Winter Returns

Chapter 144 Chilling (Bonus Chapter 1)

Zhang Shutong turned around:

"What did you find?"

“It’s almost exactly what you said,” Lu Qinglian said in a low voice. “It appeared on December 16, 2008, and disappeared on April 4 of the following year, almost four months later.”

“But this time it appeared on December 5th?” He leaned against the door frame. “There’s no pattern at all.”

"It happens about once every four years, but of course, the sample size is too small now."

"Do you have any similar legends in your temple, about four or eight years?"

"No."

"We've reached a dead end." Zhang Shutong remained silent for a long time. "If you have any more intelligence, it would be best to exchange information."

Zhang Shutong knew her hopes were destined to be dashed. Lu Qinglian came here hoping to find out about the "fake Lu Qinglian," but Lao Song had only met his ex-girlfriend and Gu's mother, and couldn't find any clues about that thing even in the notebook.

It's very likely that you're the only one who has ever met that person.

"nothing to say."

Lu Qinglian's voice carried a hint of weariness, suggesting some disappointment. She was usually quite reserved, but careful observation always revealed some clues:
There is only one mural.

She gave a brief description, and Zhang Shutong thought for a moment:

"It's not quite clear just by talking. Could you take a picture if you have a moment?"

"Photography is not allowed inside the temple."

"Don't you have a lot of rules in your temple?"

“That’s one way to understand it.” Lu Qinglian seemed reluctant to elaborate. She added, “But we can draw a conclusion that December 12th should be a special day. On this day in 2010, someone wrote a sentence, ‘It’s been three years already.’ I think it’s the anniversary of the death, or the date of the funeral that year.”

“Today is December 12th,” Zhang Shutong said, frowning.

"Perhaps it's just a coincidence."

Zhang Shutong also said:
"If the records in the murals are accurate, can I interpret it this way: if the body of the deceased is sent into the restricted area, then the 'mud figures' will appear?"

"Yes."

“But if that’s the case, Lao Song’s girlfriend’s funeral was on December 12th, and he first saw the clay figure on the 16th. Wasn’t she already buried? And cremated?” Zhang Shutong said. “I can’t just say that if I put the urn in a restricted area, the clay figure will still appear…”

“They might not be cremated,” Lu Qinglian interrupted. “In some parts of the island, the custom is burial, and there’s no crematorium here.”

This was the first time Zhang Shutong had heard of such a thing. He wasn't a local and knew very little about the island's customs.

What about water burial?

"It used to exist, but it has almost disappeared now, but the possibility of it still existing cannot be ruled out."

"Since the restricted area is right by the lake, could it be that someone accidentally buried their body there as a result of a water burial, and that's how the mud figure came to be?"

Lu Qinglian remained noncommittal.
"Whether it was unintentional or premeditated, it's possible. You should think about Gu Qiumian's mother."

“That makes sense, a big boss wouldn’t bury his wife by the water…” Zhang Shutong muttered to himself, “So what we can be sure of now is that at least a body is needed?”

The body of someone who has already been buried appears by the water, which means...

Zhang Shutong's expression hardened:
"Did someone dig up the body after the funeral?"

If that's the case, then everything makes sense. Although the cause of the clay figures is still uncertain, the clay figures are far from the end point, nor are they an accidental coincidence.

There is another person behind this, who dug up the bodies, whether it was Lao Song's girlfriend or Gu Qiu Mian's mother.

Regardless of who this person is, the urgent task is to confirm this hypothesis.

Thinking about this, Zhang Shutong hesitated for a moment, but still said:
"Actually, there is a way to confirm our guess."

Lu Qinglian gently nodded her chin:
"To the cemetery."

—It means going to the cemetery.

If the deceased were to revive, their bodies would no longer be in the coffins.

However, breaking ground and exhuming a coffin is considered a desecration of the deceased in universal beliefs, and neither side would easily agree to it.

Zhang Shutong couldn't possibly sneakily pry open the coffin with the idea that "I'm doing this for your own good," especially since it was daytime and the two of them couldn't just run to the cemetery and dig up the soil. There were grave keepers in the cemetery, so this matter had to be discussed in detail later.

Zhang Shutong was increasingly troubled:
"Let's talk as we walk."

He gave a greeting, and this time he was more careful, breaking the lock off the window.

There's nothing left to check in the dormitory.

He left the dormitory first, while Lu Qinglian silently looked at Lao Song's ex-girlfriend's photo for a while, seemingly lost in thought.

As Zhang Shutong entered the corridor, the sky darkened in an instant.

Just a few minutes ago, the weather here was sunny, but now a thin layer of dark clouds hangs over people's heads.

The wild grass downstairs rustled in the wind, and a few blades of grass swirled and flew into the air.

He waited for Lu Qinglian to lock the door, and the two of them went down the stairs one after the other in silence.

Zhang Shutong had always wanted to ask her what the real Lu Qinglian was all about, and what she herself thought.

But Lu Qinglian never brought this up. This trip was fruitless for her, and the last remaining clue was lost. She probably wasn't in a good mood.

Zhang Shutong only knew that the current cooperative relationship was very good, and since he had lost the ability to act, having Lu Qinglian by his side would make things much more convenient.

But the most important thing is not just having a teammate with super strong combat skills—it's that he no longer has to keep so many things bottled up inside, and having someone to talk to always makes him feel better.

Therefore, even in order to maintain the cooperative relationship, Zhang Shutong wisely chose to keep quiet.

He then brought up another matter:

Where did you learn to ride a bike?

"There's no need to learn something so simple," she said dismissively.

"But you even ask how to eat an Oreo..."

Lu Qinglian's eyes sharpened:
"Zhang Shutong, if you can tell that I don't want to talk right now, please be quiet."

Okay, she does react when she's in a bad mood.

Zhang Shutong fell silent, but Lu Qinglian coldly added:

"Also, you'd better think carefully about how to explain this to your homeroom teacher."

"Explain what?"

"You've already skipped half a class."

Zhang Shutong glanced at her phone and realized that half an hour had passed since lunch break ended. It wasn't just skipping class; it was almost time for get out of class to end!

He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine:
"What was the first lesson again?"

"English."

Zhang Shutong's eyelids twitched, and he thought something terrible was about to happen.

English.

This is the class taught by our new homeroom teacher, Ms. Xu.

Then, the two students who were chosen as "role models" in the morning skipped the first class in the afternoon.

Besides, the other party doesn't like him.

He regretted not asking the driver for a receipt. By the way, can an ambulance issue a receipt?
In short, this incident taught him that life is not just about the present hardships... no, it should be that life is not just about the unsolved case at hand, but also about the explanation he needs to give to his homeroom teacher.

Zhang Shutong suggested:

"Let's think of an excuse in advance so we can look out for each other."

These words were met with a refusal from Lu Qinglian:

"no."

"I almost forgot, you have a special attraction to middle-aged women." Lu Qinglian said calmly.
"No, because I'm the class monitor, so I can write down your name directly."

"No, that's a bit cruel..."

“I’ve wanted to ask this since this morning,” Lu Qinglian said, cutting to the chase, “What exactly is this ‘Special Forces’ you’re talking about?”

Zhang Shutong didn't know how to explain it either; where did the Special Forces originate from?

Anyway, he learned about it from Pokémon, so he should ask Gu Qiu Mian about this; she's a Pokémon master.

Zhang Shutong joked:
It means that someone is very popular.

"I retract my previous assessment."

"What review?"

"You're more naive than I thought."

Zhang Shutong's mouth was slightly open as she wondered how long ago that comment was made. It seemed to be from the time she twisted her ankle. She was soaking her feet when she mentioned a classmate, saying, "Oh, that kid."

He decided to discuss some mature topics:

"Tell me, how exactly did that person disappear?"

"Even though you're immature, don't ask me for everything."

She's such a sharp-tongued woman.

Zhang Shutong was speechless.

The two stood side by side under the dormitory building entrance, thinking the conversation was over, but Lu Qinglian stared ahead and said:
"I'm also clueless, but I would suggest you narrow your focus. Trying to investigate everything will only lead to nothing."

Zhang Shutong thought for a moment:

"Can I interpret this as comfort, or perhaps admonition?"

“It’s a warning.” After saying that, Lu Qinglian glanced at the sky. “It’s going to rain, hurry up.”

As soon as she finished speaking, a gust of cold wind swept by, causing Lu Qinglian's hair to stick to her face and her green robe to sway.

The sky and earth stretched out in a vast expanse, the wind rustled the grass low, and she took a step forward, her slender figure disappearing into the overgrown weeds.

Lu Qinglian always walked very fast, and even though the wild grass around her grew up to her knees, it couldn't hide her slender legs.

Zhang Shutong took one last look at the rooftop before following her back.

Since he can't ride a bike now and needs someone's help, it would be terrible if he were abandoned.

Her foot injury hadn't healed yet, so it's hard to say whether she was walking so fast on purpose.

So Zhang Shutong couldn't walk slowly anymore; he quickened his pace and went around the side wall of the dormitory building:
One step, two steps, three steps, four steps... seven steps, eight steps, nine steps... eleven steps.

On the twelfth step, he arrived at the back of the dormitory building.

Zhang Shutong stopped in his tracks.

I looked at the dormitory building again.

“Zhang Shutong,” Lu Qinglian sighed without turning her head, “if you still don’t want to leave, I can leave the car with you.”

"wrong."

Zhang Shutong suddenly said.

Ignoring Lu Qinglian's unmoved gaze, he walked back along the side wall of the dormitory once more.

Zhang Shutong counted again.

This time it's still twelve steps.

He stared at the side wall of the dormitory building, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper, and asked solemnly:
How wide do you think this wall is?

Lu Qinglian also frowned slightly.

She seemed to have thought of something:
"You mean..."

“At least seven or eight meters, right?” Zhang Shutong spoke faster before she could speak. “That’s about the same number. It would take at least a dozen steps. But how wide is Lao Song’s dormitory?”
"It's only five or six steps, let's estimate, about three meters."

Zhang Shutong felt increasingly uneasy as he thought about it:

“I know there’s a common corridor in this building, but it’s less than a meter wide. Even if you add the thickness of the walls, let’s say it’s two meters wide, so…”

He stared at the outer wall in disbelief:

Where did the remaining space go?
Why is there not a single window on the back wall of the entire building?

Zhang Shutong stared intently at the building. It was only two stories high, built in the last century, with peeling paint on the walls and tiles still covering the top floor...

From any angle, it's just an old staff dormitory, as ordinary as can be.

Zhang Shutong felt a chill run down his spine in an instant.

The problem isn't the falling figure!
Or rather, it's not just that!

It's the entire dormitory building!
He quickly turned and rushed into the dormitory, this time with Lu Qinglian following closely behind. The two of them quickly went up the stairs and arrived at the door.

While Lu Qinglian was inserting the key into the lock, Zhang Shutong noticed more unusual things:

“This kind of dormitory is a room, as you just saw. It’s a very neat rectangle. You walk a few steps after entering and there’s a wall. It’s a building from the last century. Even if they didn’t cut corners back then, but were actually very conscientious, the problem is, who would build a wall that’s two meters thick?”

"Even if you haven't carefully counted your steps, do you still remember the clothesline in Old Song's house? How many meters do you think that power line was?"

Lu Qinglian didn't say anything; she pushed the door open with a bang.

Zhang Shutong took in the entire situation inside the house.

Yes, on the surface it really is just an ordinary house.
He first went to one side of the wall, made a fist with his fingers, and knocked on the wall hard.

The solid cement wall responded with a heavy thud.

Zhang Shutong continued knocking along the wall, so Lu Qinglian simply pulled out Old Song's single bed, clearing the obstacle. He didn't even bother to thank her, his movements becoming faster and faster until…

We stopped in front of that huge poster.

This time, the echo was hollow.

Zhang Shutong stared at the poster for a long time without saying a word. The poster was indeed quite large, about the size of a teenager, only a head shorter than him, but the focus was not on the poster at all.

But -

There really is something hidden behind this.

If he hadn't just paid attention to his footsteps, he probably would never have noticed.

He glanced at Lu Qinglian, and Lu Qinglian returned his gaze:

"darkroom?"

"should be."

"Is it related to Teacher Song?"

"……I am not sure."

"Pry it open," she said calmly. "Nothing will happen with me here."

"it is good."

Zhang Shutong turned around and searched for tools. Soon he saw Lao Song's desk, where there was a pen holder with a utility knife stuck inside.

He didn't rush to destroy the scene, but carefully scraped the poster off with a blade. The double-sided tape on the back had already dried, so the whole process was easy. However, the wall paint was now powdery, and Zhang Shutong coughed a few times as the powder flew around.

He waved his arm to clear away the white mist in front of him and looked at the wall again.

Old Song was a heavy smoker, so the four walls had turned yellow, leaving only a blank space where posters used to be.

At the junction of the blank and yellow areas, Zhang Shutong noticed a thin crack. Although the entire wall had been painted with latex paint, running a finger across it revealed an uneven texture.

Zhang Shutong used a blade to scratch the wall, quickly carving out a clearer rectangular mark, quite obviously—

This is the shape of a door!
(End of this chapter)