Chapter 363 - 159: The Watcher’s Loneliness (Part 2)

Chapter 363: Chapter 159: The Watcher’s Loneliness (Part 2)

He hesitated, but in the end, he didn’t bring up the matter of the basement.

"Take care."

Lu Qinglian also bid a brief farewell to Song Nanshan.

The two of them got out of the car. Farewells were like that; once someone started waving, it was hard to stop.

The driver hadn’t even put the car in park while they were talking, just kept his foot on the brake. Now, hearing the doors slam shut, the car accelerated onto the deck.

Zhang Shutong held the handlebars of his bicycle, watching the car get farther and farther away.

He had ridden his bike today, so no "launch control" start for him.

The gangway connecting the ferry to the port was pulled away by the staff. It was time for him to turn around, but then someone shouted from behind:

"Shutong!"

Zhang Shutong turned back.

It was Song Nanshan, frantically rolling down the window.

"If you don’t place in the top two next time, I’m holding you responsible! And you too, Qinglian, keep an eye on him! All of you, take care of yourselves—"

His voice, like a wisp of smoke, gradually faded into the wind.

Zhang Shutong stood on the shore for a long while, until the ferry had completely departed from the lake’s edge.

He wasn’t the only one standing there in silence.

Lu Qinglian’s long hair and green robes danced in the wind. She stared at the pale blue lake water, lost in thought for a long time.

Sunlight reflected in her amber eyes. Zhang Shutong had noticed before that she sometimes liked to stare at the sky. If you didn’t call out to her, her eyes would mirror the changing light of an entire day, from sun to moon. The celestial bodies would change, but she would not.

"We should go," Zhang Shutong told her.

Lu Qinglian took the handlebars.

"But I doubt it’ll be easy to place in the top two this time. I’ll be troubling you a lot from now on."

"Student Zhang Shutong," her mood was indeed sour, "I believe I’ve told you before, you have bad breath. You’d best not..."

But before she could finish, Lu Qinglian frowned.

Zhang Shutong pulled some chewing gum from his pocket.

"Want some? You’re not supposed to swallow it, though."

Lu Qinglian said with a deadpan expression:

"So you’re saying that in the twenty minutes I was gone, you went out of your way to buy chewing gum just for the sake of a single sentence?"

"Nah, I’ve been wanting some for a while." Zhang Shutong proceeded to try blowing a bubble with the gum.

"Childish," she commented mercilessly.

"I told you, I’ve been craving it for a while. That rainy day..."

"Get on the bike."

Zhang Shutong didn’t get on right away. Instead, he pointed toward the lake with clear implication.

"He might have said this morning that he wanted to put a ’perfect period’ on things, but I think you can treat it as a comma. You’ll see him again. Besides, you can still contact him over the next two months."

"You’re quieter when you’re anxious," Lu Qinglian said coolly. "Or did you just tell another lie and now you have to use words like these to hide your guilty conscience?"

’Some things lose their meaning when said too bluntly.’

But her words pricked Zhang Shutong like a small knife—not painful, but enough to silence him.

"Maybe a little. I always feel like doing these things you think are for someone else’s good isn’t actually good at all. He had the right to know. How he chose to act after that was his own business. But you heard him, his mom has cataracts and is having surgery tomorrow. He’ll have to take care of her for the next few days while he’s still sick himself."

After a moment, he added:

"I actually made a trip to the police station. Still no answers to those questions. Maybe I should have taken a gamble and tried to get them out of Song."

"So you regret it?" Lu Qinglian asked, her gaze fixed on the lake.

"The ship has sailed, anyway. No turning back now," Zhang Shutong said calmly. "From now on, only you and I know the full story."

"All I know is that you deserve to have that ’illness’ of yours," Lu Qinglian sighed softly. "Zhang Shutong, you sound so righteous. Have you already forgotten what happened last week? Even a pill bug knows to seek advantages and avoid harm."

"I’ve known for a long time that keeping a secret requires a price. It’s not as simple as putting a valuable item in a drawer and turning the lock. I also learned long ago that it’s even simpler than locking a cabinet to live a cold, easy life. All you have to do is be a bystander."

Zhang Shutong turned around.

"But there are some things you can’t just stand by and watch."

By now, the ferry had shrunk to an indistinguishable black dot.

It was just like the other ferries on the vast lake—countless black dots sailing majestically toward the opposite shore.

Lu Qinglian turned her head and met his gaze.

"Can you stop blowing bubbles with that gum?" she said coldly. "It’s noisy."

POP. The bubble burst. Zhang Shutong wrapped the gum in its paper.

"Make whatever decision you want." Lu Qinglian finally averted her gaze, her clear, cold voice like a frozen stream. "If you’ve already thought it through."

"No one ever has everything ’thought through.’ It’s just one thing after another forcing you to make a decision. There will be even trickier things than this in the future. If you’re not even prepared for that, it’s better to start standing by and watching now."

Zhang Shutong let out a shallow breath.

"Of course, I hope to take a break sometimes, too. Student Lu Qinglian, if it were you, what do you think is the price of keeping a secret? Is it exhaustion, helplessness, or loneliness?"

"You’d best think before you speak such useless words."

"Can’t help it. At least I still have a bit of human decency. It’s inevitable that I’ll second-guess my decisions sometimes. Who could be as cold as you?"

The moment the words left his mouth, he was met with a dangerous glare. His "hair-raising radar" went off again, which reminded him of something. He pulled a square paper box from his pocket and pressed it into her hand.

"Here, this is for you."