Winter Time Rendering

Qingyi quickly explained everything, and Zhang Shutong soon understood the whole story.

It turned out Li Yipeng’s family owned a supermarket on the commercial street. It wasn’t a small one, either; he’d heard they even opened a branch in the city. They’d bought a new house in recent years and were considered "a rich family" on the small island.

Zhang Shutong knew that this kind of supermarket made most of its money from tobacco and alcohol and had a regular clientele. Normally, they should have been living comfortably. But in the past few years, Father Gu had built a shopping mall, creating a major overlap in their businesses. The Li family’s supermarket was hit the hardest.

With their business suffering, Li Yipeng had overheard plenty of bad things about the Gu family. Now, with new grudges piled on top of old ones, he’d done something as stupid as trying to get revenge on her.

Zhang Shutong recalled what he’d seen during lunch. "So, in the end, this is all about a conflict from outside of school?"

"Right. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have waited this long."

"Then what about her name in the bathroom?" Zhang Shutong asked.

"That’s also related to the commercial street. According to him, the person who passed him the note was from a family in a similar situation, maybe even worse. All three of them depended on their shop to make a living."

"Why would they go into so much detail?"

"To make it more believable, I guess. Then they told him that if he wanted to get revenge on Gu Qiuyan, he should write her name on the stall partition, and it would be a secret code between the two of them."

Zhang Shutong said, surprised,

"So Li Yipeng really let himself be used as someone’s pawn?"

"The other person said that since Li Yipeng used to be in the same class as Gu Qiuyan, he knew her better and would know how to hit her where it hurts." Qingyi rolled his eyes. "And you know Li Yipeng... He’s always liked being the center of attention. He probably felt like he was on some grand mission."

"But there is one thing that’s different from what we assumed."

Qingyi added,

"Although they initially planned to target the scarf, the castle wasn’t just incidental. That and the A4 paper were all intentional. They were actually trying to allude to Gu Qiuyan’s family’s shopping mall. Like some kind of criminal manifesto."

"A manifesto?"

"Yeah. Why else would Li Yipeng go along with it? The other person said there were more revenge plans. The castle and the scarf were just the beginning, meant to let Gu Qiuyan know that her family’s shopping mall had provoked them."

Zhang Shutong was about to say something else when Song Nanshan walked over. He was smiling cheerfully. "What were you boys doing, running off during exercises? Are you looking for extra cleaning duty again?" But his good mood lasted only a moment. As soon as Zhang Shutong started talking, Song’s expression turned grim.

...

The bell for the fourth period rang, but Song Nanshan still hadn’t shown up in the classroom.

He was still in his office. He had called Li Yipeng’s parents to come in.

Now, Zhang Shutong was standing in a corner of the office. Beside him was Li Yipeng himself. Du Kang and Qingyi had already gone back to class. He’d asked to stay and listen, and Song hadn’t objected, but he wasn’t in the mood to say much either.

The problem was the "mastermind" behind it all.

Zhang Shutong understood. If he were in Song’s shoes, he’d have a massive headache too. Just as one problem was solved, another popped up. And that’s not even mentioning that Gu Qiuyan’s family was well-off; even if this had happened to a regular girl, it would have been more than enough for the head teacher to handle.

And it was all entangled with a family feud, no less.

When Song heard this, he was furious. He kicked Li Yipeng right in the butt. "If you had the guts to own up to what you did, I’d at least respect you for it. But now you’re just making a bunch of excuses! What kind of pathetic revenge is this? You think you’re justified, don’t you? Failing once and then trying again, even writing ’drop dead’ on a piece of paper? How old are you? You’re just plain rotten!"

He was so angry he wasn’t thinking straight, adding, "What the hell does your family’s failing business have to do with anyone else? Taking it out on a little girl here... why don’t I see you going to confront her dad directly?"

Song was truly terrifying when he lost his temper. He was over 1.8 meters tall with a burly frame, and when he roared, even the doors of the office cabinets trembled slightly. Li Yipeng was a classic example of a spoiled kid. He loved the spotlight but was completely helpless when real trouble hit. He was so intimidated by the shouting that he started to cry.

A teenage boy, old enough to have stubble on his chin, wiping away tears in the office. There were no words for it.

You could tell Song Nanshan was barely holding it in. He opened the office window, lit a cigarette, and decided to just call the kid’s parents and have them take him home for discipline.

Mrs. Li arrived late, around the time the third period was about to end.

The woman was tall and thin, carrying what looked like an exquisite leather handbag. Her thin lips were painted with lipstick, and her foundation was a bit thick but couldn’t hide the wrinkles on her face, creating a somewhat jarring effect.

Song Nanshan was still suppressing his anger as he explained the whole situation, but his dissatisfaction was clear in everything he said.

He was annoyed that the parents would talk about their business matters with their child. Even if Li Yipeng had acted on his own, a student whose mind wasn’t fully mature would surely be influenced by his parents to do something like this.

Zhang Shutong recalled one of Song’s pearls of wisdom. Not long after the school year started, he had told the class, "Although I haven’t met your parents yet, I can get a pretty good idea of what they’re like just from watching you."

That saying was proving true right now. The woman wasn’t listening to Song at all. The moment she saw her son crying, she quickly pulled out a tissue to wipe his tears, endlessly cooing "my dear" this and "my sweet boy" that.

Song cleared his throat and said in a heavy voice,

"Mrs. Li, I hope that as parents, you’ll take this a little more seriously..."

Before he could finish, the woman cut him off impatiently.

"Teacher Song, isn’t this just a little spat between kids? I asked you on the phone what happened, and you insisted on waiting until I got here to explain. I thought something serious had happened to Yipeng at school."