"Aren't you two good deskmates?"
"Who's good with him?"
Zhang Shutong had thought they were one of the few people in class he could actually talk to.
He set down his backpack, not minding chatting with Miss Gu:
"Didn't you just give me an example yesterday?"
As he spoke, Zhang Shutong pointed at the window.
But Gu Qiumian just pursed her lips and turned her face away directly: "I don't understand what you're saying."
And that was that—she wouldn't acknowledge him anymore.
Zhang Shutong reminded her:
"You forgot, it was what you drew..."
"Zhang Shutong, do you have any emotional intelligence at all?" Gu Qiumian quickly turned back around. She had quite long eyelashes that swept back and forth when she glared.
The term "emotional intelligence" was still quite trendy in this era. Zhang Shutong stopped provoking her, but Gu Qiumian rolled her eyes and, in a rare moment of being willing to explain, said:
"He was fine at first, but then he kept talking beside me, rambling on and on and on. Whatever I did, he'd be watching from the side. So annoying."
"Is this a warning about my new deskmate?" Under the training of Trainer Gu Qiumian, Pokémon Zhang Shutong's [Emotional Intelligence] had increased.
"Of course."
"Am I a human shield?"
"Who told you to talk so little?"
"Yes, yes." Zhang Shutong sat down with amusement, not sure whether he should be happy that the young miss thought so highly of him.
Still, being a human shield wasn't bad—with him sitting here, no one dared come close, and he enjoyed the peace and quiet.
"What about payment?" He asked Gu Qiumian for cookies—not because he was greedy, just thought it was fun.
"I still have three scores to settle with you!" The girl had that look of 'do you have no self-awareness?'
Which three?
Zhang Shutong wanted to ask, but being taciturn was one of his strengths, so he didn't. He was actually thinking about something else:
Just now when he approached his seat, he hadn't caught what that boy said clearly, but he'd captured a few keywords:
"Don't take it lightly, I really heard it back then..."
What did this reminder mean?
He'd just been to check out the Forbidden Zone, and being out so early in the morning made him a bit paranoid, subconsciously thinking about the culprit.
Zhang Shutong immediately analyzed that this conversation probably wasn't something that happened because he'd gone back eight years and changed something—it existed in the original timeline. Could it be that someone had already discovered the setup targeting Gu Qiumian at this point?
Not only discovered it, but warned her about it. But judging from Gu Qiumian's attitude, she seemed to think he was trying to hit on her, so she didn't take it seriously?
The possibility was small, but to be safe, he should at least ask.
Just as he was about to speak, a paper ball hit him.
Looking back, it was Ruoping. She was standing at the back of the classroom, on her tiptoes, waving frantically at Zhang Shutong.
If it were anyone else he'd be too lazy to go over—he'd definitely make them come to him. But Ruoping was an exception. Not only was she one of his close friends, she was the only girl among them. Most of the time, Zhang Shutong was a bit more patient with her than with Du Kang and Qingyi.
"What's up?"
"British style today, huh? What made you decide to dress up?" Ruoping pointed at his clothes and praised him.
Her tone was like an old mom's. She really was a fangirl.
Zhang Shutong didn't understand what British style meant. Looking down, he only noticed that his scarf wasn't wrapped tight, hanging loosely around his neck. Was that what she meant?
He simply untied the scarf and bunched it in his hand. Now Ruoping had nothing to look at, and said disappointedly:
"Aw, I wanted to take a photo."
She sometimes used him and Qingyi as models, not caring whether they were willing or not. She'd take candid shots and post them on her QQ space—not to show off, just because she thought they looked good. Sometimes when Du Kang caught a particularly colorful fish, it was the same, though in those cases Ruoping only photographed the fish, not people.
"How were you yesterday? Did you sleep well?"
Zhang Shutong didn't take her bait, but rarely showed concern.
"Oh my, going for the warm guy style today, huh?" Ruoping covered her mouth and laughed. "But I'm not falling for that, handsome. Save your energy."
This was exactly the kind of moment Zhang Shutong didn't know how to respond.
Ruoping continued:
"I just wanted to tell you—call Qinglian out for me. I have something to tell her. Yesterday the timing was too tight. I only realized after I got home that I hadn't properly thanked her. If it weren't for her, we'd all have been in trouble."
Zhang Shutong thought that was true, but then realized—you could just say this yourself, there's no need to call me out here. He was instantly speechless.
But Ruoping misunderstood his meaning and laughed even more happily, like she was teasing a sulking child with a sour face:
"Don't be upset, don't be upset. You were a big help back then too—if it weren't for you, we'd all have suffered. What do you want for lunch today, big hero? Want me to buy you milk tea?"
"...I meant, why don't you call her yourself?"
But as soon as he said this, Ruoping's eyes went wide:
"Zhang Shutong, I think you really are bewitched!"
"What?"
"Sigh, I don't know if I should say you're dense or playing dumb. You're asking why I won't go over to your side?" Ruoping pointed behind him. "Look at who your deskmate is right now!"
Zhang Shutong didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
Only after Ruoping reminded him did he remember the two of them had some history.
"That's it?" He was puzzled.
"That's it! Not good enough for you?"
Ruoping stopped smiling too, just staring behind him. Quite magically, at that moment Miss Gu seemed to sense something and happened to turn her head. The two girls' gazes met for an instant, they both snorted coldly, then turned their faces away.
Zhang Shutong was caught in the center of the battlefield, feeling like an Oreo... Why had he been dealing with Oreos so much these past couple days?
Ruoping looked at him with a smile, full big-sister energy:
"Zhang Shutong, you figure it out yourself."
"..."
"Oh, I just realized—no wonder you're going for British style today. Turns out it's matching outfits." Ruoping covered her mouth in surprise. "One red scarf, one black scarf—you two are quite a pair."
Zhang Shutong immediately admitted defeat:
"I'll call her for you... Anything else?"
"Nope. Buy me milk tea at lunch." Ruoping waved her hand cheerfully and left.
Hadn't she just said she'd buy him milk tea? Why did it switch to him buying her milk tea?
Zhang Shutong pondered this question, feeling like she'd had no good intentions from the moment she mentioned "milk tea."
Still, buying was buying—he didn't really care. It was just friends messing around. He'd let it go.
That's just how Ruoping was. Just thinking about drinking milk tea felt boring, and even having you treat her wasn't enough—she had to set a trap and con you into it to feel accomplished.
But Zhang Shutong wasn't Du Kang. Using Lu Qinglian to threaten Du Kang could really intimidate that kid—forget milk tea, he'd drag over a whole cow. With himself though, it was really just teasing. As the saying goes, desire nothing and you'll be strong—Zhang Shutong was exactly in that state.
He returned to his seat, and before helping call Lu Qinglian, his mind picked up his earlier train of thought. Just as he was about to ask Gu Qiumian "what were you two just talking about," he opened his mouth only to find the girl had a cold face and was ignoring him.
Probably another traitor hat had been firmly stuck on his head.
The way she ignored people was quite amusing too. She'd set her textbook against Lu Qinglian's chair back, eyes straight ahead, little hands tucked into her sweater sleeves, both sleeves covering her ears, her scarf covering most of her face, concentrating on morning reading—no matter what you said, she wouldn't listen, wouldn't listen.
Loyalty and righteousness can't both be fulfilled? No, that's not right. Seeing righteousness but looking at faces? Still not right.
Zhang Shutong just felt this was quite like a replay of the chocolate incident:
Back then, Gu Qiumian had gotten into a conflict with Ruoping over it. That afternoon during classroom duty, Miss Gu had charged in carrying a bag of chocolates, asking if he wanted any. Zhang Shutong chose to politely decline, and from that point on he'd also made an enemy of Gu Qiumian, earning the title of traitor.
What just happened, from Gu Qiumian's perspective, she probably thought when Ruoping called him over, they'd badmouthed her together; or maybe Ruoping demanded he not talk to that deskmate of his anymore or something.
In any case, who knows what she'd imagined.
He found girls' interpersonal relationships very strange. Like last night—Ruoping and Lu Qinglian had chatted for a bit and already considered each other friends, though their actual friendship wasn't that deep.
Then there was Gu Qiumian. At the root of it, did they really have such a big grudge? Actually no. In the boys' eyes, it would blow over in a few days, but the two of them stayed stuck in that state. Was it more about saving face?
Zhang Shutong couldn't figure this out. He could only say that if he had to do it over again, emotionally he leaned toward Ruoping's side, but to avoid trouble and not escalate the conflict like before, he'd stay neutral and offend no one.
At this point Miss Gu got up for something, maybe to use the bathroom. She stood without looking at Zhang Shutong, just knocked on his chair back with a stern face.
Their system for letting each other through had become like some kind of secret signal. This time Zhang Shutong understood and consciously moved his chair, watching her leave.
He'd have to wait to ask the boy himself about clues related to her.
He sincerely believed it was easier to deal with simple-minded girls.
Like Lu Qinglian.
Such a pure girl.
Though sometimes she was pretty baffling too, being baffling meant headache-inducing things wouldn't happen. Thinking this, he poked the girl who was doing morning reading with his pen, inexplicably feeling relieved.
The young woman suddenly froze completely, then turned around. Before she could speak, those thin eyebrows had already furrowed.
Her normal furrowed brow already had strong presence, especially after last night's incident which made people subconsciously recall those explosively powerful two kicks. Looking at her now, there was actually an illusion of being targeted.
But Zhang Shutong couldn't figure out where he'd provoked her this time. Wasn't one person enough? How did another one show up?
"Don't touch my waist." Lu Qinglian said slowly, her eyes seeming to flow with killing intent.
"Oh... sorry."
They say a girl's waist and feet can't be casually touched, but he really hadn't noticed. In fact, to avoid suspicion he'd specifically used a pen, yet ended up poking her waist.
"What is it?" The young woman's brow relaxed. She returned to an expressionless look.
"Ruoping just asked me to call you. She wants to thank you."
Lu Qinglian nodded. Zhang Shutong remembered something else:
"Oh right, I didn't find the history notes. So..."
"I took them from your bookshelf this morning."
When she said this, Lu Qinglian had already turned back around. She held her textbook, explaining flatly, her voice drifting to Zhang Shutong's ears amid the morning reading sounds.
Zhang Shutong felt she was quite like an old computer that needed to shut down every day. After rebooting, that day's cache was gone too, as if last night's events never happened and everyone's friendship was still just ordinary schoolmates.
Zhang Shutong himself didn't care, but felt Ruoping and the others would be confused. Earlier they'd been chatting casually in the group chat, swearing this was the beginning of a great friendship, but they'd just paddled the friendship boat out only to look back and see Lu Qinglian still standing on shore.
Comparatively, though he'd been taciturn back in the day, he wasn't like this.
Still, he didn't really care, just felt relieved that he hadn't lost her notes. That thing would be hard to compensate for even if he tried.
He turned back to find that boy, finally remembering his name was Zhou Ziheng. Back when Gu Qiumian's scarf got stepped on, he'd stood up as the first witness, saying it must have been Zhang Shutong.
Zhang Shutong didn't have strong feelings about this. He couldn't really be angry—too much time had passed. Even if they'd gotten in a fight, he wouldn't hold a grudge this long.
Back then he'd mostly just been frustrated. Who told him to actually be somewhat suspicious? Qingyi and Du Kang had gone to settle accounts with the guy though.
He had no intention of settling accounts with Zhou Ziheng. When the other party saw him, he actually became guilty first.
"What do you want?" The boy's body instinctively leaned back, warily. "I didn't provoke you, did I?"
Zhang Shutong was bewildered.
Was he really that scary?
He tried hard to squeeze out a smile, making himself more approachable:
"Relax, I just want to ask you something. Just now you and Gu Qiumian..."
"You don't need to intimidate me. If you keep this up I'm telling the teacher..."
As he spoke, the other party directly squeezed past his body and ran out with a whoosh.
Zhang Shutong stood in place, after a long moment asking his female deskmate:
"Was I very scary just now?"
The girl wore glasses and was their class monitor. In his memory, her personality was somewhat introverted, but she was quite solid when doing things.
The monitor first blanked for a moment, wiped her glasses, and said uncertainly:
"I think you were fine. Of course I didn't look too carefully just now. Zhang Shutong, how about... how about you smile again?"
Zhang Shutong could only try hard to smile again.
The monitor blanked again for a moment, hesitating: "I still didn't see clearly..."
At this point the girl in front of her turned around. When she spoke she showed a little fang—also a lively personality. She mercilessly exposed the truth:
"Don't listen to her, she's doing it on purpose. She just wants to see you smile a few more times..."
As she spoke, ignoring how the monitor's face immediately turned red, she shouted forward:
"Feng Ruoping, Feng Ruoping! The monitor is flirting with your Shutong, come save him!"
What do you mean "your"?
Ruoping magnanimously waved her hand without looking back, quite boldly:
"This palace permits it. Such a small matter need not be reported. Court is adjourned—"
A few other girls who were close with Ruoping also looked up. Only at times like this did they dare tease Zhang Shutong to his face, mixing half-true half-false words together, laughing and making a ruckus amid the morning reading sounds, with Zhang Shutong himself naturally being the subject.
Zhang Shutong's face darkened. Just as he was about to leave, the monitor suddenly asked him to stay:
"Can I ask one more thing—did what just happened have to do with Gu Qiumian?"
Before he could answer, she quickly added:
"You, and Gu Qiumian, and Zhou Ziheng—the three of you?"
A strange light suddenly reflected in the girl's glasses. Zhang Shutong knew this was the prelude to gossip-gathering, making her seem like Conan, as if she'd suddenly become a different person:
"Oh right, I just saw Gu Qiumian go out. Did Zhou Ziheng provoke her, so you came to take revenge for her?"
"...You're overthinking it."
"Then yesterday during English class..."
Zhang Shutong suddenly smiled at her. The girl blanked again. Zhang Shutong turned and left, speechless.
What was all this about? Felt like Ruoping's fangirl tendencies were contagious.
He frowned. Originally he hadn't thought anything about Zhou Ziheng, but with the guy acting so guilty, it actually seemed somewhat suspicious.
He'd probably run to the bathroom to hide. Zhang Shutong was wondering whether to go after him and press for answers.
At that moment their beloved homeroom teacher, Song Nanshan, suddenly rushed in energetically:
He was the same as always, sleeves rolled up despite the cold weather. Old Song raised an eyebrow and called out with a smile:
"Zhang Shutong, Lu Qinglian, Feng Ruoping, Meng Qingyi, and Du Kang—are you five here? Come out, come out. Your secret's out. In a bit, please come to the speaking platform—"