Winter Returns

Chapter 232 Ancient Temple, Green Lamp, Alone (Part Two)
"Is it that senior student?"

Gu Qiumian asked.

Zhang Shutong carefully examined Qiu Yumian and discovered that she really had a talent for being a detective.

“Yes.” His tone quickened unconsciously. “She has a relative at the university where your wife studied. She’s planning to ask the relative to inquire with the club members from that year’s class to see how much they know about what happened eight years ago, but…”

Zhang Shutong glanced at her phone; it was already seven o'clock. Last night, her senior had said she would reply as soon as she had any news.
"It probably won't go smoothly. The earliest we can expect to get it is tomorrow. Do you have any ideas?"

"I……"

The phone rang.

The contact person, identified as "Su Yunzhi," appeared on the screen, casting a white light on Zhang Shutong's face.

Zhang Shutong glanced at his phone, then at Gu Qiumian, thinking to himself that his words seemed to have been blessed. He had just said there would be no progress today, so why did she call him? It made it seem like he was deliberately lying.

The night wind was too cold, making his scalp tingle. Zhang Shutong answered the phone.

"Good evening, junior. Have you eaten? Is it convenient to talk now?" The senior's gentle voice rang out.

"...It's convenient, what's wrong?" Zhang Shutong felt a familiar fragrance enter his nostrils.

"There's been progress on the matter you asked me to inquire about."

The aroma suddenly faded considerably.

Zhang Shutong became serious. He noticed that although his senior's voice was as soft and gentle as usual, there was no laughter in it; instead, there was a hint of distress.

“My cousin found the alumni directory this morning and should have called you back earlier, but there’s a problem here. Well, should I say there’s progress or no progress? She tried to contact three people today, but couldn’t reach any of them.”

"No one answers the phone?" No wonder the senior was distressed; she was really unlucky.

"You can't say that. Only one person's call didn't go through, another answered, but after a few sentences, it turned out they were from another province. Maybe the telecom company re-released the number. The last one was a bit strange. My cousin said she only gave her identity and purpose before the other person hung up. I can't say for sure if the person on the other end was actually them. Maybe they changed their number, or maybe they didn't want to talk about what happened back then."

Zhang Shutong hummed in agreement.
"I understand. Any other developments?"

"That's all. I originally wanted to wait until all the results came out before telling you, but I was afraid you'd get impatient. After all, so many years have passed, and things might not go so smoothly. You'd better be prepared."

Zhang Shutong thanked him.
"I know, I'll try to figure something out."

"Okay." The senior finally smiled. "But don't be discouraged yet, maybe there will be progress tomorrow. I'll hang up now, I have to go to evening self-study..."

The phone call ended, but he could almost hear the school bell ringing. Zhang Shutong knew that evening self-study at the No. 1 Middle School started earlier than at other schools. He sighed inwardly, realizing that he had taken the matter too lightly before. Even if he could find the people from back then, it didn't mean they were willing to cooperate.

As he pondered, the fragrance wafted closer again. Zhang Shutong looked down and saw Gu Qiumian, who had also stopped in her tracks.

“You heard that…” Zhang Shutong snapped out of her daze and pointed to the phone.

"You, you—" Gu Qiumian just sighed, waved her hand, and said, "I'm leaving."

"Oh, bye..."

It wasn't until Zhang Shutong watched her car start and drive away that he remembered he could ask her for a ride, as walking in the dark of winter was no pleasant experience.

But the car had already moved several hundred meters away, and the red taillights had disappeared.

They parted ways at the school gate. Zhang Shutong lowered his head, and the streetlights above him stretched his shadow long, with another shadow appearing next to the long shadow.

“Sigh, women,” the man said, shaking his head.

"Hey, what are you lamenting about?" Zhang Shutong looked at Qingyi, puzzled.

"That's impressive," the other person sighed, hands in their pockets.

Zhang Shutong said speechlessly, "Stop showing off and get going."

"Ok."

Qingyi pushed the bicycle but didn't ride it; the two walked together for a while.

"Speaking of which, Shutong, did you keep any photos?"

"what?"

"Something like casual photos."

"...Hmm, it seems there really isn't?" Except when he was a child, his mother often used him as a model.

"Then why do you think your teacher's wife kept a photo?"

Zhang Shutong has thought about this question countless times, but the possibilities are just too numerous to fathom:
"What do you think?"

"I just suddenly remembered those two words on the back of the photo," Qingyi said thoughtfully. "It was an inspiration during rehearsal just now. You see, a play has a prologue, intermission, epilogue, and so on. What do the words 'End' on that photo mean?"

"Physical location?" Zhang Shutong thought for a moment. "They came here to have fun, right? Like visiting tourist attractions. They visited several places in one day, and the final destination was the school? The photo was taken at dusk, so the time matches up."

"But what if you're not here for fun?" Qingyi suddenly asked. "The whole thing about going to the rooftop is rather strange. Over the years, only you have enjoyed going up there. So, what were those other people doing on the rooftop back then?"

"go sightseeing?"

But the photo shows Yun, not a landscape.

Zhang Shutong immediately denied this guess. According to the homeroom teacher, the members of the photography club were sightseeing on campus. But if it was just to take a picture, why would they go to the rooftop to take it?
The two discussed it for a while, but still couldn't reach a conclusion.

"Things should be done one at a time," Qingyi said. "By the way, should we find a place to eat first?"

"I'm not hungry, are you?"

"I'm not hungry either."

"Then we won't eat?"

"Let's have a Coke."

"Okay." Zhang Shutong nodded.

That's the good thing about going out with your best friend. If it were Gu Qiu Mian, I would definitely find a place to take her out to eat. If it were Lu Qing Lian, I would be told, "Zhang Shu Tong, I don't think I've ever had a complete meal." In short, going out with a girl makes it easy to get nagged, but the person I'm with is Qing Yi.

A moment later, they stopped in front of a small shop. The glass bottles of Coke on the counter made them shudder just by holding them. The two clinked glasses heartily to celebrate their long-awaited reunion.

"I definitely need an iced cola," Zhang Shutong commented.

“And it has to be Coca-Cola,” Qingyi agreed.

After finishing their cola, they bought two packs of instant noodles. Zhang Shutong munched on them, thinking that this was a long-awaited experience. Usually after school, he would either go to the young lady's house for dinner or run around with Lu Qinglian. If he asked her if she wanted a bottle of cola, she would probably turn around and leave.

The crisp sound of slamming a glass bottle on the counter was pleasant enough; imagining crossing the street with hands in pockets was cool; making sure the jacket zipper was zipped up all the way... Zhang Shutong recalled scenes from the past, realizing that even fishing was a long time ago, but the days of drinking cola and eating instant noodles were gone forever. Actually, going to the edge of the restricted area tonight was a last-minute plan. Lu Qinglian was supposed to go with him, since their homes were in the same direction and they might have walked together for a while. But plans don't always go as expected. Gu Qiumian gave her the key, and Lu Qinglian was still at the library.

"That's impressive," Qingyi said again.

Zhang Shutong was startled and almost suspected that her best friend had mind-reading abilities.

Qingyi, however, took a card out of the instant noodle packaging:
"This kind of thing is becoming popular again now. It makes me realize how fast time flies."

He glanced at it casually, then tossed it back into the bag:

"It looks quite rare, but unfortunately I haven't played with it for a long time."

Yes, Zhang Shutong thought. They used to eat "Little Raccoon" (a type of gluttony), now they eat "Wizard" (another type of gluttony). It seems like a long time ago that they went fishing. There's something called a bachelor party, where couples get together with friends to have fun before they get married, saying goodbye to their single life. Zhang Shutong's current situation is still far from that, but that doesn't stop him and Qingyi from happily blowing bubble gum and riding their bikes towards the western suburbs of the island.

"Is this where it was found?" Qingyi asked.

"Correct."

Soon after, they stood in front of a clump of reeds. Zhang Shutong had been here a few days earlier for Christmas and found an upside-down wine bottle in the reeds, mistaking it for a prank by his best friend.

It was late at night, quiet and deserted, with the night wind whispering past their ears. They were holding a flashlight, its white beam piercing the darkness.

"Let me see..." Qingyi crouched down and carefully picked up the shards of glass from the grass. "There's no trademark or production date. What did it look like back then?" Zhang Shutong pointed to the crater next to them and said:
"It's inserted upside down here."

"To be honest, I really think it was left by a drunkard or a fisherman." Qingyi then asked, "By the way, have you ever heard of a 'time capsule'?"

"Oh, you mean to write down what you're thinking now and what you're planning to say for the future, bury it somewhere, and dig it up a few years later to look at it again."

“Yes, I actually think it’s more like this. Although Shutong, the process of finding it was quite tortuous,” Qingyi shrugged, “maybe it’s just that you dug this kind of thing out as a little episode.”

Zhang Shutong looked at it again and decided to give up for the time being:
"Indeed, the focus is still on the photo. By the way, how did you come up with the idea of ​​hiding the note here?"

This place is very close to the "restricted area," and it's clear that he's not the only one who's heard of the restricted area's reputation.

"Actually, the title came first, then the location. I happened to be reading that book at the time," Qingyi explained seriously.

"So, traveling around the world in eighty days is just the eighth stop?" Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "Is it really that simple and crude? If you had been watching Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, I would have been in big trouble."

"You can understand it this way for now."

Zhang Shutong was startled again. If it weren't for the clear and deep tone instead of the crisp voice that rang in his ears, he would have almost thought that Lu Qinglian had suddenly appeared behind him.

"Where did you hear that from?"

"I've been listening to others talk about it all day," Qingyi said, rubbing his chin. "I thought it was pretty cool, so I wrote it down as a golden quote. You can interpret it this way."

Zhang Shutong rolled her eyes, thinking to herself that she'd better not let someone hear her.

"Just kidding, trying to lighten the mood," Qingyi said with a smile. "You seem inexplicably cautious ever since you came to this area."

Zhang Shutong thought to himself, "No wonder I'm on guard. I've been stabbed twice in this area, both times in the back of my neck. It hurts so much. Not to mention all the strange things that have happened here, like the clay figure, and Gu Qiumian's..."

He suddenly felt a little disheartened; such a day was hardly the time to discuss life and death.

"Let's go back."

But as soon as he finished speaking, Qingyi disappeared into the reeds, as if she hadn't heard him, and walked straight toward the lake shore.

Zhang Shutong's heart skipped a beat, and he cursed inwardly, "What I feared most has come to pass."
"Hey, how are you!"

He shouted and started walking.

Upon hearing this, Qingyi paused in his steps, turned around, and a hint of embarrassment appeared on his usually expressionless face:
"I just suddenly thought of something, Shutong, are you being a little too sensitive?"

Zhang Shutong said irritably, "Please, even if it's an amazing discovery, can't you just say something? You seemed to be possessed just now."

"Sorry sorry..."

Zhang Shutong only regretted that Ruoping hadn't come along; if Ruoping had been here, the boy's ears would have been twisted into a pretzel.

"I still think you're being too cautious..."

"It's always good to be careful."

"Then," Qingyi suddenly asked, "do you remember why the forbidden zone is called the forbidden zone?"

Zhang Shutong thought that it was precisely because he remembered everything so clearly that he was extra careful. Forbidden Zone, Forbidden Zone, as the name suggests, means a forbidden zone for life. It was the nickname he and his close friends had given to this body of water. The Forbidden Zone certainly lived up to its name. Eight years later, he was standing here when he was suddenly killed. Not to mention the mud figure that appeared out of nowhere and Gu Qiumian's bizarre cause of death. He sighed and thought to himself that Qingyi was also carefree. The other party was not the heartless type like Du Kang.

But then Zhang Shutong realized that his best friends didn't seem to know much about any of the things that had impressed him so much.

So why do they still call this place a "restricted area"?
These things clearly happened after this nickname was born... Zhang Shutong's head buzzed.

That's right, the nickname "Forbidden Zone" existed long before it was created, but Gu Qiu Mian wasn't even murdered yet when it was coined; it was because of something else—

The story goes that over a decade ago, a boatload of university students came to the island for a visit. It was snowing heavily at the time, and they spent the whole day excitedly playing in a nearby town. By the time they reached the pier, it was already evening, and after waiting for ages, the ferry back to the island had long since stopped running.

It was pitch black and the night wind was cold. There was no point in waiting at the port any longer, and there were no more buses to go back. The group was racking their brains for a solution when, just when things were getting really desperate, a fishing boat suddenly came along.

It turned out that the local fishermen were kind-hearted and, seeing their plight, offered them a ride.

However, when the group was halfway there, the boat suddenly sank, and a group of college students drowned in the lake. The place where the boat sank was the waters in front of them, which earned it the nickname "forbidden zone".

The case of the college student's shipwreck!

Eight years later, he came to the island to attend Lu Qinglian's funeral and remembered mentioning this "legendary" story in a casual conversation with Du Kang.

The key point is that it was more than ten years ago!
Zhang Shutong had made a simple calculation about when it happened. This year is 2012, so it must have happened more than ten years ago, at least at the end of the last century. It was too far away, and the truth could no longer be verified. Therefore, he did not take it to heart. There are always similar strange stories near the lake.

But Zhang Shutong forgot one thing:

The phrase "more than ten years ago" refers to myself eight years from now!

And more than a decade or so before 2020, it was precisely—

2004 years.

“You mean…” Zhang Shutong asked in surprise.

“Yes.” Qingyi nodded. “It all seems to match up: winter, a group of college students visiting the island, and photos that the photography club is missing.”

“But your wife passed away in a car accident a few years later.” Zhang Shutong frowned. “If it’s that rumor, didn’t it say that everyone on the ship drowned?”

“But she’s alone in that photo too.” Qingyi raised an eyebrow. “In fact, it explains why only this one photo was left.”

Zhang Shutong remained silent for a long time. But if that's the case, was the college student's boat sinking really an accident caused by severe weather? If not, what role did Yun play in it?
Then Zhang Shutong remembered the phone call he had received not long ago. His senior said that she had asked someone to find three alumni, but she could not contact them. Two of them had changed their numbers, and the other seemed unwilling to cooperate. But at this moment, the meaning behind those words resurfaced in his mind. He and Qingyi exchanged a glance, both of them able to see the astonishment on each other's faces.

A chilling guess rose in my mind.

It's not that none of the students from the photography club back then have been contacted; to be precise—

No one survived.

……

Around 8 p.m., when he got home, he lay in bed, still thinking about the matter. Qingyi said that sometimes reasoning should be more imaginative and not get bogged down in details. Zhang Shutong agreed with this view in a sense. The time, place, and even the identities of the two events were surprisingly similar, but they were only similar in outline. In fact, all the details were wrong.

What concerned him most was the role played by a woman named Yun.

Zhang Shutong had an idea when a wave of hunger washed over him.

He hasn't eaten yet. Qingyi may or may not have eaten, but at least they didn't at the time. When they returned from the restricted area, they were still immersed in the indescribable shock and had no intention of doing anything else. They waved goodbye and went home, and it's been like that ever since.

He sat up in bed, intending to go to the kitchen to find something to eat. He remembered that his mother had recently bought a bag of bread and some sausages, which would have been enough for a meal. However, when he opened the cupboard, he discovered that the few ingredients they had kept at home had all been used up on Christmas Day.

There wasn't even a single packet of instant noodles.

He sighed, hesitated for a moment between going out to find food and going to sleep hungry, and finally chose the former.

Zhang Shutong felt it was still very late before she could fall asleep, so she decided not to force herself to stay awake.

He went out in the night breeze, naturally riding his bicycle, and found an open supermarket on the edge of the city.

The night wind outside carried a sense of loneliness. The supermarket was dimly lit, and the shelves on the back were covered in dust. He clutched the bread, biscuits, and sausages to his chest. It was already a substantial dinner. Zhang Shutong didn't look for a restaurant, not because he was unrefined, but simply out of habit. This was a habit Zhang Shutong had developed long ago. Back then, he could only go out at night. Sometimes, tired of takeout, he would put on a mask and hood and find a convenience store to buy some bread nearing its expiration date.

As he left the supermarket, the night wind picked up. He breathed on his hands to warm them; he'd forgotten his gloves and his fingers were numb with cold. He needed to hurry back. Zhang Shutong thought to himself, trying to find humor in the situation, that this was probably the downside of traveling with his best friends. Everything has its pros and cons. Best friends can go crazy with you and have a lot of fun, but like when they used to fish until midnight and were starving, they wouldn't care if you'd eaten or not; they'd fight over any bread they could find.

As Zhang Shutong was about to reach the entrance of the residential area, in an area without streetlights, he vaguely saw a figure standing by the roadside.

The figure was moving at a considerable speed, but what was most peculiar was that it was extremely bloated, with a slender upper body and a very fat lower body, resembling a cone. Most importantly, its long hair was disheveled, making it look like a female ghost.

This is not good.

For the sake of the island's peace, he thought for a moment, gently squeezed the brakes, picked up the flashlight, and decided to risk his life.

Who knows——

“Zhang Shutong,” the “bulky” female ghost carrying a plastic bag sighed, “why did I run into you here?”

(End of this chapter)