Okay, saying Rewind was a joke.
Dying socially is much better than being trapped in the past.
But the current situation was a headache for Zhang Shutong. At their age, they were at their most gossipy and curious about male-female relationships. If you said a few extra words to a female classmate, people would start a rumor that someone had a crush on someone. Not to mention the content on the scrap paper. The problem was that it even had the names of two girls on it, which would only make it more explosive.
He could guarantee that in a few days, there would be a rumor that Zhang Shutong had a crush on two girls at the same time.
The classmates around him were all dumbfounded, probably thinking that this kid who was usually so quiet had big plans. If it were someone like Du Kang, who couldn't hide his feelings, everyone would definitely give him the most enthusiastic smile and send him to hide in a crack in the ground; but looking at the boy named Zhang Shutong, he remained unmoved, with a cold face in his seat. At this moment, some people were already secretly giving him a thumbs-up.
The class teacher on the podium was stunned for a moment, cleared his throat, and said in a deep voice:
"Zhang Shutong."
"...Here."
"What's wrong with your homework yesterday?"
He held up the "Five Years of High School Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulated Exams," and slammed the workbook onto the podium. The force was so great that it startled the students, but his other hand secretly crumpled the scrap paper into a ball and stuffed it into his pocket:
"Just because you have good grades, you think you can get special treatment in class and not even do your homework? Your tail's about to fly into the sky!"
"I forgot."
"Forgot? Get to the back for me and reflect for a whole class."
When Song Nanshan was expressionless, he was very intimidating. He scanned the room with a stern face, and the students were like startled birds. He then turned his head and shouted:
"Alright, what are you all gawking at? Did I smile at you too much normally? Why are you looking at me? Look at the screen!"
Zhang Shutong stood for an entire class like that.
After class, Song Nanshan immediately called him to the office.
Old Song sat back in his office chair, his face still stern and intimidating:
"Do you know what you did wrong?"
"Yes, I do." Zhang Shutong lowered his head. He still had to put on a show. He wanted to be a bit more humble, but he really couldn't pull it off, so he just got straight to the point: "Thank you, teacher."
"Hmm, thank me for what?" To his surprise, Old Song was intrigued and asked with a grin, "I just scolded you and made you stand for a whole class. Aren't you cursing me in your heart?"
Zhang Shutong felt like pouting at this.
"Thank you for taking all the heat and for making me stand at the back, so no one would stare at me for a whole class."
Actually, he wasn't that sensitive. On the contrary, he thought standing was quite tiring. But in the class teacher's eyes, he was probably still that quiet and stubborn kid from back then, which led to this kind of response.
Song Nanshan was very pleased and said, "You're the only one who understands me. Now I can die in peace even if I get yelled at." Zhang Shutong said, "How could I dare?" He secretly told him, "Actually, I'll die even earlier than you in the future."
—The above scene, of course, did not happen.
Zhang Shutong never said nonsensical things. At most, he would roll his eyes if he was truly speechless;
Song Nanshan just raised an eyebrow, leaned back comfortably in his office chair, and handed him his empty teacup:
"Not bad, kid. How did your emotional intelligence improve so much all of a sudden?"
"I've matured a lot over the years."
"If you're so smart, then how did you and Gu Qiumian get into such a bad situation before?"
"What do you mean?"
"You still don't understand. Although I know you didn't do it, how should I put this," Old Song had the expression of a person who had been through a lot. He suddenly seemed a bit wistful, not sure what heartbreak he was recalling. "Forget it. You'll understand when you get older."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "I'm sorry, but I still don't understand."
"You knew about this?"
"Of course I did. I was wondering how I was going to handle it if her dad came to me. But he never did."
Zhang Shutong stopped his hand from pouring hot water and added some cold water to it.
He handed the teacup back to the class teacher and asked:
"Do you need anything else?"
"You're already trying to leave? Aren't you going to stay here until school is over?"
Zhang Shutong shook his head.
But Song Nanshan was not happy. He wrapped an arm around his shoulder:
"Come on, come on. First, tell me, what's with the names on that paper?"
He was in a hurry to get back precisely because he didn't want to talk about this.
He said helplessly:
"I just wrote some names."
"Nothing else?"
"Nothing else, really."
"Which one do you like more?"
Zhang Shutong almost vomited blood. He knew that the rumor had to be nipped in the bud, and he was about to explain. But to his surprise, Old Song nodded, stroked his stubble, and talked to himself:
"Looks like it's still Gu Qiumian. Otherwise, why would you sit next to her? Well, you can go now. You boys are so interesting."
Zhang Shutong's eye twitched. As soon as he was out of the office door, he heard Song Nanshan shout from behind:
"Shutong—"
His tone had become a bit more serious, which made Zhang Shutong turn his head.
But then he took a sip of water, crossed his legs, and said:
"You didn't do your homework, don't forget to take over a week of duty."
"..."
In the end, he only returned to the classroom after the bell for the next class rang.
Although he had pretty much thought of a plan to deal with it, he had underestimated the curiosity of the people around him. As soon as he walked in, they all looked at him as if he were a giant panda, and the panda's fur was about to be stared bald.
The only exception was Gu Qiumian.
She stared straight at the podium, not saying a word from beginning to end.
Zhang Shutong was inexplicably relieved. It would have been a headache if she had asked this and that.
Just like that, his relationship with his new deskmate went from cloudy with a chance of drizzle to just cloudy.
Although he didn't hate cloudy days.
A class passed quickly. The inevitable still had to come. Du Kang came over with a guilty look on his face. Zhang Shutong didn't care about the stares from the people around him, but he couldn't handle the questions from familiar people, especially when they came to ask about his "relationship status."
"I was wrong, brother!" Du Kang was direct. He was just short of kneeling down on the floor.
What did you do wrong? He almost asked, imitating Song Nanshan. He thought, "You call this helping me hand in my homework? You call this a small thing? You call this 'no need to thank'?"
There were so many things to complain about that even he wanted to vent a bit.
Besides, this kid wasn't here to admit his mistake. At best, he was the vanguard;
The real culprits were behind him—he saw Ruoping and Qingyi standing not far away, sneaking glances, their faces almost splitting from laughter. They were probably just waiting for Zhang Shutong to be in a good mood and in a state where he could have a friendly conversation, and then they would immediately run over to gossip.
Zhang Shutong had always been a direct person. He faintly held up three fingers:
"Three versions. Which one do you want to hear?"
"Can I hear all of them?" Du Kang asked while winking at the two people in the distance.
The voices around them seemed to get a little quieter. A few people pretended not to care and looked over. Even Gu Qiumian perked up her ears, although she was still rummaging through her backpack—it was the time when school was out.
Zhang Shutong saw this but didn't care. He continued:
"You can, but I'll only tell one person. I don't like a crowd. I just want to be alone right now."
As soon as he said that, he regretted it. He stared at Du Kang's mouth, thinking, "You better not say it."
However:
"Who's Alone?"
"Bring Qingyi over." Zhang Shutong put a hand on his forehead. This was the way people joked in 2012. "I'm dizzy," "who's Alone," "it's all a cloud..." It made him feel embarrassed just listening to it.
"No, no, no. I'll definitely shut up! So what's the first one?"
"Teacher Song asked me to write a seating chart and said he was going to form study groups. I didn't finish writing and turned it in."
"Come on, brother. The timing doesn't match up. Tell me the second one."
"Before we changed seats, I had a dream. I dreamt that the seats would be like this,"
Zhang Shutong spread his arms to show:
"You see, she's next to me, she's in front of me, and with me, it forms a solid triangle."
He mumbled in his heart, "It really is like that, isn't it?" Gu Qiumian was the right angle.
"So you drew the contents of your dream on the paper and sat over here following the instructions from your dream?"
Du Kang felt like he had helped him complete the second half of the sentence, with an expression that said, "You're trying to fool a fool."
"Then what's the third one?"
"I have a crush on both of them."
"I don't believe any of it."
Du Kang was confused.
"Then there's nothing I can do." Zhang Shutong shrugged. "You can choose your favorite to believe."
What's the best way to get rid of rumors? Zhang Shutong felt it was to come up with a few more ridiculous ones.
If everyone thought they were all ridiculous, they would end up not believing any of them, and his goal would be achieved.
So far, the effect seemed to be good. The few onlookers had an expression that said, "That's it?" and turned around with a lack of interest, about to leave;
The more you take something seriously, the more it will linger. If you just say it out in a frank manner, it will immediately disappear.
He believed that by tomorrow, the three ridiculously absurd rumors that came directly from him would spread throughout the class, and after a while of discussion, nothing would come of it.
"Are you sure you don't like Lu Qinglian?" Du Kang had his own ulterior motives for volunteering to be the guinea pig. At this point, he finally asked the question he was most concerned about.
Zhang Shutong was too lazy to bother with such a boring question. But it was precisely this reaction that made Du Kang feel relieved.
Zhang Shutong thought to himself that this matter was pretty much over. The way he handled it wasn't perfect, but for a problem of this magnitude, it was worth the little bit of brain cells he had spent on it;
And he had another big thing to do next. It was, in fact, the reason for the Rewind from eight years later. He was about to say that he was going to head downstairs, but Gu Qiumian suddenly stood up with her backpack on.
Her face was buried in that red scarf, covering her chin and only revealing her small nose.
The girl's face was still cold. A strand of hair fell in front of her beautiful eyes. She tapped on the back of Zhang Shutong's chair, and there was no follow-up.
Zhang Shutong said that he really couldn't understand the mind of a teenage girl. Did Miss Gu want to hear him tell the fourth version? Don't even think about it. I couldn't do it even if you cut my head off. Those three versions were already very draining on my brain cells.
They were in a stalemate for two seconds before the other party's eyes widened again, and her voice was crisp:
"Get out of the way and let me out!"
"..."
After he moved his chair, Gu Qiumian walked out with her small leather shoes tapping on the floor, and the pendant hanging from the end of her hair swung back and forth.
The two of them looked at her back:
"Can you guess what she meant?"
"I think... I really can?" Du Kang said uncertainly. "I think it's simple. She just wanted to leave, but we were blocking her way."
"That's a hindsight."
It's better to question others than to reflect on yourself.
Zhang Shutong stretched, feeling completely relaxed:
"I'm going to get going too."
"Okay, see you at the old spot."
"The old spot?"
"Didn't you say yesterday that you wanted to have another round today? I already prepared the bait in advance. Are you backing out again?"
As he said that, Zhang Shutong's hands actually started to itch—his parents were usually working overtime and weren't home, so he had nothing to do when he went back.
"Then that's great. But I have something to do at home first. I'll come after I'm done. You guys go eat first."
He looked around. Ruoping and Qingyi had already gone downstairs—they probably mistakenly thought he was in a bad mood and were going to interrogate Du Kang later.
The two of them waved goodbye. Zhang Shutong smiled in his seat, feeling that this was the right way to open his school days.
Just as he was about to pack up and leave, the girl in the front row slowly turned her head:
"Student Zhang Shutong, wait a moment."
Zhang Shutong remembered that there was also this penguin... no, this person. It was just that her presence was so low.
The girl named Lu Qinglian was tearing off the straw from her student milk carton and looking at him expressionlessly:
"Are you free after school? I have a few things I want to talk to you about."
Of course, I knew it...
Zhang Shutong pinched the bridge of his nose.
He had considered the chain reaction that that piece of scrap paper would cause from Song Nanshan, his classmates, his best friends, and even Gu Qiumian, but he had forgotten to consider her.
He saw the girl lower her head, coolly find the right spot, insert the straw, and added:
"You'd better come. It's a very important matter."
He thought, "This person is truly terrifying. She actually held out until now to drink her milk."
But this girl was easy to handle. Just like "stand users attract each other," quiet people also like quiet people the most:
Zhang Shutong gave her a perfectly bewildered look:
"I'm not free."
"What are you doing?" The girl frowned, and she actually had a bit of an intimidating aura.
"Fishing."
"What about after you're done fishing?"
"..."
Zhang Shutong sighed, "If it's about that 'Five Years of High School Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulated Exams' and it's causing you trouble, I..."
"Oh, I was the one who collected it." Lu Qinglian took a sip of milk, and her thin eyebrows relaxed. "So you're not free today?"
Zhang Shutong nodded.
"I see."
Then she turned around nonchalantly. The conversation came to a sudden end, as if the "very important matter" she had just mentioned was not as important as drinking milk.
Is that it?
Zhang Shutong blinked.
He suddenly understood how Song Nanshan had felt a while ago.
"The art of being a mystery man isn't developed in a day—girl, your personality is going to be very dangerous eight years from now."
This nonsensical conversation lingered in his mind for a while.
He was now walking in the snow-covered schoolyard. The ground was slippery, which made him slow down;
The surroundings were the same as before. The red sunset baked the entire world into a warm color. The ping-pong table was pristine white. He could see the distant lake through the fence. The lake was also warm-colored, with silver ripples. He watched for a while before his eyes started to hurt;
So he closed his eyes and judged the scene by the sound. Students were running or walking around, a few snowballs flew past with a whoosh, and a kid fell on the ground...
His past self was probably the same as them, a kid who just wanted to run wild everywhere.
He wanted to eat, sleep, and play. Sometimes, he also wanted to stop and look at the clouds aimlessly drifting overhead.
What was it that made him become the person he was later on?
It was impossible to trace it back.
But now that he was back, he would make up for the regrets of the past.
But Zhang Shutong was stuck on the first step of making up for his regrets—he had forgotten where he parked his bike.
After wandering around the bike shed for a long time, he finally found a familiar one:
It was a dark blue Flying Pigeon brand. The handlebars were a bit crooked, and the bike frame had some ocean animal stickers on it. It still looked cool even now;
The top tube had a double-sided bag. One side held a water bottle, and the other side held a flashlight;
The back seat had been modified with a square box. He opened it and saw a retractable fishing rod inside, and surprisingly, a baton.
Zhang Shutong suddenly smiled.
No wonder he never had a girlfriend back then—how could he bring a girl with no back seat?
The snow was in a state of melting. Black and gray tire tracks and footprints were drawn on the ground. The people on the island were used to it. At most, they would sprinkle some salt. There was no such thing as de-icing agents.
In bad weather, the neighbors would voluntarily come out to shovel snow. They would be enthusiastic about it. Sometimes, even the students would be mobilized.
He carefully left the school gate and rode toward the island's only police station.
This was a plan he had thought of immediately after the reversion—Zhang Shutong called it Plan A. As for what Plan B was, it was like Ultraman's ultimate move. He would think about it when Plan A failed.
School was out at 5 p.m. It took him over twenty minutes to get there. Along the way, he had pretty much prepared his lines, such as how to make a police officer believe a student's words; how to focus on the case that would happen four days later... He thought it was a perfect plan.
However, after being in the police station for less than a minute, Zhang Shutong was pulled out.
Literally pulled—the police officer on duty was a brawny man like a bear, with dark skin and a scar on his face. By coincidence, his surname was really Xiong (Bear).
He heard Officer Xiong glare at him with his big, round eyes and say angrily in a local dialect:
"How many times have I told you students? It's the closed fishing season now. The higher-ups just put out a notice that we're going to strictly check, do you know what that means?"
Actually, what he said was "check."
"But you little rascals still dare to come here. The last kid who came here with the baby face lied to me and said someone was electrofishing in the east. I went to patrol there, and you kids turned around and went fishing in the west! And now you're making up even more ridiculous things, like suspects!
"If I find you again, I'm going to report you to your school and have you go home to reflect. Understand?"
"Understood, understood..." Zhang Shutong replied weakly, speaking in the local dialect for the first time in a long while.
He rubbed his temples. The pathetic Plan A was officially declared a failure, as short as Ultraman's chest timer. It turned red in just a few minutes.
He looked at his hands and couldn't help but laugh and curse, "How much did you love fishing back then, kid..."
Oh well, forget it...
He got back on his bike, put on his tactical gloves, and checked the baton in the bike box. He squinted at the sunset, stepped on the pedals.
The bike slowly left a long tire track behind.
It seemed that he had to go to the "Forbidden Zone" himself.
The main plot is officially starting.