Winter Returns

Chapter 17 The Mystery of the Notebook

At 6:50, Zhang Shutong was woken up by the alarm clock on time.

Open your eyes.

It's an unfamiliar ceiling.

His heart skipped a beat, and he lay there for a while before he realized where he was.

It really feels like I've gone back eight years; this isn't a dream.

It makes you completely unable to sleep.

What is the first thing someone who returns from eight years in the future do upon waking up?

Zhang Shutong thought he should check his phone first.

It doesn't necessarily mean that someone asked him for something; it's just a habit.

He squinted as he entered the password, somewhat missing fingerprint unlocking, and yawned as he slipped on his slippers and pattered out of the bedroom.

When I turned on my phone screen, I realized there wasn't much to see. There was no work-related stuff to do, not many entertainment apps, and the only thing I could do was open QQ, but I didn't have many friends there.

The four of them chatted until after midnight.

Zhang Shutong then noticed that the group chat name was a rather cringeworthy one.

It's called "The Four".

Hmm, it seems like he chose it himself.

Morning is when people have the best memory, so he washed up while trying to recall how the group name came about.

It seems that Du Kang originally wanted to name it "Fish Nest," but Ruoping thought it was too rustic and rejected it.

Then Qingyi suggested calling it "Dragon's Nest," so that the four people could have four titles:

The King of Bronze and Fire, the King of Earth and Mountains, the King of Ocean and Water, the King of Sky and Wind—thus, all the wise men have gathered, and the assembly is complete.

However, since all four monarchs were about to die, it was considered very unlucky, so Ruoping rejected the idea.

In the end, I came up with a compromise name myself, and everyone voted to approve it.

After glancing at the chat history, which had long since veered off course, Zhang Shutong noticed that Du Kang was the only one sending panda head emojis in the group. She found it pointless and didn't bother to scroll back up to look at it, so she started washing her face.

The face in the mirror was sharply defined, with a broad forehead, a straight nose, and thin lips. Its only flaw was its lack of expression. Zhang Shutong had never understood what it meant to like having a cold face before, but after spending the night with Lu Qinglian, he suddenly understood. He tried to raise his eyebrows in front of the mirror and actually felt a kind of disdain, making him seem even more unapproachable, so he gave up.

He wasn't like this when he was a child.

When Zhang Shutong was little, he looked like a girl. His mother loved to grab his face and call him "Tongtong, Tongtong". He once had a bright red hat with Mickey Mouse on it and two ears on it. His mother would nod in front of the fitting room mirror in the mall, and Zhang Shutong would grab his mother's hand and stare longingly at the Ultraman hat next to her.

But the requirements to become Ultraman are still very strict. You have to believe in light. Your mother said in a serious tone that you don't meet the requirements now and you have to grow up a few more years. Zhang Shutong believed her and waited until he was a teenager. From then on, he never asked his mother's opinion when buying clothes.

Then he remembered Du Kang saying that he always liked to wear black clothes. He thought about it and realized that it was true. Or rather, he was so badly abused when he was a child that he could never find a single bright color in his closet.

Zhang Shutong thought his mother was a very refined person, not in a vain way, but in a refined way of life. For example, she made sure he ate an egg every day, ate slowly and chewed his food thoroughly, and drank warm water... These habits inadvertently left their mark on him, like a stick trying to support a sapling so it wouldn't grow crooked. But that stick couldn't stay there forever, and eventually he leaned back. He didn't use face wash, only soap, which only made his face a little dry. After drying his face, Zhang Shutong stared at the almond honey next to the washbasin for a while.

Over the years, he has been trying to find a symbolic marker of a boy's growth into a man, but he felt that none of them were convincing enough when he picked them out alone. But now he thinks he has found it. When he was a boy, he would never have given anything that looked like "skincare products" a second glance. He would wash his face for an extra minute when washing it.

But now, as he poured the almond honey into his palm and rubbed it on his face, he suddenly felt fragrant all over, and a little melancholy.

Why did this day come for me too?

But he has to go to the restricted area this morning, and if he doesn't apply something, his skin will peel off as soon as he goes out in the wind.

He had a good amount of time, but he never dawdled. Ten minutes was enough for him to clean up and get his clothes ready. Just before leaving, he remembered something and ran back to his desk to open the drawer.

There were comics, books, crayons, and even Yu-Gi-Oh! cards on the table, but no Lu Qinglian's notebook. So it must be at school. He rushed out of the house, went down the stairs in a few steps, and rode his bicycle towards the restricted area.

I ate steamed buns last night, so I'll have to eat breakfast on the way.

—Fish fillet sandwich, perhaps a specialty of the island, Zhang Shutong never saw it sold anywhere else afterward. The cuttlefish fillet, coated with breadcrumbs, is fried until golden brown and sandwiched with some fried vegetables and bean products. The center of the sandwich is smeared with a black sauce, half-eaten, but what's really special is that a salted duck egg yolk is crushed and sandwiched inside the sandwich.

Pale red, with a grainy texture, it's like a sauce but not quite. One bite and your mouth is full of oil, with a unique mellow aroma. Besides fish and shrimp, the island is also rich in ducks, and salted duck eggs are one of its specialties. When they were in the second year of junior high school, they learned Wang Zengqi's "Duck Eggs for the Dragon Boat Festival." Perhaps children in other places would drool with envy, but the children on the island never felt that there was anything special about them.

A light white mist filled the morning air, the vapor rising from the surrounding lake overnight. It was truly refreshing, but my nose was also freezing.

So he wore a scarf today, also black, and I don’t know how many times he hasn’t worn one. His neck was a little itchy. After finishing his pancake in front of the cart, Zhang Shutong continued on his way, the bustling sounds of people rushing past his ears.

When you can no longer see any signs of human habitation, you have reached your destination.

The fog around the "restricted area" was even thicker, a vast expanse of white. The sky was high and the surroundings were expansive. The reeds swayed gently in the wind. He walked to the lakeside and saw that the fishing line was still tied there intact.

Zhang Shutong is now starting to doubt Du Kang's words, not so much because of their credibility, but because of who the fishermen actually saw a few days before the incident.

The murderer? Or were they actually those two poachers?
The bald man had an electric fishing net on him; perhaps he'd been electrofishing in the restricted area these past few days?
Did the murderer actually come to the restricted area?

This clue was far from enough, and there were no other decent leads.

If he could go back eight years, he would definitely use the internet to investigate thoroughly. This murder case is the only thing Zhang Shutong feels is that the "future" is more useful than the "past."

I can only watch it after school today.

As he pondered this, he rode his bike back. At 7:25, Zhang Shutong arrived at the school gate on time, but had no choice but to slam on the brakes.

Their school's gate was indeed a bit small. The reason he said this wasn't because he disliked his alma mater; as the saying goes, a son doesn't despise his mother for being ugly, a dog doesn't despise its home for being poor, and a black Audi never cares if it blocks someone's way—

A black sedan was blocking the entrance;
A girl wearing a red scarf got off the car, and the pendant in her hair swayed slightly.

The time was 7:25 a.m., the second day of the retrospective;

The boy stopped the car and waited for the young lady to get out, unaware of what would happen when they returned to class.

If he had known, he would never have worn a black scarf.

Thank you very much to readers "白W" and "书友20220128142623922" for their generous donations.

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(End of this chapter)