Chapter 365 - 160: Pokémon’s Journey Off the Island (Part 1)

Chapter 365: Chapter 160: Pokémon’s Journey Off the Island (Part 1)

In Gu Qiuyan’s own words, this was a "special operation" to thank her best friends for all their help last week.

Of course, the "special operation" part was Zhang Shutong’s own addition.

Gu Qiuyan was the type to repay every kindness. She felt that her friends had worked hard helping her find the murderer, so she wanted to treat them to a meal as thanks. She was also someone who kept things separate. For example, even though the four of them had just gotten a free meal on Wednesday, she felt that was a treat for the whole class and shouldn’t be confused with this.

Around seven or eight o’clock last night, she had come to him to discuss what they should eat.

Zhang Shutong had earnestly suggested KFC, only to get an eye-roll from her through the phone. She suggested Quanjude. Zhang Shutong thought that was too expensive. In 2012, Quanjude wasn’t exactly a super high-end restaurant, but a meal for a few people would cost at least a thousand yuan. Gu Qiuyan, however, asked strangely, "Is that expensive? I don’t think it is."

It took Zhang Shutong a great deal of effort to explain that it was too extravagant and they’d feel bad. "You treat us to dinner, we’ll treat you to a movie. There has to be some give and take, otherwise there won’t be a next time."

Gu Qiuyan considered this carefully, then pouted and said, "Fine, fine. Then what do you suggest we eat?"

"KFC," Zhang Shutong said.

Gu Qiuyan immediately lost it.

"Why are you so obsessed with KFC, AAAAAH!"

At the time, Zhang Shutong had just gotten out of the shower and was drying his hair with a towel. Hearing her, he said sheepishly:

"Actually... I want to eat the Spicy Tender Beef Wrap..."

That thing was discontinued after 2012. It was a now-or-never kind of deal. Zhang Shutong now enjoyed collecting foods he wouldn’t be able to eat in the future, like the Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum from the other day.

Gu Qiuyan said angrily:

"I want to eat roast duck!"

Zhang Shutong tried his best to sell Gu Qiuyan on a "commoner’s delicacy" like KFC. Of course, she had eaten KFC before, but she only ever ate the egg tarts.

Zhang Shutong told her there was also the Beijing Chicken Wrap, which tasted very similar to the duck wraps from Quanjude.

"Really?"

"Yeah, they taste really similar."

’To be precise, it’s the sweet bean sauce, cucumber, and shredded scallions inside that taste similar.’

Gu Qiuyan was quiet for a moment.

’He had no idea what she was doing during that time.’ After a while, she said calmly:

"Fine. Let’s go check it out first."

And so, he and the young lady reached an agreement.

He put his phone away and glanced at the time. It was a little after eight p.m., and his hair was still slightly damp. He draped the towel over a chair, and feeling a wave of drowsiness, he pulled up the covers, turned off the light, and went to sleep.

It wasn’t that he was living some super healthy lifestyle; his sleep schedule had just been a complete mess recently. Ever since what he suspected was an anxiety disorder had appeared, he kept waking up in his sleep these past few days. It wasn’t from nightmares or being startled awake. He would just suddenly open his eyes. When he tried to close them again, he’d feel like something was urging him to run forward, his heart pounding in a disquieting panic.

He woke up again at ten p.m. He yawned, threw off the covers, went to the living room to get a glass of water, then returned to his room to work on his practice tests. He wrote until about one in the morning, until he was so tired he couldn’t even hold his pen. He lay back down and gradually fell asleep again. He thought he would surely sleep until dawn this time, but when he checked his phone, it was four a.m.

This time, he read a book for a while. Around six o’clock, as the sky began to lighten, he went downstairs, rode his bike to buy breakfast, and after eating, went back to sleep until ten.

All told, he was getting a lot of hours of sleep, but the quality was terrible. He was constantly in a groggy state.

Just like now, walking down the stairs, he couldn’t stop himself from yawning again.

He was soon out of the stairwell.

The humidity was high today, and a thin layer of mist shrouded the outside. In the distance, a few landscaped patches dotted the area, mostly with plants like holly—as the name suggests, their leaves remained green even in winter.

If you were to look down from above, it would look like a few mint leaves floating in a pool of milk.

It was that kind of cool, refreshing day.

It was quiet all around, but as he looked left and right, where was the car?

’It seemed Gu Qiuyan had tricked him again.’ Or rather, a girl’s "I’m almost there" was simply not to be trusted. When a guy said it, he was usually one step away from the door, but a girl might just be lazily applying lip gloss in front of her vanity mirror.

Zhang Shutong started walking toward the community entrance. ’Gu Qiuyan wouldn’t be *that* bad, would she?’

Sure enough, he hadn’t taken more than a few steps when he saw a black sedan with its turn signal on, about to enter the main gate.

The rear window rolled down, and someone said:

"You sit in the front."

A few minutes later, the car was on the road. There were only three people in the car, including the driver. He hadn’t actually wanted Gu Qiuyan to pick him up, but she had insisted, armed with a whole lecture. The gist was that even after a bone fracture has healed, you still can’t do any strenuous exercise. Zhang Shutong didn’t think riding a bike counted, but she insisted that when a bike travels on a bumpy road, the vibrations travel up the handlebars and into your arms—which, in short, was very strenuous.

Zhang Shutong had been successfully bluffed. Now he was sitting in an expensive sedan, its high-end suspension smoothing out every bump in the road. It was so quiet he could only hear the WHOOSH of the air conditioning. With nothing better to do, Zhang Shutong searched on his phone whether you could ride a bike after a bone fracture. Google said you couldn’t. ’So she just looked it up online, too.’

He glanced at Gu Qiuyan in the rearview mirror. She had tied her long hair up today. Inside the car, she wasn’t wearing a jacket, just a black stand-collar shirt with a few gold threads accenting the collar, and a beige straight skirt. Dressed like "CEO Gu," Gu Qiuyan was naturally quiet. She propped her chin on her hand and gazed out the window, as if she were mulling over a huge business deal.

Zhang Shutong had also learned something new recently.