Winter Returns

Chapter 238 Deep Dive (Part 1)

Zhang Shutong then turned the page.

The fifth day has arrived.

Another landscape photo.

Forget about the fox; no one even appeared in the photos that day. It was all landscape photography. They spent the whole day taking pictures around the lake, seemingly forgetting all about the fox, and happily went out to play again.

The story ends in the evening, again with a scene set in a hotel.

But things suddenly changed.

“Look at their expressions,” Lu Qinglian said.

Inside the girls' room, Zhang Shutong saw Yun again, along with another unfamiliar girl. Surprisingly, the two girls looked completely different from their happy selves.

They had dark circles under their eyes and looked haggard.

But what happened that day?
Zhang Shutong wondered in bewilderment, "I just went out for a day, why did I turn out like this when I came back?"

A sense of weariness seemed to spread throughout the group, and gradually, those who appeared on camera showed signs of anxiety and unease.

Yun must have had her reasons for taking the camera, but the camera didn't faithfully record everything as expected. Or rather, although it recorded everything every day, it was just like looking at flowers through a fog, and the whole picture could never be guessed.

Wait, is it really every single day?

Zhang Shutong noticed the body lotion on the table in the room. It was a travel-sized travel-sized tube, about the size of a toothpaste tube. The white liquid in the transparent packaging was only a quarter full, but Zhang Shutong clearly remembered that on the fourth day, the body lotion was almost full.

Is it possible to use up all the body lotion in just one night?
Perhaps it was spilled, or perhaps several people used it together, but Zhang Shutong realized a more likely possibility—

They were "tricked" by the photographer.

This wasn't the fifth day at all, but the seventh. The photos were always in the order of morning to night, and then night to morning, leading him to subconsciously believe it was a record of each day, but in reality, it started from the fourth day after the fox was dug up:
They disappeared "out of thin air" for two days.

Was the middle photo deleted?
Zhang Shutong recalled the autopsy report, which stated that no signs of struggle were found, meaning that no major conflict had occurred within the team during those two blank days.

He pressed the page-turning button and finally saw a "group photo." Everyone was gathered in the room, as if they were having an impromptu meeting. Those whose faces were visible had anxious expressions, while those whose faces were not visible had hunched backs. Some were roaring, while others covered their faces with their hands... Through the screen, a deeper sense of anxiety and unease swept over him.

Looking back at these photos, Zhang Shutong seemed to have captured something. The first half of the trip was filled with laughter and joy, but the second half was lifeless. The turning point was that fox, the fox whose appearance is still unclear. It seemed to be some kind of ominous sign that led the journey to its demise.

Zhang Shutong flipped back through the photos, this time focusing on the scenery from the seventh day, all of which were related to the lake. If you picked out these photos, you would find that they were all taken with the lake in mind.

"Is there something unusual in the lake?" Lu Qinglian pondered.

Zhang Shutong remained noncommittal. One of the photos looked familiar to him. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a picture of the lake taken from the school rooftop. He was also a frequent visitor to the rooftop, so the photo seemed familiar.

He had discussed with Qingyi why these students went to the rooftop, and now the answer seemed to have arrived—the students went for the view. The rooftop was high, offering a panoramic view of the lake. They certainly knew how to find a good spot. Zhang Shutong took a deep breath, but he knew that they had gone out carrying that fox that day. If it was a fox considered unlucky, if those people weren't there for sightseeing, but rather—

"Are you planning to throw this fox into the lake?"

There's no mistake, lakes, all kinds of lakes, lakes from all angles, lakes at all times.

Morning, noon, dusk...

No matter how time and space change, they are always taking pictures of the lake.

Zhang Shutong compared several photos and noticed that a black dot always appeared in the lake.

He zoomed in again and again; it was a reef.

What are they confirming?
There was something he overlooked: since the college students went to the lake by boat, where did they board the boat?

Zhang Shutong dialed Officer Xiong's number.

"Right in the western suburbs?"

"West?" he asked slowly. "Is there a more specific location?"

"Let me look..." Officer Xiong said. After a while, the other party's rough voice came through the phone, "Young man, do you know there is a bus stop on the west side? It's a new stop that was set up in the last few years. That's where they boarded the ship back then. It's not far from where the ship sank."

Bus stop sign!

Zhang Shutong's mind went blank for a moment. Yes, it was that bus stop. You could take the bus from the school gate and arrive at that bus stop after eight stops. Qingyi jokingly called it "traveling around the world in eighty days."

How could he not know? On Christmas night, his best friends tricked him out of school with notes to give him a surprise.

Zhang Shutong finally arrived at the bus stop, but he not only found the note, but also found an upside-down wine bottle near the bus stop... no, he should say near the boarding point of that group of college students back then.

Hidden inside the bottle was a note with an irregular circle drawn on it, and inside the circle was a black dot.

Zhang Shutong once jokingly called that thing a map of the island, with the black dots representing hidden treasures. However, Lu Qinglian had confirmed in the library that the island's map was quite different from that circle.

Now Zhang Shutong picked up his phone and searched the map again, this time zooming in on the entire island—

The so-called "restricted area" refers to a certain body of water in the lake on the west side of the island. Because of its low-lying location and lack of sunlight year-round, the surrounding area has always been a desolate scene, with almost no trace of human activity.

Why would anyone care what a place that few people go to looks like?

Eight years ago, a group of people paid attention to it, and eight years later, the same thing happened. Zhang Shutong magnified the shape of the water area again and again, and its outline gradually matched the circle on the paper strip.

Yes, it really was a treasure map, but the map didn't depict an island; it showed a lake. And what it contained wasn't treasure, but rather...

A fox.

As expected, he had seen the salvage map of the sunken ship at the police station, but there wasn't a single wine bottle in the wasteland in the background. The investigation team searched high and low, but still couldn't find any wine bottles.

It can only be that someone let it go after this incident.

Zhang Shutong had no time to pay attention to anything else; a cold truth was gradually unfolding in his mind:
Eight years ago, a group of college students came to the island for a trip. At first, their journey was full of joy, until they dug up a fox.

Zhang Shutong is still unclear about what happened during the two days when the content was "deleted," but a simple deduction can be made:

The senior student once said that there were legends about foxes circulating outside the island, but there was only a Green Snake Temple and a Green Snake God on the island. In Zhang Shutong's landscape photos, the outer wall of the temple could also be seen. A group of energetic college students would naturally want to investigate the truth.

In the end, they chose to throw the fox into the lake and use a rock as a reference point to search for a suitable place to board the boat.

They boarded the ship, and then none of them survived.

Zhang Shutong suddenly fell silent.

Before realizing this fact, all he could think about was how to fish the fox out. The location was already determined; all he had to do was measure it on a map according to the scale based on the black dots on the note, and then compare it with the reef by the lake.

But now he's starting to hesitate. It's not a question of how deep the water is, but rather what exactly happened along the way.
Just then, the camera suddenly made a sound. It turned out that Lu Qinglian had taken the camera, and a video was playing in her hand. In the dark screen, a woman's sobbing gradually began, her grief as mournful as a cuckoo's cry of blood: "...I told you not to go with so many people, the fewer people, the safer it is, I told you..."

The video ends abruptly after only this short audio clip.

"This video is the final record," Lu Qinglian said.

They stared at the pitch-black screen, speechless for a moment.

This video, which had been circulating for countless years, suggested a possibility to him: Yun's testimony was false. It wasn't that the classmates ignored her advice and insisted on taking the boat; rather, they had already planned to throw the fox into the lake. Otherwise, why would they have taken so many photos together?

For some reason, their disagreement lay in the number of people boarding the ship, but what does it mean that the fewer people, the safer it is?

"Send me a picture of the note." Lu Qinglian stood up, but then forgot that her flip phone was completely broken, and changed her mind:

Give me that note.

"You want to catch the fox yourself?" Zhang Shutong asked in surprise.

"We should go and see."

But how do you know how deep the water is?

"If that black dot is the location of the reef, it won't be too far from the shore, and I'm a very good swimmer."

“But…” Zhang Shutong wanted to suggest contacting the police, but then he realized that even two police officers combined wouldn’t be as effective as Lu Qinglian. What if he brought a whole team? But what did those words in the video mean?
“The snow is coming soon,” she said calmly, but with an undeniable air of authority. “The lake will freeze over. If you miss these few days, you’ll have to wait until next spring.”

"Then let's go next spring..."

"The clay figures have reappeared, and there are more than one of them; there may be many more in the future."

Lu Qinglian looked directly into his eyes. A fleeting look of weariness crossed his clear, cool gaze, but it was quickly concealed.

"I may not have that much time in the future."

At that moment, Zhang Shutong understood something. He understood why she had been so taciturn since they met, and that Lu Qinglian, who was now talking to him, was no longer the girl who sat at the same table with him.

She was a temple keeper.

Yes, so many things were chasing after her: the clay figure, the fox, the truth about her mother, the island she couldn't leave...

They used to ride their bikes together to explore many corners of the island, but those days would eventually come to an end.

"Your arm?"

"The scabs will form tomorrow."

Finally, Zhang Shutong said:
"I'll prepare, but we'll agree beforehand that if it's too deep, we'll give up."

They quickly agreed on a time and place to meet. As it turns out, a matter can be discussed at length, to the point where she often adopts a tone of exasperation, or it can be very short, so short that after a few nods, Lu Qinglian leaves the observation room. She walks in the shadows on one side of the corridor, where the sunlight from the window does not reach her at all.

Zhang Shutong watched her walk away silently.

Things must be done one step at a time. While it was still early, he rode his bicycle home. There was much to prepare, so Zhang Shutong first called his mother.

"Aren't you finished yet?"

"It's probably still early." Zhang Shutong paused. "Mom, do you have any survey maps of the lake?"

"Yes, I have."

"Look at the picture I sent you, can you estimate how far it is from the lake?"

"Hmm... let me see," Mom said, an expert in this area. "I estimate it's several tens of meters long?"

It matches up pretty well.

Zhang Shutong then asked:
"Very deep?"

"I really don't know about that. Back then, when we were assessing the area of ​​the subsidence zone, we measured around the lake, but we didn't have the technology to go any further inland. But if you said there's a reef, then it won't be too deep, maybe six or seven meters at most."

"Are you so sure?" Zhang Shutong was taken aback by her mother's composure.

“Definitely, and I’m exaggerating,” Mom said. “Don’t question my expertise. We’ve measured the water quality of this lake; it’s impossible for it to have very high reefs. Do you think it’s the sea?”

Zhang Shutong thought about it and concluded that since the bodies of those college students had been retrieved, it meant that the water was indeed not very deep.

"So... is the water cold now?"

"You still want to go swimming in this cold weather?" Mom asked in surprise.

In fact, Zhang Shutong can swim. How could a child who grew up by the lake not know how to swim? In fact, he and his best friends had gone swimming in the lake before, but not in winter, but in summer. If it was only five or six meters deep, they had gone there before.

"No, I was just asking," he said vaguely.

Zhang Shutong roughly knew what to prepare. He hung up the phone and went straight to the port. At 2 p.m., he took a taxi to an outdoor equipment store.

In his memory, it was a whole street of outdoor equipment. They used to rent mountaineering gear there. As dusk fell, Zhang Shutong carried his bags and got into a taxi.

He turned around and looked at the entire trunk of contents:

Hovercraft, life jacket, life ring, diving mask, rope and waterproof flashlight... what else do you need?
Zhang Shutong even rented two diving suits, but as for more professional equipment, such as a scuba detector, it was not available in the city.

Back home, he secretly found the motorcycle keys in his mother's room. In fact, Zhang Shutong always knew where the keys were, and his mother probably knew he knew where they were too, but she just didn't want to break that tacit understanding.

He rummaged through his thickest cotton-padded coat, spare clothes, and even found a few packs of hand warmers. After finishing all that, it was eight o'clock. He ate a quick meal and wondered if he should buy some compressed biscuits, but since the two of them were only going to the lake and hadn't decided to go diving, he gave up on that idea.

That night, he lay in bed, looking at his phone screen. The contact in his QQ account had gone offline.

When they parted at noon, Zhang Shutong took her phone to a repair shop. The owner didn't dare to guarantee that it could be repaired, only saying that he would look for parts. In any case, the phone couldn't be repaired within a few days.

What is Lu Qinglian doing right now?
Are you busy with temple affairs? Or are you recovering from an injury? Or are you already asleep?
With this thought in mind, he finally closed his eyes.

12 month 30 day.

Sunday.

This day finally came.

(End of this chapter)