Chapter 93
Qin Zhou had no choice but to stop chasing. He looked towards the direction of the loud noise. The truck passed the two pedestrians at the intersection. At that moment, Qin Zhou’s whole heart seemed to jam into his throat. It wasn’t until he saw that Lin Yi was okay that his heart finally dropped back into his chest.
Qin Zhou gritted his teeth, surprised and angry: “…Lin Yi.”
Lin Yi had completely left out of his recounting his close brush with death.
As Qin Zhou was making his way to Lin Yi, the 170cm Shunxi had already slipped away. Of course, Qin Zhou simply couldn’t bother to attend to Shunxi’s situation. His mind was still completely focused on making sure that Lin Yi was alright.
Riding the motorcycle, he stepped on the accelerator and was about to fly towards Lin Yi’s direction when the white light reappeared without any warning.
“Fuck.” Qin Zhou cursed and before he was taken away by the white light, he took off his helmet to see clearly if Lin Yi was hurt.
Fortunately, Lin Yi was unharmed.
After the white light, Qin Zhou opened his eyes.
There was no light in the living room, the windows were sealed with newspapers and the room was dark.
Qin Zhou frowned and he glanced at the window.
He reconfirmed that the darkness in the room was not because the windows were blocked by newspapers but because it was still dark outside.
In other words, it was still nighttime in the present.
According to their previous experience with time rewinds, unless they were woken up, it was impossible they’d wake up at this hour. Even Ren Li, who normally opens his eyes with the dawn, had to be called awake by Qin Zhou after entering a time rewind.
But now Qin Zhou was awake.
Qin Zhou put the cat atop of him aside and quickly scanned the room. He saw a black shadow creeping around. Qin Zhou’s heart tightened and he shouted, “Who’s there!”
“Senior…”
The shadow heard the movement on the sofa and turned around to look at Qin Zhou. “Are you awake?”
It was Lin Yi’s voice.
Qin Zhou got up from the sofa and fumbled in the dark to open the lights in the living room. With the light on, Qin Zhou realized that there was a book on the floor of the living room. It must have fallen off the bookshelf.
Lin Yi was bending down to pick up the book, as if he wanted to put the book back on the shelf.
Qin Zhou stared at the book in Lin Yi’s hand, which he hadn’t had time to put back on the shelf.
There was a high probability that he’d been woken up by the sound of the book falling. But how could the book have fallen out of the shelf in the first place?
Lin Yi also knew that his behavior seemed too weird. It would definitely cause Qin Zhou to misunderstand something.
“Senior,” he quickly explained, “I heard a noise.”
Although Lin Yi had been lying in the room, he had kept an eye on Qin Zhou.
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.
The sound of the book falling immediately attracted Lin Yi’s attention. His night vision ability was better than Qin Zhou’s and he could see the book on the ground without turning on the lights.
Hlc Itbe rjlv, “P xcbk.”
Olc Tl rajgfv ja Hlc Itbe’r ojmf, agslcu ab jrmfgajlc atgbeut Hlc Itbe’r fzqgfrrlbc atja tf gfjiis vlv xcbk jcv kjrc’a pera agslcu ab vlrwlrr tlw.
Hlc Itbe abbx atf ybbx lc tlr tjcv jcv qea la yjmx bc atf rtfio jcv uijcmfv ja Efc Ol’r gbbw. “Glv atf ybbx vgbq ys larfio? Glv sbe rff bg tfjg jcsatlcu firf?”
Lin Yi shook his head. This was what was suspicious. It was impossible for the book to have fallen from its original position on the shelf without someone having touched it. But apart from the sound of the book falling to the ground, Lin Yi hadn’t heard any other sounds.
Lin Yi followed Qin Zhou’s gaze and glanced into Ren Li’s room.
Obviously, the book falling couldn’t have just happened spontaneously and if he didn’t do it, that left only Ren Li.
But Ren Li was a promising member of the patrol team. He wouldn’t have disrupted Qin Zhou’s sleep in this way. If the 4-4 Monster has possessed him, it would know from Ren Li’s memories of his experiences not to do such a stupid thing.
It was still too early to trouble over whether Ren Li was the 4-4 Monster. Lin Yi asked Qin Zhou in a low voice, “Senior, did you learn anything?”
Qin Zhou glanced at the cat in the corner of the sofa and raised his chin towards Cen Qian’s bedroom. “He was abusing the cat.”
Lin Yi was taken aback.
He still remembered how Cen Qian had lost a leg when he rushed into traffic for the cat.
Qin Zhou told Lin Yi what he saw. As for why Cen Qian rushed into traffic, he guessed, “He wouldn’t let his target get away.”
Lin Yi also looked at the skinny cat. While it may be true that taking good care of a cat would be quite strenuous for Cen Qian, he could at least still feed it regularly and then the cat wouldn’t be so thin.
Lin Yi fell silent.
He could believe that Cen Qian would abuse cats.
But Cen Qian had still been so young at the time and he still had use of both legs. It wasn’t because of losing his leg that he became irritable.
“Cen Qian must have psychopathy in his genes.” Qin Zhou voiced what Lin Yi was thinking but wouldn’t say.
As soon as Qin Zhou said this, Lin Yi knew what Qin Zhou was thinking. Qin Zhou must be beginning to suspect that Shunxi was Cen Qian.
Lin Yi replayed back in his mind Cen Qian’s every move. Was Cen Qian, who could be so happy over a birthday cake, really be Shunxi?
Lin Yi wanted to make sure.
“Senior, I want to go to the matchbox time rewind.”
Lin Yi spoke.
Ren Li told them at in the matchbox time rewind, Cen Qian had confronted Shunxi. If Cen Qian was Shunxi, such a situation could not have happened. During that time rewind, Cen Qian even wanted to burn Shunxi and die together with him.
Qin Zhou gave an ‘en’ and found the matchbox.
In fact, he too wanted to go here to see if Shunxi and Cen Qian really had appeared together or if Ren Li had lied. After all, he and Lin Yi hadn’t gone to see it with their own eyes. They had to take Ren Li’s word for what happened in the matchbox time rewind.
No matter what the actual situation turns out to be, there will be at least one harvest from this time rewind — either they’ll confirm the relationship between Shunxi and Cen Qian or they’ll confirm Ren Li’s identity.
Lin Yi said, sounding him out, “Senior, let me go.”
One of them had to stay to guard the other. Qin Zhou had just gone to a time rewind. They’d never had anyone go into two time rewinds in a single night.
Qin Zhou didn’t argue with Lin Yi, simply nodding, “Okay.”
Although there were now two Rules of Death tonight, making it more dangerous to go to a time rewind, in comparison, books falling for no reason made the living room seem more dangerous.
Taking the matchbox from Qin Zhou, Lin Yi didn’t dare to delay. He immediately turned around and went back to the room and lay down on the bed.
Although Qin Zhou had been woken up shortly after he fell asleep, Lin Yi didn’t have much time left this night. In order to avoid disturbing Lin Yi’s rest, Qin Zhou didn’t follow Lin Yi into the room. He sat on the sofa and planned to guard Lin Yi like a door god.
Lin Yi held the matchbox. It took him some time to fall asleep.
The moment he saw the white light, he made use of every second and immediately opened the door and ran out.
The scene outside was still this same room.
This confused Lin Yi for a while. According to Ren Li, he’d appeared outside Cen Qian’s apartment building but Lin Yi had appeared directly in the room, same as when he’d entered the photo time rewind.
Lin Yi opened the door and looked outside. There were no newspapers on the windows and the wall outside of the window was covered with vines, which meant that he had come to just before the apartment caught fire.
He thought of what Ren Li had said, that Shunxi had been in this room. Although Lin Yi hasn’t seen Shunxi yet, he still decided to find some place to hide for a while, so as not to bump into Shunxi when he appears. He had no cover on his face and if his face is seen, he would directly be violating the first Rule of Death.
Cen Qian’s apartment was in an old residential building. The apartment’s entire floor area wasn’t big and the area of the bedroom was even smaller. There weren’t many places to hide; it was either in the wardrobe or under the bed.
Lin Yi thought for a second and decided to find something from the closet to cover his face and then hide under the bed, otherwise his sight would be completely blocked by the closet door.
Thinking so, Lin Yi opened the closet door.
The wardrobe was old and when Lin Yi opened it, the hinge made a ‘squeak’ sound.
This sound wasn’t small. Outside the room, Lin Yi then heard the sound of a wheelchair turning towards him. Cen Qian must have heard the sound and was coming to investigate.
Lin Yi’s heart tightened immediately.
What made him nervous wasn’t only Cen Qian’s approach but also the clothing item hanging in the closet — a cloak.
In the closet of Cen Qian’s apartment was Shunxi’s cloak!?
This cloak belonged to Cen Qian.
Cen Qian was Shunxi?!
Before Lin Yi could figure out why the cloak would be here, he heard the sound of footsteps.
The sound of footsteps had replaced the sound of the wheelchair turning, as if Cen Qian had stood up and stopped by the door.
Then, there came the sound of the turning doorknob.
Lin Yi didn’t have time to put down the cloak in his hand. He suddenly turned his head to look. As the doorknob was being turned outside, the doorknob inside was turning as well.
Cen Qian was opening the door!
Almost subconsciously, Lin Yi rushed to the door and locked it before it could be opened.
He prevented the one outside from coming in and at the same time clearly announced that there was someone inside!
Through the door, Lin Yi could almost hear the breathing on the other side.
It was very calm and relaxed, as if he was not the least bit alarmed at finding someone suddenly in his home.
A normal person shouldn’t have this reaction. Anyone would be shocked at having someone appear inside their bedroom out of thin air.
During this silent confrontation, there came a “Bang——”
A knife.
The tip of the knife had pierced through the door and almost penetrated Lin Yi’s forehead.
Lin Yi leaned back and saw that the tip of the knife being pulled back again. But immediately in the next second, it came again, accompanied by an uncontrollable excited laughter from outside.
“Hehehehehe…”
The person outside was Cen Qian. Lin Yi could tell that this was Cen Qian’s voice!
Cen Qian was Shunxi!
“Who are you? You’ve found out my secret, haven’t you?” Cen Qian first laughed quietly and then laughed out loud. “I’ve never met a, hm, yeah, a prey, a prey who delivered himself to my door. Hello, are you my prey?”
As he spoke, he stabbed the knife repeated into the door panel.
The quality of the door obviously wasn’t very good. Lin Yi was afraid that the door wouldn’t be able to withstand Cen Qian’s assault. The only thing he could do was to push against the door. But holding the door close while avoiding the knife stabs was difficult. He was almost pierced by the tip of the knife several times. .
“Are you still not coming out?” Cen Qian thought for a while: “Then I’ll think of another way.”
There was once again the footsteps, one shallow, one deep. Lin Yi listened to the movement outside and judged that Cen Qian must have sat back in his wheelchair.
He didn’t know what other way Cen Qian was talking about but he could only hold the door tightly shut, otherwise Cen Qian would come in and he would die if Cen Qian saw his face.
He didn’t know long it took, but to Lin Yi’s horror, it seemed he heard a ‘psssh’ sound.
It was like a match rubbing against a rough surface. And then the flames sprang up.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-the-female-psychopath/202204/can-gene-psychopathy-be-in-your-family
All this time, they were staying in the killer’s home 😱
So, the “Shunxi” Ren Li saw was actually Lin Yi? This explains a lot!
Who dropped the book? Good one 👍looking forward to the next chapter
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Wait so the 182cm ‘Shunxi’ is Lin Yi, and Cen Qian is the real “Shunxi”? Wait both are the same height who’s the woman? IS IT CEN QIAN’S MOM??? They said the psychopathy is genetic (at least we assume it for this case), so is the 170cm shunxi his mother? Is it his own imagination? Did he kill his own mother and now he has an image of a “shunxi” in his head which is his mother, but it is him himself?But I still don’t understand why Lin yi is also Shunxi suddenly
Cen (the real one who is an animal abuser since young)
That 170m little man that QZ saw in that traffic accident time travel and lastly,
LY who were placed in that room when he traveled in that same night (the third Shunxi in RL’s view)
Oh yes! The last few chapters prove Lin Yi is not Shunxi but we still don’t know who the 170cm Shunxi is from the traffic accident right? (Or if we do I can’t remember when they talked about it). So Lin Yi’s ‘it’s is what we consider the monster for now, and Cen Qian is ‘Shunxi’ because of the news article right?
…shibal…so the shenxi ren li saw was lin yi ……………and he killer was actually cen……i did actually think of cen as the killer because of the part…about the steps being one shallow and one deep…….damn
Ren Li saw Lin Yi through the window and mistook him as Shunxi !!! Damn..