Translator’s note: Given that there are two Lin Yi’s in this chapter, to make it clear which one is which, I’ve placed ‘past Lin Yi’ in ‘quote marks’.
Chapter 96
Lin Yi waited outside the news agency, looking up at the main door from time to time.
It had been almost evening when his ‘past’ self went to buy birthday candles for Cen Qian. Though, right now, it was still only morning. But Lin Yi was not in any hurry. He reckoned that the fake Shunxi he’d encountered that day was himself.
Since it was a closed time loop, he knew he could stay until dusk without worrying that he’ll be dragged back to the present.
Lin Yi continued to wander outside and after a while he saw someone coming down from the news agency building.
They had just received their salary slips that day. Feng Wan and the others had decided to go to a restaurant nearby to fill their stomachs. Ren Li went to find the corpse; while he and Qin Zhou went to Jianshe Road to look around for any sign of their anonymous tipper.
After the participants separated and left, Lin Yi followed ‘himself’ and Qin Zhou to Jianshe Road.
He was well-aware of his level of vigilance and had no doubts about Qin Zhou’s. And so, he didn’t dare to get too close along the way. From time to time, he had to find cover to hide himself.
But Lin Yi kept his eyes on ‘himself’ the entire time.
‘It’ comes without any warning and Lin Yi himself doesn’t notice when it appears.
Lin Yi can only judge if ‘It’ has appeared from the traces left after its appearance. He can then find what triggered ‘It’ to appear based on these traces and then infer what ‘It’ had done.
Like after he’d collided with the Monster in the 2-6 Rule World or when he’d scared himself in the 16-8 Rule World.
But now he could use this second perspective to observe all the reactions of his ‘past’ self and use his previous experiences to verify whether ‘It’ was behaving abnormally.
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.
He followed himself and Qin Zhou to walk several laps around Jianshe Road and waited until Qin Zhou finally took ‘himself’ to the cake shop.
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Lf ibbxfv ja ‘tlwrfio’ obg j ktlif jcv ktfc tf obecv atja ‘tf’ kjr rajglcu ja Hlc Itbe, tf ibbxfv eq ja Hlc Itbe jujlc.
Lin Yi recalled what ‘he’ had been thinking at the time.
He remembered that ‘he’ had been wondering about why ‘he’ never doubted Qin Zhou.
Since entering the 4-4 Rule World, Lin Yi has never doubted Qin Zhou. He’s never even really doubted Ren Li that much. The only time he doubted him was when the book fell from the shelf. And even then he didn’t doubt him for long. His doubts about Ren Li were quickly dispelled.
As for the other participants involved, Lin Yi had no doubts about them as well.
This wasn’t normal.
It was as if he knew that they weren’t the 4-4 Monster. Even though the 170cm Shunxi was about the same height as Feng Wan, he didn’t have any doubts about Feng Wan.
In the cake shop, Qin Zhou, who was ordering, showed signs of turning around.
Lin Yi held back his thoughts and straightened his wide hood. Qin Zhou would inevitably see him so Lin Qi could only quickly walk past the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Knowing that in Zhou and ‘himself’ would still be in the cake shop for a while, Lin Yi took advantage of this time to find a free medical mask, so as to prevent ‘himself’ from seeing him later.
After he got the mask, he waited for ‘himself’ and Qin Zhou to leave a little behind the cake shop. After waiting for a while, ‘he’ and Qin Zhou finally pushed open the door of the cake shop and walked out from inside.
The cake was held by Qin Zhou, and Lin Yi focused his attention on ‘himself’. He hasn’t noticed anything unusual about ‘himself’ yet.
In the field of vision, ‘he’ and Qin Zhou walked towards Cen Qian’s house, but he stopped following.
Lin Yi had already experienced this period of time. He remembered that because he’d been thinking about how to attract Shunxi, he hadn’t notice a cloaked figure wandering around him the entire time.
Lin Yi just stood there waiting for ‘himself’ to come back again.
After waiting for about 40 minutes, Lin Yi saw ‘himself’ running back to the cake shop in a hurry. After locking on to the target, Lin Yi walked over quickly. When “he” pushed the door to enter the cake shop, Lin Yi was standing outside the cake shop. As soon as ‘he’ comes out after buying the birthday candles, ‘he’ would run into him head-on.
He was very nervous.
He was staring at the uniquely shaped door of the cake shop. There was also a wind chime hanging over the door. Whenever the wind blows or guests come in and out, the wind chime would make a crisp sound.
Lin Yi remembered that it didn’t take him more than a few minutes to buy birthday candles. After he entered the door and told the clerk what he wanted, the clerk gave him the birthday candles. From entering the door to buying birthday candles, the whole process took no more than three minutes.
But at this time, these three minutes seemed to drag on.
Barring anything unexpected, after a while, ‘he’ would collide with himself head-on.
‘He’ would think that ‘he’ had violated the Rule of Death by being seen by ‘Shunxi’. In the 16-8 rule world, he had also experienced letting ‘It’ surface when he thought he had violated a Rule of Death. Now, in this 4 -4 Rule World, the same situation should trigger ‘It’ to appear.
If ‘it’ doesn’t appear, it means that either ‘it’ isn’t in his body, or ‘It’ is the 4-4 Monster. As the creator of the 4-4 Rule World, ‘It’ would know very well that Lin Yi was in no danger.
Thinking of this, Lin Yi made another correction.
It’ could be out of his body and also be the 4-4 Monster. Since discovering the existence of ‘It’, ‘It’ has always stayed in his body. ‘It’ had never left before. Even in the previous Rule Worlds, ‘It’ has never ran out of his body and became a separate individual.
The 4-4 Rule World may very well be ‘It’s’ home.
Seeing that he could finally just about grasp the answer he was looking for, Lin Yi swallowed nervously and couldn’t help pinching the stone in his pocket.
Cling cling–
Cling cling–
The wind chime over the door tinkled and the door of the cake shop was pulled open from the inside. Lin Yi squeezed the pebble in his pocket even more tightly then looked up towards the door.
‘He’ spotted Lin Yi a second earlier than Lin Yi did ‘him’. At this moment when ‘present’ and ‘past’ selves looked at each other, a strange tension suddenly spread and then wrapped around them overwhelmingly, causing each other to choke at the same time .
Lin Yi’s gaze was fixed on ‘himself’. Because ‘he’d’ been caught so off guard, ‘he’ couldn’t hide his nervousness and fear.
Lin Yi counted silently in his heart:
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six… three, two…
He knew what ‘he’ was thinking at this moment:
Why did ‘Shunxi’ appear here?
Why is he staring at me?
He’s seen my face. Now what?
Lin Yi moved his arm, ready to take out the pebble in his pocket, his whole body tensing with this movement.
In the next second, ‘he’ shot out like an arrow.
Lin Yi: “…”
He turned around and looked at his fleeing ‘self’. ‘His’ reaction was completely normal. But it was because it was so normal that it became abnormal.
Every time Lin Yi’s thoughts started running nonstop, especially when his life was threatened, ‘It’ would appear. But now, It’ didn’t.
Is ‘It’ no longer in his body? Or did ‘It’ know that this ‘Shunxi’ was fake?…
Lin Yi thought for a while and ran after ‘him’.
This is quite exciting. By this point, the Monster should be ‘It’ and it is difficult to tell wether ‘It’ is still in Lin Yi’s body and knows there’s no danger or running around outside, though I am more inclined to think it is the former. Otherwise, how would Lin Yi explain that feeling of knowing that only he can be the Monster?
Thank you for the chapter!
Thank you for the update ❤️💯
Can’t wait for this arc to finish just for some big reveals 👍
‘it’ sounded so powerful before, so i doubt its consciousness was dominated/replaced by the 4-4 monster… maybe its somehow cooperating with the monster?
wow…this is getting so interesting …..i wonder if it is a separated from lin yi or not