Winter Time Rendering

Chapter 5: Chapter 1: Abnormal Death

"I don’t think so. When they found Qinglian, she didn’t have any fatal wounds. Besides, the island is covered in security cameras now, unlike back then. Aside from her, no one else was seen."

Du Kang deflated, but he still pressed on, unwilling to give up:

"But that’s what’s driving me crazy. If you’re asking for hard evidence, I don’t have any. But the coincidence is just sitting there, right in front of us. I can’t rest easy without a logical explanation."

"I’ve been dreaming about Qinglian these past few days. I see her by the lake, quiet as always... I’ll wait until tomorrow. After we’ve settled the funeral arrangements, I’ll go to the town archives. Maybe I’ll find some other details about that case from all those years ago."

He looked at his best friend’s face, fell silent for a moment, and finally said apologetically:

"Let me know if you find anything. I know I can’t be of much help, but at least..."

"Don’t say that, Shutong. Everyone’s had their own struggles over the years. We’re not kids anymore, vowing to be best friends for life. It doesn’t matter whether you help or not, really. This is something I have to do. It wouldn’t be right to drag you into it. I’m just..."

Du Kang paused, snuffing out his cigarette with his fingers.

"I’m just... a little jealous of you."

"There are some things I’ve been holding in. I’ll feel better once I get them out. Tell me, why wasn’t I the one who got her call?"

"It was only a little past eleven, right? I stay up much later than that, so I definitely would’ve answered. And if I had, I would’ve rushed over no matter what happened. She might not have died."

"But why call you? Someone she hadn’t spoken to in eight years? I know those rumors are false, but all this talk about you being her boyfriend... I... I’m sorry."

His shoulders slumped.

"Let’s drop it for now. I’ve still got things to do. You probably don’t know this, but Qinglian was the last one left in her family. She had a grandmother, and they only had each other, but she passed away a few years ago. So there’s no one else to help with the funeral arrangements. It’s just me, Ruoping, and a few of the others."

"Sorry I haven’t been a better host. You should come visit more often in the future."

As he said this, he forced the same cheerful grin he’d worn when they first met, but the smile looked strained.

Zhang Shutong didn’t say anything, just patted him on the shoulder.

"Let me help too."

And so, in the end, he didn’t manage to leave after all.

...

’My plan was to take the afternoon boat off the island and catch the last high-speed train tonight. That way, I’d be home by tomorrow evening. I’d made the schedule tight, not because I was in a rush, but because I was afraid something would go wrong and trigger that damned ability.’

But now the plan had gone completely off track. By the time they finished, night had fallen. Du Kang booked him a hotel room and refused to take any money for it.

Some people had suggested getting dinner, but after a long day, no one was in the mood. They just scarfed down a few bites from their boxed meals and called it a night.

After dinner, they reminisced about embarrassing stories from their school days. He didn’t expect to become the topic of conversation.

"Well, well, if it isn’t the boyfriend." A girl named Feng Ruoping chuckled, covering her mouth.

’She’s definitely doing this on purpose,’ Zhang Shutong thought. ’Using our old friendship as an excuse to tease me about the rumors from earlier.’

"How does everyone know already?" he asked with a sigh.

"It’s all over the island. Remember our old homeroom teacher? He specifically asked me where you were today, Zhang Shutong. The question isn’t whether people know; it’s which version of the story they believe."

"Actually, besides the ’boyfriend,’ ’call for help,’ and ’revealing the killer’s identity’ versions, there’s another one. You wanna hear it?"

"What?" Ruoping’s eyes went wide.

"She came to me in a dream," Zhang Shutong said, pretending to recall the details seriously. "In the dream, she asked me, ’That Feng Ruoping has always been a busybody. How is it she’s still the same way?’"

"Zhang Shutong, screw you—"

This seemed to bring a few of the classmates from out of town back to life. They started clamoring to go to a bar or a KTV to unwind, only to remember that the island didn’t have any of those things. It never had, and it still didn’t.

It did, however, make Zhang Shutong recall memories from his student days he hadn’t thought of in a long time. The little island was called Yanlong Island. Though they called it an island, it was really no different from a town completely surrounded by the lake. It wasn’t backward, exactly, just... isolated.

He hadn’t been happy when he first moved here, complaining that there was too little to do for fun.

The island had no malls, no movie theaters, no amusement parks, and no KFC or McDonald’s.

But he quickly came to feel at home. He’d go on adventures in the mountains, fish in the lake, and eat local specialties at temple fairs and festivals. The fried shrimp cakes and fish congee had their own special charm, and the lotus seeds in the summer were so sweet.

In a way, even if you wanted to be a bad kid, there wasn’t much opportunity for it.

A small island, a vast lake, deep mountains, temples, and ancient legends... a group of teenagers...

Their school was built on the island’s edge. From the roof of the main building, you could smell the cool breeze off the lake and see for miles.

If you wanted to take a girl you liked on a date, you had to take a boat to a neighboring town. But you had to watch the time, because the last ferry back to the island left at six in the evening.

And since you had classes during the day and no one was free on the weekends, the idea of "secretly taking a boat with the girl you liked to see a movie" became a persistent fantasy that none of the boys ever acted on.

’If I could do it all over again, maybe things would be different.’

The thought would surface from time to time.

A classmate who passed away; a girl who went missing.

And a normal life.

As people get older, they realize just how precious a cure for regret would be.

Zhang Shutong held many such "cures" in his hands, but not one of them was for himself.

He could never return to his own past.

By the time the sky was completely dark, they were ready to leave. Though it was somewhat against custom, they gave three more bows before her memorial portrait, then parted ways in front of the funeral home, bidding each other farewell.

As they were leaving, Du Kang had one last thing to say:

"I was just looking it up online. They never caught the killer from that case back then. There were some witness statements from fishermen who said they saw someone in the restricted zone before it happened... I’ll do some more digging when I get home."

On the way back to his hotel, Zhang Shutong couldn’t stop thinking about what Du Kang had said.

’If only the killer were actually a person... But what are the odds of a coincidence like that?’

’No, that’s not a coincidence anymore. That’s a straight-up horror story.’

He took a shower first, then lay down on the bed, replaying the day’s events in his mind.

In the end, all that remained was Du Kang’s absurd theory.

’Just because they happened on the same date and at the same place, he jumps to the conclusion that it’s a serial killer? What’s the motive?’

’The killer from all those years ago wouldn’t just lay low for the rest of his life, but would actually dare to come back and kill again? The audacity would be off the charts.’

’But if it really was a murder, then Lu Qinglian’s call to me...’

Zhang Shutong shook his head. ’I’m overthinking this. It’s been eight years, after all.’

He glanced at his phone. 8:34 PM.

The wind was picking up, and now he couldn’t get to sleep. He got dressed, buttoned his windbreaker up to the first button, borrowed a flashlight from the hotel’s front desk, and headed out into the biting wind.

There was very little traffic, and the streetlights were dim. Fortunately, the hotel Du Kang had booked was close to his destination.

Following the path of his memories, he walked for about ten minutes before hopping the guardrail of the road that circled the lake. He landed in a field thick with overgrown weeds.

—Ahead lay the stretch of water known as the restricted zone.

There was no moon. In the beam of his flashlight, the surface of the lake was a ghastly white. He couldn’t hear the chirping of insects or the croaking of frogs—only the foul stench of silt rising from the water.

He scanned the area and found patches where the dead grass had been trampled down, likely from the police search a few days prior.

Zhang Shutong squatted there by the lake’s edge, letting the night wind blow until his body grew stiff.

’So this is where she died. The young Temple Priestess, Lu Qinglian.’

The reeds by the shore rustled in the wind, and a strange feeling, as if a lifetime had passed, washed over him.

’But what could I do?’

He gave a self-deprecating laugh.

’No evidence, no clues. Even my rewind, the one thing I can usually rely on, is useless here.’

’Ultimately, I’m not like Du Kang. I don’t have the obsession that comes from a decade-long crush. Since I can’t rewind to the moment before her death, this is the best I can do.’

’But I’m still so sorry.’

Zhang Shutong thought, his eyes fixed on the surface of the lake.

’I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call. And I’m sorry I couldn’t find the truth.’

He offered a silent apology and slowly pushed his stiff body to its feet.

’It’s getting late. Time to head back.’

Just as he had that thought, Zhang Shutong pulled out his phone.

The wind picked up, and the weeds all around him began to stir violently.

Then, something sharp and cold plunged into the back of his neck.

His phone clattered to the ground.

In the last moment before his consciousness faded, he saw the time glowing on the screen.

December 12, 2020.

8:59 flickered, then changed to 9:00.

The rewind... had been triggered.