Chapter 219 - 96: The Underling’s Humble Request

Chapter 219: Chapter 96: The Underling’s Humble Request

"She’s still heading forward."

The girl didn’t stop.

Zhang Shutong shouted back at the others to watch their step, then continued his mad dash. The wind whipped his face as time ticked by, the scenery around him unchanging.

One step, two steps, three, four... one meter, two meters, three, four... He didn’t know how long he’d been running. All he knew was that he was starting to gasp uncontrollably, while Lu Qinglian’s figure grew more and more distant until she vanished completely around a bend.

He finally bent over, hands on his knees, gasping for air. He knew he’d never catch up. Their physical fitness was on completely different levels. It wasn’t that he was particularly weak; her constitution was just terrifyingly good. He paused for a moment, snapping out of his initial shock, and suddenly cursed himself.

’Dammit.’

Zhang Shutong finally realized what he’d overlooked.

’Since the footprints went uphill, I should have called Song first to let him know.’

Zhang Shutong quickly pulled out his phone and made the call. The other end picked up almost immediately.

"Hello? Can you hear me? How’s it going, Shutong? Have you arrived?"

"How are things on your end? I mean, can you see anyone from outside?" Zhang Shutong asked hurriedly.

"Let me look... I don’t think so?"

"The footprints are heading up."

"Heading up? They’re really coming this way?"

"Yeah." He nodded emphatically. "Lu Qinglian already went on ahead. I’m on my way there now..."

"Oh, okay, good. You guys be careful, too..." Song was also caught off guard.

Zhang Shutong hung up before he could finish. His chest was starting to ache again. He coughed a few times just as his friends caught up to him.

"Holy crap... What the hell is going on...? You two run damn fast..." Du Kang was the first to arrive, not even having caught his breath.

"The person’s already gone up."

"How far ahead?" Qingyi took over.

"Not sure yet."

"Hey, you don’t think they’re already inside, do you?"

"No, that’s not possible," Zhang Shutong said gravely. "I think the three of you should turn back."

"No way! Didn’t Lu Qinglian go up by herself?"

’I’m only saying this because I don’t want you to see two Lu Qinglians.’

He started walking as he spoke.

"It was her idea for you not to go any further. You know she can handle herself, but if even she thinks the situation could get out of control, more people will just get in the way. So I suggest the three of you just..."

Before he could finish, Du Kang suddenly pointed.

"Look, she’s coming back. Everything must be fine."

Zhang Shutong turned to look and saw a figure slowly emerging from the empty corner.

It was Lu Qinglian.

Zhang Shutong was about to run over and ask about the situation, but he froze after just one step, his expression hardening.

The figure in his line of sight had her long hair down.

...

"How did it go, Qinglian?"

Having only seen the figure from a distance, Ruoping was the first to call out in concern.

But Zhang Shutong slowly moved to block her, backing away step by step.

"You guys wait a second. I don’t think this is..."

"It’s me." The woman walking toward them through the snow seemed to guess what he was about to say, and coolly recited the countersign, "Liniment."

"Then what’s with your hair?" Zhang Shutong’s heart was only halfway settled.

"A branch snagged my hair tie."

"You didn’t find them?"

"The snow up ahead is starting to melt."

"How could that be..."

As he spoke, Zhang Shutong subconsciously looked back.

He gazed at the path they had come from. On the section they’d already passed, the mountain rock jutted outward. Plus, afraid of an accident, he had kept a hand on the rock face as he walked, so his footprints were hidden by the rock’s shadow.

But further up, the rock wall became concave. The sunlight hit the footprints directly, melting the snow and blurring the tracks until it was impossible to tell how many people had stepped there.

"Did you call Teacher Song?" Lu Qinglian asked.

"I did. He didn’t see anyone."

Hearing this, she walked to the edge of the cliff, lightly tapped the snow with her foot, and frowned.

"Why do your footprints suddenly veer over here?"

Zhang Shutong remembered why. He had mentally estimated the distance and figured he had about a third of the way left to go, so he’d gone to the edge of the road to look back. From that spot, the villa’s outline was not visible.

He quickly explained, and Lu Qinglian indicated she understood.

"In that case, there are three possibilities," she said after a moment’s thought. "Same as this morning: they turned around and went back the way they came. Or, they continued uphill. Of course, they could have also just disappeared from the cliff’s edge."

"No matter how you slice it... disappearing from the cliff’s edge is a bit of an exaggeration, don’t you think?" Du Kang couldn’t help but interject, looking down with a shudder. "It’s so high."

Lu Qinglian ignored his comment and simply asked:

"What’s behind the villa?"

"A patch of barren land, and then a cliff. It’s a dead end."

To be precise, the villa was built on a wide platform halfway up the mountain.

Lu Qinglian asked again:

"Could someone hide in that barren land?"

"Hard to say," Zhang Shutong recalled. "Teacher Song didn’t leave the house, so there should be blind spots. And the fact that the footprints disappeared because the snow melted means she was here quite early."

’Then he thought, assuming the person went up Ring Mountain Road, could they be hiding in that barren patch of land?’

’If so, and the group of them went up now, they could trap the person there.’

’But he still couldn’t bring his friends. It would be hard to handle the situation if they were there. Thinking this, he shot Lu Qinglian a meaningful look, feeling her words were sometimes more effective than his.’

But Lu Qinglian said:

"It doesn’t matter anymore."

"Aren’t you worried about them seeing... you know..."

"Because there’s another problem now."

"What?"

"Come closer. Don’t let them hear."

"Oh..."

He moved closer. Lu Qinglian then stood on her tiptoes and leaned in to his ear.

The warm breath from her lips brushed lightly against his earlobe.

But the content of her words struck Zhang Shutong like a bolt of lightning.

Lu Qinglian said calmly:

"These footprints don’t match my shoes."

...

’Don’t match...’

Zhang Shutong froze.

"How can that be?"

"Look here," Lu Qinglian said, crouching down. "I only noticed halfway through my pursuit. There’s a distinct, deep heel mark here. It must have been left by a woman’s low-heeled shoe. You said the ’doppelgänger’ was identical to me, even wearing the same style of clothes. But I don’t own shoes like this. And this footprint is even a bit larger than mine."

After speaking, she stood up and said indifferently:

"Zhang Shutong, although I’ve said being too suspicious is a bad thing, I’m now starting to doubt the credibility of your story.

"There are two possibilities."

She gave her long hair a brisk toss.

"Since you were able to calmly lead me into a pre-dug trap, I can’t rule out the possibility that you invented the ’other me’ lie right from that moment. That all your reactions—the surprise, the shock, the disbelief—were all an act. Though I admit, I really did believe you before.

"The second possibility is that your deductions are completely wrong. The person I’m looking for and the killer you’ve identified are not the same.

"But regardless of which it is, I now have to reconsider whether our cooperation is still necessary."

"I..."

Zhang Shutong opened his mouth, but for a moment, he was speechless.

His mind was a mess, even messier than the jumbled footprints on the ground.

’What the hell is going on?’

’Where did these extra shoe prints come from?’

’And it’s not the person I saw last night?’

’But who else could it be?’

All he could say was:

"I can only guarantee that I haven’t lied to you about anything since you fell into the trap."

"Is that so?" Lu Qinglian asked, her expression blank.

"Forget it." After a long pause, she lowered her gaze. "Now is not the time for infighting. Since we’re here, let’s just go up and see."

As she spoke, however, she stopped walking.

"But you’d better be clear on this. I’m not pressing the issue because mutual suspicion right now would be stupid. I just hate doing stupid things; it doesn’t mean I trust you completely.

"So, since the shoe prints don’t match, it doesn’t matter if they come with us or not. Let’s go."

...

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Zhang Shutong’s brow was deeply furrowed. During the walk, he made a few more calls to Teacher Song to confirm.

Song had looked out from every window in the villa but hadn’t seen a single person.

Zhang Shutong knew that looking out from the kitchen, past the backyard, one should be able to see that patch of barren land.

There were weeds growing in the barren land, but they weren’t very tall. While you might not get a completely unobstructed view, you definitely wouldn’t miss a whole person.

’Maybe "that person" really did turn back.’

’But no matter where they are, who are they?’

’Why did a second set of footprints appear in the snow?’

’On top of that, this incident had created a crisis of trust between him and Lu Qinglian. The idea of an identical person was already incredible enough. She had chosen to believe him at first, but now she was raising doubts.’

But Zhang Shutong was certain he hadn’t been mistaken.

’Could it be that the figure from the restricted area and Gu Qiuyan’s killer aren’t the same person?’

Mulling over this question, the group finally reached the villa, where they could see the little Fox car in the distance.

With Lu Qinglian in the lead, they first circled the villa, then conducted a thorough search of the barren land. But forget a person, they couldn’t even find a single extra footprint.

The clue they had struggled so hard to find seemed to have led to another dead end.

His friends were still discussing the person’s movements.

"So the killer just turned back halfway?" Du Kang wondered.

"Then that raises a question. If their trip this morning was to case the joint, why come back to case it a second time?" Qingyi asked, puzzled.

"Because this time they had Shutong’s footprints as cover? Is it possible that they didn’t turn back halfway, but instead retraced his steps, only to find they couldn’t get in when they reached the main gate, and had to turn back then?" Ruoping added her own analysis.

"But Shutong called Teacher Song several times, right? And no one was spotted around here," Qingyi said. "I wasn’t paying attention when we got out of the car. Should we go back and look again, or maybe have your dad take a look?"

"He left," Ruoping said, a bit embarrassed. "Didn’t we say it was best not to let too many people know? I figured it would take us at least an hour to go there and back, and if something else came up, my dad would get worried waiting for so long and come looking for me. So I just told him I was visiting a classmate’s house and that he should go home and rest. He’ll come pick us up later."

"That makes sense," Qingyi nodded. "So, Shutong, what do you think? Where did the killer go?"

"I have absolutely no idea right now..."

Zhang Shutong let out a breath. The problem they were facing wasn’t just the person’s whereabouts. More serious than that, he felt, was that they had once again lost the killer’s "identity."

A slight anxiety began to creep in. They had practically turned the entire area upside down, yet they had found nothing.

He glanced at the time. Without realizing it, more than forty minutes had passed since they’d gotten out of the car. He looked at his friends; although the novelty of the situation hadn’t worn off, they were all freezing.

Zhang Shutong knew that staying outside wasn’t a solution.

’This was probably the downside of moving as a group.’

’If he were alone, he probably would have rushed off to the next location without stopping—even though he had no idea where that might be.’

But with so many people together, he had to consider everyone’s feelings. Especially from his friends’ perspective; they had come all the way out here in the freezing cold. Even if it was out of their own interest, they were still here to help.

It would be hard for them to bring up what to do next if he didn’t take the initiative.

Zhang Shutong took out his phone and made a call.

"What do you want?" a cold voice answered on the other end.

The return of the prodigal is priceless. After a whole morning of running around, Zhang Shutong was back at the villa. And so, the humble lackey made a request of his young miss:

"Um, can I bring a few of my friends to your place for a meal? Noodles would be fine..."