Lu Qinglian's study experience was very simple.
She stood quietly on the podium. Originally, there was a continuous round of applause below the stage, but as the girl extended three slender fingers, it immediately became quiet. Everyone silently and curiously examined her, presenting an attitude of listening attentively.
"First, pay attention in class."
Lu Qinglian's clear voice wasn't very loud, but it spread to every corner of the classroom.
"Second, complete homework."
Two fingers were retracted, still in the order from her middle finger to her little finger.
"Third, take good notes."
And then there was nothing more.
Logically, she should have said a few more words to leave a good impression on the new teacher, but if Lu Qinglian did that, she wouldn't be Lu Qinglian. The students below the stage hadn't yet understood what had happened when she gently flicked her long hair and returned to her seat. Her movements were very stylish.
Only then did the applause sound half a beat late.
Zhang Shutong looked at Ms. Xu's face and found that she wasn't angry. Instead, she forced a smile.
Lu Qinglian had a special attack against middle-aged and older women.
Zhang Shutong came to this conclusion.
Speaking of which, the new teacher's way of addressing them also changed. Teacher Song used to call them Qinglian and Shutong. Perhaps because Ms. Xu was older, she was accustomed to calling them Little Lu and Little Zhang.
So when Little Lu came down, it was Little Zhang's turn to have a headache.
Actually, he could completely understand Lu Qinglian. The so-called sharing of experience was mostly just a formality. There was no secret method. The teacher hadn't achieved it in four years. How could one expect a single sentence to enlighten people?
Moreover, Lu Qinglian had said all the polite things, without considering what the next person should say.
Zhang Shutong scanned the students below the stage. As the former second-ranked student in the grade, his authority was still there. He also habitually extended three fingers, then found that it looked like he was copying Lu Qinglian, so he retracted them.
"I just want to share one thing: pay attention to balancing work and rest."
He said this seriously, and then calmly walked off the stage under the surprised gazes of everyone.
Sure enough, Ms. Xu frowned.
But this was Zhang Shutong's goal. It was better to leave a slightly worse impression to avoid being called up every day to share this and that. It was so troublesome.
The experience sharing session ended there.
Ms. Xu was indeed a senior teacher. She also formed new study groups, in units of four. Lu Qinglian was the group leader for their group.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize that although the seats in their class were arranged by a person's score, the seating arrangement was very strategic. One row of students with good grades, one row of students with bad grades, scattered and staggered, much like planting rice seedlings.
No wonder he was in the third row. The students in front and behind were people that their row needed to "tutor."
Ms. Xu gave a few more instructions and told them to continue morning reading.
As soon as she left the classroom, it was silent at first, then instantly became lively.
"I told you. Mistress Extermination. We're going to suffer from now on."
"Oh my god, what era are we in? Who calls her Mistress Extermination now? Buddy, you're so out of date."
Zhang Shutong listened to these discussions, and for a moment, he couldn't tell whether "oh my god" or "Mistress Extermination" was more out of date.
He had wanted to ask Lu Qinglian how her inquiry about the four-year-old matter was going, but it was really not a suitable time to discuss it.
The newly formed study group's effect couldn't be said to be bad. The two students in front of Zhang Shutong were a boy and a girl. As soon as the homeroom teacher left, the boy in the front seat took out his test paper and turned around. The girl did the same. Of course, one was heading for Lu Qinglian, and the other was heading for Zhang Shutong.
"Student Lu, I'd like to ask you about the big problem at the end of this monthly exam..."
"Zhang Shutong, I used to be in Class 2. Ruoping and I are friends. I'll be bothering you a lot from now on..."
"You can ask Student Zhang Shutong."
"You should bother Student Lu Qinglian."
They both spoke at the same time.
It was a bit awkward for a moment.
Looking at the other groups, they were all in heated discussions. They said they were exchanging learning, but in fact, everyone was using learning as an excuse to get to know each other. The novelty brought by the class change would take a while to wear off.
"Uh..." The boy and girl both hit a wall. They looked at each other and turned back disgruntled.
"You're the group leader." Zhang Shutong reminded her in a low voice.
"You're the second-ranked in the grade." Lu Qinglian didn't change her expression.
"My second-ranked in the grade is a bit inflated."
"I don't deny it."
Wait, shouldn't you refute that?
"You haven't done homework for a week." Lu Qinglian said casually.
"It seems that's true..." This was indeed a bit terrifying. Zhang Shutong said, "Then why did you tell him to ask me? I really might not understand."
"I can tell the difference between asking a question and making small talk."
So that's how she avoided being hit on.
"Why don't you just tilt your head and ask him, 'Student so-and-so, do you like me?'" Zhang Shutong couldn't help but tease her. He had been choked up by this kind of question several times before.
"For example, what you're doing right now is making small talk." Lu Qinglian said calmly, and then asked, puzzled, "Student Zhang Shutong, so do you like me?"
Zhang Shutong was choked up again.
"How is your foot?"
"It's fine."
"Your socks and shoes are at my house."
"What do you want to say?"
"My mom washed them. Should I bring them to you tomorrow?"
"You'd better not be so enthusiastic." As she said this, her expression turned cold. "I'll go get them myself."
The two's conversation came to a halt.
Soon, the first class began.
Math.
The math teacher went straight into the big problems. Zhang Shutong didn't find it too difficult to follow, but it wasn't easy either.
While listening, he would occasionally observe Lu Qinglian.
To sum up this new desk-mate in one sentence, she was very quiet, as if she didn't exist.
The time he had spent as a desk-mate with Gu Qiumian was no more than four days in total.
Zhang Shutong had just gotten used to the faint scent on her, and it was gone.
Now, he was the one sitting by the window. He had been a bit lazy these past few days and ate too many snacks, so his mouth felt empty. But the person next to him didn't have any snacks in her bag.
He somewhat understood why Gu Qiumian liked to draw funny faces. With such a large pane of glass here, it would be a bit uncomfortable not to do something to it.
Sometimes he would also look out the window. There was a concrete area at the school gate, and a few parking spaces were painted on the concrete. He used to be able to see a red Ford Focus there.
Zhang Shutong shook his head, pulling his thoughts back to his studies.
Fortunately, he quickly concentrated. He understood the problem the teacher was talking about and continued to listen for a while. He felt the teacher was emphasizing points where mistakes were easily made, so he took out his textbook to review the previous content.
Although his brain was still quite functional, it still took some effort to digest four years of middle school knowledge in one go.
Furthermore, the things in the textbook were relatively basic, and it was easy to get into a situation where you understood it but just couldn't solve the problem. Every time he reviewed a section, he would find the corresponding problems in the "5-3" book. He conquered a few problems one by one, but eventually got stuck.
So, while the math teacher was letting everyone discuss freely, Zhang Shutong asked the group leader for help:
"How do you do this one?"
Lu Qinglian raised her eyes. She seemed very unhappy that someone was interrupting her, but she still picked up her pen and drew a line in the practice book:
"This is the auxiliary line."
"Got it, thanks."
Zhang Shutong continued to battle with math.
Math was just as tricky as the clay figurines. He found that algebra problems were okay, but with geometry, his brain often lagged by a beat:
"What about this one?"
"Like this."
"Then what about this one?"
"Go look at the answer yourself."
"Is there another way to solve this one?"
"Don't twirl your pen."
"Sorry."
He was in a hurry, but he only asked three or four questions. There was no other way. Many problems had a lot of calculations, and he didn't have the confidence to say "I have the solution, so it's fine if I don't do it." Right now, even the various calculations were equivalent to "rehabilitation."
The memories in his mind gradually revived. Zhang Shutong's thoughts became clearer and clearer. For a student like him, as long as he didn't cause trouble, the teacher wouldn't bother him. So in one class period, besides the first third of the class that he spent listening, he spent the rest of the time figuring things out himself. He spent more time listening to Lu Qinglian explain the problems than the teacher.
The new homeroom teacher was indeed a senior teacher.
This study group was actually a bit useful.
Soon the class bell rang. The noise poured into his ears, but Zhang Shutong didn't move. He finished the last problem at his seat and let out a breath.
He had a plan for how to review. It wasn't necessary to create a notebook for wrong problems right now, because everything was so new. He would wait until he was more familiar with it.
He put down his pen and saw that Lu Qinglian was also doing problems.
She was actually doing past years' exam questions.
Not for math, but for English.
She did one paper per class.
No wonder she didn't look up for the entire class. The study experience she mentioned during morning reading was all fake. Zhang Shutong didn't find her paying close attention, nor did he find her taking notes. Even her homework was a question mark.
Lu Qinglian quickly finished the last line of letters. She found the answer key, took a red pen from her pencil case, and began to correct her work herself.
Her pencil case and neutral pen were both a bit old. She was probably the type who only changed the refills and not the pen. The skin on her fingers was also not delicate. There were a few chapped marks from the cold. Zhang Shutong subconsciously recalled Lu Qinglian's high school entrance exam score, but found that he didn't have any impression of it.
Lu Qinglian asked as she corrected:
"What is it?"
"You can ask me if there's anything you don't understand in English."
Her pen paused. She glanced at Zhang Shutong, and politely declined:
"Thank you."
The subtext was, "You're too bad at it."
Zhang Shutong couldn't explain that he was only bad at other subjects. His professional level in English might even be a bit higher than Teacher Song's.
But if she didn't need it, she didn't need it. The first break had arrived. Zhang Shutong was preparing to go outside for a walk. But the new homeroom teacher came into the class again, saying that they were going to elect class cadres.
The homeroom teacher didn't do democracy. She started to nominate people directly.
The class monitor was the former class monitor of Class 2. The study committee member was Lu Qinglian.
Only when it came to less important positions, such as sports committee member, living committee member, and labor committee member, since she wasn't familiar with the people in the class, she let them volunteer themselves. Whoever wanted to be one went to the stage to give a speech, and there was a simple vote.
Zhang Shutong took the opportunity while the class was in a commotion to ask Lu Qinglian:
"Are you free?"
"What is it again?" she sighed. "Just say it directly."
"How did it go with what you were asking about? The thing from four years ago?"
"It also snowed four years ago." Lu Qinglian lowered her gaze to her textbook, looking like a good student, but what she was saying was completely unrelated.
Snow...
Zhang Shutong remembered that he had indeed heard Teacher Song talk about this.
After the rollback in the cold-blooded timeline, there was a sudden heavy snowfall. On the way to the police station, he had muttered to himself while looking at the snowy scenery outside the window, but Teacher Song had said casually that it was nothing. The snow four years ago was even heavier.
But Zhang Shutong hadn't transferred to the island at that time, so he had no memory of this snow.
He more or less understood what Lu Qinglian meant. She was saying that the snow from four years ago froze the "snake" that the temple keeper used to get information, so unlike this time, on Wednesday, they didn't discover the appearance of the clay figurine in time.
In other words, the clay figurine from four years ago, from its appearance to its disappearance, was truly a silent event, and even the temple keepers didn't notice it.
However, four years ago, Lu Qinglian was only in fifth grade. Even if she did find it, Zhang Shutong couldn't imagine how she would have dealt with it.
"What about your grandma's attitude?"
"Her attention was indeed a bit distracted."
Zhang Shutong waited for more, but then he saw Lu Qinglian flip a page of her textbook. She was actually memorizing vocabulary.
"I also have a question." She asked after a while. "How are you sure that thing has really disappeared?"
"Do you remember that notebook I told you about? Teacher Song had been driving around the island looking for it all these years. He had no luck in the middle years, so it should have disappeared. I talked to him on the phone yesterday and wanted to ask for more details, but he himself couldn't remember, and said I might as well go look at the notebook."
Lu Qinglian finally put down her textbook:
"So you're not actually sure?"
"Time was too tight at that time. I didn't look at the contents of the notebook carefully."
"Is that notebook still in the dorm?"
"Yes."
"What about the key?"
"You want to go there?"
Lu Qinglian didn't deny it:
"How it appeared is not important, but how it disappeared is very important."
"Your grandma doesn't have a clue either?"
"Some things only exist through word of mouth."
Zhang Shutong understood.
There were two problems now.
How did the clay figurine appear?
And how was it "dealt with" four years ago?
It seemed that no one could answer this question.
Teacher Song, as the person involved, was already confused, and he himself was still in the hospital off the island.
The temple keepers had the ability, but that heavy snow caused them to be unable to even discover the clay figurine.
Besides that, there was another question that both of them were deliberately not mentioning.
Who was that fake Lu Qinglian, and how did she appear?
This matter was perhaps very important to Lu Qinglian, so she wanted to figure out the pattern of the clay figurine's appearance.
And for Zhang Shutong, he could at least make a simple judgment—
Gu Qiumian was saved, but that didn't mean the matter was truly resolved. Assuming the purpose of killing her was to prevent the development of the small island, and the Green Snake Temple had no connection to the clay figurine, then who was the person who wanted to stop this?
There were also two goals.
A longer-term goal was to find out what he missed this week. First, he could confirm that in the wild dog timeline, he stayed off the island for a week. During this time, he was unable to meet Lu Qinglian. Although they had now met and become desk-mates, nothing had been substantially moved forward.
A shorter-term goal was the notebook in Teacher Song's dorm. He could check it word for word, and maybe he could find other clues.
Of course, there was no way to do that now. He would have to wait until school was over.
"Noon or afternoon?" Lu Qinglian asked.
"Let's see. There's probably no time at noon. This homeroom teacher is already in a hurry to assign class cadres, which means there are other arrangements for the lunch break. As for the evening," he sighed, "I'm a person in disgrace right now. My mom won't let me run around."
"Okay." Lu Qinglian nodded.
"Want to skip class together at noon?" Zhang Shutong suggested.
Lu Qinglian was about to speak, but the homeroom teacher suddenly coughed:
"Don't think I can't see some students whispering to each other."