The Box and the Cat

Closing my eyes, I saw the black coffin close its last bright gap. Pain came like a tide, and the liquid soaking under my body was icy cold.

I was dying, dying on my bed in the dormitory, dying in this narrow space separated by blackout curtains.

Silently.

If no one finds me, then to the outside world, am I alive or dead?

No one can define it until the bed curtains are drawn.

The two results coexist in a confused and dark unknown, with only the smell of blood irritating my nasal cavity.

Who will draw the curtain?

Is this a nightmare? It must be a nightmare…

Chapter 1

I opened my eyes suddenly and heard the sound of the balcony door being pried open. I looked at the time, 00:01.

I recalled that strange dream, and it was the same pitch blackness all around.

Because the four of us in our dormitory usually use electronic devices at different times at night, for mutual convenience, we all installed blackout curtains.

Today, Dahua, who is on the upper bunk in the clinic, went out to hang out with his girlfriend. Aqing, who is on the lower bunk, hasn’t been home for a month because of his internship. Except for Xiaohui, he seems to be troubled by some worries recently, but what is he doing on the balcony at this time?

I sent a message to Xiaohui: “Are you locked outside the balcony?”

Xiaohui: “No, what am I doing outside on the balcony?”

“Who’s on the balcony?”

“How should I know?”

I remember the recent police report about a thief who climbed over the balcony of a girls’ dormitory and stole computers.

Is it a second crime or a copycat crime?

Why did you steal the boys’ dormitory?

Call the police or pretend to be asleep?

In a flash, countless thoughts flashed through my mind.

At this moment, I heard the strange sound of the door opening.

“Squeak—Ding—”

After coming to my senses, I knocked on the bed lightly and sent a message asking, “What should I do?”

There was also a dull knocking sound coming from below.

Xiaohui: “What should I do?”

Me: “Stop playing around, someone really broke into the dormitory, I suspect it’s the guy who broke into the girls’ dormitory last time!”

Xiaohui: “What do you mean you stole the girls’ dormitory last time? What should I do? I will call the police for you?”

I was stunned: “What do you mean you should call the police for me?”

Xiao Hui: “Nonsense, I have a club dinner today, and I’m having a barbecue at the bald guy across from the school right now.”

My head buzzed.

Xiaohui: “How about I rush back now?”

My throat is a little dry. If the person in the lower bunk isn’t Xiaohui, then who is it?

I suppressed my trembling and fear and gently pushed aside a corner of the bed curtain.

It’s as bright as day outside!

It’s the color of daylight, not the bright color of lamplight.

My eyes widened in disbelief as I watched the time on my phone jump from 00:04 to 00:05.

Am I… blurry-eyed?

“Don’t believe your eyes!”

Another message popped up on the phone, and it was actually from Dahua.

What’s going on?

Dahua’s unexpected message made my heart skip a beat.

There were rustling sounds of rummaging outside, and the bed board in the lower bunk was still being hit rhythmically. Through the blackout curtains, I vaguely felt that it was daytime outside, but the time on my cellphone was midnight. My roommates were not in the dormitory, but at this moment the dormitory was bustling with all kinds of sounds mixed together.

Chapter 2

What’s going on? Where am I?

I looked around. The compartment, which was 2 meters long, 1 meter wide, and 1.5 meters high, was pitch black and cold. It gave me the feeling… like a coffin…

The knocking sounds coming from the bed were intermittent, and the sounds of rummaging outside were becoming more and more intense.

“Crack!”

I shuddered.

What is that sound?

Step on rubber?

Cut down the guillotine?

Cell phone shutter?

I feel like the properties of the sounds are getting closer.

It is a shutter, but it is not the shutter sound that a mobile phone can make. Instead, it is the shutter sound made by a real machine.

SLR? It should be the sound of SLR!

I used it during our social practice, and the sound is exactly the same!

But no one in our dormitory has a SLR?

“Crack, crack!”

I could already be sure I heard the continuous shutter sounds, but why was someone taking photos in the dormitory at this time? What was he taking photos of?

My brows were furrowed more and more tightly, and I opened the bed curtain a little again, and the sun was shining brightly outside.

What is going on?

A thief would rummage through things in broad daylight?

If the phone shows half past midnight, will it be broad daylight?

Nothing I experienced could be explained by science.

Scientific? Reasonable?

Could it be… did I really see a ghost?

I saw the message Dahua sent me again.

“Don’t believe your eyes!”

My eyes?

“Why?” I sent a message to Dahua.

That’s right, in such an emergency situation, I actually stayed calm.

If he is a thief, after he succeeds in stealing something, he will never take the initiative to lift up the boy’s bed curtain to cause trouble, let alone think of hurting or killing someone.

But what if it was a psychopathic murderer? I thought again.

I started to sweat on my forehead again.

Seeing that Dahua hadn’t replied to me yet, I quickly sent another message to Xiaohui: Come back soon! Bring more buddies with you!

After sending the two messages, I started thinking again.

Shutter? SLR? I think I’ve seen it somewhere before?

I can’t remember.

At this moment, the figure in the room must have touched some kind of string instrument, which emitted a dull and textured vibrato.

stringed instrument?

There are four of us in our dormitory, and apart from me who can play the flute a little bit, I haven’t heard of anyone else who can play an instrument.

How come there is such a thing in our dormitory?

A sudden flash of cold light flashed in my mind.

There is no such thing in our dormitory, but there is one in the dormitory that was robbed!

To confirm this, I found the police report issued by the school.

“It has been confirmed that several girls lost two computers, an iPad, a mobile phone, a Microsoft tablet, a SLR camera, and damaged a cello…”

A SLR camera!

And cello!

The sound just now was a cello!

My hair stood on end.

Am I… coming to the girls’ dormitory that was robbed?

I checked my bed again.

Although I couldn’t see the inside clearly, the edge through which the sunlight came through was clearly the texture of my own bed curtains, and the texture of the sheets and quilts were exactly the same as those I usually used.

Could it be that my bed was moved here?

That doesn’t make sense, after all, people outside are stealing at this moment.

Was it two nights ago?

So when was the sunlight outside my bed curtain?

Who is my phone communicating with and when?

Chapter 3

“Don’t believe your eyes!”

“Why?”

WeChat shows that the conversation with Dahua is still here.

A new message appeared, from Xiaohui: “Okay, I’ll be back soon!”

Come back? Where to? Back to my “dorm”? But am I in “my dormitory” now?

I can’t understand anything.

I even had the urge to break through the curtain, but my intuition told me that it would be best not to act rashly at the moment.

I planned not to send messages to Xiaohui anymore. Firstly, I wanted to prevent him from being misled by his inability to explain clearly on the way, and secondly, to let him go to my real dormitory,
Room 630, Building 6, East District, first. If there was no one there, I could be sure that I was at the crime scene two days ago.

It’s just… I still haven’t figured out how I got here.

Suddenly, I realized a few problems.

That’s not right. Even if it was a crime scene from two days ago, how could the thief use a SLR so openly in the dormitory?

And why does he use a SLR?

Also, he can actually use a SLR!

That’s right, a SLR is not a point-and-shoot camera. Knowing how to turn it on, focus and take pictures requires a certain level of expertise. Apart from anything else, some people who know nothing about it can’t even press the shutter.

I carefully reviewed the police report from that time again.

“At the time of the crime and the day before and after the crime, all school gate cameras were normal, no suspicious persons entered or left, the school fence was intact, and there were no signs of climbing.”

In other words – the thief hasn’t left the campus yet!

More likely, the thief is someone from the school!

However, this does not require complicated reasoning. What I can think of, the police can also think of. Then why haven’t I heard of any dormitory buildings or dormitories being screened one by one?

Maybe the police already know who it is?

“Buzz, buzz.” The cello was hit again.

It brought me back to reality.

At this point, I noticed a detail in the notice, which said that the cello was damaged, which means it was not stolen.

I had made a reasonable assumption before. Maybe the thief wanted to transfer his stolen goods to our dormitory when it was dark. He thought there was no one in our dormitory, so he took pictures boldly and even touched the cello. But since the cello was not stolen by him, I ruled out this possibility.

There’s a good chance that I was actually at the crime scene two days ago!

Chapter 4

“Brother, I’m back. There’s nothing in our dormitory?” Xiaohui sent me a message.

Nothing? To be honest, I’m not surprised he said that now.

“I’m not in the dormitory either?” I asked him.

“??? What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking you, is my bed empty?”

“Are you kidding me?”

It’s not his fault. Anyone who is asked this question would probably be confused.

I thought about it and changed the question: “Then can you help me check if the power bank on my bed is fully charged?”

After three or five seconds, he replied: “Yeah, it’s full.”

I’m sure I’m not in my bed anymore.

But this statement is not quite accurate. To be precise, in the time and space where Xiaohui on the other end of WeChat was, I was not in the bed where I belonged.

Please forgive my limited knowledge of physics (I only learned it up to high school). In my understanding, there is only one word that may be able to explain my current situation – “singularity”.

If my meager knowledge of physics is correct, when a person is in a “space-time singularity”, time and space will overlap. This is the only explanation I can give for why at this moment I hear a sound from two days ago, see noon from an unknown day, and feel a knocking sound coming from the lower bunk that clearly does not exist.

So where am I? Or more importantly, how do I get out?

I suddenly had a strange feeling, as if I was imprisoned by something.

To the outside world (Dahua, Xiaohui and others), they cannot determine my location, my condition, or even… my life or death…

I became some kind of closed and unknown existence.

I thought of the box that the teacher took from the class in physics class.

“There is a cat in the box.” The teacher said, “Guess, is it alive or dead?”

Is it possible that there is actually no cat in the box – that it is me who is in the box?

Chapter 5

I roughly calculated that if I was really in overlapping time and space, then I was experiencing at least three timelines at the same time and at least two overlapping spaces.

I opened the memo on my phone and sorted out the current known situation.

2022.3.16 Evening——The Girls’ Dormitory Was Robberized

2022.3.18 00:40——Unknown Space (I am not in my bed at this moment)

Unknown time, noon – on my bed in the dormitory

So how can I get out? More precisely, which way should I choose to get out?

Information! I need more information!

I tried to find a breakthrough in the chaos of time and space.

Yes! The stolen girls’ dormitory!

If I am in the girls’ dormitory where the bed was robbed at this moment, then who should have been living in this bed and what was she doing?

The police report did not explain this, so I logged into the campus forum to see if anyone involved had spoken out.

After about three seconds of loading the page, I saw several posts pinned to the top of the forum, all related to the theft in the girls’ dormitory.

Some of the content blames the police for their poor handling of the case, while others say that the school should strengthen supervision. These are not the main points I want to see.

I scrolled down level by level, and finally, I stopped at a comment level.

“I heard that three girls in this dormitory were all selected for postgraduate study this semester…”

There are only three people in this dormitory? And they were all admitted to graduate school at the same time?

My teeth chattered.

Generally, colleges and universities have a written or unwritten rule that if something like a murder occurs in a dormitory, in order to appease the students (or keep the news secret), all other people in the dormitory will be guaranteed admission to graduate school on campus.

In addition, there were only three girls in the original four-person room, and only three computers (including the Microsoft tablet) were stolen. I have reason to suspect that something had happened in this dormitory.

Among my roommates, Aqing is the best at using computers.

At this point, based on his usual complaints about the company, he should still be working overtime.

“A Qing! Can you help me get a list of the people in the dormitory in our school that was robbed? Contact information will be fine too!” I sent a message to A Qing.

He replied surprisingly quickly: “Fuck, brother, why are you still awake so late, are you thinking about love?”

Ah Qing is still like this. I smiled bitterly and said, “Brother, do you know that my current situation is a million miles away from Sichun?”

Three minutes later, A Qing sent me an Excel file with dormitory information.

I clicked on it and saw three names, their personal information, and at the end of the list, written in big red letters: “Admission to Graduate School!”

I looked at the content and didn’t find anything particularly strange except that all three of them were admitted in advance at the same time.

“That’s not right, brother. How come this form looks like it’s been modified by someone?” Ah Qing sent me another message, “I checked it again, and one column is hidden. I’ll restore it and send it to you.”

He sent me another copy.

This time, there was one more person’s information in it—Liu Xiaolan.

Liu Xiaolan. I felt a chill all over my body, as if she and I were inextricably linked.

Liu Xiaolan, born on May 18, 2002, is from CD County, LY City, SD Province. Her student status has now been transferred out.

Has your student status been transferred out?

I opened the second sheet and saw the dormitory bed arrangement.

Liu Xiaolan——Room 530, Shop A.

Bunk A is the upper bunk next to the window among the four beds, and is in the same position as my bed.

I am sitting on Liu Xiaolan’s bed now! My heartbeat suddenly quickened. No matter how Liu Xiaolan is doing now, this bed is full of weirdness at this moment.

I took deep breaths, trying not to make any sound.

Wait, LY City, CD County, SD Province, isn’t this Dahua’s hometown?

He once said to us when he was drunk and boasting: “None of us in CD drinks beer by the bottle, we drink by the case! Three cases! Five cases! That’s awesome!”

Dahua’s full name is Liu Dahua. Is he related to Liu Xiaolan?

With doubts, I clicked on the last sheet in Excel.

Here are the ID photos they used when applying for dormitory bed certificates.

Liu Xiaolan is a girl with a pure and lovely appearance.

In the photo, she has two shallow dimples when she smiles. I can imagine how pure and flawless she looks in the sun.

I moved my eyes down, and when I saw the photo of the third person, my face froze again.

Her name is Zheng Meihui. If I am not face-blind, she is Dahua’s new girlfriend that he just posted on WeChat Moments two days ago.

I sent another message to A-Qing: “A-Qing, have you heard that Da-hua has any other relatives in our school?”

“Relatives? Do you suspect that Dahua cheated in the exam by relying on relatives?”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “No! I mean whether he has any brothers or sisters who are also students in our school!”

“This… I haven’t heard of it. Isn’t Xiaohui from the same hometown as Dahua? Why don’t you ask him?”

I breathed a sigh of relief, and the sound of rummaging outside suddenly stopped.

“Eh?” The figure made a strange sound, “It’s really them!”

Shocked and angry.

I was startled. This voice! Wasn’t it Dahua?

Chapter 6

Zheng Meihui’s boyfriend is Dahua, and the person who sneaked into the girls’ dormitory was Dahua. So it seems that there must be some connection between Liu Xiaolan and Dahua.

Who is Liu Xiaolan and how is she doing now?

Hopefully, I found out that I could get away with it and searched for “Liu Xiaolan from ×××× school” directly on the Internet.

There is very little information on the Internet. Apart from the fact that she is on the list of new students in our school in 2020, there is no other link related to her.

It was all in vain and I was a little frustrated.

“Xiaobei, will you come back tonight?” Xiaohui asked me.

I rubbed my temples. Is this a question I can just go back to? I don’t even know where I am.

My elbow accidentally pressed against the upper edge of the phone, and the conversation with Xiaohui automatically slid up.

It stopped at the beginning of the conversation between Xiaohui and I today.

“What do you mean you stole from the girls’ dormitory last time? What should I do? Should I call the police for you?”

What about stealing the girls’ dormitory last time?

Doesn’t he know that the girls’ dormitory was robbed?

So Xiaohui on the other end of WeChat wasn’t there on March 18th either?

I hurriedly asked him, “What day is today?”

“Are you making fun of me? It’s after midnight on the 16th, what?”

Xiaohui on the other end of WeChat was actually there on the night the theft happened!

I remember that on the evening of the 15th, I went to the student union office of the college to sort out my graduation matters. When I entered the college gate, I saw Xiaohui and a group of people leaving the college in a noisy manner. He joined a club that day!

“Isn’t Dahua in the dormitory?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I don’t know where this guy has gone. Didn’t he just post a photo with a girl on his WeChat Moments? Maybe he went out to have fun.”

What should I do? Should I tell him about Dahua stealing from the girls’ dormitory? I hesitated.

This time is too unusual. If I tell Xiaohui about this, he will definitely not believe it now. It must be at
noon on the 16th when the police report is issued and it matches what I told him that he will start to doubt it. So what will Xiaohui do next? Confront Dahua face to face? What will Dahua do if he is discovered?

Sweat broke out on my forehead.

“Don’t believe your eyes.”

Why did Dahua send me this message?

When and under what circumstances did Dahua send me this message?

Will history be rewritten after I tell Xiaohui?

I was reminded of the Grandmother Paradox: If a person travels back in time and kills his grandmother when she was a child, then the grandmother does not exist, and he does not exist, and the action of killing does not exist, so the grandmother will not die, and he exists, and the action of killing exists again…

If I told Xiaohui, what kind of events would Xiaohui trigger and how would history change?

I have no idea.

I decided not to tell him about this for the time being.

Dahua hasn’t replied to me yet.

Only Aqing is left.

When will Aqing on WeChat come?

“Aqing, when will you go back to school to fill out graduation documents?” I asked him.

“Emmm, let’s do it the day after tomorrow. It’s my birthday the day after tomorrow, so it’s a good time for the three of us to get together.”

A-Qing’s birthday is March 25th, which means that A-Qing over there is on March 23rd.

“The three of us?” Aren’t there four of us? Why are we getting together as a group of three?

“Yeah, wasn’t Dahua arrested for theft and attempted murder?”

I can understand stealing. This kid is now sneaking into the girls’ dormitory through my curtains. But attempted murder?

“Who did you attempt to kill? Zheng Meihui?” I asked Dahua.

“I don’t know about that.” After a while, he asked again, “Wait, isn’t Zheng Meihui the girl in the dormitory that you asked me to investigate today? Do you know something?”

I regretted my quick words (actually my quick hands), so I could only answer him honestly: “I don’t know either, I just asked.”

“Zheng Meihui, Liu Xiaolan. Do you suspect that Liu Dahua is Liu Xiaolan’s brother? Liu Xiaolan was murdered, which allowed their dormitory to be admitted to graduate school. Liu Dahua found some clues and wanted to attack Zheng Meihui to avenge Liu Xiaolan?”

Ah Qing’s brain was quite quick, and he was able to work out a logical chain based on just a few words I said.

“Alas.” I didn’t say yes or no, “I’m just worried about Dahua. Besides, I didn’t find any information about Liu Xiaolan’s murder. Maybe other people in her dormitory were admitted to graduate school for other reasons.”

“Too.”

The conversation ended again, and I opened the memo to modify and supplement the information clues I already had.

2022.3.16 01:20——Liu Xiaolan on the bed——Xiaohui——Dahua is stealing

2022.3.18 01:20——Unknown Space——The time point where I should be in the correct time

Unknown time, noon – on my bed in the dormitory

2022.3.23 Evening——Unknown Location——Aqing

Why is it getting more and more complicated…

I sighed softly, and at that moment, my phone flashed.

A notification of a new friend, I clicked to check it out.

“I’m Zheng Meihui!”

Chapter 7

Zheng Meihui?

Isn’t this Dahua’s girlfriend? Why did she add me as her friend at this time?

My eyes flickered and after thinking for a moment, I finally accepted her friend’s request.

“On the rooftop of Duxue Building, Dahua is about to kill someone!”

Dahua wants to kill someone? Why would he contact me if he wants to kill someone? How did Zheng Meihui know my WeChat? She told me now, is it too late for me to rush over?

No, Dahua had been arrested before March 23. Since the police determined that he had attempted murder, it means he did not succeed.

Zheng Meihui still had time to add me as a friend at this time, which means the person being hunted was not her.

So why did she want me to go there?

“Don’t believe your eyes!”

When did Dahua send me this message?

My body shook violently.

I have a guess.

I sent a message to Dahua: “I know it’s not you.”

This time, Dahua responded very quickly: “It was Zheng Meihui who wanted to frame me!”

really.

If I guessed correctly, Zheng Meihui called me over because she wanted me to be a witness to Dahua’s crime. Maybe she even recorded a video nearby. In this way, as long as she called the police, I would become a direct witness. Even if I wanted to conceal it, she could still determine the nature of Dahua’s crime based on the anonymous report of the video content.

But how did Zheng Meihui know my contact information and why did she choose me as a witness?

After thinking about it for a while, I understood that it would take someone familiar with the murderer to identify his appearance or features in the dark. If I rushed to the scene in a hurry and shouted, “Dahua! Don’t be impulsive!” then he wouldn’t be able to disguise himself even if he wanted to.

Among the four people in the dormitory now, Aqing is not in school, Xiaohui usually comes and goes with a group of people, and I am the only one who always keeps to myself, so it is natural that there is no one more suitable to find me.

But what exactly is Zheng Meihui’s plan?

The source of all this points to one person – Liu Xiaolan.

“Who is Liu Xiaolan to you?” I asked him.

“You know all this?” He paused, “She is my sister, emmmmm, half sister.”

No wonder, we all knew that Dahua came from a single-parent family, but we never knew that his father remarried after the divorce and had a daughter.

So it is understandable that Dahua did not tell us that his biological sister is also in our school.

In a sense, it was this sister who stole his father away.

“What did you find out?”

“My sister’s death may be related to the three people in her dormitory!”

After Dahua sent the message, there was no further news.

Liu Xiaolan died and Liu Dahua was arrested.

Zheng Meihui and her roommate are suspected in Liu Xiaolan’s case.

But these events, which originally would not have interfered with my normal life, all grew around me.

I—in Liu Xiaolan’s dormitory—heard Dahua rummaging through things.

I witnessed Dahua’s attempted murder on the rooftop of Duxue Building (this is my guess, because given my personality, I would most likely run over there the first moment I see the news).

I – trapped in this strange space – discussed what happened with Aqing.

It suddenly occurred to me that I had missed a detail.

If I had never met Zheng Meihui before, how could she be sure that I would add a stranger?

I opened Zheng Meihui’s chat box and edited the message.

“Who are you?”

send.

“We had lunch together at noon! I’m Dahua’s girlfriend!”

Let’s have lunch together?

I remembered that yesterday (March 17) afternoon, Dahua made an appointment with Xiaohui and me to have dinner together two days later, and then he would introduce his girlfriend to us.

I met Zheng Meihui around noon on the 19th, so the time she added me was probably between the evening of the 19th and midnight of the 20th.

“Come and persuade him!”

I sneered. Under normal circumstances, I might have really gone. But at this moment, if I agreed to her, she would probably start recording a video to make solid evidence. But if I didn’t show up, Dahua would probably really kill that person!

Who is that person? Why did Dahua want to kill that person? Where is Zheng Meihui at this time, so that she can see the whole process of Dahua’s murder and send me a message without being discovered?

wrong!

If Zheng Meihui didn’t want to be discovered by others, she shouldn’t have noted that she was Zheng Meihui when she added me.

She shouldn’t even have chosen to add my WeChat ID—she could have just called me! (Because my WeChat ID is my mobile number, I guess she asked me for it during lunch on the 19th.)

The people on WeChat wanted to keep evidence, but they also wanted to turn the source of the evidence to Zheng Meihui.

Then the person who added me on WeChat must not be Zheng Meihui, so where was Zheng Meihui late at night on the 19th?

But if it wasn’t Zheng Meihui, how would he/she know that we had lunch together.

Just then, a call came on my cell phone.

I was startled at first and subconsciously wanted to hang up, for fear that people outside might hear it.

Then I thought, that’s not right, the person outside is Dahua, if he can really hear it, I would love it.

I answered the phone.

“Hello?” I deliberately raised my voice and wanted to see the reaction of the person outside the curtain, but unfortunately he didn’t seem to hear me.

“Hey! Xiaobei! I’m Zheng Meihui! Ah Hua wants to kill me!”

Chapter 8

How come another Zheng Meihui appeared? I am really confused.

I listened to the person on the phone panting and speaking in a hurried voice, and it felt like she wasn’t fake.

“You are on the rooftop of Duxue Building?”

“What rooftop? I’m at the Lovers’ Hill behind the school!”

Why is there another timeline? I frowned.

It turns out that Dahua wants to kill more than one person?

“My sister’s death may be related to the three people in her dormitory!”

Zheng Meihui met me on the 19th.
The person who was upstairs in Duxue Building on the night of the 19th was not Zheng Meihui, and the person who sent me the message on WeChat was most likely not Zheng Meihui. The person upstairs in Duxue Building was most likely Liu Xiaolan’s other two roommates, or it was even possible that both roommates were present (one was threatened by Dahua, and the other was hiding in the corner).

“Then why did you call me?” I asked Zheng Meihui.

“Why did I call you?” She said anxiously, “Didn’t you ask me to call? Oops!”

The call ended abruptly. I guess she hung up because she saw that I was not prepared to help her.

I asked her to call? Why would I let her call me when she was in danger?

I just can’t figure it out.

The knocking noise under the bed continued, disturbing me.

I took a look at the caller’s phone number, and then quickly checked the WeChat ID of “Zheng Meihui”.

This phone number and WeChat number are exactly the same!

I was stunned. Was it really Zheng Meihui on the other end of the WeChat? Did she get into danger again after sending the WeChat message to me?

I feel like all my previous reasoning has been overturned.

I must be missing something.

I wanted to send a message to A Qing, but when I opened the dialog box, I was shocked.

The original line “Yes, wasn’t Dahua arrested for theft and attempted murder?” and the subsequent dialogue all disappeared.

Instead, it was: “I heard that Dahua has been arrested for murder!”

Why!

A chill ran through me.

“Who died?” I asked Aqing.

“Zhao Ruyi.”

Zhao Ruyu, Liu Xiaolan’s third roommate.

“When did it happen?”

“It was the night of the 19th, wasn’t that what you told me? Are you pretending to have amnesia?”

On the evening of the 19th, Zheng Meihui sent me a WeChat message!

“What about Zheng Meihui?” I asked.

“What Zheng Meihui?” After a pause, “Are you talking about Liu Xiaolan’s other roommate? What does it have to do with her?”

The content of the timeline has been changed!

When did it change?

Because I didn’t reply to Zheng Meihui’s WeChat!

She thought I would not go to Duxue Building, so reality was rewritten!

Then the person who was threatened by Dahua in Duxue Building at that time was most likely Zhao Ruyu!

But when was Zheng Meihui hunted down by Dahua?

Aqing communicated with me on the 23rd, at which time Dahua had already been arrested by the police.

So Zheng Meihui’s call was after the 19th and before the 23rd. (20th to 22nd)

Why did she say that I asked her to hit me?

It is very likely that Dahua killed someone and escaped on the night of the 19th. After I learned about this, I was worried about Zheng Meihui’s safety and asked her to call me.

But this doesn’t make sense. Zheng Meihui is Dahua’s girlfriend, so there’s no need for me to worry about her. In other words, how can I be sure that Dahua will do something to Zheng Meihui?

“Brother, are these all yours?” Xiaohui sent me a message when I was thinking most nervously.

Damn you, if I could get out, I would definitely beat you up, I thought bitterly.

Despite this, I still opened the dialog box with Xiaohui.

He sent me a picture.

Above is a DSLR and several laptops!

Chapter 9

“Where did you find it?” I asked Xiaohui.

“In Dahua’s locker.”

On the night of the 16th, Dahua put the stolen things in the locker? What was Xiaohui doing in Dahua’s locker at this time…

Just then, laughter suddenly came from the girls’ dormitory!

Judging from the voices, they should be coming from three girls.

What happened? Why did the three girls come back after Dahua came?

I listened carefully for a while and confirmed that the voice coming from Zheng Meihui was the same as the one I had heard on my phone before.

“I never thought that the mute would actually commit suicide…”

“Yes, yes, but it doesn’t matter. She is obviously a mute, so why would anyone send her flowers?” This is Zheng Meihui’s voice.

“Hmph, he’s dead anyway, so it’s a good deal for the three of us…” another voice sounded.

Mute? Suicide? Liu Xiaolan is a mute? I quietly pressed the recording button.

“Look at the nails I just did. Do they look good?” Zheng Meihui asked.

“It’s made of gold foil. This set must be very expensive. Where do you get so much money for living expenses?”

“Why are you asking so many questions? How about I introduce you to them some other day?”

“A way to make money? Okay, okay, you’re the best, Meihui~”

“Okay, just bring your ID card tomorrow…”

That’s not right. After so long, didn’t they notice that their things were stolen?

They continued to chat, and it seemed that the whole dormitory was no different from before.

Could it be that Dahua didn’t steal their dormitory at this time?

After a while, I heard the sound of water, and I guessed that they were taking a shower, which meant that it was not midnight when Dahua entered the dormitory! It might not even be the 16th!

From their conversation, it seems that nothing was stolen. More importantly, I heard the sound of shutter clicks before, which means that Dahua entered the dormitory before they were robbed.

Although we cannot rule out the possibility that Dahua broke into the dormitory again to steal, I inexplicably felt relieved for Dahua at this moment.

No! Xiaohui found the SLR and computer in Dahua’s locker, which means Dahua went to steal at around 0:00 on the 16th!

It suddenly occurred to me that since I did not go to the rooftop on the night of the 19th, it means that I did not witness Dahua committing the crime and try to stop him, so the dialog box between Dahua and I might have changed!

I jump to the dialog box with Dahua:

“I know it’s not you.”

“It was Zheng Meihui who wanted to frame me!”

“What did you find out?”

“My sister’s death may be related to the three people in her dormitory!”

Not a single word has changed!

Why? Why didn’t what I did before have any impact on Dahua?

What did I see?

Could it be that Dahua told me not to trust my eyes before the night of the 19th?

The time and space before my eyes were intertwined and becoming more and more chaotic.

Why was A-Qing’s timeline affected but Da-Hua’s was not?

Why did Zheng Meihui on the rooftop add me on WeChat, and later she called me for help?

One thing I am sure of is that if I had rejected Zheng Meihui on the rooftop that night, she would never have asked me for help when she was in crisis later. If this timeline is coherent, the “Zheng Meihui” on the rooftop of Duxue Building and the “Zheng Meihui” who asked me for help cannot be the same person.

“A cell phone was lost in the girls’ dormitory.”

I remembered this detail.

What if the lost phone belongs to Zheng Meihui?

The person pretending to be Zheng Meihui used her cell phone to send me a message, but unfortunately I didn’t rush over. After Dahua murdered Zhao Ruyu, he started to flee. When we were assisting the police in the investigation, we found his cell phone, computer, etc. hidden in the dormitory. After I knew that the cell phone belonged to Zheng Meihui, I told her to call me immediately if she saw Dahua.

This also explains why Zheng Meihui said that I asked her to call me.

But this also has two problems.

First, Xiaohui had found the items stolen by Dahua on the 16th and sent me photos.

Second, since it was Dahua who stole Zheng Meihui’s phone, who was the person who sent me the message on the rooftop using Zheng Meihui’s phone? It couldn’t be that Dahua himself sent me a message asking me to persuade him not to commit the crime, right?

The cause and effect of the whole thing are like the two poles of a paradox. If one end is straightened out, the other end will be chaos, and vice versa.

One more thing!

I was so confused that it took me a while to realize that something was wrong! If Xiaohui had discovered these things on the 16th, how could I not know about them before? (In my correct timeline, I should have been
after 0:00 on the 19th, which was long past the 16th)

Could it be that something I said caused Xiaohui to behave differently?

I looked through the chat history. Could it be that when I asked him to look for the power bank, he suddenly wanted to look through our lockers as well?

This makes sense, but what about the second question?

If Dahua stole the phone, was it necessary for him to send a message for help in Zheng Meihui’s name?

I even seriously doubt whether Dahua has a split personality.

At the moment, I haven’t responded to Xiaohui’s message, but I’m becoming more and more cautious.

Every change in my words and behaviors in the previous time period may cause the actions of the characters in the subsequent time and space to deviate, or even go out of control!

Now if we sort them in chronological order from front to back, I can basically confirm that:

The time when Dahua made the WeChat call outside the bed curtain (inside the girls’ dormitory) was earlier than Xiaohui’s. The time when “Zheng Meihui” made the WeChat call was earlier than Dahua’s. The time when “Zheng Meihui” made the call was earlier than the time when Aqing sent me the message.

Because of my inaction, Zhao Ruyu died between the WeChat time of “Zheng Meihui” and the phone time of “Zheng Meihui”.

I became more and more depressed.

I am an indirect murderer in disguise!

No! I have to do something!

I thought about it for a while and came up with an idea.

I sent a message to Zheng Meihui on WeChat:

“I’m already here, and I’m watching you!”

After sending it, I quickly opened Aqing’s chat interface, and sure enough, “Dahua was arrested for murder” turned into “attempted murder”.

I quickly checked to see if there were any changes in other messages.

Dahua’s dialogue remained motionless.

But, strangely, why did the call records between “Zheng Meihui” and me disappear…

“Who did you attempt to kill?” Even though I already knew the answer in my mind, I still asked. This time I didn’t mention Zheng Meihui’s name.

“Zhao Ruyi.”

My heart skipped a beat again: “How did you know?”

“Nonsense, I heard the situation was very urgent at the time. If Xiaohui hadn’t persuaded him in time…”

Xiaohui? Xiaohui is here too?

What I subconsciously thought of was whether it was possible that “Zheng Meihui” had also sent a message to Xiaohui.

But I immediately rejected this possibility.

Because Xiaohui has never appeared in the previous timelines.

It is even more impossible for “Zheng Meihui” to notify Xiaohui after I told her that I was already there.

I have an extremely unusual but reasonable guess.

Could it be that “Zheng Meihui” is Xiaohui!

I wanted to deny this idea, but it grew automatically as if it had taken root.

If “Zheng Meihui” is Xiaohui, then he can indeed easily know my mobile phone number, and it is impossible for him to call me. If I don’t show up (or if I show up), he can put the phone where Dahua walked by and pretend that Dahua accidentally dropped it.

In other words, Xiaohui had already discovered the tablet and mobile phone, and he also knew Dahua’s intentions.

That doesn’t make sense. Even if Xiaohui found the tablet and the phone, there’s no need for him to pretend to be Zheng Meihui. He could just stand up and stop Dahua’s murder.

And why, after I said I was at the scene, the phone calls from Zheng Meihui disappeared?

Zheng Meihui didn’t get the phone?

Then why didn’t Dahua’s information disappear?

If it was in the timeline of “I went to the rooftop of Duxue Building”, Dahua told me not to believe my eyes because he didn’t want me to make a judgment on the murder of Zhao Ruyu (or he thought he had a hidden story, and it was not just a simple murder as I thought).

In the timeline of “I didn’t go to Duxue Building”, Dahua told me not to believe my eyes because he heard Zheng Meihui calling me when she was being hunted, and thought I was at the scene (actually he still wanted to emphasize that there was a hidden story behind this matter).

So in the timeline of “I didn’t go to Duxue Building but warned the fake Zheng Meihui that I saw the whole process”, I neither went to Duxue Building to stop Dahua from killing people, and even though Zheng Meihui was being hunted down, she didn’t call me. Why did he still tell me not to believe my own eyes?

It was Xiaohui! When Xiaohui was trying to persuade Dahua, he might have said “Xiaobei was also there/nearby” (after all, that’s what I wrote in the WeChat message I sent to “Zheng Meihui”).

I am even more certain that the fake Zheng Meihui is Xiaohui.

But why did Xiaohui do this?

Since he knew everything, why didn’t he take the initiative to stop Dahua in the previous timelines?

I am becoming more and more confused about Xiaohui’s actions. I can’t even tell whether he wants to help Dahua or frame Dahua.

I looked through the photos Xiaohui sent me again.

There are no phones in the photo.

Could it be that Dahua hid the phone somewhere else?

Or did Xiaohui take the phone away at this time?

Or maybe… Dahua didn’t steal from the girls’ dormitory at all, and the person who stole from the girls’ dormitory was actually Xiaohui?

Chapter 10

Let’s go back to the beginning of the story. I contacted Xiaohui when I thought someone was prying open the door of our dormitory.

What was he doing at that time? Did he really go to the club? Where did the friends he brought with him go?

In the past, he would definitely complain to me, “Fuck, I came all the way here with a bunch of people, took off my pants, and you bring me to see this?” Then he would run back to the club and continue to have fun with his members.

But he didn’t do that today. He was alone in the dormitory and said he found a computer in Dahua’s locker.

When I sent him the first message, could it be that he had just come out of the girls’ dormitory?

He must have been shocked when he saw the information I sent him about the “robbed girls’ dormitory”, thinking that his actions were exposed, and suddenly thought of putting the blame on Dahua.

So after Xiaohui asked me if I wanted to come back, Dahua sent me the message “Don’t believe your eyes” in the subsequent period. He wanted to tell me that he was being wronged.

If Xiaohui took Zheng Meihui’s phone, where would the phone in Xiaohui’s time slot be at this moment? I guess it might be in some black phone shop to crack the power-on password (just a guess).

Xiaohui cracked the password and pretended to be Zheng Meihui to ask me for help. He wanted to use my witnessing the incident on the rooftop of Duxue Building to prove Dahua’s “attempted murder”. In this way, he had a motive for murder. In addition, the police would definitely be able to find out about Dahua’s relationship with Liu Xiaolan. They also found the computer and tablet as evidence in our dormitory. Even if Dahua wanted to explain, he would have no way to explain because of the evidence.

It turns out that Xiaohui is the manipulator behind the scenes!

I felt a chill running down my spine.

But why did Xiaohui do this?

Revenge on Dahua? That shouldn’t be the case. There has never been any conflict between the two of them.

“No! I mean if he has any brothers or sisters who are also students in our school!”

“This… I haven’t heard of it. Isn’t Xiaohui from the same hometown as Dahua? Why don’t you ask him?”

I remembered what Aqing said to me before.

Yes! Xiaohui and Dahua are from the same hometown! Maybe Xiaohui knew Liu Xiaolan before!

“Yeah, yeah, but it doesn’t matter. She’s obviously mute, so why would anyone send her flowers?” (Zheng Meihui said in the dormitory)

The conversations at different times were now connected by me.

Xiaohui is the one who sent the flowers!

Xiaohui likes Liu Xiaolan!

The fog in front of me became clear.

Xiaohui likes Liu Xiaolan, so he naturally doubts Liu Xiaolan’s death. Dahua took advantage of the fact that Zheng Meihui was his girlfriend, and sneaked into the dormitory when the three people were not there. After seeing the things in the SLR, he expressed his doubts; Xiaohui did not know the schedule of Zheng Meihui’s dormitory, so he could only break into the room late at night. He must have seen the things in the SLR, and he understood that Dahua might have other intentions in choosing Zheng Meihui as his girlfriend, so he wanted to punish the three people under the guise of Dahua. But Xiaohui did not expect that his love for Liu Xiaolan was not as deep as Dahua’s. In Dahua’s view, the punishment in his concept should be paid with life, so Xiaohui panicked, and he asked me for help under the identity of Zheng Meihui. But he did not want to be caught for theft and ruin his future, so he put all the blame on Dahua.

Just then, I noticed that the knocking on the bed was getting fainter and fainter.

For the first time I listened carefully to the knocking sound.

I found that this sound would repeat itself every once in a while.

di-da-da-da di-dit di-di-da

di-da-da da-da-da

di-da-da-da di-dit di-di-da

di-da-da da-da-da

Morse code? I don’t know why this suddenly occurred to me, and I don’t know why I could understand it.

I tried to spell it out with letters

J——I——U

W——O

Save me?

What’s going on?

Is there someone under the bed who needs my rescue?

N——I

S——H——I

S——H——E——I

I asked.

The knocking stopped for a while, and then there was a response!

L——I——U

X——I——A——O

L——A——N

Liu

Small

orchid

Liu Xiaolan is under the bed!

Chapter 11

how so?

I felt mixed emotions for a while.

What makes me happy is that in the space and time I am in, there is actually someone who can overlap with Liu Xiaolan.

What worries me is that if Liu Xiaolan is destined to die, I don’t know what I can do to change the facts.

NI——HAI——HAO——MA

How are you?

WO——KUAI——SI——LE

I’m dying

Liu Xiaolan is dying?

I suddenly felt something wet beneath my body.

I lifted the sheets and turned on the flashlight, and I saw blood seeping up from under the bed.

This strange phenomenon makes my scalp tingle.

How did Liu Xiaolan die?

Tapping on the bed is a time-consuming and uninformative method.

By now, Dahua should have been arrested by the police, and Aqing doesn’t know much about the secrets of this matter.

Xiaohui!

If Xiaohui wanted to avenge Liu Xiaolan, then he must know something now!

“How did Liu Xiaolan die?” I didn’t care about anything else and asked Xiaohui directly.

“What are you talking about?” This time he didn’t reply immediately. I saw him typing several times before he hesitantly sending me this message, “Who is Liu Xiaolan?”

“I saw you giving flowers to Liu Xiaolan, and I also know that you just robbed the girls’ dormitory for Liu Xiaolan. If you have seen the content in the SLR, you should have known who harmed Liu Xiaolan.” I knew the situation was critical at the moment, so I simply confronted Xiaohui (because if I could prevent Liu Xiaolan’s death, all subsequent events would be rewritten, Xiaohui would not have robbed the girls’ dormitory, and there would not be the conversation I am having with him now).

“The situation is very complicated now, but if you trust me, Liu Xiaolan can still be saved!!!!!” I sent Xiaohui six exclamation marks in a row.

Finally, he answered me with a half-believing and half-doubting tone: “She committed suicide by cutting her wrists. My uncle was the doctor who performed the routine autopsy on her. I asked him about it and he said that there were multiple test injuries, which were consistent with the characteristics of suicide by cutting her wrists. However, the marks of the fatal injuries were not severe. It is very likely that she had hesitated in her heart and still had a lingering attachment to life.”

If cutting the wrist severs an artery, the person will suffer shock within 20 minutes and die from complete ischemia within 2 hours.

I don’t know when Liu Xiaolan started cutting her wrists, but a lot of blood has seeped out of the bed at this moment. I seriously suspect that she is in shock.

“Is there no one in their dormitory to save her?”

“Except for Liu Xiaolan, everyone in her class went on the spring outing. When she committed suicide, those beasts were having lunch.”

BIE——SI

Don’t die! I beg you, Liu Xiaolan.

WO——HAO——WU——ZHU

I feel so helpless.

I don’t know what stage of blood loss Liu Xiaolan is in now, or what her condition is, but compared to the beginning, her knocking sounds are much weaker now.

XIAO——HUI——XI——HUAN——NI

It was such a troublesome operation that after I typed all these words, I wasn’t even sure if I had typed them wrong or if she could understand me.

Xiaohui likes you.

I wanted to tell her that she was not alone.

E——N

Um.

Um?

Liu Xiaolan just replied to me with a “Hmm?”

I was a little confused. She didn’t cut her wrists ruthlessly. What was it that she was still clinging to in the world? What was it?

I remembered something that I didn’t understand before. Since I have come clean with Xiaohui now, I might as well ask one more question.

“Why do you want to frame Dahua?”

I can imagine Xiaohui’s horror on the other side of the screen at this moment. To him, I am like a prophet with the ability to read minds. Not only can I know what he has done secretly, but I can even read the thoughts that are struggling in his heart at this moment.

“Because I often saw him secretly meeting with Liu Xiaolan, eating together, talking and laughing, and Dahua even touched her hair…”

I frowned: “Don’t you know that Dahua is Liu Xiaolan’s half brother?”

Xiaohui became quiet.

“Really?” Xiaohui asked.

What’s going on? Xiaohui really doesn’t know the relationship between Dahua and Liu Xiaolan? They are from the same hometown, and Xiaohui is Dahua’s childhood friend, but he doesn’t know?

My memory was brought back to the night when Dahua got drunk.

“None of us in CD drinks beer by the bottle, we all drink by the case! Three cases! Five cases! That’s awesome!” Dahua said, then he sighed, “Wine is really a good thing, but it’s a pity that I can’t drink it often…”

“Why? If you want to drink, just drink. We brothers will accompany you!” A Qing put his arm around Dahua’s back.

“It’s not because of this.” Dahua was a little drunk at this time. He smiled a little, but also a little sad. “I had leukemia when I was a child, and the doctor didn’t allow me to drink too much…”

Dahua had leukemia when he was a child.

How did he heal?

One of the most effective treatments for leukemia is umbilical cord blood from a relative.

Could it be that Liu Xiaolan was born solely for the purpose of saving Dahua?

This is not something I made up. There are many news reports about couples choosing to have a second child in order to treat their children who have leukemia.

Then it is very likely that Liu Xiaolan is Dahua’s biological sister! It’s just that he didn’t want others to know about this, and even kept it from me before he was arrested.

I quickly continued knocking on the bed.

DA——HUA——AI——NI

Dahua loves you! Don’t think about suicide easily, you still have Dahua!

She paused for a moment.

E——N

Um.

“Hmm” again!

What is she nostalgic for?

Suddenly, I froze as if I had been electrocuted.

Why did I come to this strange space?

Why do I need to connect these things?

There is only one answer.

As if entering a password, I typed on the bed:

I——LOVE——YOU

Chapter 12

Liu Xiaolan stopped knocking.

I can’t figure out what’s going on in her mind at this moment.

But I understand that all this must be related to me.

If Liu Xiaolan’s last wish in this world is for me, then why me? And when did I become mine?

I have no direct contact with Liu Xiaolan.

The blood is still spreading.

I suddenly realized that Liu Xiaolan probably didn’t stop tapping because she was thinking, she might have gone into shock!

what to do!

what to do!

Although I have never spoken a word to the girl below.

But I don’t want her to die.

“Except for Liu Xiaolan, everyone in her class went on the spring outing. When she committed suicide, those beasts were having lunch.”

noon?

Did Liu Xiaolan die at noon?

I looked at the bright sunshine outside the bed curtains.

Could it be that… the time and space outside the bed curtain is the scene where Liu Xiaolan is dying?

At this point, the only option is to take a gamble!

Since no one can open this box from the outside, I, the Schrödinger’s cat, will break out of the box by myself!

I took a deep breath and rushed out through the bed curtains.

“Boom!”

I didn’t expect that the world outside the bed curtain was upside down (or my bed was hanging upside down in this time and space). As soon as I jumped out, I hit my head and fell heavily to the ground.

However, I no longer felt any pain, so I covered my head and looked towards bunk A.

On the bed, there was the same curtain as mine.

I stretched out my hand to open it, but the moment I touched the curtain, I pulled my hand back as if I had been electrocuted.

Because, I caught a glimpse of a pigeon outside the window, half-flying in the air, motionless.

Time is not passing!

In the still space and time, behind the closed bed curtains, Liu Xiaolan is unknown whether she is alive or dead. She is the “cat” in Schrödinger’s box.

If you open the bed curtain rashly, one of the two time and space will collapse, and the probability of Liu Xiaolan being alive or dead is 50% each.

I can’t afford the gamble.

I needed to find something to increase her chances of survival.

I began to search the room.

With a plop, a tattered notebook fell to the ground.

I picked it up and it was Liu Xiaolan’s diary.

Chapter 13

“Liu Xiaolan’s Diary” (the content is too long, I only gave a brief summary):

My name is Liu Xiaolan.

20 years ago, I was born – to provide umbilical cord blood for my brother.

Maybe it was because when my mother was pregnant with me, she was only thinking about saving my brother’s life, and in her anxiety, she damaged my vocal cords.

I have a severe stuttering problem, but fortunately I successfully saved my brother and became a hero in the family.

However, the glory of the hero could not withstand the increasing burden of raising two children on the family.

That day, my mother took my brother and left home. My father knelt down at my mother’s feet and cried, asking her not to leave.

I vaguely heard something like “big boss”, “infertile”, “give Dahua a bright future”, and then my father compromised.

After Mom left, Dad sat on the floor all night.

The next day, with red eyes, he made me a sumptuous breakfast – using the money my mother gave him.

After my mother passed away, she would send money home from time to time for subsidization, and with the help of poverty subsidies, my father and I could barely make ends meet.

Perhaps because he felt guilty towards me, my brother treated me very well after he grew up.

He was afraid that the “umbilical cord blood” incident would bring some kind of shadow to me, so he never mentioned it, and even approached me and helped me in various other ways. There was a senior brother who was quite cool. From elementary school to junior high school, I was never bullied by other students because of my slow speech.

In fact, I don’t care anymore. Although classmates who sometimes catch the wind (for example, when filling in identity information, my brother and I have the same biological parents’ names) would say “Xiaolan was born in an unrighteous way” or “I heard that she is dispensable at home”, I don’t blame my brother for these. On the contrary, I am proud that I can save people since I was born.

The nine-year compulsory education has ended.

In the end, because I couldn’t afford to go to a private school, I went to a local ordinary middle school and was temporarily separated from my brother.

In order to go to college, everyone worked very hard. Everyone spoke less and did more. Therefore, stuttering did not cause me too much trouble – it was not a concern for others at all.

When I was in the second year of high school, I heard the news that my brother was admitted to XX University. I was happy for him from the bottom of my heart because he has always been my role model. From then on, I started to work very hard, hoping to see my brother again in college.

Looking back now, that period of time was probably the most fulfilling time of my life. I had a clear goal and no one paid attention to my shortcomings. I was free and full of energy.

Two years later, I met my brother in college.

He seemed to have been prepared for this. He took me around, took me to eat delicious food everywhere, and told me all kinds of interesting stories on campus.

I accepted it all with excitement.

My brother is still the same brother. He is willing to give a lot for me.

But, he is not always by my side.

When he was free, he would secretly find me and tell me stories about his dormitory.

From his mouth, I heard about the funny but smart Aqing, the literary Xiaobei, and the somewhat honest Xiaohui.

Xiaohui is really honest to the extreme. I clearly saw him standing in the corner or squatting behind the table and chairs to peek at me and Brother Dahua several times, but he just didn’t come over.

“Xiao Lan, let me tell you, I saw several letters written to you in Xiao Hui’s drawer!” Da Hua was really something. He saw through it but didn’t say anything. Sometimes he just pretended to look where Xiao Hui was. Xiao Hui would immediately hide himself, and when he looked up again, his face was flushed.

So, I hope Xiaohui should be braver, and it would be best if he could do something brave.

Where is Xiaobei?

I saw him in a competition for the top ten singers on campus.

He sang a very soothing song.

“The sky is full of stars

Became the firefly that fell into your pupil

You shut your mouth

Whisper that you love me

What girl doesn’t have love in her heart? He is so dazzling under the spotlight.

I think it would be nice if I could express my love without words.

If Xiaobei really exists in my world, would he risk his life to save me?

However, college is not always sunny.

Ever since Zheng Meihui and the others found out that I stuttered, I became the inferior person in this dormitory.

The toilet was not cleaned, so they asked me to clean it. They would leave some dirt on the toilet wall for fun, and then watch me pick it off.

No matter who ordered takeout, they asked me to get it. The most I ever did was to carry six thermoses for the three of them up and down the stairs. I fell into the scalding water and a bottle broke. They tore my hair and cursed me.

They laughed at my old clothes and my bad pronunciation.

They finally discovered that my brother and I were having dinner together.

“You are a mute, and you think you can get close to me?” Zheng Meihui slapped me hard. “I’m warning you! Senior Dahua is mine. If you dare to snatch him from me, I will make you pay for it!”

“I spent so much money on cosmetic surgery and buying nice clothes, but my senior didn’t even look at me. Why should he be so nice to you?”

I didn’t explain too much about their threats and attacks (because I have a severe stutter, I would be laughed at by them if I explained), and I just straightened my ruffled collar, hoping that the matter would end there.

But the ugliness of human nature is far beyond my imagination.

That day, they actually took off my clothes!

They laughed viciously, tore my coarse clothes into pieces, and then recorded it with their SLR camera. They threatened me, laughed at me, and insulted me. I didn’t even have time to be surprised or cry.

How I wish I could tell my brother and Xiaohui about this. They will definitely seek justice for me.

But what about Xiaobei?

What would Xiaobei think of me if he saw my photos and videos?

I have no idea.

I’m really confused.

How I wish that when I meet Xiaobei for the first time, I can greet him purely and smoothly.

For this reason, I have practiced “Hello, my name is Liu Xiaolan” countless times in private, but what Zheng Meihui recorded tore apart my last bit of fig leaf.

Maybe I shouldn’t have come into this world?

If I die after providing the umbilical cord blood, my family won’t have such a big burden, and maybe my parents can still be together.

If I had died in elementary school, my brother wouldn’t have had to fight with other boys for me, with his head covered in blood and his parents called in.

If I had died before college, I would not have secretly loved someone in my heart, and suffered from such inferiority and fear.

Why, why do the people who love me always stay away from me and sometimes close to me?

Why can the people who hurt me live so freely and easily?

Chapter 14

I finally understood the story about Liu Xiaolan.

I saw the deep marks she had made with a red pen under the two words “why”. It sounded like a question, but also like an answer.

If Liu Xiaolan died like this, then the people who loved her would not just be constantly close to her. Liu Dahua would be arrested, and if Xiaohui was caught stealing, he would also face detention (that might be in a later timeline).

What about Zheng Meihui? As the mastermind, she was not harmed in any of the three timelines (the outcome of the timeline where she was hunted down by Liu Dahua and called me is unknown).

I kind of understand why I’m here.

Those who uphold justice go to jail, while those who repeatedly commit evil can get away with it.

I want to change this outcome.

I sat down in the chair and started analyzing.

At this time, Xiaohui on the other end of the phone should be extremely emotionally unstable. He had just stolen something, and I asked him to save Liu Xiaolan without any reason (from his perspective, it must have become more and more weird the more he thought about it). Dahua on the other end of the phone could no longer be reached, and Aqing’s timeline was too delayed.

what to do?

what to do?

I looked at Liu Xiaolan’s diary and fell into thought.

After Liu Xiaolan got into trouble, Zheng Meihui and the other two were not held accountable and were allowed to continue their studies. This shows that the diary recording their actions must have been hidden by Zheng Meihui and the others.

But they didn’t delete the video in the SLR. Dahua saw it but didn’t take it away because he felt that it was no longer necessary to report the three people with the video. He wanted to take revenge in his own way (that is, to kill people). But the video was eventually taken away by Xiaohui. Stolen goods cannot be used as valid evidence for court trials and convictions. Even if the court determines that Zheng Meihui is suspected of school bullying, the punishment she receives is not enough to pay for her crime. Xiaohui’s cowardice at the critical moment may even put the blame for the theft on Dahua.

I don’t have an earlier timeline to change the trajectory of Dahua and Xiaohui’s actions, and it is a foregone conclusion that they both enter the girls’ dormitory one after another.

In this static space and time, I am extremely anxious.

what to do?

what to do?

I suddenly shuddered.

Isn’t the space-time I’m in the earliest timeline!

Although the time outside is stagnant, the diary in the dormitory can be turned over and the chairs can be moved. I can open the door and go out, leaving clues everywhere for people to rescue Liu Xiaolan!

As long as Liu Xiaolan was alive, Dahua and Xiaohui would not do these things.

I rushed towards the door excitedly, but the next second it was like a cold water poured over my head – the door seemed to be welded shut and could not be opened at all.

Could it be that this dormitory has also become a “box”?

I became the “cat” again, and Liu Xiaolan became the cat in the “box” in the “box”.

I sat on the ground dejectedly, and suddenly kicked the cello that was standing on the side hysterically.

One kick, two kicks.

I wanted to draw open the curtain and ask Liu Xiaolan inside what to do, but I was afraid that this would change the attribute of relative stillness (Liu Xiaolan inside the bed curtain was still relative to me at this moment, and only when I returned to my bed curtain would her time pass synchronously with mine), causing her, who originally had a trace of breath, to shed her last drop of blood in vain in this dormitory where time flowed.

I looked at the iron curtain for a while, then lowered my head and scrolled through my phone aimlessly.

At this point, I don’t know what to do anymore. Just let me be trapped in this unclear time and space…

I read the chats with Xiaohui, Dahua and Aqing, the message from “Zheng Meihui”, then the school forum, and then the police notice.

I suddenly felt that there seemed to be some changes in the police report, but I didn’t catch it at the first time.

I read it carefully four more times, and my body trembled with joy.

“It has been confirmed that several girls lost two computers, an iPad, a mobile phone, a Microsoft tablet, and a SLR camera.”

The cello is gone!

I looked at the cello in the corner that I had kicked into pieces – what I did in the dormitory could also affect the subsequent timeline!

SLR! I have to find the SLR first. If I were Liu Xiaolan, I would definitely not want Liu Dahua to be imprisoned for my sake.

I took out the SD card.

Then, I opened the dialog box with Dahua.

Sure enough, even the phrase “Don’t believe your eyes” no longer exists.

“Are you okay?” I asked Dahua.

“Not very good.” He actually replied.

“What’s wrong?”

“What else can I do? Xiaohui was caught stealing from someone’s dormitory.”

Xiaohui was caught!

I quickly opened the dialog box with Xiaohui.

“I saw you give flowers to Liu Xiaolan, and I also know that you just robbed the girls’ dormitory for Liu Xiaolan. If you have seen the contents of the SLR camera, you should have known who harmed Liu Xiaolan.”

“The situation is very complicated now, but if you trust me, Liu Xiaolan can still be saved!!!!”

After this conversation, Xiaohui never responded again.

Oh no, there is no video of Liu Xiaolan in the SLR. Xiaohui will definitely not believe me at this time.

I can’t change Xiaohui’s stealing behavior, so how can I change my conversation with Xiaohui?

The SLR was smashed!

I threw the SLR to the ground.

In this way, Xiaohui would never bring out a SLR!

I quickly checked the conversation.

I am disappointed.

As expected, there was no SLR in the photos Xiaohui sent, but this did not change the conversation between Xiaohui and me.

“Xiaohui, trust me! Return the things!” I sent to him.

No reply.

I opened the conversation with Dahua again, and the conversation above had not changed – Xiaohui was caught for stealing.

What should I do!

Got it!

Let the crimes of Zheng Meihui and others be exposed earlier!

If Zheng Meihui and the others had been punished before Liu Dahua entered the dormitory, none of this would have happened!

Even if Liu Dahua wanted to kill someone in revenge, he would not go to the police station to commit the crime.

Then when I return to the normal timeline, everything will still be in time!

How to expose?

I thought about the time when I was trapped in the bed curtains and saw the sunlight outside through the gap.

I looked at the crack in the dormitory door and something moved me.

Throw that SD card out!

I squatted by the door, but hesitated.

Liu Xiaolan didn’t want her nude video to be made public, and she even committed suicide by cutting her wrists.

I couldn’t let the SD card fall into the hands of others before I handed it over to the police.

So what else can be recorded?

I kept searching.

Suddenly, I slapped my head.

Far away in the horizon, yet close at hand——Liu Xiaolan’s diary!

But the diary was too thick and couldn’t fit through the narrow gap in the door.

I took a deep breath and began to tear off the pages one by one and push them out of the crack in the door.

Page 23: Mom left Liu Xiaolan

Page 48: Liu Xiaolan was bullied in primary school and her brother protected her.

Page 74: When Liu Xiaolan heard that her brother went to college, she secretly worked hard.

Page 92: Liu Xiaolan saw Xiaohui hiding in the corner…

Just then, a strong suction force pulled me into the curtain of the lower bunk.

Before I could call out, I felt dizzy again and then passed out.

Chapter 15

I opened my eyes and the sun was shining brightly.

What’s going on?

I turned on my phone. It was 8:30 AM on the 16th.

What happened? Was it all just a dream?

I was the only one in the dormitory, and my stomach started to growl.

Go downstairs for breakfast.

I didn’t come to my senses for a long time. If I said it was just a dream, it would be too real.

Suddenly, I saw a familiar figure.

“Dahua!” I shouted.

He was stunned and turned his head.

“Oh, you knew I was hungry, so you bought me breakfast?” I saw that he was holding two cups of soy milk, so I grabbed one without hesitation and started drinking it.

“Um, this is for my sister…”

“Puff.” I sprayed it on his face, “Your sister? Liu Xiaolan?”

“Eh? How did you know?”

Just then, a man came over.

I was in a trance – this face was exactly the same as the one in my dream!

No, that’s not a dream!

I looked down along her arm and saw several scratches on her hands, deep and shallow!

She really committed suicide! But she didn’t die!

Dahua saw me staring at the scratches on Liu Xiaolan’s hands in a daze, and patted me on the shoulder: “A few months ago, my sister was harmed by her former roommates and suffered a lot. If the dormitory manager hadn’t seen a pile of papers at the door during the room inspection and got suspicious, and hadn’t come in to save my sister, my sister might have died!”

Because I drank Liu Xiaolan’s soy milk, I went to buy another breakfast. When I handed it to her, I saw Liu Xiaolan’s face blushed.

“Hello, my name is Liu Xiaolan.” She spoke slowly but without stuttering.

I know she has practiced it many times.

At that moment, my eyes became wet.

“Hello, my name is Li Xiaobei.”

She smiled, so brightly: “I…I dreamed…I dreamed of you…you saved me.”

“Look, that bitch…” The inappropriate voice, neither loud nor soft, just happened to reach our ears.

I looked in the direction of the sound and gritted my teeth – Zheng Meihui!

“Pah!” A slap.

Zheng Meihui was stunned.

Liu Xiaolan was stunned.

Dahua and I were also stunned.

Xiaohui held a bouquet of flowers in one hand and slammed his other hand hard on Zheng Meihui’s face.

After a while, Zheng Meihui ran away screaming.

“This kind of person is a scumbag!” I pulled Xiaohui to the table, “Don’t bother with her!”

Don’t argue with her? That was for Xiaohui and Dahua to hear, as for me…

On the day of the graduation party, I stood in the center of the stage early. Today, I was invited by the college to lead the band to warm up before the party.

At my suggestion, the college also set up a special anonymous confession wall. After all, before graduation, there are too many secrets waiting to be confessed.

“The sky is full of stars

Became the firefly that fell into your pupil

You shut your mouth

Whisper that you love me

I sang softly, and I knew that at that moment, Xiaolan was sitting next to her brother in a corner of the audience, listening quietly.

At this moment, the warm atmosphere suddenly froze.

On the confession wall, there suddenly appeared a nude photo of a woman.

“Zheng Meihui, a female student in Class XX, Grade XX, XX College, borrowed over NT$35,000 and has not repaid the loan for over 3 months…”

Some people haven’t reacted yet, while others have already raised their phones to take pictures.

“Who is Zheng Meihui?”

“I’ve never heard of her, but she looks pretty good…”

The people in the audience have already started talking.

There was a gradual commotion in the audience and the warm-up became difficult to proceed. I stood quietly on the stage, trying to appear less surprised.

After about a minute or two, the photo was removed from the confession wall, but I knew that it would remain firmly attached to a corner of the Internet and could never be removed.

The commotion quickly died down. After all, tonight mainly belonged to those who were about to graduate.

When the song ended, I saw couples hugging each other in the audience, and the lights were still shaking, forming a sea of ​​light.

I was looking for Liu Xiaolan in the crowd. I had something to say to her.

Just then, I caught a glimpse of another line of words appearing on the confession wall.

“Liu Xiaolan! I’m Xiaohui! I like you!”

Damn it, this bastard dares to snatch it from me!

I want fair competition!