"Aren't you two good deskmates?"
"Who's good with him?"
Zhang Shutong thought that the other person was one of the few people in the class who could talk to her.
He put down his backpack, not minding chatting with Miss Gu:
"Didn't you just give me an example yesterday?"
As he said that, Zhang Shutong pointed at the window.
To his surprise, Gu Qiumian pursed her lips and turned her face away directly: "I don't understand what you're saying."
She was ignoring him now.
Zhang Shutong reminded her:
"You forgot. It's the sheep you drew..."
"Zhang Shutong, do you have any emotional intelligence?" Gu Qiumian quickly turned her head back. Her eyelashes were quite long, and they fluttered when she glared.
"Emotional intelligence" was a very trendy word in these years. Zhang Shutong didn't provoke her anymore, but Gu Qiumian rolled her eyes and was in a rare mood to explain:
"He was fine at first, but later he would always talk next to me, rambling on and on. He would watch whatever I was doing. It was so annoying."
"Is this a reminder for your new deskmate?" Under the guidance of the trainer Gu Qiumian, the Pokémon Zhang Shutong's [Emotional Intelligence] improved.
"Of course."
"I'm a human shield?"
"It's your fault for not talking much."
"Right, right." Zhang Shutong chuckled and sat down, not knowing whether he should be happy that the young lady thought so highly of him.
But being a human shield was also good. No one would dare to come near him once he sat down, and he was happy with the peace and quiet.
"What's my reward?" He asked Gu Qiumian for cookies, not because he was craving them, but simply because he found it funny.
"I still have three scores to settle with you!" The girl had a look on her face that said, "Don't you have any sense?"
Which three?
Zhang Shutong wanted to ask, but his quietness was his advantage, so he didn't ask. He was actually thinking about something else;
When he walked closer to his seat, he didn't hear what the boy said, but he did catch a few keywords:
"Don't take this lightly, I really heard it at the time..."
What did this warning mean?
He had just been to the Forbidden Zone. He might have been a bit paranoid so early in the morning and kept thinking about the killer.
Zhang Shutong then analyzed that this conversation probably didn't happen because he had returned to eight years ago and changed something. It must have existed on the original timeline. Could it be that someone had already discovered the plot against Gu Qiumian at this time?
Not only did they discover it, but they also warned her. But judging from Gu Qiumian's attitude, it seemed that she thought he was just trying to talk to her, so she didn't care?
The possibility was small, but to be safe, he should still ask.
Just as he was about to speak, a crumpled ball of paper hit him.
He turned around and saw that it was Ruoping. She was standing at the back of the classroom, on her tiptoes, waving at Zhang Shutong.
He would have been too lazy to go if it was anyone else and would have made them come over. Unfortunately, Ruoping was an exception. Not only was she his best friend, but she was also the only girl among his best friends. Most of the time, Zhang Shutong was more patient with her than with Du Kang or Qingyi.
"What's wrong?"
"You're in a British style today. Why did you decide to dress up?" Ruoping, however, pointed at his clothes and complimented him.
Her tone was just like his mom's. She really was a hopeless romantic.
Zhang Shutong didn't know what British style was. He looked down and only saw that his scarf wasn't tightened, but was loosely draped around his neck. Was that what she meant?
He simply took off the scarf, crumpled it in his hand, and now that Ruoping had nothing to look at, she said disappointedly:
"Oh, I wanted to take a picture."
Sometimes she would ask him and Qingyi to be her models, regardless of whether they wanted to or not. She would take candid photos and post them on her social media. It wasn't to show off, she just thought they looked good. Sometimes when Du Kang caught a fish with a nice pattern, she would do the same, but in that case, Ruoping would only take pictures of the fish, not the person.
"How are you doing? Did you sleep well last night?"
Zhang Shutong didn't want to get into her topic and actually cared about her for once.
"Oh, so you're going for the 'warm guy' look today." Ruoping chuckled, covering her mouth. "But that doesn't work on me. You should save it, handsome."
This was the only time Zhang Shutong didn't know how to respond.
Ruoping then said:
"I just wanted to ask you to call Qinglian out for a bit. I have something to say to her. We were in such a hurry yesterday that I only realized it when I got home. I still haven't properly thanked her. If it weren't for her, we would have been in a lot of trouble."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself that she was right, but then he thought that she could have just said that herself. There was no need to ask him to call her out. He felt speechless.
Ruoping, however, misunderstood his meaning and smiled even more happily, as if she was teasing a kid who was sulking:
"Don't be sad, don't be sad. We also owe a lot to you. If it weren't for you, we would have been in trouble too, great hero. What do you want for lunch today? I'll buy you a bubble tea?"
"...I mean, why don't you just call her yourself?"
When he said that, Ruoping's eyes widened:
"Zhang Shutong, I think you're really bewitched?"
"What?"
"Oh, what can I say? You're either slow or you're pretending to be stupid. Why do you think I won't go over there?" Ruoping pointed behind him. "Just look at who your deskmate is now?"
Zhang Shutong didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
It was only when Ruoping reminded him that he remembered they had a little feud.
"That's all?" he said in a puzzled voice.
"That's all! Is that a problem?"
Ruoping stopped smiling and just stared behind him. What was so magical was that Miss Gu, as if she could feel it, happened to turn her head. The two girls' eyes met for a moment, and they both huffed coldly and then turned their faces away.
Zhang Shutong was in the center of the battlefield. He felt like an Oreo... why was he always getting into trouble with Oreos these past two days?
Ruoping looked at him with a grin, a true leader:
"Zhang Shutong, you handle it."
"..."
"Oh, now I see. No wonder you're wearing a British style today. It's a couples' outfit." Ruoping covered her mouth in surprise. "One with a red scarf and one with a black scarf. You two are a good match."
Zhang Shutong immediately surrendered:
"I'll call her for you... Anything else?"
"Nope. Buy me a bubble tea for lunch." Ruoping waved her hand in a good mood and left.
Didn't she just say she was going to buy him a bubble tea? Why was he buying it for her now?
Zhang Shutong thought about this question and felt that she had no good intentions from the moment she mentioned "bubble tea."
But he didn't care about buying it for her. It was just a joke between friends. He let it go.
Ruoping was that kind of person. Just drinking a bubble tea was boring. Getting him to buy it wasn't enough either. She had to set a trap and get him to fall into it to feel a sense of accomplishment;
But Zhang Shutong was not Du Kang. Threatening Du Kang with Lu Qinglian was enough to keep that kid in line. He could have gotten her not just a bubble tea but even a cow. But with him, it was just teasing. As the saying goes, a person who desires nothing is unyielding, and Zhang Shutong was in that kind of state.
He returned to his seat. Before he called Lu Qinglian, he picked up the train of thought from before. He was about to ask Gu Qiumian what the two of them were talking about, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he realized that the girl had a cold face and was ignoring him again.
He guessed that he had just been labeled a "traitor" again.
Her way of ignoring people was also quite funny. She draped her textbook over the back of Lu Qinglian's chair, looked straight ahead, tucked her small hands into her sweater sleeves, and covered her ears with the two sleeves. Her scarf also covered most of her face. She was completely focused on her morning reading and wouldn't listen to anything he said.
"Loyalty and righteousness are hard to have at the same time"? No. "Seeing women over righteousness"? No, that's not it either.
Zhang Shutong just felt that this was a reenactment of the chocolate incident:
At that time, Gu Qiumian had a feud with Ruoping because of it. On that afternoon's duty, Miss Gu rushed into the classroom with a bag of chocolates and asked him if he wanted some. Zhang Shutong chose to politely decline, and from then on, he also had a feud with Gu Qiumian and was given the name of "traitor."
What happened just now, in Gu Qiumian's eyes, was probably that she thought he was called over by Ruoping. Maybe they were saying bad things about her together; or maybe Ruoping told him not to talk to his deskmate and so on.
In short, who knew what she had imagined?
He felt that girls' relationships were very strange. For example, last night, Ruoping and Lu Qinglian chatted for a few minutes and became friends. Their actual friendship wasn't that deep;
And another example was Gu Qiumian. Was it really because they had such a big feud? No, it wasn't. In a boy's eyes, it would have been over in a few days. But the two of them were stuck there. Was it more of a matter of pride?
Zhang Shutong couldn't figure this out. All he could say was that if he had a second chance, he would side with Ruoping emotionally, but to have less trouble and not to intensify the conflict as before, he would remain neutral and not offend anyone.
At this time, Miss Gu had to go out for something, maybe to the restroom. She stood up, not looking at Zhang Shutong, but just tapping the back of his chair with a stern face;
The two of them had turned moving a chair into a secret code. This time, Zhang Shutong understood. He consciously moved his chair and watched her leave.
He would have to wait until he could talk to the boy to ask about her clues.
He sincerely thought that it was much easier to deal with girls who weren't so complicated.
Like Lu Qinglian.
Such a simple girl.
Although sometimes she was a bit confusing, being confusing meant that nothing troublesome would happen. Thinking this, he poked Lu Qinglian, who was doing her morning reading, with a pen, and he inexplicably felt relieved;
He saw the girl suddenly freeze. She turned around, and before she even opened her mouth, her thin eyebrows were already furrowed.
Her frown was usually quite intimidating, especially after what happened last night. It made him instinctively think of those two explosive kicks. Looking at her now, he even had the illusion that he was being targeted.
But Zhang Shutong couldn't figure out what he had done to anger her again? He had just angered one, and now another one was here.
"Don't touch my waist," Lu Qinglian said slowly, and there seemed to be a murderous aura in her eyes.
"Oh... sorry."
They say that a girl's waist and feet should not be touched easily, but he really hadn't paid attention. He had even used a pen to avoid being inappropriate, but he had poked her in the waist.
"What's wrong?" The girl's eyebrows relaxed. She returned to her expressionless self.
"Ruoping just asked me to call you out. She wants to thank you."
Lu Qinglian nodded. Zhang Shutong then remembered something:
"Oh, right. I didn't find your history notes. Look..."
"I took them from your bookcase this morning."
When she said that, Lu Qinglian had already turned around. She held her textbook and explained indifferently. Her voice drifted into Zhang Shutong's ears with the sound of morning reading.
Zhang Shutong felt that the other person was like an old computer. It had to be turned off every day. After it rebooted, the day's cache was gone. It was as if what happened last night had never occurred, and their relationship was still that of ordinary classmates at school.
Zhang Shutong himself didn't care. He just felt that Ruoping and the others would be dumbfounded. The few of them were still chatting in the group chat, swearing that this was the beginning of a great friendship. But they had just set off on their little boat of friendship, and Lu Qinglian was still standing on the shore.
In comparison, he may have been a person of few words back then, but he wasn't like this.
But he didn't care that much. He was just relieved that he hadn't lost her notes. That was something that would be hard to compensate for.
He then turned around to look for that boy again. He finally remembered that his name was Zhou Ziheng. When Gu Qiumian's scarf was stepped on, he was the one who stood up and became the first witness, saying that it was definitely Zhang Shutong who did it.
Zhang Shutong didn't have much feeling about this. He wasn't angry. Too much time had passed. Let alone such a small matter, even if they had gotten into a fight, he wouldn't hold a grudge for so long;
Back then, he was mostly just depressed. It was his fault that he was a bit of a suspect. Qingyi and Du Kang were the ones who went to settle the score with the other party.
He had no intention of settling the score with Zhou Ziheng. The other party, however, looked guilty when he saw him.
"What do you want?" The boy's body unconsciously leaned back, and he said cautiously, "I didn't provoke you, did I?"
This made Zhang Shutong a bit confused.
Was he that scary?
He tried to force a smile to make himself more approachable:
"Relax. I have something to ask you. What were you and Gu Qiumian talking about just now..."
"You don't have to scare me. If you do that again, I'll go tell the teacher..."
With that, the other party squeezed past him and ran out.
Zhang Shutong stood there and asked the girl who was his deskmate for a long time:
"Was I scary just now?"
The girl was wearing glasses. She was their class leader. She seemed introverted, but she was very reliable when it came to doing things.
The class leader was stunned for a moment. She wiped her glasses and said uncertainly:
"I think you're okay. Of course, I didn't look closely just now. Student Zhang Shutong, why don't you... why don't you smile again?"
Zhang Shutong had no choice but to try to smile again.
The class leader was stunned for a moment again and said hesitantly:
"I still can't see it clearly..."
At this time, the girl in front of her turned around. She had a visible canine tooth when she spoke and was also a lively person. She exposed the class leader without any mercy:
"Don't listen to her. She's doing it on purpose. She just wants to see you smile a few more times..."
She didn't care that the class leader's face immediately turned red and shouted to the front:
"Feng Ruoping, Feng Ruoping, the class leader is flirting with your Shutong. Come and help!"
What do you mean "your"?
He saw Ruoping wave her hand magnanimously, without even turning her head. She was very bold:
"I grant you permission. This is a small matter. You don't need to report it. Dismissed—"
A few other girls who were good friends with Ruoping also looked up. It was only at times like these that they had the guts to tease Zhang Shutong to his face. Their half-serious, half-joking words were mixed together, and they laughed and chattered in the sound of morning reading. The person at the center of it all was, of course, Zhang Shutong.
Zhang Shutong's face darkened. He was about to leave when the class leader suddenly stopped him:
"Can I ask one more thing? Was what happened just now related to student Gu Qiumian?"
Before he could answer, she quickly added:
"You, Gu Qiumian, and Zhou Ziheng, the three of you?"
A strange light was reflected from the girl's glasses. Zhang Shutong knew that this was the sign of someone who was about to gossip. She was acting just like Conan, as if she had suddenly become a different person:
"Oh, right. I just saw student Gu Qiumian go out. Did Zhou Ziheng provoke her, and you're here to get revenge for her?"
"...You're overthinking it."
"Then what about in English class yesterday..."
Zhang Shutong suddenly smiled at her. The girl was stunned again. Zhang Shutong turned around and left, feeling speechless.
What was all this about? It felt like Ruoping's hopeless romanticism was contagious.
He frowned. He hadn't thought much of Zhou Ziheng, but the other party's guilty behavior made him seem a bit suspicious.
He probably ran to the restroom for refuge. Zhang Shutong was wondering if he should go over and question him;
At this time, their beloved class teacher, Song Nanshan, suddenly rushed in with a lot of energy:
He was still the same. He had his sleeves rolled up in the cold weather. He saw Teacher Song raise an eyebrow and shouted with a smile:
"Zhang Shutong, Lu Qinglian, Feng Ruoping, Meng Qingyi, and Du Kang, are the five of you here? Come out, come out. Your action have been exposed. You're invited to the podium in a while—"