Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 141: Chapter 59: The Worst Timeline

But Ruoping let loose in a rapid-fire torrent. She must have been holding these words back for a long time, because her anger grew with every sentence:

"You two were together almost every day during the second half of ninth grade, weren’t you? You kept saying you weren’t interested in Lu Qinglian, but then you went behind our backs and got with her. What were we supposed to think? Du Kang was heartbroken for a long time, wasn’t he? On one side, he had his best friend, and on the other, the girl he had a crush on. How do you think that made *him* feel?

"But he thought you were hit hard by what happened, so he kept it all inside. I still remember him showing up at my and Qingyi’s place one night with a bottle of alcohol. He was on the verge of tears but pretended to be all cool about it, saying he was voluntarily bowing out of the competition to help his best friend. I even scolded him, telling him he couldn’t bow out of a competition he was never in... So, no one blamed you back then, Shutong. But you shouldn’t have turned your back on us the second you graduated."

Ruoping seemed to be completely lost in her memories, continuing in a desolate tone:

"Her grandmother wouldn’t let her go to high school. We were all trying to figure out a solution, talking to teachers, the school, the education bureau... You were the one who should have been doing the most, but do you even remember what you said back then?

"You told us not to get involved, that you already had a plan. I thought you were just being your old self—always trying to be mysterious and keep us in suspense but ultimately getting everything sorted out. But then, just before school started, we found out you were lying. You’d tricked all of us. By the time we realized what was happening, the school year had already begun, and the best window for mediation was gone. And you? What did you do? We thought maybe you had your reasons and waited for you to give us an explanation. Hadn’t we all agreed to go to high school in town together? But when the semester started, we found out you’d just packed up and run off to the city without a word."

"Fine! I can let the high school thing go. I can even forgive you for ignoring Lu Qinglian!" She grew more and more agitated, her manicured finger pointing toward the funeral home entrance. "But why did you lie to us back then? Don’t you get it? Because of you, Qinglian never once left this island her entire life, from the day she was born to the day she died. She spent her whole life stuck in that temple!"

"And then what? What happened next? Even then, we still didn’t think you were that kind of person. We thought there must be some hidden reason. But then we went to the city and found out you were with your senior!

"So now you tell me, how do you have the nerve to offer me your condolences?"

Zhang Shutong subconsciously took a step back, completely at a loss for words.

He could only try to sort through the sequence of events:

’Starting from the second half of ninth grade, I was supposedly inseparable from Lu Qinglian. And from the sound of it, we weren’t just ordinary friends. Then, after middle school graduation—instead of going to high school in town like we all agreed—I moved to the city because of my parents’ job transfer. Not only did I break our promise, but I also lied to everyone.’

’Not only that, but when Lu Qinglian’s grandmother wouldn’t let her leave the island for high school, I supposedly sabotaged their chance to get the education authorities to mediate, effectively destroying the girl’s future.’

’And that’s not all. On top of turning my back on everyone, I went to the city and started dating my senior?’

’But that can’t be right. Setting aside the fact that I never had any romantic feelings for Lu Qinglian, just look at the timeline. I came back in December, and school started in February. In just two short months, I started a relationship with Lu Qinglian?’

’It’s true I wanted to enjoy a normal life, but surely not like this. Besides, why would I run off to the city just to date some senior?’

It was true that Zhang Shutong had once liked her, but so many years had passed that any trace of that old affection had long since faded away. ’If I’m being honest with myself, this really doesn’t sound like something I would do.’ He wanted to argue, but then he suddenly remembered the chat history he had just seen on his phone. He had just been talking with a woman named "Su Yunzhi" last night. ’What the hell is going on?’

’In just two months, I became a completely different person?’

The most confusing part was his relationship with Lu Qinglian. She wasn’t his type at all. He would have dated anyone but her. ’And why would I want to hurt her?’

But Du Kang had been on the verge of losing it just now, and Ruoping’s eyes had turned red again as she spoke. He figured his close friends wouldn’t have a reason to lie to him... ’Though, can I really still call them my close friends?’ Zhang Shutong thought with a sudden pang of loneliness. He had assumed that after starting over, he would have cherished these relationships even more, especially after finding their numbers in his contacts and feeling that faint flicker of joy.

But looking at things now, his relationships were even worse than in his original timeline. Back then, they had just lost touch for a long time, but when the childhood friends met again, they still felt a sense of closeness. Now, one was missing, one was practically an enemy, and the other, while willing to talk, sounded like a total stranger.

’Why did it turn out like this?’

Zhang Shutong lit another cigarette. He thought he was beginning to understand why his current self had a smoking habit.

His life hadn’t changed. He was still the same person who deliberately isolated himself from the world...

His best friends had become like strangers...

Lu Qinglian had still passed away in the end...

It was a complete disaster.

This life was even worse than the last one. What had he changed at all?

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