The person Zhang Shutong was most afraid of seeing was actually his own mother.
She hadn't recovered yet, but when she did, he was definitely going to have a hard time.
So when the ward door was pushed open, Zhang Shutong immediately closed his eyes, ready to pretend to be asleep.
But how could he fool his own mother?
She pulled a chair to the front of the bed, and was uncharacteristically a bit angry:
"Are you trying to die?"
Zhang Shutong lifted his eyelids, and continued to "sleep."
"You like riding motorcycles so much. Your dad and I have discussed it, and we'll buy you one this winter break.
"Oh, and the police also said that there's a bonus this time. What do you want? Mom will buy it for you."
Zhang Shutong knew this was an attempt to lure him out, and he wasn't going to respond.
"Also, Boss Gu came to talk to our family today and said that since you're so happy being a bodyguard, he'll give you a chance. You can go to his group directly after high school.
"Five social insurances and one housing fund, Tongtong. Why don't you just give in? I saw in the news that it's hard to find a job in the future. Mom used to think you were a very smart kid, but this time I've realized your brain isn't that great. Why don't you sign a contract quickly?"
His mom's voice was like a magic sound, and her fabrications were getting more and more outlandish. Zhang Shutong really couldn't hold it in. He opened his eyes and said helplessly:
"Mom…"
"Oh, you're awake, you weren't sleeping," his mom immediately raised her eyebrows. "I was thinking that since you were going to keep sleeping, I'd make the decision for you and send you to sleep in a villa."
"I was wrong." Zhang Shutong honestly admitted his mistake.
"What were you wrong about?"
"I shouldn't have taken a risk."
"Your dad and I have never asked you what you wanted to do, have we? We used to occasionally lecture you a bit when we were in the provincial capital, but ever since you came to the island in middle school, haven't we unconditionally trusted you? The other day, you made one phone call and I came to pick you up. You asked me to go to the hospital to take care of your teacher and I went. And what about you? You went and played hero on a bike?"
He opened his mouth, and suddenly noticed that his mom's eyes were also swollen and she looked haggard. So he stopped talking and listened to her scold him.
"You were clearly a good kid before. Why did you suddenly become so wild after coming here? If it weren't for Xiaolu this time, you would have frozen to death, you idiot! Do you know that?"
As his mom said this, she wanted to pinch him, but her hand just rested on his arm without moving:
"I don't care what others think, whether it's praise or a reward. What they say about doing what's right, helping others, and outwitting a villain. But I only have one son, Zhang Shutong. What am I going to do without you? If I didn't see you lying on the bed right now, I'd want to beat you!"
Zhang Shutong didn't say anything, knowing that her anger would come and go quickly. As expected, his mom nagged for a few moments, then picked up an orange and started peeling it:
"What kind of mind-controlling potion did you give those two girls?"
"What?" Zhang Shutong was surprised, not expecting her train of thought to jump so quickly.
"I'm talking about that girl who came today, one named Gu Qiumian. The daughter of Boss Gu. She stayed at the hospital for a whole afternoon," his mom sneered. "Are you feeling pretty happy now, thinking you saved a damsel in distress? And there's also Xiaolu. I just don't understand how you convinced her to run out with you in the middle of the night. Oh right, Xiaolu told me in the car yesterday that a few days ago you wrote her name and your name together and even drew a triangle. I didn't understand what she meant at the time, but now I do. You save one, and the other saves you. It all connects. So you were planning for today a long time ago."
Zhang Shutong said in his heart that he didn't know why it was such a coincidence.
He was about to open his mouth to speak:
"Mm mm…"
His mom stuffed the peeled orange into his mouth:
"Alright, you came out of me. The moment you roll your eyes, I know what kind of lie you're trying to tell. You might as well tell me you have a special ability, like in the movies, where you can foresee the future."
Zhang Shutong was really a bit stiff.
His mom continued to speak in a disgruntled manner:
"Or maybe my son came back from the future and knows everything that's going to happen, so that's why he risked his life to save people?"
Zhang Shutong mechanically chewed the orange.
His mom angrily pinched his cheek, and finally sighed:
"Why are you so stubborn? You were running a fever and almost got yourself killed. What are your dad and I supposed to say? Be proud of you? What if it happens again? Mom doesn't want to get angry at you, but you don't know how conflicted we are. Logically, since you did something good and got hurt, we shouldn't let you suffer any grievances. But if we act like this never happened, what if you take another risk next time? I met a parent at the hospital yesterday. Their kid was about the same age as you. In winter, they saw someone drowning and jumped in to save them, but they almost didn't make it out of the emergency room."
She continued:
"Your dad didn't want me to say too much to you and was planning to talk to you in a few days. I don't care how you two are. Just assume your mom is a short-sighted and impatient person. If I don't say these things to you today, I'll feel miserable holding it in. But I'll only say this much, and then this matter is over."
Zhang Shutong wanted to comfort her, but his mom gently patted his head:
"You don't need to comfort me. The doctor told me you need to stay for observation for at least two days, but for the next month, you definitely can't catch a cold, otherwise you might be left with a permanent illness. And your arm, although it's not serious, you absolutely cannot do strenuous exercise for the next few months. Did you hear me?"
Zhang Shutong nodded.
His mom looked at him silently for a while before getting up and leaving the ward:
"I'm going home to pack some things. I'll stay with you tonight. Is there anything you want to eat? I'll bring it back?"
Zhang Shutong said no. He heard his mom sniff as she turned around, and he sighed along with her in his heart.
There were many reasons not to take risks, and parents were definitely one of them.
The ward became quiet. It was already dark. He was not in the mood to watch TV anymore, and lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
After a while, he belatedly remembered that he should call Teacher Song back.
Zhang Shutong reached for his phone from the bedside, but it didn't connect. All he heard was a busy signal. Teacher Song must have fallen asleep again.
He inexplicably felt that he was doing quite well. Many people cared about him. Teacher Song's situation was the tragic one, all alone outside the island with no relatives or friends nearby.
He simply left a text message.
Zhang Shutong thought that he could finally relax in the hospital, but not long after, the ward door was pushed open again. He knew it wasn't the nurse, because they would knock beforehand. It could only be his mom. Did she forget something? Zhang Shutong just said "Mom," but then stopped.
Lu Qinglian closed the door behind her with her back.
"I didn't expect you to come." Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, and tried to sit up straight, leaning against the head of the bed. "Thank you for what you did last night."
Lu Qinglian just nodded her chin, not saying anything.
Zhang Shutong knew her personality was terribly cold, so he didn't say anything more. He was only able to lie here because she had found him from the avalanche. They say the best time to rescue someone from an avalanche is only fifteen minutes. If it had been any later, he probably would have stopped breathing.
The reason he dared to take a gamble was because before the incident, they had just finished watching a program about avalanches on TV. So he gambled that as long as she followed the footprints to the scene, and saw that pile of snow that had rushed down from the mountain, she would definitely be able to guess what happened.
As expected, there was a scare but no danger.
In the past, he would have made a joke, "My mom said we have a great understanding, and she was right," but he had just been lectured by his mom, so he wasn't in the mood, and only asked about the main point:
"That long-haired woman has been dealt with?"
"She's been taken care of."
"That's good."
Zhang Shutong didn't feel relieved after hearing this. Instead, he frowned. In this case, he had an even harder time guessing what he had missed in the previous timeline.
"There's a chair, you can sit down and rest. I really don't have the strength to get up. I'm sorry." Zhang Shutong reached for an orange and threw it to her. "How's your foot?"
"It's fine." Lu Qinglian didn't sit down, nor did she peel the orange.
"So what was that thing exactly?" He had met many people today and could only keep it to himself, but he didn't have to hide anything from Lu Qinglian. "I think she's even scarier than you said. You also saw the traces she left behind, right? Even on a bike, she almost caught up to me, although it was a farm vehicle and didn't go very fast, maybe a few dozen kilometers at most."
Lu Qinglian didn't answer his question, but instead asked:
"Who was that person?"
Zhang Shutong choked.
"Do you remember what I said before," Lu Qinglian said expressionlessly. "If you want honesty, you have to exchange it with the corresponding attitude."
"Two deceased people."
"Who?" Lu Qinglian walked to the window. She had changed into that green robe again. Her long hair was loose, leaving only a back view. She seemed to be talking to herself, "Zhang Shutong, this is your last chance."
"Teacher Song's girlfriend and Gu Qiumian's mom."
"Oh," Lu Qinglian was not surprised at all. Instead, she gently peeled the orange. "I thought you wouldn't say it."
"Actually, even if I didn't say it, you could have guessed, right?"
Zhang Shutong sighed:
"There are only two things related to that woman that happened these last few days. Teacher Song being sent to the hospital, and the culprit who wanted to kill Gu Qiumian. You were present when the first thing happened, and you should have heard Ruoping say that he saw a certain person and then ran out in a very emotional state. You might not know that I went to his dorm last night, but if you pay attention, you can find some things.
"As for the second thing, there's also a loophole. At that time, I clearly picked up Gu Qiumian, but then I suddenly called you and asked you to change direction. Let me ask you the simplest question. Why would a culprit that a bodyguard could handle be deliberately led away? This shows that this person definitely couldn't be discovered by the people in the villa. And I also talked to you about the lock on the villa gate, the fingerprint, facial recognition. Furthermore, you've been to Gu Qiumian's house and know that her mother isn't there, so it's not hard to guess.
"These things are transparent to you. You just lack a few pieces of information, and you'll figure it out sooner or later. On the other hand, I know nothing about your information, so I might as well say it and exchange information."
"You're a bit smarter than I thought." Lu Qinglian turned around. "One last question. That night, are you sure you saw me? It's best to think carefully before answering."
"I'm sure." Zhang Shutong immediately remembered something and asked, "That person who looked like you wasn't found?"
He subconsciously thought that Teacher Song's girlfriend, Gu Qiumian's mother, and the fake Lu Qinglian were all one "thing." Could it be that they weren't?
"She was found." Lu Qinglian just said.
"...Can you just say it all at once?" Zhang Shutong lay back on the bed. "Since you've already confirmed that the person you're looking for is that long-haired woman, can you tell me why you're looking for her?"
"Incorrect." Lu Qinglian lightly opened her lips.
"Incorrect? What do you mean?" Zhang Shutong looked up again, only to find that Lu Qinglian had already walked to the door at some point. She locked the door, and then walked to the bed step by step.
The girl in the green robe sat on the head of the bed like this, her eyes without any ripples, staring indifferently at him:
"It means that the person I am looking for—
"Is you."
Zhang Shutong suddenly had a bad premonition. He subconsciously wanted to reach for his phone, but the phone was lightly taken away by Lu Qinglian.
"To be precise, Grandma is looking for you."
"Why is she looking for me?" Zhang Shutong remembered the experience in the previous timeline. He didn't know why he went to the Green Snake Temple, and then came back with an anxiety disorder.
Wait, did something similar happen before?
He suddenly had this thought. The answer was unknown, but he clearly remembered that not long ago on the mountain, Lu Qinglian had said, "Try not to appear in front of my grandma. I'm not sure how long I can hide it." He didn't understand why the other person was now saying something contradictory.
Zhang Shutong then figured out another thing—
A question he had subconsciously overlooked: what would he miss if he stayed in the hospital in the city for a week?
The answer was:
"The event of meeting Lu Qinglian" itself!
Think about it carefully. Lu Qinglian couldn't go off the island to visit him. If he went off the island, it would mean that he would not have the chance to have contact with her for the next week.
Zhang Shutong clenched the bedsheet with one hand:
"You'd better be clear."
"Do I need to be so clear?" Lu Qinglian asked back softly. "Right now, there's only you here. You have no ability to resist. Even if you did, I could still take you away."
"You said before that you were going to hide it from your grandma. What happened since I fainted?"
"I should be the one asking that question. What happened after you fainted? You seem to be very resistant to going to the temple." She tilted her head. "Did you have a similar dream before, or did you, dream again?"
Zhang Shutong stared at her intently, then suddenly relaxed:
"You did that on purpose? You've been trying to trick me since before."
"You found out." As she said this, Lu Qinglian's aura suddenly relaxed. She uninterestingly broke off an orange segment and put it into her mouth.
"If you really wanted to kidnap me, you would have done it already. You wouldn't waste all this time talking to me." Zhang Shutong felt his back was wet. "I know you saved my life, but please, can you not be so scary?"
"Scaring you? Hmm, you can understand it that way for now." Lu Qinglian stood up and chewed the orange slowly. "Clay figurine."
"Clay figurine?" A normal person would just find these two words inexplicable, but Zhang Shutong knew that she was answering his first question—what exactly was that woman.
He didn't know why he felt these two words were a bit familiar, as if he had heard them before, and as if he hadn't:
"What is a clay figurine?"
"The literal meaning."
"Why did it turn into those two people?"
Lu Qinglian glanced at him:
"It's the first time I've seen that kind of thing too."
...
Inside the villa, in the study.
The man hung up the phone and wearily pinched the space between his eyebrows:
"Come in."
He said casually. Then a man in a black windbreaker came in front of him. The bodyguard bowed and handed a sealed waterproof bag to the man:
"Mr. Gu, the scene of the avalanche has been cleaned up. There are some plastic fragments, which should be from the motorcycle." The bodyguard paused, and then said, "There was also something else, but it should also have been dropped by that student…"
Gu Jianhong took the plastic bag. The plastic bag was still slightly cold, but the melted snow on it had been wiped clean. He opened the seal and pulled out a piece of thick paper from it.
It was a photo.
The photo had been soaked.
In the photo was the boy he had seen in the ward this morning.
Except that the person in the photo could only be described as a boy. Although it was the same person, he was much younger than he was in the ward.
It was a naive face.
About seven or eight years old.
It was an ordinary photo, like a souvenir photo from a trip. There was only one person in the picture.
The seven or eight-year-old boy had black spiky hair and was smiling brightly. The background was...
The port of the small island.
Gu Jianhong flipped the photo over and found that there were four small characters written on it with a black marker:
— First time meeting.