What is youth? It might be watching a group of boys and girls doing exercises behind the sports field.
"Lu Qinglian is leading the exercises," Qingyi suddenly said. "Have you ever seen her doing exercises in her green robe?"
"I don't think so..." Zhang Shutong recalled.
Beyond the dense crowd, he could quickly spot a figure in a red and white sports uniform. The girl had a high ponytail. Under the relatively brilliant winter sun, others were already slightly out of breath, with fine beads of sweat on their foreheads and rosy cheeks. Lu Qinglian's face, however, was like a flawless piece of porcelain. She was already very fair, and at this moment, she reflected a cold light under the sun.
Her high ponytail rose and fell with her movements. Her movements were neither rushed nor slow, and they were so standard that they could be recorded for teaching. She wouldn't overdo it, nor would she hold back, always staying on the beat.
The two of them had a very un-nutritious conversation, then patrolled the campus like leaders.
For example, Du Kang was leading Class 3. He could also find Ruoping, who was jumping and skipping happily.
Zhang Shutong subconsciously looked into the ranks of Class 2, but he didn't see the figure with the red scarf. There were many girls with medium-length hair. Zhang Shutong also wanted to look for that hair pendant, but many people wore hair accessories, so he gave up.
The youth of youth is when everyone else is doing exercises, but you get caught by the gym teacher.
"What are you two loitering for?" The gym teacher's physique was similar to that of the bear-like police officer.
"He's a patient." Qingyi pointed calmly.
"He's the caregiver." Zhang Shutong was also composed.
"Patients go back to the classroom." The gym teacher glared at them, blew a whistle, and ran off to catch the students who were messing around.
The two of them went to the steps of the teaching building and stood there.
"Sigh, your arm injury is a bit of a hassle," Qingyi sighed. "I wonder when we can go fishing. And Auntie won't let you run around, right?"
"Maybe in a few more days? The doctor told me to go back for a follow-up next week."
"Don't run around these next few days."
"Okay." Zhang Shutong nodded. "But just in case, I still want to confirm one thing. I was rescued from an avalanche, right?"
"Uh, why are you suddenly asking that? Of course you were."
"I brought Gu Qiumian out of her house that night?"
"Yeah."
"On Wednesday, we went fishing and ran into a poacher? On Thursday, we caught Zhou Ziheng, and on Friday, it snowed and classes were canceled?"
"Is something wrong?"
"No, just asking."
Zhang Shutong asked a few more questions about Gu Qiumian, such as whether the scarf incident had happened, and found that it all matched his memory.
He let out a sigh of relief. To be honest, Qingyi's performance made him overthink a little.
They rushed back to the classroom before the radio calisthenics ended. Today's "driving around" mission was complete. Zhang Shutong propped his face up on his desk—not because he liked this posture, but because with one arm hanging in a sling, he couldn't lie down at all.
He took out his phone and typed with one hand.
Qiuyu Mianmian:
"Did you go do the exercises?"
Xintao Jiufu:
"I'm in the classroom."
QQ didn't have the "typing" feature. Zhang Shutong knew she was a slow typist. Sometimes she didn't reply not because there was nothing more to say, but because she was busy poking at the screen.
Speaking of which, he used to laugh at Qiuyu Mianmian's "one-finger typing." Now he was not much better.
"I clearly didn't see you."
"When?"
"During the class exercises."
"I went down. Is there something you need?"
A moment later, a new message arrived:
"Who needs you for something? I just happened to be going to the office and glanced into the classroom." A few more seconds passed. "Gotta go. Don't forget about noon."
Zhang Shutong replied with an "okay."
He had a lunch to attend at noon.
Young Lady Gu was hosting.
She seemed to have a bit of a spending addiction. She had been cooped up for a long time these past few days. As soon as her family's watch loosened a bit, she organized a meal to treat everyone.
The location was that shopping mall.
Whether it was her father or herself, there was no way they would let her go to the commercial street again.
But Gu Qiumian herself didn't care. She almost never bought things there. When she occasionally went, it was only to treat her followers to a meal.
However, besides himself, there were a few close friends this time.
Zhang Shutong found that he was very busy now. He had to have lunch with Gu Qiumian at noon, and in the afternoon, he had to go look for the notebook with Lu Qinglian. He was living the long-lost student life, but he was still spinning around like a top.
He took advantage of the time before class to go to the bathroom. When he passed by Class 2, he heard a group of girls giggling inside.
Looking through the back door, Gu Qiumian, who had just said "gotta go," was chatting with a few girls.
She was still in her old spot—the one by the window. Wherever she sat in Class 1, she was still sitting in the same place in Class 2. The only explanation was that Young Lady Gu was especially fond of this spot.
She was surrounded by a few girls like a star surrounded by the moon, and she was the leader of the conversation. Zhang Shutong had expected to see that little secretary. The fact that she became a big secretary eight years later had left a deep impression on him, but in reality, they were all new faces, or rather, students from the new Class 2.
Zhang Shutong was completely convinced.
In less than two days in a new class, she was able to get along with her new classmates. It was truly a disservice to the young lady to have been in their class before. It seemed the idea that she actively isolated herself from everyone was not wrong.
Zhang Shutong didn't look any longer. He continued to walk and ran into Du Kang.
Du Kang's words were slurred:
"I was just about to go look for you, Shutong. That Mistress Xu from your class is really scary. She didn't let anyone out for half the morning. Oh, by the way, did that kid Wu Shengyu give you any trouble? If he did, let me know."
He grinned. His teeth were black.
Zhang Shutong was stunned and quickly asked, "What's wrong with you? Why do you look like you've been to Africa after a few classes..." No, people from Africa have white teeth too.
He looked closely and saw that he was eating a piece of chocolate, Dove.
Is it raining chocolate today? Zhang Shutong couldn't help but think to himself.
"Don't tell me this one was also from Gu Qiumian?"
He just said it as a casual remark, but he didn't expect Du Kang to actually nod:
"Yeah, she said her dad got the goods from the mall, so we can eat it casually."
Zhang Shutong was stunned again. The main point wasn't that. The main point was:
"You're not in Class 3?"
Zhang Shutong had a very strange feeling. How was it that after a few days of not being in school, there was a subtle sense of a subtle contradiction all around him.
"Oh, I'm riding on Ruoping's coattails," Du Kang said.
Zhang Shutong did remember that in the cold-blooded timeline at the mall, his mom gave Gu Qiumian a bar of chocolate, and she broke off half and gave it to Ruoping. There's an ancient saying about using wine to dissolve military power. Today, is it Dove to dissolve old grudges? It even sounded a bit rhyming. Zhang Shutong thought the inertia of chocolate was really strong.
He waved his hand and said goodbye, and casually made a joke, saying that they had no conscience for not saving a piece for him.
The morning's task was still to review.
During the break for the third class, Ruoping came to their class. As soon as she entered the classroom, she saw Zhang Shutong doing his homework.
Class Monitor Feng had returned in glory, looking very impressive. She sat down in Lu Qinglian's seat and leaned over:
"Oh, so diligent?"
"I'm busy, don't bother me," Zhang Shutong said dismissively.
Ruoping asked how his arm was, and Zhang Shutong said it was recovering well.
"Who's your new desk-mate? Maybe I know them?"
"Of course you know her. Lu Qinglian."
"Lu Qinglian? How did you end up sitting with Qinglian?"
"The homeroom teacher arranged it."
"Interview question: what are your thoughts?"
Ruoping made a fist with her hand and extended it to his mouth. Zhang Shutong knew she was messing around. He tilted his head to dodge.
Ruoping made a motion to mess up his hair, but Zhang Shutong now had a "death-immunity token" on him. He raised his arm. Ruoping gritted her teeth and held back.
"From now on, we can only chat during breaks." Ruoping said with a bitter face. It seemed these were the words she really wanted to say. Girls' emotions were always a bit sensitive in this regard. "Why did they have to change the classes so randomly? We won't even be in the same graduation photo."
"You're right about that." Zhang Shutong thought belatedly. No matter how the future changed, they were always in the same photo. "But we can take a separate one. It's no big deal, right?"
"How is it no big deal? And there's the class yearbook. It's for memories, for memories, you get it? And Teacher Song is gone too." Although Ruoping had become the class monitor, she wasn't as happy as he had imagined. The girl drooped her head onto the desk. "Suddenly I feel so bored."
"It's okay. You still have Du Kang."
"Get lost. You have Du Kang."
"Speaking of which, how did you become class monitor?" Zhang Shutong asked curiously. This didn't seem like Ruoping's personality. Before, she wasn't that invested in class affairs.
"Everyone just rushed forward and put me on a pedestal. So I'll just play with it."
"Oh, right, I want to ask you something," Zhang Shutong said again.
"What is it?"
"Do you remember giving Gu Qiumian a bag of chocolate coins in seventh grade?"
Ruoping was stunned for a moment:
"Why are you suddenly asking about that?"
"I was chatting with Qingyi today, and he said Gu Qiumian gave a bag of chocolate to Class 2."
"Oh, so what?"
"That happened, right?"
"Yes."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Shutong was completely at ease.
He thought to himself, Qingyi, you have your unreliable moments too, making me all paranoid.
As they were talking, Lu Qinglian also came back. She must have gone out to get water. She was holding a transparent plastic water cup, covered in scratches and printed with a cartoon bear. He had heard a saying before, that you can tell a girl's personality by the style of her cup.
Fake.
When Ruoping saw Lu Qinglian, she started to chatter:
"Do you want to go to the mall for lunch? A lot of people are going."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, if you hadn't said that, it would have been fine. But by saying that, she would definitely not go. As expected, Lu Qinglian shook her head and refused.
Ruoping wasn't the type to be a pest. She thought she should leave. But before she left, she asked a completely unrelated question:
"Oh, right, Qinglian, are there foxes on the mountain?"
Lu Qinglian turned her face and looked at Zhang Shutong.
Zhang Shutong returned an innocent look:
"I didn't say anything."
He wouldn't be so bored as to reveal the fact that she fed foxes.
Lu Qinglian then turned her gaze back:
"What's wrong?"
"A friend said they saw a fox. I just wanted to ask. I think I heard there were some on the mountain before."
"They appear occasionally."
"So it's true. Bye for now..."
The fourth class was a study period.
Until the dismissal bell rang, Zhang Shutong had finished half of a math test paper. Gu Qiumian sent him a message, asking him to wait at the school gate. Just as he put away his phone, he was called out by the homeroom teacher.
Zhang Shutong reluctantly went into the office. He came out a while later. He was too lazy to recall the specific conversation. It was nothing more than a warning, telling him not to be so restless and to calm down.
He wondered if it was because of his chat with Lu Qinglian this morning.
He was held up for a while. When he returned to the classroom, he happened to see Lu Qinglian writing something at her desk.
Still doing practice problems? Zhang Shutong thought, you are really dedicated to your studies. He went back to his desk and picked up his jacket, only to find that the girl was correcting the dictation from the morning reading.
This was probably one of her duties as a study committee member.
Actually, this matter was a bit unexpected for Zhang Shutong.
He had thought that Lu Qinglian would directly refuse this position, since she was also the type to avoid trouble, and she wasn't trying to leave an impression of being a good girl in front of the teacher. Just like when she refused the new class monitor's request to announce the votes, she should have just shaken her head cleanly and decisively. She might even make the teacher lose a bit of face. But she had agreed without any objections.
She was also a bit contradictory sometimes. Just like when she sprained her ankle a little while ago. It was hard to say whether she was used to enduring it, or if she was just emotionally detached, so she didn't care about some things.
"I'm leaving now." Zhang Shutong said hello and prepared to leave.
"Student Zhang Shutong, is the key on you?" Lu Qinglian asked, looking up.
"Didn't I give it to you, during the class cadre election?"
"I mean the key to the rooftop. The door is locked. I just went there."
You have the nerve to say that. That's clearly the key I made.
Zhang Shutong knew she had a habit of eating lunch on the rooftop by herself:
"Isn't it in the floor tile on the second to last step?"
"Someone took it." Lu Qinglian frowned.
"Took it?"
Zhang Shutong couldn't help but repeat.
This was a key he had hidden for several years. Besides Lu Qinglian, no one else should know about it.
Could it be that there was another person who used the rooftop as a base?
That sense of a subtle contradiction was getting stronger and stronger.