Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, and his body immediately reacted. He took a big step forward, ready to call the others to rush over and grab the gun;
To his surprise, with a muffled thud, the girl's seemingly effortless kick unleashed an unparalleled power. The man's body was instantly like a kite with a broken string. His body tilted backward, and his feet left the ground—
Lu Qinglian immediately changed her footing. Her foot in midair quickly landed on the ground. Then, her ankle twisted, and the sole of her shoe made a grating sound on the dirt and stone road, bringing her entire body to a sudden exertion!
The girl's other leg followed suit. She kicked backward, hitting the long gun with perfect precision;
The two kicks happened in the blink of an eye. The first kick knocked the man down, and the second kick sent the weapon flying. In the next second, the man with the cap and the gun flew out together, falling heavily onto the dirt road behind him;
Dust flew everywhere. The girl calmly put her leg down, and her robe fell back to her side.
"..."
On the night of December 5, 2012;
Zhang Shutong and his friends encountered a man with a gun.
The man had taken his classmate hostage;
Then the man flew.
Zhang Shutong and his friends were all dumbfounded. If a popular, nostalgic phrase from the time could be used to describe their state, it would be—
"My friends and I were all shocked."
It wasn't until the man started groaning and cursing intermittently on the ground;
That the few of them reacted. Qingyi rushed over and gave the other person a hand chop; Ruoping ran to Lu Qinglian and kept asking if she was okay, and Du Kang also followed beside them;
Zhang Shutong, on the other hand, went to pick up the long gun not far away and held it in his arms. Only then did his heart fall back into place.
In that short amount of time, he had broken out in a cold sweat. Now, with the night wind blowing, he felt a chill on his back.
Seriously, there wouldn't be any more unexpected things, right?
The experience of this night could not be more accurately described than as a series of twists and turns. First, the patrolling police, then the bald guy who was electrofishing, and now this man with a gun. Each one was more dangerous than the last... He pinched the bridge of his nose and couldn't help but glance at Lu Qinglian.
Ruoping was holding her shoulders and asking her all sorts of questions, looking surprised and full of admiration. The other party would sometimes nod her chin slightly, and sometimes shake her head, as always;
It was as if she had just kicked a shuttlecock, which girls loved to play, instead of a dangerous man with a gun;
Thinking of that kick from earlier, Zhang Shutong still felt a sense of unreality.
He had always known that Lu Qinglian was a mysterious person, but this was a bit too much. Was this girl really a temple priestess in that Green Snake Temple, and not the Shaolin Temple?
He had practiced some self-defense when he was in high school. He couldn't go around saving the world without some martial arts skills. Although by the end, he was only a little stronger than an ordinary person, he still had a basic sense of judgment;
The two kicks the girl made just now were superior in reaction, force, and accuracy. Let alone his high school self, his self from eight years later would not be able to beat Lu Qinglian with just one hand.
Compared to his legs and feet, Zhang Shutong was better at using his brain. He felt that his brain could still be controlled, but martial arts skills were not something you could just have.
Now was the time to use his brain.
"Shutong, come and look at this." Qingyi called out from the side.
He walked over and saw that the other party had found a snakeskin bag, and there were faint rustling sounds coming from inside, as if it contained a few chickens.
Zhang Shutong first felt the bag from the outside. The two of them moved to the side, fully prepared. He opened the bag and shone the flashlight in, and it really was a close relative of a chicken—
He saw that inside the bag were two half-dead large birds. Their beautiful yellow feathers were already wilted. The two of them looked at each other, confirming the guess in their hearts.
"Crested ibis?" Qingyi said in a hesitant voice.
"It should be. I've only ever seen a specimen." Zhang Shutong pushed aside the crowns of the two birds and frowned. "Didn't they say they were almost extinct? It's impressive that these two were able to find them."
This kind of bird was a species unique to the island. He forgot what level of a protected animal it was in the country, but if you were caught, you would have to go to jail for a few years.
"No wonder that bald guy pulled out a knife..."
"Electrofishing was just a side thing for them. And look at this gun," Zhang Shutong picked up the long gun. He used to only be interested in cold weapons, so his knowledge of guns was not as good as Qingyi's. "An air gun?"
"Yes, let me see... Wow, it's a PCP. It's quite advanced." Qingyi took it and looked at it for a while, almost making a pose as if he was aiming. "This thing has a lot of killing power... So they were really here to poach?"
"Yes. They were just two poachers, and we happened to run into them." Zhang Shutong sighed. "But look, the birds aren't dead. They must have shot something else."
Of course, this was not something for them to worry about. They would just leave it to the police later.
Zhang Shutong continued to analyze:
"So the person Du Kang saw was that man with the cap. They were two people from the beginning. The man with the cap went west, and the bald guy came later."
Qingyi slapped his thigh when he heard this:
"I knew it. It's my fault. We heard the bald guy making a phone call, saying something about students and not being seen. I thought he had seen Du Kang, but the one who saw Du Kang wasn't him..."
"But this man with the cap. He was reminding him, right?" Zhang Shutong took over his words.
"Sigh..." Qingyi was a bit self-blaming.
Zhang Shutong patted his shoulder and comforted him. He then called Du Kang to ask about what happened earlier, and he had a rough idea of the whole thing:
First, there was no such thing as being "outflanked."
The poachers were always two people. The man with the cap was in front, and the bald guy was in the back. It was just that the man with the cap later circled back from the west side and happened to run into Ruoping and the others.
At that time, the three of them were on the dirt road. After they realized that the bald guy was burying fish and not a person, they felt relieved and also found the smell too strong, so they ran a little further away;
On the other side, the man with the cap went to meet his partner. But when he got to the area, he didn't find his partner. Instead, he happened to see three students;
Ruoping was the closest to him at the time. When he discovered them, the man had already pointed the gun at her and took her hostage;
Then, the man with the gun forced the three of them toward the fish pond. Ruoping didn't want to expose Zhang Shutong's and Qingyi's presence, but the two of them were talking a bit loudly down below, and a person who wasn't deaf could hear them. So the man decided to "wait for the rabbit";
At this point, Ruoping was still the hostage, but for some reason, the man with the cap, maybe because he saw that Lu Qinglian's long robe made it hard for her to move, or he thought she looked easy to bully, had a sudden change of mind and switched the two of them. This set the stage for the two kicks that would follow.
A few minutes later, Zhang Shutong and Qingyi came up. They had a standoff for a few seconds, and the man with the cap was knocked out by a single kick from Lu Qinglian—
It was only when Ruoping was reminded of this that she remembered her phone. She picked it up in a pained manner. Fortunately, it wasn't broken, it had just come apart. In this day and age, the back covers of phones could basically be removed, and they were mostly plastic, so they weren't afraid of being dropped.
—But that didn't stop Ruoping from kicking the man with the cap in the groin twice, which made the boys feel a chill in their hearts.
After calling the police again, they were all sitting on the side of the road, exhausted. Thinking back on the night's experience, they were all a little scared;
The few of them looked at each other and could all see the bright eyes of the others in the night. Someone poked someone else, and someone couldn't help but start laughing. Then they started joking again.
Qingyi was playing with the air gun. He had only seen them in magazines before and had never touched a real one. He was a little reluctant to part with it, thinking that the air gun would be confiscated soon;
Du Kang, who loved to court disaster, was sitting far away from Ruoping and said, "You were crying just now, weren't you? Oh, how embarrassing," and he stuck out his tongue and made a face;
Ruoping immediately stood up and said, "I think you're about to cry too," and she went to grab his ear. Du Kang cried for mercy and said, "Don't forget I saved your life in the reeds";
Ruoping pouted her lips and said, "It was the frog that saved me. You should thank the frog..."
Then someone brought up writing about tonight's events in their next Chinese exam composition. There were exactly four of them. They would start with fishing, and each of them would write a section about their own experience;
And because Ruoping's Chinese was always good, her compositions were often used as examples in other classes. They didn't have to worry about not being noticed. When all the pieces were put together, it would be a complete and exciting story;
And since they had been together for four years, they were at least seniors now. It wouldn't do if they didn't get some admiring looks from the freshmen. It would also be a legend that they could leave behind after graduation.
When this was brought up, the few of them became excited and started talking about how they would divide the work;
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "Why don't we just build a statue of the three of you? And with me, the four of us standing in front of the school gate would definitely be cooler than Gu Qiumian's dad."
Besides, he had a big problem with this. The three of them had a lot of things to write about. "I caught a frog in the reeds," "I was scared to tears in the reeds," "I tied a fishing line in the reeds"... The topics were wide-ranging;
He could only write, "A Discussion on Why an iPhone Has No Signal," but argumentative essays were not popular in junior high. This plan was flawed from the beginning.
It was really cold. Zhang Shutong sneezed and quickly turned his head, but he saw in the distance, at the end of the road, red and blue lights flashing.
The siren rang out;
The police had finally arrived.
...
The police car on the small island was a pickup truck. A police officer got out and was about to ask who had called the police when the few of them moved aside, revealing the two unconscious men behind them, which surprised the officer;
They then threw their bikes into the back of the truck and squeezed in to go to the police station to make their statements;
Halfway through, the officer with the surname Xiong returned. When he saw Du Kang, he was about to glare at him, but his colleague stopped him. The two of them whispered something to each other;
When he looked up again, he was holding back for a long time, and his face was red. In the end, he just patted Du Kang's shoulder and left as if he hadn't seen anything.
—This was because Du Kang was wiping his fishing rod in front of him. He was rubbing it with a tissue until it was almost torn, rubbing it with a sense of pride and style;
Ruoping was still smiling on the side and asking:
"Oh, are you tired from wiping? Do you want a sip of water? I see it's not clean here. Why does it look so black? Oh, the fishing rod was black to begin with. It's okay. Just keep wiping..."
They really put on a good show, but since they had done a good deed, they not only had to be endured, but they would also be praised and a banner would be sent to the school.
It turned out that the two poachers were repeat offenders. They only found out after the interrogation that it wasn't just the two birds. The two of them had a big haul this time. They also killed a bunch of foxes, badgers, pangolins, and so on. They were all in the car, not far from where they were fishing;
As for why they buried the fish, it was because they had put the dead fish in the car, and the bald guy had forgotten about them. The fish had started to rot;
At the same time, another thing became clear. Why they didn't run into the person who was electrofishing on the same night last time. This was also related to Du Kang. When he went to get the stool, he ran into the man with the cap. The man with the cap was worried, so he and the bald guy went back to check on the fish.
So an expert was invited to the police station—it was actually a chicken neuterer, but since it was so late, there was no ferry, so they had to make do with what they had.
It was a chaotic scene for a while.
Ruoping's mom also came. Du Kang and Qingyi just called home to say they were safe and would be back soon. That's how boys on the island were. They were used to being wild. As long as they didn't stay out all night, their families weren't too worried.
When everything was done, they left the police station, yawning. The time was a little past nine.
The other three's homes were in the north. It wasn't a coincidence, it was just that the residential area was in that one spot;
Only Zhang Shutong was the exception. His home was in the east. Since his parents were transferred to work there, there was no need to build a house. The family of three now lived in the employee housing built by Mr. Gu;
But even though it was employee housing, the conditions were similar to a three-bedroom, two-living room apartment, with a total area of about ninety square meters.
It was said that in the past, they would part ways like this. Three of them would go one way, and Zhang Shutong would go the other. Everyone would go back to their own homes and their own moms—but this time, there was an extra variable. What about Lu Qinglian?
Only then did Zhang Shutong belatedly remember something. Green Snake Mountain was also in the east. The two of them were going in the same direction. Otherwise, how would he have known about that convenience store at the foot of the mountain? Although the mountain was even further east than his home.
Ruoping then said that he absolutely had to walk Lu Qinglian home before he went back. It was too dangerous at night, and he couldn't let a girl walk alone. Zhang Shutong thought to himself that if the two of them went back together, it wouldn't be him protecting her, it would be more like her protecting him;
But this was just a joke. He didn't hesitate about a small thing like this, so he nodded and agreed.
Du Kang was also smarter this time. He wasn't jealous and didn't insist on going with them. He just solemnly patted Zhang Shutong's shoulder and said, "You two be careful on the road." This made Zhang Shutong feel that he had improved quite a bit;
After they had agreed on a plan, they waved goodbye.
Zhang Shutong was so sleepy that his eyelids were drooping. At this point, he didn't care about anything. The most important thing was to get Lu Qinglian home quickly. He was about to pat the bike and tell her to get on, but he realized that there was no back seat. It had already been modified into a box.
No wonder that kid Du Kang was so straightforward...
But the police station wasn't that far from the mountain. The small island itself wasn't that big after all—
It was 5 kilometers long from north to south and about 2.5 kilometers wide from east to west, with a total area of about 9 square kilometers. The permanent population was about 8,000 people. Despite this, it was still the largest inland island in northern China.
What's more, the police station wasn't on the far west side, so it would take at most 20 minutes to walk from here to the mountain.
Zhang Shutong pushed his bike, and Lu Qinglian walked beside him. The two of them walked through the town.
The so-called town was just a block of a few main streets. There were department stores, restaurants, phone stores, and supermarkets. The signs didn't light up. The only light source was the streetlights. The residents on the island didn't have a nightlife. As far as the eye could see, the streetlights on both sides cast a yellow light on the asphalt road.
There was a convenience store with its lights still on. Zhang Shutong asked Lu Qinglian if she wanted any water, and the girl shook her head. The two of them continued to move forward.
"Your family must be worried?" Zhang Shutong just remembered that she didn't have a phone and hadn't notified them.
"It's fine. She knows I'm out at night."
The "she" she referred to must be her grandma. He had heard Du Kang say at the funeral that Lu Qinglian and her grandma depended on each other all these years.
But where were her parents?
Also, he remembered Du Kang also saying that Lu Qinglian's grandma had passed away before she died. The girl would probably be alone in a few years.
But Zhang Shutong didn't want to pry into other people's family matters. He just said:
"If there are any inconveniences in the future, you can contact us."
He didn't really need to remind her. After this night, Lu Qinglian was probably already considered a comrade-in-arms by Ruoping and the others.
It was better to talk about something more relaxed:
"When did you tell your grandma?" Zhang Shutong asked casually. "After school?"
"At noon."
At noon?
Weren't you still at the temple shoveling snow then, before you went back to school?
Did your grandma have a premonition that you would be out at night?
It seems she just didn't want to talk about it.
Zhang Shutong took this sentence as a sign that she didn't want to talk about her family.
Then, he remembered another question that had bothered him for a long time:
"So what did you come for tonight?" Zhang Shutong asked strangely.
Before the girl could open her mouth, he preempted her:
"Don't you dare tell me it was to stop crime."
"You can temporarily understand it that way."
The girl replied indifferently.
Zhang Shutong shrugged and didn't say anything else.
If he asked that question again, he would... he hadn't decided yet. Anyway, he definitely wouldn't ask again.
The two of them walked side by side for a while. Zhang Shutong remembered another question:
"You're so good at fighting, why did you hide at the time?"
The girl stopped when she heard this. She turned around, looked directly into Zhang Shutong's eyes, and said calmly:
"Because of you..."