Was it Friday night? Or Saturday? Or Sunday?
Zhang Shutong was the first to rule out the first one. No matter how rough Song Nanshan's temper was, he wouldn't have not called at all during the weekend. Not to mention Gu Qiumian's father should have also asked about it, so it was impossible for it to be tonight.
He felt this was like a salami slicing tactic in some sense, at least they had already cut away tonight.
As for whether it was Saturday or Sunday, that was not the problem to consider now. Zhang Shutong controlled his tumultuous thoughts and focused on the most urgent problem to solve—how to find the person who did these two things.
At this moment, Teacher Song pulled open the car door. He clutched his hair, wringing out a handful of water, his face ugly: "I can't get through to her dad's phone, it should be on silent over there."
Zhang Shutong glanced at his watch; it was already past seven.
Teacher Song lit another cigarette, but the cigarette was soaked with water and he couldn't light it for a long time. He crumbled the cigarette and threw it out of the car in frustration: "Li Yipeng's mom also made me nervous. It's not a big deal to smash a flower pot and poison a dog, sigh, of course, this is also a big deal, I mean I'm just afraid the dog was poisoned to do something else..."
"So there's something very strange," Zhang Shutong wiped the water from his forehead.
"How so?"
"Poisoning the dog and smashing the flower pots are contradictory when put together." Zhang Shutong frowned, "Gu Qiumian's family's nanny is a live-in nanny, right?"
"Right..."
"But these two things, one is to eliminate noise, and one is to specifically create noise, so..."
Teacher Song already understood: "You mean, if someone really wanted to secretly do something else, they shouldn't have smashed the flower pots?"
"Exactly."
"So it was just for venting?"
"Hard to say." Of course Zhang Shutong also hoped that was the case, but at this moment he could only say, "Call the police."
Teacher Song picked up his phone, and the two men huddled in the car, silently staring at the lit window of the villa.
The call was quickly connected.
"Hello hello, can you hear me..." The signal was not good, maybe the villa had a signal receiver, but they were outside, "Hello comrade, my name is Song Nanshan, a teacher at Yingcai Middle School... Yes, now I'm at my student's house... Mm, you should have heard of her, Gu Jianhong's daughter... A guard dog has been poisoned... Right, I suspect it's revenge caused by a business dispute, yes yes... What?"
Song Nanshan's brows suddenly furrowed. He quickly said a few more words, hung up the phone, cursed, and slapped the phone on the steering wheel.
"What's the situation?" Zhang Shutong asked immediately.
"They're smoothing things over," Teacher Song said angrily.
"The police don't know about the conflict between her family and the commercial street?"
"It's because they know that they're acting like this. One side is a big boss, the other side is the residents on the island. If they don't handle it well, it's a powder keg. They'd rather hide from it. They just told me there aren't enough police officers, that three officers went to the island to handle business, and the station is busy now. They can come patrol later, but they have to wait until tomorrow to send officers to investigate a dead dog..."
Zhang Shutong was silent. The fact was indeed so. Besides himself, no one could connect a dog to a human life.
Teacher Song said gloomily: "What a terrible excuse; they all just happened to leave the island today, right?"
Zhang Shutong knew that the police station on the island only had five or six police officers in total. Now that half of them were gone, and one dispatch officer had to be removed, they really might not dispatch officers for this kind of matter.
"It's not necessarily an excuse," he reminded Teacher Song. "Two days ago, two poachers were just arrested, and they had guns. It's very possible that they were escorting them to the Public Security Bureau in the city."
"Then let's make the call." Teacher Song suddenly seemed to have made a certain decision. While flipping through his contacts, he muttered, "I didn't see her liking that dog much yesterday..."
The call was quickly connected, and the sound of the piano in the music room stopped.
"Hello Qiumian, have you eaten? I just saw that your dog seems to be motionless... Oh, it was an old dog to begin with... Don't worry about it... Okay, your nanny isn't leaving tonight, right? Mm-hmm, I just wanted to ask if you're okay. Shutong and I, we're about to go find a place to eat. Okay, you be careful tonight, don't go out. I'll come over first thing tomorrow morning..."
Teacher Song was about to hang up, but Zhang Shutong pulled him: "Wait, tell her to ask the nanny if she heard any noise today."
After a while, the response came from the other end of the phone, and Teacher Song shook his head.
"What did she eat for dinner then?"
"You..." Teacher Song didn't know what to say. He forced himself to show some more concern, repeating the answers: "Sweet and sour pork ribs, braised fish, scrambled eggs, and a roasted old duck soup... That's a good meal, it's nothing, the teacher is just worried that you're not eating well, now I can rest assured..."
"Any more questions?" Teacher Song gestured with his eyes.
Zhang Shutong shook his head.
Song Nanshan finally hung up the phone, but until the very end, he still didn't tell the truth.
He silently stared at the windshield, about to pull out a cigarette, but he suddenly thought of something, slapped his thigh, startling Zhang Shutong: "That's right, Shutong, I just remembered, your parents aren't usually home, why don't we just take Qiumian to your place? This time it's not to try and get you two together, I'm serious, my dorm can't have anyone living there, it's just a single bed, you know that..."
Zhang Shutong considered the feasibility of this plan: "We can, but I'm busy tonight."
Gu Qiumian will not be in trouble tonight. It can be said that this is a precious "safe time." Maybe only tonight can they temporarily ignore her and start investigating more clues.
"What are you being so difficult about, kid? No, I don't need your approval. I'm making the decision." Teacher Song said, about to make the call.
Seeing this, Zhang Shutong helplessly said: "The person who poisoned the dog is already gone."
"Who knows when they'll be back?" Teacher Song glared, feeling that this kid was no longer a matter of being a slow learner. "There's still time to find them now."
"What do you mean?" Song Nanshan was stunned, finding that his student seemed to have changed. He was a taciturn little kid before, but now he was staring at him with a fiery gaze.
"I probably have a clue."
Zhang Shutong took out his phone and glanced at the time again. Water from his hair dripped down his chin little by little, and his pants were getting soaked little by little, but he was completely unaware: "So we have something else to do now. If we really can't find any clues tonight, then we can..."
At this point, Zhang Shutong felt that this time difference didn't make much sense and corrected himself: "Then we'll go pick up Gu Qiumian and take her to my place later."
"We still have to go investigate?" Teacher Song was somewhat unwilling, "Then let Qiumian come with us too..."
"I don't mind, but aren't you the one who doesn't want her to worry?"
"You're right." Teacher Song sighed, finally convinced. He started the car, and then realized a problem, "You almost led me astray. Why do you have to investigate tonight? I agreed before because we had nothing to do, just for fun. Now there's a more important thing in front of us..."
As he spoke, Song Nanshan reacted: "Wait, you have a clue already?"
"There are two key points: the dog and the flower pots." The Ford slowly drove out of the road in front of the villa. Zhang Shutong looked at the darkness outside the car window, "I haven't thought about the dog for now, but the flower pots are a key clue."
Now was not the time to be vague, he explained directly: "I've checked the distance of that row of flower pots. It's not far from the house. We could hear Gu Qiumian playing the piano just now, which means the sound insulation is not very good.
"So, to smash an entire row of flower pots without letting the nanny hear a sound, when would the other party do it?"
"While she's sleeping?"
"No." Zhang Shutong shook his head, "I said, it's not just one flower pot. One flower pot might not attract attention, but there is only one possibility for a row of flower pots to not attract attention—"
He gave the answer directly: "That is to be covered up by a bigger noise.
"The rest is to find out what sound would be so loud. Cleaning, not enough. Making the bed, still not enough. Even washing clothes isn't enough. I was just thinking about this problem, but there is one that's qualified..."
In his peripheral vision, Teacher Song was staring intently at the road ahead, but his ears were already perked up. Zhang Shutong took a final look at the villa: "That is the range hood.
"Only the range hood, and it can only be during dinner. Breakfast is usually simple, she eats out for lunch, and the nanny probably makes do with her own meal. But dinner is different, with three meat dishes, all of which produce a lot of smoke.
"So that's why you asked her what she ate?" Song Nanshan realized belatedly.
The small car started to accelerate. The gearbox shifted into second gear, and then immediately into third gear. They drove onto the small road they came on, and the faint streetlights illuminated the silhouette of the road ahead.
"There's one more thing that can prove this." Zhang Shutong just nodded, and also started to speak faster, "The dog needs to be fed. Since it was poisoned and the nanny hasn't found it, it couldn't have been in the morning or noon. And it's not just feeding the dog; it's also possible to discover it while watering the flowers or throwing out the trash.
"So the other party must have timed the poisoning of the dog to a period when they were sure she would not come out, and that can only be at night.
"Only during this time period, the nanny has to cook for Gu Qiumian. After cooking, Gu Qiumian is about to get home. After she finishes eating and tidies up the dishes, it's about this time now. Who would come out at this time? They could only find it tomorrow morning.
"So in the end, we just need to confirm one question, what time did dinner preparation start? Five o'clock is about right. So if we extend the time from five in the afternoon to now, the only so-called person we've seen since we three came out of the school gate to Gu Qiumian's villa is—"
The small car drove into a curve. At this moment, Teacher Song slammed the steering wheel. An earsplitting horn sound immediately rang out in the lonely night. He couldn't help but curse, but didn't forget to shift into fourth gear, blurting out: "That minivan!"