Time Cycle

I received a “future text message” on my way to work in the fall.

He claimed to be my future self and accurately predicted the impending accident.

I thought this was my chance, but I didn’t expect it to be a shocking conspiracy.

Who wants to help me? Who wants to harm me?

Why would my future self kill me???

“Name”

“Linhai”

“age”

“32 years old”

“Can you tell me what happened back then?”

“Nothing happened. I was too young to bear the blow to my own unrealistic fantasy.”

“Can you tell me about your fantasy, Lin Hai?”

“That year, my future self wanted to kill me.”

“Can you explain it in detail? This is an important basis for me to judge whether you can be discharged from the hospital.”

The doctor in a white coat sitting opposite me stared at me with a considering look.

I recalled what happened ten years ago and my eyes looked out the window involuntarily.

On the roof of the building opposite there are several conspicuous red characters: “Huanghai City Third Mental Hospital”.

The autumn breeze did not bring any coolness, but instead made me even more irritable while lying in bed.

At the same time, my mother knocked gently on the bedroom door, “Son, come out to eat, it will be too late to go to the part-time job later.”

I, Lin Hai, am 22 years old and a native of Northeast China.

I am now a senior at a key national university.

Because we came from an ordinary family, the pressure my schooling brought to my parents was unbearable.

So every time I have a holiday, I would do some simple part-time job to supplement the family income.

Today is my third day at work. The courier’s job is much more tiring than I imagined. At one point I even wanted to switch to a simpler part-time job.

“Here it comes, here it comes.” I responded, stroking my hair that looked like a bird’s nest.

I looked at the time and it was already seven o’clock. I would be late for unloading the truck again, so I had to speed up.

I took a bite of the bread that my mother had warmed up, picked up the bag containing my power bank, and said incoherently, “It’s too late. I’m leaving now, Mom.”

Time was urgent, so I ran to the bus stop without stopping.

“Ding Ling” the text message alert sounded in my pocket.

During these days at work, what I dread most is hearing the ringtones and text message alerts of my cell phone, because most of them are about various problems of my “clients”, but I have to see them.

I took out my phone and opened the text message interface. “Lin Hai, I am you in thirty years. Don’t go to work today.”

I sneered. Because delivering couriers requires making phone calls and sending text messages, my name and mobile phone number had been leaked a long time ago, which resulted in me receiving a lot of prank text messages and calls recently.

I took a special look at the phone number and saw the words “Private Number” on it. I couldn’t help but laugh.

Nowadays, these people are so bored that they use technology to harass others and hide their mobile phone numbers.

I didn’t take it seriously and put the phone in my pocket.

“Ding Ling” the text message alert sounded again.

I turned on my phone and said, “I know you don’t believe me. You didn’t have breakfast this morning because you spent half an hour in your bedroom and were late for work.”

Seeing this, I was a little angry. There are so many capable people nowadays? How did they install eavesdropping software on my phone remotely?

I typed back angrily: “I don’t care who you are, you can continue to harass me, I will call the police soon, just wait!”

The text message came back immediately, “Don’t worry, I am really you in 30 years. You have seven moles on your belly. You always claim to be a god descended from heaven. There are seven stars on your belly. You have never told anyone this.”

Hearing this, I also became a little suspicious.

I have never told this “Seven Stars in a Conjunction” to anyone else because it sounds too childish.

Because I am already past the age of fantasy.

“If you were me, you would definitely know my bank card password and payment password. What are they?” I replied.

“Your bank card password and all payment passwords are 721521, and you have never changed them.”

After hearing this, I was 90% convinced because no one knew my payment password except me.

I tried to call him, but all I heard from the receiver was a cold out-of-service tone, so I had no choice but to continue replying to his text messages.

“Then why can’t I go to work later? What will I do in the future? If you tell me tomorrow’s lottery numbers, will I become a millionaire?”

“Because there will be an explosion in the expert apartment on Dong’an Road today, and you happen to be trapped in that building.”

He refused to answer my question about the lottery numbers.

I couldn’t help but wonder, if I were a money-loving person like me, and if I could contact my past self, the first thing I would do is tell my past self the lottery number of that day.

Just as I was thinking, another text message came, “There are some rules that cannot be violated. You are not the first ex-me I have contacted. You just need to listen to me and don’t go to work for a while.”

“So where will I settle down in the future? Am I married?” I continued to ask.

I waited for a long time, but there was no reply from the other end, so I had to put the phone back in my pocket.

When I came to my senses, I was already standing at the bus stop, and the No. 11 bus that I had been taking for the past few days stopped in front of me.

The driver on the bus greeted me warmly and said, “Young man, hurry up and get on the bus! I saw you weren’t here, so I waited for you for an extra minute. It would be too late if you waited for the next bus.”

I have always been a talkative person, and I got along well with the driver these days, so the driver also knew my situation.

Because I was considering whether to believe that text message.

I hesitated for a moment and said, “Master, why don’t you wait for me for a few minutes? I have something to do.”

The few passengers on the bus heard what I said and looked at me as if I were crazy. One lady even mocked me, “Why? Is this 11th line owned by your family?”

The driver smiled at me helplessly and said, “Okay, I’ll leave first. You wait for the next bus.”

I know that if I tell my experience now, people will not stare at me like I’m crazy. Instead, they will call the mental hospital directly and take over.

I could only smile and wave my hand.

Route 11 slowly disappeared from my sight.

Because I want to prove the authenticity of the text message.

I hailed a car, got in and said to the driver, “Master, Yongqing Expert Apartment on Dong’an Road.”

When I arrived at the expert’s apartment, I didn’t see any signs of an impending explosion.

I patted my head and secretly lamented that I was really stupid for believing such a prank text message.

I waved to stop a taxi, and a taxi stopped steadily in front of me.

Just as I opened the car door, there was a loud bang behind me.

There were also people shouting, “It exploded, put out the fire!”

The expert’s apartment, which was fine just now, is now engulfed in flames.

Business owners next to the apartment also took out their own fire extinguishers to help put out the fire.

Everything was ready, but we found that the door on the first floor of the expert’s apartment was locked by someone from the inside with a key and could not be opened at all.

People tried to break the glass in the door, but it was bulletproof, so that was not an option.

The fire slowly consumed the entire building.

I could even clearly hear the cries for help from the people upstairs, but the people downstairs were powerless and had nothing to do.

The crying of children mixed with the cries for help from adults gave me goose bumps.

The people in the building even rushed to the first floor amid the flames.

Because the door was locked, he knocked on the doors and windows frantically, but couldn’t open it.

The fire quickly spread to the entrance of the building. Hearing the man’s painful screams, the people around who were watching the excitement and wanting to save him all showed expressions of pity.

If you look closely, you can see the man’s minced meat hanging on the window of the building.

The knock on the door gradually became weaker, proving that the man was no longer alive.

The fire truck roared over, and with the unremitting efforts of the firefighters, the raging flames gradually dissipated.

Although I was still scared, I couldn’t help but believe that it was indeed my future self.

Otherwise how to explain his prediction that there would be an explosion in the expert’s apartment.

And this expert apartment is indeed in the area where I deliver, and there are many express parcels here every day.

Judging from the time, this is exactly the time I deliver to expert apartments every day.

“Ding Ling.”

The phone in my hand beeped with text messages again.

I quickly unlocked my phone and found that it was indeed a text message from that private number.

“You should be alright, right? There was a problem just now, and I couldn’t send you a text message.”

At this point, I became even more certain that he was indeed my future self, because I have always had the habit of typing with erhua sounds.

“I’m fine. If nothing happens to me now, can it also change your future?” I responded.

“Well, that’s exactly why I came to you.”

I asked a few more questions about my parents’ health, but there was no response.

At this point, I had no intention of going to work anymore. I looked at the WeChat message on my phone from the boss of the express station asking me why I hadn’t gone to work yet.

I simply responded, “I quit.”

“You betrayed my love and your tears fell.” My cell phone rang with a rustic tone.

I looked closely and saw the name on it was “Mom”.

I picked up the phone decisively. Before I could say anything, my mother’s anxious voice came from the other end of the phone, “Son, I just saw the news that there was an explosion at the expert’s apartment. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, mom. I missed the bus this morning and I haven’t gone to work yet.”

“That’s fine, I’m glad you’re alright. Don’t go to work, go home and have a meal.”

After saying a few more words about the tragic scene I had just witnessed, I hung up the phone and slowly walked towards home.

Along the way, I couldn’t help but think about the strange experiences I had throughout the day.

Because I have the habit of writing a diary, I went home and had dinner and recorded this strange day early.

Lying in bed, I couldn’t help but think that if I had my future self to guide me, wouldn’t that be like indirectly cheating?

Unfortunately, reality is often contrary to our wishes.

After quitting my job, I stayed at home for several days.

During this time, I also sent several text messages to my future self, but received no response, and the phone calls were always out of service area.

It wasn’t until four days after the accident that I received another text message.

“You will go to your second aunt’s house for dinner today. Don’t talk to the girl in the light yellow coat at the entrance of the agricultural supply market.”

“Who is she? What does it matter if I talk to her or not?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just follow my instructions. I won’t hurt you.”

I felt a little unhappy.

Not to mention anything else, just this domineering look is enough to make me hate it.

I didn’t reply to him, and he seemed to be angry and stopped talking to me.

As expected, after a while, my dad opened the door of my bedroom and said, “Son, your second aunt asked us to have lunch at her house. Please pack up and we will go to your second aunt’s house later.”

My family of three arrived at my second aunt’s house. After chatting about family matters for a while, I went out for some fresh air.

The “Agricultural Supplies Market” that I was texted about before is right downstairs from my second aunt’s house.

This time I also felt rebellious and insisted on going to see what the girl in the light yellow coat looked like.

At worst, I can just take a look at her and not talk to her, and that’s fine.

I did it right away and went straight to the agricultural supplies market.

Just as I was looking around, a voice came from behind me.

“Hello, I want to ask how to get to Fuhua Fuyuan? I’m from out of town.”

The soft sound made my whole body shiver.

I looked back and saw a tall girl with deep eyes and a high nose.

She was walking towards me, dragging a huge suitcase with great effort.

As I was observing her, I discovered that she was the girl in the light yellow coat that my future self had mentioned.

She walked up to me and waved her hand in front of my face playfully. “What’s wrong? Do I look that scary?”

I came to my senses and my face suddenly turned red.

“I know, I’ll take you there.”

Because I have very little contact with girls, and even more so, I have never seen such a pretty one, so I started to stutter when I spoke.

She chuckled and said, “That’s too much trouble for you. You can just show me the way.”

It didn’t matter that she smiled. She was full of girlish charm, and the shallow dimples on her face made my heart flutter instantly. The deer in my heart suddenly stopped beating fast, because it had already hit its head against the wall.

“It’s no trouble, just follow me.”

I reached out and took her suitcase, then took her towards Fuhua Fuyuan.

Along the way, I learned that her name was Chen Weiwei, and she was actually a junior at the same university as me. Her parents had something going on at home, so she came to live with her relatives.

At this time, I was so overwhelmed that I had forgotten the message in the text message and exchanged contact information with Chen Weiwei.

After that day, my future self seemed to have disappeared, with no news from me.

During this period, I also contacted him, but it was like my calls sank into the ocean and I received no response.

After a holiday of settling down, my relationship with Chen Weiwei has progressed rapidly through daily chats.

Being together or not is just a matter of breaking that layer of window paper.

At the same time, we also agreed to go back to school together when school starts.

After arriving at school, the brothers around me said that Chen Weiwei was a beautiful flower stuck in a pile of cow dung.

I also spent a month peacefully in school, during which time Chen Weiwei and I confirmed our relationship.

At this moment, I am even more convinced that my decision not to believe that text message was the right one.

Until one day I was having dinner outside with Chen Weiwei.

“Ding Ling.”

I had long forgotten about the existence of “future text messages”, so I opened my phone without any precautions.

“Did you still contact Chen Weiwei at the beginning? Why didn’t you listen to me?” The phone showed a text message sent from a “private number”.

Chen Weiwei was sitting next to me. Seeing me staring at my phone, she leaned over and asked, “What are you looking at? So serious?”

“I didn’t see anything. My cell phone bill was overdue, so I wanted to see how much I owed.” I replied hesitantly.

Chen Weiwei rolled her eyes at me and said, “You never know how to pay in advance, how annoying! I’ll pay it for you.”

After eating a few more bites, I made up an excuse and returned to the dormitory early.

When I arrived at the dormitory, I quickly took out my cell phone and started typing.

“It was a special situation at that time. At most, I can just stop contacting her after a while. Also, how did she hurt me? Why didn’t you let me contact her?”

Just as I was about to send it, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a problem.

When the accident happened at Yongqing Apartment, my “future me” said that I would be caught in the explosion at Expert Apartment. After I avoided the explosion, I asked him if the future had changed.

At the time he answered me in the affirmative, so it turns out that whatever I do now will have an impact on the future.

But this time, when he told me to stay away from Chen Weiwei, I didn’t do it, and he realized my disobedience only after such a long time.

There are three reasons why this can happen:

① He was just deceiving me. We were originally in the same timeline, but he used some method to predict the accident and the intersection between me and Chen Weiwei. But if this is the case, I feel it is even more ridiculous than the future text message.

②There was a problem with the so-called equipment on his side, so he didn’t send me any text messages during this period.

③He is indeed a person from the future, and someone I will be closer to in the future, but he is not me.

In this case, the first one can be ruled out first, and I just need to test whether it is the second reason.

So, I typed back: “I cut off contact with her as soon as possible, but why didn’t you contact me recently? Is there something going on in the future?”

After a while, the message came back again, “The company has a lot of things recently, so I have been busy and haven’t contacted you.”

At this point I was completely sure that the person on the other end of the phone was not “me”.

But I didn’t alarm him. I asked him a few more questions about my future job, but he didn’t respond.

Nothing happened that night. The next day, I had dinner and went to class with Chen Weiwei as usual. Nothing happened the whole day.

In the evening, I sent Chen Weiwei back to the dormitory. On the way back to my dormitory, I turned my head and glanced at Chen Weiwei’s dormitory building.

It didn’t matter that I took an unintentional glance, I found that Chen Weiwei was looking at me with a playful look from the corridor window.

When she noticed that I turned to look at her, her expression changed instantly, and then returned to the playful smile she had when she was with me before, and she waved at me.

At this moment, I suppressed the discomfort in my heart and waved to Chen Weiwei with a smile.

The way Chen Weiwei looked at me just now was completely wrong. It seems that the crisis is not only lurking in the future.

Now I am surrounded by dangers, and all the things that have happened make me feel like I have paranoia.

Just as I was thinking about it, “Ding Ling”, the text message alert tone of the phone in my pocket rang again.

“I am you thirty years from now. Someone may have contacted you before, claiming to be from the future. Don’t believe him, he wants to harm you!”

Before I could reply, another text message came.

“I know you must have believed him 80%, but I want to tell you, don’t believe him, I am your future self!!!”

I looked carefully and realized that this “private number” was indeed not the one that contacted me before, because there was no previous chat record at all.

I replied, “Then how do you prove that what you said is true?”

“I can’t prove it. The reason why she knows you so well is because she is my ex-wife, your future wife!”

Hearing this, I couldn’t help but wonder.

So I replied: “Then you said she wanted to harm me, is she Chen Weiwei? And why did she want to harm me?”

As soon as I sent my text message, the other side replied immediately.

“She is not Chen Weiwei. We met at a banquet. She used various means to force me to break up with Chen Weiwei. I only discovered her previous behavior after we got married, so I chose to divorce her, which also gave her the idea of ​​revenge.”

I didn’t reply to him. I was upset at the moment and walked towards the playground with my feet tapping.

Along the way, I looked through the photos of me and Chen Weiwei and the circle of friends from when we went out together in the past.

Chen Weiwei’s funny expression in the photo, I can even see the love radiating from her eyes when she looks at me.

Until just now, when I saw Chen Weiwei’s expression looking at me while she was standing upstairs, I couldn’t help but wonder if love could be faked?

“Brother Hai, what are you doing?” A big guy as tall as a telephone pole ran towards me from the far end of the playground.

His shout didn’t matter. Almost half of the people on the playground were looking at him, and then they looked at me in the direction of his shout.

I suddenly wanted to use my toes to dig a three-bedroom apartment on the playground.

No need to think, this is my childhood friend “Wang Yuncheng”, who is 1.9 meters tall.

He has a dull look and has always had poor academic performance since childhood.

But at least he was very talented in sports, so he came to this strange city with me as a sports student.

“Keep your voice down! When did you come back? Why didn’t you tell me? You can shout and run, so you look like you’ve recovered from your illness?”

Wang Yuncheng had rarely caught a cold since he was a child, but he unexpectedly fell seriously ill during the summer vacation.

I even took some time off when school started.

Because our two parents are friends, when he first fell ill, I was planning to visit him, but was stopped by my mother.

It is said that this kid was possessed by an evil spirit and contracted a strange disease.

Not letting me contact Wang Yuncheng was for his own good, so I obeyed and didn’t contact him.

“Hey, don’t mention it. I was just about to go to your dormitory to look for you, but I saw you walking forward with your head down from a distance. What’s wrong, Brother Hai?”

Seeing that he was fine, I felt relieved. “Nothing serious. Let’s go. I’ll buy you a drink.”

My two families are old friends, so we played together every day as far as I can remember. We are what the elders call the “naked brothers.”

If I told him about the text messages I received from the future, he wouldn’t think I was mentally ill like others did.

While I was hesitating, we had already arrived at the door of the barbecue restaurant.

When we entered the room, the boss warmly invited us to sit down. “This is the first time for these two guys to come this semester. Is it the same old thing?”

Before Wang Yuncheng fell ill, we came here almost every two weeks to have a drink, so the boss became familiar with us.

“Yes, the same old things.” I nodded with a smile.

“Okay.” After saying that, the boss went to the kitchen alone to work.

I lit a cigarette and rubbed my brows, “Xiaocheng, I have a girlfriend, you haven’t met her yet, I’ll ask her to come out and meet you.”

As I said that, I called Chen Weiwei and told her the location.

When Chen Weiwei arrived, the skewers had already been served. Before that, no matter how I asked Wang Yuncheng about his illness, Wang Yuncheng kept silent.

Chen Weiwei was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and slim-fit jeans. It has to be said that Chen Weiwei is a walking clothes rack. She looks like a model in whatever she wears.

Wang Yuncheng followed my gaze and saw Chen Weiwei, then turned around and gave me a smile that implied “You’re so lucky.”

Chen Weiwei nodded at Wang Yuncheng and sat next to me.

After three rounds of drinks, Chen Weiwei didn’t drink a single sip, and Wang Yuncheng and I also stopped drinking after a few drops.

Chen Weiwei’s outgoing personality also enabled her to quickly become friends with Wang Yuncheng.

Because I haven’t talked to Wang Yuncheng for a long time, it’s time to close the dormitory again.

After paying the bill, I planned to send Chen Weiwei back to the dormitory first.

Wang Yuncheng and I went to find a bar, had a drink and chatted.

Chen Weiwei was also very considerate and allowed us to go, but she repeatedly warned us not to drink too much.

After we sent Chen Weiwei to the dormitory.

Wang Yuncheng and I found a bar near the school.

“I know you best. You have something on your mind. Why don’t you trust your brothers now that you have a girlfriend? You don’t tell me anything.”

Wang Yuncheng patted my shoulder and pulled me over like a chicken.

“That’s not the case. There’s nothing that can’t be said.” At this moment, my mind was full of thoughts and I ignored his behavior of offending my authority.

“Hurry up, Brother Hai, tell me, what happened?” Wang Yuncheng opened a bottle of wine for me and placed it in front of me.

I didn’t pour it into the glass, but picked up the bottle and took two big gulps. “I received a text message from someone claiming to be my future self.”

Wang Yuncheng was surprised at first, then he lowered his head and thought for a while, and his expression gradually became solemn.

When I wanted to continue, Wang Yuncheng spoke first, “Okay, Brother Hai, let’s stop talking here. Let’s pack some wine and go to my place to talk while we drink.”

We ordered some more wine and took it to the rental house where Wang Yuncheng lived.

“Okay, Brother Hai, tell me in detail now.” Wang Yuncheng sat down opposite me.

Then, I told Wang Yuncheng everything that had happened from beginning to end without missing a word.

After listening to this, Wang Yuncheng frowned and lit a cigarette, “To be honest, I received it too.”

I was so surprised that I was speechless and stared at Wang Yuncheng in a daze.

“Actually, I wasn’t sick during the holidays. I was just bewitched by my so-called future self and did all kinds of things that my family didn’t understand. Everyone thought I was mentally ill and even wanted to send me to a mental hospital at one point.” Wang Yuncheng said, taking a deep puff of his cigarette.

I couldn’t wait to ask, “What happened next? Are you still in touch with him now?”

“No contact. My phone and other things were taken away by my family. My parents called the police and checked the phone number, but they couldn’t find it at all.”

“Ding Ling.”

The text message ringtone of my cell phone on the table rang again.

(I will call the first person who sent me a text message “Private Number 1” and the second one “Private Number 2”)

“You don’t have to believe me, but no matter what, please don’t believe the person who texted you before!” Private number 2 sent me a text message again.

I didn’t tell Wang Yuncheng it was “Future SMS”.

I just told him that it was a spam message, and then said I was drunk and went back to my room to rest.

Lying on the bed in the bedroom, I couldn’t help thinking, if the past can affect the future, then if someone hurts me, it definitely wouldn’t be me.

Because if “I” kill myself, then the future me will no longer exist. What good will that do him?

Even though I believed the text message sent to me by the second person, the first person did help me avoid the accident that happened in the expert apartment.

Besides, Chen Weiwei is not quite normal now. Since the text message reminded me, she is destined to have an inexplicable relationship with “Future”, otherwise the first person would not have warned me to stay away from Chen Weiwei.

At this moment, I would rather believe that the first person was doing this for my own good. After all, he saved me once, while the second person was just talking without any evidence.

As I was thinking, I slowly fell asleep.

The days passed one by one, and everything was always calm.

Those future text messages disappeared from my life like a dream, and my feelings for Chen Weiwei deepened.

We even made an appointment to visit each other’s homes to meet their parents during the winter vacation.

Just when I let my guard down, Wang Yuncheng brought me bad news.

It was approaching winter vacation, and because I had fewer courses in my major, the exams had already ended and my roommate went home early.

Chen Weiwei was still immersed in the torture of exam week every day, so we didn’t see each other very often.

Because I wanted to go home with Chen Weiwei, I stayed in school waiting for her.

She spends every day in the library, while I sit in the dorm doing nothing.

A short and rapid knock on the door sounded like a death sentence.

“Brother Hai, open the door quickly!” Knock, knock, knock. The rapid knocking sound continued.

From the voice I knew it was Wang Yuncheng.

“Coming, coming.” I got out of bed, put on my slippers, and walked over.

When I opened the door, what caught my eye were Wang Yuncheng’s bloodshot eyes and messy hair.

I quickly pulled Wang Yuncheng in, “What’s wrong with you? Are you suffering from love again?”

Wang Yuncheng shakily took out two cigarettes from the crumpled cigarette box and handed one to me.

He lit up the cigarette in his hand and said hoarsely, “I can’t run away. He is always watching me.”

“Didn’t you know everything during the holidays? At worst, we can just pretend we didn’t see it. No matter what, the future has nothing to do with us, right?” At this moment, I didn’t understand why Wang Yuncheng was so hysterical.

Wang Yuncheng raised his head abruptly, and his bloodshot eyes looked at me in confusion, then seemed to be disappointed, “Well, you are right.”

After saying that, he turned around and was about to walk out. I grabbed Wang Yuncheng’s arm.

Because I was really worried about his mental state at that time, “Ah Cheng, since my roommates are gone, you can live with me in my dorm, we can still be companions.”

Wang Yuncheng forced a smile with great effort, “No, Brother Hai, don’t worry about me. You are right. I will just go home and have a good sleep.”

Since Wang Yuncheng didn’t want to, I didn’t force him and let him go.

Maybe what he wants now is a space to be alone.

I kept in touch with him via WeChat during those days, but this guy acted as if nothing had happened.

It was a week later that I saw Wang Yuncheng again, and that was the day the three of us set out on our journey home.

Wang Yuncheng’s mental state was completely improved, and he took the opportunity when Chen Weiwei went to the bathroom.

I pulled Wang Yuncheng over and asked, “Ah Cheng, did you receive that text message later?”

Wang Yuncheng grinned, “I guess he thought I was boring, so he harassed me that day and never contacted me again.”

Seeing that Wang Yuncheng was fine, I felt relieved, “That’s fine.”

“Kaka, what are the two brothers whispering about here!” Chen Weiwei said with a faint smile.

Wang Yuncheng gave me a look, and I cleverly changed the subject. “Ah Cheng just asked me what delicious food my mother made for you, my future daughter-in-law, when I got home, and he wanted to go eat for free, too.”

Chen Weiwei frowned and said seriously, “Since they say it’s for my daughter-in-law, then of course there’s no share for you.”

Seeing that he had successfully changed the subject, Wang Yuncheng chuckled dryly a few times and glared at me resentfully.

The journey was not boring because there were three of us traveling together.

When we arrived at the station, Chen Weiwei and I went back to my home together, while Wang Yuncheng went home alone. We also agreed to rest at home for a day, then go ice fishing by the river, and have some ice hot pot or something.

When we got home, my mother prepared a table full of delicious dishes. However, Chen Weiwei and I were very tired from traveling so we only ate a few bites.

“Weiwei, you should sleep in Xiaohai’s bedroom tonight. No one has come to our house often, so there’s only a bed in the guest room and nothing else. Let Xiaohai sleep in the guest room.” My mother got up to clean the dishes.

I looked at Chen Weiwei with resentment. Chen Weiwei’s big almond-shaped eyes narrowed into a slit. She glanced at me slyly, then turned her head and said to my mother, “Okay, thank you, Auntie.”

“You’re welcome, Xiao Hai, take Weiwei to your bedroom. You two are tired after a day of hard work, so go to bed early.”

I pulled Chen Weiwei to my bedroom. My mother had already prepared a bunch of new daily necessities for her.

Chen Weiwei pestered me and talked to me in the bedroom for a while, then wanted to kick me out, saying that she wanted to take a shower and go to bed.

I also got into the spirit of not being afraid of anything and stayed in the house and refused to go out. Seeing that I was so shameless and refused to go out, Chen Weiwei went into the bathroom and locked the door. After a while, the sound of running water came from the bathroom.

Just when I was about to go back to the guest room to take a shower and go to bed, Chen Weiwei’s cell phone started ringing in succession as if it was bombarded.

I thought it was probably Chen Weiwei’s parents contacting her, and she was taking a shower and wouldn’t be able to come out for a while, so I might as well reply for her to save her family from worrying.

I know Chen Weiwei’s cell phone password. Our cell phone passwords are each other’s birthdays.

I opened Chen Weiwei’s phone and found that what I received was not a WeChat message, but nearly ten text messages.

“Why didn’t you reply to my message?”

“Have you forgotten our agreement?”

“If you don’t take action now, it will be too late!”

“What’s wrong? Are you addicted to playing?”

“This isn’t the first time you’ve disobeyed my orders.”

“I know you are at his house now. Don’t forget your mission.”

“Don’t take yourself too seriously. Even if you don’t take action now, the future will still follow the general direction, and there will still be no you in the future!”

“Waiting for your good news!”

These pieces of information left me with a lot of questions.

What is Chen Weiwei’s mission? To strike? Who will she strike at? How will she strike at? Is she related to the future man?

Chen Weiwei’s slightly hazy voice came through the door.

“Brother Hai, please check my phone. Who is calling me?”

At this point, I was in no mood to continue talking, so I just casually responded, “Hey, come out later and come back. I’m sleepy, so I’m going back to the guest room to sleep first.”

At this moment, Chen Weiwei seemed to suddenly remember that she must not let me discover anything, and the sounds of wiping and putting on clothes could be heard in the bathroom.

I carefully put the phone back to its place and returned to the guest room in disappointment. Everything that had just happened made me have no mood to wash or do anything else. I lay down on the bed without even taking off my clothes.

After a while, Chen Weiwei’s voice rang out at the door, “Brother Hai, are you asleep?”

I didn’t say anything, but lay quietly on the bed.

“I know you’re not asleep, why don’t I come in?” Chen Weiwei said desperately at the door.

“Don’t come in. I’m so tired after a whole day of driving. I’ve already taken off all my clothes and am ready for bed.” I turned over in bed in annoyance.

Chen Weiwei ignored my refusal and opened the door and walked in. I glanced at her and turned my head away and continued pretending to sleep.

Chen Weiwei sat down on the bed and whispered, “You just looked at my phone, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t see it. Was it your aunt looking for you?” I pretended nothing happened and asked with a puzzled look on my face.

Chen Weiwei’s eyes flickered, and then she smiled slightly.

The little hand reached out to my head and rubbed it gently twice, “Yeah! My mother is looking for me. Because I didn’t tell her that we were home, she was worried.”

At this time, I heard that she was still lying to me. I was completely disappointed. “Why didn’t you call your aunt back? So that she wouldn’t worry about you.”

“No, I saw you go back to the guest room just now, so I came to check on you first.” Chen Weiwei saw me turn over with my back to her, so she retracted her hand, “You lied to me, you just said you had taken off your clothes and went to bed.”

Before Chen Weiwei could finish, I said, “Oh, then go back and call Auntie. I’m tired and I’m going to sleep first.”

Chen Weiwei first said “good night” to me, and when she didn’t hear my response, she tiptoed out.

No matter what the text messages Chen Weiwei received meant, since Chen Weiwei had no intention of confessing to me, there was no need to continue this relationship. I planned to break up with Chen Weiwei and send her home. I was happy to have some peace and quiet.

That night, I didn’t know whether Chen Weiwei slept well or not, but I couldn’t sleep.

The next day, I was still playing chess with Zhou Gong when I heard in a daze, “Brother Hai, Brother Hai, wake up quickly.”

When I opened my eyes, I saw Wang Yuncheng’s big face swaying in front of me. I was so scared that I pushed him away and said, “What are you doing? You scared me to death.”

Wang Yuncheng scratched his head in a naive manner, “Didn’t we agree to go out and play today? I have prepared everything.”

After I finished cleaning up, I found Chen Weiwei already dressed and sitting on the sofa waiting for me.

Wang Yuncheng saw that my attitude towards Chen Weiwei was not right, so he whispered, “Brother Hai, what happened between you and my sister-in-law?”

I wasn’t in the mood to explain to Wang Yuncheng, so I just went downstairs directly.

Seeing that Wang Yuncheng had prepared everything including an ice breaker, tents, mutton rolls, a small natural gas tank, pots and pans, the three of us did not stop but headed straight to the riverside.

Because I go ice fishing on the river with Wang Yuncheng every year, I know all about this.

Wang Yuncheng and I first dug the hole and then set up the tent, with Chen Weiwei helping us.

I wasn’t in the mood to go and blame her for what happened before, so I just let her do what she wanted.

Wang Yuncheng and I sat there for a while and found that the spoils were pitifully small, so I discussed with Wang Yuncheng about opening two more ice caves.

We carried our equipment and dug two more ice holes, but because I was lazy, I didn’t bother to move the tent. I just sat there in the cold wind and started fishing.

Wang Yuncheng also dug a hole about a hundred meters away from me, and Chen Weiwei sat next to me to keep me company.

From time to time, she exhaled into her palms and rubbed them. Frost also formed on her long eyelashes, and I felt sorry for her.

“You don’t have to stay here with me. Go stay in the tent. It will be much warmer without the wind.”

When Chen Weiwei heard my concern, there seemed to be a sudden light in her eyes.

“Okay, since you didn’t eat breakfast, I’ll go cook you some mutton. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

I didn’t respond to Chen Weiwei, but continued to stare at my fishing rod. Seeing that I was indifferent, Chen Weiwei got up and went back to the tent.

As soon as Chen Weiwei entered the tent, I heard Chen Weiwei shouting in the tent: “Brother Hai, we didn’t bring any water, how can I cook the mutton?”

It was obvious that Chen Weiwei had no experience in ice fishing, because when we went out ice fishing, we used local materials for food and water, and melted the snow outside as drinking water.

“Just find a clean place and collect some snow and let it melt.”

Chen Weiwei looked around and returned to the tent with a pot full of snow.

Just when I was regretting that I forgot to bring the dipping sauce for the hot pot, I heard Chen Weiwei’s desperate screams coming from the tent.

In an instant, I got goose bumps all over my body. I dropped the fishing rod in my hand and ran towards the tent. Wang Yuncheng also heard Chen Weiwei’s screams and ran over.

Before we could go in and observe the situation, the tent suddenly caught fire.

At this moment, I couldn’t take care of myself and wanted to rush in to save people, but Wang Yuncheng held me tightly.

“Brother Hai, this won’t work. Have you forgotten there’s a gas tank in there? It could explode. Call 119 first.”

I ignored Wang Yuncheng’s dissuasion and tried to break free from Wang Yuncheng and rush in to save people, but Wang Yuncheng had a simple mind and strong limbs since he was a child, and I really couldn’t break free from him.

Just as we were arguing outside the tent, there was a loud “bang”.

The natural gas tank exploded, and Wang Yuncheng and I were instantly blown away by the blast.

Chen Weiwei’s screams in the tent also stopped abruptly.

My mind went blank at this moment, and I couldn’t help but regret why I was angry with Chen Weiwei just now.

She is the type of girl who never does housework. How could I let her fiddle with such dangerous things in the tent by herself?

I wanted to see what happened to Chen Weiwei, but my limbs seemed to be out of control.

I struggled to crawl towards the tent, but all I saw was a burnt black body. The milky white down jacket she was wearing also indirectly proved that she was Chen Weiwei.

At this point, I had long forgotten all my complaints about Chen Weiwei. I just hoped that nothing would happen to her, which was more important than anything else.

I shook Chen Weiwei a few times with all my strength, but when I saw that Chen Weiwei didn’t respond, my eyes turned white and I passed out.

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on a bed in the central hospital. My mother was sleeping beside me. I had a splitting headache. I slapped my head hard a few times, waking my mother up. “Son, how are you? What’s wrong with you?”

I couldn’t take care of myself, but asked anxiously: “Mom, I’m fine, where’s Weiwei? How is Chen Weiwei? Is she okay?”

My mother wiped the tears from her eyes and said, “Xiao Hai, I’m telling you, don’t get excited. Calm down first. Weiwei, Weiwei is dead.”

Rested in the hospital for two days.

After I was discharged from the hospital, Chen Weiwei’s belongings were still placed in my bedroom intact.

According to my mother, when they contacted Chen Weiwei’s parents, they found out that Chen Weiwei had been an orphan since childhood.

She didn’t come to this city to find any relatives, because she didn’t have any relatives at all.

After hearing this, I became more confident in my original idea.

No matter who Chen Weiwei is, she didn’t harm me after all.

And in the more than half a year that we have been together, at least for me, we have established a very deep relationship.

My mother saw my depressed state at the door and didn’t say much. She just shook her head and went to do her own thing.

I put away the sadness in my heart and sorted out Chen Weiwei’s belongings one by one. Every time I folded a piece of clothing, the image of Chen Weiwei wearing this clothing and talking to me with a smile flashed through my mind.

I was busy for a while, and only the dressing table was left on my computer desk. I couldn’t help but think of the day when she came home with me and said jokingly: “Lin Hai, you must buy me a big dressing table when we get married in the future.”

Thinking of this, my nose felt sore and the memories in my mind dispelled.

I picked up her dressing box and there was a note underneath.

It clearly said, “By the time you read this, I should no longer be here. I did come here with a mission, and my purpose was to eliminate you by an unexpected means.”

It is more unacceptable for her to admit it directly than to guess.

I endured the discomfort in my heart and continued reading.

“Later, I found that I fell in love with you. I couldn’t hurt you. Don’t try to avenge me. You can’t beat them. They are from the future and are called the Confession Sect. I know you doubted me, but I know that you love me, so you didn’t say anything. I love you too, Lin Hai!”

Tears flowed slowly from my eyes unconsciously, and I swore to myself, “I will definitely wipe out this damn confession sect.”

Chen Weiwei’s belongings have been sorted out.

I immediately called Wang Yuncheng, but I didn’t say anything specific, I just asked him to come out and meet him.

Since the future can send text messages to the past, I have to wonder if they can even tap my phone.

Wang Yuncheng and I met at the riverside where Chen Weiwei had the accident.

Wang Yuncheng saw my sad look and said to me, “Brother Hai, please accept my condolences and don’t think too much. Your sister-in-law in heaven will be worried if you are like this!”

I rubbed my bloodshot eyes because I hadn’t had a good rest for a few days, “I swear I won’t be a human being if I don’t avenge Weiwei.”

Hearing this, Wang Yuncheng asked in confusion: “Didn’t my sister-in-law die from a gas leak explosion? How can we avenge this accident?”

I snorted coldly, “Oh, accident? None of this is an accident! It’s the work of a fucking church called the Confessing Sect.”

Wang Yuncheng said thoughtfully, “I have never heard of this religion. Aren’t there only a few evil cults?”

“That’s right, because there is no such thing as the Confession Sect now. They come from the future. I suspect the future text messages we received are related to this damn Confession Sect.”

Seeing that Wang Yuncheng didn’t understand, I told him the contents of the letter Chen Weiwei left for me.

Because I have been feeling guilty and haven’t eaten well these past few days, my mother also gave Wang Yuncheng a death order.

Unable to resist Wang Yuncheng’s nagging, we went to a wonton restaurant to eat wontons.

After quickly finishing my meal, I rejected Wang Yuncheng’s offer to take me out to play and went home early.

The holidays passed day by day, and it seemed as if nothing had happened.

If Chen Weiwei hadn’t often appeared in my dreams, I would have thought that everything I had experienced before was just a dream.

But when the wind was light and the clouds were rising, the future text message appeared again.

“Private Number 1”: “Don’t go to the dinner party tonight!”

“What do you mean? What dinner party? If you really want to help me, please stop playing tricks and tell me everything. Please? I beg you.”

The person on the other end of the phone ignored my urgency and didn’t reply to me, so I had no choice but to give up.

Chen Weiwei’s death also made me realize that even if “Private Number 1” was not a good person, then “Private Number 2” would only be worse.

Chen Weiwei confessed to me that she was assigned by the Confessional Sect, so the people who spoke for her must have been bad.

After a while, the news of the high school classmates’ dinner reached my ears.

Normally, I would definitely not attend such a party. Wang Yuncheng also knew that I usually liked to stay at home, so he came to my house early and pestered me to join the party.

But he didn’t know that I had received the “Future Text Message”. Because I wanted to investigate the Confession Sect, I readily agreed, which surprised Wang Yuncheng.

Because I didn’t want to involve Wang Yuncheng. If I told him that the gathering involved the Confessionist sect, Wang Yuncheng would definitely lock me up at home and not let me get into danger.

So I didn’t tell him about this “future text message”.

I packed up quickly and rushed to the venue of our dinner, the Haitian Hotel, with Wang Yuncheng.

My classmates were also surprised to see me coming.

Since I graduated from high school, there have been many large and small parties, but I have almost never participated in any of them. At the beginning, they would invite me, but later when they knew I would not go, they simply stopped inviting me.

So the first person I suspected this time was the organizer of our party.

After chatting with my classmates for a while, I also asked around to find out who was organizing our gathering. Unexpectedly, the organizer turned out to be my high school homeroom teacher, “Zhang Yan”.

Speaking of which, I don’t have much impression of this teacher because she only taught our class when we were in our senior year of high school.

Our previous class teacher was called Chen Daoguo, a complete beast in human clothing.

Later, he was reported by parents for taking bribes, and was judged as an unethical teacher by the Education Bureau and was expelled from the school.

While chatting with my classmates, I was secretly on guard against how the confessional sect would set a trap for me. Just when we were having a good time chatting.

I heard a voice “Lin Hai” behind me. I turned around and found a woman with long hair, light makeup, and very mature clothes.

I secretly tried to recall who this person was, but I couldn’t remember which of my high school classmates looked so handsome.

Of course, she couldn’t be my high school teacher, because when Zhang Yan was the head teacher of our class, she already had many children and grandchildren.

Seeing me standing there in a daze, she burst out laughing and said, “It’s me! Li Le.”

As soon as I heard the name, I instantly thought of this girl.

She was thin and small, and looked malnourished at first, but now she has grown into a very beautiful girl. However, this is not what impressed me the most.

When I was in the first year of high school, I was playful and didn’t want to go home after school, so I wandered around the school. I happened to see my former high school class teacher Chen Daoguo molesting Li Le in the sports equipment room.

Although I am not a good person, I at least have a sense of justice in my heart. I slammed the door a few times and ran to the school gate. I guess the slamming of the door by me must have scared Chen Daoguo a lot.

After a while, Li Le staggered towards the school gate. I saw tears in her eyes, so I comforted her and said, “Let’s go home together in the future. I’ll take you home. If you have any problems, just tell me directly. I’ll protect you.”

Maybe her thin and small appearance aroused my desire to protect her.

After that, I always picked up and dropped off Li Le from school.

Maybe because she was more introverted and I was very extroverted, even though we went to and from school together every day, our relationship didn’t seem to be very good.

Later, when Chen Daoguo was reported, I felt that there was no danger anymore, so I stopped going to and from school with Li Le. After that, we hardly spoke to each other.

After finishing my recollection, I came to my senses, “Ah! I didn’t recognize you. It’s been a long time since I last saw you. You haven’t heard from me since you graduated from high school. Where are you studying now?”

Li Le’s eyes sparkled, and he took out a pack of ladies’ cigarettes from his bag and lit one for himself. “I stopped going to school after graduating from high school. Later, my family found me a job at a telecommunications company.”

I scratched my head sheepishly, “That’s pretty good.”

Telecommunications company? Then can I ask her to help me investigate the text messages on my cell phone? I thought to myself.

Li Le patted me on the shoulder, interrupting my thoughts. “Let’s exchange phone numbers, old classmate.”

We exchanged phone numbers and she went back to the girls’ table to chat.

Because there was no sign of danger, I relaxed a little, but I firmly believe in the accuracy of future text messages. The fact that there is no danger does not mean anything. Anything that happens in the future may be dangerous.

After a while, the dishes were served one by one, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was my favorite “Pine Nut Corn”.

I scooped a full spoonful with a spoon and poured it into my bowl. Just as I was about to eat it, I suddenly remembered the future text message I received in the afternoon, “Don’t go to the dinner party!”

Is it possible that the danger lies in the food?

During a normal dinner and drinking party, dishes like pine nut corn should not appear on the boys’ table.

But this time it just happened to appear, and it’s my favorite food. Could it really be such a coincidence?

I slowly put down the spoon that was about to reach my mouth. I completely believed the insanity of this so-called confessional sect. In order to kill me, they could kill everyone at the table.

But that’s not right! Why didn’t they just find someone to kill me before? Or plant a bomb in my house first.

I gradually fell into a state of misconception, dispelled all the distracting thoughts in my mind, and continued to chat and laugh with my classmates.

I can’t tell them that the food is poisonous, they will probably think I’m a fool.

Wang Yuncheng noticed my abnormality and poked my arm a few times, “What’s wrong, Brother Hai? Come eat!”

At this point, I didn’t want Wang Yuncheng to eat anymore, so I dragged him to the bathroom and said, “I think there’s something wrong with the food. Don’t eat it when you go back.”

Wang Yuncheng looked at me like I was a fool, “Brother Hai, are you suffering from paranoia?”

Then he reached out and touched my forehead, “Are you still having a fever?”

I opened Wang Yuncheng’s hand and told him about the message I received from Future in the afternoon. Wang Yuncheng frowned and said, “Let’s go home.” He then pulled my arm and walked towards the door.

I stood still. “I risked my life this time just to investigate the so-called future text message. If I find any clues about this confession sect, I will definitely turn it upside down.”

Wang Yuncheng saw that he couldn’t beat me, so he had to behave himself.

His sense of righteousness came up again and he said, “If there’s something wrong with the food, we can’t let the students eat it.” Then he was about to go out and tell them.

I grabbed Wang Yuncheng and said, “If you tell them these things now, they will think you are mentally ill. Besides, the danger this time may not necessarily appear in the food. I am just suspicious.”

Wang Yuncheng nodded, “That’s right.”

We didn’t say anything more and went back to the box and continued chatting and laughing with our classmates. No one noticed that we had stopped eating.

But Wang Yuncheng kept looking around nervously, which made me feel confused and amused.

Because sweets like pine nut corn are not very popular among boys, the girls at the next table finished them early and came to our table to grab them.

“That’s not right, you boys are eating alone! Why do you have honey in your pine nut corn? The pine nut corn at our table doesn’t have honey!” the girl over there shouted jokingly.

Hearing this, my heart tightened, and Wang Yuncheng also looked at me. We exchanged glances. Why was I so nervous? Because I am allergic to honey! Even just one gram of honey can kill me.

I became alert instantly. The murderous intent had already appeared. I secretly looked at the expressions of the people around me, but found nothing unusual.

If there was anything unusual, it was that Wang Yuncheng’s facial features were twisted together due to nervousness.

Just as I was looking at the others, Wang Yuncheng suddenly stood up and said, “I have something to do at home! Lin Hai and I will leave first, classmates.”

Wang Yuncheng grabbed me and left without saying anything.

Because I wanted to continue observing and try to see if I could see something from other people’s expressions, so even though I knew Wang Yuncheng was doing it for my own good, I was still a little angry, and without saying anything else, I went home alone.

At night, I lay in bed for a long time and couldn’t fall asleep.

I took out my cell phone, found Li Le’s phone number, and added Li Le’s WeChat.

After a while, the phone alert sounded, showing “The other party has added you as a friend, let’s chat together.”

Unexpectedly, Li Le was still awake so late. Just when he was thinking about how to say the first sentence, the other party sent him an emoticon of a puppy wearing a mask.

I smiled. People are indeed changing. After a few years, the shy and introverted girl has become much more outgoing.

I think if she had been so outgoing, she wouldn’t have been bullied by Chen Daoguo.

I got straight to the point. “You work for a telecommunications company. Can you help me check the source of my text messages?”

She replied almost immediately, “No problem, but it has to be your own phone number! My super hero.”

It turns out that time is a panacea for all diseases.

She was introverted at first, and because of Chen Daoguo’s incident, her personality seemed to have become even more reserved, but now you can’t tell at all that she had that kind of experience.

I immediately replied, “Okay, that’s my phone number. Just help me find the source of all the recent text messages.”

「ok」 is an emoticon of a kitten making an ok gesture.

I put my phone down and wondered who was trying to harm me at the dinner party tonight.

Almost no one knows that I am allergic to honey because honey is not a common allergen and I rarely come into contact with it in normal times, so I don’t understand it at all.

As I was thinking, I slowly fell asleep.

The next day, when I opened my eyes, it was already noon.

When he picked up his phone, he saw a message from Li Le. “I have already transferred it to you. When you have time, come to my office to pick it up. It’s 223 Wanbao Street. Call me downstairs.”

Hearing this, I was extremely excited. I got dressed and without even bothering to wash my face, I took a taxi to the downstairs of Li Le’s company.

Due to the epidemic, outsiders are not allowed to enter.

I called Li Le, and after a while, I saw Li Le coming out in a professional suit with a cashmere coat on the outside. “You are so fast!” He said and stuffed the folder in his hand into mine.

I looked at the record which was about five centimeters thick and felt a bit amused. Li Le saw my expression and said, “You didn’t tell me how long it would take, so I pulled out every text message in the past six months for you.”

To thank Li Le for helping me so much, I took her out for a Western meal that cost me a lot of money.

After dinner, I couldn’t wait to go home and look through the documents Li Le printed for me.

Although I had a hunch, the result still disappointed me. The file even contained the sources of the harassing text messages I had received before, but there was no information about those future text messages.

I contacted Li Le again. I didn’t tell her anything about the future text messages. I just said that the source of several harassing text messages was not in this file.

Perhaps because of the desire to please others, Li Le did not reject me, but just asked me to help him find out where the problem lies.

Maybe when people are down they always need to find someone to talk to, so I went out for a drink with Wang Yuncheng and told him about my attempt to find the source of Li Le’s text message records.

Wang Yuncheng comforted me for a long time. I knew in my heart that it would not be easy to investigate. We talked about other things for a while, and then I went home to sleep early.

The next day, good news came again. Li Le contacted me and said that the sources of those pieces of information had been found. In order to repay me for treating her to Western food yesterday, she went to her house today to cook a big meal for me.

Li Le’s message made me excited. I finally caught the tail of this future text message.

I suppressed my desire to go get the documents early and stayed up all day. Finally, I received a WeChat message from Li Le, “Come to my house. The food will be ready soon. Huaxi Garden C2, Unit 2, 1901.”

I immediately replied, “OK.” I rushed downstairs and took a taxi to Li Le’s house.

Li Le opened the door for me. She took off her makeup after get off work and didn’t look mature anymore. Instead, she made me feel a bit like the little girl I was in high school.

She leaned over and took out a pair of slippers for me from the shoe cabinet. “Come in quickly. The food is ready. Would you like some wine? I’ll ask the supermarket next door to deliver some.”

I rejected Li Le’s proposal to drink, and instead was eager to look at the document, but Li Le laughed and scolded, “Who cares about the document? People are made of iron and rice is made of steel. Eat first, and we can think about the rest later.”

I had no choice but to give up, washed my hands obediently, and sat down at the dining table. I found that Li Le’s cooking skills were pretty good. At least the appearance of these dishes made me salivate.

Li Le served me a big bowl of rice. I hadn’t eaten all day because I was so excited. When I smelled the fragrance of the food, I couldn’t help but pick up the tornado chopsticks.

While eating, I noticed that Li Le didn’t move his chopsticks. I asked in confusion, “Why aren’t you eating? There are so many dishes, enough for both of us. I’m actually not that hungry.” I smiled embarrassedly.

Li Le’s expression suddenly turned ferocious. “I don’t need to eat. You can go on your journey after you are full. How can I snatch your last meal from you?”

I was shocked. “Li Le? You? Are you from the Confession Sect?”

I stood up and wanted to run out the door, but suddenly I found that my limbs seemed out of control and my head was getting more and more dizzy.

I collapsed on the ground and Li Le helped me up. I tried to struggle free in a daze, but I had lost all the strength in my body. Li Le threw me on the sofa.

About ten minutes later, Li Le changed her clothes, pulled me up from the sofa, and threw one of my arms over her shoulders. “You don’t look fat, but you’re quite heavy.”

I was conscious at this point, but my body was not under my control.

Li Le helped me move to the elevator entrance little by little. I vaguely heard her talking to someone else. “Hey, our Xiao Le has a boyfriend?” came a somewhat old voice.

“This is my boyfriend. He drank too much, so I’m taking him home.” Li Le replied with a smile.

I wanted to shout out, I was drugged, I’m not her boyfriend! Unfortunately, my language system seemed to be lost, and I could only make a few humming sounds.

Li Le glanced at me, then turned to another person and said, “Aunt Wang, the elevator is here. I’ll leave first.”

Li Le carried me into the elevator with great effort. I opened my eyes and found that we had already arrived at the underground garage. This inhuman girl didn’t even leave the back seat for me, but stuffed me directly into the trunk.

Although I couldn’t move, I was still conscious. The bumpy ride made my internal organs feel like they were about to jump out of my throat.

The pitch-black environment also made me lose my concept of time, and it just felt like a long time had passed.

The trunk was opened, and what caught my eye was Li Le with the starry sky as the backdrop. At this moment, I had no time to appreciate this picturesque scene.

I looked around, trying to see if there was anyone nearby who could save me, but when I saw the surroundings, I couldn’t help but feel discouraged. This was not a city at all, but a reservoir on the outskirts of the city.

Just as Li Le was about to push me into the reservoir, I heard a loud shout from behind: “Stop!”

I wanted to look back and see who my savior was, but the conditions did not allow it.

Li Le didn’t care about the people next to him, but continued to push me towards the wall of the reservoir. I could already feel the moisture emanating from the reservoir!

The extreme fear even caused me to have auditory hallucinations. The calm surface of the water seemed to be filled with waves, roaring at me.

I could feel one of my legs drooping, then half of my body, and then my whole body.

I opened my eyes and saw nothing but white. I rubbed my dizzy head and asked, “How can this new ghost be treated like this in the underworld?”

I heard a sneer coming from the door. “What hell? You’re lucky. When our team leader Jin got off work, he found you stuffed into the trunk by the suspect, so he followed her car and rescued you.”

I looked towards the door and saw a man about my age with a neat hairstyle and wearing a black shirt.

I asked in confusion, “I could feel that I fell that day?”

The man said, “Yes, he fell down, but our Captain Jin caught him for you. You will know what happened when he comes over.”

I was already feeling uncomfortable in my head, and I didn’t want to listen to his riddles, so I turned over and lay down. After a while, a hearty and masculine voice came, “Are you awake?”

I turned around and saw a middle-aged man with a plaster cast on his right hand, shirtless and dark skin.

He smiled and sat on the chair next to my bed. “My name is Jin Sheng, the captain of the Huanghai City Criminal Investigation Brigade. How did you offend him? I gave you such a strong drug and threw you into the reservoir to drown you.”

It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t mention it. I immediately remembered that Li Le was a member of the Confessional Sect. I struggled to get up, “Where is Li Le? She’s the woman who wanted to kill me yesterday. Where is she now?”

The officer shook his head, and I couldn’t help feeling frustrated. Yes, the Confessionist sect was so meticulous, and if the mission failed, they would definitely not be caught by the public security organs.

The officer laughed at my frustrated expression and said, “What’s that expression? She’s in the detention center now. After she appeals in a few days, she will probably be transferred to the South Jail.”

Hearing this, I instantly felt the air become fresher.

I excitedly pulled the needle out of my hand, “Now take me to see her!”

Seeing my resolute attitude, Jin Sheng didn’t say much, but signaled me with his eyes, “You can’t go there in your hospital gown, right? Go change your clothes, I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

At this moment, my drowsy feeling seemed to disappear. I jumped out of bed, found the clothes hanging on the clothes rack, and started changing clothes without caring that there were other people around me.

When I got dressed and went downstairs, Jin Sheng was already waiting for me in the car.

They drove very fast all the way, even though Jin Sheng only had one arm.

When we arrived at the Nangang Police Station, Jin Sheng spoke a few words to one of the policemen and then took me to a place similar to an interrogation room.

After a while, Li Le was brought out.

I stood up suddenly. “What did the Confession Sect instruct you to do? What is your purpose? Where is your headquarters? Why do you want to harm me?”

I threw out a series of questions, and Li Le’s expression changed from confusion at the beginning to teasing, “You are crazy, I heard that your girlfriend died that day, so you are mentally ill, it turns out to be true.”

My face flushed with anger. “Don’t play dumb! Tell me the fucking truth.”

I was about to rush over and hit her with my fist, but Jin Sheng stopped me, “Don’t get excited.”

I calmed myself down, but before I could say anything, Li Le spoke up, “What kind of bullshit confession sect is this? I’m helping you out of good intentions, but you told others about what happened to me. If I don’t kill you, who should I kill?”

Hearing this, I was confused, “What did you mean by that? Who did I tell?”

Li Le’s expression changed from playful to ferocious, “Who did you tell? I received a threatening text message yesterday morning.

“Tell me that if I don’t want the news of me being molested to spread, I should give him money. Didn’t you tell others about this?”

Li Le kept struggling on the interrogation chair and tried to attack me.

It’s true that I was the only one who knew about what happened to Li Le, but I never told anyone about it. Why would someone use this to threaten her?

When Jin Sheng saw that Li Le was emotionally unstable, he took me out of the interrogation room.

Jin Sheng handed me a cigarette with his uncast left hand, then lit one for himself. “Tell me what your so-called confessional sect is all about.”

I remained silent, just took a deep puff of the cigarette, and the dawn rising in my heart was extinguished again.

Jin Sheng patted my shoulder and said, “You are still young, don’t be so depressed, tell me if you have anything, don’t forget that I am a policeman.”

After hearing this, I thought to myself that since I had no clue, maybe I could make some progress with the help of official forces.

Mr. Jin took me to his office, and I told him everything that had happened during this period, as well as my own inferences.

What shocked me was that after listening to me, Mr. Jin did not think I was mentally ill. Instead, he nodded in agreement.

Jin Sheng pulled out a folder from the drawer of his desk. “The accidental death rate in Huanghai City in previous years was only 0.079%. At the beginning of last year, it suddenly rose to 1.2%, an increase of nearly twenty times.

“Do you think this is normal? I suspect that there must be something to do with the confession sect you mentioned. You may not be the only one to receive text messages from the future.”

As he spoke, Jin Sheng lit another cigarette, and his eyes, which had been bright and lively before, seemed to have dimmed a lot.

“Yes, accidental deaths. No one took it seriously at first, but then the accidental death rate kept rising. Do you know what this means? All the deaths showed no signs of human manipulation, but because they were too normal, they seemed even more abnormal.”

Jin Sheng put out the cigarette in the ashtray and slammed the table several times.

“If things continue like this, within fifty years, Huanghai City’s population will plummet, and the consequences will be disastrous. And now it’s not just Huanghai City that is seeing an increase in accidental death rates.”

Jin Sheng pulled out the files from the folder and said, “I can’t show you the specific contents. You just need to know that this thick stack is all about so-called accidental deaths and suicides!”

I was also infected by Jin Sheng’s emotions, “If you want to investigate, please take me with you! I can definitely help.”

Jin Sheng read out the phone number to me, then waved his hand and asked me to leave. At this time, I knew that Jin Sheng was in a bad mood, so I didn’t say anything more and went out tactfully.

Li Le was not instructed by the Confessionist Sect to kill me, and from the looks of her she was not lying.

But I can be sure that I have never told anyone about her, not even Wang Yuncheng.

It might be because Li Le gave me drugs, I felt dizzy again when I came out of the police station.

Because I didn’t want to worry my parents, and Wang Yuncheng’s parents were not at home, I called Wang Yuncheng and asked him to pick me up. During this time, I also sent a WeChat message to my parents, telling them that I would be staying at Wang Yuncheng’s house for a few days.

Wang Yuncheng found me at the door of the police station and kept asking, “Brother Hai, what did you do?”

Wang Yuncheng annoyed me so much along the way that I had no choice but to tell him what happened yesterday.

I played games and slept every day at Wang Yuncheng’s house. No one wanted to harm me, and he never contacted me via text messages again.

The peaceful days are destined not to last long, which also strengthened my determination to destroy the Confession Sect.

About three days after Li Le’s incident, I received a call from Jin Sheng.

He didn’t say anything in a hurry, but just told me to meet at the north gate of “Huadu University” in Huanghai City. Wang Yuncheng happened to be beside me and heard it, so he insisted on going with me, under the pretext of protecting me.

I couldn’t resist his pestering, so I had to take him to Waldo University with me.

When we arrived at Huadu University, Jin Sheng was already waiting for me at the door, and the plaster on his right hand had been removed.

I trotted over to Jin Sheng and asked, “Officer Jin, what’s wrong?”

Jin Sheng did not answer my question, but glanced at Wang Yuncheng beside me, as if asking who this person was.

I also introduced the two of them to each other, and told Jin Sheng that Wang Yuncheng had also experienced the “future text messages” that I had experienced, and Wang Yuncheng was also one of the victims.

Jin Sheng nodded and lit a cigarette.

“I collected some clues about those cases and found that everyone has some connection with Huadu University. In addition, many students in Huadu have committed suicide recently. I thought of bringing you here to see if you can receive the warning from the so-called future text message.”

I was naturally happy to hear that Jin Sheng was willing to take me with him, but when I saw Jin Sheng’s hand, which had just been removed from the plaster, I couldn’t help but ask, “Officer Jin, your hand?”

Jin Sheng said nonchalantly, “It’s okay. Those guys insisted on putting me in a cast. It’s nothing serious.”

Seeing that Jin Sheng didn’t care, I didn’t say anything more.

Due to the epidemic, the school did not allow outsiders to enter or leave, but after Jin Sheng showed his police officer ID, the three of us entered Huadu University unimpeded.

Huadu University is considered an institution of higher learning in my province. I don’t understand how the Confessional Sect has extended its claws here.

When we arrived at the school, Jin Sheng ran all the way to the first teaching building of Huadu. On the way, I suppressed my doubts and did not ask more questions.

Mr. Jin took us to a multimedia classroom that could accommodate 300 people. The classroom was already overcrowded, and I was a little confused as to why we had to come to the classroom to investigate the case.

Jin Sheng seemed to see the doubt in my eyes.

“This class is an elective course on criminal psychology taught by a professor named Zhang Shuo.

“This Zhang Shuo is quite famous. He is known as the youngest criminal psychology expert in Huanghai City, and one of the youngest PhDs in China. He is handsome, so he is very popular among the female students.”

Jin Sheng found a step and sat down casually, and patted the step beside him, as if he wanted me to sit down too.

“Look at this classroom of 300 people. It’s already full. Most of them are girls. You can imagine how charming Zhang Shuo is.”

I thought to myself, this Jin Sheng is planning to seek help from an expert. What kind of captain of the Criminal Investigation Brigade is this? He still has to rely on others. I thought he was so powerful.

Before I could release the contempt that was rising in my heart, Jin Sheng made a gesture to me to keep quiet, and the noisy classroom suddenly became quiet.

A charming voice came from the loudspeaker on the ceiling of the classroom, “Hello, students. I am your teacher of criminal psychology. My name is Zhang Shuo.”

Hearing this language, which was similar to the way a star introduces himself on stage, I got goose bumps.

But the female classmates around me seemed to have a very different opinion from mine. They all said “Hello, teacher” in unison, interspersed with many girls’ screams, which made me speechless. Was this a class or an idol fan meeting?

I turned my head to see who it was, and it turned out to be Su Daji, who was being controlled by these female students.

I found this Zhang Shuo, with his angular features, gold-rimmed glasses and a white suit. No wonder these students are so fascinated by him. If I were a little girl, I would also like this style.

Then came the class session. I have never seen students from any other school listen to the class like elementary school students. They were almost putting their hands behind their backs.

I’m not interested in men, and I’m not interested in anything called criminal psychology.

So for the past hour and a half, I was playing with my phone out of boredom.

On the contrary, Jin Sheng and Wang Yuncheng both listened to the class with great interest. Jin Sheng was a policeman, so it was okay for him to listen. But when did Wang Yuncheng start to like such high-end things?

I quietly poked Wang Yuncheng’s arm and said, “When did you, an idiot, start liking this kind of subject?”

As soon as I finished speaking, I thought of a more terrifying possibility: Could it be that Wang Yuncheng is gay?

Wang Yuncheng seemed to see the ambiguous smile on my face and glared at me fiercely, “Get lost! If you continue to make up stories about me, I’ll throw you into the river.”

After class, the students left one after another. There were also some outgoing female students who added Zhang Shuo’s WeChat under the pretext of asking questions, but Zhang Shuo just smiled and seemed not to have added those female students.

When there were only four of us left in the classroom, Zhang Shuo sorted out the lesson plan on the podium, looked at Jin Sheng and said, “Officer Jin, how come you have time to listen to my class today?”

Jin Sheng laughed heartily a few times, “Hahahaha, don’t you want to come here to learn? Since I graduated from the police academy, I have rarely been exposed to this kind of systematic training.”

Zhang Shuo didn’t respond to Jin Sheng’s words, but looked at the two of us, “I don’t see these two guys, and I don’t think they are police officers either.”

I was just about to speak and introduce ourselves as people accompanying Jin Sheng to investigate the case.

Jin Sheng spoke before me, “As expected of you, you’re Zhang Dasheng. You can see it right away with your pair of sharp eyes.” As he spoke, he took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to Zhang Shuo. Zhang Shuo smiled but said nothing.

Jin Sheng rubbed his hands, “Look, I forgot you don’t smoke. I was too distracted by your class and I’m craving for a cigarette. Can I have one here?”

Zhang Shuo narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t come to Hua just to attend classes, did you? I remember our Captain Jin always sneered at what I said.”

Jin Sheng pointed at me embarrassedly, like a caught thief.

“This is my nephew. He has never been to college and has always wanted to see what college is like. So, he came to my uncle for help. I am helping him realize his dream. The guy next to him is his friend.”

Zhang Shuo picked up the lesson plan and said, “That’s definitely no problem. Don’t just stand here. Let’s go to my office and have a cup of tea.” Then, Zhang Shuo walked towards the classroom door.

I saw Zhang Shuo walking away, and asked Jin Sheng in confusion, “Captain Jin, it’s meaningless to take advantage of me, right? And even though we’re not conducting a formal investigation, there’s no need to be so secretive, right?”

Jin Sheng pretended to be profound and said, “Don’t worry about it. Just follow my instructions and there will be no problem. I have my own clever plan.”

As he spoke, Jin Sheng walked towards Zhang Shuo. Wang Yuncheng, the idiot, was still mumbling about what he had just learned in class. “The rigid repetition of the question is a typical lie.”

Unhappy with Jin Sheng taking advantage of me, I planned to vent my anger on Wang Yuncheng. I slapped him hard on the head and said, “Follow me!”

This scared Wang Yuncheng so much that he shuddered. I didn’t give him a chance to fight back and quickly caught up with Jin Sheng.

When we got to Zhang Shuo’s office, he brewed a pot of tea and poured a cup for each of us. He didn’t talk to Jin Sheng, but instead started a conversation with me, “It’s a good thing to love learning, but why did you drop out of school in the first place?”

Because of Jin Sheng’s one lie, I need to create a hundred lies to fix it. I glared at Jin Sheng fiercely, but Jin Sheng seemed to see nothing and continued to sip the tea in the cup.

“I liked playing at the beginning and didn’t want to go to school. Now that I’m grown up, I kind of regret it,” I replied.

Zhang Shuo picked up the teacup and took a sip elegantly. I thought to myself that this person with high cultural level and temperament is superior to us.

Zhang Shuo said thoughtfully: “If it doesn’t work, you can come to school to study at an adult college. Although the value is not as high as that of a bachelor’s degree, it is also good. What is your name?”

I was a little embarrassed when I heard Zhang Shuo giving me advice seriously. “I’ll think about it later. Adult undergraduate programs are also good. My name is Lin Hai.”

Zhang Shuo narrowed his eyes, and his gaze instantly became sharp, “No, you are Jin Sheng’s nephew, why don’t you have the last name Jin?”

I was so questioned that cold sweat dripped down my forehead. “Well, my mother and my uncle are not relatives.”

Zhang Shuo laughed loudly, and Jin Sheng glared at me with some disapproval, “Uncles and nephews don’t have to have the same surname! Did you get stupid from drinking Zhang Shuo’s magic tea?”

After hearing this, I realized that I had been tricked. Jin Sheng pursed his lips and said, “I won’t play tricks on you anymore. We are here to investigate something.”

Zhang Shuo’s slender fingers flicked the teacup gently. “Since Officer Jin has found me, it must be no small matter.”

This time, Jin Sheng did not ask Zhang Shuo if he could smoke in the office. Instead, he lit a cigarette and his eyes became deep. “Have you heard of the confessional sect?”

Zhang Shuo thought for a moment, “Is it some kind of cult? I haven’t heard of it.” He pushed his gold-rimmed glasses with his hand, “I haven’t heard of any plans by Huanghai to combat cults recently.”

Before Jin Sheng could answer Zhang Shuo’s question, the noise outside interrupted their conversation.

I looked out the window and saw billowing black smoke rising into the sky from the library of Huadu University.

Zhang Shuo opened the window, and the shouting outside came into my ears more clearly.

Logically speaking, the last thing that should happen in a school library is a fire, as there are many flammable items in the library, so fire prevention measures have always been the top priority in the library.

Zhang Shuo rushed downstairs without saying a word, and the three of us followed him to the library.

Arriving downstairs at the library, Jin Sheng said with certainty, “It was a man-made fire.”

I looked at Jin Sheng with some confusion, but Jin Sheng did not answer me. Instead, Zhang Shuo saw the confusion in my eyes.

“Because the accidental fire that just happened could not have reached this level, and there was also a pungent smell of gasoline in the air.”

Jin Sheng glanced at Zhang Shuo, and it seemed that what Zhang Shuo said was the same as what he thought.

The sirens of the fire truck were getting closer and closer. Before the fire truck arrived, a shrill laugh was heard from the door of the library.

The students standing at the library door watching the fun, and the three of us, were attracted by the laughter.

Following my gaze, I saw a vague figure in the firelight at the main entrance of the library.

The figure waved her arms like crazy. She seemed to be extremely excited. “I set the fire! It has nothing to do with anyone else. My name is Justin Sun.”

Jin Sheng’s face was gloomy. The figure in the library screamed a few times and then fell down. The shrill screams then disappeared.

Fire trucks roared past us, and the firefighters completed each step of the fire-fighting in an orderly manner. However, because the fire was too large, it took a long time to completely put out the fire in the library.

The four of us also returned to Zhang Shuo’s office. Jin Sheng seemed to be thinking about something and did not speak.

Zhang Shuo sorted out the lesson plans on the table and put them in his bag. “We have just notified all teachers to have a meeting. You four can wait for me in my office. I will come back and show you around.”

Jin Sheng came back to his senses, “It’s okay, you do your thing, we’ll go back and won’t cause you any more trouble.”

Zhang Shuo glanced at Jin Sheng, said nothing more, and walked out of the office.

Jin Sheng got up from the sofa and said, “Let’s go. What are you still sitting here for?” Then he walked out on his own.

Wang Yuncheng and I followed Jin Sheng’s footsteps.

I thought we were going to go back to our respective homes, but Mr. Jin didn’t seem to have that intention.

Jin Sheng asked everyone he met on the street: “Do you know Justin Sun? The Justin Sun in the library today.”

I asked many people and they said they didn’t know her, until I asked a girl dressed in lolita, “Yes, I know her. She’s my classmate. She hasn’t been in a normal mental state recently.”

Jin Sheng was delighted, “Then can you tell me in detail?”

The Lolita girl asked in confusion, “Who are you? Why should I tell you?”

Jin Sheng took out his police ID from his pocket and said, “My name is Jin Sheng, and I am the captain of the Huanghai City Criminal Investigation Brigade. I am currently investigating this fire. I hope you can cooperate with me.”

The Lolita girl was surprised at first, then thought for a moment and said, “If I cooperate with the police, will there be these things in my file when I graduate?”

Jin Sheng smiled and said, “There will only be acts of bravery to cooperate with the police, and there will be no specific cases. This will not only be beneficial to your future job search, but also no one will retaliate against you for providing clues. You must believe in the police’s protection of witnesses.”

The Lolita girl glanced at me and Wang Yuncheng and said, “Stop talking here. Come with me.”

Jin Sheng signaled us to follow her, and after about three minutes, she brought us to a cold drink room inside the school.

The Lolita girl opened a private room and ordered some drinks. “My name is Zhang Danying. The crazy girl in the library today is not only my classmate, but also my roommate. Her name is Sun Yuchen. She was not like this before. The change started about a month ago. She is crazy every day, muttering something about love.”

Jin Sheng’s eyes flickered when he heard this, “So she should have a boyfriend or something, right? Do you know what caused her change?”

“It’s impossible that she has a boyfriend. Although she talks about him every day, she has never gone out on a date or anything like that. Even if we are in a long-distance relationship, we should call and send WeChat messages every day, right? But she doesn’t have any of that. I don’t know why she changed. She was normal the day before and stayed with us, and didn’t do anything.”

At this point I also became interested, “Try to recall it carefully, for example, who did she go with and where, and who did she call the day before?”

Hearing my question, Zhang Danying said as if she had suddenly realized something: “I remember now. The day before she changed, Liu Mang went out with her in a mysterious way. No matter how I asked, he wouldn’t tell me. He said he wanted to eat alone.”

Zhang Danying seemed to see the confusion in my eyes. “Liu Mang is my other roommate. She is mentally healthy. So if you hadn’t specifically asked me who Justin Sun went out with, I wouldn’t have thought about it.”

Jin Sheng didn’t give me a chance to speak, “If it’s convenient, can you let us see your dormitory?”

Zhang Danying glanced at Jin Sheng with a sidelong glance and said, “The dormitory manager won’t let men in, so you can’t go in either.”

Jin Sheng put down the drink in his hand, “Little girl, don’t forget, I am a policeman.”

Zhang Danying pursed her lips and said, “Okay, if you can get in, then it will be easy.”

Our group rushed to the dormitory of Justin Sun and Zhang Danying.

This was the first time in my life that I entered a girl’s room. I had heard that the girls’ dormitory was dirtier than the boys’ dormitory. It turned out to be true. Wang Yuncheng’s thieving eyes kept looking around. I hit him lightly, “Don’t be like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden.”

Wang Yuncheng glared at me and said, “What do you care about me?” Then he continued to look around. I was afraid that he had turned his neck away.

I arrived at Zhang Danying’s dormitory and opened the door. A quiet girl in a white nightgown was sitting at the table on the right side of the window, wearing glasses and reading a book.

When he saw us coming in, he put down the book in his hand in a panic and asked, “Who are you?”

Jin Sheng smiled awkwardly, “Little girl, don’t be afraid, we are the police, we are here to investigate the arson case in the library today, what is your name?”

The quiet girl said timidly, “Oh, okay, my name is Liu Mang, what library arson case? What happened?”

Jin Sheng briefly told Liu Mang what happened in the library today, then he carefully checked Sun Yuchen’s belongings and took many photos.

After looking around, Jin Sheng took Wang Yuncheng and me to say goodbye to Zhang Danying and Liu Mang.

While going downstairs, Jin Sheng was thinking about something and didn’t say anything.

When we walked downstairs to the dormitory, Wang Yuncheng was still looking at the girls’ dormitory building with great interest. Wang Yuncheng patted me and pointed to a window on the third floor. “I have raised that flower before. It is called Clivia. That flower is very delicate. I took good care of it, but it still died. Liu Mang has taken good care of it.”

I laughed and scolded her, “You remembered the girl’s name after she said it once! You usually tell me that you have a bad memory.”

Jin Sheng also looked in the direction of Wang Yuncheng’s finger and said excitedly, “What did you say? Whose dormitory is that with the flower?”

Wang Yuncheng was a little puzzled and scratched his head. “It’s the dormitory we just went to, the one with the mentally ill in the library.”

Jin Sheng was confused and said, “Not good.”

After saying that, he turned around and rushed back to the dormitory building.

Although Wang Yuncheng and I were puzzled, we followed Jin Sheng’s footsteps.

Jin Sheng took us all the way to the dormitory we had just been to, but the door was closed.

Jin Sheng knocked on the door anxiously, “Knock, knock, knock.” “Open the door, I’m the police officer who just came.” There was no response from inside the room.

Jin Sheng started banging on the door without saying a word. Although I was very confused by Jin Sheng’s behavior, I chose to cooperate with Jin Sheng and bang on the door together.

Wang Yuncheng saw this and pulled us apart, “Let me do it.”

Wang Yuncheng stepped back to gather strength, then suddenly rushed towards the dormitory door. As expected of a sports student, he was more effective than both Jin Sheng and I combined.

With a loud bang, the dilapidated wooden door of the dormitory was knocked open by Wang Yuncheng, leaving a big hole.

We filed in and the first thing we saw was Zhang Danying with a several-centimeter-long cut on his neck, with blood all over the floor. There seemed to be signs of a fight in the house, with items scattered in every corner of the house.

I rushed to Zhang Danying and felt her breath, and found that she was dead.

Jin Sheng yelled, “You are still young, don’t do stupid things.”

I looked in the direction of Jin Sheng and saw Liu Mang sitting on the windowsill. At this moment, the gentleness and tranquility on Liu Mang’s face were no longer there, but replaced by a hysterical expression.

Liu Mang’s nightgown was torn into several holes, and the white nightgown was stained red by Zhang Danying’s blood. There were also many scratches on her face. She looked crazy, “You are all troublesome things!” She pointed at us one by one and shouted.

“My love, I’m useless. I’m going first.” After saying that, he smiled, closed his eyes and fell down.

There was only a bang. Wang Yuncheng and I stood there at a loss. Jin Sheng rushed to the window and looked downstairs. Then he stamped his feet angrily and took out his cell phone to call the police. “Huadu University, murder has occurred. The murderer jumped off the building and committed suicide.”

Jin Sheng picked up the book that Liu Mang had just held and flipped through a few pages.

Jin was afraid that Wang Yuncheng and I would disrupt the scene, so he held us at the door to prevent the students from watching the fun and to protect the scene at the same time.

I asked Jin Sheng in confusion, “How did you know something happened? Why did you suddenly come back just now?”

Jin Sheng sighed, “Before Zhang Danying brought us back, I saw a little girl standing upstairs looking at us, but I am a little nearsighted, so I could only see a vague outline. When we left, Wang Yuncheng said that the window was Zhang Danying’s dormitory. I recalled that it was the dormitory I saw before.”

I continued, “What’s the problem?”

Jin Sheng didn’t care that it was a school dormitory building. He lit a cigarette, leaned against the wall, and slowly slid down to sit on the ground.

“Do you remember Liu Mang’s behavior when Zhang Danying brought us into the room? She was concentrating on reading, and her first expression on our arrival was shock, but her shock lasted for 13
seconds. In today’s class, the first thing we learned in Criminal Minds is that prolonged shock is all fake, and real shock is fleeting.”

I nodded thoughtfully, and Jin Sheng continued, “I just felt something was amiss, but I didn’t think too much about it until Wang Yuncheng mentioned that dormitory. My suspicions were raised to the maximum. Of course, it was just suspicion. She clearly saw us entering the dormitory building with Zhang Danying, so why did she pretend to be shocked? There is no such thing as a cover-up without reason in the world, so I decided to come back and take a look.”

“Two young lives, alas.” Jin Sheng sighed and said nothing more.

After the police arrived, Jin Sheng said hello and took us back to Zhang Shuo’s office.

Zhang Shuo had finished a meeting and was sitting in the office, apparently writing a lesson plan.

Jin Sheng sat down on the sofa without hesitation, “You know Justin Sun, right?”

I thought to myself what was wrong with Jin Sheng. Not to mention that Zhang Shuo might not teach them, even if Zhang Shuo did, he might not remember their names. I began to doubt whether Jin Sheng had ever been to college.

Zhang Shuo said without raising his head, “I don’t know him, what’s wrong?” His hands kept writing something.

Jin Sheng stood up and leaned over Zhang Shuo’s desk, facing Zhang Shuo, “You really don’t know him?”

Zhang Shuo raised his head and looked up at Jin Sheng, narrowing his eyes. “Don’t use your police interrogation methods on me. Don’t forget what my major is!”

Jin Sheng shook his head. “You are very careful, but there is always a loophole. I have never doubted you. I really want to ask you for help this time. After all, you are taking classes in Huadu. With you, it will be much easier for me to investigate. But I may have disrupted your plan.”

Zhang Shuo picked up the thermos cup beside him and drank a sip of water. “What’s the plan? Tell me.”

Jin Sheng smiled when he saw Zhang Shuo’s expression. “At first, Sun Yuchen’s behavior at the entrance of the library puzzled me, because no one would announce their identity like this after committing a crime.

“Some suspects tend to flaunt their crimes. Her explanation is not flaunting her crime at all. It’s like she’s trying to please someone, telling him that she did it, and in the process she even removed that person from the picture, because Sun Yuchen also specifically said that it had nothing to do with other people.”

Zhang Shuo also seemed to be interested. “Your analysis is fine, but how do you prove that the person Sun Yuchen is showing off is me?”

Jin Sheng lit a cigarette and put it between his lips. “I’m not sure it was you. I just asked if anyone knew Justin Sun. Maybe I was lucky and ran into her roommate Zhang Danying.”

Jin Sheng ignored Zhang Shuo’s murderous look and flicked the ash into Zhang Shuo’s thermos cup. “Then Zhang Danying told me what happened on the day Sun Yuchen changed. Then we went back to her dormitory together and met her other roommate, Liu Mang.”

Jin Sheng stopped talking and looked at Zhang Shuo steadily. Zhang Shuo looked back at him without fear. “You don’t have to keep me in suspense. I don’t have time to listen to your speculations. If you don’t want to talk, you can leave. I will continue to work on the lesson plan.”

Jin Sheng threw the cigarette butt that was about to burn his hand into Zhang Shuo’s thermos cup. “When I arrived at their dormitory, I found that Sun Yuchen and Liu Mang had one thing in common, that is, they both had the seventh edition of the criminal psychology textbook you taught.”

Zhang Shuo adjusted his glasses and said, “What then? There are so many students attending my class, do I have to know every one of them? Jin Sheng, have you drunk too much and become stupid?”

Jin Sheng snorted coldly: “How do you explain the fact that the ‘lover’ written in Liu Mang’s diary is called Zhang Shuo? How do you explain the instructions given to her by her so-called lover?”

Zhang Shuo’s eyes exuded a dangerous aura, “I knew that when an old fox like you comes, nothing good will happen.”

As he spoke, he pulled out a fruit knife from somewhere and slashed it towards Jin Sheng. Fortunately, Jin Sheng reacted quickly enough and dodged the fatal blow, but his cheek was still cut.

“Jinsheng, so what if I did it? Humans have done too many wrong things. Only extinction can atone for their sins. It is because of people like you that the world has become so bad.”

Zhang Shuo said ferociously, holding a fruit knife in his hand.

Jin Sheng stared at Zhang Shuo without looking away. “Actually, I didn’t see any diary. I just saw your autograph on the textbook of that little girl named Liu Mang. I don’t believe you are so kind that you would sign for everyone who takes your class. Since she is special, I don’t believe you don’t remember her name.”

As he spoke, Jin Sheng took out the recorder from his trouser pocket and shook it proudly, “But it’s too late for you to deny it now.”

Zhang Shuo rushed to the table in a rage and pounced on Jin Sheng.

Jin Sheng also picked up the teapot on the tea table and swung it at Zhang Shuo with gritted teeth.

“They are all young and vibrant lives.” Zhang Shuo also graduated from the police academy many years ago and has been engaged in clerical work in education. He has not exercised for a long time and was hit by Jin Sheng with a teapot, causing him to lose his balance and the fruit knife in his hand fell to the ground.

Jin Sheng took advantage of the situation and rode on Zhang Shuo, punching Zhang Shuo in the face again and again, each punch hitting the flesh.

Zhang Shuo’s handsome face was beaten bloody and swollen like a pig’s head by Jin Sheng.

Jin Sheng beat him and scolded him, “How could a police academy produce a scum like you? People’s sins don’t need to be handed over to you to judge. Who do you think you are? A god?”

Zhang Shuo could actually laugh in such a situation.

“Hahahahaha, Jinsheng, Jinsheng, you just haven’t awakened yet. People have sins, and after washing their sins, they can go to heaven. And I will be their guide, and they will be grateful to me.”

As he spoke, Zhang Shuo opened his mouth wide. While I was puzzled, Jin Sheng had already discovered what Zhang Shuo wanted to do.

Jin Sheng stuffed his right hand into Zhang Shuo’s mouth. Zhang Shuo laughed crazily and struggled frantically all over his body. Because his mouth was stuffed by Jin Sheng, he mumbled words that people could not understand.

Jin Sheng’s hand was bitten to a bloody mess, and he turned his head to look at me, “Go get a towel, he wants to bite his tongue to commit suicide!”

Wang Yuncheng and I were also confused. No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find the towel. I asked helplessly, “Captain Jin, I can’t find the towel.”

“Then use clothes, rags, anything that can stuff his mouth will do,” Jin Sheng gritted his teeth, enduring the pain that ordinary people could not bear.

Everyone has an instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm, just like when a hammer hits your hand you will subconsciously pull your hand back, but Jin Sheng was able to control this instinct, and I couldn’t help but feel a little awe in him.

In the end, Wang Yuncheng took off the vest he was wearing and stuffed it into Zhang Shuo’s mouth.

Jin Sheng walked aside to call the police and at the same time gave Wang Yuncheng and me a task. Since we were in plain clothes and did not bring handcuffs, we needed to hold Zhang Shuo down before the police arrived.

At this moment, Zhang Shuo was like a wild beast that had lost its mind, roaring madly, but he could not struggle out of Wang Yuncheng’s big hand.

Because the police were already near the dormitory, the response took less than three minutes.

A group of people came and wanted to take Wang Yuncheng and me back to the police station, but we were stopped by Jin Sheng, who explained that we didn’t need to make a statement. The police then asked Wang Yuncheng and I to go first and wait to be summoned at any time.

Wang Yuncheng and I returned home. We were so exhausted after a busy day that we went to bed early without even eating.

The days went by peacefully, as if nothing had happened at Huadu University. Not even the news reported it. The fire in the library was attributed to a girl named Justin Sun who was smoking in the study room.

Perhaps because they were afraid of public panic, they didn’t reveal anything else.

The long-lost future text message disrupted my life, “You still went to the dinner party, right?”

I saw that the sender was “Private Number 1”.

I replied, “Yes, I can’t trust anyone now, and you don’t have to keep pretending to be my future self. I’ve already discovered that you’re not me, but you’ve never hurt me.”

“Private Number 1”: “I won’t hurt you, just do what I say, trust me, okay?”

Me: “How can I trust you? Who are you?”

“Private Number
1″: “I am your wife, my name is Tang He, you probably don’t know me yet, I am from 30 years after you, you have always had the habit of writing a diary, after marrying you, I also developed the habit of peeking at your diary every day. Half a year ago, you wrote in your diary that you joined a church called the Confession Sect, I never thought it was a cult, so I didn’t take it seriously, until one day, I saw his plan, he wanted to kill his past self, that is, you!”

Me: “Will it be good for him if I die? Why would he want to kill me?”

“Private Number
1″: “There is no benefit. Without you, the future will be rewritten, and there will be no him thirty years later. In my time, technology is extremely advanced. Everyone’s bone age will be measured and the age they can live to will be determined, except for those who die at a specified time. Before that, a person can be treated or cloned through technology, so in my era, it is not difficult to live, but it is difficult to die. And as long as there is a crime, it will be monitored by the Sky Eye. With the development of technology, people can already contact people in the past through a single line. This confession sect tried to wipe out all mankind. Limited by current medical technology and the Sky Eye, they can only use the inferior method of contacting people in the past to kill people in the past.”

Me: “Why don’t they just contact them and start a big riot, killing a lot of people? Why go to so much trouble to kill me?”

“Private Number
1″: “Contacting the past will also be monitored by the Sky Eye, because this is a dangerous behavior. If a large-scale death occurred in the past, the rats of the Confession Sect would still be discovered. I have digressed, let’s get back to the point. Half a year ago, I saw your diary and found out that your future self was crazy. The No. 11 bus and Chen Weiwei were all your plans. Now your future self hasn’t discovered me yet, so I sneak a peek at my diary every day to try to help you. So please believe me, and I ask you to believe me, but don’t believe anyone else, no matter if it’s someone from the future or the past. It’s good for you to be skeptical.”

Seeing this, I couldn’t help but think, since she is my future wife, and helped me avoid danger without me noticing in the future, then who is the “Private Number 2” that appeared at the beginning? After listening to Tang He’s words, “Private Number
1″ is Tang He, so I am more inclined to believe that “Private Number
2″ is my future self, but Tang He just said that I didn’t find her, there must be other hidden reasons, but Tang He has helped me countless times and has never harmed me, so I am willing to believe what she said.

When I was analyzing enthusiastically, Wang Yuncheng came to my room and said with a sly look on his face: “Come on, Brother Hai, I’ll treat you to a barbecue.”

I looked at Wang Yuncheng helplessly, “All he does is eat! As long as the Confession Sect is not destroyed, I won’t be able to eat or sleep well.”

Wang Yuncheng grabbed my arm and walked out the door without saying anything. “It’s been a while since you last drank. Let’s go quickly, Brother Hai! I beg you as your brother.”

I shook off Wang Yuncheng’s hand and said, “It’s winter, at least you should let me put on some clothes!”

Wang Yuncheng chuckled and let go of my hand.

I got dressed, and we braved the cold wind and found a nearby barbecue restaurant. We ordered some skewers of meat. Wang Yuncheng surprisingly ordered six slices of bread. After he ordered, he said he wanted to go to the bathroom to open the floodgates, and then he went to the bathroom alone.

I thought that I hadn’t drunk for a long time and that there would be a fierce battle soon, so I followed Wang Yuncheng, thinking that I would go to the bathroom and scare him.

What surprised me was that Wang Yuncheng did not go to the bathroom, but went straight to the kitchen.

I tiptoed and followed Wang Yuncheng, wanting to see what tricks this kid was going to play. He had done things like secretly asking the chef to add more chili peppers since he was a child.

Along the way, Wang Yuncheng didn’t notice that I was following him, but when I arrived at the kitchen, I heard something he said that hit my heart like a bolt from the blue.

“Brother, please replace the white sugar with honey on the toast at table three. I forgot to tell you when we were ordering just now.” Wang Yuncheng said to the kebab chef.

Seeing that the kebab chef agreed, Wang Yuncheng turned around and was about to walk out of the kitchen. He turned around and saw me eavesdropping from behind.

I thought I would go crazy, but I didn’t. Maybe the ultimate disappointment is calmness.

Wang Yuncheng ran over to me and tried to explain to me, “Brother Hai, can you listen to me? I plan to eat that piece of bread by myself.”

I looked at Wang Yuncheng angrily and said, “You know what’s going on. If you still consider me a brother, tell me the truth.”

Wang Yuncheng didn’t explain any more, he just followed me with his head down. Although I didn’t get to eat, I still went to the front desk to pay the bill.

I didn’t say anything on the way home, and Wang Yuncheng looked at me several times, seeming to be hesitant to speak.

After arriving home, Wang Yuncheng knelt down in front of me without explanation. “Brother Hai, I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I received their text messages again on the eve of the holiday, and I went to find you because I thought you could understand me.” Wang Yuncheng’s nose and tears flowed down. “Later, I don’t know what happened. What they said was like a curse on me. I was bewitched by them at the time.”

I thought Wang Yuncheng had only recently been bewitched by the Confession Sect. Hearing this, I suddenly remembered Chen Weiwei. I grabbed Wang Yuncheng by the collar and shouted, “Where’s Weiwei? How did Weiwei die?”

Wang Yuncheng seemed to be frightened by my hysteria. He stammered, “Chen Weiwei,” and stopped talking. I seemed to remember something and punched Wang Yuncheng in the face. Wang Yuncheng collapsed on the ground, covering his face with his hands. “I killed Chen Weiwei. I tampered with the gas tank.”

Hearing this, the last bit of defense in my heart collapsed. My best brother killed the woman I loved most. I pounced on Wang Yuncheng, biting him with my teeth, hitting him with my fists, kicking him with my legs, trying everything I could, but Wang Yuncheng did not fight back.

I was beaten until I was exhausted. Wang Yuncheng’s nose was bleeding. He slowly got up from the ground and said, “I am sorry for you, Brother Hai. Today they sent me a text message asking me to kill you. I didn’t agree at first, but they said that if I didn’t kill you, they would make the fact that I killed Chen Weiwei public and put me in jail for the rest of my life. I am really scared, Brother Hai.”

I looked at Wang Yuncheng in despair, ignored him, and went on packing my luggage. During this time, Wang Yuncheng talked to me a lot, but it was as if I was deaf and I didn’t hear anything.

While I was packing, Wang Yuncheng had been sitting on the sofa in the living room. After I finished packing, he was still sitting on the sofa in the same position. Just when I was about to leave, he called me, “Brother Hai, I’m sorry for you, call the police.”

I laughed contemptuously, “Oh, brother? Are you worthy? Run away, I will call the police tomorrow. If you are caught, it will be your fault.”

After that, I took a taxi back home. My mother asked me why Wang Yuncheng didn’t come and why he stayed for such a short time this time. When she saw that I didn’t reply, she didn’t say anything more.

The next day, I called the police as soon as I woke up in the morning and told them everything. The person on the other end of the phone told me to keep me informed of any further developments in the case.

In the afternoon, I received a call from Jin Sheng. He had heard about Wang Yuncheng’s incident and asked me to go to the police station to talk to him about something.

I packed up my things and rushed to the police station.

When we arrived at the police station, Jin Sheng called me to his office, and I told him in detail what had happened between Wang Yuncheng and I. After that, Jin Sheng, as a police officer, severely condemned my behavior of letting the prisoner escape.

Jin Sheng also told me the real purpose of calling me to the police station. The behavior of the Confession Sect has attracted the attention of the country. Now Huanghai City has set up a “Crackdown on Cults Task Force” to crack down on this “Confession Sect” incident with a wide range of impact in the future.

Mr. Jin hoped that I could join the task force as a special consultant. Two of my closest people had been badly harmed by this crappy confessional sect, so I naturally agreed with pleasure.

In the following month, I followed Jin Sheng around every day, collecting clues and eliminating the criminals accurately.

“Just yesterday, a religious incident of a serious nature with a wide-ranging impact in our city was completely suppressed by our city’s anti-cult task force. The case was solved not only by our city’s public security police, but also by the general public in our city who provided clues. It can be said that each of us contributed a part to the conclusion of this case.” The TV hanging on the wall in the police station was broadcasting this news. After the host finished speaking, there was a thunderous cheer and applause in the police station.

Jin Sheng was also very excited about the case. He jumped onto the desk and shouted, “Boys, go home and get some sleep now! We will have a celebration banquet at Yixianglou tonight. You have to give me some cefuroxime even if you eat it. No one can escape.”

I felt very proud standing there, and when I saw the police officers smiling like children, a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

The police cheered and dispersed. Jin Sheng also jumped down from the table and put his arm around my shoulders. “Come over tonight. After we finish drinking, we can go out for dinner. I’ll treat you.”

After spending this month together day and night, Jin Sheng and I have a relationship more like uncle and nephew than brothers because of our age.

I smiled and agreed, “Okay, then I’ll go home and take a nap, and I’ll get you drunk tonight.”

Jin Sheng laughed heartily, “Hahaha, you little bastard, your hair hasn’t even grown out yet, and you still want to drink me down.” Then he kicked me.

I went home and had my first good night’s sleep since the future text message appeared.

It was the alarm clock that woke me up. I set the alarm in advance because I was afraid that I would not wake up.

After simply tidying up my head which hadn’t been taken care of for a month, I rushed to the hotel we booked, “Yixianglou”.

Everyone was happy about the case being solved, so everyone drank happily. Because I promised to have a private drink with Jin Sheng, I didn’t drink too much, but saved some for Jin Sheng later. I have to say that Jin Sheng can drink a lot, he kept drinking with everyone else, but he acted like nothing happened.

After three rounds of drinks, everyone had drunk enough and said goodbye one after another. Jin Sheng and I then found a barbecue restaurant to continue drinking.

I talked with Jin Sheng about what happened during this period. A few days before the police call, I fell asleep while standing in the suspect’s home because I couldn’t adapt to the rhythm of the police force.

We were having a pleasant conversation when my cell phone rang with a text message alert. I picked up the phone and found it was a message from “Private Number 1”. I didn’t open it in front of Mr. Jin, but just apologized and went to the bathroom to open my phone.

It clearly stated “Private Number 1”: “I have found out the leader of the confession sect, his name is Jin Sheng, and he is said to be a former policeman.”

I didn’t reply, but turned back to the table, “Brother Jin, what do you think of the teachings of the Confessional Sect?”

Jin Sheng looked at me with some confusion, “What’s wrong with you? The confessional sect is gone, why are you mentioning it?”

I took a piece of paper and wiped my mouth. “Is it really gone?” I stared at Jin Sheng.

Jin Sheng rubbed his hands and wiped his mouth with a piece of paper. “How did you know?”

“Why? Why on earth?” I asked in confusion.

Jin Sheng smiled, “I didn’t agree with it at first. It was only after my future self contacted me that I learned about the confession sect I founded in the future. I was too confused at the time. It wasn’t until my future self explained the doctrine to me in detail that I really realized myself. I am a policeman. Is it wrong for me to judge those guilty people?”

I said in disbelief, “Do you still remember what you said to Zhang Shuo? Then why did you apply to wipe out the Confession Sect?”

Jin Sheng lit a cigarette. “I remember that I had a problem with my brain at that time. On the night when Zhang Shuo was captured, my future self contacted me. I wanted to wipe out the Confession Sect? As long as I am still here, the Confession Sect will be gone, and the Judgment God Sect, the Judgment Sect, and the Angel Church will naturally appear in the future. As long as the green mountains are green, there will be no shortage of firewood. If these idiots are not arrested, it will only affect me.”

I rubbed my swollen head and said, “Brother Jin, I never thought you would be this kind of person.”

I turned the phone over and saw the interface for dialing 110. I had called the police before I came out of the bathroom.

Jin Sheng seemed to know that I had called the police and did not take any action. He just sat there smoking quietly.

Before I could say anything, I heard sirens outside the door and a group of police officers rushed into the hotel, some of them even with guns pointed. There were some familiar faces among them.

The leading police officer raised his gun and said, “Jin Sheng, don’t struggle. You are also a police officer. You know the consequences of resistance. Just surrender.”

Jin Sheng didn’t say anything. He slowly put his hands behind his back and put his head on the table.

I will never forget the look in Jin Sheng’s eyes when he was arrested. I didn’t understand what he meant, but I could tell that he didn’t hate me. He was just staring at me with an ambiguous look, and I didn’t know what he meant.

Later I heard that because Jin Sheng, as a public official, organized the spread of cult information, he was sentenced to death with a three-month reprieve.

After comprehensive evaluation, I was discharged from the hospital. I had lived in a mental hospital for five years, and I felt that I was getting sicker. It had been ten years since that incident, but it still reappeared in my dreams from time to time. When I was discharged from the hospital, the doctor told me to take my medicine on time, so I took out a pill called fluoxetine.

I couldn’t help but sigh in my heart that ten years have passed and this medicine still hasn’t become sweeter and is still so unpalatable.

I turned on the TV and it happened to be the news anchor who was reporting, “SMS technology is now completely successful. The public beta will begin at 9 o’clock tonight. Citizens can try it, but remember to abide by the following terms.” I didn’t wait for her to finish and turned off the TV.

I opened a can of beer and slumped on the sofa, sipping it, waiting for nine o’clock to come.

I’ve been falling asleep very easily since I was told I have depression. Luckily I set the alarm. It’s already 9 o’clock. I downloaded
the app, adjusted the date, and wrote a text message to my past self, “Lin Hai, I’m you in 30 years. Hurry up or you’ll miss the No. 11 bus to work!”

I’ve been falling asleep very easily since I was told I have depression. Luckily I set the alarm. It’s already 9 o’clock. I downloaded
the app, adjusted the date, and wrote a text message to my past self, “Lin Hai, I’m you in 30 years. Hurry up or you’ll miss the No. 11 bus!”