Winter Returns

Chapter 245 A Fleeting Dream of the Past (Part 3)
Zhang Shutong tried hard to see what it looked like, but all he could see was a string of billowing black smoke.

He squinted and thought for a moment. If he wasn't mistaken, that should be the direction of the "ruined bridge." That bridge used to be the entrance to the island, but it had long been abandoned by 2012.

But no matter what it was like before, there should never be a train on the island.

He used to think the world was boring, with few familiar buildings and people, so he stayed by Lu Qinglian's side. But that wasn't the case.

—To find the deepest secret.

It's time to go out and see the world.

Zhang Shutong turned around and saw that Lu Qinglian was napping on her desk again. Seeing this, he didn't hesitate any longer and left the classroom.

The train is not too far from the school; you can see it after walking a short distance from the school gate.

Sure enough, it was the "ruined bridge." But how could there be a train on a bridge? As Zhang Shutong approached, he was stunned. The concrete bridge had completely disappeared, replaced by train tracks.

The lake surface naturally became the ground, and the entrance to the bridge became the platform. He stood on the platform, surrounded by silence and no one. The mottled tracks stretched out from his feet like a giant snake lurking on the ground, with no end in sight.

Zhang Shutong seemed to understand. He remembered that Lu Qinglian had asked her mother, "When will Dad come back?" Lu's mother said that Dad was still on the train, and the train was going very slowly... So in her dream, the entrance to the island was a station, and her father, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, would come to the island on an old-fashioned green train. Although it was going very, very slowly, he would eventually arrive.

Zhang Shutong looked up and saw a train billowing smoke on the tracks in the distance. It kept moving, but never got close.

Zhang Shutong looked at the train schedule again, but it only showed one time: 7 PM. This was quite strange. He couldn't figure it out at first, but then he guessed a funny possibility—

In winter, school ends around six o'clock. After leaving the school gate, following her habit of looking left and right, she arrived at the platform at exactly seven o'clock.

As for why she doesn't go in the morning, it's because she has to go to school in the morning. And why she doesn't go at noon, it's because she takes a nap at noon.

Zhang Shutong tried to walk along the railway tracks to see where it led, but he was forced to stop after a while, as he once again encountered the "boundary" of the dream.

But that's understandable, since it was never meant to exist.

Zhang Shutong waited a while longer, and when he confirmed that the train still showed no sign of approaching, he slowly walked back.

He spent the entire afternoon exploring half of the island on foot. The rest of the island remained largely unchanged: the center was the city, the outer perimeter was wilderness, and beyond that was the lake. The only thing that had disappeared was the original entrance to the island, the "broken bridge."

As the sun set, it was time to pick up Xiao Lu Qinglian from school. Zhang Shutong returned to the school and saw the mother and daughter in the office.

So it turns out they came because of a fight.

Lu's mother gave the boy who had been hit a medicated patch and told him to apply it when he got home. The whole process went smoothly. The boy's parents had just offered incense at the temple last year and had a subconscious respect for Lu's mother. Zhang Shutong also saw a slap mark on the boy's face that had not yet faded. The boy honestly apologized, and the adults nodded in acknowledgment.

Only one person refused to cooperate. Lu Qinglian remained expressionless, her eyes cold and piercing, displaying a commanding presence befitting an adult.

Her body temperature seemed to drop, but unfortunately she was still too young to trigger Zhang Shutong's "hair radar".

It turns out that Lu Qinglian also has moments of sulking.

As the mother and daughter walked along the road outside the school gate, she asked in a muffled voice:

"Why apologize?"

"I'm apologizing not because you did anything wrong."

"what is that?"

"Let this matter pass. Once it's out in the open, you won't keep it bottled up inside," the woman said gently.

Instead of returning to the mountain, they went around to the lakeside behind the school.

Lu's mother squatted down, and another snake crawled out of the grass. It even brought a souvenir, a hedgehog.

The woman smiled and said:

"Look, don't be like a little hedgehog, looking all prickly but actually very fragile."

Lu Qinglian didn't speak, silently watching the lake.

“Dad didn’t abandon us.” After a while, the woman said again, “He just has some things to deal with. He loves you and Mom very much. Once he’s dealt with that, we can live together.”

The polite snake, upon seeing the future young master, tactfully placed the hedgehog at Lu Qinglian's feet, only to have it kicked away by her.

Zhang Shutong speculated that she used this action to show that she would never be a fragile hedgehog.

The enormous sun sank into the lake. A mother and daughter sat on the shore, gazing at something unseen. Lu Qinglian leaned against her mother, who hummed a song and gently patted her back. As the song ended, she thoughtfully said:

"Actually, there's another reason, in case Mom isn't by your side one day..."

Lu Qinglian covered her ears.

Lu's mother sighed softly and said nothing more.

It was getting late, and they should head back. Zhang Shutong wanted to sleep in the house tonight, and just as he was about to quicken his pace, everything went black. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a classroom.

It was dusk.

Snowflakes were stuck to the glass, making it unclear whether Christmas had passed or was just around the corner. The children crowded in the open space under the podium, holding hands and rehearsing their New Year's Day chorus under the teacher's direction.

Zhang Shutong spotted Lu Qinglian at the back of the crowd. She was taller than her peers, with slightly parted pink lips, intently watching the teacher's instructions.

In his dream, he could lean close to her ear without restraint. She sang beautifully, though her voice wasn't loud; it was clear and cool, like a winter stream. After listening for a while, Zhang Shutong gave her a thumbs up.

The rehearsal ended, and everyone slung their backpacks over their shoulders. Zhang Shutong followed slowly behind Qinglian. They had spent more time on the road today, and she had a brand new pair of boots, so she deliberately avoided the snow-melting paths.

When they returned to the temple, they didn't see Lu's mother. Lu Qinglian had gone back to her room to do her homework. Zhang Shutong sat beside her, not quite understanding why the day had started in the afternoon. Oh well, it was just a dream anyway, so who cares...

The Chinese teacher assigned homework to copy excerpts from famous works of literature, both ancient and modern, and to write down one's own understanding after copying.

The side hall is never short of famous books.

Lu Qinglian picked up a copy of The Doctrine of the Mean and neatly wrote "Guard your heart, understand your nature..." on the notebook. Was she reflecting on past events? Zhang Shutong thought, this is a rare virtue.

She frowned halfway through copying, then moved a chair to the bookshelf to rummage through the books, finally finding a Bible. Zhang Shutong was not surprised by its existence.

He was somewhat surprised that Lu Qinglian liked the Bible so much. Zhang Shutong first saw her copy down the sentence "be tolerant in all things," and then picked up his pen to write that it meant we should be more tolerant in many things.

Although Lu Mu had a large collection of books, almost all of them were original editions without translations.

"I overestimated you, Lu Qinglian," Zhang Shutong sighed. "So you just like plain language and can't understand anything else."

Lu's mother hadn't returned yet, and perhaps for that reason, the door wasn't closed. Zhang Shutong was pleasantly surprised to find that he could now push a door open, provided it wasn't locked. Although the movement was small, he managed to squeeze his body through the gap.

Zhang Shutong turned and walked towards the main hall.

The main hall's door was also not closed, and the hall was pitch black inside. There were no candles or lamps, and nothing could be seen. The moon was blocked by clouds tonight, and by the faint light, the outline of a green snake could be vaguely seen directly in front of us. That should be the so-called "Green Snake God".

Just then, a rustling sound came from beside the statue. The sound was very soft, like a mouse sneaking out. Zhang Shutong went over and found that there was a small door hidden in the corner. He tried to push it, but it wouldn't budge.

Nothing was found in front of the statue.

This is not the real world; only things from Lu Qinglian's memories will appear.

In other words, she doesn't have a deep understanding of this area right now.

The night wind rushed into the main hall, and the wooden door suddenly swung open, opening to its widest point with a bang. He looked at the slightly swaying wooden door and his heart skipped a beat. Zhang Shutong smiled bitterly and thought that nowadays even a gust of wind is stronger than him.

Zhang Shutong was about to leave.

He turned around, and moonlight streamed in. A human head rolled to his feet.

Boom, boom, boom.

It was so quiet that you could only hear his own heartbeat.

Zhang Shutong stiffly lowered his face, and a head covered in white hair slowly opened its eyes.

Zhang Shutong met those snake-like eyes.

His body went cold in an instant, and he even stopped breathing. The snake's eyes stared straight at him, contracting and expanding, contracting and expanding. The moonlight became even brighter, and he saw the old woman's body behind the head. She was lying on the ground, not speaking, but slowly raising her head.

When and how did this happen? It wasn't here when I came in... Zhang Shutong suddenly had a chilling guess:

He recalled the rustling sound he had heard not long ago. As he entered the hall, an old woman slowly crawled out of the small door and silently came to his feet...

What are you doing here?

Suddenly someone said...

Zhang Shutong hurriedly turned around and saw a woman in a green robe appear at the entrance of the palace.

It was Lu Qinglian's mother; she was backlit by the moonlight, so her face was not visible.

“There’s a mouse,” Grandma said in a hoarse voice.

"where?"

"I must have misread it."

"Has your illness gotten worse again?"

"It's alright... it's been flaring up a lot lately."

Lu's mother stepped forward to help the old woman up, as if she were helping an ordinary old woman, as if the other woman had been busy with something in the hall just a moment ago, and had suddenly fallen due to a medical lapse. But Zhang Shutong knew that she had clearly crawled out of that small door, but he couldn't make a sound, so he could only move his mouth silently.

"Beware of rats," Grandma said after a while.

"No," the woman said calmly.

"time is limited."

This time, the woman remained silent for a long time, but Zhang Shutong instinctively thought, "What time? The time of something? Or the time of someone?"
There were only three people in this desolate temple; two of them were still alive eight years later, and the other...

Zhang Shutong's gaze fell on Lu Qinglian's mother, and he felt his body growing colder and colder.

“I know,” Lu’s mother said softly as the moonlight disappeared again.

……

When Zhang Shutong opened his eyes again, the sunlight made him dizzy.

No, he thought, rubbing his forehead. His last memory was of that hall, but what were they discussing?
The place she was in was not a classroom, nor even any place she remembered. The laughter of men and women reached her ears. She was in a living room, and at the dining table, a petite figure sat upright, which made Zhang Shutong breathe a sigh of relief.

It was Lu Qinglian.

Zhang Shutong recognized the figure next to her as the girl at the same table. Looking at the steaming food on the table, Zhang Shutong realized that she was a guest at someone else's home.

So you've been to more than just your own house...

Zhang Shutong walked to the dining table, which resembled a family dinner. Lu Qinglian sat upright, seemingly not liking this kind of scene.

She always kept her chopsticks on her own bowl, eating whatever her parents put on her plate. Well, she was just as shy as she would be later.

Two girls sat to one side, a small bottle of Yakult beside them. This brought back Zhang Shutong's memories. Lu Qinglian picked it up and took small sips, seemingly reluctant to part with it. The girl nudged her and said:
"Keep drinking, there's more."

She tilted her head back a little more.

(End of this chapter)