The world began to tremble.
A sensation of being thrown out of his body washed over him. Before his consciousness went blank, Zhang Shutong wondered which point in time he would return to.
Since touching the fox statue was what triggered the regression, in truth... there was basically only one answer.
Yet for some reason, his consciousness remained clear this time instead of vanishing. In his daze, it felt as though he had entered a dream, standing in a place with neither heaven nor earth. Before he could even feel surprised, the next instant—
The hairs on Zhang Shutong's neck stood on end!
Goosebumps instantly erupted all over his body. Instinct told him the danger was coming from right behind him. Zhang Shutong turned his head at once, but at that exact moment...
The dream shattered.
He snapped his eyes open. He still couldn't control his limbs very well, but the bare skin exposed to the air told him that the muggy, humid atmosphere was gone. In its place was a wave of coldness that made him shiver involuntarily.
The stench of rainwater forced its way into his nose, and his vision returned. A fox was grinning and smiling at him. That was right—it was winter. He was in an underground tunnel. It should have been pitch black around him, but a beam of light from a flashlight shone from his side.
"What happened to you just now?" A clear, cold voice rang out by his ear.
Zhang Shutong turned his head and stared blankly at Lu Qinglian. He wasn't surprised by why he was seeing her, but by the fact that he was actually seeing her.
"...How much time has passed since I put down the statue?"
"An instant."
As expected, he had returned to that night on December 16, 2012. His experiences from five years in the future had only occupied a single instant!
There was no time to think about it too much.
He immediately pulled out his phone and opened Ruoping's QQ. The app's loading speed felt agonizingly slow in his eyes. According to Du Kang, there were two turning points to change the past: one was the eve of Christmas, and the other was right now.
As long as he deleted that message currently showing a loading wheel, he could stop Ruoping from looking for the fox statue.
With this thought in mind, Zhang Shutong fixed his gaze on the screen.
However, a line of small text was displayed beneath that message:
Sent ten minutes ago.
Zhang Shutong punched the stone wall.
It had still gone through!
He had been a bit too optimistic. The moment he returned to this current point in time, it meant the "sent text message" was already a done deal. But the opportunity was still there. He hurriedly typed out a line of text, telling Ruoping absolutely not to go out.
Having done all this, Zhang Shutong turned his head.
"Something happened."
"What?"
"Something happened on Ruoping's end. We need to go find her right now," he said briefly. "I'll explain on the way."
Zhang Shutong still remembered the location. He was about to climb down from the platform when his movements stiffened.
After a moment of hesitation, Zhang Shutong tentatively reached out to touch that fox. This time, nothing happened at all—no signs of a regression... As expected!
A hypothesis was confirmed in his heart. He then stuffed the fox statue into his pocket.
"Let's go."
A few minutes later, Zhang Shutong put on his helmet. The motorcycle was already started. He gripped the brake, the engine roaring, waiting only for Lu Qinglian to hop onto the bike. Then, he released the clutch. Under the cover of night, the mechanical beast shot forward like an arrow leaving a bow, blasting out with a roar.
The cold wind howled all around him, yet he felt his blood surging. This was winter, this was five years ago, this was the place he needed to race toward. None of this was set in stone yet; he still had a chance to change everything.
"What are we doing?"
Lu Qinglian was now sitting on the back seat of the motorcycle, holding her own phone, sending text messages to Du Kang and Qing Yi.
"Tell them to go find Ruoping right now," Zhang Shutong recalled rapidly. "Head straight south after leaving her house—that's the road leading to the commercial street. There's a patch of wasteland midway... That's the only short stretch of road without streetlights, and there should be a patch of reeds. No matter what happens, tell them to take Ruoping and leave immediately. Don't let her look for the fox!"
While he spoke, Lu Qinglian was typing. Her fingers flew across the screen, and just as Zhang Shutong finished speaking:
"Done."
Lu Qinglian cleanly pressed the send button.
"Explain. About the fox."
"It's the second fox statue, the Sorrowful Fox," Zhang Shutong said without pausing. "Actually, I..."
He was just about to reveal his experiences from that timeline, but before the words could leave his mouth, a familiar sensation of heart palpitations struck again. The next moment, the handlebars veered to the side. Zhang Shutong hurriedly saved the bike from crashing, panting heavily.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! he cursed inwardly. How did this strange illness carry over to this regression too?!
"What happened back at the altar just now?" Lu Qinglian asked calmly.
"A prophecy," Zhang Shutong said. He waited for a moment, and seeing that nothing abnormal happened, he quickly explained, "Each fox has an ability. The second one changes the past, while the first one gives prophecies. I got some information from that fox."
"You dreamed again?" Lu Qinglian frowned.
"It wasn't a dream!" The wind howled in his ears, forcing Zhang Shutong to raise his voice. He now wished that lame excuse he used to rely on would drop dead as far away as possible. "It's a prophecy!"
"Oh, whatever."
Lu Qinglian's reaction was quite flat.
"It's not just Ruoping who's in danger—in the prophecy, you went deaf too!" Zhang Shutong attempted to get her serious attention.
"Yeah, whatever," she replied half-heartedly.
"You still don't believe me?" Zhang Shutong frowned. "I told you, it's not a dream!"
"Fine, whatever." She nodded slightly.
Why didn't she believe him?
Zhang Shutong only regretted using the dream excuse too many times in the past. Now that he actually wanted to convey some real information, Lu Qinglian didn't believe he was a regressor at all.
He was just about to speak when Lu Qinglian took the initiative to end the topic.
"Alright, whether it's a dream or a prophecy, drop it for now."
As she spoke, Lu Qinglian kept calling Ruoping. The faint light from her phone screen reflected off her helmet, illuminating countless strands of hair dancing in the night.
"Next, I'll ask and you'll answer. First: why is she going to look for that fox?"
"I sent a text message earlier mentioning the altar, and Ruoping happens to know the whereabouts of that fox..."
"Second: how did she know?"
"She already used it once during that avalanche to alter her relationship with Gu Qiumian."
"Third: what does the danger refer to?"
"The man in the basement," Zhang Shutong said in a heavy voice. "At the exact same time she goes to get the statue, he targets her. That person is also looking for the foxes."
"Does every fox have a different ability?"
"Maybe." Zhang Shutong recalled Ruoping's deduction. Every time it's used, it needs time to recover, though the exact duration is unknown. Judging from the fact that he had just touched the Smiling Fox statue again without triggering anything, it was likely true.
The regression hadn't been triggered.
For now, he guessed that his single opportunity had been used up by himself.
Sorrow and Smiling represented changing the past and going to the future, respectively.
He explained these hypotheses to Lu Qinglian. Her ability to digest information was incredibly fast; in other words, an expression of surprise could never appear on Lu Qinglian's face.
"What about the remaining three?"
She caught the key point.
"Not clear yet, but one might be related to clay figurines."
Zhang Shutong remembered the lyrics of the Angry Fox nursery rhyme.
"The relationship between the foxes and the snake?"
"That..." Zhang Shutong paused. "It really wasn't mentioned. There's also some information that can't be cleared up in just a few sentences. Let's talk when we get there."
"Then hurry up."
Lu Qinglian pulled down her visor.
Zhang Shutong understood that she wanted to take this chance to find the man from the basement. The same went for him. He also snapped his helmet shut, and in an instant, the engine's RPMs were pushed to the maximum.
The headlight illuminated the path ahead as the cold wind swept over them. He finally drove onto that pitch-black dirt path.
He had just walked through here ten or so minutes ago, so it could be considered revisiting an old haunt. The difference was that he had been riding a tiny electric scooter back then, leisurely strolling along, whereas now he was astride a roaring motorcycle, speeding all the way.
At the edge of the light beam, Zhang Shutong spotted a figure.
"Feng Ruoping!"
Zhang Shutong shouted at the top of his lungs.
Hearing his voice, the figure froze on the spot and then tried to run. But how could she outrun a motorcycle? Zhang Shutong had already driven the bike up to Ruoping's side, and he yelled:
"Don't be scared, it's me and Lu Qinglian."
The moment he saw her, Zhang Shutong's heart settled halfway. He had been terrified that his actions might cause some unforeseen deviation.
As long as the person was still here, it was fine. Standing before him was the fifteen-year-old Feng Ruoping. The girl was a bit shorter, and naturally, she wasn't wearing that red dress, but rather a white down jacket. Her face was filled with panic. Zhang Shutong's nose suddenly turned sour; he had just returned from summer and hadn't adapted to the winter wind yet, so it was only natural for his nose to sting from the cold.
Ruoping instinctively turned around as if trying to hide something, but Zhang Shutong had already spotted the fox statue in her arms.
"I, I..." She hesitated for two seconds, closed her eyes, and pushed the statue toward Zhang Shutong. "I just went to have dinner with my mom and saw your text. I happened to find a fox here, so if you guys think it's useful, just take it..."
She spoke incoherently. Zhang Shutong merely nodded and pulled out the motorcycle key.
"Where's your phone?"
"Phone?" Only then did she remember to feel her pockets. "I think I left it at the restaurant. Why are you and Qinglian here?"
"To find you. Du Kang and Qing Yi said you weren't home, and we all thought something happened... Let's not talk about that for now." Zhang Shutong looked around. The path was dead quiet, and the wind blew through the reeds, making a rustling sound. He asked solemnly, "Has anyone else been here?"
"Anyone else? I don't think so..."
Just as Zhang Shutong's heart completely settled down, Ruoping added uncertainly:
"I only saw a car drive past."
"A car? An automobile?" Zhang Shutong clarified. He had originally thought that being targeted meant someone was hiding nearby. "Just a car? How long ago?"
He had miscalculated one thing. The man in the basement actually had a car. Judging from the wooden table and wooden bed over there, Zhang Shutong had instinctively assumed the counterpart was someone who couldn't show his face in the light.
"Just a few minutes before you guys got here."
Ruoping's mood was clearly a bit off today. She said in a small voice:
"That car stopped right on the road. I happened to be in the reeds behind it at the time. I... I originally thought he got down to relieve himself, so I thought I'd just hide well and wait for him to leave. But that man got out of the car and did nothing except stare straight into the reeds..."