Chapter 211 - 91: Battle in the Wild

Chapter 211: Chapter 91: Battle in the Wild

"I never went there last night."

Zhang Shutong was stunned.

But he’d had too many shocks today, and he asked subconsciously,

"That sentence... is that a lie too?"

"It’s true."

"Are you saying there are two of you?"

"The person you saw shouldn’t have been me."

"Then who was it...?"

"I don’t know either." Lu Qinglian’s brow was still furrowed.

"A sister?"

"Are you sure you weren’t mistaken?" Lu Qinglian asked again.

"I’m sure. And she was also wearing a cyan robe," Zhang Shutong recalled more details. "Is she from your temple?"

But then he remembered that there were only young girls and an old woman at the temple.

"She isn’t from the temple. Do you remember this past Wednesday, December 5th? That night, I went fishing with you guys and left for a while." Her words came quickly, leaving no room to breathe. "You kept asking me what I was doing. Now I can tell you—"

"It was to find her."

"You’ve seen yourself too?" Zhang Shutong’s mind was a complete mess.

"No. I don’t even know who she is."

"What do you mean? Then why were you looking for her?"

"Let me put it another way, Zhang Shutong." She sighed. "For now, your questions about me can be divided into four categories. The first is things I know. The second is things I don’t know. The third is things I know but can’t tell you. And the last category is things it’s better for you not to know."

"What about this one?"

"Why I’m looking for her falls into the third category. As for who she is, that’s in the second."

Zhang Shutong had so many questions he didn’t even know where to begin. He grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and messily smeared it on his face. The cold made him shiver, as expected. Once his head had cleared a little, he asked his first question:

"You have no involvement in what’s happening with Gu Qiuyan?"

"None."

"The truth?"

"Being overly suspicious isn’t a good thing. If you still doubt me, you can think back carefully. When I’m unwilling to tell you something, I always phrase it another way."

"’You can assume that for now’?"

"Exactly. It’s actually very easy to tell the difference. Unlike you, who weaves all sorts of lies, isn’t that right?" she said faintly. "I can probably understand that your mind is a mess. In that case, why don’t you listen to me first? Why did you suspect me just now? It seemed like you were so certain that Gu Qiuyan would die."

’Of course it’s because of...’

Zhang Shutong hesitated.

The tattoo, the photo.

And Gu Qiuyan’s bizarre cause of death.

But now all those clues had been turned on their head. He even started to wonder, ’Could it be that the clues were right, but I was looking for the wrong "person"? Was the cold-blooded murderer who killed Gu Qiuyan really Lu Qinglian, just not the one in front of me?’

’But how can I be sure who this Lu Qinglian in front of me is?’

’Do I have to figure out how to tell the real Lu Qinglian from the fake one?’

Zhang Shutong’s scalp prickled.

’Calm down, calm down.’

’First of all, since this Lu Qinglian remembers catching the poachers on Wednesday, it means the Lu Qinglian I’ve been meeting after rewinding time is this woman right here.’

’Then what about the Lu Qinglian from our school days?’

He had to confirm this first before they could have a proper conversation: 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"The gloves?"

Zhang Shutong asked.

As expected, Lu Qinglian understood his meaning immediately:

"I borrowed them because my hands were chapped from the cold, and you lent them to me to sweep the snow. Is there anything else you want to confirm?"

"I guess... not."

Mainly because Zhang Shutong himself couldn’t remember the details from their school days clearly.

"Then you should answer my question," Lu Qinglian said, her amber eyes cool and imposing. "And mind you, I want the truth."

"I probably had a dream."

"Your dream must have been very realistic." As she said this, Lu Qinglian’s tone grew cold.

Zhang Shutong knew it was a flimsy excuse, but he still didn’t understand what the Cyan Snake Temple truly represented. He’d noticed a pattern: whenever the temple was involved, Lu Qinglian became extremely tight-lipped.

Besides, the only reason she was willing to talk to him calmly right now was because she believed he was an ordinary person.

’If I tell her directly that I can rewind time, and that I got this ability from her temple, there’s no telling how she’ll react.’

Being suspicious was a bad thing, but Zhang Shutong wasn’t about to lay all his cards on the table right from the start.

So he had to blame it on the dream.

He had obtained his ability at the festival during the summer after ninth grade.

So, even if Lu Qinglian didn’t buy the "dream" excuse, there was no way the current her could know he could rewind time.

"It really was a dream." He controlled his microexpressions and looked at her earnestly.

"Mm, a dream." The girl just nodded nonchalantly. "So?"

"In the dream, Gu Qiuyan died. Right on that patch of wasteland."

"Cause of death?"

"I don’t know." He described the situation at the Gu Family Villa. "Dogs, a fence, bodyguards, and a nanny. But she still died on that wasteland. I still can’t figure it out."

"So you suspected I killed her?"

"You’re special, after all," Zhang Shutong added. "But now I suspect the killer wasn’t you, but that figure I saw last night."

He could now describe his mood perfectly. He had finally made progress on the killer’s identity, and the answer seemed to be within reach. On one hand, it was exhilarating. But on the other... it was a being that even Lu Qinglian didn’t know about. What on earth could it be?

A chill ran down Zhang Shutong’s spine.

"If you don’t know who she is, why are you looking for her?" Zhang Shutong asked patiently.

"The duties of a Temple Priestess."

"Be more specific."

"How large an area do you think this temple presides over?"

"The whole mountain?"

"The entire island. So when certain things happen on the island, I know about them."

"Using those snakes?"