At sunset, Yuan Maoqiu and Lin Heyu arrived at the location Wen Huabei had sent. It was rush hour, and parking was difficult to find. Yuan Maoqiu slowly maneuvered the car through the intersection.
“This street is a pedestrian street, right? We should park under the mall. Let me see, 12 yuan per hour. Whoa, what is this, a goldmine? The CBD in front of our city bureau is only 10 yuan an hour.”
Yuan Maoqiu rambled on, and Lin Heyu lifted his eyelids and said, “If you want to park, park. Why so much chatter?”
“Do you think I don’t want to make it easy? Just trying to save some expenses. Chief Bai is such a fussbudget, so stingy. Last time we ordered a couple of extra dishes at a dinner, he grumbled, and now with this 12-yuan parking fee, he’ll definitely have something to say.”
“…” Lin Heyu was speechless. What would it hurt to pay out of pocket? This guy could just skip buying a girl a milk tea once, and the parking fee would be covered.
He probably didn’t realize that Yuan Maoqiu wanted to save on parking fees precisely to buy a girl a milk tea.
“Hey, finally found a spot. There’s a space in the alley!” Yuan Maoqiu deftly squeezed the car into the alley. After ten minutes of maneuvering, they slowly emerged from the alley.
The café called “Time Flies” was right across the street. Wen Huabei had already gone inside and secured a booth on the first floor. Lin Heyu stared at the faded sign, images flashing through his mind. He remembered coming here with Yi Shi, but the memories were blurry, grasping at them was futile.
He regretted giving up his habit of keeping a diary after starting work. A well-kept diary was like a timeline, always able to find the corresponding story at the right time.
“What are you daydreaming about? It’s a green light,” Yuan Maoqiu nudged Lin Heyu’s shoulder.
The flow of people from both ends of the street mingled and exchanged places. In a daze, Lin Heyu saw a tall, thin figure. By the time he came to, the glass door had closed, leaving only the wind chimes gently swaying.
Yi Shi?
Lin Heyu quickened his pace, with Yuan Maoqiu following behind. He pushed open the glass door, his gaze like an eagle’s, searching the first floor as if looking for a criminal. Wen Huabei stood up: “Captain Lin! Brother Yuan! I’m here!”
Lin Heyu moved swiftly past him, as Wen Huabei waved his hand in confusion: Did Captain Lin not see him, or was he ignoring him?
“Captain Lin! Captain Lin!”
Wen Huabei called out twice more, drawing curious glances from the surrounding customers. Yuan Maoqiu gestured for him to lower his voice: “We heard you, sit down first.”
In less than half a minute, Lin Heyu had scanned the first floor but didn’t find the person he was looking for. He turned to the second floor. Yuan Maoqiu followed him, more puzzled: “What are you looking for? Rushing in like you’re possessed.”
Lin Heyu climbed the wooden stairs, and as soon as he reached the second floor, he saw Yi Shi.
Yi Shi was sitting by the window in a sporty outfit of sky blue and pure white, earbuds in his ears, an orange wristband standing out on his wrist. Sunlight streamed in through the window behind him, exuding a youthful energy, making him appear vibrant, like a rising sun.
Lin Heyu paused, one foot on a different step, maintaining a stride, staring intently at Yi Shi, seemingly forgetting to move. Yuan Maoqiu stood at the bottom, looking up: “Lao Lin, what are you looking at?”
“Nothing,” Lin Heyu pointed upstairs, “I have something to do. You and Xiao Bei sit downstairs.”
“What is it?”
“Important business.”
“…” Yuan Maoqiu waved his hand, not wanting to bother with him, acting all mysterious, as if he were engaging in some illegal transaction.
Lin Heyu went up to the second floor and approached Yi Shi’s table. Yi Shi, absorbed in his phone, hadn’t noticed his arrival. Only when Lin Heyu’s shadow fell over him did Yi Shi look up, surprise hidden in his beautiful eyes.
“Join me?” Lin Heyu sat directly opposite, assuming he wouldn’t refuse.
[02/19, 04:52 | 11/28, 07:08, Time Flies (Pingju Plaza Branch)]
“What are you doing here?” After ordering breakfast, Yi Shi put down his phone and asked coldly.
“On a case,” Lin Heyu replied. “What about you? On vacation?”
“On a case.” Yi Shi crossed his arms over his chest. “The last incident isn’t resolved yet. Who exactly are you? There’s no record of you in the Haijing City Bureau.”
“…” Lin Heyu took out his credentials from his pocket and showed them. Yi Shi looked closely—Haijing City Bureau Criminal Investigation Team Captain Lin Heyu.
How could that be? The captain of Haijing should be Yuan Kang, and Yu Xue even checked internal files, confirming no officer with that name. Not just in the Haijing City Bureau, there was no Lin Heyu in all of Haijing.
Yi Shi was about to reach out when the waiteress brought a tray with their order: “Your freshly ground soy milk and sunny-side-up egg, the chicken mushroom congee will be ready shortly.”
That was fast. From putting down the phone, it hadn’t even been three minutes, right?
After the waiter left, Lin Heyu put away his credentials: “I have no reason to deceive you. Is that all you’re eating?” For dinner, that was too meager, barely enough to fill a gap in his teeth. No wonder he was so thin, his arms and shoulders visibly bony.
What’s wrong with eating this? Breakfast should be more particular? Yi Shi opened the lid of the soy milk, the hot, fragrant aroma wafting out. He took a sip, frowning slightly—it was unsweetened.
Lin Heyu, intuitively, pushed the sugar jar on the table toward him: “You need to add your own.”
“Have you been here before?”
Lin Heyu cleared his throat: “We’ve met here before.”
Yi Shi added two spoonfuls of sugar to his soy milk. That part seemed true; their meeting must have been on the day he couldn’t remember. But Lin Heyu was too strange, always appearing suddenly without warning.
“…I vaguely remember some images,” Yi Shi whispered, holding his cup, “you told me about your home in Linjia Village, with a clock-like spinning wheel in front, and the clan chief disapproved of your name, refusing to add you to the genealogy unless you changed it.”
Lin Heyu listened quietly, these were true. Passing through a field painting was his hometown, with the old large wooden spinning wheel at the entrance, weathered and scarred. His mother had often thought of chopping it up for firewood.
The reason for making such an odd thing was lost to him, blaming it on his sister, guessing it was to amuse her. But Lin Zhizhi denied it, rolling her eyes, saying she never asked him to make that ugly thing.
Regarding the name, no matter how strict the clan chief was, his mother refused to help change it. After graduating from middle school, he went to the city for studies, later entering the Police University of Shengzhou. After graduating, he returned, bought a house with a loan, and with a busy job, seldom returned to Linjia Village. Being in the genealogy didn’t matter.
“Anything else?” Lin Heyu asked. Yi Shi shook his head, able to recall only limited fragments, suddenly intruding into his mind. With the case stuck, he had no time to investigate Lin Heyu, even returning to Nanyi was unexpected.
A faint disappointment appeared in Lin Heyu’s eyes, then Yi Shi asked: “What happened between us? Tell me everything you know.”
“We’re pretty good friends, how we met I forgot, but we’ve met a few times without feeling unfamiliar…”
Yi Shi interrupted with a cold laugh. Friends? They didn’t even have each other’s contact information. What kind of friends were they?
Lin Heyu, embarrassed, asked for Yi Shi’s number to add on WeChat for easier contact.
“What would we talk about?”
Yi Shi slowly bit into his sunny-side-up egg. Lin Heyu tried to recall; his mind lacked a clear process, only a slideshow of fragments and vague impressions. He said: “Mostly about cases, you’re very straightforward, no favorite foods, no preferred entertainment, nor particular likes or dislikes in people.”
“I talked to you about cases?” Yi Shi was slightly surprised. Given his personality, being able to “chat” with Lin Heyu was a miracle, and they even talked about such important topics?
Lin Heyu thought for a moment: “Because I also talked to you about the cases I encountered. It’s like exchanging information. I’ll tell you specifically what cases when I remember.”
“…” It seemed this person’s memory wasn’t great either. The information he provided was so vague. If Yi Shi hadn’t genuinely recalled memories related to him, he would have suspected that Lin Heyu had ulterior motives for approaching him.
“Besides cases, what else did I say?”
“Your family. You were raised by adoptive parents and now live outside. You have a younger brother who is nine years younger than you and has always been clingy and troublesome. Oh, right, you avoid talking about him,” Lin Heyu frowned deeper, “because he likes you…?”
Yi Shi choked on his soy milk, coughing violently. He quickly grabbed a tissue to cover his mouth, his cheeks flushing red.
How could he have mentioned this to Lin Heyu? Was their relationship really that close that he would tell him such things?
Within the designated time, the steaming chicken mushroom congee was served. As the waiteress left, another one arrived with a set meal, placing it in front of Lin Heyu.
“Sir, your seafood pasta with mushroom soup set meal. Enjoy.”
Yi Shi raised his eyes slightly and noticed that the waiteress’s uniform was quite different in both color and style from the one who had served him. No, the waitress who had come to the second floor earlier were all wearing off-white shirts and black pants, but this one was wearing a completely black shirt and a matching black mid-length skirt.
Lin Heyu also noticed that the waiter serving Yi Shi was dressed unusually. She had come twice, each time only to their table.
Looking up again, the sky outside seemed strange. It was close to 5 PM, and it should have been sunset with a glowing evening sky. Why was the sky clear and bright without a cloud in sight?
He looked up at the clock. The time was correct, but the scene outside the window seemed eerie and out of place.
Yi Shi’s expression was indifferent. He ate his congee with a spoon, only glancing at the set meal Lin Heyu had ordered. Although he was curious if eating such greasy food early in the morning would cause indigestion, seeing Lin Heyu’s physique, similar to Sheng Yu’an’s, he might have a strong stomach.
Despite the odd feeling, Lin Heyu remained calm. The person sitting across from him was Yi Shi, who had always seemed a mysterious and unusual presence. Thus, any strange occurrences after meeting him were within an acceptable range.
His phone vibrated. A message from Li Changsheng came through the Criminal Investigation Team’s group chat, saying that a few people from Haijing had gone to the botanical garden to check, led by Liu Chenyi.
Li Changsheng: [Damn, it’s the weekend, right? Volunteering to work overtime with such high awareness deserves a contribution award.]
Shao Shiqing: [Captain Yu, this wasn’t ordered by their original captain, right? @Yu Xue]
Yu Xue: [No]
Li Changsheng: [Ha, I see the internal problem in Haijing. I always felt Liu Chenyi was ambitious, someone capable of big things. 👍]
Ding Ju: [Was he acting on his own?]
Shao Shiqing: [He wants to usurp power. If he climbs higher than their original captain, everyone will have to look up to him.]
Yi Shi had no interest in the internal power struggles of the police department. He only cared about the case. Liu Chenyi’s behavior was inappropriate. Acting on his own assumptions, leading a team to the botanical garden could alert the criminals and cause them to flee.
Thinking of this, Yi Shi felt restless and picked up a small notepad and ballpoint pen from beside him. This notepad was meant for guests to leave feedback and suggestions. He tore off a note and began to write.
“Encountering any troubles?”
Yi Shi glanced at him without answering. Lin Heyu put down his chopsticks: “You don’t have to be so guarded. You’ve helped me before, and I will help you too.”
Under Lin Heyu’s clear, dark eyes, Yi Shi’s fingers paused before he wrote three symbols on the paper and handed it to Lin Heyu.
Lin Heyu looked at the symbols on the paper: Я∧※, with the left line of ∧ being slightly shorter. Was this a puzzle? The first letter was Cyrillic, common in Russian, and the other two looked like advanced math symbols. Without any extra hints, it was really puzzling.
Within a second, Lin Heyu confirmed it had nothing to do with math. Yi Shi must have already considered this. If it were truly mathematical symbols, he would be at the library flipping through advanced math dictionaries by now.
He couldn’t explain why, but he felt he knew Yi Shi very well, as if from long-term acquaintance, easily predicting his thoughts.
Across from him, Yi Shi picked up the lemon water to refill his glass and finally noticed something off.
The note Lin Heyu was looking at was wrong.
Yi Shi squinted. He had written it himself, and after writing, he had turned it for Lin Heyu to view. Normally, this code should read as left-inverted R and V※ from his perspective. But now, the sequence was wrong, with ※ first, V still in the middle, and the inverted R peculiarly facing right.
How could this be?
Yi Shi instinctively rubbed his earlobe, recalling the HELLO KITTY gummy from Southern Cheng’an Cemetery. He suddenly realized: That’s it. The only reason for this was that after Lin Heyu received the note, the text on the paper was mirrored, turning “※∧R” into “Я∧※”.
In Southern Cheng’an Cemetery, the gummy had fallen from Miaomiao, and after he picked it up, the pattern reversed. Now, the note he gave to Lin Heyu also experienced this eerie phenomenon after Lin Heyu touched it. What did this imply?
An idea emerged in his mind. Thinking of the uniquely dressed waitress earlier, it was as if a pair of hands gradually cleared the heavy fog.
Yi Shi tilted his head, his gaze stopping at the floor-to-ceiling window glass. To block the sunlight, each table had a deep tea-colored glass in the middle, as wide as the table. Due to its dark color, it could largely block the sunlight, like a night-time window, clearly reflecting the café’s scenery.
He saw the scene reflected in the tea-colored glass: unfamiliar customers sitting opposite, waiteresses walking around, all dressed in black shirts and mid-length skirts, and that clock. In the glass image, the time was just before 5 o’clock.
Yi Shi immediately turned back to look at the real clock, which showed past 7 o’clock. With the two clock faces placed together, it was as if there was a mirror in the middle, creating a mirrored reflection.
This—Yi Shi gradually held his breath, pressing down the small hourglass timer that had stopped halfway. The fine sand continued to flow down. He slowly pushed the hourglass along the table edge. When it reached the middle of the table, the fine sand, which should have continued flowing, stopped. Even though there was still sand left above, it defied the laws of physics and didn’t fall. When he moved the hourglass back a bit, it returned to normal.
After several repetitions, Yi Shi finally confirmed his thought: he and Lin Heyu might not be in the same space but in a mirrored world.
____
Author’s Note:
I specifically found a webpage to invert letters to give everyone the most direct impression. However, Jinjiang doesn’t display it. Damn.
If it’s hard to understand right now, wait until I finish updating this meeting scene between the two. I will post a demonstration picture on Weibo to show how this mirror image transformation works.
Thanks gor the chap!