Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 149: Chapter 63: "Faceless

I’m back!

It was Thursday, December 6, 2012. The previous night, he and his friends had caught some poachers with Lu Qinglian. To celebrate, they had come to the Nanhu Fish Restaurant on the commercial street for lunch.

They must have just ordered, because the WHOOSH of the stoves could be heard from the kitchen, even out in the main dining hall.

A faint, lingering smell of cooking oil hung in the air.

Zhang Shutong’s eyes flew open.

He had never felt so emotional in his life.

Only those who have lost something and gotten it back can truly understand its value.

’Maybe I should find a quiet corner to calm down. Or maybe I should just raise a toast with my best friends to hide how strange I’m acting...’ But Zhang Shutong couldn’t do that. His nerves, which had relaxed for a moment, instantly tensed up again—

Who was the killer?

Before the fleeting memory could fade, he closed his eyes, trying to recall more details about the person’s appearance.

First, the killer was shorter than him—and not just by a little. But he couldn’t tell their build, as it was winter and they were wearing thick clothes.

Next was the killer’s face. It had been too dark, and his phone’s flashlight hadn’t been very effective. By the time his eyes had adjusted to the light and focused, a mere two or three seconds had passed before he was killed.

In the instant he first turned around, he thought he’d run into a "faceless man." But he quickly realized that wasn’t it. It wasn’t that the killer had no features, but that their face was covered by something. Zhang Shutong couldn’t say what it was. It wasn’t like a typical bandana, which, like the one Zhou Ziheng’s father wore, would still reveal the eyes and brows.

The killer’s entire face was covered by this object, making it look "rough" and appear a dark red color.

Zhang Shutong searched for a suitable description... It was like the curtains in a classroom. The kind that mischievous students like to hide behind, pressing the fabric against their faces to create a blurry outline of their features.

Then came the part that shocked him the most—

Could that thing truly be called a "person"?

A normal person’s body is structured like this:

Head, neck, then shoulders, following a wide-narrow-wide structure. But the killer seemed to have no neck, or perhaps their neck was even thicker than their head. Zhang Shutong knew some martial artists fit this description, as it helped protect the cervical spine. Judging by the killer’s skills, this made sense.

So the final answer was a short person with incredible skills?

Whose main feature was a neck as thick as their head?

Zhang Shutong didn’t know if the killer had these features eight years ago. But based on the clues so far, since he was killed after Lu Qinglian’s death and then returned to the past at the moment of Gu Qiuyan’s death, were all three of them killed by the same person?

He couldn’t be sure. The most urgent matter was the clue he’d brought back from the "cold-blooded" timeline: the three tattoos on the arm.

At this thought, Zhang Shutong no longer hesitated. He put down his glass, and under the confused gazes of his best friends, he ran to the front counter, tore a page from the receipt book, and drew the three tattoos on the paper:

A snake, a stick figure, and a strange circular pattern.

He had burned the three images into his mind before regressing, so he could reproduce them effortlessly. Just then, a head popped over his shoulder.

"What are you drawing so secretively?"

He turned to see it was Ruoping. She had short hair, a flower-petal-shaped headband, and perfectly trimmed bangs. She was a pretty girl with a fiery, energetic personality. They hadn’t been inside for long, and her cheeks were still flushed red from the wind. As she spoke, she tried to nudge him aside, her eyes wide as she peered at the paper.

It reminded Zhang Shutong of the coolly beautiful woman from eight years in the future, the one with red-rimmed eyes, whimpering softly. Among his three best friends, Ruoping was the only girl, so Zhang Shutong treated her differently than Qingyi and Du Kang, always seeing her as a younger sister. A sudden, inexplicable guilt washed over him.

’Ruoping never really gave up on me, did she? Even though she was utterly disgusted with my future self, she still rushed to the island when I called, told me to wait in her car in front of the funeral home, and always remembered her old promises.’

’Just as Du Kang had said, their feelings toward me must have been complicated. Every time they were disappointed, but after the disappointment, a small sliver of hope would luckily emerge, only to be followed by more disappointment.’

So Zhang Shutong decided not to hide it from them. He stepped aside and pointed to the drawings on the receipt paper.

"Ever seen these anywhere?"

"What’s this about?"

"Just asking. If you see them in the future, let me know."

"Being all mysterious again." Ruoping rolled her eyes. "I thought you had a lead on who destroyed the sandcastle."

Only then did Zhang Shutong remember. Gu Qiuyan’s sandcastle had just been destroyed during the long break between classes. Not long ago, on their bike ride to the commercial street, they had even been discussing Zhou Ziheng’s crush on her.

"So why did you suddenly draw these?" Ruoping asked again.

"I had a dream last night."

At that, Ruoping let out a snort of laughter.

"You’re turning into a psychic these past two days. Yesterday, you wrote your name, Qinglian’s, and Gu Qiuyan’s on that piece of scratch paper and told Du Kang you dreamed it. What, you had another dream today?"

’Yes, another nightmare.’

Just then, Qingyi and Du Kang walked over. Zhang Shutong made something up. "I dreamed that eight years from now, the four of us went to a class reunion. We hadn’t seen each other in ages. But as soon as we met, I made you cry, Ruoping, and Du Kang tried to beat me up. Good thing I’m a fast runner."

Ruoping laughed even harder at that. "Like Du Kang would even need to lift a finger. If you dare bully me, I’ll take care of you myself."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!