Chapter 35: The Date of the Disappearance (Renaming Notice Included)

A thunderous boom echoed as a bolt of lightning streaked across the horizon.

For a fleeting second, the surrounding space was illuminated, revealing Song Nanshan’s rain-drenched hair and the tense expression on his face.

"Something really does seem wrong. Come down and take a look."

"Gu Qiumian?" Zhang Shutong asked, his reaction purely reflexive.

At the same time, he quickly pushed open the car door, braving the downpour to keep pace with Song Nanshan. Neither of them was in the mood to retrieve umbrellas from the car; they circled around the side, almost jogging until they reached the rear of the villa.

Song Nanshan switched on his phone’s flashlight. "This is her backyard. Look—"

Through the veil of pouring rain, the light caught a patch of artificial turf. A few uniquely shaped shrubs and trees were scattered across it, silently withering in the rain-soaked night. The lawn was enclosed by iron fencing, while the ground beneath their feet was a stretch of wasteland overgrown with weeds, some reaching nearly to their knees—a desolate sight that felt like a different world from the garden behind the fence.

At the very edge of the garden, beneath the black iron rails, sat a row of potted plants. As Zhang Shutong cast his gaze there, he realized the entire row had been smashed to pieces. The exquisite pots were shattered, the soil washed away by the rain, and muddy, yellowish water seeped out from the fence, slowly pooling near their feet.

Zhang Shutong crouched down, lowering his phone’s light. Sure enough, he saw rocks scattered near the pots, some as large as two clenched fists combined. He shifted slightly to the side and discovered several broken bricks.

He stood up, put some distance between himself and the iron fence, and measured the gap between the bars, his brow furrowing. "Retaliation?" The tone wasn't a guess but a statement of fact. He rephrased: "Can you be certain this happened today?"

He instinctively looked toward the villa. A tall tree stood at the back of the building, obscuring the view from inside and out; unless one specifically checked, it would be impossible to notice the state of the backyard.

"It must be," Song Nanshan said in a low, heavy voice. "I brought Qiumian home yesterday. Even though I didn't look this way, there is something else that proves it. Do you see that black object... yes, shine the light a bit further in."

Zhang Shutong followed his finger with his gaze. A dark shadow lay dormant on the lawn not far away. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a shadow at all, but a...

Large dog.

A black Doberman was sprawled on the grass. The air was bitingly cold, and the fine rain stung their faces, yet the dog remained motionless, as if sound asleep.

Song Nanshan continued, "Qiumian took me for a tour yesterday. The moment we walked near here, that thing charged over and started barking wildly..."

"So you only thought to check here because you didn't hear the dog barking just now?" Zhang Shutong immediately guessed the answer.

Song Nanshan nodded, explaining that he had only just unbuckled his belt when he caught sight of the large dog lying in the yard from a distance. Startled, he had instinctively moved to a different spot. When he walked back after finishing, he suddenly felt that something wasn't right—the dog might not have noticed him, but on such a cold, rainy night, why would it be lying out in the open?

He had doubled back, discovered the smashed pots beneath the fence, and hurried to call Zhang Shutong over.

Zhang Shutong already had a theory. He knelt on the ground, and with Song Nanshan holding the flashlight, he pushed aside the wild grass to inspect the area. Finally, he found a few pieces of meat the size of fingernails near the fence.

He rubbed them between his fingers; the rainwater turned the fragments into a paste. He sniffed it and looked back at Song Nanshan.

"Ham sausage."

"Poisoned?"

"Yes."

Zhang Shutong stood up. There was no longer any need to look at the dog.

The two turned off their phones. In the returning darkness, Zhang Shutong instinctively gripped the iron fence. A chill shot straight to his marrow.

Smashed pots, a poisoned guard dog... when did these things happen? And in the pitch-black night, what else had they missed?

Where was the perpetrator?

Zhang Shutong scanned the surrounding wasteland before quickly running to the front of the villa. The lock on the main gate didn't appear to have been tampered with; otherwise, Gu Qiumian would have noticed when she arrived home. Moreover, the perpetrator’s methods were confined to the outside of the fence, likely because they couldn't enter the house. The probability of this was ninety-nine point ninety-nine percent... but no matter how many decimals followed, it was not one hundred.

He confirmed the lock was secure, then looked up at the villa's windows. Inside a small window on the second floor, a silhouette of the young girl sitting upright seemed to be visible.

The faint, lingering sound of a piano drifted through the window. The melody was graceful, making even the falling rain seem to slow in its rhythm. Zhang Shutong knew nothing of classical music, but he could at least draw some conclusions from the lingering notes: that must be the piano room; Gu Qiumian likely didn't know they hadn't left; and just as Song Nanshan said, the girl was in a good mood and had gone to the piano after dinner.

But Zhang Shutong had no time to ponder what she was doing tonight. Song Nanshan walked up to him, and seeing the silhouette by the window, both men fell silent.

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

Perhaps Gu Qiumian was safe tonight.

But even if she were safe, they had discovered an anomaly and ought to inform her, yet they couldn't bring themselves to make the call. It felt as if, the moment they placed the call, they would become accomplices to the torment.

"Say something to her. Tell her to be careful," Zhang Shutong urged.

Song Nanshan had his own plan: "I'll call her father first. You go wait in the car. Come on, don't be stubborn, or you'll catch a cold..."

He didn't know about the murder case, so his hesitation was understandable. Zhang Shutong knew it was useless to argue, so he returned to the car, once again replaying the details of the murder in his mind.

One theory was that it was for money. Another was that it was a vendetta.

For now, he could focus his reasoning on the latter. And the direction seemed clear: the dispute over the commercial street.

But knowing that didn't mean they could catch the killer. How many shops were there in a commercial street? Finding one or even a few individuals was no easy task. And even if they were found, the murder hadn't happened yet—how could they resolve this hidden threat?

The only solution he could think of was to find the person who poisoned the dog. It was hard to say if that even counted as a crime, but at least, before Gu Qiumian's father returned, they could have the police detain the individual.

Zhang Shutong then thought of something else: beyond the murder itself, there was the aftermath. He remembered that after this incident, Song Nanshan had resigned in disgrace. He had always assumed that Gu Qiumian’s family had too much influence, forcing the school to give her father an explanation by making Song the scapegoat.

But now, it seemed there was more to it.

First, Gu Jianhong leaving the island was likely an unchangeable fact. In the previous timeline, the father must have also arranged for the homeroom teacher to look after his daughter for a time. Perhaps on that previous December 7th, Song Nanshan had also dropped Gu Qiumian off just like this.

But he hadn't been in the car back then. Song might not have brought up the past, and it was more likely that he had left immediately after dropping her off, failing to notice the clues of the flower pots and the dog.

And by Monday, December 10th, when the girl’s disappearance was discovered, it was already too late.

Zhang Shutong found the subtle term "disappearance" incredibly frustrating. Yes, perhaps they didn't discover Gu Qiumian had been murdered until Tuesday or Wednesday... but the question remained:

On which day did the incident actually happen?

This question would determine his next move tonight.