Chapter 322 - 139: "Butterfly" (Part 2)

Chapter 322: Chapter 139: "Butterfly" (Part 2)

"I also think houses with rooftops are super cool!"

A cheerful voice suddenly piped up from inside the car.

Everyone looked at her, speechless, wondering why Xu Zhiruo was chiming in.

Sandwiched between Du Kang and Qingyi, she shrank back under their combined gazes, looking small and huddled.

In fact, there was one small change on the return trip—Xu Zhiruo had come along.

When Ruoping came back, she said she wanted to walk with Gu Qiuyan. The two had things to talk about—now that they were both class presidents, they had official business to discuss, and no place for uninvolved parties. So, the three "uninvolved parties" obediently returned to the car, and Xu Zhiruo ended up swapping places with her.

At the dinner table, she’d pestered Qingyi, and now in the car, she was grilling Du Kang. "What rooftop? What key? C’mon, tell me!" But Du Kang just humored her like she was a little sister, sometimes claiming it was a secret, other times saying he’d made a copy himself, and still other times that he’d found it on the street.

After all that talking, she still hadn’t gotten a straight answer.

They soon arrived at school. Ruoping’s car had left first and was now waiting for them at the school gate.

"Here. Qiumian asked me to give this to you. Take it."

Zhang Shutong took the rooftop key, thinking, ’Since when are you on a first-name basis with "Qiumian"? When did you two get so close?’

’This time, there was no chocolate to bury the hatchet.’

He then remembered that in the early hours of Sunday, it was Ruoping who had stayed with Gu Qiuyan at the hospital all night. Perhaps that was when they’d resolved their differences and struck up a friendship.

Du Kang might seem all brash and carefree, but Ruoping was the real people person. Back when they were catching the poachers, it only took her one night to start calling Lu Qinglian "Qinglian."

"Thanks," Zhang Shutong said as they walked. He asked Ruoping, "What did you talk to her about?"

"We exchanged some intel."

"Intel?"

"Yeah, Qiumian asked me what this key was for. I told her you’d secretly made a copy a while back and would sometimes go up there to get some air. Then she gave the key to me."

"I already told her that. Why did she have to ask you again?" Zhang Shutong said, exasperated.

"It’s because you’re always lying to her. Once bitten, twice shy. Get it?"

"And then?"

"What ’and then’?"

"You said you exchanged intel. So what did you ask her about?" Zhang Shutong simply couldn’t figure out what she would need to ask Gu Qiuyan.

"Why so many questions? We were just talking, class president to class president. There’s an event coming up, you know." Ruoping rolled her eyes. "Who else scares themselves all day like you do?"

Zhang Shutong shrugged.

The group walked across campus, went up the stairs together, and stepped into the Class One classroom, only to stop short instinctively.

"I almost forgot. We’ve all switched classes." Du Kang sounded wistful, but his eyes were taking the opportunity to dart around the room. Of course, he still didn’t find the person he was looking for.

Lu Qinglian wasn’t in the classroom.

They chatted for a few more moments before parting ways at the Class One entrance. Zhang Shutong had eaten too much at lunch and was a little thirsty. He went back to his new class to grab his cup for some water, but after a few steps, he said with a headache coming on:

"How long are you going to follow me?"

"Hehe." The little secretary flashed her canines. "Just taking a look around since it’s on the way. I’m going to Class Two to find Qiumian later."

"Don’t get caught by your aunt."

"You know Teacher Xu is my aunt?" she asked, surprised. "In that case, you’d better be careful, senpai. My aunt is super strict about puppy love!"

"You don’t need to worry about that."

"Don’t expect me to speak up for you. When I’m in front of her, I’m like a clay bodhisattva crossing a river—I can barely save myself."

’When have I ever been in a relationship?’ Zhang Shutong thought. Realizing he couldn’t handle such a talkative girl, he changed the subject.

"Where’s that group of friends of yours? How come you were the only one at lunch?"

"The other two had something come up, so I was the only one who got to go to the big feast. They were so jealous they could cry," Xu Zhiruo said mournfully. "But I didn’t have a good lunch either. You took my spot, senpai, and I didn’t know the people around me very well, so I could only talk to that stone-faced guy next to me."

Zhang Shutong thought she had a real talent for nicknames that cut straight to the essence of a person. He couldn’t help but chuckle, but then the girl added:

"Don’t laugh. You’re Brother Wood, so you’re not much better."

Zhang Shutong’s smile vanished, and he continued walking.

As they spoke, they had already walked past the Class Two classroom, but Xu Zhiruo showed no signs of stopping. It was actually quite interesting chatting with her. Remembering what she’d said earlier, Zhang Shutong remarked casually:

"So you guys are in two different circles."

"What two different circles?"

"The ninth-graders at lunch today. I thought you were all close."

Zhang Shutong used to jokingly call Gu Qiuyan’s circle her "entourage." Only after today’s lunch did he realize it was actually split into two groups: the "underlings" and the "vassals." The distinction was simple: anyone younger than her was an underling, and anyone in her class was a vassal. In other words, he had previously considered himself an underling, but it turned out he wasn’t one at all.

’Speaking of which, have I ever said that in front of Gu Qiuyan? I don’t think so. Otherwise, that would have been a huge loss of face.’

"Senpai, what are you talking about?" To his surprise, the little secretary looked at him strangely. "We hang out together all the time."

"But you just said you didn’t know them well."

"I was talking about the people around me—your friends, senpai."

"That can’t be right," Zhang Shutong said, unsure if she was joking. "That guy who found the key, Kong Yihui—you said yourself that you didn’t know him."

"That’s because he used to be in a different class. He only just moved to Class Two after the switch, so of course I don’t know him. Besides, not everyone who came today is a close friend of Qiumian’s. That... Hui guy, for example, just came to join the fun because he heard she was treating," the little secretary said matter-of-factly. "But I know almost everyone from your old class. We hang out all the time, so how could we be in two different circles?"

’What does she mean, "hang out all the time"?’

’Didn’t Gu Qiuyan have no friends in the old Class One?’

’Or should I be interpreting Xu Zhiruo’s words differently?’

’She comes to visit our class every day, so naturally she knows the Class One students. And the group that ’hangs out all the time’ must be referring to other people.’

Zhang Shutong frowned.

But he had already been through one embarrassing mix-up today, so he patiently tried to confirm:

"You’re saying... you often hang out with people from the original Class One?"

"Yeah," the little secretary said innocently. "Oh, I forgot, you probably don’t pay much attention to this stuff. You’re Brother Wood, after all."

Zhang Shutong’s frown deepened. He hadn’t paid much attention to Gu Qiuyan’s affairs before, but no matter how indifferent he was, he couldn’t have been so clueless that he didn’t even understand the social dynamics in his own class.

His intuition told him something was definitely wrong, but what exactly was the problem?

He had clearly asked many people, and the events he considered key turning points apparently hadn’t changed at all.

The only thing that felt off was Qingyi’s attitude. With his memory, there was no way he would have forgotten the gold coin chocolates, especially since that incident had caused such a big stir. But when he specifically asked Ruoping to confirm later, she insisted it had happened.

"Sorry, senpai. I shouldn’t have given you a nickname. Please don’t be mad," Xu Zhiruo said meekly, seeing the dark look on his face.

Zhang Shutong was no longer in the mood to pay her any mind.

His memories were a long, flowing river, stretching from seventh to ninth grade. Within that river, in every event related to Gu Qiuyan, he had to find the one strange stone that didn’t belong.

Zhang Shutong racked his brain but still couldn’t find anything out of place. Or was it that he really knew too little about Gu Qiuyan? Did the young heiress truly have friends all over the world?

He couldn’t tell if his memory was failing him or if... he’d just been too dense back then, so focused on fishing that he never understood anything clearly.

Suddenly, Zhang Shutong latched onto something:

When exactly did Gu Qiuyan’s relationships in Class One start to go bad?

No one is born to be ostracized. He remembered when she first transferred into their class, she brought a backpack full of snacks to share with everyone. The students weren’t exactly close to her, but they didn’t exclude her either. They just didn’t know how to interact with a girl like that. So, during that period, her relationship with everyone else remained lukewarm.

And after that?

The turning point was that bag of gold coin chocolates.

Ruoping had always been popular, and besides, you couldn’t really say she was in the wrong in that incident. People are unconsciously influenced by the atmosphere around them. It was because of that incident that she took the lead in giving Gu Qiuyan the cold shoulder. The others around them followed suit, whether intentionally or not. The kids on their small island all knew each other, constantly running into one another. In a close-knit circle of acquaintances like that, the most important thing was to fit in.

Somehow, this trend spread. But Gu Qiuyan wasn’t the type to take grievances lying down. Just as he’d figured, since she didn’t have a circle, she took the initiative to create one. And that was how she ended up with countless underlings from the lower grades.

In the end, it all came back to the chocolate incident!