Winter Returns

Chapter 105 Sheepdog (Part 2)
“Then let’s…” Zhang Shutong hesitated.

"Go on, it's like handing over a job. You'll be leaving when her dad gets back," Old Song comforted her. "I'll treat you and Qinglian to dinner tonight. Get some rest. If it weren't for the fact that there's nothing to do on the island, I'd like to treat you two to a movie. Then go back and get a good night's sleep. Go to school on Monday and do whatever you want. Wouldn't it be nice to go fishing with your friends like before?"

Zhang Shutong said he understood.

He glanced subconsciously in the direction of the nanny's room, where Gu Qiumian was making a phone call.

The moment he turned his head, the girl hung up the phone and came out.

"How is Qiu Mian?" Old Song asked.

“He’s already sent someone aboard the ship. He’s going to buy some things in the city, but I told him he didn’t need to…” Gu Qiumian then asked, “Teachers, what do you want to eat tonight?”

"No, no, we're leaving now. The teacher suddenly remembered that the laundry hasn't been hung up yet, and it's probably going to freeze solid in this weather... We'll leave when your family arrives."

Gu Qiumian then looked at Zhang Shutong.

This time, they were truly speechless.

Old Song tactfully walked away, leaving only the two of them. Zhang Shutong opened his mouth, but found he had nothing to say. Could he say that he was still a little worried? But what right did he have to say such a thing? That was his own father. He thought for a moment and simply told him to be careful and to make sure to lock the doors and windows when he went to sleep... To be honest, that was obvious.

“Especially on Saturday and Sunday night,” Zhang Shutong said seriously. “Tell them not to let their guard down, and to keep a few more people in the house instead of all going out to patrol.”

Gu Qiumian nodded gently.

But Zhang Shutong could be a bit stubborn at times. He hesitated for a moment, then asked again:

"Would you like to come with me outside?"

Gu Qiu Mian remained silent this time.

After a long pause, she finally said:
“I know you’ve been concerned about me. You’ve been busy ever since that day at school. I also want to thank you for Zhou Ziheng’s matter, but this time there really won’t be any problems. You should go back and get some rest. Besides…” she said softly, “I don’t want to see you so tired.”

Zhang Shutong understood what she meant.

"Then be careful," Zhang Shutong reminded her one last time, having said the words "safety" and "carefulness" countless times today.

He returned to the sofa to drink water, no longer caring whose cup it was; he picked it up and used it. Zhang Shutong felt he was slowly exhaling. He thought to himself that although the murder case wasn't over yet, at least people had seen its tail end.

Someone will help catch that tail.

Soon the roar of engines could be heard.

When I went outside, I saw that it was the same Land Rover I had seen last time, followed by a Prado. Six men got out of the Prado, all of them well-trained and bigger than Lao Song.

These are bodyguards and police officers.

He had miscalculated a number; including Gu's father and the driver, there should be eight adult men in the villa these days.

Zhang Shutong finally felt relieved.

He subconsciously glanced at the weapons on their bodies; the only ones he could see were batons. Did the police carry guns? Probably not, but that was enough to reassure him.

At this moment, Zhang Shutong truly felt that his mission was accomplished.

Just then, someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw it was Old Song.

"Get in the car, I have something to say to you." Song Nanshan shook his car keys. He should have said goodbye to his bodyguards at this moment, but he simply took himself and left.

Zhang Shutong got into the Ford Focus with the man, and her mindset was different from before. In the past, she would either be chasing after criminals or conducting investigations while in the car, but this time she just chatted for a few minutes.

Zhang Shutong adopted a listening posture, knowing that Lao Song would definitely try to persuade him not to be so stubborn, but he wanted to say that he was not really stubborn, or rather, being stubborn would not change anything. From the moment Gu's father got off the plane, everything was set in stone.

"Have you heard the story of the boy who cried wolf?" Old Song suddenly changed the subject.

"The boy cried wolf!" Of course I've heard of that. Who hasn't heard such a well-known fable?

Zhang Shutong thought to himself.

He seemed to understand what Lao Song meant. It turned out that Lao Song was implying that he was the shepherd boy who kept telling everyone that there was a murderer and danger, but in reality, he hadn't even seen a trace of the murderer. He also thought of Gu Qiu Mian's reaction just now, and realized that she probably didn't believe him anymore.

This is a bit frustrating.

But he didn't know how to explain how the murderer entered the villa. It wasn't that Zhang Shutong was hiding something from anyone. He also wanted to emphasize how unbelievable it was, but after searching the area thoroughly, he still couldn't find any clues.

He won't gain people's trust if he doesn't speak up, but he himself doesn't understand, so how can he explain it?

"What have you thought of now, kid?" Old Song leisurely lit a cigarette. "I never said you were that shepherd boy who only knew how to lie. Actually, everyone believes you."

"Gu Qiu Mian doesn't believe it," Zhang Shutong sighed.

Old Song seemed not to have heard this. He squinted and said, "Say 'wolf' doesn't imply the consequences of lying. It's just that this story was the only one I could think of, and it's a suitable topic. Actually, that's not what I wanted to say."

"what is that?"

"It's a story about sheep and sheepdogs."

"And then?" He was a little tired now, and he wasn't shy around Lao Song, so he reclined in the passenger seat and lay down.

Old Song recounted the story vividly:

"It is said that once upon a time there was a grassland, and on the grassland there was a flock of sheep. Among the flock of sheep was a little lamb, and a sheepdog would circle around it every day, afraid that it would be eaten by wolves."

Zhang Shutong understood.

He was a little speechless, thinking that the metaphor was really terrible. After going around in circles, it turned out to be this. However, Gu Qiu Mian really liked sheep, so comparing her to a sheep was quite appropriate. But he himself was in a bit of a predicament.

"You've actually turned it into a dog." Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes. "That's an insult."

"What's wrong with sheepdogs? They're loyal, intelligent, and brave. Why are you complaining about them?" Old Song argued vehemently.

"Please continue, don't go off-topic."

"At first, this sheep trusted the sheepdog a lot. It did whatever the sheepdog told it to do. When the sheepdog said, 'The wolf is coming, quickly hide on the east hillside,' the sheep ran off like the wind. Then the sheepdog said, 'The wolf went to the hillside, quickly go to the meadow below,' and the sheep followed it. Finally..."

"Stop, stop." Zhang Shutong was exasperated. "What exactly are you trying to say? Please, don't use such metaphors. They sound really weird."

"Isn't it said that fables are more likely to serve as a warning?" Old Song chuckled, probably realizing how naive he was. "Actually, what I was trying to say was that the sheep stopped listening to the sheepdog later on."

"So?" Zhang Shutong then thought, so it's still the story of the boy who cried wolf, "because the wolf never came, and the sheep stopped believing it after a while?"

Old Song disagreed.

"Actually, she didn't believe in wolves from the beginning, or she was skeptical, or perhaps the focus wasn't on wolves at all?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because she just believes what that sheepdog says. If you say there are wolves, then there are wolves; if you say there aren't, then there aren't. Even if you lie and say, 'Wolves are coming, let's run away quickly,' when you just want to have some fun on the grassland, she'll still stay with you."

"But now she doesn't believe it anymore?"

"Well, it's not that I don't believe you, but the little lamb can't possibly follow you around all day, can it?"
“You know, after all, the girl isn’t a real sheep, and you’re not a real sheepdog. Things get complicated when they involve people, let alone young people like you.”

"What's that for?"

“I don’t know either,” Old Song said nonchalantly, flicking his cigarette ash. “I only know that there are silly girls and smart girls, but some people aren’t silly by nature. They’re actually quite smart. It’s just that they used to pretend to be silly, but now they don’t want to pretend anymore, so you can’t fool them.”

Zhang Shutong recalled the conversation from that rainy night.

But back then, Song Nanshan clearly said that Gu Qiumian was a silly girl. The definition of being silly and smart is being able to distinguish what you want. Zhang Shutong always remembered this sentence and unconsciously took it seriously, and was tricked badly.

Now he no longer dares to treat Gu Qiu Mian as a silly girl.

A smart girl wouldn't believe everything she's told and just leave the island without a second thought. And it's not fair to say she's acting impulsively because she's surrounded by bodyguards; her safety is definitely not a concern. Staying at the villa is a pragmatic decision, and trying to persuade her further would only annoy her.

"Alright, alright, that's enough." The man rolled up the car window. "If I keep going, it'll make me seem like a pervert. You get the gist of it. Of course, you can't just get carried away and not leave again. I'm just saying this because you seemed a bit down earlier, to comfort you."

"Really?" Zhang Shutong asked, sitting up in the passenger seat, puzzled.

"Yeah, maybe not disappointment, but confusion?" The man suddenly ruffled his hair and comforted him. "Actually, I can understand how you feel. It must have been hard walking down the mountain today. Were your shoes wet? Were your feet cold? Going up the mountain wasn't easy either. Ruoping told me you even got injured. Your chest and arms are covered in bruises. You had to rush back in the end. It's like a sheepdog that's run around all its life with its tongue hanging out, getting hurt and bleeding a lot, only to be eliminated by surveillance cameras and electronic fences in the end. Anyone would feel confused in that situation."

Zhang Shutong felt the large hand on his head, his hair being ruffled, and suddenly he couldn't speak. He could only reiterate that he was not a dog.

"Actually, Shutong, you had a teacher's wife back then, the kind you were about to marry," Old Song suddenly blurted out.

Zhang Shutong was taken aback, wondering why the other party had brought up this matter on their own initiative.

He knew that Lao Song's girlfriend had been in a car accident, although he himself in this timeline was unaware of it. However, out of respect, Zhang Shutong straightened his seat.

"and then?"

Old Song remained silent for a long time. After a while, Zhang Shutong even thought he had drifted off into thought before finally speaking:

"Then we broke up. What else could it be? A melodramatic love story," the man chuckled, a smile tinged with loneliness, befitting a bachelor. "Do you know why your teacher has been so skeptical of you these past few days, even though you're always jumping around and occasionally act crazy?"

Isn't it because of the love between master and disciple?
Zhang Shutong wanted to crack a joke to lighten the mood, but he seemed to guess what Song Nanshan was going to say, so he fell silent.

"Because I see some shadows of the past in you."

The large hand that had been on his head moved away and instead patted his shoulder forcefully.

"Don't let go of something when you have the ability to hold onto it, or you'll regret it someday."

Will I regret it?

Maybe.

Zhang Shutong looked at the car roof with a somewhat confused expression. But now it wasn't a question of whether or not he had the ability to grasp something and why he didn't; it was that someone more capable than himself had arrived.

Old Song ultimately didn't say that thing out loud.

Zhang Shutong had already started to feel sad, but then the man casually patted him on the shoulder:

"Speaking of which, your teacher's wife and I are about to get married, which is why I've been thinking about her for so many years. But I've never understood why you're so interested in her. Did you fall in love at first sight?"

"No."

"Unrequited love".

"It doesn't exist either."

"What is that?" Old Song asked curiously.

Zhang Shutong also found this question strange.

Why does saving a girl have to involve romance?
She's going to die. If she really dies in front of you, you'll never see those bright and beautiful eyes again, and that silver pendant will be buried underground with her. It would be such a pity.

He had just started to feel this way when he realized he was just being sentimental.

Because what happened next was no longer his concern.

(End of this chapter)