Chapter 81
Lin Yi was willing to swear that he didn’t know this Cen Qian.
He’d been that he wouldn’t need to explain, that he’d be proven innocent in the course of Ren Li and Qin Zhou piecing together the main plot.
But now–
That scene played on the lake’s surface, the different way he’d been drawn in and now, being recognized with his full name by an NPC…
This repeated splashing of dirty water was making Lin Yi public enemy no. 1.
Explaining it would make him look like he had a guilty conscience. Not explaining it would make it seem like he was acquiescing.
And he didn’t know if anything else would happen after…
Lin Yi curled his fingers, and he raised his eyes to look at Qin Zhou, expressing his innocence and helplessness with his eyes.
‘Senior,’ Lin Yi shouted in his heart, ‘I really don’t know this Cen Qian.’
‘Believe me. Help.’
Qin Zhou: “…”
Qin Zhou’s furrowed brows eased. When he turned his head to look at Cen Qian, he pulled Ren Li with him, stopping Ren Li from staring at Lin Yi and thinking too deeply.
Cen Qian put on the mask again. The mask was used to cover the scars on his face.
Qin Zhou looked at him and said very bluntly, “Since you’re acquaintances, why don’t you invite us in?”
Cen Qian didn’t even spare Qin Zhou a look. His gaze passed over Qin Zhou and landed firmly on Lin Yi. “Do you want to come in and sit down?”
What could Lin Yi say? He said yes.
After entering Cen Qian’s house, Lin Yi sat awkwardly on the sofa.
Cen Qian asked him, “Would you like some water?”
Lin Yi shook his head but Cen Qian still slid the wheelchair to fetch water for Lin Yi and he only fetched water for Lin Yi.
Qin Zhou glanced in Lin Yi’s direction and then began looking around the room with Ren Li.
“It’s warm water.” Cen Qian handed the water glass to Lin Yi.
Lin Yi thought that it would be too much to refuse someone who’d gone through so much trouble to fetch him water. So, he thanked him and took the glass of water.
Cen Qian looked at him but and didn’t make Lin Yi have to drink water in front of his face. He just said, “Long time no see, you haven’t changed much.”
Lin Yi listened to what Cen Qian was implying. He made them sound like old acquaintances.
He could only smile awkwardly.
Lin Yi shrank back on the sofa. Suddenly, there was a faint sound from behind, “Meow——”
Lin Yi also felt something soft being squeezed against his back. He reached behind him and took out an orange cat.
The cat was thin, listless and looked sick.
It didn’t struggle when Lin Yi caught it. Knowing that Qin Zhou and Ren Li were looking for clues, in order to buy time for them, Lin Yi reached out to stroke the cat and spoke to Cen Qian, “Is this your cat?”
This was nonsense.
Cen Qian glanced at him and asked, “Want to watch TV?”
Lin Yi: “Oh, sure.”
Cen Qian went to turn on the TV. Lin Yi held the cat in his arms. The cat was thinner than he imagined and when he stroked the cat, the cat was even shaking.
Lin Yi couldn’t resist looking up at Cen Qian. He saw Cen Qian struggling to turn the wheelchair. The short distance from the sofa to the TV made him out of breath.
Cen Qian pressed the TV switch and the TV screen lit up, playing the channel it had been left on.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
It was the local news channel. The TV anchor reported that there was another homicide case in the city, which was suspected to Shunxi’s handiwork. He repeatedly emphasized that citizens must watch out for their own safety.
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Lin Yi put down the cat, stood up and said to Cen Qian, “I’ll be going now.”
Cen Qian didn’t turn to look back. He was still looking at Shunxi’s portrait. “It’s getting dark, just stay here at my place tonight.”
At this time, the news anchor’s came from the stereo of the TV: “Please try not to go out after dark and don’t go to dark and deserted corners…”
Lin Yi looked up at Qin Zhou and Ren Li, silently asking them their plan.
Personally, he wanted to stay here. He felt that there was something strange about Cen Qian.
Qin Zhou was worried about Lin Yi staying here alone, so he shook his head slightly at Lin Yi.
Cen Qian spoke again, “Your two friends can also spend the night here.”
There were many differences between the 4-4 Rule World and the previous Rule Worlds. The other Rule Worlds had a fixed setting, but the 4-4 Rule World seemed to have created a whole world. There was no limit to their range of activities and consequently, they also had no place to sleep.
If they leave, they really didn’t know where they could spend the night.
And so, the three of them stayed.
There were three bedrooms here, including Cen Qian’s. He first arranged one for Lin Yi and then left Qin Zhou and Ren Li to stay in the other.
“The bed is small, so you can sleep on the sofa if you feel crowded.” Cen Qian said to Qin Zhou and Ren Li. He didn’t care though whether the two shared a room or slept on the sofa. He said ‘good night’ to Lin Yi and returned to his room.
Qin Zhou slept on the sofa and left the bed to Ren Li.
Ren Li did not refuse.
Before Ren Li went to bed, Qin Zhou called him. “Ice cube.”
Ren Li looked at Qin Zhou: “President.”
“Stay on alert.” Qin Zhou said.
Ren Li: “Yes.”
Ren Li’s room was next to Cen Qian’s. Even if Cen Qian was in a wheelchair, he was still an NPC.
After Ren Li left, Qin Zhou briefly told Lin Yi the result of their search. “There wasn’t any evidence to prove that this is the residence of the murderer but…”
Qin Zhou picked at the edge of the wallpaper.
Lin Yi looked at the wall behind it. It was scorched black.
Qin Zhou said, “There was a fire in this apartment and it was not repainted after it burned down, it was immediately covered with wallpaper.”
Lin Yi nodded and then said, “Senior, would you believe me if you told me that I don’t know him?”
Without waiting for Qin Zhou to answer, Lin Yi immediately said, “I’m going to bed, good night, Senior.”
He remembered the cat on the sofa and Lin Yi took the cat back to the room Cen Qian had assigned him, fearing that Qin Zhou would crush the skinny cat in his sleep.
He closed the door gently, put the cat aside and lay down on the bed.
He closed his eyes, stroking the cat. The cat was so thin that he could feel the orange cat’s bones through his skin.
So skinny.
But then, Cen Qian was bound to a wheelchair and couldn’t even take good care of himself. How could he take good care of a cat?
Cen Qian.
Lin Yi silently ran the name in his mind.
Because he was surprised and puzzled that an NPC would recognize him, Lin Yi had focused all his attention on why Cen Qian knew him and why he would even call out his name in front of Qin Zhou and Ren Li.
No matter how you looked at it, it looked to be a case of splashing dirty water.
Lin Yi decided to sleep. If he’d really been splashed with dirty water, it must be because something was bound to happen later. He had to make sure he had enough energy to face whatever it might be.
He recreated in his mind the sounds in the MP4 Player, relaxing his body to lull himself to sleep.
Falling asleep was difficult and Lin Yi didn’t know how long it took before he felt his eyelids grow heavy. But in the very next second, Lin Yi felt his eyelids tingle. He opened his eyes and saw a white light coming from the bottom of the door, so bright it could almost illuminate the entire room.
Lin Yi was momentarily stunned. He then got out of bed and opened the door.
Qin Zhou was sleeping in the living room!
“Seni-…”
As soon as he opened the door, Lin Yi was shocked by the scene before him, stunned into silence.
Outside the bedroom door was not the living room. The sun was shining overhead. It was as though he’d stepped out of a door to the outside. There is a steady flow of traffic in front of him. He was standing on the sideway, before a pedestrian crossing, one among a crowd waiting for the signal light to change.
The signal light on the other side of the crossing was red. Below the red signal was a countdown: 78, 77, 76… It made the pedestrians impatient and irritable.
Lin Yi looked around. He didn’t understand how he suddenly got here from the bedroom.
Is it a dream?
Before Lin Yi could figure it out, there was a sharp sound in his ear. “Meow——”
A streak of orange flashed past Lin Yi. Lin Yi took a closer look and saw an orange cat jumping into traffic.
This was an intersection. There were a lot of very fast vehicles coming and going, hurrying to make it past before the light turns red and they be stuck behind it.
One could just imagine what the fate of the orange cat would be. It’d either be crushed by this car or bulldozed by that car.
Among the pedestrians waiting for the signal light, someone spotted the cat and became worried, “My God——”
Lin Yi’s heart too was stuck in his throat. His eyes were firmly locked on the cat. Even knowing the cat’s fate, Lin Yi couldn’t do anything. Even if he rushed into traffic, he wouldn’t be able to save the cat. At most, he’d join the cat into becoming roadkill.
All he could do was pray that the cat was nimble enough to make it past the cars and to the other side of the road.
The countdown is slowly decreasing. — 20, 19, 18…
Just as the pedestrians were anxiously waiting for the number to drop to ‘0’ and for the cars to stop, someone suddenly darted onto the crossing.
It was a little boy of seven or eight years old.
beep–
beep–
Car horns blared.
Lin Yi glanced at the countdown. The number was dropping to 5, 4, 3…
He stared intently at the little boy. The little boy caught the cat, hugged it and he himself suddenly fell to the ground.
Lin Yi glanced at the traffic. Sure that the traffic flow was slowing down, he made to run to where the boy fell, planning to get the boy of there.
But just as he took a step, he was suddenly yanked back.
Lin Yi was caught off guard and fell backwards. He instinctively turned his head to see who had pulled him, only to see a black shadow making his way into the crowd like a snake, disappearing quickly.
There was no other way; Lin Yi could only turn back to attend to the little boy.
Fortunately, when the little boy rushed onto the road, the traffic flow had already begun to slow down and the drivers were moving to avoid him.
Among the crowd of pedestrians, were sounds of relief coming one after another.
Lin Yi also heaved a sigh of relief. He stood up and was about to pick up the fallen little boy when he heard a loud braking sound coming from a distance at an extremely fast speed.
An out-of-control vehicle was barreling towards the intersection!
Lin Yi didn’t have time to think. He shot out, reaching out for the little boy. He grabbed him by the collar and pulled him to avoid the out-of-control car.
He felt his nails being scrapped and the gust of wind blowing against his face. The out-of-control vehicle had passed by him!
Immediately afterwards — boom boom boom!
Behind him was the sound of vehicles colliding one after another.
Lin Yi smelled the stench of blood. He suddenly turned his head to look at the little boy. One of the little boy’s legs had been run over by the vehicle. When Lin Yi dragged him to avoid the out-of-control vehicle, the boy’s leg lay on the ground as if it had no bones.
The little boy looked up blankly at Lin Yi.
The impact came so fast that the little boy hadn’t even registered the pain.
“You you …..you.”
For a while, Lin Yi didn’t know what to say. He didn’t have a phone to dial 120.
All he could see was the crowd gesticulating to him frantically. Lin Yi looked in the direction they were pointing. There was a hospital 500 meters away.
“Hold on.”
Lin Yi picked up the boy and ran towards the hospital.
As Lin Yi was running, the little boy looked at his legs and immediately understood what had happened to him.
“Doctor! Doctor!”
As soon as he rushed through the doors, Lin Yi began yelling loudly.
The medical staff hurriedly wheeled a bed over. The boy was on the verge of shock. The doctor kept talking to the little boy while performing emergency first aid. “Good boy, don’t sleep…”
The little boy could barely keep his eyes open.
The doctor asked, “Little boy, what’s your name?”
The doctor asked, “How old are you?”
Lin Yi followed the medical staff towards the emergency operating room. He saw the little boy open his mouth and reply, “My name is… Cen Qian.”
Lin Yi stopped abruptly.
The stretcher was pushed into the operating room while Lin Yi was frozen in his tracks.
“Bam–”
The operating room doors closed.
“You were the one who brought that child here, right?” A medical staff came over with a pen and paper, “Sign here.”
Lin Yi was staring at the operating room. The medical staff repeated, “Sign here.”
“Oh, okay.” Lin Yi took the pen and paper and wrote his name on it.
After he signed his name and looked at the word “Lin Yi” on the signature, Lin Yi finally had a realization.
He realized why Cen Qian knew his name and why he seemed disappointed that Lin Yi couldn’t remember him.
If he was right, he had gone back in time.
Lin Yi looked at the time on the hospital’s wall and recalled the time he saw on the chief editor’s computer.
Time had jumped back ten years. Ten years ago, he rescued Cen Qian.
So ten years later, Cen Qian still remembered Lin Yi.
If the past is changed, it will affect the future.
“Lin Yi.”
While Lin Yi was staring blankly at the time in the hospital, the medical staff who had just asked Lin Yi to sign came back. “The little boy in the operating room said before he went into shock that he had money under the TV cabinet at home. Do you know this boy? Do you know where his house is? If you know, please help get it to cover his fees. We’ll watch over him here.”
Lin Yi pursed his lips and after a long time: “…I know.”
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
thank u for the update ☺
its nice to know that lin yi does want to save people (example the little boy and wanting to take his parents to bigger hospitals )
despite that he is definitely related to the uni and has “it” inside.
Who prevented Lin Yi from going into the traffic before ??? Ohh this world is like a time loop..
Was thinking the same
My analysis: at night they travel to past and any changes there ger carried to present. In present they need to find evidence. I kinda reminds me of the movie arrival about the scientist that analysed alien language and is seeing future events
What if Lin Yi wrote someone else’s name?
……wow….this rule world is just so different …..its just …i don’t know ..realistic ….like the npc’s are real