Chapter 63: "Faceless" |
He was back!
This was Thursday, December 6th, 2012. Last night they'd caught the poachers together with Lu Qinglian, and to celebrate, they'd come to the "Hometown Lake Fish Restaurant" on Commercial Street for lunch at noon.
They must have just finished ordering. From the dining hall, he could hear the whooshing sounds of the kitchen stoves in back.
The air carried a faint, lingering smell of cooking oil.
Zhang Shutong's eyes widened.
Never before had his heart been so stirred.
Only those who've lost and regained something understand what precious truly means.
Perhaps he should find a corner to sit quietly for a moment and calm his emotions; perhaps take this chance to toast with his friends to mask his abnormal state... But Zhang Shutong couldn't do that. His nerves relaxed slightly, then immediately tensed up again—
Who was the killer?
First, the height was shorter than his own, and not just by a little, but he couldn't tell if they were fat or thin—it was winter, the clothes were too thick.
Next was the killer's face. The sky had been too dark, the phone's flashlight hadn't been particularly effective. By the time his eyes adapted to the light and focused in that instant—the whole process no more than two or three seconds—he'd been killed.
In that initial moment when he'd turned around, he'd thought he'd encountered a "faceless person," but then immediately realized it wasn't that they had no features—rather, the person's face was covered by something. But Zhang Shutong couldn't quite identify what it was. It wasn't quite like the face mask he'd expected, like Zhou Ziheng's father wore, which still exposed the eyes and brows.
The killer's entire face was covered by something, appearing "rough," a dark red color.
Zhang Shutong searched for an appropriate comparison... It was probably like those curtains in the classroom—some mischievous students liked to hide behind them, draping the curtain over their faces, only outlining a vague, embryonic form of facial features.
Then there was what shocked him most—
Could that really still be called a "person"?
A normal person's body structure was like this: head, neck, shoulders, following a pattern of narrow-wide-narrow. But the killer seemed to have no neck, or rather, the neck was thicker than the head. Zhang Shutong knew some martial artists fit this description—it could effectively protect the cervical spine. Judging from the killer's skills, it did match up.
So the final answer was a highly skilled short person? With the distinguishing feature of a neck roughly as thick as their head?
Zhang Shutong didn't know if these features existed eight years ago, but based on the clues so far, since Lu Qinglian died and then he was killed, followed by returning to eight years ago at the moment of Gu Qiumian's murder—had all three of them been killed by the same person?
This question couldn't be determined yet. The urgent matter was still the clue he'd brought back from the "Cold-Blooded" line—the three tattoos on the arm.
With this thought, Zhang Shutong hesitated no longer. He set down his glass and, under his friends' confused gazes, ran to the front counter. He asked the proprietress for a receipt slip and drew those three tattoos on the paper: a snake, a small figure, and a strange circular pattern.
He'd already deeply memorized these three designs before regressing, so he could effortlessly reproduce them now. Just then, a head appeared over his shoulder:
"What are you drawing so quietly?"
He turned to see it was Ruoping—short hair with a flower-petal headband, her bangs trimmed neat and tidy. She was a fresh-faced girl with a spirited personality. They'd just come in from outside not long ago, and the girl's cheeks were still flushed red from the wind. As she spoke, she tried to push him aside, widening her eyes to look at the paper.
This reminded Zhang Shutong of the woman eight years later—eyes reddened, softly sobbing, with an air of cold elegance. Among the three friends, only Ruoping was a girl, so Zhang Shutong's feelings toward her differed from those for Qingyi and Du Kang—he always felt like he was looking at a little sister. This gave rise to an inexplicable sense of guilt.
Actually, Ruoping had never given up on him, had she? Even though she was extremely disappointed with him in that timeline, whether it was rushing to the island when he called, letting him wait in her car at the funeral home entrance, or always remembering their old promises—
Just as Du Kang had said, their attitude toward him must be complicated. Each time disappointed, but after disappointment, they'd hopefully harbor a little hope again, only to be disappointed once more.
So Zhang Shutong didn't want to hide things from them. Instead, he moved aside and pointed to the patterns on the receipt:
"Have you seen these anywhere?"
"What do you mean?"
"Just asking. If you see them later, let me know."
"Playing mysterious again." Ruoping rolled her eyes. "I thought you had a lead on who smashed the sand castle."
Only then did Zhang Shutong remember that during the morning break, Gu Qiumian's castle had just been smashed. Not long ago on their bike ride to Commercial Street, they'd been discussing Zhou Ziheng's crush on her.
"So why are you suddenly drawing these?" Ruoping asked again.
"I had a dream last night."
At this, Ruoping burst out laughing: "I think you're becoming a fortune teller these past couple days. Yesterday you had that scrap of paper with yours, Qinglian's, and Gu Qiumian's names on it, and you told Du Kang you dreamed it. How did you dream again today?"
It was another nightmare.
Just then Qingyi and Du Kang came over too, so Zhang Shutong reminisced: I dreamed that eight years from now, the four of us went to a class reunion. Everyone hadn't seen each other in forever, and the moment we met, I made Ruoping cry. Du Kang was going to beat me up, but fortunately I ran fast.
Ruoping laughed even harder, saying she wouldn't need Du Kang to do it—if he dared bully her, she could make him regret it herself.
"What about me?" Qingyi pointed at himself, very curious why the true man had no reaction.
"You didn't even come."
"Wow, turns out Qingyi's the one with the least conscience." Du Kang said dramatically.
Qingyi shook his head, saying how was that possible. Let me give you a cold fact—dreams are all reversed, so I must have been the one who made a brilliant entrance.
He really had returned to age fifteen or sixteen.
They argued over a randomly invented dream like this, laughing and chattering and bickering as they returned to the table. Not one of them paid attention to what "haven't seen each other in forever" meant in his words. They must think the four of them would never separate, that even after entering society they'd meet often. This "forever"—a few weeks at most.
Then they asked what everyone was like in the dream. Zhang Shutong said Du Kang had taken over the family restaurant, and Qingyi worked overtime at the company every day. Both were quite depressed hearing this. Du Kang held his head and said what the hell, I've always wanted to go out and explore the world, why would I stay on the island? Qingyi sighed—in his view, overtime was unmanly.
Only Ruoping was satisfied—she was the only one with a car after all. Zhang Shutong remembered what she looked like and simply flattered her, saying you're the most successful of us all, started your own business and company, already a total career woman.
Only then did the three think to ask what about you, Shutong?
Zhang Shutong was silent for a moment, then said I died right after the reunion. Ruoping kicked him, disgusted that he'd say such unlucky things at a celebration feast.
Zhang Shutong changed the subject, waving the receipt's contents in front of their eyes, half-jokingly saying remember these, if you see them anywhere, let me know.
"Got it, got it..."
"Wait, I've seen the first one." Du Kang suddenly said.
"Where?"
"Isn't that just an earthworm? We went digging for them when we went fishing the other day."
Zhang Shutong said helplessly, this is a snake, this is a person, and this one is... He got stuck here too.
"Earthworm, person, turtle. Yeah, that makes sense now. I think you've been fishing too much." Ruoping laughed again.
With that, the four raised their Nutri-Express drinks and toasted. Zhang Shutong listened to their idle chatter, but his mind was on other things.
He'd been focused on the killer's identity just now, but now he remembered the photo his senior had sent.
The surveillance camera quality was poor, and the angle was from diagonally above, so it only captured the person's long hair.
Normally Zhang Shutong wouldn't have thought much of it, but on Saturday night on his way home, he'd happened to run into Lu Qinglian going out.
She'd said she was going for a walk, but actually walked quite quickly.
She'd headed south, toward the Gu family villa. Assuming she really went to the villa, what had she done?
And the timing was off too. When he'd run into her, it was after 8 PM. Walking to the villa would take an hour at most, but the photo's timestamp was Sunday morning—several hours apart. Where had she gone in between?
Also, she'd said she had something to tell him, calling him to sit at the temple the next day. In the "Cold-Blooded" line, what exactly had she said?
Was his mixing with Lu Qinglian in the second semester of ninth grade related to what she'd said?
In any case, the failure of the "Cold-Blooded" line, besides catching the wrong killer, Zhang Shutong felt was also partly due to paying too little attention to Lu Qinglian.
He'd previously thought she was killed eight years later, so he hadn't paid much attention. But now it seemed, whether it was the snake tattoo, the photos of the temple interior on her phone, or the photo his senior sent at the last moment—all the clues pointed to Lu Qinglian.
He couldn't say he had a lead yet, but Zhang Shutong set his next course of action: besides watching Gu Qiumian, he also needed to investigate Lu Qinglian.
And then there was what his senior had mentioned—in the original statement records, the reason for killing Gu Qiumian was to prevent her father from developing the small island.
Based on the results from the original timeline and the Cold-Blooded line, the person's goal had indeed been achieved.
Kill Gu Qiumian, and you stop Father Gu from developing the island. But why not go directly after Father Gu himself...
He was pondering this question when he noticed Du Kang suddenly looking very unhappy at something behind him.
Turning around, he saw a male student had entered the Lake Fish Restaurant and raised his eyebrows at Du Kang. The two locked eyes.
It was him.
Zhang Shutong still remembered—this underclassman was his "colleague," one of the lackeys, who'd come ahead today to scout the restaurant for their larger group coming to dine. Then for some reason, he and Du Kang had gotten into it.
These two really were fated.
When it came time to pay, Zhang Shutong and this male student bumped into each other. The guy acted like a fighting rooster, determined to compete with him, so he'd left quite an impression.
Since this male student had still come, it meant—
The next moment, he heard someone push aside the curtain, and a small boot stepped in first.
The boot's owner was a girl. She still wore that red scarf, wiping water droplets from her hair. Her expression was somewhat cold, but this time Zhang Shutong knew it was because she was in a bad mood. He watched Gu Qiumian walk in—though he knew she must be alive, he still couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
How strange. Just moments ago he'd been racking his brains thinking about the killer's clues, not even hearing what his friends were discussing, yet now he suddenly relaxed a bit.
If possible, he really wanted to pull her over and ask clearly about the issues with her family's housekeeper and bodyguard.
But Zhang Shutong knew that now was different from before. Many things hadn't happened yet. His relationship with Gu Qiumian was at a rather poor stage... Yeah, he was a traitor, and because he'd chatted with Ruoping this morning, she'd subsequently ignored him.
So Zhang Shutong turned back around and poured himself a cup of Nutri-Express. He drank his milk, watching a group of lackeys surround the young miss in the hall ordering food, chattering away, probably discussing what to eat. Zhang Shutong thought to himself that few of these lackeys were competent—steamed fish and braised fish didn't matter, order the sweet and sour pork first! She loved eating that, even with rice bowls she'd use sweet and sour sauce with rice.
Fortunately someone thought of it—a girl standing beside Gu Qiumian. Zhang Shutong had called her the little secretary. Now the little secretary had arranged everything, directing everyone to push tables together, who should order food, who should buy drinks, and she even scolded that male student in passing, something about "hide that little scheming of yours."
So his glances toward their table became even more disgruntled.
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, I'm not even a lackey yet. Even if I wanted to pledge allegiance to your young miss, she wouldn't want to accept me. We have no conflict of interest, so why are you glaring at me?
Of course, one little male student really wasn't worth paying attention to. Their table's dishes had already been brought out—braised spare ribs. This time Zhang Shutong served each of the three a couple pieces, saying he actually didn't like eating braised spare ribs, just ordered them randomly, so if any of them wanted to treat people in the future, they didn't need to be so deliberate.
Hearing this, Ruoping got angry, saying if you don't like eating them why order them? Zhang Shutong had wanted to say he thought the three of them wanted to eat them, but he remembered Teacher Song's words—sometimes people can't think too much, even with good intentions.
Du Kang said next time come eat at my place, I'll have my dad make us special dishes, I don't believe there won't be something Shutong likes to eat.
Only then did Zhang Shutong realize Du Kang's birthday hadn't passed yet.
So that would be the next goal: Save Gu Qiumian.
Find the killer.
Then happily celebrate a birthday with his friends.
This winter of 2012 was destined to be restless, but if he didn't clear away these obstacles, he couldn't welcome a new life either.
The spare ribs in front of him steamed with heat. Only in this moment did Zhang Shutong feel everything become real. But Qingyi's focus was quite different:
"You're not quite right today, Shutong."
His observation had always been sharp. He lowered his voice: "Why do you keep looking over at Gu Qiumian?"
"They definitely have something going on." Du Kang joined in the fun.
Ruoping just rolled her eyes.
Zhang Shutong suddenly realized there was another headache—the conflict between Ruoping and Gu Qiumian still hadn't been resolved.
He said he just felt something about Gu Qiumian looked familiar, so he looked a few more times.
Ruoping had been sneering, but now she couldn't help laughing: "You could at least find a better excuse. Besides, you two are deskmates—won't you be able to look at her as much as you want when you go back this afternoon?"
But Zhang Shutong said helplessly that she really did look familiar, but as for what exactly, he couldn't remember.
Maybe he'd looked at Gu Qiumian too much, or maybe their four-person whispered conversation was discovered by the young miss. Just then, the girl wearing the red scarf turned around and glanced at Zhang Shutong.
The two locked eyes, then Gu Qiumian casually looked away, just her hair ornament swinging rapidly.
"Still saying nothing's going on, look at you two... haha."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself, that's just how Autumn Rain Lingering was—she'd always liked to glare at him before, though he didn't know why. Just like he couldn't understand now why that night at the villa she'd suddenly brought up pizza, fruit-flavored, such a strange question.
After that it was much the same as before. Their dishes were brought out one after another. The restaurant owner had a guilty conscience, so he deliberately delayed Gu Qiumian's table's dishes a bit.
Gu Qiumian's side pushed tables together, a bunch of people sat down, the young miss naturally sat at the head of the table. She was now diagonally across from Zhang Shutong. He could see her take off her scarf and tell the lackeys coolly that she wanted yogurt.
Zhang Shutong's chopsticks suddenly dropped.
"This guy is definitely hopeless..."
"Hey hey, Shutong, you're not so mesmerized by looking at a girl that you've gone stupid, right?"
"Men are just like this... Though I haven't thought of the rest yet, but men really are like this."
His friends were all teasing him.
Only Zhang Shutong suddenly felt a chill rising from the depths of his heart.
He suddenly knew why he'd always felt something familiar about Gu Qiumian.
When the girl removed her scarf, her neck became much "thinner"—since she'd walked into the restaurant, she'd been wearing the scarf the whole time, her chin tucked inside it.
Zhang Shutong had stuffed this scarf into his pocket when catching Li Yipeng, so he roughly knew its length.
So then, if someone covered one end of a scarf over their face, while the other end piled up entirely on their neck, what would they look like—
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