Nian Suian and Gu Junxing had already walked quite far away when Gu Zhijing finally turned around, still holding the balloon with a dazed look.
"They're really dating behind my back!"
Qu Zizhou patted Gu Zhijing's shoulder and casually took a Pleasant Goat balloon from his hand.
"You should be grateful. At least your dad told you to come home early. If my dad came home, he'd just send me to stay at grandpa's house."
Nian Suian curled her toes at the thought of what had just happened. On the way back, she didn't hold hands anymore, keeping both hands firmly in her own pockets.
"Ahem..."
"Zhijing being here was purely accidental," Gu Junxing tried to prevent Nian Suian from "misdirecting her anger" at him.
Nian Suian wasn't angry, just a bit embarrassed. She had been seen kissing Gu Junxing by Zhijing and his group of classmates.
"I'm tired. I want to go home. But I don't want to walk back to the hotel," Nian Suian said huffily.
"Alright, we'll take a taxi home. We can have the driver bring the car back tomorrow."
...
[Currently 843 people in queue]
This result was expected. With so many people in the square, who knows how long they'd have to wait for a taxi.
Gu Junxing said, "I'll call Old Su and have him come pick us up." It was already past midnight, and the subway had stopped running. With neither of them nor Zhijing home yet, Butler Su definitely wouldn't have gone to bed.
"Let's find a place to sit for a while." Since hand-holding was off-limits, Gu Junxing loosely draped his arm around Nian Suian's shoulders instead.
On New Year's Eve, most street-side shops were still brightly lit at this hour. After making the call, the two of them sat down at a nearby bubble tea shop to wait for Butler Su.
"What would you like to drink?"
"Just lemon water. I won't be able to sleep if I have bubble tea this late."
Not wanting to sit in the shop without ordering anything, they each got a lemon water.
After sitting down, Nian Suian asked Gu Junxing, "What time are we going to Liu Jian's place tomorrow?"
They had previously agreed that on January 1st, they would attend the official opening of Liu Jian's hot spring hotel, which was likely to have invited quite a few people.
"We can go in the afternoon. The opening ceremony is in the afternoon, and since we're getting back so late tonight, we can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning."
When Gu Junxing mentioned sleeping in tomorrow morning, Nian Suian was reminded of a previous incident.
She deliberately spoke in a high-pitched voice, "My, my, who would have thought a few months ago that you'd be saying such things? I wonder who it was that said, 'Those who don't get up early in the morning don't get to eat.'"
Gu Junxing was now truly experiencing what it meant for something to come back to bite him.
"My mistake. I was too fussy, had too many rules, and was inconsiderate."
"Tsk tsk tsk, Mr. Gu is quite good at self-analysis, isn't he?"
Gu Junxing didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he started thinking about whether he had said anything else he shouldn't have in the past.
It took Butler Su forty minutes to drive there. After getting in the car, Gu Junxing called Gu Zhijing again and learned that he was now singing at a karaoke place with his classmates. He didn't interfere, just told him to be careful and left it at that.
By the time Nian Suian and Gu Junxing got home, it was almost 2 AM. They didn't talk much more, each heading straight to their rooms to rest as soon as they arrived home.
But this night was destined to be an eventful one...
At 4 AM, Gu Junxing was woken up by his phone ringing. Any remaining sleepiness vanished when he heard the content of the call.
The call was from Gu Zhijing.
"Say that again, where are you?!"
"I'll be right there."
Gu Junxing immediately threw off his covers, got up, changed his clothes, and went downstairs. Without disturbing anyone else, he went to the garage, got in a car, and drove straight to the police station.
That's right, his dear son had once again managed to end up at the police station.
This was already the second time, so Gu Junxing had some experience. Given the hour, he didn't bother He Zhongyun this time.
Gu Junxing hadn't expected the police station to be as lively as a morning market at 4 AM.
In the lobby, some were vomiting in corners, some were crouching on the ground wailing, others were shouting while seated in chairs, and in the center, two people were engaged in a fistfight.
The few remaining police officers in the lobby were all busy with their own tasks – breaking up fights, answering calls, handcuffing people... they were swamped.
Gu Junxing stood there for a while without finding an available officer, but several parents of Gu Zhijing's classmates arrived.
Since Nian Suian had attended the last two parent-teacher conferences at school, the first to recognize him was the mother of the female classmate who had been found with Gu Zhijing in the grade director's office last time.
The first thing she said upon seeing him was—
"Your son got brought in too?"
The phrase "brought in" left Gu Junxing unsure whether he should nod or not.
A few minutes later, Jiang Yun arrived as well, and soon the parents of over a dozen classmates had assembled in the police station lobby. With some children having both parents show up, the already crowded lobby became packed to the brim.
By now, they could guess that something must have happened with the kids at the karaoke place, resulting in them being brought to the police station.
At this point, Hao Leyun's mother addressed everyone: "My daughter said on the phone that she was being a good Samaritan. Don't worry too much, I have experience with this. Usually, you just need to sign something and you can take the kids home. Let's all go home, and don't scold the children, they were doing a good deed!"
This wasn't unfamiliar territory for Hao Leyun and her mother. The first thing Hao Leyun said when she called home was, "Mom, I got brought to the police station for being a good Samaritan, come sign for me."
Hearing this, everyone felt a bit more at ease.
One of the classmate's fathers said, "Hearing you say that makes me feel much better. I knew my daughter was too well-behaved to get into any real trouble."
His daughter had always been very obedient. Today, she must have been frightened because when she called her mother, she started crying as soon as she heard her parents' voices, saying she was at the police station.
When he and his wife heard this, they rushed downstairs and got in the car without even asking for details. It wasn't until they were in the car that they realized they had put on the wrong shoes.
About ten minutes later, a police officer finally came over to inquire about their situation.
"Your children got into a fight at the karaoke place. Although they're the suspects, they didn't hold back. The other party is insisting on going to the hospital for an injury assessment, so we had no choice but to bring them in for now." The officer led them towards the mediation room while explaining the situation.
After celebrating New Year's at Binhu Square, Gu Zhijing and his friends had gone to a nearby karaoke place. Around 3 AM, Cao Shan went to use the bathroom but didn't return for a long time.
Cao Shan hadn't taken her phone, so everyone decided to go look for her together.
After searching for a while, they finally heard her voice and found her confronting a man near the stairwell. There was also an unconscious drunk girl at the scene.
It turned out that when Cao Shan went to the bathroom, she saw a man trying to take away a girl who had had too much to drink. At first, she thought they were a couple and didn't pay much attention, but then she noticed the man's hands wandering inappropriately as he pulled at the girl. Finding this suspicious, she approached to ask a few questions and realized the man's demeanor was off.
Without her phone, she could only do her best to stall and prevent the man from taking the girl away.
Cao Shan's father frowned and said, "Didn't any of the staff notice this? It took a group of kids playing hero to save someone?"