Chapter 94
Not long after came the sound of a match rubbing against a phosphor surface. Lin Yi smelled smoke and immediately after, black smoke came seeping through the gap under the door.
Looking at the black smoke at his feet, Lin Yi reacted immediately.
He glanced out of the window and sure enough, he saw Ren Li, who was downstairs, little far off.
When Ren Li recounted this time rewind, he said that he saw two shadows inside Cen Qian’s apartment — one in the bedroom and the other in the living room. Because the figure in the living room was sitting, this person had to be Cen Qian. Thus, naturally, Ren Li assumed the other figure to be Shunxi.
But in fact, this figure was Lin Yi himself.
At the time, Ren Li had been puzzled as to why Shunxi didn’t jump out the window when the apartment was ablaze.
Lin Yi now found the answer. Because he didn’t dare to and he couldn’t.
The second floor wasn’t actually that far from the ground. If he jumps out the window, he might not necessarily fall to his death but there is a high possibility that he’ll be seen by Cen Qian. Cen Qian was Shunxi and having one’s face seen by Shunxi was a violation of the Rule of Death. Moreover, right now, it wasn’t just one active Rule of Death but two active Rules of Death, the second of which they still had no idea about.
But Lin Yi wasn’t worried anymore. According to Ren Li’s story, Ren Li would contact the fire department and once the firefighters arrive, he could leave.
After making sure that his dog life was safe, Lin Yi didn’t hold the door any longer. He simply continued searching through the things in this bedroom. Since Cen Qian had put the cloak in this bedroom, there might be also some other things here.
Lin Yi opened the closet, covered his mouth and nose with one hand and rummaged in the closet with the other.
He pulled out the other clothes and after a while, he did find something — a box that was neither too big nor too small.
The contents themselves were unsurprising. There were rings, earrings, diaries, buttons and badges, etc…
What was strange and surprising was why these things would be in this box at this time. Lin Yi stared at these objects. The size of the ring obviously indicated that it belonged to a girl. The style of the buttons was more like a button for a suit. There was a brand logo printed on the button and indeed, it was a clothing brand that only makes men’s clothing.
In other words, the items in the box didn’t belong to a single person, let alone to Cen Qian.
Lin Yi then saw the diamond necklace that had belonged to Cen Qian’s mother. The diamond necklace too had been placed inside the box.
Lin Yi suddenly understood.
If Cen Qian was Shunxi, it was very likely that Cen Qian’s mother died by Cen Qian’s hands. And with that knowledge, it was now quite evident why Cen Qian had taken his mother’s necklace.
Shunxi takes an item from the people he kills.
Like this ring and this button and this diamond necklace.
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.
There was something else at the bottom of the box; a piece of paper that had obviously been stored for a long time.
Olc Tl abbx la bea jcv kjr rtbmxfv ktfc tf rjk atf mbcafcar bo atf qjuf.
Pa kjr atf qgfrr gfifjrf Itbe Hl tjv kglaafc!
Zbgf jcv wbgf rwbxf gertfv lcab atf gbbw. Olc Tl kjr olcvlcu la tjgvfg jcv tjgvfg ab ygfjatf. Mbgaecjafis, tf mbeiv jigfjvs tfjg atf rlgfc bo j olgf agemx lc atf vlrajcmf.
He was almost out of here.
Lin Yi lay down on the bed, exhausted, intending to save his last bit of physical strength so that if something unexpected were to happen before he leaves, say if Cen Qian were to suddenly rush in, he could still do something.
While lying on the bed, the horror in Lin Yi’s heart grew more and more intense. When Ren Li described the figure in the room at that time, he used the word ‘shaky’, and now his situation fully fit Ren Li’s description.
Everything they experienced in the 4-4 Rule World seemed to follow the script just as it was written.
Just as Lin Yi was beginning to feel suffocated, the white light finally appeared.
Before leaving, Lin Yi heard the sound of the firemen breaking down the door…
Lin Yi opened his eyes.
It was already dawn and Qin Zhou had called him awake.
With the existence of two active Rules of Death, staying for too long in a time rewind wasn’t a good idea.
Lin Yi turned over and found that Cen Qian was looking at him by the door. He grew nervous and immediately hid the matchbox behind his back.
Cen Qian saw Lin Yi’s actions but simply asked, “Have you had breakfast?”
Since it was Qin Zhou who woke him up, Lin Yi reckoned that it was almost time to go to work. He shook his head. “I’m probably already late for work.”
Cen Qian said ‘oh’, turned the wheelchair and left.
As soon as Cen Qian left, Lin Yi’s eyes moved past Qin Zhou to the right. There should be a wardrobe there but the wardrobe with Shunxi’s cloak and the box was no longer there in the present.
Lin Yi got up from the bed. “Senior, I’ll go wash up first.”
Without waiting for Qin Zhou to respond, Lin Yi went from the bedroom to the toilet. Next to the toilet was Cen Qian’s room. The door was ajar. Lin Yi saw the wardrobe in Cen Qian’s room.
Newspapers were pasted up in areas blackened by the smoke.
After seeing what he wanted to see, Lin Yi withdrew his gaze and turned on the faucet, splashing water on his face to wake himself up.
After a simple wash, Lin Yi and his party left Cen Qian’s place.
“What’s going on?” Ren Li hadn’t gone to either time rewind last night. It was agreed that Qin Zhou would enter the cat time rewind. However, when Ren Li woke up, he found that Qin Zhou had woken up even earlier than he himself but Lin Yi was still asleep.
At Cen Qian’s apartment, it would have been inconvenient for Ren Li to ask and for Qin Zhou to answer, so it was only now that he was asking.
Qin Zhou said, “Someone interrupted me.”
Ren Li was taken aback and immediately looked at Lin Yi suspiciously.
From Ren Li’s point of view, if he didn’t do this, then it could only have been Lin Yi.
Lin Yi didn’t have the energy to defend himself at the moment. He directly said the most important information he’d gained last night, “Cen Qian is Shunxi.”
Qin Zhou frowned, Ren Li looked at him suspiciously.
Lin Yi recounted what had happened last night, “The Shunxi that Ren Li Ge saw was actually me. Ah no, the figure he saw was me and the real Shunxi was Cen Qian. I saw the cloak in the closet. Now this closet is in Cen Qian’s room and barring anything unexpected, the cloak should still be in that closet.”
Perhaps Qin Zhou being interrupted from his time rewind made Ren Li suspicious of Lin Yi. Ren Li didn’t believe Lin Yi. “The cloak doesn’t prove that Cen Qian is Shunxi.”
“I know.” Lin Yi continued, “There was another box in the closet.”
After telling the two people what was in the box, Lin Yi said, “There were words circled in pen on the press release. The circled keywords were: ‘Shunxi’, ‘serial killer’, and ‘taking something from the dead’.”
All three of them had read Zhou Qi’s article. At the time there had been no evidence of Shunxi taking any spoils from his victims but Zhou Qi deliberately fabricated it for the sake of a gimmick.
Now, it has become a fact.
“Senior, Zhou Qi wasn’t killed by the 170cm Shunxi but by Cen Qian. There is a high probability that Zhou Qi’s press release winded up in Cen Qian’s hands so Cen Qian imitated the press release and became Shunxi in the press release.” Lin Yi continued to demonstrate with examples. “Every trigger is related to the time rewind. It could be said that these items are the subject of that particular time rewind. But the time rewind triggered by the wire hairpin had nothing to do with Cen Qian’s arrest. I think the connection should be that Cen Qian used the wire hairpin to escape from prison. Ren Li Ge, if you don’t believe me, so long as we can find wire hairpins in that box, it will prove that Cen Qian is indeed Shunxi.”
Listening to Lin Yi’s narration, Qin Zhou thought back on the timeline. The day they entered the 4-4 rule world was September 21st and Shunxi had been arrested on the night of September 19th. After being arrested on the evening of the 19th, he escaped so Cen Qian could actually appear in his home on September 21st. The timing would match.
Ren Li thought for a while, “If Cen Qian is Shunxi, why haven’t you violated the Rule of Death?”
Lin Yi rescued Cen Qian in the first night of time rewind. At that time, Lin Yi had already seen Cen Qian’s face.
This time, without waiting for Lin Yi to explain, Qin Zhou said, “At the time, Cen Qian wasn’t yet Shunxi.”
Because of the time rewind on the first night, Lin Yi met Cen Qian who was just seven or eight years old. At the time, Cen Qian hadn’t yet gotten Zhou Qi’s press release nor was he yet Shunxi.
Ren Li said, “Then how do you explain Zhou Qi?”
Zhou Qi died by Cen Qian’s hands and the day of Zhou Qi’s death was also the day Cen Qian got the press release. However, it is impossible for Cen Qian to have turned into Shunxi as soon as he got the press release. Then how did Zhou Qi trigger the Rule of Death?
Lin Yi said, “Because the Rule of Death isn’t having your face seen by Shunxi.”
“It’s discovering Shunxi’s secret.”
Ren Li glanced at Qin Zhou and found that Qin Zhou’s expression had already cleared. But he still didn’t understand. After thinking for a while, he couldn’t figure it out, so he asked, “What do you mean?”
What Qin Zhou had told Lin Yi was right. Cen Qian must have psychopathy in his genes otherwise how could a seven or eight-year-old child abuse cats for pleasure? This was Cen Qian’s secret.
Because of the cruelty in his genes, before he became Shunxi, Cen Qian had been torturing cats for fun. This was his early secret.
After Cen Qian became Shunxi, he switched to killing people for fun. This was his secret later on.
Why did Zhou Qi die? Because when he was forced into the alley by the 170cm Shunxi, he saw Cen Qian abusing the cat, thus triggering the Rule of Death.
And Jiang Wang’s death was had indeed been because he’d seen Shunxi’s face, Shunxi who was a serial killer and had psychopathy in his genes. And so Jiang Wang, seeing Shunxi’s face, was equivalent to discovering Cen Qian’s true identity thus triggering the Rule of Death.
Lin Yi explained this to Ren Li.
Ren Li now understood and agreed with Lin Yi’s conclusions.
“So the main plot is…” Ren Li paused to prepare for the long dialogue he was about to say, “Cen Qian has a genetic tendency for anti-social and cruel behavior. He once abused a cat and lost a leg but this didn’t change his temperament. One day, as he continued to commit crimes at night, he bumped into Zhou Qi who was carrying the press release. He was fascinated by the ‘Shunxi’ in the press release and became ‘Shunxi’, later going on to brutally kill his mother…”
The more he spoke, the more Ren Li felt something was wrong.
Lin Yi shook his head. “Ren Li Ge, this main plot is just a script.”
Ren Li frowned just like Qin Zhou was doing.
“If this main line can’t happen without us, then what would the previous participants say?” Qin Zhou snorted, “That means they couldn’t have seen the same main plot as we have.”
This was what Ren Li discovered was wrong.
Lin Yi nodded and said, “The 4-4 Rule is that time cannot go back.”
“It ought to be that the main plot cannot be found in the time rewind. We have been led astray.” Lin Yi said.
“Then where do we find it?” Ren Li asked.
After all, what they are experiencing now was the ‘present’, which was also part of the closed time loop.
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
The guy who died in office recognised shunxi he said i know you or seen you…, my question is who did he recognise? They did not see CEN or was it the original (and i had another question which I forgot after writing this 😭)
Let’s leave all the thinking with Lin Yi. This mind boggling Rule World makes me 😵 from guessing what who why how things happened.
Hell level of difficulty, glad I am not there 😀
Lol I don’t understand a thing…
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
This is so interesting, it’s worth losing sleep over, destiny being hooked on a cliffhanger…
I am officially lost. I can see why Shunxi is who he is, but why the main plot is just a script and not real is beyond my capabilities to understand. Also the guy who died after seeing the files containing Shunxi’s face, why did he say “it’s him”? Was it a “it’s him” as in “oh this is what the person looks like” or “it’s him” in a “wait I know this person”anyways thank you for the chapter!
And oh god we still haven’t delved into the biggest question of the 4-4 world. What has it got to do with Lin Yi and his mother. Is it going to be similar to Cen Qian’s plot? Is this entire Cen Qian plot supposed to parallel Lin Yi and his mother? Did Lin Yi himself kill his mother in this world?Although that will create a grandfather paradox after it, so it shouldn’t be that way. Unless the “past” Lin Yi who kills his mother in the instance is actually the “future” Lin Yi, and this isn’t the past but the future- yeah nevermind I give up
So what they actually need to find out about is the 170cm Shunxi.
The original one who’s the real main plot.
My mind is all jumbled up..