"Are you dreaming again?"
Zhang Shutong's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.
There were two ways to interpret this sentence: one was daydreaming, and the other...
Was the very excuse he had used to hide his regressions.
But he had only exchanged a few words with her since they met. Even Ruoping hadn't noticed anything, so how had she seen through him?
Feeling a bit apprehensive, Zhang Shutong took a long while before replying with a single word: "Yes."
Lu Qinglian calmly repeated herself: "Are you daydreaming?"
"Uh..."
Zhang Shutong was somewhat unable to grasp her meaning.
"What do you want to ask? Time is limited," Lu Qinglian said.
Her tone was like a pool of still, stagnant water that had ceased to flow.
"The foxes." Zhang Shutong could no longer afford to guess her thoughts. "Do you still remember during our fourth year of middle school when we went into the tunnel and placed that wide-grinning fox onto the altar?"
"I remember," she said after a long pause. "Nothing happened after that."
"What about the whereabouts of the other foxes? During the time I was away..."
"There were none."
"What about the person in the basement, including the clues about the clay figures?"
"None either."
Lu Qinglian lowered her eyes after speaking.
Zhang Shutong also fell silent with her.
How could there be absolutely nothing?
"In other words, everything has ground to a halt?" he asked in a low voice.
But Lu Qinglian acted as if she hadn't heard him.
She raised her head: "Is there anything else you want to ask?"
"Probably not... Oh, only Du Kang and Ruoping are left." Zhang Shutong added hurriedly, "Though you might not care, did something happen between the two of them?"
Lu Qinglian merely shook her head.
The two of them didn't look like they were reuniting after a long separation. Zhang Shutong stared at the flickering candle flame before his knees, completely speechless for a moment.
Was it a sense of frustration?
Or was it a sense of relief that nothing had happened and he could finally breathe easy?
He didn't know either.
He only knew that the candlestick in the temple seemed to be of poor quality, suddenly extinguishing. Zhang Shutong raised his head, only to realize that Lu Qinglian had let out a breath and blown the candle out.
The entire side hall fell into darkness, leaving only her crisp, cold voice:
"Go."
Was this a dismissal?
"Then do you want to go get dinner?" Zhang Shutong invited her once more. "The matters at the temple are mostly wrapped up, aren't they?"
But Lu Qinglian didn't speak.
In the darkness, Zhang Shutong couldn't see her expression. He could only see her sitting on the floor, the hem of her green robe spreading across the ground, her posture just as upright as it had been years ago.
Then, after a rustling sound, Lu Qinglian stood up.
Zhang Shutong had no choice but to stand up with her, silently sighing that Student Lu had become even colder and more detached than before. If this continued, she would truly turn into an ethereal immortal who didn't consume worldly food.
The two of them stepped out of the hall door, standing shoulder to shoulder in front of the door frame. The pilgrims in the courtyard had dispersed at some point, leaving only two or three people standing before the wishing rack, with Ruoping among them.
The sunlight shone on their faces.
"Zhang Shutong," a voice rang out softly. "What does the outside world look like?"
Zhang Shutong cast a glance at Lu Qinglian, thinking to himself, Well, look at that. So you do have a little bit of curiosity in you after all.
But he didn't know how to explain it either. He had no choice but to talk about his memories from the original timeline. Lu Qinglian didn't interrupt; she watched his mouth, seemingly listening in silence. Feeling a bit puzzled, Zhang Shutong kept talking.
Unfortunately, most of it was artistically fabricated. For instance, when he saw the chili peppers in the courtyard, he said a row of chili peppers was also planted in front of the dormitory building. When he saw a butterfly, he would say there were butterfly specimens inside the laboratory building. When he heard the cicadas chirping, he would tell her that the campus was simply a place countless times larger than this, so the cicadas' cries were also countless times noisier... In any case, Lu Qinglian didn't know what his college looked like, and Zhang Shutong himself had almost forgotten. Recalling his experiences back then, they were actually quite unremarkable. When he was attending college back then, because of his regression ability, he had entirely braced himself through it, devoid of any mood to embrace youth.
One talked while the other listened. Lu Qinglian was truly an excellent listener, and Zhang Shutong's mood gradually relaxed. He added that the dorm room was actually about the same size as this side hall, and because the building was very old, the power would always cut out in the summer, prompting everyone to go to the sports field to catch the breeze. But he stopped mid-sentence, realizing that no one had actually asked how his college life was.
She was asking:
What does the outside world look like?
"Wait," Zhang Shutong couldn't help but feel astounded, instinctively looking ahead. "You haven't been staying in the temple all these years, have you?"
Looking back at Lu Qinglian after saying this, she had already started walking away:
"Very interesting."
What was interesting? Zhang Shutong froze for a moment. A moment ago, he was clearly talking about the water being cut off and being unable to take a shower, which was clearly quite a pathetic situation. He knew Lu Qinglian was a slightly mischievous woman, and that "interesting" might just be a tease, but it didn't sound like a teasing tone at all, nor was this an occasion for teasing.
Zhang Shutong actively broke through that barrier:
"What exactly is going on with you?" he pressed toward Lu Qinglian's receding back.
But Lu Qinglian still ignored him. She walked up to Ruoping, and the two of them went to a quiet spot, unclear what they were saying again. In comparison, the relationship between the two of them was much closer; when Ruoping spoke, she would lean right against Lu Qinglian's ear, whispering secrets like young girls do.
Zhang Shutong suddenly felt a sense of estrangement.
"We're leaving in a bit," Ruoping poked her head out and said. "Go look around on your own."
Zhang Shutong knit his brows. The phone call at noon clearly hadn't been like this. Although Lu Qinglian had been a bit helpless, she wouldn't go as far as to completely ignore him.
He pulled out his phone again to flip through their chat history. If they had been keeping in touch all these years, it shouldn't be like this... Zhang Shutong looked at the screen, only to find that there was nothing to trace back to.
Their chat history contained nothing but voice calls, without a single line of text. But even the calls were from a very, very long time ago. It was from... August 2016, last summer.
Going further up, it was 2015, 2014, 2013... They only made one phone call on this exact day every year, and today's call was the one he had dialed at noon. Could WeChat history be preserved for this long? Or had something been lost during the process of switching phones? He distinctly remembered Lu Qinglian saying back then:
"I told you early on that I would be very busy today..."
Perhaps there were other channels of contact?
Text messages?
He couldn't find any.
Call logs?
Likewise, none.
QQ?
It had clearly been uninstalled.
Could it be that he had done this to hide something?
Zhang Shutong quickly downloaded QQ again.
The internet speed on the mountain was abysmally slow. While waiting, he let out a breath and cast another glance at Lu Qinglian. When she spoke with Ruoping, she looked completely different from how she acted toward him; the two stood very close, and she didn't turn her face sideways, nor did she exhibit a beat-slow reaction as if she were contemplating something.
It made sense, though. At least Ruoping was truly good to Lu Qinglian; even when moving houses, she still kept her in mind, sorting out a massive pile of daily necessities specifically to bring up the mountain.
Some matters couldn't be reasoned out by sticking to conventional logic. How things looked five years ago didn't dictate how they looked five years later; one could only excavate through the existing clues. Take himself, for instance: empty-handed, with nothing but a phone, an ID card, and a cluster of keys. This gear didn't look like someone visiting another person; could he really be this heartless?
Zhang Shutong searched through every single pocket of his jeans but failed to find anything else, not even a piece of chewing gum. The sun was directly over his head, far from setting, merely drawing a long shadow beneath his feet.
Ultimately, he let out a sigh while holding the cluster of keys. What use could these things possibly be? Before he realized it, he had walked up to the wishing rack. Zhang Shutong raised his eyes, just catching sight of four deep scratches carved into a wooden strip.
Oh, maybe they were useful—for vandalizing public property.
Zhang Shutong casually used a key to carve a mark onto it, making it exactly the fifth scratch.
By this time, QQ had finished installing. He logged back into his old QQ account, but to his disappointment, whether it was Lu Qinglian or the small group chat of the four of them, there were only contacts but no chat history.
Message roaming wasn't available either.
Someone spoke up:
"Young man, you must be sincere."
Zhang Shutong turned his head around. It was an unfamiliar middle-aged man, one of the pilgrims who hadn't departed yet.
The man was wearing a floral striped shirt. As he said this, he was tying a wooden plaque onto the wishing rack. Flaunting his potbelly, he gave a devout bow, before casting a glance at him:
"If the young lady isn't willing to pay attention to you, just go back."
Zhang Shutong felt a bit awkward, thinking to himself that the man had actually been paying attention to him and Lu Qinglian while making his wish. His heart likely wasn't very sincere either. He nodded in agreement, and the man muttered again:
"Why bother? At first, I thought you really held some sort of obsession, yet you don't burn incense or fulfill vows. Turns out you're just here to flirt. Then you've definitely come to the wrong place."
"..."
"But why can't I be invited to sit inside the hall for a bit?" the man asked suspiciously. "Why are you the only special one? Did you make a donation?"
"...We are classmates," Zhang Shutong said helplessly.
"Drop the nonsense." To his surprise, the man didn't believe him at all. "From what I know alone, the girl has stayed in this temple for at least four or five years. Where would a classmate come from? Kindergarten?"
He chuckled:
"How come I didn't know this island even had a kindergarten?"
He spoke with an accent that Zhang Shutong couldn't quite understand; he likely wasn't a resident of the island.
"Are you saying she's been here every single year?" Zhang Shutong asked hurriedly. "Then aside from the summer break, what about the rest of the time? She stays in the temple too?"
"Stop pretending, don't you know perfectly well in your own heart? Ah, young people nowadays..." The man shook his head. "Do you want to guess how long I've been observing you?"
"How long?" Zhang Shutong asked instinctively.
"Four years." A proud look filled his face. "You don't know me, but I certainly know you. Didn't I just say so? I come here to offer incense every year. Do you want to guess whether I see you every time you come every year?"
The man talked to himself:
"Don't think I'm bluffing you either. Not many people come to this temple anymore. Only on this exact day every year does it get a bit lively. Young people are even fewer, and among them, you are the strangest. Running up the mountain past three o'clock in the afternoon when everyone has mostly left, you don't burn incense or make wishes, just to meet up with that girl. If there was a spark between you two, I wouldn't say anything, but the problem is it doesn't look like it to me either. Otherwise, why would you run out here to vandalize public property?"
The man pointed at the five scratches on the wishing rack:
"You carved all of these. Why are you so obsessed with a piece of wood? Alright, stop standing here like a fool. The temple doors are about to close soon. Don't tell me you're planning to spend the night here?"
"Closing?"
"It's almost four o'clock," the man said. "Ah, I didn't bring my watch today. Can you help me check what time it is?"
"Three-fifty." Zhang Shutong read out the digits on his phone.
"It's that late already? Then I'm leaving first. This uncle gives you a piece of advice: don't come next year." The man walked away, swaying his head.
He was the final pilgrim.
The chirping of the cicadas also quieted down. When Zhang Shutong looked back at Lu Qinglian, she had finished speaking with Ruoping and had turned to walk toward the main hall.
It seemed that "Go" from earlier had been her way of saying goodbye to him.
Zhang Shutong's head was in a bit of a chaotic mess. Just as he was about to chase after her, Ruoping pulled at him:
"Let's go, it's closing soon."
Zhang Shutong still didn't move.
"If you have something to say, wait until next year," Ruoping said softly, turning around to push him with greater force.
But he still couldn't comprehend why they had to wait until next year. This was clearly an era of highly developed information. Even if they couldn't speak face-to-face, they could clear things up over the phone. It wasn't as if Lu Qinglian didn't have a phone...
Yet the woman clothed in green robes walked toward the main hall without turning her head back once.
This was clearly a summer afternoon, with the sun hanging high. At this moment, every ray of sunlight cast a bright and beautiful meaning. The cicadas' cries took a brief rest, and the tree leaves trembled lightly, yet the interior of the main hall was completely dark and dim, as if even the most intense sunlight could not illuminate it.
Gazing into the dim interior, a sudden wave of chill crept up Zhang Shutong's back.
He couldn't quite explain why either; he just felt that a goodbye shouldn't arrive this abruptly. But this courtyard was simply too small, so in the span of his dazed state, she had already stepped one foot through the hall door.
And this tiny courtyard was Lu Qinglian's entire world. Zhang Shutong's intuition had always been very accurate. Looking at that figure that was about to disappear, he had an ominous premonition, as if the words Ruoping spoke were a prophecy. The moment she truly walked inside, the words would become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and their next meeting would be next year.
"Lu Qinglian—"
Zhang Shutong couldn't help but call out loudly:
"You..."
However, at the exact same time, a soft sound of footsteps also rang out from inside the main hall. The hairs on Zhang Shutong's arms stood on end. Through the half-closed wooden door, he could faintly discern a hunched figure, but before he could see clearly, Ruoping stood directly in front of him, blocking his view.
"Let's go! You are harming her by doing this!" Ruoping said urgently.
Something felt ready to explode within his mind. Zhang Shutong instinctively went silent, yet he was still unwilling to turn around. Hadn't she been secretly investigating the cause of her mother's passing before, and looking into why a shrine maiden couldn't leave the island... So why had things turned out like this?
Zhang Shutong didn't know what he was waiting for either. Perhaps it would be enough if she just turned back to glance at him once; at least he could read her thoughts through her eyes alone. But right up until the wooden door slowly clicked shut and the sunlight shone upon the mottled wood, Lu Qinglian didn't turn back even once, and that figure inside the main hall ultimately did not emerge.
The sound of the cicadas instantly surged to its maximum, causing his eardrums to buzz. By the time Zhang Shutong snapped back to reality, Ruoping had already dragged him out of the courtyard gate.
Ruoping pulled the gate shut, pursing her lips as she thought about something unclear, before complaining:
"What were you shouting for just now?"
"I..." Zhang Shutong opened his mouth, also knowing it was highly improper. But the moment they met, he had asked how she was doing, and she replied fine. By the time he sensed something amiss, she wouldn't even pay him any heed.
But late was late.
Zhang Shutong knew that even if he contacted her over WeChat, it absolutely couldn't be right now. It would have been better if he had shouted a bit louder behind her just now. If he had chased after her and questioned her endlessly without stopping—even if he annoyed her—there would always be a response.
Zhang Shutong thought with a chaotic mind.
He was the only one left before the courtyard gate.
Ruoping had already turned around, walking down the path leading off the mountain. On the way up, they had been carrying a large box, but on the way down, they were empty-handed.