Chapter 226 - 100: "Family Portrait

Chapter 226: Chapter 100: "Family Portrait

’Just a family photo?’

Zhang Shutong wanted to confirm this.

But the words died on his lips. He glanced at his friends and swallowed them back down.

If it was a family photo, then it was a picture of Gu Qiuyan’s family together.

He immediately remembered that Gu Qiuyan’s mother had passed away, but his friends didn’t know. It probably wasn’t a good idea to have them go up and see it.

Because Gu Qiuyan had no intention of telling anyone.

In the next moment, he was already walking into the elevator. He waved to the others, signaling that it was nothing serious.

"Something fell. I’ll go up and check. I’ll let you know if it’s nothing."

But Gu Qiuyan broke from the group and started to walk forward. Zhang Shutong wanted to say, ’Last night I promised I wouldn’t hide things from you anymore, but you also promised you’d listen to me and keep your word...’

But that sounded too sappy. It was a perfectly normal arrangement, yet it came off like some kind of lover’s promise. So, Zhang Shutong schooled his expression, probably looking a bit cold, and stopped her.

"Stay with them. Don’t run off."

With that, he pressed the button for the first floor.

He didn’t look at Gu Qiuyan again. As the elevator doors slowly closed, he took his hand off the phone’s microphone and heard Song continue.

"A huge family photo, in a solid wood frame. It was nailed to the wall and just suddenly fell..."

"There’s a family photo hanging in the living room?" he asked, trying to recall. "How did I not notice it?"

Zhang Shutong still didn’t know 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? There used to be three on the first floor too, but one was converted into a study."

"Which wall is the study on?" Zhang Shutong asked reflexively.

"You two are really something else..." Song chuckled.

"What?"

"Qinglian asked the same thing just now. She heard the noise and ran outside to check. I was just about to go look for her when you called. Come on up and we’ll talk."

He vaguely heard Song’s voice, then hung up.

"Over here, Shutong." As soon as the elevator doors opened, Zhang Shutong saw Song waving at him from in front of a room.

"Why aren’t you going in?"

"The door’s locked. The housekeeper went to get the key."

"Wait," Zhang Shutong couldn’t help but ask, "if the door is locked, how do you know it was the photo?"

"Oh, the housekeeper said the family photo is really heavy and has fallen down suddenly before. I think it was just last week. Before Qiumian’s dad left, he even had someone reinforce the wall, but it fell again today. As for the key, the study is probably his office space. It’s usually locked, and outsiders aren’t allowed in."

Zhang Shutong nodded. "I’m going to go outside and take a look, too."

He was worried about the same thing as Lu Qinglian. It would be fine if it simply fell because it wasn’t secure, but he was afraid someone had tampered with it from outside the wall. He rushed to the door in a few strides, grabbed his coat, pulled on his boots, and left the villa.

Zhang Shutong circled halfway around the villa. Amidst the vast expanse of white, he found the figure in the cyan robe.

Lu Qinglian stood quietly in the snow. Her eyes lowered, she extended a finger and gently scraped the outer wall with her nail, making the paint peel off like snowflakes.

"Find anything?" Zhang Shutong looked around. Beyond the fence, on the boundless, barren land, he saw neither a person nor any extra footprints.

"I don’t see anyone," Lu Qinglian said with a frown. "What was it that fell?"

"A family photo. They said it wasn’t hung securely on the wall." As he spoke, Zhang Shutong also pressed his hand against the wall. It was indeed damp and powdery. He frowned as well. "Why is it so damp?"

"What are you trying to say?" Lu Qinglian asked.

"Nothing. The lake is right below us, so it’s normal for the air to be humid. The wall must have eroded. I just feel like the exterior walls of a villa like this shouldn’t be of such poor quality." Zhang Shutong didn’t know anything about civil engineering, but Gu Qiuyan’s dad definitely did; he was a real estate developer himself. "Shouldn’t there be some kind of moisture-proofing measures?" he asked, uncertain.

For a frame that heavy and large, they would probably use several nails embedded in the wall to hang it. Zhang Shutong figured one of the nails must have come loose, causing it to fall so suddenly.

"I don’t know anything about that," Lu Qinglian replied decisively. "But based on what you’re saying, it might have fallen naturally. This wall is directly exposed to the wind."

Zhang Shutong nodded and glanced back. The room was a semi-lake-view one, with the study and bathroom on the same side. He had looked out the window while showering before and could see the lake below.

’Then again, did this happen in the last timeline?’

It was Friday afternoon now, but the last time he came to the villa was Friday night. Who would have thought to ask about a family photo then?

Besides, it had snowed heavily this time. Thermal expansion and contraction? Did that cause a problem with the newly reinforced wall?

Zhang Shutong couldn’t say for sure if it was because of the sudden drop in temperature.

He and Lu Qinglian circled the villa one more time but found nothing unusual. Only the windward wall was damp.

"Look here," Lu Qinglian said, suddenly crouching down.

Zhang Shutong followed her finger and saw a small, black plaque embedded in the wall beneath the main entrance. It had the three words "Shi Gan Dang" carved on it. This was a local folk tradition, often involving a stone from Mount Tai. At the start of a house’s construction, a stone carved with these words would be built into the wall for something called "warding the home and completing its corners," a practice originating from ancient worship of spirit stones.

But that wasn’t the main point. The main point was the string of numbers he saw carved below the stone plaque—

2004.

It served as a reminder for Zhang Shutong.

This was a villa as luxurious as a palace, and because Gu Qiuyan had transferred to the island in the second semester of her first year of middle school, he assumed the young lady had just moved into a ready-made home. Subconsciously, he thought it was a relatively new house.

But judging from this little plaque and the damp wall, it had actually been around for quite some time.

’That’s right.’ Zhang Shutong nodded in sudden understanding. A villa like this couldn’t be built overnight. Construction must have started long before Gu Qiuyan transferred schools. Although he’d never bought a villa, he knew how troublesome they were to renovate. It could take several times longer than a regular apartment, sometimes not even being finished after two or three years.

Thinking about it that way, this villa had actually been here for a very long time.

It was 2012 now.

Another eight years.

No wonder the wall was aging. An old house needs maintenance.

He told Lu Qinglian about his discovery, and she just nodded without saying anything.

On their way, they ran into the Doberman.

Zhang Shutong stood at a distance, pointed at the dog, and said to her:

"Why don’t you get a little closer and see how it reacts?"

Lu Qinglian gave him a look like he was an idiot.

"Its reaction probably won’t be as big as yours."

Zhang Shutong actually wanted to test if her self-proclaimed affinity for animals was real.

But there was no need to test it. Because Lu Qinglian then walked over nonchalantly. The dog’s ears perked up warily, same as always.

Zhang Shutong hurried to catch up.

"Looks like your affinity isn’t working?"

"Classmate Zhang Shutong," Lu Qinglian said, exasperated. "What did you think my affinity was? That I’d just become invisible to animals? When I meet an animal for the first time, it’ll still have its usual reactions, they’ll just be a little less intense."

Before the dog could start barking, Zhang Shutong pulled her back to the villa.

When they got inside, they saw the housekeeper opening the door.

CREAK. The door opened to reveal an antique-style study. The furniture—the desk, chairs, and bookshelves—was all mahogany. There was a computer, and even the floor was solid wood. A damp, musty smell wafted out.

Zhang Shutong’s gaze shifted to a picture frame, nearly as large as the color TV in the living room, lying face down on the floor.

The TV was about eighty or ninety inches, and the frame was solid wood. No wonder the wall couldn’t support it.

He looked at the bare wall again. It was covered in wallpaper. The spot where the frame had hung was noticeably faded white, while the rest was yellowed. ’Boss Gu must smoke a lot,’ he guessed.

The wallpaper was no longer flush with the wall; in some places, it was pushed out by the swelling wall underneath and had faint mildew spots. It seemed his earlier guess was correct—it was just the building aging and the wall being too damp.

He, Song, and the housekeeper stood at the doorway. Lu Qinglian had already returned to the sofa, apparently uninterested in anything that wasn’t "official business."

"Should we hang it back up?" Song asked, rolling up his sleeves.

"Don’t trouble yourselves. Let’s just lean it against the wall for now. We can wait for President Gu to get back. I’ll let Mianmian know in a bit."

"Right." The frame was too heavy. Song gestured for Zhang Shutong to help him lift it, but the housekeeper stopped them apologetically.

"Please, I’ll do it myself. President Gu instructed that it’s best if no one enters his study."

That was a polite way of putting it. To be blunt, he was very particular about outsiders not going in.

The master and disciple nodded and watched from the doorway as the housekeeper lifted the frame.

"Any new discoveries?" Song asked in a low voice.

"Just that the wall is damp." As they were talking, Zhang Shutong caught a glimpse of the family photo.

But he couldn’t see it clearly because Aunt Wu’s body was blocking half of it.

The setting looked like some kind of auditorium. Amidst the solemn and pristine atmosphere, he could only see the woman on the right side of the picture.

The woman was beautiful, looking to be in her thirties. She wore a long, pure white dress, with white satin sleeves on her arms and a light veil draping from the back of her head.

’Maybe it was taken on their wedding anniversary?’

Zhang Shutong looked closer and saw that the woman’s eyes were very similar to Gu Qiuyan’s.

However, the woman had a melon-seed-shaped face, while the girl had an oval face.

Gu’s mother had long hair. Faint sunlight streamed through a stained-glass window, illuminating motes of dust in the air. In the photo, the woman wore a gentle smile, bathed in light and dust, looking so approachable that you could feel close to her at a single glance.

Then he saw a line of numbers at the bottom of the photo. It turned out this family picture was taken in the summer of 2006.

Zhang Shutong did a quick calculation. He would have been in the fourth grade of elementary school back then. That meant Gu Qiuyan’s mother passed away sometime after this photo was taken.

A faint sense of regret suddenly washed over Zhang Shutong.

Song watched for a long while before patting his shoulder.

"Alright, let the housekeeper handle it."

"Yeah."

He went back to the sofa. Just as he was about to text his friends, Lu Qinglian reminded him coolly:

"What’s the plan for tonight? You should decide soon. Are you going to let her keep staying here?"

Of course, Zhang Shutong didn’t want Gu Qiuyan to stay here any longer.

It wasn’t a question of who would stay with her, but that this villa was no longer a safe place to be.

He was thinking it over when his phone rang. It was a call from Gu Qiuyan.

She had probably been waiting downstairs for a while and couldn’t wait any longer.

Sure enough, as soon as he answered the call, her anxious voice came through.

"How are things on your end?"