Ch 13: Text Messages Across Time

The next day was September 15, a Saturday. The academic atmosphere at Lide wasn’t as intense as at No. 1 High, but the senior year curriculum was tight. Students still had classes on Saturdays and only got Sunday off.

After entering his senior year, Qin Weidong had specifically asked Qin Jianzhang to speak with the school. As long as he didn’t cause trouble, he wanted the school to be more relaxed about his studies. Qin Weidong was already set on going abroad, and Qin Jianzhang didn’t want his son to suffer, so he half-reluctantly agreed.

Since the parents had said as much, the teachers naturally turned a blind eye. After waking up, Qin Weidong sent a leave message to his homeroom teacher and, very practiced, threw on a jacket and headed out.

“Brother Qin, you’re up early?”

Just as he stepped out, he saw Hu Wei, still half-asleep, carrying a washbasin toward the washroom.

“Yeah. Go early, come back early.” He had mentioned fixing his phone to Hu Wei the day before.

“Want to wait for me? I can go with you tomorrow?” Hu Wei wanted to tag along, but after writing that self-criticism last time, he didn’t dare skip major classes again.

“It’s fine, I’ll go myself.” Qin Weidong had been thinking about fixing the phone since last night. After saying that, he didn’t wait for Hu Wei to say more and went downstairs in a light, easy stride.

Hu Wei scratched his head behind him. No need to be this rushed, right…

…

At nine in the morning, Qin Weidong arrived at the mobile mall. There weren’t many customers yet, just sales clerks behind counters and cleaning staff mopping the floors. The mall had three floors. After walking around, he stopped in front of a repair shop.

“Both your screen and motherboard are damaged. They’ll need to be replaced. Three thousand two,” the shop owner said after checking the phone, clearly quoting high after sizing up Qin Weidong’s clothes and demeanor.

Qin Weidong had money, but he wasn’t stupid. The price was obviously inflated. He took back his phone, asked around at other shops, and finally chose one with the same repair plan for fifteen hundred.

“How long will it take?” Qin Weidong asked, sitting on a high stool in the shop.

The round-faced owner looked friendly. “This is a new model. I’ll need to find parts in storage. All told, about three to four hours.”

“Alright.” Qin Weidong agreed after a moment’s thought.

He stayed from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon. During that time, he went out for a bowl of noodles and came back. The owner worked carefully, and at 2:10, after pressing the power button, he handed the phone back. “It’s fixed. Put in your SIM and try it.”

Qin Weidong first checked the messages. Translated on Hololo novels. All the previous message and call logs were still there. He removed the SIM card from his new phone and inserted it into the old one.

“I’m careful and affordable here. If any of your classmates need repairs, send them my way,” the owner said, trying to build future business.

“Sure, I’ll spread the word when I get back,” Qin Weidong replied smoothly.

He inserted the SIM card. Three seconds later, the phone picked up a signal.

“I…” the owner was about to say more when Qin Weidong’s phone suddenly started ringing.

Beep—

Beep beep—

Beep beep beep—

The crisp message alerts came one after another, rapid and urgent like a 7 a.m. alarm. Both Qin Weidong and the shop owner froze.

Twenty seconds later, it stopped.

Qin Weidong checked. There were fifty-two unread messages.

“Your phone wasn’t working before?” the owner asked, confused. From removing the SIM to inserting it, only about twenty seconds had passed. There shouldn’t be this many messages.

“It worked.” Qin Weidong opened them and saw they were all from the unknown number.

【Are you there? I hope you can reply.】
The first message was from the evening of September 7 at 22:12. That day had the most messages, concentrated between 22:12 and 22:27, about one every two minutes. Most of them said things like “Are you there? I hope you can reply,” or “Hello, can you see this?”

The wording was very polite, but he could sense the urgency behind them.

Qin Weidong thought back. On September 7, he had been hospitalized at the central hospital. During the day, he broke his phone. That night, he used his new phone to message the other party, but all his messages failed to send.

He scrolled down.

September 8: 【Hello, I hope you can reply.】

September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27. I’m not sure what’s happening on your side. Please reply.】

September 10: 【Hello, please reply.】

September 11: 【Hello, please reply.】

…

These messages continued from the 7th through the 14th. At first they were frequent, but later they appeared only at 22:12 and 22:27. The period at 22:27 felt like it was simply testing something.

“Shouldn’t these messages have shown up on the new phone?” the repair shop owner asked after glancing through them. The messages weren’t sent all at once, so logically they should have appeared on the new phone instead of all piling into the old one.

“Maybe it’s a delay from the carrier…” Qin Weidong’s mind was a mess. The number felt abnormal in every possible way.

He had no mood for small talk. After paying for the repair, he left in frustration.

An hour later, instead of waiting for Lin Wu, he returned to the dormitory. On the way back, he tried texting the number with the old phone. The message failed to send. He pulled up the message from September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27…】

Qin Weidong now had three questions.

First, why did the other party say “on my end”? Where exactly was “my end”? Overseas? But a Xuhu SIM card wouldn’t work abroad, so that didn’t make sense.

Second, why could messages only be sent between 22:12 and 22:27? His SIM card had been in the new phone before, so why hadn’t it received anything?

Third, the police had already confirmed this was an inactive number. How could it send and receive messages at all?

In seventeen years of life, Qin Weidong had never encountered something so incomprehensible. Translated on Hololo novels. He felt like he had burned through a good portion of his brain cells.

At nine that evening, Hu Wei came to Qin Weidong’s dorm carrying a box of fried rice. Qin Weidong lay limp on the bed.

“Brother Qin, time to eat!” Hu Wei nudged him. He had asked earlier if Qin Weidong wanted food, but Qin Weidong had declined, sounding low-energy.

Qin Weidong glanced at him, then stared lifelessly at the ceiling. “Not hungry. Don’t feel like eating.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Hu Wei felt something had been off since last night.

“Nothing. I’m waiting for a time.” Qin Weidong spoke weakly.

“What time?”

“22:12.”

“What happens at 22:12?”

“At 22:12, messages can be sent.”

Hu Wei: ???

Hu Wei looked at the still-steaming food in his hands and asked again, “You really not eating?”

“Not hungry. No appetite at all.”

“Alright then…” Hu Wei could only take the food and leave, completely confused.

After Hu Wei left, Qin Weidong continued staring at the ceiling. Just as he had said, he had spent the entire day waiting for that time. There were too many things he couldn’t figure out. He wanted to see if messages could be sent at 22:12. If they could, he was determined to get answers.

He stared at the fluorescent light overhead, feeling as if time had never moved so slowly.

An hour later, his alarm went off. It was now 22:11. He shot upright and sent a message to the unknown number: 【There?】

Failed to send.

At 22:12, he timed it exactly and sent again: 【There?】

The sending circle spun once, and this time it went through.

………

In 2024, at the Xuhu hotel, Lin Wu had a desk covered in documents. These were materials he had gathered about the Xuhu murder cases from newspapers and online sources. During this time, aside from sending messages to the unknown number every night, all his energy had gone into researching the case. He had even taken an extra month off from work for it.

After September 9, when the new outcome appeared, the number of cases in the Xuhu serial murders had increased from five to six.

The first four occurred in 2004, the fifth in 2005, and the sixth in 2007. Based on the testimony of the second victim and police investigation, the suspect was likely over thirty, of average height. Translated on Hololo novels. All six crimes were random. Aside from Luo Xiaorong, the other five victims were all high school girls.

Lin Wu rubbed his temples. The simplest solution would have been to identify the killer in 2024 and tell the unknown number in 2004, so the killer could be brought to justice then. But the problem was that the case remained unsolved. Aside from what the police had uncovered, there were no decisive clues.

Lin Wu looked at his phone.

Now, every night, his memories from 2004 refreshed. Yesterday, he had already seen that the unknown number had contacted his younger self again, asking about the phone number. At that time in 2004, it was still an inactive number, and his seventeen-year-old self didn’t recognize it.

The fates of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong had not changed. One still died on November 19, the other on December 17.

Although Lin Wu could refresh his memories from age seventeen, it was like watching a movie in a theater. Since September 6, he had been unable to make contact with 2004 or intervene in any way.

He felt increasingly restless.

At 22:12, his memory refreshed to September 15, 2004. Nothing had happened.

Lin Wu picked up his phone, preparing to send his usual nightly “check-in” message. At that moment, the message screen lit up.

【There?】

Lin Wu stared at the long-awaited message, his breathing quickening for a moment. It was the unknown number from 2004. Since September 6, they had finally reconnected.

He immediately picked up his phone to reply, but then a second message came through:

【Who exactly are you?！！！】

The single question mark followed by three exclamation points fully conveyed the frustration on the other end of the phone.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.