Winter Time Rendering

—Go die.

The raw malice was frozen in those two words. The beautiful, European-style model castle had been smashed to pieces.

Whispers broke out from the surrounding crowd:

"What happened...?"

"I didn’t see..."

"Who came in first?"

"Don’t talk nonsense, it has nothing to do with me. It was like this when I got here, ask someone else if you don’t believe me..."

A vacuum seemed to form around the shattered pieces of the model castle. The crowd of students stood at a distance, their expressions a mixture of curiosity and shock, yet not a single person dared to step forward.

Ruoping went up to take a look, her tone turning complicated.

"Why is it always her? It was the same thing with the scarf last time. Who on earth did Gu Qiuyan piss off to... Hey, where are you going?"

Zhang Shutong had already pushed his way through the shoulders of the onlookers and crouched down by the blocks. He pulled out his phone—CLICK—and then picked up the piece of white paper. He glanced at it before crumpling it into a ball.

The paper was just a plain, clean sheet of A4, with no marks on it other than those two words. He continued to look down, pushing aside the colorful pieces on the floor with his hand, only then realizing it wasn’t just smashed—

Originally, a LEGO minifigure of a girl in a dress had been placed at the castle’s entrance. She was dressed beautifully, hidden amongst the leafy branches of the green plants on either side. He used to jokingly call her the princess. Now, the minifigure was snapped in two at the waist, and the plastic part that served as its head had been crushed underfoot.

He glanced at his phone again. In the photo he had just taken, the princess minifigure’s "corpse" was placed right between the two words: "Go die."

Zhang Shutong gathered the blocks into a pile, his brow furrowing bit by bit.

He was certain of one thing: this was a variable that had never occurred in his past life.

’Why?’

’And what did ’Go die’ mean?’

’Was this like the shredded scarf last time—some kind of revenge from a classmate, or...?’

’A death threat?’

For a moment, his mind flashed to the murder case four days from now. But what connection could there possibly be between these two events?

He was trying to sort through his thoughts when Ruoping squeezed through the crowd and interrupted him.

"Here, put them in this..."

She had found a plastic bag from somewhere. Sighing, she crouched down to help him clean up the blocks, her tone laced with a hint of exasperation.

"Why are you sticking your nose in this? Didn’t you learn your lesson from the scarf incident...?"

Of course, Zhang Shutong couldn’t tell her his suspicions. He just kept himself busy and casually made something up.

"What else am I supposed to do? She’s going to cry and throw a fit again. I’m her deskmate now, so I’m the one who’s going to suffer for it..."

After a few sentences, they had already collected all the blocks. He glanced up; Gu Qiuyan hadn’t returned to class yet.

"That’s true. I wouldn’t be helping her if it weren’t for you." Ruoping had always been the type to have a sharp tongue but a soft heart. "So who do you think wants revenge on her? We’re all classmates. It can’t be that serious of a grudge, can it?"

But Zhang Shutong didn’t answer.

He saw someone.

He placed the plastic bag on a bookshelf, his gaze fixed on one spot. "You go find the homeroom teacher first..."

With that, Zhang Shutong strode out of the crowd. The other boy saw him coming and tried to leave, but this time he wasn’t so lucky. Zhang Shutong grabbed the jacket of the boy named Zhou Ziheng and frowned.

"What was it you were talking about this morning?"

Zhang Shutong didn’t have much of an impression of him; he was probably one of those kids who didn’t have much of a presence in class. Now, taking a good look, he saw the boy was short and stocky with dark skin. His eyes were so dark there was very little white visible. His back was slightly hunched, a sign that he was used to keeping his head down.

"What do you want from me? Let go..."

The distance between them closed in an instant. The other boy froze for a second, then struggled to break free, but couldn’t escape Zhang Shutong’s grip.

Zhang Shutong just stared directly into his eyes.

"If you don’t tell me now, you can tell the homeroom teacher later."

By now, the two of them had become the center of attention. Countless eyes were on them. Zhou Ziheng said anxiously,

"Let me tell you something, Zhang Shutong! Don’t think you can just... just because you’re on good terms with the homeroom teacher!"

"Yeah, so what?" Zhang Shutong cut him off cleanly. "So you did this?"

"What does it have to do with me? Don’t talk nonsense..."

"Then tell me. Now."

The boy finally broke, stammering,

"It really wasn’t me! I just saw someone had written Gu Qiuyan’s name on the stall wall when I went to the bathroom this morning..."

"Go on."

"And... and her name had a cross drawn over it..."

"Which stall?"

"I-I didn’t notice..."

"Keep talking."

"There’s nothing else, really! I saw it and wanted to tell her, but she didn’t believe me! What was I supposed to do? I clearly told her, but she just found me annoying, and now you guys are suspecting me!"

As he spoke, Zhou Ziheng suddenly became agitated. He forcefully yanked his arm free from Zhang Shutong’s grasp, his jacket getting pulled askew.

"Why am I the one being suspected for trying to be a good person? I’d like to know who I pissed off! Didn’t I tell her this morning? Didn’t she just brush it off? And didn’t something actually happen? So since it’s like that, what the hell does it have to do with me anymore!"

"Then why did you run this morning?" Zhang Shutong didn’t bother arguing those points with him.

Zhou Ziheng clenched his fists, staring intently at the blocks in the bag, his dark face flushed red. He looked at Zhang Shutong indignantly and shouted,

"Well, I’d like to ask who the hell you think you are! Who are you, Zhang Shutong? What are you to Gu Qiuyan? Why is it that when something happens to her, you’re the one running over here asking all sorts of questions? What if I just don’t feel like talking, huh? If she wants to know, can’t she come ask me herself? What, are you the only one in the whole world allowed to be the good guy?"

After yelling his piece, Zhou Ziheng tried to leave, but as soon as he took a step, he found his way blocked by two other boys.

"Whoa, hold on. Now you’re playing the victim? I’m telling you, man, is there something wrong with your brain? It was a simple thing, you could’ve just said it straight. Isn’t it because you have a guilty conscience that things ended up like this?"