Chapter 27
Lu Si paid special attention to Shu Nanzhi in the next few days.
After observing her for a few days, I found that she was normal and nothing had happened, so I put what happened that night deep in my heart and didn't think about it anymore.
It was Saturday evening, just after 11 o'clock, and Gu Fang was explaining a problem to Lu Si.
In just a few days, calls were switched from voice to video, and Gu Fang even praised it for its mobility and convenience in turning papers.
He was holding a pen and writing down the title and key words on the table. Lu Si had no title to take pictures of, so he had to point the camera at himself.
As a result, the face was frozen to a chill, and the person in the camera didn't move for a long time. If it weren't for the fact that he answered every question, Gu Fang would almost think it was a photo.
"I've compiled the key vocabulary for the cloze test in that notebook I used before," Gu Fang said. "It's pretty much the same across all the tests, so it's better to memorize it all."
"Oh," Lu Si nodded his chin coldly, "I've remembered most of it, but... I keep forgetting it."
"It's okay," Gu Fang said in a relaxed tone. "I'll organize the cloze exercises that mention these words and give them to you next Monday. Doing the exercises while memorizing the words will help you better remember them."
After finishing the cloze test, Gu Fang felt a bit reluctant to leave—mostly because of that face. But then he realized he still needed time to absorb the content, and he felt like too much was as bad as too little. He put his pen down, but he hesitated to take the next step.
But Lu Si could sense that the exam was almost over, as he saw the papers he stopped turning. But who wouldn't want to spend a little more time with someone they like?
"Your room—" Lu Si took a sip from the water cup on the table and asked indifferently, "Where's the pot of mint?"
Gu Fang's pupils moved slightly, his long eyelashes fluttered, and he raised the camera: "This basin?"
Lu Si saw two neatly arranged small bookshelves placed on either side of a clean wooden desk. A windowsill appeared in the middle, and beneath the white and light gray curtains lay two pots of mint and a vase.
The bottle is made of bluish-white ice porcelain, and the flowers are a gradient of pink and white, scattered on an extremely long branch. The rough, green-brown branch is still covered with thorns.
In contrast, the two pots of mint appear less eye-catching, but they are growing very vigorously, with two clusters of small white and light purple flowers scattered among the lush green.
"What kind of flowers are in the bottle?" Lu Si asked.
"Begonia," Gu Fang said. "Grandma sent it to me the day before yesterday. When I came back today, I found it's well grown. The buds are all blooming. Doesn't it look pretty?"
"Yeah," Lu Si replied in a low voice, "It looks good."
The camera focused on the pot of mint on the left, and Gu Fang's voice came out unrealistically: "This is spearmint mint, I like it more."
Prefer it? Lu Si pondered the word.
If there were no comparison, compared to the tone in which he mentioned Haitang, he would have thought this was Gu Fang's favorite. Turning to the right, Gu Fang's voice rose noticeably a few degrees: "This is the pot of strawberry mint. I like it very much."
Very very?
Lu Si was stunned. If he remembered correctly, it seemed that his pheromones...
Gu Fang was very interested and wanted to get closer to the pot of strawberry mint to share its growth with Lu Si, but suddenly a message popped up above the screen.
Then came several bursts.
After seeing who it was, Gu Fang exclaimed "Huh".
Lu Si asked on the screen: "What's wrong?"
"A message from Teacher Du." Gu Fang opened it with a puzzled look on his face.
"Old Du?" Lu Si raised his eyebrows. "It's so late, what does he want from you?"
After Gu Fang read through all the messages, a solemn look gradually covered her delicate face.
"Shu Nanzhi didn't come home after school this afternoon, and we can't find her now. Her phone is turned off." Gu Fang frowned gloomily. "Her parents are so worried that they're about to call the police. We used to be in the same club, and Teacher Du asked me if I have the contact information for the other members of the art club."
As he spoke, Gu Fang hurriedly sent the contact information of Xia Zishu and Xu Jing.
Lu Si on the other end said after a while, "I just asked Shu Nanzhi's deskmate Xu Xiwen, and Lao Du also asked her, but she has no news about Shu Nanzhi. But she feels that Shu Nanzhi has nowhere else to go except school."
Lu Si raised his eyes, a pair of dark pupils peering through the camera lens: "Old Du and the others, along with Shu Nanzhi's parents, have already gone to the school and the surrounding area to look for someone."
Gu Fang blinked as if he sensed something: "Are you going too?"
"If something really happens," Lu Si swallowed hard, his Adam's apple protruding, his tone cold, "I will regret it."
I regret not talking to Shu Nanzhi more that night, and I regret not going to see her tonight.
Gu Fang knew that Lu Si was a man of great responsibility, even if that responsibility sometimes brought him trouble. Gu Fang said nothing more, paused, and the camera switched to his own face.
"I'm going too." His tone was rare and unyielding. "Let's look for someone together."
Gu Fang almost never, or never, left home after 11 o'clock, but the advantages of living alone became apparent at this time. He left home openly and no one asked any questions.
Before entering the elevator, Gu Fang raised his mask and glanced up in distress, quickly glancing at the security camera outside his home. He consoled himself by thinking that by the time either his father or his uncle noticed he was out late at night, he would already be out. Perhaps by then, Shu Nanzhi would have found him and he would have returned.
But plans can't keep up with changes. He was stopped just as he reached the gate of the community. The young security guard looked at him with some embarrassment: "I'm going to call Secretary Gu. Is that okay with you?"
Gu Fang had no choice but to pull out his phone and said, "I'll do it."
Sure enough, it is not a good idea to rely on luck.
He sent a message to Special Assistant Lin explaining the reason in just a few words. Special Assistant Lin was very efficient, and Gu Fang received a reply of "OK" almost as soon as he finished sending the message. The security guard also received the notification, and he was able to walk out of the community gate smoothly after only a few minutes' delay.
Lu Si was waiting for him at the northeast gate. Uncle Zhang, the guard, had gone to bed earlier and had been woken up to open the door. Uncle Zhang's home was in an old residential building nearby.
While opening the door for them, Grandpa Zhang kept muttering, "This is a serious matter. Where can a good student go?"
Lu Si was in a hurry to go out, so he wore a thin shirt with the collar loose, revealing a large area of cold white collarbone.
Gu Fang was only wearing a thick turtleneck sweater, and there was no coat for him. Seeing Lu Si's expression made his heart ache. But Lu Si was so focused on finding someone that he had no mood to care whether he was cold or not.
"Old Du said he went to the teaching building, and Shu Nanzhi's parents are nearby."
Lu Si glanced at his phone. Most of the school lights were off, and the dim light from the screen was particularly conspicuous on his chin. "Let's go to the cultural and sports building to look for her. Maybe she'll go to the art club. After all, it's one of the few places she's familiar with."
The door of the Culture and Sports Building was locked, but Lu Si, as the Minister of Culture and Sports, naturally had the key.
When he opened the door, he suddenly remembered: "Shu Nanzhi also has a key. I left one to her when I organized a cultural performance in my second year of high school." Then he forgot to take it back.
The lights in the stairwell are not voice-activated, and the flashlight on a mobile phone can only emit a straight line of light.
Gu Fang was about to grope for the railing and step onto the stairs when Lu Si, holding his phone in one hand, reached out his other hand from the hazy darkness and said in a faint voice, "Give me your hand."
Gu Fang was stunned for a moment and pursed his rosy lips.
Lu Si thought that he didn't like it, and after thinking for a moment, he wanted to compromise and let him hold his sleeve. However, Gu Fang's hand suddenly reached up, avoiding Lu Si's arm and went straight to his collar.
Lu Si's eyebrows were half-lowered. He was a step higher than him. Although Gu Fang's delicate and beautiful face was half shrouded in shadows, the expression on his face was clearly discernible.
His beautifully shaped lips were pursed into a stubborn arc, his fingertips lifted up the collar, his fingertips shuttled back and forth, fastening the buttons lightly, and then the corners of his lips curled up in satisfaction.
Like a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Or a child putting the finishing touches on a carefully constructed building block.
Lu Si's heart rippled, and a faint sense of strangeness emerged. Before he could think deeply, Gu Fang's hand was placed in his palm, and the strange feeling disappeared immediately.
The doors and windows of the art club on the third floor were locked and no one was there.
Only the shadows of the trees swayed outside the window, and the moonlight spread out like mist, revealing a strange yet quiet beauty.
Lu Si gently squeezed Gu Fang's soft palm and said, "Let's go to the conference room on the top floor."
After reaching the fifth floor, Lu Si was about to go to the corridor when Gu Fang pulled his hand back.
He turned around and saw Gu Fang tilting his head to the side. The moonlight cast a porcelain-white hue on the side of his face. He was looking towards the rooftop above the stairs. "There's light up there."
Since the last fight, Director Liu had his men lock the rooftop door. However, at this moment, the door, which should have been locked, was half-closed, with hazy moonlight leaking through the gap.
The cadres of the Culture and Sports Department received a bunch of keys, which not only covered the entrance of the building, but also the conference room, equipment room and rooftop.
Lu Si pushed open the door, and the dilapidated door made an unbearable creaking sound.
The wind was howling in the air. Lu Si was obviously very familiar with the rooftop. He leaned sideways to block the strong wind that was rushing in. He carefully took Gu's hand and lowered the steps at the door. The two of them looked around for a long time but didn't see any people.
"Shu Nanzhi?" Gu Fang spoke tentatively to the dark world around him.
What answered him was still the sound of the wind and the lonely moonlight.
Lu Si lowered his eyes and thought for a moment: "There is another place behind."
Walking around to the back of the stairs, I shone a straight line of light from the flashlight, and saw a slender figure like an old tree rooted in the wind, almost blending into the darkness.
There was a platform of medium size at the edge of the rooftop, as high as the railing. Shu Nanzhi stood on the platform, wearing a thin school uniform, looking at somewhere in the distance.
The night sky was pitch black, with only the moon and few stars.
Gu Fang's nerves were almost on edge. He held his breath and dared not speak again.
The flashlight's light didn't affect her either; she seemed oblivious to them, her back to them. Lu Si lowered his eyes and typed rapidly, sending a message to Lao Du. He then gently pressed Gu Fang's wrist and met his gaze. Gu Fang immediately seemed to understand what he was about to do.
Lu Si left the phone with him, keeping the light on so as not to alert the other party, while he approached the platform quietly.
Gu Fang squinted his eyes not far away. He vaguely observed that Shu Nanzhi was far from calm and his hands and feet were trembling slightly.
Sudden--
Lu Si pounced on her, grabbed her waist, leaned back, and pulled her away from the platform.
Gu Fang took a few steps forward and steadily supported Lu Si, whose center of gravity was leaning backward.
Lu Si still had time to feel a little surprised at this time. Gu Fang looked slender and fragile, but the strength of his arms... was actually quite strong?
Shu Nanzhi's expression was blank for a moment. After a long pause, she raised a questioning tone, "Lu Si? Gu Fang? Why are you still in school at this hour?"
Lu Si took her out of the danger zone before letting go of her hand. His eyes were cold and he suddenly narrowed them. His tone was chilling: "We should be the ones asking you this."
Shu Nanzhi lowered his head guiltily: "Sorry, I didn't expect to bother you. I just... wanted to stop by and get some fresh air."
"Just some fresh air?" Lu Si asked with a questioning tone, his face expressionless. "That's all?"
Gu Fang realized that the anger he had faced before from Lu Si was nothing compared to what he was facing now.
This rhetorical question seemed to expose Shu Nanzhi's last layer of disguise.
"I just wanted to try..."
A look of fear flashed across Shu Nanzhi's pretty face, and her voice became even lower.
The belated fear took over most of her senses, and her legs began to soften and slide down. Fortunately, Gu Fang was quick to catch her.
Her voice trembled. "But when I stood up there, I realized I couldn't do it. It was too high. Even though it was pitch black down there, I was scared..."
"I'm sorry," Shu Nanzhi collapsed, covering her face with her hands and crying, "I'm too timid. I've always been like this. I can't achieve anything, whether it's painting or studying..."
On the lonely rooftop under the moonlight, the only sound was her silent crying.
After a long while, when her crying subsided, Gu Fang held her shoulders and whispered, "You are very brave. Those who choose to live and face life head-on are always brave."
Lao Du, several teachers, and Shu Nanzhi's parents arrived at the scene shortly afterwards.
The teachers were relieved to see that no one was hurt, but the parents were terrified.
A week later, after being diagnosed with moderate depressive disorder, Shu Nanzhi decided to drop out of school and recuperate.
The school kept the incident secret, and only some students in Class 2 vaguely guessed what was going on. Later that week, the school even held a psychological counseling class for all senior students.
That day, Shu Nanzhi came back to pack her things, and she came to Gu Fang's desk with a book in her arms. She asked in a gentle voice, "If it's convenient, could you show me your album?"
A trace of astonishment flashed across Gu Fang's eyes, and he took out the album from the hole in the table: "Of course."
Shu Nanzhi carefully read the book from beginning to end, looked up after a long time, and a smile curved in her delicate eyebrows.
She is actually a girl who looks very pretty when she smiles.
"You draw much better than I do." Shu Nanzhi said softly, "If you have a passionate heart, don't be hesitant because of external factors like I did. I hope you can persist longer than me."
In fact, it is not a naive insistence on the ambition of continuing to paint in the third year of high school.
But she gradually discovered that, pushed by some external forces or her own lack of determination, she was getting further and further away from her childhood dream.
It was this powerlessness that made her feel hopeless.
After Shu Nanzhi left, the atmosphere in the class was very depressed for a while.
During the self-study class, Lao Du asked everyone, "Is there anyone willing to raise their hand and take over as the arts committee member for our class?"
As expected, there was absolute silence in the room. Some were busy doing exercises, while others were correcting their mistakes.
Gu Fang twirled the pen casually, lowered his eyes and pondered something, his raven-feather-like eyelashes lowered, covering his dark blue pupils.
After thinking for a moment, he quietly raised his hand.
Lao Du's expression instantly looked as if he had seen something truly bizarre. Worried that Gu Fang might regret it, he quickly agreed: "Since Gu Fang has raised his hand, it's settled. Come on—everyone applaud our class's new arts committee member!"
Everyone put down their pens and turned their heads.
The genius student takes the initiative to find something to do?
People who realized it later applauded, what a selfless dedication!
The job of being a cultural and arts committee member is obviously not easy.
Gu Fang was still relatively inexperienced, and only the next day did he understand why no one had volunteered when Lao Du asked. It turned out that two large-scale events were colliding at the end of October.
During a meeting in the Cultural and Sports Building, Lu Si stood on the stage, his long legs casually propped up, his eyelids drooping with fatigue as he leaned close to the microphone. "Considering that the autumn sports meet at the end of this month coincides with the centennial celebration, the school has unilaterally decided to combine the two events into one."
"Minister, is this even possible?"
The sports committee members booed loudly first.
"Which leader came up with this on the spur of the moment? You can't have athletes perform pole vaulting on stage? Or have street dancers compete in push-ups?"
Lu Si has been dealing with school leaders with wild ideas for years, so he's very comfortable with it. He said calmly, "It's very simple. Competition during the day, performance at night. As long as the audience doesn't mind, we can create the conditions and we can put it on."
"It's decided."
Lu Si's meetings were always brief: "First and second graders, each class will have one performance, and the entire third grade will have two performances—we'll draw lots to decide which two classes will be selected. Half will be eliminated during the preliminary round, and only half will be retained for the school anniversary evening."
The senior year arts committee members immediately booed.
"Oh, by the way," Lu Si added calmly, "the school leaders also said that there will be a special alumnus returning to school to give a speech on the evening of the centennial celebration - it's said to be a surprise."
Unfortunately, everyone had lost interest and few people asked about it.
When it was Gu Fang's turn to draw lots, he looked relaxed. Thirty classes, and only two unlucky ones were drawn, it couldn't possibly be too "lucky."
After touching a piece of paper, Gu Fang looked up as if he sensed something and met Lu Si's gaze not far away.
Lu Si was surrounded by the sports committee members who were answering their questions. He was leaning his elbows on the table, his long legs idly stretched out. When he saw him looking at him, he raised his eyebrows lazily.
As if being hooked by an invisible hook, Gu Fang's hand slipped.
He quickly felt for another one, took it out and slowly unfolded it.
"Oh!" The cultural and arts committee members who were nearby exclaimed in surprise, and it was unclear whether most of them were sympathetic or gloating.
I'm sorry to all the students in Class 2 who applauded him.
——The unlucky guy was actually himself.
The author has something to say:
Beauty is so tempting
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