Ch 41: Text Messages Across Time

October 21. Li Jing arrived at the classroom as usual.

“You’re here early today.” By the time she got there, Lin Wu was already in his seat.

“Left home earlier today,” Lin Wu said with a smile.

Li Jing sat down. Seeing there was still some time before class, she asked casually, “Lin Wu, which school are you planning to apply to later?” Lately she had been thinking a lot about the future and felt lost.

“Not sure yet. You didn’t ride your bike today?” Lin Wu asked offhandedly.

“My bike broke.” After saying that, Li Jing looked surprised. “How did you know I didn’t ride today?” It had only broken that morning when she left home.

“Just a guess.” After answering, Lin Wu thought silently that in truth, he had heard it from his future self.

“Oh.” Li Jing didn’t suspect anything and returned to the earlier topic. “You’ve been pretty steady in your recent exams. If you can bring up your English score, it feels like you could aim for Jianghe University.”

“Which school are you planning to apply to?” Lin Wu asked in return.

“Not sure yet. Maybe Jianghe University of Political Science and Law, or Jianghe University of Finance and Economics.”

It was Sunday. Normally they would be dismissed at 3:30, but with midterms approaching, the school had arranged extra classes this week, so they wouldn’t be done until 8:30 tonight. After chatting for a while, the two of them started studying.

In the previous outcome, the two would say “see you tomorrow” after 8:30 and go home separately. But today, Lin Wu didn’t wait until then. After six, he went to ask the teacher for leave.

“This is a critical period in senior year. You need to focus your energy on studying.” The teacher had a headache over Lin Wu’s frequent requests for leave, but since his grades were stable, after saying a few words he still approved it.

At eight that evening, Lin Wu arrived at the place where Li Jing would have her accident. He wasn’t carrying a backpack today, and after leaving school he had already changed into the black jacket he had prepared in advance. According to the information provided by his future self, the incident site was about three hundred meters from Li Jing’s bus stop, at a corner near a construction area. He quickly found the spot.

It was a man-made river under construction. Beside it ran a dirt path about two meters wide, and next to that was a construction slope about two meters high. At the top of the slope was a row of plane trees, and beyond that were the sidewalk and the road. According to his future self, the killer was extremely cautious and would stop at the slightest disturbance. Find the full version on HololoNovels dot com. So after confirming the location, Lin Wu left. When the time of the crime approached, he would disguise himself as a passerby and walk by from above, without letting anyone on the path notice him.

At nine o’clock, Lin Wu spotted Li Jing on the dirt path. He held his breath and kept watch on the surroundings for anything suspicious.

At 9:05, just as Li Jing was about to reach the corner, a shadow suddenly lunged out from behind her.

“Watch out!”

Lin Wu had been ready. The moment the shadow appeared, he ran down the slope.

“Ah!” Li Jing cried out as the attacker struck her.

At that moment, a car passed by, its headlights sweeping over the two of them.

“Someone help! There’s a murderer!” A brave passerby appeared and ran toward the attacker together with Lin Wu. The two of them lunged at him. The passerby shouted to Li Jing, “Come help hold him down! Hurry!”

Li Jing was stunned.

“Hit him with your backpack!” Lin Wu shouted at the right moment.

“Oh!” Li Jing swung her backpack hard at the attacker.

The sudden turn of events caught the attacker off guard, but he was strong and held a sharp hammer. He first swung the hammer at Lin Wu, then kicked the passerby, and hurriedly ran toward the main road.

Cars were coming and going on the road. In a panic, he ran into the middle of it, trying to climb over the barrier to get to the other side. At that moment, a white truck came from the distance. The driver was startled by the figure rushing out and slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The truck struck him head-on.

From breaking free to the crash, it took no more than ten seconds. When Lin Wu and the other two reached him, the attacker was already lying in a pool of blood. Seven hours later, he was declared dead after failed resuscitation.

“This was a sudden accident. We checked the nearby surveillance, but this is a maintenance section with no cameras. However, based on the testimony of the victim and other witnesses, the accident occurred while the suspect was fleeing after committing the crime. Based on his methods, it may be related to the case of the murdered high school girl in March…” The police took statements from the three of them. Li Jing had a mild concussion and returned to school after a week in the hospital.

Half a month later, the police released the investigation results. The deceased’s real name was Zhao Fangli, alias Zhao Fangfang, born in 1973, a fugitive from Huyun Province. At her residence, police found items belonging to previous victims, such as hair ties and buttons, confirming her as the killer in the Xuhu homicide case. The motive was unknown, preliminarily judged to be a malicious act of retaliation against society.

Zhao Fangli had been an employee of the Daming construction team. She came to Xuhu in July 2001 and had since worked at construction sites, restaurants, and other places with high population turnover. She had been at the same construction site as Guo Chengchun.

After this incident, Guo Chengchun did not stalk Wang Jiahui on November 19 as he had in previous outcomes. However, two months later, due to lack of money, he robbed a jewelry store. While fleeing, he assaulted a police officer. With combined charges of robbery and assaulting police, he was ultimately sentenced to life imprisonment.

Guo Chengchun’s life path had deviated, but he still received the punishment he deserved.

…

Ten seconds later, the memories of the seventeenth outcome finished updating.

“Is it over?” Lin Wu felt a moment of daze. The whole process had gone too smoothly, so smoothly it felt almost unreal.

[Is there a new outcome?] At that moment, his seventeen-year-old self sent a message.

[Yes.] Lin Wu tapped on Hao Shuqin’s social media. In the post was a video of Hao Shuqin, Wang Jiahui, and Luo Xiaorong traveling together. In this outcome, after Guo Chengchun was caught, there were no further victims.

After graduating from high school, Lin Wu was successfully admitted to Jianghe University. Two years later, Wang Jiahui was admitted to a provincial dance academy. Luo Xiaorong continued working at the steel plant and later became a full-time employee. After retiring three years ago, she and Hao Shuqin opened a bun shop together. Though the shop wasn’t as large as in the fourth outcome, it had a loyal group of customers, and the atmosphere was very warm.

A week ago, while on leave, Wang Jiahui took Hao Shuqin and Luo Xiaorong to the seaside for a trip. Luo Xiaorong wasn’t very sharp, but she was very quiet when with familiar people. Full story at HololoNovels dot com. Lin Wu had helped plan the trip and agreed to it. Now the three of them were having a wonderful time.

“What kind of ending?” the seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked nervously.

“Zhao Fangli got into a car accident. Guo Chengchun was arrested…” Lin Wu recounted the outcome.

“That’s great!” In a burger shop in 2004, Lin Wu and Qin Weidong had been sitting across from each other, but in their excitement, Qin Weidong unknowingly moved closer to Lin Wu. Both of them felt a sense of unreality.

“What about us now? Do we follow this outcome exactly?” After the excitement, the seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked.

It was the 19th today. There were still three days before Li Jing’s incident. They knew the result, but if they did nothing, the outcome could still change.

“You call the police tomorrow and open up a line of outcomes where the police are brought in,” Lin Wu said after thinking it over.

Zhao Fangli’s car accident was certainly satisfying in one sense, but they still did not know why she killed. Her death had also left heavy shadows over the good Samaritan, Li Jing, and the truck driver. Especially the truck driver. After that incident, he never drove again.

There was another reason Lin Wu wanted to call the police. Back in 1998, Zhao Fangli had already attacked a high school girl. That girl was only injured, not killed. After that incident, Zhao Fangli fled to Xuhu. Without the intervention on the twenty-first, she would have gone on to commit many more murders. A person like that, with crimes too numerous to set down in writing, ought to be handed over to the judicial authorities for trial.

“Are you sure?” seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked. The timelines in both time periods had now advanced to the nineteenth. If he called the police tomorrow, the result would no longer be changeable.

“Provide the tip anonymously,” Lin Wu said at last. He did not know whether this decision was the right one, but fortunately tomorrow he could still check one more outcome line. If something felt off, he could make one final adjustment.

…

Early the next morning, at the Xuhu Municipal Criminal Investigation Division, Xu Qingtao had just stepped into the office when he caught the rich, mouthwatering smell of jianbing guozi.

“Who brought in jianbing guozi? Smells great.” He set down his shoulder bag as he spoke.

“Me! I bought it this morning at the gate of my apartment complex.” A female intern was in the middle of eating one, and immediately raised her hand when she heard him.

“Smells good, but next time finish it outside or in the break room before you come in. Otherwise the smell lingers.” Xu Qingtao was the deputy captain of the criminal investigation unit. Even when he was smiling, he still sounded like someone who might start scolding you at any moment.

“I understand. Next time I’ll finish it before I come in,” the intern said nervously.

“Mm, let it go for today.” After casually saying a couple of words, Xu Qingtao went into his office. Xuhu was only a tiny backwater city, but it still had criminal cases of its own. With forensic techniques still limited at the time, they had to tease out each thread little by little before they could find any real leads.

He brewed himself a cup of Dahongpao tea and started on the day’s work.

At ten in the morning, there was a knock on the office door.

“Come in,” Xu Qingtao said, putting aside what he was doing.

“Just now someone left a letter at the entrance. It’s addressed to you by name. It says it contains a lead on a Xuhu case and must be read by you alone.” Officer Xiao Zhou stood there holding an envelope, looking completely baffled.

In 2004, the gatehouse was nowhere near as strict as it would be later. Someone had apparently handed the letter to a scrap collector, who then passed it to the gate guard. The words “case lead” were written on the envelope, but it did not say which case. Below that, it was heavily emphasized that Xu Qingtao himself had to open it.

The guard had already checked it. There were no dangerous items inside, but no one knew what the letter actually said.

“Let me see.” Xu Qingtao was intrigued now.

Xiao Zhou handed him the envelope. When he opened it, he found a plain sheet of letter paper inside. Written on it were the words:

[I know the killer in a certain case. To prove that what I’m saying is real, this afternoon at three o’clock, on Changning Road, a plane tree will be blown over by a strong wind. At 7:20 tonight, the anchor on Xinwen Lianbo will make a slip of the tongue while reading the news. At 9:30, your wife will break the mop while doing housework and ask you to buy a new one… Once all of this has been confirmed, I will contact you tomorrow.]

The handwriting on the page was twisted and crooked, clearly done on purpose. Five events were listed, from a tree being blown over to a quarrel between him and his wife. Xu Qingtao read it word by word, and when he finished, only one thought remained in his head: What on earth is this supposed to be?

Xu Qingtao was utterly bewildered. It felt like some kind of prank.

At 3:20, he was on his way to a municipal government meeting when he suddenly froze as they passed Changning Road.

There was a sign up now reading “No Entry,” and three workers were securing a plane tree. The tree had been transplanted from somewhere else, and its roots had not yet taken hold. In the afternoon gale, it had been blown over.

Looking at the plane tree and the crane beside it, Xu Qingtao’s scalp went numb. He told the driver to pull over, got out, and walked over.

“Did this tree fall on its own, or was it blown down by the wind?” Xu Qingtao asked dazedly.

“It blew over on its own. The wind just now was too strong. I was playing mahjong nearby when it suddenly came crashing down. Scared the hell out of me!” said a shop owner who had been watching the commotion, still visibly shaken.

“What time did it fall?” Xu Qingtao opened his mouth and asked.

“Let me think… three o’clock! The TV drama had just gone to commercials, so yes, it was three.”

Three o’clock, exactly the same as the time in the envelope.

At seven that evening, after returning home, Xu Qingtao turned on Xinwen Lianbo with tight nerves. At 7:20:

[This afternoon at the entrance to Jianghe Sports Center, a construction, construction worker…]

The anchor stumbled over the phrase “construction worker.”

Besides those two, the letter had also predicted two other things that would happen on television, and every one of them came true.

At 9:30, he saw his wife mopping the floor. When she tried to push the mop under the coffee table and couldn’t get it through, she shoved hard twice, and the mop snapped.

“Ugh, this mop is such terrible quality. I’ve been working overtime these past two days and don’t have time, so when you get off work tomorrow, go buy one at the sundries shop. I have a report to write in a bit, so you wash the dishes in the kitchen.” Looking at the broken mop, his wife was thoroughly annoyed and went on muttering one thing after another.

Xu Qingtao could no longer hear what she was saying. He felt only one thing: every piece of information in the anonymous letter had been correct.

These were all things that had not happened yet, things from the “future,” and the other person had gotten every one of them right.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

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