Chapter 86
There weren’t a lot of known trigger objects at present. Finding more triggers so that they’d all get to go to different time rewinds tonight was easier said than done.
The key though was to start from Cen Qian.
This was also the reason why Qin Zhou asked the others to stay put in the news agency building.
The three of them went to Cen Qian’s house again. Reasonably, they should have brought some small gift with them since they’ve been visiting so frequently. However, they had no money.
They’ve tried. Normal trades in the 4-4 Rule World were not free for them.
And thus,
Lin Yi said to Cen Qian, embarrassed, “We’ve come bringing our gift-giving intentions with us.”
Cen Qian: “…”
It happened to be noon when they arrived and Cen Qian asked, “Have you eaten yet?”
This was already the third day. They haven’t eaten anything yet but they didn’t feel hungry. It could be seen that the time flowed much faster in the 4-4 Rule World than in the real world.
Lin Yi was now even more embarrassed than when he came to the door empty-handed. But Cen Qian didn’t give him a chance to refuse and simply made the decision directly. “It just so happens that I ordered a bit too much for lunch.”
Lin Yi: “Oh, okay, okay.”
Over a meal is one of the best times for small talk. While eating lunch together, Ren Li said, “You live alone.”
Because the words were cold, Ren Li’s utterance didn’t sound like a question. It sounded more like he was stating a fact.
Cen Qian: “Yes.”
When Lin Yi saw Ren Li open his mouth to say something more, he rushed in to speak first. Ren Li’s words were too blunt and he might offend Cen Qian, making Cen Qian refuse to talk. Lin Yi asked, “Then uncle and aunt…”
“They’re dead.” Cen Qian lowered his head and continued to eat his food.
The news didn’t surprise any of them. Given the condition of Cen Qian’s legs, if his parents were still around, he never would have been allowed to live alone. And, these past few days, they haven’t seen Cen Qian’s parents.
Qin Zhou threw Lin Yi a look, which Lin Yi received.
When they first came to Cen Qian’s place, Qin Zhou and Ren Li had taken a look around his apartment. They’d seen a photo of him and his mother on the TV cabinet.
However, when Cen Qian went to turn on the TV, he put the photo in a drawer. It seemed that photo incited strong emotions from Cen Qian. There was a high probability that it could trigger a time rewind.
Their plan was for each of them to tackle separate time rewinds tonight. Now, they have the wire hairpin that killed Jiang Wang and the photo, which they’ll take later. They were only one item away.
Thus, the small talk must continue..
How to comfort others after hearing about their misfortune wasn’t Lin Yi’s forte. But among the three of them, only Lin Yi’s comfort had any weight. Cen Qian probably didn’t care for Qin Zhou or Ren Li’s comfort.
Lin Yi was making a draft in his mind. When he was about to say something to comfort Cen Qian, Qin Zhou said, “Sorry, we didn’t know. I am sorry for your loss. Life must go on.”
Cen Qian gave a faint ‘en’. Sure enough, he couldn’t care less what Qin Zhou said.
Lin Yi glanced at Qin Zhou, then turned his attention to Cen Qian, who had already raised his head. He echoed Qin Zhou’s words. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
The corner of Cen Qian’s lips twitched up. “Thank you.”
After lunch, Cen Qian went to take a nap, leaving the three of them take care of themselves.
Ren Li asked Qin Zhou. “Does the president have any other ideas?”
When Qin Zhou comforted Cen Qian with his ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, he meant it as a way to end the conversation. He was implying that Lin Yi didn’t need to continue the conversation anymore to find clues.
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.
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Qin Zhou took out a matchbox from nowhere.
Lin Yi immediately realized.
Cen Qian’s apartment showed signs of having burned though it’d been covered up with wallpaper.
Qin Zhou explained that he’d gotten the matchbox from a basket on the coffee table for storing odds and ends. Because it’d been covered up by other things in the basket, such as remote controls and nail clippers, Lin Yi and Ren Li hadn’t noticed it.
However, whether the matchbox had anything to do with the burnt wall, or whether it could incite Cen Qian’s memories was still uncertain. Qin Zhou handed the matchbox to Ren Li. “Have a look tonight.”
Ren Li: “Okay.”
Lin Yi found that Qin Zhou seemed to have no intention of giving him the wire hairpin. So tonight’s assignments were Qin Zhou to the wire hairpin time rewind, Ren Li to the matchbox time rewind and he was in charge of the photo time rewind.
The photo was now stored in the drawer of the TV cabinet. Now wasn’t the right time to take the photo. Lin Yi just made sure it was still in the drawer. He’ll wait till dark to take it.
Not long after dinner, it got dark.
When Cen Qian returned to his room to sleep, Lin Yi carefully took out the photo from the TV cabinet.
“Little genius.”
Before Lin Yi entered the room, Qin Zhou called Lin Yi to a stop.
“Senior?”
“Be careful.”
The IP address of the anonymous tipper led them to the vicinity of Cen Qian’s home, which effectively set a target at Cen Qian’s home. Even the editor-in-chief could find it here, let alone the fugitive Shunxi who was already targeting Cen Qian.
And so, everyone in Cen Qian’s place was in danger.
“En, en.” Lin Yi nodded.
When he walked in, Lin Yi thought of something and then went back out. Looking back at Qin Zhou, “Senior.”
Qin Zhou looked at him. “Hm?”
Lin Yi said, “You too.”
If everyone in Cen Qian’s place was in danger, then Qin Zhou would be the one most in danger since he was sleeping on the sofa, the place closest to the door.
Qin Zhou raised his eyebrows. “Don’t worry.”
Lin Yi went off to sleep with the photo in hand.
The sky was dim, with few stars. The occasional evening wind caused the trees and their shadows to sway.
At dawn…
Qin Zhou was woken up by the sound of Cen Qian rolling his wheelchair. Seeing that Cen Qian was about to wake Lin Yi up for breakfast, he sat up and said, “I’ll do it.”
Cen Qian’s hand that was about to knock on the door paused in mid-air. He finally put it back down. He lowered his head, his unkempt hair covered the expression on his face. It was as though even his voice was muffled by the shadows of his hair. He asked in a deep voice, “What is your relationship with Lin Yi?”
Cen Qian’s question made Qin Zhou raise his eyebrows. Although he really wanted to answer, in order not to cause trouble for Lin Yi, Qin Zhou moderated and said, “We have a passable relationship.”
Cen Qian glanced at him and after a while gave a soft ‘hmm’. He then turned the wheelchair and rolled away, leaving Qin Zhou to wake Lin Yi up for breakfast.
Qin Zhou stood up. The clock on the wall showed that it was 8:30 in the morning. Having gone through time rewinds the past two days, Qin Zhou had found some patterns.
After entering the time rewind, if someone interrupts, he will leave the ‘past time’. However, Qin Zhou was still not clear whether the person who enters the time rewind would wake up without outside interruption.
Qin Zhou stepped forward and knocked on Lin Yi’s door. It was a call back to the 7-7 Rule World, where every morning he would knock on the door of Room 304 to confirm Lin Yi’s safety.
At this time, after he knocked twice, there was the sound of movement in the room.
“Senior—”
Lin Yi didn’t even ask who was knocking on his door. It seemed that he was used to Qin Zhou knocking on his door every morning.
Lin Yi was safe. Qin Zhou sighed in relief and checked on Ren Li after.
Good. Ren Li was fine too.
Because they got up late today, Cen Qian had already prepared breakfast for the three of them. After breakfast, the three of them hurried to the news agency office.
On the way, Qin Zhou said, “I’m a little surprised.”
Lin Yi and Ren Li immediately turned to look at Qin Zhou.
Qin Zhou said, “Last night…”
After falling asleep, Qin Zhou successfully triggered the time rewind using the wire hairpin. From the sofa at Cen Qian’s apartment, he found himself at the news agency building. Before entering the building, Qin Zhou checked the time in the lobby.
September 19, 20XX, at 22 o’clock in the evening.
Seeing this time, Qin Zhou couldn’t help frowning.
The day the participants entered the 4-4 Rule World was September 21st of the same year. In other words, his ‘past time’ was only two days ago.
Then Qin Zhou heard the “ding” sound of the elevator, which meant that the elevator was at the first floor and the elevator doors were opening.
It was 10 o’clock in the evening but someone was using the elevator of the building.
Qin Zhou was about to head there to have a look but after walking a few steps, he suddenly heard a sound coming from behind him. He didn’t think twice and immediately hid behind a pillar in the lobby.
With his body pressed against the column, Qin Zhou observed the new shadow across the floor. He wasn’t sure if he’d been seen by the shadow’s owner.
The shadow was approaching but it didn’t stop when it reached the pillar. It went past him straight towards the elevator bay.
Qin Zhou turned sideways slightly, raised his eyes and looked towards the elevator area.
He saw the ‘cloaked man’ again or ‘Shunxi’. However, the ‘Shunxi’ this time was much taller than the ‘Shunxi’ he’d seen in the alley. The ‘Shunxi’ this time was taller than 1.8 meters.
He was standing in front of the elevators. Because his entire face was hidden in his hood, Qin Zhou couldn’t confirm where he was exactly looking. He could only see that the opening of the hood was facing the elevator display screen.
‘Shunxi’ was looking at which floor the previous person had gotten off on.
Not long after, the other elevator reached the first floor, making a crisp ‘ding’ sound. The doors opened and Shunxi got on.
After the double doors of the elevator closed, Qin Zhou stepped forward.
Through the display screen of the elevator, he saw Shunxi get off the ninth floor.
This was the floor where the participants gather.
On the ninth floor.
Jiang Wang got out of the elevator. Because he didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t notice what was going on with the elevator screen, that someone was following him and was also about to reach the ninth floor.
He could only clutch the wire hairpin uneasily in his hand.
It was so strange. He’d obviously opened the door with the wire hairpin and everyone had gone to sleep in the conference room. But why was it had he suddenly found himself once again outside of the building?
“Feng…Feng Wan?”
Jiang Wang called out cautiously. But the ninth floor was quiet and no one answered him.
Jiang Wang carefully walked to the light switch. After turning on a few lights, widening his field of vision, he slowly made his way towards the conference room.
He knocked on the door of the conference room. “Feng Wan?”
Not only did no one answer, the door to the meeting room was even locked from the outside.
Jiang Wang felt like he’d bumped into a ghost. This was so strange. Where did the others go?
For a while, he stood dazed in front of the meeting room. He didn’t know that while he was standing there, the other elevator had reached the ninth floor. Someone came out of the elevator, looking back and forth across the ninth floor with unscrupulous eyes.
After a while, Jiang Wang decided not to look for the others. This was just too weird, if he went running around again, he’d simply be looking for death.
He unlocked the meeting room with the wire hairpin in his hand and walked in.
The meeting room was empty but there was a laptop on a desk.
Jiang Wang recognized it as the editor-in-chief’s laptop.
At first Jiang Wang didn’t pay any attention to the computer. He first pulled out a chair and sat down, preparing to sleep through the night. The past few nights, he’d made it through like this. So long as he sleeps, he will be fine.
But tonight was very strange. No matter what, Jiang Wang just couldn’t sleep.
He tried many methods — counting sheep, counting dumplings and singing a lullaby to himself, but with little effect.
Then, his eyes fell on the editor-in-chief’s laptop.
Jiang Wang remembered how the editor-in-chief singled him out this more. “Especially you”, he’d said, as if he was going to eat him if he still didn’t get that interview with Shunxi.
He flinched a bit. But after the fear in his heart subsided, Jiang Wang moved the laptop in front of him.
He was quite proficient in computers and while there wasn’t any way to interview Shunxi, he might be able to find a way to restore Shunxi’s deleted photo. The photo was obviously more explosive than an interview.
Thinking of this, Jiang Wang turned on the computer and he was met with good news sooner than he imagined. The computer login email had the account password saved. After clicking on the email app, he was immediately logged in.
Before Jiang Wang even got to the ‘Recycle Bin’ or ‘Trash’ to find the submission, he already saw the submission email under ‘Read’.
It hadn’t been deleted. It was still here.
The title was immediately eye-catching – ‘Shunxi’ photo.
The sender was anonymous.
Jiang Wangxi couldn’t help opening the email. There was almost no text in the email; it was all photos, more than one.
All the photos featured a hooded man. The photos were taken from different angles, only one of the dozens of photos was a frontal shot, where the face under the hood could be vaguely seen.
He quickly zoomed in on this frontal photo and what he saw completely stunned Jiang Wan.
He recognized the person in the photo.
It’s…it’s…
It’s him.
Because he was too frightened, Jiang Wang’s breathing froze. During this period when Jiang Wang held his breath, he heard the sound of deliberately lightened footsteps.
The footsteps, one heavy, one shallow, were heading towards his position.
Who?! Ahhh the suspense..
Thanks for the chapter!!!
I’m sorry, did I read that wrong? “Him” as in the hooded man changes into whomever he is in the past with? So the hooded man is jiang wang rn but when killing the other guy he was shorter because he looked like the other guy, is that one of the reasons CQ didn’t call the police? Trying to explain someone who looked just like the victim was the murderer? Or am I reading this wrong? Does “him” just refer to a mystery character we already know but for suspense they don’t want to reveal the name of? (AKA our mc)
interesting guess but the ‘him’ here is a third party ‘him’; it doesn’t pertain to Jiang Wang/the victim themselves
I was just about to ask which ‘him’ it was.
Thanks for the chp and This rule world is quite a mystery
“One heavy and one shallow step” it’s him right that CEN guy so he can walk but whats with this height difference😶there are two🙃
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
ONE HEAVY ONE SHALLOW??? is it cen qian??? I sort of thought so at first but cen qian being on the crime scene for the first death threw me off
Is it a time loop? Two different cen qians are overlapping each other? One is a killer the other not, and each wants the other to disappear?
this time loops are gonna kill me……….’the footsteps, one heavy .one shallow ‘made me think of cen qian…but the height differences made me doubt that too………..