Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 16: Chapter 5: The Girl’s Red Triumphs Over All

Zhang Shutong called "that incident" the Scarf Incident.

It happened after a gym class. Everyone had returned to the classroom when Gu Qiuyan discovered that someone had stepped on her beloved scarf.

If there had only been a single footprint, it might have been okay. But one end of the scarf had its threads nearly pulled out, and it was also smeared with several black handprints. This couldn’t be explained away as an accident.

It was obviously deliberate revenge.

She first gasped in distress, then looked around at her classmates, at a loss. The rims of her eyes began to redden before anger flooded her face. She strode to the teacher’s podium, slammed the scarf down, and demanded loudly:

"Who did this? Get out here right now!"

The classroom suddenly fell silent.

At the same time, one person hesitantly stood up.

"You?!"

"No, I was just going to the restroom..."

Before he could finish, Gu Qiuyan cut him off with a bark, and he sheepishly sat back down.

The room was utterly silent. The "young miss’s" formidable reputation was no joke; students who had been chatting quietly now clamped their mouths shut.

"I didn’t see anything..."

"Me neither..."

This was the first time any of them had seen her lose her composure like this, and they were all a bit intimidated.

After all, back when that one boy had provoked her, the consequences had been severe, but even then she had merely walked away with a cold expression.

No one dared to make a sound, but sometimes, silence is also a form of disregard.

Aside from the students who were still processing what was happening, there were others who felt she had gone too far during the "class transfer incident." They thought this was too small a matter to cause such a scene over. They didn’t dare say anything, but they kept their heads down in silent protest.

If it had been any other girl, a few close friends would have gathered around to comfort her and help her vent.

But Gu Qiuyan had no friends. She stood alone on the podium, lips pressed into a thin line, her glare sweeping across the room as if she wanted to scrutinize every single face.

At the time, Zhang Shutong was huddled with Du Kang and their friends. After they exchanged glances, Ruoping was the first to act, grabbing Du Kang by the ear.

"Hey, what are you looking at me for? Even if I have a grudge against her, you think I’d do something like this?"

"Ow, ow, ow! I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t mean anything by it..."

Ruoping finally let go and pursed her lips.

"The ’young miss’ is throwing a tantrum. Now we’re in for it. Qingyi, any guesses who did it?"

"Can’t say. We all just got back, and I didn’t see anyone missing. It was probably done before gym class."

"What about you, Shutong? Huh? Spacing out?"

Before Zhang Shutong could speak, another boy suddenly stood up. He was one of Gu Qiuyan’s secret admirers, and he pointed right at him.

"Zhang Shutong stepped on it! I saw him! After he stepped on it, he even picked the scarf up."

Zhang Shutong froze.

From the moment Gu Qiuyan had walked up to the podium, he had been trying to remember something:

’Did I actually step on it or not?’

He had been the last one out of the classroom that day. The homeroom teacher had asked him to draw up a seating chart during the break. It was supposed to be the class president’s job, but the president was absent, so the task fell to him.

Once he finished, he had hurried down the aisle. The scarf was lying on the floor, with only its tassels partially visible.

He remembered not stepping on it, just picking it up as he passed. But he had been in a rush, and now that he was being accused, he started to doubt himself. Maybe his foot really had brushed against it. He couldn’t be sure anymore.

It was the most frustrating kind of situation—one where he seemed both uninvolved and slightly involved, making it impossible to explain things clearly.

Gu Qiuyan finally remembered him, this "traitor." She gritted her teeth, her voice rising in pitch, thick with rage.

"You did this?"

"I think I might have stepped on it... but I didn’t pull the threads."

"Then tell me this! Why would Zhou Ziheng say he saw you? Are you saying he’s lying?"

The boy, Zhou Ziheng, was her deskmate. He was always fawning over her, which made his words far more credible than Zhang Shutong’s.

"It was definitely him! I had just gone back to get something when I saw it."

Zhou Ziheng’s voice grew louder.

"Hey, don’t you two go falsely accusing people! For all we know, your deskmate is the one framing him!"

Ruoping stood up as well.

But Gu Qiuyan ignored her, walking straight up to Zhang Shutong and throwing the scarf onto his desk.

Only then did Zhang Shutong see that it wasn’t just a footprint. There was something sticky on it, too, like smeared snot.

Gu Qiuyan’s eyes were fixed on him.

"Zhang Shutong, did you do this or not?"

"...It wasn’t me."

"Then what were you saying just now? Scared to admit it now?"

"I’m saying, I might have stepped on it," Zhang Shutong said, his skin crawling. "But this stuff on it... that definitely wasn’t me. Just calm down..."

But Gu Qiuyan was in no state to listen to him.

"Why would you do something like this? This scarf was from my mom... she..."

"I didn’t do it."

"All I want is an apology! I won’t tell the teacher. The one thing I can’t stand is people who won’t admit what they’ve done!"

...

"Disgusting!"

"I told you. This part of it wasn’t me."

He enunciated every syllable.

’That was just how he was back then. He responded to soft persuasion, not to force. He believed the innocent needed no defense and was definitely not the type to comfort anyone.’

When Gu Qiuyan first approached, he’d felt like he was at least partially involved, so he was naturally on the back foot. But her attitude, like she was interrogating a criminal, started to piss him off, too.

From that perspective, it wasn’t wrong to say he was "cold and aloof" back then. If Gu Qiuyan’s face was like winter frost, Zhang Shutong’s would only be colder.

As she spoke, the rims of her eyes reddened again.

"I’ve never done anything to you, have I?"

"And I’ve never done anything to you."

"Then why would you..."

"Are you going to give it a rest?"

They were talking past each other, both seething with anger. Someone finally tried to play peacemaker.

"Qiumian, why don’t you just tell Teacher Song?"

"Yeah, class is about to start. Wasting time here isn’t going to solve anything..."