Chapter 10: Twist, Lick, and Dunk

Du Kang came running down first, waving his hand and carrying a stool. Lu Qinglian followed behind him at an unhurried pace.

Zhang Shutong glanced at them both and was just about to ask where they had run off to, but Du Kang was panting heavily and immediately went looking for water. Ruoping found a bottle of mineral water in the trunk and tossed it to him, then dragged Du Kang aside for questioning, like a big bad wolf bullying a little white rabbit.

Needless to say, it was gossip again.

Zhang Shutong could not be bothered to join in. He called out to Qingyi, handed him the rod he was holding, then took out his own telescopic rod and asked Qingyi to hold the flashlight for him. He began tying on the hook.

After watching for a while, Qingyi said in puzzlement, “Why are you tying it like that?”

Zhang Shutong’s hand paused. He realized that he had indeed left himself open.

He used to know a method called the “double-finger winding technique.” In short, he would wind the line directly around his fingers, then pull on the end, and the hook would be secured firmly—quick and neat.

But he had not gone fishing in many years. Even the most familiar technique had faded from memory. After fumbling with it for ages, he nearly tied his two fingers together. In the end, he had to start with the clumsiest method, threading the line through as though he were sewing.

Suddenly, a cool, clear voice came from behind him.

“Didn’t he used to tie it differently?”

When he turned around, he discovered that Lu Qinglian had somehow come up behind him. The girl was bent forward with her hands on her knees, her exquisite face devoid of expression.

“Of course he did. This method is for complete beginners. He says only idiots who have just started learning would tie it this way,” Qingyi answered casually.

Thank you so much for thinking so highly of me.

The idiot should hold on to his hat.

“Then you can teach me this method.”

To his surprise, Lu Qinglian said this to him.

She then naturally came over and sat down beside Zhang Shutong, as though she had already assumed that he would teach her. That had originally been Ruoping’s place.

If she was interested, neither her eyes nor her expression had anything in common with the words “deeply intrigued.” Yet if she was not interested, why had Lu Qinglian blinked and begun studying the hook in his hand?

Zhang Shutong could only refuse politely.

“I’m busy. Wait for Du Kang.”

Not to mention that he had not quite figured it out himself, this clearly was not the role he was meant to play.

“But he’s still talking with Feng Ruoping.”

“…You can wait until the two of them are finished.”

“Do you dislike me?” she asked in puzzlement.

“No. I’m just used to being alone.”

Could this girl really be naturally absent-minded?

“Then do you like me?” she asked abruptly.

“…”

Zhang Shutong bit down on the soft flesh inside his mouth.

He could not help looking up at Lu Qinglian. She sat upright on the stool, her complexion appearing even paler beneath the moonlight. She was looking directly at him.

“I thought there were two kinds of ways a boy liked a girl. One was always looking for opportunities to talk to her. The other was deliberately ignoring her to attract her attention. Are you the awkward sort?”

By the end, she had actually frowned, as though she were truly studying the matter as a proposition.

“Neither.” Zhang Shutong lowered his head and continued tying the line. “I neither like you nor dislike you. I’m just… well, rather aloof. Try to understand.”

This was the first time anyone had made him willingly claim the word “aloof.” Zhang Shutong suddenly felt that being a little aloof was not such a bad thing.

He thought that would bring the matter to an end, but Lu Qinglian said, “Yet you borrowed my gloves earlier.”

“What exactly are you trying to say?” Zhang Shutong sighed.

Aren’t you supposed to be a temple keeper? Temple keepers should stay up on the mountain. Why have you come down to the lake to argue with me?

“I don’t mean anything. Why can’t you teach me to fish?” Lu Qinglian asked, baffled.

She had a pair of alluring, almond-shaped eyes. When she was silent, they seemed filled with cool detachment, but whenever she was puzzled, the corners drooped slightly, as though an ice sculpture were beginning to melt. Zhang Shutong studied her for a moment and decided that her name had not been chosen incorrectly. There was indeed something about her that made one feel tender toward her.

Yet the way she put it made Zhang Shutong seem like the strange one.

All right, he was a little strange. But he had his own difficulties.

Teaching her to fish should not have been a big deal. However, the best friend who had been secretly in love with her was standing behind him, and Zhang Shutong could still vividly recall the heartbroken look on Du Kang’s face eight years later.

That was not to say that returning to the past meant he had to bring the two of them together. Du Kang would certainly be willing, but the girl might not. His attitude toward such things was to let fate decide.

Still, Zhang Shutong had always felt that for a man who loved fishing, night fishing with the girl he liked was a romantic thing. The moon overhead, the evening breeze drifting past, the grass stems swaying, the two of them holding the same fishing rod, its handle still warm from the other’s touch…

Others might not see it that way, and he had never encountered a girl who was particularly good at fishing, but this was his idea of romance. So even if he did not intend to play matchmaker, he did not want to barge in and ruin the mood.

Then again, Du Kang would be coming over soon anyway. Rather than waste time bickering with Lu Qinglian, he might as well teach her quickly and enjoy some peace afterward.

Thus Zhang Shutong agreed.

“I’ll demonstrate once first. Watch carefully…”

Lu Qinglian watched without blinking.

He tied the hook once, but did not tighten it. Instead, he shook the line loose and handed her the entire rod.

“You can use your phone… Ah, that’s right, you don’t have one.” Zhang Shutong took out his own phone. “I’ll shine the light for you. Try it.”

The flashlight illuminated the girl’s hands. Seeing the small cuts on her fingers, Zhang Shutong said helplessly, “You can’t tie it with your hands like that.”

“It’s fine.”

With that, she gently pinched the fishing line between her fingers. This was the difference between boys and girls. Zhang Shutong never kept his nails long, so he naturally used the pads of his fingers to pinch the line. It had never occurred to him that one could do it this way.

Lu Qinglian was quite clever. After watching once, she imitated him almost perfectly. Looking at those hands, clearly accustomed to hard work, Zhang Shutong decided that she must have mended her own clothes before. Otherwise, she could not have been so skillful.

The hook and line obeyed her completely. They twisted around the wire in her hands like vines dancing beneath a magician’s command, seeming almost alive. She succeeded on her first attempt.

Lu Qinglian thanked him politely. Zhang Shutong nodded, then taught her how to form the bait into a ball.

“That was very good for a first try. Next, choose a spot to cast toward. It’s best to stand up, then…”

Before he could finish, the girl twisted her waist and swung the rod out while still seated. The movement was light yet powerful, and possessed an extraordinary grace.

Only then did Lu Qinglian add, “I’ve already learned how to cast.”

“Then that’s even better.”

Zhang Shutong sighed in relief, thinking that he could finally enjoy some peace and return to the pleasures of his childhood. But when he lowered his head, he found his hands empty.

His fishing rod was now in Lu Qinglian’s hands.

The girl maintained more or less the same posture as in the photograph: her back straight, her gaze fixed on the surface of the water.

“That’s my rod…” He had just begun to remind her when she raised a finger to her lips and made a soft shushing sound without looking away.

The float jerked.

Lu Qinglian lifted the rod, and a fish the size of a palm leaped from the water.

Zhang Shutong stared in astonishment.

Had it even been half a minute since she cast the line?

Seriously?

Even at the height of his abilities, he had never been that good. No—that was not a matter of skill at all. It was pure luck.

Lu Qinglian removed the hook and tossed the fish into the bucket. Before he could remind her, she baited the hook again, twisted her slender waist, and cast once more. A ripple spread across the water.

The entire sequence flowed as smoothly as water.

“Have you fished before?”

“This is my first time.”

“Oh. Beginner’s luck.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means giving beginners enough of a taste of the joy of doing something that…”

“Wait.”

Before she could finish, she shushed him again. The float wobbled, and another fish came up. This one was smaller, but the frequency was utterly abnormal.

Even a penguin running into the water to catch fish would have been no faster than she was.

“What did you say just now?” Lu Qinglian asked as she cast the line again with effortless grace. Her high ponytail swung with the motion. He had to admit that when she became serious, she was rather cool—like a queen descending upon this stretch of water.

“…Nothing. You fish by yourself.”

Zhang Shutong suddenly lost interest. He had come here to fish, but now all he could imagine swimming beneath the surface were Du Kangs.

Fortunately, the third fish did not bite as quickly as the first two.

The two of them watched the water. One was utterly focused; the other was so bored that he yawned.

“What did you come here for today?” Zhang Shutong asked casually, resting his chin on his hand.

“To fish.” Lu Qinglian’s expression did not change.

“Right… How perfunctory.”

Still, he was not particularly concerned. She was different from Gu Qiumian. At least she could safely make it through the next eight years, without even needing the occasional attention.

Besides, sitting beside her any longer would shake his resolve and probably cast an indelible shadow over his beloved fishing career.

He was just about to call Du Kang and Ruoping over to switch places when he rose from the stool and heard Lu Qinglian say calmly, “Haven’t you been perfunctory toward me the entire time, Zhang Shutong?”

Zhang Shutong stopped instinctively.

He did not know why, but when she said those words, he could actually hear a trace of sternness in them. Her tone remained completely flat, yet that air of natural absent-mindedness had vanished, as though she had suddenly removed a disguise—or, rather, transformed from a girl into a queen.

Zhang Shutong knew it was inappropriate to think of her this way, but he had seen Lu Qinglian’s memorial photograph. The young woman in it had a faint crease between her brows, her eyes as still as an ancient well, sealed forever within black-and-white paper. She was just as beautiful as she had been eight years earlier, yet she gave an entirely different impression from the girl she had been at school.

Just as she did now.

“If you have nothing else to say, then sit down and listen to me.”

The girl’s tone was calm.

“First, there is something you need to apologize to me for.”

Zhang Shutong was somewhat surprised, but it had indeed been his oversight, and there was nothing to argue about.

“It was my fault. I’m sorry. I’ll find a way to undo the damage over the next couple of days.”

“Not that.”

To his surprise, she shook her head and stared at the gloomy surface of the water, her face equally expressionless.

“I mean that you should not have kept brushing me off for the sake of your friend. It was very impolite.”

“You mean…”

“Don’t play dumb.” She seemed to have suddenly seized control of the conversation, and spoke in a tone that allowed no objection. “Also, it would be best if you didn’t deliberately try to bring us together. It may sound like I’m making too much of it, but I think it’s better to make this clear sooner rather than later.”

Zhang Shutong froze where he stood, unable to think of anything to say.

He began recalling when Du Kang had been formally rejected by Lu Qinglian. Du Kang had confessed his feelings once, apparently after graduating from middle school. He had complained that it was pathetic to like a girl for four years without confessing, so several of them had encouraged him and pumped him up. As a result, Du Kang went to the temple first thing in the morning and returned at noon looking like a wilted eggplant.

But why had it happened ahead of schedule?

He thought of all sorts of possible causes. Perhaps it was those cartons of milk for students. Perhaps it had something to do with this fishing trip…

As luck would have it, Ruoping finally released Du Kang from her questioning, and the boy immediately came running over.

“Lu, um, just now…” He stammered for quite a while before finally asking, “Would you like me to teach you how to fish?”

“Thank you, but he has already taught me.” The girl politely refused.

“If there’s anything you don’t understand…”

Lu Qinglian interrupted him again. “I can ask Zhang Shutong.”

Du Kang still tried to struggle for an opening, but Ruoping grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away.

Zhang Shutong thought that this could not possibly be happening. Had Du Kang’s animal instincts gotten the better of him during the walk and made the girl angry?

But he knew Du Kang’s character better than anyone. If he had really dared to do something like that, he would not have spent so many years secretly in love with her. What, then, had happened along the way to make Lu Qinglian suddenly bring this up?

He looked at Du Kang, then at Lu Qinglian, only to find that Lu Qinglian was staring at him.

To be honest, the atmosphere had become rather awkward.

Just then, Ruoping ran over again carrying a large plastic bag.

“Come on, come on, have some biscuits! You three, stop fishing for a while…”

Taking advantage of the moment, she pulled Zhang Shutong aside and whispered into his ear, “I only just found out that those two didn’t come back together.”

“What?”

“Du Kang never went with her. I was asking him about it just now. He said he had only just caught up with Lu Qinglian, and she wouldn’t let him walk with her.”

“Then how did they…”

“You boys really are something. He was going to come back the way he came, but halfway here he realized there would be one extra person with nowhere to sit. So he ran back to the ‘base’ to get another stool. Honestly… sigh.”

Ruoping hesitated, then continued, “They happened to run into each other on the way back, which made us think they had come together. All right, all right, don’t say too much later. Eat something and keep your mouth shut…”

Ruoping had not heard his conversation with Lu Qinglian at all. But girls were often more perceptive in such matters. She assumed that Du Kang had pestered the girl until she became annoyed, so she had hurried over to smooth things over.

Zhang Shutong could understand that. What he could not understand was what Lu Qinglian was really up to. Only now did he realize that he had completely misunderstood the situation. Had the important matter she mentioned after school actually been this?

Well, in a certain sense, they really had been bothering her. It was fairly important.

So perhaps they might as well eat biscuits. Eating biscuits required no thought. They were sweet, fragrant, and crisp. Once he closed his mouth, it could be as though nothing had happened.

He was just reaching out to take one when Qingyi raised a hand to stop him and removed his earmuffs.

“Wait a moment.”

Where had this guy come from now?

But both Zhang Shutong and Feng Ruoping assumed that Qingyi had some valuable insight to offer and prepared to listen attentively.

Instead, he pulled a packet of compressed biscuits from his pocket and smiled.

“Fishing, of course, calls for these.”

“Meng Qingyi, has your brain been compressed too?” Ruoping was utterly dumbfounded.

“What’s wrong?” Qingyi asked, puzzled. “Of course you have to eat compressed biscuits while fishing. That’s what gives it the right atmosphere. Who eats sandwich cookies? Right, Shutong?”

With the two of you standing on either side of me, I’m practically the filling in a sandwich cookie.

Zhang Shutong turned to Lu Qinglian and asked, “Which one do you want?”

“What are sandwich cookies?” the girl asked after a moment’s thought.

Zhang Shutong was confused as well. Why were you pretending to be naturally absent-minded now? Where had that queenly aura gone?

But it turned out that she really had never seen one. After thanking Ruoping, Lu Qinglian tore open the package and took out a chocolate sandwich cookie. She examined it and asked Zhang Shutong,

“How do you eat this?”

How else would you eat it?

But compared with that, Zhang Shutong was more concerned about what she had said earlier.

“When you said after school that you wanted to see me about something, did you mean this?”

“For the moment, you may think of it that way,” she replied, enunciating each word.

Zhang Shutong did not really understand what “for the moment” meant. Did that mean yes or no?

But this was not the time to dwell on it. His tone became more solemn, and after a long pause he said, “…I’m sorry. I was too presumptuous. It won’t happen again.”

He suddenly felt that Lu Qinglian was far more complex than he had imagined. His earlier impression of her had been that of an ice sculpture of a girl who served as a temple keeper on the mountain. She was certainly mysterious, but mystery meant that one’s understanding of her was always separated by a layer of mist. She seemed like a statue hidden somewhere within that haze.

Later, he had thought that instead of being aloof, she was simply a little naturally absent-minded.

Only now did he realize that she was neither foolish nor stupid. She merely did not wish to expose everything. She saw through every thought and action on his side as clearly as a mirror.

Yet that made her feel less distant instead. Suddenly, she seemed closer to ordinary people. She was still wearing that blue robe, but she no longer resembled an immortal drifting through the heavens.

“I’m not angry. I’m only a little troubled.” Lu Qinglian’s voice remained cool and clear, her tone devoid of fluctuation. “So how do you eat this… whatever it is?”

Zhang Shutong suddenly smiled at her.

“How else? Twist it, lick it, and dunk it.”