Winter Returns

Chapter 132 Night Raid (Seeking monthly votes!)
The person Zhang Shutong fears seeing most is actually his own mother.

She hadn't recovered yet, but once she did, she'd definitely have a hard time.

So when the ward door was pushed open, Zhang Shutong immediately closed his eyes, preparing to pretend to be asleep.

But how could I possibly fool my own mother?

She pulled up a chair in front of the hospital bed, unusually angry:
"You don't want your life?"

Zhang Shutong lifted her eyelids slightly, then continued sleeping.

"Since you love riding motorcycles so much, your dad and I have discussed it and we'll buy you one this winter break."

"Oh right, the police also said there's a reward this time. What do you want? Mom will buy it for you."

Zhang Shutong knew this was a ploy to lure the snake out of its hole, so he wasn't going to pay any attention.

"Also, Boss Gu came to talk to us today and said that since you are so willing to be a bodyguard, he will give you an opportunity to go directly to his group after graduating from high school."

"Tongtong, you'll get five social insurances and one housing fund. Why don't you just go for it? I saw on the news that jobs won't be easy to find in the future. I thought you were a very smart child before, but this time I've realized that your brain isn't working very well. Why don't we sign a contract quickly?"

His mother's incessant chatter was getting more and more outrageous; Zhang Shutong couldn't take it anymore. He opened his eyes and said helplessly:
"mom……"

"Oh, you're awake. You weren't asleep," Mom immediately raised her eyebrows. "I was thinking that since you've been sleeping all this time, I'd make the decision for you and send you to sleep in the villa."

"I was wrong," Zhang Shutong honestly admitted.

"Where did you go wrong?"

"We shouldn't take the risk."

"Did your father and I never ask you what you wanted to do before? Back in the provincial capital, we would occasionally give you a few words of advice. But since you came to the island for junior high school, have we trusted you unconditionally? I came to pick you up as soon as you called that day. I also went to the hospital to take care of your teacher. And what did you do? You just rode your bike and acted like a hero?"

He opened his mouth, but suddenly noticed that his mother's eyes were also swollen and she looked very haggard, so he stopped talking and listened to her nagging.

"You used to be such a good kid, how come you suddenly became so wild here? If it weren't for Koji, you silly child, you would have frozen to death, you know that!"

As Mom spoke, she tried to pinch him, but her hand only rested on his arm and didn't move.

“I don’t care what others think, whether they praise or reward you, or say you’re brave, helpful, or cleverly outwitted a criminal. But you’re my only son, Zhang Shutong. What will I do without you? If I didn’t see you lying in bed, I’d want to beat you up!”

Zhang Shutong didn't say anything, knowing that her mother's anger would come and go quickly. Sure enough, after her mother nagged a few times, she picked up an orange and started peeling it.

"What kind of mind-altering drugs did you give those two girls?"

"What?" Zhang Shutong was surprised, not expecting her to jump around so quickly.

"I was talking about the girl who came today, one of them is Gu Qiumian, the daughter of Boss Gu. She stayed at the hospital all afternoon," Mom sneered. "Are you feeling pretty good now, thinking you've saved a damsel in distress? And then there's Xiaolu. I just don't understand how you convinced her to run away with you in the middle of the night. Oh right, Xiaolu told me in the car yesterday that you wrote their names together with yours a few days ago and even drew a triangle. I didn't understand what it meant at the time, but now I do. You saved one, and the other saved you. So it all connects. So you were planning this all along."

Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "I don't know how this could be such a coincidence."

He was about to speak:
"Um..."

Mom popped a peeled orange into his mouth:
"Alright, you fell off me. I can tell what lie you're trying to tell the moment you roll your eyes. You might as well tell me you have special abilities, like in the movies, like being able to predict the future."

Zhang Shutong was genuinely a bit stiff.

Mom continued, still sounding annoyed:
"Or is it that my son came back from the future and knows everything that happened afterward, which is why he risked his life to save people?"

Zhang Shutong chewed the orange mechanically.

Mom angrily pinched his cheek, then sighed.

“Why are you being so stubborn? You had a fever and almost got yourself hurt. What are your dad and I supposed to say? Are we proud of you? What if it happens again? Mom doesn’t want to get angry with you, but you don’t know how conflicted we are. You did a good deed and got hurt, so we shouldn’t let you suffer any injustice. But if we pretend this never happened, what if you take the risk again next time? I met a parent at the hospital yesterday. The child was about your age. In winter, he saw someone fall into the water and jumped in to save them. He almost didn’t make it out of the emergency room.”

She added:
"Your dad doesn't want me to talk to you much. He's planning to talk to you again in a few days. I don't care what happens between you two. Just assume your mom is short-sighted and impatient. I've been holding these words in for too long, but that's all I'll say. Let's just consider this matter over."

Zhang Shutong wanted to comfort her, but his mother gently patted his head instead.

"I don't need your comforting words. The doctor told me that you need to stay in the hospital for observation for at least two days, but you absolutely cannot catch a cold for the next month, otherwise it may leave lasting health problems. Also, your arm, although it's not serious, you absolutely cannot do any strenuous exercise for the next few months, do you hear me?"

Zhang Shutong nodded.

His mother watched him silently for a while before getting up and leaving the ward.

"I'll go home and tidy up. I'll stay here with you tonight. Is there anything you'd like to eat? I'll bring it back."

Zhang Shutong said no, but he heard his mother sniffle as she turned around, and he sighed inwardly.

There are many reasons why people shouldn't take risks, and parents are definitely one of them.

The ward quieted down, and it was already dark. He had no interest in watching TV anymore, so he lay on the bed staring at the ceiling.

He stared blankly for a while before belatedly realizing he should call Lao Song back.

Zhang Shutong reached for his phone from the bedside table, but couldn't get through; there was only a busy tone on the line, so he guessed that Lao Song was asleep again.

He inexplicably felt that he was doing quite well, with many people caring about him, while Old Song was truly miserable, alone on the island, with no relatives or friends around.

He simply left a text message.

Zhang Shutong thought he would finally have some peace and quiet while in the hospital, but the door to the ward was pushed open again after a short while. He knew it wasn't the nurse, because she would knock on the door beforehand; it could only be his mother. Had she forgotten something? Zhang Shutong had just called out "Mom" when he stopped himself.

Lu Qinglian closed the door behind her.

"I didn't expect you to come." Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, then tried to sit up straight and lean against the headboard. "Thank you for last night."

Lu Qinglian simply nodded her chin, saying nothing.

Zhang Shutong knew her temperament; she was terribly cold. He didn't say anything more. He was only able to lie here because she found him from the avalanche. It's said that the best rescue time in an avalanche is only fifteen minutes. If it had been any later, he probably would have stopped breathing.

The reason he dared to take the gamble was that the two of them had just watched a program about an avalanche on TV before the incident. So he bet that as long as the other party followed the footprints to the scene and saw the pile of snow rushing down from the mountain, they would definitely be able to guess what happened.

As expected, it was a close call but no real danger.

In the past, he would have joked, "My mom said we were very compatible, and she was right," but he had just been scolded by his mother and wasn't in the mood for that, so he only asked about the important matter:
"Has the long-haired woman been dealt with?"

"It's taken care of."

"That's good."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shutong did not breathe a sigh of relief; instead, he frowned. This made it even harder for him to guess what he had missed in the previous timeline.

"There's a chair, sit down and rest for a while. I really don't have the strength to get up, sorry." Zhang Shutong picked up an orange and tossed it to her. "How's your foot?"

"It's alright." Lu Qinglian neither sat down nor peeled the orange.

"So what exactly was that thing?" He had to keep his thoughts to himself after meeting so many people today, but he didn't need to hide anything from Lu Qinglian. "I think she's even more terrifying than you described. You saw the traces she left behind, right? She almost caught up with me while I was riding my bike. Although it was a farm vehicle and it wasn't going very fast, it was at most a few dozen kilometers."

Lu Qinglian did not answer his question, but asked instead:
"Who is that person?" Zhang Shutong choked for a moment.

“Do you remember what I said before?” Lu Qinglian said expressionlessly, “If you want honesty, you have to exchange it for the corresponding attitude.”

"Two dead."

"Who?" Lu Qinglian walked to the window. She had changed back into her green robe, her long hair loose, leaving only her back view. She seemed to be talking to herself, "Zhang Shutong, this is your last chance."

"Teacher Song's girlfriend and Gu Qiumian's mother."

“Oh,” Lu Qinglian said without any surprise, instead gently peeling the orange. “I thought you wouldn’t tell me.”

"Actually, you could guess even if I didn't say it, right?"

Zhang Shutong sighed:
"There are only two things related to that woman that have happened in the past few days: Teacher Song was sent to the hospital, and the murderer who wanted to kill Gu Qiumian. You were there when the first thing happened, so you should have heard Ruoping say that he saw someone and then ran out in a very outrageous manner. You may not know that I went to his dormitory last night, but if you pay attention, you can find some things."

"As for the second thing, there is also a loophole. At that time, I clearly picked up Gu Qiumian, but suddenly called you and asked you to change direction. Let me ask you the simplest question: why would the murderer, who could be dealt with by the bodyguard, deliberately lure her away? This means that this person must not be discovered by the people in the villa. Moreover, I also talked to you about the lock on the villa door, fingerprints, and facial recognition. Besides, you have been to Gu Qiumian's house and know that her mother is not there. It is not hard to guess."

“These things are all transparent to you. You're just missing a few pieces of information, and you'll figure it out sooner or later. On the contrary, I know nothing about the information on your side. I might as well tell you and we can exchange information.”

“You’re a bit smarter than I thought.” Lu Qinglian turned around. “One last question: Are you sure you saw me that night? You’d better think carefully before you answer.”

"I'm sure." Zhang Shutong then remembered something and asked, "The person like you hasn't been found?"

He subconsciously thought that Teacher Song's girlfriend, Gu Qiumian's mother, and the fake Lu Qinglian were all the same "thing". Could it be that they weren't?
“Found it,” Lu Qinglian simply said.

"...Can you finish your sentence in one go?" Zhang Shutong lay back down on the bed. "Now that we've confirmed that the person you're looking for is that long-haired woman, can you tell me why you're looking for her?"

“No.” Lu Qinglian parted her lips slightly.

"Wait a minute? What do you mean?" Zhang Shutong looked up again and realized that Lu Qinglian had already walked to the door. She locked the door and then walked step by step to the bedside.

The girl in the blue robe sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes expressionless, staring indifferently at him.

"It means the person I'm looking for—"

"It's you."

Zhang Shutong suddenly had a bad feeling. He subconsciously reached for his phone, but Lu Qinglian took it away lightly.

"To be precise, it's Grandma who wants to see you."

"What does she want from me?" Zhang Shutong recalled her experience in the previous timeline. She didn't know why she went to the Green Snake Temple, and afterwards she developed anxiety disorder.

Wait, has something similar happened before?
The thought suddenly occurred to him, and the answer was unknown, but he clearly remembered that not long ago on the mountain, Lu Qinglian had said, "Try not to appear in front of my grandmother, and I'm not sure how long I can keep it a secret." He didn't understand why the other party was now saying something contradictory.

Zhang Shutong then realized something else—

A question he subconsciously overlooked: what would he miss if he stayed in the county hospital for a week?

The answer is:
The very act of "meeting Lu Qinglian" itself!
After thinking it over carefully, Lu Qinglian realized that it was impossible for her to leave the island to visit him. If he went outside the island, it would mean that he wouldn't have any chance to contact her for the next week.

Zhang Shutong gripped the bed sheet tightly with one hand:

You'd better explain yourself more clearly.

"Does it need to be so clear?" Lu Qinglian asked softly. "You're all alone here now. You have no ability to resist. Even if you did, I could take you away."

"You said you were going to keep it from your grandmother. What happened after I fell into a coma?"

"That's a question I should be asking. What happened after you fell unconscious? You seem very reluctant to go to the temple." She tilted her head. "Have you had a similar dream before, or... are you dreaming again?"

Zhang Shutong stared intently at her, then suddenly relaxed:

"You did this on purpose? You've been trying to trick me into revealing information since just now."

"You noticed?" As she said this, Lu Qinglian's aura suddenly relaxed. She listlessly broke off a segment of orange and put it in her mouth.

"If you really wanted to kidnap me, you would have done it already. You wouldn't be wasting so much time talking to me." Zhang Shutong felt her back was soaked with sweat. "I know you saved my life, but please, can you not be so scary?"

"Trying to scare you? Hmm, you can understand it that way for now." Lu Qinglian stood up, chewing on an orange in small bites. "Clay figure."

"Clay figure?" Most people would be baffled by these two words, but Zhang Shutong knew that she was answering his initial question—what exactly was that woman?

He didn't know why the two words felt somewhat familiar, as if he had heard them before, yet also as if he hadn't:
"And what is a clay figurine?"

"literal meaning."

Why did it turn into those two people?

Lu Qinglian glanced at him:
"This is the first time I've ever seen something like that."

……

Inside the villa, in the study.

The man hung up the phone and wearily pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Enter."

He said something casually, and then a man in a black windbreaker came up to him. The bodyguard bent down and handed a sealed waterproof bag to the man:

"Mr. Gu, the avalanche site has been cleared. There are some plastic fragments, probably from the motorcycle." The bodyguard paused, then added, "There's one more thing, but it should also have been dropped by that student..."

Gu Jianhong took the plastic bag, which was still slightly cool to the touch, but the snow water on it had been wiped clean. He opened the seal and pulled out a piece of cardboard.

That's a photo.

The photo is soaked.

The photo shows the boy he saw in the hospital ward this morning.

However, the person in the photo can only be described as a boy, even though it is the same person, he is much younger than the person in the ward.

It was a young, innocent face.

She looked about seven or eight years old.

It's an ordinary photo, like a souvenir from a trip, with only him in the picture.

A seven- or eight-year-old boy with short, black hair smiled brightly against a backdrop of...

The port of the small island.

Gu Jianhong flipped through the photo and found four small characters written in black marker:
—Nice to meet you.

(End of this chapter)