Chapter 77: "Beauty Saves the Hero" |
Zhang Shutong was genuinely confused.
Did he look like some kind of villain?
In this type of situation, it's usually because someone saw something they shouldn't have in a girl's room. Though he'd never personally experienced it, he knew that some girls appeared glamorous on the outside but kept their private spaces messy—cosmetics, underwear, and even takeout bags all thrown around haphazardly.
But Miss Gu's room was exceptionally tidy, definitely not that type. Zhang Shutong even glanced behind himself—could Autumn Rain Lingering see something he couldn't?
He knocked on the door and asked if she was alright.
No response.
Just the muffled sound of something toppling over on the desk surface. Soon the door opened again, and he saw Gu Qiumian glaring at him:
"What did you just see?" The young miss interrogated him.
"The window, the balcony, the desk."
"What were you hoping I'd see?"
Gu Qiumian glared at him again:
"You're up to no good!"
Zhang Shutong felt truly wronged. He instinctively glanced toward the desk surface, wanting to know what exactly she'd hidden. However, he hadn't paid attention earlier. Thinking back, it seemed like something was missing... a picture frame?
Oh, a very "mysterious" picture frame.
Zhang Shutong stopped caring.
He brought up the real business, asking if the balcony door in her room had a lock. But Gu Qiumian puffed out her cheeks and said, "Why don't you ask me what I hid?"
"What?"
"I'm not telling you!" She huffed.
See? If he didn't ask, she'd be unhappy, but when he did ask, she wouldn't tell him.
After throwing her little tantrum, she finally answered his earlier question:
"Of course it needs to be locked. The wind's been strong these past few days—if I don't lock it, it'll bang around noisily."
"Do you lock your bedroom door when you sleep?"
"No, I'm the only one on this floor. Why are you asking about this?"
Zhang Shutong just wanted to confirm the perpetrator's movement patterns.
Earlier, when Gu Qiumian suddenly closed the door, she didn't lock it, indicating she didn't have that habit normally.
He'd walked the entire route—from the side door in the back courtyard to the elevator, then from the elevator to Gu Qiumian's bedroom. He could draw one conclusion:
If the side door wasn't locked early Sunday morning, someone really could infiltrate her family's villa.
Putting himself in the perpetrator's shoes, imagining himself as the culprit, he mentally simulated the route:
In the dead of night, a person enters the villa from the back courtyard. The entire house is dark, with bodyguards and housekeepers all asleep in their rooms. Perhaps they took off their shoes and tiptoed to the elevator without anyone noticing. Then they called the elevator, went up to the second floor, and kidnapped the sleeping Gu Qiumian...
That must have been roughly how it went.
Now there were two questions:
Why was the body discovered in the Forbidden Zone?
And how did the perpetrator get inside the fence?
Both questions baffled him.
Especially the latter—the fence itself was over two meters tall, with an entire circle of electric netting around it. Even if the perpetrator had supernatural abilities and used a ladder to climb over, how would they get Gu Qiumian out?
She couldn't have run out on her own. Who would wander around in the middle of the night?
Moreover, there was no way to even investigate this. He couldn't possibly ask Gu Qiumian on Thursday why Sunday's version of her went out.
Perhaps solving these two questions would crack the entire case wide open.
He unconsciously furrowed his brow. There was nothing else to investigate here. Next, he wanted to make a trip to the Forbidden Zone.
He couldn't stay here forever—he wasn't planning to spend the night. Just as he was about to tell Gu Qiumian, the girl huffed and turned to walk away. Apparently, while he'd been thinking, he'd left the young miss hanging for quite a while, so she was sulking a bit.
The two of them went downstairs. Old Song was lazily sprawled on the sofa watching TV:
"All done?"
Zhang Shutong nodded. The other man stretched and raised his mug:
"Wait for me to finish—they already made it for me."
Then he looked at Gu Qiumian:
"Oh right, Qiumian, would around 6:40 tomorrow morning work? Do you want to eat at home or go out?"
While they were talking, Zhang Shutong walked to the entrance hall, put on his coat, changed his shoes, grabbed an umbrella, and used that time to run out for another look.
The moment he stepped outside, he hunched his shoulders. Looking up, the sky had completely darkened. There were no stars in the night sky, only the light spilling from behind him illuminating the swirling snowflakes.
The pitch-black night obscured everything.
Times like this made one feel especially lost and insignificant.
Coming out in this weather was truly asking for punishment. If possible, he'd rather curl up on the sofa watching TV, but there was no choice—what else could he do?
The villa was built in the wilderness. Beyond the fence was wasteland. Even at dawn there was a thin layer of mist covering everything, let alone at night.
Pitch darkness surrounded him on all sides. Fortunately, Zhang Shutong wasn't unfamiliar with this scene. He crunched through the snow and came to the main gate again.
Zhang Shutong stood in place holding his umbrella. This snowfall that shouldn't have happened was truly rare, and it showed no signs of letting up. Watching the snowflakes drift past him, a whimsical thought occurred to him—he remembered that in the northeastern parts of the country, in places with the harshest climate, sometimes when the snow got heavy enough it would bury houses.
If the location were this villa, and there really was such a massive snowfall, the two-meter fence would be covered with only a bit showing, and perhaps one could easily step over it.
But how was that possible.
It hadn't snowed that night.
Zhang Shutong breathed out a puff of air and rubbed his stiffening hands. When he'd come from school, he hadn't felt that cold, but after staying indoors for a while and getting used to the warm air, coming back out made his whole body feel fragile.
He studied the area near the main gate for a while. There was an electronic eye, but it wasn't a surveillance camera—it had no recording function and could only provide a real-time view of visitors at the door.
Zhang Shutong hadn't planned to go back inside, but then the villa door creaked open and he turned around to see Gu Qiumian standing in the doorway.
"Aren't you cold?" Zhang Shutong asked.
"Of course I'm cold." Sure enough, once in the cold, Miss Gu seemed suppressed somehow—she spoke less and her tone wasn't as lively. "Why are you running around in this cold?"
"Just taking a look around."
"Then couldn't you just stay in the living room for a bit..." she muttered.
The girl stood on the threshold without putting on a coat or changing her shoes. Where she stood seemed like a dividing line between light and darkness.
The wind and snow grazed her face as they poured into the house, making her hair flutter.
"You go back inside first," Zhang Shutong said. "I should be leaving soon anyway."
But she didn't listen to him. Instead, she found a coat from the cabinet and bent down to pull on her boots.
Zhang Shutong said helplessly:
"Why come out in this cold?"
"To see you off." She said in a small, awkward voice, like the sound of boot soles crunching over snow.
"I told you there's no need to see me off..." Zhang Shutong knew they couldn't stay outside anymore. He'd studied the main gate area well enough. Standing in the freezing weather served no purpose. As he spoke, he turned and walked toward the house, planning to go inside and wait, then leave together with Old Song later.
He unconsciously quickened his pace. Walking along, he suddenly tripped on something. The snow surface was already soft—his body instantly lost balance. Zhang Shutong reacted quickly, immediately bracing himself with one hand against the ground, barely managing to steady himself without completely falling.
But that brace made things worse—it seemed like he'd twisted his hand. Gu Qiumian, who had stopped walking, ran back out. Zhang Shutong waved his hand to indicate he was fine:
"Just tripped on something. There's something on the ground."
Even as he said it, he was puzzled. Tripping and falling out of nowhere was strange—he was really getting worse with age. The former "Tongtong" would never have done something this embarrassing.
"How's your hand?"
"It's fine too." Zhang Shutong waved his wrist in front of her face. Actually it did hurt a bit, but as Qingyi would say, at a time like this a man couldn't gasp in pain—best not to even change his expression.
With that, Gu Qiumian's eyes widened and she started fussing endlessly:
"Be more careful! I told you you're an idiot—you can trip just walking around. If you'd listened to me and stayed inside, how would you have fallen..."
Zhang Shutong said she was the idiot, running outside without even putting her boots on properly.
Gu Qiumian's face went cold. She lightly kicked him with her improperly worn boot and picked up the fallen umbrella:
"What even is this thing?"
"A branch maybe?" Zhang Shutong also looked over in confusion. He reached behind himself and felt a long, rod-shaped object that was freezing to the touch. Just as he was about to casually toss it away, the light pouring from the doorway let them both see its true form. Gu Qiumian cried out, and Zhang Shutong suddenly let go—
It wasn't a branch at all.
It was a frozen snake.
A snake?
He froze for a moment, almost reflexively thinking of something, his expression somewhat grave. But Gu Qiumian breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help drawing her finger across her cheek in a teasing gesture:
"You're so timid—afraid of dogs and afraid of snakes. Besides, it can't even move. Shame on you."
These really weren't words that should come from a girl who was afraid of earthworms.
And who was it that screamed first just now?
"You're not afraid?"
Zhang Shutong asked as he stood up.
"Well, I used to be afraid," Gu Qiumian admitted somewhat embarrassedly, "but there are lots of these around here. My house is kind of remote, you know. At first there weren't just snakes but other animals too. Later my dad found someone to ask about snake repelling methods, and things got better."
She laughed again:
"Why else do you think we have a dog? I'm telling you, that Doberman can catch snakes."
Zhang Shutong picked up the snake again to look at it. He couldn't distinguish snake species or tell if it was venomous. But Gu Qiumian wouldn't have it—she pushed him toward the inside, saying to hurry up and throw the snake away, that she wasn't afraid because it couldn't move, but if he woke it up he'd be in trouble, and he'd owe her two cups...
Zhang Shutong returned inside. Old Song had just put on his coat:
"What were you two chattering about out there?"
"Some idiot fell down." The young miss suppressed her smile and switched to a disdainful tone, as if to say, "Don't tell anyone you're my minion when you go out if you're this clumsy."
Old Song could tell at a glance that nothing was wrong and started teasing too:
"Qiumian, let me tell you—this kid's got plenty of tricks. Maybe he fell on purpose to make you run over and worry about him."
"Who was worried about him..." Gu Qiumian immediately pouted.
How is it that you believe everything he says, Zhang Shutong thought.
Zhang Shutong felt it necessary to give his mentor a heads-up:
"Teacher, could we not take me straight home?"
"What, you want to stay at her place?" Old Song spouted nonsense.
He shook his head, saying he wanted to go somewhere—they could take a detour.
"Where?"
"The Forbi..." Zhang Shutong said it by habit, then thought for a moment and translated it to a place Old Song could understand.
"You've given me plenty of grief, kid. I was wondering why you were so eager today—turns out you were laying this ambush for your teacher." Old Song sighed. "Fine, it's not too far. Let's make the trip."
Then Zhang Shutong looked at Gu Qiumian and invited her:
"Want to come along?"