Chapter 62: The "Cold-Blooded" Route |
This nail salon was still here. Of course it was strange for a man to walk in, but he knew the hidden trick—he paid money and told the staff member, "I'm not getting my nails done, I just want to find a sofa chair to lie down for a bit."
The young staff member nodded with a strange look in her eyes.
Of course she wasn't the same one from before. Employee turnover was high in this kind of shop, but he actually didn't care where those people had gone. The staff member was quite nice—since there was no one in the shop right now, she simply led him into the partition in the back. The curtain on the partition had been replaced with a door. Zhang Shutong lay down on the sofa without closing his eyes, aimlessly scrolling through his phone.
He opened his photo gallery and quickly flipped through all the pictures. Over these years he rarely took photos, nor did he save images from the internet. Most were work-related things.
His phone had been switched to an Android now, with a full screen and many functions. Modern people's entertainment, food, clothing, housing, and transportation could all be satisfied on it. But for some reason, he missed that iPhone with its 3.5-inch screen more.
He was searching through what this timeline's version of himself had left behind.
Identical takeout orders, a few e-books, downloaded music... This was a complete and utter bastard. Zhang Shutong couldn't understand why he would erase every trace related to any case so cleanly.
He'd even tried the phone's dual system feature—a function unique to Android phones where different fingerprints opened different systems—but unfortunately, there was only one system.
But what Zhang Shutong hadn't expected was that there was actually a hidden album. With an excited heart, he clicked into it, only to feel somewhat disappointed.
Zhang Shutong zoomed in for a closer look. They turned out to be clay figurines. These clay figures had no facial features, only blurred faces.
He wasn't clear what kind of custom this was, but he knew this was that temple called Green Snake Temple. It seemed he had already been there.
Zhang Shutong thought for a moment, then went to look at the other photo. The other one was a photo of a girl. This discovery made him freeze, even his hand movements pausing.
Because it was a girl with medium-long hair and an oval face. She wore a crooked baseball cap, pink with a Mickey Mouse pattern on it. A hand extended from outside the frame—the cap had been placed on her head by that hand, thus perfectly capturing her startled expression.
Her hair was somewhat messy, and Zhang Shutong's heart became messy along with it.
Why was this photo still here?
Hadn't he deleted it himself?
This photo was taken on December 7, 2012. Now it was December 12, 2020. It had always been hidden in the album, traversing eight years and three days, appearing before him at this moment holding that girl.
He thought he seemed to have left nothing behind, yet he had left everything behind.
He also wondered how the version of himself on this timeline had learned of Gu Qiumian's death. He had always been someone who kept his promises—if he agreed to go eat at noon, he would definitely get up early. His memory was also quite good; he remembered she said to arrive early, then simply said she'd come to his house to pick him up.
He imagined that at that time, the boy named Zhang Shutong had been waiting at home for her message, waiting and waiting. Perhaps he thought she was trying on clothes endlessly at home again, or applying shiny lip gloss in front of the mirror in her dressing room... What a troublesome girl. But this time it was her who broke the appointment, and from then on his entire life was changed.
But this bastard had already hurt too many people.
He was a heavy smoker. He showed obvious signs of training. He had even lost the last bit of his humanity, coming to attend a funeral to which no one had invited him.
Zhang Shutong settled the bill. Just as he was about to leave, the young staff member timidly asked if he wanted a drink—it was included in the package.
This figure gradually overlapped with that girl who had reached out to cheer him on. Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and thanked her.
Sorry, I've let down all of your expectations.
He glanced at his phone. The time was just past eight o'clock, so he walked quickly along the empty, deserted streets.
He had pretty much already figured out what was going on back at the lake fish restaurant.
The Forbidden Zone.
Two girls who died in the Forbidden Zone, the same as in the original spacetime.
A life where nothing had been changed, where someone still possessed the Regression ability and had sealed himself away at home.
And a funeral to which no one had invited him.
The time when he "turned his back" on Lu Qinglian was summer vacation.
It could only have been summer vacation.
In the past, he had gone to Green Snake Temple's festival during summer vacation and unfortunately fell down the mountain, gaining the Regression ability.
Zhang Shutong had always believed that temple was the key to obtaining the ability.
But he had overlooked one condition—time.
Location and time were both indispensable.
During those four days in junior high, he definitely didn't have this ability. After Gu Qiumian died, he had probably tried going to that temple, nothing happened, and in the end even he himself gave up. That's why he teamed up with Lu Qinglian, perhaps to investigate the killer.
Until summer vacation.
At the same time, at the same place, he regained the same ability.
And the possibility to start over.
So according to Ruoping, right during that summer vacation, he seemed to become a different person.
He had finally obtained the Regression ability again, then deceived everyone and left Lu Qinglian on that island.
Starting from here, for a full eight years, he treated everyone around him as chess pieces. This cold-blooded bastard did it all to gamble on one possibility—
That he could still return to eight years ago on the night of December 12, 2020!
Just past eight o'clock, Zhang Shutong returned to the waters known as the "Forbidden Zone."
If the mechanism of Regression was "if something bad happens nearby, you'll return to the critical point before it happened," then what he could bet on was being killed by the "murderer" here once again.
Zhang Shutong had no way back to speak of.
To salvage his own life, to salvage his relationships with his close friends, to salvage the two deceased girls—only this way was there a chance to reverse this worst timeline.
At this moment his phone rang. He stared at the contact name somewhat absent-mindedly, then finally pressed the answer key.
A calm male voice came through the phone:
"You should be on the island right now."
The twenty-four-year-old Meng Qingyi asked.
"I am. What's up?"
"I don't know either. I just got off work." His voice was equally indifferent. "It's just that you once asked me to notify you tonight, 'Arrive at the Forbidden Zone before nine o'clock.' Don't forget."
"I know. Thanks."
The other party immediately hung up.
Zhang Shutong then put away his phone and slowly crouched down by the shore. There was no moonlight tonight. Turning on the flashlight, the lake surface was a pale white expanse. He couldn't hear frogs or insects, only smell the fishy stench of silt.
Zhang Shutong just crouched by the lake like this, waiting until the night wind blew his body stiff.
The reeds by the lake rustled, and he suddenly felt a sense of being in another world.
At this moment, many, many words he'd heard throughout the day surfaced in his ears:
"My condolences."
"Is this how you protect her? Zhang Shutong, I think you don't feel anything at all, do you? And you say 'condolences'—you..."
"Zhang Shutong, you're still as cold-blooded as before."
"You dumped Qinglian in less than half a year, turned your back on her, and immediately got together with someone else. How do you have the face to ask me what's wrong?"
"You said we didn't need to get involved in this matter, that you'd already figured out a solution, but when school was about to start we found out you were lying. You deceived everyone!"
"But why did you lie to us then? Do you know that because of this, Qinglian never once left that small island from birth to death, her whole life spent staying in that temple!"
"If you cared about her so much, why haven't you visited her grave once in these eight years?"
"Now tell me again, how do you have the face to tell me 'condolences'?"
"Shutong, being this disheveled isn't like you."
"You're Teacher's proudest student."
"Where to?"
"The usual place."
"Are you treating or am I treating? Stop arguing..."
"See, I told you. I've come here plenty over the years. I know what's good and what's not like the back of my hand."
"No one knows who it is."
"So after all these years you still haven't given up on finding that person, the murderer who killed Gu Qiumian."
"...Yes, you're smart, we're stupid, but what did you take us for? Did you see even a hint of sadness from him at the funeral home earlier?"
"I just want an explanation! Why did he become like this!"
"You think I don't want one?"
"Did any of you consider me? You've all forgotten but I still remember!"
"Didn't we agree to go to the city together for school, to always be best friends?"
Sorry.
"Sorry."
He repeated it again in a low voice.
What came back to him last was that rainy night when he stood on the corridor outside the villa. Teacher, wearing a bathrobe, stood beside him and said those words:
"But, Shutong, have you heard this saying: 'Too clever by half, the schemer schemes his own downfall.'
"I'm not saying you'll definitely suffer losses in the future, but rather, you can't let having a good mind mean all that's left is scheming.
"How should I put it? We're all living, breathing people. We can't live as machines that only calculate. If you calculate away even that bit of human warmth..."
If you calculate away even that last bit of human warmth—
You'll welcome this worst timeline.
The time came to 8:50.
His heart began beating uncontrollably.
At this moment, the senior's WeChat finally sent that image. Zhang Shutong quickly opened it.
Inside was a blurry figure. The time format read:
December 9, 2012.
"This is the only surveillance camera near Gu Qiumian's house. Over the entire evening, it only captured this one person."
Zhang Shutong put away his phone in shock.
Because that figure—
Actually had waist-length hair.
That was...
The wind grew stronger. The weeds behind him began to stir. Zhang Shutong kept counting the time silently in his heart. He placed his finger on the phone's shortcut key, ready to turn on the flashlight at any moment.
He could hear the suppressed footsteps behind him. This body's physical condition was excellent, its reactions fast. The instant the other party approached, he quickly turned around and turned on the flashlight—
Zhang Shutong's eyes widened instantly.
Because—
The other party's face was actually covered with something—he couldn't see their face at all!
Then something ice-cold and sharp stabbed into his throat!
The phone fell to the ground.
In the last moment before consciousness faded, he saw the time lighting up on the screen.
December 12, 2020.
8:59 flashed and jumped to 9:00.
Regression was triggered.
...
The world transformed into a black and white negative that trembled once. When consciousness returned to his body, he instinctively covered his throat and opened his mouth soundlessly.
What appeared before his eyes was not that junior high classroom, but three faces of boys and girls.
This was a restaurant.
They stood beside a dining table with a tablecloth, their faces blooming with smiles. Four hands gathered together as they said in unison:
"Cheers!"
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