"Still moving forward."
The girl's feet did not stop.
Zhang Shutong turned around and shouted to his friends to watch their footing, and continued to run wildly. The wind whipped his face, time passed, and the scenery remained the same;
One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, one meter, two meters, three meters, four meters... He didn't know how long he had been running. He only knew that he had started to breathe uncontrollably, and Lu Qinglian's figure was getting farther and farther away until she completely disappeared around a bend.
He finally held his knees and breathed heavily, knowing that he couldn't catch up no matter how hard he tried. Their stamina was not on the same level. It wasn't that he was weak; it was that the other party's physical quality was terrifyingly good. He rested for a moment, recovering from his initial shock, and suddenly cursed at himself.
Damn it.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize what he had overlooked.
Since the footprints were going up, he should have called Old Song first to let him know.
Zhang Shutong quickly took out his phone and dialed the number. The other end quickly connected:
"Hello, hello, can you hear me? How is it, Shutong? Have you arrived?"
"How are you guys? I mean, can you see a figure outside?" Zhang Shutong asked hurriedly.
"Let me see... I don't think so, right?"
"The footprints are going up."
"Going up? Are they really coming here?"
"Yes." He nodded heavily. "Lu Qinglian has already gone ahead. I'm also rushing over there..."
"Oh, oh, okay. You guys be careful too..." Old Song was also caught off guard.
Zhang Shutong hung up before he could finish. At this moment, his chest was hurting again. He coughed a few times. His friends also caught up to him:
"Holy crap... What's going on...? You two ran really fast..." Du kang was the first to arrive, still out of breath.
"The person has already gone up."
"How far did they go?" Qingyi took over.
"I'm not sure yet."
"I say, they didn't already go into the house, did they?"
"That's not possible." Zhang Shutong said solemnly. "I think you three should turn back."
"How can we do that? Didn't Lu Qinglian go up by herself?"
"That's exactly why I'm saying this. I don't want you to see two Lu Qinglians."
He said as he walked:
"It's her idea that I'm not letting you go up. You know she's a good fighter, but if she feels the situation is out of control, having more people will only slow her down. So I suggest the three of you..."
Before he could finish, Du kang suddenly pointed:
"Look, she's coming back. Everything must be fine."
Zhang Shutong turned his head, and he saw a figure slowly walking around the corner of the deserted path.
It was Lu Qinglian.
Zhang Shutong had wanted to rush over and ask what the situation was, but as soon as he took a step, he stopped and his expression tightened.
The figure in his sight had long hair down.
...
"How is it, Qinglian?"
Just from seeing the figure from a distance, Ruoping was the first to shout out her concern.
Zhang Shutong, however, slowly stood in front of her and retreated step by step.
"You guys wait a moment. This might not be..."
"It's me." The woman walking through the snow from a distance seemed to have guessed what he was about to say. She calmly gave the secret code. "Safflower oil."
"Then what's wrong with your hair?" Zhang Shutong's heart was only halfway at ease.
"My hair tie was caught on a branch."
"You didn't find the person?"
"The snow above has started to melt."
"How can that be..."
As he spoke, Zhang Shutong subconsciously turned his head.
He looked at the path they had come from, the section they had already walked on. The rocks were protruding outward, and he had been holding on to the rock wall as he went down the mountain to avoid any accidents. The footprints were covered by the shadow of the rocks;
But further up, the rock wall was concave. The sunlight shone directly on the footprints, and the melted snow had blurred the tracks. No one could tell how many people had stepped on them.
"Did you call Teacher Song?" Lu Qinglian asked proactively.
"Yes, he didn't see anyone."
Hearing this, she walked to the edge of the cliff, lightly stepped on the snow, and frowned:
"Why did your footprints suddenly turn here?"
Zhang Shutong remembered what had happened. At that time, he had estimated the distance in his mind and figured there was about one-third of the way left, so he proactively went to the edge of the road and looked back. From here, he just couldn't see the outline of the villa.
He quickly explained, and Lu Qinglian said she understood.
"There are three possibilities here," she thought. "Just like this morning, they returned the way they came. Or they continued to go up. Of course, they could have also disappeared directly from the edge of the cliff."
"No matter what... disappearing from the edge of a cliff is a bit exaggerated, isn't it?" Du kang couldn't help but interject, and he looked down with a sense of alarm. "It's so high."
Lu Qinglian ignored the question and just asked:
"What's behind the villa?"
"A 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:
"Can that barren land hide a person?"
"It's hard to say." Zhang Shutong recalled. "Teacher Song hasn't left the house, so there should be blind spots. And the footprints disappeared after the snow melted, which means she came here quite early."
He then thought that assuming the other person had gone up the winding mountain road, maybe they were hiding in that barren land?
If that was the case, if they went up now, they could trap the person there.
But he still couldn't bring his friends. It would be hard to deal with the aftermath. Thinking of this, he hinted to Lu Qinglian with his eyes, feeling that her words were sometimes more effective than his.
Lu Qinglian, however, said:
"It doesn't matter anymore."
"Didn't you say you were worried about being seen..."
"Because there's another problem now."
"What?"
"Come closer. Don't let them hear you."
"Oh..."
He walked closer. Then Lu Qinglian stood on her tiptoes and leaned into his ear.
The warm breath from her lips gently brushed against his earlobe.
But the content of her words hit Zhang Shutong like a bolt of lightning.
Lu Qinglian just said calmly:
"This footprint is not the same as my shoe."
...
"Not the same..."
Zhang Shutong was stunned:
"How can that be?"
"Look here," Lu Qinglian squatted down. "I only found out after following for a while. There's a very obvious deep heel print here. It should have been left by a pair of women's low-heeled shoes. If you say that 'other me' is exactly like me, and even the clothes are the same style, but I don't have these shoes. In fact, this footprint is even bigger than my foot."
After saying that, she stood up and said indifferently:
"Zhang Shutong, although I've said that being overly suspicious is a bad thing, I'm now starting to doubt the credibility of your words.
"Two possibilities."
She flipped her long hair with a determined motion:
"Since you were able to silently lead me into a pre-dug trap, I can't rule out that you've been making up a lie about 'another me' from that time. All of your reactions, whether it's surprise, shock, or disbelief, were all an act, even though I really believed you before.
"The second possibility is that your deduction is completely wrong, and the person I'm looking for is not the same as the murderer you've identified.
"But no matter which possibility, I now need to reconsider if there's still a need for us to cooperate."
"I..."
Zhang Shutong opened his mouth but was speechless for a moment.
His mind was a mess now, even more so than the messy footprints on the ground.
What in the world was going on?
A suddenly appearing shoe print?
And it wasn't the figure he saw last night?
Then who could it be?
He could only say:
"I can only guarantee that I haven't lied to you since you fell into the trap."
"Is that so?" Lu Qinglian just asked with a blank face.
"Never mind." After a moment, she lowered her eyes. "Now is not the time for internal strife. Since we're here, let's just go up first."
Saying that, she stopped her steps:
"But you'd better be clear in your own mind. The reason I'm not pursuing this is because it's foolish to be suspicious of each other right now. I just dislike foolish behavior. I don't completely trust you.
"So, since the shoe prints aren't the same, it doesn't matter if they come with us or not. Let's go."
...
The rest of the way was silent.
Zhang Shutong's brows were tightly furrowed. During this time, he called Old Song a few more times to confirm.
He looked out of the various windows of the villa but didn't find any figures.
Zhang Shutong knew that if he looked out from the kitchen, over the backyard, he should be able to see that barren land.
Wild grass grew in the barren land, but it wasn't tall. It might not be a clear view, but it would be impossible to miss a living person.
Maybe "that person" really went back the way they came.
But no matter where the person was, who were they?
Why was there a second set of footprints in the snow?
And this incident had caused a crisis of trust between him and Lu Qinglian. The idea of a person who looked exactly like her was already unbelievable. The other person had believed him at the time but was now questioning it.
But Zhang Shutong was sure he hadn't seen it wrong.
Could it be that the figure from the restricted area and the murderer of Gu Qiumian were not the same person?
With this question in mind, the group finally arrived at the villa. They could see the Ford Focus car from a distance.
Lu Qinglian took the lead, and they first walked around the villa and then conducted a systematic search of the barren land, but they couldn't find a single person or an extra footprint.
The clue they had finally found seemed to have hit a dead end again.
The friends were still discussing the whereabouts of the other person.
"So the murderer went back halfway?" Du kang was puzzled.
"Then the question is, if they came to scout the place this morning, why would they scout it a second time?" Qingyi asked.
"Is it because they had Shutong's footprints to cover theirs this time? Is it possible that this time they didn't go back halfway but instead followed the footprints again and only found out they couldn't get in when they reached the front gate, so they had to turn back in frustration?" Ruoping was also analyzing.
"But Shutong called Old Song a few times, right? He didn't find any figures nearby." Qingyi said again. "I didn't pay attention when we got out of the car. Should we go back and look again, or ask your dad to take a look?"
"He's gone." Ruoping was a little 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 get there and back, and if something else happened, my dad would be worried and would come looking for me. So I told him we were visiting a classmate's house and to go home and rest and come back to pick us up later."
"That makes sense." Qingyi nodded. "Then what do you think, Shutong? Where did that murderer go?"
"I have no idea at all right now..."
Zhang Shutong let out a sigh of stale air. The problem he was facing now was not only the whereabouts of the other person. Compared to that, he felt that the more serious problem was that he had once again lost the "identity" of the murderer.
A slight anxiety welled up, but they had already turned the area upside down and still found nothing.
He glanced at the time. Unconsciously, it had been more than forty minutes since they got out of the car. He looked at his friends. Although the novelty hadn't worn off, they were all freezing.
Zhang Shutong knew that staying outside was not a good idea.
This was probably the disadvantage of group actions.
If it were just him, he would probably rush to the next location without stopping—even though he had no idea where that location was yet;
But with so many people together, he had to be mindful of everyone's feelings. Especially from his friends' perspective, they had come all this way on a cold day. Although it was out of interest, they were still helping him.
If he didn't take the initiative to speak, it would be difficult for them to.
Zhang Shutong took out his phone and dialed a number.
"What do you want?" a cold voice came from the other end.
A prodigal son returns with a heart of gold. After a whole morning of running around, Zhang Shutong had returned to this villa. The sidekick humbly requested the young lady:
"Mmm, can I bring my friends to your house for a meal? Noodles are fine..."