Author Archives: Thandar

Thud.

At the moment it struck 10:12, in a hotel in Xuhu in 2024, Lin Wu heard the bell ring in his mind right on time. New memories followed. The past unfolded like flickering scenes from a film, shifting rapidly, until he saw September 19.

That night, he tucked one lottery ticket into his English textbook and placed another in a drawer at home. He checked them every day until September 23.

At noon on the 23rd, he used the school’s public phone to call Hao Shuqin.

“Xiao Wu, is something wrong at home?” Hao Shuqin had just finished lunch and assumed something had happened to Luo Xiaorong.

“Everything’s fine. Is Uncle Wang there? And Huihui?” It was Sunday, so both Wang Manshan and Wang Jiahui should have been home.

“Your Uncle Wang is downstairs playing chess. Huihui went to her grandma’s and will be back tomorrow. You need your Uncle Wang? I’ll go get him!”

“No, don’t!” Lin Wu quickly stopped her. “Aunt Hao, I have something very important to tell you and Uncle Wang. I’ll come over at eight tonight. Please make sure you’re both home.”

“What is it?” she asked, curious.

“Very, very important. It concerns Huihui.”

“Alright!” Hao Shuqin agreed immediately. She knew Lin Wu’s personality, he wouldn’t use words like “very, very” lightly.

After hanging up, Lin Wu returned to class. School ended early that day. He spent three hours at the bookstore calming himself before heading to Hao Shuqin’s home.

“Your Uncle Wang bought some cold dishes and braised pork knuckle at the market. You haven’t eaten yet, right? Come eat first,” Hao Shuqin greeted him warmly as soon as he walked in.

Their home was ninety square meters. The table was already full of dishes. Wang Manshan sat on the sofa reading the newspaper, but when he saw Lin Wu, he stood up enthusiastically. “I also bought some stinky tofu, the old-style farmhouse kind. Take some home later.”

“Uncle Wang, Aunt Hao, I’ll serve myself,” Lin Wu said quickly, stepping forward to help. It was 7:50. He planned to wait until after dinner to avoid ruining their mood.

They ate together, chatting and laughing, then sat on the sofa. Hao Shuqin and Wang Manshan exchanged a glance before she spoke first.

“Huihui is dating someone, isn’t she?”

After Lin Wu’s call earlier, they had discussed it and assumed he had caught Wang Jiahui in an early relationship.

“We’ve been too busy with work lately and haven’t been paying attention. When she comes back, I’ll definitely talk to her about this!” Hao Shuqin said, already getting upset.

“Aunt Hao, you misunderstood. Huihui isn’t dating,” Lin Wu said quickly.

“Then what is it?” both of them asked, puzzled.

“I had a dream yesterday… In the dream, Huihui was murdered.” Lin Wu disguised the future messages as a dream and described the details of Wang Jiahui’s death.

“Xiao Wu… this…” Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin exchanged looks. To them, it sounded like stress-induced delusion. No one would take a dream seriously.

Lin Wu had expected that. Without hesitation, he took out the lottery ticket from his bag.

“Uncle Wang, Aunt Hao, what I’m saying is true. These are the lottery numbers from the dream. They’ll win tonight. The prize is five hundred thousand yuan.”

“There are lottery numbers in your dream?” They stared at the numbers: 02, 21, 25, 13…

It was a single set, as if completely certain.

“Uncle Wang, can we watch the education channel?”

It was 8:55. The drawing was in twenty minutes.

“Sure.” Wang Manshan switched to the channel, planning to talk some sense into Lin Wu afterward.

At 9:15, the lottery drawing began.

The red balls dropped one by one.

They didn’t take it seriously… until the first number appeared:

02

A match.

Then 21, 25, 13…

Six numbers in total. All but the last matched perfectly.

Bang!

Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin jumped to their feet, stunned.

“It… really hit?”

“Yes.” Lin Wu didn’t mention time travel or messages. He knew the “dream” was enough.

Over the next half hour, he explained the three possible outcomes for Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong. Then he said:

“The killer isn’t random. Even if we change the timing, they will still die.”

“How could this happen… Huihui is still so young…” Hao Shuqin broke down in tears. Earlier she had dismissed it as nonsense. Now that it was real, it felt like someone was cutting into her heart.

She even called her parents just to hear Huihui’s voice before calming down.

“I hope we can leave Xuhu together,” Lin Wu said at last. You can’t guard against a thief forever. He refused to gamble any longer.

He had expected resistance.

Instead, Hao Shuqin made the decision instantly:

“We’re leaving too!”

Huihui was everything to her.

She turned to Wang Manshan.

“The factory has a ten-year project with Shenhai. They need one technician. I’ll apply,” Wang Manshan said, lighting a rare cigarette. Translated on Hololo novels. The job was over two thousand kilometers away, which was why no one else wanted it.

“Good!” The three of them spent the whole night planning the move.

---

Back in 2024, Lin Wu’s memories continued to replay.

He saw himself claim the five hundred thousand yuan, split it in half after taxes, and give half to Wang Manshan. Wang refused at first, but eventually accepted it as a loan.

Wang Manshan quickly secured the job. He and Wang Jiahui withdrew from school.

“Why are we moving?” Wang Jiahui asked, completely confused.

“Your father got a new job. We’re going to Shenhai,” Hao Shuqin explained simply.

On October 30, 2004, the five of them moved to Shenhai as quickly as possible. Their departure was extremely low-key, so much so that many employees at the steel plant didn’t even know they had left.

Housing was relatively cheap at the time. Each family spent 150,000 yuan to buy two adjacent apartments. Then came renovating, moving in, transferring schools… they adapted to the new environment at the fastest pace.

November 19 passed. Wang Jiahui was not harmed. They safely made it through December 2, December 15, December 17, and all the other critical dates.

In September 2005, Lin Wu was admitted to Jianghe University with outstanding results. Wang Jiahui’s grades weren’t strong, so she pursued dance and was admitted to Shenhai Dance Academy in September 2007.

After arriving in Shenhai, Luo Xiaorong worked at a bun shop near their residential complex. In 2009, Hao Shuqin became dissatisfied with her job and resigned. Coincidentally, the bun shop was up for transfer. The two families took it over together. Hao Shuqin proved highly capable in business, handling finances, while Luo Xiaorong made buns when she felt like it, and relaxed in the shop when she didn’t. She lived happily.

After ten years, the small twenty-square-meter shop had grown into a two-thousand-square-meter business with thirty employees. Wang Manshan continued working at the steel plant, and perhaps because of the change in environment, his career flourished. He became a technical director, frequently attending conferences and even went abroad for a month last year. He seemed younger and more energetic.

The outcome after leaving was so good it felt like a dream.

---

In 2024, at a hotel in Xuhu, Lin Wu watched all of this unfold in his refreshed memories and couldn’t help but smile.

But the next second, the smile vanished.

January 2005.

He saw “himself” reading a newspaper. The headline read:

“December 28, 2004: A second-year high school girl in Xuhu was murdered after school. This marks the third murdered high school girl in Xuhu. Police confirm it is a serial killing case…”

After December 28 came January, then March, then September… the number of cases rose from five to nine. The case remained unsolved.

“How could this happen…”

At that moment, a surge of overwhelming emotion hit him: shock, disbelief, guilt, pain.

In the original ending, the victims were A, B, Wang Jiahui, C, D.

In the second and third endings: A, B, Wang Jiahui, Luo Xiaorong, C, D.

Now, in the fourth ending: A, B, E, F, C, D, G, H, I.

Nine victims. Five entirely new.

Memory was like a constantly refreshing film.

He saw himself in July 2005 standing near victim C’s home. She was cheerful and lively. He wanted to warn her, but he had no evidence and didn’t dare. Translated on Hololo novels. Every action he took was like the flap of a butterfly’s wings, he feared making things worse.

He watched her silently, trying to find the killer.

He failed.

In the original timeline, victim C died in July 2005. After Wang Jiahui’s fate changed, C’s death shifted to September, an impossible time to predict.

“There’s still a chance…” Lin Wu murmured.

The present and the past were already entangled. The chance he spoke of was simple:

Nineteen years later, the 2005 version of himself would obtain the phone again, reconnect with the past, and rewrite everything.

The Lin Wu of 2005 would reach the same conclusion.

---

Over the next twenty years, “Lin Wu” lived carefully.

On August 18, he returned to Xuhu after an academic conference. In the original timeline, Hao Shuqin had taken her own life on that day. Now, she was alive and well.

He found the phone in the old apartment. It had been a birthday gift from Luo Xiaorong when he turned eighteen. He had never turned it on and had left it under the bed during the summer of 2005.

He brought it back to the hotel.

He had already seen the messages from September 5 to 19 and knew the internet café fire would happen. He waited.

On the night of September 5, the message appeared:

“Yueyang Road Xingxing Internet Café. Help me reserve two computers. I’ll arrive at 10:30.”

He tried to reply.

But he couldn’t type.

Three minutes later, the phone responded automatically:

“Didn’t Xingxing Internet Café close down twenty years ago?”

Watching the words appear on their own, Lin Wu suddenly understood something:

“Once a move is made, it cannot be undone.”

“Making a move” didn’t just refer to events in 2004.

It also referred to the messages sent in 2024.

The moment they were sent, they belonged to 2004.

From that point on, they could not be changed.

Over the next half month, every message auto-completed exactly as before. Even if he turned off the phone or removed the battery, the messages reappeared when it was turned back on.

Whether he had the phone or not in 2024 no longer mattered.

The messages already existed in 2004.

They were fixed.

Even destroying the phone or ending his own life would not change them.

2004 and 2024 were two timelines moving in parallel.

Every message sent was a move.

And once made, it could never be undone.

---

Ten seconds later, Lin Wu finished processing the new memories. They were neatly separated, not overlapping.

He rubbed his temples and reached for water.

At that moment, his phone rang.

Caller: Hao Shuqin.

Before answering, he caught sight of his phone’s wallpaper.

It was a photo of him and Luo Xiaorong.

In the photo, she wore a blue down jacket with a fluffy hat, her face marked slightly by time, smiling brightly.

This version of her had never existed in the previous three endings.

Lin Wu answered.

“Xiao Wu, how’s the house in Xuhu coming along? When are you coming back? Going straight to Jianghe, or stopping by Shenhai first?” Hao Shuqin’s voice was cheerful and full of life, a voice he had never heard in any of the previous endings.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Next

“Will leaving really rewrite everything?” the seventeen-year-old Lin Wu asked.

“It’s the simplest and fastest method,” the thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu replied.

If the tragedies of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were a tangled knot of threads, then leaving was a pair of scissors. Unless the killer could follow them to wherever they went, he could not think of any reason they would still be harmed. And if they were, it would further narrow down the suspect. No matter how he looked at it, this was the best option.

“Alright!” Lin Wu carefully memorized the lottery numbers, then sent another message:
“I have a question. Can you guess what it is?”

At a hotel in Xuhu, the thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu smiled.
“The pink pom-pom hanging from the pink backpack.”

At 8:30, Lin Wu stood at the school gate holding milk tea and cake, waiting for Lide students to be dismissed. While he waited, he tried to find flaws in the logic of his “future self.” When the dismissal bell rang, he watched the students stream out and thought to himself:
“If you really are me from twenty years later, remember this mark.”

He looked up just in time to see a short-haired girl unlocking her bicycle. She wore a Lide uniform and carried a pink backpack with a pink pom-pom hanging from it.

In his mind, he said:
“The mark is the pink pom-pom.”

All of this had been silently thought, never spoken aloud. If the other side could truly refresh his seventeen-year-old memories, then they would know the mark.

Now, seeing those four words, “pink pom-pom,” the last trace of doubt in Lin Wu’s heart disappeared.
The other side really was him, twenty years later.

“You had 125 yuan on you today. When buying the cake, you hesitated between vegetable cream and animal cream. The difference was twenty yuan, and you chose the animal cream cake. Lin Wu, you can question and test me all you want. I’ll answer seriously, because your doubts and tests are the same choices I once made,” the thirty-seven-year-old continued.

At 10:27, the messages stopped. Lin Wu double-checked the lottery numbers, made sure nothing was missing, and deleted the chat history.

“Thanks.” He tapped Qin Weidong’s blanket.

“All done?” Qin Weidong pulled it off, voice normal. Clearly, he hadn’t been asleep.

“All done.” Lin Wu hesitated, then asked sincerely, “I still have some things to handle. Can I borrow your phone again later?”

He had actually considered buying the phone outright, but it was clearly expensive and still had Qin Weidong’s SIM card in it. No matter how he phrased it, it would sound strange, so he wisely didn’t ask.

“Whatever,” Qin Weidong said, clearly expecting this.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu let out a breath, then added, “Should I pay for the messages?”

“Do I look like I care about a few cents?” Qin Weidong raised an eyebrow, then pointed at the empty milk tea cup on the table. “Next time you borrow my phone, just bring me a milk tea.”

“What kind do you like?” Lin Wu immediately relaxed.

“Pearls, coconut jelly, red beans, anything. And three-tenths sugar. I don’t like it too sweet.”

“Got it.” Lin Wu memorized it carefully.

Before coming, he had already called Hao Shuqin to ask her to look after Luo Xiaorong since he would be back late. Translated on Hololo novels. She had agreed without hesitation, just like the times before.

“I’ll head back now,” Lin Wu said. It was 10:35.

“How are you getting back?” Qin Weidong asked.

“I’ll take a taxi.” It was too late for buses.

Qin Weidong glanced outside. It was pitch black and quiet.

“I’ll walk you out.” He pulled on a jacket and got out of bed.

“You don’t have to,” Lin Wu said, surprised.

“Just to the gate.”

He hadn’t even changed much, just threw on a pair of loose pants over his sleepwear, clearly just being polite.

“Thanks…” Lin Wu hesitated, then added, “You’re still sick. Won’t the cold air make it worse?”

“It’s fine. I’ve been lying around for two days. I need some fresh air.”

Lin Wu didn’t argue further.

Ten minutes later, they reached the dorm entrance. Most of the campus lights were off, with only a couple of warm motion-sensor lamps glowing faintly.

“Did you get sick the day before yesterday?” Lin Wu suddenly asked.

Only now did he realize Qin Weidong had been perfectly fine when he first saw him, but now looked weak. It was very likely he had gotten sick back then.

“Is it serious?” Guilt crept into Lin Wu’s voice.

“It’s not because of that. I was already catching a cold. Seasonal change hits me hard,” Qin Weidong said casually.

Lin Wu nodded. They were still essentially strangers, so there wasn’t much more he could say.

At 10:50, they reached the school gate. The guard refused to let students out, but Qin Weidong slipped him a pack of cigarettes and explained Lin Wu wasn’t from the school. The guard reluctantly let him pass.

At the gate, Lin Wu hailed a taxi. “I’m heading out.”

“Mm. See you.” Qin Weidong waved.

The taxi drove off quickly. Qin Weidong watched it disappear, about to head back, when a thought struck him. Lin Wu’s neighborhood was dark and eerie, like something out of a horror film. At this hour, would he be alright alone?

He told himself Lin Wu was grown and would be fine. Then thought again, the guy had just bought him milk tea and cake. If something really happened, he might end up giving a statement at the police station.

He hesitated for only a moment before flagging down another taxi and following after him. With the roads nearly empty at night, the driver stepped on the gas and quickly caught up.

“Kid, you got a problem with the car up ahead?” The taxi driver, about forty, glanced at Qin Weidong, who was bundled up like a dumpling and wearing a gloomy expression, clearly worried about getting dragged into some teenage fight.

Qin Weidong couldn’t be bothered to explain. “That’s my girlfriend in the car ahead. I’m catching her cheating.”

“Ohhh, I see!” The driver’s eyes lit up instantly. He wanted to ask for more details, but seeing Qin Weidong’s unwillingness to talk, he held himself back and sighed, “Ah, to be young again.” He couldn’t even remember what he’d been like at that age.

Lin Wu’s taxi drove ahead, with Qin Weidong following behind.

Lin Wu sat in the back seat. He took out a pen and paper from his bag and quickly wrote down the numbers from earlier. His memory was good enough to retain them after one pass, but he preferred to be thorough.

At 11:20, Lin Wu paid and got out.

Qin Weidong followed, ignoring the driver’s confused look of “how did catching your cheating girlfriend turn into following a guy,” paid his fare, and got out as well. On the dark road, he kept about twenty meters behind Lin Wu, moving quietly and steadily. Only after Lin Wu went upstairs and the light in the third-floor apartment turned on did he finally relax and leave.

On the way back, Qin Weidong sneezed loudly, feeling like the weather was getting colder and colder.

---

The next day, Lin Wu went to school as usual. By noon, he slipped out the gate at the first chance. Once outside, he took off his school uniform, changed into a rarely worn jacket, and put on a mask and cap. Then he headed to a lottery shop far from school, one without surveillance cameras.

The place was barely ten square meters, cluttered, with a white computer and walls covered in lottery trend charts.

The clerk was watching TV and, seeing how young Lin Wu looked, casually asked, “What are you buying?”

There were various lotteries available: Double Color Ball, Seven Star, Gold and Silver Lottery. Double Color Ball had gone nationwide just last year and was very popular. Lin Wu answered without hesitation, “Double Color Ball.”

“How many sets?”

“Five.” To avoid looking suspicious, he planned to buy one winning set and four random ones.

He purchased the five sets separately. After finishing, he went to another shop without cameras and did the same: one winning set and four random ones.

The Double Color Ball prize was fixed per ticket. No matter how many tickets were bought, each winning ticket would still pay five hundred thousand yuan and wouldn’t affect other winners. He bought two tickets simply as insurance in case one got lost or damaged.

One ticket would go in his schoolbag, the other at home.

Lin Wu carefully stored them.

---

That evening, he didn’t skip night study. After school at 8:30, he first went in the opposite direction to buy a milk tea with 30% sugar, then headed to Lide.

Both schools had blue uniforms. Translated on Hololo novels. The pants looked similar, but the tops were different. As he approached, he took off his uniform top and stuffed it into his bag, then followed some boarding students going out to buy food and slipped into the school. The guard on duty was different today and only glanced at him, not realizing he was an outsider.

Lin Wu entered easily, feeling a surge of excitement.

If 2004 could influence 2024, then now that he had bought the tickets, would a new outcome begin from this point?

He followed his memory to Qin Weidong’s dorm, eager to find out.

He knocked. The door opened.

Three seconds later—

“Brother Qin? He had a fever last night. A driver picked him up early this morning. We tried calling him but couldn’t reach him. He’s probably at the hospital, or maybe back home,” Gao Mingming said, holding a washbasin, about to head to the washroom. He looked a bit surprised to see Lin Wu.

---

At 9:50, Lin Wu caught the last bus home.

Once he got back, Luo Xiaorong relaxed and went to sleep. He washed up briefly, lay on his bed, and thought about what had just happened.

After leaving Lide earlier, he had found a phone booth nearby and called Qin Weidong. He hadn’t gotten the number from Gao Mingming, he had memorized it during their third meeting, just in case. Yesterday he hadn’t needed it, but today he did.

The result was exactly as Gao Mingming said. No one answered.

Aside from borrowing the phone, he was also genuinely worried about Qin Weidong’s condition. After all, the other had helped him quite a bit lately.

His thoughts drifted aimlessly before settling on the clock on his desk.

10:10.

Two minutes before the memory refresh from twenty years later.

With nothing to do, he watched the second hand tick forward, second by second.

Until it reached 10:12.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

“Brother Qin, I’m at the third cafeteria right now. They’ve got millet porridge, egg drop soup, wraps, and buns. What do you want? I’ll bring it back for you.” At 8:20, in the dining hall of Lide High’s third cafeteria, Hu Wei asked over the phone. There were still ten minutes before dismissal. He had snuck out and couldn’t leave campus.

“Not eating.” In the dorm, Qin Weidong replied gloomily. Ever since coming back from the residential compound two days ago, he had caught a cold. Maybe it was the change of seasons. He’d taken medicine, but instead of improving, he felt worse.

“You haven’t eaten all day. At least have something,” Hu Wei urged.

“Don’t feel like it. Just get your own.” Qin Weidong’s voice was hoarse. After speaking, he hung up.

The school hadn’t dismissed yet. The dorm and the outside were quiet. He didn’t turn on the light. Only a faint warm glow from the streetlights seeped through the curtains.

He pulled the blanket tighter around himself and opened last night’s chat log—

【I helped you contact Lin Wu. The fire!!!】
He had sent that message right at 10:12 the night before.

After they reconnected, the other side had always replied instantly. But this time, one minute, two minutes… even after ten minutes, there was still no response.

“That’s not right…” He thought maybe his phone was acting up. Just as he was about to remove the battery to restart it, the inbox lit up—

【Sorry. Please give me some time. I’ll tell you about the fire.】

On the other end, Lin Wu had just refreshed the memory of both Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong being killed. His thoughts were in chaos, and he couldn’t respond coherently.

Qin Weidong: !!!

Already irritated from being sick, Qin Weidong instantly got angry when he saw that message.

He thought about how he had rushed over to the residential compound, then to the bookstore, then back to the compound… how he had waited there for three hours, then stood in the cold wind at the gate waiting for a ride. That was probably why he got sick.

All of it was because he believed the line “I can tell you why I knew.” He had done his part. But the other side—

【Liar！！！！！！！！！！】 he sent furiously.

On the other end, Lin Wu knew he had broken his promise. His mind was a mess, and he needed time to sort things out.

【Sorry. I’ll tell you as soon as possible.】

【How long is “as soon as possible”?】 Qin Weidong sneered.

【At most five days.】

…

Qin Weidong ended the conversation angrily. He wanted to go find Lin Wu and get answers, but he was sick. He didn’t even have the energy to leave the dorm, so he had no choice but to put it aside.

At 8:30, the dismissal bell rang, and the hallway instantly became noisy. Irritated, Qin Weidong silenced his phone, shoved it under his pillow, put on an eye mask, and tried to sleep.

Some roommates came back, but knowing he was sick, they didn’t disturb him. After tidying up a bit, they grabbed a deck of cards and went to the next dorm to play.

Outside was lively. Inside was quiet.

Qin Weidong felt aches all over. He couldn’t even tell where exactly, just that his whole body felt off.

He forced himself to sleep. In a haze, someone poked his arm through the blanket.

He frowned and ignored it. The person poked him again.

“I’m sleeping!” Qin Weidong snapped, pulling off his eye mask. He thought it was Hu Wei trying to drag him out to play.

But when he looked, there was a “stranger” standing by his bed.

Slim build. Straight nose. Pale skin.

It was Lin Wu.

“Why are you here?” Qin Weidong was momentarily confused. How was Lin Wu in his dorm?

“Brother Qin, this guy was asking about you at the school gate. I called you but you didn’t answer, so I brought him in,” Gao Mingming said, entering with a wrap in hand.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Lin Wu had tried to enter after Lide dismissed. But the gate guard stopped him when he realized Lin Wu wasn’t a student there. So he waited outside and asked around for Qin Weidong.

He got lucky. After asking a few people, he ran into Gao Mingming, who was in the same dorm as Qin Weidong. Translated on Hololo novels. At first, Gao Mingming thought Lin Wu might be there to cause trouble, but Lin Wu didn’t look the type. And besides, this was Lide’s home turf. No one would come alone to start something.

After checking Lin Wu’s bag to make sure he wasn’t carrying anything dangerous, Gao Mingming lent him a school uniform and smuggled him in.

“Brother Qin, you two know each other, right?” Gao Mingming asked. He had gone to deliver a wrap to the next dorm and came back half a minute later than Lin Wu.

“We do…” Qin Weidong gradually came back to his senses.

“Qin, I brought you some desserts. Do you have an appetite?” Lin Wu had heard on the way that Qin Weidong had a cold and wasn’t sure if he could eat sweets.

“I’ll have the milk tea…” Qin Weidong glanced at what he was holding and picked something.

Lin Wu placed everything on the shared desk, took out the milk tea, inserted the straw, and handed it over.

Qin Weidong took a sip.

“Brother Qin, I’m heading to the next dorm to play cards. Call me if you need anything,” Gao Mingming said. Seeing that they weren’t about to fight, he changed his shoes and ran off.

In an instant, only Lin Wu and Qin Weidong were left in the room.

Qin Weidong sat up. He was tall, his head only half a fist away from the ceiling. He wore light blue pajamas and was covered with a cartoon blanket. After lying in bed all day, his hair was a mess.

He didn’t realize how he looked. Putting on a serious tone, he asked, “Why did you come?”

“Can I borrow your phone for a bit?” Lin Wu said, stating his purpose.

“To send a message?” Qin Weidong had already guessed while drinking the milk tea.

“Yeah.” Lin Wu nodded.

“Who is that unknown number?” Qin Weidong asked casually.

“He didn’t tell you?” Lin Wu asked.

Qin Weidong lied smoothly, “He did.”

“If he did, why ask me?”

“I just want to confirm.”

“It’s exactly what he said.”

Qin Weidong: …

Seeing how airtight Lin Wu’s answers were, Qin Weidong had no choice but to admit, “He didn’t say.”

“It’s a bit complicated to explain. You can wait for his reply,” Lin Wu said. He wasn’t sure whether revealing the “twenty years later” explanation would cause further changes, so he chose not to say it.

“If you don’t tell me, I won’t lend you my phone!” Qin Weidong threatened.

“This message is very important to me. I really need it.” Lin Wu pressed his lips together, looking at him seriously.

“It’s really important. I hope you can help me.” He emphasized it again.

“Alright, alright, alright!” Qin Weidong had already decided to lend the phone while drinking milk tea. He had only meant to joke around, but Lin Wu’s seriousness made him feel like he was bullying him.

Qin Weidong took out his phone. There were three missed calls on it, all from Gao Mingming around 8:40. Seeing nothing important, he tossed it over. “Last time.”

“I’ll try.” Lin Wu opened the chat with the unknown number. He noticed Qin Weidong had saved it simply as “Unknown Number,” and there were a few more messages than before.

“Can I look?” Lin Wu asked.

“Go ahead.” Qin Weidong felt he had nothing to hide. If anything, Lin Wu and that unknown number seemed like they were plotting something big.

He took another sip of milk tea. It had been bought around eight and was still slightly warm. Translated on Hololo novels. Maybe it just tasted good, because as he drank, he gradually felt less annoyed. When he finished, he noticed Lin Wu was still standing there.

“Find a place to sit,” Qin Weidong said, pointing at the lower bunks.

“I’m fine standing.” With the owner not there, Lin Wu didn’t want to intrude on someone else’s personal space.

“So troublesome…” Qin Weidong seemed to read his thoughts. He pointed at a chair by the table. “That chair’s mine. Toss the clothes on it into the blue basin under the bed and sit there.”

It was a beige sofa chair that looked very comfortable, currently covered with a pair of blue jeans and some socks.

Seeing there was still half an hour left, Lin Wu didn’t refuse. He bent down to move the clothes—

“Wait!” Qin Weidong suddenly stopped him when he noticed the socks.

“What is it?” Lin Wu looked up.

“I’ll do it myself.” Qin Weidong quickly climbed down, stuffed the clothes into the basin, and shoved the socks deep inside.

“Sit,” he said when he was done.

“…Thanks.” Lin Wu sat on the chair. It was even more comfortable than it looked.

Qin Weidong used some hand sanitizer, then sat on the bed beside him, glancing at the cake and cream puffs on the table. “What flavors are these?”

“Chocolate and original. I didn’t know what you’d like.”

“They’re fine.” Qin Weidong grabbed a cream puff. It was filled with plenty of cream. After eating two, he casually asked, “Did you eat dinner?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you have?”

“Stone flatbread and millet porridge.”

“Full?”

“More or less.”

The cake Lin Wu bought was about four inches, and the shop had included a knife and plate. As he listened, Qin Weidong casually cut it in half, kept one half, and pushed the other toward Lin Wu. “I can’t finish it. Let’s share.”

“You could save it for tomorrow,” Lin Wu said, a little surprised.

“Cake tastes bad overnight. The others don’t like cream anyway,” Qin Weidong muttered, taking a bite.

“Thanks.” Lin Wu didn’t like wasting food, so he picked up a fork and started eating.

They ate quietly, with only the ticking of the desk clock in the background. As Qin Weidong ate, he kept glancing over. Lin Wu didn’t eat cake often, and with nothing else to do, he was eating slowly and carefully.

Comparing the two, Qin Weidong felt like one of his bites equaled three of Lin Wu’s.

“What is it?” Lin Wu noticed his gaze.

“So… you really can’t say?” Qin Weidong leaned closer, still unwilling to give up on asking about the unknown number.

Lin Wu: …

“Wait for him to tell you.”

“Alright…” Qin Weidong said, a little disappointed.

At 10:10, the two of them finished eating. Now they were only half a meter apart. Lin Wu glanced at the time and was about to step out into the hallway to find a quiet place to reply to messages when Qin Weidong suddenly stood up.

“I’m going up to sleep for a bit. Wake me when you’re done texting.”
With that, he climbed onto the top bunk in a long, easy motion, deliberately turning so he wouldn’t be facing Lin Wu.

“Okay…” Lin Wu let out a quiet breath of relief.

At 10:12, the moment the second hand hit zero, Lin Wu sent first:
【Soy milk, sliced steamed bun, alone.】
That was his breakfast today.

The reply came:
【Stir-fried eggs with green peppers, two liang of rice.】
That was Lin Wu’s lunch.

It felt strangely surreal, as if there were someone on the other end perfectly in sync with him.
If that person was himself twenty years later, then of course they would be.

“What about the outcome?” Lin Wu asked, getting to the point. Translated on Hololo novels. According to the unknown number’s theory, what he did in 2004 would affect 2024. He already knew about the three dates: 11.19, 12.15, 12.17. By that logic, the future should have changed…

“It changed,” the other side replied.

Relief washed over Lin Wu, but before he could ask further, another message came—

“On November 19, you warned Wang Jiahui and walked her home after school. Her fate changed. But then on December 2, Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were both killed. Their bodies were found near the artificial lake in the eastern suburbs…”

“Why were they killed?!” Lin Wu’s face turned deathly pale.

“The police concluded it was the same killer as in the previous Xuhu cases.”

“Wasn’t it random?”

“It’s not.” Although the time and place changed in Outcome 3, Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong still died. After comparing all three outcomes, he was certain it wasn’t random.

“Should we keep interfering with December 2?” Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu bit his lip, forcing himself to stay calm.

“It may not change much.” Even if they interfered with December 2, it might just happen on December 3, or December 4… Unless they could stay with them every second, it was like a blade that could fall at any moment.

“There has to be another way…” Lin Wu was about to ask more when a string of numbers came through:

【02.21.25.13.19.09.15】

Then a long message followed—

【These are the winning numbers for the Double Color Ball lottery on September 23. The prize is 500,000 yuan. Lin Wu, buy this ticket, take Luo Xiaorong and Uncle Wang’s family, and leave Xuhu City. Tell them in advance you’ll win, and they’ll believe you.】

【Go as far away as possible. It would be best if you never come back.】

【Being able to connect like this is already a kind of luck. I don’t know if that luck comes with a cost. So if the outcome can be changed, I hope you’ll repay this 500,000 yuan later in life, as gratitude for the new life fortune has given you…】

…

The world was vast. Xuhu was small.

If the tragedy of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong couldn’t be stopped directly, then he would stop gambling with fate altogether.

The thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu had the means to take everyone away. The seventeen-year-old version did not. He needed money. He needed a reason strong enough for Wang Manshan to agree to leave with him.

He needed to obtain a large sum quickly.

Buying a lottery ticket at seventeen was legal, but using the foresight of his thirty-seven-year-old self to guarantee a win felt unfair. So he chose the Double Color Ball, where prizes are independent, so even if he was the “butterfly,” it wouldn’t affect anyone else’s winnings.

His wish was simple. As long as Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong could live, that was enough.

He would treat it as borrowing from the future, and he would repay that fortune in time.

In 2024, the thirty-seven-year-old Lin Wu closed his eyes.

He told his seventeen-year-old self:

Leave. As soon as possible.
And never come back.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Lin Wu thought about it all night and only fell asleep around three in the morning. The next day at school, there were dark circles under his eyes.

His deskmate, Li Jing, was also a top student. The two of them rarely spoke outside of studying. She had been absent the day before, and when she saw his condition today, she was startled. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I’m fine…” Lin Wu tried not to think about the messages from the future, but during class his mind kept drifting back. He ended up writing three sets of numbers in his notebook: 11.19, 12.15, 12.17.

Based on his own personality, after learning about the two “car accidents” on September 9, whether he believed it or not, he would definitely remind Wang Jiahui on November 19, just in case. If Wang Jiahui really died, then he would believe the messages, and on December 15 he would stay by Luo Xiaorong’s side the entire time. She would avoid the car accident, only to be killed two days later…

The logic was perfectly consistent, but only if the messages were real.

He absentmindedly clicked his pen. Aside from the absurdity of “his future self” and “messages across time,” he couldn’t find any flaws for now. According to the theory that “2004 influences 2024,” since he already knew Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong would be killed, did that mean there would be new changes twenty years later?

Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu didn’t yet have the maturity of his thirty-seven-year-old self, but many of their thinking patterns were the same. He spiraled deeper into thought until his deskmate nudged him lightly with the corner of her book.

“What is it?” Lin Wu looked confused.

“The teacher’s calling on you,” she whispered.

It was chemistry class. Only then did Lin Wu realize the teacher had asked him to solve a problem, and he had been unresponsive. Several classmates were already looking his way. Translated on Hololo novels. He had previewed this type of question before. Steadying himself, he went up and solved it quickly. The day passed in a daze.

That evening, after returning home, Lin Wu went downstairs to wash some clothes, then sat in the corridor, his mood complicated.

According to the prediction, Wang Manshan would win a rice cooker in a supermarket lottery today, and at ten o’clock that night, he would bring over five jin of autumn pears…

It felt unscientific, until footsteps echoed in the stairwell—

Tap, tap, tap.

Then—

Knock, knock.

Someone was at the door.

Lin Wu stiffly opened it. Outside, Wang Manshan was about to knock again. When he saw Lin Wu, he looked surprised. “That was quick.” He was holding a red plastic bag, his expression full of joy.

“Uncle Wang, what brings you here?” Lin Wu asked.

“Haha, I won a five-liter rice cooker in the supermarket lottery tonight! I’ve been in a great mood. Then I saw someone selling autumn pears outside, and your Aunt Hao mentioned this morning we should get some to moisten the lungs. Perfect timing! I bought a bunch and brought some for you.” Wang Manshan spoke as he pushed the bag of pears into Lin Wu’s hands.

Looking at the pears, Lin Wu said in a daze, “That’s some luck…”

“Right? It’s all thanks to your mom changing jobs!” Wang Manshan had been happy about the prize all evening. The cooker sold for 370 yuan.

“Uncle Wang, how did you win the lottery?” Lin Wu asked.

“Same as usual. There’s a big box at the service desk. Spend over 68 yuan and you can draw. Mine was first prize. They said there were only three. I just reached in and grabbed one.” Worried about delaying Lin Wu’s rest, Wang Manshan checked the time. “Your Aunt Hao is waiting at home, I’ll head back now!”

“Be careful on your way.”

“Got it. You go back in too!”

Humming a tune, Wang Manshan went downstairs.

Lin Wu stood there, staring blankly at the pears in his arms.

Winning the prize was uncontrollable. Buying the pears was also uncontrollable. That meant everything the unknown number said was true… The other side really was him from twenty years in the future.

In a daze, he looked at the clock on the wall. 22:12.

If what the other side said was true… then the memories of his future self had already refreshed.

…

Waking up, eating, answering a chemistry question…

At the Xuhu hotel in 2024, Lin Wu refreshed his 2004 memories exactly at 22:12. He clearly saw himself distracted in class, then going home, washing clothes, waiting for Wang Manshan to arrive. The moment Wang Manshan appeared with the pears, he knew that his younger self had believed the “unknown number.”

It was like a new starting point. After that, the memories flashed rapidly like slides. He couldn’t see anything involving his thirty-seven-year-old self, because those events hadn’t happened yet. What he saw instead was a new outcome branching from September 17—

On November 19, he got up early, found Wang Jiahui, and warned her to be careful. Then he waited outside Lide High to walk home with her. He stayed downstairs at Wang Manshan’s place until midnight. Only after the day passed safely did he leave.

Wang Jiahui was not killed. She continued her normal life, going to school like any other high school girl.

Her fate had changed.

He planned to guard Luo Xiaorong on both December 15 and December 17, just as he had done for Wang Jiahui. But before December 15 even arrived, on the evening of December 2, both Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong disappeared.

One was a minor, the other mentally impaired. The police immediately opened a case. The next morning, they were found by an abandoned artificial lake in the suburbs—

Both had been murdered.

“There’s no surveillance here. Based on the victims’ characteristics and fatal wounds, the perpetrator is likely the same as in the previous cases…” the police said heavily after their preliminary conclusion.

Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin cried until they were inconsolable. After that, everything followed the same path: Lin Wu got into university, and the couple later took their own lives.

Looking at this new ending, Lin Wu felt as if his heart was being crushed.

He thought of those words from the first change in outcome:

“A new path, and also an old one. Everything is changing. It may become better, or worse. Once a move is made, it cannot be undone.”

He began writing and calculating in his notebook. If the original ending was Outcome 1, then now there were:

Outcome 1: Wang Jiahui becomes vegetative, Luo Xiaorong dies in a car accident. (11.19, 12.15)
9.9 (Outcome 2): Wang Jiahui is murdered, Luo Xiaorong is murdered. (11.19, 12.17)
9.17 (Outcome 3): Both are murdered on the same day. (12.2)

…

These three outcomes were each worse than the last.

Lin Wu went back to the washroom. After the change leading to Outcome 3, he was still wearing the dark gray sleepwear, and his profession and life experiences remained unchanged.

He recalled the details after Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong were killed—

According to the police investigation, the killer who murdered them was the same person as in the first two cases. After this, the perpetrator committed additional crimes in 2005 and 2007, with the victims unchanged. Translated on Hololo novels. The police concluded that this was a series of random killings targeting high school girls. Luo Xiaorong had only been implicated because she was with Wang Jiahui. The case remained unsolved to this day.

Lin Wu wrote four words in his notebook:

“Not random…”

If there hadn’t been the first two outcomes, he would also have believed it was random. But with those as reference, even though the time and location changed, the ending remained the same, which meant the killer had targeted both of them long before.

If it was intentional murder, it could involve someone they knew. He ran through every possibility in his mind, but found no leads.

Unconsciously biting his lip, Lin Wu thought: today is September 17. There is still time.

Before his seventeen-year-old self contacts him, he must find a method that guarantees both of their safety.

He had already refreshed today’s memories. He was certain that his younger self would reach out.

…

2004, September 18.

Lin Wu arrived at school again with dark circles under his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Li Jing couldn’t help asking when she saw that he looked even worse than yesterday.

“I’m fine.” He had only fallen asleep at three the night before. After two consecutive nights like that, plus the pressure of studying during the day, he was mentally drained.

“Senior year is stressful, but you don’t have to push yourself this hard.” Li Jing tried to reassure him, inwardly marveling that he could still rank first despite this level of pressure.

“Thanks.” Lin Wu gave a small smile and took out his workbook to start doing problems.

At noon, he managed to nap for an hour. During the break before the second class in the afternoon, he went to the senior-year office.

His goal was simple: to request leave from one evening study session.

“You just took leave last week. Why are you asking again?” The homeroom teacher, a woman in her fifties, frowned.

“There’s something at home…” He had already asked around that morning. Evening study at Lide High also ran from seven to eight thirty. He planned to skip one session, go there, find the tall boy, and then contact his future self.

“Do you really have to take leave?” The teacher clearly disliked high-performing students skipping class.

“Yes.” Lin Wu nodded firmly.

“It’s your final year. Your focus should be on studying…” After a brief lecture, she sighed. “Go write a leave slip. Don’t let it happen again.”

“Thank you, teacher.” Lin Wu let out a breath of relief.

At six in the evening, school ended on time. It would take at most twenty minutes to get to Lide High. Their senior students also finished at six, with evening study starting at seven. He could go between six and seven, but since his goal was the ten o’clock messages, going too early would be pointless and might disrupt their study session. After thinking it through, he decided to wait until after their evening study ended.

He bought a stone-baked flatbread and a serving of millet porridge from a roadside stall, eating slowly until it was 6:40. He briefly thought he should attend half of his own evening study session, but since he had already taken leave, going back now felt awkward.

Standing by the roadside, he debated whether to find a well-lit place to review vocabulary when two girls passed by in front of him. They were holding milk tea, which looked very tempting.

Lin Wu was naturally cautious. He was now 99% certain the unknown number was his future self, but until he was completely sure, there was still that 1% of doubt.

That doubt came from his instinct to guard against the unknown. After all, within two days, he was being asked to accept that the world was not governed by normal rules, and that his closest loved one would die within three months… He needed time to process it.

So he needed a second confirmation. Before that, he could not fully trust that the boy had no ill intent.

This mindset might not be particularly easygoing, but he had no intention of changing it. He needed that caution to protect himself and Luo Xiaorong.

After standing there for a moment, Lin Wu turned and walked toward a milk tea shop ahead. It was in the opposite direction of Lide High. He lined up and bought a cup of milk tea, then went next door to a bakery and bought a slice of chocolate cake and a box of cream puffs.

His reasoning was simple:

No matter whether this was a prank or not, his relationship with the boy had already softened on the surface. Borrowing someone’s phone without any real connection required basic courtesy.

And if it turned out to be a prank in the end… then this would simply be a lesson he deserved to learn.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

【Is this Lin Wu.】

At the Xuhu hotel in 2024, after sending that message, Lin Wu stared at his phone. In his mind was the seventeen-year-old version of himself he had “seen” today.

From what he had figured out, every night at 22:12, his memories from age seventeen would refresh, covering everything from “last night” at 22:12 up to the present 22:12, like watching a documentary that had just happened.

Today, he saw himself going to school as usual, eating at a Sichuan restaurant with Wang Manshan’s family, even picking out Luo Xiaorong’s favorite blueberry yam for her… Everything was vivid, even sitting downstairs with the tall boy felt as fresh as if it had just happened.

Three seconds after sending the message, the reply came:

【Who are you?】

He had just “seen” his seventeen-year-old self sitting downstairs with the phone, but he wasn’t sure if anything had changed in those few seconds. After thinking for a moment, he asked:

【What did you eat this morning?】

Seventeen-year-old Lin Wu: ???

He found the question strange, but still replied:

【Millet porridge, tea eggs, and two vegetable buns.】

【Chive and egg?】

【Fennel and egg.】

【Are you the only one looking at the phone?】

Lin Wu was now certain the person holding the phone was himself.

【Yes.】

The younger Lin Wu didn’t want to keep answering meaningless questions and was about to ask something back when a new message appeared—

【I am you, twenty years from now.】

…

Downstairs in the 2004 residential compound, Qin Weidong and Lin Wu sat three meters apart, listening to the constant stream of message notifications. Lin Wu kept his head down, typing. His phone had a color screen, and from Qin Weidong’s angle, the glow made Lin Wu’s face look smaller.

“Still not done?” Qin Weidong didn’t have a phone to check the time, but it felt like ten minutes had passed.

“Almost…” Lin Wu pressed his lips together, typing seriously.

Qin Weidong grew irritated again when Lin Wu ignored him. “What time is it?”

“22:22.”

Lin Wu looked calm, but his mind was already a mess.

Ten minutes earlier, when the other side claimed to be his future self, his first reaction had been disbelief. But the other side seemed to understand his thought patterns perfectly and, before he could question anything, listed a series of private details only he would know. Childhood hiding spots during fights, his least favorite vegetables, even his habits when solving problems. Every single thing was correct.

“On my side, it’s September 16, 2024. Every night at 22:12, I refresh your memories from 2004,” the unknown number said.

“What did I write in my notebook during third-period math today?” Lin Wu asked.

“You drew a circle with a compass, then felt it wasn’t right to daydream in class, so you crossed it out. About twenty seconds between drawing and erasing.”

“What did I eat for lunch?”

“Tomato and egg, two liang of rice. You brought 7.2 yuan today. The meal cost 1.5.”

“You…”

“You’re wondering how I know so clearly, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I told you. I am you, twenty years from now.”

Lin Wu found it all too unbelievable. But he couldn’t explain how the unknown number knew everything so precisely.

His thoughts spiraled. At 22:25, a long message came through—

【Lin Wu, you must remember this:
On November 19, 2004, at 8 p.m., Wang Jiahui is killed.
On December 15, Luo Xiaorong is in a car accident.

This was the original timeline. On the night of September 9, after the tall boy told you the information, you tried to stop it, and the outcome changed:
November 19, Wang Jiahui is killed.
You prevented the accident, but on December 17, Luo Xiaorong is killed.

This is my mistake. I didn’t say Wang Jiahui was murdered, which led you to believe she only needed to watch traffic… Now both have become random murders. You must pay attention to these two times.】

【Tomorrow, September 17, 2004, Uncle Wang will win a rice cooker in a supermarket lottery. At 10 p.m., he will bring you five jin of autumn pears.】

【All of this is real. You must pay attention to these two times!】

…

In 2024, after sending all that, Lin Wu collapsed back into his chair, exhausted.

The memory for September 17 hadn’t refreshed yet, but in both timelines, “Luo Xiaorong changing jobs and celebrating a week later at a Sichuan restaurant” had not changed. He clearly remembered Wang Manshan winning the rice cooker the next day and insisting it was thanks to the “good fortune” of Luo Xiaorong’s new job.

Lin Wu knew that wasn’t true, but it had been one of his few happy memories in senior year, so it stayed vivid.

He checked the time. 22:28. The messages had stopped.

…

Back downstairs in the residential compound, Qin Weidong hadn’t heard any notification sounds for a while. He looked over.

“Still not done?”

Lin Wu stood up at that moment and handed the phone back. “Done.”

“Let me see.” Qin Weidong took it, wanting to read the chat, only to find everything had been deleted. Not just the chat, even the recycle bin was wiped clean.

“Deleted that thoroughly, huh…” Qin Weidong muttered.

He was about to joke when he noticed Lin Wu’s face was deathly pale, completely drained of color.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Qin Weidong startled. Then a thought struck him. “Did he threaten you?”

He remembered Lin Wu had been bullied before. Maybe the unknown number was one of those people.

“Who is this guy?!” Qin Weidong grew angry, feeling like he had helped the wrong person.

“No one threatened me.” Lin Wu tried to steady himself, then looked at him. “What’s your name?”

“Qin Weidong. Wei as in guarding the country, Dong as in east, west, south, north.”

“My name is Lin Wu.”

“I know.”

“You’re a high school student?”

“Yeah. Lide High, Class 2, senior year.” Qin Weidong hesitated, still worried. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine…” Lin Wu felt he should say thank you, but his thoughts were too tangled. He couldn’t even trust himself right now, let alone Qin Weidong. The words wouldn’t come out.

“It’s late. You should head back and rest.” Qin Weidong wanted to ask more about the unknown number, but seeing Lin Wu’s condition, he decided to drop it for now.

“I’ll walk you out,” Lin Wu said, putting away the cushion and stool.

“Just go home already! I’ll grab a taxi.” Qin Weidong seemed almost afraid of being seen off. He tightened his jacket and quickly left.

Lin Wu tried to follow, but Qin Weidong walked too fast. Translated on Hololo novels. Soon, only a red silhouette disappeared into the night.

Lin Wu stood there for a while, then picked up the stool and cushion, his mind still in chaos, and went home.

Inside, Luo Xiaorong was lying on the bed drawing. She looked up happily when she saw him. “Wuwu’s back?”

“I’m back.” Lin Wu changed into lighter clothes and sat beside her. She was drawing flowers with colored pens, something she loved to do.

Still restless, Lin Wu gathered her dirty clothes into the laundry basket and returned to his room.

He replayed the conversation in his mind, then thought of the final message—

【I don’t know why this connection between times appeared, or whether it will disappear. I will wait for you to believe me. The connection opens from 22:12 to 22:27. I’ll wait for you to contact me.】

He went over every detail again and again. Finding no flaws, a strange thought flickered through him—

Had he really just contacted himself from twenty years in the future?

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Previous

Qin Weidong wore a white hoodie today with a red jacket over it. The outfit wasn’t thin, but after waiting downstairs at Lin Wu’s place for two hours, with the cool breeze blowing, he was starting to feel cold.

He felt like he was looking for trouble. He had already decided to ignore the messages, but there were too many things about the unknown number that didn’t make sense. After thinking it over again and again, he decided to make one last attempt.

It was Sunday. No. 1 High School let out at three.

He made up his mind at five in the afternoon while playing basketball with Hu Wei and the others. Once he decided, he grabbed his jacket and left like a gust of wind. Translated on Hololo novels. He first took a taxi to Lin Wu’s home, but no one was there. After waiting a while, he went to the bookstore from last week, but it was empty too.

With no other choice, he returned downstairs to Lin Wu’s building and waited. From seven to eight, then nine. He cleared level after level on his Tetris game, while Lin Wu’s apartment remained dark.

“Damn it!” Qin Weidong was getting cold. He wanted to leave, but after waiting so long, it felt frustrating to go now.

After hesitating, he decided to keep waiting. Just then, his phone rang.

“Yeah?” It was Hu Wei. Qin Weidong answered casually.

“Brother Qin, we’re back at school. Why haven’t we seen you? When are you coming back?” Hu Wei and the others had just finished hot pot and were now lying comfortably on their dorm beds.

Hearing the relaxed tone on the other end, Qin Weidong replied faintly, “Probably around eleven.” It was seven kilometers back to school. He planned to wait another hour. If no one showed up by ten-thirty, he’d head back.

“That late?” Hu Wei sat up, curious. “Where did you go?” Qin Weidong had been acting mysterious lately, and he felt something was being hidden from him.

“Just some personal stuff. Why do you care so much?” Qin Weidong snapped back. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Hu Wei, but he hadn’t figured things out himself. No point making it more confusing.

“I was just curious…” Hu Wei quickly backed off.

They chatted a bit more. Hu Wei mentioned going to the store and asked if Qin Weidong wanted anything. On the other end, Qin Weidong seemed to jump off the steps and suddenly said, “I’ve got something to do. Hanging up.” Then he ended the call immediately.

Hu Wei: ???

He just hung up like that?

…

“Go back and get some rest. You’ve got school tomorrow.” On a small path in the steel factory residential compound, Lin Wu walked with Wang Manshan’s family.

Today was the sixth day since Luo Xiaorong changed jobs. Over the past few days, Wang Manshan had quietly checked in on the second cafeteria. There were twenty employees there. They weren’t particularly warm to Luo Xiaorong, but no one bullied her behind her back either. She worked diligently, and the manager treated her well.

“Uncle Wang, thank you for everything. I get off early on Sundays. I was thinking we could find a place and have both families get together sometime…” Lin Wu didn’t seem sociable, but he understood basic courtesy. Wang Manshan had helped them a lot recently, and Lin Wu wanted to return the favor.

“Let’s just pick somewhere nearby. No need to go far,” Wang Manshan said, understanding Lin Wu’s temperament. In the end, they chose a modest Sichuan restaurant. The prices were low, the portions generous. After eating their fill, they headed back.

“Huihui’s monthly test is coming up. If she doesn’t understand anything, she can always ask me,” Lin Wu said as they neared home, holding Luo Xiaorong’s hand.

“We just started school and already have exams. It’s too early…” Wang Jiahui was lively and sensible, but the mention of exams made her slump.

“You’re just getting started. For the next three years, you’ll be taking tests constantly,” Hao Shuqin said, teasing her.

“Ahhh!” Wang Jiahui groaned dramatically.

Laughing and chatting, they arrived downstairs at Lin Wu’s building. Just as Lin Wu was about to say goodbye, he looked up and saw the tall boy by the flowerbed.

At first, Qin Weidong had been standing. Then he sat on the edge of the flowerbed. His backside got cold, so he switched to squatting. After half an hour of squatting, when he suddenly stood up, both legs went numb.

He ignored it, rubbing his legs while looking at the group, finally fixing his gaze on Lin Wu. Casually, he said, “Back already?”

“Why are you here?” Lin Wu pulled Luo Xiaorong slightly behind him, looking at Qin Weidong with caution.

“I had a math problem I couldn’t solve. Just happened to pass by your place, so I thought I’d ask you,” Qin Weidong said, making up an excuse on the spot.

“Do you know each other?” Wang Manshan asked suspiciously. He knew Lin Wu had been bullied before. Seeing this tall boy, he worried there might be trouble.

“Uncle, Auntie, I’m Lin Wu’s friend. We’re not from the same school, but we’re pretty close. I often ask him for help with studying,” Qin Weidong answered first. Though he was a troublemaker, his sunny demeanor and dimples made him seem sincere and polite.

“Your friend?” Wang Manshan looked at Lin Wu.

“…Yes,” Lin Wu said after a brief pause.

He was furious. This felt worse than being followed before. It felt like his territory was being invaded. Translated on Hololo novels. He wanted to confront Qin Weidong and ask why he kept pestering him. But with Wang Manshan’s family and Luo Xiaorong present, it wasn’t the time to escalate things.

“Uncle, Auntie, I came in a hurry tonight and didn’t bring anything. Next time, I’ll definitely make it up,” Qin Weidong continued, fully committing to the act. In his upbringing, visiting elders meant bringing gifts.

“Oh, you don’t need to bring anything. If we’d known you were here, we would’ve invited you to dinner,” Wang Manshan said quickly, charmed by his politeness.

“It’s alright. There’ll be plenty of chances in the future,” Qin Weidong replied easily.

Lin Wu couldn’t stand it anymore. “Uncle Wang, Auntie Hao, I’ll take my mom upstairs first. It’s cold outside. You should head home too.”

“Alright. Don’t stay up too late studying,” Wang Manshan said. Seeing that Qin Weidong wasn’t there to cause trouble, the three of them left with peace of mind. Before leaving, Wang Jiahui glanced at Qin Weidong a couple of times, feeling that he looked somewhat familiar.

Three minutes later, Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong home. Once inside, he actually didn’t want to go back down, but he worried the other person might do something inappropriate, like coming upstairs and knocking on the door. After thinking it over, he peeked through the curtain and saw the boy was still downstairs. In the end, he told Luo Xiaorong and went down.

When Lin Wu came downstairs, he was still seething, but by the time he stepped out of the building, he had already suppressed all his emotions.

“Hello. Do you need something?” Lin Wu asked politely.

“Got a few math problems I can’t solve. Thought I’d ask you,” Qin Weidong continued his nonsense.

Lin Wu stared at him in silence, then asked, “Which problem?”

Qin Weidong spread his hands. “Ah, forgot to bring them.”

“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going.” Lin Wu turned to leave.

“Hey, hey, hey, do you really have no sense of humor at all?” Qin Weidong quickly stopped him, dropping the act as he pulled out his phone. “These are the chat records I had with that person. I didn’t lie to you. Those two car accidents before, he told me to pass them on to you.”

He had been scrolling through the messages just now. First it was two car accidents, then suddenly two murders. It sounded ridiculous even to him. Rather than struggling to explain, it was better to let Lin Wu see for himself.

“Start from the sixth,” Qin Weidong said, handing over the phone.

Lin Wu found it strange, but curiosity made him take it.

The message screen was already set to September 6. Lin Wu read—

【Then how did you know the time of the fire?】

【Since I told you about the fire, please go to Class 5, Grade 3 of Xuhu No. 1 High School and find Lin Wu…】

【Please make sure to tell him! Thank you.】

…

That was from September 6. Then came September 7 to 14. During those days, all the messages were from the other side, mostly things like “Hello, please reply” and just a “.”.

Lin Wu scrolled quickly. Then came last night—

【I can tell you why I know, on the condition that you go tomorrow to Class 5, Grade 3 of Xuhu No. 1 High School and find Lin Wu…】

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, hand the phone to Lin Wu…】

【Please make sure to help! Thank you!】

…

“Let me explain first! I’m not crazy. This number is a blank number. I thought it was strange, so I followed the message instructions to find you…”

Qin Weidong explained why he had followed him, then pulled out the receipt for his new phone and yesterday’s repair invoice. “Look at the dates. My phone was broken before and only got fixed yesterday. I didn’t receive any messages during that time. I think it’s pretty bizarre. Enough for a three-part documentary.”

He felt incredibly proud. Chat history, phone receipt, repair invoice. Everything was there. Surely that proved he wasn’t playing a prank. And even if it was a prank, it definitely wasn’t him!

While Qin Weidong kept rambling, Lin Wu felt his thoughts in chaos. His instinct said it was a prank, but he had no money or influence. Why would anyone target him? And even if it was a setup, what was the point?

After thinking in circles, he asked, “You really don’t know?”

“I really don’t! I’m helping someone out of the goodness of my heart!” Qin Weidong emphasized his noble character.

Five minutes later, Qin Weidong sat on the stone where Lin Wu usually washed clothes, a cushion placed underneath. Lin Wu sat about three meters away on a plastic stool he had brought down. After discussing, they decided to wait together until 22:12. If it was a prank, they could figure it out through the conversation.

“This is my phone. There’s no need to stop me from looking, right?” Qin Weidong was annoyed. After their discussion, Lin Wu had taken his phone and didn’t want him to see it.

“The message said he wants to talk to me alone,” Lin Wu replied.

He knew it sounded a bit unreasonable, but his reasoning was simple.

If this was a prank involving the boy and someone else, then it didn’t matter whether Qin Weidong looked or not. The other side would know the conversation anyway. But if it wasn’t a prank, and the unknown number kept insisting on contacting him, then the content might involve something personal. Until he understood the other party’s intent, he didn’t want a third person involved.

Seeing Qin Weidong still unhappy, Lin Wu added, “I’ll check what he says first. If it’s nothing important, I’ll let you see it, alright?” When he said “alright,” there was clear apology in his tone.

He was cautious, but not unreasonable. If Qin Weidong really had been trying to help, then Lin Wu’s earlier attitude hadn’t been fair.

Qin Weidong softened immediately. He was the type who responded better to softness than force. With a snort, he said, “It’s not like I’m dying to read someone else’s messages anyway. Just don’t scroll through my other messages or click any weird links.”

“I won’t,” Lin Wu nodded.

Under the faint warm light, the two sat three meters apart, waiting for 22:12.

At 22:12, as if triggered by some signal, the message screen lit up in Lin Wu’s hand.

Then he saw a new message:

【Is this Lin Wu.】

It was phrased like a question, yet ended with a period, as if the sender already knew the person holding the phone was Lin Wu.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Next

【Who exactly are you?！！！】

If this had been a week earlier, once Lin Wu confirmed that the other person was upright and well-meaning and wouldn’t interfere with his goal, he wouldn’t have minded saying that his name was Lin Wu, that he came from twenty years in the future. But that had a condition: it must not affect his objective. And now…

Lin Wu recalled 2004. They had only met twice. The first time, the other had followed him, and the first impression had not been pleasant. The second time, although they hadn’t directly clashed, his seventeen-year-old self clearly didn’t believe him.

He couldn’t interfere with his seventeen-year-old self, nor did he know whether revealing his identity would make things even more chaotic. Countless possibilities flashed through his mind. In the end, he replied:

【I am a prophet.】

“!!!” In the 2004 student dormitory, Qin Weidong was opening a can of cola. When he saw the reply, he nearly spilled it.

He finished the cola, tossed the can into the trash below, steadied himself, and then asked, “What am I doing right now?”

Lin Wu: …

“I don’t know.” That wasn’t something a “prophet” could answer.

“What am I having for breakfast tomorrow? What color suit will the female anchor on Xuhu Evening News wear tomorrow night? What advertisement will play on Channel 3 at 20:27?” Qin Weidong fired off a string of questions.

“A blue suit.” Lin Wu could only look up the second question. He couldn’t answer the others.

“The Evening News anchor often wears blue suits. That doesn’t count.” Qin Weidong spoke as if he had seen through everything. From the start, he hadn’t believed the claim about a prophet. It was completely unscientific.

“Then how did you know about the fire?” Even though he didn’t believe it, he was still fixated on that.

It was now 22:12. Lin Wu didn’t want to waste time proving his identity. He quickly replied:

【I can tell you why I knew, on one condition: tomorrow, go to Class 5, Grade 12 at Xuhu No. 1 High, find Lin Wu, and tell him that Xiao Hulu will be murdered on the night of November 19. The killer is a random murderer. Luo Xiaorong will have a car accident on the night of December 15. If the accident is prevented, she will be murdered on the night of December 17, also by a random killer. So he must stop both of these deaths!】

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, please hand the phone to Lin Wu. I need to speak with him directly.】

【Please make sure to help. Thank you!】

……

After sending the message, Lin Wu felt as if he had expended immense energy. If he wanted to rewrite the tragedy of 2004, the only tool he had was this phone.

During their first exchange, he didn’t know the other person’s identity, so he had concealed some key details, such as describing Wang Jiahui’s death as a car accident.

Now, after two encounters with his seventeen-year-old self, he knew more. Translated on Hololo novels. The other person appeared to be around seventeen, tall, good-looking. From the fact that he faithfully passed on the message, he seemed to have a sense of responsibility. This did not match the suspect profile from the police investigation.

Lin Wu believed the other person was not the killer. Still, to be cautious, he went back to the internet café over the past few days and contacted its original owner.

“Hengxing Internet café? I invested 1.2 million back then. One fire, and it was all gone.”

“Details? I remember! Before the fire, there was a high school student walking around upstairs and downstairs. He was tall and good-looking. He was the first to notice the fire. The evacuation was timely, or a lot of people would’ve died.”

“That student even saved a middle schooler while escaping. Otherwise, given the situation, that kid would’ve been done for…”

“The next day, that student reported to the police, saying he suspected arson. I went to the station too. The surveillance footage was all preserved. It was a natural fire.”

…

The former owner now ran a hardware store. His income was decent compared to ordinary people, but for someone who had managed to raise over a million yuan back in 2004, his life hadn’t gone well.

“Do you still have the footage from back then?” Lin Wu caught the key point.

“What do you want it for?” the owner immediately became wary.

“I’m a physics professor at Jianghe University. I’m currently working on a research project about life trajectories…” Lin Wu introduced himself. At times like this, being a university professor lent him credibility.

Seeing that Lin Wu genuinely needed the footage, they arranged a time and place to meet.

The owner had been forty-two at the time of the incident and was now sixty-two, with hair half gone gray. After exchanging pleasantries, he searched Lin Wu’s information on his phone. Lin Wu was indeed a physics professor at Jianghe University, with numerous research projects and interviews online.

“This is the footage from that fire. I thought it had some memorial value, so I kept it.” After confirming Lin Wu’s identity, he took out a USB drive.

“Thank you.” Lin Wu checked it on his laptop and put it away.

“I’ve been thinking over the years… if our fire safety awareness had been stronger back then, my life would probably be better now. But then again, if no one had discovered the fire, everyone in that café would’ve died. In a way, I was lucky…” Opening the café had been the peak of his life. Now, with Lin Wu listening, he found himself talking more than usual.

“It was a kind of luck,” Lin Wu said.

He thought of the owner’s original fate. As the legal representative of the café, he had been sentenced to seven years. Before going to prison, he had compensated the victims’ families until he was broke. After release, he continued working while paying more compensation. He could never escape the burden of guilt.

The last impression Lin Wu had was a news report: the man, already in his sixties, living like an ascetic, praying for the victims. Translated on Hololo novels. In the original outcome, both the owner and all the victims had been part of a tragedy. Now, the outcome had changed. The fire still occurred, but compared to before, everyone lived to see a new day.

They talked for an entire afternoon. Before parting, the owner asked expectantly, “Will your research project be published in newspapers or journals?” He had looked it up. Professors of Lin Wu’s level usually published in academic outlets.

“This is an internal university project. I can’t guarantee that yet…” Lin Wu pressed his lips together. He didn’t want to use the project as an excuse to take the USB drive, but he didn’t know how else to explain.

“It’s fine. This isn’t any kind of confidential file. I have plenty of backups at home. The police probably have archived copies too. Honestly, I just wanted someone to talk to. It’s been a long time since anyone asked me about the café.”

As if sensing Lin Wu’s discomfort, the owner added that. Just as he said, it wasn’t anything secret. He had agreed to meet simply because he wanted to revisit the past. If the conversation felt right, even if Lin Wu hadn’t been a professor, he would still have been willing to give him the footage.

“Thank you!” Lin Wu said sincerely.

“It’s nothing.” After chatting, the two went their separate ways.

Lin Wu returned to the hotel and immediately opened the USB drive. The footage began recording from 10 p.m. that night. He saw the “unknown number” walk into the internet café with a thin boy. The “unknown number” was replying to messages, likely texting him at the time.

After sending the messages, the unknown number carefully checked the power supply. As the time of the fire approached, he sent his companion away, then continued checking. When he discovered the fire, he ran, evacuating people and rescuing them…

A good person.

That was Lin Wu’s first reaction after watching. From the way the boy deliberately sent his companion away as the fire approached, it was clear he cared about the timing of the fire. Yet he didn’t leave. Instead, he searched again and again for the source, and in the end saved everyone, never once thinking of escaping alone.

After watching, Lin Wu instinctively felt the boy couldn’t be the serial killer. Still, to be certain, he copied the video and sent it to a psychology professor at Jianghe University.

“You want me to judge whether he has homicidal or antisocial tendencies?” The professor was surprised by Lin Wu’s request.

“Yes. Please help me determine whether those possibilities exist.” Lin Wu’s goal was to change the past tragedy. The unknown number was his only bridge, so he had to be absolutely sure the other person was safe.

“Alright, I’ll take a look now.” The professor, over seventy and one of the country’s top experts, had assisted police in solving many serious cases. As he spoke, he began analyzing the footage, jotting notes in a notebook.

“Thank you,” Lin Wu said sincerely.

A day later, Lin Wu received the psychological assessment.

Based on the tall boy’s body language and micro-expressions, he was upright and kind, with a healthy upbringing and mental state. He showed no signs of antisocial behavior. He was a sunny, open, psychologically stable young man.

“When he was checking the area, his brows were tightly furrowed, which shows he was anxious. When he rescued people, he hesitated for half a second, but his body leaned forward, and once he committed, his movements were decisive. That means he had already judged the danger, yet still chose to save others. That takes more courage than acting on instinct,” the professor said with clear approval. “If someone like him had homicidal or antisocial tendencies, then all of us would be potential killers.”

People aren’t unchanging, but everyone has a core nature. This boy’s micro-expressions and choices under danger showed integrity and kindness. He belonged to the type least likely to become antisocial. The probability of him being a killer was extremely low.

“There is one point of doubt in this video. When he checked the power source, it seemed like he already expected a fire to happen here…” The footage was simple. That was the only anomaly.

“Where did you get this?” the professor asked.

“I came across it by chance. I’ve been wanting to learn some psychology, so I thought I’d study it,” Lin Wu replied with a prepared explanation.

“Haha, if you want to study psychology, just come to me. When are you coming back to Jianghe? We should all get together,” the professor laughed.

“I still have some things to take care of at home. I’ll come back after this period,” Lin Wu replied with a polite smile.

That call had taken place earlier that day. Afterward, Lin Wu continued gathering information on the Xuhu serial murder case until night, when he received Qin Weidong’s message.

…

“You said they were car accidents before. Why are they suddenly random murders now? Even the timing has changed!” In the Lide High School dorm, Qin Weidong rapidly typed out a message and hit send.

Three seconds later: failed.

“Damn!” Qin Weidong muttered, rarely swearing.

“What’s wrong, Brother Qin?” The others were playing cards and were startled.

“Nothing.” Qin Weidong forced himself to calm down, then checked the time. 22:28. One minute past the latest time the other person had mentioned.

He lay back on the bed with his arms behind his head. Three seconds later, a cold smile tugged at his lips.

Last week it was two car accidents. Now it’s two murders. Is this some kind of joke?

He had already made a fool of himself once. Why would the other person think he’d do it again?

He looked at the second-to-last message:

【Tomorrow night between 22:12 and 22:27, hand the phone to Lin Wu…】

Oh really. It’s his phone. Since when did the other person get to make demands?

These days there were all kinds of phone viruses and trojans. What if he handed it over and all his credit got drained?

He’d already been foolish once. If he did it again, he’d be a complete idiot.

Qin Weidong spent the whole night thinking in circles and decided to put away his curiosity and stop caring about it. And then…

At 9 p.m. the next evening, “complete idiot” Qin Weidong was squatting downstairs outside Lin Wu’s building.

He looked up at Lin Wu’s window.

It was dark.

He had been waiting from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and no one had come home.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

The next day was September 15, a Saturday. The academic atmosphere at Lide wasn’t as intense as at No. 1 High, but the senior year curriculum was tight. Students still had classes on Saturdays and only got Sunday off.

After entering his senior year, Qin Weidong had specifically asked Qin Jianzhang to speak with the school. As long as he didn’t cause trouble, he wanted the school to be more relaxed about his studies. Qin Weidong was already set on going abroad, and Qin Jianzhang didn’t want his son to suffer, so he half-reluctantly agreed.

Since the parents had said as much, the teachers naturally turned a blind eye. After waking up, Qin Weidong sent a leave message to his homeroom teacher and, very practiced, threw on a jacket and headed out.

“Brother Qin, you’re up early?”

Just as he stepped out, he saw Hu Wei, still half-asleep, carrying a washbasin toward the washroom.

“Yeah. Go early, come back early.” He had mentioned fixing his phone to Hu Wei the day before.

“Want to wait for me? I can go with you tomorrow?” Hu Wei wanted to tag along, but after writing that self-criticism last time, he didn’t dare skip major classes again.

“It’s fine, I’ll go myself.” Qin Weidong had been thinking about fixing the phone since last night. After saying that, he didn’t wait for Hu Wei to say more and went downstairs in a light, easy stride.

Hu Wei scratched his head behind him. No need to be this rushed, right…

…

At nine in the morning, Qin Weidong arrived at the mobile mall. There weren’t many customers yet, just sales clerks behind counters and cleaning staff mopping the floors. The mall had three floors. After walking around, he stopped in front of a repair shop.

“Both your screen and motherboard are damaged. They’ll need to be replaced. Three thousand two,” the shop owner said after checking the phone, clearly quoting high after sizing up Qin Weidong’s clothes and demeanor.

Qin Weidong had money, but he wasn’t stupid. The price was obviously inflated. He took back his phone, asked around at other shops, and finally chose one with the same repair plan for fifteen hundred.

“How long will it take?” Qin Weidong asked, sitting on a high stool in the shop.

The round-faced owner looked friendly. “This is a new model. I’ll need to find parts in storage. All told, about three to four hours.”

“Alright.” Qin Weidong agreed after a moment’s thought.

He stayed from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon. During that time, he went out for a bowl of noodles and came back. The owner worked carefully, and at 2:10, after pressing the power button, he handed the phone back. “It’s fixed. Put in your SIM and try it.”

Qin Weidong first checked the messages. Translated on Hololo novels. All the previous message and call logs were still there. He removed the SIM card from his new phone and inserted it into the old one.

“I’m careful and affordable here. If any of your classmates need repairs, send them my way,” the owner said, trying to build future business.

“Sure, I’ll spread the word when I get back,” Qin Weidong replied smoothly.

He inserted the SIM card. Three seconds later, the phone picked up a signal.

“I…” the owner was about to say more when Qin Weidong’s phone suddenly started ringing.

Beep—

Beep beep—

Beep beep beep—

The crisp message alerts came one after another, rapid and urgent like a 7 a.m. alarm. Both Qin Weidong and the shop owner froze.

Twenty seconds later, it stopped.

Qin Weidong checked. There were fifty-two unread messages.

“Your phone wasn’t working before?” the owner asked, confused. From removing the SIM to inserting it, only about twenty seconds had passed. There shouldn’t be this many messages.

“It worked.” Qin Weidong opened them and saw they were all from the unknown number.

【Are you there? I hope you can reply.】
The first message was from the evening of September 7 at 22:12. That day had the most messages, concentrated between 22:12 and 22:27, about one every two minutes. Most of them said things like “Are you there? I hope you can reply,” or “Hello, can you see this?”

The wording was very polite, but he could sense the urgency behind them.

Qin Weidong thought back. On September 7, he had been hospitalized at the central hospital. During the day, he broke his phone. That night, he used his new phone to message the other party, but all his messages failed to send.

He scrolled down.

September 8: 【Hello, I hope you can reply.】

September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27. I’m not sure what’s happening on your side. Please reply.】

September 10: 【Hello, please reply.】

September 11: 【Hello, please reply.】

…

These messages continued from the 7th through the 14th. At first they were frequent, but later they appeared only at 22:12 and 22:27. The period at 22:27 felt like it was simply testing something.

“Shouldn’t these messages have shown up on the new phone?” the repair shop owner asked after glancing through them. The messages weren’t sent all at once, so logically they should have appeared on the new phone instead of all piling into the old one.

“Maybe it’s a delay from the carrier…” Qin Weidong’s mind was a mess. The number felt abnormal in every possible way.

He had no mood for small talk. After paying for the repair, he left in frustration.

An hour later, instead of waiting for Lin Wu, he returned to the dormitory. On the way back, he tried texting the number with the old phone. The message failed to send. He pulled up the message from September 9: 【Hello, messages can be sent successfully on my end between 22:12 and 22:27…】

Qin Weidong now had three questions.

First, why did the other party say “on my end”? Where exactly was “my end”? Overseas? But a Xuhu SIM card wouldn’t work abroad, so that didn’t make sense.

Second, why could messages only be sent between 22:12 and 22:27? His SIM card had been in the new phone before, so why hadn’t it received anything?

Third, the police had already confirmed this was an inactive number. How could it send and receive messages at all?

In seventeen years of life, Qin Weidong had never encountered something so incomprehensible. Translated on Hololo novels. He felt like he had burned through a good portion of his brain cells.

At nine that evening, Hu Wei came to Qin Weidong’s dorm carrying a box of fried rice. Qin Weidong lay limp on the bed.

“Brother Qin, time to eat!” Hu Wei nudged him. He had asked earlier if Qin Weidong wanted food, but Qin Weidong had declined, sounding low-energy.

Qin Weidong glanced at him, then stared lifelessly at the ceiling. “Not hungry. Don’t feel like eating.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Hu Wei felt something had been off since last night.

“Nothing. I’m waiting for a time.” Qin Weidong spoke weakly.

“What time?”

“22:12.”

“What happens at 22:12?”

“At 22:12, messages can be sent.”

Hu Wei: ???

Hu Wei looked at the still-steaming food in his hands and asked again, “You really not eating?”

“Not hungry. No appetite at all.”

“Alright then…” Hu Wei could only take the food and leave, completely confused.

After Hu Wei left, Qin Weidong continued staring at the ceiling. Just as he had said, he had spent the entire day waiting for that time. There were too many things he couldn’t figure out. He wanted to see if messages could be sent at 22:12. If they could, he was determined to get answers.

He stared at the fluorescent light overhead, feeling as if time had never moved so slowly.

An hour later, his alarm went off. It was now 22:11. He shot upright and sent a message to the unknown number: 【There?】

Failed to send.

At 22:12, he timed it exactly and sent again: 【There?】

The sending circle spun once, and this time it went through.

………

In 2024, at the Xuhu hotel, Lin Wu had a desk covered in documents. These were materials he had gathered about the Xuhu murder cases from newspapers and online sources. During this time, aside from sending messages to the unknown number every night, all his energy had gone into researching the case. He had even taken an extra month off from work for it.

After September 9, when the new outcome appeared, the number of cases in the Xuhu serial murders had increased from five to six.

The first four occurred in 2004, the fifth in 2005, and the sixth in 2007. Based on the testimony of the second victim and police investigation, the suspect was likely over thirty, of average height. Translated on Hololo novels. All six crimes were random. Aside from Luo Xiaorong, the other five victims were all high school girls.

Lin Wu rubbed his temples. The simplest solution would have been to identify the killer in 2024 and tell the unknown number in 2004, so the killer could be brought to justice then. But the problem was that the case remained unsolved. Aside from what the police had uncovered, there were no decisive clues.

Lin Wu looked at his phone.

Now, every night, his memories from 2004 refreshed. Yesterday, he had already seen that the unknown number had contacted his younger self again, asking about the phone number. At that time in 2004, it was still an inactive number, and his seventeen-year-old self didn’t recognize it.

The fates of Wang Jiahui and Luo Xiaorong had not changed. One still died on November 19, the other on December 17.

Although Lin Wu could refresh his memories from age seventeen, it was like watching a movie in a theater. Since September 6, he had been unable to make contact with 2004 or intervene in any way.

He felt increasingly restless.

At 22:12, his memory refreshed to September 15, 2004. Nothing had happened.

Lin Wu picked up his phone, preparing to send his usual nightly “check-in” message. At that moment, the message screen lit up.

【There?】

Lin Wu stared at the long-awaited message, his breathing quickening for a moment. It was the unknown number from 2004. Since September 6, they had finally reconnected.

He immediately picked up his phone to reply, but then a second message came through:

【Who exactly are you?！！！】

The single question mark followed by three exclamation points fully conveyed the frustration on the other end of the phone.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

“Lin Wu is seventeen, goes to No. 1 High, and gets pretty good grades…” Luo Liang had no idea why Qin Weidong was asking about Lin Wu. He assumed the two had some sort of conflict, so he began recounting everything in painstaking detail.

At the entrance to Piaoxiang Pavilion, Qin Weidong found a step off to the side and sat down, listening carefully.

Half an hour later, he had a basic understanding of Lin Wu’s circumstances: his father was disabled, his mother had an intellectual disability, his father died when he was in his first year of high school, and now he lived with his mother. His mother made buns in the canteen and earned nine hundred yuan a month. Lin Wu did well in school and had always been a top student…

“This guy is usually gloomy and doesn’t fit in. In his first year of high school, he almost killed someone…” Luo Liang grew more and more animated as he talked.

“Killed someone?” Qin Weidong caught that immediately.

“It was during winter break in his first year. He got into an argument with someone from the compound. By the time we got there, Lin Wu was holding a knife, and the other guy was already on the ground.”

“Was there blood?”

“No. The guy fell down from fright.”

Qin Weidong was a little surprised. After calculating Lin Wu’s age at the time, he asked, “Did he get sent to juvenile detention?” Based on Luo Liang’s description, even if Lin Wu hadn’t actually killed anyone, that still counted as threats and intimidation, which should have resulted in detention.

“No. He came out after giving a statement at the police station.”

“Why?”

“The knife wasn’t Lin Wu’s. The other guy brought it.”

Qin Weidong understood at once. The other person had brought the knife intending to threaten Lin Wu and ended up getting the tables turned on him.

“He didn’t kill anyone, so why are you saying he did?”

“When we got there, Lin Wu’s expression was terrifying. Not crazy or twisted, just this cold, blank calm, like one of those psychopathic killers in movies. His family was already abnormal to begin with, so we all thought he’d inherited it from his mom and was some kind of potential mental case…”

Qin Weidong frowned. “Isn’t his mom intellectually disabled?”

“It’s all the same.”

“An intellectual disability is an intellectual disability. Mental illness is mental illness. And anyway, mental illness isn’t necessarily hereditary,” Qin Weidong corrected him.

“…Oh.” Luo Liang sounded a little dazed by that. Then he asked, “Brother Qin, should we find some people and beat him up?”

“You used to beat him up a lot?”

“We had some conflicts when we were kids, but he fought back pretty hard, so he didn’t exactly lose out. Later, once we got older, we mostly stayed out of each other’s way.”

“What kinds of conflicts?”

“Do I really have to say?” Luo Liang didn’t understand why Qin Weidong wanted to know all this.

“Yeah. Tell me everything.” Qin Weidong shifted position.

“Actually, at the start it was all small stuff…”

Luo Liang himself had no direct conflict with Lin Wu. It was more that their group as a whole had issues with him. The reason, more or less, was that Lin Wu’s father was lame and his mother had an intellectual disability. Translated on Hololo novels. Their family had neither power nor influence in the steel factory, so a lot of kids looked down on them. They liked to imitate the way Lin Haiming walked. Lin Haiming was meek and could only make shooing gestures, which made everyone laugh.

Later, simply mocking the way he walked stopped being fun enough. They started throwing stones at Luo Xiaorong, or dragging her out to the road to make a fool of her, or tricking her into eating spicy snack strips picked up off the ground…

Luo Xiaorong couldn’t really express herself, and they kept getting worse and worse, until Lin Wu found out.

Lin Wu didn’t back down. He went straight to hitting people. He fought in a very underhanded way, aiming only at places outsiders couldn’t see, never leaving obvious wounds. When the kids who got beaten told their parents, the parents knew their own children had been bullying someone and beat them again. After enough of these incidents, the conflict shifted from being between them and Lin Wu’s parents to being between them and Lin Wu himself. It went back and forth like that until junior high, when things finally eased up a little.

“We didn’t really have any contact after junior high. It’s just that Zhao Qi liked to mess with him now and then when he was bored…” Zhao Qi was the one who had pulled the knife on Lin Wu. Not long after that incident, his family moved away for work.

“You people really are trash.” Qin Weidong might have been a troublemaker, but he looked down on this kind of bullying cruelty.

“They’re not, I am. No, that’s not right, I can’t exactly say I’m trash either. I mostly just followed them around and watched the fun.” Luo Liang got increasingly tangled up in his own words, then finished with, “Did he piss you off? I can get some people to beat him back for you.”

“Get lost. Who said I wanted to beat anyone up?” Qin Weidong frowned. “I’m just asking you about some things. Don’t go starting trouble for me. My business is not yours to interfere with, and don’t go looking to beat anyone up.”

Seeing how serious he was, Luo Liang hurriedly promised, “I absolutely won’t interfere!”

“Mm.” Qin Weidong had lost interest in talking. After a couple more words, he hung up.

It was now 9:10. Just as Qin Weidong stood up, Hu Wei came out of the restaurant.

“Brother Qin, why aren’t you inside? I tried calling you but couldn’t get through.”

“I was on another call. I’m coming in now.”

Qin Weidong brushed the dust off his clothes and went upstairs with Hu Wei to sing. The group played from nine until eleven that night. Qin Weidong slipped the gate guard two packs of cigarettes, then took Hu Wei back to the dormitory in secret.

That night Gao Mingming had gone home for something, so after saying a word to him, Hu Wei took his bed. Qin Weidong and Gao Mingming usually had the upper and lower bunk arrangement, but now it was Qin Weidong above and Hu Wei below. The other two roommates were in the next dorm playing cards, so only the two of them were in the room.

“Monkey.” Lying in bed, Qin Weidong suddenly called Hu Wei by his nickname.

“What?” Hu Wei was playing Sokoban and looked up when he heard him.

“Say there’s someone who’s been bullied his whole life, and these people bully both him and his parents. Then some stranger shows up and tells him, ‘Your mom’s going to die in three months’… would that count as provocation?” Qin Weidong asked after thinking through how to phrase it.

“Of course.” Hu Wei answered without hesitation.

“And what if that stranger doesn’t know anything about the family? He’s just passing on a message for someone.”

“Who passes on a message saying somebody’s parents are going to die? If anyone said that about my dad, I’d be the first one to beat the hell out of them.” Hu Wei got smacked around by his own father often enough, but he loved him, and his father loved him. He would never allow someone to attack him like that.

“This stranger doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s helping someone.”

“What kind of helping is it to tell someone their parents are going to die?” Hu Wei sounded scornful. “That person is either brain-dead or a complete idiot. There’s no third possibility.”

After Hu Wei said that, the upper bunk went silent.

“Brother Qin?” Hu Wei called out.

“Heh.” Qin Weidong let out a cold laugh, then said icily, “Go to sleep!”

Hu Wei: Why did it suddenly get so cold?

Going to school, leaving school, and taking Luo Xiaorong home.

Lin Wu’s life in high school was extremely simple. After Luo Xiaorong changed jobs, he no longer had to pick her up or drop her off. His days were reduced to just school and home, back and forth, and he was very satisfied with this routine. He didn’t want any changes.

But the next day after school, the moment he stepped out of the school gate, he felt like someone was following him. It was 8:35 in the evening, and the entrance was crowded with graduating seniors. He took a couple of steps, then suddenly turned around—

About five meters behind him, a tall boy was trailing him lazily. The weather was a bit cool today. Translated on Hololo novels. The boy wore a red jacket, light blue jeans, and a white baseball cap. With broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long limbs, he stood out sharply among the sea of school uniforms.

Lin Wu recognized him. It was the person from the alley a few days ago.

He walked forward, and the other followed. He stopped, and the other stopped. When Lin Wu looked over, the boy made no effort to hide and simply smiled at him.

Lin Wu: …

Lin Wu very much wanted to ask why he was being followed, but this wasn’t his private road. If he asked, it would make him seem self-important.

Suppressing his discomfort, Lin Wu walked as usual to the bus stop. The other followed him there.

Lin Wu got on the bus. The other got on.

Lin Wu got off. The other got off.

Lin Wu walked into the residential compound. The other followed behind. After about a hundred meters, Lin Wu finally couldn’t hold back anymore and turned around. “Are you following me?”

“You just noticed?” Qin Weidong sounded genuinely surprised, as if it were strange Lin Wu had only just realized.

“Do you need something?” Lin Wu frowned.

“Yes.” Qin Weidong took out his phone without hesitation.

He had thought it through the day before. His original goal was to figure out the identity of the unknown number. Now the only lead was Lin Wu. There was no reason to abandon it just because of one unpleasant interaction.

“Do you recognize this number?” Qin Weidong quickly pulled up the unknown number. He had switched phones, so the previous message history was still in the old one. Only the saved contact remained on the SIM card.

“I don’t,” Lin Wu said after a glance.

“Look again carefully!” Qin Weidong was very dissatisfied with the perfunctory answer.

“I really don’t know it.” Lin Wu’s social circle was extremely small. Aside from Wang Manshan and Hao Shuqin, he didn’t recognize other numbers. This one had nothing special about it except that it matched his birthdate.

“Think again.” Qin Weidong stared intently at his expression.

“I don’t know it,” Lin Wu said firmly.

“A few days ago, this number sent me messages and told me to pass something on to you,” Qin Weidong said, bringing up what happened in the alley.

Lin Wu looked at him in slight surprise. “Thank you. I understand now.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” After their previous unpleasant encounter, Lin Wu instinctively kept his distance. He didn’t care who had said those words, whether it was this boy or someone else. It didn’t matter. He didn’t want to waste energy on meaningless things. Of course, if the other kept pushing and harassing him, he wouldn’t hesitate to push back.

“I’m going home now. Do you have anything else?” Lin Wu asked.

“No…”

“Goodbye.” Lin Wu turned and left without another word.

Qin Weidong watched his back and felt that something was off. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly realized what it was.

He had followed him all the way here to prove his noble, helpful nature. But just now, the other had been brushing him off the entire time. He was being dismissed.

“Damn!” Qin Weidong felt this couldn’t just end like that. He couldn’t let himself be misunderstood. He was being helpful, a model citizen with upright character!

He immediately followed again.

Lin Wu didn’t notice. At Building 26, just as he reached downstairs, he saw Luo Xiaorong sitting on the steps. When she saw him, she happily ran up. “Wuwu!”

“Mom, why did you come downstairs? It’s cold.”

Luo Xiaorong was wearing winter pajamas. Lin Wu’s first instinct was to pull her collar tighter.

“It’s not cold.” She breathed out warm air as she spoke. She used to go home with him, but now that she stayed alone, she wasn’t used to it. She liked waiting for him downstairs.

“I’ll set an alarm for you. Come down when it rings.” Lin Wu knew she could be stubborn sometimes, so he didn’t argue further. After a couple more words, he took her hand and led her upstairs.

When Qin Weidong arrived, this was the scene he saw: Lin Wu adjusting Luo Xiaorong’s clothes and leading her upstairs.

He looked up at the windows of the old apartment building. Not long after, a light came on in a third-floor unit.

He wanted to explain things, but he didn’t have the habit of knocking on someone’s door out of the blue. If he did, he’d basically look like a stalker.

He found a spot sheltered from the wind, took out his phone, and was about to call Hu Wei to see where he was.

Just as he was about to dial, footsteps came from the corridor of Building 12. Qin Weidong turned around.

In the steel factory residential area, about ninety percent of the residents were factory workers. When the buildings were constructed, each one had a row of water pipes downstairs so residents could wash vegetables and clothes. The factory covered the water cost as part of employee benefits.

When Qin Weidong turned, he saw Lin Wu again, now in pajamas, carrying a large basin of clothes.

Lin Wu came down, took a washboard from beside a flowerbed, filled the basin with water, and sat by the pipe on a stone to start washing. The clothes included his own long underwear and Luo Xiaorong’s jackets and pants.

He wore rubber gloves and moved with practiced ease.

Qin Weidong watched from the shadows for a while. This wasn’t the right moment to explain anything. Even if he insisted again and again that he was telling the truth, it would be too hard for anyone to believe.

He walked to the entrance of the compound just as Hu Wei’s call came in.

“Brother Qin, I’m at Whirlwind Billiards Hall right now. Where are you? Haven’t seen you all night. You coming over?” Hu Wei’s side was noisy; he had to shout.

“Had something to deal with earlier. I’m not coming.” Qin Weidong replied casually, then asked, “Can they repair phones at the mobile mall?”

“Your phone’s broken?!” Hu Wei moved somewhere quieter, sounding shocked. Qin Weidong had just bought a new phone a week ago.

“It’s not broken. I want to fix the old one as a backup.” He hadn’t planned to repair it before, but just now he suddenly thought of it. The old phone still had the message history with the unknown number. If he fixed it, at least he could prove he was telling the truth.

Right now, he not only looked like someone pulling a prank, but the more he tried to explain, the worse it sounded. He needed to clear his name.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

In 2004, early the next morning, Lin Wu heated a basin of warm water to wash Luo Xiaorong’s hair, then dried it and blew it dry. She had always worn her hair cut to ear length, and once all that was done and she had changed into clean clothes, she looked much fresher and tidier.

“Not… going to school?” Luo Xiaorong asked. It was already nine o’clock, and Lin Wu usually left at seven.

“Not today. We’re going to the new canteen so you can try out the environment there first.” He had already spoken to the administrative director yesterday. Luo Xiaorong was to go over today and get familiar with the place, and if everything was fine, she would formally start work the day after tomorrow.

“Okay!” Luo Xiaorong clapped her hands.

People with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty adapting to a new environment, but Luo Xiaorong wanted to work so badly that although she only vaguely understood what Lin Wu meant by the staff canteen, she did not resist it.

There were no longer any shuttle buses from the residential area to the steel factory. Translated on Hololo novels. After going out, Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong to wait at the bus stop, and then they boarded together. This was a short-distance bus mainly serving the outskirts. The conditions inside were even more cramped than the buses in the city, so Lin Wu opened the window for air. He could feel Luo Xiaorong’s body tensed tight, a sign of unease.

“It’s alright.” Lin Wu held her hand.

“Mm!” Luo Xiaorong was very quiet on the bus.

The steelworkers’ family compound was only 5.2 kilometers in a straight line from Xuhu Steel Factory, not far, but the road conditions were poor and there were many heavy trucks, so the bus jolted and bounced the whole way. At 9:50, they arrived at the factory.

Xuhu Steel Factory covered five square kilometers, had net assets of more than thirty billion yuan, and employed thirty thousand workers. Inside it were seven staff canteens. The one the administrative director had mentioned yesterday was the Second Canteen. Lin Wu brought Luo Xiaorong over and explained why they had come, then found the place with directions from the gate guard.

The canteen was next to the administration building. It did not look very large. When they arrived, a middle-aged woman in chef’s clothes was pouring water outside. She froze for a moment upon seeing them, then asked, “Luo Xiaorong?”

“Yes. Director Kong asked us to come.” Lin Wu explained who they were.

“Come in. Director Kong held a meeting with us this morning.” The woman propped up the door curtain with a mop, motioning for them to enter.

Lin Wu and Luo Xiaorong went inside.

“There are twenty of us here. We mainly steam buns and mantou, then send them off to the other canteens. If the leadership gets hungry, we also make meals for them. It’s cleaner here than other places, and the work is simpler.” The woman’s name was Qiu Yan’e, the manager of the Second Canteen. As she spoke, she showed them around.

The Second Canteen covered five hundred square meters and was divided into a front hall and a back hall. Compared to the other canteens it was not big, but just as Qiu Yan’e said, it looked very clean and bright.

“You worked at the market canteen before?” she asked after finishing the tour.

“Yes.” Lin Wu explained Luo Xiaorong’s past duties.

“We have surveillance cameras in both the front hall and the kitchen. If you ever want to check, you can do so anytime.” The people at the Second Canteen had already heard from Director Kong why Luo Xiaorong was coming. All of this had been approved from above.

“Thank you.” Qiu Yan’e was brisk and straightforward, and she looked much kinder than the people at the market canteen.

“You two get familiar with the place first. If there’s anything you don’t understand, just ask.” With that, she left.

Lin Wu led Luo Xiaorong around to familiarize her with the environment. After staring curiously at the two of them for a while, the other workers returned to focusing on their own tasks.

At noon, Lin Wu took Luo Xiaorong to eat at another canteen. Afterward, he carefully explained the route from the shuttle stop to the Second Canteen. Since it was close to the administration building, the stop was only seventy meters away. Lin Wu walked the route with Luo Xiaorong twice, then had her walk it twice on her own. She remembered it.

At three in the afternoon, Luo Xiaorong tried making buns in the canteen. Her mind was slow, but she made the buns quickly and neatly, round and full. The others, who had initially worried she might be a burden, all relaxed when they saw this.

At six o’clock, while the two of them were waiting at the stop, they ran into Wang Manshan.

“How did it go?” Wang Manshan had just gotten off work, still wearing his steel factory uniform and carrying his work bag, looking dusty and tired.

“Good!” Luo Xiaorong laughed happily. In her eyes, as long as she was allowed to work, it was good.

“It was alright?” Wang Manshan looked to Lin Wu.

“It was good. Better than the market side. They told her to come in tomorrow and start working.”

“My workshop isn’t far from here. From now on I’ll be waiting for the bus at this stop too.” After saying that, Wang Manshan thought for a moment, then added, “You’re in your senior year now. Don’t ask for leave unless you really have to. If anything comes up, just ask me or Aunt Hao.”

Yesterday he had wanted to take leave himself to bring Luo Xiaorong over and help her get used to the place, but Lin Wu had been too worried and taken the day off instead.

“It won’t affect my studies,” Lin Wu said.

“That still doesn’t mean you can slack off.” Lin Wu’s grades had always been steady, and since entering high school he had ranked first in his year, but senior year was a critical period, and Wang Manshan worried any relaxation might affect him.

“I know.” Lin Wu nodded seriously. He was always diligent when it came to studying.

Three minutes later, the factory shuttle arrived. It went directly to the residential compound, and the three of them boarded together.

……

“Brother Qin, going to the internet café later?” At the same time Lin Wu and the others were heading home, back at Lide High, after afternoon classes, Hu Wei found Qin Weidong with obvious excitement.

Qin Weidong was slumped over his desk, idly spinning a pen. After hearing him, he asked weakly, “Staying all night?”

“No, just skipping evening study hall and going out to play for three hours.” Hu Wei actually wanted to stay all night, but he had only just finished writing his self-criticism and did not dare push too far.

“Not going.” Qin Weidong pointed to the sling on his arm.

“How many more days?” Hu Wei remembered then that Qin Weidong was still technically an injured patient.

“I have a follow-up the day after tomorrow. If everything’s fine, they’ll take it off.”

Qin Weidong only had a mild soft tissue injury. Strictly speaking, he did not need to keep his arm in a sling, but Qin Jianzhang had been worried about possible aftereffects and had specifically told the hospital to be extra careful. He had now been stuck with it for five days, and it was very inconvenient.

Looking at his arm, Qin Weidong thought of the fire five days ago, and then of the conversation yesterday. Translated on Hololo novels. He felt like he had lost his mind to endure motion sickness while following someone around all day, only to get looked down on in the end. It was infuriating. The more he thought about it, the more stifled he felt.

“Tell Wang Ming and the others I’m treating everyone at Piaoxiang Pavilion the day after tomorrow. We’ll all get together.” Qin Weidong felt he had had bad luck lately and urgently needed some lively company to dispel the gloom.

“Got it!” Since Qin Weidong often treated people to meals, Hu Wei eagerly accepted the task.

Over the next two days, Qin Weidong returned to his usual carefree life of half-listening in class and eating and drinking as he pleased.

Two days later, the group met for dinner at Piaoxiang Pavilion. It was a restaurant on Southeast Road with very good atmosphere and service.

“Everyone eat and drink as much as you want. Afterward we’re heading upstairs for karaoke!” Qin Weidong had his sling removed that afternoon after his follow-up. He was in high spirits, and his mood had improved considerably.

“Brother Qin made it out of the fire alive. From now on everything will go smoothly for him.”

“Brother Qin even saved a middle school kid while escaping. Impressive!”

“Mighty!”

……

More than a dozen people came to the gathering. Everyone got along well, and they had even pooled their money to buy Qin Weidong a game console to celebrate his recovery. No matter how much each person contributed, it was the thought that counted.

“Like I said, eat well and drink well!” Since he had only just recovered, Qin Weidong could not drink alcohol, so he used soda in place of it. The mood in the private room became lively at once.

Upstairs from the restaurant was a large KTV. After dinner, everyone went upstairs to sing. Qin Weidong had done a lot of socializing just now and felt a little stifled, so after settling everyone in, he went downstairs to the entrance of the restaurant for some air. It was now 8:40. A light breeze was blowing, and the road outside was full of students from No. 1 High riding their bikes home.

Piaoxiang Pavilion was near No. 1 High. Qin Weidong checked the time and realized it was indeed the hour when school there got out.

He stood at the entrance for a while, preparing to go back upstairs and sing, when he suddenly looked up and saw a slender figure across the street. The figure was wearing the blue-and-white school uniform, carrying a denim schoolbag, and had just walked over from the direction of No. 1 High. He stood quietly at the bus stop across the road.

The two of them faced one another, separated by a road full of passing cars and cyclists. Qin Weidong looked at him. The other person lifted his head slightly. Qin Weidong could not tell whether he had seen him.

At that moment, Route 22 arrived. The boy boarded with the crowd, and before long disappeared at the end of the road.

Qin Weidong: !!!

The memory of the alley hit him again. He could clearly recall that warning look in the other boy’s eyes, the one tinged with contempt. Perhaps because it was nighttime and his mind felt clearer, that look seemed even sharper now than it had in the alley.

Qin Weidong was furious. He felt he had done a good deed. Even if someone was going to look down on someone, it should have been the strange number who asked him to deliver the message, not him. Why was he the one being looked down on?

He had been helping someone!

He thought the matter had already passed, but the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He forced himself to calm down, then suddenly seemed to remember something and opened his phone contacts.

He scrolled down and finally found a number. Then he called it.

In an apartment building in the steelworkers’ residential compound, Luo Liang was sprawled on the sofa eating a banana. When he saw the incoming call, he jolted upright and fumbled to answer it.

“Brother Qin?”

After they had met last time, he had called Qin Weidong once and sent him two text messages. Translated on Hololo novels. They had only said things like whether he had time to eat together. Qin Weidong had brushed him off by saying it was inconvenient lately. Luo Liang understood what that meant and did not dare make himself seem like a clingy nuisance.

He had planned to wait a while before trying to contact him again. He never expected Qin Weidong to call him first. It was a complete and delightful surprise.

“Brother Qin, what’s up? Just say the word!” Luo Liang assumed he needed more people for a fight and excitedly prepared to change his shoes.

“It’s nothing major.” Standing at the restaurant entrance, Qin Weidong asked into the breeze, “Do you know Lin Wu?”

“Lin Wu from the alley?” Luo Liang immediately thought of the two of them standing face to face the other day.

“Yeah.”

“I know him. We’re from the same residential compound.”

“Tell me about him. The more detail, the better.” Qin Weidong still had a fire burning inside him. He felt he could not just let this go. At the very least, he had to get the other guy out somewhere and glare right back at him.

✧˖°.──⋆⭒˚.⋆💌⋆⭒˚.⋆──✧˖°.

Thandar: I was a little bit confused with this chapter. I thought I made a mistake translating so I went back to the raws, and there was no mistake. The author wrote it in this way transitioning from chapter 10 to chapter 11.

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