Ch 33: Text Messages Across Time

“We’ve already notified F1930. You can wait here for a bit.” On the morning of September 28, 2024, Lin Wu arrived at the visitation room of Xuhu Prison.

It was a medium-sized visitation room of about three hundred square meters, with ten visitation windows, each separated by soundproof glass. He had arrived early, and there was no one else in the room when he entered. A guard arranged for him to sit in a relatively secluded corner.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu sat down.

“No problem. I’ll be sitting over there. Just call out if you need anything.”

Visitors were not allowed to be alone with inmates. After speaking, the guard sat nearby. Lin Wu waited patiently. Soon, the secure door inside opened. Two prison officers walked in, escorting Guo Chengchun in a dark blue prison uniform.

Guo Chengchun had been diagnosed with epilepsy two years ago. It wasn’t fatal, but the frequent seizures, with foaming at the mouth and muscle convulsions, were extremely painful. Over the years, this had caused him to lose weight rapidly, and half his hair had turned white.

“Professor Lin, you’re here.” Guo Chengchun sat down and greeted him like an old acquaintance. Now fifty-two, he had no family left. Lin Wu was one of the few familiar faces who still came to see him.

“How have you been lately?” Lin Wu asked casually.

“Same as always. Nothing’s changed.” Guo Chengchun had been aggressive and combative in his youth. After entering prison, he had been prosecuted twice more for fighting. There was no chance of sentence reduction. He would spend the rest of his life here. Now, perhaps because of illness, he no longer had the same sharp edge.

Lin Wu hadn’t come to reminisce. There was no need for that. He went straight to the point.

“Who is the second killer in the Xuhu murder case?”

“It’s been twenty years, and that’s still the first thing you ask every time.” Guo Chengchun recalled their first meeting. Back then, Lin Wu had struck him with a brick. He had been just a high school student. Now he was older than Guo had been when he entered prison.

“Is it someone from the construction team, or a steel plant worker?” Lin Wu ignored his tone.

“I really don’t know. Back then I was working at the site, plastering cement. Life wasn’t going well, so I wanted to imitate the city’s murder case and do something big. That day I happened to see that girl come looking for her dad. She even helped him carry his tool bag. It pissed me off. I wanted to see if her parents would cry after she died.”

Guo Chengchun had lost his parents early and had been on his own since the age of thirteen. Before prison, he had been cheated and bullied. Translated on Hololo novels. He blamed all of it on not having a happy childhood. Seeing others with happy families made him angry. His decision to target Wang Jiahui had been completely impulsive.

“When you were at the site, did you ever feel like anyone might commit a crime?” Lin Wu continued.

“There were only twenty-something people on our site. We already had one killer. You think there’d be a second?” Guo Chengchun sneered.

“Mm.” Seeing that he couldn’t get anything useful, Lin Wu prepared to leave when time was up.

“Wait.” Guo Chengchun called out to him.

“What is it?” Lin Wu looked up.

“Will you still come back?” Guo Chengchun harbored resentment toward Lin Wu. If not for him, he might have escaped. After being caught, he had replayed the events over and over, eventually concluding he must have been noticed during his early surveillance.

Lin Wu used to come once every six months, but in recent years, the visits had become less frequent. It had been two years since the last one.

“We’ll see.” Lin Wu knew Guo Chengchun’s crimes were tied to his upbringing, but he wasn’t a social researcher. He came only to find the second killer. He had no sympathy for Guo, nor any desire to save him—

If not for the space-time phone, Wang Jiahui would have died on November 19. Whether the later victims were killed by Guo or the second killer, he was still a destabilizing factor. He belonged in prison. Even if Lin Wu could reset timelines, he would not change that outcome.

With that thought, he asked, “Do you regret killing people?”

“Regret?” There was no confusion in Guo Chengchun’s eyes. He sneered. “I regret running too slow.”

“Mm.” Lin Wu left without hesitation.

Whether he regretted it or not, Lin Wu would still send him to prison. That was the life he deserved.

…

At 10:20, Lin Wu hailed a taxi outside the prison.

“Where to?” the driver asked routinely.

“Xuhu Steel Plant,” Lin Wu replied.

“The old plant or the new one?”

“The old one.”

The Xuhu Steel Plant had been at its peak from 1990 to 2010. Afterward, with industrial restructuring and the decline of the construction economy, its profits dropped sharply. Part of the land was sold, and a new plant was built in the county.

The workforce had now shrunk from thirty thousand to twelve thousand. Equipment from the old plant was gradually being relocated. Once everything was moved, the old plant would become history.

Twenty minutes later, the car arrived at the plant entrance. After paying, Lin Wu went to the guard room.

“If a box of apples can be evenly divided between two or three children with none left over, what’s the smallest number of apples? Why did you write five?” Inside the guard room, Sun Xiaotao was exasperatedly helping his son with homework.

Sun Xiaotao was forty-seven. The two had met years ago while reviewing surveillance footage, and over time had become acquainted. Lin Wu often came back to investigate the case, and they had gotten to know each other.

“Two plus three equals five,” the chubby boy beside him said pitifully. Sun Xiaotao had been married once before and divorced. In 2017, he married again. His second wife had a child from her previous marriage, and he doted on his stepson, Sun Jinghui.

Hearing the answer, Sun Xiaotao felt a headache coming on. “Why are you using addition? Count it out for me. How do you divide five apples between two kids?”

“Then how do you do it…” Sun Jinghui bit the end of his pen, unable to figure it out.

“Stop chewing on that. It’s dirty.” The black gel pen had been issued by the workplace. The clip had broken earlier, but it wrote well, so Sun Xiaotao tied the cap to the pen with a string and secured it to his drawer. He usually used this pen himself and didn’t like others touching his things. Towels, soap, notebooks, everything had strict boundaries. He would get upset if anyone used them. Translated on Hololo novels. Lin Wu had heard other guards complain about this.

Sun Jinghui’s pencil had broken, so Sun Xiaotao took the pen and began drawing apples in the notebook.

When Lin Wu entered, he saw Sun Xiaotao angrily sketching apples while Sun Jinghui stared blankly.

“This is a least common multiple problem. Has he not learned multiplication yet?” Lin Wu said with a smile.

“He’s in fifth grade. He’s learned it!” Sun Xiaotao sighed, then shifted aside when he saw Lin Wu. “When did you get back to Xuhu?”

“Last month.”

“I heard your place is going to be demolished. How’s the paperwork going?”

“Almost done. Should be wrapped up by the end of the year.”

“Want to go take a look at the factory buildings later?”

“Mm.”

“Sigh, I’ll go with you. The factory buildings are all going to be demolished in a couple of years anyway.” Every time Lin Wu came back, he would visit the crime scenes. Many people in the plant recognized him.

“It’s fine, I can go by myself.” Lin Wu had only come in to say hello. He pointed at Sun Jinghui, signaling for Sun Xiaotao to take care of his son first.

“It’s alright. Just looking at him gives me a headache right now.” Sun Xiaotao refused to watch the kid. He lifted the curtain and called out, “Old Zheng, help me keep an eye on things for a bit.”

“Alright!” Old Zheng was a truck driver. His cargo wouldn’t start loading until three in the afternoon, and when he had nothing to do, he usually played cards in the guard room. Hearing this, he came over to take over without hesitation.

“Let’s go.” Sun Xiaotao put on his jacket.

“Mm.” The two headed together to the factory building where the incident had occurred. This building was located in the eastern section of the steel plant and had already been idle for half a year at the time of the incident.

Lin Wu labeled this building as Factory No. 2. The building where Luo Xiaorong died in the sixth ending was Factory No. 1.

Both of these buildings were in remote locations. To get there from outside, one had to pass through rows of prefab structures, sand piles, and gravel heaps. The paths twisted and turned. Even someone who came twice might not remember the route. Because of this, Lin Wu suspected the killer was very familiar with the plant’s layout.

“The spot where your mom… where it happened was over there. That day, someone just happened to be checking inventory and saw blood on the ground. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been discovered so early…”

Sun Xiaotao sighed. The day Luo Xiaorong’s body was found, police cars had filled the inside and outside of the plant. It was the first time anyone had seen something on that scale.

Lin Wu stayed silent, then changed the subject. “Brother Sun, when my mom’s incident happened, was there anything unusual about the Daming Construction team?”

Sun Xiaotao thought for a moment. “No.”

“Mm.” Lin Wu nodded.

At 8:00 that night, after returning to the hotel, Lin Wu recalled all the clues from this period. There were no solid leads. The only things that could count as clues were two points: the Daming Construction team, and the killer’s familiarity with the steel plant.

He rubbed his temples, planning to open a new ending line that night.

…

“Brother Qin, why are your pillowcase, quilt cover, toothbrush cup, toothbrush, and towel all gone?” At the same time Lin Wu was organizing clues, in the Lide dormitory, Hu Wei stared blankly at Qin Weidong’s bed.

It was now 8:10. Hu Wei had slipped out early after seeing the homeroom teacher leave. He had wanted to find Qin Weidong to play cards or go online, but Qin Weidong’s bed was neatly made. The pillowcase and quilt cover were gone, and even the toiletries on the desk had disappeared.

After confirming everything was gone, Hu Wei asked in confusion, “You’re not staying in the dorm anymore?”

“I am.” At a fruit shop outside No. 1 High School, Qin Weidong picked out three large boxes of strawberries and said into the phone, “Just got something going on these couple of days, so I’m not staying there for now. I’ll figure it out later.”

“Then where are you staying?” Hu Wei had first thought Qin Weidong went back to his family villa, but there were already toiletries there. There was no need to bring these items.

“At a friend’s place.” Just then, the school bell rang. Qin Weidong quickly paid and said, “I’ve got something to do right now. I’ll talk to you later.”

He hung up and stood at the school gate, holding a big bag of strawberries as he waited.

At 8:32, the boarding students from Lide returned to the dorm.

When Hu Wei saw Gao Mingming come back, he walked over with a thoughtful expression. “Mingming.”

“What’s up?” Gao Mingming was about to wash his socks.

“Don’t you think Brother Qin’s been acting kind of strange lately?”

They were close, usually sticking together after class. But lately, Qin Weidong had been spacing out during the day and disappearing at night. Not to mention, when Qin Weidong had been hospitalized recently, Hu Wei had offered to visit him at night, but Qin Weidong refused. Overall, something felt off.

“I think so too! Brother Qin even washed his own quilt cover at noon today!”

Normally, Qin Weidong would take large items home to wash. But today, he not only washed the quilt cover himself, he even spun it dry and hung it out on the balcony while humming a tune. The whole thing felt strange no matter how you looked at it.

After going over everything, Gao Mingming slapped his forehead. “I know.”

“Know what?”

“Brother Qin’s in a relationship.”

“Huh?”

“He’s dating someone… so he’s living together with them…”

After analyzing it, the two stared at each other. In 2004, while high school relationships existed, living together was completely outside their understanding. No matter how they looked at it… it seemed kind of scummy?

“Cough… Brother Qin probably just went home. Let’s not overthink it.” Hu Wei coughed awkwardly, quickly trying to defend Qin Weidong. But inside, he wasn’t entirely convinced. He mentally went through all the girls they knew and couldn’t think of anyone Qin Weidong seemed interested in. Could it be someone from Class Three? Or from No. 31 High in the west district?

He couldn’t figure it out.

“Let’s go!” Just as Hu Wei was racking his brain, the so-called “scumbag” Qin Weidong, carrying a large backpack full of his belongings and holding the strawberries, hopped onto the back of Lin Wu’s bicycle in one smooth motion.

The bike wobbled for a moment, then steadied, and the two of them rode off together toward home.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.