Chapter 96: The Humble Request of a Lackey |
"Still going forward."
The girl's feet didn't stop.
Zhang Shutong turned back and shouted to the others to watch their step, then continued running frantically. The wind lashed against his face, time passed, and the scenery in his vision remained unchanging. One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, one meter, two meters, three meters, four meters... He didn't know how long he'd been running, only that he had started gasping uncontrollably for breath. Lu Qinglian's figure grew farther and farther away until she completely disappeared around a bend.
Finally, he braced his hands on his knees and gasped for air. He knew that no matter how much he chased, he'd never catch up—their physical stamina was on completely different levels. It wasn't that he was particularly weak, but rather that her physical condition was terrifyingly exceptional. After resting for a moment and recovering from his initial shock, he suddenly cursed himself.
Damn it.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize what he'd overlooked.
Since those footprints were heading upward, he should have called Teacher Song first.
Zhang Shutong hurriedly pulled out his phone and dialed. The other end picked up quickly:
"Hello, hello, can you hear me? How is it, Shutong, have you arrived?"
"Let me look... seems like, no?"
"The footprints went upward."
"Upward? They're really heading this way?"
"Yeah." He nodded emphatically. "Lu Qinglian already went ahead. I'm also heading that way..."
"Oh, oh, okay, then you all be careful too..." Teacher Song was also caught off guard.
Zhang Shutong hung up before he could finish. Just then his chest started hurting again. He coughed a few times as his friends caught up:
"Holy shit... what the hell is going on... you two run damn fast..." Du Kang arrived first, still out of breath.
"The person already went up."
"How far did they get?" Qingyi took over.
"Still not certain."
"Hey, they didn't already go inside the house, did they?"
"That won't happen." Zhang Shutong said seriously. "I think you three should head back."
"How can we do that? Didn't Lu Qinglian go up by herself?"
It's precisely because I don't want you to see two Lu Qinglians that I'm saying this.
He walked while talking:
"Not letting you go up from here on is her idea. You know she can fight, but if even she thinks it's a situation she can't control, more people will just get in the way. So I suggest you three first—"
Before he could finish, Du Kang suddenly pointed:
"Look, she's coming back. Must be fine."
Zhang Shutong turned to follow his gaze. From the empty corner, a figure slowly approached.
It was Lu Qinglian.
Zhang Shutong had wanted to quickly run over and ask about the situation, but just as he took a step, he stopped again, his expression stiffening.
The figure in his vision had long hair flowing loose.
...
"How did it go, Qinglian?"
Having only seen a distant figure, Ruoping called out with concern first.
But Zhang Shutong slowly moved to block her path, backing away step by step.
"Wait a moment, this doesn't seem to be..."
"It's me." The woman walking through the snow from the distance seemed to guess what he was about to say and calmly gave the code phrase, "Red Flower Oil."
"Then what's with your hair?" Zhang Shutong's heart only settled halfway.
"A tree branch caught my hair tie."
"You didn't find the person?"
"The snow above started melting."
"How could..."
Zhang Shutong instinctively looked back.
He gazed toward the path they'd come from. On the section they'd already walked, the rock face protruded outward. Plus, when he'd come down the mountain, afraid of accidents, he'd kept one hand on the stone wall as he walked—the footprints were hidden in the shadow of the rocks.
But further up, the stone wall became concave. Sunlight shone directly on the footprints, the snow water melted, and the traces had already become blurred. No one could tell how many people had stepped there.
"Did you call Teacher Song?" Lu Qinglian asked proactively.
"I did. He didn't see anyone."
Hearing this, she walked to the cliff edge and lightly tapped the snow surface with her foot, frowning:
"Why did your footprints suddenly turn here?"
Zhang Shutong remembered why. At that point, he'd mentally calculated the distance—about one-third of the path remained—and had actively gone to the road's edge to look back. This spot happened to be where the villa's outline couldn't be seen.
He quickly explained, and Lu Qinglian indicated she understood.
"So there are three possibilities." She thought for a moment. "Same as this morning—returning via the original path. Or continuing upward. Of course, it's also possible they disappeared directly from the cliff edge."
"Even so... disappearing from the cliff edge seems a bit far-fetched." Du Kang couldn't help but interject, looking down somewhat nervously. "That's really high."
Lu Qinglian didn't address that question. She only asked:
"What's behind the villa?"
"A wasteland, then a cliff face. Dead end."
More precisely, the villa was built on a wide platform halfway up the mountain.
Lu Qinglian asked again:
"Could that wasteland hide someone?"
"Hard to say." Zhang Shutong recalled. "Teacher Song hasn't left the house. There should be blind spots in his vision. And the footprints disappeared after the snow melted, meaning she came here relatively early."
He then thought, assuming the other party had climbed up the mountain road, perhaps they were lurking in that wasteland?
If so, going up now, they could trap the person inside.
But he still couldn't bring his friends along—otherwise it would be very difficult to manage the situation. Thinking this, he used his eyes to signal to Lu Qinglian, feeling that her words sometimes carried more weight than his own.
But Lu Qinglian said:
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Aren't you worried about them seeing that..."
"Because there's still another problem now."
"What?"
"Come closer. Don't let them hear."
"Oh..."
He moved closer, and then Lu Qinglian stood on tiptoe and leaned toward his ear.
The warm breath from her lips gently brushed against his earlobe.
But the content of her words struck Zhang Shutong like a thunderbolt.
Lu Qinglian simply stated calmly:
"This footprint isn't the same as my shoe."
...
Not the same...
Zhang Shutong froze:
"How could that be?"
"Look here," Lu Qinglian crouched down. "I only discovered it halfway through following. There's a clearly deep heel mark here. It should have been left by women's low-heeled shoes. If you say that 'doppelganger' is identical to me, even wearing the same style of clothes, well, I don't have shoes like this. Even this footprint is somewhat larger than my foot."
Finishing, she stood up and said impassively:
"Zhang Shutong, although I said being overly suspicious is a bad thing, I'm starting to doubt the credibility of your words now.
"Two possibilities."
She briskly swept back her long hair:
"Since you could lead me to a pre-dug trap without batting an eye, I can't rule out that from that moment on, you fabricated a lie about 'another me.' All your reactions—whether surprise, bewilderment, or disbelief—were all performed. Though I genuinely believed you before.
"The second possibility is that your deduction was completely wrong. The person I'm looking for and the killer you identified aren't the same person.
"But regardless of which possibility, I now need to reconsider whether there's still any necessity for cooperation."
"I..."
Zhang Shutong opened his mouth but couldn't find words.
His mind was a mess now, even messier than that string of chaotic footprints on the ground.
What the hell was going on?
Suddenly appearing shoe prints?
And they weren't from the figure he saw last night?
But then who could it be?
All he could say was:
"I can only guarantee that after you fell into the trap, I haven't lied to you."
"Is that so?" Lu Qinglian only asked expressionlessly.
"Forget it." After a long pause, she lowered her eyes. "Now isn't the time for internal discord. Since we're here, let's go up first."
But she stopped in her tracks:
"But you'd better understand—I'm not pursuing this because mutual suspicion right now would be stupid. I just hate stupid approaches, not because I completely trust you.
"So, since the shoe prints aren't the same, it doesn't matter whether they follow along or not. Let's go."
...
They walked in silence.
Zhang Shutong kept his brows locked, making several more calls to Teacher Song for confirmation during the trip.
He'd looked out from various windows of the villa—no sign of any figure.
Zhang Shutong knew that looking out from the kitchen, past the backyard, one should be able to see that wasteland.
Wild grass grew in the wasteland, but not particularly tall. If not offering a complete view, at least a living person wouldn't go unnoticed.
Perhaps "that person" really had returned via the original path.
But regardless of where they were, who were they?
Why would a second set of footprints appear in the snow?
And this matter had already created a crisis of trust between him and Lu Qinglian. An identical person—such a claim was inherently incredible. She had chosen to believe him then, but now she was raising doubts.
But Zhang Shutong was certain he hadn't been mistaken.
Could the figure in the Forbidden Zone and the killer of Gu Qiumian not be the same person?
Carrying this question, the group finally reached the villa and could see the Focus sedan from a distance.
Next, with Lu Qinglian leading, they first circled the villa, then went to the wasteland for a carpet search. But forget a figure—they couldn't even find an extra footprint.
The lead they'd worked so hard to find seemed to hit another dead end.
The friends were still discussing the person's whereabouts.
"So the killer went back halfway?" Du Kang was puzzled.
"Then here's the question: if you say they came to scout the place this morning, why would they scout twice in a row?" Qingyi raised a doubt.
"Because this time they had Shutong's footprints as cover? Is it possible that this time they didn't go back halfway, but rather retraced the footprints all the way here, discovered they couldn't get in when they reached the front door, so they had no choice but to go back?" Ruoping was also analyzing.
"But Shutong called Teacher Song several times, right? No figures were spotted in this area." Qingyi continued. "I wasn't paying attention when we got out of the car just now. How about we go back and look again, or ask your dad to help take a look?"
"He left." Ruoping was a bit embarrassed. "Didn't we say it's best not to let more people know? I figured going back and forth would take at least an hour, and if there were any other issues, my dad would definitely worry after waiting too long and come up to find me. So I told him we were visiting a classmate's house and had him go home and rest, and he'd come pick us up later."
"That makes sense." Qingyi nodded. "So what do you think, Shutong? Where did that killer go?"
"I have absolutely no idea right now..."
Zhang Shutong exhaled a breath of stale air. The problem they faced now wasn't just the person's whereabouts. Compared to that, he felt what was more serious was actually losing the killer's "identity" once again.
A faint restlessness emerged, but they'd practically turned this entire area upside down and still found nothing.
He glanced at the time. Without realizing it, over forty minutes had passed since they got out of the car. Looking at everyone, though the novelty hadn't worn off yet, they were all freezing.
Zhang Shutong only knew that continuing to stay outside wasn't a solution.
This might be the downside of group action.
If it were just him alone, he'd probably be rushing non-stop to the next location—though he still had no clue what that location was.
But with so many people together, he had to consider everyone's feelings. Especially from his friends' perspective—they'd come all the way here in the cold weather. Though it was out of interest, they were still helping.
If he didn't bring up what came next, it would be hard for them to say it themselves.
Zhang Shutong pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
"What?" An ice-cold voice came through.
The prodigal returns—after troubling about all morning, Zhang Shutong had returned to this villa. So the lackey humbly requested of the young miss:
"Um, could I bring a few of my friends to your place for a meal? Noodles would be fine..."