Chapter 2: Chapter 2 : Winter Returns

Chapter 2 - Winter Returns

『 Translator – Divinity 』

Rewind, triggered.

With a thick sense of astonishment, the entire world before his eyes turned into a black-and-white film negative and trembled for a moment.

His consciousness went blank, as if it had flown out of his physical shell.

This was the phenomenon of a "Rewind."

Zhang Shutong couldn't be more familiar with this. When his consciousness returned, although his body had not yet regained sensation, his mind buzzed, and an alarm bell rang in an instant.

Someone wanted to kill him!

He didn't even have time to think about the reason for the rewind. The point in time it jumped to was often very close, especially for a sudden attack.

A few seconds ago? Or a few minutes?

Would he return to the area of water called the Forbidden Zone, or be on his way there, or had someone already been watching him back at the hotel?

He tried to calm his breathing and rapidly thought of a countermeasure.

He had to save himself first.

He rehearsed the upcoming scene in his mind, even coming up with different contingency plans. Sensation finally returned. He took a deep breath, his hands and feet already moving subconsciously, and then he snapped his eyes open—

But...

Where was this?

The world before his eyes didn't match any of the answers in his imagination. That pitch-black winter night was already far away;

He seemed to be in a classroom.

Scene after scene of unfamiliar images entered his vision:

Directly in front was a blackboard. In his peripheral vision, he could see children wearing school uniforms. Before him was a desk painted with black lacquer, and on the open exercise book, there were fresh traces of handwriting.

It was quiet all around, with only the rustling sound of pen tips gliding across paper.

Not a single thing could be connected to the attack... no, it should be said, to his current circumstances.

Looking down again, even these hands weren't his own anymore. They were a little smaller, and a little fairer, and were currently holding a pen.

But the faint white mark on the fleshy part between his thumb and index finger was very familiar; it was a scar from his childhood.

A certain guess suddenly surged in his chest.

Zhang Shutong turned his head in disbelief, his gaze finally freezing on the electronic wall calendar at the back of the classroom.

The red pixels displayed the current time:

December 5th, 2012, Wednesday.

He... had actually returned to eight years ago!

……

Perhaps a few minutes, or maybe even longer, passed. He didn't calculate the specific amount of time. Maybe it was after his heart had thumped a few hundred times that Zhang Shutong slowly exhaled and confirmed the reality before him.

He had really come back.

Unlike a rebirth, he had instead relied on his rewind ability to leap across eight years in one go.

He also had a clear understanding of the current time. A moment ago, he had counted on his fingers and confirmed it several times: it was the first semester of his fourth year of junior high.

It wasn't that his math was bad; his life over these years had caused him to almost lose his sense of the scale of time.

When a specific year was mentioned, at most he could vaguely remember what he was doing, for example, that he was in junior high. But as for which exact grade he was in, he would have to think back carefully.

And then there was his current situation:

This was probably a self-study period, so everyone around him was quietly doing their homework.

His deskmate, however, looked a bit unfamiliar, and he couldn't remember their name. Besides, he wasn't the type to be a "problem baby"; when faced with unexpected events, he was more inclined to think things through himself first.

The most familiar thing, conversely, was the exercise book spread out in front of him. He flipped through it a couple of times. It was for English, with a blue cover, and the words "Five-Year High School Entrance Exam, Three-Year Simulation" were written on it. He truly couldn't forget it even if he wanted to.

Turning his head to look outside again, through the iron grille windows, he could see the ground outside the school building;

Eight years ago, on this day, it had probably snowed. The red was the rubber running track, surrounded by a circle of white snow.

It really wasn't good weather. The clouds were very low, and the light was dim. All the fluorescent lights in the classroom were on. Only this point was similar to eight years later.

But what accompanied this were more questions:

Why did the rewind happen?

Why to eight years ago?

And who was it that wanted to kill him?

There was another matter that concerned him even more than all of these, even more than his own death—

Was the "Rewind" ability still there or not?

Right now, it was the first semester of his fourth year of junior high. That accident had happened during the summer vacation after the high school entrance exams.

With a faint sense of excitement, he recalled a famous paradox:

If a person travels through time and kills their grandfather, who has not yet married or had children, the question is, can this person succeed?

Zhang Shutong didn't care if the grandfather died or not. In any case, he himself had returned, and this meant—

If, in the future, he never went to that shrine again and avoided that accident, he would be able to greet a normal life.

A normal life, the possibility of starting over...

This was a thought that had been buried in his heart for many years, one he had never dared to extravagantly hope for, and at this moment, it had become real.

He pressed his lips together tightly, but the smile at the corners of his mouth could not be suppressed and gradually widened. He simply buried his face in the crook of his arm, trying his best not to make a sound, but his body trembled slightly.

He thought that the sixteen-year-old Zhang Shutong would have dashed out of the classroom, rushed up to the rooftop, and released his irrepressible joy in the place closest to the sky;

But the twenty-four year old him only wanted to sit quietly in his seat, savoring the excitement of this moment, and recalling the face of his sixteen-year-old self.

Although there was no mirror at hand, he could still remember what he looked like back then: a head of hair that was never obedient, facial features that were still tender, a straight nose and well-defined lip line, and eyes that were always bright and full of spirit.

In the past, he always felt that the future held countless possibilities. Although after many years he discovered that he had been heading in a single direction from start to finish, he had ultimately returned to the starting point, hadn't he?

He recalled another passage, but had forgotten its source:

"A person, in the summer of their thirteenth or fourteenth year, picked up a real gun. Out of youthful ignorance, they pulled the trigger. No one died, and no one was injured. They thought they had fired a blank. Later, when they were thirty or older, walking down the road, they heard the faint sound of wind behind them. They stopped, and turned around. The bullet hit them right between the eyebrows."

A bullet from eight years ago had hit him right between the eyebrows.

Zhang Shutong sincerely thanked this bullet.

After composing his emotions and looking up again, everything before his eyes seemed endearing:

The baggy school uniform jacket was a symbol of youth, in the center of the snow-covered sports field there was a puddle of clear water, and even the 5-3 practice books spread open on the desk...

Okay, he took another look and found that it was still not endearing.

Zhang Shutong had experienced quite a few things, so after the initial excitement, he quickly calmed down.

Although he really wanted to enjoy this new-again life without any worries, there were some things he had to figure out.

For instance, what exactly was going on with this strange rewind.

After thinking for a moment, he more or less had a clue.

Known fact: he was killed.

The trigger condition is, "something bad happened around him."

He had always thought the ability didn't work on himself.

But now he discovered that perhaps it was just a matter of degree.

Getting injured, being in a very bad mood... psychological or physiological problems were far from meeting the standard. Only the item of his own death could trigger the rewind.

Thinking of this, Zhang Shutong didn't know what to say.

I haven't died at all these past few years, so I didn't discover you had other uses. I'm truly sorry about that.

The second question was then readily solved:

Every time jump returns to a critical point before the incident.

Does this mean the cause of his death had to be traced back to eight years ago?

There was still some phantom pain in the back of his neck. The other party had struck accurately and ruthlessly; they were basically coming straight for him.

But the time gap was too great. Even if he wanted to do something, all that was left was bewilderment.

Today was December 5th. He had died on December 12th, eight years later. To be precise, he had returned to eight years and eight days ago.

He couldn't help but be sensitive to this date.

— It spread everywhere ages ago. Now the question isn't whether you know, it's which version you believe...

The conversation from a few hours ago was still ringing in his ears, and a very outrageous guess surfaced in his mind—

Don't tell me I was silenced, right?

Zhang Shutong's mood was complicated.

He didn't like deductions made on a whim, but if he took Du Kang's words as the truth, everything would, on the contrary, fall logically into place.

Assume that the murderer killed that missing girl eight years ago;

Eight years later, for some reason, they struck at Lu Qinglian as well;

Then, the other party believed a few of the outrageous rumors, such as the one about revealing the murderer's information, which were spread around by a bunch of people as if they were true, and finally targeted him.

It seemed only this could explain why he had returned to the point in time eight years ago, before the case had occurred.

Tearing off a piece of scratch paper, he first wrote down his own name, then added Lu Qinglian's, and finally, the murdered girl's. He thought for a moment; it seemed her name was Gu Qiumian.

He also wrote and drew some symbols as an aid to sort out his thoughts, which only he himself could understand, like a suspect relationship chart from a crime investigation.

Connecting the three people's names formed a triangle. Zhang Shutong stared at the triangle for a good while, thinking to himself that he had died a truly unjust death.

As everyone knows, a triangle is the most stable structure. So stable that he was bound to die; the three of them were like grasshoppers on the same rope.

However, at least the result was good. He had a life to live over again, and also the chance to prevent two murders.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously began to search for those two figures.

He didn't find Lu Qinglian. There was an empty seat in the class; perhaps she had stepped out.

However, he did find the other one. The pretty girl named Gu Qiumian was sitting by the window, with medium-length hair and an oval face, wearing a thick scarf;

Her school uniform was draped over the back of her chair. She was wearing a beige plaid sweater. The sweater wasn't a particularly flashy style, but on her, it was so exquisite that it seemed out of place with her surroundings.

So much so that Zhang Shutong couldn't tell whether she was cold or not.

If she was cold, she should have put on her jacket. If she wasn't cold, why was she wearing a scarf?

Zhang Shutong could no longer clearly remember her appearance. The reason he could spot her at a glance, besides her beauty, was that she was simply too conspicuous.

Everyone else was studying, but she was idly breathing on the glass, her fingertips flying to create a pile of messy lines. Anyway, by the time she finished drawing, Zhang Shutong still couldn't tell what it was. A funny face?

In the entire classroom, it seemed like she was the only one not doing proper work... perhaps he had to add himself to that list, just the two of them.

Staring at that funny face, he recalled more things.

Just as the girl's beautiful appearance and the funny face she was drawing were of two different styles, Gu Qiumian had also never been of the same style as the rest of her classmates.

Qiumian, Qiumian. As the name suggests, it means the continuous autumn rain. Yet her personality was never a lingering and gentle one. On the contrary, she was more like the freezing rain at the turn of spring and winter;

When she was in a good mood, it was fine, but if anyone provoked her, they would be painfully struck by the bone-chilling rain.

Zhang Shutong knew that the term "young lady" was a bit distant from this remote little island, but in fact, she really was one.

Gu Qiumian's father was a wealthy businessman, one of the first group of people to make their fortune after the Reform and Opening-Up.

Father Gu's business empire was spread far and wide. If not all over the country, it was at least well-known within the province;

He had originally been developing his business in the neighboring provincial capital. Perhaps life had become lonely after achieving success and fame, so he took a fancy to this small island, was very optimistic about its potential to become a 5A-level scenic area, and prepared to start from scratch.

Zhang Shutong had heard during his school days about the resort, shopping plaza, and so on that were to be built on the island; he figured they were all Father Gu's handiwork.

Even on campus, one could see the traces left behind by Father Gu:

If you were to run to the administration building, on the long corridor, you would find that the most conspicuous thing was the other party's giant photo frame as an "Outstanding Alumnus";

Although her dad had never attended a single day of school here, since the only rubber running track at the school was donated by him, so it was.

If you were to run to the library—normally, a school of their size would have nothing to do with a library—next to the imposing main entrance, there was a string of gilded characters, "Sincere thanks to Mr. Gu Jianhong for his donation."

The library was thus named the "Jianhong Hall."

If the school hadn't had trouble recruiting enough students, there would probably have been an additional "Jianhong Building."

And because his precious daughter was studying at this very place, he probably didn't want to be too ostentatious, so it was a pity that one couldn't see a "Jianhong Statue" at the school gate.

As for meeting Gu Qiumian herself, that was on the first day she transferred schools.

That day, Zhang Shutong was riding his newly bought bicycle, passing through the walking students, when he saw a black sedan blocking the school gate;

Then the car door opened, and two small, round-toed leather boots peeked out. A girl got out, wearing a red-and-black plaid short skirt. She tossed her hair proudly, and the pendant hanging from the ends of her hair bounced up and down.

When he was a child, he didn't know anything about cars, only that the paint job on that sedan was very high-class. Of course, he didn't know anything now either; his past experiences had made him basically give up on getting a driver's license. But at least he now knew that the one with four rings was called an Audi.

At that time, he followed Gu Qiumian into the same classroom;

The girl first swept her gaze over the surrounding classmates with a scrutinizing look, then asked him who the class president was.

He, however, calmly replied, "I don't know either."

The other party probably felt that he was disrespecting her, stopped her hand that was taking things out of her schoolbag, and glared at him with her spirited and beautiful eyes.

Only then did Zhang Shutong realize that they were both transfer students, and that they had transferred on the same day;

That day, the young lady Gu had brought a whole schoolbag full of chocolates, preparing to use them to capture "Pokémon."

That's right, in her eyes, the entire class were Pokémon.

Later, the chocolates were handed out, but unfortunately, the effect wasn't very good. In the end, she never integrated into any social circle and was met with a rebuff.

Gu Qiumian thus welcomed her brand new school life, and it was clear she was very unhappy about it.

Zhang Shutong, at most, missed the McDonald's in the city, while the young lady Gu was consistently not getting along very well with her Pokémon friends.

Actually, no one ostracized her at the very beginning. It was mainly that the students on the small island had never seen such a proud girl before. They were a bit timid, and also had a bit of an inferiority complex, so they didn't know how to interact with her.

But very quickly, things took a turn:

One day, a few girls finally mustered up the courage and brought a bag of gold coin chocolates to share with her.

As a result, she glanced at it, said "Oh," and then blandly said,

"No need, this is made with cocoa butter substitute. The texture is too poor. I never eat this. But if you guys want to eat some, I can bring you some good stuff.”

The atmosphere froze just like that. The few girls were so ashamed they couldn't be more so, their self-esteem shattered all over the floor, not only because they were rejected, but also because they had no idea what the "cocoa butter substitute" she was talking about was.

For girls of that age, if they had a craving for some "dessert," gold coin chocolates were the most cost-effective choice. From a small supermarket, you could get a large bag weighed out for just over ten yuan.

And their monthly allowance was only worth a few such bags.

He had originally thought it was a scenario where the young lady looked down on people from a small town. Who would have known that the next day, Gu Qiumian actually brought over a bag of Godiva—a Belgian brand. Zhang Shutong didn't recognize it at the time, but he had bought it once in high school while pursuing a female upperclassman. A single box cost several hundred yuan, and his heart ached so much it bled.

Just as the children on the island were all used to cocoa butter substitute chocolates;

The young lady Gu probably thought it was too stupid to carry a gift box to school, so she was also used to carrying several hundred yuan worth of chocolate in a white plastic bag;

Then she smiled as if nothing had happened, as if yesterday's awkwardness had never existed, and said:

"You all come and try some, this is delicious. My dad often buys it for me."

In the end, no one took any. They treated her like she was thin air, and her outstretched hand was just left hanging there, stunned.

Thinking about it now, she was a bit spoiled and didn't know how to get along with people, but it was more so clumsiness.

The matter didn't end there:

How could the young lady Gu endure this kind of treatment? That day after school, it was Zhang Shutong's turn for classroom duty. Just as he was about to finish the battle, a girl suddenly burst in through the front door, startling him.

The girl's eyes were red. She came up to him with clenched fists, threw a white plastic bag before him, and asked if he would eat the chocolates.

At that moment, he hesitated for a bit—the meaning of this question wasn't whether he wanted to eat them or not;

—rather, the leader among the few girls who had the conflict with her was, very unfortunately, named Feng Ruoping, and she was a member of their small group.

Zhang Shutong had never been the type of person to prioritize romance over friendship. Moreover, just the previous night, Ruoping had thrown a tantrum in front of them. Therefore, he hesitated for a few seconds and then flatly refused.

Then that whole bag of chocolates was thrown into the trash can. Gu Qiumian walked out without turning her head back. Zhang Shutong naturally wouldn't do something as rotten as picking it up to take home and secretly eat, but he also felt it was a pity to just throw it away. The matter ended with it being handed over to the homeroom teacher.

But after this incident, they completely became enemies—on a one-sided basis, of course.

Perhaps in Gu Qiumian's eyes, a "traitor" was more hateful than an "enemy";

Although Zhang Shutong never understood how he had become a traitor, or in other words, why she considered him to be on the same side as her.

Perhaps because they had both transferred from the city?

Thinking about it this way, compared to the other classmates, she did indeed strike up conversations with him a bit more.

But the him of back then was completely unaware of this. It was less that he was dense, and more that his mind wasn't on this kind of thing at all.

His favorite after-school activity was fishing. His favorite in-class activity was pondering how to catch an even bigger fish.

This led to the fact that, over the years, when talking about his childhood self—he did have some social interactions, like chatting a bit with Du Kang a few hours ago—he would often get a "cool and aloof" image from other people's eyes, which surprised Zhang Shutong every time.

Cool and aloof, was I?

During his student days, aside from the two years when he was in his worst state, he didn't remember giving anyone the cold shoulder. It was just that sometimes he wasn't interested in the topic of conversation, felt there was nothing to say, and thus would proactively shut his mouth.

In short, that's how things were. Back then, he didn't think he was all that cool and aloof, so he didn't take being treated as a "traitor" by Gu Qiumian to heart. But there was also no need for him to go and suck up to her cold shoulder.

Later, however, another incident occurred, and the two of them had an even more serious conflict. He had forgotten the specific reason, but in any case, it had made the him of back then extremely angry. From then on, they never spoke again.

And by the time he had more or less cooled down;

Then she was killed.

Until the very end, Gu Qiumian never made any proper friends.

Zhang Shutong was thinking about this with a bit of a sigh, when a girl wearing glasses walked up to the teacher's podium.

She cleared her throat:

"Don't forget we're changing seats during the break. Students who haven't packed up yet, hurry up.”