The first time since the regression that he was supposed to treat someone ended up being paid for by Gu Qiumian.
The boy was stunned, and so was the owner's wife. By the time Zhang Shutong reacted, she had already gone to the restroom without looking back. Looking back at her table, no one had noticed what had just happened.
It was as if Gu Qiumian had just left her table to handle something and conveniently solved an urgent problem.
Zhang Shutong owed her a favor.
As a joke—he had to accept this favor. Was he supposed to chase her to the restroom, pull open the stall door, and say, "I don't need you to pay for it"?
Of course, on the other hand, there were other ways. He was only short by a little more than twenty yuan. He could use part of those bills to make up the difference and return the rest.
But a favor is either accepted or not. Only accepting twenty yuan would seem pretentious. It was better to bring the money tomorrow and pay her back.
Gu Qiumian's timing for going to the restroom was perfect. Zhang Shutong had always been unable to figure out what she meant, but this time, even a person like him could understand—
So he didn't stay there and wait for her to come out. Instead, he left the fish house directly, got on his bicycle, and met up with his friends.
After riding for a few meters, he indeed found Ruoping and the others lining up at a milk tea shop.
"It's done?"
Qingyi pulled him aside and asked in a low voice.
"What's done?"
"Didn't you tell me to get them out of the way because you wanted to talk to Gu Qiumian?"
"Actually..." Zhang Shutong thought for a moment. "Something like that. I didn't bring enough money just now."
"How much were you short?" Qingyi was already reaching into his pocket.
"It's paid for. Gu Qiumian came and paid for me."
"Ah, why?"
"I don't know. Just keep it a secret for one day."
Zhang Shutong planned to pay her back tomorrow and then tell Ruoping. This way, he could help spread the word about Gu Qiumian's "humanity" without causing any trouble. He was a little worried that Ruoping would drag him back now.
Then, the few of them split up in front of the commercial street.
They couldn't stick together all the time. Qingyi was going to the bookstore to borrow a few books, and Du Kang was going with him to pick out some videotapes.
Ruoping had plans with some friends at noon and was heading back to school, so she was going the same way as Zhang Shutong.
He got on his bike and hung the milk tea on the handlebars. The name of the shop was "Come Have a Cup." Unlike the milk tea shops that would open in malls in the future, with 700ml paper cups and exquisite designs;
The milk tea on the island came in a small, transparent cup with a plastic film heat-sealed on top. It was probably made from instant powder, and four yuan was a good price.
On the way, Ruoping said, "I know you have a stomachache, so I specifically ordered a hot drink for you. Drink it while it's hot when you get back." Zhang Shutong was very touched when he heard that. Ruoping then said, "Don't just be touched, you have to show it."
He readily agreed and said, "I'll pay for all your milk tea for next week." The girl only then nodded in satisfaction.
When he entered the school building with the milk tea, Zhang Shutong realized that it was winter. Of course, it was hot. Did she think they would give him a cold one?
But it was too late.
The lunch break was from noon to 1:30 p.m.
It was a little after 1:00 p.m. now, and the classroom was still relatively quiet. Some people were studying, and some were sleeping with their heads on their desks. After all, they were in their fourth year of middle school, not like the lower-grade students who could be loud enough to lift the ceiling.
Everything about his student days felt new to him.
Zhang Shutong had always had a lot of energy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had so much time to do good deeds in the future. He thought for a moment and decided he should find a place to properly taste this instant milk tea. Only then would it be worthy of its "pay for a week" price.
He chose the school's rooftop.
It was his favorite place in his school days. This was the difference between him and his friends. They all thought that going to the rooftop to feel the cold wind would make them stupid. Du Kang would rather go down and sleep. Qingyi's cringey brainwaves also didn't align with this place. Ruoping even used a very vivid example, saying that every time she went up, she felt like a caveman on a mountaintop.
Only Zhang Shutong enjoyed this feeling:
The school was built on the outer edge of the small island. Climbing to the rooftop, he could smell the cool lake breeze, and the scenery was all in his sight. The gray and white buildings were of different heights, crisscrossing. The lake was a deep blue, and the sky was reflected on it. The mountains were continuous, and the people at the foot of the mountain were tiny black dots. But this was a very small place, just enough to accommodate this group of small people.
This time, he planned to drink his milk tea and think about the murder case.
He walked into the dark stairwell. The floor was covered in dust. The door to the rooftop was locked, but Zhang Shutong knew where the key was.
If he remembered correctly... He wiggled his foot. The third-to-last step was a loose tile. He tried to dig it out from the cement crack but couldn't find anything.
Where's the key?
Zhang Shutong was a little confused.
He remembered that he was the one who had a spare key made. One time, the maintenance worker forgot to take out the key. He was bold back then and went outside to have a spare one made. He then handed it back to the homeroom teacher, planning to use it as a secret base for the few of them.
But after a few times of feeling the wind, they disliked it. They thought it wasn't private enough to be a base, and it was too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer to be a lounge. Only he went up there sometimes.
Could it be that some perceptive student picked it up?
Zhang Shutong didn't know whether to be happy or disappointed. He was happy that he wasn't the only one who had his brain blown out by the wind, and he was disappointed that he really enjoyed having a secret hideout. A hideout and a base sounded similar but were different. Batman joined the Justice League but still had his Batcave, which showed that it was very important for a man, whether rich or poor, to have a private little nest.
When he didn't want to be disturbed, he would come up and sit for a while. He couldn't explain why, but he had been like this since he was a child.
But once this little nest was discovered, it was no longer a nest. But he was also about to graduate. In that case, he might as well treat this as his last time here. It was time to pass the rooftop key on to a younger student, so there would be a successor.
So he tried to push the door. The wind outside was howling, even applying a layer of pressure on the door. He pushed it open a crack, and a wave of coldness immediately rushed in. Zhang Shutong was also able to see the back of another caveman—
It wasn't a male or female student, but a very familiar girl.
Even though she wasn't wearing a cyan robe today, the high ponytail on the back of her head was very distinctive, hanging quietly on her back, just as the girl's posture was sitting upright.
Lu Qinglian turned her head in response, tilting her head slightly:
"Are you looking for me?"
Her tone was as common as if a guest had arrived at her home. After she finished speaking, she didn't wait for Zhang Shutong's reaction and turned her face back.
"What are you doing here?" Zhang Shutong asked curiously.
"Eating."
Only then did Zhang Shutong notice that the girl was holding an old-fashioned aluminum lunch box. She used her chopsticks to pick up a small piece of rice and slowly put it into her equally small lips. Her eating was quite graceful.
"I'm eating. If you have something to say, please say it quickly."
After she swallowed the food in her mouth, she said it again calmly.
It was like a hostess opening the door only to find a salesperson, so her expression turned cold, and she told the person not to disturb her during her meal.
The difference with Lu Qinglian was that she was very polite and didn't give anyone a cold shoulder. Her tone was flat, at most a gentle rejection, but a gentle rejection was the biggest problem—
What was with this attitude of taking control?
Zhang Shutong felt that she didn't understand what he meant. The question wasn't what she was doing, but why she was here.
"You're eating on the rooftop?" It felt even dumber than coming to the rooftop to fish.
"I like to be alone when I eat."
"No wonder I've never seen you at the restaurants outside."
Zhang Shutong said thoughtfully. He sat down a little distance from Lu Qinglian, next to her, and watched the scattered students walking below.
It was fine when he was alone before. No one would look up, so he wouldn't be discovered.
Now that there were two of them, he wondered if they were a little too obvious.
But it was what it was. Although she liked to be alone, it wasn't a big deal for Lu Qinglian to come and eat sometimes. Anyway, she wasn't loud. He just treated it as a visitor to his base and it didn't interfere with him drinking his milk tea.
Zhang Shutong didn't care, but Lu Qinglian seemed to. She swallowed the rice in her mouth again, frowning:
"Are you here for something?"
"No, just spacing out."
"If you have something to say, please say it as soon as possible. Don't beat around the bush." She simply put down her chopsticks.
"...Why do you think I'm here for something?"
"Only I come here, so I don't like it when people disturb me while I'm eating."
"Wait," Zhang Shutong stopped his hand from putting the straw in. "What do you mean 'only you come here'?"
It wasn't enough for you to steal my fishing rod yesterday, but you're also taking my little nest?
Zhang Shutong said with a headache:
"Student Lu Qinglian, didn't you notice that this place is usually locked?"
"Student Zhang Shutong, didn't you notice that the door isn't locked today?"
This woman was even mimicking his way of speaking, even his tone. She seemed to think he wasn't very smart. After she finished, she added:
"Because I'm the one who opened it."
Of course, I know you opened it. The problem is that I'm the one who had the key made.
Before he could speak, Lu Qinglian felt that it wasn't enough and revealed a conclusive piece of evidence:
"I found out where the key was hidden two years ago, in the second year of middle school."
It felt like a divorce case fighting over property. The man says, "I paid the down payment for the car," and the woman says, "But I paid off the loan later..."
Zhang Shutong's mouth twitched. He thought to himself, "Of course it was in the second year of middle school. It would be a miracle if it were any other time, because that's when I had the key made." At this point, he finally understood where Lu Qinglian's cold attitude came from.
But what surprised him even more was something else—
The secret little nest that he thought was his had been completely infiltrated since he discovered it?
And the two of them had never discovered each other the whole time?
"You eat lunch here every day?"
"Pretty much."
No wonder.
Zhang Shutong wasn't like her and was always alone. He ate lunch with his friends and never came to the rooftop.
"Actually, I had the key made..."
"No, I found it." Lu Qinglian shook her head slightly. This girl was not only naturally naive, but she was also stubborn.
"I really had it made."
"Proof?"
"Guess why it was hidden in the third floor tile?"
"I'm a temple priest."
"A temple priest can even calculate where the key is hidden?" Zhang Shutong was shocked.
"You can think of it that way," Lu Qinglian said casually.
Zhang Shutong had originally wanted to say, "I was being sarcastic. Didn't you hear?"
Also, why did that familiar phrase come up again?
But he remembered the subtle curve of her lips for a moment when he walked her back to the mountain last night and suddenly realized something:
First, when she said, "You can think of it that way," it definitely meant that her previous sentence was a lie.
Second, this girl was never naturally naive. She was pretending to be. If you really believed her, you were being played.
"Stop pretending," Zhang Shutong said, speechless. "I just got played by you yesterday."
"You're a little smarter than I thought, Zhang Shutong."
As expected, as soon as he called her out, she returned to her calm demeanor, as if her entire person had matured. She didn't even use the suffix "student" anymore:
"But to correct you, it wasn't just yesterday."
Zhang Shutong was too lazy to ask her about what other day. It was another trap. No matter what he guessed, the answer would be nothing more than, "You can think of it that way for now." Zhang Shutong finally understood the meaning of this sentence. The hidden meaning was actually, "You're not very smart for now, please keep trying."
He suddenly found Lu Qinglian to be more interesting than he had imagined:
"You've known I often come here?"
"Before today, I didn't think there were other people here either."
She no longer waited until she swallowed her food to speak. Instead, she spoke while eating small mouthfuls of rice:
"At first, I thought you were looking for me for something urgent. It wasn't until you asked, 'What do you mean only you come here?' that I realized I was wrong."
Zhang Shutong felt that she was a little narcissistic. She had asked him yesterday if he liked her, and today she subconsciously thought he was looking for her for something urgent.
"So everything you said after that was just to mess with me?"
"Pretty much." She took another bite of rice.
Now Zhang Shutong was puzzled:
"Then since you realized it, why did you still pretend to be..."
"Because I don't like it when people disturb me while I'm eating. This way I can make you leave," she said indifferently, as if talking to a child.
Zhang Shutong laughed:
"Then this morning, was it also because you didn't want anyone to disturb you during morning reading?"
"Only that wasn't it."
Unexpectedly, Lu Qinglian suddenly frowned, and the clump of rice under her chopsticks was instantly cut in half.
Poor rice.
By the way, why was this girl only eating rice? Since he had arrived, he had only seen her eating small mouthfuls of rice, rice, and more rice.
He looked inside the old lunch box and saw what was going on:
The surface of the aluminum lunch box was already dented and scratched, and the contents were basically just rice. There was only a small pile of pickled vegetables squeezed in the corner. It wasn't the kind of preserved vegetable sold on the market. It was probably homemade, with a very strange dark green color and a wilted appearance.
No need to say, her lunch must have been brought down from the mountain.
Then, Zhang Shutong also realized why she could always clump the rice into small balls with her chopsticks. At first, he thought it was some special skill. Now he realized that it was just because the weather was too cold, and the rice had long since cooled down. The moisture had also mostly dissipated, so it was stuck together in clumps in the lunch box.
"You eat just this every noon?" Zhang Shutong was a little surprised.
Lu Qinglian seemed to have heard his meaning:
"Only today is a little worse."
"That's good. I should have known to invite you to eat with us at noon..."
"Usually there's a boiled egg," she said, picking up another clump of rice.
Zhang Shutong confirmed for a while that she was truly focused on eating when she said this, and wasn't pretending like before.
"Just a plain boiled egg?"
"Sometimes it's a duck egg."
"That's not enough nutrition."
"I know, that's why I have a milk subscription every semester."
Zhang Shutong didn't know if the "milk" she was talking about was the small square carton that the school handed out every day, the miniature 150ml sweet drink with a protein content of less than 1.8%.
He didn't know what to say anymore, so he simply handed her the milk tea. Although it didn't have much nutrition, it could at least provide some calories.
But he felt that Lu Qinglian might not accept it, so he added:
"Ruoping really wanted to thank you for what happened last night. Just consider this her treat."
"No need." Lu Qinglian shook her head. "I don't think I'm doing badly."
"I'm not saying I pity you..."
Zhang Shutong thought for a moment. But how should he put it? Is it just friendship? They weren't friends. Is it just gratitude? No need for gratitude. Is it just sympathy? But she herself didn't think she was doing badly.
"I mean... it's like why you always eat on the rooftop. Are you afraid of being seen?"
He didn't know why he would ask this. He couldn't say he was testing her pride. It was like two cavemen communicating and not even knowing what they were saying, relying on gestures. Fortunately, Lu Qinglian understood. Her voice was as calm as water:
"No reason, I just like it."
"Are you used to it?"
"Maybe."
"Do you also like the boiled egg every day?"
"Not really."
"Then you can change it to something else."
"But it's convenient."
"It smells like chicken poop."
"I know a way."
"Then that's right, I know it too." Zhang Shutong placed the milk tea next to her. He stood up and walked to the door of the rooftop. "So I'm not pitying you. Drink it or not, it's up to you. This is just..."
He said all this but couldn't find a suitable description, so he decided to be mysterious:
"A welcome gift."
Unfortunately, Lu Qinglian didn't ask what he meant. Otherwise, no matter what she said, he could reply, "You can think of it that way for now," giving her a taste of her own medicine.
When the girl heard this, she just frowned, as if she was thinking about something.
Or rather, she suddenly became unlike a girl. The woman he saw in the black-and-white portrait eight years later seemed to appear in front of him again, a familiar sight.
But this time, Zhang Shutong understood what she meant. This was a silly girl who couldn't even tell the difference between an Oreo. So he kindly explained:
"Don't eat the black things. They're milk tea pearls. You have to spit them out when you drink it."
She paused when she heard that. The familiar look disappeared, and the girl's eyes suddenly became terrifying again. Although she was still expressionless, it was very similar to this morning:
"...Don't think I'm stupid"