Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 191: Chapter 83: Heavy Snow

The alarm clock rang right on time.

He woke up in the large, soft bed.

The room was dim. Opening his eyes, Zhang Shutong stared at the ceiling for a moment.

He hadn’t dreamed at all.

’He was actually starting to get used to this bed.’

The villa had a fresh air ventilation system, but the air was still a little stuffy after a whole night. He squinted at the window. The curtains were seriously thick, blocking the light completely.

’If he could, he’d love to go back to sleep.’

But he couldn’t. If there was one benefit to living at home, it was not having to wake up early. But his current status was "student," and he had to get to his classroom for morning reading soon.

Zhang Shutong got out of bed barefoot, his soles sinking into the soft carpet. With a SWISH, he pulled open the curtains. The morning light descending from the sky made his eyes sting.

A vast, snowy morning landscape spread out before him. A blanket of white covered everything in silence. Zhang Shutong instinctively looked down, only daring to look back outside after a moment.

’It feels so close...’

he thought, his mind a bit muddled.

To be precise, it felt like his own position was lower, closer to the ground.

The guest room was on the second floor. He’d assumed the endless white was just messing with his sense of distance, but after a closer look, Zhang Shutong realized it wasn’t an illusion. The snow was just piled incredibly high.

He was wide awake in an instant.

’Just how long has it been snowing?’

He pushed open the window, and a chill shot down the collar of his pajamas. Zhang Shutong shivered and stuck his head out to look.

He was looking for a landmark and finally settled on the villa’s fence.

About a quarter of its height was buried in snow.

"You’ve got to be kidding me..."

Zhang Shutong muttered.

Today was December 7th, 2012.

This Friday was completely different now.

’No idea if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.’

He turned on the light and quickly got himself ready. It was 6:40. Song had said there was no need to get up too early, so he’d set his alarm a little later last night.

Some kind of incense was burning in the hallway. Zhang Shutong glanced at Gu Qiuyan’s bedroom. The door was shut tight. She probably wasn’t up yet.

’Wait, she *is* still in bed, right?’

The heavy morning snow made him less certain.

’Could she have been kidnapped again, just like on Sunday morning?’ Zhang Shutong thought strangely.

’In the last timeline, did the bodyguards and the nanny just assume the young lady was sleeping in her room? And then, when she still wasn’t awake by noon, they went upstairs only to find she was gone?’

So, Zhang Shutong stopped walking toward the elevator and went to Gu Qiuyan’s door instead. He knocked.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

Zhang Shutong counted silently. After a long moment, a groggy voice came from inside:

"Mmm... Huh? Who is it...?"

The owner of the voice was mumbling, clearly not fully awake.

Zhang Shutong knew she had low blood sugar, so he didn’t disturb her any further.

’As long as she’s still in her room.’

He went down to the first floor. No one was in the living room; neither Song nor the nanny was there.

’Did I get up too early?’

Zhang Shutong was about to wait on the sofa for a bit, but he twitched his nose and caught the scent of sizzling oil.

He walked over to the dining table and saw a few fried eggs had been set out.

’Where did they go?’

Zhang Shutong paced back and forth. This was the downside of a big house—who knew which room people were hiding in? He spotted Song’s car keys on the coffee table, then walked out to the balcony and finally saw two figures in the yard.

They were shoveling snow.

’It would’ve been fine if he hadn’t seen them, but now that he had, he’d feel bad if he didn’t help.’

As the saying goes, melting snow is colder than falling snow. His jacket felt a bit thin, and he braced himself for the cold. The moment he stepped outside, however, his foot sank unexpectedly—the snow was just too deep. He couldn’t walk quickly and was forced to advance with an awkward, flailing posture.

Hearing the commotion, Song turned his head and was the first to wave.

"Shutong, don’t come out yet! I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

He said this, but his tone wasn’t serious.

So Zhang Shutong didn’t take him seriously either. While pulling his shoe out of the snow, he replied:

"The bad news, I guess..."

"The snow’s too heavy. I could barely get the side door open when I got up this morning. The dog was almost snowed into its house."

"And the good news?"

"Go back and change into some boots, and then we can get to work out here," Song said with a smile.

The nanny quickly said that wasn’t necessary, but Song waved her off.

"He’s a big kid now, not a little child. Besides, we still need you to make breakfast. The two of us can handle things out here."

Then he turned his head and added:

"Shutong, have the nanny go back and find you a warmer coat. We’ll shovel this snow, otherwise it’ll all freeze solid by tonight."

Zhang Shutong had no objection.

’It had nothing to do with who was the guest and who was the host; it was simply because the nanny was getting on in years.’

He stopped in his tracks and listened as the two went back and forth for a bit. The nanny eventually gave in. As she headed back, she said apologetically:

"Thank you, child. Making you and your teacher work so early in the morning..."

’No need to thank me, Auntie. This is what a good lackey should do.’

Zhang Shutong thought with amusement.

The nanny, whose surname was Wu, didn’t rush to find him gear. Instead, she first poured him a glass of warm water to drink, which Zhang Shutong found very kind.

The nanny then found a down jacket in a closet.

It was a short, black down jacket. He mused that rich people were really on another level—not only did they have spare slippers and pajamas, they even had guest coats.

But after putting it on, he discovered it was too short, even exposing a bit of his waist. It also carried a faint, familiar fragrance.

"Is this Gu Qiuyan’s?"

Zhang Shutong froze.

"It’s Mianmian’s. This is some of her old stuff that she doesn’t wear anymore, so I put it away," the nanny said apologetically. "Is it a bit small? I picked out the biggest one I could find. How about I go out instead?"

’Alright, so there was no "guest" down jacket after all.’

He immediately realized that usually only one man lived here. He figured Boss Gu didn’t lack for clothes, but unless he gave the nod, the nanny wouldn’t dare take one for him. So she could only give him one of Gu Qiuyan’s hand-me-downs.

Zhang Shutong shook his head and said it was fine; as long as it kept him warm, that was enough. He wasn’t so picky as to complain about someone’s old clothes. It was just that the faint scent on the jacket made it feel as if Gu Qiuyan was hovering right beside him, which was very strange.

The master and apprentice met up outside. Song gave him his task. It was called "snow clearing," but really, they just needed to clear the areas outside the two doors and shovel a path. As for the rest, the yard was simply too big to bother with.

He got back to work. As they were clearing snow, they made their way to the front yard, where Song suddenly said:

"Shutong, is this the snake you were talking about yesterday?"

The man was holding up a stick-like object.

Zhang Shutong looked over and nodded.

"It is a little creepy," Song muttered. "I was shoveling away and felt something hard underneath. Picked it up and thought it was a tree branch. You think we should feed this thing to the dog?"

’Probably not a good idea.’

Zhang Shutong talked him out of it. ’The dog didn’t get poisoned this time, let’s not let you be the one to kill it by feeding it this.’

"Alright, forget it." Song threw it hard, flinging the snake-stick over the fence. "Best to toss it far away. Come give me a hand, let’s clear the snow under the main gate. We’ll call it a day after that."

The main gate opened inward, so they couldn’t even push it open without clearing the buried part. Soon, they had dug a pit in front of the gate, with snow piled high around the edges.

The two of them put away their shovels and wiped the sweat from their brows. On the way back, Song, still a child at heart, suggested they build a snowman.

"What ’child at heart’? You’re not getting it, kid," Song sighed. "It’s not for me, it’s for the young lady, of course. This is what I used to do when I was chasing girls back in the day. Let me tell you, there’s nothing more romantic. Just think about it. If you were the girl, it snowed all night, you wake up in the morning and run to the window, and what do you see? A snowman down below! Wouldn’t you be moved to tears? I guarantee she’d come running down without a second thought."

Zhang Shutong turned to look around. The area was surrounded by wilderness. He didn’t find it moving at all; more like creepy as hell.

But he understood what Song meant.

This was the front yard. Looking up, he had a perfect view of Gu Qiuyan’s bedroom window. He figured if she woke up and looked down, she’d be able to see what was happening here.

Right now, the curtains were drawn tight.

Zhang Shutong was lost in thought.

"Actions speak louder than words," Song encouraged him.

"Nah, I was just thinking about something else," Zhang Shutong said dismissively, heading into the house first.

He had just eliminated another theory.

He had gone to Gu Qiuyan’s room last night specifically to confirm whether she could see what was happening outside the main gate.

The answer was yes.

The next question was, how likely was it that Gu Qiuyan would run outside on her own?

Just a short while ago, Zhang Shutong was thinking that she didn’t necessarily have to run into a "danger zone." The killer’s task was simple: since they couldn’t get in, they just needed to make her run out from behind the protection of the fence.

Take Song’s snowman idea, for instance. If someone flashed a light from outside the fence to get her attention, and then did something when she came to the window—not actually build a snowman, of course, but show her something else to lure her out the door to be kidnapped—that seemed like a viable method.

But that theory was now ruled out, because she slept with her curtains drawn.

Zhang Shutong sighed and returned to the living room, still puzzled. The nanny had already prepared hot tea, and the SIZZLING sound of hot oil drifted from the kitchen.

He poured a glass of water, intending to sit down and catch his breath, but then he noticed he was still wearing the down jacket. He had to take it off quickly, lest he get laughed at later.

Zhang Shutong pulled out his phone to check. It was a little after seven, and his battery was at thirty-something percent. He asked the nanny for a charger, not expecting much, but she actually had one.

Although he and Gu Qiuyan both used Apple products, the iPhone 4 and 5 had different charging ports. He’d forgotten to ask yesterday. Who knew the young lady was such a loyal Apple user that she upgraded with every new release and had accumulated quite a few chargers.

Plugging his phone in finally put him at ease. And just by coincidence, as he rubbed his stiff face and sat down on the sofa, the elevator doors opened.

Gu Qiuyan emerged, exquisitely dressed. She never wore the same outfit twice. Today, it was a black turtleneck sweater, her snow-white chin tucked into the collar, making her look very aloof.

Zhang Shutong greeted her, but she just shot him a glance and didn’t reply.

"I don’t want to talk to you."

She didn’t say it, but her eyes screamed it.

’Is this low blood sugar or her period?’

Zhang Shutong couldn’t tell anymore.

For a split second, he even wondered if it was because of the "snowman," but that wasn’t right. Judging by the timing, she hadn’t opened her curtains at all. So Song was still as unreliable as ever. What snowman, what "moved to tears"—the girl had no intention of looking outside in the first place.

She came over and sat on the sofa, picking up the glass of water. Zhang Shutong wanted to say that it was his, but she took a sip, narrowed her eyes, and seemed quite satisfied, as if the temperature was just right.

’Of course it’s just right. I poured it a while ago.’

Just then, Song also came back inside and said to the two of them:

"I have some bad news and some good news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Zhang Shutong’s hand paused. For a second, he almost thought he had time-traveled back again.

"The bad news," Zhang Shutong said out of habit.

"The good news," said the young lady, however.

The two of them exchanged a glance. Zhang Shutong indicated he didn’t care either way.

"Then I’ll announce the good news first."

Song cleared his throat.

"I just got a notification. The snow is too heavy, so school is canceled for the day."

"Then what’s the bad news?" Zhang Shutong immediately asked.

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