The two of them had gotten to know him through the poaching case and the commercial street case, respectively, and were the two highest-ranking officers at the police station.
The moment they saw him, warm smiles broke out on their faces. The burly, bear-like man even rubbed his hands together eagerly. "You're here! What took you so long? What kind of case do you have for us this time?"
Zhang Shutong popped his second bubble.
A short while later, inside the office.
"Xiao Zhang, is there any gift you want? I mentioned it to your Teacher Song before—told him you could pick whatever you like, and not to treat us like strangers. This is a gift from your uncles on behalf of the island's police station," Officer Wang said with a beam.
"Gifts are just superficial things. This young man is just too low-profile." Officer Xiong widened his eyes as large as copper bells. "Even though there's no result on the avalanche case yet, how can we let such a good young man feel disheartened? Old Wang, have the people downstairs arrange a pennant. Send it to the school tomorrow, and we'll have a flag-raising ceremony to give him a proper commendation!"
"The flag-raising ceremony only happens on Mondays." Sitting on one side of the conference table, Zhang Shutong felt too embarrassed to keep blowing bubbles. He glanced at the clock on the wall, finally finding an opportunity to chime in. "Actually, I have serious business this time..."
"Oh!?"
Hey, hey, the way two burly men say 'Oh~' in unison is honestly way too bizarre...
He spent ten minutes at the police station.
Regarding the first matter—the identity of the dormitory building's builder—it wasn't something the local police handled, but the two officers patted their chests and took it upon themselves, promising to ask around for him.
As for the second matter—the death of Lu Qinglian's mother—there was no record of it.
The two officers said that matters concerning the temple were usually handled internally. Zhang Shutong had expected this answer.
He also told them about the silhouette on the rooftop, treating it as opening a case file.
Walking back to the dormitory building, Zhang Shutong saw a Range Rover parked downstairs.
Mr. Song didn't have a car anymore. It was naturally impossible for him to drag his sickly body and carry a mountain of luggage all the way to the harbor. Therefore, this matter had been settled back at the hot pot restaurant; it was entirely taken care of by Gu Qiumian, whose driver would take Mr. Song all the way to the terminal.
Just as Zhang Shutong was about to head upstairs, his phone suddenly rang. He pressed the answer button, and Mr. Song 's solemn voice came through the receiver:
"Shutong, what a coincidence. You just asked me if there was anything unusual, and now the unusual thing has arrived."
He lowered his voice:
"The things in my room seem to have been cleared out completely."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, Wow, that's so terrifying. His beloved teacher's IQ seemed to be taking a nose dive, which was a bad sign. He quietly walked upstairs, intending to pat Mr. Song on the shoulder as the man hid outside the door—but decided against it.
Zhang Shutong withdrew his hand with a sigh of regret, realizing that the man actually didn't have much courage.
It must have been hard on him to drive around deep into the night every single day for all these years looking for someone.
"You and Qinglian cleaned it up for me?" A few minutes later, Mr. Song looked around the room, clicking his tongue in wonder. "And you two still claim nothing is going on between you."
Wait, wait, wait. Is there any logical connection whatsoever between those two sentences?
Helpless, Zhang Shutong helped him pick up the various bags and suitcases. Mr. Song asked again:
"How come I don't see Qinglian?"
"She should be here by now. She must have been delayed a bit on the way."
"Should we go pick her up?"
"She rode a bike here."
"Since when does Qinglian have a bike?" Mr. Song asked in surprise.
"It's mine." Zhang Shutong tried to blow a bubble, but since it was chewing gum, it ended in failure with a sharp pop.
Before leaving the room, Mr. Song checked his luggage one more time, and only then did he point at the bed belatedly. "Why did you guys stand it up?"
"It would probably gather dust if left flat on the ground," Zhang Shutong said after a brief thought.
"You kid actually put some thought into it. Not bad, keep it up." Mr. Song winked. "But before leaving, I was still wondering what you guys were fussing over while I was hospitalized. You asked me several times if I heard any noises downstairs. I figured no one even lives downstairs, so did you discover something? Also, your teacher won't be able to drive you around anymore. If there's really anything before I leave, just tell me. Don't worry about bothering—"
"Lu Qinglian is back," Zhang Shutong pointed out the door.
"Oh, oh..."
There was no need to stress over whether she would have to come back to ride the bike after sending him off in the car, because the driver opened the Range Rover's trunk and easily stuffed the bicycle inside.
The three of them got into the car. It would take some time to drive from here to the harbor. Mr. Song couldn't keep his mouth shut, constantly nagging Qinglian and Shutong about various things along the way. Zhang Shutong occasionally looked at the scenery outside the window; the sky was bleak, and it turned out there wasn't a single cloud in sight.
A little after two in the afternoon, the car arrived at the harbor.
Mr. Song 's boat ticket was for four o'clock. Only now did Zhang Shutong realize that the man had given himself almost no time to catch his breath, because his mother's surgery was tomorrow afternoon.
Speaking for so long with a crowd of students back at the library had, in truth, nearly drained his entire reservoir of energy.
The boats leaving the island generally ran every twenty minutes. They had arrived just in time, leaving almost no room for hesitation; immediately following their meeting was their departure.
Zhang Shutong pushed open the car door.
The man named Song Nanshan, who used to be an expert driver, was now strapped into the passenger seat by a seatbelt.
Mr. Song turned around from the passenger seat, wanting to pat his shoulder like he used to, but found it difficult to manage. Zhang Shutong had no choice but to lean his body closer.
"You two should stay in touch with me often when you have ti—"
But before he could finish his sentence, the man glanced at Lu Qinglian and changed his words:
"Your master might just storm back here next semester anyway. It's only two months, all things considered. Why are you two looking so solemn? Alright, alright, hurry back to class. Watch your way on the road. A man shouldn't be so dramatic. I'm off!"
Zhang Shutong was a bit puzzled as to why he was still smiling so brilliantly at the moment of parting.
The ferry's whistle rang out anyway.
He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he didn't speak of the basement.
"Take good care of yourself."
Lu Qinglian also bid Song Nanshan a brief farewell.
The two stepped away from the vehicle. Goodbyes were just like that; once someone took the lead to wave a hand, it became hard to stop.
While they were talking just now, the driver hadn't even shifted into park, keeping his foot on the brake the entire time. Now, hearing the car door slam shut with a thud, the car accelerated and surged onto the deck.
Zhang Shutong held the handlebars of his bicycle, watching the car get further and further away from him.
He was riding a bicycle today; he couldn't pull off a launch start.
The ramp connecting the ferry and the harbor was pulled back by the staff. It was time for him to turn around, but right then, someone called out from behind:
"Shutong!"
Zhang Shutong spun around.
It turned out to be Song Nanshan scrambled to roll down the window.
"If you don't place in the top two next time, I'll hold you solely responsible! Qinglian, you too—keep a close eye on him! All of you need to be well—"
His voice was just like the drifting smoke from before, gradually fading away into the wind.
Zhang Shutong stood on the shore for a good long while, until the ferry completely vanished from the lakeshore.
He wasn't the only one standing silently.
Lu Qinglian's long hair and green robe danced in the wind. She gazed at that pale blue lake water, lost in thought for a long time.
The sunlight was reflected in her amber eyes. Zhang Shutong had noticed before that she occasionally liked to stare at the sky outside. If one didn't actively call out to her, those eyes would reflect the changing sunlight throughout the day—from the sun to the moon, the celestial bodies changed, yet she remained unchanged.
"Time to go," Zhang Shutong told her.
Lu Qinglian took over the handlebars.
"But I estimate placing in the top two this time will be very difficult. I'll have to trouble you a lot in the future."
"Classmate Zhang Shutong," her mood truly was poor, "I believe I told you that your breath is a bit heavy, so it is best not to..."
But before she could finish her sentence, Lu Qinglian knitted her brows.
Zhang Shutong pulled a piece of chewing gum from his pocket. "Want some? But you can't swallow this thing."
Lu Qinglian said expressionlessly, "So what you mean to say is, during the twenty minutes I was gone, you made a special trip just to buy chewing gum because of a single sentence?"
"No, I've wanted to eat it for a long time." Zhang Shutong continued his challenge of blowing a bubble with chewing gum.
"Childish," she evaluated mercilessly.
"I told you I've wanted to eat it for a long time. Back when it was raining..."
"Get on."
Zhang Shutong didn't rush to get on the bike, instead pointing at the lake surface with pointed meaning:
"Although he said this morning that he wanted to put a perfect period on things, I think you can treat it as a comma. We'll always meet again. Besides, we can stay in touch during these two months."
"You are actually quieter when you are anxious." Lu Qinglian said flatly, "Or did you tell another lie, and can only rely on words like these to mask your guilt?"
Certain things lost their meaning when spoken too bluntly.
But those words were like a small knife poking Zhang Shutong—it didn't hurt much, but it caused a silence.
"Maybe a little. I always feel that doing this kind of thing, thinking it's for someone else's own good, isn't actually very right. He should have the right to know, and whatever choices remain are his own business. But you heard it too—his mom has cataracts and undergoes surgery tomorrow, and he has to accompany her while being sick himself over the next few days."
After a moment, he said again, "Actually, I also made a trip to the police station. Those few questions still have no answers. Maybe I should take a gamble with what comes out of Mr. Song 's mouth."
"So you regret it?" Lu Qinglian looked at the lake surface without turning her head.
"The boat has already sailed anyway; there's no turning back once the arrow is shot." Zhang Shutong said calmly, "From this moment on, the full picture of this matter is known only to you and me."
"I only know that you don't suffer from that illness unjustly." Lu Qinglian let out a soft sigh. "Zhang Shutong, speaking so righteously—have you already forgotten about last week's matter? Even a pill bug knows to seek benefit and avoid harm."
"I've known for a very long time that if you want to keep a secret, you have to pay a price. It's not like putting a valuable item into a drawer and simply turning the lock. I also knew very early on that wanting to live a bit more detached and relaxed is actually simpler than locking a cabinet—being an onlooker is enough."
Zhang Shutong turned around:
"But some things cannot be watched from the sidelines."
By now, the ferry had shrunk into an indistinguishable black dot.
Just like the other ferries, countless black dots were grandly making their way toward the opposite shore across the massive lake surface.
Lu Qinglian turned her head, meeting his gaze.
"Can you stop blowing that gum?" she said coldly. "It's very loud."
With a sudden pop, the bubble burst. Zhang Shutong wrapped the chewing gum in a piece of paper.
"Whatever decision you make is up to you." Only then did Lu Qinglian look away. "If you have already thought it through long ago."
"There's no such thing as having things thought through long ago. It's nothing more than one event after another forcing you to make a decision. Even more troublesome things will happen in the future, just like those grand boats on the lake. If you haven't even made this bit of preparation, it's better to stay on the sidelines early on."
Zhang Shutong exhaled a shallow breath:
"Of course, I also hope to take a rest sometimes. Classmate Lu Qinglian, do you occasionally feel lonely too?"
"Useless words are best thought over before spoken."
"Can't be helped. I still have a bit of human touch to me at least. Sometimes it's hard to avoid doubting my own decisions; who is as cold as you."
As the words left Zhang Shutong's mouth, he met a dangerous gaze. His goosebumps radar went off again, reminding him of something. He pulled a square paper box from his shirt and slapped it into her hand:
"Here, for you."
"What... is the meaning of this?"
"A cell phone. To break it down, it's a flip phone. A bit outdated, but it'll do. I had a reward I hadn't collected at the police station from that poacher incident. Actually, the one who ultimately handled the guy was you. It was originally supposed to be given to you anyway; I'm just passing it along."
"Are you deliberately changing the subject?" Yet not a shred of emotional fluctuation could be seen on Lu Qinglian's face. She merely smoothed her knitted brows and asked calmly, "I naturally know this is a phone packaging box. I'm asking—"
She shook the paper box in her hand:
"What is the meaning of this?"
"It means that although it's a flip phone, it can at least make calls and chat on QQ. I'll tell you Mr. Song and Ruoping's numbers in a bit."
Having finished speaking, Zhang Shutong stepped forward.
Since she had placed a phone call to him eight years later, and he had her saved under the contact name "Lu Qinglian," it meant that the two of them had exchanged phone numbers before middle school graduation, even though Zhang Shutong only held a vague impression of the matter.
He didn't know how Lu Qinglian's phone had come about back then, but he just felt that since it would exist, it meant:
"Even though you don't really have acquaintances, I think you should have a need for this."
Hearing this, Lu Qinglian did not speak. She lowered her eyes, looking at the paper box in her hand, with no telling what she was thinking.
Zhang Shutong thought with a headache that she wouldn't just flatly refuse again in the next second, but if that really happened, there was nothing he could do about it either. He shifted his gaze, staring at the pedestrians coming and going at the harbor:
"Just accept it. It was originally a bulk purchase by the police station, and there happened to be spares left over, so I took it. I tore off the serial code on the outside in advance; it's useless even if you try to return it."
"Classmate Zhang Shutong, you are still exactly the same as before—exactly the same as when you lent me the gloves."
"Gloves... oh, that matter." Zhang Shutong remembered it was the first day after the time loop; he had happened to run into her coming back from clearing snow at the temple, and handed over a pair of tactical fishing gloves. It was something he had lent her because he saw her hands were frostbitten back then. "Actually, there's no need to thank me. It was just a small effort; I've almost forgotten about it."
"No, I mean you have always been like a stubborn child." Lu Qinglian raised her head and smiled softly.
It was the first time Zhang Shutong had seen such a pure smile from her. The corners of her pink lips curled up slightly, yet it wasn't that subtle arc; this was just a simple smile, like the ripples dancing across the lake surface.
"It would be better if the words you speak could sound a bit nicer," Zhang Shutong said helplessly. "What do you mean by a stubborn child?"
"Are you not?"
That trace of a smile immediately transformed into a playful one, to the point where Zhang Shutong suspected he had just seen wrong; this woman never smiled properly.
"Hiding a phone box in your shirt for thirty minutes, only taking it out at the very end—isn't that the stubborn behavior of a child?"
Lu Qinglian added cleanly:
"Actually, I would highly recommend you bring it directly back home instead. That way, it can be hidden even better."
Zhang Shutong pretended he hadn't heard.
The two of them pushed their bicycles, walking along the lakeshore.
"On your way back from the hospital, were you delayed by something?"
"No," she denied immediately. "What are you trying to say now?"
"I mean, you were a bit later than I imagined. Having a phone in the future will also make it convenient to stay in touch."
Lu Qinglian spared him a side glance, placed the packaging box into the bicycle's basket, and then mounted her bike.
In fact, that wasn't what Zhang Shutong had wanted to say. He had been thinking about another matter the entire way, while the phone was something he had truly forgotten about. He had calculated that walking from the dormitory to the old house took seven or eight minutes, and riding a bike back from there would only be faster.
Call it fifteen minutes at the absolute most, yet Lu Qinglian had taken twenty minutes.
Zhang Shutong understood her reasonably well; she always only did what was necessary and wouldn't waste time on the road. She also possessed a pair of slender legs; those seven or eight minutes just now had been calculated according to his own speed, so switching to Lu Qinglian would shorten it further. She was also a woman whose curiosity was far less than a cat's, yet despite this, she was still five minutes late on this very short path.
Zhang Shutong would occasionally think about what she had done during those five minutes. It might just be his own overthinking, because she didn't have a flashlight when she went back, and walking in the pitch-black darkness where one couldn't see their own fingers made it inevitable to slow down. Or perhaps—
She had simply stood in front of that photograph of the woman for five minutes.
"Classmate Lu Qinglian."
"What?"
"Actually, I wanted to say," Zhang Shutong said from the bottom of his heart, "you really are cuter when you smile... Hey!"
Before his voice could even fade, Lu Qinglian merely spared him a glance, then decisively pressed down on her pedals. The wheels rolled, and the girl dashed away on her bicycle.
There were quite a few people coming and going at the harbor in the afternoon, but not too many either. This was a fairly ordinary day in December. The sunlight at the horizon was like countless thin threads, weaving a dense net across this land. If it weren't for the strong wind, it would actually be considered quite warm.
The hem of her clothes fluttered in the wind, leaving only Zhang Shutong remaining in place with his eyes wide.
Meaning, this woman took the phone, mounted her bike, and just abandoned a medical patient like him to run off?
Zhang Shutong froze for two seconds, then raised the arm that was still capable of moving:
"Classmate Lu Qinglian? Lu Qinglian!"
...
Yawning, Zhang Shutong pressed down to turn off his alarm. He padded over to the bathroom in his slippers, looked at the dark circles under his eyes in the mirror, and turned on the faucet. He wasn't in a rush to wash his face, merely holding his toothbrush in his mouth.
December 15. This was the morning of the day—ten o'clock on Saturday.
The contact of cold water on his fingertips gave his spirit a jolt. Zhang Shutong inspected his left arm in the mirror, which was perfectly intact. Yesterday he had gone to the hospital to have the plaster cast removed, finally releasing his former seal.
Losing something and regaining it made it seem all the more precious. Just as he decided to use his left hand to brush his teeth, a hand reached out from behind him, twisting the faucet over to the right side.
"Use hot water, Tongtong."
His mom, wearing a sheet mask, drifted away lightly:
"Don't forget to grab me a bottle of toner from Watsons today."
"Alright—" Zhang Shutong answered with a drawn-out tone.
His temperament was never one to dawdle. When he said he was washing up, he simply washed up. Very quickly, Zhang Shutong wiped his face dry with a towel. Seeing that mop of black hair in the mirror that would never be tamed, he instinctively dabbled a bit of water to smooth it down.
Next, a very fragrant scent drifted into his nostrils, and Zhang Shutong let out a sneeze.
His mom was shaking a small bottle, her eyes shining bright beside him:
"Spray some perfume. Let me go find you some hair wax; dress up a bit sharper today. Although Mommy thinks you're very handsome even without dressing up, it is a trip out with a girl after all."
It's not a date, so what's the point of dressing up so nicely...
The moment this thought surfaced in Zhang Shutong's mind, his mother had already extended her wicked claws, completely messing up his hair.
"Come, let me dab some water on it and use the hairdryer to comb it properly..."
By the time the hairstyle was finally wrestled into place and his body carried an unfamiliar scent of perfume, twenty minutes had already passed.
He pulled open his wardrobe. Black clothes filled his sight one by one. Zhang Shutong hesitated for a moment, ultimately taking a beige sweater and finding a pair of jeans to put on.
Just then, his phone rang. He pressed the answer button, and a crisp voice came from the other end:
"Have you headed downstairs yet? I've already arrived. Goodness, hurry up!"
"I..."
But before he could finish his sentence, the call was disconnected.
Zhang Shutong put away his phone and turned around to look. His mom was poking her head out from the bedroom door, silently forming a phrase with her mouth:
"Go get 'em, son!"
Today's mission was to act as a Pokémon accompanying a Trainer to challenge the largest shopping plaza in the city.
Winning brought no gym badge, but it did bring a meal.
This was actually something that had been agreed upon long ago before his discharge from the hospital.
"Heading out."
Zhang Shutong grabbed his wallet and opened the security door of his home.
Although this day had only just begun, it had already been almost completely filled up by her schedule.