Ch 60: Text Messages Across Time

“Don’t have the memories of the new ending?” Qin Weidong froze for a moment.

“You know about this phone, right?” Lin Wu looked at the phone in his hand, then at him, asking cautiously.

He remembered that in the twentieth ending, Qin Weidong had said he’d sensed something off about the unknown number from the very beginning, even guessed it might be his future self.

“I know. You’re the unknown number. At each new endpoint, you regain memories of the previous endings. The last time we contacted 2024 was December 16, 2004, so today you should’ve recovered those memories.” Qin Weidong frowned. “You don’t remember anything?”

“Not the current timeline. My last memory stops at December 16 in high school, plus the previous twenty-one endings.” As Lin Wu spoke, his thoughts drifted back to last night—

Last night, after watching a movie with Qin Weidong in the theater, the surroundings shifted, and he returned to Xuhu Hotel, while also receiving the new ending and the memories of the night of December 16, 2004.

…

“Last night the unknown number sent a message. I opened a new ending…” Qin Weidong said at 10:00 p.m., December 16, 2004.

“What message?” Lin Wu was startled.

“They said Aunt Luo would have an incident on the night of the 17th. I tried to rewrite the outcome…”

The principle of these timelines was like this: if person A is going to eat beef noodles tomorrow, they haven’t eaten them yet now, but for the A twenty years later, it has already happened.

Before, Lin Wu was that “person A.” Changing Luo Xiaorong’s fate was like “tomorrow’s beef noodles.” He had always been the one pushing the outcome forward.

But after yesterday’s message, Qin Weidong didn’t tell him. He became “person A” himself.

“You should’ve told me.” Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu was upset. Acting without discussion felt like crossing a line, and risky.

“I just wanted to try. We’ll get the new ending today. If there’s no message or something’s off, we can still change things…” Qin Weidong explained quickly, knowing he was in the wrong.

He had already thought it through. The reset point was the 16th, and Luo Xiaorong’s incident was on the 17th. If they didn’t get a good result, they still had time.

Worst case, they could just stay with her every day and not let her go to work. No matter what, he wouldn’t let anything happen to Lin Wu’s mother.

“I just wanted to help you,” Qin Weidong added. He still remembered that ending where Lin Wu got caught up in the factory incident. He didn’t want that to happen again.

“I appreciate you lending me the phone. But something this important… I don’t want it to happen again.” Lin Wu understood his intentions, but still didn’t like how it was done.

“I promise. It won’t happen again!” Qin Weidong said seriously.

After that, Lin Wu sat down, organizing his thoughts about Luo Xiaorong’s case. Qin Weidong sat on the bed. Silence settled between them.

Qin Weidong stayed quiet, worried he had angered him. Lin Wu stayed quiet because everything had happened too suddenly.

At 10:12, the channel opened.

[Is there a new ending?] Lin Wu immediately sent.

[On the night of December 17, Qin Weidong went to the second factory building and was attacked, becoming a vegetative patient. Luo Xiaorong is safe. When attacked, Qin Weidong tore a pen cap from the killer. No fingerprints. Cold case. Based on previous details, the pen cap belongs to Sun Xiaotao, a factory gate guard. Combining details, the killer is very likely Sun Xiaotao…]

In 2024, Lin Wu received the memory and immediately relayed everything.

[Qin Weidong became a vegetative patient?] Lin Wu froze at the words.

[Yes. Like Wang Jiahui in the first ending.]

In that first ending, Wang Jiahui’s muscles atrophied rapidly. The unknown number didn’t describe details, but both of them understood what that meant.

Over the next ten minutes, they discussed what to do next. Then the channel closed.

“Thank you…” Lin Wu said after it ended, looking at Qin Weidong with mixed emotions.

“It’s nothing. I didn’t know I’d end up like that either…” Qin Weidong looked baffled, then added quickly, “Being in a vegetative state is like sleeping. No pain, no feeling. We’ll have a new ending tomorrow. Don’t overthink it.”

“…Mm.” Lin Wu answered softly.

…

“So Sun Xiaotao really is the killer?” Lin Wu asked in the 2024 hospital room, first concerned about the past.

“Yes,” Qin Weidong replied.

In endings seven through fifteen, the killer seemed to anticipate all their actions. Lin Wu had even followed Sun Xiaotao at one point, yet Luo Xiaorong still died, so they ruled him out.

In endings seventeen through nineteen, Zhao Fangli was arrested, and the killer had no intent to act.

In the twentieth and twenty-first endings, the killer acted again. But unlike the timelines where Lin Wu died, the killer didn’t anticipate Qin Weidong lying in wait. It was as if he had suddenly become less cautious.

“It’s not that he became careless,” Qin Weidong said quietly. “He just couldn’t be as careful as he was in the beginning anymore…”

Linking all the endings together leads to a reasonable conclusion:

In the original timeline, Zhao Fangli and Sun Xiaotao were acting together. Zhao Fangli targeted high school girls, while Sun Xiaotao targeted Luo Xiaorong. Their cooperation likely formed sometime between October 21 and November 20, the period between Li Jing’s attack and Luo Xiaorong’s incident.

After intervention, Zhao Fangli was arrested on October 21. At that point, she had not yet formed any partnership with Sun Xiaotao. That also explains why, no matter how the police interrogated her, she never admitted to having an accomplice—because there truly wasn’t one yet.

From October 21 to December 9, once the timeline where they would have collaborated was altered, Sun Xiaotao had no intent to kill. It wasn’t until December 9, when he saw Luo Xiaorong again and formed the intent, that everything that followed was set in motion.

“So you’re saying that in endings seven through fifteen, they were working together?” seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked after hearing the theory from his thirty-seven-year-old self.

“They both worked at the steel plant. Sun Xiaotao monitored the surveillance, and Zhao Fangli had freedom of movement. In theory, it’s feasible,” Lin Wu said.

He suspected that in those earlier timelines, Zhao Fangli carried out the attacks while Sun Xiaotao coordinated things.

Since Sun Xiaotao controlled the surveillance, he could see all routes leading to the crime scene. That would explain why, even when Lin Wu and Wang Manshan tried to set up an ambush, nothing happened that day.

Sun Xiaotao was extremely cautious. No matter how well they prepared, if he sensed even the slightest anomaly, he would abort the plan. For example, if he noticed someone entering a path and not coming out, or if he pretended to patrol while actually watching over Zhao Fangli’s surroundings—any of these were possible.

“This is all my analysis. I can’t say with absolute certainty that he’s the killer,” Lin Wu added.

“So tomorrow, do we continue the operation, or stop my mom from going to the factory?” the seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked.

“Continue,” Lin Wu answered without hesitation.

They already knew the killer’s timing, entry point, and method. If they gave up this chance, they might fall into another unfavorable timeline. More importantly, they didn’t know whether the time-message system might change again. If Luo Xiaorong’s death became a fixed point, everything would be irreversible.

“Okay!” the younger Lin Wu agreed. “Then what do we do?”

“Call the police.”

This time, the purpose of calling the police was similar to when Li Jing was attacked. But instead of sending an anonymous letter, Lin Wu would go in person.

…

“I’m here to see Officer Xu…” On the morning of the 17th, Lin Wu took leave from school and walked into the criminal investigation unit, looking tense.

“Which Officer Xu?” a staff member asked.

“Officer Xu Qingtao.”

“Captain Xu is out on business right now. You can register first,” the staff member said, taking out paper and a pen.

“Please call him and tell him three words: ‘wutong tree,’ ‘News Broadcast,’ and ‘mop.’ He’ll understand.”

“Huh?” The staff member found it strange, but Xu Lake was a small city, and regulations in 2004 weren’t strict. Seeing that Lin Wu didn’t seem like a troublemaker, he decided to make the call.

Xu Qingtao had just arrived in the county when he picked up.

“What is it?”

“Captain Xu, there’s a high school student here looking for you…” the staff member explained.

“Wutong tree, News Broadcast, mop?” Xu Qingtao shot up from his chair.

“Yes…”

“Is he still there? If he is, put him on the phone!”

“Okay!”

“Hello?” Lin Wu spoke.

“How do you know those words?” Xu Qingtao’s voice was urgent. Those were the key phrases from the prediction they had received before Zhao Fangli’s arrest.

“Officer Xu, do you have time? I’d like to speak in person. It’s urgent…”

“I do. Right now. Stay there, I’ll be there in about forty minutes!”

He immediately handed off his current work and drove back. The thirty-kilometer trip took him only half an hour.

“Where is he?” Xu Qingtao asked as soon as he entered.

“Officer Xu.” Lin Wu stood up.

Three minutes later, they were in a private office.

“How do you know those words?” Xu Qingtao asked sharply.

After receiving the anonymous letter, they had verified its predictions and followed its instructions to set up an ambush, successfully arresting Zhao Fangli. It had been a major case, and the details were classified.

As he spoke, he studied Lin Wu—a clean-cut, well-mannered student with a calm demeanor.

“Officer Xu, I received two strange letters…” Lin Wu took them out.

The handwriting was deliberately messy.

The first letter contained five predictions: TV broadcast errors, News Broadcast content, natural disasters.

The second predicted Luo Xiaorong’s death.

“I received the first letter yesterday morning. I thought it was a prank. But when I got home and watched the news replay, everything matched. Even a neighbor’s argument came true…”

Both letters were actually written by them. Before sending them, the three of them had discussed whether to remain anonymous or have Lin Wu come in person.

“I’ll go myself,” Lin Wu had decided.

Previously, they had used anonymous letters because if something went wrong, they could still rewrite the outcome. But Luo Xiaorong’s incident was set to happen tonight. Once that moment passed, there would be no turning back. Lin Wu had to know every detail of the police’s actions to ensure her safety.

“Captain Xu, the letter says my mom might be harmed tonight, and told me to come find you. I know this sounds strange, but yesterday’s predictions all came true. I’m really scared…” Lin Wu said, his tone tense in a way that fit a high school student.

Xu Qingtao studied the letter carefully. It listed the time and location of Luo Xiaorong’s possible attack and suggested that the killer might be Sun Xiaotao, describing him as cautious, familiar with surveillance, and likely to abort if anything seemed off. It also warned that any police deployment would need to be handled carefully.

At the end, the anonymous sender clarified that identifying Sun Xiaotao was only a hypothesis, hoping not to interfere with the investigation.

“Where did you receive this letter?” Xu Qingtao asked seriously.

“In my bicycle basket this morning before I left home.”

The surveillance cameras in their bike shed were broken, and with people constantly coming and going, it would be impossible to trace.

As for the first letter’s five predictions… they had written it themselves the night before, based on events that had already happened during the day, so everything could be verified without needing input from 2024.

With the credibility of the earlier letters, they believed the police would take this seriously.

“Xiao Liu, call everyone. Emergency meeting!” Xu Qingtao ordered immediately. Whether the predictions were real or not, a potential murder case meant they had to prepare as if it were.

All of this had happened earlier that day. Lin Wu, now without the new memories, didn’t remember any of it.

…

“How’s my mom?” Lin Wu asked, shifting his concern to Luo Xiaorong.

“Look at your phone,” Qin Weidong said, handing him the smartphone.

Lin Wu unlocked it. The wallpaper showed a photo of the three of them—him, Qin Weidong, and Luo Xiaorong. He and Weidong stood on either side, Luo Xiaorong in a white down jacket in the middle, all smiling brightly.

He opened the gallery and saw more photos, taken in January that year.

“Just like you predicted, the killer was Sun Xiaotao. He lured your mom away, but was arrested by the police who had already set up an ambush. In endings seven through fifteen, there were likely two killers. After Zhao Fangli was arrested, it became just him, so he couldn’t cover every angle like before…” Qin Weidong explained.

In truth, Sun Xiaotao had still been extremely careful. Without their preparation, he wouldn’t have been caught.

Lin Wu searched online for “2004 Xuhu steel factory murder.”

There were images of Sun Xiaotao being arrested.

He had been twenty-seven, his face stunned under the flashing lights, as if he didn’t understand why he was being taken away. The raincoat, boots, mask, and axe matched exactly what Lin Wu remembered from the fifteenth ending. There had also been a pen in his pocket—something he had casually carried from the guardroom and forgotten to remove when putting on the raincoat, leaving behind a crucial clue.

“He’s finally been caught…”

Lin Wu read further. Sun Xiaotao had been charged with attempted murder, which normally wouldn’t result in a long sentence. But during deeper investigation, the police discovered he had committed a murder eight years earlier—his own mother. Due to the severity, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and remained in prison.

After confirming that the killer had been caught and Luo Xiaorong was safe, Lin Wu finally felt a sense of relief.

With that resolved, he looked down at his leg.

“Why am I in the hospital?” This was the first time he had woken up somewhere other than a hotel.

“Half a month ago, you were hit by a drunk driver at your school. It was pretty serious, but you’re okay…” Qin Weidong said.

Though he spoke simply, Lin Wu could sense the tension behind it. He hesitated before asking, “What’s our relationship now?”

“We live together.”

After answering, Qin Weidong asked, “What are we like in the other endings?”

“Except for the fifteenth and the previous one, we usually stopped contacting each other after you went abroad. I looked you up before—you always had a smooth life. I mostly worked at Jianghe University…” Lin Wu paused. “Does this timeline differ?”

“No…” Qin Weidong frowned slightly, wanting to ask why they lost contact, but stopped himself. Instead, he asked, “How are you feeling now? Does it affect your mood or life?”

“I’m fine. I’ve adjusted pretty well.” Lin Wu smiled faintly. If the time-message system was like a precise program, he felt like he’d encountered a bug. Like when Qin Weidong had lost his memory before, except this time he had only lost this timeline’s memories. His adult skills and social abilities were intact.

“That’s good. The accident happened at your school, so it’s classified as a workplace injury…” The crash had occurred around 8 p.m., caused by an outsider driving drunk into the campus. There was clear footage, and the driver had already been detained.

“You can go back to work once you recover.”

“So I don’t have to work for now,” Lin Wu said with a small laugh.

After chatting for a while, Lin Wu got ready to lie down and rest. Qin Weidong, meanwhile, took a folding bed from the corner, set it up, and lay down beside Lin Wu’s bed.

“You’re not going back?” Lin Wu asked, a little surprised. He didn’t know if they had a place in Jianghe, but Qin Weidong was tall, and sleeping like that couldn’t be comfortable.

“It’s fine. I sleep pretty well like this.” Qin Weidong lay on the folding bed, bending his legs so his feet wouldn’t hang off.

“Should we get a companion bed?” Lin Wu felt it looked too uncomfortable.

“There is one. I usually come after seven,” Qin Weidong replied.

“Why don’t you just sleep up here?” Lin Wu lifted the blanket, intending for them to share the bed.

“No need. I’m fine like this.” Qin Weidong waved it off and turned off the lights.

Lin Wu rested one hand outside the blanket, staring out the window. Even though he had lost his memory, he didn’t feel any panic or unease. It was… strangely calm.

Before going to sleep, he sent a message to 2004. The other side didn’t reply, probably still tied up with the investigation. After leaving a few coded lines they would both understand, he switched phones and went to sleep.

…

Early the next morning, Qin Weidong quietly washed up and got ready to leave for work. Before leaving, he almost leaned in to kiss Lin Wu, but seeing him still asleep, he stopped.

“I’m heading out. See you tonight,” he said softly.

“…Okay…” Lin Wu murmured sleepily.

At eight, the caregiver arrived. Lin Wu checked his medical records and learned he had already been hospitalized for half a month. Based on his recovery, he could be discharged the next day and continue resting at home.

He chatted with the caregiver for a bit, then had breakfast. After eating, he idly scrolled through his phone.

From messages and chat history, Luo Xiaorong and Wang Manshan were still living in Xuhu. Their homes were across from each other. Lin Wu had once tried to bring Luo Xiaorong to Jianghe, but she refused, and also didn’t want him staying home too long.

Luo Xiaorong and Hao Shuqin were close, just like in previous endings. They ran a bun shop together and lived happily. Lin Wu had arranged for a live-in helper. She was reliable, and Hao Shuqin would help if anything came up.

He usually went back every half month. There wasn’t much to worry about.

Since it had been late last night, he hadn’t called Luo Xiaorong. Now, he simply started a video call.

“Wuwu—” Luo Xiaorong was wrapping buns in the shop.

“Mom…” Lin Wu smiled. It really was her.

After chatting for ten minutes, he hung up and continued browsing his accounts—social media, shopping apps—trying to piece together traces of this life.

He was scrolling casually when one purchase record made him pause.

Item: condoms.
Purchase time: last month.

He scrolled further and found multiple purchases of the same item, along with other related things. The delivery address was a high-end residential complex near his school. Combined with Qin Weidong saying they lived together… that must be their place.

So…

They’d already gone all the way?

“…We’re adults. That’s normal…” Lin Wu tried to adjust his mindset.

Seventeen-year-old him would’ve been shocked, but now he was thirty-seven. Not completely amnesiac. He could… understand it.

He could accept that.

But then another question followed—

Between two men… who was on top?

He thought about Qin Weidong’s presence. Didn’t seem like the type to be on the bottom.

But himself… he didn’t like losing control. Personality-wise, he didn’t seem like he’d take that role either.

Up until now, he’d felt this timeline wasn’t too different from the others. But looking at those purchases—

Those missing twenty years of memory suddenly felt very, very important.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.