Winter Returns

Chapter 187 Gathering and Scattering (Part 2)

Zhang Shutong subconsciously pressed the pause button.

Foxes, foxes again...

That sad fox...

He then picked up his phone and dialed Qingyi's number.

Beep beep, beep beep.

"How are things on your end? It just suddenly hung up?"

"..." Zhang Shutong saw the goosebumps on his arms and felt his throat tighten. "That day when we went to clean up the debris in the tunnel, what happened after Ruoping went home? I mean, that night, what happened to her?"

"Let me think... After I finished eating, I wanted to go check on her, but I knocked on the door for ages and no one answered. The lights were still on in her living room... So I called you to ask if you two were together, remember?"

"I remember." Zhang Shutong subconsciously stood up from her chair; these events matched her memory perfectly. "And then?"

Qingyi recalled:

"Then……"

Zhang Shutong gripped her phone tightly, subconsciously holding her breath.

A clear, melodious voice slowly rose from the other end of the microphone:

"I called Du Kang again and found out that he had gone out to eat with Ruoping's family."

Zhang Shutong's mind went blank for a moment.

He was now completely certain of his guess.

No wonder Qingyi knew nothing.

No wonder he and Feng's mother both felt that nothing had happened.

No one lied, but—

Du Kang's whereabouts have changed!

Instead of going to see Ruoping with Qingyi, he went out to eat with her family.

The timeline has changed!
"And before that?" Zhang Shutong pressed, "What was Du Kang doing that day?"

"He helped out at the restaurant, so he couldn't come to the tunnel with us. Then, Shutong, you went to the restaurant to look for him once at noon, I think that's how it was?"

That's it.

Everything was exactly as he remembered. He had run to the restaurant and met Du Kang because he saw Su Yunzhi that day, without any difference. But Du Kang's whereabouts changed at that time of night.

Then he and Ruoping broke up.

And all of this is very likely related to that sad fox.

Zhang Shutong felt a chill run down his spine when he recalled that eerie children's song.

The last line of the lyrics confirms that the past has been changed.

So what does "a pair of ears and a leg" refer to?
The former is Lu Qinglian's ear, but what about the latter? Whose leg is it?
"Hey, Shutong, can you hear me?" Qingyi asked.

"Which of us has an injured leg?"

"Legs...you mean the four of us, nothing like that happened, right?"

"What about people you know?"

"It doesn't seem like it. What do you mean?"

"Just like Lu Qinglian's ears..."

Before Zhang Shutong could finish speaking, a hoarse voice suddenly came from behind him:

"It's okay, don't cry, it'll be alright—"

He immediately turned around and looked down at his feet, where the parrot was happily mimicking what it was saying in its cage.

"What happened on your end?" Qingyi asked hurriedly.

"No, it was at Ruoping's house. It was a parrot. I don't know why it suddenly started squawking and then it died..." Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment before remembering that Ruoping had said that her parrot was extraordinary. Not only could it mimic speech, but it could also remember the next sentence after you said the previous one.

So… he frowned. What did that sentence mean?
It sounds like Ruoping once mentioned Lu Qinglian's ears to her parents, and was then comforted by them.

Did the parrot pick up similar keywords from his mouth before it could utter the next sentence?

Zhang Shutong thus had an idea.

"……leg."

The parrot stared at him with its eyes open.

really.

He then probed further:
How are your legs?

The parrot remained silent. He tried several combinations, and the parrot began to mimic his words. Zhang Shutong wondered if the parrot was too stupid or if Ruoping had never mentioned the relevant information to it.

Zhang Shutong was somewhat disappointed. This parrot was like a phonograph; you needed the correct password to open it. But that was the best guess, and it was also possible that it hadn't recorded any sounds at all.

Zhang Shutong let out a breath and stopped worrying about it.

He put his headphones back on, ready to listen to the children's song again to see if he could find any other information. Zhang Shutong pressed the replay button, and after a brief silence, a cheerful and lighthearted melody began to play.
"Looking and looking for friends..."

Zhang Shutong suspended it.

He held his breath and continued playing.

"Found a good friend..."

time out.

Up to this point, it's just an ordinary children's song. If you have to say anything unusual, the only thing that's unusual is the faint electrical sound mixed in with the background noise.

The lyrics were repeated, then the static increased, and the female voice became more ethereal, indistinct, as if she were right next to your ear, yet also very far away.

"I searched and searched for the fox, and found a little fox. I saluted and shook hands, and it looked at me sadly..."

"One pair of ears, one leg, change lies hidden in the past."

"I searched and searched for the fox, and found a little fox. I saluted and shook hands with it, and it looked at me happily..."

"..."

"..."

What... there are more?
Zhang Shutong was jolted awake.

He hadn't misheard; the lyrics were no longer sad, but cheerful, instantly reminding Zhang Shutong of the grinning fox, and his breath caught in his throat for a moment.

"Feeling anxious? Take a deep breath, run and run, I'm really in a hurry!"

The woman's voice, which had been somewhat melancholy a moment before, became cheerful. But Zhang Shutong didn't even have time to delve into the meaning of the lyrics. Instead, an unbelievable idea popped into his head: the song didn't just mention one fox, but like that rock wall, there were five!

He didn't even bother to press the pause button; he just wanted to confirm his guess immediately.

"I searched and searched for the fox, and found a little fox. I saluted and shook hands, but it looked at me fearfully..."

Cover your eyes and mouth, don't tell it the secret~

The third one.

"I searched and searched for the fox, and found a little fox. I saluted and shook hands, but it glared at me resentfully..."

"The dead rise up, drops of blood dripping down their faces."

The fourth one... Zhang Shutong clenched his fist. "Then next is—"

"I searched and searched for the fox, and found a dead fox..."

He pressed the pause button again.

Dead fox?
The five foxes are five sculptures, so why is there a "dead fox" among them?
Zhang Shutong pressed play again, but the static that had been faintly present in the background suddenly increased, drowning out the lyrics.
"...Found a dead fox, not...evil...destroy...five foxes return together, the mystery will be revealed in your heart~"

Zhang Shutong tried hard to decipher the meaning of the lyrics. He seemed to understand the last line, which said to place all five foxes on the altar. But the information in the middle was overshadowed. Couldn't find it? Evil? Destruction? What was that?
The singing stopped.

All that remained in my ears was silence.

Zhang Shutong silently gazed out the window, the static crackling softly. One second, two seconds, three seconds… She smiled and said:
"That's enough for now. If you know too much, you'll never be able to go back."

At that moment, Zhang Shutong's heart skipped a beat.

Who exactly is she, and why does she know these things...? Zhang Shutong stared at the MP3 player, which was purplish-red with some scratches on its plastic casing.

Zhang Shutong initially thought it held the most important clue on this timeline, but it turned out to be the whereabouts of the five foxes. Countless coincidences seemed inevitable, yet within that inevitability, it appeared to be telling him only one thing—

That is, to find all five foxes.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting in the chair. The noisy cicadas made him look up. Zhang Shutong leaned back in his chair and stared blankly out the window. The smiling fox had been found; next up was the sad fox.

Ultimately, we need to figure out what happened back then.

He didn't remain lost for long. Forcibly pulling his attention back, Zhang Shutong filtered out a few keywords: ears, legs, Lu Qinglian, Du Kang, Ruoping, the altered past…

He typed the words into his memo, trying to piece something together, then closed the doors and windows and dialed Qingyi's number back.

"Shutong, what exactly did you find out when you went back this time?" Qingyi's tone was helpless. "You can't just hang up on me again, can you?"

"I had a guess earlier, and now I'm starting to get a clue," Zhang Shutong sighed, adding habitually, "Sorry, sorry..."

And it says:
"Du Kang, you shouldn't have used it to save me."

With a thud, the phone fell onto the table.

Silence fell.

All that remained in his ears was the chirping of cicadas. In the afterglow of the sunset, Zhang Shutong stared dumbfounded at the parrot. It was as if he had inadvertently found the key to unlocking the past, but this answer made his mind go blank.

Or perhaps it was a sudden realization.

"Du Kang, you shouldn't have used it to save me, Du Kang, you shouldn't have used it to save me..."

The parrot squawked noisily, as if it had been holding those words in its heart for a long time.

Parrots can only mimic one tone of voice, no matter what they say. But this nonsensical remark reminded Zhang Shutong of what Feng's mother had said not long ago: one day when she came home, she saw Ruoping and Dukang arguing.

Perhaps that's when the parrot wrote down that conversation.

The injured leg.

No wonder Qingyi didn't know whose leg was injured. The reason they had no clue was probably very simple: the past had been changed.

However, this alone is not enough to deduce the whole picture; in fact, it makes things even more complicated. Just then, the phone vibrated again, and Zhang Shutong picked it up to take a look.

It was Du Kang calling.

The other party actually chose to call back.

Zhang Shutong pressed the answer button, and in the silence, he could hear the other party's heavy breathing.

"You spotted it, didn't you, the fox in the doghouse?"

Du Kang said urgently, his usual cheerful demeanor completely gone.

Zhang Shutong hummed in agreement.

Du Kang apologized, saying:
"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to not return your call. I was just a little unprepared... I know you must have a lot of questions for me, I, I..."

"Are you free to speak now?" Zhang Shutong interrupted.

"It's convenient. I only came to this park because I saw your call. I found a quiet place. Go ahead and ask. I've kept this a secret for long enough, and I really don't want to keep it from you any longer." Du Kang's voice sounded relieved. "You saw Lu Qinglian today, right? What else did you find out?"

"That wooden sign, the one you wrote on."

"Shutong, let me explain first..."

“I know,” Zhang Shutong interrupted him again. “This matter is not as simple as it seems on the surface, is it? Ruoping’s leg was injured once, that’s true, right? But that history has been changed.”

"...You really did find it."

After a long pause, Du Kang seemed to have made up his mind:

"Shutong, do you believe in time travel?"

……

Zhang Shutong opened his mouth silently.

But before he could speak, Du Kang, like a long-sealed box of words being opened, began to speak without pausing:
"Whether you believe it or not, I'm telling you now, it's true. The timeline we're in now has been altered once. It's true, believe me, Shutong, I'm not lying..."

"I believe."

"I was going to lie and say I got hit by a car on my way back... Huh?" Du Kang was a little confused. "You believed me?"

"...Continue."

“Actually, you’ve already guessed pretty much.” His voice suddenly lowered. “But you and Qingyi would never guess that, on the timeline I’m talking about, Ruoping’s leg was actually amputated.”

"Amputation...?"

Zhang Shutong felt her heart skip a beat.

"It's about amputation. She was injured in an accident when she was in the fourth year of junior high school, and then she became disabled. I know your mind must be very confused right now, and I don't even know where to begin... The fox, yes, that fox sculpture, Shutong, don't underestimate that sculpture, it's a fox that can change the past!" Du Kang said urgently, "No matter how unbelievable you think it is, I can tell you with certainty that I used this fox to change the past on the night of December 16th, the day you guys went to clear the debris in the tunnel! I saved Ruoping!"

How did Ruoping get injured that night?

Zhang Shutong, however, subconsciously pressed for more information.

He couldn't help but care. If his guess was correct, he would return to that night, and knowing what had happened to Ruoping was crucial, as only in this way could he prevent this accident.

“Not that night,” Du Kang said.

"What?" Zhang Shutong was taken aback.

“It happened a week later, but I can’t remember which day it was… Oh, right, Christmas. You remember Christmas, right? It’s December 25th every year, around that time,” Du Kang said. “It was on Christmas Eve, on the original timeline, when Ruoping met that man in the basement. That bastard tried to steal the fox statue, and Ruoping, trying to protect it, got her leg hit by a pile of cement…”

"Wait, wait..." Zhang Shutong's mind was in a mess. "Fox, the man in the basement? Explain yourself clearly?"

He never imagined that the timeline would progress so quickly.

"I forgot you all don't know about this anymore. Let me think of how to say it..."

“I’m asking you a question,” Zhang Shutong frowned. “I know the person in the basement. Who is he? What’s his identity?”

"I don't know. His specific identity, his motive—not just me, none of the five of us know," Du Kang said in a low voice. "Even the fact that he was the owner of the basement was something you deduced afterward..."

Zhang Shutong then asked:
"Why is the fox statue in Ruoping's hands? Shouldn't it be on the altar?"

"The one you're talking about is the smiling fox; I'm talking about the one that looks very sad, the one in the doghouse..."

"We found a second one in less than a week?" Zhang Shutong asked in surprise.

“It wasn’t us who discovered it, it was Ruoping who discovered it,” Du Kang stammered. “She discovered the fox on the night of December 16th. It was at that time that she was targeted by that man. Oh, I forgot to tell you, in the original timeline, I didn’t go to Ruoping’s place for a free meal. Instead, Qingyi and I went to her apartment building to look for her, but no one was home.”

"So what happened that night?"

Zhang Shutong just wanted to figure out why Ruoping's house was lit up but no one was home.

"Actually, we just went to eat, but we forgot to turn off the lights," Du Kang explained. "I don't know if you can understand, but eating is something that never changes. You remember, right? She bumped her head that day and went home crying. To comfort her, her mother took her to eat in the shopping street?"

"You mean the news that no one was home was just a false alarm?"

“Yes,” Du Kang replied.

"So how was she targeted?"

“Shutong, it’s actually related to you. Remember that text message…” Du Kang said something inexplicable, “Qingyi called you and said she wanted to apologize to her, and then you made up a text message. Do you remember that?”

Zhang Shutong certainly remembered; it was before he went to place the fox sculpture.

The text message said that we found a rock face with a fox carved on it, and that we would come to visit you at home later when we had time.

But after he sent the message, he realized there was no signal in the tunnel, so he put his phone in his pocket first.

“Actually, there was some signal in that tunnel…” Du Kang swallowed hard. “You sent that text message.”

Zhang Shutong's eyelids twitched.

"That night, on her way to dinner, Ruoping found a second fox. She didn't think much of it at first, but because of that text message, she ran out to look for it again halfway through her meal. She managed to get the fox back. That was when she was targeted by the man in the basement."

Du Kang remained silent for a while:
"There are two key time points that led to Ruoping's disability: one was when she was targeted by a man on the evening of the 16th, and the other was when she was injured on the eve of Christmas."

"I know you're probably wondering why we have to go back to a point in time, rather than before she got hurt. But the Sad Fox doesn't make you go back in time yourself. It's more like a wish-granting machine. You make a wish for your past regrets, and when you come to your senses, history has been changed. It's not something I can decide on my own."

"So it was only after all this changed that I learned that the fox had told 'me' to go find Ruoping for a free meal. On the way, I took the fox away beforehand, which prevented me from being targeted by that man. After that, I hid the fox."

It took Zhang Shutong a while to process the information in those words. No wonder he, Qingyi, and Lu Qinglian didn't know about the second fox in this timeline; it turned out that the past had been quietly changed.

But then he realized that these were not reasons for Du Kang to hide it. Saving Ruoping was a great achievement, and this kid should be showing off. How could he have kept it a secret for five years? Not to mention the wooden plaque with the apology written on it and his guilt towards Lu Qinglian.

And combining that with what the parrot said:
"Du Kang, you shouldn't have used it to save me."

Zhang Shutong instantly made a guess:
"So... there's a price to pay for using that fox? It's Lu Qinglian's ears?"

To everyone's surprise, Du Kang smiled bitterly:
"No, Shutong, you've finally guessed wrong this time. If that's the case... I wouldn't have kept it a secret for so long. If I had done something so despicable, I would have no face to see everyone."

"Lu Qinglian's ear injury has nothing to do with Ruoping's matter, nor with that fox. It was an accident that happened after Ruoping's amputation, although I don't know how she got injured..."

He paused here:

"That fox isn't omnipotent; it can only be used once. Once used, it really becomes just an ordinary stone. There's only one chance, only one chance... But two people were injured, so do you understand, Shutong?"

"What I did back then really meant wasn't just playing a game, or simply using that fox to save Ruoping and everything would be fine, but rather..."

This guy is twenty-one years old now, a man, so his voice is low and full of bitterness:

"pick one of two."

(End of this chapter)