Never sincere, premeditated nature
The sound of time breathing was exceptionally clear in the quiet living room.
Yunxi pressed the send button and sent the request for help to Officer Zhou. She put down her phone, her gaze returning to Shixu's pale face. This boy who called himself a god was now incredibly vulnerable.
She walked to the window and gently lifted a corner of the curtain. The rain was still falling, and the streets were deserted. Officer Zhou replied quickly: "I'll be there soon. Keep in touch."
Just then, a slight noise came from behind.
Yunxi turned around abruptly and found that Shixu had opened his eyes at some point. His gaze was initially somewhat unfocused, but it quickly focused on her, carrying a hint of wariness.
"You took my phone." His voice was hoarse; it wasn't a question, but a statement.
Yunxi didn't deny it, but simply looked at him quietly: "What's the story behind the photo from four years ago?"
Shi Xu's pupils contracted slightly. He struggled to sit up, but his weakness caused him to fall back onto the sofa. This usually calm and composed young man showed his vulnerability in front of her for the first time.
"Those photos..." he took a deep breath, "are not what you think."
"Then what should it be?" Yunxi's voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable force. "Why would a god stalk an ordinary girl for four years?"
Shi Xu closed his eyes, as if gathering his strength. When he opened them again, a resolute glint flashed in his eyes.
"because……"
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Both of them were startled. Yunxi glanced at her phone; Officer Zhou had sent a new message: "I'm downstairs."
Shi Xu's expression instantly turned extremely ugly: "You called him here?"
"Do you know Officer Zhou?" Yunxi keenly caught his reaction.
The doorbell rang again, this time more urgently.
Shi Xu forced himself to stand up and grabbed Yun Xi's wrist: "Listen, we can't let him in now. Those erased records... he's one of the reasons."
Yunxi felt his hand trembling slightly, unsure whether it was from weakness or something else. She looked into his eyes; there was no deception, only urgency.
"Give me a reason to believe you," she said.
"Because..." Time's breathing quickened, "in the very first cycle of reincarnation, it was he who killed you."
These words struck Yunxi's heart like a heavy hammer. She stood there, stunned, staring at Shixu in disbelief.
The doorbell rang for the third time, accompanied by Officer Zhou's gentle voice: "Yunxi? Are you home? This is Officer Zhou."
Shi Xu stared intently at her, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He awaited her decision.
Yunxi's gaze shifted between Shixu's pale face and the doorway. Finally, she took a deep breath and called out towards the door:
"Officer Zhou, please wait a moment, I need to change my clothes!"
Shi Xu's breathing quickened, and he leaned back on the sofa armrest, his voice extremely low:
"In the first cycle, you collapsed at the entrance of the police station. Surveillance footage showed that he brought you in, and three hours later you were pronounced dead from an accident."
His fingers unconsciously tightened around the sofa cover. "In every subsequent cycle, as long as he appears, your manner of death will escalate. From accident to murder, and in the last few times even... more cruel methods."
A chill ran through the gap in the clouds. Officer Zhou's face, which always wore a gentle smile, suddenly became blurry in his memory.
"Then why..."
"Why were the records erased?" Time Sequence smiled bitterly. "Because of the 'observer effect.' Once I explicitly record his existence, his behavior will be even more extreme in the next cycle. This is a limitation of the rules."
Officer Zhou's concerned voice came from outside the door: "Yunxi? Do you need any help?"
Shi Xu suddenly gripped her hand tightly, her fingertips icy cold: "We can't let him find out I'm here. He's very perceptive."
Yunxi took a deep breath and suddenly raised his voice:
"Officer Zhou, my classmate just woke up and said he has low blood sugar! I'll just get him something to eat, no need to trouble you!"
There was a moment of silence outside the door.
"Are you sure you don't need a doctor?" Officer Zhou's voice remained gentle, but carried a hint of barely perceptible tension.
“Really, he doesn’t need to!” Yunxi tried to make her voice sound relaxed. “He felt much better after eating the candy and was just about to go home.”
Another silence fell. The rain tapped against the window, each tap feeling like a blow to the heart.
"Okay." Finally, Officer Zhou said, "Then contact me anytime if you need anything."
The footsteps gradually faded away.
Yunxi breathed a sigh of relief, only to find that Shixu's expression was even more unpleasant.
“He didn’t leave,” Shi Xu said in a whisper. “He’s waiting downstairs.”
Just then, Yunxi's phone lit up. Officer Zhou had sent a message:
"I'll pick you up after school tomorrow. There are some things I need to tell you about your parents."
Upon seeing this message, Shi Xu's pupils suddenly contracted:
"You can't see him alone. I'll go with you tomorrow."
"My parents?" Yun Xi's heart tightened. "What happened to them?"
The perspective of time becomes complicated:
"That's the most contradictory part. In all the reincarnation records, your parents' car accident... he was indeed the first one to arrive at the scene to provide assistance."
He looked up, his eyes filled with confusion:
"This person is trying to save your parents on one hand, and then trying to kill you on the other. That doesn't make sense."
The words of time sent a chill down Yunxi's spine. She slowly sat down, holding onto the edge of the sofa, her fingertips icy cold.
"The person who saved my parents... and the person who wanted to kill me, are they the same person?" she repeated softly, as if confirming this absurd fact.
Shi Xu nodded, his expression grave: "To be more precise, in all the records of the reincarnations, your parents' accidents all occurred after your first death. But each time, Officer Zhou was the first to arrive at the scene and do everything he could to save them."
He paused, as if choosing his words carefully: "It's like... he's trying to make amends for something."
Suddenly remembering something, Yunxi looked up sharply: "Did any of those erased records mention why my parents had that accident?"
Shi Xu's eyes flickered. This subtle evasion did not escape Yun Xi's notice.
"Yes, right?" she pressed, her voice unconsciously rising.
After a long silence, Shi Xu finally spoke: "In the record of the thirty-first cycle, there is a line of text that has been altered. The original sentence was 'The target parents encountered a professional method of faking an accident while investigating the cause of their daughter's death.'"
A professional technique for creating accidents.
These words pierced her heart like icicles through the clouds. She remembered the police badge that Officer Zhou always wore on his waist, and the few words he occasionally uttered about criminal investigation techniques.
“You mean…” her voice trembled, “he used his police expertise to create an ‘accident’ for my parents?”
“It’s just a guess.” Time Sequence’s voice was soft. “But the timeline is too coincidental. Every time you die, your parents start a private investigation, and then they die ‘accidentally’ soon after.”
The rain had stopped sometime earlier, and only the sound of dripping water remained outside the window, each drop striking the silence.
Yunxi suddenly stood up and paced back and forth in the living room. Her steps were light, yet carried a suppressed anxiety.
“No.” She suddenly stopped. “If he wanted to kill me, why didn’t he do it sooner? Why wait until now? Why use such a complicated method?”
She turned to the timeline, her eyes sharp: "Your first reincarnation was a year ago, but your photo library contains four years' worth of my records. This means that you observed me for three years before I died. Did Officer Zhou appear during those three years?"
Shi Xu was stunned. He closed his eyes, his fingers pressing on his temples, as if trying to search for those deeply buried memories.
"He..." Shixu's voice was uncertain, "In my early observation records, he did appear a few times. But it was all normal community policing work, nothing unusual."
“Then,” Yunxi said, emphasizing each word, “what made him suddenly want to kill me a year ago?”
This question plunged the room into an even deeper silence.
Shi Xu suddenly opened his eyes, a look of horror flashing in his pupils: "Unless... he doesn't want to kill you."
"What's the meaning?"
“Perhaps what he wants to erase is not you as a person,” Shixu’s voice trembled slightly with excitement, “but you after your ‘awakening’. It’s the ‘fact’ that you have begun to possess the memories of reincarnation.”
This conjecture sent a chill down Yunxi's spine. She recalled those increasingly vivid dreams, her inexplicable familiarity with the passage of time, and those sudden premonitions about death.
“That’s why he silenced me after my parents started investigating my death,” she murmured, “because what he wanted to cover up wasn’t murder, but some much bigger secret…”
Just then, Shixu's phone suddenly vibrated. It wasn't an incoming call, but a system notification tone.
Both of them looked at the phone screen at the same time, which displayed a line of small text:
"Abnormal time fluctuations detected: Anchor point stability decreased to 23%"
Shi Xu's face turned deathly pale instantly.
"What's wrong?" Yunxi asked.
“We may have made a fatal mistake.” Shi Xu’s voice was filled with unprecedented tension. “Officer Zhou isn’t here to kill you… he’s here to ‘fix’ you.”
"repair?"
“It’s like fixing a program vulnerability.” Shi Xu looked up, his eyes filled with terror. “He was outside the door just now, and he may have already sensed your memory awakening. And once the anchor point’s stability reaches zero…”
He didn't finish his sentence, but Yunxi already understood.
Once the anchor point's stability reaches zero, this "awakened variable" will be completely "repaired".
The so-called repair is very likely to be a complete erasure.
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