Winter Returns

Chapter 139 Gu Qiu Mian with Long Hair
Long hair...

Zhang Shutong's understanding of Gu Qiumian was neither deep nor shallow, but he could at least tell that her hair had grown several centimeters longer.

What does a few centimeters mean?
He had just seen Gu Qiu Mian in the hospital room three days ago. This amount of hair could not possibly grow in three days, and it would be difficult even in a month. No wonder so many things were wrong.

But why is this happening?

Calm down, calm down, when exactly did she change her hairstyle?
Zhang Shutong remembered seeing Gu Qiumian in Class 2 during the morning break, but she was surrounded by a group of girls and couldn't see her hair clearly.

The laughter around him only made him feel more alienated. As Zhang Shutong looked at the familiar and unfamiliar faces, a chill and confusion welled up in his heart.

He's not even sure where the meal came from.

I remember it was Monday when Gu Qiumian asked him on QQ when he would be discharged from the hospital. He said Wednesday, so she said okay, and she would treat him to a meal when he was discharged.

Zhang Shutong took out her phone and hurriedly scrolled to the chat history from a few days ago, but the records hadn't changed. Looking at Sunday's messages, she saw that on Sunday night, her friend had someone deliver a bag of snacks and some nutritional supplements, reminding her not to forget to pick them up. Before that was the conversation from before Sunday, where her friend was at the villa, and she asked if she was alright. Her friend said she was fine, and then reminded her to be careful, and so on...

What exactly has changed?
"Senior, dinner's ready! You've been staring at me like a trance..."

Finally, his secretary nudged him, and Zhang Shutong looked down to find that the waiter had already pushed the food cart into the private room. It turned out that the dishes had been prepared long ago and were just waiting for everyone to arrive before being served.

He didn't even know where to begin—because the most noticeable change he noticed was that Gu Qiumian's hair had grown a few centimeters, but how could he investigate something like that?
Looking at Gu Qiumian again, she was wearing a gray wool coat with a Korean-style large lapel. The gray color made her look capable and aloof, like a fashionable woman strolling through the city streets.

But once her coat was hung on the coat rack by the door, revealing the white wool vest underneath, she looked radiant again.

Despite the cold weather, her fluffy outfit looked incredibly warm.

The crowd's reaction wasn't as exaggerated as expected. For example, someone suddenly appeared and said, "Let me help you hang up your clothes." Everyone just chatted and laughed while waiting for her to sit down.

"Let's change seats."

Zhang Shutong whispered, and before Xu Zhiruo could sit down, he took her seat.

He was now standing next to Gu Qiumian, with Gu Qiumian on his left and Xu Zhiruo on his right. The surroundings were noisy, and no one noticed his subtle movements.

"Hey, you..."

The secretary was dumbfounded.

Zhang Shutong didn't have time to explain. He had a lot of questions to ask, but after thinking it over, he realized it was better to ask the person directly. He waited for Gu Qiumian to hang up her clothes and walk over. The distance between them was about seven or eight steps, but those seven or eight steps felt so long, as if time had stood still.

So Zhang Shutong pretended to remain calm, waiting for Gu Qiumian to approach and sit down, and then—

"Come on, everyone, please move over here and make some room..."

Suddenly a boy appeared:
“Zhang Shutong has injured his hand. Please have the class monitor move to the right so as not to bump into him.”

This means that he fractured his left hand, and Gu Qiu Mian happened to be to his left. If the two of them sat too close together, it would be inconvenient for them to pick up food.

Gu Qiumian paused, seemingly finding the suggestion quite reasonable.

"it is good."

She raised her delicate chin and gestured for everyone to move to the right.

Then I pulled out a chair and sat down.

The girl, who was originally so close, now kept a distance of a body length from Zhang Shutong, making him feel as if he had caught a cold and needed to be isolated from afar.

He waited in vain.

Zhang Shutong was almost angered, thinking to himself, "Brother, why are you causing trouble at this crucial moment? This isn't how you show kindness." He glared at the other person with a hint of murderous intent, then was stunned.

I don't know him at all.

But he shouldn't know them. He then realized that he was not familiar with this group of thugs at all. The only one he remembered was that guy who looked like a fighting rooster, the one he paid for dinner on the shopping street.

"Senior, you need to be more reserved, be more reserved!" the secretary quickly advised.

"Who is that?" Zhang Shutong turned and asked, preparing to write down a boy's name for the first time. Could it be Zhao Yang?
"I do not recognize."

"You don't recognize me?" Zhang Shutong was taken aback.

How did you become a secretary? How come you can't even recognize all the henchmen?
"I really don't know him. He must be a senior in the fourth year of junior high. I'm waiting for you to introduce me to him," the secretary said innocently, not jokingly.

Zhang Shutong suddenly grasped something from that sentence.

He remembered that Gu Qiumian's underlings all called her "Sister Gu," while "Qiumian" was a term of endearment for close friends. But what was that guy's name again?

Monitor!

Gu Qiumian is now the class monitor?
Zhang Shutong finally understood the root of the problem:
"Are all these people in the fourth year of junior high?"

"Yeah, I'm telling you, senior, how come you don't even recognize your classmates?"

So this wasn't some kind of gangster dinner after all!
No wonder he looked somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar among this group of people, and no wonder Du Kang greeted them with laughter and jokes, and someone even asked Ruoping why she didn't say she was coming... They were clearly classmates from the same grade.

But he's only been back for a week, who could he possibly know?
He bypassed Xu Zhiruo and poked Qingyi directly.

"Why are they all from our grade?" Zhang Shutong asked deliberately.

Qingyi held her head and leaned back:
"Maybe they only invited us classmates this time, she's the exception." As she spoke, Qingyi gestured to Xu Zhiruo, who was sandwiched in the middle.

"Hey, senior, even though you're handsome, please don't say things that are so hurtful. It makes me feel like I'm being ostracized!"

The secretary is an excellent source of witty remarks.

Zhang Shutong ignored her and asked again:
"Have you guys noticed... Gu Qiu Mian looks a little different today? I mean, her hairstyle?"

He spoke vaguely, but didn't hold out much hope. However, Xu Zhiruo's reaction the next second was unexpected:
"Oh, how come you only just noticed?"

“I mean, her hair seems to have grown a few centimeters longer than before…” Zhang Shutong said, forcing a smile.

"Yes, that's what I was talking about. Senior, you seem a little slow on the uptake," the secretary patiently explained. "Don't you think her hair has suddenly grown a tiny bit longer?"

Zhang Shutong nodded.

"Of course it's long. She straightened her hair the day before yesterday. I went with her."

"Straighten?"

Zhang Shutong asked incredulously, "Is this some kind of magic unique to girls?"
"Didn't you notice that Qiu Mian used to get her hair permed? She straightened it a few days ago. Sigh, senior, you're really something. You were in such a hurry to sit next to her that you didn't even know that. I really don't know what you two talk about every day..."

Zhang Shutong looked at Gu Qiumian again. Originally, she had medium-length hair with slightly curled ends that fell over her shoulders, but now her hair was just a few centimeters past her shoulders. In other words, his "amazing discovery" was just that Miss Gu had changed her hairstyle.

Zhang Shutong fell silent.

He picked up his chopsticks and started picking up food.

taste good.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a restaurant with luxurious private rooms.

Since it was a classmate reunion, there weren't many rules. There was no need to wait for Gu Qiumian to speak before picking up the chopsticks, and there was no toasting or urging others to drink. The people at the table simply picked up their drinks and symbolically clinked them together. Then, that same boy jokingly said, "Wishing Class Monitor Gu a bright future." Some busybodies chimed in, and everyone laughed and joked again before picking up their chopsticks one by one.

Zhang Shutong has already eaten everything from smoked meat platter to preserved duck and then to century egg tofu.

The conclusion is that you should never scare yourself unnecessarily. It turned out to be a complete misunderstanding. He thought he had unknowingly jumped to a new timeline, but it was just a dinner party between the young lady and her new classmates. Since Gu Qiu Mian suddenly became the class monitor, it was natural to celebrate. Calling it a Pokémon party was inappropriate; it should be called a banquet for her retainers.

Zhang Shutong reviewed the chat history again and realized that she had misunderstood the meaning from the beginning. The other person did say that they were inviting her to dinner, but this dinner was not a celebration of her discharge from the hospital.

As a "retainer," he hadn't even noticed that the young lady had recently permed her hair, which was rather unbecoming of him, yet he still occupied the closest seat. Zhang Shutong's face flushed slightly, and he could only bury his head in his food. The small fish were fried until crispy.

The sausages were very plump.

The Four Happiness Meatballs are quite large.

Zhang Shutong didn't stop eating until a dish of sweet and sour pork was turned onto the round table.

Hairstyles may change, but some people's tastes will never change.

Then look at Gu Qiumian. She has become very busy, or rather, she is always the center of attention. The girls will tell her about their latest funny stories, while the boys will burst into laughter while chatting, deliberately raising their voices and slapping their thighs.

Gu Qiumian has never had a high threshold for laughter. She will smile and put down her chopsticks when she hears a topic that interests her. She has never been an arrogant person. The reason why she was very cold when I met her at the lake fish restaurant was because she happened to be in a bad mood.

"Squad leader, you must have a lot of cars."

"How could it not be big? Don't you even know how big the class monitor's house is? Is it three or four stories?"

"That's right, that's right. Last time I rode my bike, I was almost exhausted. You have no idea how long it took just to get to Qiu Mian's house. It was a whole mountain road!"

"I envy you. I've only ever gone on trips outside the island before."

"Hey, are you trying to force me out of this position, saying it in front of Qiu Mian?"

"Don't dare, don't dare..."

"We can't always let the class monitor treat us, let's chip in next time..."

She handles everyone's conversations with ease, and is incredibly popular. Zhang Shutong subconsciously thought that people always grow. She remembered that when Gu Qiumian first transferred schools, she was a bit clumsy in dealing with interpersonal relationships and was somewhat indifferent to everyone. But three years have passed in the blink of an eye, and she is no longer the girl who cried over a bag of chocolates.

Then someone else said:

"By the way, class monitor, what happened to Zhou Ziheng? I heard he went to a juvenile detention center?"

Zhang Shutong thought to herself, "You guys really know how to rub salt in the wound. You take the plunge as soon as she's in a slightly better mood. You're really bold."

To everyone's surprise, Gu Qiu Mian just rolled her eyes:

"Don't mention him, it makes me sick. Anyone who says it again will be punished by eating pig intestines!"

She couldn't help but laugh before she could finish speaking.

That refers to a dish of braised pork intestines that had just been served.

They came to a Shandong cuisine restaurant, and Nine-Turned Intestines is a relatively high-end dish in Shandong cuisine. When the waiter brought it over, he painstakingly explained how many processes it went through, how its color was red and shiny like agate, and the lineage of the chef who cooked it.

Then, everyone tactfully moved the braised pork intestines in front of Gu Qiu Mian, letting her start eating. But Gu Qiu Mian only glanced at them, wrinkled her nose, and said, "I don't eat this. You guys go first."

Some people just won't eat offal, no matter how expensive it is. And since there were more than ten people at their table, one dish wasn't enough to share, and no one took the initiative to pick it up, which became the "punishment" in the young lady's eyes.

So when she said that, Zhang Shutong had just swallowed the Nine-Turned Intestines in his mouth and felt like he had been accidentally hurt.

It was cleaned very well, and there was no odor.

He said it silently to himself.

In short, this meal was incredibly extravagant. The main dishes were truly top-notch: braised sea cucumber with scallions, braised pork tendon with scallions, and steamed yellow croaker. These were definitely not the kind of "hard dishes" like braised pork knuckle or braised chicken that were just there to fill the table. The next level up included braised pork belly with hawthorn, sweet and sour spare ribs, and stir-fried pork liver. Perhaps this restaurant also had abalone and shark fin, but when you're treating classmates, you don't need to be this ostentatious.

With his worries gone, Zhang Shutong enjoyed the meal immensely, finding it to be the best meal he had ever had since he began to reflect on his past.

Someone patted their belly and said:
"Thank you for spending money, class monitor."

"Yes, it's a pity we're too pressed for time today. We have to rush back to school after a few bites. Although Qiu Mian is treating us because you just changed classes, we should save it for the weekend. We'll treat you this weekend."

When someone extended such an invitation, Gu Qiu Mian didn't answer whether she would go or not. Instead, she pursed her rosy lips:

“My dad has been keeping a close eye on me these past few days. If I hadn’t said I was going to treat the new classmates to dinner, I wouldn’t have been able to get out at all.”

"That's true. I've noticed that you've been eating in your car after school these past few days."

Zhang Shutong also knew that she had been surrounded by bodyguards lately, and that she was either going to school or on her way home. Just now, before entering the private room, the bodyguard who brought them here stopped in the lobby, which was no different from close protection.

Gu's father could immediately receive information about what the young lady ate for lunch, whether she enjoyed it, and how many people she invited.

So this meal was indeed hard-won. The classmates around were a little reserved when they first arrived. Firstly, they had come to the mall right after school and were making a big fuss. Secondly, according to what Gu Qiu Mian had just said, it seemed that she had invited all the new students from Class 2 this time.

Zhang Shutong had previously thought that Gu Qiumian had no friends on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, but it turned out that she didn't. At first, everyone was paying attention to Gu Qiumian's reaction, but after a few rounds of drinks, they gradually relaxed.

The surroundings were chaotic. Some people were whispering, others were shouting across the table. Everyone had someone to talk to, maybe one or maybe several. The noise acted as a camouflage, making it impossible to hear who was talking or what anyone was saying. That's how it is at gatherings; no one pays attention to the food itself, the focus is on chatting and laughing.

Zhang Shutong had no one to talk to now. To her right was Xu Zhiruo, who was bothering Qingyi. Qingyi remained expressionless and didn't get angry, occasionally nodding. To her left was Gu Qiumian, but the two were too far apart, and she always had endless topics to talk about.

He picked up another piece of sea cucumber with his chopsticks, quite satisfied with the restaurant's cooking. However, someone else asked with some dissatisfaction:
"Why do you only eat?"

"Isn't it because you dragged me here to eat that I'm here?"

The surroundings were too noisy, so Zhang Shutong inevitably raised his voice and continued to attack the sea cucumber, but the sea cucumber was moved away from the table.

Gu Qiu Mian withdrew her hand, propped her chin on her hand, and looked at him:
"Why did you take Zhiruo's seat? I can't even chat with her for a while."

The two were quite a distance apart, and Zhang Shutong thought to himself that this was really a misunderstanding.

Gu Qiumian then launched into a accusation:
Why were you staring at me when I came in?

Hmm... I noticed you're wearing a new coat?

"So, did you figure anything out?"

Zhang Shutong looked up and saw Gu Qiumian seemingly intentionally or unintentionally toss her hair, making it dazzlingly white, like lead powder. He had already seen the reference answer beforehand.
"You straightened your hair?"

"Hmph." She tossed her hair. "By the way, does your arm still hurt?"

"Haven't I told you several times that I barely felt anything yesterday? How did you become the class monitor?"

"The teacher called roll directly in the morning."

"congratulate."

"There's nothing to congratulate about that."

"Then why did you invite so many people to dinner?"

“Of course I have to treat you to a meal after my shift changes,” she said matter-of-factly. “Otherwise, I’ll seem stingy. When are you going to get your cast removed?”

"It depends, it'll happen this week."

Don't forget the weekend.

"Your dad told you to go out?" Zhang Shutong picked up another piece of sea cucumber with his chopsticks and asked in a low voice.

"He's been keeping a close eye on us these past few days. Ugh, and it's your fault for not telling the truth back then. Now I can't go anywhere. It's all your fault!" she said softly.

"Sorry sorry..."

Before Zhang Shutong could finish speaking, a voice suddenly rang out from not far away:
"Oh, right, class monitor, I suddenly remembered something funny..."

The two men sat up straight at the same time. It turned out to be the kind-hearted man who took out something:
"I think I found a key when I was on duty this morning. It might be the key to the rooftop door. After lunch, would you guys like to go play for a while?"

(End of this chapter)