The alarm went off on time.
He woke up from the soft, large bed.
The room was dim. When he opened his eyes, Zhang Shutong stared at the ceiling for a while.
A dreamless night.
He was actually starting to get used to this bed.
The villa was equipped with a fresh air system, but even so, the air that had accumulated overnight was a little stuffy. He squinted at the window. The curtains were really thick, completely blocking out the light.
If he could, he would really like to go back to sleep.
But the fact was that he couldn't. If there was one good thing about living at home, it was not having to get up early, but his current identity was that of a student, and he still had to go to the classroom for morning reading later.
Zhang Shutong got out of bed barefoot. The soft feeling of the carpet was under his feet. He pulled back the curtains with a "swoosh," and the morning light from the sky made his eyes ache.
A vast snowy landscape in the morning was spread out before him. The white snow covered everything, and it was silent. Zhang Shutong subconsciously lowered his eyes and then continued to look out after a while.
"It feels so close..."
He thought with a bit of a messy mind.
To be precise, he felt that his standing position was a little lower, very close to the ground.
The guest room was on the second floor. He thought it was because the vast whiteness made him lose his judgment of distance, but after looking carefully for a while, Zhang Shutong found that it was not an illusion; the accumulated snow was too high.
He instantly sobered up.
How long had this snow been falling?
He pushed the window open. The cold air rushed into the collar of his pajamas. Zhang Shutong shivered, leaning his head out to look.
He was looking for a landmark and finally located the villa's fence.
About a quarter of its height was submerged in the accumulated snow.
"Really...?"
Zhang Shutong murmured.
Today was December 7, 2012.
This Friday was completely different.
He didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
He turned on the light and quickly got ready. The time was 6:40. Old Song had said there was no need to get up too early, so he had adjusted the alarm back a bit last night.
There was a certain incense lit in the corridor. Zhang Shutong looked at Gu Qiumian's bedroom. The door was closed, and she probably hadn't gotten up yet.
Wait, had she not gotten up?
The heavy snow in the morning made him no longer so sure.
Zhang Shutong thought strangely, was it possible that she was taken away again, like in the early hours of Sunday?
In the previous timeline, did the bodyguard and housekeeper always think the young lady was sleeping in her room, only to find that she was gone when they went upstairs when she hadn't woken up by noon?
So Zhang Shutong stopped his steps toward the elevator, came to Gu Qiumian's door, and knocked.
Thump-thump-thump.
Zhang Shutong counted silently. After a while, a sticky voice came from inside:
"Mmm... Mmm? Who is it..."
The owner of the voice was mumbling, clearly not fully awake.
Zhang Shutong knew she had low blood sugar, so he didn't disturb her anymore.
It was good that she was still in the room.
He went downstairs. There was no one in the living room. Old Song wasn't there, and neither was the housekeeper.
Could it be that he got up too early?
Zhang Shutong had planned to sit alone on the sofa for a while, but he sniffed and smelled the aroma of grease.
He walked over to the dining table and saw several fried eggs on it.
Where did the person go?
Zhang Shutong walked around. This was the disadvantage of a big house. Who knew which room the person was hiding in? He saw Old Song's car keys on the coffee table. He walked to the balcony and finally found two figures in the courtyard.
The two of them were shoveling snow.
If he hadn't seen them, it would have been fine, but now that he had, it would feel wrong not to help.
As the saying goes, melting snow is colder than falling snow. His jacket was a little thin. He was prepared to be cold, but as soon as he went out, he didn't expect his feet to sink. It turned out that the snow was piled too high. He couldn't walk fast and could only move forward in a swaying manner.
Old Song turned his head when he heard the sound and waved first:
"Shutong, don't come out yet. I have some good news and some bad news. Which one do you want to hear?"
As he said this, his tone was not serious.
So Zhang Shutong didn't take it seriously either. While pulling his shoes out of the snow, he replied:
"The bad one..."
"The snow is too heavy. When I got up today, I almost couldn't even open the side door. The dog was almost blocked in its kennel."
"What's the good news?"
"Go back and change into some boots. Let's come out and do some work." Old Song smiled.
The housekeeper quickly said there was no need. Old Song waved his hand:
"He's so old now, not a child. Besides, I have to bother you to prepare breakfast. The two of us are fine outside."
He then turned his head and said:
"Shutong, ask Auntie to help you find some clothes. The two of us will shovel the snow, or it will all freeze by night."
Zhang Shutong had no objections.
It had nothing to do with who was the guest and who was the host. It was simply that the housekeeper was not young.
So he stopped. He listened to the two of them pushing and shoving a few more words. The housekeeper finally couldn't argue with him. As she walked back, she said apologetically:
"Thank you, kid. I have to trouble you and the teacher so early in the morning..."
"You're welcome, Auntie. This is what an assistant should do."
Zhang Shutong thought with a smile.
The housekeeper named Wu did not rush to find him equipment but first poured him a cup of warm water to drink. Zhang Shutong felt very kind.
The auntie then found a down jacket from the closet.
The down jacket was black and short. He sighed, as expected of a rich family. They not only had spare slippers and pajamas but even guest coats.
But when he put it on, he found that the down jacket was too short, even showing half of his waist, and it had a faint, familiar scent.
"Is this Gu Qiumian's?"
Zhang Shutong was stunned.
"It's Mianmian's. These are the ones she doesn't wear anymore. I kept them for her." The housekeeper said apologetically, "Is it a little small? I specifically found the fattest one. Or maybe I should go out instead."
Okay, so there was no such thing as a "guest" down jacket.
He then thought that usually only one male lived here. He figured Boss Gu didn't lack clothes, but since the other party didn't nod, the housekeeper didn't dare to take the initiative and could only give him a discarded one of Gu Qiumian's.
Zhang Shutong shook his head and said there was no need, as long as it could keep him warm. He wasn't so pretentious as to dislike someone's old clothes. It was just that the faint smell on the down jacket made it seem as if Gu Qiumian was always around, which was very strange.
The teacher and apprentice met outside the door. Old Song gave him a task. He said it was shoveling snow, but in fact, they only needed to clear the areas outside the two doors and shovel a channel. As for other places, he could only blame the courtyard for being too big and they didn't have the time.
He continued to work. As they shoveled, the two of them reached the front yard. Old Song suddenly said:
"Shutong, is this the snake you were talking about yesterday?"
He saw the man holding a stick-like object in his hand.
Zhang Shutong looked over and nodded.
"It's a little scary." Old Song muttered, "I was shoveling and found something a little hard underneath. I picked it up and thought it was a tree branch. Do you think I should feed this to the dog?"
Maybe not.
Zhang Shutong stopped him. This time, the dog wasn't poisoned, so don't let him feed it to death.
"Then never mind." Old Song threw it away with force, tossing the snake stick out of the fence. "Let's throw it far away. Come and help me. Shovel the snow under the fence gate. We'll be done when we finish."
The main gate opened inward. If they didn't clear the submerged part, they couldn't even push the door open. Soon, they dug a pit in front of the door, and the edges of the pit were piled high with snow.
The two of them put away their shovels, wiped their sweat, and on the way back, Old Song suggested whether they should build a snowman. He was young at heart.
"What do you mean, young at heart? You're not getting it, kid," Old Song sighed. "It's not for me. Of course, it's for the girl. This is what I did when I was chasing girls. I'm telling you, there's nothing more romantic than this. Think about it, if you were that girl, it snowed all night, and when you wake up in the morning and run to the window, you see a snowman below. Wouldn't you be so touched you'd want to die? I can guarantee she would run down no matter what."
Zhang Shutong turned his head to look. This area was a wilderness. He didn't feel it was touching at all. It was more like it was eerie as hell.
However, he understood what Old Song meant.
This was the front yard. Looking up, he could see the window of Gu Qiumian's bedroom. He figured when she woke up and looked down, she could see what was happening here.
At this moment, the curtains were closed.
Zhang Shutong was thoughtful.
"It's better to act than to be tempted." Old Song encouraged.
"No, I'm thinking about something else." Zhang Shutong gave a perfunctory reply and took the lead in walking back to the house.
He had just ruled out another guess.
He had gone to Gu Qiumian's room last night to confirm whether she could see what was happening outside the gate.
The answer was yes.
Then the question was how likely Gu Qiumian was to run out on her own.
Zhang Shutong had been thinking not long ago that it wasn't necessarily that she ran to the restricted area. What the murderer needed to do was simple. Since they couldn't get in, they only needed to make her run out of the protection of the fence.
For example, the snowman Old Song mentioned. If they flashed a flashlight outside the fence to get her attention, and when she came to the window, they would do something else. Of course, it's not possible to really build a snowman, but to let her see something else, lure her to run out of the door on her own, and then kidnap her. This also seemed to be a method.
But now this guess was ruled out because she closed her curtains when she slept.
Zhang Shutong sighed and went back to the living room with his confusion. The housekeeper had already made hot tea, and the sizzling sound of hot oil drifted from the kitchen.
He poured a glass of water and was about to sit down to catch his breath when he noticed he was still wearing the down jacket. He had to take it off quickly to avoid being laughed at later.
Zhang Shutong took out his phone and glanced at it. It was a little after seven, and the battery was still over 30%. He asked the housekeeper for a charger and hadn't expected much, but there really was one.
Although he and Gu Qiumian both used Apple, the charging ports for iPhone 4 and 5 were different. He had forgotten to ask yesterday. Who knew that the young lady Gu was a loyal Apple user and would change to a new model every time one came out, saving up a lot of chargers?
He finally felt at ease after plugging in the charger. By coincidence, he had just rubbed his numb face and sat down on the sofa when the elevator door opened.
Gu Qiumian walked out, dressed elegantly. Her clothes were never repeated. Today, she wore a black turtleneck sweater. Her fair chin was tucked into the collar, making her look very aloof.
Zhang Shutong greeted her proactively, but she only glanced at him and didn't respond.
"I don't want to talk to you."
Although she didn't say it, her eyes were full of this meaning.
Was this low blood sugar or her period?
Zhang Shutong could no longer tell the difference.
For a moment, he even wondered if it was because of the so-called "snowman," but that wasn't right either. Based on the time, she hadn't opened the curtains at all. So Old Song was still unreliable. What snowman? So touching? She wasn't even planning to look outside.
She came and sat down on the sofa, picked up a cup of water. Zhang Shutong had wanted to say it was his, but she picked it up, took a sip, and squinted, seeming to feel that the water temperature was just right and was very satisfied.
It was definitely just right. I had poured it a while ago.
It wasn't until Old Song also came back and said to the two of them:
"Now there's a bad news and a good news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Zhang Shutong's movements paused. He almost thought he had regressed.
"The bad one." That was Zhang Shutong's habit.
"The good one." That was the young lady Gu's way of speaking.
The two of them looked at each other. Zhang Shutong said it didn't matter.
"Then I'll announce the good news first."
Old Song cleared his throat:
"We just received a notice that the snow is too heavy, and school is canceled today."
"Then what's the bad news?" Zhang Shutong asked immediately.