Zhang Shutong stared at that familiar face, thoroughly dazed.
But a split second later, the screen went pitch black. It seemed the camera had been placed face-down on the counter.
"Hold on, Shutong, something came up. I've gotta run. Talk to you in a—"
Before Du Kang could finish his sentence, the video call cut out.
Zhang Shutong was left staring blankly at the QQ chat interface.
He didn't ask why the other boy had suddenly hung up, nor did he call back. He simply sat in silence for a brief moment before sending another spoonful of food into his mouth.
Today, Zhang Shutong had ordered green pepper and shredded pork rice again.
In truth, his favorite flavor profile had always been rather monotonous. He rotated through the exact same few dishes over and over.
No one spoke at the dining table. The only sound was the chewing of food. The back kitchen was somewhat noisy, with the roaring burners of the stove and the whirring exhaust fans. He had managed to tune out these background noises earlier, but now they crashed into his ears like an overwhelming wave.
Zhang Shutong remained staring at his phone screen.
The last message was very brief:
[Call Duration: 1:08]
The last time he had seen that faint, gentle smile was just last night.
What about the time before that?
He suddenly wondered.
But Zhang Shutong could no longer remember.
No matter how good a person's memory was, they couldn't clearly recall a smile from several years ago.
He had left that city during his sophomore year of high school. How much time had passed since then? Five years? Or six? He couldn't remember that either.
Just as no one would remember when they ate their very first shred of green pepper.
...So much time had already slipped by.
The iron spoon clattered into the plate with a crisp ring. Zhang Shutong bolted upright from his seat.
"I saw an acquaintance. I need to step out for a bit..."
He didn't even have time to swallow the food in his mouth, hastily offering a brief explanation to Lu Qinglian.
A map of the small island instantly materialized in his mind. He was currently in the northern residential district, while Du Kang's family restaurant was located in the central district. Riding a bicycle there would take only a little over ten minutes, and it was impossible for a large group gathering to wrap up within ten minutes.
Right, that would work. His mind suddenly became active. This way, there was no need to agonize over whether to go to the dinner gathering tonight. Meeting his school sister at Du Kang's restaurant right now would neither delay clearing the underground tunnel nor go against his mother's expectations. It gave everyone a proper account. He should have done this from the very beginning.
"What?" Lu Qinglian knit her brows slightly.
Zhang Shutong also knew he was being a bit unreliable.
"I'm terribly sorry," he said, grabbing his jacket. "Something really urgent came up. It won't delay our plans for the afternoon. I'll call you then."
"You seem to have gotten excited all of a sudden," she noted, her tone still as calm and unruffled as ever.
"Did I? Well, maybe a little..." Zhang Shutong muttered. He had casually tossed his bicycle keys onto the table earlier. Reaching for the keys, he added, "But I'm not sure when I'll be back. Once you're done eating, you can head to the hospital first, and I'll look for you—"
He paused mid-sentence.
The hospital.
Zhang Shutong's gaze drifted downward.
The calculations in his head were still running. Walking from here to the hospital would take half an hour. They only had one bicycle. Lu Qinglian's foot was injured, and the injury was quite severe; even she would occasionally let show signs of clear pain. She was supposed to go back to the hospital for a follow-up appointment shortly...
So, was he going to leave Lu Qinglian sitting in this small diner until he returned?
He couldn't possibly rush over to the restaurant and turn right back around. How long would it take to exchange a few words? How long would it take to finish a plate of rice?
Or was he going to let her walk to the hospital alone?
But he had just told her this morning that it was best to minimize walking.
If he chose to walk to Du Kang's restaurant, it would take more than twenty minutes, even if he ran.
Zhang Shutong withdrew his hand from the keys and amended his words:
"Once you're done eating, take the bike and go to the hospital first. I'll go find you there..."
With that, he ran out of the diner without looking back.
He put on his jacket as he ran. Before he had gone very far, Zhang Shutong slammed on the brakes, slapped his forehead, and immediately turned around to duck into an alleyway.
Looking down the path, the alley was piled high with large and small pieces of furniture. They were all abandoned items—flowerpots, sofas, wardrobes, and even a wooden bed—making it look like a miniature flea market.
As expected of a residential district, it was a proper mess. Crossing through it was by no means an easy task, but this path was a shortcut. It could save him at least five minutes.
Zhang Shutong counted the seconds in his head. He placed one hand on a nearby sofa, using the momentum to vault his body forward. His arms were trembling slightly from a whole morning of manual labor, but these meager obstacles couldn't hold him back. To be honest, he suddenly thought that the sofa looked quite nice, and it was a pity to throw it away like this; should he move it to the base later? By the time these thoughts flashed through his mind, his body had already landed lightly on the ground.
Zhang Shutong kept his stride.
Next came flowerpots, brooms, and a tilted wardrobe, until a wooden bed blocked the exact center of the alley. It had been placed sideways, as if to tell him that trouble lay ahead.
Zhang Shutong silently backed up a few steps, counting down three, two, one in his head. Then, he planted a foot on the leg of the wooden bed and leaped upward. His other foot hurriedly stepped onto the edge of the bed frame, barely managing to steady himself.
He braced his hand against the wall and leaped down nimbly, fully preparing his body for the next sprint. Zhang Shutong glanced back, just letting out a breath—
"What are you doing! What are you doing!"
An older woman suddenly pushed open a window overhead and roared in anger.
"Sorry, sorry..."
Zhang Shutong quickly beat a retreat.
The sun was quite pleasant today. The housewives had hung their quilts outside early in the morning. Further ahead, bedsheets fluttered in the chilly wind, marking the fast-approaching end of the alleyway.
He ducked under the bedsheets without hesitation. The faint scent of laundry detergent drifted into his nostrils a beat late as Zhang Shutong finally turned onto a main road.
From this point on, there were no more shortcuts to take; he could only quicken his pace.
This was his first time sprinting full out since getting his cast removed.
Zhang Shutong only wished he had ridden his family's motorcycle instead.
A burning sensation flared up in his lungs, and he quickly began to pant heavily. The December streets were bleak, and the cold wind howled, yet a layer of sweat broke out across his forehead. Six or seven minutes had passed since he left the diner, and he still had at least ten more minutes of running to go.
He crossed street after street and lane after lane in this manner until Du Kang's family restaurant finally appeared before his eyes. Zhang Shutong pushed the front door wide open.
Behind the door hung plastic strip curtains. Because these transparent curtains had been hanging for a long time, they had been coated in a faint layer of grease and smoke. The moment he lifted the curtains, his hand suddenly slowed down a beat.
Come to think of it, should he cook up an excuse in advance? He could just say he came to hang out with Du Kang. That would work well; otherwise, running over while a whole group of people was eating would look a bit strange.
Setting his mind on this, he did his best to suppress his ragged breathing, lifting his hand to drop the curtain.
He had passed the final barrier.
Looking out across the room, the dining hall was completely empty.
Zhang Shutong froze.
He was all too familiar with the layout of this restaurant. His gaze swept past several long, square tables to the counter, and directly across from the counter was a round table topped with tempered glass. The leftovers on the table hadn't even been cleared away yet.
Not long ago, this place had been a scene of lively noise. He had seen a group of young men and women stand up, clinking their glass cups together and splashing the orange juice inside, while a young girl turned her face to smile gently at him.
Now, everyone was gone. The dining hall was utterly deserted. A clock hung on the wall, its mechanical springs ticking crisply as the lone second hand marched forward.
It felt as though the song had ended and the crowds had dispersed.
He was the only person standing inside the restaurant; there weren't even any casual diners eating at the tables. His hand remained raised in midair, not having found the time to drop back down.
Zhang Shutong instinctively pulled out his phone to take a look.
It was already past 1:00 PM.
Unless people were drinking alcohol, very few would linger in a restaurant until this hour.
Yet it had taken him less than twenty minutes to rush all the way here.
At that moment, a dark shadow suddenly darted inside and began barking loudly at him.
Zhang Shutong turned his head around. Next, a teenage boy lifted the door curtain and walked in.
"Zorro, stop barking. How did you slip inside the moment I looked away? Sorry about that, we're closing... Huh?"
Du Kang rubbed his eyes.
"What's going on? Wait, Shutong, why did you run over all of a sudden?"
He was wearing protective sleeves on his arms and carrying a blue plastic bucket. As he spoke, he walked over to the round table, picking up plates to dump the leftovers into the bucket.
"You should've said earlier if you were coming. If you'd said so, I would've saved some food for you. Let me finish cleaning up and see what else we have to eat... Wait, that's not right either. Weren't you eating lunch when I called you earlier? Or are the two of us going to look for Ruoping together in a bit?"
Zhang Shutong didn't say a single word from beginning to end.
Du Kang was used to his best friend's mannerisms. His movements were very efficient, and in the span of a few sentences, he had wiped the tabletop clean. He then went to the counter to grab a bottle of Coca-Cola.
"Drink this first."
Zhang Shutong stared at the freshly wiped table, where tiny bits of lint still clung to the tempered glass.
"The people... at this table?"
"Oh, they left not long ago. I'd estimate it's only been six or seven minutes. I originally wanted to show you the person Ruoping mentioned. I suddenly hung up on you earlier, and then I forgot to call you back. Truth is, I was taking a photo of them and got caught. It was pretty embarrassing..."
Du Kang recalled the moment with lingering trepidation.
"I was a bit stunned at the time. I thought to myself, with such a large table of people, if word got out, wouldn't it be embarrassing to death? Fortunately, that older sister was really nice. She noticed but didn't call me out on it, saving my pride. She just smiled at me. Yeah, it felt kind of like looking at a younger brother. She didn't say anything when settling the bill either."
Seeing that Zhang Shutong hadn't moved for a long while, Du Kang pressed the cold bottle of Coke against his face.
"Look how hot you are. Have a drink of water first."
Zhang Shutong had already sat down on a chair. The Coke came in a glass bottle, and the icy chill of the glass made him shiver.
Zhang Shutong suddenly calmed down.
He had run too fast along the way. In reality, only now did he have the time to stop and think. It turned out that smile hadn't been meant for him. His school sister didn't even know who was on the other end of the line, let alone that they were in the middle of a video call. It was clearly a faint, amused, and well-intentioned smile when Du Kang had been caught secretly taking a photo of them.
He had rushed over in the heat of the moment, but only now did he realize after the fact: even if he ran over, what could he have done? She wasn't eating alone; she was with a whole group of people. Although there were private rooms upstairs, everyone had only met once. It wasn't like their past relationship. There was no space for them to be alone.
Never mind that he was a few minutes late. Even if he hadn't been late, it would have amounted to nothing more than a chance encounter in a restaurant, a nod, and a smile.
Things change, and people move on.
He seemed to understand why he had hesitated. What was gone was gone. No matter how hard he sprinted, could he really outrun time?
If he had ridden his bicycle here just now, would the outcome have been different?
When it came down to it, he couldn't even catch up by a few minutes, let alone bridge a timeline that had already vanished.
Zhang Shutong recalled what Ruoping had said this morning about properly managing one's interpersonal relationships. It turned out the meaning behind those words was that a person needed to have self-awareness regarding what someone meant to them and where they should be placed.
"Rest up for a bit," Du Kang said, finally wrapping up the cleaning. "We'll leave as soon as I'm done feeding the dog."
With that, he carried the water bucket back outside, the small black dog following closely behind him with its tail wagging furiously.
Zhang Shutong was left entirely alone in the dining hall. He silently pulled out his phone, lit up the screen, and found the contact saved under the name "Su Yunzhi."
"Im sorry, something urgent suddenly came up tonight..."