Chapter 117 - 51: Help
She had always thought the man left the deli to follow Zhang Shutong and Gu Qiuyan.
But then she had a sudden thought. No matter where they went, the two of them were unlikely to leave the city. That being the case, it seemed there wasn’t a good place to strike.
He couldn’t just kidnap them in the middle of a crowd, right? That left only one possibility—
Find a deserted place.
And it had to be a place Gu Qiuyan was sure to pass through.
There was only one place that satisfied both conditions:
The road back to the Gu Family Villa.
Ruoping knew about that place they called "the castle." There were rarely any pedestrians around, making it a natural spot to commit a crime.
Then, she thought of the possibility that worried her most:
’What if Gu Qiuyan doesn’t run into the killer, but Du Kang does first?’
Her heart began to race with anxiety. She quickly blurted out her theory and was about to emphasize her point, but Qingyi just nodded nonchalantly.
"That’s possible. In a way, the killer’s movements are unpredictable, so he’s hard to catch. But," the young man said, waving his phone with the chat history, "Shutong and I already considered that, so..."
"I’m talking about Du Kang right now! This won’t do, I have to make a call..."
But Qingyi just smiled, gloating.
"Him? Don’t worry about him. Our birthday boy won’t get into any trouble."
...
"Help me!" Du Kang yelled.
Zhang Shutong held the phone a little further from his ear.
"You actually got caught?"
"You set me up, Shutong! You said it would be fine!"
"Sorry, sorry. Calling for backup now."
Zhang Shutong said with a laugh, then handed the phone to Gu Qiuyan.
She had been growing tense listening to the cries for help on the phone, but seeing the smile on his face, her expression turned to one of confusion.
"Help rescue someone?" Zhang Shutong asked, requesting the young lady to step in.
"Why are you always causing trouble?" she asked irritably, not taking the phone right away. "First, explain what’s going on. What do you mean, ’help rescue someone’? What kind of mess have you two gotten into now!"
"Because you’re the young lady of the house. This is a favor only you can ask," Zhang Shutong added. "What I mean is, he accidentally smashed the only two flowerpots your family had left."
"Huh?"
"Uh, yeah. My condolences."
Zhang Shutong offered his condolences. He couldn’t help it; Qiumian was already staring wide-eyed.
...
"What?" Ruoping was dumbfounded. "You’re saying Du Kang didn’t go there to lie in wait for the killer, he went there to cause trouble?"
"Yup." Qingyi found her shocked reactions endlessly amusing.
"What for?"
"Well, it’s a long story." Qingyi rubbed his chin and said regretfully, "I originally proposed an absolutely brilliant idea, but unfortunately, Shutong shot it down."
"What idea?"
"Since we’re always suspecting this person and that person without finding the real killer, I figured we should just strike first and kidnap Gu Qiuyan ourselves."
"Get lost!"
"It was actually to test her family’s housekeeper." His idea having been shot down again, Qingyi seemed a little hurt and was no longer in the mood to be mysterious. "Didn’t we talk about this before? We both suspect there’s something wrong with Gu Qiuyan’s housekeeper, because of that dead dog incident."
"I know, just get on with it!"
"But it’s hard to tell if the housekeeper really didn’t see it, or just pretended not to. So, Shutong said we should just use the process of elimination. Don’t waste brain cells thinking about this and that, like the housekeeper’s identity or who she might have a grudge against. It’s better to just go test her directly."
"So?"
"So, we sent Du Kang over to lurk around. He went right around dinnertime when her housekeeper would be cooking. From the kitchen, you can see the backyard perfectly. Hmm..."
At this point, Qingyi glanced at the time.
"I figure we should be getting some results by now."
...
The result, naturally, was that he got caught.
In Zhang Shutong’s memory, the housekeeper, Aunt Wu, was supposed to be a quiet, gentle woman. But now, she seemed like a completely different person.
Even without speakerphone, he could hear her stern, suppressed anger through the receiver.
Gu Qiuyan, for her part, froze with a strange expression for a moment, then stepped aside to make a call and explain, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Really, Aunt Wu, that person is my friend. Please don’t give him a hard time, he didn’t mean it..."
"Dad said to tell him if anything seemed off? Oh, Aunt Wu, I’m not lying to you! Everything’s fine over here, and that person really is my friend. He was just... just playing a prank. He doesn’t have any bad intentions. Just pretend you didn’t see anything..."
No one could resist Gu Qiuyan when she started acting cute, and the woman’s tone on the other end of the line softened.
Hearing this, Zhang Shutong breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t actually intended to give Gu Qiuyan a "surprise."
The original plan was for Du Kang to act like a suspicious person and loiter outside the window for a bit.
Then, based on the housekeeper’s reaction, they would decide on the next step.
The best-case scenario would be that he would arouse the housekeeper’s suspicion, get questioned a bit, then explain himself and leave on his bike.
But maybe the housekeeper was too focused on cooking, or maybe she’s nearsighted, because she just didn’t see him.
Left with no other choice, he had to do something that was both "suspicious" and "attention-grabbing."
With the five arsonists as a precedent, Zhang Shutong naturally thought of smashing flowerpots.
He had noticed yesterday that there were still two intact pots in the backyard.
Testing a person with two pots of flowers was a pretty good deal. He figured Gu Qiuyan wouldn’t mind.
However:
"What? Not just the two pots in the backyard, he also smashed the one I was growing in the front yard?" Gu Qiuyan suddenly froze.
Zhang Shutong froze too. He remembered telling Du Kang that smashing the ones in the backyard would be enough. Why did that guy have to go and exceed his quota?