Ch 19: Text Messages Across Time

“Will leaving really rewrite everything?” the seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked.

“It’s the simplest and fastest method,” the thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu replied.

If the tragedies of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were a tangled knot of threads, then leaving was a pair of scissors. Unless the killer could follow them to wherever they went, he could not think of any reason they would still be harmed. And if they were, it would further narrow down the suspect. No matter how he looked at it, this was the best option.

“Alright!” Lin Wu carefully memorized the lottery numbers, then sent another message:
“I have a question. Can you guess what it is?”

At a hotel in Xuhu, the thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu smiled.
“The pink pom-pom hanging from the pink backpack.”

At 8:30, Lin Wu stood at the school gate holding milk tea and cake, waiting for Lide students to be dismissed. While he waited, he tried to find flaws in the logic of his “future self.” When the dismissal bell rang, he watched the students stream out and thought to himself:
“If you really are me from twenty years later, remember this mark.”

He looked up just in time to see a short-haired girl unlocking her bicycle. She wore a Lide uniform and carried a pink backpack with a pink pom-pom hanging from it.

In his mind, he said:
“The mark is the pink pom-pom.”

All of this had been silently thought, never spoken aloud. If the other side could truly refresh his seventeen-year-old memories, then they would know the mark.

Now, seeing those four words, “pink pom-pom,” the last trace of doubt in Lin Wu’s heart disappeared.
The other side really was him, twenty years later.

“You had 125 yuan on you today. When buying the cake, you hesitated between vegetable cream and animal cream. The difference was twenty yuan, and you chose the animal cream cake. Lin Wu, you can question and test me all you want. I’ll answer seriously, because your doubts and tests are the same choices I once made,” the thirty-seven-year-old continued.

At 10:27, the messages stopped. Lin Wu double-checked the lottery numbers, made sure nothing was missing, and deleted the chat history.

“Thanks.” He tapped Qin Weidong’s blanket.

“All done?” Qin Weidong pulled it off, voice normal. Clearly, he hadn’t been asleep.

“All done.” Lin Wu hesitated, then asked sincerely, “I still have some things to handle. Can I borrow your phone again later?”

He had actually considered buying the phone outright, but it was clearly expensive and still had Qin Weidong’s SIM card in it. No matter how he phrased it, it would sound strange, so he wisely didn’t ask.

“Whatever,” Qin Weidong said, clearly expecting this.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu let out a breath, then added, “Should I pay for the messages?”

“Do I look like I care about a few cents?” Qin Weidong raised an eyebrow, then pointed at the empty milk tea cup on the table. “Next time you borrow my phone, just bring me a milk tea.”

“What kind do you like?” Lin Wu immediately relaxed.

“Pearls, coconut jelly, red beans, anything. And three-tenths sugar. I don’t like it too sweet.”

“Got it.” Lin Wu memorized it carefully.

Before coming, he had already called Hao Shuqin to ask her to look after Luo Xiaorong since he would be back late. Translated on Hololo novels. She had agreed without hesitation, just like the times before.

“I’ll head back now,” Lin Wu said. It was 10:35.

“How are you getting back?” Qin Weidong asked.

“I’ll take a taxi.” It was too late for buses.

Qin Weidong glanced outside. It was pitch black and quiet.

“I’ll walk you out.” He pulled on a jacket and got out of bed.

“You don’t have to,” Lin Wu said, surprised.

“Just to the gate.”

He hadn’t even changed much, just threw on a pair of loose pants over his sleepwear, clearly just being polite.

“Thanks…” Lin Wu hesitated, then added, “You’re still sick. Won’t the cold air make it worse?”

“It’s fine. I’ve been lying around for two days. I need some fresh air.”

Lin Wu didn’t argue further.

Ten minutes later, they reached the dorm entrance. Most of the campus lights were off, with only a couple of warm motion-sensor lamps glowing faintly.

“Did you get sick the day before yesterday?” Lin Wu suddenly asked.

Only now did he realize Qin Weidong had been perfectly fine when he first saw him, but now looked weak. It was very likely he had gotten sick back then.

“Is it serious?” Guilt crept into Lin Wu’s voice.

“It’s not because of that. I was already catching a cold. Seasonal change hits me hard,” Qin Weidong said casually.

Lin Wu nodded. They were still essentially strangers, so there wasn’t much more he could say.

At 10:50, they reached the school gate. The guard refused to let students out, but Qin Weidong slipped him a pack of cigarettes and explained Lin Wu wasn’t from the school. The guard reluctantly let him pass.

At the gate, Lin Wu hailed a taxi. “I’m heading out.”

“Mm. See you.” Qin Weidong waved.

The taxi drove off quickly. Qin Weidong watched it disappear, about to head back, when a thought struck him. Lin Wu’s neighborhood was dark and eerie, like something out of a horror film. At this hour, would he be alright alone?

He told himself Lin Wu was grown and would be fine. Then thought again, the guy had just bought him milk tea and cake. If something really happened, he might end up giving a statement at the police station.

He hesitated for only a moment before flagging down another taxi and following after him. With the roads nearly empty at night, the driver stepped on the gas and quickly caught up.

“Kid, you got a problem with the car up ahead?” The taxi driver, about forty, glanced at Qin Weidong, who was bundled up like a dumpling and wearing a gloomy expression, clearly worried about getting dragged into some teenage fight.

Qin Weidong couldn’t be bothered to explain. “That’s my girlfriend in the car ahead. I’m catching her cheating.”

“Ohhh, I see!” The driver’s eyes lit up instantly. He wanted to ask for more details, but seeing Qin Weidong’s unwillingness to talk, he held himself back and sighed, “Ah, to be young again.” He couldn’t even remember what he’d been like at that age.

Lin Wu’s taxi drove ahead, with Qin Weidong following behind.

Lin Wu sat in the back seat. He took out a pen and paper from his bag and quickly wrote down the numbers from earlier. His memory was good enough to retain them after one pass, but he preferred to be thorough.

At 11:20, Lin Wu paid and got out.

Qin Weidong followed, ignoring the driver’s confused look of “how did catching your cheating girlfriend turn into following a guy,” paid his fare, and got out as well. On the dark road, he kept about twenty meters behind Lin Wu, moving quietly and steadily. Only after Lin Wu went upstairs and the light in the third-floor apartment turned on did he finally relax and leave.

On the way back, Qin Weidong sneezed loudly, feeling like the weather was getting colder and colder.

---

The next day, Lin Wu went to school as usual. By noon, he slipped out the gate at the first chance. Once outside, he took off his school uniform, changed into a rarely worn jacket, and put on a mask and cap. Then he headed to a lottery shop far from school, one without surveillance cameras.

The place was barely ten square meters, cluttered, with a white computer and walls covered in lottery trend charts.

The clerk was watching TV and, seeing how young Lin Wu looked, casually asked, “What are you buying?”

There were various lotteries available: Double Color Ball, Seven Star, Gold and Silver Lottery. Double Color Ball had gone nationwide just last year and was very popular. Lin Wu answered without hesitation, “Double Color Ball.”

“How many sets?”

“Five.” To avoid looking suspicious, he planned to buy one winning set and four random ones.

He purchased the five sets separately. After finishing, he went to another shop without cameras and did the same: one winning set and four random ones.

The Double Color Ball prize was fixed per ticket. No matter how many tickets were bought, each winning ticket would still pay five hundred thousand yuan and wouldn’t affect other winners. He bought two tickets simply as insurance in case one got lost or damaged.

One ticket would go in his schoolbag, the other at home.

Lin Wu carefully stored them.

---

That evening, he didn’t skip night study. After school at 8:30, he first went in the opposite direction to buy a milk tea with 30% sugar, then headed to Lide.

Both schools had blue uniforms. Translated on Hololo novels. The pants looked similar, but the tops were different. As he approached, he took off his uniform top and stuffed it into his bag, then followed some boarding students going out to buy food and slipped into the school. The guard on duty was different today and only glanced at him, not realizing he was an outsider.

Lin Wu entered easily, feeling a surge of excitement.

If 2004 could influence 2024, then now that he had bought the tickets, would a new outcome begin from this point?

He followed his memory to Qin Weidong’s dorm, eager to find out.

He knocked. The door opened.

Three seconds later—

“Brother Qin? He had a fever last night. A driver picked him up early this morning. We tried calling him but couldn’t reach him. He’s probably at the hospital, or maybe back home,” Gao Mingming said, holding a washbasin, about to head to the washroom. He looked a bit surprised to see Lin Wu.

---

At 9:50, Lin Wu caught the last bus home.

Once he got back, Luo Xiaorong relaxed and went to sleep. He washed up briefly, lay on his bed, and thought about what had just happened.

After leaving Lide earlier, he had found a phone booth nearby and called Qin Weidong. He hadn’t gotten the number from Gao Mingming, he had memorized it during their third meeting, just in case. Yesterday he hadn’t needed it, but today he did.

The result was exactly as Gao Mingming said. No one answered.

Aside from borrowing the phone, he was also genuinely worried about Qin Weidong’s condition. After all, the other had helped him quite a bit lately.

His thoughts drifted aimlessly before settling on the clock on his desk.

10:10.

Two minutes before the memory refresh from twenty years later.

With nothing to do, he watched the second hand tick forward, second by second.

Until it reached 10:12.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.