Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 29: Chapter 9: Mysterious Girl Lu Qinglian

Eventually, you become a sluggish yet cunning old fish. You play it safe, you’re the biggest one around, you rule the entire pond. But what happened to all the little fish who used to swim by your side? There’s nothing to be done but to slow down the process as much as you can.

And so, he sighed out of nowhere:

"It would be nice if things could stay like this forever."

The offhand remark made both Qingyi and Ruoping nod in agreement. Soon, one of them started talking about the future. The long term was high school; the short term was winter and summer breaks. Since it was Wednesday, they discussed plans for the weekend, whether they should take a trip off the island, and vacation travel... The world outside was always so alluring.

"But this is nice, too," Zhang Shutong said.

"Yeah."

"Just the few of us." Ruoping smiled, too.

The three of them fell silent, gazing at the surface of the water. Ripples would occasionally spread across it, and they could hear little birds squawking as they bumped into the pig’s head.

After a long moment of silence, Zhang Shutong suddenly asked:

"Hey... aren’t we missing someone?"

Ruoping’s eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, you’re right! Where’s Du Kang?"

...

Ruoping immediately looked a little sheepish. After all, she was the one who’d said, "It’s nice with just the few of us."

The question had only just occurred to Zhang Shutong as well, and he quickly asked how it ended up being just the two of them.

"Don’t you change the subject. I’ve been meaning to ask you what was up today. Why did you suddenly run over to the young miss’s side, and what was with that piece of scratch paper..."

"Didn’t Du Kang tell you?"

"You think I’d believe him?"

Qingyi’s interest was piqued. "So you like Gu Qiuyan, huh? We saw her after school today. Want us to ask her out for you this weekend?"

Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes at them.

"Spit it out, spit it out!" Ruoping’s future boyfriend was definitely going to have his hands full.

Just as Zhang Shutong was trying to figure out how to change the subject, Qingyi suddenly spoke in a mysterious tone:

"You’d better not ask. What makes a man a man is that he’ll always have a sacred ground in his heart that no one else can ever reach."

’Bro, where did you dig up that cringey anime quote?’ Zhang Shutong thought. Still, he clung to the lifeline he’d been thrown.

"Agreed."

"Suit yourself."

Besides, Ruoping and Gu Qiuyan didn’t get along in the first place.

Zhang Shutong breathed a sigh of relief.

"So where’d Du Kang go? I see his bike is still here."

"Him?" Ruoping smiled mysteriously. "He’s probably grinning like an idiot right now. Oh, right, did you see the photo I sent you?"

"Lu Qinglian? Right, what was she doing here?"

"I was about to ask you."

"Me?"

"Who else? You’re the one who was scribbling her name. I can’t think of any other reason."

Zhang Shutong pretended not to hear and asked again:

"So what happened?"

"It was after school. We were about to head to dinner without you, but Du Kang realized he’d forgotten something and went back. When he came out again, he was taking forever. I asked him, ’What’s with you, acting all shy like a girl?’ And you’ll never guess what happened."

Ruoping laughed as she got to this part.

"He kind of shuffled to the side, and there was actually a girl hiding behind him—Lu Qinglian came downstairs right after he did. Du Kang told us that when he went back to the classroom, Lu Qinglian had approached him. She said she wanted to come fishing and asked if she could tag along."

Zhang Shutong raised an eyebrow, asking curiously:

"So, is something finally happening between those two?"

Ruoping just gave him a look, ignoring the question and continuing her story.

"I always thought Lu Qinglian was one of those ethereal types, completely detached from worldly things. I never would’ve pegged her as someone interested in fishing. But hey, if she wanted to come, she could come. We told her the location, grabbed a bite to eat, and came over. She showed up a little while later."

Zhang Shutong looked around.

"So she fished for a bit and then left? And Du Kang went to see her off?"

"Not quite. I had just finished teaching her how to cast—right around when I sent you that photo. Then she suddenly said she remembered something she had to do and would be back when she was finished. She didn’t say where she was going. Just put down her fishing rod and took off, leaving Du Kang sitting here like a dummy..."

At this point, Qingyi picked up the story:

"We had to tell him, ’It’s getting late, you should go see what’s up.’ That’s when it finally dawned on him to chase after her. He left, and then you showed up not long after, Shutong."

Zhang Shutong pieced the whole thing together but couldn’t come to a conclusion.

So, after all that, he still had no idea why Lu Qinglian had come.

’She couldn’t have actually just come here to fish, could she?’

He found the girl’s behavior strangely familiar, a lot like his past self. He’d be minding his own business with friends or family when a rewind would trigger. Not being one for elaborate lies, he’d just make up a vague excuse about having something to do and suddenly run off.

Then there were the times he’d butt into some situation, even when the people involved barely knew him. He’d just force his way in, earning surprised stares, all the while thinking he was like a superhero making his big debut.

He was about to ask something else when he saw Ruoping wave at someone behind her.

"Over here, over here... The two of them are back. If you want to know something, just ask them yourself."