"This wig seems very difficult to put on."
"Is it broken?"
Zhang Shutong muttered to himself. It had gone perfectly fine yesterday, so how did it end up like this after sitting in his bag for a day?
But Lu Qinglian merely shook her head, pulled the door open, and gestured for him to come up before talking.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize she had already changed her clothes. She had chosen a highly inconspicuous brown cotton coat in a very simple style.
Zhang Shutong had long anticipated this. He cast another glance at the plastic bags on the floor. If it weren't for the fact that Ruoping didn't own a single black coat, Lu Qinglian would have chosen that one without a second thought.
The rest of the clothes—the cashmere overcoats, the down jackets with adorable hoods, and even the hats with pom-poms—were all ruthlessly left right where they were, completely untouched. Ruoping's little schemes had gone to waste.
Still, Zhang Shutong couldn't figure out why the wig wouldn't go on. He studied her for a few moments and seemed to discover where the problem lay.
Lu Qinglian had already coiled her long hair at the back of her head. Rather than saying something was wrong with the wig, it was more that her hair was too loose; she would manage to pin it into a bun with great effort, only for it to fall apart a moment later.
It would have been fine for someone with thinner hair, but her hair was exceptionally thick and long. When coiled together, she looked somewhat like a lady from an ancient painting, which made the wig a size too small. Besides, these things weren't easy to put on to begin with; the hair didn't just need to be gathered, it had to be bound neatly and flatly against the head, or it would fall off with the slightest movement.
"How did the shop owner teach you yesterday?" Zhang Shutong recalled. "I remember it went very smoothly then..."
"I just washed my hair," Lu Qinglian sighed softly. "And there is no mirror here."
As she spoke, she tried again. Lu Qinglian had always been intelligent; she was quick to pick up on anything she did, usually mastering it flawlessly on the first try with casual ease. Yet here she was, suffering repeated setbacks over a single wig.
But she didn't display any signs of anxiety or impatience. Lu Qinglian merely knit her brows slightly.
"Help me check where it isn't tied properly."
Holding a hair tie, she gathered thousands of strands of hair with one hand while using the other with astonishing dexterity to bind them together. In Zhang Shutong's eyes, however, it was like a lump of dough—the volume remained the same, so if you tried to make it shorter, the "dough" would just get fatter.
For instance, right now, the hair on the left side was visibly bulging.
"The left side—try to tuck it in as much as possible. Yeah. Can you pull it tighter... Now the right side seems to be bulging."
With one directing and the other executing, it was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. After a round of patching and fixing, it barely reached a presentable state. Zhang Shutong let out a breath and watched Lu Qinglian put on the hairnet. Then, out of habit, she tossed her head, and her waterfall of hair came tumbling down.
Failure.
It hadn't even lasted a second.
Zhang Shutong hadn't expected tonight's operation to get stuck here either, but the reality was that plans couldn't keep up with changes. After thinking for a moment, he opened the front-facing camera on his phone, intending to hold it next to Lu Qinglian's face so she could use it as a mirror. But darkness had already fallen, and even the facial features in the frame were blurring, let alone the fine strands of hair.
They didn't have much time to waste here.
"Let's go to the restroom. There are mirrors there. If you're worried about being seen, I'll help keep watch outside."
But Lu Qinglian said:
"No."
She pinched a lock of hair between her fingers, deep in thought.
"It has nothing to do with a mirror. The hair is too loose; tying it with only one hand makes it easy to fall apart."
With that, she turned around directly.
"Student Zhang Shutong, come help me gather my hair."
"Uh... how do I gather it?"
"You gather them together, and I will tie it. Use both hands."
In truth, Zhang Shutong had considered this option too, but Lu Qinglian had stated before that she didn't like people touching her—first it was her waist, then her hands, and later her hair.
"Hurry up, time is tight," Lu Qinglian said in an unquestionable tone, as if guessing what he was thinking. "I'm not that petty."
Zhang Shutong gave an affirmative nod, but for a moment, he felt completely at a loss as to where to begin. He had never helped a girl tie her hair in his life.
Then, he gathered the thousands of black strands into a single bunch.
"Like this?"
"Use less force."
"Oh..."
As he spoke, Lu Qinglian bound it together, the sheer force of her grip making Zhang Shutong's eyelids twitch.
"Doesn't that hurt?"
"Layer it upward."
"Okay."
The hair was quickly formed into a small bun.
"Let go."
Lu Qinglian said.
Zhang Shutong lowered his hands.
He took two steps back, and Lu Qinglian promptly put on the hairnet. She tried turning her face side to side, and this time, it was finally a success.
"Let's go." Lu Qinglian then bent down to pick up the plastic bag from the floor, acting as if nothing had happened.
They left the rooftop, walked through the corridor, and finally exited the school building, walking through the campus in the evening light.
No one knew what had transpired in the interim. A few minutes ago, the person walking up to the rooftop with Zhang Shutong was a long-haired young girl clad in green robes; a few minutes later, the person walking side-by-side with him was a short-haired girl wearing a cotton coat.
Zhang Shutong turned his head to look at Lu Qinglian, suddenly feeling that the short hair wasn't all that discordant anymore.
An ordinary cotton coat somehow possessed a vintage, trendy vibe on her, looking as though someone had deliberately styled her in a loose Korean fashion.
She usually wore her green robes, which hid everything without revealing a hint of her form. Now that she had changed into a short-cut jacket, her long, slender legs were finally revealed. A person with long legs naturally walked with a fast stride. Walking together, the two pushed their bicycles out of the shed.
"Sit in the back, and try not to show your face."
Zhang Shutong instructed, then rode toward the hospital. He slowed his pace as much as possible; instead of taking a shortcut this time, he intentionally passed by the wide main road.
"It's highly likely to be a car rather than a pedestrian. Pay close attention."
Zhang Shutong's lips moved subtly.
He had spent a good deal of time pondering that man's situation over the past few days.
Zhang Shutong kept feeling they had missed a vital clue. Judging from the information from the Vega route, Ruoping had been targeted on Sunday night.
But Zhang Shutong felt that wasn't the first time. Just think about it: the chances of someone driving a car down a deserted path and suddenly noticing a girl, then suddenly noticing the fox in her arms—that probability was simply too small.
There could only be one conclusion.
Before that, they had met the man somewhere.
The other party had noticed them long ago; that chance encounter with Ruoping was merely the opponent narrowing down his target.
The basement hadn't been visited for a long time, indicating that the other party had a completely different radius of activity. Yet he was able to promptly discover the anomaly in the tunnel, meaning the man lived on the island normally, and not too far from the hospital.
The counterpart also owned a car, showing that his living conditions weren't bad; perhaps he had a decent job. Honestly, combining these conditions, the first thing he had thought of was a doctor at the hospital.
On the day they rented the wig, Zhang Shutong had asked the young nurse about several doctors of a matching age. The closest match was the balding male doctor who had treated his cold back then.
But that doctor used to work in the city and had only been transferred to the island in recent years, plus he couldn't drive.
The two quickly arrived at the old house. Zhang Shutong inspected the surroundings; the clutter and plastic water bottles were still thrown around the entrance, looking identical to how they were when they left the day before yesterday on the surface.
Then they went down into the tunnel, heading first to the fox altar before walking toward the other side.
Zhang Shutong knew perfectly well what they were about to face next.
Assuming the worst yet most plausible scenario—that the man had truly picked up their trail—the best approach for him would naturally be to wait at the entrance of the tunnel rather than rashly coming down and alerting them.
Just like Ruoping's encounter in the Vega route: she had carried the fox statue up out of the tunnel, and the man was already outside waiting for her. The old house collapsed during the struggle, causing her to lose a leg.
Therefore, Zhang Shutong planned to directly recreate Ruoping's encounter from that day. However, instead of both of them staying in the tunnel to wait, one would remain underground while the other went along the tunnel to flank back from Mr. Song 's dormitory.
That way, even if someone was truly ambushing them outside, it would be a case of the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
Except there was a disagreement over who should play the "cicada."
Zhang Shutong had originally planned to stay behind himself—his reasoning was simple: since they were planning to conversely flank the man, his own combat capability was very low, so it was better to let Lu Qinglian be the oriole.
"What if he brought a knife?" Lu Qinglian asked calmly upon hearing this. "At such a short distance, you won't be able to dodge it."
"Furthermore, him hiding at the entrance is merely your guess. The possibility of the opponent charging straight in exists just the same, and you won't be able to control the situation at all when the time comes."
She spoke concisely and clearly:
"I will stay here, and you go outside. Let's agree on a signal first. If I see the other party, I will strike."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, what if both of them stayed in the tunnel?
They would be very passive. As long as the other party hid outside and didn't come down, you would never know if there was anyone out there.
But if both of them flanked from the dormitory, another problem would arise: the entire tunnel wasn't very long, but it wasn't short either, taking seven or eight minutes to walk. Supposing the other party stepped into the tunnel just as they neared the basement, separated by several hundred meters, they might not necessarily notice the other party's arrival.
When the time came, instead of flanking, they would end up being flanked.
Zhang Shutong hesitated no longer:
"Alright, keep your guard up."
He left the expandable baton with Lu Qinglian.
"As for the signal..." He thought for a moment. "How about a sound?"
"Okay."
The two then parted ways, and Lu Qinglian went to wait at the fork.
Zhang Shutong walked alone in the direction of the basement.
He ran fast the whole way, wishing he could race against the clock, yet he still had to constantly listen for any sounds of fighting coming from behind. He calculated the time, and as the basement was about to appear before him, Zhang Shutong stopped, panting for breath. It had even crossed his mind that the other party might be inside the basement; though the probability was almost zero, if it were true, his coming over would just be delivering himself on a silver platter.
Zhang Shutong slowed his breathing and quieted his steps. He first leaned against the door to listen for a moment, then took off his coat, crumpled it into a ball, kicked the door open, and threw the coat inside—
Two seconds later, amidst total silence, Zhang Shutong stepped into the basement.
He forcefully turned the valve of the iron door and went up the stairs in a few strides.
Separated by a thin wooden board, Zhang Shutong knew Mr. Song 's bed was blocking him from the outside. He took a breath, leaned his shoulders and hands against the door panel, and slowly exerted force. The entire process made almost no sound. Before long, a gap large enough for a person to squeeze through appeared, and Zhang Shutong slipped out.
The sun was setting, and the interior was dim. The already emptied dormitory appeared before his eyes.
He glanced at his phone; it had only taken five minutes to get here. There was no signal in the tunnel, so he and Lu Qinglian had temporarily lost their means of communication. But even if the other party was truly waiting outside, the two wouldn't cross paths this quickly.
Zhang Shutong slipped his phone back into his pocket and calculated the time it took to run from the old house to the hospital. The two locations were very close; the tunnel was a straight shot, whereas on the surface, one had to take a few more detours. He took a few deep breaths, trying his best to recover his stamina. A race against time awaited him next. Then, Zhang Shutong took a step forward.
The sound of a shoe sole hitting the ground reached his ears.
But it wasn't his own.
Zhang Shutong instantly looked up toward the ceiling, his heart leaping violently. He confirmed he hadn't misheard—it was indeed a creaking sound produced by stepping on roof tiles. This was a very old building with tiles still paved on top; the slightest movement would travel into the room along the roof. But who exactly was that person on top of his head?!
In truth, there was no need to guess anymore.
His heart sank in an instant—
That mantis hadn't appeared at the entrance of the tunnel, but was observing that old house from the top of the dormitory building!
Of course. How else could the other party ensure he would discover someone entering the tunnel? Zhang Shutong had previously guessed the man was a hospital employee, but he hadn't expected the other party to actually be observing from the dormitory roof. When someone entered the old house and how many people entered could all be taken in at a glance!
Zhang Shutong's nerves were strained to the absolute limit. He paid close attention to the footsteps on the roof, promptly set his phone to silent, and then slowly turned around.
If the man was here, it would actually be easier to handle...
He rapidly adjusted his plan. If the man was here, he could directly call Lu Qinglian over, or the two of them could ride their bikes to the dormitory. But the only thing he couldn't figure out was: since the other party had already noticed someone entering the dormitory, why was he still waiting on the roof?
What was he waiting for?
Zhang Shutong didn't plan to think about it further. He crept toward the secret door, but suddenly, the footsteps moved—not a single sound like before, but a clack-clack-clack-clack-clack! walking recklessly across the roof.
Zhang Shutong stopped his steps instantly, cursing in his mind. He had done his best to keep the sound to an absolute minimum when moving the wooden board just now, but despite that, he had still been discovered!
While he was confirming the footsteps above his head, the other party was also confirming the activity inside the room!
Following a rustling sound, the footsteps arrived in the corridor ahead!
Separated by only a single door!
He couldn't wait any longer!
Disregarding hiding his own presence, he was just about to turn back and run into the tunnel when the window began to shake the next second. Zhang Shutong instantly guessed the other party's intention. It turned out the man wasn't certain if the activity just now truly existed either; perhaps that sound was indeed very faint, but it had still caught the opponent's attention. Therefore, the man merely wanted to confirm if someone was in the room, rather than having discovered someone was inside, otherwise he would have directly broken down the door!
Zhang Shutong still remembered that the window of Mr. Song 's dormitory was a bit loose and could be pushed open a tiny crack. Relying solely on this crack, one could confirm if anyone had been here.
In other words, the moment the other party pushed open that window, he would be discovered instantly!
But where else was there a place to hide here?
Zhang Shutong looked around. This room had long been cleared out completely, leaving only a bed and an office desk. He knew he couldn't hesitate any longer. Either run immediately, or...
The shaking of the window grew greater and greater. Accompanied by a grating sound, the rusted window frame was finally pulled open a tiny crack—
An eyeball appeared in the gap.