Ch 52: Text Messages Across Time

At 9:30 PM on December 9, 2024, Qin Weidong dropped Lin Wu off at the hotel entrance. They had spent the entire afternoon at the amusement park, watched a folk performance in the evening, and just finished eating barbecue together. The day had been so enjoyable that he now felt reluctant to part.

“You’re heading back to Jianghe on the twentieth?” he asked, making conversation just to keep him there a little longer.

“Yeah, around the twentieth or twenty-first.” Lin Wu calculated his schedule.

“I’ll be going back soon too. If there’s time, want to grab a meal together in Jianghe?” Qin Weidong’s work had been centered in Jianghe and Shenhai in recent years, so the question didn’t sound out of place.

“Sure. I’ll probably be busy the first week, but after that I’ll have time.” Lin Wu smiled naturally.

“Alright.” Lin Wu had been smiling a lot lately. Qin Weidong felt a soft sweetness in his chest. They lingered at the entrance, chatting about nothing in particular. When Lin Wu turned to head inside, Qin Weidong suddenly called out—

“Lin Wu—”

“What is it?” Lin Wu turned back.

“See you tomorrow!” They had plans to go skiing in the county.

“See you tomorrow. It’s cold outside, get back in your car.” Lin Wu waved, urging him to warm up.

Qin Weidong broke into a wide grin and finally left.

…

At ten that night, Lin Wu finished washing up and sat at his desk. A white hat rested on the keyboard, the rabbit-ear hat they had bought together that afternoon. He stared at it for a while, and his thoughts drifted back more than a month—

Back to that hospital room in Xuhu. Qin Weidong had leaned in, then quietly pulled away. That was a memory from when he was seventeen, but a thirty-seven-year-old self was built from those same memories. He couldn’t be indifferent to the past.

After Qin Weidong left that day, Lin Wu had been stunned. And within that shock, there was also a sense of… so that’s what it was.

Qin Weidong’s gaze had sometimes been too direct. Even if Lin Wu pretended not to notice, it still felt strange. Until that afternoon, everything that had seemed off finally had an explanation.

He had felt confusion, disbelief, surprise. But not disgust.

Because Qin Weidong really was a good person.

He had even wondered, with his own dull and unremarkable personality, how could someone like Qin Weidong possibly like him?

Qin Weidong was upright, kind, came from a good family, had many friends. His world felt like it existed under a spotlight, vivid and alive. Lin Wu, on the other hand, was quiet, withdrawn. Even putting emotions aside, they were people from entirely different worlds.

He understood that. His seventeen-year-old self had understood it too.

So after realizing Qin Weidong’s feelings, he had gradually distanced himself, hoping to return things to normal. If they could still remain friends, that would be even better. He truly liked being friends with him.

He didn’t know what it meant to like someone. Nor did he want to. It would break his sense of safety. Entrusting his emotions to someone else felt foolish. He wouldn’t allow himself to become someone who longed for another person. That kind of feeling was irrational, unsafe.

He wanted to return to his old life.

But then came the daily messages, the study materials left at the guard station, the fight in the alley… Qin Weidong was too vivid, too impossible to ignore.

He felt like a tiny moth circling a light in his bedroom.

And he thought, for someone as dull as himself, being drawn to something bright and alive was only natural.

At some point, he realized he had begun to look forward to those messages. When alone, he would reread their conversations again and again.

Human emotions were the most unpredictable thing. Someone could like you today, and someone else tomorrow. Even marriages could end. Let alone the fleeting interest one boy might have in another.

One day, Qin Weidong would meet more interesting people. He would realize that the person he once liked in high school was dull, unremarkable, unappealing.

Lin Wu wanted to cut off this uncontrollable feeling.

But moths were drawn to light.

If the heart were a shell, he thought, maybe he could open it just a little.

Like someone standing at the edge of a cliff, observing. If the other person wanted to come closer, then come closer.

He would cooperate fully.

Until one day, when Qin Weidong grew tired of him. Perhaps even mocked himself—how did I ever like him?

He wouldn’t give him the chance to mock him. The moment he sensed it, he would leave first.

After all, his heart was only slightly opened. It could always be sealed shut again.

Lin Wu hung the hat on the rack. They were going skiing tomorrow. He had planned to take out a dark down jacket, but after thinking for a moment, he left the white one hanging outside, then sat back down.

Now both timelines had their own lives. Aside from occasionally confirming the time-channel connection, they were both gradually returning to normal.

10:12 PM. The memory refreshed on time.

…

Watching movies. Eating together. Walking side by side through the streets.

He saw his seventeen-year-old self cracking open that shell, cautiously testing something beyond his safe boundaries. That younger version of himself was even more timid than he was now.

And Qin Weidong—whether at seventeen or thirty-seven—was always the same. Vivid. Bright. Impossible to ignore.

He wondered why Qin Weidong no longer recognized him.

But it didn’t matter.

They had already met again.

He felt something new in his chest. Sweet. Unfamiliar. Alive.

Until the night of December 17—

Luo Xiaorong disappeared.

“I went to the cafeteria after work to ask. They said your mom left early…”

At 9 PM, Wang Manshan rushed to find Lin Wu. There had been a factory celebration that day, and all employees got off at eight. When he checked, Luo Xiaorong had left around seven. He had assumed she went home early, but when he arrived at Lin Wu’s place, something felt wrong.

“I’ve already contacted Supervisor Qiu. She’s asking around,” Wang Manshan said, trying to keep him calm.

“I’m going to the factory…”

Lin Wu had just reached the entrance of his neighborhood when he got the news. His mind buzzed. Then, as if realizing something, he immediately hailed a taxi toward the steel plant.

The first abandoned workshop.

No one there.

At the second abandoned workshop, there was someone.

In a corner of the factory, he saw a large pool of blood. It was Luo Xiaorong’s blood.

Luo Xiaorong was dead.

The workers who arrived afterward were stunned by the scene. Soon, the police reached the site, set up cordons, and the entire steel plant was thrown into turmoil. That night felt unreal, like a dream.

“How did you think to come to the factory as the crime scene?” After the incident, the police conducted routine questioning.

“I had wandered around the factory before and noticed these areas were pretty remote. When my mom went missing, I thought I’d come check here…” Lin Wu answered numbly.

“We’ll do our best to find the killer…” The officer handling the case patted his shoulder, unable to bear it.

According to the investigation, Luo Xiaorong’s time of death was between 7 and 9 PM. At the time, the factory was holding a celebration event with heavy foot traffic. The killer was likely prepared in advance or had cleaned up afterward. Despite deeper investigation, there were no leads. The case eventually went cold.

Memory turned like the pages of a book.

Lin Wu saw himself, accompanied by the police, confronting Zhao Fangli. He demanded to know who her accomplice was, who had killed Luo Xiaorong. She said she didn’t know.

He anonymously reported Guo Chengchun to the police. At that time, Guo hadn’t been imprisoned yet, but he had been involved in a fight when Luo Xiaorong was killed. He was not the murderer.

Guo Chengchun’s fate did not change. A month later, he was imprisoned for robbery. After Luo Xiaorong’s death, there were no further victims. The killer vanished like a drop of water evaporating under the blazing sun.

Lin Wu saw himself continue living, more numb than ever before, until 2024, when he obtained the phone again.

In the synchronized timeline, it was now December 9, 2004. There were eight days left before Luo Xiaorong’s death.

Because of the altered life trajectory, the house purchase, Luo Xiaorong’s trip, even the scene of them buying clothes yesterday had all changed. He once again found himself at Xuhu Hotel.

This was a new ending.

The twentieth ending.

Outside, a light rain had begun to fall. Wearing a dark black set of pajamas, he stood before the mirror. His thin frame, pale face, lips pressed into a straight line… he didn’t look good in this ending.

In a daze, text appeared before him once more:

Time is a river that cannot flow backward. Until this day, the river of time begins to reverse. And the reversed river will eventually reach its end…

Along with the text, three rules of spacetime emerged:

1. The two worlds run in synchronized time.
   Time in 2024 and 2004 progresses simultaneously. If today is December 9, 2024, then it is also December 9 in 2004.
2. Sent messages cannot be altered.
   Once a message is sent across time, its content cannot be changed. For example, in every timeline, on September 5, 2024, the phone will automatically compose and send the fire warning message to 2004. Even if the phone is broken or he dies, the message will still be sent.
   This is because September 5, 2004 is a fixed move. Without that message, the internet café fire would occur, and the entire chain of events that follows would never begin. His altered life would become a paradox.
   Therefore, sent messages cannot be changed or stopped. Only at new time nodes can changes occur. This is an automatic correction mechanism of time itself, preventing total collapse of the timeline.

He had already figured out these two rules.

But now, there was a third:

3. Certain memories will be erased.

He and Qin Weidong were the original connection point between the two timelines. They were variables.

In previous endings, he had known Qin Weidong, yet had no memory of what came after. He had assumed Qin Weidong went abroad and they simply lost contact. But as their connection deepened, that explanation no longer made sense.

Even if Qin Weidong had gone abroad, given how close they were, he should have remembered the details of that departure.

But there were none.

Now the rule explained it:

Because both of them were variables, even if he knew Qin Weidong between 2004 and 2024, the moment the spacetime message was sent on September 5, Qin Weidong would become a “person of the past” in his timeline. He would forget him.

Only in this way could both timelines continue to run in sync. Otherwise, the timeline would collapse into chaos.

As these rules surfaced, previously unseen memories also emerged—

“Sigh… how did something this big happen in our factory?”

“The police are investigating. Everyone’s on edge.”

“We should be careful getting to and from work. Better to go in groups…”

…

On December 25, a memorial service for Luo Xiaorong was held by the factory.

Lin Wu, dressed in mourning clothes, sat before the memorial hall. Around him were factory workers and neighborhood residents, familiar and unfamiliar alike, coming and going, all sighing in grief.

“Have some water. You haven’t had any all day.”

Lin Wu saw Qin Weidong. He was holding a cup of warm water, looking at him nervously.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu accepted it but didn’t drink. He wasn’t thirsty.

Qin Weidong hesitated, wanting to say something, but in the end said nothing.

At ten that night, after the funeral arrangements were finished, Lin Wu returned home with He Shuqin’s family. Qin Weidong followed alongside them.

Before parting, He Shuqin hugged Lin Wu tightly. “If it’s too hard being alone, come stay with us for a few days.” Her eyes were swollen from crying all day.

“Brother Lin Wu, come stay with us!” Wang Jiahui added, worried.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry.” Lin Wu forced a small smile.

“The police are investigating. There’ll be leads soon.” Wang Manshan spoke in a low voice, his eyes also red.

“Mm.” Lin Wu nodded firmly.

Three minutes later, only Lin Wu and Qin Weidong remained under the streetlight.

“We can’t contact 2024 right now, which means something changed at a point we don’t know yet. But we still have a chance. We can still reach 2024!” Qin Weidong tried to comfort him. Luo Xiaorong’s death was a huge shock, but as he said, there was still hope. If they could reach 2024 and get the phone, they might still change the outcome.

It was cold. Lin Wu was dressed lightly. Qin Weidong felt a pang of concern.

“You’ve had a long day. Let’s go upstairs first.”

He had wanted to stay with Lin Wu, but Lin Wu had said the same thing he told the Wang family. He needed to be alone.

So these past days, Qin Weidong would bring breakfast in the morning, and only leave late at night.

“Let’s go,” Qin Weidong said, about to lead the way.

“Qin Weidong.”

Lin Wu called out to him.

“What is it?” Qin Weidong turned back, puzzled.

“Qin Weidong, do you like men?”

There were three meters between them. Qin Weidong stood half inside the stairwell, while Lin Wu remained under the streetlight outside.

“Why would you ask that…” The question came so suddenly that Qin Weidong was caught off guard. He was about to say something, but seeing Lin Wu’s expression, he fell silent for two seconds, then said, “Yes. I like a man.” After that, he asked back, “Is that not allowed?”

“It’s allowed. It just feels disgusting.”

They were close enough that Qin Weidong heard every word clearly.

He pressed his lips tight. “We’ve known each other this long. I thought you already knew.”

“I did know. It’s disgusting.”

“We can talk about this later. Go upstairs and rest first.” Qin Weidong didn’t want to hear more and urged him to go up.

“Are you not understanding?” Lin Wu’s eyes were bloodshot from days of pressure. He stared hard at him. “I said you’re disgusting. Do you not understand?”

“I understand. Just go upstairs and rest, okay?” Qin Weidong tried to steady his breathing and reached out to pull him.

—Ugh—

The pressure of the past few days, combined with catching a chill and irregular eating, had left Lin Wu nauseous. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. The moment Qin Weidong touched him, he turned and vomited into the nearby trash can.

Qin Weidong’s face turned deathly pale. He froze where he stood.

Lin Wu vomited for a full half minute before easing slightly. Then he looked at him.

“Qin Weidong, I’m begging you. Don’t come bother me anymore. I’m grateful you lent me the phone before, but now I’m begging you, stop bothering me. I just want to live a more normal life.”

He used the word “bother,” fully aware of how humiliating it sounded. His face was pale from vomiting.

Qin Weidong stood motionless. After a long while, he finally asked,

“If I stop bothering you… will you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“…Alright. I won’t bother you anymore. I won’t affect your life again.”

He left.

Their lives returned completely to their proper tracks.

This was the twentieth ending.

And in the moment these endings surfaced, Lin Wu also saw countless previous ones—

“I won’t bother you anymore.”
“I won’t cling to you anymore.”
“I won’t disturb you anymore.”

…

In the small grove of the neighborhood, in the alley where they first met, at a bus stop in the dead of winter… these scenes had all appeared in other endings. They belonged to the future of synchronized timelines, the past of 2024.

Before, under the influence of the rules of time, he had been unable to see them.

Now that the rules had shifted, all the missing memories filled in.

Qin Weidong, you’re disgusting.
You’re disgusting.
You’re disgusting.

…

He saw himself say those words over and over again across countless endings.

Lin Wu’s chest heaved violently. He looked at the table. On it sat a bowl of red date soup, delivered at ten that night.

“Late-night snack…”

He hurriedly sifted through memories of different endings.

In the first through fourth endings, the hotel had no late-night snack service. In the fifth ending, not long after he checked in, the hotel began offering it.

“Hotel late-night snacks” should have been an objective reality, like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. It should not change with the trajectory of his life.

But it did.

That was not reasonable.

Lin Wu closed his eyes.

The fifth ending began on September 23, 2004. It was also the point when Qin Weidong first learned about the spacetime messages.

From that point on, every one of his endings included late-night snacks, until the fifteenth ending, and then again after the seventeenth.

The seventeenth ending: Zhao Fangli’s car accident. He and Luo Xiaorong lived happily. To bring Zhao Fangli to justice, the eighteenth ending began.

The eighteenth ending: Zhao Fangli was arrested. He and Luo Xiaorong lived happily. A police officer was injured. To prevent that injury, the nineteenth ending began.

The nineteenth ending: everything was perfect and happy.

For over a month, he had been living in that nineteenth ending.

The only difference in those three endings was that Qin Weidong did not remember him.

He had thought it was amnesia.

Now, after understanding the rules of time, he realized:

The killer was still out there.

Before, the killer’s act of murder was an objective event. But after repeated alterations of the endings, the killer’s intent became unstable. The outcomes now shifted depending on whether the killer chose to act.

Until yesterday, the killer had no intent to kill Luo Xiaorong. So every ending remained peaceful.

But today, in 2004, the killer formed the intent—and had the means to carry it out perfectly.

That was why a new ending appeared.

In those previous three endings, Qin Weidong had not lost his memory.

Rather, due to fluctuations in the killer’s actions and the rules of time, all memories related to the spacetime phone had been erased. He lived a complete life in which he had never known Lin Wu.

Lin Wu also began noticing details he had once overlooked—

In one ending, at the graduation ceremony, a charitable company gave every student a large bouquet of flowers.
In another ending, when he didn’t attend, the flowers were gone. That was not reasonable.

In one ending, on a rainy day, a kind woman gave him a black umbrella.
In another ending, in a different place but similar rain, he received the exact same umbrella. The probability was far too low.

Once, when he moved and sold unused items, a chubby middle-aged man came to collect them.
In another ending, in a completely different place, the same man appeared again.

There were too many such details.

Some appeared in Ending A, vanished in Ending B, and reappeared differently in Ending C.

These were supposed to be objective events, yet they changed along with him.

And within all those details—

He saw Qin Weidong.

He and his seventeen-year-old self were anchored at the points of 2024 and 2004. But between those two points lay twenty years.

He hadn’t leapt straight to 2024 out of thin air. He had lived through the days after seventeen, the years after that, one by one, until he arrived here.

He knew Qin Weidong now. Which meant that tomorrow, the day after, next year, the year after that, he would still know him… all the way until September 5, 2024.

Qin Weidong had never lost his memory. Just like him, he had lived through those twenty years.

It was only from September 25 onward that Lin Wu could no longer see the memories in between. All he could see was Qin Weidong in the synchronized past.

…

Outside, the rain grew heavier.

As if sensing something, Lin Wu walked to the window and pulled the curtains open.

It was eleven at night. Rain poured down. There were no pedestrians outside. Directly across from his window was a black SUV parked in the dark. Its headlights were off. In the driver’s seat, there was a faint silhouette.

A car passed by, its headlights sweeping over. For a brief moment, he saw clearly—there was indeed someone inside, looking down at a phone.

And in that instant, he recognized the model of the car. The license plate.

He had seen this car before.

In the sixteenth ending, after attending a class reunion, he had wandered aimlessly down the road. There were few people around. He had almost walked straight into a utility pole.

Beep—

A horn sounded behind him. A SUV drove past.

The model and license plate were exactly the same.

It was Qin Weidong’s car.

In every ending, Qin Weidong possessed certain fixed assets. These did not change with the small shifts between their lives. So in every version of reality where they had parted ways, he still owned this car, this plate.

Now, rain poured down in sheets.

The person in the car seemed to sense something too and looked in his direction.

Their eyes met through the curtain of rain.

Under the distant streetlights, Lin Wu saw his face.

Qin Weidong.

In this ending, after 2004, they had never contacted each other again. There were no chance encounters. No amusement park trips. No plans to go skiing the next day.

When a new ending was formed, the old one disappeared. Everything connected to him shifted along with it.

This was not the Qin Weidong from six hours ago, the one wearing a rabbit-ear hat.

This was the Qin Weidong of the twentieth ending.

…

“According to normal time, first there is 2004, then 2005, then 2006, 2007…”

“But there’s a hidden line between them that we’ve ignored. That line is our future. The past of 2024 is made up of twenty years!”

“Have you ever thought about it? Those twenty years are real to the you in 2024!”

…

Those had been Qin Weidong’s words, the first time he learned about the spacetime messages back in 2004.

At the time, he had told Lin Wu not to start a new ending.

Because even if the outcome could be changed, living through those twenty years again and again was too cruel.

Lin Wu hadn’t cared.

He had seen too little love in his life. So he clung stubbornly to saving Luo Xiaorong and Wang Jiahui.

Even knowing the ending from the start, even if the process was filled with fear and uncertainty, he would still move forward.

The spacetime messages had always said this was both a new road and an old one. He was just walking a few extra paths. As long as the ending could be changed, it was worth it.

He had always believed himself to be resolute. Alone.

Until now, when he realized—

He had never been alone on this road.

When he reached each time node, he would gain the memories of past endings.

But for Qin Weidong, the moment he rewrote the timeline, all those memories turned to foam.

From the very beginning, Qin Weidong had known.

At that realization, a sharp pain gripped Lin Wu’s chest, so intense he could hardly breathe.

He suddenly remembered—just half an hour ago, he had still thought of himself as someone standing at the edge of a cliff, cautiously observing, carefully testing Qin Weidong’s feelings.

He let out a hollow laugh.

What observer on a cliff?

Did he even deserve that role?

He didn’t.

In that moment, he felt ashamed of himself.

He had treated each ending as a fresh beginning.

But for Qin Weidong in the previous ending—

Each time had been an end.

Lin Wu thought of the little mermaid from fairy tales.

He wiped the window again and again until the car below became slightly clearer.

Inside sat a man—

A merman.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.