Winter Returns

Chapter 20 New Crisis!

"You guys are in trouble, come out here now!"

Zhang Shutong understood immediately. He guessed that the news of catching the poachers had reached the school. If it had been reported in the city, there would have been a buffer period of two or three days.
But the island is so small, and there's only one junior high school. The incident happened last night, and the police called early this morning.

Judging from Lao Song's beaming face, he's definitely going to get a compliment.

But it's clearly a good thing, so why does he make it sound like he's been caught?
Regardless of what Zhang Shutong was thinking, the classroom suddenly fell silent, and most people's eyes were focused on Lu Qinglian.

—Zhang Shutong and his close friends are always together, so it's not surprising that they do something. But what does Lu Qinglian have to do with this?

This thought crossed many people's minds.

Does Lu Qinglian have a good relationship with any of them?
Many people in the class knew that Du Kang liked Lu Qinglian, and after thinking for a long time, only one suffocating possibility came to mind:

Did the brat finally get his way?

With this speculation in mind, everyone shifted their gaze, only to see Du Kang just put down his schoolbag and then smugly run out of the classroom, causing many boys to look at him with a fierce expression.

In short, amidst the curiosity and whispers of those around them, the group left the classroom and followed their homeroom teacher to the office.

Old Song had a trick called "all's fair in war," and he insisted on keeping everyone in suspense. He first leaned back in his office chair, and like he was interrogating a suspect, slowly and deliberately said:

"Do you know why I called you guys?"

Du Kang was the first to sneer:

"Old Song, why are you imitating Qingyi like this? Just say it directly."

"How dare you call me 'Old Song'? You're being disrespectful." Song Nanshan's thick eyebrows furrowed. "Then let me ask you, did you do your homework yesterday?"

"Uh……"

"We'll be on duty for a week," the homeroom teacher said with a terrifying smile.

"do not!"

Zhang Shutong thought to himself that Du Kang was still too inexperienced and that he couldn't spar with Song Nanshan openly. So he took the other man's teacup and went to get water from the water dispenser, behaving like a well-behaved student.

Old Song told Du Kang that Shu Tong was very respectful of his teacher, and that he should learn from him. As he spoke, he turned around with a cheerful smile, only to be shocked to see Zhang Shu Tong frantically adding hot water.

"What are you up to now, you little rascal?"

Zhang Shutong stopped, somewhat regretfully.

"Alright, alright, stop taking them. I can see that you're all heartless little rascals. Give the cup to Ruoping and let her take it for me..."

Having lost interest in teasing the students, Song Nanshan said irritably:

"I'm just letting you know that there will be no morning exercises this morning. The principal wants a few of you to take turns saying a few words at the flagpole. Go back and prepare well."

"Isn't it a bonus?" Du Kang was taken aback.

"What are you daydreaming about? A bonus? At most, we'll give you a banner." Song Nanshan laughed and scolded, "Don't take it seriously. Think carefully about how to write it. It doesn't need to be too long. The principal values ​​it, especially you boys. Don't mess it up... Feng Ruoping!"

Old Song shouted again, glaring at his teacher, "Are you going to scald your teacher to death too? Do you think I didn't see this?"
Ruoping stuck out her tongue shyly, and was about to hand the cup to Qingyi when Old Song objected, glaring at her:
"You guys are taking turns here, let Qinglian take over for me!"

Lu Qinglian simply nodded upon hearing this and calmly accepted the cup.

Old Song was very pleased to see this, thinking that at least there was still a good child. He glanced at the four ungrateful children again and said with a stern face:

"Praise is praise, but try to avoid doing dangerous things like this in the future. Oh, and this time it wasn't just the four of you; you dragged Qinglian over too. I didn't ask about the specifics, but what if something happens to you kids? How will your parents live? Stop trying to be a hero, do you all understand?"

The others nodded in agreement, and Old Song finally opened the drawer. Despite being a rough and unrefined man, he became surprisingly long-winded and sarcastic at this moment:
"I see you weren't listening at all. Oh well, come on over here. You did a good job this time. Same as before, one for each of you..."

Song Nanshan's drawer was always full of lollipops, intended for quitting smoking, but he rarely ate any of them; he gave them all to his students: one for praise, one for a heart-to-heart talk, and one to comfort someone who made him cry...

In short, everyone was happy to receive a lollipop, and even Lu Qinglian accepted one.

Song Nanshan waved his hand, herding the children back to their classroom like chicks. Watching the laughing and joking figures of the boys and girls, he felt a mix of nostalgia and pride.

The man just smiled and shook his head, sighing inwardly that he was indeed getting old. He habitually rubbed his lower back, straightened his slightly hunched back under his white shirt, and picked up the water he had just filled.

He took a sip, then spat it out on the ground, his eyes wide with shock.
"No, why is it still hot?"

……

As soon as she left the office, Ruoping went over to talk to Lu Qinglian.

Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "If only I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble. If I had known the homeroom teacher was calling them out, I wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble and offend Gu Qiumian for nothing."

But whether or not he called Lu Qinglian out, Zhang Shutong could only silently mourn for Ruoping when he recalled her behavior during morning reading.

I guess I'll have to offer my warm welcome in return.

But to everyone's surprise, the two of them actually started talking smoothly. As they chatted, Lu Qinglian even peeled open a lollipop under Ruoping's guidance and put it in her mouth. One of the girl's cheeks puffed out, and she seemed to be in a good mood, squinting her peach blossom eyes.

I thought it was because Ruoping was popular, but then Du Kang and Qingyi went over and said a few words to her. Sometimes she nodded, sometimes she shook her head, or she responded with some words in a faint tone.

Although she still didn't have much of an expression, she was much more lively than when she was reading aloud in the morning.

Zhang Shutong, who also had a lollipop in her mouth, wondered why the only person talking to her would frown and look a little scary.
Then Ruoping asked:

"I was going to have Shutong call you, but I don't know if he did..."

"Oh, you told me? That's good. Wait, how did he call you...?"

"what?"

Ruoping suddenly turned around and glared at Zhang Shutong:
"Bah, gangster!"

Zhang Shutong entered the classroom, completely bewildered. At that moment, Gu Qiumian also returned, and not only was she alone, but she was also surrounded by three girls, who were chatting enthusiastically.

That's not quite accurate. It should be that Gu Qiumian was sitting in her seat, and the three girls around her were chattering away.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out that Gu Qiumian was scrolling through her phone. Zhang Shutong recognized it as the latest iPhone model, which he remembered had to pay extra to buy and had been heavily speculated on.

Gu Qiu Mian stared at the screen, occasionally taking out some snacks from her schoolbag. The colorful packaging was dazzling, and the packaging was full of foreign languages ​​she didn't recognize. In any case, there would definitely be no low-end products like Want Want breakfast sausages. She wondered if Oreos were even qualified to be served.

She placed the snacks on Zhang Shutong's table, not caring how they divided them. The girls ate, their mouths agape, trying to think of all sorts of gossip and fun things to liven up the atmosphere, just to make the young lady smile. But Gu Qiumian just nodded casually, occasionally curving her lips. When there weren't enough snacks on the table, she took out a bunch more from her schoolbag.

One of the girls noticed that Gu Qiumian wasn't interested, so she tactfully changed the subject and started praising her new phone.
As soon as the conversation started, someone quickly chimed in, "Wow, this model was only released in the US in September, and it's not even available in China yet, right? I saw online that the ones you can get now are all snatched from Hong Kong, and they're ridiculously expensive and extremely hard to find."
Some people also said that they had only seen the old models online and had never seen anyone use them, and that they hoped they could afford them someday.

There was also a cute little girl who pouted and said, "Qiu Mian, Qiu Mian, let me see you, please..."

But actually, they don't know much about things. Zhang Shutong noticed yesterday that the most expensive thing Gu Qiumian was wearing was that women's watch, maybe tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. He hadn't researched the exact price, but a cell phone was probably not as valuable as her wool coat.

Upon hearing this, Gu Qiumian put down her phone, only glancing curiously at the Apple logo on the back. As she handed it over, she casually said, "You can look if you want. I'm not interested in these electronic products. An uncle gave it to me, and I started using it right away." The girls were envious once again.
But Zhang Shutong felt that she wasn't lying, nor was she showing off on purpose. Didn't she see that she typed with one finger, tapping the screen with a clean, white finger, incredibly slowly...?

As they approached their seats, they moved on to the next topic:
"So, are we still going to call for Zhao Yang today...?"

"Don't shout."

Gu Qiumian didn't even look up.

"He actually wanted me to apologize to you. He's just not very bright and said the wrong thing. He shouldn't have told others that he liked you in private. Qiu Mian, you see..."

Gu Qiumian looked up at the girl, who immediately bit her lip and fell silent.
The other two girls exchanged glances, quietly put down their snacks, and shut up. It seemed that no one dared to make a sound before Gu Qiu Mian made her stance clear.

The originally noisy little circle froze. Gu Qiumian was, of course, the leader of the circle. When they were in an awkward silence, Zhang Shutong also walked back to his seat.

But to everyone's surprise, the girl who had been biting her lip suddenly exclaimed "Wow!" and quickly glanced at Zhang Shutong, her eyes sparkling like little stars:
"Hey handsome, hey handsome! Qiu Mian, is this your deskmate? When did this happen?" The two girls behind her joined in the teasing, and she quickly changed the subject:
"You look familiar, senior. What's your name?"

"This is much better than Qiu Mian's previous deskmate..."

As he spoke, he consciously stepped aside, seemingly ready to come up and ask for an autograph at any moment, his attitude incredibly enthusiastic.

Zhang Shutong noticed that the truly clever one was the girl biting her lip. She was talking about herself, but she was constantly observing Gu Qiumian's expression. As for the other two, they were always a step behind and their attention was indeed diverted.

Gu Qiu Mian glanced at him indifferently.
"Unfamiliar."

She uttered two words crisply, then placed her phone face down on the table. The three girls stopped talking halfway through their conversation, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward. They looked at each other, but no one spoke, until Gu Qiu Mian waved her hand in boredom:

"You all go back first, we'll talk about lunch later."

The three girls felt as if they had been granted a pardon. They quickly said goodbye and ran out of the classroom.

Zhang Shutong returned to his seat. If asked about his feelings, he would probably say that he had truly witnessed Gu Qiumian's "young lady" side. In the past, he could only sense her specialness by staring at the building block castle on the bookshelf, but now it was much clearer.

He still had two things on his mind. One was to find Zhou Ziheng, which was easy; but the most urgent task was to write a speech, which was the most troublesome for Zhang Shutong, as he was not good at this kind of occasion.

He was just figuring out how to draft a document when, heaven knows, he used the word "draft." Then the Chinese teacher walked into the classroom, clapped her hands, and said she was going to do a spot check on the texts, confidently linking the morning reading with the first class.
After class, Zhang Shutong finally managed to prepare her speech in her mind, but then the bell rang for the second period.

Then comes the long break after the second period in the morning.

The long break between classes is usually divided into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. In the morning, students usually go downstairs to do exercises. His impression of the break exercises was only "colorful sunshine," but in reality, they are not doing that now. He tells the students it is time to go out and have fun.
In the afternoon, we ran around the track, which was a real chore. Luckily, the track was icy these past few days, so we had free time instead.

Now even the morning exercise break has been changed to listening to these few talk. This has already been announced over the school's public address system. Zhang Shutong thinks the students must be very unhappy, but judging from the reactions of those around him, they are all eager to try, as if they are happy as long as they can get some fresh air.

As a result, he didn't find time to talk to Zhou Ziheng even during the long break. Zhang Shutong was also puzzled as to why he had so many things to do, as he remembered that he used to be quite free... He decided to cut to the chase and deal with other things after he finished speaking.

The classroom was noisy. This time, Zhang Shutong didn't let Gu Qiumian bang on the stool, but went out early.
Du Kang was still bragging to the people around him when Lao Song grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away, while also telling the others to follow.

The group quickly went downstairs to the flagpole, where Song Nanshan forced them to rehearse once. Sure enough, none of them were easy to deal with.

"Du Kang, aren't you exaggerating? That guy was scared by a frog? Really?"

"Ruoping's explanation is too long; let's not start from how you guys started playing mobile games..."

"Qingyi, stop with your melodramatic lines. This is about expressing your feelings about acting bravely and righteously; there's no need to discuss a man's mission..."

"As for you, Shutong... never mind, just leave it at that and try to smile more."

"Finally, there's Qinglian. Although I said writing just one sentence would be enough, you can't really just write one sentence. What do you mean by 'I'm glad I subdued a thug last night'?"

After working for a while, Old Song looked up at the sky, exhausted.

Then, arrange the speaking order:

They unanimously recommended Du Kang first, saying he could liven up the atmosphere;
Next is Ruoping Qingyi.

Zhang Shutong really wanted to be the last one, so that everyone below would get tired of listening and he could say a few words and leave the stage. But one girl was really oblivious. Her three best friends had already lined up, but Lu Qinglian didn't move for a long time.

Zhang Shutong deliberately left a space behind Qingyi, but the girl immediately went around behind him. He looked back at Lu Qinglian for two seconds, but she calmly returned his gaze. Should he cut in behind her again? He could only sigh.

Soon the students lined up under the flagpole. The morning sun pierced through the clouds and stung their eyes. Melted snow flowed down the flagpole. Looking up to find its source, one would be blinded by the light-colored sky above... It was a very clean scene.

Next, the leader went on stage to speak. Du Kang had been waiting impatiently for a long time. He stared at the leader's trouser leg with a contorted expression, wanting to just pull it off.
Finally, it was their turn. Du Kang rushed forward, Ruoping took a deep breath below... The reactions varied, while Zhang Shutong's mind wandered:

Why is the applause from under the flagpole so rhythmic?

The most intense moments are when bidding farewell to the leaders;
By the time it reached Du Kang, its effects had diminished considerably.

When Ruoping went up, things got even more heated;
The girl blushed and ran down quickly. When Qingyi came up again with a blank expression, the applause was even louder than before.

Next up was Zhang Shutong.

He was puzzled as to why the applause from the audience suddenly erupted, even more intense than when bidding farewell to the leaders. Shouldn't it have become increasingly annoying?

As she walked up to the flag-raising platform, she could even see people waving at her from the crowd. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Gu Qiu Mian's group of girlfriends from that morning, jumping and skipping excitedly, like a group of close friends and family, whispering among themselves.

When he got to the microphone, the applause hadn't stopped—from what he observed, the boys had actually stopped, only the girls were shouting and yelling, and he recognized several of them, all of whom were unfamiliar faces.

Wait, no way...

Zhang Shutong's eyelids twitched, and an outrageous guess surfaced in his mind.

But it was good that they didn't stop, so he took the opportunity to finish speaking. He cleared his throat, and with a sharp echo, he coughed into the microphone. Strangely enough, the applause stopped, and curious eyes turned to look at him.

Zhang Shutong glanced at the faces of his peers and younger students, unsure of their excitement, but he wasn't intimidated. Disliking this kind of occasion didn't mean he couldn't handle it. He stood calmly on the stage, looking down at them.

There was no need to read a script; it was just a few sentences, which I could memorize at a glance. I started speaking in a suitable, calm tone, and as I was talking, I spotted a familiar figure in the crowd.

Gu Qiu Mian was too conspicuous; she wore a school uniform jacket on top but a light brown skirt on the bottom, making her stand out from the group of students.

The girl stood with her hands behind her back, looking quite proud, but she would stomp her feet every now and then, which was really unseemly—clearly, Miss Gu had chosen beauty over staying warm.
She still wore that red scarf. She would usually take it off when she went down to do her morning exercises, but today's activity involved clapping in the cold wind, so she put it back on.

The two looked at each other for a moment, then Gu Qiumian looked away, seemingly lost in thought. At that moment, Zhang Shutong finished speaking, bowed and left the stage amidst renewed applause, brushing past Lu Qinglian.

Then--

The crowd went wild.

The boys below, besides clapping, started wailing and howling, and some even jumped up;
If Du Kang hadn't been being watched by Lao Song, he would have howled too, so much so that the PE teacher had to shout into the microphone to keep the audience calm. But by the time he finished shouting, Lu Qinglian had already floated off the stage like a gust of wind. She didn't even bow before turning and leaving.

Then another round of wailing and howling erupted, this time not from excitement, but from regret.

It's best not to participate in this kind of activity again next time.

This was Zhang Shutong's only thought.

Amidst the perfunctory music blaring from the loudspeakers, the PE teacher tried to maintain order, and everyone left in an orderly fashion—in reality, it was practically complete chaos.

The group quickly returned to their classroom.

Du Kang was muttering about which girl had glanced at him more than once earlier;
Qingyi stared at the speech in his hand and sighed. He originally wanted to add a sentence to improvise and impress the audience, but Lao Song suppressed him with his eyes.

Ruoping and Zhang Shutong discussed whose applause was more intense when he or Lu Qinglian appeared. They concluded that the school's male-to-female ratio was 6:4, and the temple keeper girl was slightly ahead of herself.

But Zhang Shutong didn't want to discuss this issue with her at all. At this point, the other person would glance at her and say, "What, can't wait to go back and chat with your deskmate?"

Zhang Shutong had no choice but to endure it.

Qingyi came over to discuss a man's mission with him again, and Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes and said that it was not about endurance anyway.

Everyone crowded together as they went up the stairs. The people in front went into the classroom first, but for some reason, someone suddenly exclaimed and stopped in their tracks.

The crowd went from moving to standing still, some complaining, some curious... and then only astonishment spread around them;

So much so that the chaotic noise suddenly quieted down.

Zhang Shutong was listening to Ruoping and wasn't paying much attention when he bumped into the student in front of him. He frowned, squeezed through the crowd, and glanced at the spot where everyone's eyes were focused—

It turned out that the block castle on the bookshelf had fallen to the ground, its various parts shattered everywhere. A piece of white paper was buried inside, with two large characters written on it in black marker:

to die.

Thank you very much to readers "云步壹", "书友20250428064222483", and "风戚" for their generous donations!
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(End of this chapter)