Winter Returns

Chapter 78 "Beauty Saves the Hero" (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!)

Zhang Shutong was truly dumbfounded.

Do I look like some kind of villain?

In this situation, it usually means that he saw something he shouldn't have seen in the girl's room. Although he hadn't experienced it himself, he knew that some girls look glamorous on the outside, but their private spaces are actually very messy, with cosmetics, underwear, and even takeout bags scattered everywhere.

But Miss Gu's room was very tidy and definitely did not belong to this category. Zhang Shutong even glanced behind him, wondering if Qiu Yu Mianmian could see something that he could not see.
He knocked on the door and asked if you were alright.

no respond.

There was only a muffled thud as something fell to the side on the table. Soon the door opened again, and Gu Qiu Mian was seen staring wide-eyed.

"What did you just see?" the young lady demanded.

"Window, terrace, table."

"that's it?"

What do you want me to see?

Gu Qiumian glared at him again:
"Don't worry!"

Zhang Shutong was truly wronged. He subconsciously looked at the table, wanting to know what she had hidden. However, he hadn't noticed it before. After thinking about it, it seemed that something was missing... a picture frame?
Oh, a very "mysterious" picture frame.

Zhang Shutong no longer cared.

When he got down to business, he asked her if the balcony in her room was locked. Gu Qiu Mian puffed out her cheeks and said, "Why don't you ask me what I'm hiding?"
"what?"

"I'm not telling you!" she snorted.

See? She's unhappy if you don't ask her, but she won't tell you if you do.

She threw a little tantrum before answering the question:
"Of course we need to lock it. It's been very windy these past few days, and if we don't lock it, it will make a lot of noise."

Do you usually lock your door when you sleep?

"It's not locked. I'm the only one on this floor. Why are you asking this?"

Zhang Shutong just wanted to confirm the real culprit's movements.

Gu Qiu Mian suddenly closed the door without locking it, which means she doesn't usually do that.

He walked all the way from the side gate in the backyard to the elevator, and then from the elevator to Gu Qiu Mian's bedroom, and could draw a conclusion:
If the side door hadn't been locked early Sunday morning, it would have been possible to sneak into her villa.

Putting himself in the killer's shoes, he mentally simulated the possible course of action:
In the dead of night, someone entered the villa from the backyard. The entire house was dark; the bodyguards and nanny were asleep in their rooms. Perhaps no one would have noticed if they had taken off their shoes and quietly walked to the elevator. Then, they took the elevator, went up to the second floor, and intended to kidnap the sleeping Gu Qiu Mian…

That's about it.

There are two questions:
Why was the body discovered in a restricted area?
Also, how exactly did the murderer get inside the fence?
Both of these questions baffled him.

Especially the latter, the fence itself is more than two meters high, and it is surrounded by a whole electric fence. Even if the murderer is very resourceful and climbed up the ladder, how could he send Gu Qiu Mian out?
It couldn't have been Gu Qiu Mian who ran away on her own. Who would wander around in the middle of the night?
Moreover, this kind of thing can't even be investigated. He can't possibly ask Gu Qiumian on Thursday why she ran out on Sunday.

Perhaps if we figure out these two questions, the whole case will be solved.

He frowned instinctively. There was nothing else to investigate here, and he wanted to go to the restricted area next.

He couldn't stay there forever, and he wasn't planning to spend the night there. He was about to tell Gu Qiu Mian when the girl scoffed and turned to leave. It turned out that he had left the young lady waiting for a while while he was thinking, so she was a little sullen.

The two got off the elevator, and Old Song was lazily lounging on the sofa watching TV.
"Is it done?"

Zhang Shutong nodded, and the other person stretched and raised the mug in their hand:
"By the time I finished drinking, they had already started making more."

Then he looked at Gu Qiumian:

"By the way, Qiu Mian, is it okay if I come around 6:40 tomorrow morning? Do you want to eat at home or go out?"

While they were talking, Zhang Shutong went to the entrance, put on her coat, changed her shoes, grabbed her umbrella, and took the opportunity to run out for another look.

As soon as he stepped outside, he hunched his shoulders and looked up. It was completely dark. There were no stars in the night sky, only the lights emanating from behind him illuminating the swirling snowflakes.

The pitch-black night obscured everything.

At this moment, one may feel exceptionally lost and insignificant.

Going out in this weather is just asking for trouble. If he could, he'd rather curl up on the sofa and watch TV, but what else can he do?

The villa was built in the middle of nowhere, with the fields just outside the fence. It was shrouded in a thin mist in the early morning, let alone at night.

It was pitch black all around, but fortunately, Zhang Shutong was familiar with this scene. He crunched through the snow and came to the main gate.

Zhang Shutong stood there with his umbrella. This heavy snow, which shouldn't have happened, was truly rare, and it showed no signs of letting up. As he watched the snowflakes fall in front of him, a sudden thought struck him. He remembered that in the northeastern part of China, in the harshest climate, sometimes heavy snow would flood houses.

If the location were this villa, and there were such a heavy snowfall, the two-meter fence would be almost completely covered, making it easy to cross.

But how is this possible.

It didn't snow that night.

Zhang Shutong exhaled and rubbed his stiff hands. He hadn't felt too cold when he came from school, but after spending some time indoors and getting used to the warm air, he felt vulnerable as soon as he came out.

He studied the gate for a while longer. There was an electronic eye, but it wasn't a surveillance system and didn't record anything; it could only monitor people coming in at the gate in real time.

Zhang Shutong hadn't planned to go back, but the villa door creaked open, and when he turned around, Gu Qiumian was standing at the door.

"Aren't you cold?" Zhang Shutong asked.

"Of course it's cold." Sure enough, once in a cold area, Miss Gu seemed to be suppressed; she spoke less and her tone wasn't very lively. "Why are you running around in this cold?"

"Just take a look around." "Then can't you stay in the living room for a while..." she muttered.

The girl stood on the threshold, without a coat or shoes, and her presence seemed to mark a dividing line between light and darkness.

The wind and snow swept into the room, brushing against her face and making her hair fly wildly.

"You go in first," Zhang Shutong said. "I should be leaving soon too."

She ignored him and instead took out a coat from the closet and bent down to put on her boots.

Zhang Shutong said helplessly:

Why are you out in this cold?

"I'll see you off," she said awkwardly in a low voice, like the sound of boots crunching on snow.

"I told you there's no need to see me off..." Zhang Shutong knew he couldn't stay outside any longer. The gate was almost finished being checked, and there was no point in the two of them standing in the freezing cold. As he spoke, he turned around and walked into the house, intending to go inside for a while and then come out with Lao Song later.

He subconsciously quickened his pace, but suddenly tripped. The snow was soft, and he lost his balance instantly. Zhang Shutong reacted quickly, bracing himself with one hand to steady himself and avoid falling completely.

But this attempt to brace herself made things worse; it seemed she had twisted her hand. Gu Qiu Mian, who had stopped, ran out again, and Zhang Shutong waved to indicate that she was alright.

"I just tripped over something on the ground."

As he spoke, he himself began to wonder, it was strange that he could trip and fall while walking, it was really like he was getting worse as he got older, the old "Tongtong" would never have done such an embarrassing thing.

"How's your hand?"

"It's nothing." Zhang Shutong waved his wrist in front of her face. It actually hurt a little, but as Qingyi would say, a man shouldn't gasp in surprise at this moment, and it's best not to change his expression at all.

Upon hearing this, Gu Qiu Mian widened her eyes and began to ramble on:
"Be careful. I always told you you're a bit silly, you even trip and fall while walking. If you had listened to me and stayed inside, you wouldn't have fallen..."

Zhang Shutong said, "You're the silly one. You ran out without even putting your boots on properly."

Gu Qiu Mian's face turned cold. She lightly kicked him with her unfitted boots and opened the umbrella that had fallen to the side.
"what is this?"

"A tree branch?" Zhang Shutong looked over, puzzled. He reached behind him and felt a long, thin object. His hands ached from the cold. He was about to throw it away when the light streaming in from the doorway revealed its true form. Gu Qiumian gasped, and Zhang Shutong suddenly let go—

It turned out it wasn't a tree branch at all.

It was a frozen snake.

snake?
He paused for a moment, then almost reflexively realized something, his expression turning serious. Gu Qiu Mian, however, breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but run her finger across her cheek.

"You're such a scaredy-cat, afraid of both dogs and snakes. Besides, it can't even move. Shame on you."

This doesn't sound like something a girl who's afraid of earthworms would say.

And who screamed first?

"You are not afraid?"

Zhang Shutong stood up and asked.

"Yeah, I used to be scared too," Gu Qiumian admitted somewhat embarrassedly. "But there are so many snakes around here. My house is a bit remote, so at first there were not only snakes, but also other animals. Later, my dad asked someone for ways to drive away snakes, and that made things a little better."

She laughed again:

"Otherwise, what do you think is the point of keeping a dog? Let me tell you, that Doberman can catch snakes."

Zhang Shutong picked up the snake again and examined it. He couldn't tell the species or whether it was venomous or not. Gu Qiumian, however, was unwilling to let him go. She pushed him towards the inside, saying, "Hurry up and throw the snake away. I'm not afraid because it won't move. If you wake it up, you'll be in big trouble. You'll have to pay me back for two cups..."

Zhang Shutong returned inside, just as Old Song was putting on his coat:

"What are you two whispering about outside again?"

"Some idiot tripped and fell." The young lady's smile vanished, replaced by a disdainful tone, as if to say, "If you're this clumsy, don't tell anyone you're my lackey when you go out."

Old Song could tell at a glance that everything was alright, and he started joking around:

"Qiu Mian, let me tell you, this kid is cunning. Maybe he deliberately fell down to make you run over and check on him."

“Who cares about him…” Gu Qiumian immediately pouted.

"How can you believe everything he says?" Zhang Shutong thought to himself.

Zhang Shutong felt it necessary to give her mentor a heads-up:

"Teacher, could you please not take me home later?"

"What, you want to stay here?" Old Song was talking nonsense.

He shook his head and said he wanted to go somewhere, so let's take a detour.

"where?"

"Forbidden..." Zhang Shutong blurted out, then thought for a moment before translating it into a way that Lao Song could understand.

"I've suffered quite a bit because of you, kid. I was wondering why you were being so proactive today. Turns out you were lying in wait for your master." Old Song sighed. "Alright, it's not too far. Let's go."

Then Zhang Shutong looked at Gu Qiumian and invited her:

"go together?"

(End of this chapter)