Chapter 53: Roman Holiday (Part Two)

Zhang Shutong discovered a terrifying fact.

Ever since the temporal loop, his good luck seemed to have vanished completely. Once somewhat of a seasoned veteran at fishing, he had not caught a single fish today.

To his some relief, Qiu Yumian’s luck was equally abysmal.

Checking his phone, the signal was still terrible. He looked at the time—it was already past two in the afternoon.

Wait... past two already?

How had time passed so quickly?

He instinctively looked toward Gu Yumian, only to find the girl sitting on a small wooden stool, her head gradually drooping as she let out tiny yawns. Her thick, dark eyelashes fluttered and locked together, and she looked thoroughly drowsy.

"Uh, sleepy?"

"I will never, ever... go fishing with you again..." Gu Yumian didn't even have the strength to glare at him, speaking in a weak, breathless voice.

"Then why didn't you say anything if you were bored?"

"I thought you were here to do something immensely important..." Her voice was soft, hovering between laughter and tears, "How are you actually just here to fish?"

"Nothing else to do anyway."

Hearing this, Gu Yumian instantly widened her eyes. "Who told you there's nothing to do? There are plenty of things I want to do."

"Then let's go." Zhang Shutong picked up the stool.

Gu Yumian finally recovered a shred of energy and stretched luxuriously. "Go where?"

Zhang Shutong told her she could choose wherever she wanted, with two conditions: first, she couldn't go home, and second, she couldn't leave the island.

Gu Yumian then asked, "Is your so-called operation finished?"

Zhang Shutong asked in surprise, "How do you know?"

She curled her lip. "I'm not stupid. We were supposed to buy gifts, but your friends all bolted, which definitely means another accident happened. Oh, and they also smashed my flowerpot. So, what's the situation now?"

"Let's talk as we walk."

The two hopped on their bicycles. It seemed she was genuinely sleepy, pressing her face against his back. When he rode slowly, he could hear her shallow breathing. Zhang Shutong asked again, "Are you actually curious or not?"

She replied, "If you want to explain, I'll listen. If not, I won't."

Zhang Shutong had no idea what she meant, but figuring some things were better left unsaid, he simply closed his mouth and pedaled.

After riding for a while, Gu Yumian complained irritably that it was all his fault for making her eat compressed rations, and now she felt terribly bloated.

Zhang Shutong suggested, "Why don't you get off and stretch your legs? I'll ride the bike and you can run alongside."

Of course, this was a joke—he felt he still possessed a shred of humor—but Gu Yumian took it seriously and angrily ignored him.

In the end, the two found a nail salon.

There was truly nothing fun to do on the island.

Gu Yumian didn't want a manicure; she just wanted a place to sleep.

Whether it had anything to do with low blood sugar was anyone's guess.

Of course, perhaps she simply hadn't rested well last night.

This was the moment for the errand boy to step up. Zhang Shutong handed money to the clerk, saying they didn't need any services, just two sofa chairs in a quiet corner, preferably out of the way.

The clerk was a young girl who probably had never encountered such a bizarre request in her life. Fortunately, business wasn't busy, and empty seats were available.

Not only did they get a corner, but they were also given a private alcove containing just two sofas. Of course, the alcove had no door—only a lowered cloth curtain.

Stepping into the cubicle felt like entering another world.

The overhead lights were off, and the light from outside slipped in across the white floor tiles. The tiles were smooth yet uneven, scattering the light into gentle, shallow ripples.

There were still a few customers outside, and the occasional giggles of women drifted in. The curtain didn't block out much noise, yet it provided a strange sense of security.

Gu Yumian used her coat as a cushion on the sofa chair and set an alarm on her phone. She was genuinely exhausted, but she repeatedly emphasized that she must be woken up before dinner.

Zhang Shutong nodded repeatedly, and only then did the girl close her eyes with peace of mind.

Perhaps she was worried she might sleep all the way until it was pitch black outside?

Zhang Shutong wondered as he looked at her serene sleeping face.

He had experienced similar thoughts before. Back when he was in school, Sunday was the final shred of leisure time; waking up to find the sunset outside turning the pillow golden always left one feeling profoundly depressed.

Yet today was only Saturday, and Zhang Shutong felt her worry was completely unnecessary.

When Gu Yumian slept, she had the habit of lying on her side with her hands folded in front of her. Zhang Shutong forgot which wildlife expert he had heard it from, but this sleeping posture was apparently a sign of insecurity.

As a result, one side of her face was pressed slightly out of shape. Zhang Shutong wasn't hungry right now, but if he were, he might have thought of wobbly milk pudding.

He prepared to charge his phone. Tiptoeing, he lifted the curtain and asked the clerk girl for a charger, only to be told they didn't have an Apple data cable.

What terrible luck.

Fearing that walking in and out would wake Gu Yumian, he found a stool inside the shop and sat down. Unable to use his phone, he stared blankly at the pedestrians on the street outside.

At that moment, the clerk girl asked, "Handsome, what kind of novel dating method is this?"

Zhang Shutong said it wasn't a date, and Gu Yumian wasn't his girlfriend.

The other party chuckled and said, "If you aren't a couple, who comes to a shop just to sleep?"

Zhang Shutong said strangely, "That's precisely *because* we aren't a couple. If we were a real couple, we'd be roaming the streets; who wastes time sleeping?"

The clerk replied, "You're so dense, little brother. What girl just falls asleep casually in front of someone else? When I sleep in front of my best friend, I still worry about drooling and being laughed at for being silly."

"Then what is it?"

"Trust," the clerk said with absolute certainty. "Even if you aren't a couple, you must have known each other for a very long time."

"But I've only known her for..." Zhang Shutong mentally calculated from Wednesday after the loop until today, "...precisely three days."

At that, the clerk was also stunned.

"Don't try to fathom her using the mindset of an ordinary girl," Zhang Shutong concluded from the perspective of someone who had been through it. "Though I have no idea what she's thinking either."

...

"Old Song has doomed me," Du Kang said, clutching his head in agony.

When they arrived at the warehouse and took a look, they realized it wasn't a dozen desks—it was dozens of desks. And that included chairs, doubling the total count.

At first, he tried to show off, insisting on carrying a complete set in one trip. Later, after being pulled back by Qingyi, he realized the school wasn't run by his family—why work so hard?

Thus, from a little past one in the afternoon until five o'clock—a full four hours—they still had a third of the chairs left to move.

Old Song could probably tell they were dragging their feet, but he didn't urge them on. He seemed to have something on his mind today, frequently furrowing his brow and glancing at his phone from time to time.

Regardless of what was on his mind, Du Kang felt it was no excuse to treat students like bonded laborers.

Of course, the head teacher still retained a shred of conscience—having previously mentioned needing to recruit extra help, during the trip he took out in the afternoon, he actually dragged back another classmate.

They all knew each other and could see the exhaustion in each other's eyes. Though they usually didn't speak in class and might even have had minor conflicts before, who could care when they were comrades-in-arms today? With a smile, past grudges were wiped away.

Du Kang had an easygoing nature and took the initiative to ask, "Bro, how'd you wind up here too?"

The other boy sighed, shrugged, and said, "The teacher checked around, and while everyone else was busy, I was the only one free, so I got press-ganged. We're all having a miserable time anyway."

Du Kang didn't have the heart to tell him, *The three of us at least got a free meal out of it, but you missed out entirely—you got completely ripped off.*

He, Ruoping, Qingyi, and Shutong were somewhat notorious throughout the fourth year of middle school. Their classmates all knew the four of them stuck together constantly, so the classmate joked, "How come it's just the three of you today?"

Du Kang glanced at him, unsure of how to explain, and replied with a peculiar expression:

"Went on a date with a girl."

"Who?"

Du Kang said no more, sparing his best friend from attracting any more hostility.

The five of them labored on until past five o'clock. Old Song wiped the sweat from his brow, rolled up his sleeves, and sighed wearily, "That's it for today. Let's stop here."

With that, the man clapped his hands, gathered everyone together, and laughed heartily, "What do you all want to eat? We're having a big feast tonight."

"What about the chairs? There are still ten left," Qingyi reminded him at the opportune moment, nearly getting his foot stepped on by Ruoping. His demeanor strongly resembled a student shouting out at the end of class: *Teacher, you forgot to assign today's homework!*

"Leave 'em be," Song Nanshan repeated. "It's almost half past five, and we've worked all afternoon. Dragging you guys in to work shouldn't mean breaking your backs like this. Let's go, let's go. Why are you all fighting to keep working?"

"For real?" Qingyi asked, bewildered. "We're just leaving?"

Even Du Kang wanted to kick him. He thought, *Even if you've solved the mystery of the broken toilet partition, you don't have to be this enthusiastic.*

"I mean," the boy ducked aside and asked, "Teacher, you aren't going to call us back tomorrow, are you? If you are, we might as well finish it all in one go."

The remaining three breathed a sigh of relief; truthfully, they were afraid of that very thing.

"How could that be?" Song Nanshan laughed. "I found someone else. You don't need to worry about it; they're coming to do it tonight."

"Who?"

"Shutong and Yumian, of course."

"Really?" Ruoping was the first to speak up. "Didn't his phone run out of battery? The message I sent him this afternoon still hasn't been replied to."

As she spoke, the young girl cast a sideways glance at Du Kang, feeling that Old Song was acting very strangely today.

"Why would I lie to you?" Song Nanshan spread his hands. "I called him when I went out to pick people up this afternoon. They were still out playing then, but the call didn't go through; probably no signal in the wilderness."

Song Nanshan chuckled again.

"Just now, didn't I go to the restroom? He happened to call me back, saying he had just finished fishing with Yumian, caught a whole basketful, and was worried about how to haul it back.

"So I told the kid, *You've had quite a cozy day, fishing and playing with a girl while your teacher and friends suffer so much.* I asked him what he planned to do tonight, and he said he hadn't decided. I told him, *Well, I've arranged it for you, now get your butt back here to work!*

"Then he grumbled reluctantly, saying after dinner—around seven o'clock—he and Yumian would come over to move the chairs."

Ruoping remained somewhat skeptical.

"I just feel like, given Shutong's personality, he absolutely wouldn't come back."

Song Nanshan arched an eyebrow.

"That's where you don't understand. I gave the kid a little suggestion. I told them, *You two are just hanging out anyway, and there's no movie theater on the island, so why not come to the classroom and watch a movie with the projector? That's way better than wandering around blindly, and has much more atmosphere.*"

"And he agreed?" Ruoping was shocked.

"He agreed, and then told me his phone was out of battery and was about to die. As if I didn't know what he was thinking," Old Song said, half-amused and half-exasperated. "Isn't it just because he's afraid we'll be third wheels? Alright, why are you guys sticking your noses into two people's business? Let's go, let's go. I'm going to the school gate to buy some water. Ruoping, come with me."

"As for you lot, go use the restroom if you need to, don't dawdle. Once we're back, we're getting in the car."

Song Nanshan issued his arrangements with a wave of his hand, shoving Ruoping along as he said, "I just found a farmhouse restaurant, we'll eat there tonight..."

"Isn't that on the far west side? It takes twenty minutes by car, right?"

"Why do you care how far it is? You're not paying for the food. As long as it's good..."

"But..."

"No buts."

Ruoping cast one last look back at Qingyi, only to find the three boys already gossiping among themselves, completely oblivious that anything was amiss.

...

December 8, 2012, Saturday, 5:55 PM.

Zhang Shutong walked into the cubicle right on time and woke Gu Yumian up.

She still looked a bit dazed, reluctant to get up from the sofa chair, so Zhang Shutong patiently waited nearby.

After a brief moment, Gu Yumian finally revived to full health. She stretched, and her very first action was to check her phone to see if her makeup had smudged.

"It hasn't," Zhang Shutong reminded her.

"How has it not? Look at my mouth, is it a bit red?"

She gently dabbed at it with a tissue, looking rather vain.

Zhang Shutong didn't have the heart to tell her whether the redness was smudged makeup or just the indentation from sleeping, so he went outside to wait.

There were virtually no customers in the shop at this hour; even the clerk had gone out to eat, leaving only the young girl on duty.

When Gu Yumian walked out, the clerk timely handed over two bottles of water, which were surprisingly still warm from the thermal box.

"This handsome guy bought them in advance," the young girl smiled slyly.

Zhang Shutong froze. He had never bought water. From the time Gu Yumian fell asleep onward, all he had done was sit blankly in the shop for over an hour. He had no idea what trick the girl was pulling this time, but he saw that Miss Gu had already accepted them, looking quite pleased as she hummed:

"So you actually have this kind of emotional intelligence."

Zhang Shutong didn't know what to say. The clerk winked at him, leaned in close, and whispered, "You ordered the most expensive set menu, this counts as an added service. If you don't drink the water, you're losing out."

With that, she pointed to the price list on the wall.

"Look, it says beverages are included right there."

Zhang Shutong bit the inside of his cheek. First of all, mineral water did not count as a beverage; second, could they please stop pinning this act on him; and third, Gu Yumian was gullible enough that if she had looked at the price list just once, she could have easily exposed the lie.

Unfortunately, the young miss only cared about the "price" when going out, never bothering with the contents of the list.

Pushing open the glass door, the sky had already darkened. Winter nights fell early, and the streetlights had flickered on, dyeing the night a warm yellow. Neither of them had decided where to go next, so they lingered at the doorway for a moment, shrinking their necks against the chill of the cold wind.

Zhang Shutong noticed once more that Gu Yumian wasn't wearing her scarf today. That item had been left to him—no, left to her by her mother, and he didn't know what emotions the girl poured into it, but in a sense, it was probably equivalent to a protective talisman.

"So cold..." Gu Yumian hugged the bottle of water against her chest and told him they should start walking first.

Zhang Shutong took one final glance back at the nail salon. The clerk girl was sitting at the front desk, flashing him an encouraging thumbs-up.

Zhang Shutong nodded to show he had received her encouragement, and the other party smiled. He smiled back, thinking, *You've misinterpreted my meaning entirely; the encouragement we're talking about is not the same thing at all.*

He asked Gu Yumian what she wanted to eat, and she replied, "Whatever."

He countered, "You're the one who hates 'whatever' the most."

The young girl said, "Just pick a place you think is good and treat me."

"Me treat?"

"Otherwise?" she took a sip of water. "I bought so many things at noon."

Zhang Shutong mentally reviewed whether there were any grand feasts on the island, and the answer was thoroughly disappointing.

"I didn't expect there to be any decent places."

"Who said anything about a big feast? Just take me wherever you usually find tasty."

"How about over-rice bowls?" Their current location was very close to the school.

Gu Yumian nodded and said sure, she was going to fleece him mercilessly.

Yet the most expensive item at that diner was the potato and beef over-rice bowl, priced at a staggering fifteen yuan a dish, which hardly qualified as "fleecing."

Still, he couldn't think of anywhere else good to eat. The two of them set off toward the rice-bowl shop under the dim streetlights, marching with fierce determination as if heading to a Michelin three-star establishment.

Along the way, Zhang Shutong pulled out his phone and took a glance. This poor little gadget was reaching the end of its life—

It had only three percent battery left.

***

*(Author's Note: Extra chapter requested for monthly votes! Give me a bit more and I'll keep writing part two, hehe)*