Sheng Guoning was in his thirties and still hadn’t settled down. He had been in a few relationships before, but they all ended for various reasons. His parents had tried setting him up with women for arranged dates, but none of those had worked out either. Eventually, their standards were lowered to just wanting a living woman for him, but their son’s marriage prospects remained unresolved.
Sheng Guoning himself wasn’t the least bit anxious, firmly believing that his destined partner would appear sooner or later. Then, one day on a bus, he witnessed a pervert harassing a girl in a woolen skirt by groping her. She turned around immediately after he slapped her on the behind. Her bright, clear eyes and raised willow-leaf eyebrows gave her an angry expression, yet on her radiant features, it seemed more like a coy, heart-stirring reprimand.
Sheng Guoning instantly stood up from his seat. His destined one had appeared.
With swift, precise, and steady moves, he subdued the pervert, got the driver to stop the bus, and turned the man over to the nearest police station. The girl followed along. During their brief exchange, he learned her name: Lin Zhizhi, 26 years old, recently graduated from graduate school, and currently interning at an advertising company in Nanyi.
That night, Sheng Guoning was so excited he couldn’t sleep. Tossing and turning in bed, every time he closed his eyes, he saw Lin Zhizhi’s bright smile. The next day at work, he couldn’t stop smiling, so much so that his colleagues thought their captain had won the lottery.
Sheng Guoning spent the whole day thinking about how to meet Lin Zhizhi again. As it turned out, she came to the city bureau herself and even brought a banner of thanks. Sheng Guoning seized the opportunity to ask for her number, and Lin Zhizhi readily agreed. From the moment they added each other’s contact information, he had already started planning how he would propose.
He liked Zhizhi that much—falling in love at first sight, to growing old together, from a world of two to a family of four. His love for her never wavered over the twenty years, becoming richer and more fragrant like aged wine. Every year on his birthday, he made the same wish—to walk through life hand in hand with Lin Zhizhi.
Unfortunately, even this simple wish was hard to fulfill, because two people closely connected to Lin Zhizhi—Lin Heyu and Yi Shi—had a bizarre, entangled fate with hers. Although Lin Zhizhi seemed like an outsider, she was actually the key piece in the puzzle.
“…That day, it wasn’t October 1st when I returned. I woke up on the bus, and among the passengers, there was a figure who stirred my heart. When she turned around, I saw my destined one.” Sheng Guoning smiled faintly. “I thought Heaven had given me a second chance to relive my youth and fall in love with Zhizhi again. I helped her with the pervert, and a few days later, she came to the bureau with the banner. We exchanged numbers, and just like before, our lives intertwined.”
Yi Shi sat in the passenger seat. He had gotten into the car voluntarily, with no defenses up, not even caring what Sheng Guoning might do to him. At this moment, he only wanted to understand the big secret.
“But I also didn’t forget about the explosion case at Nanyi Machinery Factory. I talked to Lao Yan and the others and found that their memories had become muddled again. The explosion happened twenty years ago, which left me confused, unable to figure out what came first and what came after. But since the case happened, there had to be records in the archives. I went to check and found that your personal file had a stamp that read ‘Deceased’.”
Sheng Guoning pinched his brow. “I couldn’t believe you would end up like Lin Heyu, and it troubled me for a long time. Later, as time progressed normally, I met Lin Heyu. At that time, I was still a stranger to him, so I couldn’t act too familiar. I wanted to find a chance to talk to him alone, but unexpectedly, I saw him pull you out of the fountain at Pingju Square.”
Yi Shi was thoughtful. No wonder he had pushed Lin Heyu into the fountain—it was because he had witnessed it firsthand.
“So many unexpected things happened. You two actually know each other. The next day, didn’t he personally bring a colleague from Haijing to our Nanyi Bureau? I immediately guessed it was you. You came to investigate the kidnapping case, right?”
“Yeah.” Yi Shi nodded faintly. “You must have realized by now that the two worlds are connected by the same string of cases, just with different timelines.”
Sheng Guoning had already noticed this. He had returned with his full memory, and when he re-investigated the kidnapping case, he gained new insights. He also discovered the true identity of the additional girl in the case.
“The additional girl in the kidnapping case—her DNA didn’t match any of the children at the kindergarten. To find out her identity, I went to Yang Weiyi, got something that Tao Tao had used, and extracted her fingerprints from a cup. I compared them to the database, and surprisingly… the result was a match with Zhizhi.”
“I’ve been with Zhizhi for so many years, and she has no memory of ever being kidnapped, nor does she know she’s not biologically related to Lin Heyu. Her earliest memories begin when she was six years old. According to her, she fell off a wall while playing and hit her head. Ever since she can remember, she’s been living with her brother and mother in Linjia Village. If only her background was that simple, but fate played tricks on us—the extra girl turned out to be young Zhizhi.”
If Yi Shi and the Xiao Shitou could exist simultaneously, then it was also possible for Lin Zhizhi and the gardenia to be the same person. However, Sheng Guoning couldn’t figure out how Lin Zhizhi could become who she was. While Lin Heyu and the others were all focused on catching Baldy and his gang, Sheng Guoning took the time to get completely wrapped up in this matter.
“Is that why you shot me by the riverbank?”
Sheng Guoning smiled bitterly. “You were holding Tao Tao when you came ashore, and by the time I reached the riverbank, my mind was about to explode. If she and Xiao Shitou were both rescued and lived in this world, what would that mean? What about Zhizhi?”
His thought process was correct. It was a typical case of reverse logic: if the gardenia stayed in this world, then Lin Zhizhi would no longer exist. So he acted decisively, shooting Yi Shi into the water and taking the gardenia to another world.
Yi Shi rested his finger against his chin. Sheng Guoning had only explained half of it. The other half, still left unspoken, was related to the explosion case. Imagine, if all Sheng Guoning wanted was for Lin Zhizhi’s existence to make sense, there was no need to trigger the explosion. After all, there was no connection between Lin Zhizhi and the explosion case in any of the records. Sheng Guoning was definitely hiding something, some key point he hadn’t yet revealed.
“According to what you’ve said, how do you explain the explosion case? Zhizhi isn’t connected to the case, and I don’t believe you caused it just to complete the ‘adopt me’ phase.” Yi Shi’s gaze was sharp. “I asked you before: if Lin Heyu’s and my fates change, will Zhizhi disappear? You answered ‘yes.’ We’ve come this far, so there’s no need to beat around the bush. I want the direct answer.”
Sheng Guoning gripped the steering wheel tightly. After a long pause, he squeezed out two words: “…The photo.”
“Hm?”
Sheng Guoning unlocked his phone and handed it over. “There are two photos in the privacy folder; you’ll understand after you look.”
Yi Shi opened the folder, where he found two images that looked identical at first glance—both were rescue scenes from the Nanyi Machinery Factory. These two photos looked exceptionally familiar because they were used in any web page related to the explosion incident.
In the background of the photos were the remnants of the factory after the explosion, with bodies covered in white cloth neatly arranged on the ground. In the background, firefighters and police officers continued their search and rescue efforts, each with a solemn expression. The sky above was overcast, and the overall low-saturation and low-brightness color tone evoked feelings of compassion and sadness.
Yi Shi switched to the second image, which was not an electronic file but rather a photo taken by a camera. The old photo had a dull, yellowed paper quality, and he instantly understood that this was a piece of evidence from the explosion case preserved for twenty years. Moreover, the fact that Sheng Guoning had two copies of the same photo suggested there was a deeper meaning.
Thus, Yi Shi examined the photos more carefully, leaving no corner overlooked. He flipped back and forth between the two images as if playing a “spot the difference” game. His gaze moved slowly from left to right, and finally, in the lower right corner of the second image, he discovered a clue at the edge of the white cloth.
In the new photo, the edge of the cloth was perfectly flat, while in the old photo, the edge of the cloth bulged slightly, revealing a hint of flesh color. Due to the poor quality of the old photo, this tiny difference was even less noticeable. Yi Shi zoomed in on the image using two fingers to see clearly what it was and was shocked as his pupils dilated.
“…How could this be?”
Yi Shi murmured to himself, pulling out a notepad he always carried and quickly flipping to the page that detailed the victims’ information. There were a total of twelve victims, the oldest being 47 years old and the youngest 16, with no children among them.
But the half-fist that was exposed beneath the white cloth clearly belonged to a young child. Yi Shi imported the photo into an editing software, increased the brightness and clarity, and sharpened it. He finally saw it clearly—it was indeed a frail and thin little hand.
“It can’t be; the existence of this photo is unreasonable.” Cold sweat broke out on Yi Shi’s forehead as he looked at Sheng Guoning. “Where did you find it? Is it from the explosion case file? For them, it was twenty years ago; how could there be a child among the deceased?!”
“…At the time I saw the photo, the explosion had not yet occurred in this world,” Sheng Guoning lowered his head, his voice deep. “You know that the two cases are interrelated. I believe this photo is like a Schrödinger-like existence. When I saw it, there was that additional child, but after the explosion occurred, it became a fixed fact—that’s the first image.”
He slowly raised his head, sorrow reflected in his eyes. “Twelve victims, no children. And you were saved in the explosion, Yi Shi. Who do you think is under that white cloth?”
It’s Gardenia. The young Lin Zhizhi.
That small hand was too familiar. The back of the hand was round and plump, soft and tender, the palm slightly rough, and the nails bare. Yi Shi had held that hand as they walked through countless streets; he would never mistake it.
In that moment, he recalled the movie he watched with Lin Heyu: “The Prediction.”
This photo was a prediction.
From the front perspective, when Sheng Guoning saw this photo, Gardenia had not yet become Lin Zhizhi, and the explosion had not occurred in this world; it was a predetermined outcome. If Sheng Guoning hadn’t fired that shot, Gardenia would have been saved in this world. She would once again become entangled in the explosion, and the predetermined outcome would become a fixed fact.
Conversely, it was also possible that the fixed fact was altered by Sheng Guoning. Originally, Gardenia’s fate was the outcome depicted in the photo, but the result was interrupted midway, leading to the current complex and chaotic situation.
The complex logical layers were interwoven. Xiao Shitou’s efforts to save Gardenia also implicated Lin Heyu; Lin Heyu and Lin Zhizhi were siblings, and for his sake, Lin Zhizhi adopted Xiao Shitou, allowing him to become Yi Shi; Yi Shi and Lin Heyu continuously promoted each other’s rescue efforts, leading to the fates of Xiao Shitou and Gardenia…
The “right track” they desperately wanted to return to was, in fact, the result presented in this photo!
For the first time, Yi Shi sensed the bizarre and terrifying nature of fate. His thoughts exploded, and he continuously envisioned various outcomes: If Lin Zhizhi existed and Xiao Shitou didn’t participate in the explosion, then Yi Shi wouldn’t exist; if Gardenia was involved in the explosion, then Lin Zhizhi wouldn’t exist; if the kidnapping hadn’t occurred, then neither Yi Shi nor Lin Zhizhi would exist, and even Lin Heyu might not exist…
Yi Shi felt a throbbing pain at his temples, and the series of complex logical relationships drained his brain cells. Upon further reflection, he realized the most stable situation was the current configuration, where everyone intersected and existed reasonably—Sheng Guoning, Lin Zhizhi, Yi Shi, and Lin Heyu formed a balanced four-corner relationship.
So this was the burden that Sheng Guoning bore alone. Suddenly, Yi Shi felt empathetic, understanding any decision he made.
“Now you know why you couldn’t prevent the case from unfolding, right? Because all the key points were centered on Zhizhi, not the criminals you desperately tried to get close to,” Sheng Guoning smiled bitterly. “Everything I did was to ensure Zhizhi could stay. Even if we couldn’t grow old together, as long as she was safe.” He looked at the old photo on his phone. “I didn’t want it to become a reality, so I could only apologize to you and Lin Heyu. Even if time could rewind, I would still make the same choice. To me, nothing is more important than Zhizhi’s life.”
Yi Shi looked out the window, feeling as though he had never been so disoriented; it was as if the belief he had held onto all this time had collapsed. He had strived to untangle the complex fate between himself and Lin Heyu, only to find its source was a deadlock—unless he cut it cruelly, there was no way out.
Sheng Guoning felt a bittersweet ache in his heart, ultimately allowing Yi Shi to touch the truth, forcing him to bear this pain as well. Compared to himself, who only had ties to Zhizhi as an “outsider,” Yi Shi was tightly entangled with two threads, deeply caught in it, where every segment was an unbreakable connection. How would he choose?
“No matter what, Zhizhi cannot disappear,” Yi Shi whispered softly, and when he raised his head again, his eyes were filled with determination. “Lin Heyu and I will reestablish our thoughts, but one thing is certain: we will absolutely protect her existence.”
Nice – everyone’s finally on the same page