Ch 2: Text Messages Across Time

Lin Wu handled Wang Manshan’s funeral arrangements according to the same process as before.

When many of the colleagues who had attended Hao Shuqin’s funeral learned that something had happened to Wang Manshan as well, all they could do was sigh in dismay. Beyond that, quite a few also envied Lin Wu for inheriting a house. But envy was envy. Everyone still felt that the two families had suffered far too much.

After the funeral, quite a few people wanted to use the occasion to get closer to Lin Wu, but after some brief polite exchanges, he did not continue the conversation. Over the years he had become gentler than he had been in high school, but deep down he was still a loner. Back then, he had been unable to fit into the collective. Now, he simply disliked having anyone get close.

“How are things at home? If there’s still a lot to deal with, you can come back to school later.” On August 31, Lin Wu had hired someone to clean out Wang Manshan’s home, and during that time he received a call from a university administrator.

“The funeral has been taken care of. There are still some personal matters left.” The personal matters Lin Wu referred to were the demolition procedures. The houses in Section Three had now officially been marked for demolition, but there were still matters such as measurements of the property and signing the compensation agreement. It would probably take another half month to finish everything.

“You still haven’t used up the annual leave from the past few years, so there’s no rush to come back. Come back whenever you’ve finished handling things!” the administrator said cheerfully. The high-temperature superconductivity project under Lin Wu’s charge had just caused a major stir in academic circles, and he was now one of the university’s prized stars. The administrator was not calling to hurry him back, but was sincerely concerned about his life.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu smiled.

After he hung up, the cleaning staff sorted out a large pile of odds and ends. “Mr. Lin, should we keep these things or throw them away?” Most of them were everyday items such as clothes and ornaments, all very lived-in and domestic.

Lin Wu looked them over carefully and said, “Keep the clothes and decorations. Throw out the greens and bean sprouts and anything else that’ll spoil easily.”

“Got it!” Lin Wu had paid well for the cleaning service, so everyone worked with great care.

An hour later, Wang Manshan’s home looked completely renewed. The clothes had been folded neatly into the wardrobe, the other belongings stored away in plastic bins, and the entire place was bright and spotless, without the slightest trace of clutter.

“Mr. Lin, should we cover everything now?” one of the cleaners asked, taking out a stack of dust covers.

“Go ahead,” Lin Wu said.

With a swish, the dust covers were spread over the sofas and cabinets. Wang Manshan had left the apartment to him. Lin Wu could not bear to rent it out, nor did he have any intention of selling it. After thinking it over, he decided to leave the question of the apartment for later.

After leaving Wang Manshan’s place, Lin Wu went to the family compound in Section Three. The houses there had been built in 1980, with two households to a staircase landing and both households sharing one toilet. Following his memory, Lin Wu arrived downstairs at his old building. His family had lived in Building 26, Unit 1, on the third floor. The stairwell was dark and dim, carrying the musty smell that came with too many years. Now all the old steel factory residents had moved away, and the building was occupied by migrant workers from out of town.

Lin Wu soon reached the third floor and took out his key.

The rusted iron door creaked open, revealing the inside: a passageway of about five square meters, cluttered with miscellaneous items and kitchenware. At the end of it were two rooms, one where he had slept, the other where his parents had lived. The entire home measured thirty-six square meters. It was where he had lived from birth through high school.

The room smelled too strongly, so Lin Wu opened the hallway window.

He had actually come back a few times after graduating from high school, but with no one left at home, and with both his studies and social life centered elsewhere, he had returned less and less often. Even when he passed through Xuhu, he would only stop by to visit Hao Shuqin and then leave. Thinking about it carefully, he realized he had not come back in seven years.

Lin Wu opened all the windows, and then received a call from the demolition office.

“I’m at the house now. You can come over. Yes, Building 26, Unit 1…”

The compound had already begun scheduling property measurements. Lin Wu had originally made his appointment for the twenty-seventh, but after Wang Manshan’s death, he had postponed it until today.

It was now three in the afternoon. After hanging up, Lin Wu waited inside the house. At 3:20, the measuring team arrived.

“We were just at Building Seven, and it took a little longer than expected,” they said apologetically as soon as they entered. There were three of them, and since they had arranged to come at three, they felt bad about being late.

“It’s fine. I only just got here myself.” Lin Wu opened a plastic bag nearby and took out three bottles of mineral water. He had bought them on the way over.

“Thank you!” The three were a little surprised by the gesture, but after being busy all day, they really were thirsty. They gulped down the water and then began measuring with their instruments. Strictly speaking, though, it was more of a formality. All the apartments in Section Three followed the same layout, and the property deeds were there as well.

“Property prices have dropped lately, but Section Three and Section One are part of the same family compound, so you should probably get the same rate as Section One…” the team leader chatted with Lin Wu during a break in the measurements.

“The government’s treating us pretty well,” Lin Wu replied with a smile. Though he said that, he did not really care how much compensation he would receive. It was enough for the process to proceed as it should.

The two chatted for a while when a voice came from the other bedroom: “There’s a box here. Looks pretty nice, maybe even like an antique…”

“What box?” Lin Wu and the team leader both went over.

“This one!” The staff member pulled out a square wooden box from under the bed, about thirty centimeters by thirty centimeters. The room was about fifteen square meters, and because the space was so cramped, the bed had been pushed right up against the wall. He had moved it slightly to get an accurate measurement, and only then found the box wedged in the gap underneath.

“Rosewood, maybe?” The team leader took it, examined it back and forth, then handed it to Lin Wu.

“Probably…” Lin Wu froze for a moment. Looking at the pattern on the box, he recognized it as Luo Xiaorong’s keepsake box.

Luo Xiaorong, Lin Wu’s “mentally ill” mother.

“This box is really well preserved. You should put it away carefully. It might even sell for quite a bit.” Over this period they had seen many people digging out old belongings from the past. Some were valuable, some were not, but many were full of the memories of their era.

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I might never have found this box,” Lin Wu said sincerely as he put it away. He had cleaned this room before, but it must have been tucked too far underneath. He had never found it.

“What’s there to thank us for? Even if we hadn’t found it, you’d have had to clear the place out before demolition anyway.” The team leader waved it off, unwilling to take credit.

After the measuring team left, Lin Wu opened the box.

Luo Xiaorong had suffered from an intellectual disability, with the mental capacity of a child between three and seven years old. Translated on Hololo novels. While she was alive, she liked things like paper stars and dolls. When Lin Wu opened the box, he found some folded paper stars, a folded sheet of drawing paper, a mobile phone, and a charger.

He unfolded the drawing paper.

On it were three stick figures, two adults holding the hand of one child. All three were smiling. Behind them were trees drawn in colored marker, and a bright red sun. The drawing was very childish, but it also looked very warm.

Lin Wu’s gaze shifted to the lower right corner of the paper:

Happy Birthday, Wuwu!

The line was crooked and uneven, as if it had been traced by copying something.

Lin Wu went still. He picked up the phone and saw that there was a “Happy Birthday” sticker on the back.

Luo Xiaorong had died on December 15, 2004. Lin Wu’s birthday was December 23. This had been the birthday gift she had prepared for him.

He turned the phone on. There was a SIM card inside, and the last four digits of the number were 1223.

It was not some rare or lucky number. It was his birthday.

In a sudden flash, Lin Wu remembered that before Luo Xiaorong’s accident, she had often come home carrying a huge basin full of beads to string together. They were beads from the bead-curtain shop at the entrance to the compound. Back then he had thought she was just fooling around. Now, looking back, he realized she had been saving money to buy him a phone.

At seven that evening, Lin Wu returned to the hotel full of troubled thoughts, the box from the old house held in his arms.

He had already tried it. The phone still worked normally, but the SIM card had long since been deactivated.

That was perfectly natural. After all, twenty years had passed. There was no way that card could still be in service. It had probably passed through several different owners in the meantime.

After plugging the phone in to charge, Lin Wu lay on the bed, staring blankly.

By 2004, mobile phones had already begun to become popular. He did not know why Luo Xiaorong had bought him one, nor could he imagine what it had been like for someone with an intellectual disability to save up money bit by bit, then go from shop to shop choosing a phone number…

Lin Wu closed his eyes. He realized that he could no longer clearly remember what Luo Xiaorong looked like.

In the following week, aside from handling the demolition procedures, Lin Wu spent the rest of his time wandering around Xuhu. It was a small, unremarkable city, but after years of urban development, it now had many high-rise buildings. Much of what he remembered had already changed.

He walked through every street and alley of Xuhu, and the city in his memories seemed to drift farther and farther away.

On the night of September 5, thunder roared and lightning flashed. Lin Wu was in his hotel room organizing work materials. The demolition procedures were almost complete now. Once he signed two more compensation documents, he could head back. He had already contacted his colleagues at Jianghe over the past couple of days. Everything at the university was normal, nothing to worry about.

Just as he was thinking about which train ticket to buy, an abrupt sound suddenly rang out in the room—

Ding ding.

It was a sound full of nostalgia, like the text message tone from when mobile phones had first become widespread.

Lin Wu looked around and only then noticed a phone plugged into the bedside outlet. It was the one he had brought from the old house. Since he had no need for that socket, he had ignored it these past few days.

Now the black-and-white screen was lit.

Puzzled, Lin Wu walked over.

He unlocked the phone.

A single unread message appeared:

【Yueyang Road Xingchen Internet Café. Help me reserve two computers. I’ll be there at 10:30!】

A flash of lightning illuminated the room, making the message glaringly clear.

Lin Wu froze, his gaze shifting to the timestamp:

September 5, 2004, 22:12.

……

At 10:15 p.m. on September 5, 2004, at the south corner of Lide High School in Xuhu, Hu Wei flipped down from the three-meter-high wall like a nimble monkey.

He was 1.8 meters tall but weighed only 120 jin, his body thin as a pole, which was why many classmates called him “Monkey Hu.”

After landing and dusting himself off, he grinned at Qin Weidong, who was waiting by the wall. “Brother Qin, did you book the computers? I’ve been practicing my aim these past few days. I’m definitely going to rack up kills tonight!”

Qin Weidong was seventeen, about 1.89 meters tall, a head taller than Hu Wei. Broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, with sharp, rugged features, he was currently playing Tetris. Hearing this, he frowned and switched back to his messages. “Can’t get through on the phone. No reply to texts either. Are you sure that’s the manager’s number?”

“I’m sure! Xiao Liu used to book machines through him,” Hu Wei said. Both he and Qin Weidong were third-year boarding students at Lide High School. Their school was located in the eastern district of Xuhu, near two general high schools and one vocational school. Internet cafés had just become popular, and many students would sneak out on weekends or even overnight to go online.

It was Wednesday, and they had planned to go play Counter-Strike at the nearby Xingchen Internet Café.

“No reply.” Qin Weidong was the top dog at Lide High. Just after the semester started, he had already been involved in two group fights with students from the nearby vocational school. Translated on Hololo novels. He had been scolded by the homeroom teacher that afternoon and honestly had no interest in going out.

“Probably a lot of people online right now. He didn’t see it. We can just go directly!” Hu Wei could see the impatience in Qin Weidong’s eyes and was afraid he might call it off.

“Let’s go.” Qin Weidong really didn’t want to go, but since they had already come out, he didn’t feel like ruining the mood.

“Should we take a taxi or walk?” Hu Wei immediately asked, eager to please. The ride would cost six yuan, and he would rather save that money for drinks.

“Taxi.” Qin Weidong raised his hand and hailed one without hesitation. Though he was a boarding student, he received ten thousand yuan a month in allowance and had a credit card with a limit of five hundred thousand. Among high schoolers, that was an enormous sum.

“Thanks, boss!” Hu Wei knew Qin Weidong’s family owned mines. He didn’t know exactly how wealthy they were, but the fact that they had a personal driver already put them in a completely different class from ordinary people.

After the two of them got into the back seat of the taxi, Qin Weidong checked his phone again. The message screen was still blank. There was nothing.

At the same time, in a hotel in Xuhu in 2024, Lin Wu was also frowning at his phone.

The screen still displayed the message from earlier. After reading it, two thoughts came to him.

First: this phone can still receive messages?

Second: the Xingchen Internet Café on Yueyang Road had been shut down twenty years ago after a major fire.

Lin Wu remembered it clearly because he had been a senior in high school at the time, studying just two streets away.

The fire at Xingchen Internet Café had resulted in twenty-two deaths and thirty-nine severe injuries. It had caused a major stir locally, and for an entire month afterward, their school had held fire safety lectures. The fire had occurred at 11:25 p.m. on September 5, 2004.

Looking at the message, Lin Wu felt something was off. He used the old phone to dial the number. Both his phone and the other number were out of service.

He stared again at the timestamp on the message:

September 5, 2004, 22:12.

So…

a deactivated number had sent a message to another deactivated number?

Lin Wu felt like he had stepped into something unreal.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.