Chapter 47: The Goddess of Fate Operation Controlling the Young Lady's Future

Zhang Shutong put away his phone, pushing his mother's matter aside for the moment. The most pressing issue at hand was the conflict between the two young women.

--Ruoping sometimes threw small temper tantrums, but she could always distinguish the gravity of matters when it came to the big picture. It would be enough to simply explain the situation regarding the Gu family.

What worried him instead was Gu Qiumian; he found it difficult to even guess what she might say. She was a genuine, high-society young lady, and expecting her to initiate a reconciliation was out of the question. It was far more likely she would say with a haughty air:

"What makes you think I shouldn't be here?"

Or more bluntly:

"This shopping mall is owned by my family. Shouldn't you be the one leaving?"

Zhang Shutong guaranteed that Ruoping would turn around and leave immediately if that happened, and things would truly turn awkward.

The fuse needed to be extinguished before it could be ignited. Just as Zhang Shutong took a step forward, both girls spoke in unison:

"Don't you speak!"

Following that, they averted their gazes and locked eyes with one another.

Then Zhang Shutong watched as Gu Qiumian walked up to him. She parted her rosy lips, and the words that spilled out were not haughty at all, but rather...

"I'll carry it."

Just those four breezy words, spoken directly to Zhang Shutong.

Zhang Shutong shifted his gaze to his own hands.

He was holding a handbag—the very one she had forcefully shoved into his arms before going to the restroom, something Zhang Shutong had completely forgotten about.

Gu Qiumian nonchalantly took the bag from his hands and looped it back over her arm.

Then she calmly smoothed her hair, even though it wasn't messy at all, and a composed aura suddenly emanated from her.

There was no other exchange.

Yet, merely those four words seemed to decide the victory, as if that handbag was some vital prop, and whoever managed to secure it would win the game.

Ruoping's gaze remained fixed on the handbag. She hadn't paid attention earlier either. The young girl blinked, then looked at Zhang Shutong in absolute shock, her lips moving silently:

*So fast?*

Judging by the shape of her lips, those must have been the words.

Then Ruoping sighed. She had always been the boss among their little group, used to having her word be law;

Yet this time, it felt like a subordinate suddenly making a fuss about marrying a certain girl—even though their gang had been feuding with the girl's family for ages, the rice was already cooked into porridge, so could they really tear the two apart by force?

She had no choice but to swallow her pride and accept defeat with good grace:

"Welcome."

Ruoping forced the word out through her teeth.

--This was the battlefield between women.

Zhang Shutong was filled with sheer admiration.

Yet he knew Gu Qiumian had cheated—that bag was by no means proof of any relationship; she had simply had her hands full when going to the restroom.

However, Ruoping was entirely unaware of the background and context. Through her eyes, it likely signified that their relationship had reached the point where one could help carry a bag, leading her imagination to run wild with all sorts of scenarios.

Zhang Shutong desperately wanted to say that if she went to the restroom, he would help carry hers too, but in a sense, this solution wasn't bad. Therefore, he voluntarily allowed himself to be hitched to Gu Qiumian's chariot and chose to act blind to it.

What a formidable tactic.

Who on earth called Gu Qiumian stupid?

Zhang Shutong mentally criticized Old Song for having truly terrible judgment; this girl was far from stupid. But what he didn't expect next was for Gu Qiumian to walk over to Ruoping. Thinking she was about to deliver a victor's declaration, the young heiress instead shoved the bag of chocolates given by her mother into Ruoping's hand and said softly:

"What happened before was my fault. Let's eat them together."

Only then did Zhang Shutong remember their feud had started over a bag of chocolates—

Back then they were only thirteen or fourteen years old, in their first or second year of middle school. Ruoping had taken the initiative to bring a bag of foil-wrapped coin chocolates to share with Gu Qiumian, but unfortunately, Gu Qiumian hadn't thought much of them and had coldly refused.

Of course, it couldn't be said she was looking down on people; she simply looked down on compound chocolate made with vegetable oil. On the contrary, the very second day she had proactively brought a pile of high-end goods, perhaps even harboring the thought of making friends. She could distinguish the types of chocolate, but she couldn't guess the thoughts in other people's hearts, turning a good intention into a blunder that left Ruoping deeply hurt.

The result, naturally, was that the group began treating Gu Qiumian like thin air.

She hadn't felt good about it either, but how could an upper-class young lady endure such a grievance? After school, with tear-rimmed eyes, she had run to the back of the classroom and thrown the entire bag of chocolates away.

Her Cold War with Ruoping had persisted all these years.

Yet how had Gu Qiumian suddenly changed her tune today? Putting aside who was right or wrong in that incident, Zhang Shutong didn't think she would ever lower her head to apologize to someone on her own initiative. Yet in truth, he couldn't hear the slightest bit of reluctance in her tone; if anything, it sounded somewhat like a genuine desire to make amends.

Ruoping was somewhat surprised as well. She responded well to softness rather than harshness. After holding it in for a long time, her face even flushed slightly, and she also muttered a soft apology, before actively breaking the chocolate bar into two halves.

Zhang Shutong looked on with gratification as the two made up, only to receive a glare from Ruoping:

"Why are you acting like nothing has to do with you? Do you think you had nothing to do with this?"

"How am I involved?" Zhang Shutong asked, baffled.

"It was clearly a conflict between Qiuqian and me, so why did you have to go and show off back then? You should have just eaten the chocolate when she offered it to you. Was I stopping you, or what?"

Prompted like this, Zhang Shutong remembered. That day after school happened to be his turn for cleaning duty, and Gu Qiumian hadn't directly thrown the chocolates away either; she had first asked him if he wanted to eat them, but he had felt he couldn't "prioritize a pretty girl over a buddy," so he had shaken his head and refused.

Zhang Shutong knew she wasn't truly blaming him; she just felt a bit embarrassed and took the opportunity to vent some lingering frustration on behalf of her new friend. Look at how she had already started calling her "Qiuqian"—naturally, the big boss had to take out her subordinate first as a scapegoat.

Zhang Shutong was more than happy to play the scapegoat, and he also felt his emotional intelligence back then had been a bit too low, which had only intensified the conflict. He smiled, nodded, and apologized, giving Ruoping a graceful way out.

The atmosphere grew relaxed.

The four of them agreed to head to the supermarket inside the mall next.

Ruoping showed quite a bit of tact. The moment she finished the chocolate, she went over to chat with Qingyi. Before leaving, she cast a glance his way, which Zhang Shutong understood meant that while she and Gu Qiumian were on good terms now, she still had some "negotiations" to conduct with him.

The two of them walked ahead.

Zhang Shutong and Gu Qiumian walked behind. Zhang Shutong admiringly gave the girl a thumbs-up, only to see the young heiress roll her eyes:

"Did you think I *wanted* to apologize?"

"What else?"

Unfortunately, there was no follow-up.

Gu Qiumian petulantly remarked that she still had a score to settle with him, asking why he hadn't accepted her chocolate back then.

Zhang Shutong could only offer an apology. But she seemed to be merely complaining rather than taking it to heart, quickly finding a new point of focus:

"Your mother is so young."

"She's alright."

"Then was my attitude toward your auntie just now a bit impolite?"

"It's fine. She has a very thick skin," Zhang Shutong said casually.

"Oh, you really..." She stamped her foot and grumbled, "Besides, your mother told me all sorts of things about when you were little."

"What did she tell you?" Zhang Shutong paused.

"She said you didn't know how to cook."

"That's standard. What else?"

"A crybaby."

"That never happened," Zhang Shutong said with a dark face. "She didn't say anything else, did she?"

He was deeply worried that his dear mother might have let slip a certain secret—borrowing Qingyi's words, a secret that a man must guard with his life: his childhood nickname.

Even his best friends didn't know about this. After entering middle school, he had reached an agreement with his mother that she had to call him either "son" or his proper name.

It wasn't that he felt an immense amount of shame regarding the two characters "Tongtong," but rather that if his friends found out, they would genuinely dare to tease him with it, especially Ruoping.

He suddenly understood how Mianmian must have felt back then.

Desperate to know, Zhang Shutong asked what else the two of them had talked about. Gu Qiumian mimicked his usual deadpan tone and deliberately put on a cold face:

"Confidential."

"What's there to be confidential about?"

"Who told you to always answer like that whenever I ask you something?"

Zhang Shutong thought to himself, *Was that the same thing? My confidentiality was to find a killer; what are you keeping confidential?*

They soon arrived at the supermarket entrance. Zhang Shutong pulled over a shopping cart and began pushing it.

The cart's wheels made a *thump-thump* sound as they rolled over the small floor tiles. With the crowd so dense today, Qingyi and Ruoping vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

"What did you guys come to buy today?" Gu Qiumian asked curiously.

"Just picking out some snacks as gifts. Mostly seeing what Dukang likes."

Looking around, what first caught the eye were promotional items: laundry detergent, milk, and the like. Speaking of which, Zhang Shutong had originally thought his mother came here to shop, yet he hadn't seen her holding anything.

Come to think of it, his mother possessed another brilliant tactic—

She had taken the snack from Ruoping's hand not because she was truly hungry, but because she noticed there were three pieces, making it awkward to divide among the four of them.

He thought his mother possessed truly piercing insight. He wondered if all women inevitably grew this shrewd; just look at Gu Qiumian's performance earlier—it was a masterful display of tactics as well... Zhang Shutong hurriedly shook his head, realizing he had been poisoned by Old Song's worldview far too deeply lately, finding himself constantly muttering about women this and women that.

He'd better just focus on navigating the supermarket in peace.

Zhang Shutong rarely frequented large supermarkets, and when he did, he was solely responsible for pushing the cart. In the past, it had been his mother leading the way, then it was replaced by Ruoping, and today it had become yet another female.

Gu Qiumian grabbed the cart and marched down an aisle. She would grow displeased if Zhang Shutong fell behind, so he simply pushed the cart with one hand while lowering his head to type on his phone, messaging Qingyi. It seemed the other guy was somewhat bored as well.

The two of them were still discussing the matter of the nanny.

"I just explained it to Ruoping. She said she just felt inexplicably annoyed with you, but you know Ruoping can always distinguish major priorities; she said she'll definitely help if anything comes up."

"That's good. Prepare yourself mentally either way."

"Got it, got it. That's why the two of us intentionally left the private space to you guys."

"That's not the mental preparation I meant. I'm talking about the case."

"You're still planning to investigate the case?"

"Maybe. Might still have our hands full today."

"You can just ask Gu Qiumian whether her nanny is from outside the island or a local."

"I heard her accent," Zhang Shutong replied. "She's not a local. Besides, that line of thought is a bit flawed."

"How so?"

"Analyzing her motives is too difficult. Is she from the island or outside? Who does she hold a grudge against? What triggered it? We'd never finish searching. All we can do is stay on guard, or use the method of elimination."

Just as he was about to launch into a lengthy exposition, *Rainy Mianmian* kept asking him whether he wanted to eat this or that right beside his ear... It truly felt like a light drizzle falling against his temple. Zhang Shutong raised his head and realized they had already reached the snack aisle.

Right now, one of them was pushing the cart while the other walked alongside it. Based on Zhang Shutong's limited understanding of women, they were always driven by a purchasing impulse when confronted with dazzling rows of shelves.

Gu Qiumian picked up a tub of potato chips, turned around, and asked:

"Do you want to eat this?"

It was actually Crios.

He felt as though he hadn't seen them in many years. Zhang Shutong merely shook his head. "Dukang doesn't like tubbed ones."

"Who asked him?" Gu Qiumian wrinkled her nose. "I'm asking you."

"I don't care."

"Why do you always say you don't care about everything?" Gu Qiumian tossed the potato chips into the shopping cart and picked up a bag of milk cookies instead. "How about this one?"

"Not tasty."

"Didn't you just say you liked sweet things?" she complained, putting the cookies back on the shelf. It seemed she wasn't asking as a pretext because she wanted to eat them herself yet felt too embarrassed to grab them directly.

Zhang Shutong wondered to himself when on earth he had ever said he liked sweet things.

Oh, right, he apparently really had.

It was the first day they became deskmates. He had borrowed her test booklet to look at and was handed a packet of savory cheese crackers, after which he had asked if he could swap for sweet ones, and she had said she didn't bring any.

He hadn't expected her to remember that remark all the way until now.

Zhang Shutong then told her to stop asking him and see if there was anything she liked herself. The young heiress, however, declared that her house had plenty of everything, and this was simply to enjoy the joy of shopping. She then pulled a card from her handbag:

"I even brought my card. You can't possibly expect me not to spend it."

Zhang Shutong said she was a truly strange person, asking why she insisted on buying things.

Gu Qiumian countered that *he* was the truly strange one, wondering why he refused gifts no matter what.

"Hold on, how did this turn into buying things for me?"

"I already told you, I hate owing other people favors. Whether you want it or not, you're taking it. Or should I drag you to the third floor? There seem to be men's clothing stores up there."

"Let's... stick to buying some snacks instead."

The script for today was genuinely bizarre. He had clearly dragged her out upon seeing her home alone, so how had it turned into the young miss taking him shopping?

He lowered his head and resumed typing messages to Qingyi.

Gu Qiumian glared at him, exclaiming, "Hey, why are you so busy?" When she uttered "Hey," it was thoroughly entertaining; her tone was simultaneously disgruntled and soft, making it easy for someone unaware to mistake it for flirtation.

Zhang Shutong couldn't handle that kind of treatment. He put his phone away and followed along as she continued browsing. After asking a few more times, Gu Qiumian gave up on trying to get him to choose and promptly changed tactics, reducing her queries to a single word for the most part:

"Eat?"

And Zhang Shutong could only nod or shake his head, after which she would either return the item to the shelf or toss it into the shopping cart.

Soon, the shopping cart began to fill up, and Gu Qiumian quickly encountered the first item she actually wanted to eat. She stood staring in blinking fascination before a bag of spicy strips, clearly indicating that an upper-class young lady had never been exposed to such commoner delicacies.

"Just grab it if you want it."

"I can't eat spicy food these days."

"Oh." Zhang Shutong understood.

Taking advantage of the time she spent hesitating, Zhang Shutong resumed pulling out his phone to reply to messages.

"I think we can just tell her dad about the nanny issue. Do you have her father's contact info?" Qingyi sent.

"If we still can't eliminate her by the end, I'll find an opportunity to say something."

"What do you mean?"

"She has a very good relationship with the nanny." Zhang Shutong knew her mother had passed away, so perhaps that auntie was one of the few sources of maternal warmth she had. "But once you tell her father, regardless of whether the nanny is suspected or not, she can never remain by Gu Qiumian's side again. That's why I want to use my own methods to rule her out first."

"You're starting to soften up bit by bit, aren't you?"

*Was he?*

Zhang Shutong raised his head, just in time to hear Gu Qiumian ask with deadpan sincerity, "Are there any non-spicy spicy strips?"

"Are you an idiot?" he said helplessly.

"You're the idiot," she glared. "Can't you even tell when I'm joking?"

Apologies for lacking a sense of humor.

"Don't let your guard down," Zhang Shutong continued typing. "What I'm most worried about right now isn't the nanny. It's someone else."

"Who?"

"I keep feeling like there's someone else."

"That's a bit exaggerated, isn't it?"

While typing, Zhang Shutong walked over to the cooked food section. Seeing Gu Qiumian place a very large piece of braised pork liver into the shopping cart, he instinctively echoed:

"A bit exaggerated, isn't it?"

Why on earth was she buying such a massive piece of pork liver?

"I want to eat it, and I'll share some with you," she offered a reluctant explanation.

Without waiting to see if Zhang Shutong understood, she marched onward toward the next section.

With her hands behind her back, she occasionally walked on tiptoe, her skirt fluttering as her feet tapped to a cheerful rhythm. Zhang Shutong hurriedly pushed the cart to keep up. The young miss pointed at a display of cocktails:

"Do you drink this?"

"You can't drink anyway."

"Hmph."

At that moment, his phone vibrated:

"Aside from arson, can she really commit murder?" Qingyi bantered.

*You actually hit the nail on the head.*

Zhang Shutong replied:

"That's why I'm waiting for a phone call right now."

"Whose?"

"The police station's. The transcript should be ready soon. We'll take different actions based on the follow-up results."

"Well, I suddenly have an idea."

Qingyi's idea turned out to be quite lengthy; Zhang Shutong waited a long time without receiving a follow-up reply. Fearing that Gu Qiumian would notice and grow displeased again, Zhang Shutong hurriedly tucked his phone away.

At times, even he found his present experiences surreal: trailing a pretty girl as she wandered aimlessly through a supermarket, watching her aggressively sweep up an army of snacks, only for the mere thought of how to haul them back to become a headache... Yet he couldn't refuse, since she was buying them for him after all.

Perhaps this was an image he would look back on years later—you, at sixteen years old, pushing a shopping cart alongside this genuine young heiress, traversing every corner of the supermarket. She possessed a super VIP card capable of maxing out the store's POS machine, yet agonized over whether spicy strips were edible... Though the store wasn't large and lacked the bustling commercial districts of a major city, the surroundings were noisy and full of passing pedestrians. The wheels of the shopping cart grew a bit stiff, and a light overhead flickered on and off. Sometimes you might forget that outside was a cruel winter devoid of flowers or trees, but as long as she smiled, the breath of youth overflowed right here.

Yet simultaneously, crises lurked everywhere. Viewed from the side, the girl's dainty nose was pert, and her eyelashes fluttered. Her mood was clearly quite wonderful, yet you knew that her young life would be brought to an end within these very few days.

That brought Old Song's words back to mind—something about how last night this pretty girl had drawn a funny face on the car window, indicating she was in high spirits.

Just days ago, when her snowglobe shattered, she had still worn a look of utter indifference, refusing to crack a smile even when a group of people deliberately teased her.

Yet now she was skipping excitedly before the shelves, turning back from time to time to steal a glance—supervising whether you were chatting with someone else.

If you were, she would launch into a stream of complaints filled with cute, petulant "hey-heys"—more than enough to drive someone crazy. If you weren't, she would sidle up close to you, her little minion, watching her dart from his front to his back, from his left to his right, laden with various edibles as she busied herself with goodness knows what.

Yet that girl standing before the steamed bun stall, calm yet stubbornly declaring *"That's when you get beaten down,"* seemed to have already drifted far away.

Even though there was no glass for her to smash right now, Zhang Shutong felt her mood must be exceptionally good. And he was quite willing to go along with her.

Protecting the young miss was simply the duty of a henchman. Time would continue to flow, and once they weathered this weekend, he, this henchman, would also have to retire to his hometown.

Yet until the very last moment, one could never afford to let down their guard.

Zhang Shutong finally received Song Nanshan's call.

He picked up his phone, spoke a few quick words, and his brows slowly knitted together.

Just as he had suspected.

The real culprit was someone else.

His phone buzzed once more, and Qingyi's idea finally arrived:

"We could try kidnapping Gu Qiumian to test the nanny's attitude."

"..."

Amidst his busy schedule, Zhang Shutong sent a string of ellipses.

Ultimately, he hung up the phone—just before Gu Qiumian turned back around.

Zhang Shutong let out a sigh.

He leaned against the shopping cart, propping his face in one hand as he watched the ornament dangling from the girl's hair sway:

"The plan has changed."

Simultaneously, he posted this sentence in the four-person group chat.

"What plan?"

Dukang suddenly popped up.

*The plan is the plan, some super awesome kind of thing. I can't explain it either.*

Thinking thus, Zhang Shutong had no idea how to respond. Just a moment ago, a certain girl had claimed he lacked a sense of humor, but he certainly wasn't lacking in middle-schooler syndrome:

"Operation: Goddess Ruling the Future?"

"I'd say Operation: Pursuing the Young Miss is more like it," Ruoping sneered.

"That works too. Names are fine as long as they're passable."

"I think we should call it Operation: Destiny Goddess Ruling the Young Miss's Future," Qingyi combined the two.

"Let's go with that." His thumbs danced across the keypad. "Sorry everyone, but I'm going to have to hijack your rest time coming up."

"What's the situation?" Only the birthday boy remained utterly clueless.

"The situation is—"

Next, he needed to type out a very dashing line, but unfortunately, Gu Qiumian was also asking:

"What do you mean? Aren't you guys buying gifts for a classmate?"

She, ironically, was the one best protected of all.

"It means that I happen to dislike owing people favors, either." Zhang Shutong pointed at the brimming shopping cart.

Therefore.

No matter what, this weekend;

Don't even think about dying—