Zhang Shutong once again rode in this snowy night.
The front of the bike was like a shuttle, breaking through the cold wind.
A straight beam of light illuminated the road ahead.
Now he had a new goal.
The windbreaker jacket was zipped up to the top, the helmet's goggles were lowered to the lowest point, and his tactical gloves were wrinkled from tightly gripping the throttle.
The phone was wedged between his helmet and cheek, glowing with a faint light in the darkness.
"Teacher Song fainted again?"
He was talking to Du Kang now.
"Yes, he just told me to send a picture to Gu Qiumian, the one of you standing next to the motorcycle."
"Just one picture?"
"Just one. I just listen to what he says. You know I've always been obedient," Du Kang was tight-lipped. "Oh right, Teacher Song also said, he told you to go to..."
"Go where?"
"He fainted right after saying that."
"I see."
"Can you guess where he wanted you to go?"
"I can't guess, but I know where I should go now."
"What do you mean? It sounds so windy on your end. You're running around outside again. Wait, you're not going to find Gu Qiumian, are you?" Du Kang asked in surprise.
"Yes."
"But doesn't her family have bodyguards..."
"Remember the footprints we saw?" Zhang Shutong analyzed quickly. "That person scouted the place at least twice. I used to think having bodyguards was enough, but the most reliable way is actually to bring Gu Qiumian out of the villa. This way, someone can wait for the rabbit at the villa..."
"And someone can have three hideouts outside like a cunning rabbit?" Du Kang suddenly understood.
"Something like that." Zhang Shutong had already left the city. He turned onto a small road and was forced to slow down. "The other party's target is 'Gu Qiumian in the villa.' The villa and Gu Qiumian—these two keywords are indispensable. But conversely, if one is missing, the initiative comes to us."
"Oh, so you're hiding her. When you say that, I remember something else. Teacher Song said he was wrong!"
"Wrong?"
"Yes. He opened his eyes and said, 'It's my fault.' I thought at first he was apologizing for causing trouble for everyone..."
With Du Kang's habitual nagging in his ear, Zhang Shutong reflexively remembered what the other person had said that day—to not worry and to leave the rest to the bodyguards.
So, was that what "wrong" really meant?
"What time is it now?" Zhang Shutong asked again.
"A little past ten ten."
"Okay, I'll be there soon. I'll figure it out when I get there."
"The thing is, Shutong, there's nothing you can do even if you go there. Will Gu Qiumian agree?"
"She called and said she'd go with me."
"Awesome!" Du Kang was shocked. "No wonder you're willing to turn around for her with all your might, Shutong, and just leave in the middle of the night. This is one hundred percent, no, one thousand percent trust. The favor of a beauty is great; don't let her down!"
He then worried, "But even if she trusts you, will her dad trust you?"
"Probably not."
"Then what will you do?"
"Do it anyway."
"You're awesome too." Du Kang swore again. "So looking at it this way, was it all part of Teacher Song's plan, even though he fainted before he could finish?"
"Maybe." Zhang Shutong said in a low voice.
Then it might not have been a simple car accident, but no one knows what the homeroom teacher was thinking before it happened.
"Then you two keep it up. I'm going to pull an all-nighter anyway and not leave his side. I'll call you as soon as Teacher Song wakes up. I promise not to miss even a single cough."
Just then, Zhang Shutong saw a large pothole.
He squeezed the brake, and the motorcycle instantly slowed down:
"You're going to go through all this trouble with me too?" he asked in surprise.
"What are you talking about?" Du Kang laughed. "Damn, brother, we've already gone to this extent. It doesn't matter if it's useful or not. Is there anything we can't do? If I wasn't stuck here now, I'd definitely help you get Gu Qiumian out."
"Okay." Zhang Shutong also smiled.
The two then hung up the phone.
He no longer cared about putting his phone away. Three more minutes had passed since the last time he checked.
Five minutes ago, Du Kang called.
He told him what the homeroom teacher had said.
Ten minutes ago, Gu Qiumian called.
She said she would go with him.
Zhang Shutong had just said on the phone that he would figure something out when he got there.
In fact, he already had a plan.
And it was Gu Qiumian who had proposed it.
Her attitude was even more intense than what he had said—
The girl was prepared to jump from the window.
Yes, she was going to jump directly from the two-story terrace outside her room.
Because the living room was full of people, she couldn't get out through the door.
Zhang Shutong was stunned at the time. He had thought Gu Qiumian was calling to question him about why he was going through all this trouble. She was emotional and would probably scold him and order him to go home with his tail between his legs. But she said directly:
"I want to go with you!"
Zhang Shutong asked again:
"What will you tell your dad?"
But she firmly pushed back:
"Don't you worry about it!"
So Zhang Shutong stopped worrying. He went around the large pothole, twisted the throttle again, and went full speed ahead.
At this moment, the night wind howled, and the motorcycle's engine also howled. He hunched over, thinking about how to get Gu Qiumian out.
It would be very difficult for her to jump from the second floor alone.
So he had to sneak in first.
And according to the information provided by the girl, the defense outside the villa was weak tonight.
Except for the two bodyguards who stayed in the car for the night shift, everyone else was inside the villa.
And those two people had gone out to buy a late-night snack, and it wasn't time for their shift change yet.
In other words, he had to race against time again.
He had to pick up Gu Qiumian in the time before they returned.
Otherwise, everything would be too late once that car drove back downstairs, unless he could fly or escape into the ground.
Zhang Shutong kept an eye on the time and the remaining fuel in the tank.
He counted silently in his heart. The motorcycle drove past the suburbs and finally arrived at the west side of the small island.
He was more familiar with the road conditions here than anyone else. If he counted carefully, he had been to the villa more times than he had gone back to his own home.
The winding mountain road was in sight.
He switched gears and controlled the vehicle to climb for a while.
Then he stopped the car.
He couldn't go any further.
Everything was silent all around.
The sound of the engine would alert the bodyguards inside the house.
The next part was a solo journey for him.
Zhang Shutong hid the bike in the shadow of the mountain wall and then felt something hit his helmet.
He looked up and saw that the snow on the mountain was piling up little by little, getting thicker and thicker, and then falling down. It seemed that just a little noise would trigger an avalanche.
But it didn't matter. This was originally a quiet operation.
He took a flashlight from the bike's compartment, shined it around, and didn't see anyone.
Of course, there wouldn't be anyone.
Because Gu Qiumian was killed in the early morning.
Zhang Shutong understood that he was now racing against two sides.
One side was Gu's father, who wanted to pick up Gu Qiumian before the bodyguards returned.
The other side was the murderer, who also wanted to hide her without anyone knowing before the other party arrived.
His goal now was to ensure Gu Qiumian's safety. As for the murderer, he would leave it to the bodyguards in the villa to deal with.
According to Lu Qinglian's judgment that day, the long-haired woman could deal with an ordinary person like him, but she was no match for those fully armed bodyguards.
Of course, there were also some strange things, like how Zhang Shutong still hadn't figured out how the other person got into the villa.
That's why he had to pick her up.
So he had to be fast.
Zhang Shutong took a deep breath and started walking.
He had also walked this winding mountain road many times.
He had a good memory. Where it was easy to walk and where it was difficult was already deeply etched in his mind. Although he was a bit weak now, it didn't stop Zhang Shutong from using up his last bit of energy. He gritted his teeth and walked faster and faster, quickly becoming out of breath and feeling his heart pounding violently.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes... He used his steps to time himself, counting every two steps as one second. This time, it only took him fifteen minutes to get to the villa.
The time was 10:30 p.m.
The night was silent. All around was a snow-covered wilderness. Looking from a distance, he could see the lights on the first floor of the villa.
The two bodyguards hadn't returned yet.
He breathed a sigh of relief, but he knew the challenge had just begun.
He still had to race against time.
Otherwise, it would be bad if he was caught by the returning bodyguards while taking Gu Qiumian down the mountain road.
He turned off the flashlight and quickly arrived at the villa's gate. Zhang Shutong was a little glad that he had carefully studied it before. Although he still hadn't figured out how the murderer snuck in, he at least knew how he should sneak in.
Zhang Shutong also knew that there was an electronic eye on the gate. If a bodyguard boredly glanced at the screen at this time, he would discover a sneaky person in a helmet standing at the gate, and a group of people would rush out with their fists ready to pin him to the ground.
Therefore, he first deeply memorized the location of the password lock. He then turned to the side, hid himself in the blind spot of the electronic eye, and entered a series of numbers from memory.
There was only one chance, because this damned lock would set off an alarm in the living room if the password was entered incorrectly even once.
Luckily, everything went smoothly.
With a slight click, the lock opened.
Zhang Shutong even knew that the hinge on the left gate was a bit rusty and would make a grating sound if pushed to a certain angle. He carefully squeezed through from the right side, gently closed the gate, and then entered the front yard. He quickly saw the terrace of the room on the second floor.
The curtains were pulled back, the window was ajar, but the lights inside were off.
But before Zhang Shutong could contact Gu Qiumian, he suddenly heard the sound of the door opening. It turned out that a bodyguard had come out to smoke.
He cursed silently and quickly hid under the eaves.
Zhang Shutong patiently counted the time, but before the other person finished smoking, another bodyguard came out. The two started chatting at the door:
"Want to walk around again?"
"Sure, the boss isn't asleep yet anyway. Let's walk around in front of him a little more."
As they spoke, the two turned on their flashlights. This scene was really like a game of eagle catching chickens.
Zhang Shutong was the chicken, but luckily, the two of them were patrolling side by side. If they were more dedicated and split up to surround the area, they would definitely find a suspicious guy trying to abduct the young lady.
Zhang Shutong tiptoed to the backyard.
The backyard was huge. He hid motionless behind a large tree, suddenly feeling that he was more familiar with this place than his own home.
The bodyguards quickly walked past him. He breathed a sigh of relief, wondering whether to leave immediately or wait until they were back in the house.
He quickly decided to wait and be safe, but at that moment, someone nudged him.
To be precise, it wasn't a person, but a big furry head. It seemed to have grown impatient watching Zhang Shutong stand behind the tree for too long.
—That Doberman!
Zhang Shutong's heart leaped again.
He had missed one thing: this dog was not leashed. But it made sense. This Doberman was originally a guard dog. After eating so much food for free, it had to be of some use at a crucial moment.
But who would have thought it would come all the way to his feet?
Although he seemed to have become familiar with this dog, he had been away from the villa for a whole day. Who knew if it would turn on him and not recognize him?
Zhang Shutong blinked at this big guy, thinking, "Please don't bark. If you do, I'll make sure your young lady fires you. At worst, we'll go down together. After all, I did save your life."
Fortunately, his prayer came true. The Doberman looked at him and then squatted down, not moving.
Zhang Shutong didn't understand what it meant. Was it telling him to go or to stay?
He had been bitten by a dog when he was a child, so he tentatively reached out and waved his hand in front of the Doberman. The Doberman wagged its tail. It really was a dog with a human-like understanding, as expected of one that Gu's father had specifically brought to the island.
Zhang Shutong patted its head, saying in his heart, "Good boy. I'm not a bad guy. I said I would save your young lady, and I will."
The Doberman tilted its head and looked at him, as if asking, "Is that true?"
Of course, it's true.
Zhang Shutong wouldn't mind reciting a list of Teacher Song's sayings if it could understand.
He then realized that the dog was only hesitating because of the scent on his body.
He simply stretched out his arm. It turned out that after wearing the down jacket for a long time, Gu Qiumian's scent had rubbed off on him.
The Doberman understood his meaning. It came closer to sniff and then moved to the side.
Zhang Shutong also came out from behind the tree and slowly retreated.
The old dog gave him a look, then turned around and walked away, its four paws slowly strolling. What the heck, he could actually read the meaning of "reassurance" from a dog, as if it had finally found someone to take over its job.
The man and the dog said a harmonious farewell in the night.
But Zhang Shutong suddenly felt that this wasn't funny at all.
What he was about to do wasn't playing house. He couldn't just tell a dog that he was taking its young lady away and then really leave.
Inside the villa were bodyguards and her father. Besides him, there were many other people protecting her.
Zhang Shutong had once said that the hardest thing was making a decision, because every decision meant you had to take on the corresponding responsibility. At that time, Lu Qinglian asked him why he should bear this responsibility. He couldn't really answer and could only say that one shouldn't be arrogant.
But now Zhang Shutong understood.
If a girl trusts you one hundred percent, no, even one thousand or ten thousand percent, and she will follow you without hesitation on this snowy night, no matter what the outside world is like, how can you talk about protecting her life if you don't even dare to bear this responsibility?
Du Kang had teased him, saying that the favor of a beauty was great. In reality, this trust was what was truly great.
In the past, he had never seriously measured the value of this trust. He had just thought that Gu Qiumian was easy to fool and appease, but the truth was, she wasn't easy to fool at all.
Zhang Shutong walked quietly to the terrace. Just as he took out his phone to contact Gu Qiumian, she had already appeared in the darkness.
It turned out that she had been paying attention to the movements below all along.
Zhang Shutong looked up in the moonlight.
It seemed that Gu Qiumian also knew that it was cold at night, so she was wrapped in thick clothes from head to toe. At this point, she didn't care about looking good and had bundled herself up like a ball.
But this formed a sharp contrast with the thin slippers on her feet. The slippers were the kind that showed her heels. On a night like this, just standing outside would make her freeze, not to mention riding a bike later.
But Zhang Shutong knew that was because her shoes were all downstairs, and if she went back to get them, she would definitely be exposed.
Zhang Shutong watched the girl in slippers, watching her climb over the terrace railing a bit awkwardly. It must have been the first time in her life she had done something like this. The surroundings were quiet, and the only sound he could hear was her rapid breathing.
Zhang Shutong nodded at Gu Qiumian and opened his arms.
Neither of them dared to speak loudly. They communicated only with their eyes.
Zhang Shutong once again met her beautiful and spirited eyes. Her gaze was complex—it was angry, it was resolute, and it was even misted over, but it was the only thing that wasn't there was hesitation.
But as Gu Qiumian tightly closed her eyes, her thick eyelashes overlapped. In the end, Zhang Shutong still couldn't guess the emotions contained in those eyes.
But it was no longer important.
In a trance, he suddenly felt that this scene was familiar. He tried hard to recall. It turned out it was from a rainy Friday night in the past. To rule out Teacher Song as a suspect, he was making a phone call under the terrace. It was very cold outside, and a girl in a bathrobe leaned out and said to him with a scowl:
"Fool, are you cold?"
These were already memories buried in the long river of time.
He thought with a bit of regret.
But what did that matter?
He seemed to have understood what was contained in those eyes.
What if there was no past? What if it was completely forgotten? As long as there was still courage, there were many new futures that could be created.
The next moment.
Accompanied by a small gasp.
The girl named Gu Qiumian fell from the sky and landed in his arms.
The moonlight was the witness.
Zhang Shutong held Gu Qiumian tightly.