Qingyi quickly explained everything, and Zhang Shutong soon understood the whole story.
It turned out that Li Yipeng's family owned a supermarket on the commercial street—not a small one either. Word was they'd even opened a branch in the city and bought a house in recent years. On the small island, they were already considered "wealthy people."
Zhang Shutong knew these kinds of supermarkets mainly made money from cigarettes and alcohol, with a steady customer base. By all accounts, they should be living comfortably. But who could blame them for the fact that in recent years, Gu Qiumian's father had built a shopping center? Their businesses overlapped severely, and their family was squeezed the hardest. With their livelihood affected, Li Yipeng had heard no shortage of bad things said about the Gu family. Now, with old grudges piled on top of new ones, he'd done this stupid thing to get revenge on her.
Zhang Shutong recalled what he'd witnessed during lunch. "So at the root of it all, it's still conflicts from outside school?"
"Right, otherwise it wouldn't have been delayed this long."
"What about the bathroom name incident?" Zhang Shutong asked again.
"That's also related to the commercial street. According to his own account, the person who slipped him the note was in a similar situation to his family, or even worse—a family of three all depending on that one shop to eat."
"Why go into such detail?"
"To increase credibility, I guess. Then he told him that if he wanted revenge on Gu Qiumian, he should write her name on the stall partition as a secret signal between the two of them."
Zhang Shutong found it strange. "Li Yipeng actually let himself be used as someone's pawn?"
"The other person said that since Li Yipeng used to be in the same class as Gu Qiumian, he knew more about her and would know how to hit where it hurt most." Qingyi also rolled his eyes. "And this Li Yipeng guy... well, you know how he always liked showing off before. He actually felt it gave him some kind of sense of mission."
"But there's one thing that's different from our judgment."
Qingyi added:
"Although they initially wanted to target the scarf, the castle wasn't just incidental—including that A4 paper. These were all intentional, actually meant to hint at Gu Qiumian's family's shopping center. Kind of like a criminal declaration."
"Declaration?"
"Yeah, otherwise why would Li Yipeng cooperate with him? The other person said there were other revenge plans, that the castle and scarf were just the beginning, meant to let Gu Qiumian know it was her family's shopping center that provoked them."
Zhang Shutong was about to say something when Song Nanshan walked over, cheerfully asking what you few rascals were doing running out during exercises—did you want cleaning duty again? But his good mood only lasted an instant. Once Zhang Shutong opened his mouth, Old Song's expression immediately darkened.
......
By the time the bell for fourth period rang, Song Nanshan still hadn't shown up in class.
He was still in the office, having directly summoned Li Yipeng's parents.
Zhang Shutong now stood in a corner of the office, with Li Yipeng himself beside him. Du Kang and Qingyi had already returned to class. He'd requested to stay and listen, and Old Song didn't object, though he wasn't in the mood to say much either.
The problem lay with that "mastermind."
Zhang Shutong understood—if he were Old Song, he'd have a headache too. They'd just solved one issue and another popped up. Never mind that Gu Qiumian's family wasn't ordinary—even if she were just a regular girl, it would be enough to give a homeroom teacher trouble.
Not to mention it involved family conflicts.
Old Song was even more furious after hearing about it. He directly kicked Li Yipeng's ass, saying if you dared to own up to what you did, I'd think more highly of you. But now you're making a bunch of excuses—what kind of bullshit revenge is this? Do you still think you're somehow justified? Once wasn't enough, so you tried again, and even wrote "go die" on the A4 paper. How old are you? I think you're just purely rotten!
In his anger, his words became somewhat unfiltered. He also said your family's bad business has nothing to do with anyone else—picking on a young girl here, yet I don't see you going directly to confront her father!
When Old Song lost his temper, he was truly frightening. Over six feet tall with a sturdy build, when he shouted, even the office cabinet doors seemed to tremble slightly. Li Yipeng was the typical child spoiled rotten at home—he liked showing off normally, but when something actually happened, he was completely at a loss. He was shouted into tears.
A teenage boy with stubble already growing on his chin, wiping tears in the office—it left one speechless.
You could tell Song Nanshan was holding back considerably. He opened the office window and lit a cigarette, simply calling the boy's parents to take him home for discipline.
Around the time third period was ending, Li Yipeng's mother finally showed up, fashionably late.
The woman was tall and thin, carrying what looked like an expensive leather bag. Her thin lips were painted with lipstick, and her face was thickly powdered, though it couldn't hide the wrinkles, making her appearance somewhat jarring.
Song Nanshan was still forcibly suppressing his anger as he explained the whole situation, but everything he said revealed dissatisfaction—
He felt the parents shouldn't have discussed business matters with their child. Even if it was Li Yipeng acting on his own initiative, for a student whose mind wasn't fully mature to do such a thing, it couldn't have happened without parental influence.
Zhang Shutong remembered one of Old Song's wise sayings. Shortly after the semester started, he'd told the class: "Though I haven't met your parents yet, I can judge pretty accurately what they're like from your behavior."
This saying proved accurate now. The woman didn't listen to Old Song at all. Instead, seeing her son crying, she quickly pulled out tissues to wipe his tears, cooing endearments and asking questions nonstop.
Old Song cleared his throat and said gravely:
"Li Yipeng's mother, I hope you parents will take this more seriously..."
Before he could finish, the woman impatiently interrupted:
"Teacher Song, isn't this just kids having a little spat or argument? When you called earlier asking what happened, you insisted on waiting until I got here to explain. I thought something serious had happened to Pengpeng at school."
Zhang Shutong saw the vein at Old Song's temple already throbbing, but he still patiently handed over the photo of the A4 paper. The woman merely glanced at it before looking away:
"I know my own child. He's just impulsive—at most he talks big, but he didn't actually do anything in the end, did he?"
She continued to coddle Li Yipeng, saying don't cry, don't cry, if you don't want to attend class today, we'll leave at lunch and come back next Monday.
"What do you mean he didn't do anything!" Old Song slammed the table, his voice rising in anger. "If this is your attitude as a parent, then I have nothing more to say. I'll just call Gu Qiumian's father over directly!"
Zhang Shutong had observed the whole process and knew Song Nanshan was still showing restraint. He hadn't contacted Gu Qiumian's father first, but had called Li Yipeng's parents over, preparing to work out a solution before proceeding, trying to minimize the incident's impact.
It wasn't that he sympathized with Li Yipeng—rather, it was out of professional ethics, not wanting the boy to end up with too bad an outcome.
Last time, just for telling a dirty joke, the boy had been transferred to another class. This time would only be more severe.
So really, if Old Song just wanted to wash his hands of it, the simplest approach would be to call both sets of parents and let them confront each other directly. That would actually be easier for him—after all, Li Yipeng wasn't in his class, so theoretically it really had nothing to do with Old Song.
But now Li Yipeng's mother's indifferent attitude made Song Nanshan bring up Gu Qiumian's father as a veiled warning.
He thought it would have some effect, but the woman just paused for a moment:
"Who?"
Then she laughed coldly:
"Gu Qiumian? The one whose dad opened the shopping center? Oh my, Teacher Song, so that's why you're so anxious—turns out you're threatening us on behalf of some big boss.
"Oh, last time Yipeng was transferred because of her too, right? This time what else does her family want to do—expel him directly? We usually put up with their bad business practices, but now they're throwing their weight around at school too. Do they really think they own the school?"
Zhang Shutong frowned at these words, finding it different from what he'd expected.
The transfer incident was too long ago, and he hadn't cared about it at the time. The impression left was simply that an ordinary student had provoked Gu Qiumian, and because the girl's family had considerable influence, the matter had escalated. So initially, when the woman didn't take it seriously, he'd assumed it was because she was overprotective and hadn't noticed her son had provoked Gu Qiumian again. Once she understood the situation, even if she didn't show fear or worry, she should at least realize the severity.
But now it seemed different. Far from backing down, the woman had a bellyful of anger and was demanding answers.
Song Nanshan forcibly restrained his fury:
"Li Yipeng's mother, I have to ask—what do you think the school's rules and regulations are? It's your son who keeps picking on the girl. What does this have to do with bosses or not? If it were any other student today, I'd say the same thing.
"As a teacher, I can't control whatever conflicts you have with your businesses outside school. What I'm discussing with you now is this child's character!"
The woman replied mockingly:
"What do you mean character problems? What's wrong with Yipeng's character? He just knocked over a little toy house. Oh right, you just said someone else instigated my Yipeng to do it. Well, I think that Gu-whatever has character problems. Why not think about why everyone has issues with her?
"Stop twisting things around with me!" Song Nanshan slammed the table and glared. "I'll say it again—if you don't want to be reasonable, then go talk directly with Gu Qiumian's father."
But the woman didn't care:
"Who are you trying to scare, Teacher Song? Like her dad being on a business trip is some kind of secret? Plenty of people know about it. Go ahead and call him over to talk with me—the question is, can you even get him here?
"Or are you going to say her dad's just on a business trip, that he'll come back? Fine, then we'll talk when he returns."
At this point, the woman actually relaxed and even had the mood to smooth her hair:
"The key issue is whether he'll still have the mood to talk with me when that time comes. My family doesn't care—worst case, we'll just transfer Yipeng to another school. We don't depend on that little supermarket to eat."
Song Nanshan frowned:
"I told you, I don't care about whether you can put food on the table or not. Don't bring that up..."
"You don't care, but plenty of people do." The woman sneered as she interrupted. "Teacher Song, it's fine for you to stick up for her, but her dad has provoked public outrage. You'd better be careful you don't fail to curry favor with the big boss and end up causing yourself trouble instead. Let me tell you one more thing."
The woman raised her eyebrows gleefully:
"Isn't Boss Gu leaving us all with nothing to eat? My family doesn't depend on the street supermarket, but some people's entire livelihood depends on those street shops. If knocking over his daughter's little house causes this much fuss today, well, I'd say bigger incidents are probably still to come..."
Before she could finish, Song Nanshan stood up abruptly. With a bang, he knocked over the teacup on the desk. The man's face was no longer angry but completely ice-cold as he said word by word:
"What do you mean by that?"
The woman was also startled but still forced herself to drop a line: "We'll see."
Then she grabbed her bag with one hand and directly pulled Li Yipeng away with the other.
Only after the woman's figure had gone far away did Zhang Shutong help close the door. Song Nanshan suddenly punched the desk and threw himself back into his office chair.
Neither teacher nor student was in the mood to talk—one was holding back his anger, while the other was pondering the meaning in the woman's words.
Who was that person? Or rather, was it a group of people?
It wasn't until the faint smell of smoke drifted into Zhang Shutong's nostrils.
He turned to look. Old Song, no longer caring that someone was present, was smoking sullenly in his seat. Only when the cigarette butt was about to fall did he force a smile and wave at Zhang Shutong:
"Why are you frowning too? You're just a little brat—there are adults here, so it's not your turn to worry about these things. Alright, your curiosity is satisfied. Go back to class."
Zhang Shutong didn't move. "What did his mother mean?"
"When the cat's away, the mice will play." Song Nanshan scoffed. "Just taking advantage of Gu Qiumian's dad being away for a few days. If he were actually standing here face to face, who knows if she'd even dare let out a fart."
Hearing this, Zhang Shutong realized he really hadn't seen what Gu Qiumian's father looked like. Their only connection was probably hearing the man's voice when going to school—in his memory, it had even seemed somewhat refined.
"What about the commercial street?" Zhang Shutong inquired further.
"Probably they're negotiating demolition again recently. This time Gu Qiumian's dad is keeping the price low, and some people aren't too willing. But if they don't agree now, it'll only be lower in the future, so that's why it's provoked public outrage." At this, Song Nanshan spread his hands. "But both you and I are outsiders. We don't have any close local connections, so I don't know more than that."
Old Song actually opened up:
"Come on, don't stand here sulking. I'll take you to eat. What do you want for lunch?"
He was about to lead his student to skip school.
But Zhang Shutong shook his head in refusal. He still had a pile of things to investigate—how could he have the mood to go out and eat?
"You're quite the dutiful flower guardian. I can see the girl is moved to tears."
Actually, before Li Yipeng's mother arrived, Gu Qiumian had already come by once.
But Zhang Shutong didn't want to engage with this topic.
"You need to be more proactive," Old Song perked up and started acting as a life coach. "Otherwise, with you two—one keeping a cold face and not talking, the other keeping a stern face and not being honest—I'm telling you, I've seen plenty of cases like this, and not one ended well..."
Zhang Shutong waved his hand and was about to leave when he suddenly heard Song Nanshan say solemnly:
"Shutong, don't leave right after school this afternoon. I have something important to discuss with you."
"Something important?" Zhang Shutong turned around, puzzled.
"It's time to let you know." Old Song lit another cigarette and sighed as he rubbed his stubble. "But now's not the right time yet."
......
Time turned to after school.
"Not going to the Base today?"
"Old Song said he has something for me. You guys go ahead."
"Alright then, we'll discuss weekend activities in the QQ group."
Zhang Shutong said goodbye to his close friends.
Only then did he realize that tomorrow was Saturday. After the regression, he'd barely attended two days of school and was about to welcome his first weekend of student life.
Ruoping suddenly came over:
"Don't forget about that thing."
"What?"
Here it comes again... Zhang Shutong's most hated amnesia segment. He really couldn't remember what his eight-years-ago self had agreed to.
"Du Kang's birthday! Next Monday. Don't forget—the three of us need to prepare. He acts like he doesn't care on the surface, but he's actually secretly paying attention..."
Zhang Shutong nodded in sudden realization. It really was like that.
He remembered at the funeral, when talking with Du Kang, the reason he remembered Gu Qiumian's death date so precisely was because it coincided with his own birthday.
He said no problem and watched the three of them walk away laughing and talking.
Time was running out.
Zhang Shutong planned to listen to whatever "important" matter the homeroom teacher had to say, then make a trip to the commercial street.
He just couldn't figure out what that important matter could be.
It was rare to see Old Song this solemn.
So now he wasn't riding his bike but came to the school gate instead.
Steam rose from the bun shop at the school gate, but the girl who used to eat there in small bites was no longer beside it.
Zhang Shutong suddenly found he could accept those strange buns. He planned to have dinner here today too.
So he bit into a bun while waiting for Old Song to arrive.
After waiting a long time, two horn honks suddenly sounded. Zhang Shutong thought he was blocking the way and instinctively turned around, only to see a red Focus stopped there. Then the driver's window rolled down:
"Get in quick." Old Song's serious face appeared.
Zhang Shutong wanted to say they could just talk here—the cigarette smell in his car was too strong, and unless it was something really important, he didn't want to get in. Besides, he still had things to do later.
"This isn't the place to talk. Get in and we'll discuss it." But Song Nanshan repeated.
Zhang Shutong had no choice but to walk over. He was thinking the car seemed familiar—maybe he'd ridden in it a lot before. Even after eight years, there was still a strong sense of familiarity.
It better be something important.
Thinking this, he habitually went for the passenger seat, but Old Song said there was no room there, go to the back.
He acknowledged and opened the back door, bending down. Man, this car really was small. He hadn't noticed before, but now he realized his knees were pressed right against the front seat.
He finally managed to squeeze himself in. When he lifted his head, he discovered the passenger seat really wasn't empty.
More precisely, a familiar person was sitting there.
It was a girl.
The girl glanced at Zhang Shutong with clear displeasure, then turned her head away.
Zhang Shutong suddenly remembered why the car seemed familiar—he'd just seen it yesterday.
He instinctively looked at Old Song. Old Song was looking at them too, grinning widely, with no trace of solemnity:
"Told you it was something important. Giving a girl a ride home is very important."