After dinner.
In the bedroom on the second floor of the villa, Gu Qiumian was quietly reading a book.
The desk was tidy. A photo frame was placed on her left side, and now this photo frame was gently placed face down on the desk by her.
The room's color scheme was mostly dark red. The hand-woven carpet, velvet curtains, and even the bed's curtain, which was like something out of a fairy tale, were all dark red, making the room look elegant and luxurious under the warm lights.
It was called a bedroom, but it was fully furnished with a walk-in closet, a dressing table, a balcony, a bathtub, and a private bathroom. There was even a mini fridge that was always stocked with chocolate and yogurt.
She had just taken a long bath, and steam was still lingering in her hair.
The girl would sometimes pick up the cup next to her to wet her lips. The book in her hand was flipped slowly, but she wasn't reading it carefully. She often turned to a new page and then went back to reread it.
Until someone gently knocked on the door.
Gu Qiumian put down the book. She knew it was Aunt Wu because only her knocking sounded like that.
She gently responded but then remembered that the door was locked. She walked barefoot across the bedroom and opened the door.
"Why is the door locked today?" A kind-faced woman was standing outside the door.
"I locked it by accident," Gu Qiumian said casually.
Aunt Wu chuckled:
"Then let me guess. Did your classmate tell you to be careful and lock the door when you sleep at night? And you listened to him and locked the door?"
Gu Qiumian didn't say anything and walked back to the desk, propping her face in her hand and staring blankly at the curtains.
The woman sat gently on the bed, like a mother watching her daughter.
"Boss Gu asked me to come up and check on you. He thinks you're in a bad mood today," Aunt Wu smiled and continued to talk to herself, "I thought you would leave with him this afternoon and was having a headache about how to explain it to Boss Gu. But you guys got into a fight?"
"No," she said calmly, blinking her thick eyelashes. "If I were fighting, I would leave. I stayed at home because it's safer."
"Really?"
"Really. Who would want to run around outside in such cold weather? And he doesn't tell the truth. I asked him several times, and he would always lose his patience."
"Even if he loses his patience, you shouldn't suddenly become distant."
"I'm not being distant from him."
"Is he being distant from you?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Gu Qiumian stopped talking again.
"Alright, alright, let's not talk about this," the woman said softly. "What do you want for breakfast tomorrow morning?"
"The same as before."
"So that's a fried egg, a piece of bacon, and a bitter lettuce salad?"
"I don't want to eat bitter lettuce."
"You can't not eat vegetables," Aunt Wu smiled again. "You'll get fat."
"I'm not fat," Gu Qiumian muttered.
"Do you want to drink milk? I'll go heat a cup."
Gu Qiumian shook her head.
The woman changed the topic again:
"Boss Gu also said that you should stay at home and rest assured for the next two days and not go anywhere, whether it's in the city or on the island. Just wait until he handles everything. If you get bored alone, you can call your younger friends to come over, and I'll have the driver pick them up."
"I know," Gu Qiumian said absently. "I'll contact them tomorrow and see how I feel."
"It's already ten o'clock. Aren't you sleeping yet?"
"I want to read for a while. I can't sleep." As she said this, Gu Qiumian covered her mouth and let out a small yawn.
"You can't stay up late these days," the woman instructed again.
Gu Qiumian nodded. In the end, she closed the book in her hand and slowly lay down on the bed.
She started to close her eyes as soon as her head hit the pillow.
"Silly girl," Aunt Wu stroked her smooth forehead and pulled the blanket over the girl. "Why do you always hide things in your heart?"
"I don't have anything on my mind."
"Your hair isn't dry yet. You'll have a headache when you wake up tomorrow. And didn't I tell you many times that you can't take long baths these days? You always regret it when your stomach hurts." The woman helped her tie up her hair. "What's going on with you and that boy?"
"Nothing," Gu Qiumian shook her head. "I'm not in a fight with him."
"Didn't he ask you if you wanted to go off the island to have some fun? You wanted to, didn't you? Why didn't you go?"
"He's always running around and worrying about things. It shouldn't continue like this."
The woman flicked her nose:
"Silly girl. Then why did you have so much fun with him before and even run out late at night? And you weren't telling the truth just now. You weren't really impatient, were you? You clearly told Boss Gu to bring a lot of people back so that he could feel relieved and go home to rest."
"Yeah. Actually, I was bad before. I took it for granted."
"Took what for granted?"
"Yeah."
"How can that be?" the woman asked, confused.
Gu Qiumian didn't answer the question but just said:
"Alright, Aunt Wu, I'm fine. You should go to sleep too."
"Then I'll tell the people downstairs to be quieter at night."
With that, the woman got up. She knew the girl was not used to a completely dark room when she slept, so she adjusted the brightness of the bedside lamp to the lowest setting. The lampshade gave off a faint halo, like a firefly floating in the air.
Gu Qiumian subconsciously reached out, wanting to grab something, but grabbed nothing.
The night was quiet. The velvet curtains were tightly drawn. Gu Qiumian placed her phone under her pillow and finally closed her eyes.
She only hoped to have a good dream tonight.
...
December 8, 2012, Saturday.
When he saw the calendar, Zhang Shutong realized that this day had truly arrived.
Friday had passed.
It was seven o'clock. He was still in the habit of waking up early. The first thing he did was to take out his phone and look at the chat history.
Now his communication with Gu Qiumian only existed on this small screen, not through phone calls.
Since the call was hung up last night, he would usually ask, "How are you doing?" and the other person would find time to reply, "I'm fine." Sometimes, the other person would take the initiative to say, "I'm fine. Don't worry anymore," and he would reply, "Be safe."
That was pretty much it.
Since he added her as a friend, he could count the number of messages they exchanged on one hand.
Zhang Shutong knew she woke up later than him, so he sent another message, "Reply when you wake up." Then he got up to wash up, but to his surprise, he had just gotten out of bed when his phone buzzed.
He opened it and saw that it was from Gu Qiumian. It had only two words:
"I'm fine."
He didn't understand why she was up so early today.
Theoretically, as long as something happened to her, he would most likely return to eight years later, but theory was just theory. It was better to ask to be safe.
He stretched and pulled the curtains open. The morning light shone on the snow below, making his eyes sting.
It was another quiet morning.
Zhang Shutong walked through the empty living room, holding a toothbrush, and went to the kitchen to boil water, then cook eggs, and put the three buns into the microwave. It was a balanced meal.
It was Saturday morning. He patted his face hard, changed into a thick hooded jacket, tidied up simply, and went downstairs to ride the bike. He suddenly remembered something when he opened the door.
Zhang Shutong went back to the sofa, packed the black down jacket, thinking he might have time to drop it off today, or maybe not. Either way, he'd bring it with him. After doing all that, he went down the stairs, and his foot stumbled. A strong sense of dizziness hit him.
Zhang Shutong frowned and touched his forehead.
It felt a little hot.
He must have caught a cold.
It had better not be a fever.
He had overestimated his physical fitness and went upstairs helplessly, taking out some cold medicine from home. A person's laziness would work against him. He really wanted to go back to sleep now, but it was Saturday, and he had to be energetic no matter what he did.
After a long time, he finally got on the bike. He twisted the key, the engine roared, and the snow on the branches in the morning rustled down. The meeting time he had set with Lu Qinglian was eight o'clock.
She didn't even have a phone, so there was no way to tell her if he was going to stand her up.
And it was already seven-thirty.
The motorcycle left a long trail. He breathed in the morning air, and the dizziness finally lessened. He thought about what he had accomplished this time and what he had missed.
The business district issue was resolved.
For this, he had contacted her father in advance and had him rush back, which was the biggest change and the reason why he could breathe a sigh of relief.
After a night's sleep, Zhang Shutong found that he had been worrying too much.
In fact, at this point, Gu Qiumian's matter was considered resolved. It wasn't that he was being careless, but that if something was impossible for eight adult men to deal with, he couldn't do anything about it either.
Besides, the fight yesterday had already determined the other person's strength. She was a good fighter, but only within the human range. She had no bone-shrinking or flying abilities. Now the villa was surrounded tightly. Her biological father was quite reliable, knowing to bring so many people back.
The current mystery, on the other hand, was the fake Lu Qinglian. Once this matter was sorted out, everything would be over, and maybe even Lu Qinglian's death eight years later could be resolved as well.
Zhang Shutong rode his bike to the foot of the mountain.