Chapter 100: "Family Portrait" |
Just a family portrait?
Zhang Shutong had wanted to confirm this again.
But the words reached his lips, and after glancing at his friends, he swallowed them back down.
Since it was a family portrait, it would be a photo of Gu Qiumian's family.
He immediately thought of how Gu Qiumian's mother had passed away, but his friends didn't know this news. Having them go up and possibly see it might not be appropriate.
Because Gu Qiumian never intended to tell anyone about this.
In that split second, he had already walked into the elevator. He waved at everyone, indicating there was nothing major:
"Something fell. I'll go up and check first. If it's nothing, I'll let you know."
But Gu Qiumian uncooperatively stepped forward. Zhang Shutong had wanted to say, "Last night I promised not to hide things from you anymore, but you also promised to listen to me—you need to keep your word..."
"Stay with them. Don't wander off."
As he spoke, he pressed the button for the first floor.
He no longer looked at Gu Qiumian. Then the elevator doors slowly closed. He released his hand that had been covering the phone's mouthpiece and heard Teacher Song say again:
"It's a really large family portrait with a solid wood frame. It was originally nailed to the wall, but suddenly fell..."
"There's a family portrait hanging in the living room?" He couldn't help but recall. "How come I never noticed?"
Zhang Shutong still wasn't clear what Boss Gu looked like.
"Not the living room—the study. Didn't you notice there are three guest rooms on the second floor? But only two on the first floor. Actually, there were originally three, but one was converted into a study."
"Which wall is the study against?" Zhang Shutong asked reflexively.
"You two really are..." Teacher Song laughed.
"What?"
"Qinglian asked the same thing just now. When she heard the noise, she ran outside, saying she wanted to go check. I was about to go find her when your call came through. Just come up first and we'll talk."
He vaguely heard Teacher Song's voice and hung up.
"Over here, Shutong." The moment the elevator door opened, Zhang Shutong saw him waving from in front of a room.
"Why aren't you going in?"
"The door's locked. The housekeeper went to find the key."
"Wait," Zhang Shutong couldn't help but ask, "If the door's locked, how do you know it's a photo?"
"Oh, the housekeeper said that family portrait is too heavy. It's fallen suddenly before—seems like just last week, before Qiumian's dad left. He even had someone reinforce the wall, but it fell again today. As for the key, this should be where he works, so it's usually locked. Outsiders can't enter."
Zhang Shutong nodded. "I'll go take a look outside too."
His concern was similar to Lu Qinglian's. If it was just an insecure fixture falling, that would be fine, but he was worried someone had tampered with something from outside the wall. He rushed to the door in a few steps, grabbed his coat, pulled on his boots, and left the villa.
Zhang Shutong circled half the villa. Amid the vast whiteness, he found that figure in the green robe.
Lu Qinglian stood quietly in the snow. She lowered her eyes, extending one finger to gently scrape at the exterior wall with her fingernail. The wall plaster flaked off like snowflakes.
"How is it?" Zhang Shutong looked around. Beyond the fence, across the endless wilderness, he saw neither human figures nor extra footprints.
"Didn't see anyone." Lu Qinglian frowned. "What fell?"
"A family portrait photo. They said it wasn't hung securely on the wall." As he spoke, Zhang Shutong also reached out to press the wall. Sure enough, it was somewhat damp and powdery. He frowned too. "So much moisture?"
"What are you trying to say?" Lu Qinglian asked.
"Nothing. Look, below is the lake. It's normal for the air to be humid. The wall must have been eroded. I just think that for this kind of villa, the exterior wall quality shouldn't be this poor." Zhang Shutong didn't understand civil engineering, but Gu Qiumian's dad definitely did—he himself was in real estate development. "Wouldn't they have taken some moisture-prevention measures?"
He said uncertainly.
If it was that kind of very heavy, large frame, they'd probably use several nails embedded in the wall, then hang the frame on them. Zhang Shutong figured one of the nails must have come loose, which caused it to suddenly fall.
"I don't understand this aspect." Lu Qinglian's answer was quite decisive though. "But according to your reasoning, it might be a natural fall. This wall happens to face the wind."
Zhang Shutong nodded and looked back. It could be considered half a lakeside room. The study and bathroom were on the same side. When he was bathing earlier, he had looked out through the window and could see the lake surface below.
Speaking of which, had this kind of thing happened in the previous timeline?
Now it was Friday afternoon, but last time he came to the villa was Friday night. Who would have thought to ask about a family portrait then? Besides, this time there had been heavy snow. Thermal expansion and contraction? Did that cause problems with the newly reinforced wall again?
Zhang Shutong couldn't say for sure if it was due to the sudden temperature drop.
He circled the villa once more with Lu Qinglian and found no other abnormalities. Only that wind-facing wall showed moisture damage.
"Look here." Lu Qinglian suddenly crouched down.
Zhang Shutong followed her pointing finger and saw a small black tablet embedded at the bottom of the wall near the front door. It had the three characters "Shi Gan Dang" written on it. This was one of this province's traditional folk customs. The medium was mostly original stone from Mount Tai. When construction on a house began, they would embed stone blocks carved with these three characters into the wall—something called "house-guarding corner-filling," derived from ancient people's worship of spiritual stones.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that he saw a string of numbers carved below the tablet—
2004.
This gave Zhang Shutong a reminder.
This was a palace-like luxurious villa. And because Gu Qiumian transferred to the island during the second semester of seventh grade, the young lady naturally moved in ready-made. He had subconsciously assumed this was a relatively new house.
But judging from this small tablet and the moisture-damaged wall, it had actually existed for quite some time.
Right, Zhang Shutong nodded with sudden realization. A villa naturally couldn't be built overnight. Construction should have started long before Gu Qiumian transferred schools. Although he'd never bought a villa, he knew how troublesome it was to renovate this kind of house—the time required was several times that of an ordinary flat. Sometimes it took two or three years to finish sorting everything out.
Thinking this way, this villa had actually existed for a long time.
Now it was 2012.
Another eight years.
No wonder the walls would age. Houses need maintenance when they get old too.
He shared this discovery with Lu Qinglian. She nodded without saying anything.
Midway, they encountered that Doberman.
Zhang Shutong stood at a distance, pointing at the dog and saying to her:
"Why don't you try getting closer and see if it reacts?"
Lu Qinglian gave him a look like she was looking at an idiot:
"Its reaction definitely won't be as strong as yours."
Zhang Shutong actually wanted to test whether her claimed affinity with animals was real.
But there was no need to test. Because next, Lu Qinglian walked over nonchalantly, and that dog alertly pricked up its ears—same as always.
Zhang Shutong quickly caught up:
"Your affinity doesn't seem to work?"
"Zhang Shutong, classmate," Lu Qinglian said with a headache. "What do you think my affinity is? That I directly disappear in front of animals? When first encountering an animal, they'll still have their normal reactions, just smaller ones."
Before the dog started barking, Zhang Shutong pulled her back to the villa.
Upon entering, they saw the housekeeper opening the door.
With a creaking sound, they saw an antique-style study. The furniture was all rosewood—desk, chairs, bookcase, a computer. Even the floor was solid wood flooring. A somewhat damp, musty smell wafted out.
Zhang Shutong shifted his gaze. A frame almost as large as the color TV in the living room lay face-down on the floor.
TV screens are about eighty or ninety inches, and this frame was solid wood too. No wonder the wall couldn't withstand it.
He looked at the bare wall. It had wallpaper on it. Where the frame had hung was noticeably whiter; other areas were yellow—Boss Gu must have smoked quite a bit.
The wallpaper no longer adhered as well. In some places, the expanded wall beneath had pushed it up, growing faint mold spots. It seemed the previous speculation wasn't wrong—just building aging, walls too damp.
He stood at the door with Teacher Song and the housekeeper. Lu Qinglian had already returned to the sofa. As long as it wasn't "serious business," whatever happened seemed to interest her only faintly.
"Hang it back up?" Teacher Song rolled up his sleeves.
"No need to trouble you. Let's just lean it against the wall for now. We'll wait until Boss Gu comes back. I'll mention it to Mianmian in a bit."
"Right." The frame was too heavy. Teacher Song called for him to help, but the housekeeper apologetically dissuaded them:
"I'd better do it myself. Boss Gu specifically instructed that it's best not to enter his study."
That was putting it euphemistically.
More bluntly, he was very particular about outsiders going in.
The master and disciple nodded and watched from the doorway as the housekeeper propped up the frame.
"Any new discoveries?" Teacher Song asked quietly.
"Just that the wall got damp." In the time it took to speak, Zhang Shutong saw the contents of that family portrait.
Though he didn't see it completely clearly, because Auntie Wu's body blocked half of it.
The setting seemed to be some kind of hall. In an atmosphere of solemn cleanliness, he only saw the woman positioned on the right side of the image.
The woman was beautiful, appearing to be in her thirties, wearing a pure white long dress with white satin sleeve covers on her arms. Light gauze draped behind her head.
Perhaps it was taken on a wedding anniversary?
Zhang Shutong looked and found that the woman's eyes resembled Gu Qiumian's very much.
However, the woman had an oval face while the girl's was more egg-shaped.
Gu's mother had long hair. Very pale sunlight shone through colored glass windows, dust motes floating. In the group photo, the woman wore a gentle smile. She bathed in light and dust, as if one glance could make people feel close to her.
He also saw a line of numbers below the photo. This family portrait was taken in the summer of 2006.
Zhang Shutong did a simple calculation. At that time, he was in fourth grade of elementary school. In other words, Gu Qiumian's mother passed away after this.
Zhang Shutong suddenly felt a faint sense of regret.
Teacher Song looked for a while, then patted his shoulder:
"Alright, let's let the auntie handle it."
"Mm."
He returned to the sofa and was about to send text messages to his friends when Lu Qinglian gave a light reminder:
"You'd better decide early how to arrange things for tonight. Will you let her continue living here?"
Zhang Shutong certainly didn't want to let Gu Qiumian stay here anymore.
It wasn't a question of who would accompany her, but rather that this villa simply couldn't be stayed in.
He thought for a moment. Then his phone rang—it was Gu Qiumian calling.
She must have waited downstairs for quite a while and really couldn't wait any longer.
Sure enough, once the call connected, her somewhat anxious voice immediately came through:
"How is it on your end?"