Ch 42: Text Messages Across Time

On the night of October 20, at Xuhu Hotel, Lin Wu drank a cup of coffee and waited for the eighteenth outcome.

“You’re here early today.”

“Left home earlier today.”

“Lin Wu, which school are you planning to apply to?”

“Not sure yet. You didn’t ride your bike today?”

“My bike broke. How did you know I didn’t ride?”

…

The eighteenth outcome was the same as the seventeenth. He saw himself greeting Li Jing, the two of them discussing a math problem together. At six in the evening, he went to ask the teacher for leave.

“This is a critical period in senior year. You need to focus your energy on studying.” After lecturing him, the teacher still agreed.

Following the eighteenth outcome, he changed clothes, tucked a screwdriver into his pocket for self-defense, and went to the fixed location of the crime. Full version on HololoNovels .com. After confirming the spot, he quickly left. In this outcome, he had already informed the police in advance. Whether they would deploy ahead of time or not was still unknown.

He watched cautiously from a distance. For now, he saw neither the attacker nor anyone suspicious.

As nine approached, he disguised himself as a passerby and walked by from above. He saw Li Jing below, wearing her school uniform and walking along the path. At 9:05, just as she was about to reach the corner, a dark figure suddenly lunged out from behind her.

“Move!” Before Lin Wu could warn her, two people sprang out from nearby, and then three more rushed in from other directions. The five moved with practiced precision.

The shadow froze for a moment, then ran toward the road. One of them tackled her to the ground. Besides the hammer, the attacker also had a knife. She stabbed quickly, wounding him, but the others swiftly subdued her.

“Captain Liu, are you okay?!” The others put handcuffs on the attacker while anxiously looking at Liu Qingtao.

“I’m fine…” Liu Qingtao touched his abdomen. He had been stabbed, but it wasn’t fatal.

Half a month later, the police released a notice. The suspect’s real name was Zhao Fangli, alias Zhao Fangfang. After an attempted murder in 1998, she had been on the run. In March 2004, she killed a local high school student in Xuhu. In October of the same year, she was arrested by police while committing another crime. With solid evidence and a full confession, she was formally prosecuted by the procuratorate. Given the severity of her crimes, she faced the possibility of a death sentence.

In July 2005, the death sentence was carried out.

Zhao Fangli was from Dashan County in Huyun Province. According to police investigation, her motive stemmed from her high school years, when she was often bullied by girls her age due to her tall, sturdy build and dull personality. Later, she suffered severe burns in a fire and dropped out of school.

In the years that followed, she developed deep insecurity about her body. Combined with the trauma from high school, she gradually grew to hate girls of high school age. She chose her victims at random, then stalked and followed them before killing them. If conditions allowed, she would also subject them to a certain degree of abuse, such as cutting wounds into their bodies.

She committed a total of three crimes: one death, one injury, and one victim who escaped. When the deceased high school girl was found, her body bore numerous knife wounds.

After the verdict was handed down, Zhao Fangli was executed that same month.

The event of Guo Chengchun being sentenced to life imprisonment for robbing a jewelry store remained unchanged. After both were apprehended, there were no further victims.

In the eighteenth outcome, aside from the criminal police captain being injured and Zhao Fangli being punished by law, nothing else changed.

Ten seconds later, Lin Wu finished refreshing the outcome. He opened his computer and searched for news about “Xuhu Liu Qingtao.” He knew the man because in previous outcomes he had interacted with him and knew he was upright and meticulous. As for why he knew about the mop…

It was because after giving his statement in the previous outcome, he had overheard Liu Qingtao in the hallway, flustered as he answered a phone call from his wife, who was asking him to buy a new mop.

In this outcome, Liu Qingtao received a first-class merit for the case, though the stab wound that year had been quite deep. Even though he recovered after half a year, it had hurt for that entire time.

[Stick to the previous plan?] A message came from the 2004 side.

[No major changes…] Lin Wu replied after thinking it over.

At 10:27, the connection between the two timelines ended.

…

“How did it go?” Qin Weidong asked nervously the moment it ended.

After noticing yesterday that he and Lin Wu had unconsciously ended up sitting together, he had felt something subtle shift. So today he deliberately chose a larger table, so he wouldn’t drift over again. Though craning his neck to read the messages was tiring.

“Tomorrow we need to remind Officer Liu to watch out for the knife.” After making sure no one was around, Lin Wu handed his phone to Qin Weidong and spoke in a low voice.

After they finalized the plan yesterday, he had written the anonymous letter, then fully disguised himself and secretly handed it to an elderly man with poor eyesight, giving him one hundred yuan to pass it along to the gate of the criminal investigation unit. He had specifically emphasized that it must be delivered to Liu Qingtao personally.

Everything that happened today was part of the setup, so he had been extremely cautious. The full chapter is up on HololoNovels dot com. He did not reveal the details of the case or the specifics of what would happen tomorrow to the police. This way, they could advance or retreat as needed.

If the method of involving the police worked, they would know the outcome tonight and could proceed as planned.

If it didn’t work, he would not send a second letter and would instead lie in wait himself, just like in the seventeenth outcome.

Now, the new outcome proved that their plan was workable.

“Still a bit nervous…” Half an hour later, the two of them dropped the letter into a remote mailbox without surveillance cameras. The idea of prophecy was too unbelievable. They also didn’t know whether getting too involved with the police might create unforeseen butterfly effects, so from the beginning they had planned not to reveal their identities.

The letter that morning had been passed along by someone else. By now, the police should already be on alert, so for the second letter they chose same-city mailing. They used express delivery. The mailbox would be opened at five every day, and given Xuhu’s local delivery speed, the letter would arrive around noon today.

The eighteenth outcome proved that the letter had already been delivered. Everything was now in motion, and they could no longer change it.

…

“Any suspicious individuals?” The next morning, Liu Qingtao sat in the criminal investigation unit’s surveillance room, carefully watching each monitor. He hadn’t slept at all the previous night and had come in at five this morning. After experiencing the five “predictions” yesterday, anyone normal would have been unable to sleep.

He kept wondering who the other party was, and how they had known those predictions in advance. The whole thing was too strange. After thinking it over again and again, he finally guessed that the person either knew fortune-telling or had received some kind of prophetic dream. Neither explanation sounded normal, but he had nothing else to go on.

Right now, the focus wasn’t the five predictions, but the line in the letter: 【I know the killer in a case. I will contact you tomorrow.】

There were still many unsolved cases in the unit, and he didn’t know which one the person meant. But “I will contact you tomorrow” meant the person would reach out today. So early that morning, he had already arranged for people to keep an eye on the scrap collector from yesterday. They had also asked about the sender’s appearance, but the scrap collector had poor eyesight and some mental issues. Aside from knowing the sender was male, they had no other clues.

Now two officers were monitoring the scrap collector. Liu Qingtao watched the surveillance feeds, planning to act immediately if he spotted anyone suspicious. He had been watching from a little after six until nine, but aside from two people who came to file reports about trivial family disputes, he had not seen anyone suspicious.

“It’s almost noon, and still no news…” Liu Qingtao had no other duties today. After lunch, he continued watching. At 1:10, Xiao Zhou rushed into the surveillance room, out of breath.

“Captain Liu!” Xiao Zhou called out.

“What is it?” Liu Qingtao looked up.

“You’ve got an express letter.” Xiao Zhou held up an envelope.

Early that morning, they had already notified all departments that any letters addressed to Captain Liu or anything suspicious must be delivered immediately. This letter had arrived ten minutes ago. As soon as the mailroom received it, they called him without delay. He went to retrieve it, leading to the current scene.

“Let me see!” Liu Qingtao stood up at once.

The letter was from yesterday’s anonymous sender. It said that tonight there would be a stalking murder case. The sender provided detailed information about the time, location, and sequence of events, and hoped the police would deploy in advance.

Aside from the case details, the sender also added at the end that the killer carried a knife and that a police officer might be injured because of it, suggesting that everyone wear stab-resistant vests or make other preparations.

“Captain Liu?” Xiao Zhou noticed Liu Qingtao’s serious expression and grew tense as well.

“Gather everyone for a meeting,” Liu Qingtao said decisively. If this had been a day earlier, he might have hesitated over such a letter. But after experiencing yesterday’s five predictions, he had to prepare as thoroughly as possible.

…

“Lin Wu!” At 6:20, just as Lin Wu stepped out of the school gate, he saw Qin Weidong waiting there. Today Qin Weidong wore a black hoodie and casual pants, looking very low-key.

“You don’t need to come. I can handle it alone.” After discussing things yesterday, Qin Weidong had insisted on joining, but his right foot was injured. Lin Wu was worried something might go wrong and wanted to go by himself.

“I’m not doing anything anyway. I definitely won’t hold you back.” Qin Weidong lifted his right foot slightly. He had changed into sneakers today. It hurt a bit when he walked, but it wasn’t serious.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lin Wu was still uneasy.

“I’m fine.” Qin Weidong was about to hop a couple of times.

“Don’t!” Lin Wu quickly stopped him. After thinking it over, he agreed to let Qin Weidong come along, as long as he prioritized his own safety.

The two of them followed the plan and went to the location of the incident. The place was quiet now, nothing unusual. They only glanced at it while passing by, pretending to be ordinary pedestrians.

At nine that evening, they passed by again in the same way. They saw Li Jing walking below in her school uniform. Just as she was about to reach a corner, Zhao Fangli appeared.

“Move!” Police officers who had been lying in wait suddenly emerged from all sides. Zhao Fangli was stunned. She panicked and ran toward the road. Liu Qingtao lunged at her. She pulled out the knife she had prepared and stabbed at him, only to find that it wouldn’t go in. At that moment, Liu Qingtao struck the knife from her hand, twisted her arms behind her back, and snapped handcuffs onto her wrists.

“Captain Liu!”

“Are you okay?”

The others quickly stepped in to help restrain her.

“I’m fine.” Liu Qingtao let out a breath, pulling open his jacket. Underneath was a black stab-resistant vest.

He looked at the knife on the ground. Without that vest, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

“Take her away!” Liu Qingtao ordered decisively.

…

At 10:12, Lin Wu refreshed the nineteenth outcome.

In the nineteenth outcome, Liu Qingtao was not injured, Zhao Fangli confessed and was sentenced to death, and Guo Chengchun received life imprisonment for the jewelry store robbery. Everything was the same as in the eighteenth outcome, but even more perfect.

The weather was clear and pleasant that day. Even at night, the sound of the wind outside felt gentle. Lin Wu opened his computer and searched for footage of Zhao Fangli’s trial.

【Defendant Zhao Fangli, upon trial, the court has determined that the facts of your crime of murder are established. The circumstances are particularly egregious, and the social harm is extremely severe. This constitutes statutory grounds for the application of the death penalty…】 In the video, Zhao Fangli fully confessed to her crimes.

Watching the video, Lin Wu recalled his fifteenth outcome. At that time, although the killer had worn a mask, he had always felt, perhaps mistakenly, that the person was male.

In fact, that feeling had already surfaced when he first determined that the killer was Zhao Fangli. So in the eighteenth outcome, through Li Jing’s connection as a victim, he met Zhao Fangli once. He then took out a photo of Luo Xiaorong and asked whether she would consider Luo Xiaorong a target.

“I don’t know. If I feel like killing, I kill.” Zhao Fangli glanced at the photo and spoke with complete calm.

Now it was October 21. The earliest date Luo Xiaorong would have been attacked was November 26. Lin Wu guessed that Zhao Fangli had not yet encountered her and therefore had not listed her as a target.

“If you did want to kill her, what reason would it be for?” Lin Wu thought for a moment and continued.

“If I want to kill, I kill. Do I need a reason to kill?” Zhao Fangli let out a small laugh, her mindset utterly casual.

Beep—beep—

In a daze, the phone rang.

It was a video call. When he saw the caller, he tapped to answer.

“Wu-wu—” Luo Xiaorong’s face appeared on the screen. She was wearing a white coat, with an orange headband clipped in her hair, looking very happy.

She was with Hao Shuqin and Wang Jiahui on top of a high-rise building, looking at the night view. The wind up there was strong. As soon as Luo Xiaorong saw Lin Wu, she smiled, gesturing to him a couple of times before Wang Jiahui took the phone.

“Brother Lin Wu, we’re on the hotel rooftop right now. The ocean is right in front of us. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Wang Jiahui switched the camera. On the screen was an endless stretch of dark sea. Lin Wu smiled. He almost said that it wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen the ocean before, but then he remembered that in the fourth outcome, they had often gone to the seaside.

Now, in the nineteenth outcome, their two families rarely went to the ocean at all.

“Beautiful!” Lin Wu said sincerely.

“Haha, I think so too!” After chatting a bit, Wang Jiahui handed the phone to Hao Shuqin. After a few words, Hao Shuqin passed it back to Luo Xiaorong. The two chatted for a while longer, then hung up.

Now both Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were alive. There were no other victims, and the killers had all received the punishment they deserved.

Height, raincoat, weapon, knife. Every detail matched. The new outcome had already taken shape.

Lin Wu rubbed his brow, feeling that he had been under too much mental strain these past days, and still hadn’t quite recovered.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.