Five years ago, he had placed the wide-grinning fox onto the altar, thereby triggering the regression.
Perhaps he could find a way to return through it once more.
The prerequisite was...
That this fox was still here.
He quickly crossed over the platform. The moment his feet touched the ground, he immediately shone his phone toward the bottom of the rock wall.
A wide-grinning fox was smiling right at him.
Zhang Shutong's pupils contracted. Even he couldn't say for certain whether it was strange or normal for this fox to have remained here for five whole years.
He then shone the light toward the other four pit holes. They were completely empty. Zhang Shutong immediately thought: Does this mean that the version of me on this timeline failed to find the other four foxes?
He quickly cast this conjecture to the back of his mind. Hesitating for a moment, Zhang Shutong reached out and gripped the fox.
One second, two seconds... Along with the world before his eyes beginning to vibrate, this was the precursor to a regression!
Despite having anticipated it, Zhang Shutong still widened his eyes in surprise. This meant that the reason he underwent regressions was entirely due to this fox. But why did a fox statue possess this kind of power?
He instinctively withdrew his hand, and immediately after—
The world returned to tranquility.
"..."
Zhang Shutong froze for two seconds, first reflexively looking at his hand, and then staring in astonishment at the fox.
This was the first time he had ever encountered a situation where a regression was interrupted.
Yes, a regression interruption.
Merely by moving his hand away from this fox.
The regression had actually been interrupted for the very first time.
The facts proved that his conjecture was correct; his arrival five years into the future was indeed related to this fox, rather than something happening to anyone around him.
But what exactly was going on here?
Countless doubts flooded into his mind, but a pressing choice loomed directly before him—
Should he return right now?
Or...
Investigate thoroughly to find out exactly what had happened on this timeline?
Zhang Shutong extended his hand, waited for two seconds, and ultimately lowered it again.
He let out a long breath, letting his racing heartbeat smooth over.
Casting one last glance at the fox, Zhang Shutong climbed out of the platform.
When he walked past the fork, he didn't turn to ascend the stairs, but walked straight ahead instead.
The left side of the tunnel was a cavern, while the right side was that basement.
The clue regarding the clay figures was still hidden inside.
Before long, Zhang Shutong arrived before that door. He carefully pressed down on the doorknob; just like five years ago, he gained entry with ease.
Except the door hinges felt ready to snap at any moment, and a pungent, musty odor rushed into his nose. Zhang Shutong coughed twice, studying the room.
It still consisted of a bed and a wooden table.
He then brushed aside the cobwebs on the door frame, walked over to the wooden table, and wiped the tabletop with his finger. A thick layer of dust stuck to his fingertip. Every sign proved that no one had set foot here for a very long time.
Whether it was the foxes or the clay figures, it seemed their existence had been permanently sealed away in that winter.
Zhang Shutong silently circled the room. He walked to the other side of the door, which was the iron door leading to the dormitory building. He ascended the stairs in a few strides and pushed the wooden board embedded in the wall.
Amidst a grating, teeth-grinding screech, the bed frame blocking the front of the wooden board was also slowly pushed aside.
Zhang Shutong studied it for two seconds before turning his body around.
No one has lived in this dormitory room since...
He returned to the basement once more, ultimately stopping beside the photo wall.
The glue behind those photos had mostly dried out, causing the corners to warp upward like specimens of butterflies. They were frozen in time from that year; had the stories behind them also long since been forgotten by everyone?
There was also a photo lying on the ground. Zhang Shutong stared at it for a few seconds before performing a superfluous action after all—
He bent down to pick up the photo. Just as he was about to stick it back onto the wall, his arm paused briefly.
Zhang Shutong knit his brows, looking at the photo. It shouldn't belong on this wall, simply because its content didn't depict any of the three women. Instead, it was—
A group photo.
He could faintly discern its contents.
A group of young people, wearing uniform deep blue outfits, their faces already blurred and unclear.
The time of its development was even older than the ones on the wall, and the upper half was stained with smudges... But who were these people?
And when exactly had this photo appeared here?
This time, he stuffed the photo directly into his pocket, circled the room one last time, and finally pulled the door shut.
When he returned to the surface once more, the scorching air enveloped him completely. His eyes were not yet adapted to the intense sunlight, so Zhang Shutong shielded his forehead, his vision filled with bleak desolation.
On the way back to the hospital, he stopped to listen to the raucous chirping of the cicadas—another sound that didn't exist in winter.
Zhang Shutong handed a bottle of milk tea to Ruoping.
"Thanks, at least you have a conscience," Ruoping said happily, but then she looked at the milk tea with distress. "But I've been trying to lose weight lately, I can't drink this stuff."
She was wearing a form-fitting dress today, her abdomen flat without a trace of excess fat, looking just as slender as back then. Yet the Ruoping of the past had loved milk tea the most, refusing to drink anything else; not only would she drink it, but she would also add double portions of tapioca pearls and coconut jelly.
Zhang Shutong rolled his eyes.
"Suit yourself. Let's go, back to continue working."
He hopped onto the electric scooter once more, asking Ruoping if she still remembered the matter of the basement. But according to Ruoping, they had visited together a few times afterward, but could never find out who the owner was, so the matter had simply fizzled out.
"What about the other photos?"
"There weren't any, right?" Ruoping sat sideways on the backseat of the scooter, lightly swinging her legs. "Mmm... at any rate, there weren't any when we graduated. I don't know about afterward. Do you still want to go exploring? Please, at this age, it's about time to graduate from eighth-grader syndrome, don't you think?"
Zhang Shutong nodded.
"How long are you staying at home?"
"Leaving in a few days."
"That busy?"
"Can't be helped," Ruoping said efficiently.
Hearing this, Zhang Shutong thought it over. This was also an answer that couldn't be any more familiar. Many times, what you wanted was the answer to a fill-in-the-blank question, but the counterpart was answering a multiple-choice question, only providing a 'yes' or 'no'.
"Everyone has grown up, after all," Ruoping said softly after a long while, when Zhang Shutong had already forgotten the topic.
"To say how busy we are, there's actually nothing much to be busy with. The troublesome matters are all next year. But staying on the island..." She thought about it. "Tell me, even if you were allowed to stay here right now, what could you do?"
She asked what he could do.
Zhang Shutong was left speechless.
He suggested riding the scooter around for a spin, but Ruoping said it was too hot.
He suggested swimming in the lake, but Ruoping said she would get tan.
Zhang Shutong then mentioned that the mall owned by Gu Qiumian's family was cool, but Ruoping cradled her face and mused:
"It feels like there's nothing much to browse either. It's already a bit outdated. It's better to go play in the city, it's pretty close anyway."
Zhang Shutong could only ask:
"What about fishing?"
"You're still thinking about fishing?" Ruoping laughed. "You threw away your fishing rod before graduation."
"How could that be?" Zhang Shutong initially wanted to ask this, but then he recalled that Ruoping and Du Kang were no longer in contact, and Qingyi mostly read books, so he wouldn't have much inclination on his own either.
Zhang Shutong spoke no further.
In the scorching summer heat, inside a small alleyway, he loaded all kinds of furniture into the van. Zhang Shutong chugged down the milk tea he had bought earlier, letting out a refreshing sigh.
Ruoping was walking down carrying a large box. Just as Zhang Shutong was about to lend a hand, she dodged his grasp, using her toe to point toward the SUV ahead:
"Help me open the trunk."
"There's still room in the van."
"Unrelated. Inside here are quilts, clothes, and some small items. I specially packed them out." Ruoping walked over to the driver's seat after speaking. "Let's go, up the mountain."
"The mountain?" Zhang Shutong thought in a flash. "You mean to the temple?"
"Otherwise? It's already past three o'clock, the people at the festival ritual have mostly cleared out." Ruoping tossed her short hair and started the car. "Stop dawdling, don't you want to see her too?"
Zhang Shutong knew who "her" referred to.
Indeed, he ought to go find Lu Qinglian. The answers extracted from his three best friends were all very vague, and it was difficult to find answers on his own, so his only option was to go look for her.
Only now did Zhang Shutong realize that he seemed to have grown accustomed to the days of collaborating with Lu Qinglian.
The car merged onto the road, and Zhang Shutong realized a beat late that the crate of items Ruoping had packed out wasn't for moving houses, but had been prepared for Lu Qinglian.
"The two of you share a really great relationship," Zhang Shutong remarked with emotion.
Ruoping fell silent for a brief moment.
"It's what should be done. It's not very convenient for her up on the mountain, and I won't be using these things anymore anyway."
Zhang Shutong felt that Ruoping was also being a bit duplicitous.
If the relationship was good, just say it was good, yet she insisted on finding an excuse. The Ruoping of back then had flashed a peace sign just to get Lu Qinglian's QQ, and after so many years, they had finally become close friends.
They parked the car at the foot of the mountain. Scattered crowds were currently walking down. Zhang Shutong looked up at the sun; the pilgrims had mostly dispersed, but the sun was still far from setting.
To be honest, he really didn't want to climb a mountain in this kind of weather.
"Cover your face." Ruoping handed him a baseball cap. "It's my dad's, just make do with it."
Zhang Shutong thought to himself that Ruoping was truly considerate, having even prepared the tools for climbing.
Ruoping was never a delicate, fragile girl; she carried the box and started heading up the mountain. Zhang Shutong offered to take it over, but she shook her head:
"You've been tired all day too. I'll give it to you later when I run out of strength."
Zhang Shutong couldn't override her, so he could only follow slowly behind her.
He looked left and right, trying to locate the pit from back then, but the snow had long since melted so where would a pit come from? What Zhang Shutong meant was that he hoped Student Lu had managed to forget about the pit after so many years.
It was likely very difficult.
"Are we entering the temple?" Zhang Shutong asked.
Lu Qinglian had once told him not to look for her grandmother; he recalled developing an anxiety disorder because of this on the Wild Dog Line. Zhang Shutong didn't know how it had been handled on this timeline, but judging from Ruoping and Lu Qinglian's attitudes, it seemed reasonably fine.
"We're not going into the temple, we'll just meet outside."
"Alright."
Zhang Shutong pulled the brim of his hat a bit lower.
The so-called Green Snake Temple wasn't just a temple, but a courtyard built upon the mountain.
There were still tourists, but nowhere near as many as when he had called at noon.
He recalled that during the summer break in the original timeline, he and his best buddies had come to hang out at the festival ritual. Precisely because the courtyard was a sea of people and it was impossible to squeeze through the main gate, he had concocted a terrible idea, attempting to climb over the wall from the backyard, which resulted in a slip of his foot and triggered everything that followed.
So to speak, this was his very first time entering the courtyard.
Zhang Shutong looked around curiously, quickly spotting the main hall directly ahead. It featured red walls and green tiles; presumably, the sculpture of the green snake was housed inside.
On both sides were side halls, perhaps serving as the residences for the shrine maidens.
He searched around but didn't catch sight of Lu Qinglian, nor her grandmother. Logically speaking, these two should be very conspicuous.
"Go wander around on your own first, I'm going to give the box to Qinglian," Ruoping said.
Zhang Shutong nodded, knowing that girls had a habit of sharing private conversations.
He looked around everywhere again. Positioned before the hall was a massive incense burner. Pilgrims stood in a queue, and beside the incense burner was a small table, along with a box for donations. Zhang Shutong guessed that was where the incense was placed, but the table was already empty, leaving only a few traces of incense residue. No wonder Lu Qinglian wasn't outside.
This was exactly the scene captured in the video call. Zhang Shutong turned his head to look, quickly locating the exact spot where Lu Qinglian had dialed the video call to him—
It was right beside a rack hanging with wishing plaques.
He recalled that on their first night after the regression, when they were fishing by the lake, Lu Qinglian had introduced to him that this place had originally been a clothes rack. Later, for some unknown reason, a few plaques had appeared, and coupled with the influence of the internet, hanging wishing plaques here had since become a "custom."
Looking at that wishing rack again, it had long ceased to be the clothes rack Lu Qinglian spoke of. Instead, it had been replaced by two racks crafted from wood, densely hung with multi-colored plaques made of wood, paper, and even metallic nameplates.
Lu Qinglian had once said that the contents inside amounted to nothing more than who-and-who wanting to be together forever, which was utterly tedious.
She was indeed the kind of person who would flip through other people's wishing plaques, and she would do so with an expressionless face.
Thinking of this, Zhang Shutong couldn't help but chuckle silently.
He also noticed a small vegetable patch on the left side of the courtyard, planted with some chili peppers and eggplants, their fruits not yet ripe; there was also a tiny chicken coop... Presumably, these were all part of Lu Qinglian's duties.
Zhang Shutong had never witnessed, nor ever envisioned, what her life looked like.
But this place should be it.
Within the square courtyard, tourists woven like fabric, red bricks and green tiles arranged in sequence. Summer cicadas babbled endlessly, occasionally drowning out the low murmurs of the pilgrims, as wisps of white smoke slowly rose into the midair. The world was very small, so small that a single wisp of smoke would take a long while to disperse.
When Zhang Shutong turned his head, he happened to see a figure stepping out from the side hall. The newcomer had long hair and wore green robes. He locked eyes with Lu Qinglian just as a gust of wind brushed across his face, cooling the world down.
Lu Qinglian nodded her chin lightly, as if offering a greeting.
Zhang Shutong seemed to understand her meaning, which was to let him go into that side hall to speak if he had something to say. He instinctively stepped forward, and by the time he snapped back to reality, he had already sat down on the ground paved with bluestone slabs.
There were only three futons here, illuminated by a faint light, indicating it wasn't a residence.
Only the two of them remained inside the side hall, a unique classmate reunion. Zhang Shutong moved his mouth but suddenly didn't know what to say.
We meet again, and in the blink of an eye, five years have passed?
Ultimately, Zhang Shutong merely fished that photo out of his pocket and handed it to Lu Qinglian:
"Do you have any impression of this? I found it in the basement."
He had originally assumed that since they hadn't met in a long time, they ought to exchange greetings first, sharing a few words of small talk like, Student Lu Qinglian, how have you been? Pretty good? Is that so, I've been good too... But the reality was that they uttered not a single word of nonsense, diving straight into the core subject.
Lu Qinglian cast a sidelong glance at the photo, then stared at his face. Only after his voice had faded for a good long while did Lu Qinglian shake her head.
Then it belongs to the recent few years? Calculating from graduation to the present, four years had passed, indicating that the person had visited again during these four years?
Zhang Shutong pondered reflexively, and Lu Qinglian asked slowly:
"Do you want some water?"
Her voice was very soft, and compared to before, her emotions felt considerably more detached.
"Not thirsty. Long time no see... how have you been?"
"Fine."
Hearing this, Zhang Shutong felt at ease.
"Very busy today?"
Lu Qinglian nodded her chin.
There were no electric lights inside this side hall; only a single candlestick sat between the two of them. This candlestick had already burned halfway down and would soon go out.
Zhang Shutong stared at the flickering flame, asking further that the incense outside had been completely taken, did she need to add more?
He naturally knew this was nonsense, but if he didn't utter some nonsense, it would be difficult for Zhang Shutong to find an entry point to communicate with Lu Qinglian. Five years ago, he hadn't known what she was thinking, and five years later, it was even more so.
Zhang Shutong thought back to this timeline again.
He seemed to understand where the problem lay this time. If everyone moved forward because of some sort of obsession, this time everyone's obsessions had mostly vanished.
You couldn't say anything had genuinely grown worse, but following the normal course of development, it absolutely shouldn't be like this—unless the problems that plagued him five years ago had all been resolved, or rather, had become trivial, unproblematic issues.
"Do you want to have a meal with Ruoping tonight? My treat."
Zhang Shutong asked again.
The atmosphere inside the side hall was simply too oppressive, yet the outside wasn't a place for conversation either.
When he said this, Lu Qinglian turned her face slightly. Zhang Shutong didn't know what was going on; she seemed... not particularly welcoming toward him? Or rather, her reaction was colder than he had imagined. Every time before she spoke, she looked as though she was contemplating something, her reaction always a beat slow, appearing blank and dazed. Even when listening, she refused to look directly at the counterpart, keeping her face turned sideways instead.
"Is that so..."
Lu Qinglian said softly.
This was also her first time looking directly at Zhang Shutong:
"Are you dreaming again?"