Chapter 311 - 134: Xiaolu, Xiaozhang (2)

Chapter 311: Chapter 134: Xiaolu, Xiaozhang (2)

He was the one sitting by the window now. He’d been a bit lazy the past few days, and after eating so many snacks, his mouth felt empty. But the girl next to him didn’t have any snacks in her backpack.

He was starting to understand why Gu Qiuyan liked to draw funny faces. With such a large pane of glass right there, it felt a little wrong not to mess with it.

He sometimes glanced out the window. There was a concrete lot at the school entrance with a few parking spaces painted on it. He used to be able to see a red Ford Fox there.

Zhang Shutong shook his head, pulling his thoughts back to his studies.

Fortunately, he was able to focus quickly. He understood the problem the teacher was explaining. He listened for a little while longer, but felt the teacher was just emphasizing common mistakes, so he took out his textbook to review previous material.

Even though he had a decent brain, digesting four years of junior high knowledge all at once was still going to take some work.

Besides, the textbook material was fairly basic, making it easy to fall into the trap of thinking you understood something when you actually couldn’t apply it. After reviewing each section, he would find the corresponding problems in his practice workbook. He blazed through a few of them like a conquering hero, but eventually, he got stuck.

So, taking advantage of the moment the math teacher let everyone discuss things freely, Zhang Shutong asked the group leader for help:

"How do you do this one?"

Lu Qinglian looked up, seeming quite annoyed at being interrupted, but still picked up her pen and drew a line in the workbook:

"This is an auxiliary line."

"Got it, thanks."

Zhang Shutong continued his battle with math.

Math was about as tricky as dealing with the mud-man. He found algebra problems were manageable, but with geometry, his brain often seemed to be a step behind:

"What about this one?"

"Like this."

"Then this one?"

"Look at the answer yourself."

"Is there another way to solve this one?"

"Don’t spin your pen."

"Sorry."

He tried to make the most of the time, but he only managed to ask about three or four problems. It couldn’t be helped. Many of the problems required a lot of calculation, and he wasn’t confident enough to just skip the work once he had the general idea. Right now, even basic calculations felt like physical therapy.

The memories in his mind gradually resurfaced, and Zhang Shutong’s thinking grew clearer. Teachers tended to leave students like him alone as long as they didn’t cause trouble. So, during the class period, he spent the first third listening to the lecture and the rest of the time figuring things out on his own. He ended up listening to Lu Qinglian explain problems more than he listened to the teacher.

’The new homeroom teacher really is a seasoned veteran.’

’This study group is actually pretty useful.’

Soon, the bell rang, and the sound of chatter flooded his ears. But Zhang Shutong didn’t move. He finished the last problem at his desk and let out a long breath.

He had a plan for how to review. There was no point in keeping a notebook of his mistakes right now; everything was still too unfamiliar. He’d wait until he was more comfortable with the material.

He put down his pen and glanced over. Lu Qinglian was also working on problems.

She was actually working on real questions from past exams.

Not math, but English.

A whole test per class period.

’No wonder she hadn’t looked up the entire class. The study tips she’d shared during the morning reading session were all lies. I haven’t seen her paying attention in class or taking notes, and I’m even starting to doubt she does her homework.’

Lu Qinglian quickly finished the last line, found the answer key, fished out a red pen from her pencil case, and started grading it herself.

Her pencil case and gel pen were both a little old; she was probably the type to just replace the ink refills instead of buying new pens. The skin on her fingers wasn’t delicate either; there were a few small cracks from the cold. Zhang Shutong subconsciously tried to recall Lu Qinglian’s high school entrance exam score but found he couldn’t remember it at all.

Lu Qinglian asked while grading:

"What is it?"

"If there’s anything you don’t understand in English, you can ask me."

Her pen paused. She glanced at Zhang Shutong and politely refused.

"Thanks."

’The subtext was: *You’re not good enough.*’

Zhang Shutong had no way of explaining that it was his other subjects that were weak. In fact, his professional-level English might even be better than Teacher Song’s.

But if she didn’t need help, she didn’t need help. The first break between classes arrived, and Zhang Shutong was about to head outside for a walk when the new homeroom teacher came back into the classroom to select class officers.

The homeroom teacher didn’t bother with democracy and just started appointing people.

The class president was the former president from Class 2, and the study committee member was Lu Qinglian.

Only when it came to the less important positions, like the sports, student life, and labor committee members, did she let students volunteer, since she wasn’t familiar with the class. Anyone who wanted a position could go up, give a speech, and face a simple vote.

While the class was in an uproar, Zhang Shutong took the opportunity to ask Lu Qinglian:

"Have a moment?"

"What is it now?" she sighed. "Just get to the point."

"How did it go when you asked about that thing? The one from four years ago?"

"It also snowed four years ago." Lu Qinglian lowered her gaze to her textbook, looking every bit the model student, but her words didn’t match her appearance at all.

’Snow...’

Zhang Shutong recalled that he’d actually heard Song mention this.

’After the cold-blood line reset, there was a sudden, heavy snowfall. On the way to the police station, he had been muttering to himself while looking at the snowy scenery outside when Song casually remarked that this was nothing, and that the snow four years ago had been even heavier.’

But Zhang Shutong hadn’t transferred to the island back then, so he had no memory of that snow.

He mostly understood what Lu Qinglian meant. The snowstorm four years ago had frozen the "snakes" the Temple Priestess used to gather information. So, unlike this past Wednesday, they hadn’t detected the mud-man’s appearance in time.

In other words, the appearance and disappearance of the mud-man four years ago had happened completely under the radar. Not even the Temple Priestess had noticed.

But four years ago, Lu Qinglian was only in the fifth grade. Even if she had discovered it, Zhang Shutong couldn’t imagine how she would have been able to solve anything.

"And what was your grandmother’s reaction?"

"Her attention was indeed diverted a bit."

Zhang Shutong waited for her to continue, but then he saw that Lu Qinglian had already turned a page in her textbook. She was actually memorizing vocabulary words.

"I have a question, too," she said after a long pause. "How are you so sure that thing really disappeared?"

"Remember that notebook I told you about? Teacher Song has spent years driving around the island searching. For several years in the middle, he found nothing, so it must have disappeared. I called him yesterday to ask for more details, but he couldn’t remember anything himself. He said I’d be better off just reading the notebook."

Lu Qinglian finally put down her textbook:

"So you’re actually not sure?"

"I was in too much of a hurry at the time. I didn’t read the contents of the notebook carefully."

"Is that notebook still in the dorm?"

"Yeah."

"What about the key?"

"You want to go over?"

Lu Qinglian did not deny it:

"How it appears isn’t important. How it *disappeared* is."

"Your grandmother doesn’t have any leads either?"

"Some things only exist in oral tradition."

Zhang Shutong understood.

’There were two problems now.’

’How the mud-man appeared...’

’And how it was "resolved" four years ago.’

’It seemed no one could answer this question.’

’Song, as the person involved, was already confused about the whole thing, and he was currently hospitalized off-island.’

’The Temple Priestess had the ability, but the snowstorm had prevented them from discovering the mud-man at all.’

’On top of that, there was another question they were both deliberately avoiding.’

’Who exactly was the fake Lu Qinglian, and how had she appeared?’

’This was probably very important to Lu Qinglian, which was why she wanted to figure out the pattern of the mud-man’s appearances.’

’As for himself, he could at least make one simple deduction—’

’Gu Qiuyan had been saved, but that didn’t mean the matter was truly resolved. Assuming the goal of killing her was to stop the island’s development, and if the Cyan Snake Temple had no connection to the mud-man, then who was it that wanted to stop the development?’

’He had two goals.’

’His long-term goal was to find out what he had missed over the past week. For starters, he could confirm that in the "wild dog line," he had stayed off-island for a week and hadn’t been able to meet Lu Qinglian. Now, not only had they met, they were even deskmates. Despite this, it hadn’t substantially advanced anything.’

’His short-term goal was the notebook in Song’s dorm room. If he went through it word by word, he might find other clues.’

"Noon or afternoon?" Lu Qinglian asked.

"Let’s see. I probably won’t have time at noon. The fact that the homeroom teacher is in such a rush to assign class officers now means she has other plans for the lunch break. As for the evening," he sighed, "I’m kind of grounded right now. My mom won’t let me run around."

"Okay," Lu Qinglian nodded.

"Skip class together at noon?" Zhang Shutong suggested.

Lu Qinglian was just about to speak when the homeroom teacher suddenly coughed:

"Some of you are whispering; don’t think I haven’t noticed."