Winter Returns

Chapter 171 A Twist of Fate (Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!)
The next stop is the hospital.

They agreed to meet at the old house.

Only Qingyi and Ruoping came today. Du Kang's family restaurant was very busy, and he and his beloved Zorro were helping out. Zhang Shutong finally didn't forget his good buddy and put his family's restaurant first when recommending restaurants to his senior.

Of course, to avoid being suspected of being a shill, Zhang Shutong didn't dare to say that mentioning my name would get him a free cold dish—actually, it wasn't that he had any influence, he could only ask Du Kang for help later.

As for whether to go or not, I won't force you.

They arrived at the hospital quickly. This time, Qingyi brought a high-powered flashlight and a safety helmet from home, and Zhang Shutong also brought his tactical gloves. The group was fully equipped. Lu Qinglian went to the tunnel first to check the basement for any signs of anyone returning, while Zhang Shutong waited outside.

He met Ruoping at 9:55. The girl was wearing a white down jacket. She didn't seem very excited; she just yawned with dark circles under her eyes.

Is anxiety contagious?
Zhang Shutong waved it in front of her, and Ruoping said irritably, "Take it away, take it away, I'm so sleepy today."

I almost forgot that Ruoping was dragged here.

Some people didn't want to come but were dragged here, while others wanted to come but couldn't.

Zhang Shutong told her that he had already gotten a SIM card for Lu Qinglian.

There's no point in hiding this. Everyone knows what kind of person their mother is. It's a very ordinary thing, and Zhang Shutong doesn't want to make it too shady.

Ruoping finally cheered up a little:
"What's the number? Let me save it... 2670..."

Zhang Shutong looked at the girl and remained silent for a moment.

"You chose it?"

"She chose it herself, so what?"

"Nothing much." Ruoping gave him a meaningful look.

What about QQ?

Zhang Shutong then gave another QQ number, which Lu Qinglian had registered while they were riding their bikes earlier, under his guidance.

"The online name really is Lu Qinglian." Ruoping rubbed her eyes.

Zhang Shutong saw Ruoping delete the word "road" and replace it with "Qinglian," and then give herself a peace sign.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Shutong didn't understand why she suddenly became happy.

"We successfully took a step closer to each other."

Ruoping and Lu Qinglian were determined to be friends, so Zhang Shutong could only give a token clapping.

"It was quite a challenge," Ruoping said solemnly. "I finally achieved the two most coveted QQ accounts in the entire school before graduation."

"Why two?"

Ruoping rolled her eyes at him.

“From now on, it’ll be just the few of us on missions,” Ruoping added. “I feel much safer with Qinglian than with you guys.”

This is a bit strange, but Zhang Shutong admits it's the truth.

As Ruoping spoke, she added the suffix "comrade-in-arms" after "Qinglian".

He wanted to see his own, but before he could, Ruoping pushed him away in disgust.

While waiting for Qingyi, he saw Ruoping turn off her phone and continue yawning in the same spot.

Zhang Shutong asked curiously:

"I thought you would add her to our group."

Ruoping is the group owner; only she has this authority.

Why are you pulling her?

"Didn't you just say you were good friends and comrades-in-arms? And that it would be convenient to do things together in the future?"

“It’s different,” Ruoping said casually. “We can create another group, but no one else can be invited.”

"Is this what girls think about friendship?"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is called properly handling your interpersonal relationships. You boys are too immature; you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you."

Zhang Shutong nodded, understanding what she meant.

Soon Qingyi arrived as well.

"Hello." He dismounted his bicycle with a flourish. "Ready?"

"You seem unexpectedly excited."

"I wasn't prepared that day, but I'm fully prepared today." Qingyi patted the tail box strapped to the back of her bicycle, much more excited than when she went to the city yesterday. "Shutong, what about yours?"

"Uh... I left it at home."

The three of them went down to the basement again, and the three flashlights shone in front of them. While not as bright as day, they illuminated the surrounding scenery clearly.

They stood at the fork in the road for a while, and soon after, footsteps sounded from the right. Lu Qinglian walked over and greeted the two of them in a casual manner.

“I’ll go ahead,” Lu Qinglian said.

Without giving way, the tunnel on the left suddenly narrowed, making it difficult for two people to pass through, and even the vertical space became much lower, requiring people to bend over slightly when walking.

After Zhang Shutong broke free this time, he looked back, trying to adjust his eyes to the dim light, before catching up with the others.

The underground smells really awful.

Wednesday was a bit better. Although it hadn't been opened for a long time, there was only a musty smell inside. But recently, dirty rainwater has seeped into the tunnel, turning it into stagnant water that can't flow. Although it's almost dry, it still leaves a strong stench.

Zhang Shutong looked at the ground and saw dense white lines in a puddle of water. The lines were crowded together, rolling and surging. They were newly hatched maggots. Zhang Shutong tried to hold his breath and look away.

At this moment, Qingyi was a step slower. Zhang Shutong thought he had made some discovery, but then he heard Qingyi whisper:

"Guess why I'm late?"

"Ok?"

"I did a good deed today," Qingyi chuckled. "On the way here, a group of tourists from out of town asked me for directions. I gave them directions and told them that if they wanted to eat on the island, they could go to Du Kang's restaurant."

Zhang Shutong glanced at him. He usually had a poker face. Even when he was a tour guide leading tourists to souvenir shops, he didn't feel like a shill at all. People would only praise the tour guide for being so professional and for letting us experience the local specialties.

"How unscrupulous!" Zhang Shutong complained.

"But they are a group of students. The two we saw at the movie theater yesterday were about the same age, which made me feel a little ashamed."

"Is that so?" Zhang Shutong glanced at the ceiling. There was a vast expanse of ground there, so of course he couldn't see anything. All he could see were cracks on the concrete cave walls. He could guess who the tourist Qingyi had encountered was, but he couldn't say anything more.

Let's get back to business.

Before they were more than ten meters away, they heard the sound of water beneath their feet. The head of the group stopped, and Lu Qinglian's voice came from ahead.

“It’s blocked,” she said crisply.

"A collapse?" Zhang Shutong asked hurriedly, this was no joke.

"A low wall."

"The wall?" "See for yourself."

Zhang Shutong and Qingyi went ahead.

The two shone their flashlights and were both quite surprised, because there really was a cement wall that had risen out of thin air, occupying half of the space, and the top was blocked by some debris. Zhang Shutong initially thought that the cave wall above had collapsed, but after looking closely, he realized that although it was some concrete with steel bars, it was not the material from the tunnel.

"Was it blocked by someone?" Qingyi murmured.

“It seems…it really is?” Zhang Shutong pulled out a wooden strip from above. The wood was rotten, as if it had been taken from some furniture. He then looked at it and saw some bricks.

"Is this a wall or a platform?" Zhang Shutong frowned.

Although they look like a low wall from the outside, a platform might have been built on the ground from here.
"It's hard to tell from the sound." Qingyi knocked on the "low wall." "So what do we do?"

He was initially very excited, but now he was a little dumbfounded. His adventure today had ended in a dead end in less than ten minutes. Should he turn back now?

Zhang Shutong didn't answer immediately, but turned to look at Lu Qinglian, who nodded.

No one noticed this little gesture. He thought for a moment and said:
"Let's take it apart and take a look."

"Are you really going to tear this down?" Ruoping couldn't hold back any longer; she had been pinching her nose since earlier. "When are you going to stop tearing this down?"

“Look at all this wood, there’s quite a lot of it.” Zhang Shutong pulled out another piece of wood.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, there are two pieces of wooden furniture in the basement on the far right."

"Actually, there were more than two pieces of furniture. Did that person remove the others to block them up?" Ruoping asked in surprise.

"It's hard to say, but I think if someone lives underground, they should at least check what's on this side. Of course, it's also possible that they found it blocked and returned empty-handed."

"The question now is whether this is actually an air-raid shelter," Qingyi said solemnly.

Can I find it online?

"We couldn't find such detailed information. It only says that there are air-raid shelters under the island, and the only one that's documented is the one under the school back then."

"Let's give it a try, while there are still plenty of people around."

Zhang Shutong put on gloves, and he and Qingyi stood on either side of the tunnel. Ruoping held a flashlight, while Lu Qinglian was responsible for moving the dismantled debris behind them.

Soon the quiet tunnel was filled with voices.

"Lower the flashlight..."

"Is this okay?"

"Go down, go down... Okay, that's enough."

“There’s still a steel nail. Ouch, thank goodness I wore gloves. Be careful when you handle it… Shutong, give me a hand.”

"Three, two, one——"

"Meng Qingyi, you're dead!"

"what happened again?"

"My down jacket! I just bought it, and today is the first day I'm wearing it!"

"I already told you not to wear a white down jacket when you're working."

"What did you say?"

"I'll help you wash..."

Ruoping wasn't strong enough, so the three of them took turns working. Zhang Shutong wasn't busy for long before Lu Qinglian took over. Soon after, he took a concrete block with steel bars attached, glanced at the time, and said:
"Be careful of oxygen deprivation, go up for some fresh air first."

It's already 10:30.

He felt increasingly tightness in his chest, and if this continued, he would relapse into that illness.

The sunlight on the ground was dazzling, and the feeling of breathing fresh air again was undoubtedly wonderful. Zhang Shutong casually threw the clutter in his hands into the old house—a few pieces of concrete that were in the way were carried up by them.

Despite being very careful, the tunnel was too narrow, and clothes and hair inevitably rubbed against the tunnel walls, leaving everyone looking somewhat dusty and dirty.

Lu Qinglian and Ruoping were a little better off, but he and Qingyi didn't care about getting dirty. They found a clean spot, plopped down, and gasped for breath.

"What exactly is hidden here... that's worth going to so much trouble to block it up?" Qingyi asked, puzzled. He calmed his breathing and said, "Let alone cleaning it up, just blocking it in the first place must have been exhausting."

Zhang Shutong didn't reply. After reaching the ground, his phone regained signal, and he discovered several new messages on QQ, all from his senior:
"There really are foxes."

Then there was a picture of a fox.

The fox's ear was missing a small piece.

Zhang Shutong's eyelids twitched, and he recognized whose fox it was.

Last night, he told his senior that she could go for a walk in the mountains, saying the scenery was nice. He casually mentioned that there were wild animals up there, like foxes, rabbits, and hedgehogs. Little did he expect that she would actually go to the mountains to gather information.

In the picture, a clean, white hand is stroking a fox's fluffy head.

Even through the screen, you can feel the joy of the person who owns this hand.

But Zhang Shutong felt inexplicably guilty. Did he... introduce Lu Qinglian's fox to his senior?

No, the foxes are wild, that's what Lu Qinglian herself said.

Thinking of this, he glanced at Lu Qinglian. Lu Qinglian seemed to sense his gaze and returned it. She frowned, and Zhang Shutong turned his head away.

Qingyi is still brainstorming:
"I'm wondering if this tunnel was once occupied by the owner of that basement. When he finished his business and was about to leave, the room full of photos was unlocked. It was clearly a very important secret, but the other end of the tunnel was blocked. I'm getting more and more curious about what's hidden inside."

"Can you guys please stop being so curious?" Ruoping took some water from her bicycle and tossed it to the three of them, on the verge of tears. "I shouldn't have agreed to come on this adventure. Wouldn't it have been better to stay home and get some beauty sleep this weekend?"

"Relax, relax," Qingyi reassured her. "It'll be over soon."

You're kidding me!

Zhang Shutong also felt that Qingyi was lying to the ghosts. According to his visual estimation, they had only cleared a quarter of the space. The good news was that by shining a flashlight through the gaps, they could already vaguely see the space inside.

It's better than having several people work themselves to death moving all the clutter only to find a wall behind them.

"Young heroes, let's make a deal. How about I go and bring Du Kang over in my place? I'd be happy to help serve the dishes," Ruoping said solemnly.

"That's wonderful!" Qingyi exclaimed with delight.

"You..." Ruoping was furious. She pleaded for help, "What about Qinglian? Do you think there's any need to clean it up anymore?"

"I will stay."

Lu Qinglian always spoke very little in such situations, but her words were concise and to the point.

Ruoping sighed deeply. She had originally wanted to ask Lu Qinglian to go shopping so that the two of them could explore on their own, but she didn't expect that only she wanted to leave.

"Let's go, let's go," she said through gritted teeth, "Let's save electricity one more time, go and come back quickly!"

Zhang Shutong didn't dare to correct her, saying she was an energy-saving advocate.

(End of this chapter)