Winter Time Rendering

It was around 6:20 PM when they left the diner.

Zhang Shutong had never been a picky eater. He ordered shredded pork with green peppers, and just as he’d expected, Gu Qiuyan chose the sweet and sour pork.

He couldn’t imagine what sweet and sour sauce poured over rice would taste like.

Their appetites were surprisingly similar—which was yet another thing that amazed him. She had complained about being uncomfortably full that afternoon, yet she had added an extra chicken leg to her meal. Of course, she left some of the rice, but she polished off all the meat.

Zhang Shutong found himself thinking, ’A girl this spirited must be a carnivore.’

"Let’s go see a movie," he suggested.

Gu Qiuyan was carefully wiping her lips. "Where would we find a movie?"

"At school."

"You want to watch it on a projector?"

"Mhm."

Zhang Shutong felt he had really wronged this young miss today. He was a rather incompetent lackey. He’d made her eat a lunch that barely counted as one, fish for half the afternoon, take a nap in a nail salon, and to top it all off, even their supposedly important dinner was at a cheap diner.

The sweet and sour pork hadn’t been very good, either. Its crispy coating had long since gone soft and mushy under the sauce.

Zhang Shutong didn’t know much about romance, but he instinctively felt that on this remote little island with no nightlife—no KTV, no bars, no movie theaters—their Saturday break deserved a better conclusion.

Only then would it feel complete.

So he led Gu Qiuyan toward the school. On the way, however, Gu Qiuyan insisted they buy some snacks. After all, how could you watch a movie without popcorn and soda?

Zhang Shutong wanted to retort, ’First, there’s nowhere near the school that sells popcorn. Second, are you really treating this like a trip to the cinema? And third, didn’t we just eat?’

He rationally considered these three points, but if the young miss listened to his analysis, she wouldn’t be the young miss. Or to put it another way, if a lackey could offer strategies, he’d be a military advisor.

Gu Qiuyan said it was for the atmosphere. "The school’s facilities are crummy enough already. You can’t let me compensate for it a little?"

Fine. He had to admit she had a point.

But there really wasn’t anywhere near the school that sold popcorn. He glanced at his phone, which was about to die, and urged Gu Qiuyan not to waste her energy. She, however, insisted she could find some. "Wanna make a bet?"

Zhang Shutong wasn’t one for betting—unless it was a sure win. He gave a nonchalant nod, accepting the wager.

After that, Gu Qiuyan dropped the subject of buying snacks entirely.

He was puzzled at the time. ’Does she want to lose to me on purpose?’

They entered the school grounds. There was no guard on duty at night; with a hard shove, they could push the automatic gate open just enough for one person to squeeze through.

Gu Qiuyan slipped through the gate with ease but didn’t head for the classrooms. Instead, she made a beeline for the library.

Zhang Shutong stared blankly as she retrieved her "hidden emergency power supply" from a locked cabinet in the library—which turned out to be a huge stash of snacks.

"Who doesn’t have a secret base?" she huffed.

Zhang Shutong had been outmaneuvered. He lost.

On the way back to the academic building, she kept chanting, "You lost, you lost. Don’t forget, you owe me one wish."

Zhang Shutong didn’t recall the bet involving a wish, so he simply pretended not to hear.

The classroom door was unlocked, which wasn’t surprising. He told Gu Qiuyan to sit down while he went to set up the projector. The computer was incredibly laggy, still running Windows XP. He clicked open a folder filled with ancient movies that Song had downloaded in advance, telling the students to watch more foreign blockbusters to practice their language comprehension.

Zhang Shutong found a copy of *Godzilla* and puzzled over it for a good while. ’How is listening to this lizard roar supposed to help with language comprehension? Are we learning Godzilla-speak? Or did our homeroom teacher just want to watch it himself?’

He asked Gu Qiuyan if she wanted to watch it, but she refused flat-out. Having just eaten her fill and recovered her energy, she was back to glaring at him with those lively, beautiful eyes.

It was a pity the classroom lights were off, so Zhang Shutong couldn’t quite make out the look in her eyes.

’That made sense,’ he thought. Girls usually weren’t interested in monster movies. So he picked out a few more artistic films. First, he asked if *Gone with the Wind* would work.

"Too long. It’s four hours."

"What about *Forrest Gump*?"

"No way. Who wants to watch a movie about an idiot?"

"*Titanic*, then?"

"Can you stop picking tragedies all the time?"

At that, Zhang Shutong was out of ideas.

Deciding he was useless, the young miss took charge. She walked over to the projector, and the faint glow from the computer screen reflected on her face, making her eyes sparkle.

"This one!"

It took her only a second. The young miss pointed her finger, settling the matter instantly.

Zhang Shutong took a closer look. To his surprise, it was *Roman Holiday*.

"Isn’t this one a tragedy too?"

He hadn’t seen it, but he knew the plot summary from some previous translation work. It was roughly the story of a one-day encounter between a genuine princess and her lackey.

The male protagonist is a poor reporter who stumbles upon the princess asleep on a bench. Thinking she’s just an ordinary girl, he kindly takes her home.

But after learning her true identity, he schemes to get an exclusive story on her to make a fortune. He then fakes another chance encounter and, with ulterior motives, becomes her tour guide—or, you could say, her lackey.

They spend a whole day wandering through Rome, and despite being strangers, they develop feelings for one another. The ending is a classic, too: lovers destined to part. How could a poor kid possibly end up with a real princess?

So, the film ends with the runaway princess returning to her palace, while the male protagonist, in his capacity as a reporter, stands in the audience at a press conference with a crowd of his colleagues.

But by then, the lackey knows the girl before him is no longer the little maiden who needed him by her side, but a true, bona fide princess.