Chapter 2205: Love Caught in the Fate Loop 04

In order to find out clearly, Jin Chen and Shao Huai brought Xu Yi back to 306.

Xu Yi huddled in the lazy person Sofa of Room 306, tightly holding a Cushion in his arms; perhaps because he finally found someone to confide in, Xu Yi didn't dare shed Tears, fearing he'd miss any detail.

Jin Chen kindly gave the guest a Candy, saying, "Go on, did you also see something last night? Or perhaps… you saw more than we did?"

"Last night……"

Xu Yi's fingers unconsciously picked at a tear in the Sofa, cotton stuffing oozing from between his fingers, "I walked down from upstairs, intending to go to the convenience store for snacks, and saw… someone killing on the sixth floor."

Recalling that scene, Xu Yi felt like vomiting, then suddenly grabbed the lemon water on the coffee table and gulped it down.

"The murderer…… wore a very heavy raincoat, shoving Uncle Song toward the fire escape."

Shao Huai suddenly handed over his phone: "Is this the kind of raincoat?"

On the screen was the raincoat hanging beside Uncle Chen's cleaning cart, the cuff still stained with fish scales, which they had just photographed.

Xu Yi shook his head: "That one was darker… like… like the kind used at construction sites, though it's also possible I just didn't see it clearly."

Jin Chen: "Did the maintenance worker struggle?"

"No." Xu Yi's voice suddenly trembled, "He was just… like a puppet on strings."

"By the way, the murderer looked taller than me." He gestured.

"And then……"

"I… I smelled a fragrance." Xu Yi's pupils began to dilate, "After that I knew nothing."

Shao Huai flipped open his notebook and scribbled quickly, "You said you've lived here a long time—how are the people in this building……?"

Xu Yi gave a bitter smile: "Just talking about downstairs, Grandma Chen always burns paper money at midnight, the fishy smell from Aunt Zhao's house can make people nauseous, and she still loves chopping fish at midnight, never letting anyone speak, plus there are a few hooligans."

Shao Huai and Jin Chen had gathered information from many residents of the apartment building; as Xu Yi spoke, he felt increasingly strange, and before leaving he couldn't help but ask, "Are you police?"

Jin Chen: "We're unlucky bastards afraid the murderer will silence us."

One of the unlucky bastards, Xu Yi: "……"

Alright, saying more would be impolite.

Over the next half day, aside from Shao Huai unintentionally bumping into that sturdy man hurriedly holding a cat bag and running downstairs while familiarizing himself with the apartment layout, nothing strange happened.

To be precise, he didn't run into anyone else.

It seemed as if this rainstorm had descended, trapping the residents' footsteps in the apartment building.

——

"Chenzi! Wake up! Something happened!"

Shao Huai rushed into Jin Chen's room, forcibly pried open the sleepy Jin Chen's eyelids, and shoved the phone in front of his eyes.

His voice trembling slightly, he said, "Look! You've seen a ghost!"

Jin Chen: "……"

Really saw a ghost.

He pushed Shao Huai aside, still groggy and irritable, "You're sleepwalking."

"Check the time, Chenzi! Today is May 13th, the sixteenth of the lunar month, Tuesday!"

Jin Chen then opened his eyes, looking at the date on the phone screen, his heart slightly tightened, but his expression remained unchanged.

He blankly lifted his head to look at Shao Huai, speaking lightly: "What are you talking about? What yesterday, today?"

Shao Huai widened his eyes, as if he couldn't believe his own ears.

He was so anxious he almost jumped up, his voice rising eight degrees.

"Yesterday was Zhousan! Today is Tuesday! How did we end up back to the day before?! Don't you remember?"

"Yesterday Zhousan, we saw the corpse on the sixth floor, also met Xie Guan, and incidentally familiarized ourselves with the building's layout! You don't remember?!"

Jin Chen nodded seriously, trying to recall: "Hmm…… I don't know."

Shao Huai completely panicked, scratched his head, and spoke incoherently: "Could it be… could it be that only I still remember?! Impossible!"

"If what you say is true, it means you are the chosen protagonist, the future light of the police academy."

Jin Chen feigned depth, patted Shao Huai's shoulder, "Keep going, kid."

Shao Huai: "……"

"If he still can't tell after all this, he's just been wasting his time as a brother under Jin Chen's mocking skills."

"Your grandpa!"

Shao Huai finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Whatever the chosen protagonist, if he had any courage to stand on his own, he wouldn't willingly remain forever Jin Chen's eternal second-in-command."

"…… oh, third place."

Thinking of his old friend Xie Guan still in Room 301, Shao Huai silently moved himself back another spot.

"Things are getting weirder and worse, Chen! What should we do—would leaving this eerie apartment building solve everything?"

Jin Chen flung open the thin blanket, also glanced at his own phone.

The time refreshed to the day before the maintenance worker's death.

"Today is Tuesday, so the corpse on the sixth floor hasn't died yet."

After Jin Chen finished speaking, he lifted his eyes and met Shao Huai's gaze, "We still have a chance to save him."

"Exactly…… holy shit, that's a human life—we must save, we have to save!"

Shao Huai realized this, dispelling his overwhelming fear; suddenly thinking of something, he hurried over to open the window.

"How is it still pouring rain."

Shao Huai muttered, "Did it rain on the Tuesday the day before yesterday? I can't really remember."

After hearing the sound of Jin Chen coming out of the washroom, Shao Huai turned to look at him, "Hey you said…… where's the person?"

"Here, let's go to Room 301 to check on our wayward youth Xie Xiaoguan." Jin Chen slipped on his windbreaker jacket and lazily pulled open the door.

Shao Huai: "... hiss."

How come I always feel that this time seeing Xie Guan again, Chenzi is weird.

Weirdly flirtatious.

Shao Huai felt he was given another one.

——

301.

Jin Chen's way of knocking on the door is also unique—neither hurried nor slow, with a hint of rhythm.

Listening to it makes people really pissed off.

At the fourth knock, Xie Guan swiped the door open, "Are you done or not?"

"Not done." Jin Chen replied offhand, taking in the sleepy‑eyed boy from his messy hair down to his ankle, then reached out and pressed down the tuft of hair sticking up on Xie Guan's head.

"Happy Tuesday." Jin Chen said.

The wife still looks obedient when she's silent.

"What day?"

Xie Guan's displeased expression froze, his eyes locking onto the phone Jin Chen held up.

He wore a wooden expression and turned back.

Dust had settled on the wall calendar; the page that should have been torn away reappeared—May 13, Tuesday.

Xie Guan: "..."

"Great, the three of us are still together." Shao Huai finally found a chance to interject, and let out a sigh of relief.

Xie Guan really wanted to bundle these two up and send them away.

But constrained by the strange fact, he could only let them in.

The Living Room was very quiet, pencils and blank paper scattered on the coffee table and sofa; Jin Chen had just turned his gaze there when Xie Guan gathered them up and tidied them.