After eight long years, Zhang Shutong returned to the small island where he grew up.
—To attend the funeral of a junior high school classmate.
The funeral home is located in the southern part of the island, next to the newly built road around the lake.
Leaning on the guardrail by the roadside and looking into the distance, on a clear day, the lake reflects the clear sky, like a sapphire blue jewel. When the wind blows, the clouds also ripple, making one feel refreshed.
But today, the lake is steel blue.
The sky is hazy. As soon as he stepped out of the funeral home, Zhang Shutong immediately tightened his trench coat.
The weather was cold. He left in a hurry and forgot to put on more layers of clothing; it was warmer inside the hall, but the mournful music made his head dizzy. He would rather come out and endure the cold after staying for a while.
The matters were almost done, but as classmates, their relationship was special, so it was not appropriate to leave immediately.
While bored, he glanced at his phone. It was just past two in the afternoon, the funeral was not over yet, and people were still arriving from various places.
For example, just now, Zhang Shutong saw two old ladies passing by, whispering something.
"It's such a shame, such a beautiful girl. I watched her grow up."
"Yes, why would she end her life at such a young age? Her family line is now gone."
"Who knows, what about her young boyfriend? Didn't they say he called the day before to break up with her? He's also a heartless man..."
Zhang Shutong sighed lightly at the words, biting the soft flesh on the inside of his cheek, a small gesture he makes when he is speechless.
He had heard countless similar rumors today, so much that he didn't even feel like refuting them.
The two people in the conversation, one was naturally the deceased classmate;
And the other, that "heartless young boyfriend," if he guessed correctly, was referring to himself.
This was precisely why he didn't dare to reveal his identity throughout the funeral, always avoiding the crowd, otherwise, he couldn't explain himself even with ten more mouths.
But the reason for this irrelevant misunderstanding was really a bit convoluted.
It probably had to be traced back to a few days ago:
He received the obituary of that female classmate the afternoon before yesterday.
The incident was sudden. By the time he hurriedly booked his train ticket, changed several modes of transport from the city where he resided, and arrived on the island by boat, it was already this morning.
But now, the funeral was almost over, and his brain was still processing this piece of information.
The shock was greater than the sorrow.
Zhang Shutong is 24 years old this year.
At this age, he had imagined his interactions with classmates would be attending someone's wedding, or if someone was in a hurry, perhaps he would have to eat a wedding noodle and make a few jokes.
But he never expected that the first classmate event he attended after graduation would be a funeral.
Zhang Shutong was never a nostalgic person, otherwise, he wouldn't have returned to the island even once in eight years.
Even so, after learning of the girl's passing, a faint sense of pity still arose in his heart.
Actually, "girl" might not be an accurate description, but his memories of junior high school were all stuck eight years ago;
Junior high school was a four-year system. He moved to the island at the age of 13 due to his parents' job transfer and then moved to the neighboring provincial city after graduation, leaving when he was only 16.
His impression of his peers was naturally a face from their youth.
In his memory, she was a very beautiful girl. She had a cool personality, always wore her hair in a high ponytail, and had good grades;
But she wasn't the stereotypical obedient girl.
The young girl spoke very little and was used to being alone, her whereabouts were unpredictable.
Their school was built on the outskirts of the small island. Outside the school gate, there were two roads, one leading to the town inside, and the other leading to the mountain behind.
The girl always took the second road after school.
It was unclear if the road up the mountain led to her home. He only knew that while they were all going home to do homework, she would briskly put on her backpack, but she always had the cool aura of someone who was going to save the world after school.
It was this sense of mystery that made many boys in the class like her;
But she always had an aloof, unapproachable air, so few could talk to her, and she didn't even have female friends.
In today's popular terms, even if she wasn't the 'white moonlight' in their hearts, she was at least a presence that, many years later, would brighten up the memories of those dark and hazy adolescent years.
But the reason for his deep memory was not just her beauty, but because she was much "specialer" than them, her junior high school peers.
Just as every 'white moonlight' girl has a legend behind her, the island named Yanlong Island also had its share of ancient legends.
The island is surrounded by water on three sides and has a mountain on one side.
There is a temple on the mountain called the Green Snake Temple, whose origin is no longer traceable. He only remembered that the locals were very devout believers, and there was a constant stream of incense all year round.
He later learned that besides being a student, the girl's other identity was the temple priestess of the Green Snake Temple.
There were only her and her grandmother in the temple. Every major festival, she would have to take a few days off from class, at which time her ponytail would be let down into long hair that reached her shoulders, and she would go back to the temple to help for several days.
But the word "temple priestess" was a bit strange in modern life.
He and a few of his best friends had argued about it several times:
Some said a temple priestess was a Taoist priest, some said a Buddhist nun, and some said a Christian nun. At that point, someone else would say something nonsensical, that a nun was from a foreign country, and that she was clearly a shaman...
In short, for a long time, he would always fantasize about this female classmate as an immortal with flowing robes and long loose hair.
Once she came to class without changing her clothes, wearing a long green robe;
She didn't care about others' stares, it was as if a girl who had returned from cultivating immortality was sitting in the classroom.
It wasn't a crush, but thinking about it from his perspective, it would probably be a scene where many years later, someone found her wedding photo on social media, and a group of people would lament their lost youth.
But what Zhang Shutong saw was a black and white funeral photo.
There were no more memories beyond this.
Perhaps there were other interactions back then, but time is enough to wash away many things that one thought were unforgettable, let alone a classmate he only knew by nodding.
Adults and children look at problems differently. Many questions that were incomprehensible before can be nodded at with a sudden realization now.
But only for this girl, she would pop into his mind these past few days. It was like a puzzle that had arrived eight years late.
The two of them weren't particularly close. What he couldn't figure out was not her death—
But why she had made a phone call to him late at night on the day before she died, which was three days ago.
Zhang Shutong didn't get that call.
He was in the habit of silencing his phone before bed. When he woke up and saw a missed call from "Lu Qinglian," he pondered it for a while.
Wrong number?
That's definitely the first reaction for most people.
Eight years had passed, there was no telling if the other party even remembered him, but with a good impression, he still called back, but the call didn't go through.
He didn't think about this for long, and then, the next afternoon;
Zhang Shutong received the news of Lu Qinglian's death.
Actually, he doesn't usually go out. To be blunt, with such a relationship, he wouldn't have gone to the funeral, at most he would have asked a familiar classmate to bring a gift on his behalf.
But because of that phone call, a matter that had little to do with him suddenly became deeply connected to him.
Especially yesterday, when he received a query from the police, he learned that the other party hardly used tools like phones;
She was a temple priestess girl who lived on the mountain. He used to think she was like a fairy, and maybe after all these years, the girl had grown up and truly lived like an otherworldly fairy.
She had been staying on that mountain all these years, and the only call she made the day before her death was to Zhang Shutong.
To be honest, he couldn't stand this, it made him feel choked up.
The police probably asked the people on the island what their relationship was. Then the news somehow leaked, and all sorts of rumors spiraled out of control:
Some said it was her boyfriend who called, ready to break up with her, saying she was too cold and her family was not well off, and so on;
Some said it was a distress call;
And some said it was murder, that she had sensed something was wrong in advance and was relaying information about the killer to him.
There were also some supernatural rumors.
In any case, Zhang Shutong had heard no less than five versions, but he didn't know much about the inside story, only that she had fallen into the lake by accident, and it had been officially classified as an accident.
...Let's just assume it was an accident for now.
Actually, Zhang Shutong didn't care too much about the truth. He came here just to see if there was a possibility of a reversal.
An accident that happened on the island eight years ago gave him this ability.
And it was also for this reason that if it weren't for this funeral, he probably wouldn't have returned in his lifetime.
It was probably a story about a man who loves what he doesn't have, and unfortunately, he was the protagonist of the story:
He remembered it was the summer vacation after the high school entrance exam. Every year at this time, the Green Snake Temple would hold a sacrificial ceremony.
That day, he and a few of his best friends went to join in the fun, but it was so crowded that they couldn't squeeze in.
Boys are wild by nature, so he went around to the back of the temple by himself to climb the wall, but he accidentally stepped on a loose stone, rolled down the mountain, and lost consciousness.
When he woke up again, it was already dark, but he was lying on a bed in a clinic.
Later, his friend told him that he had been unconscious halfway up the mountain behind the temple, with a broken head, and it was an old lady who found him.
He was lucky, if his luck were a bit worse, who would have thought to look for someone there.
His parents wanted to thank her, but the person who saved him disappeared directly.
This close call gave him an extraordinary ability.
And it was on this day that the trajectory of his life was completely changed.
Zhang Shutong named this ability "Rewind."
The specific trigger mechanism is that if something bad happens around him, he will return to a critical point in time before the event occurred.
It's usually a few minutes, or a few days ago.
It's as if someone is forcing him to prevent that bad thing from happening;
Whether he is willing or not, he will be forcibly dragged into it.
And if it is not resolved, the Rewind will be triggered again, in a cycle.
If you were to ask about his thoughts at the time, it was quite simple. He was just excited, after all, time Rewind sounded like a superpower that could save the world, super cool.
"—Only I am unique."
A boy of that age, no one could resist this idea.
Initially, Zhang Shutong did many things that were considered "good deeds" in the secular sense.
After entering high school, in just the first year, he relied on Rewind to prevent several car accidents on his way to school every day.
That was probably in 2013, when "The Amazing Spider-Man" was released. He left the movie theater after midnight, the wind blew on him, and he walked all the way home. He didn't feel cold, as if he had been greatly inspired;
The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man might not be real, but at least in their community, he was.
Although he never encountered any villains, that year he successfully stopped two cases of domestic violence, one case of an affair, and saved three marriages.
And his new high school life:
There were those who were heartbroken after a failed confession;
There were those who wanted to jump off a building due to academic pressure;
And there were those whose families had various problems...
He gradually became too busy to cope, and Rewind would be triggered every few days.
It was naturally joyful to be able to help others. Although he was also exhausted every time.
He had a crush on a senior girl at the time. It was a summer. His popularity was always pretty good. When they got closer, they agreed to watch a movie after the monthly exam. However, on that day, Zhang Shutong stood her up.
It wasn't because he didn't care.
In the lobby of the movie theater, a young mother was sitting there. The woman was crying non-stop, and policemen in uniform had surrounded the scene. He learned from the scattered words that a child was missing.
He didn't have time to react, and the next moment, Rewind was triggered.
He reverted a total of five times that day and finally found the child who had been abducted. Afterwards, he collapsed at home, exhausted.
That summer date seemed to have become a reality that he could never reach.
And on that day, Zhang Shutong discovered a terrifying fact.
He could help others escape from their unbearable past.
But he was the one who was trapped in the past.
Rewind was still being triggered non-stop, and he couldn't control it.
From Monday to Friday, for anyone else, it was a week's time, but for him, it felt as long as a month.
Finally, in his third year of high school, he almost collapsed from the endless Rewinds and was nearly diagnosed with split personality by a doctor, the reason being that many non-existent "memories" appeared in his brain.
During the most serious period, he would stay cooped up in his rented apartment, afraid to interact with the outside world. He relied on takeout for every meal and would only go out for a breath of fresh air late at night.
Then he took a leave of absence, and to seek treatment, he moved with his parents to a more distant city and transferred to a new school.
A miraculous thing happened.
The frequency of Rewind was significantly reduced.
Those petty, trivial matters no longer made him go back to the past.
But it was only a reduction. It was like an eternal nightmare. The ability he accidentally gained at the age of 16 completely changed his life. Unable to live normally, he could only try his best to continue.
Later, he endured until he graduated from college, and because he had to reduce the frequency of contact with others, he moved out by himself and found a remote job.
He had saved some money over the years, enough to support himself, but sometimes in his lonely room, he would think about the future.
His parents getting old, getting married, having children... Where was his future? He couldn't see it yet.
He still doesn't like to go out now, and his life isn't particularly good. But at least he has escaped from the endless Rewinds.
In a life with no end in sight, two days ago, he received the obituary of his junior high school classmate.
The experiences of these years had made him a person who was very afraid of trouble. He was always being forced into various incidents, and it was miserable;
But this time, Zhang Shutong voluntarily wanted to use his ability to hear the content of that phone call.
Therefore, after eight long years, he returned to the island that had changed his life.
However, it had been two hours since he arrived on the island. Not long ago, he went to the memorial hall and stayed by the body for a long time, but Rewind still hadn't happened.
He shouldn't have held out hope long ago.
Looking at the lake in the distance, Zhang Shutong sighed.
He had thought of this before coming. Because the prerequisite for Rewind must be something that happens around him.
He wasn't at the scene when she died. Although he knew the hope was slim, he still wanted to give it a try. But reality, well, reality is as it always is, and in the end, nothing could be salvaged.
There was no wind or waves today, the surface of the lake was an almost solidified steel blue. He leaned against the guardrail and lit a cigarette, which was handed out at the funeral.
He had quit smoking a long time ago, but he lit it subconsciously, not smoking it, just holding it between his fingers and watching the smoke dissipate.
It wasn't heavy, one always has to learn to make peace with reality, and he had gotten used to this a long time ago.
Powerlessness, despair, self-abandonment, he had experienced all these emotions in his past life.
Eight years passed in the blink of an eye. Now that he returned to the side of this lake, recalling the past, his emotions were not as turbulent as he had imagined, he just felt... a faint sense of regret.
And there was no reason to stay any longer.
Just as he was about to go to the funeral home to inform them, someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder.
He turned around. The person who came was a young man with short hair and a smiling face. He was a best friend from junior high school.
His best friend's name was Du Kang. The Du Kang from the saying, "What can relieve sorrow, only Du Kang." He had always been a carefree person.
He had stayed local all these years, took over his family's small restaurant, and was an expert on everything on the island. It was he who had informed him of Lu Qinglian's death.
The other party was helping out at the funeral and had a moment of leisure, so he came out to chat with him.
"You're finally back?"
His childhood friend, who he hadn't seen in many years, still felt familiar, but Zhang Shutong didn't know how to respond to this, so he just shrugged and smiled apologetically.
"I'll take you around in a bit. Although Qingyi didn't come, Ruoping and the others are here. Let's have dinner together tonight?"
Zhang Shutong could only continue to decline.
He really wanted to go, but he really couldn't. He was afraid that someone would drink a little too much and start talking about their misfortunes... In that case, he probably wouldn't have to go back.
"You're still the same."
The repeated rejections made the smile on his best friend's face fade. Du Kang complained:
"Just like in school, you don't say a word for a long time. Your clothes are always black, and oh, you're wearing a trench coat on such a cold day. What are you trying to show off? Although girls thought it was being cool and aloof, I don't know why you and Qingyi were the most popular."
He thought to himself that this was a misunderstanding. He simply left in a hurry, and besides black, he didn't have any other clothes at home. He wasn't showing off at all.
And why did you have that impression? I didn't even know that myself.
"Don't be stubborn. We haven't seen each other in so long. Just listen to me for a bit."
Zhang Shutong, who was about to say something, bit the soft flesh in his mouth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
The two stood by the road for a while. Du Kang rubbed his face, took out a cigarette and lit it, and after a long time, he said:
"So, should we talk about her?"
Zhang Shutong knew that "her" referred to Lu Qinglian.
Du Kang had a crush on this old classmate. He remembered one time, a girl had badmouthed Lu Qinglian behind her back. When he found out, he threw that person's backpack into the men's restroom and was suspended for a few days.
He was a man of action, and he had also confessed, but he failed. He didn't know if there had been any substantial progress between the two since they both stayed on the island for so many years.
He felt that Du Kang must be feeling bad, and just as he was putting on a listening posture, the other party stared straight at the lake and suddenly said:
"She was murdered."
Zhang Shutong was stunned.
"I'm telling you, someone killed Lu Qinglian! I've told several people, and they don't believe me at all."
Du Kang took a long drag on his cigarette:
"I just saw her last week. She was as normal as could be, busy repairing the statues in the temple. Nothing was wrong at all. Do you really believe someone saying she was in a bad mood and committed suicide?
"And the accidental drowning too. She usually stays in the temple, and sometimes she goes to school to accompany some kids. Why would she go to the lakeside for no reason? And in the middle of the night... what the hell, fishing or swimming in the middle of the night?"
He became more and more agitated as he spoke, and finally slammed his fist against the guardrail in front of him:
"Her body was found in the 'Forbidden Zone.' Shutong, you still remember the Forbidden Zone, right?"
It took a moment for Zhang Shutong to remember the meaning behind those two words.
It was actually a nickname that they, during their rebellious phase, gave to a few areas on the small island.
"The Temple," "The Base," "The Forbidden Zone," and so on.
"The Temple" was the easiest to understand, it was the Green Snake Temple in the mountains.
"The Base" was an abandoned large drainage tunnel, which they used as a secret base because they often played there after school.
And "The Forbidden Zone" referred to a certain body of water in the northern part of the island. Because of the low-lying terrain and lack of sunlight all year round, the surroundings were always a desolate scene, with sparse weeds and few fish, and hardly anyone went there.
The reason it was called the Forbidden Zone was both complex and straightforward—
Because people had died in that body of water, and more than one.
Fuzzy memories surfaced in his mind.
Zhang Shutong remembered two things clearly:
One happened before he moved to the island.
To get on and off the island, one needed to take a boat. The pier was open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
It was said that more than ten years ago, a group of college students came to the island to stay and had a blast playing in a nearby town all day. By the time they arrived at the pier, it was already evening. They waited for a long time, but where was the shadow of a ferry?
It was in the middle of a harsh winter, and it was snowing heavily. Their snot was frozen solid, of course, they couldn't just wait by the shore all night. The bus back had already left, and while the group was in a frenzy, a fishing boat suddenly came over.
It turned out that a kind local fisherman felt sorry for them and was willing to give them a ride.
The fishing boat was also large, so a dozen people set off. The first half of the journey was calm and peaceful, but halfway through, the boat inexplicably sank.
This was a strange thing to say. When the group of people was found, the fishing boat was floating on the lake intact, neither capsized nor leaking, but more than a dozen living people had drowned just like that.
No one knew what happened in the middle, and the location of the sinking was the aforementioned Forbidden Zone. It was said that a special task force was even formed, and the official investigation concluded that the snow was too heavy that night and sank the boat. Later, when the snow melted, it naturally floated up.
Because his mother often used it as a ghost story to scare him when he was a child, Zhang Shutong always remembered it.
As for the second thing, although the memory was blurry, the direction was clearer. It happened in his fourth year of junior high, a female classmate went missing. But before he could recall more details, he was interrupted by Du Kang:
"Do you still remember that murder case?"
That's right, it was that murder case.
In his fourth year of junior high, a vicious incident occurred on the small island, and the victim was their female classmate.
At first, the girl didn't come to class. Back then, it wasn't like now with various class groups to report absences. There was a lack of communication between the school and the parents, which led to both sides not paying attention.
But in the end, it was the parents' irresponsibility that led to the bad outcome. They only thought of reporting her missing a day after she disappeared, which delayed the rescue time.
By the time the girl was found, she had already been killed.
The place where her body was found was also in the "Forbidden Zone."
The class teacher at the time also resigned in shame. The school specially found someone to provide psychological counseling, and coupled with the deliberate avoidance by adults, many details became blurry.
He only remembered that she was the daughter of a rich family and had a pair of very lively and beautiful eyes.
Her voice was crisp and she was a bit arrogant.
If there was one thing that left a deeper impression on Zhang Shutong about her, it was probably that she always wore a red scarf. She even wore it in class.
The reason he could remember it was because his deskmate told him she was "putting on an act";
Later, someone stepped on her scarf, and she somehow blamed him for it, and then she kept glaring at him with those eyes.
Also, not long before she went missing, he seemed to have seen her somewhere outside the school...
He was frowning in thought when Du Kang suddenly said:
"Shutong, you might have forgotten, but I've always remembered one thing. Do you remember what date the girl went missing?"
Then, Du Kang coldly reported a date:
"It was December 10th.
"You all don't remember, but that day was my birthday, so I always remembered very clearly that a classmate from our class didn't come.
"Now, look at what day it is today?"
Saying that, Du Kang thrust his phone screen in his face. When he saw the date clearly, his pupils constricted.
Today was December 12th.
So that means two days ago was...
"Did the police—" Zhang Shutong suddenly felt a chill.
"That's not likely. Qinglian didn't have any fatal injuries when she was found. And now there are surveillance cameras on the island, unlike back then. Besides herself, no one else was seen."
Du Kang lost his spirit, but he still said with a lack of conviction:
"But that's why I feel so choked up. If I were to provide evidence, I can't find any. But there's a coincidence right there. I won't feel at peace without a reasonable explanation.
"I've been dreaming of Qinglian these past few days, dreaming of her by the lake, and she doesn't say much, just like before... Let's wait until tomorrow. After the funeral matters are settled, I'll go to the town archives to see if I can find other details about that case."
He looked at his best friend's face, was silent for a while, and finally said apologetically:
"Tell me anytime you find something. Although I can't help much, at least..."
"Don't say that, Shutong. Everyone has their own difficulties these past few years. It's not like back when we said we'd be best friends for life. Actually, it doesn't matter if you can help or not. This is something I want to do, and it's not right to tie you guys down. I just..."
Du Kang paused and used his hand to extinguish the cigarette:
"I'm just a little jealous of you.
"I've been holding back a few words, and I'll feel better after I say them. Tell me, why wasn't I the one who received that call?
"It was just past 11 o'clock, right? I go to bed much later than that, so I definitely could have answered it. If I had answered it, no matter what happened, I would have rushed over, and maybe she wouldn't have died.
"But why did she call you, someone she hadn't been in contact with for eight years? I know all those rumors are fake, but when they say boyfriend, I... I'm sorry."
His shoulders drooped:
"Let's not talk anymore. I still have things to be busy with. You might not know, but Qinglian was the only one left in her family. Before, there was a grandmother she depended on, but she also passed away a few years ago. So there's no one to help with the funeral arrangements, just me and Nuoping and a few others.
"So this time, I apologize for the poor hospitality. Come visit more often in the future."
Saying this, he forced a smile, the same smiling face he had when they met, but the smile was a bit ugly.
Zhang Shutong didn't respond, he just patted him on the shoulder:
"I'll help too."
And so, in the end, he couldn't leave.
...
The plan was to take a boat off the island in the afternoon and catch the last high-speed train tonight, so he could be home tomorrow night. His schedule was very tight, not because he had any urgent matters, but because he was worried about something unexpected happening that would trigger that damned ability.
But now, the plan had shifted quite a bit. By the time they were done, it was already dark. Du Kang had booked a hotel for him, saying that he wouldn't accept any money.
Originally, someone was calling for dinner in the evening, but everyone was tired after a day of work, so they weren't in high spirits and just ate a few bites of boxed meals to get it over with.
After dinner, they chatted about embarrassing things from their past, and to his surprise, they started talking about him.
"Oh, the young boyfriend." A girl named Ruoping covered her mouth and chuckled lightly.
Zhang Shutong knew she was definitely doing it on purpose, using the rumors from the day to tease him, counting on the fact that they used to be close.
"How do you all know about it?" He said helplessly.
"It has already spread everywhere. Do you remember our class teacher at the time? He specifically asked me today where Zhang Shutong was. Now it's not a question of whether you know or not, but which version you believe."
"Actually, besides the boyfriend, the distress call, and the killer's information, there's another version. Do you want to hear it?"
"What?" Ruoping's eyes widened.
"She gave me a dream." Zhang Shutong recalled seriously, "In the dream, she asked me, 'Feng Ruoping has always been a gossip, why is she still like this now?'"
"Zhang Shutong, get lost—"
Then a few of the classmates from out of town perked up again and yelled about going to a bar or a KTV to relax, but then they remembered, there were no such places on the island. There weren't any before, and there weren't any now.
It made Zhang Shutong, for a rare moment, recall his student days. The small island was called Yanlong Island, and although it was called a small island, it was no different from a town surrounded by a lake. It wasn't backward, it just felt a bit more isolated from the world.
When he first moved here, he wasn't happy, complaining that there were too few things to do.
There were no malls, no movie theaters, no amusement parks, and no KFCs or McDonald's on the island.
But he quickly blended in, adventuring in the mountains, fishing in the lake, and eating local specialties at temple fairs and sacrificial ceremonies. The fried shrimp cakes and fish porridge had a unique flavor, and the lotus seeds were sweet in the summer.
In a sense, even if one wanted to be a bad kid, there wasn't much room to become one.
A small island, a large lake, deep mountains, temples, and ancient legends, a group of teenage boys and girls...
Their school was built on the outskirts of the small island. Climbing to the roof of the academic building, smelling the cool lake breeze, one could see the surrounding scenery.
If they wanted to have a date with a girl they liked, they would have to take a boat to a nearby town, but they had to be careful not to be late because the ferry back home stopped at 6 p.m.
And because they had classes during the day and no one paid attention to them on weekends, "taking a boat secretly to watch a movie with a girl you like" became a thought that boys longed for but never acted upon.
If he could do it all over again, maybe he would have a different answer.
Sometimes this thought would cross his mind.
The deceased classmate, the missing girl;
And a normal life.
As humans get older, they realize what a rare thing a second chance is.
Zhang Shutong had many second chances in his hands, but not a single one he could take for himself.
He could never go back to his own past.
When it was completely dark, although it was a bit unconventional, they bowed three times in front of the portrait, and then said their goodbyes in front of the funeral home.
Just before parting, Du Kang had something to say:
"I just searched online. The killer in that case was never caught. There were a few fishermen's testimonies who said they saw someone in the Forbidden Zone before the incident... I'll go back and check again."
On the way back to the hotel, Zhang Shutong kept thinking about this sentence.
...It would be nice if the killer was just one person, but where would you find such a coincidence?
No, it's not a coincidence, it's a complete horror story.
After taking a shower, he lay in bed, thinking about everything he had seen and heard that day.
In the end, all that remained was Du Kang's unreasonable guess.
Just because it happened on the same day and in the same place, he concluded it was a serial murder case. What was the motive?
Would the killer from back then not hide in anonymity for a lifetime and dare to come back and kill again? That's an unbelievable amount of courage.
But if it was murder, then what about Lu Qinglian's phone call...
Zhang Shutong shook his head, feeling that he was thinking too much.
After all, eight years had passed.
He glanced at his phone again, the time was 8:34 p.m.
The wind was picking up, and he couldn't fall asleep, so he put on his clothes, buttoned his trench coat to the first button, borrowed a flashlight from the hotel front desk, and headed out into the cold wind.
There were few vehicles, and the streetlights weren't very bright, but thankfully, the hotel Du Kang booked was very close to his destination.
Following his memory from back then, he walked for more than ten minutes. He crossed the guardrail of the road around the lake and landed on the overgrown wilderness.
—Ahead was the body of water known as the Forbidden Zone.
There was no moonlight tonight. When he turned on the flashlight, the lake was a ghostly white, and he couldn't hear the calls of frogs or insects, only the foul smell of mud.
He looked around again and found traces of withered grass being trampled, probably left by the police search a few days ago.
Zhang Shutong just squatted by the lake until the night wind made his body stiff.
So the temple priestess girl named Lu Qinglian ended her life here.
The reeds by the lake rustled, and he suddenly felt as if he were in another world.
But what could he do?
He gave a self-deprecating smile.
There was no evidence, no clues, and even the only thing he could rely on, Rewind, was useless.
In the end, he didn't have the obsession that Du Kang had accumulated over a decade-long crush. Since he couldn't go back to the moment before her death, what he had done here was the most he could do within his ability.
But he was still very sorry.
Zhang Shutong stared at the lake and thought.
He couldn't answer her call, and he couldn't find the truth.
He apologized in his heart and slowly stood up, his body stiff.
It was getting late, it was time to go back.
As this thought arose, Zhang Shutong took out his phone.
The wind grew stronger, and the weeds around him suddenly began to stir.
Then, a cold, sharp object was plunged into the back of his neck.
His phone dropped to the ground.
In the last moment before his consciousness dissipated, he saw the time lit up on the screen.
December 12th, 2020.
8:59 p.m. flashed and jumped to 9 p.m.
Rewind, triggered.