Winter Returns

Chapter 35 Date of Disappearance (with Name Change Notice)

There was a bang.

A flash of lightning streaked across the sky.

The surrounding space brightened for a moment, illuminating Song Nanshan's rain-soaked hair and the man's tense face.

"It seems there's something going on. Come down and take a look."

"Gu Qiu Mian?"

Zhang Shutong asked as if by reflex.

At the same time, he quickly opened the car door and followed Song Nanshan in the rain.

No one was in the mood to get an umbrella from the car at that moment. They walked around almost halfway around the villa and practically jogged to the side and back.

Song Nanshan had already turned on his phone's flashlight:

"This is her backyard, look—"

In the dim light, through the pouring rain, there was an artificial turf.

Some uniquely shaped shrubs and trees dotted the area, quietly withering away in the rainy night.

The lawn was, of course, also surrounded by an iron fence. Beneath their feet lay a barren wasteland, overgrown with weeds, the tallest reaching almost to their knees. This desolate scene was like two different worlds from the garden inside the fence.

At the outermost edge of the garden, beneath the black iron fence, stood a row of potted plants. Zhang Shutong glanced at them and discovered that the entire row of flowers had been smashed to pieces.

The exquisite flowerpots were shattered on the ground, the soil was washed away by the rain, and dark yellow muddy water spread out from the fence and slowly flowed to our feet.

Zhang Shutong crouched down, lowering the light from his phone, and sure enough, he saw scattered stones near the flowerpot, almost the size of two fists put together. He moved closer and found a few more broken bricks.

He stood up again, creating some distance between himself and the iron bars, and measured the gap between the two railings, frowning.
"Revenge?" The tone wasn't one of speculation, but rather confirmation of a fact, so Zhang Shutong changed his question again: "Can you confirm that it happened today?"

He subconsciously looked towards the villa. There was a very tall tree behind the villa, blocking the view from inside and outside the building. If he hadn't been looking specifically, he probably wouldn't have noticed the situation in the backyard.

“It should be,” Old Song said in a deep voice. “I came to deliver Qiu Mian yesterday. Although I didn’t look this way, there’s something else that can prove it. Did you see that black thing? ...Yes, shine the flashlight a little further in.”

Zhang Shutong followed his finger and looked up. A dark shadow lurked on the lawn not far away. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a shadow at all, but rather a...

Big dog.

A black Doberman was lying on the grass. It was cold all around, and fine rain stung people's faces, but the dog was motionless as if it were asleep.

Old Song then said:

“Yesterday, Qiu Mian took me inside for a walk. As soon as we walked this way, that thing rushed up and started yelling…”

"So you didn't hear the dog barking, and that's why you thought to look this way?"

Zhang Shutong immediately guessed the answer.

Song Nanshan nodded, saying that he had already unbuckled his belt when he saw the big dog lying in the yard from afar. He was startled and instinctively moved to another spot. When he finished relieving himself and was walking back, he suddenly realized something was wrong—

The dog might not notice it, but why would it be lying outside in such cold weather and heavy rain?
He went back and saw the broken potted plants under the railing, so he quickly called Zhang Shutong over.

Zhang Shutong already had a guess in his mind.

He simply knelt down on the ground, let Old Song shine a flashlight, and then he parted the weeds on the ground to examine the area carefully. Finally, he found a few pieces of meat the size of fingernails next to the fence.

He rubbed the meat between his fingers, the rainwater on them turning the scraps into a paste. Zhang Shutong sniffed it, then glanced back at Song Nanshan:
"Ham sausage".

"Poisoned?"

"Ah."

Zhang Shutong stood up; there was no need to look at the dog anymore.

The two turned off their phones, and in the darkness once again, Zhang Shutong subconsciously gripped the iron railing in front of him.

A chill ran straight to my bones.

Smashed flowerpots, poisoned guard dogs... When did these things happen? What did they miss in this dark night?

Where is the perpetrator?
Zhang Shutong swept over the surrounding fields, then quickly ran to the villa's main gate. The lock on the gate should not have been broken, otherwise Gu Qiumian would have found it when she returned home; moreover, the methods used by the other party were limited to outside the fence, presumably because they could not enter the villa. These judgments were almost 99.99% likely... but no matter how many decimal places there were, the probability was not 100%.

So he first checked the door lock, then looked up at the villa's window. In a small window on the second floor, there seemed to be the profile of a young girl sitting upright.

The faint sound of a piano drifted through the window, its melody so melodious that even the falling rain seemed to slow down. Zhang Shutong didn't understand classical music, but he could at least make some inferences from the lingering piano notes—

It must have been a music room; Gu Qiu Mian probably didn't know they hadn't left; and as Song Nanshan said, the girl was in a good mood today, so she went to the piano after dinner... But Zhang Shutong really didn't have time to think about what she had done tonight. Song Nanshan also walked to his side, and when they saw the figure by the window, they both fell silent.

"A bunch of beasts," Song Nanshan muttered under his breath. He gripped his phone tightly, his finger hovering over the contacts, but he hesitated to press the button.

Perhaps Gu Qiu Mian is safe tonight.

Even if it's safe, they should have informed the other party if they discovered something amiss, but they just couldn't bring themselves to do it.

It's as if by making that call, they also became perpetrators.

"Tell her to be careful."

It was Zhang Shutong who reminded him first.

Song Nanshan, however, had his own ideas:

"I'll call her dad first. You go wait in the car for a bit, okay? Don't be stubborn, you'll catch a cold if you get caught in the rain..."

He was unaware of the murder, so his hesitation was understandable. Moreover, Zhang Shutong could understand his feelings in a way; he wanted Gu Qiu Mian to be on high alert, but he didn't want her to be afraid, especially since her father had been away for the past few days.

Song Nanshan also had a meticulous and contradictory side. Zhang Shutong knew that it was useless to persuade him now, so she went back to the car and recalled the details of the murder case again:

One explanation is that it's for seeking wealth.

Another explanation is that it was for revenge.

We can now focus our attention on the latter.

Moreover, the direction it points to seems to be clear.

Disputes in the commercial street.

Knowing the truth doesn't guarantee you can catch the culprit. How many shops are there on a commercial street? Finding one or even a few of them is no easy task.

And even if it is found, but the murder has not yet occurred, how can this hidden danger be resolved?
The only solution he could think of was to find the person who poisoned the dogs. It was hard to say whether this constituted a crime, but at least before Gu Qiu Mian's father returned, he could get the police to take the person into custody.

Zhang Shutong then thought of another thing:

Besides the murder itself, there was also the impact it had at the time.

After this incident, Song Nanshan resigned to take responsibility.

He had always thought that Gu Qiumian's family had too much influence, which made the school insist on giving Gu's father an explanation and using Lao Song as a scapegoat.

But now it seems there's more to the story.

First of all, Gu Jianhong's departure from the island is unlikely to change.

So, in the previous timeline, Gu's father should have also arranged for the homeroom teacher to help take care of his daughter for a period of time.

Maybe it was December 7th last time;
Song Nanshan also sent Gu Qiumian back in the same way.

But since I wasn't in the car at the time, Lao Song might not have brought up the past. More likely, he would have left directly after dropping Gu Qiu Mian off at home, and thus failed to notice the flowerpot and the dog.

By Monday, December 10th, when the girl was discovered to be missing, it was too late.

Zhang Shutong is now very agitated by the subtle use of the word "missing." Yes, it's possible that Gu Qiumian's murder wasn't discovered until Tuesday or Wednesday... but the problem is...
On what day did she have the accident?

This question will determine where he goes tonight.

There will be another update later, probably around 3 AM;

Also, observant readers might have noticed the title has been changed. I originally preferred "Survival Signals from Eight Years Later," but unfortunately, the editor thought it was too sci-fi...

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(End of this chapter)