Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 133: Chapter 55: Roman Holiday (Finale)

"Something like that," Qingyi nodded. "But it wasn’t about watching a movie. Shutong suggested it himself. He said he wanted to set the location for catching the culprit on the school rooftop. He happens to have the key, and it’s a more spacious area. In case the culprit gets cornered and desperate, there’s no chance of anyone getting hurt by accident. That’s a small possibility, but you know Shutong’s personality—better safe than sorry."

Ruoping was convinced, though she still sounded reluctant.

"So, does this mean it’s mission accomplished?"

"Basically. His dad has taken the bait. Look." Qingyi waved Zhou Ziheng’s phone, showing Ruoping the chat history between the father and son. "It’s not set in stone yet, but we’re really just one small step away from success."

"Now I can finally lay out the whole case. You weren’t the only ones bottling it up; I was, too."

Qingyi said excitedly:

"Let me count how many incidents there have been so far... Wow, there are actually five or six. The name in the bathroom stall, the castle revenge incident, Li Yipeng getting his parents called, the arson case, plus all of today’s activities—the nanny, the ’fishing,’ moving the desks... Let’s not count those for now. I’ll start from the beginning.

"I won’t rehash the most crucial part, the thing about Li Yipeng’s mom. Anyway, that’s the key that links everything together.

"Everything before that incident was the son’s preparation at school.

"Everything after it was the father’s revenge operation outside of school. See? It’s much clearer now, isn’t it?

"The first mystery here is why Zhou Ziheng would do all this. After all, he made himself look completely innocent from the start, even pretending to have a ’crush’ on Gu Qiuyan and playing the ’good guy.’ No one would ever suspect him of being the mastermind.

"So when you try to figure out Zhou Ziheng’s motive, you’ll inevitably hit a wall. If he wanted to get revenge on Gu Qiuyan at school, why didn’t he just do it directly? Why go through such a huge, roundabout effort? That’s where Shutong got stuck at first.

"But what if you don’t look at the castle incident as an isolated event? If you connect it to everything that followed, you’ll realize he was never concerned with petty squabbles like tearing a scarf or knocking over some building blocks. Everything he did was to create an opportunity for his dad to get away with his own plans."

"You mean...?" Ruoping understood, a sudden chill running down her spine.

"That’s right."

Qingyi nodded grimly.

"Just as Shutong said, there isn’t just one culprit. It was a conspiracy between two people. From start to finish, this case has been a series of meticulously planned actions, moving from inside the school to outside, all centered on getting revenge against the Gu family."

At this, Qingyi smiled again.

"But what’s the use of meticulous planning? We still foiled it. Especially Shutong. Think about it, isn’t it like he was sent from heaven just to stop this father-son duo?

"First, Zhou Ziheng wanted to sit next to Gu Qiuyan, but Shutong took the spot. Then, he wanted to expose Li Yipeng to clear his own name, but Shutong rooted him out first. Then his dad sent those five guys to burn down Gu Qiuyan’s family villa, and Shutong was the one who got them sent to jail. And now, he was trying to tip off his dad, but Shutong saw right through it.

"So, wouldn’t you say he’s a pretty competent knight in shining armor?"

"Well, I’m seriously impressed. If it were me, I probably couldn’t have even found Li Yipeng," Du Kang remarked. "That just leaves one last question—"

He asked, puzzled:

"How on earth did Shutong even start suspecting Zhou Ziheng?"

"That," Qingyi said with a mysterious smile. "In a way, it was a coincidence. Like I said before, Shutong stumbled upon a massive secret in the milk tea shop."

"Stop keeping us in suspense!" Du Kang and Ruoping said in unison.

"It’s simple. When he was buying milk tea, they happened to be out of crushed Oreos. The owner asked her son to help bring some out, and that’s when Shutong figured it all out."

"He saw Zhou Ziheng then?"

"Not exactly, no."

"What do you mean?"

"Hmm..." Qingyi stroked his chin, thinking. "In his own words, he feels like he might have some special fate with Oreos."

"Wait, what does this have to do with Oreos?"

...

"What does this have to do with Oreos?"

On the rooftop, the man was also shouting in bewilderment. The man who, just moments ago, seemed to have everything under control was now on the verge of a breakdown.

His son was in their hands and had confessed everything. There was no point in a desperate, last-ditch struggle anymore. He slumped against the wall of the stairwell, slowly sliding to the ground.

The rooftop floor was, of course, ice-cold, just like his heart, which had gone completely frigid.

"It actually has nothing to do with Oreos," Zhang Shutong said, glancing at the man. His reaction was exactly as predicted. "A knock-off brand would’ve been fine, too. I didn’t even see his face at the time. Your shop has a stockroom, doesn’t it? One with a cloth curtain over the doorway. When he handed over the Oreos, he only stuck his hand out. He didn’t even show his body."

"Then why..."

"But—"

Their homeroom teacher once said that if the word "but" appears in a sentence, it means you can treat everything that came before it as complete bullshit.

Zhang Shutong had always remembered that crude saying. Hearing him draw out the word, Song couldn’t help but smile.

It was a moment of tacit understanding unique to the master and his student. Just like when he’d returned from the milk tea shop and explained the situation to Song. At the time, the man hadn’t even eaten and had just left the police station, but he’d immediately driven off to pick up Du Kang without a second thought, choosing to trust Shutong’s deduction.

Now that the dust had settled, Song and the others had already called the police. Zhang Shutong didn’t pay the man any mind just yet.

Instead, he habitually pulled out his phone to check the time, only to find the little device had already reached the end of its life. ’It really worked hard today.’

At thirty-five percent battery, he had officially proposed today’s operation to his best friends.

At thirty-four percent, Du Kang was already on his bike, heading toward Gu Qiuyan’s villa.

At thirty percent, he had arrived at the commercial street.

When the charge dipped below thirty percent, he had located the milk tea shop with Ruoping’s help.

After that, he hadn’t kept close track of the remaining percentage.

It was just that somewhere in the twenties, Qingyi told him the culprit was confirmed.

At under twenty percent, he went to the "base" to go "fishing" and completely shake off the man.

In the teens, he called Song again. Below ten percent, he received the news that Zhou Ziheng had taken the bait.

And at three percent battery, he was rushing with Gu Qiuyan to the final location.

At one percent—the big fish was officially on the hook.

The man who had orchestrated everything from behind the scenes was arrogant. He thought that without his phone, he was like a fish on the chopping block—isolated, helpless, and trapped.

But what Zhang Shutong hadn’t told the man was that if it were just a matter of dealing with him, he wouldn’t have even needed to turn his phone on.

So Zhang Shutong turned to look at the boy lying on the ground. It was nighttime, so of course he couldn’t see his face clearly.

He remembered the first time he’d seen him was on the day they changed seats. By a strange twist of fate, he had ended up sitting next to Gu Qiuyan. Song Nanshan was arranging the seats by rank, and the students entered the classroom one by one.

At that time, Zhang Shutong’s first impression of him was this:

"A boy with a somewhat dark complexion. For some reason, he froze for a second when he saw me."

The initial impression was so faint that by the next day, he had already forgotten the boy’s name.

’Of course, there was one other thing. The castle incident hadn’t happened in the original timeline; it was a change brought about by my own regression—’

Many seemingly flawless plans often fail because of a single tiny flaw. The mission the young lady had given him was complete. Now, he could finally stop playing his cards and reveal the final piece of the puzzle.

"You want to know how I figured everything out just from him handing over the Oreos? It’s actually very simple."

Beneath the disbelieving gazes of the father and son, Zhang Shutong spoke calmly:

"Blame it on your son having such dark skin."

"—I could tell who it was just by looking at his hand."

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