Winter Returns

Chapter 56 Roman Holiday (The End)

"...From the moment he walked into the school, everything was under our control. Look, isn't he walking particularly slowly? Because this man is inherently cautious. I bet you, he might even be wearing a mask."

The boy and girl stood by the window in the middle of the corridor. The darkness seemed to cloud their senses, and they seemed oblivious to the man's arrival. They whispered to each other, as if they had chosen a quiet time at night to meet and exchange sweet words.

"Then why isn't he coming over yet?" Gu Qiumian asked softly.

"To avoid us calling the police, the ideal scenario is that we're still watching a movie when he suddenly comes in through the back door of the classroom and strikes. Once we can subdue one person, the rest will be much easier."

"what about now?"

"Now the first variable has arrived: he realizes we're not in the classroom, so he's hesitating."

"He won't just turn around and run away, will he? That would be terrible!"

To this question, Zhang Shutong simply answered in a low voice:

"Once a gambler is at the table, there's no reason for them to leave halfway through."

It's almost time.

He hadn't closed the classroom door when he left. "Roman Holiday" was still playing, and he didn't know which part it was on. Class 1 of Grade 9 was right next to the stairwell, and out of the corner of his eye, the faint light coming from the classroom door just outlined the silhouette of a man.

Actually, the other party now has two choices: either rush in directly or continue to observe. Although it doesn't matter much which the other party chooses, Zhang Shutong thought that since the young lady specifically requested a happier version, he couldn't scare her.

Just then, the boy turned around, and the beam of his flashlight shone on the man's face, causing the man to instinctively stop in his tracks.
The boy then demanded, "Who?"

The girl muttered, still shaken, "Who would come so late at night? A teacher...?"

The two of them huddled together, mustered their courage, and took a few steps toward the stairwell, until—

"He really did have his face covered..." Gu Qiumian said in a low voice.

"Didn't I tell you? I can guess where he'll go next."

The young boy and girl stood there stunned, asking the question several times, but the man didn't answer. He just squinted in the light, his brows furrowed.

"Why doesn't he say a word?" Gu Qiumian's voice was hidden beneath the movie's dialogue.

“He’s afraid of leaving evidence against him,” Zhang Shutong said casually. “And isn’t it the same as what I said? He’s started to hesitate because he’s lost absolute certainty. Even for a gambler, going all in is a process. If that’s the case for a gambler, how much more so for a desperate person?”

"What should I do?"

"Let's give him some more leverage."

The boy and girl weren't stupid; after a moment of hesitation, the boy blurted out, "Are you the arsonist?" He then urged the girl to call the police quickly.

But the girl said urgently:

"My phone's dead too. Did you forget I played games all day?"

The two exchanged a glance, then turned and ran.

"Your reason is terrible," Zhang Shutong whispered a reminder.

"The battery is really dead."

"Talking Tom can consume this much battery?"

"I forgot to exit the game and locked the screen..."

"fool."

"You're the stupid one!" Gu Qiumian glared. "What's next?"

"The more you say, the more mistakes you make. That's enough. Just maintain a subtle misunderstanding. That's enough for him to keep chasing after you. You know how to fish, right?"

Zhang Shutong just finished fishing today and would like to share his experience:
"Sometimes, cunning old fish won't rush to bite the bait in the water. You have to gently pull the rod before they will take the bait."

As they spoke, the boy and girl had already run to the end of the corridor. Behind them was a staircase leading to the school rooftop. The man seemed to know this, and he pressed closer, gradually quickening his pace.

"He's already taken the bait?"

"Yes, he's taken the bait. He knows a lot about the school, including that the rooftop door is locked. So he's trying to break down our defenses first and then gradually push us to the brink."

"Then what should we do?" The young lady was in a good mood and asked a very stupid question, as if she wanted him to show off.

“Just do as I said before, you know that already.” Zhang Shutong knew that Gu Qiumian had ulterior motives.

His eyes had almost adjusted to the darkness, so he could make out the girl's lip movements:
"You forgot what you just promised me? Be a little humorous!"

Zhang Shutong bit the soft flesh in his mouth. This was the third time today. He suspected he would get mouth ulcers if he bit it again. In fact, he was a pure action-oriented person by nature, but he wanted to be humorous today.

So he raised his voice and explained:
"Don't forget I have a trump card up my sleeve."

"What's your trump card?" The two turned around at the same time, and surprisingly, it was the man who asked the question.

This was the first time the other person had spoken. Their voice didn't have any particularly memorable features, and the man had already stopped moving when they said those words.

Zhang Shutong and Gu Qiumian had already gone up the stairs, with the man following closely behind at the bottom.

"Of course it's the key to the rooftop. You don't actually think this place is locked, do you?"

Zhang Shutong tilted his head and asked curiously.

Theoretically, the door to the rooftop was locked, but when he was in the second year of junior high, the school janitor was careless and forgot to remove the key. He was bold at the time, so he took it and had a copy made, and from then on, he had a secret little nest.

I never imagined that this little nest, hidden for so many years, would finally come in handy, like Batman's Batcave or Iron Man's destroyed home.

This is why Zhang Shutong chose the school as the final location.

As he spoke, he grabbed Gu Qiumian's hand and rushed up to the rooftop. The man reacted and was about to rush up as well, but Zhang Shutong took the opportunity to lock the door from the inside. The two took a step back and immediately heard the other's body hit the door heavily with a thud.

"It's so exciting."

Finally, she was safe and didn't have to lower her voice anymore. The girl breathed a sigh of relief. The night wind ruffled her hair, and she realized that her heart was pounding.

She said, still wanting more:

"Don't you think this guy is really frustrated? He was about to catch us, but then we got separated by a door?"

Although it's safe now, the rooftop is chilly at night; it's always been a cool place in winter and warm in summer.
The boy nodded:

"Let's stay here for a while, he'll probably leave soon."

What if we don't leave?

"Then let's call the police and wait. I don't believe he'll dare to stay at the school forever." The boy said, taking out his phone and pressing the power button a few times. After a moment, he said awkwardly, "Oh no, I just remembered my phone is off... I guess I'll just have to wait it out."

The previously safe situation became tense again. The man seemed to have heard their conversation, so instead of leaving, he exerted even more force.

That door was just made of plywood. It was fine for keeping out mischievous students, but it wouldn't last long if a grown man used all his strength to ram it.

The boy and girl clearly noticed the problem. After a moment of silence, Gu Qiu Mian asked:
"What if he breaks down the door later?"

As if her words were law, with a hissing sound, a crack appeared in the door panel.

Zhang Shutong whispered:

"As I said before, he won't give up easily. I just don't know how long the door can hold out..."

He was a jinx; no sooner had he spoken than the door, unable to withstand the weight, collapsed and was finally slammed open by the man.

"Where can you two run to?" the man panted, finally managing to squeeze out a cold laugh through his teeth.

On the rooftop, all that could be seen were the figures of the boy and girl.

"How to do how to do?"

They retreated little by little, and Gu Qiumian kept giving Zhang Shutong meaningful glances.

Zhang Shutong knew why she was anxious—

Seeing this, he gritted his teeth and, with a blank expression, played along with her act to the very end.
"Don't be afraid, I still have a trump card."

The girl burst into laughter, while the boy simultaneously shouted to the side:

"If we don't come out soon, someone will really die!"

So, to the man's stunned gaze, four figures suddenly appeared on the previously empty rooftop behind the small room in the stairwell.

Zhang Shutong played four cards in one go:
They are one adult and three students.

It was Zhang Shutong's homeroom teacher and close friends.

God knows how long they've been lying in ambush here, all of them itching for a fight.

They are never afraid of being outnumbered, and the situation can be reversed in an instant.

"Shutong, you've been holding it in for so long, why are you only calling now?" This was Du Kang.

"Why were you two acting like idiots just now?" This was Ruoping.

"A man should have a trump card, that's cool!" Qingyi said, giving a thumbs up.

Zhang Shutong gave Gu Qiumian a thumbs up and said, "Did you hear that, you idiot?"
"You're so mean..." Gu Qiumian laughed so hard her body trembled.

Zhang Shutong then reminded her that it was not time to let her guard down:
“Look, isn’t this man just like I said before? He’s starting to hesitate again. If we react quickly, we can take a hostage.”

Zhang Shutong pointed to Ruoping's location:

“Ruoping is closest to him. If she rushes over, she could probably catch us off guard, although the chances of him actually doing it are close to zero.”

"why?"

"After all, he never showed his face from beginning to end. Why didn't he run away? Why did he have to fight so desperately? It's not like he could kidnap you. Besides, his personality dictates that he likes to stay behind the scenes. That's true, but to put it nicely, he's waiting for the right opportunity; to put it bluntly, he's being overly cautious. I told you, I know exactly what he's thinking. You'll see—"

The man subconsciously touched the mask on his face, looked around warily, and backed away step by step.

"If he runs away, won't all our efforts be wasted?" Gu Qiumian was a perfect straight man, bouncing around like a little fangirl: "Oh dear, hurry up and think of a way, do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

Zhang Shutong sighed helplessly:
"Can't you let me show off one last time?"

"Play your cards quickly!"

Zhang Shutong truly regretted agreeing to her request.

Gu Qiumian smiled radiantly, while Zhang Shutong rolled her eyes and said to the man, "Hey, you murderer, wait a minute."

To be honest, he felt that playing cards was much harder than catching a murderer.

But who told him to casually say that pig liver and duck liver didn't matter, the murderer and the culprit didn't matter, and whether the other party was smart or not didn't matter, since he already knew his every move perfectly. What mattered? Half of "Roman Holiday" told him that it was to make the princess happy.

As the other person stopped walking, he muttered:

"Excuse me, but why can't I ever play all my cards... Du Kang, bring his son up."

"Got it!"

The boy pulled another dark figure out from behind the stairwell.

Zhang Shutong thoughtfully helped to perform a ritual to allow the father and son to recognize each other.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you say you went to have dinner with your teacher?" The man finally panicked.

"Dad, they knew all along. It was all an act for us..."

"How did they find you!" the man growled in disbelief, then instinctively looked at Zhang Shutong.

At this moment, the lines he had been waiting for finally came in handy.

But for some reason, it suddenly became boring.

Zhang Shutong shrugged, his interest waning, and said:

"Blame it on Oreo, it's just that I'm destined to have it."

……

Let's go back to the afternoon a few hours earlier.

"Why hasn't Lao Song come back yet after going to buy water?" Du Kang shook his head.

"Did you tell your family you were going out for dinner tonight?" Qingyi suddenly asked.

"It's okay, my dad knows I'm not going back."

"I need to tell my family."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, my phone's dead too." Qingyi innocently shook her phone and asked, "Could I borrow yours to make a call?"

But instead of asking Du Kang, he asked the boy next to him, who had just come out of the restroom.

"I...you...can I borrow your friend's..." the boy stammered, instinctively protecting his phone.

"Shutong was right, it really is you." Qingyi breathed a sigh of relief. "Dukang, go."

……

"Damn, I knew you were a sneaky guy, but I never expected you to be hiding a big one here. You've got guts!"

Du Kang spat out a mouthful of saliva. The boy, who had just been punched by him, was rolling on the ground, unable to speak.

Only then did Du Kang remember to ask his best friend in shock what was going on.
"He's the one who wrote his name on the partition and instructed Li Yipeng to do it."

Qingyi then made a phone call back, "Hey teacher, come back now, the person has been caught."

"Wait, man, what's going on now?"

"Don't rush, I'll tell you about it one by one, starting with this person."

A relaxed smile finally appeared on Qingyi's face:
"Do you remember what I emphasized before? The incident involving Li Yipeng's mother was a time bomb planted in advance, and the best place to plant this bomb was only the school."

"So he handed a note to Li Yipeng, inciting him to take action. Do you understand now?"

Du Kang immediately shook his head:

"No, no, I remember the castle incident was something we three captured together. What does it have to do with him? This isn't a time bomb, is it? How could this bomb detonate without us?"

Qingyi said:

"This is another miscalculation by the father and son. Li Yipeng was exposed by Shu Tong, but didn't you realize that it doesn't really matter who exposed him?"

"Since he orchestrated this, in a sense, only he knew in advance who was responsible for smashing the castle. Even without us, he would have exposed them on his own. This person's style is exactly the same as his father's; he's used to hiding behind the scenes, leaving the mess for others, and extricating himself from the situation."

"So he not only had to write his name on the partition, but also, in order to completely clear himself of suspicion, he took the initiative to tell Gu Qiumian about it. You remember, Shu Tong went to see him back then, and his behavior was very abnormal. He refused to say anything no matter what."

"Was this intentional?" Du Kang asked, dumbfounded.

Qingyi nodded:
"That's right, it's to solidify the image of the one who secretly admires someone. If he secretly admires someone, there's no reason for him to take revenge on Gu Qiu Mian. Since he gave her a heads-up beforehand, there's no reason for him to be the mastermind behind Li Yipeng. But if you think about it the other way around, he cleared his name too cleanly. Countless coincidences piled up together, and that's inevitable."

At this point, Qingyi lowered his head:

"Actually, you didn't have a crush on her at all. Your whole family dislikes Gu Qiumian so much. Growing up in this kind of environment, how could you possibly like her? Whether it's being classmates, showing concern for her, or anything else, it's all just a way of getting to know Gu Qiumian in the 'school' environment."

"am I right."

Qingyi kicked the boy lying on the ground and spat out three words with disgust:

"Zhou Ziheng".

……

"So you, Shutong, and Lao Song had already planned this in advance? And we were the only ones kept in the dark?"

The girl was dumbfounded.

She had just returned with her homeroom teacher, and not long ago she was feeling very anxious. But as soon as Song Nanshan and the others left the sight of the three boys, they stopped in their tracks. This was hardly the behavior of someone going to buy water.

The man turned around, bent over, and supported himself on his knees, giving her a wry smile:

"Ruoping, I'm sorry to have worried you, but the teacher has no other choice in this matter..."

She was about to ask what was going on when she saw Old Song receive a phone call. She didn't know what the caller said, but he immediately nodded with a serious face and waved his hand dismissively:
"Let's go back and talk about it!"

He started running back as fast as he could.

Then Ruoping saw that one of the three boys who had been chatting and laughing just moments before had suddenly collapsed, even though they had just been gossiping about their good comrades.

Old Song went directly to talk to Qingyi, so she could only ask Du Kang. Du Kang was also a bit confused and it took him a while to explain what was going on.

It turned out that only the two of them were kept in the dark.

At this moment, Qingyi finally had some free time:

"Yeah, Lao Song is an outside helper that Shu Tong invited. Otherwise, why would he suddenly call the three of us and deliberately not bring Shu Tong and the other one?"

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Ruoping went up to pinch him.

"No, no, no, I'm just worried that you two will give it away and let it slip. Besides, didn't Shutong already ask you? Do you want to know the answer in advance or wait for a surprise?"

"That's quite a surprise!" Ruoping was so angry she gritted her teeth. "I almost suspected that something was up with Lao Song. No wonder you acted like an idiot all afternoon!"

Qingyi shrugs:
"There's no other way. I'm not trying to scare you on purpose. Think about it, at this time of day on the weekend, if we want to bring Zhou Ziheng out without arousing suspicion, he's the only one who can legitimately call him a student. After all, Lao Song is the homeroom teacher. We can't just go directly to Zhou Ziheng, can we?"

"So all those things Old Song said before—fishing, his phone running out of battery, watching a movie—were made up? Did he deliberately tell Zhou Ziheng so he would inform his father?"

"More or less." Qingyi nodded. "But watching a movie wasn't the idea. It was Shutong's suggestion. He said he wanted to catch the murderer on the school rooftop. He happens to have the key there, and it's a spacious place. If the murderer gets desperate, there's no chance of accidentally injuring him. Although the possibility is very small, you know Shutong's personality, so it's just in case."

Ruoping was persuaded, although she wasn't entirely willing:

"So, is it all done now?"

“That’s basically it. His dad has taken the bait. Look.” Qingyi waved Zhou Ziheng’s phone, showing Ruoping the chat history between the father and son. “Although it’s not a done deal, we’re definitely just one small step away from success.”

"Now we can finally explain the whole case clearly. Not only are you guys feeling frustrated, but I am too."

Qingyi said excitedly:

"Let me count how many incidents there have been so far. Oh, there are five or six: the name of the toilet stall, the castle revenge incident, Li Yipeng being called to the parents' office, the arson case, and the whole day's activities, including the nanny, fishing, moving desks... Let's not count these for now, let's start from the beginning."

"I won't repeat the most crucial part, which is the matter of Li Yipeng's mother, but it is the key point connecting the two ends."

"Before this incident, there were the preparations my son made at school."

"After this incident, my father began his revenge outside of school. See, isn't it clear now?"

"The first point of doubt is why Zhou Ziheng would do this. After all, he cleared his name from the beginning, claimed to have a 'crush' on Gu Qiumian, and acted as a 'good person,' so no one would suspect him of being the mastermind behind it all."

"When you try to deduce Zhou Ziheng's motives, you will inevitably encounter a hurdle: he wants to take revenge on Gu Qiumian at school. Why not just go directly to her? Why go through all this trouble? That's where Shu Tong got stuck."

"But what if you don't treat the castle incident as an isolated event, but connect it with everything that followed, you'll find that he didn't care about such trivial matters as tearing a scarf or throwing blocks from the beginning. All he did was create an opportunity for his father to get away."

"You mean?" Ruoping understood and suddenly felt a chill.

"That's right."

Qingyi nodded solemnly:

"Just as Shu Tong said, there is more than one murderer. It is a conspiracy between two people. This case, from beginning to end, is a series of carefully planned actions that started on campus and went off campus, and ultimately revolved around revenge against the Gu family."

At this point, Qingyi smiled again:

"But what's the use of careful planning? We still managed to thwart it, especially Shu Tong. Look at him, doesn't he seem like he was sent by heaven to stop the father and son?"

"At first, Zhou Ziheng wanted to sit at the same table as Gu Qiumian, but Shu Tong took his place; later, in order to clear his name, he tried to expose Li Yipeng, but Shu Tong caught him beforehand; then, his father ordered those five people to burn down Gu Qiumian's villa, but Shu Tong sent him to jail again. And now, he wanted to inform his father, but Shu Tong saw through his plan."

"So, is he a competent protector of the flower?"

"I'm truly impressed. I doubt I could even find Li Yipeng," Du Kang remarked. "That leaves only one last question—"

He wondered:

How exactly did Shu Tong come to suspect Zhou Ziheng?

"Oh, this is a coincidence in a sense. As I said before, Shutong stumbled upon a huge secret in the milk tea shop."

"Stop keeping me in suspense!" Du Kang and Ruoping said in unison.

"It's very simple. When he bought the milk tea, the Oreos were all broken, so the shop owner asked her son to help take the drinks out. That's when Shutong figured it all out."

"Did he see Zhou Ziheng back then?"

"To be precise, no."

"What do you mean?"

“Hmm…” Qingyi thought for a moment, resting his chin on his hand. “In his own words, he felt that he might have a special connection with Oreos.”

"No, what does this have to do with Oreos?"

……

"What does this have to do with Oreos?"

On the rooftop, the man was also shouting in astonishment. The man who had just seemed to know everything was now on the verge of collapse.

His son was in the other party's hands, and he had already revealed everything about himself. There was no point in fighting to the death anymore. He slumped against the wall in the stairwell and slowly slid to the ground.

The rooftop was naturally very cold, just like his heart had completely turned cold.

“Actually, it has nothing to do with Oreos,” Zhang Shutong glanced at the other person, whose reaction was exactly as he had expected. “Yue Liyue is not bad either. I didn’t even see his face clearly at the time. Doesn’t your store have a storeroom with a curtain? When he handed over the Oreos, he only stretched out his hand and didn’t even show his body.”

"That's why..."

"But——"

Their homeroom teacher once said that if a sentence contains the word "but," it means that everything before it can be ignored.

Zhang Shutong remembered this vulgar remark very well, and when Old Song heard him drawl on it, he couldn't help but laugh.

This is probably a tacit understanding unique to the master and apprentice. Just like when he came back from the milk tea shop, he explained the situation to Lao Song. At that time, Lao Song had not eaten yet and had just come out of the police station. Without saying a word, Lao Song hurriedly drove to pick up Du Kang and chose to trust his speculation.

Now that things have settled down, Lao Song and the others had already called the police, so Zhang Shutong wasn't in a hurry to deal with that man.
Instead, I habitually took out my phone to check the time, only to find that the little thing had already reached the end of its life. It must have had a tough day.

With 35% battery remaining, he formally proposed today's plan to his best friends.
At 34 percent, Du Kang was already riding towards Gu Qiu Mian's villa.

At 30 percent, he had already reached the commercial street;
When he had slid down 30 percent, he located the milk tea shop with Ruoping's help.
I didn't calculate how much was left after that.

It was simply that when he was in his early twenties, Qingyi told himself that he had identified the murderer;
Before he was even twenty, he went fishing at a "base" in order to get rid of men completely;
When there were more than ten people, they called Lao Song again; when there were more than ten, they received news that Zhou Ziheng had taken the bait.
With the battery still at three percent, he led Gu Qiumian toward the final destination.

At one percent—the big fish has officially taken the bait.

The man who orchestrated everything behind the scenes was arrogant. He always thought that without his cell phone, he would be like a fish on a chopping board, isolated and helpless, trapped in a dead end.

What Zhang Shutong didn't tell the other party was that if it was just about dealing with you, he wouldn't need to turn on his phone at all.

So Zhang Shutong turned around and looked at the boy lying on the ground. It was nighttime, so of course he couldn't see the boy's face clearly.

I remember the first time I met him was on the day of the seating arrangement change. By some twist of fate, he ended up sitting next to Gu Qiumian. Song Nanshan arranged the seats according to their rankings, and the students entered the classroom one by one.

Zhang Shutong's first impression of him at that time was as follows:

"A boy with dark skin paused for a moment when he saw me, for some reason."

My initial impression was so faint that I quickly forgot the other person's name when I saw them the next day.

Of course, there's another matter: the castle case was an event that didn't happen in the original timeline, but rather a consequence of my own time travel—

Many seemingly flawless plans often fail due to a small flaw. The young lady had completed the task assigned to him; now he no longer needed to play cards, but could finally uncover the final mystery:

"You want to know how I guessed all of this from the moment he handed me the Oreo? It's actually quite simple."

Amidst the incredulous gazes of the father and son, Zhang Shutong spoke calmly:
"It's because your son is so dark-skinned."

"I can recognize him just by looking at his hands."

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(End of this chapter)