Winter Returns

Chapter 209 "Temple Keeper"

"Yes, that's the driver, the man from the basement."

"How did you come up with that idea? That night at the mall, the other party walked away without looking back, which meant they were confident they could find us. At first, I thought they targeted the school because we were students, but then I wondered, were there any other ways? Apart from our parents, the only person who knows what we've been doing lately is the driver..."

"Besides... sigh, he was the one who helped when we saw Lao Song off. As I said before, the other party should have seen us a long time ago, but when exactly? Maybe it was that time. I don't remember if the man went up to the dormitory building. If he did, then he should have discovered the secret door we blocked with the bed. So when we were in the warehouse, I was going to ask you if you noticed anything unusual about that man..."

As soon as Zhang Shutong finished speaking, a cold voice came from the other end of the phone:

"Zhang Shutong."

It's as if you can see Lu Qinglian frowning:
"You'd better not make any strange noises when you're on the phone."

"Oh, sorry, I was running."

Zhang Shutong stopped, slightly out of breath.

"running?"

"Exercise."

It was Thursday morning, seven o'clock, and he was running towards the school while making a phone call.

There was a small cart selling sandwiches by the roadside, so I decided to grab breakfast on the way. While waiting, Zhang Shutong covered the microphone and said:
"I asked him, and the man's only targets are Sadness and Smile. He has no interest in the other foxes... So it can be understood that the other party has really given up."

"Furthermore, it seems that he has no ill intentions towards us at present. Although this is based on the fact that those two foxes are no longer useful, at least we don't need to be on high alert."

After exchanging a few more words with Lu Qinglian, the jianbing (Chinese crepe) was ready. Zhang Shutong paid for it, took a bite, and discovered that this jianbing shop had creatively added crab sticks, which reminded him of the crab he had eaten at Gu Qiumian's house last night.

Being able to eat crabs in winter, supposedly imported sea crabs, truly befits a pampered lady.

"More details," Lu Qinglian said. The background noise on her end was very loud; she seemed to be on her way to school as well.

“I was in the car at the time, and dinner was waiting to be served inside, so there wasn’t much time to talk. I just confirmed the other person’s position and the possibility of establishing communication,” Zhang Shutong said. “I got more information after dinner, on the way he drove me home.”

"you do this delibrately?"

"What's the purpose?"

Why didn't you tell me last night?

“It seems that the impersonation of Ruoping has been exposed,” Zhang Shutong explained. “Although it wasn’t him who took Ruoping home, drivers inevitably communicate with each other, and the other person may already know that you are the one who is acting with me. Before his identity is revealed, any unusual behavior will only make him wary.”

“You know what I mean,” Lu Qinglian’s voice turned colder. “You could have just made a phone call after it was all over.”

"Um..." Zhang Shutong paused, "Where are you now?"

"Five minutes left."

"Let's talk on the phone."

Zhang Shutong swallowed the sandwich in a few bites, then bought a bottle of water, saying as he walked:
"We gained quite a bit. I asked him about the clay figures. Do you remember the information you got from the murals in the temple? To 'create' clay figures, you need to place a human body in a restricted area. We even suspected that someone might have stolen the body of Teacher Song's girlfriend, but we never had the time to confirm it."

“But the answer is,” Zhang Shutong said in a low voice, “that the guess was wrong.”

“That man had already investigated and confirmed that her grave site was consistent with the burial site.”

Lu Qinglian asked:

"Did he open the coffin?"

"That shouldn't be the case, but the coffin lid needs to be sealed during burial. If the seal has never been opened, why would someone go to the trouble of stealing the body, using it, putting it back, and then sealing it again... In short, the conditions for the creation of a clay figure are not the presence of anyone's body. This might explain why a clay figure can transform into the appearance of three people."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone:
"You mean, by chance?"

Lu Qinglian's voice was devoid of emotion, but Zhang Shutong could roughly guess her feelings. Previously, they believed that there was a mastermind behind the creation of the clay figures, but now it seemed that was not the case.

The death of the woman named "Yun" was caused by a car accident, not by anyone's scheme, not to mention that her body is still intact to this day.

"That's what I thought at the time too. Was it inevitable or accidental? If it was accidental..." If it really was accidental, then everything they did would have lost its meaning.

"So it's the former?" Lu Qinglian asked calmly. "Inevitably?"

"Hmm," Zhang Shutong responded softly, recalling her astonishment at the time.

……

"A coincidence?" Zhang Shutong repeated involuntarily.

"I am not sure."

The man sat in the driver's seat. He didn't smoke, so the car windows were closed and covered with dark tint. You could vaguely see the light from upstairs. Zhang Shutong looked away from the staff dormitory and looked at the man again.

He sat there without making the slightest fidgeting, unlike Old Song who was constantly shaking his leg and rubbing his chin. The man's hands hung down on his knees, like a still statue.

He stared straight ahead, but it was impossible to pinpoint the focus of his eyes; he seemed to be looking at something, yet also seemed to be looking at nothing at all.

"However, if you want to investigate, you can follow it."

Zhang Shutong took the photo that the man pulled out of his pocket.

The photo shows a short-haired woman. Zhang Shutong could recognize her, but the woman's face looked much younger than he remembered. Zhang Shutong realized that she must have been around 25 years old when she was alive, but she looked only 17 or 18 when the photo was taken.

Zhang Shutong also knew that the woman named "Yun" would have dimples when she smiled, as most of the photos he saw in Lao Song's dormitory showed this. But this time, he was surprised to see no smile on her face. By the light from the car roof, he could see the contents of the photo clearly and remained silent for a long time.

The woman had her arms crossed, and it seemed she was holding something in the crook of her arms.

Zhang Shutong saw the fox's ears.

……

“Professor Song’s spouse may know far more than we imagine,” Zhang Shutong said slowly.

"Seven or eight years ago, that fox was in her hands?"

"It's basically confirmed."

"Which one is it?" Lu Qinglian asked, frowning.

"Yes……"

As Zhang Shutong said this, he stopped and saw Lu Qinglian, who had also stopped at the school gate.

Their eyes met, and then they hung up the phone.

They arrived relatively early; there weren't many people at the school gate at that time. Zhang Shutong took out a photo from his pocket:
"See for yourself."

Lu Qinglian lowered her eyes:
"Unrecognizable?"

"Ah."

Zhang Shutong was unaware of Yun's situation when the photo was taken, and even less able to discern her intention in leaving the photo.

What is certain is that she and the photographer both believed that the fox statue was something mysterious and enigmatic, because the statue in the woman's arms did not even show its face. If it were not someone who knew the story, no one else would have thought that it was a fox statue.

There are more words after this.

Lu Qinglian flipped the photo over and saw two words written on the back:
"The finish line." "Where did you find it?"

"From the crevices of the coffin, I got the feeling that the man didn't seem to care much about anything other than those two statues, so the investigation stopped there."

Zhang Shutong was the first to step onto the stairs. A dozen hours earlier, they had searched the classroom in the same way. The difference was that back then it was pitch black and they were at a loss for what to do; but now it was daytime, and they had suddenly made great strides forward.

“Clay figures, foxes, it’s getting more and more complicated…” Zhang Shutong sighed. “Lu Qinglian, shall we continue our collaboration?”

“Zhang Shutong,” she said expressionlessly, “you still haven’t answered me. Why didn’t you make a phone call last night? If you think it’s funny to tell me such important information the next day…”

"It's more than that."

Zhang Shutong, unusually, interrupted Lu Qinglian.

Now they were at the corner of the stairs, quiet and deserted. Zhang Shutong leaned against the stair railing, turning to look at the girl's face:

"The reason I didn't tell you is because of another piece of information."

Zhang Shutong spoke each word carefully:
"Clay figurines were supposed to be the incarnations of temple keeper after their deaths."

……

Zhang Shutong watched Lu Qinglian walk away, then headed downstairs.

As soon as Zhang Shutong arrived at the school gate, he saw a black sedan come to a stop.

The back window rolled down, revealing an oval face. Zhang Shutong temporarily acted as the driver, opening the car door for the young lady.

"Where is that person?" He looked towards the driver's seat, but it was a young man.

"I haven't seen him yet." Gu Qiumian frowned.

Zhang Shutong nodded.

After having dinner at the villa last night, he didn't stay long. He didn't even have time to drink the tea that Aunt Wu had prepared before he hurriedly said goodbye.

He considered whether to tell everyone in the villa about the man's unusual behavior and then have the bodyguards swarm in and subdue him, but in the end he didn't do that.

Since the man is willing to provide some information, forcing him will only backfire. Moreover, since the other party can take back the clay figure, he is unlikely to surrender without resistance.

However, to Zhang Shutong's surprise, the other party was only stunned for a moment when his identity was exposed, and then calmed down.

On the way back, the man parked his car at the entrance of the residential area.

Some answers are obtained very easily, such as photographs or clay figurines.

Some answers are meaningless to ask, such as the other person's identity or the man's purpose in searching for the two statues.

There were two more questions that truly surprised Zhang Shutong.

First of all, the figure that fell from the rooftop was not this man.

Secondly, he also remembered the group photo he found in the basement on the Weaver Girl's Thread. He tried to find out more about it, but the other party was unaware of it.

That's all.

Shortly after, Zhang Shutong got out of the car. Once the car started moving, he immediately told Gu Qiumian about the problem with the driver. Although the other driver hadn't done anything wrong during his long tenure and should be harmless, Zhang Shutong still didn't dare to be careless.

However, he still didn't tell Gu Qiumian about the clay figurine; he only told her that the driver was the man searching for the fox.

Gu Qiumian called her father without hesitation. Since he was the Gu family's driver, he should have a file with him when he joined the company. However, Zhang Shutong soon received a call from Gu Qiumian. Calculating the time, the car that should have arrived at the villa long ago had not returned.

Zhang Shutong suddenly realized something, and he immediately got on his bike and rode towards the old house. He waited in the night wind until he arrived at the basement, where the walls that were originally covered with photos were now empty.

In the end, it was too late.

Zhang Shutong couldn't help but think that perhaps regardless of whether she exposed the other party's identity or not, the man was already prepared to leave. The reason he hadn't taken back the photos before was because he was secretly observing the group and deliberately hiding his presence.

But not long ago, he posted that "Give Up" sign, and suddenly it surfaced. Zhang Shutong was an experienced fisherman; when a big fish voluntarily rises to the surface, it is also the moment it disappears forever into the boundless lake.

The villa's bodyguards went out to search, and it wasn't until late at night that they finally found the car parked on the street. However, there was only one key in the driver's seat, and the driver was nowhere to be found.

There were no security cameras at the parking spot, and the man disappeared silently once again.

The identity he left behind was also fake; he seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth.

"What did Uncle say?" Zhang Shutong asked.

“Dad said he asked the police to investigate,” Gu Qiumian thought for a moment. “His attitude is actually quite complicated. He said that the person is quite capable and has been by his side for a long time. Although he has kept some things from us, he has never done anything to harm our family over the years, so Dad doesn’t have any particular obsession with him.”

Zhang Shutong was not surprised by this result.

……

During his morning reading, he told a few of his close friends about the outcome of the matter, and they were all somewhat moved.

“Looking at it this way, he’s actually quite upright,” Du Kang suddenly said. “If you hadn’t caught him in the end, Shu Tong, and he hadn’t left that piece of paper, and had just left without a word, we don’t know how long we would have remained suspicious.”

Zhang Shutong thought about it. How could someone who always hid underground be associated with "uprightness"? But this statement sounded strange at first, but upon closer inspection, it wasn't wrong.

There was no point in exploring that basement anymore. The fewer people who knew about it, the better. Perhaps that was why the man took the photos before he left. During lunch break, they went to the shopping street to buy a new lock and replaced the rotten wooden door of the old house, temporarily sealing off the tunnel.

The group stood outside the door, speechless for a moment.

"Finally, I can have a proper Christmas." Ruoping stretched and yawned. "I've been so bored these past few days."

"Let's go." Qingyi turned around first.

Du Kang patted Zhang Shutong on the shoulder.

When Zhang Shutong returned to school, he went up to the rooftop alone.

On the rooftop at noon, you can always see that aloof figure with a high ponytail.

Lu Qinglian sat on the edge of the rooftop, and as she did countless noon days before, she looked up at the clear winter sky and ate her lunch quietly.

Zhang Shutong sat down not far from her.

What were that man's exact words?

"Clay figurines are the reincarnations of temple keepers after their deaths."

Zhang Shutong repeated it.

"But now two unrelated people have been dragged into this."

"Ah."

He looked at the photo in his hand; it represented a long-forgotten past.

Zhang Shutong dialed Song Nanshan's number.

(End of this chapter)