Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 148: Chapter 62: The "Cold-Blooded" Line

The nail salon was still there. It was certainly strange for a man to walk in, but he knew a little trick. He paid and told the clerk, "I’m not here for a manicure. I just want to lie down on one of your lounge chairs for a bit."

The young clerk gave him a strange look and nodded.

Of course, it wasn’t the same person as before; staff turnover in these kinds of shops was high. But he didn’t really care where they had all gone. The young clerk was nice enough. Since the shop was empty, she simply led him to a cubicle in the back. The cloth curtain that used to hang there had been replaced with a door. Zhang Shutong lay on the lounge chair, his eyes open, aimlessly scrolling through his phone.

He opened his photo gallery and quickly scrolled through the pictures. He had rarely taken photos over the years, nor did he save any from the internet. Most of what he had was work-related.

He had switched to an Android phone now—one with an edge-to-edge screen and tons of features. It could satisfy all of a modern person’s needs for entertainment, food, clothing, and travel. Yet for some reason, he found himself missing that old iPhone with its 3.5-inch screen.

He was searching for anything his other self in this timeline might have left behind.

’Monotonous takeout orders, a few e-books, downloaded music... This guy was a complete bastard.’ Zhang Shutong couldn’t understand why his other self would have wiped every trace of anything related to the cases.

He even tried the "Private Space" feature—a special function on Android phones that opens a different system based on a different fingerprint. But unfortunately, there was only one system.

But to Zhang Shutong’s surprise, he found a hidden album. He tapped on it excitedly, only to be somewhat disappointed.

There were only two photos. One appeared to have been taken inside a temple where the light was dim. The temple enshrined a statue of a Cyan Snake, which reminded him of the tattoo on his arm. On the altar below the statue, besides a few flickering candles, sat several small figurines. Their faces were all turned toward the camera, each one indistinct and faintly sinister.

Zhang Shutong zoomed in and saw they were little clay figures. These figures had no facial features, only blurred faces.

He didn’t know what custom this was, but he recognized it as the Cyan Snake Temple. ’Looks like my other self has already been there.’

After a moment, Zhang Shutong looked at the second picture. It was a photo of a girl. The discovery made him freeze, the movement of his hand coming to a halt.

It was a girl with an oval face and medium-length hair. She was wearing a crooked pink baseball cap with a Mickey Mouse design. A hand was reaching in from just out of frame; it had apparently just plopped the cap onto her head, perfectly capturing her startled expression.

Her hair was a little messy, and Zhang Shutong’s heart was thrown into a similar disarray.

’Why is this photo still here?’

’Didn’t I delete it?’

The photo was taken on December 7, 2012. Today was December 12, 2020. It had remained hidden in the album all this time, traveling across eight years and five days to appear before him now, bringing the girl from the picture with it.

He thought to himself that it seemed he had left nothing behind, and yet, he had left everything.

He then wondered how his other self in this timeline had discovered Gu Qiuyan’s death. He himself had always been a man of his word; since he’d promised to have lunch, he would definitely have woken up early. His memory was also quite good. He remembered she had told him to arrive early, and he had countered by offering to pick her up from her house.

He imagined the boy, also named Zhang Shutong, waiting at home for her message, waiting and waiting. He probably figured she was trying on endless outfits again, or putting on shimmery lip gloss in front of the mirror in her walk-in closet... ’What a high-maintenance girl.’ But this time, she was the one who stood him up, and his life was changed forever.

But this bastard had already hurt far too many people.

He was a heavy smoker. He bore the clear marks of intense training. He had even lost the last shred of his humanity, coming here to attend a funeral to which he wasn’t invited.

Zhang Shutong paid his bill. As he was leaving, the young clerk timidly asked if he wanted a drink, explaining that it was included with his purchase.

The clerk’s image gradually overlapped with that of the girl who had reached out to cheer him on. Zhang Shutong froze for a moment before shaking his head and murmuring his thanks.

’I’m sorry. I’ve failed to live up to all of your expectations.’

He glanced at his phone. It was a little after eight o’clock. He began to walk briskly down the empty, deserted street.

He’d already pieced most of it together back at the Lake Fish Restaurant.

The Forbidden Zone.

Two girls, dead in the Forbidden Zone, just like in the original timeline.

A life that remained unchanged, still possessing the ability to rewind time, shut away from the world at home.

And a funeral he wasn’t invited to.

The summer vacation was when he’d turned on Lu Qinglian, becoming a cold stranger to her.

It could only have been during the summer vacation.

In the past, he had gone to the festival at the Cyan Snake Temple during summer vacation, where he’d unfortunately lost his footing and fallen off the mountain, gaining the ability to rewind time.

Zhang Shutong had always believed that the temple was the key to gaining his ability.

But he had overlooked another condition—time.

Both the place and the time were indispensable.

He was certain he hadn’t possessed this ability during those four days in junior high. After Gu Qiuyan’s death, his other self had probably gone to the temple to test it, but nothing happened. Eventually, even he gave up, which was likely why he partnered with Lu Qinglian to investigate the killer.

Until the summer vacation.

At the same time, in the same place, he reacquired the same ability.

And with it, the chance to start over.

That was why, according to Ruoping, it was during that summer vacation that he seemed to have become a completely different person.

He had finally regained the ability to rewind, and then he deceived everyone, leaving Lu Qinglian behind on that island.

From that point on, for eight long years, he used the people around him as pawns. That cold-blooded bastard did it all for one single gamble—

that tonight, on December 12, 2020, he could return to eight years in the past!

A little after eight o’clock, Zhang Shutong returned to the body of water known as the "Forbidden Zone."

If the mechanism for rewinding was, ’If something bad happens to someone near you, you will return to a critical point before the event occurred,’ then the only gamble he could make was to be killed here again by the "murderer."

Zhang Shutong had no other options left.

To save his own life, to salvage his relationships with his best friends, and to save the two murdered girls—this was the only way to reverse this worst-of-all-possible timelines.

Just then, his phone rang. He stared, mesmerized, at the caller’s name before finally hitting the answer button.

A calm male voice came through the phone:

"You should be on the island right now."

asked the twenty-four-year-old Meng Qingyi.

"I am. What is it?"

"I don’t know, either. I just got off work." His voice was just as cold. "You just told me to remind you tonight, ’Get to the Forbidden Zone before nine.’ Don’t forget."

"I know. Thanks."

The person on the other end immediately hung up.

Zhang Shutong put his phone away and slowly squatted by the shore. There was no moonlight. When he turned on his flashlight, the lake’s surface was a ghastly white. He couldn’t hear the croaking of frogs or the chirping of insects, only the foul stench of the silt.

Zhang Shutong remained squatting by the lake, waiting until the night wind chilled his body stiff.

The reeds by the lake rustled. RUSTLE. He was suddenly overcome with a surreal feeling, as if a lifetime had passed.

Then, the many words he had heard throughout the day began to echo in his ears:

"My condolences."

"This is how you protected her? Zhang Shutong, I don’t think you feel anything at all, do you? ’My condolences,’ my ass..."

"Zhang Shutong, you’re just as cold-blooded as you’ve always been."

"It hasn’t even been half a year since you dumped Qinglian. It’s one thing to act like you don’t even know her, but then you immediately got with someone else. And now you have the nerve to ask me what’s wrong?"

"You said we didn’t need to get involved, that you had a plan. But we didn’t find out until school was about to start that you were lying. You deceived everyone!"

"But why did you lie to us back then? Don’t you know? Because of you, Qinglian never once left this island her entire life, from birth until death! She spent her whole life cooped up in that temple!"

"If you cared about her so much, why didn’t you visit her grave once in these past eight years?"

"So tell me now, how dare you say ’my condolences’ to me?"

"Shutong, it’s not like you to be in such a sorry state."

"You are your teacher’s proudest student."

"Where to?"

"The usual spot."

"My treat! No, my treat! Stop arguing..."

"See? I told you. I’ve been coming here for years. I know exactly what’s good and what’s not."

"No one knows who it was."

"So after all these years, you still haven’t given up on finding that person... the one who murdered Gu Qiuyan."

"...Yeah, you’re smart and we’re stupid. But what do you take us for? Did you see even a hint of sadness on his face at the funeral home just now?"

"I just want an explanation! Why did he become like this!"

"You think I don’t want one too?"

"Did any of you ever think about me? You’ve all forgotten, but I still remember!"

"Didn’t we promise we’d go to high school in the city together? That we’d always be best friends?"

’I’m sorry.’

"I’m sorry," he repeated in a low voice.

The last thing that came to mind, however, was that rainy night. He was standing on the villa’s veranda, and his teacher, clad in a bathrobe, stood beside him and spoke:

"But, Shutong, have you ever heard the saying about being ’too clever by half’?

"I’m not saying you’re bound to suffer for it later, but you can’t let yourself become nothing but a schemer just because you have a sharp mind.

"How should I put it... We’re all living, breathing people. We can’t live like machines that only know how to calculate. If you scheme away that little bit of human decency..."

If you scheme away that last little bit of human decency—

you’ll end up in the worst-of-all-possible timelines.

The time was now 8:50 p.m.

His heart began to pound uncontrollably.

Just then, the picture from his senior finally arrived on WeChat. Zhang Shutong quickly tapped it open.

It showed a blurry human figure, and the timestamp read:

December 9, 2012.

"This is from the only security camera near Gu Qiuyan’s house. This was the only person it captured the entire night."

Stunned, Zhang Shutong put his phone away.

Because that figure—

had waist-length hair.

’That’s...’

The wind picked up, and the weeds behind him began to stir. Zhang Shutong silently counted down the seconds, his finger hovering over the shortcut button on his phone, ready to activate the flashlight at a moment’s notice.

He could hear muffled footsteps behind him. This body was in excellent physical condition, with quick reflexes. The instant the person drew near, he spun around and flicked on the flashlight—

Zhang Shutong’s eyes flew wide open.

Because—

the person’s face was covered by something, completely obscuring it!

Then, something cold and sharp plunged into his throat!

His phone clattered to the ground.

In the final moment before his consciousness faded, he saw the time light up on the screen.

December 12, 2020.

8:59 flickered and changed to 9:00.

Rewind, activated.

...

The world shuddered like a black-and-white film negative. When consciousness returned to his body, he instinctively clutched his throat and opened his mouth, making no sound.

But what appeared before his eyes was not his junior high classroom, but the faces of three teenagers.

He was in a restaurant.

They stood by a table draped with a cloth, their faces lit up with smiles. Four hands came together over the table, and they all shouted in unison:

"Cheers!"

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