This nail salon was still here. It was strange for a man to walk in, but he knew the hidden trick. He paid the employee and said, "I don't want a manicure. I just want to lie on a sofa chair for a while."
The young female employee nodded with a strange look.
She wasn't the same employee as before, of course. The turnover rate at these stores was very high, but he didn't really care where those people went. The young employee was very nice. Since there was no one in the store, she led him to a small room on the side. The curtain in the room had been replaced with a door. Zhang Shutong lay on the sofa, his eyes open, aimlessly scrolling on his phone.
He opened his photo album and quickly looked through the pictures. He rarely took photos over the years and didn't save any from the internet. Most of them were work-related.
His phone had also been replaced with an Android. It had a full screen and many functions. A modern person's entertainment, food, clothing, and housing could all be satisfied on it. But for some reason, he missed that iPhone with the 3.5-inch screen more.
He was looking for what this version of himself on this timeline had left behind.
Monotonous food delivery orders, a few e-books, downloaded music... This was a complete scumbag. Zhang Shutong couldn't understand why he had completely erased any existence related to the case.
He even tried the phone's special feature—a dual system on Android phones that opens different systems based on different fingerprints. But to his disappointment, there was only one system.
But what Zhang Shutong didn't expect was that there was a hidden album. He clicked on it with excitement but was a little disappointed.
There were only two photos. One seemed to be taken in a temple. The light was very dim. The temple enshrined a sculpture of a green snake, which reminded him of the tattoo on his arm. On the altar below the statue, besides a few candle lamps, there were also several small figures. Their faces were all facing the phone's camera, and their faces were obscure and a little eerie.
Zhang Shutong zoomed in and saw that they were clay figures. These figures had no facial features, only a blurry face.
He wasn't sure what this custom was, but he knew that this was the temple called "Green Snake Temple." It seemed that he had already been there.
Zhang Shutong thought for a moment and then looked at the other photo. The other photo was of a girl. This discovery made him freeze, and the movement of his hand stopped.
It was a girl with a medium-length, oval-shaped face. She was wearing a crooked, pink baseball cap with a Mickey Mouse design on it. A hand was stretched out from outside the frame. The hand had put the cap on her head, which perfectly captured her surprised expression.
Her hair was a little messy, and Zhang Shutong's heart also became a mess.
Why was this photo still here?
Didn't he delete it himself?
This photo was taken on December 7, 2012. It was now December 12, 2020. It had been hidden in the album all this time, traveling through eight years and three days, and appeared in front of him with that girl at this moment.
He thought that he had left nothing behind, but he had left everything behind.
He also wondered how this version of himself on this timeline found out about Gu Qiumian's death. He was always a man of his word. Since he had promised to have lunch, he would definitely get up early. He also had a very good memory and remembered that she had said to be there early and then said she would come pick him up at home.
He thought that at that time, that young man named Zhang Shutong was waiting at home for her message. He waited and waited, and he might have thought that she was trying on clothes at home or applying glossy lip gloss in front of the mirror in the walk-in closet... What a troublesome girl. But this time, it was the other person who broke the promise, and from then on, his life was changed.
But this scumbag had already hurt too many people.
He had a heavy addiction to smoking, obvious signs of training, and he had even lost his last bit of humanity to attend a funeral he wasn't invited to.
Zhang Shutong paid the bill. As he was about to leave, the young female employee asked timidly, "Do you want a drink? It's included in the package."
This figure gradually overlapped with the girl who had reached out to encourage him. Zhang Shutong was stunned for a moment, shook his head, and said "thank you."
"I'm sorry. I failed all of your expectations."
He looked at his phone. It was a little after eight o'clock, so he walked quickly on the empty and deserted street.
He had pretty much figured out what was going on at the Huyu restaurant.
The Forbidden Zone.
Two girls who died in the Forbidden Zone, just like in the original timeline.
A life that had not been changed, still having the Rewind ability, and a life that was enclosed at home.
And a funeral he wasn't invited to.
The time he "turned his back" on Lu Qinglian was during the summer vacation.
It could only have been the summer vacation.
Before, he had gone to the Green Snake Temple's festival during the summer, unfortunately slipped, and fell off the mountain, gaining the Rewind ability.
Zhang Shutong had always believed that the temple was the key to gaining the ability.
But he had overlooked one condition—time.
Location and time were indispensable.
He was sure that he didn't have this ability during those four days in junior high. After Gu Qiumian died, he probably tried going to that temple, but nothing happened. In the end, even he gave up. He then teamed up with Lu Qinglian, perhaps to investigate the culprit.
Until the summer vacation.
He was at the same time and the same place, and he gained the same ability again.
As well as the possibility of starting over.
So, according to Ruoping, he became a different person during that summer vacation.
He finally got the Rewind ability again, then deceived everyone and left Lu Qinglian on the island.
From this point on, for eight whole years, this cold-blooded scumbag used the people around him as pawns, all to bet on one possibility—
That he could return to eight years ago on this very night, December 12, 2020!
A little after eight o'clock, Zhang Shutong returned to the body of water called "Forbidden Zone."
If the Rewind mechanism was "if something bad happens around you, you will return to the key point of the event," then he could bet on one thing, which was to be killed here again by the "culprit."
Zhang Shutong had no way out.
To save his own life, to save his relationship with his friends, and to save the two girls who had died, only by doing this would he have a chance to reverse this worst possible timeline.
At this time, his phone rang. He was a little lost in thought as he looked at the name of the contact, but in the end, he answered the call.
A calm male voice came from the phone:
"You should be on the island now."
The twenty-four-year-old Meng Qingyi asked.
"I am. What's wrong?"
"I don't know either. I just got off work." His voice was equally cold. "You just told me to inform you tonight to 'be at the Forbidden Zone before nine o'clock.' Don't forget."
"I know. Thanks."
The other party then hung up.
Zhang Shutong put his phone away and slowly squatted by the shore. There was no moonlight tonight. He turned on his flashlight, and the lake was a pale white. He couldn't hear the sounds of frogs or insects, only the foul smell of the mud.
Zhang Shutong just squatted by the lake until the night wind made his body numb.
The reeds by the lake rustled, and he suddenly felt a sense of being in another world.
At this time, the many words he had heard throughout the day appeared in his ears:
"My condolences."
"This is how you protect her? Zhang Shutong, it looks like you don't feel anything at all! 'My condolences,' you..."
"Zhang Shutong, you're still as heartless as you were before."
"You hadn't even broken up with Qinglian for half a year, and you turned your back on her and got together with someone else. Do you have the nerve to ask me what happened?"
"You said that we didn't need to interfere and that you had a plan, but we didn't find out until school was about to start that you were actually lying. You lied to everyone!"
"But why did you lie to us back then? Don't you know that because of this, Qinglian, her whole life, from birth to death, never even left this small island? She stayed in that temple her whole life!"
"If you care about her so much, why haven't you visited her grave once in these eight years?"
"Now, tell me again, how do you have the nerve to say 'my condolences' to me?"
"Shutong, this kind of defeat doesn't suit you."
"You're the student your teacher is most proud of."
"Where to?"
"The usual place."
"Are you paying or am I? Don't make a fuss..."
"I told you. It's not like I haven't been here over the years. I know what's good and what's not."
"No one knows who it was."
"So you still haven't given up on finding that person all these years, the culprit who killed Gu Qiumian."
"...Yes, you're smart, and we're stupid, but what did you take us for? Did you see him look even a little sad at the funeral home just now?"
"I just want an explanation! Why did he become like this!"
"You think I don't want one?"
"Did any of you think about me? You all forgot, but I remember!"
"Didn't we promise to go to high school in the city together and be best friends forever?"
I'm sorry.
"I'm sorry."
He repeated it in a low voice.
The last thing he remembered was that rainy night, when he was standing on the walkway outside the villa. His teacher, wearing a bathrobe, stood next to him and said:
"But, Shutong, have you ever heard the saying, 'He who schemes too much is too smart'?
"I'm not saying you'll lose out in the future, but I'm saying you can't just be a calculating person because you're smart.
"How should I put it? We're living people. We can't live like machines that only calculate. If you lose that last bit of humanity..."
If he lost that last bit of humanity—
He would end up on this worst possible timeline.
The time was 8:50 PM.
His heart started to beat uncontrollably.
At this time, the picture finally came through on his senior's WeChat. Zhang Shutong quickly clicked on it.
It was a blurry figure, and the time stamp was:
December 9, 2012.
"This is the only surveillance camera near Gu Qiumian's house. It only captured this one person the entire night."
Zhang Shutong put his phone away in shock.
Because that figure—
Had long hair that reached their waist.
Was that...
The wind got stronger. The weeds behind him started to rustle. Zhang Shutong was silently counting the time in his mind. He put his finger on the phone's shortcut button, ready to turn on the flashlight at any moment.
He could hear the suppressed footsteps behind him. His body was in excellent shape, and his reaction was quick. The moment the other person got close, he quickly turned around and turned on his flashlight—
Zhang Shutong's eyes widened instantly.
Because—
The other person's face was covered with something! He couldn't see their face at all!
Then, a cold, sharp object was plunged into his throat!
The phone fell to the ground.
In the last moment before his consciousness disappeared, he saw the time on the screen.
December 12, 2020.
8:59 PM flashed and turned to 9:00 PM.
The Rewind was triggered.
...
The world trembled like a black and white negative. When his consciousness returned to his body, he subconsciously covered his throat and opened his mouth soundlessly.
But what appeared in front of him was not that junior high school classroom. It was the faces of three young people.
This was a restaurant.
They stood by a table covered with a tablecloth, their faces breaking into smiles. Their four hands came together, and they said in unison:
"Cheers!"