Right now they were in the beverage section.
The shelves were dazzling with products, and under the spotlights, colorful cans were arranged in front of Gu Qiumian.
She'd been staring at the cocktails for quite a while. A few minutes ago, she'd asked if they should buy a few cans to drink with his friends at noon.
She seemed experienced in this area. When Zhang Shutong asked if she drank often—like when going to KTV with her little crew—she said it was fine, sometimes she'd drink a bit when she was in a good mood.
Zhang Shutong had never seen her tipsy, but he definitely wouldn't see it today, because the plan had changed.
"So?" Gu Qiumian asked.
Zhang Shutong suspected Gu Qiumian had figured out he was trying to show off, and she was actually playing along by asking—if only she wouldn't smirk about it.
He put away his phone:
"So now there's just the two of us."
"What about those two?"
"They're on standby."
"What does that mean?"
"Classified." Zhang Shutong smiled.
Gu Qiumian glared at him again, saying you just can't help being mysterious, can you!
Zhang Shutong couldn't explain—after all, the operation name was "Operation Goddess of Fate Who Controls the Young Miss's Future."
This operation wasn't just about protecting the young miss's life, but also protecting the young miss's mood.
Both were indispensable. If either objective failed, Zhang Shutong wouldn't consider it a success.
So Gu Qiumian tossed her hair and walked off. Zhang Shutong pushed the cart to follow, asking where are you going?
"Didn't you say it's just the two of us now?"
"So?"
Zhang Shutong still couldn't connect that statement with her turning around and leaving.
"So from now on, listen to my arrangements."
As she spoke, she walked forward without looking back, hands clasped behind her, taking small, relaxed steps.
Zhang Shutong felt she'd suddenly become like a tiger, patient with the prey before her, patient and more patient, waiting until the prey's companions scattered, leaving it alone. Finally the tiger grinned, revealing its fangs and a triumphant smile.
This was also a man-eating tiger. Truly terrifying.
If he didn't want to be eaten, he could only push the cart and follow closely, but the cart's wheels were stuck somewhere, squeaking and requiring some effort to get it back on track.
But with Gu Qiumian walking ahead, he had time to check his phone. The iPhone battery was only at 35% now. Zhang Shutong turned on power-saving mode. He hadn't been able to charge it at Gu Qiumian's house last night, and although he didn't use his phone much normally, he couldn't help playing Angry Birds for a while this morning, and had even gotten a failed ending.
He'd habitually wanted to clear the background apps, but supposedly iOS had a unique tombstone mechanism, suitable for lazy users.
Zhang Shutong didn't understand the specific principle, but he knew reality wasn't a game, the killer wasn't a pig head, and aside from this unique mechanism in the phone's system, he didn't want to see anyone's actual tombstone appear before his eyes.
Old Song had just gotten out of the police station. On the phone, he said they were still one "culprit" short.
This arson was a carefully planned operation. As Li Yipeng's mother had said, those people's entire families really did depend on their shops on Commercial Street for their livelihood. They were desperate and afraid of being betrayed, so even recruiting accomplices was done in secret.
Through some special contact method, they first identified people within a certain range who were interested, then there was a small dark room with a piece of paper listing the time and place. Whoever was willing to go would press their fingerprint on the paper.
Originally there were six people, but when the moment came, one person didn't show up last night.
No one knew who the absent person was.
Zhang Shutong explained this to his crew.
Qingyi was the most perceptive:
"So who planned it first?"
"They've already finished questioning. It wasn't those five people."
"So it's the one who didn't come?"
"Exactly, the real mastermind."
"Did he deliberately want those five to take the fall, while he has other plans?"
"Maybe."
"Sounds dangerous. Why don't we just report it to the police?" Ruoping interjected.
"The police are already short-staffed, now they have five more arsonists to deal with. We can't count on them." Qingyi explained.
"Then I think we could just go directly to the police station and stay there until Gu Qiumian's family comes back. At noon we'll have Du Kang bring us food. I want to eat your family's rice noodles."
Ruoping's suggestion was more prudent, but it was unanimously rejected by the three boys.
"No way!"
"Don't you three suddenly lose your heads! (fury)" Ruoping went crazy.
"It's not losing our heads. If we want to catch that mastermind, today might be our only chance. He can only make his move while Gu Qiumian's family is away." Zhang Shutong explained.
"My family doesn't make rice noodles now." Du Kang also explained.
"All wrong." Qingyi made the final call. "Can you guys please look carefully at my operation name?"
"What do you mean?" the three asked simultaneously.
Qingyi just sent a voice message:
"Operation Goddess of Fate Who Controls the Young Miss's Future—meaning, actually the words young miss, future, and goddess of fate can all be ignored. The key word is operation!"
"So?"
"Since it's an operation, there's never been an operation where the girl stays in the police station all day. That wouldn't be romantic at all."
Qingyi said calmly.
In this moment he was like Song Nanshan possessed, forceful and decisive.
Badass!
For once, Zhang Shutong agreed.
"So everyone, from now on, this operation has three objectives—"
Zhang Shutong typed quickly. Being chunibyo didn't matter now, the most important thing was momentum:
"First, confirm who the mastermind is. Second, collect evidence. As for the third..."
—Beep beep beep.
Zhang Shutong paused, stopping his fingers, and looked up to find he'd already followed Gu Qiumian to the supermarket checkout.
She said they should go browse the clothing stores on the third floor next. Zhang Shutong said he was tired, but she said didn't you just agree to listen to my arrangements today?
Had he agreed to that?
Autumn Rain Lingering used "Playing Dirty"!
Zhang Shutong skipped this turn!
"Are you sure you want all this stuff?" Zhang Shutong looked at that pile of snacks, feeling this would really drag down the Goddess of Fate.
"Then let's store it at the service desk first." The young miss didn't know about the boys' operation, and of course even if she did she wouldn't care. Right now she herself was conducting a Crazy Shopping Spree Operation.
"Yes, yes, as you command."
At this moment there was only sighing.
He glanced down at his phone. He hadn't finished typing the third objective just now, but someone had filled it in for him:
"What's there to be shy about, it's just accompanying Gu Qiumian as a good Flower Guardian, what else could it be?" Ruoping said disdainfully. "Otherwise why would he say to follow his command just now? He simply can't free himself up, so naturally he can only command from his phone."
"So that's what 'the plan has changed' means!" Du Kang finally understood. His enthusiasm for this kind of thing was no less than anyone else's. "So now our task is to find that person?"
Zhang Shutong sent a thumbs up, then @'d Du Kang:
"Free right now, birthday boy?"
"At your service." Du Kang was very straightforward.
"Need to trouble you to go out."
"Expected as much."
"It's cold outside."
"I'll dress warmly."
"The road is far too."
"Is that all it takes?"
"Then first ride your bike to Gu Qiumian's house."
"Uh..."
It was now 10:33. Zhang Shutong checked the time and encouraged him:
"Pedal hard!"
Then there was no more word from Du Kang, presumably he'd gone to change clothes.
Qingyi immediately followed up:
"What about Ruoping and me?"
"Stand by for now. Wait for news from my end."
"Roger that."
"I really can't with you guys. If you haven't figured it out, just say you haven't figured it out. Can you not make 'just browsing around' sound so mission-critical?"
...She'd hit the nail on the head.
In those few exchanges, the phone battery had dropped another percent. Zhang Shutong tucked his phone away.
The snacks were packed into two large bags. He took one, Gu Qiumian carried one, and they stored the items before taking the escalator to the third floor.
Zhang Shutong held the handrail. During the slow ascent, huge vertical banners hung down from the ceiling, probably for some store's upcoming opening.
There were balloons floating in front of the banners, like a celebration wishing their operation success. In the lively, cheerful atmosphere, Zhang Shutong asked Gu Qiumian why her dad didn't open a movie theater.
She thought about it and said she'd heard dad mention it once—it would be built next year, but even when built there wouldn't be much point going. The scale would be very small.
"If you're going to go, go to the one in the city." The girl pulled out her phone again, using one slender finger to swipe across the screen. She tapped around until they reached the third floor entrance, nearly losing her footing: "Mm, let me see... I searched for this week, nothing good to watch."
You're really planning to go?
Zhang Shutong thought worriedly. For the first time he was grateful that the island's commercial development was quite incomplete, otherwise his schedule today would definitely be packed to bursting—
Shopping with big and small bags in the morning, eating lunch at a high-end restaurant the young miss would approve of, then holding a huge bucket of popcorn at the movies in the evening... But that still wouldn't be the end. After the movie let out, they'd probably have to find a park where they could see the moon and sit on a bench for a while.
Just imagining that scene gave Zhang Shutong a headache, so he said no good movies was perfect—they could just browse around the island. But Gu Qiumian was thinking about something else. Walking ahead of Zhang Shutong, she suddenly turned back and said:
"Let's wait until next week then..."
She always liked to arrange things properly, whether it was going off-island with her crew or this time. The scary thing was the more she talked, the more it overlapped with Zhang Shutong's imagined schedule—from which street had more new clothes and bags, to which restaurants were good, then which KTV had a nice environment, which cinema had soft seats... But before she could finish, Zhang Shutong already didn't know how to respond.
He didn't know if in the original timeline, she'd had these same thoughts at this moment. Maybe she had, because she'd said this morning she wanted to watch a movie at home.
Zhang Shutong had once asked her if she played games. She was electronically illiterate—how could she possibly understand such things? Forget Angry Birds, even Talking Tom Cat seemed like a novelty to her. Just now while browsing the supermarket, Zhang Shutong had taught her to download one, and she held it in her hand talking to that silly cat, laughing constantly, and insisted Zhang Shutong listen too. Sometimes when he commented dryly, it provided new material, and the two people and one cat were all equally idiotic.
This showed she was absolutely an outsider to games. Gu Qiumian said she usually liked watching movies. Although her house had a dedicated audiovisual wall, it ultimately wasn't as big as a movie theater screen, and even the richest family couldn't outrun time—meaning that no matter how rich she was, what played in the home theater were always old movies, repeated who knows how many times, before her eyes.
Zhang Shutong had already been to that audiovisual room. It was no longer the mysterious place he and his crew used to call "the castle." He'd spent last night in that castle and could say it was eye-opening, but only after truly going there did he realize that no matter how luxurious the so-called underground audiovisual room was, no matter how large its floor area, it was just an empty space built up with concrete and steel.
So he could imagine that in countless past days, in that dim space with images flickering across the screen, the progress bar rolling halfway through, a girl wrapped in a wine-red bathrobe curled up on the sofa, watching and watching until she lowered her head, tapped her phone with her finger, and made plans with friends to go to the city together on the weekend.
That was a weekend that could never be reached. Zhang Shutong didn't know what she'd thought then, what wishes she'd made... Looking up, he saw Gu Qiumian holding her phone again, talking to that Tom cat.
She asked crisply, would it be good to go see a movie next week? That dumb cat also answered foolishly, would it be good to go see a movie next week...
What's there to be good or not good about it.
Zhang Shutong suddenly thought irritably, why plan something so far away, so far that you've never once made it there.
But the things right before their eyes weren't much worth browsing either. The clothing styles were old-fashioned. The shopping centers in the city were already selling spring clothes, but here they were still having winter clearance sales. Gu Qiumian put away her phone too, sometimes asking him if that hat looked good, sometimes asking if that scarf was fashionable. To Zhang Shutong's eye they all looked dated, but she enjoyed it endlessly.
Finally they stopped at a shop selling small accessories.
Zhang Shutong shook his head. Grateful for the inspiration his mom provided, for the next phase of the operation, he planned to buy a face mask and hat here.
"This one's so ugly, try it on." Gu Qiumian handed him a pink Mickey Mouse baseball cap.
Déjà vu.
Thanks to Mickey Mouse too—his mood suddenly lightened a bit. Gu Qiumian didn't know, but Zhang Shutong was all too familiar with this thing. Again with this damned baseball cap. He'd heard Disney's legal team was extremely aggressive—why didn't they hurry up and sue this shop into bankruptcy?
"If it's ugly why should I try it?" Zhang Shutong was reluctant.
"I want to see." But Gu Qiumian was even more domineering than Disney's legal department. She laughed as she pulled out her phone, ready to take a photo.
"Put your phone down."
"I won't take the photo if you put it on." She threatened.
Zhang Shutong reluctantly put on the hat, feeling like he was reliving the horror of being dominated by his mom... Wait, why did he put it on? He clearly didn't agree to it.
He quickly took off the hat, but Gu Qiumian had already gotten her fill. She nodded her chin, satisfied:
"Just as I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the Mickey Mouse pattern on the hat. Even though it's a knockoff, doesn't it look a lot like the real thing? And you look so silly wearing it..." This girl had such a low bar for humor.
Zhang Shutong reflected for a moment and decided that even as a subordinate, he had an obligation to correct the young miss from the wrong path. He couldn't always indulge her.
He'd already pulled out his phone with one hand. Unlike the electronically illiterate Gu Qiumian, Zhang Shutong knew where the iPhone's photo shortcut key was. Then he quickly put the hat on Gu Qiumian's head and pressed the photo button.
Click—her astonished expression was frozen in the frame.
"Definitely silly." Zhang Shutong glanced at the screen and pursed his lips.
Autumn Rain Lingering immediately went crazy.
Zhang Shutong paid and fled. His legs were long, he walked fast, feeling eyes on his back the whole way.
Time for the next step.
Zhang Shutong took out his phone and sent the second message in the group chat.