
—Of course, he made it up, but this excuse was inexplicably reasonable. Ruoping bent over laughing.
Qingyi was still in a state of indescribable shock. He was the only one who was willing to use his brain.
In such a situation where the mystery was revealed, Du Kang and Ruoping were used to treating Zhang Shutong as an external brain, so whether the reasoning process was difficult or easy, reliable or mysterious, it was all the same to them. The important thing was to be the mood-maker.
Only Qingyi was aware of the difficulties involved. As he said, the blocks incident happened in the morning, and you, Shutong, found the person in the afternoon, with an unexpected bonus. That's amazing.
The close friends were not stingy with flattery. Amidst the praises, Zhang Shutong felt a little embarrassed. He was about to be humble, when a voice suddenly interjected:
"So amazing."
The four of them subconsciously shut up. They looked at each other, signaling with their eyes that it wasn't them who said it, but there were only four of them present. Could it be a supernatural event?
Just as the atmosphere was tense, the girl next to Ruoping slowly turned around, looking calm.
It turned out that she was the one who said that.
But Zhang Shutong couldn't tell if Lu Qinglian was complimenting him. To put it in a more modern term, it was "flat-toned." Her mouth said "you're so amazing," but her tone and expression didn't change.
"I'm sorry, Qinglian, did we disturb your studying..." Ruoping quickly apologized in a low voice, thinking that they had gotten carried away and made noise.
Lu Qinglian just shook her head, saying it wasn't a disturbance. She was quite interested herself.
But she didn't realize at all that her joining had made the atmosphere awkward.
Instead, she scanned everyone's faces, seemingly wondering why they suddenly stopped talking.
At this time, Du Kang had a bright idea and asked the girl if she wanted him to explain it again.
Lu Qinglian thought for a moment. She held out three slender fingers:
"People on the commercial street are going to harm classmate Gu Qiumian?"
"We just suspect..."
"All of this was discovered by classmate Zhang Shutong?" Lu Qinglian put back the first finger.
"Uh, yes, isn't Shutong pretty amazing..."
"One last question," Lu Qinglian's eyes glanced over, "When did the two of them reconcile?"
Not to mention Du Kang, even Zhang Shutong was stunned.
He thought, when did you become so gossipy?
Who was it at noon who acted as if they didn't care about anything?
She would just say two words and then be a riddle person?
If it were Zhang Shutong, he would definitely have retorted with a "you can temporarily understand it that way," but Du Kang had already answered honestly:
"Who knows? They came back after having a meal and they were like this. We were also wondering..."
"I see." Lu Qinglian lightly tapped her chin, thanked them politely, and turned back into the fairy who was not of this world, as if she wasn't the one who was just gossiping.
Her arrival was sudden, and her departure was also sudden. No one knew why she took the initiative to talk or what she really wanted to know.
It was only in the instant that Lu Qinglian turned around that Zhang Shutong noticed a slight curve at the corner of her lips. If you were to call it a smile, it would be too shallow, but Zhang Shutong had seen this expression on her before. He frowned:
"What exactly do you want to say?"
This question caused the three close friends to be surprised again, because Zhang Shutong's tone was already a bit serious. Although he usually said little, his tone was casual and he rarely spoke to people like this.
"Nothing," Lu Qinglian said calmly, "You're quite good at winning a girl's favor."
The three of them were confused again.
Zhang Shutong was also puzzled. Back on the rooftop, Lu Qinglian was surprised by his reaction the night before and asked what he was investigating. He deliberately didn't say.
He then thought, could it be that Lu Qinglian wanted to know about this, so she was trying to get some information from Du Kang?
He put himself in her shoes and thought about what useful information she could have gotten at this moment:
An average person would not connect poachers, commercial street, and Gu Qiumian's death.
So in her eyes, he was probably just a "flower protector" image, so she was teasing him.
At this time, Ruoping secretly mouthed, "What's going on between you and Lu Qinglian?"
Zhang Shutong shook his head. Who knew why she was suddenly interested in this matter.
Although he had been tricked into saying a few things, it was harmless, but Du Kang's mouth was really loose. It was not too late to mend the fold after the sheep was lost. Zhang Shutong said angrily, "Look at what you're like now?"
Du Kang was still stunned and asked, "Like what?"
"A bigmouth."
"Ah, what's wrong with me?" Du Kang was confused.
"A secret between men cannot be shared with others," Qingyi chimed in.
"I totally agree." Zhang Shutong opened a student milk and clinked glasses with him in the air.
"Get lost, get lost, get lost. Am I not a girl?" Ruoping rolled her eyes wildly, knowing that their chuunibyou had acted up again.
"Then a secret between close friends cannot be shared with others?" Zhang Shutong changed his words.
"Heh, you better be," Ruoping sneered. "You better not share anything with Gu Qiumian. You said it yourself. Do you want me to record it? Remember it."
Zhang Shutong was speechless.
He seemed to have really shared things. The base, the restricted area, the castle, he had let it all slip out when he was riding the bike that day, and he even took Gu Qiumian on a tour of their secret base. He really had no right to scold Du Kang.
He must be on strict guard against "Qiuyu Mianmian" from now on.
This was not the place to talk. Zhang Shutong pulled the three of them out and said in a low voice to Du Kang, "You should be more careful from now on. I'm not controlling what you do with Lu Qinglian, but what happened to Gu Qiumian's family is too serious. It's best if only the few of us know."
Du Kang nodded and understood, saying that Shutong was more thoughtful and he would make sure to keep his mouth shut from now on.
Zhang Shutong was relieved.
He then asked Qingyi, "Do you think Lu Qinglian was a bit unusual just now?"
Qingyi pondered:
"A little."
Zhang Shutong listened attentively, and he saw that Qingyi also held out three fingers:
"Did you notice her actions just now?"
Of course, Zhang Shutong saw it. Lu Qinglian asked a total of three questions, and three questions represented three fingers. She put back one for each question she asked:
"And then?"
"Didn't you notice it was quite stylish?" Qingyi said while making the gesture.
Zhang Shutong was a bit speechless.
He thought to himself, you better not say in your next sentence that Lu Qinglian is a stylish woman.
"Just kidding, just kidding," Qingyi laughed. "Didn't you notice you have this habit too."
"I do?"
"Yes, you do. When Du Kang came to ask you why you changed seats after school yesterday, you also held up three fingers and made up three excuses."
Zhang Shutong wondered:
"Are you saying she's copying me?"
"Not really. I mean her order is very different. Look," Qingyi held out his hand, "When we do this gesture, don't we use our thumb to hold down our pinky, leaving the other three exposed, and then we put them back starting from the ring finger?"
"Something like that..."
"But did you notice Lu Qinglian's action just now? She started putting them back from her index finger, and in the end, only her ring finger was left out. I can't do that. What about you?"
Zhang Shutong also tried, and his fingers were about to cramp. It was indeed a difficult movement:
"Are you saying this is what's unusual about her?"
"Exactly."
"What does that prove?"
"That it's more stylish."
"..."
Zhang Shutong bit the soft part of his mouth.
They were about to walk into the toilet when Old Song came back from the dean's office in a hurry, saying, "Shutong, come with me in a bit. I'll go back to the class to arrange things first."
Zhang Shutong knew that as the homeroom teacher, Old Song would naturally have to go to the police station, and he would also have to go. It was Zhang Shutong who voluntarily asked to go—he couldn't rest assured until he saw Zhou Ziheng's father caught.
He also talked about this with his close friends. When Old Song finished arranging things in the class, the three of them also clamored to go. They were a bit excited, as if they were going on some secret mission.
And it was indeed the case. While others were having class, they were going out with the homeroom teacher. This was how it was in student life. Even if it was to shovel snow, as long as they were out of the teaching building, it was always better than being stuck in the classroom.
But Old Song refused to take them, saying, "I'm going to do something serious. What are you three doing to cause trouble?" He grabbed Zhang Shutong and ran out.
Amidst the disappointed eyes of his friends, Zhang Shutong waved goodbye to them. Halfway through, he remembered to ask where Gu Qiumian went. Wasn't she coming with them?
"Qiumian isn't feeling well, so she's staying in the dean's office for a while. I'll have to come back and pick her up after school. Hiss..." Old Song suddenly took a breath. "Why don't you come with me then?"
Here it comes again.
Such a familiar invitation.
Last time, it was because of this sentence that he was inexplicably pulled into the car by Old Song. The three of them squeezed into the little Focus car and spent a night in Gu Qiumian's villa. A lot of things happened. Zhang Shutong was a bit nostalgic for that bowl of duck noodle soup, but this was not the time to talk about that:
"Did you get through to her dad's phone?"
"Not yet. He's probably on a long-haul flight." Old Song was still Old Song, and he raised an eyebrow slyly. "What, are you afraid of her dad coming back when you're at her house?"
Zhang Shutong didn't talk nonsense with him. He just said, "Don't relax. I suspect this matter isn't that simple."
He then suddenly said:
"Suppose, I mean suppose, there's no new progress on Saturday. Teacher, can you take Gu Qiumian and me off the island to have some fun?"
When he said this, the two of them were going downstairs. Old Song suddenly stopped, and Zhang Shutong bumped into his back.
Song Nanshan was shocked and looked at him as if he were an alien:
"When did you get that idea, boy?"