Chapter 303 - 131: Night Raid

Chapter 303: Chapter 131: Night Raid

When Zhang Shutong said he hadn’t, he heard his mom sniffle as she turned away, and he sighed inwardly.

There are many reasons a person can’t take risks, and parents are definitely one of them.

The hospital room fell quiet. The sky had darkened, and he was no longer in the mood to watch TV. He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.

He zoned out for a while before belatedly remembering he should call Song back.

Zhang Shutong fumbled for his phone on the bedside table. It didn’t connect; there was only a busy signal. He figured Song had fallen asleep again.

For some reason, he felt that his own situation wasn’t so bad. He had plenty of people who cared about him. Song was the one in a miserable state, all alone off-island, with no relatives or friends around.

He just sent him a text instead.

Zhang Shutong had thought being hospitalized would at least be peaceful, but after a short while, the door to his room was pushed open again. He knew it wasn’t one of the nurses, because they would have knocked first. It could only be his mom. ’Did she forget something?’ Zhang Shutong had just called out, "Mom," but he stopped short.

Lu Qinglian closed the door behind her.

"I didn’t expect you to come." Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, struggling to sit up and lean against the headboard. "Thanks for last night."

Lu Qinglian simply nodded, saying nothing.

Zhang Shutong knew her personality—cold as ice—so he didn’t say anything more. He was only lying here because she had found him in the avalanche. They say the golden window for an avalanche rescue is only fifteen minutes; any later, and he probably would have stopped breathing.

The reason he had dared to take the gamble was that the two of them had just finished watching a show about avalanches on TV before it happened. He had bet that as long as she followed his footprints to the scene and saw the pile of snow that had rushed down the mountain, she would be able to guess what happened.

As expected, it had been a close call, but he was safe.

Normally, he would have cracked a joke—"My mom said we have great chemistry, and she was right"—but he’d just been chewed out by his own mom and wasn’t in the mood. So he got straight to business:

"Is the long-haired woman taken care of?"

"She’s been dealt with."

"That’s good."

Hearing this, Zhang Shutong didn’t relax. Instead, his brow furrowed. This just made him even more clueless about what he’d missed in the previous timeline.

"There’s a chair. Sit down and rest for a bit. I really don’t have the strength to get up, sorry." Zhang Shutong picked up an orange and tossed it to her. "How’s your foot?"

"It’s fine." Lu Qinglian didn’t sit, nor did she peel the orange.

"So what exactly was that thing?" He’d had to keep this bottled up with everyone else he’d seen today, but with Lu Qinglian, he didn’t have to hide anything. "I think she’s even more terrifying than you said. You saw the tracks she left, right? She almost caught up to me even though I was on a vehicle. Granted, it was a farm truck and not very fast—a few dozen kilometers per hour, tops."

Lu Qinglian didn’t answer his question. Instead, she asked:

"Who was that person?"

Zhang Shutong was taken aback.

"Do you remember what I said before?" Lu Qinglian’s face was expressionless. "If you want honesty, you have to earn it with honesty."

"The two deceased."

"Who?" Lu Qinglian walked to the window. She was wearing that green robe again, her long hair unbound, leaving him with only the sight of her back. She spoke as if to herself, "Zhang Shutong, last chance."

"Teacher Song’s girlfriend and Gu Qiuyan’s mother."

"Oh," Lu Qinglian showed no surprise. Instead, she began to gently peel the orange. "I thought you wouldn’t say."

"You could have figured it out even if I didn’t tell you, right?"

Zhang Shutong sighed.

"Only two things related to that woman have happened in the past few days: Teacher Song being sent to the hospital, and the person who tried to kill Gu Qiuyan. You were there when the first thing happened. You must have heard from Ruoping that he saw someone, which made him lose his composure and run off. You probably don’t know I went to his dorm last night, but if you were paying attention, you could have discovered a few things.

"As for the second thing, there was a loophole there, too. I had clearly already gotten Gu Qiuyan out, but then I suddenly called you and told you to turn around. Let’s ask the simplest question: why would I specifically need to lure *you* away for a killer that bodyguards could have handled? It means that person couldn’t be seen by anyone in the villa. Besides, I talked to you about the villa’s gate lock—the fingerprint and facial recognition. On top of that, you’ve been to Gu Qiuyan’s house, so you knew her mother wasn’t there. It wasn’t actually that hard to guess.

"All of this was basically transparent to you. You were just missing a few pieces of information that you would have figured out sooner or later. On the other hand, I know nothing about your side of things. It was better for me to just say it and trade for some intel."

"You’re a little smarter than I thought." Lu Qinglian turned around. "Last question. That night, are you sure it was me you saw? You should think carefully before you answer."

"I’m sure." Then Zhang Shutong remembered something and pressed, "The person who looked just like you—she wasn’t found?"

’He had subconsciously assumed that Teacher Song’s girlfriend, Gu Qiuyan’s mother, and the fake Lu Qinglian were all the same "thing." Could it be that they weren’t?’

"She was found," Lu Qinglian said simply.

"...Can’t you just say it all at once?" Zhang Shutong lay back down on the bed. "Since it’s confirmed that the person you were looking for is that long-haired woman, can you tell me why you were looking for her?"

"Wrong," Lu Qinglian said, her lips barely parting.

"Wrong? What do you mean?" Zhang Shutong lifted his head again, only to find that Lu Qinglian had, at some point, walked to the door. She locked it, then came toward his bed, step by step.

The girl in the green robe sat down on the edge of his bed, her eyes without a single ripple, staring at him indifferently.