Winter Returns

Chapter 141 The Last Henchman in the World (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!)

As expected, that matter caused the problem!
and many more……

Zhang Shutong seems to have figured out where the problem lies.

He used to subconsciously treat this as one thing to ask, but in reality, it was clearly two separate things!
Now, neither Qingyi nor Ruoping seemed reliable to him. Before he knew it, he had reached the back door of Class 3. Zhang Shutong knocked on the doorframe and called out:

"Du Kang, come out here for a moment!"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Du Kang was chatting with someone when he heard this and ran over.

"I have a question for you, think about it carefully." Zhang Shutong knew that he and Ruoping were actually the closest when they were in the first year of junior high school. "Didn't Ruoping give Gu Qiumian a bag of chocolates with gold coins back then?"

"It seems... there is?" Du Kang said, confused.

"Is it true or not?" Zhang Shutong emphasized, subconsciously holding his shoulder.

"Yes, yes, yes, I remember now!" Du Kang gasped. "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Zhang Shutong ignored this statement and quickly repeated:

"Was it because Gu Qiu Mian complained that the taste was too bad and said she wouldn't eat it, and even said that if you liked it, she would bring something better tomorrow? Her emotional intelligence was very low, which made Ruo Ping very angry?"

"R-right?"

"and then?"

"I remember that the next day Gu Qiumian really kept her word and brought over a bag of imported chocolates, the super expensive kind. She asked Ruoping if she wanted some, and then what happened... sigh, it's been so long I really can't remember..."

Du Kang was still scratching his head, trying to remember, while Zhang Shutong stared intently at his mouth, if she wasn't mistaken—

The next moment, Du Kang swung his fist:
"Oh, I remember now, and then Ruoping took it. You know, later when I praised her for being magnanimous, she pinched me..."

really!

Zhang Shutong's heart sank.

The chocolate incident was never an isolated event; it had lingering repercussions.

The turning point in history began here.

Zhang Shutong remembers clearly that the original development should have been that Ruoping completely ignored Gu Qiumian, not even lifting her eyelids, and the two would have been estranged from then on, which lasted for three years.

But this time, Ruoping actually accepted it?
Everything seems to have changed very little, yet a lot has changed imperceptibly.

Zhang Shutong tried hard to sort out his chaotic thoughts, and he had now formed a rough logical chain:
Because the chocolate incident was incomplete, Gu Qiu Mian never had any major conflicts with anyone. Moreover, she has a very likable personality and is generous, often launching snack offensives. So, over the four years of junior high school, she gradually integrated into the island's children's circle and made many friends. Judging from today's lunch, it's not just about making a friend; she has completely become the most popular person in the entire fourth year of junior high.

Thinking about it carefully, those people at the dinner table also said they had been to Gu Qiu Mian's house, gone off the island, and used the library as their base... but they were clearly classmates, and these things shouldn't have happened.

But after analyzing it, he was even more confused. First of all, this was the first time that the timeline had changed unconsciously, rather than him triggering the regression.

The so-called change was small in some ways, simply because Ruoping generously accepted Gu Qiumian's chocolate; but it was also significant in others, as this small butterfly directly changed Gu Qiumian's interpersonal relationships at school.

Apart from that, the scarf incident, the murder case, and even the events involving Li Yipeng and Zhou Ziheng, as well as the avalanche and the mud figure, all these important events remained unchanged.

A few seconds ago, Zhang Shutong had already confirmed with Du Kang that, for some reason, his relationship with Gu Qiumian was still the same as before.

He still remembers that he was a stubborn kid back then. That day, it happened to be Zhang Shutong's turn to be on duty. Gu Qiumian, with red eyes, ran into him and asked him if he wanted some chocolate.
He felt he shouldn't prioritize his girlfriend over his friend, so he said he wouldn't eat it. The other person then threw the chocolate into the trash can and left without looking back. From then on, he completely offended this young lady and earned the reputation of a traitor.

Since Ruoping accepted the chocolate, she shouldn't still be considered a traitor, but according to Du Kang, after Ruoping accepted one piece, Gu Qiumian distributed the chocolate to the people nearby. She happened to pass by and, still quite unromantically, politely declined:
"I don't like it, you can keep it for yourself."

Everyone else accepted it, but he didn't, which is why Gu Qiu Mian still regarded him as a traitor in the class and glared at him for several years.

Zhang Shutong came to a conclusion in astonishment—

because……

This is actually a positive change?

No one knows why it changed, and no one suffered any loss as a result. Upon closer reflection, it actually made Gu Qiu Mian many more friends.

At this moment, Ruoping also came out. Just in case, Zhang Shutong confirmed these things with her again. Ruoping nodded strangely.
"Did you eat too much sea cucumber?"

"Nothing, just curious..."

Zhang Shutong went to see Qingyi again.

Behind her, she could still be heard asking Xu Zhiruo:
"Why is he starting to reason again?"

"Uh, I don't know either..."

Zhang Shutong found Qingyi and recounted the whole story again. The other person nodded and said in realization:

"Oh, I think that's true."

"You shouldn't have forgotten, right?" Zhang Shutong asked, puzzled.

“I wasn’t there at the time, so I don’t remember much about those gold coin chocolates, but when you mentioned imported chocolates, I remembered them. You forgot? You only remembered them later when we were talking about it,” Qingyi kindly reminded her. “You said Gu Qiumian offered you chocolates but you didn’t take them. I told you to just accept them, but you said you had something to do when you went out and didn’t want them to be in the way, so you just wanted to get out of there quickly. Yeah, you really did want them to be in the way…”

Zhang Shutong stopped talking.

He couldn't remember whether Qingyi was there back then, and if it was really as Qingyi said, then this matter itself was not worth talking about. Ruoping and Gu Qiumian hadn't had any disagreements, so what was there to talk about?

Zhang Shutong then asked Qingyi to confirm what happened on the commercial street and the reactions of the people around at the time. Qingyi recalled:

"I don't think this has much to do with whether Gu Qiumian is popular or not. Li Yipeng transferred classes because he told dirty jokes. Before Zhou Ziheng was exposed, everyone thought he liked Gu Qiumian. Even if someone is secretly hostile to her, she is so popular and her family is powerful, who would dare to take the initiative to speak out?"

Qingyi frowned:
"Shutong, actually I wanted to ask this morning, why do you seem to have some memory confusion after you were discharged from the hospital, and you keep checking something?"

"Maybe, my mind is a bit of a mess..." Zhang Shutong replied vaguely. "I'll go get a glass of water, let's talk later."

He turned around and frowned again. His memory couldn't be wrong, but things had indeed changed.

Just like the last heavy snowfall, it came out of nowhere, leaving everyone clueless.

The only reassuring thing is that this change is indeed positive. Apart from Gu Qiu Mian's social circle, nothing else has changed.

Zhang Shutong suddenly felt a sharp pain in his finger. He quickly realized that the hot water had overflowed without him noticing. He shook his hand and left the hot water room. To be honest, it was hard to describe his feelings at that moment. Of course, he had been caught off guard, but he also had something urgent to deal with...

It seems not.

To put it dramatically, even if it's a good change, and you actually find a way to correct it, why correct it back in the first place?
Zhang Shutong had previously observed Gu Qiumian's so-called "friends." He called them "henchmen" not just as a joke. Apart from Xu Zhiruo, who was a good friend, many of the others were after Gu Qiumian's money. They were naturally inferior to her, freeloading off her food, drinks, and entertainment. It was hard to say whether such a relationship could be called friendship.

But things are different now. Judging from today's dinner, Gu Qiumian is obviously much more relaxed. People around her call her "class monitor" or "Qiumian". Although they have enjoyed a lot of benefits by following her around, many people have also offered to "treat you with our savings this time". Whether Gu Qiumian needs it or not, they are obviously much more sincere than before.

Perhaps the so-called "henchmen" are a thing of the past.

Miss Gu has now made a group of good friends.

Zhang Shutong genuinely thinks this change is great.

He had roughly figured out what had happened that day:
Gu Qiu Mian was not murdered in the early hours of Sunday, which led to a large-scale class change in the fourth grade. Because of the interpersonal relationships she had accumulated before, she was still very popular even after the class change, which is why there was such a large lunch today.

As for how the rooftop key went missing, it was actually a false alarm:
Just like the new class monitor who had a crush on Lu Qinglian, he only dared to make a move after being transferred to a different class. There were quite a few boys with this kind of thought, and there were also many who had a crush on Gu Qiumian. So when a boy named Kong Yihui accidentally found the key to the rooftop while cleaning, he wanted to show off an interesting story and brought it to the lunch table.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shutong took out his keys from his pocket, feeling quite emotional.

He suddenly wants to go to the rooftop for a while.

Zhang Shutong climbed the steps one by one, thinking that this whole thing was a complete coincidence. Just because of a small action, so many things were changed, including himself. If it weren't for this, he wouldn't have even thought of going to the rooftop to take a look.

Zhang Shutong skillfully turned the key; the lock was slightly stiff. He pushed the door open in the dimly lit stairwell, where the warm sun and the cold wind simultaneously assaulted him.

This is his territory, it always has been, and it always has been. Zhang Shutong sat on the edge of the building, which was four stories high, and this was the place closest to the sky.

Many things could be seen. He saw a gray-white building in the distance. Zhang Shutong knew that it was a hospital. He had never paid attention to it before, but this time he stayed in the hospital for three days. The first thing he noticed was this old building.

The hospital was neither too far nor too close to him.

He shifted his gaze and saw another two-story tenement building.

Zhang Shutong knew that was Lao Song's dormitory.

He is currently at the school, which is not far from the staff dormitory.

This reminded him of something interesting. Although Lao Song owns a car, he doesn't actually drive to get off work at all. His home and workplace are so close, just a few minutes' walk away, that he parks his car at the school every night and gets to use the free parking lot. He's a very thrifty man.

Song Nanshan is a reliable adult male, and his car is naturally used for important matters.

Now that the man is gone, Zhang Shutong stares blankly at the roof of the dormitory. He has already processed this change, whether it's the shift change, the hospitalization, or the chocolate incident. He's not nervous at all because he can't feel any urgency.

He was just a little... bewildered.

The world he lived in kept turning day and night. He had changed some things, but he had also brought about more and more changes, some for the better, some for the worse, and some that were hard to tell.

The door behind him creaked open, startling Zhang Shutong. He turned around reflexively, and a young girl in a green robe slowly emerged from the shadows.

Lu Qinglian was holding a lunchbox.

He sighed with relief, turned around and asked the person behind him:

"Haven't eaten yet?"

"I went to the office and saw you walking this way, so I came to take a look."

Lu Qinglian sat down not far from him:

How did you find the key?

"It was just an accident; a student picked it up."

Lu Qinglian hummed in agreement and began to eat in small bites.

Zhang Shutong glanced at the time. The lunch gathering had been long enough, with only twenty minutes left before class. He had just passed by the classroom and saw many people taking a nap at their desks.

He was definitely too busy now, but he still remembered that they had agreed to go to the dormitory after school in the afternoon to look for Lao Song's notebook. However, they couldn't be sure if there were any clues hidden in the notebook; it was just a direction they had no other choice about.

Zhang Shutong said:

"Doesn't it feel like being trapped in a giant spider web? You're stuck inside, unable to move, and can't find a way out, not knowing where the spider will crawl from?"

“Zhang Shutong, why don’t you just say what you want to say?” Lu Qinglian hugged her knees, quietly chewing her food. The sunlight was so bright it made her squint. “Willing but unable?”

"Yeah, I'm willing but unable. Hopefully, I'll have some success this afternoon." Zhang Shutong rubbed his face and took out his phone. "Now that you mention it, I remembered I needed to call my mom and tell her, but I need you to put in a good word for me, like saying she'd make it up to me..."

Lu Qinglian stood up.

"Hey, I'm not kidding, don't go yet..."

"Check the ten o'clock."

Lu Qinglian frowned deeply.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shutong turned his head and looked in the direction Lu Qinglian was pointing. His eyes slowly widened—

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 1:10 PM.

They ended up on the rooftop by a chance encounter.

From the edge of the rooftop, you can see the top floor of the teachers' dormitory.

A figure stood on the rooftop.

Spread your arms and fall backward.

(End of this chapter)