Zhang Shutong finally realized the problem—
Why had this island not developed at all?
Not only was the commercial street still there, but as he walked, none of the island's layouts seemed to have changed much, had they? The ferry without a cabin, only one bus route, the desolate suburbs, the blocky downtown area... According to Gu Jianhong's original business plan, wasn't he supposed to turn this place into a tourist scenic area?
Where were the shopping plazas? Where were the resorts? And where were the five-star hotels?
Why didn't Gu Jianhong continue to develop the island?
Zhang Shutong quickly turned around. Ruoping and Du Kang had already gone in.
The two of them were ordering food in the lobby. It looked the same as it did eight years ago, with no renovations. The white walls were stained with a thick layer of oily smoke, and the wooden tables and chairs had a glossy patina. The tables were covered with a floral cloth, and a layer of tempered glass was on top of it, but even the glass had oil stains that couldn't be wiped away. The owner, who was still a plump woman, was laughing and chatting with Ruoping.
She said, "Girl, you haven't been back for a long time. You've really grown into a beautiful woman." Ruoping laughed and said, "Aunty, you're getting younger and younger. I feel like you're even more energetic than before." The owner said, "Oh, your mouth is still so sweet. Aunty will add a dish for you later..."
Zhang Shutong originally wanted to go over and ask about the commercial street, but he couldn't get a word in, so he had to wait by the side.
He remembered eating at this restaurant before. The four of them first took a table, and then Du Kang ran to the counter to get a menu. Then the four of them agreed that each person would order a dish they liked. Ruoping's was candied sweet potatoes, Du Kang's was stir-fried shrimp, and Qingyi's was stir-fried shredded fish. When it was his turn, he was always casual about food and said to just get a stir-fried spicy and sour shredded potato dish, but Ruoping said he was stingy, so he ordered a braised pork ribs dish that all three of them loved.
But now, they no longer did a "Dutch treat." Ruoping stood in front of the menu with her arms crossed and casually ordered a few dishes. Zhang Shutong then noticed that she was wearing a pair of high heels today, looking very much like a capable businesswoman.
Du Kang leaned over to give her an idea, whispering, "This dish isn't good. Listen to me, change it to something else..." But she glanced at him and retorted, "Are you paying or am I? Don't make a fuss. Go find a table and sit by yourself."
Their relationship must be very good, otherwise, they wouldn't talk so casually. Zhang Shutong originally wanted to use this opportunity to catch up with Du Kang, but Du Kang just glanced at him, pursed his lips, and walked towards the bathroom.
Zhang Shutong knew that there was even less room for him to interject with Ruoping. He was about to find a table to sit down when the owner also recognized him and said with a smile, "Young man, Aunty still remembers you. You've gotten more handsome over the years. Do you remember that one time you didn't have enough money when you were paying the bill and couldn't get through to your friend? And then a..."
Zhang Shutong, of course, remembered. This owner had a very good memory. The one time he was in an awkward situation was remembered. He was only twenty yuan short. It wasn't that big of a deal.
But then he thought that maybe it wasn't him who left a deep impression on her. It was when Gu Qiumian said she would treat them. The young miss had extended a hand from behind him. It was just a casual meal with only four dishes, but a stack of red banknotes lightly floated from between her fingers, looking so calm and generous that it stunned the sidekick next to her and also stunned the owner. He was just the one who was remembered as a bonus.
Zhang Shutong could only nod and greet the other person.
When he pulled out a chair and sat down, he found that he had unconsciously chosen the exact same spot—the day after the poacher incident, when they came here for a "celebration dinner," they also sat here.
Of course, only he remembered these small things. Not long after, Ruoping pulled out a chair and sat opposite him. Du Kang also came back from the bathroom. The two of them sat on one side, and Zhang Shutong sat on the other. The distance in their relationship was clear at a glance.
Du Kang then turned his head and shouted to the owner to bring some beer. After he shouted, he asked Ruoping, "Can you drink today?" Ruoping said, "Who are you looking down on? How about we switch to spirits? No one's allowed to leave until they're passed out."
Du Kang then recoiled and said, "Forget it. I can't drink as much as you. You win." This time, the "spirits" they were talking about was really alcohol. They were no longer the giggling teenage boys and girls they were when they were fifteen or sixteen. One would shout to get some spirits, and the other would act like a female warrior, slapping the table and saying, "I'll take the responsibility," and then turn around and ask for four bottles of Nutri-Express.
Zhang Shutong silently drank a cup of plain water. He had just subconsciously glanced at the main hall. A few square tables were neatly arranged there. This time, they weren't put together. Just like there was no Nutri-Express here, there was also no girl drinking yogurt.
He finally got a chance to gather information. Zhang Shutong got up and poured a glass of water for the two of them. He pretended to be nostalgic and looked around, asking why this commercial street was still here.
It was already dark outside. Steam was rising from the hot water in the white porcelain cup. Zhang Shutong looked at their expressions through the steam, hoping that the conversation would go smoothly.
The two of them, however, exchanged glances and fell silent. Finally, Ruoping broke the silence. She stared at the tablecloth:
"Why else? The big boss didn't want to invest anymore, that's all."
"Why?" Zhang Shutong pressed.
Ruoping didn't answer. At this time, Du Kang frowned and looked at him:
"What are you even here for today?"
Zhang Shutong himself didn't know.
He thought that he came to the island to attend Lu Qinglian's funeral, but he couldn't remember who told him. He had thought it was Ruoping because her number was in his call log, but Zhang Shutong had checked and found that he was the one who called her.
Why did he even come back to the island?
And who told him about Lu Qinglian's death?
There was no clue to either of these questions, and there was no one he could ask. It was obvious that the two people sitting opposite him didn't know either.
Du Kang sneered:
"What's the point of pretending to be stupid now..."
But before he could finish, Ruoping patted him, and he shut up.
Zhang Shutong could only lower his head and drink water. How did he become a person that everyone disliked? The food was served soon. It was a dish of stir-fried shrimp. Ruoping then spoke. She picked up her chopsticks and nudged Du Kang's arm:
"Your favorite. Stop spacing out."
Du Kang, however, muttered softly:
"I told you this restaurant's stir-fried shrimp can't compare to how it used to be. The quality has dropped significantly. Besides, if I wanted to eat it, couldn't I just cook it myself? Why waste the money..."
"What if I'm willing to?" Ruoping put down her chopsticks with a bang.
"Okay, okay, you're willing, you're willing. You're the boss. Who dares to not listen to you..."
He picked up a shrimp, chewed it twice without any flavor:
"It really is different from before. You should try it."
"Are you serious? It looks exactly the same to me. Is it really that mystical?" Ruoping took a bite, not believing him. After a while, she also sighed, "Let's just consider this a failed experiment. Next time, I will definitely..."
She swallowed the rest of her words. Zhang Shutong understood what she meant. There would be no next time.
He also picked up a piece but didn't taste any difference. Of course, it could also be that his taste buds were dull. The three of them silently ate the shrimp. The restaurant was not busy today. There were only a few sporadic tables with customers. Soon, the second dish was served. It was candied sweet potatoes.
Ruoping took one bite and didn't touch her chopsticks again.
"I should have listened to you," she said to Du Kang.
"I told you. It's not like I haven't been here over the years. I know what's good and what's not."
The beer had also been brought over a long time ago. The owner thoughtfully opened three bottles for them, but they were just left on the corner of the table. No one touched them.
Ruoping thought the food was terrible, so she just poured herself a glass of wine and also poured one for Du Kang. Zhang Shutong saw this and also poured a little for himself. The three of them held their glasses. The bottom of their glasses were only a centimeter away from the table, but they all put them back down at the same time.
Today was not a suitable occasion for a toast.
Only for a solemn drink.
After not seeing each other for many years, they naturally had a lot to talk about. Ruoping's cheeks quickly turned red. She was the first to talk about Qingyi, saying that the heartless guy was always working overtime. "Why doesn't he just work himself to death?" Du Kang laughed and said, "That's how men are. Of course, work comes first..." But as he said this, he also fell silent. The guy who always talked about men was absent today. Although his understanding of men was quite biased, when the people present mentioned those two words, no one seemed to be more convincing than him.
Du Kang then said that Qingyi wasn't a chuunibyou anymore. He was now an elite Science and engineering male who worked in an office building. He came back to see his grandma once, and I asked him to go fishing, but he said he was too busy and had to catch a plane that night. He came and left on the same day.
They also talked about other people in their class, deliberately avoiding Lu Qinglian's name. Zhang Shutong was familiar with some of the names and didn't remember others. Du Kang suddenly said, "Do you remember Li Yipeng? That bastard just got out a while ago."
Ruoping asked, "What happened?"
He said, "He got a university girlfriend, but he got her pregnant. Her parents smashed his family's restaurant, and he started fighting with his future in-laws. I was shocked when I found out..."
Ruoping had just raised her glass to her mouth. When she heard this, she laughed so hard that she couldn't hold her glass steady. The lipstick on her lips was smeared.
Du Kang then asked her, "How have you been all these years? Are you dating anyone? Bring your boyfriend back so we can meet him and check him out."
Ruoping kicked him and said, "Get lost. I don't need you to check him out."
Du Kang then laughed and asked if she had one and if she was too shy to say...
The atmosphere at the dinner table gradually became more relaxed. Ruoping was about to laugh and scold him when a voice suddenly came from the opposite side:
"Where's Gu Qiumian?"
Zhang Shutong finally asked.
He had been paying attention to this question ever since the two of them started talking about their classmates. People whose names he couldn't remember had been mentioned, so it didn't make sense that Gu Qiumian's name was missing. That young miss never lacked attention. Besides, her conflict with Ruoping had also been resolved, so they shouldn't have avoided talking about her.
To his surprise, this question made both of them put down their glasses at the same time, and the smiles on their faces faded little by little.
"What do you want to say?" Ruoping was silent for a while.
Zhang Shutong squeezed out a smile and said, "Nothing. I just suddenly thought of her. How is she now?"
He said this, but he was wondering if the two of them had a falling out again and she had become a taboo subject?
That couldn't be...
Ruoping, however, frowned little by little:
"Zhang Shutong, are you going crazy after drinking some alcohol?"
He subconsciously looked at Du Kang. Du Kang was also frowning. Zhang Shutong could only apologize, "I've been going through some things recently. I start to forget things when I drink. Don't mind me if I sound incoherent. I'm just curious about what happened to her."
"I can't even tell if you're being sarcastic or if there's something really wrong with your mind now," Ruoping's frown deepened. "What do you mean, what happened to her?"
"What?"
"We didn't talk about her before to protect your feelings. If you don't care about it yourself, then I have nothing to say." She slammed her glass down. "By the way, I was also going to ask you, if you care about her so much, why haven't you visited her grave once in these eight years?"
Grave?
Eight years?
"She's dead?" he asked subconsciously, no longer caring about his composure. His words were incoherent. "I... I really can't remember now. My mind is a mess. I'm not going crazy on purpose... When did it happen?"
Ruoping stared at his face:
"That year, when we were in our last year of junior high school. What's wrong with you?"
Zhang Shutong was completely stunned.
It wasn't just because of Gu Qiumian's death.
It was because if Gu Qiumian died in her last year of junior high, then who was the person he saw in the graduation photo?
Zhang Shutong quickly pulled out the photo from his pocket and wanted to say, "Look, isn't the girl wearing the red scarf in this photo Gu Qiumian? It couldn't be some paranormal event, right?"
He had noticed the red scarf when he was looking at the graduation photo in the car. The girl in the photo had her chin tucked into the scarf, and only a large part of her face was showing. Since he subconsciously thought that Gu Qiumian had been saved, he didn't look too closely. He spent more time trying to figure out his situation. But now, when he took out the faded and blurry old photo again, he found that the face wearing the red scarf in the third row...
was not Gu Qiumian at all!
It was a completely unfamiliar girl!
Wait, what the hell... Zhang Shutong's mind completely crashed. Or rather, in an instant, he thought of countless possibilities. The various thoughts even slowed down his thought process. Did Gu Qiumian completely disappear on this timeline? Was she replaced by someone else? He was shivering, but then he remembered that Ruoping had clearly mentioned Gu Qiumian's name just now, so why?
He clutched the photo and asked anxiously:
"Who is she?"
"The transfer student." Ruoping's expression became even more strange: "Why do you sound like you have amnesia?"
"Transfer student?"
"She transferred in not long after Gu Qiumian passed away."
Zhang Shutong looked at the photo again and belatedly realized a problem. The graduation photo was taken in the summer, but why would a normal person wear a wool scarf in the summer? He looked closer and realized that it wasn't a scarf at all. It was a gauze scarf.
"Then... then when did she pass away?"
"That day. Why did you even forget that?"
"Which day?"
"December 9th, Sunday morning," Du Kang said coldly at this time. "It was the day we caught the Zhou father and son."
Zhang Shutong suddenly stood up, knocking over the glass next to him. The scalding hot water splashed on his arm. His muscles reacted, and his arm twitched, but then he seemed to lose all sensation of pain and just raised his voice:
"Sunday morning? Are you sure it was Sunday morning?"
He felt a sudden sense of dizziness. The lights in the hall were not bright, but they were now making him feel sick. He confirmed once again that he had heard correctly. Yes, it was Sunday morning, not Monday morning—
But this meant that Gu Qiumian's death occurred on the night of December 8th to 9th, the exact moment the Rewind was triggered. But that shouldn't have happened... Didn't she go home?
Two bodyguards came to pick her up, and she called him from her room after she showered, saying they had agreed to have dinner on Sunday. So how could she have been murdered that night?
Zhang Shutong suddenly felt his stomach churn. He threw himself back into the chair, the sound making the people around them look over.
He gnashed two words from between his teeth. If that was the case, he would never be able to forgive himself:
"The na-nny?"
But Ruoping shook her head.
"Then who was it?"
"No one knows," she said quietly after a long silence.
These four words drained all of Zhang Shutong's strength. He reached into his pocket, wanting to find that pack of cigarettes and light one... But the burning pain on his arm reminded him that there was something else he needed to deal with. Zhang Shutong woodenly took off his trench coat. Ruoping handed him some napkins from the side. He knew he should say "thank you" now, but he couldn't speak at all.
Inside the trench coat was a dark blue sweater, and underneath that was a thermal shirt. He rolled up the sleeves of both, subconsciously reached for the napkins, and was about to press them on his arm when he suddenly stopped.
His arm was no longer his own... No, it should be said that his arm was different from before, and it was a completely different arm.
His forearm had more defined muscle lines, and on the inside, there was a tattoo. Zhang Shutong was stunned again. When did he get this tattoo? Not only was his life on this timeline a complete mess, but he had also gone down the wrong path?
But there had been too many shocking things today. Zhang Shutong silently looked at the tattoo. He didn't want Ruoping and Du Kang to notice its existence. Although the two of them had undoubtedly seen it, it was better to cover it up. He wiped the water off his clothes and was about to put his sleeves down when Du Kang suddenly opened his hand.
His eyes had been staring at the tattoo on his arm. He spoke with a complicated expression:
"So, you still haven't given up on finding that person all these years...
"The culprit who killed Gu Qiumian."