“Tong Yang! Where are you going?”
Ignoring the panic-stricken crowd, Tong Yang, covered in blood, rushed through the hallway, heading toward the rooftop. She sprinted up the stairs, three at a time, weaving through students descending for their dinner break after the fourth period. Most of the third-year students were heading to the cafeteria, and as they caught sight of Tong Yang drenched in blood, they quickly moved aside, eyes wide with shock.
Unbothered by their stares, she made her way straight to the rooftop.
“Bang!” Tong Yang kicked open the metal door to the rooftop and strode in.
She had run so fast that her breathing was erratic. Standing alone on the empty rooftop, she scanned the area, but there was no one in sight.
Clenching her teeth, she knew the person who had pushed the boy off the rooftop had already fled. There was no way they’d still be lingering around, but it still frustrated her.
If it had been a suicide, as the news would likely report, Tong Yang wouldn’t have wasted any energy. But it wasn’t.
She had clearly seen that pair of hands, the hands that pushed him off the edge in that split second!
Who was it? Could they be the same type of person who tried to kill her?
Tong Yang walked to the edge of the rooftop, where the boy had fallen. Scattered on the ground were the test papers she had given him earlier, with some red pen marks on them.
“Tong Yang! What are you doing? Get over here now!”
Her homeroom teacher rushed up in a panic, her face drained of color as she grabbed Tong Yang and pulled her close.
“Are you okay? Don’t be scared. Let’s leave this place, alright?”
The teacher, Mrs. Yang, a woman in her early forties, had clearly assumed that witnessing the scene up close had left Tong Yang in shock.
“Yang laoshi, he was pushed.” Tong Yang said, taking a deep breath and trying to keep her voice calm. “I saw it.”
Mrs. Yang froze, her face showing a brief moment of disbelief before she wrapped her arms around Tong Yang, guiding her away from the rooftop. “It’s okay, it’s okay. The school has already called the police, and they’re on their way. Let’s go change your clothes.”
The school had quickly gathered all the students back into their classrooms. Mrs. Yang took Tong Yang to the dormitory to change into clean clothes. By the time they returned to the school building, the police and forensic team had arrived. It was clear there was no need for resuscitation—the boy had died instantly.
The evening sky had darkened, but the bright lights of the school building illuminated a silent atmosphere.
All the classroom doors and windows were shut, with the curtains tightly drawn. The school staff and teachers were hurrying through the hallways, their faces filled with tension.
“Have the parents been notified?”
“We couldn’t reach them by phone, but the police have sent someone.”
“Do it as quickly as possible.”
“Understood.”
Two police officers passed by carrying a yellow body bag. The weight of the bag nearly dragged along the ground, reminding Tong Yang of the gruesome scene she had just witnessed.
Downstairs, several officers were quietly discussing something while others headed up to the rooftop to investigate. Some staff members were already using hoses to wash away the blood. The principal had instructed all the teachers to call the parents, asking them to come pick up their children. Everyone’s expressions were grim.
“Officer Li, this is Tong Yang, the student who saw the scene up close.”
Officer Li, a man in his thirties or forties, had a stern face, the kind that exuded authority without effort. However, when he saw Tong Yang, he forced a smile and asked, “Are you alright, student?”
Tong Yang’s face was pale, but she remained composed. Shaking her head, she replied, “Officer Li, I saw someone push him.”
Officer Li patted her shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry. We’ve already pulled the school’s surveillance footage. You don’t need to concern yourself with the rest. Leave it to us.”
Tong Yang bit her lip and nodded.
“It’s late. Have your parents come pick you up and take you home. Get some rest, maybe take a hot bath, and spend time with your family. We might need your cooperation later.”
Tong Yang responded, “I’m fine. I can help now.”
Officer Li hesitated, exchanging a glance with the principal. If this case turned out to be a homicide, it would be best to take Tong Yang, the only eyewitness, to the station to give her statement immediately. But given her young age and the upcoming gaokao, they didn’t want to affect her emotionally. All the other students who had seen the scene were either sent home or given psychological counseling.
The principal, who recognized Tong Yang, also didn’t want her to be disturbed by this incident. “Tong Yang, why don’t you go home and rest for now? You can talk about it later. You shouldn’t let this…”
“My parents are dead. There’s no one at home.” Tong Yang said, her voice flat, her eyes lowered.
Officer Li was momentarily stunned, but quickly adjusted his approach. “Alright then, come with us to the station. If it gets too late, you can rest there.”
Accompanied by her homeroom teacher, Tong Yang went to the police station to give her statement. She recounted the day’s events, including the hands she had seen pushing the boy. Meanwhile, Officer Li reviewed the surveillance footage in another room.
After giving her statement, Tong Yang sat in the waiting room, holding a cup of hot water her teacher had brought her.
“They took Chu Shiyu in too. They suspect she might be involved.” Mrs. Yang sighed.
Tong Yang pursed her lips but said nothing.
A short while later, Chu Shiyu exited the interrogation room and entered the waiting area.
Her eyes were red, tears brimming as if she were about to break down.
“I-I didn’t like him, but I never thought he’d die…” Chu Shiyu sobbed when she saw Tong Yang, choking on her words.
No matter how spoiled or bratty she usually was, she was still just a seventeen-year-old girl, clearly terrified by the situation.
“Did he jump because of me? What if… If I had been nicer to him, would this not have happened…?” Chu Shiyu’s voice trembled with guilt.
“He was pushed. It has nothing to do with you.” Tong Yang said, her expression complex, before falling silent.
Since Chu Shiyu had a solid alibi, her parents picked her up after she gave her statement.
As they waited for the results from the surveillance footage, Tong Yang saw through the glass walls a pair of modestly dressed parents enter the station. She watched as they frantically asked the officers questions, only to break down in despair when they received an answer. The couple collapsed to the floor, clinging to each other as they sobbed uncontrollably.
Though Tong Yang couldn’t hear their cries, she could imagine the anguish in their voices.
A few teary-eyed officers helped the parents into another room. Tong Yang silently watched their hunched figures, while her homeroom teacher hugged her and patted her back, trying to offer some comfort.
It wasn’t long before Officer Li entered the waiting room, his expression grim.
“Did you find out who did it?” Tong Yang asked, her voice tense as she stared at him.
Officer Li gestured for her to calm down before sitting across from her. “Are you sure you saw someone push Sun Ye off the rooftop?”
Tong Yang looked him straight in the eye. “Yes, I’m sure.”
Officer Li sighed, holding her gaze. “I’m sorry, but we reviewed all the footage from the fifth-floor hallway after you left the rooftop at 1:50 p.m. until 5:42 p.m. when Sun Ye fell. No one else entered the rooftop besides him. That means when Sun Ye fell, there was no one else with him.”
“I see.” Tong Yang murmured, her expression calm, as if she wasn’t too surprised.
She had already suspected that this case was like those other mysterious killings where the murderers vanished into thin air. Perhaps Sun Ye’s death had been deliberately staged to look like an accident.
“The hands you thought you saw were likely a result of memory confusion from the shock. We’ve arranged for a professional counselor. It might help to talk to them.” Officer Li suggested before leaving the room with a polite nod.
Mrs. Yang thanked Officer Li and returned to sit beside Tong Yang, her voice hoarse as she tried to comfort her. “Don’t overthink it. Maybe you just saw it wrong.”
Tong Yang nodded silently but didn’t believe it for a second. She was certain she hadn’t seen wrong. The bloody scene hadn’t shocked her enough to cause any kind of memory lapse.
If the surveillance showed no one entering or leaving the hallway, it meant the killer had only appeared on the rooftop. They had vanished just as quickly, just like the woman who had tried to kill her.
But hadn’t that woman died? Which meant these events weren’t carried out by the same person, but perhaps these “people” knew each other or came from the same place.
Where? A parallel world?
Tong Yang had entered a chat group created two years in the future, proving that time wasn’t an irreversible or separate entity. The time loops she experienced on May 28 were proof.
But what triggered the time loops? What was the anchor? Why was she able to enter the loop? And why did her timeline intersect with the future?
If she could find the trigger and the anchor, could she enter the time loop at will?
The previous two loops were triggered by her death, with the anchor being ten minutes before her death.
But there was no guarantee she’d enter another time loop if she died again, and Tong Yang wasn’t willing to risk her life for an experiment.
But what if there were other triggers besides death?
The first time she looped, she had felt herself die. The second time, she didn’t feel death coming—she had merely fallen into a deep sleep, and when she woke up, she was back at the ten-minute mark before her death… Maybe it wasn’t just death but also near-death or deep unconsciousness?
“Tong Yang, the counselor is ready to see you now.”
Pulled from her thoughts, Tong Yang followed a police officer into the counseling room.
“Please, have a seat.” The counselor, a young man wearing a white coat and black-rimmed glasses, gestured toward the chair across from him with a polite smile.
Once the others had left, the counselor gave her a kind smile. “Are you hungry? Have you eaten?”
Tong Yang stared at the counselor, and a bold idea suddenly formed in her mind.
She wasn’t about to use her life for an experiment, but what if she just induced deep unconsciousness?
It might not work, but for Tong Yang, there was no real risk.
If it failed, she’d just return to ten minutes before, unable to change anything.
But if it worked, it would give her a bit more control. And with the impending June 7 terrorist attack, she needed every advantage she could get.
After a moment of thought, Tong Yang looked up and asked,
“Doctor, do you know how to hypnotize people?“
────୨ৎ────
Be my Patron ~ Buy me Ko-Fi
────୨ৎ────
✨Be a part of the story – support my translations✨
✨Buy me some Ko-FI | Paypal to support my effort✨
✨✨Advance chapter at Patreon✨✨
