Winter Returns

Chapter 54 Roman Holiday (Part 2)

Zhang Shutong discovered something terrifying.

Since the timeline was updated, his luck seems to have completely disappeared. He used to be a seasoned angler, but now he hasn't caught a single fish.

What's comforting is that even with the continuous autumn rain, my luck was still terrible.

When I checked my phone, the signal was still bad. I looked at the time and it was already past 2 p.m.

Wait... is it past two o'clock?
How time flies?
He subconsciously looked at Gu Qiumian, only to find the girl sitting on a small stool, her head drooping slightly, yawning softly, her thick eyelashes overlapping, looking drowsy.

"Uh, sleepy?"

"I will absolutely, absolutely... never go fishing with you again next time..." Gu Qiumian said weakly, not even having the strength to glare.

"Why didn't you say you were bored?"

"I thought you came here for something important..." Her voice was soft, but she was on the verge of tears. "Why are you here to fish?"

"Anyway, there's nothing else to do."

Upon hearing this, Gu Qiumian glared at him and said, "Who told you you have nothing to do? I have plenty of things I want to do."

"Let's go then." Zhang Shutong picked up the stool.

Gu Qiumian finally regained some energy and stretched lazily. "Where are we going?"

Zhang Shutong said it was up to you, but you couldn't go home or leave the island.

Gu Qiu Mian just asked if your operation was completed?
Zhang Shutong asked curiously, "How did you know?"

She pouted. "I'm not stupid. We were supposed to go buy gifts, but all your friends ran away. There was bound to be an accident. Oh, and they even smashed my flowerpot. So, how's it going now?"

"Let's talk as we walk."

The two got on the bicycle. She seemed really tired, her face was pressed against her back. They rode slowly, and they could hear her shallow breathing. Zhang Shutong asked again, "Are you curious or not?"
She said she would listen if you wanted to explain, otherwise she wouldn't listen.

Zhang Shutong didn't know what she meant, but he felt that it was better not to listen to some things, so he shut up and rode his bike.

After riding for a while, Gu Qiumian said angrily, "It's all your fault for feeding me those compressed biscuits. I'm so full and uncomfortable now."

Zhang Shutong suggested, "Why don't you get off and move around a bit? I'll ride the bike and you can run."

He was just joking, of course, and he thought he had a bit of a sense of humor, but Gu Qiu Mian took it seriously and got angry and ignored him.

The two eventually found a nail salon.

There's really nothing fun to do on the island.

Gu Qiumian didn't want to get her nails done; she just wanted to find a place to sleep.

I don't know if it's related to low blood sugar.

Of course, maybe I didn't sleep well last night.

This is when the henchmen come in. Zhang Shutong pays the shop assistant and tells him not to worry about the two of them, just provide two sofa chairs, preferably in a quiet corner.

The shop assistant was a young girl who probably had never seen such a strange request before. Fortunately, there weren't many people around, and there were still empty seats available.

Not only in a corner, but also in a private room with only two sofas. Of course, the private room had no door, only a curtain hanging down.

Stepping into the small cubicle felt like entering another world.

There were no lights overhead; outside light streamed into the room through the white, smooth yet uneven white tiles on the floor, creating ripples of light.

There were still a few customers outside, and the women's laughter could be heard from time to time. The curtain did not block out much, but it gave people a sense of security.

Gu Qiumian put her coat on the sofa chair and set an alarm on her phone. She was really tired, but she still repeatedly emphasized that she must be woken up before dinner.

Zhang Shutong nodded repeatedly, and only then did the girl close her eyes in relief.

Perhaps she was worried that she would sleep until it was dark?
Zhang Shutong looked at her peaceful sleeping face and thought.

I've had similar thoughts. Back in the school days, Sundays were the last bit of leisure time. If I woke up to find that the sunset outside the window had turned my pillow yellow, it would be very disheartening.

However, it was only Saturday, and Zhang Shutong felt that her worries were unnecessary.

Gu Qiumian habitually sleeps on her side with her hands clasped in front of her. Zhang Shutong couldn't remember which self-proclaimed expert had said that this sleeping position was a sign of a lack of security.

One side of her face was squeezed and slightly deformed. Zhang Shutong wasn't hungry now, but if she were, she might think of the wobbly milk jelly.

He was about to charge his phone, so he tiptoed behind the curtain and asked the shop assistant for a charger, but she said she didn't have an Apple data cable.

What a coincidence.

He felt that going in and out would wake Gu Qiu Mian, so he found a stool in the store to sit down. Since he couldn't play on his phone, he stared blankly at the pedestrians outside the street.

At this moment, the shop assistant asked, "Handsome, what kind of novel dating method is this?"

Zhang Shutong said it wasn't a date, and Gu Qiumian wasn't his girlfriend.

The other person chuckled and said, "If you're not a couple, why would you find a place to sleep?"

Zhang Shutong asked in surprise, "Is it because you're not a couple that you're like this? If you were a real couple, you would be wandering around the streets by now. Who would spend time sleeping?"

The shop assistant said, "Little brother, you're so silly. What girl sleeps in front of other people like that? I'm worried about drooling and being laughed at for being silly if I sleep in front of my best friend."

"What's that for?"

"Trust," the shop assistant said confidently. "Even if you're not a couple, you must have known each other for a long time."

“But I’ve only known her for…” Zhang Shutong counted on her fingers, from Wednesday after the timeline to today, “exactly three days.”

The shop assistant was also stunned.

"Don't try to understand her using the typical girl's way of thinking," Zhang Shutong summarized from her own experience. "Although I don't know what she's thinking either."

……

"Old Song misled me." Du Kang clutched his head in anguish.

When they arrived at the warehouse, they discovered that there weren't just a dozen desks, but dozens. And that included chairs, doubling the number.

At first, he was showing off and insisted on moving the whole set at once. Later, Qingyi pulled him back and he realized that the school wasn't his family's business, so why was he working so hard?

So from around 1 p.m. to now at 5 p.m., four hours have passed, and only one-third of the chairs remain to be moved.

Old Song probably realized they were dawdling, so he didn't urge them. He seemed preoccupied today, often frowning and glancing at his phone every now and then.

But no matter what was on his mind, Du Kang felt it was not a reason to force students to do hard labor.

Of course, the homeroom teacher still had some conscience left—he had said he would ask for help, and when he went out in the afternoon, he actually brought back a student.

Everyone knew each other before and could see the sorrow in each other's eyes. Although they had never spoken in class and had even had some conflicts in the past, they were comrades-in-arms today, so they let bygones be bygones.

Du Kang, being a carefree person, asked his buddy why he was there too. The other person sighed and shrugged, saying that the teacher had looked around, but everyone else was busy, only he was free, so he was dragged along. Anyway, everyone was pretty miserable.

Du Kang was too embarrassed to tell him that the three of them at least got a free meal, but he didn't even get to eat that meal, which was a huge loss for him.

He, Ruoping, Qingyi, and Shutong were quite well-known in the entire fourth grade. Their classmates knew that they were always together, and they would jokingly say, "Why are there only the three of you today?"

Du Kang glanced at him, unsure of what to say, and said with a strange expression:
"He went on a date with a girl."

"Who?"

Du Kang didn't say anything more, lest he cause trouble for his best friend. The five of them worked like this until after five o'clock. Old Song wiped the sweat from his brow, rolled up his sleeves, and said wearily:
"That's enough for today, let's stop for now."

The man clapped his hands, gathered everyone together, and laughed heartily:
"What do you all want to eat? We'll have a big meal tonight."

"What about the chairs? There are still ten left!" Qingyi reminded him at the right moment, almost getting stepped on by Ruoping. This behavior was very similar to shouting after school: "Teacher, you forgot to assign today's homework!"

"That's enough." Song Nanshan repeated, "It's almost 5:30. You've been working all afternoon. This isn't the way to get you to work. Let's go, let's go. Why are you still scrambling to do the work?"

"Really?" Qingyi asked, puzzled. "They're leaving already?"

Even Du Kang wanted to kick him. He thought, even if you've solved the case of the toilet partition, do you have to be so eager?

"I mean," the boy asked as he dodged to the side, "Teacher, you're not going to call us back tomorrow, are you? It's better to finish it all at once."

The remaining three breathed a sigh of relief; to be honest, they were also afraid of this.

“How could that be?” Song Nanshan laughed. “I’ve found the people. You don’t need to worry about it. They’ll come and do it tonight.”

"Who?"

"Shutong and Qiumian."

"Really?" Ruoping said first. "His phone was out of battery, wasn't it? I sent him a message this afternoon and he still hasn't replied."

As she spoke, the girl tried to wink at Du Kang beside her, as she felt that Old Song was acting strangely today.

"Why would I lie to you?" Song Nanshan shrugged. "I called him when I went out to pick him up this afternoon. They were still out having fun, but I couldn't get through. There must be no signal in the wilderness."

Song Nanshan then laughed and said:

"Just now, I went to the toilet, and he called me back and said that he and Qiu Mian had just finished fishing and caught a whole basketful of fish, and they were worried about how to carry it back."

"Well, I guess you've had a pretty good day, fishing and playing with girls. Do you know how miserable your teacher and your friends are? I asked him what he was planning to do tonight, and he said he hadn't decided yet. I said I'd make arrangements for him, so hurry up and get back to work!"
"Then he reluctantly said, 'Let's wait until after dinner, around seven o'clock, then I'll come with Qiu Mian to move some chairs.'"

Ruoping was still a little skeptical:

"I have a feeling that Shutong will never come back, given her personality."

Song Nanshan raised his eyebrows:
"You don't understand, do you? I gave that kid a suggestion. I said you two are just playing around at night, and there's no movie theater on the island, so why don't you come to the classroom and watch a movie with the projector? It's much better than you wandering around aimlessly, and the atmosphere is much better."

"And then he agreed?" Ruoping was surprised.

“He agreed, then told me his phone was out of battery and he was going to turn it off right away. I don’t know what he was thinking,” Old Song laughed angrily. “Isn’t he just afraid we’ll be third wheels? Alright, why are you all so concerned about their business? Come on, I’ll go to the school gate to buy some water. Ruoping, come with me.”

"As for you guys, go to the toilet if you need to, don't dawdle, we'll get in the car when you get back."

With a wave of his hand, Song Nanshan made the arrangements, saying as he pushed Ruoping:

"I just found a farmhouse restaurant, let's go there for dinner tonight..."

"Isn't that the far west? It takes about 20 minutes to drive there, doesn't it?"

"Why do you care how far away it is? I'm not asking you to pay for the meal. As long as it tastes good, that's all that matters..."

"But……"

"No buts."

Ruoping glanced at Qingyi one last time, only to find the three of them gossiping, completely oblivious to anything amiss.

……

2012年12月8日，周六，傍晚5点55分。

Zhang Shutong entered the cubicle on time and woke Gu Qiumian up.

She still seemed a little dazed, lying on the sofa chair and unwilling to get up, so Zhang Shutong waited patiently beside her.

After a short while, Gu Qiumian finally recovered and stretched. The first thing she did was check her makeup on her phone to see if it had smudged.

"No money was spent," Zhang Shutong reminded him.

"Why aren't there any flowers? Do you see how red my lips are?"

She gently wiped herself with toilet paper, looking quite vain.

Zhang Shutong couldn't tell whether it was because her makeup was smudged or because she had been sleeping on it, so she went out to wait.

There were hardly any customers in the store at this time; even the staff had gone out to eat, leaving only the young girl in the store.

As Gu Qiu Mian came out, the other person handed her two bottles of water, which were actually taken from the insulated box:
"This handsome guy bought it in advance," the girl said with a sly smile.

Zhang Shutong was stunned. He had never bought water before. Since Gu Qiumian fell asleep, all he had done was sit in the shop for over an hour. He didn't know what she was up to this time, but he saw that Miss Gu had already taken it, looking quite pleased with herself, and hummed:

"You actually have this much emotional intelligence."

Zhang Shutong didn't know what to say. The waitress winked at him and leaned over to say, "You ordered the most expensive set meal. This is an extra service. You'd be missing out if you didn't drink a bottle of water."

He then pointed to the price list on the wall:

"Look, doesn't it say there are drinks?"

Zhang Shutong bit the soft flesh in her mouth. First of all, mineral water is not a beverage. Secondly, could you please not force this matter onto her? Thirdly, Gu Qiumian is really stupid. If she had taken a closer look at the price list, she could have easily exposed this lie.

Unfortunately, young ladies often only care about the "price list" when they go out, and don't care about the contents of the list.

When they pushed open the glass door, it was already dark. Winter nights get dark very early. The streetlights came on, turning the night into a warm yellow. The two of them hadn't decided where to go next, so they stayed at the door for a while, shivering in the cold wind.

Zhang Shutong noticed once again that Gu Qiumian wasn't wearing a scarf today. That thing was left to her by her mother. He didn't know what kind of feelings the girl had poured into it. In a sense, it should be like a talisman.

"It's so cold..." Gu Qiumian hugged the bottled water in her hands and told him to start walking first.

Zhang Shutong glanced back at the nail salon one last time. The young female employee was sitting at the counter, giving him a thumbs-up.

Zhang Shutong nodded, indicating that he had received her encouragement. She smiled, and he smiled back, thinking to himself, "You've misunderstood me. The encouragement we're talking about is not the same thing at all."

He asked Gu Qiu Mian what she wanted to eat, and she said anything was fine.

He then said, "You're the one who hates casualness the most," to which the girl replied, "Just do what you think is best."

"My treat?"

“Otherwise,” she said, taking a sip of water. “I bought so much stuff at noon.”

Zhang Shutong then recalled whether there were any fancy meals on the island, and the answer was quite disappointing.

"I couldn't think of any good places either."

"Who said we were going to have a fancy meal? Just take me wherever you think it's delicious."

"How about a rice bowl?" They are currently located very close to the school.

Gu Qiu Mian nodded and said okay, she was going to treat herself to a good meal.

But the most expensive thing at that shop was just a potato and beef rice bowl, which cost as much as 15 yuan a serving, which was really not a rip-off.

But he couldn't think of anything else to eat, so the two of them headed toward the Gaijiao Restaurant under the dim streetlights, heading in a very aggressive manner, as if they were going to some Michelin three-star restaurant.

On the way, Zhang Shutong took out her phone again to check it. This poor little guy was nearing the end of his life—

Only 3% battery remains.

I'm adding an extra chapter and asking for monthly votes! Give me more and I'll continue writing (the next part), hehe.
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(End of this chapter)