Winter Returns

Chapter 129 The Four-Leaf Clover Pendant Will Never Fall (Part 1)
came back.

Really back.

Zhang Shutong stared blankly at the ceiling of the ward, lost in thought.

This time, I went away eight years later without knowing why, and then I returned without knowing why.

But he didn't have time to think about the reasons. The corridor became noisy. Zhang Shutong tried to keep his mind clear and looked at the electronic calendar on the wall again.

Early Sunday morning after the avalanche.

Four o'clock.

The long-haired woman had already been taken away by Lu Qinglian.

He was taken to the hospital by Ruoping's father's car.

Before dawn.

Why did we return to this moment?

The ability to trace back can no longer be deduced according to the usual patterns, but one thing remains unchanged: it will return to an "important point" before a certain event occurred.

So where is this node?

He used to wake up on Mondays and stay in a hospital off the island for a week, but now he woke up a full day earlier.

What did I miss that day?
Zhang Shutong hurriedly got up, but as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he found that his body was no longer under his control. All he could do was move his eyes. Various tubes were connected to his arms, half of his face was covered by an oxygen mask, and the equipment was placed on the bedside table, with incomprehensible radio waves jumping inside.

He realized that he was in his most vulnerable period, having only recently escaped danger. Trying to do anything was a pipe dream. He lay on the bed unwillingly, trying to make a sound, but only managed hoarse, incoherent syllables.

Exhausted, in pain, sleepy... He knew he might faint at any moment, so he stopped struggling, lay on the bed, and exhaled a breath of stale air.

What exactly was that matter?
Soon a doctor ran over and saw the doctor take out a flashlight and then roughly pry open his eyelids. He instinctively tried to close his eyes, but the doctor held his eyelids firmly, and then a beam of light shone into his eyes.

"Can you hear me? If you can, open your mouth."

Zhang Shutong moved his lips.

Then the other person pressed on his upper eyelid, causing him to wince in pain, and then pulled his hand... After a series of examinations, Zhang Shutong was so exhausted that he was almost unconscious again. Only then did the doctor instruct the nurse behind him:

"Everything is normal, he's finally out of danger. The child is just too weak and needs to rest. Don't let his classmates get close, and just let his family know."

"it is good."

The doctor left, and the nurse came to the bedside.

It's that little nurse.

The nurse blinked:
Do you still remember your name?

"open……"

"Just remember."

"I haven't finished speaking yet..." Zhang Shutong thought weakly, "What if I say my name is Zhang Jiahui?"

He couldn't believe he was in the mood to joke, but for Zhang Shutong, nothing was more joyful than returning after eight years.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" the nurse asked, noticing that his eyes were still open.

“Qingyi…”

"Who? Your classmate? The girl you brought back?"

The young nurse was a chatterbox; her questions didn't stop her from walking to the ward door.

"Who is Qingyi? Your classmate wants to see you?"

Zhang Shutong couldn't see the situation at the doorway clearly, but he could tell from the sounds that there were many people there: Ruoping, Gu Qiumian, and Qingyi. Ruoping seemed to be holding up her phone with the speakerphone on, and a woman's anxious voice could be heard from inside.

His thoughts were all a beat slower. By the time he realized it was a call to his mother, a teenager had already walked to his bedside.

The other person sighed and brought their ear close to their mouth:

"I am listening."

"Gu...Qiumian".

"You want to see her?"

“Send it back.”

Qingyi thought for a moment:

"I understand. You mean send her back before her family finds out?"
Zhang Shutong couldn't nod, but could only roll his eyes.

"Is there anything else you want to explain?"

"...Don't leave the island."

"You mean you'll stay here?"

"Ah."

"anything else?"

Zhang Shutong closed his eyes.

It seems that Qingyi closed the door behind her when she left.

This time, the ward fell completely silent.

He opened his eyes again, looked at the ceiling, and wondered if there was anything he hadn't had time to explain.

But Zhang Shutong racked his brains and could only think of these two things. Since it was four in the morning, it meant that Gu Qiumian had not called her father yet, and the people in the villa had not gotten up yet. Then, he had to stay on the island, even if he couldn't move in the hospital.

Zhang Shutong was eager to receive Qingyi's reply. The reason she contacted Qingyi first was because Ruoping and Gu Qiumian could be a bit emotional at times.

He actually wanted to ask his mother for help, but they couldn't explain it clearly over the phone.

These two things are both difficult and easy. Zhang Shutong tried hard not to sleep, but her eyelids kept closing.

His consciousness vanished.

……

A pitch-black snowy night.

Zhang Shutong returned to that mountain road.

He twisted the accelerator and plunged into the middle of the road, but the avalanche did not occur as expected.

Instead, he and his bike both fell to the ground.

The long-haired woman approached step by step.

To make matters worse, the motorcycle landed on top of him. He tried to break free, but the motorcycle was so heavy that he couldn't move it no matter what he did, and gradually he began to have difficulty breathing.

Damn damn damn!

He tried with all his might but couldn't push the motorcycle away. Finally, the long-haired woman walked up to him.

Zhang Shutong was awakened.

He was panting heavily when the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.

For a moment he was in a daze.

where is this?

Hospital?

Yes, I've returned from eight years later. After explaining some things, I fell into a coma again, but I'm safe now.

This thought made him feel completely relaxed.

A ray of sunlight playfully slipped into my eyes.

He seemed to have finally said goodbye to that snowy night. His senses began to clear. Everything was quiet. He smelled the disinfectant in the ward and found a familiar scent in it.

Zhang Shutong smelled the scent on Gu Qiumian.

He was insensitive to smells and couldn't distinguish whether a body odor was perfume, shower gel, or body lotion, but he remembered exactly what Gu Qiu Mian smelled like.

If sunshine has a scent, then its scent is the warm and moist aroma of sunshine after the rain. It can be very vague; who knows what sunshine smells like? It might be the smell of mites that have died in the sun. Or it can be very specific: the scent of soil, plants, and dust, all of which have a unique fragrance after the rain.

Zhang Shutong looked up and saw Gu Qiumian lying on the bedside table on the clean white striped sheets.

It was daytime, and she seemed to be asleep. Her eyelashes trembled slightly with her breathing. Outside the window were trees, and the wind blew, causing the branches and leaves to sway. Sunlight shone through the gaps in the trees, dancing on her hair.

A four-leaf clover hair ornament hung from the end of her hair.

Zhang Shutong also learned how the motorcycle that was pressing down on him came to be.

What wasn't a motorcycle was actually Gu Qiumian.

Zhang Shutong moved his fingers, trying to push Gu Qiumian's head away, but he couldn't. His left arm was in a brace. Oh, he remembered, it was a fracture.

Could it be that I didn't die from the avalanche, but was crushed to death by Gu Qiu Mian herself? That would be truly tragic.

He suddenly sighed, thinking to himself, "You're such a worry, I even had a nightmare because of you."

Zhang Shutong didn't wake her; he looked at the electronic calendar:

Sunday, December 9th.

13 points.

It was Sunday noon.

Zhang Shutong breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes again.

I woke up a third time when my mom called me.

The sunlight wasn't as bright as it was at noon.

Gu Qiumian is gone too.

It's afternoon.

When his mother saw him, her eyes were a little red. She said it was all her fault for leaving him alone to go out on the island to play. Zhang Shutong said it was okay, Mom, look, I'm fine.

He raised his hand, but found it wasn't very convincing.

Mom felt sorry for her, but Dad eventually pulled her away and ruffled his own hair.
"Take good care of yourself and get well soon."

That afternoon, Zhang Shutong met with many people.

You truly feel that you are sick, not because of how physically uncomfortable you are, but because of the many people who come to visit you.

His close friends came to visit him together, and he first met Ruoping.

"We knew we shouldn't have gone through all this trouble for you." Ruoping felt terrible. "We should have just let you stay in the hospital yesterday; instead, we made things worse for you."

He told me not to worry, that I would take my medicine properly and follow the doctor's instructions this time.

The doctor said he was not in a good condition to be disturbed, so everyone spoke very little.

Du Kang was the second, and he said:
"How come you fell down too, buddy? Don't go alone next time, call us if you need anything."

Zhang Shutong said he understood and would try to ask for their help next time he needed it.

“Actually, the area outside the Second Ring Road is really not a good place,” Zhang Shutong said after a long pause.

"What do you mean?"

"But the rooftop is nice too, you can enjoy the breeze and drink beer, maybe there will be a chance in the future."

Du Kang muttered, "Oh no, Shu Tong has gone crazy in her sleep," and went out.

The last one is Qingyi.

Zhang Shutong earnestly advised that if you find a suitable girl, you should quickly pursue her and stop worrying about things like Kamen Rider and Ultraman.

"This is none of your business, Shutong, teaching me this kind of thing." Qingyi sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I just remembered something. Didn't Gu Qiumian go back? Why was she still here this afternoon?"

"Oh, it's a long story. It was Ruoping's father who delivered it. I went with him. She called the nanny, and the bodyguard was asleep in the car, so they got into the house smoothly. It was probably in the morning. She then told her family that a classmate was hospitalized and she wanted to come and visit. Ruoping and I stayed there all morning, but we couldn't stay awake any longer, so we went home to sleep. Gu Qiumian stayed there all afternoon, but you weren't awake, so she went back and said she would come again in the afternoon. That's about it."

"Thank you very much."

"No need to thank me. I didn't do anything, nor did I act as a mediator. Actually, I thought it would be a very troublesome situation, but as soon as I left the ward, I told her that Shutong had something to say to you. She asked me very seriously what she could do. I told her that Shutong wanted you to go back, and she went back. Actually, you think too much about her impulsiveness."

Zhang Shutong nodded and said:
"Sorry, I broke your motorcycle."

"Actually, it's not broken, only the rearview mirror is shattered."

"So tenacious."

"You're quite tenacious too." Qingyi paused. "It seems you're becoming a negative example."

"What do you mean?"

"He rode his motorcycle out to play in the middle of the night and got buried in the snow. He'll probably become an example in this year's winter vacation safety manual, like, 'Zhang from class X did such and such a thing.'"

"Whatever, I'm definitely not writing a review." Zhang Shutong was a little tired.

Qingyi peeled an orange:
"But you probably encountered something really scary, right?"

Hey bro, is chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) really that all-powerful?
“I looked at the motorcycle’s rearview mirror. It wasn’t a crash; it looked more like I was… beaten by someone.” Qingyi ate an orange, lost in thought. “Actually, it wasn’t just the motorcycle. You were unconscious near the villa. Where did you ride to the villa? The trail along the way, the other person’s footprints, the shards of the mirror, and the location of the avalanche are all far apart. Shutong, don’t think you’ve kept it a secret.”

"You know it all?"

“Let me correct you, it’s us,” Qingyi said. “I know Ruoping knows, Dukang knows, your aunt and uncle know, Gu Qiumian knows, and even her father knows. We can’t be unsung heroes this time.”

(End of this chapter)