Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 151: Chapter 63: "Faceless" (Part 3)

So Zhang Shutong turned around and poured himself a yogurt drink. While sipping the drink, he watched a group of lackeys crowding around the young miss in the dining hall, ordering food. They were all chattering at once, probably discussing what to eat. ’None of these lackeys are very good at this,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’Steamed fish, braised fish—none of that matters. Just order the sweet and sour pork loin first. That’s her favorite. She even eats her rice bowls with sweet and sour sauce.’

Fortunately, someone thought of it. It was a girl standing next to Gu Qiuyan, one Zhang Shutong used to call her "little secretary." Now, the little secretary was arranging everything. She directed people to push tables together, assigned someone to order and someone else to buy drinks, and even scolded that one guy, saying something along the lines of, "You’d better hide those little thoughts of yours."

At that, the guy’s glare toward his table grew even more hostile.

’I’m not even one of her lackeys yet,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’Even if I tried to join her entourage, she wouldn’t have me. We have no conflicting interests, so why are you looking at me like that?’

Of course, a young guy like that wasn’t worth his attention. The food for their table had already arrived—braised pork ribs. This time, Zhang Shutong put two pieces on each of his three friends’ plates, explaining that he didn’t actually like braised pork ribs and had just ordered them randomly. "If any of you treat me in the future, you don’t have to go out of your way like this."

Ruoping got angry when she heard that. "If you don’t like it, why did you order it?" Zhang Shutong wanted to say it was because he thought the three of them wanted to eat it, but then he remembered Song’s words: sometimes, you shouldn’t overthink things, even with the best intentions.

Du Kang, however, said, "Next time, let’s eat at my place. I’ll have my dad cook something special for us. I refuse to believe he can’t make something you like, Shutong."

Only then did Zhang Shutong remember that Du Kang’s birthday was still coming up.

So, his next goals were set:

Save Gu Qiuyan.

Find the murderer.

And then, celebrate a happy birthday with his best friends.

The winter of 2012 was destined to be anything but peaceful. But if he couldn’t clear away these obstacles, he would never be able to usher in his new life.

The ribs in front of him were steaming. In that moment, everything finally felt real to Zhang Shutong. But Qingyi’s focus was on something else entirely.

"Shutong, you’re not acting like yourself today."

His powers of observation had always been sharp. He lowered his voice and asked:

"Why do you keep looking over at Gu Qiuyan?"

"There’s definitely something going on between them," Du Kang chimed in, eager to stir the pot.

Ruoping just rolled her eyes.

Zhang Shutong suddenly realized another headache: the conflict between Ruoping and Gu Qiuyan hadn’t been resolved yet.

He claimed he just felt like there was something familiar about Gu Qiuyan, so he couldn’t help but look a few more times.

Ruoping, who had been smirking, couldn’t help but burst out laughing. "You could at least come up with a better excuse than that. Besides, you two are deskmates. When you get back this afternoon, you can stare at her as much as you want."

But Zhang Shutong just said helplessly, "No, really, she seems familiar. I just can’t remember from where."

Maybe it was because he had been staring at Gu Qiuyan too much, or maybe the young miss had noticed the four of them whispering. The girl in the red scarf turned her head and glanced at Zhang Shutong.

Their eyes met. Then, Gu Qiuyan nonchalantly looked away, though the charm in her hair swung sharply.

"And you say nothing’s going on. Look at you two... haha."

’That’s just how Qiumian is,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’She always used to glare at me, and I never knew why. Just like I still can’t figure out why she suddenly brought up fruit-flavored pizza that night at the villa. It was such a strange question.’

After that, things went on much like before. Their dishes were brought out one by one. The restaurant owner had a guilty conscience, so he intentionally delayed the food for Gu Qiuyan’s table a little.

Over at Gu Qiuyan’s side, they had pushed their tables together and a large group was sitting down. The young miss naturally sat at the head of the table. She was now sitting diagonally across from Zhang Shutong. He could see her take off her scarf and nonchalantly tell her lackeys that she wanted a yogurt.

Zhang Shutong’s chopsticks suddenly fell.

"He’s a lost cause..."

"Hey, hey, Shutong, don’t tell me you’re that dumbstruck from staring at a girl."

"Men are all like that... even if I can’t think of the rest of the sentence right now, men are definitely like that."

His best friends were all teasing him.

But only Zhang Shutong felt a sudden chill rise from the bottom of his heart.

He suddenly knew why he always felt there was something familiar about Gu Qiuyan.

The girl took off her scarf, and her neck looked much "thinner"—ever since she had walked into the restaurant, she had kept the scarf on, her chin tucked inside it.

When he was catching Li Yipeng, Zhang Shutong had stuffed this very scarf into his pocket, so he had a rough idea of its length.

So, if someone were to cover their face with one end of a scarf, and pile the other end entirely around their neck, what would that look like—

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