Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 183: Chapter 79: The Last Straw

When they were still a few dozen meters from the forbidden zone, Zhang Shutong had Song pull the car over.

"The place you mentioned is just up ahead?" Song asked, puzzled, as he rolled down the window. "What are we doing out here in the middle of the night, in this godforsaken place? You could film a horror movie here."

Gu Qiuyan was also a little disappointed.

"Where is this?"

’Sorry,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’I’d also prefer to die somewhere with a nice view.’

But of all places, it had to be the forbidden zone.

"What’s there to see here?" Song asked, sticking his head out. "You guys don’t come here to fish, do you?"

Zhang Shutong thought for a moment and decided that Qingyi’s logic would come in handy right about now.

He explained, "Sometimes, guys are just like that. It’s freezing cold, but you suddenly crawl out of your warm bed, hunch your shoulders, and grab a flashlight. You get this urge to go somewhere—maybe a 24-hour convenience store, maybe the space under a large bridge, or even a beat-up park bench in a silent park. Honestly, it’s a lot of trouble and a real pain, but there’s no reason for it. You just have to go. Just being there brings a moment of peace."

Zhang Shutong had been bullshitting at first, but as he spoke, he felt the words weren’t entirely unrepresentative of his current state of mind. He had asked Song to drive him out here just to scout the area. Logically, he should head back after a quick look. He’d been to the forbidden zone several times before and found nothing; there really wasn’t much value in exploring it. But now that he was here, he felt a persistent unease at the thought of not taking a closer look.

Surprisingly, this load of nonsense won Song Nanshan over. He nodded and said, "Well, if you want to go, go. The two of us will wait for you in the car."

Zhang Shutong had already prepared the excuse, "I need to get out to relieve myself," but he swallowed the words.

Gu Qiuyan had wanted to get out and have a look, too, but Song stopped her. "Every guy has his own little secrets," he said. "To put it plainly, guys his age just get weird sometimes. As a teacher, I’m used to it. Just let him be."

’Maybe in their eyes, I really am just being weird,’ Zhang Shutong thought.

Zhang Shutong offered a quick apology, grabbed his umbrella and phone, and got out of the car.

The moment his shoes touched the ground, he felt something was off. Strangely, there was barely any accumulated snow here.

He poked his fingers into the ground; the soil was damp. Zhang Shutong remembered it had been the same last time he came to the forbidden zone. It had just snowed that day, and he had hoped to use footprints to track the killer, but the snow had almost completely melted.

’Is there something special about this area’s geography?’

Zhang Shutong really didn’t understand this stuff. ’I’ll have to ask Mom when I get back,’ he thought. ’She’s the expert.’

This wasn’t the time to study geography. He zipped up his jacket. For safety, he didn’t open the umbrella, instead tucking it between his neck and the back of his collar.

Even though he was killed eight years in the future, being stabbed twice in a row was bound to leave some psychological scars.

He glanced back. A faint light glowed inside the car, and he could see Gu Qiuyan through the rear window. Just then, she looked over, and their eyes met. She wrinkled her nose, then parted her lips and breathed onto the glass.

A thin layer of fog obscured her face, as if she deliberately didn’t want to be seen. ’She’s probably going to mess up the glass again,’ Zhang Shutong thought. He looked over at Song; the man was leaning against the car, smoking, his head tilted up as he stared at who knows what.

Zhang Shutong turned back around, pulled his jacket tighter, and walked alone toward the forbidden zone, into the falling snow.

’If possible, I hope this is the last time I ever come here.’

He turned on his phone’s flashlight, sweeping it around him. There were no figures, only the almost-solid darkness of the night, with snowflakes drifting within it. He felt like a tiny figure walking through a painted screen.

He watched his feet. There were no other footprints in the snow. It was impossible to relax, but he wasn’t exactly tense, either.

Today was Thursday. On the Thursday of the previous timeline, he had also come to the forbidden zone, stayed until eight o’clock, and then gone to the commercial district to buy the switched-out scarf. The only difference today was the addition of snow.

Zhang Shutong glanced at the time: around 8:30 PM. By now, he should have already been on his way back.

’Just like I said,’ he thought. ’Since I’m here, I might as well go take a look.’

He sighed, not knowing whether to hope for something to happen or for nothing to happen at all. The latter was obviously better, but on the other hand, if he couldn’t find any clues in the forbidden zone, he would be completely lost.

The dispute at the commercial district was resolved.

Gu Qiuyan’s family villa had been investigated.

The fence, the side door, the elevator, the rooms—he had checked them all.

He had also driven the route from the villa to the forbidden zone.

Several possibilities had been ruled out. The very places where something was most likely to go wrong had shown no irregularities at all.

She didn’t run over there herself, and the killer didn’t climb in. So what other possibility was there?

Judging by common sense... But if he relied solely on common sense, Zhang Shutong could wrack his brains and still not find an answer.

The cold air cleared his head a little. He tapped his forehead with the edge of his phone, a headache setting in.

’A cold case, a cold case...’

’Does that mean the case hasn’t progressed at all in eight years?’

’And what does it mean that the police sealed it off?’

’Did Father Gu not want any information leaked?’

’Or is there another hidden reason?’

He wasn’t sure about the state of forensic science in 2012, but things like fingerprinting and DNA testing should have existed. Even if the island didn’t have them, the city should have.

He slowed his pace, hoping for a flash of inspiration.

But in reality, all he got was a jolt from a snowflake landing on the bridge of his nose.

He was getting closer to the lake, but he couldn’t see the shore from here. It was blocked by a dense thicket of reeds that were nearly as tall as he was.

He pushed aside the reeds in front of him. It was silent all around, except for the RUSTLE of his body moving through them.

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