Winter Time Rendering

Zhang Shutong glanced at him too. After Qingyi’s reminder just now, he realized the guy looked a bit familiar.

He seemed to be a former classmate. His popularity in class was so-so, and his personality was a lot like Du Kang’s—a bit hyper.

But Du Kang was also good-natured. He could be annoying sometimes, but he didn’t mind when people dished it back out, so everyone was used to him and didn’t find him irritating.

This Li Yipeng, on the other hand, was lenient with himself and strict with others. His family ran a small business, a little shop, so they were relatively well-off. He had the complete set—a cell phone, a watch, and an MP3 player—and never missed a chance to show them off.

But all the kids on the island knew each other, so they didn’t want to make a big deal out of it with him. Who would have thought he’d run into a brick wall named Gu Qiuyan?

Everyone knew Miss Gu had a habit of sharing snacks with her deskmate. The gesture was casual on her part, but he read more into it. Later, he got carried away, assuming Gu Qiuyan was interested in him. Thinking their relationship could be a little more "intimate," he went and told her a dirty joke, even making the young lady herself the main character.

Gu Qiuyan, stone-faced, threw his pencil case on the ground. But the guy stubbornly tried to save face and retorted, which led to him being smoothly transferred to another class.

Thinking back, Zhang Shutong didn’t know what to say. ’What kind of grudge is this? Besides, it all happened so long ago.’

And if the kid had been defiant to the end, that would have been one thing. But he did something wrong and didn’t have the guts to own up to it. Now he was just sitting on the floor, probably traumatized by his run-in with Father Gu and scared out of his wits.

"You’re saying you weren’t the one who smashed the castle?" Qingyi was surprisingly in the mood to chat with him.

"N—"

"Why are you wasting your breath on him? The scarf alone is enough to convict him," Du Kang said, glaring menacingly. "Who do you think Gu Qiuyan cares more about, the castle or the scarf? The consequences will be even worse if you lie again."

"It was me..."

"Then that’s that."

Who knew the boy would suddenly break down and shout:

"I’m saying it wasn’t just me! There was someone else, really!"

"Then why don’t you tell us who?"

"I don’t know..."

"Do you take the three of us for idiots? Oh, you get caught doing something bad, and only then do you say you have an accomplice? Are you going to say you were forced into it next? Let’s not even talk about whether this accomplice actually exists—you don’t even know who it is. Even criminals have to provide useful information to get a reduced sentence."

"I’m really not lying... The bathroom! Right, the bathroom!" The boy was in a full-blown panic. "Didn’t you just say Gu Qiuyan’s name was in the bathroom? It was this Monday. I had diarrhea and had to run out of class. I had just locked the stall door..."

"And you saw Gu Qiuyan’s name on the stall wall? Don’t tell me that’s your accomplice."

"No, I was the one who wrote the name. Listen to me, there really was someone else! I was in the stall when suddenly a note was slipped under the door. It said he and I both had a grudge against Gu Qiuyan, and that if I wanted to get revenge on her..."

"This isn’t the place to talk." Zhang Shutong cut them off. He could already hear footsteps coming up the stairs. He pulled the boy to his feet. "You guys head to the office first."

...

After sending Du Kang and Qingyi to the office with the boy, Zhang Shutong waited in the hallway for Song Nanshan to return.

The next period was English, but judging by the situation, Song definitely wasn’t in the mood to teach. He would have to deal with the Li Yipeng situation first.

From what the boy said, there was apparently a mastermind behind him. Even if they only served to instigate, the sudden appearance of another person made the whole affair a bit more complicated.

Zhang Shutong was pondering a question—

’What was the actual trigger for this incident?’

’If it was a significant change caused by my own time rewind, I’ve carefully counted them: becoming Gu Qiuyan’s deskmate is one, writing our three names on a piece of scratch paper and having it projected is another, and Lu Qinglian coming along to fish and catching the poacher is a third.’

’Let’s get more specific.’

’Take being deskmates, for example. I’m not saying I didn’t consider Zhou Ziheng as a suspect.’

’For instance, maybe he has a secret crush on Gu Qiuyan, but because he couldn’t be her deskmate, his love turned to hate... Okay, that’s a bit childish, but it’s not impossible.’

’But here’s the problem: Li Yipeng said he was passed the note on Monday. The seats hadn’t been changed yet, had they?’

’I can’t just assume that this Zhou Ziheng had already laid the groundwork, planning to back off if he remained Gu Qiuyan’s deskmate but retaliate if he wasn’t... That’s not even a deduction anymore; it barely qualifies as speculation.’

’Besides, why would he retaliate against her, and not her new deskmate?’

’And taking it a step further, even if he was that calculating, why would he go out of his way to let Gu Qiuyan know?’

Therefore, Zhang Shutong ultimately ruled out Zhou Ziheng as a suspect. He couldn’t find a single rational motive.

’Who is this mastermind, really?’

’Is it related to the murder case?’

’And what exactly happened between Monday and Thursday that prevented this bomb from going off in the past?’

Zhang Shutong had no leads on any of these questions for the time being.

Students began to flood the hallway. He leaned against a pillar, frowning as he watched them walk past. A completely unrelated thought popped into his head: ’Why have all the people involved been Gu Qiuyan’s deskmate?’

Of course, there was no point in dwelling on it. Zhang Shutong just had a strange feeling. He quickly dismissed it with another thought: ’What other reason could there be? It’s because they were close to Miss Gu.’

If they weren’t sitting close, they wouldn’t have had the chance to be fed snacks. They might not even have been able to strike up a conversation with her. Without contact, how could they have gotten involved with Gu Qiuyan at all?

He sincerely felt that it would be better if Gu Qiuyan had a girl for a deskmate. It would save everyone a lot of trouble.