Now they were in the beverage section. The shelves were dazzling. Under the spotlights, colorful cans were arranged in front of Gu Qiumian. She had been staring at the cocktails for a while. A few minutes ago, she asked if he wanted to buy a few cans to drink with his friends at noon.
She seemed to be a seasoned drinker. Zhang Shutong asked her if she drank often, like when she went to KTV with her little friends. She said it was alright, that she would drink a little when she was in a good mood. Zhang Shutong had never seen her tipsy, but he definitely wouldn't today, because the plan had changed.
"So what?" Gu Qiumian asked.
Zhang Shutong suspected that Gu Qiumian had figured out he was trying to look cool. She even cooperated and asked a question. It would have been better if she hadn't been secretly smiling.
He put away his phone: "So now it's just the two of us."
"Where are they?"
"They're on standby at all times."
"What do you mean?"
"It's a secret." Zhang Shutong smiled.
Gu Qiumian glared at him again, saying, "You just can't stand not being mysterious!"
Zhang Shutong couldn't explain. The name of the operation was—The Operation of the Goddess of Fate in Charge of Miss Gu's Future. This operation was not only to protect the young lady's life but also to protect the young lady's mood. Neither could be missing. If one of them wasn't achieved, Zhang Shutong wouldn't consider it a success.
Gu Qiumian then shook her hair and walked away. Zhang Shutong pushed the cart to follow. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"Didn't you say it's just the two of us now?"
"So?"
Zhang Shutong still couldn't connect those words to her turning around and walking away.
"So from now on, you'll listen to my arrangements."
As she spoke, she walked forward without looking back, with her hands behind her back, her steps small and light.
Zhang Shutong felt that she had suddenly turned into a tiger, enduring and enduring in front of her prey, and when her prey's companions scattered, leaving only one behind, the tiger finally grinned, revealing its fangs and a triumphant smile.
This was a man-eating tiger. It was truly terrifying.
If he didn't want to be eaten, he could only push the cart and follow her closely, but the wheels of the cart were stuck somewhere, squeaking, and it took some effort to get it back on track.
But since Gu Qiumian was walking in front, he had time to check his phone. The iPhone's battery was now at only 35%. Zhang Shutong turned on the low power mode. He couldn't charge it at Gu Qiumian's house last night. Although he didn't use his phone much, he had played Angry Birds for a while this morning and even got a failed ending.
He habitually wanted to clear the background apps, but he heard that iOS had a unique "tombstone" mechanism, which was suitable for lazy people. Zhang Shutong didn't know the exact principle, but he knew that reality was not a game, murderers were not pigs, and besides this unique mechanism in the phone system, he didn't want to see anyone's tombstone appear in front of him.
Teacher Song had just come out of the police station. The other party said on the phone that there was still one "murderer" missing. This arson was a carefully planned operation. Just as Li's mother had said, those people really did rely on their shops on the commercial street for their livelihoods. They were desperate and afraid of being betrayed, so even the gathering of their men was done in secret.
Through some special means of contact, they first selected people who were interested within a certain range, then went to a small dark room where the time and place were written on a piece of paper, and whoever was willing to go would put their handprint on the paper.
Originally, there were six of them, but when it came down to it, one person was missing last night. No one knew who the absent person was.
Zhang Shutong explained this to his friends. Qingyi was the most perceptive: "Who was the one who planned it first?"
"The interrogation is over. It's not those five people."
"So it's the one who didn't show up?"
"Exactly. The real mastermind."
"He deliberately wanted those five people to take the fall while he had another plan?"
"Maybe."
"That sounds dangerous. Why don't we just call the police?" Ruoping interjected at this time.
"There's not enough police force to begin with, and now there are five more arsonists. We can't count on them." Qingyi explained.
"Then I think we can just go and stay at the police station. We can go now and stay until Gu Qiumian's family gets back. Du Kang can bring us food for lunch. I want to eat your family's rice noodles." Ruoping's suggestion was more secure, but it was rejected by the three boys.
"No!"
"Don't you three suddenly get so worked up! (Angry fire)" Ruoping was exasperated.
"It's not getting worked up. We might only have today to find that mastermind. He can only act while Gu Qiumian's family isn't home." Zhang Shutong explained.
"My family doesn't make rice noodles now." Du Kang also explained.
"All wrong." Qingyi made the final call. "Can you guys please look closely at my operation name?"
"What do you mean?" The three of them asked at the same time.
Qingyi just sent a voice message: "The Operation of the Goddess of Fate in Charge of Miss Gu's Future—it means that the words 'young lady,' 'future,' and 'goddess of fate' don't matter. The important part is 'operation'!"
"So?"
"Since it's an operation, there's never been an operation where a girl has to stay at a police station for a day. That's not romantic at all."
Qingyi said lightly. At this moment, he was as if possessed by Teacher Song, speaking with a powerful voice.
Cool!
Zhang Shutong rarely agreed with him.
"So everyone, from now on, there are three goals for the entire operation—"
Zhang Shutong typed quickly. He didn't care about being a chuunibyou anymore. The most important thing now was momentum: "The first is to confirm who the mastermind is. The second is to collect evidence. As for the third..."
—Beep, beep, beep.
Zhang Shutong paused, stopped his fingers, and looked up to find that he had followed Gu Qiumian to the supermarket's checkout counter. She said she was going to go shopping at the clothing store on the third floor next. Zhang Shutong said he was tired, but she said, "Didn't you promise me just now that you would listen to my arrangements today?"
Did he?
Qiu Yu Mian Mian used "cheating"!
Zhang Shutong skipped this turn!
"Are you sure you want all this stuff?" Zhang Shutong looked at the pile of snacks and felt that this would really hold back the Goddess of Fate.
"Then we'll just store them at the service counter first." The young lady had no idea about the operation of the few of them. Of course, even if she did, she wouldn't care. Right now, she was in the middle of a crazy shopping spree.
"Yes, yes, as you command."
At this moment, he could only sigh.
He looked down at his phone. He hadn't finished typing the third goal, but someone had helped him complete it: "What's there to be shy about? It's just about being a good knight in shining armor for Gu Qiumian. What else could it be?" Ruoping said with disdain. "Otherwise, why would he say he would be in command? He can't get away, so he can only command us from his phone."
"So that's what 'the plan has changed' means!" Du Kang suddenly realized. His enthusiasm for this was no less than anyone else's. "So our mission now is to find that person?"
Zhang Shutong sent a thumbs-up emoji, and then tagged Du Kang: "Are you free now, birthday boy?"
"Just give the order." Du Kang was very quick.
"I need you to go out on a trip."
"I was expecting it."
"It's very cold outside."
"I'll wear something thick."
"The road is also very far."
"Does that matter?"
"Then go to Gu Qiumian's house on your bike first."
"Uh..."
It was 10:33 a.m. Zhang Shutong looked at the time and encouraged him: "Ride hard!"
Then there were no more messages from Du Kang. He was probably off to change his clothes.
Qingyi quickly asked: "What about Ruoping and me?"
"Just stand by for now. Wait for my message."
"Received."
"I really can't believe you guys. If you haven't thought of anything, just say you haven't. Can you stop making the phrase 'just wandering around' sound like such a mission?"
...She was right.
In just a few sentences, his phone's battery had dropped by one percent. Zhang Shutong put his phone away.
The snacks were packed into two large bags. He took one, and Gu Qiumian took the other. The two of them stored the items and took the elevator to the third floor.
Zhang Shutong held the handrail. As they slowly ascended, a huge vertical banner hung down from the ceiling, probably announcing that a certain store was about to open. In front of the banner were balloons floating in the air. It was like a celebration for the success of their operation. In the lively and cheerful atmosphere, Zhang Shutong asked Gu Qiumian, "Why didn't your dad open a movie theater?"
She thought for a moment and said she heard her dad mention it. It would be built next year, but there wouldn't be much point in going. It would be very small.
"If we're going, let's go to the ones in the city." The girl took out her phone again and slid her slender finger across the screen. She tapped here and there, and only when the two of them reached the entrance to the third floor did she look up. She almost lost her footing: "Mm, let me see... I searched this week, and there are no good ones."
You're actually planning on going?
Zhang Shutong thought with some worry, for the first time thanking the island for its incomplete commercial development. Otherwise, his schedule today would definitely be packed—shopping with big bags in the morning, eating at a high-end restaurant that Miss Gu approved of at noon, and then watching a movie with a large bucket of popcorn at night... But that wasn't all. He guessed they would also have to find a park where they could see the moon and sit on a bench for a while after the movie was over.
Zhang Shutong felt a headache just thinking about that scene. He said, "It's fine that there are no good movies. Let's just wander around the island." But Gu Qiumian was thinking about something else. She walked in front of Zhang Shutong and suddenly turned her head and said: "Let's go next week..."
She had always liked to plan things out. It was the same when she went off the island with her groupies, and it was no exception this time. The terrifying thing was that the more she talked, the more her planned schedule slowly started to overlap with what Zhang Shutong had imagined, from which streets had new clothes and bags, to which restaurants were good, and then which KTVs had a good atmosphere and which cinemas had soft seats... But before she could finish, Zhang Shutong didn't know how to answer.
He wondered if in the original timeline, she had had the same thought at this moment. Maybe she had, because she had said this morning that she was going to watch a movie at home.
Zhang Shutong had once asked her if she played games. She was a tech illiterate. How could she know about these things? Let alone Angry Birds, even Talking Tom Cat was a new and interesting thing to her. When they were at the supermarket just now, Zhang Shutong taught her how to download it. She held the phone and talked to the silly cat, giggling. She also had to make Zhang Shutong listen to it once. Sometimes he would comment speechlessly, which would provide new material, and the two of them and the cat would all be giggling like idiots.
This showed that she was definitely a novice when it came to games. Gu Qiumian said she liked to watch movies. Although she had a dedicated audio-visual wall at home, it was never as big as a movie theater's. And no matter how rich a family was, they couldn't outrun time—this meant that no matter how rich she was, the movies shown in her home theater would always be old movies that she had watched countless times.
Zhang Shutong had been to that audio-visual room. It was no longer the mysterious place that he and his best friends used to call a "castle." He had spent a night in that castle last night and had his eyes opened. But when he actually went there, he realized that no matter how luxurious the so-called underground audio-visual room was, or how big it was, it was just an empty space built with concrete and rebar.
So he could imagine that in the countless days of the past, in the dim space, a series of light and shadow would flash across the screen. The progress bar would roll to the middle, and the girl wrapped in a wine-red robe would curl up on the sofa. As she watched, she would lower her head and tap her phone, making a plan to go to the city with her friends on the weekend.
It was a weekend that she would never get to. Zhang Shutong didn't know what she was thinking or what she wished for at that time... He looked up and saw Gu Qiumian holding her phone and talking to that Talking Tom Cat again.
She asked crisply, "Is it okay to go see a movie next week?" And the silly cat would also foolishly reply, "Is it okay to go see a movie next week?"...
What was so okay about it?
Zhang Shutong suddenly thought with frustration, "Why do you have to plan for something so far away, so far that you've never waited for it to happen?"
But there was also nothing good to browse that was close by. The clothing styles were old-fashioned. The shopping plazas in the city had already started selling spring clothes, but this one was still clearing out its winter clothes. Gu Qiumian also put away her phone. She would sometimes ask him if that hat looked good, and sometimes if that scarf was stylish. In Zhang Shutong's eyes, they all looked old, but she was having fun.
Finally, they stopped at a shop that sold small accessories.
Zhang Shutong shook his head, thanking his mother for the inspiration. For the next step of the operation, he was going to buy a mask and a hat here.
"This is so ugly. Try it on." Gu Qiumian handed him a pink Mickey Mouse baseball cap.
It seemed familiar.
He also thanked Mickey Mouse. His mood suddenly became a little lighter. Gu Qiumian didn't know, but Zhang Shutong was all too familiar with this thing. It was that damned baseball cap again. He heard that Disney's legal team was incredibly overbearing. Why didn't they sue this store out of business?
"Why should I try it on if it's ugly?" Zhang Shutong was a little unwilling.
"I want to see." But Gu Qiumian was more overbearing than Disney's legal team. She laughed as she took out her phone, ready to take a picture.
"Put your phone down."
"If you put it on, I won't take a picture." She threatened.
Zhang Shutong reluctantly put on the hat. He felt as if he was once again reliving the terrifying years under his mother's rule... Wait, why did he put it on? He hadn't even agreed to it.
He quickly took off the hat, but Gu Qiumian had already had her fill. She nodded her chin, satisfied: "It's just as I thought."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at the Mickey Mouse on the hat. Although it's a fake, doesn't it look a lot like the real one? And you look so silly with it on..." Her sense of humor was really low.
Zhang Shutong reflected on himself. He felt that even an underling had a duty to correct the young lady from a wrong path. He couldn't always just indulge her.
He had already taken out his phone with one hand. Zhang Shutong was not a tech illiterate like Gu Qiumian. He knew where the shortcut for taking a picture on the iPhone was. Then he quickly put the hat on Gu Qiumian's head and pressed the shutter button.
With a click, her surprised expression was frozen in a frame.
"You really do look silly." Zhang Shutong looked at the screen and pouted.
Qiu Yu Mian Mian immediately went crazy.
Zhang Shutong paid and ran. He had long legs and walked quickly. He felt as if he had a thorn in his back the whole way.
It was time for the next step.
Zhang Shutong took out his phone and sent the second message in the group chat.