Chapter 44: White Mist in the Woods 9
Zhuang Ningyu said, “Alright, you can sleep here.”
Agreeing so readily often meant things weren’t that simple, and sure enough—
“You sleep here, I’ll go do the puzzle.”
Qing Gang and Zhong Mu had been at it for most of the day and were now stretching their limbs. Zhuang Ningyu went over to check their progress. At this rate, it would be completely finished in another day and a half. He sent the two of them back to rest and picked up the phone to continue. Before Qing Gang left, he tried to give the room key to Yi Ke but was refused.
Yi Ke waved his hand, “It’s fine, I’ll just sleep here.”
Qing Gang looked at Zhuang Ningyu. Seeing that he had no objection, he cheerfully put the key away. “Alright then.”
Zhuang Ningyu added, “Take the rabbit back with you. It’ll sleep with you tonight.”
Although Qing Gang was very confused, he didn’t ask any more questions and carried the rabbit’s nest back to his own room with Zhong Mu.
The “tinkling” piano music was still playing on the phone. Yi Ke sat next to Zhuang Ningyu, finally quiet. The app was very easy to use, and the two of them coordinated quite well. With the “click” of the metal and acrylic pieces fitting together, Dorothy’s face from the fairy tale gradually emerged. Yi Ke traced the cool surface with his fingertip. He had to admit, it was indeed a very exquisite puzzle, and the price was probably not cheap. But even adults found it so difficult to assemble; it was obviously not suitable for a ten-year-old child with low intelligence.
“Who do you think gave this?” Yi Ke was a little puzzled. “Didn’t the gift-giver realize that Jiajia couldn’t possibly finish this gift? Grandpa’s health is poor, and the nanny is very busy, so they can’t help her either.”
Zhuang Ningyu continued to study the puzzle. “That’s right, this is indeed not a carefully selected gift. It’s clearly beyond Jiajia’s abilities. So the gift-giver either wanted to humiliate her, or was just being perfunctory, or actually wanted to do it with her. And if it’s the last one, I once thought it might be Jiajia’s parents, but parents probably wouldn’t give something so difficult. After all, The Wizard of Oz is a classic story, and there should be many simpler, more suitable alternatives for parent-child time on the market. Combined with the fact that Jiajia considers the motorcyclists her friends and invited us to her birthday party, do you think the puzzle might have been given to her by the motorcyclists from over ten years ago?”
Yi Ke frowned, “Does it make sense for a motorcyclist to give a complex puzzle?”
“What if they didn’t deliberately prepare a gift, but happened to meet Jiajia while riding by?” Zhuang Ningyu covered his sore eyes with his palm. The light in the room was very dim, making the work difficult. “Before entering the rule zone, I spent a long time looking through Zhou Huanchang’s social media. I found that when their club holds events, they not only have motorcycles but also at least one SUV carrying various equipment and supplies. So is it possible that six or seven motorcyclists passed by Nanping Road back then and met Jiajia playing at the back door? For some reason, they stopped and became brief friends with this little girl. In their conversation and gestures, they learned that her birthday was coming up, so they randomly found this box of puzzles from the supply car and promised to play with her?”
Yi Ke wrung out a hot towel, shook it out to cool it down a bit, and when the temperature was right, he folded it again and placed it on Zhuang Ningyu’s eyes. “But since the white fog has appeared on Qingquan Mountain now, it means Jiajia didn’t get to have a happy birthday as she wished.”
Zhuang Ningyu hummed in agreement, holding the towel to his eyes to rest. “It’s late. You go to sleep. Don’t worry about me.”
Yi Ke said nothing and went to the bathroom to take a shower. When Qing Gang and Zhong Mu entered the rule zone, they had each brought two more action backpacks, so they weren’t lacking in supplies. He unpacked a set of t-shirt and shorts as pajamas, roughly dried his hair, and then sat back down next to Zhuang Ningyu.
The body wash had a lovely peach scent, warm and steamy, with a strong presence. Zhuang Ningyu had to pause his work and ask, “Aren’t you cold?”
Yi Ke replied, “Not cold.”
Zhuang Ningyu urged again, “Go to sleep.”
Yi Ke refused to sleep. He said, “I want to stay with—” The words on the tip of his tongue took a righteous turn, “—work for a while.”
Zhuang Ningyu didn’t bother him anymore and continued to focus on the puzzle. Time passed bit by bit. With the four of them working together for a whole day, nearly a third of the puzzle was completed. Yi Ke yawned sleepily, finally unable to hold on any longer. He moved back a bit, preparing to doze off against the hard wall.
“…” Zhuang Ningyu slapped him. “Go to sleep on the bed.”
Yi Ke refused. He mumbled in a hoarse, sleepy voice, “If I go to sleep, you’ll sit here all night.”
Zhuang Ningyu patiently explained, “I don’t need to sleep.”
“No,” Yi Ke insisted. Little sleep was not the same as no sleep at all. He didn’t want him to make do on the floor.
Zhuang Ningyu was at his wit’s end and had to personally drag the puppy onto the bed.
Yi Ke stumbled and fell face down on the pillow. He raised a thumb and said in a muffled voice, “Domineering enough. I like it.”
Zhuang Ningyu was amused and exasperated. After washing up in the bathroom and checking the door lock again to make sure everything was safe, he raised his hand to turn off the light. He didn’t close the two bathroom doors connecting the two rooms, so the light from 201 could still shine through. In this faint halo of light, Yi Ke watched Zhuang Ningyu lie down next to him. His eyes didn’t blink, submerged in a huge, apprehensive sense of happiness. He didn’t even dare to breathe loudly. After a long time, he secretly moved his tense, stiff body.
Zhuang Ningyu asked, “Are you going to sleep or not?”
Yi Ke quickly closed his eyes.
He was exceptionally well-behaved that night, as if he was afraid that if he made even the slightest out-of-line move, Zhuang Ningyu would get up and leave. So even when he fell asleep, he didn’t cross the line by half an inch. Only in his peach-scented dream did he, on behalf of his real self, lower his head and secretly kiss the other’s hair.
The next morning, when Yi Ke woke up, Zhuang Ningyu had already been up for half an hour, working on the puzzle. Hearing movement in 202, Zhuang Ningyu stretched, got up, and went to the bathroom to wash up. The sound of water splashing filled the room. Yi Ke lay on the bed watching him, liking everything he saw. The duck-shit green toothbrush issued by the Order Maintenance Department, held in his hand, also had a warm, jade-like texture. His fingers were slender and white, his knuckles a translucent pink. So well-formed, how could someone be so well-formed.
Countless little hearts appeared in Yi Ke’s eyes. He hugged his pillow and went crazy in the morning. As expected of my wife!
The next moment, a wet towel flew towards his face. Yi Ke reached out to catch it and wiped his face with it.
Zhuang Ningyu said, “Get up!”
In the next room, 203, Qing Gang was feeding the rabbit with He Yu. He Yu asked, puzzled, “Why did Captain Zhuang give the rabbit to you to take care of?”
“I don’t know,” Qing Gang was also very confused and guessed, “Maybe he discovered my excellent nursing skills!”
Beside them, Zhong Mu had a look of disdain. “How can you say that with a straight face?”
Qing Gang shrugged, “I don’t get it either.”
But Yi Ke did.
If the rabbit stayed in 202, it might run to 201 in the middle of the night and chew on the puzzle. If they didn’t want the rabbit to chew on the puzzle, someone had to be in 201 all night. So, when Zhuang Ningyu let Qing Gang take the rabbit away, it meant he had already anticipated that 201 would not be occupied all night, which meant he had already tacitly agreed that the two of them would sleep together in 202.
Of course, closing the bathroom doors could also stop the rabbit. But closing the bathroom doors when no one was in 201 was equivalent to leaving the puzzle in a separate room, which undoubtedly greatly increased the possibility of it being damaged. So the option of closing the doors could be ignored.
Zhuang Ningyu asked, “What are you laughing at?”
Yi Ke’s fingers flew as he worked on the puzzle. “Not laughing, not laughing.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…”
Because of the rabbit incident last night, neither Zhuang Ningyu nor Yi Ke went down for lunch that day. After a while, Jiajia, as expected, came over timidly. Yi Ke friendly extended his hand to her. “Come here.”
The rabbit was in Zhuang Ningyu’s arms. Jiajia carefully walked in. Yi Ke squatted down, held her thin wrist, and led her to rub the soft fur with the back of her hand. “You have to pet the bunny like this, gently. You can’t pinch it or shake it, or the bunny will get hurt, understand?”
Jiajia blinked her big eyes, not nodding or shaking her head, but her subsequent actions in touching the rabbit indeed became much gentler. When Zhuang Ningyu said the bunny was tired and needed to sleep, she didn’t object. Instead, she pulled on Yi Ke’s sleeve, looked over his shoulder at the puzzle laid out on the floor, and asked.
“It’s almost done,” Yi Ke said, patting her head. “Do you like it?”
This time, Jiajia nodded happily. She then curiously touched his sparkling diamond earring, pinching the beautiful stone with her two thin fingers. It looked like she wanted to pull it off, but after meeting Yi Ke’s disapproving gaze, she immediately let go, smiled shyly, and turned to run away again, skipping.
“I didn’t realize,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “You’re so good with kids.”
Yi Ke stood up and leaned forward improperly. “How about it? Want to transfer me to your department as an assistant?”
Zhuang Ningyu blocked him with one move. “Xiao He is here.”
Caught off guard, Yi Ke clutched his stomach and leaned against the door frame, his eyes welling with tears as he made a request. “Next time, can you just slap me? I don’t like being elbowed.”
No. Zhuang Ningyu bypassed him and took the food box from He Yu who had just come upstairs. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” He Yu said anxiously. “I just saw the kid. The rabbit—”
“The rabbit is fine,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Jiajia came to see it. The child behaved very well this time. Don’t worry.”
“Okay,” He Yu breathed a sigh of relief, then noticed the other person with teary eyes. Zhuang Ningyu continued, “Don’t mind him. He’s just having a fit.”
Yi Ke: “…”
He Yu pursed her lips, looking like she was holding back a laugh. She was originally going back to eat, but after walking a few steps, she remembered to ask, “Captain Zhuang, are you and Teacher Yi still going to 301 today?”
“We’ll see,” Zhuang Ningyu replied.
He Yu didn’t say any more and limped back to the dining room.
After her figure disappeared, Yi Ke asked, “You think there’s a problem?”
The question came out of nowhere, but it was perfectly in sync with Zhuang Ningyu’s thoughts. He handed the food box in his hand to Yi Ke. The amount of food for two adult men, plus soup, was quite heavy. He Yu had been busy in the kitchen all morning, and her legs were already showing obvious discomfort. She couldn’t even walk steadily. It was impossible for Qing Gang and Zhong Mu not to have noticed this, yet they still let her continue doing the physical labor of climbing stairs to deliver meals, unless He Yu had taken the initiative to ask.
“Under normal circumstances, I would think she has a problem. But considering that Xiao He really likes small animals and often goes to charity shelters, it’s understandable that she’d be concerned about the rabbit and want to see it sooner,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “In any case, let’s keep an eye out.”
In the afternoon, the investigation team finally sent new information about the tenants of the small building. According to the memories of the villagers and the homeowner’s grandson, the building was rented out twelve years ago. The tenant was a meticulous person, redid the exterior walls, planted flowers, painted a few bedrooms, and aired it out for over half a year before moving in.
“A retired teacher?” Yi Ke scrolled down the information.
“Your previous speculation was correct. This old teacher was indeed in poor health and came up the mountain for recuperation,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “The grandfather and grandchild usually lived in seclusion. On the rare occasions they went out, the old man was hard of hearing, so the surrounding villagers only knew his surname was Li.”
“What about the nanny? The nanny has to go out to buy groceries, right?” Qing Gang stopped working on the puzzle and looked up to ask.
“The nanny is from out of town and doesn’t understand the Jincheng dialect. Similarly, the locals don’t understand what she says,” Zhuang Ningyu replied. “Therefore, she also rarely interacts with the villagers, basically equivalent to a silent household NPC.”
“The investigation team isn’t very efficient this time,” Qing Gang said, stretching his limbs. “After investigating for so long, the resident’s information is still basically non-existent. A retired old teacher with the surname Li—you could find tens of thousands of them in Jincheng.”
“There’s also a photo,” Zhuang Ningyu said, turning the computer screen towards the crowd.
Qing Gang and Zhong Mu both leaned forward to look, then said in unison, “You call this a ‘photo’?”
“Make do with it. It was taken by a primary school boy back then with his grandfather’s phone while taking pictures of a girl he liked. The camera accidentally caught the grandfather and grandchild sunbathing at the door.” The pixel quality of the old phone wasn’t high, but the little boy had still saved the photo on a USB drive and kept it until now. Zhong Mu applauded him, “A great lover saves the world.”
Yi Ke: “Hmm.”
Zhuang Ningyu: “…”
The grandfather and grandchild in the photo looked very close. Jiajia was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, holding a book. The white-haired grandfather was pointing at the words in the book, teaching her to read. Although the image quality was very poor and their faces were very blurry, you could still see their happy smiles.
As for when this family moved away, the villagers all had different stories. They didn’t live there for long, maybe about a year, or two years at most, then they moved away again without a sound. A year after they moved away, Nanping Road was demolished.
“Those who know would say it’s a grandfather and grandchild. Those who don’t would think it’s a state secret unit,” Qing Gang said. “This is too tightly wrapped.”
A mute little girl, a deaf grandfather, a nanny from out of town who couldn’t understand the local dialect, all living together at the end of a sparsely populated town. Zhuang Ningyu frowned slightly. This combination of members, each not good at communicating with the outside world… was it really a coincidence? Or, was it some kind of intentional arrangement?
Because the photo was too blurry, it couldn’t be searched in the information database. They could still only rely on the investigation team to find a needle in a haystack.
He Yu was busy in the kitchen all afternoon, so tired she had to keep rubbing her lower back. Later in the evening, Chu Feifei quickly slipped in and said, “I’ll help you.”
“No, don’t,” He Yu quickly refused. “The rules—”
“Oh, it’s fine. The nanny is still hanging colored lights in the third-floor corridor. That’s delicate work. It’ll take her a long time to do it alone,” Chu Feifei said, rolling up her sleeves. “Boss Zhou is pretending to look at the scenery in the corridor, keeping an eye on the nanny. My boyfriend is on lookout in the yard. If there’s any movement, they’ll both alert me. It won’t be too late for me to leave then. Anyway, the rules didn’t say guests aren’t allowed in the kitchen. I’ve seen Brother Yi go in and out several times these past two days for apples and pears, and nothing happened.”
He Yu didn’t refuse anymore. “Thanks.”
Chu Feifei waved her hand. “Don’t thank me, thank Boss Zhou. He suggested it.”
He looks rough, but he’s quite thoughtful. Just as the motorcycle club members said, a big brother, chivalrous.
In room 201, Yi Ke poured three glasses of water and handed them to the three people working on the puzzle: two plain glasses of cool water, and one fragrant cup of hot apple-orange honey tea. Zhuang Ningyu chose to accept the fruit tea between refusing and feeling it was too embarrassing to refuse. Before Qing Gang and Zhong Mu could look up, he quickly “gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp” finished it, then put the empty cup back cleanly.
Yi Ke was very satisfied. He had long since discovered that Zhuang Ningyu didn’t like to drink plain water. He would make it again next time.
Qing Gang belatedly looked up and asked, confused, “Why did the air suddenly become so fragrant?”
Zhong Mu, who had a stuffy nose from a cold, replied, “You’re probably hallucinating from doing the puzzle.”
“Ahem.” Zhuang Ningyu stood up with a straight face. “I’m taking a call.”
The call was from the investigation team. The person on the other end spoke in a helpless tone, “Captain Zhuang, a puzzle piece is missing.”
Zhuang Ningyu rubbed his temples. As expected, here we go again. He said, “It’s fine, I was mentally prepared.”
“We’ve checked it over and over again. There’s definitely one missing from the orange-red background puzzle pieces,” the investigation team continued to report. “The front is a leaf in a forest. It’s very common, and doesn’t seem to have any special meaning. It should have been lost randomly.”
“What about the origin of the puzzle?” Zhuang Ningyu asked. “Did you find it?”
“Not yet. This puzzle is not a commercially available product.”
“Keep looking. Also, make a fake piece for now. Xiao Yi will communicate with you about the specific details later,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “As for whether the fake is useful and how to get it in, I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay, Captain Zhuang, no problem.”
Back in 201, after relaying the content of the call, Zhuang Ningyu held a temporary discussion meeting. “Everyone, what are your thoughts?”
“I knew things wouldn’t be this simple,” Qing Gang said, not surprised at all. He held a puzzle piece between his fingers. “First, we need to confirm at which stage it was lost.”
As far as was known, the puzzle had passed through at least five people’s hands: the gift-giver, Jiajia, the nanny, He Yu, and the Order Maintenance Department.
“Working backwards, it definitely wasn’t lost in our hands,” Zhuang Ningyu said. Since the puzzle arrived in 201, it had been guarded at all times. Although Jiajia caused a small commotion last night when she came, Zhong Mu was guarding the door the whole time. He Yu, who came upstairs later, first went to 207 to find medicine, then went to 203 to bandage the rabbit. Chu Feifei, Li Hao, and Zhou Huanchang had also only been in 203 at the time and didn’t have the opportunity to damage the puzzle.
“One step back, He Yu, also no. When the nanny gave her the puzzle, we were all there. She only held it for less than two minutes, and it was still tied with a ribbon.”
Pushing further back, it was uncertain. The puzzle was already opened when the nanny brought it. As for who opened it—the gift-giver, Jiajia, the nanny, or even Grandpa—it was hard to say.
“The rules won’t give an unsolvable problem,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Let’s continue doing the puzzle for now. We will definitely find the last piece.”
Night fell again.
Qing Gang was already very familiar with the pre-sleep routine. Without needing his leader’s instructions, he took the rabbit and left. Zhuang Ningyu stood by the window. For some reason, he always felt that there must be a secret hidden in room 301, the one with the tightly closed curtains, a secret related to the missing puzzle piece.
Yi Ke applied, “Should I go in and take a look?”
“Let’s talk about it during the day. The curtains of 301 are very transparent. It’s too conspicuous to turn on the lights at night,” Zhuang Ningyu said, turning to walk towards the bathroom. “Let’s rest first.”
The bed still smelled of peach body wash.
Zhuang Ningyu leaned against the headboard, uploading today’s work report. He also threw a pillow in front of Yi Ke, blocking his loving gaze. “Sleep!”
“…Oh.”
