In the blink of an eye, it was evening.
Outside, a light rain had begun to fall at some unknown point, occasionally pattering against the windowsill with a rhythmic drizzle.
In the bedroom, on the work desk, the glow from the desk lamp and the laptop intertwined.
On the other side, a palm-sized small mirror reflected Gu Qiu yawning.
After working for nearly two and a half hours, he had finally finished editing the classroom video recorded during the day.
He glanced sideways at the digital clock, saw that it was already nearly eleven, and decided to do a final check.
Gu Qiu controlled the mouse and lightly clicked the play button.
This video was two and a half minutes long, featuring only him on camera the entire time, but it also captured the students’ voices. After some editing, with subtitles and voiceover added, it came across as fun, humorous, and heartwarming… especially the part where Jiang Yunchen and Xu Youtian bickered.
He planned to ask for their opinions later. If they gave permission, he could consider featuring them on camera.
After watching it one more time and making a slight adjustment to one section of the voiceover, he exported the video directly.
The loading would take quite a while, so Gu Qiu decided to go wash up first. But just as he was about to get up, the phone charging on the side suddenly rang.
Seeing that the caller was A-Long, he pressed answer and speakerphone directly.
“What’s up, looking for me this late?”
Zhao Yulong’s deep voice came through quickly.
“Sigh, grandma called me over again today to ask about things between you and Teacher Qin. I covered up everything I should have for you, but I accidentally let slip about treating her to a meal. As a result, grandma won’t let me get involved, so… you’ll have to treat her to that meal yourself!”
After hearing this, Gu Qiu closed his eyes slightly and shook his head.
“Alright!”
This guy was absolutely reliable for big matters and absolutely unreliable for small ones… he had long been used to it!
Zhao Yulong continued speaking:
“Yeah, that’s all I wanted to say.”
“By the way, it’s almost eleven. Why haven’t you gone to sleep yet?”
“I was just about to wash up when I got your call!”
After hearing Gu Qiu’s explanation, Zhao Yulong did not drag things out either.
“Then get some rest early. I’m hanging up first!”
Suddenly, Gu Qiu remembered the unfinished conversation he had with A-Long in the car on Saturday and hurriedly spoke up:
“Hey, we didn’t finish talking last time. You never told me what your attitude toward Song Qing is now!”
“Do you like her or not?”
Zhao Yulong’s end went quiet for a moment before a reply came through.
“You’d better think about yourself first!”
“I can handle things on my end. No need for you to worry.”
As the words fell, he directly hung up the phone.
Gu Qiu could only let out a helpless, soft sigh in response.
A-Long was usually carefree and casual in how he handled himself and his affairs, but when it came to relationships, he was timid and hesitant. It seemed that helping him make up for the regrets of his previous life would not be an easy task!
However, at this moment, Gu Qiu just wanted to sleep early so as not to affect his work state tomorrow. A-Long’s matters would have to be planned later.
He slightly raised his eyes, noticed that the video had exported successfully, and directly forwarded it to his phone.
Then, Gu Qiu opened the Xunmeng app.
After some simple adjustments and settings, he came up with a title and clicked publish.
『Hello Xunmeng, the story begins!』
Soon, an in-app popup notified him that the publication was successful.
Gu Qiu then switched to the homepage, opened the video to watch it once more, liked it, and then exited.
“I hope I wake up to a few hundred or a thousand views!”
After murmuring to himself a couple of times, he set down his phone, stretched his back, and headed for the bathroom.
…
Meanwhile.
Zhao Yulong, dressed in a black long-robe pajama set, a half-smoked cigarette pinched between his fingers, sat blankly on the sofa, his mind echoing with all the words Gu Qiu and Qin Zhiyi had used to persuade him.
But the more he thought about it, the more irritable he felt. He could not help but reach up and scratch his hair.
After taking a deep drag of the cigarette and exhaling, he flopped heavily backward.
He stared at the chandelier and ceiling for who knows how long before Zhao Yulong suddenly clenched his fist and quickly sat up.
He picked up his phone, scrolled through his WeChat contacts for a long time, and finally found his target… Huang Yueqi.
Without hesitation, he clicked into the chat, froze for a long time before typing a single word.
『You there?』
Less than ten seconds after sending, he received a reply.
『Oh my, how does Boss Zhao have time to message me!』
『Have you struck it rich and are getting ready to treat me to a meal?』
Zhao Yulong took a deep breath and continued chatting.
『A meal is just a matter of one sentence. You pick a place whenever you want!』
『Oh my, Boss Zhao is so generous. You must need help with something, right?』
『Uh…』
『Just say it straight. I studied law in college, and even though I’m still only half-competent, my teacher is amazing. If you’re in trouble, I can have him help you out!』
『No… I wanted to ask you, are you still in touch with Song Qing?』
Zhao Yulong sent the message with an uneasy heart, but no reply came for a long time.
But soon, Huang Yueqi directly sent a voice call.
Zhao Yulong paused, then pressed the answer button.
A rather delicate, gentle voice immediately came through.
“Brother Long, Ah Qing and I used to call each other every few days during freshman year, but starting from sophomore year, I couldn’t reach her anymore. Calling her number showed it was disconnected. At the time, I thought something had happened to her, so I immediately reported it to the police. The police got back to me saying she wasn’t in any danger. It was so embarrassing for me.”
“Her old number seems to be out of service, right? Not only did she delete me, she even left the high school class group chat!”
“Speaking of which, you two used to be so close. It should be easier for you to find her than me. Don’t tell me you can’t reach her either?”
Listening to her explanation, Zhao Yulong inexplicably felt a wave of panic.
Song Qing had a lively personality and was a chatterbox. She could not go even a short while without finding someone to chat with. How could she possibly delete Huang Yueqi, who got along so well with her and was her best friend?
For such a big change to occur all at once… what on earth had happened to her?
“Hey, Brother Long, are you listening?”
Huang Yueqi’s voice came through again.
Zhao Yulong violently shook his head and snapped back to his senses.
“Uh… I don’t have her as a friend anymore either!”
After dropping out of school, he had been busy working to earn money and rarely had time to reply to Song Qing’s messages.
Over time, the two of them simply stopped contacting each other.
Later on, he did not know what to say either. He would just frequently open her Moments to take a look, but one day, he discovered that her Moments had turned into a single horizontal line, and only then did he realize he had been deleted.
Counting the time now, it seemed to be exactly the period when Huang Yueqi could not reach Song Qing.
At this thought, Zhao Yulong could not help but worry even more.
Meanwhile, after a moment of thought, Huang Yueqi said:
“Is that so!”
“Then let me see if I can help you look into it. But I don’t have many connections or channels for investigation on my end, so the chances aren’t very high. Brother Long, you’d better think of something yourself too!”
Hearing this, Zhao Yulong quickly responded.
“Okay, thank you, Ah Qi.”
“Remember to contact me when you come back to Yuncheng someday. I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Don’t worry, I definitely won’t be polite to you. Then let’s leave it at that for now. I still have things to keep me busy!”
After the call ended, Zhao Yulong tossed his phone aside, lit another cigarette, and his gaze became hollow and vacant.
He did not know how much time had passed before he thought of Gu Qiu and Qin Zhiyi’s words again and murmured:
“Did they already know something?”