Zhou Lin

In the interrogation room, half the ashtray was quickly filled with smoked cigarette butts.

Detective Robinson's reason made him refuse to believe the story made by the man in front of him, but his instinct reminded him to listen.

"So... you want to tell me that you are a 'time traveler'?" After crushing another cigarette butt, the detective asked with a frown.

"What you said is not exact, but you can understand it that way." Uncle Xue replied.

"Let me smooth this out..." the detective continued, "According to what you said, if you don't do anything, then...in the afternoon of this day, the victim in this case, Jim Becker, There will be a fight with his classmate Adams, which will lead to a car accident. In addition to killing Adams on the spot, this car accident will also involve a school bus and a speeding SUV, and the school bus happens to be hiding With a monster capable of leveling half a city and an SUV with five robbers who just robbed the Kitchener Federal Savings Bank?"

"That's a good summary." Uncle Xue responded.

"Huh..." Robinson sneered, and then said, "So, on the night after the disaster... that is, today's night, you conducted a time travel and returned to today's noon, just before Adams was hit by the school bus. I came to the alley and stopped this scene from happening; but unexpectedly, the situation on the other side changed again - because the bank robbers' car arrived later than last time, the school bus and the SUV still collided. , it’s just that the location of the impact changed, the monster finally ran out and started the massacre.”

"Yes." Uncle Xue said, "But this time, I was closer to the scene of the incident. Shortly after the monster appeared, I rushed over and tried to kill it to control the number of casualties."

"Oh?" Robinson asked, raising his eyebrows in a tone that sounded like a storyteller, "Did you succeed?"

"If I succeed, I won't be chatting with you here." Uncle Xue continued, "The monster was unbelievably strong. I was almost killed. Fortunately, I can escape by 'activating my ability'."

"Oh." Robinson showed an impatient expression, "Then this time...where did you go again, or rather when?"

"Morning." Uncle Xue replied.

"The subway station in the morning?" Robinson asked.

"No, earlier than that." Uncle Xue denied, "At six o'clock in the morning, I went to Becker's house."

"So...you broke into a house before killing someone?" Robinson asked again.

Uncle Xue did not answer the question and just continued: "I sneaked into his bedroom, subdued him, used his fingerprint to unlock his computer, searched his hard drive and room, and asked him several questions. A question."

"Huh?" Robinson felt his head hurt after hearing this. He lit another cigarette for himself while showing a questioning expression.

"To make a long story short... I discovered that this high school student named Becker was in collusion with some local criminal gangs. He used drugs, coercion and other means to organize criminal activities against college girls under the guise of a 'party'; his main purpose It's not for money, but to show off to a group of people similar to him on the dark web." Uncle Xue continued, "Adams's girlfriend is one of Becker's victims, and I think that's why they had a dispute today. … Adams was also there when I pushed the person off the track. The probe at the scene should have captured him. You can confirm with him. And the reason why Becker skipped class today and showed up at the subway station was because he was going to send a message. The flyers for the party..." He paused for half a second, and then said, "These flyers are now in your evidence room, but before I tell you this, you naturally won't get angry because of this kind of thing. Thinking too much... As for the evidence of Becker's crime, just ask someone to search his room."

After saying this in one breath, Uncle Xue paused for a few seconds and then added: "Oh, by the way, what I just told you is what happened during my 'second retrospective', that is, what I said The third 'Friday the 13th' experience."

"So how many times have you experienced it now?" Robinson asked.

"The seventh time." Uncle Xue replied.

"What did you do in those three to six times?" Robinson asked, "Or... why are there so many more times? Didn't you fail to prevent the disaster every time?"

"Yes." Uncle Xue said bluntly, "The 'third time' I just told you was the closest to success; that time... after I subdued Becker and completed the search, I committed the crime against him. He laid out all the evidence, called the police with his own mobile phone, then left his room and hid near his villa to watch with binoculars.

“Five minutes later, several low-key-looking cars arrived, but they were not police cars, and the people who got out of the cars were not police officers either.

"It seems... the local gangs are not very efficient either. Although they are very polite to this young master on the surface, they still have some tricks behind their backs. I don't know if they have tampered with Becker's communication equipment or whether they have manipulated it." There was an insider in the police station. Anyway... they just broke into Becker's house.

"Then, there may have been some dispute between the two parties, or those people made some decisions after weighing the pros and cons. A moment later, Becker's whole family was killed, the criminal evidence was taken away, and the house was set on fire.

“As of now, I think it’s still acceptable, after all, not many people have died.

"So, after confirming that the fire trucks were coming, I went to the Federal Reserve Bank downtown..."

When he said this, Robinson suddenly interjected: "Why not go to the elementary school? Compared with dealing with bank robbers, wouldn't it be much easier to sneak into the parking lot of the elementary school and puncture the tires of a few school buses...?"

"Of course I know this." Uncle Xue said, "But you don't know...an event chain like this is very difficult to handle; you just heard me say, 'first time' and 'second time' 'There are differences in the situation - this difference is mostly due to the 'sense of déjà vu' brought about by time retrieval, which allows some people to make different choices at certain moments from the last time, which is to create the so-called 'Parallel universe divergence point'.

"Theoretically, every hesitation and every 'uncertain' thought of every individual may create a branch and then derive a parallel universe; some of these 'choices' are very important, and some are just It’s an insignificant detail, but you can never tell which choices will be digested and corrected by time and space on their own, and which ones will be infinitely amplified by the butterfly effect... You can only guess based on experience.

"Based on my past experience of looking back, combined with the differences between the two previous 'todays', I infer that... the event of 'two cars colliding and a monster running amok' is an important event on the timeline similar to a 'time and space mark'" Node; although it seems accidental, there must be a lot of 'cause and effect' behind it to promote its occurrence; therefore, when I intervene in this matter, if the 'cause and effect' produced by the intervention itself is not enough... then I create Changes will be 'corrected' by time and space itself in various ways.

"This was obviously the case during the 'second time'. Long before my action of 'saving Adams' was carried out, time and space had already made adjustments to some details on this timeline, but this adjustment was not for To prevent me from saving Adams, it was to facilitate the collision of two cars as usual; this shows that - 'Adams' death' was just a trivial matter, but the collision of the two cars and the rampage of the monster in the car... If a very important event is destroyed, it will cause great damage to the continuity of time and space.

"To sum up, it is definitely useless for me to sabotage the school bus the 'third time' because in the face of such a big incident, the 'intervention' of puncturing tires is too weak.

"Assuming that the monster is hidden in a student's belongings, or is disguised as a primary school student, then even if I break down all the school buses, he/she will still leave the school through other means, such as Take other parents’ cars, etc., or even walk... In the end, he/she will be hit by a robber’s car somewhere and run away.”

Robinson said: "Can't you try to find the monster before he/she goes crazy?"

"How to find it?" Uncle Xue said, "The first time, I wanted to confirm the death list of students on the school bus, but there was no way to find out... All public elementary schools in Kitchener have free rides on the school buses. , students are picked up and dropped off by station instead of by person every day. Students can decide how they want to take the bus and which class they want to take and change it at any time.

"Moreover, when I intervened in the investigation that day, the disaster had already occurred... If only one car of primary school students died at that time, it would be easier to delineate the target range, but at that time there were already a large number of casualties and missing persons, and it was impossible to determine which ones were missing. The children took that school bus.

"Taking a step back, even if I narrow down the suspects of the monster to only twenty or thirty people, what can I do? Go over and ask them, 'Which of you is the monster?' Will there be any results? Information about the monster, I know almost nothing about it. Whether it has intelligence, how it lurks, etc. are all unknown. What if it feels threatened by my appearance and goes berserk in advance?"

Robinson finished smoking another cigarette and then lit the next one: "Okay... go on."

Uncle Xue continued: "At noon, I arrived near the Federal Savings Bank and waited for the robbers to appear.

"Because of the correction power of time and space, I can't act rashly. If I call the police one or two minutes in advance according to the time of the robbery that I know, then the robbers this time will probably be upset by some bullshit, or suddenly, The inexplicable 'foreboding' delayed them for a while, and they heard the siren just before the action, thus giving up the robbery. Then they would still cause the monster to go berserk somewhere for some reason...

"It's useless to call the police the moment they start robbing, because the bank's own alarm system is activated at about this time, and the direct line alarm within the bank is faster than dialing the police myself on my mobile phone.

"It's unrealistic to find the robbers in advance. I only know where they will run, but I don't know where they will come from.

"Then there was only one way left... When they were about to complete the robbery, I rushed over and disabled their car, killed the driver, took away his weapons, then rushed into the bank and blocked the other robbers in the lobby. inside, preventing them from snatching other vehicles and escaping.

"As long as I delay until these robbers are surrounded by the police, the chain of events will be broken; and the 'cause and effect' of the things I have done are enough, and this kind of 'intervention' should be able to successfully offset time and space. The corrective power prevents monster rampage from happening."

"Well..." Robinson pondered, "Judging from the fact that you claimed that it is the 'seventh' Friday... things are not going as smoothly as you thought, right?"

Uncle Xue nodded and said directly: "Four of the five robbers are rabble-rousers, but there is one...at least when it comes to escaping, he is incredibly strong.

"This guy was actually able to carry two large bags of money and run away from my eyes while being shot several times. Then he parkoured me for more than a hundred meters and grabbed a car right in front of me. Cars driving on the street... I don’t think I need to talk about what happened after that.”

"So you started the 'fourth time'?" Robinson followed the other person and asked.

"The progress of the fourth time was almost the same as the third time. The difference is... this time when I entered the bank, I completely ignored the life and death of the hostages and directly used the heavy weapons prepared in advance." Uncle Xue continued.

"So you let people run away?" Robinson asked.

"The third time I suspected that the kid who escaped was an esper, the fourth time I was sure..." Uncle Xue continued, "That guy has quite high physical strength and the ability to heal quickly, and He can also maintain a high level of athleticism despite suffering injuries that would be considered fatal to ordinary people..."

"Oh." Robinson read noncommittally, "What happened next?"

"This time, I didn't go back in time immediately after the monster went berserk because I had no other options." Uncle Xue said, "I allowed the police who rushed to the scene to arrest me and take me back to the police station for detention. During this process, I kept I was thinking about what to do, and then...I met you."

"Haha..." Robinson smiled, "Yes, you said at the beginning, 'We have known each other in at least three other parallel universes.' Does that mean that we have met in the fourth to sixth times?"

Uncle Xue did not answer this directly, because it was self-evident. He just responded: "During the conversation with you, I found that you are a very capable agent, and you also have a relatively high level of intelligence." Authority, the most important thing is... you are different from those FCPS or EAS people who I cannot contact or completely trust in a short period of time. You work at the local grassroots level in Kitchener, and I can contact you in half a day. Use you to achieve your goals."

After a pause, Uncle Xue said again: "That's it...I started my fourth retracement and came to my fifth Friday; this time, I simplified things, I picked a public place and killed it myself. Becker kicked him off the platform when the subway entered the station.

"Then I stayed where I was, waiting for the police to arrest me; after entering the station, I originally wanted to offer to 'just talk to Detective Robinson', but I didn't expect that I didn't say anything, so you can judge it yourself. Me.

"During that interrogation, I lied to you because I didn't expect you to believe what I was saying to you at this moment; in contrast, you should accept some settings that you are more familiar with, such as ——Multiple personality disorder.

"With that in mind, I acted out a play in front of you, playing the role of a person with three personalities.

"You can't tell for a moment whether I'm just playing tricks or whether I'm really sick. Anyway, I'm telling you...it was my 'murderous personality' that killed Becker, and the one I'm talking to you is a 'kind personality' , at this moment, the 'kind personality' has learned about a certain bank robbery plan that another 'robber personality' participated in, and wants to ask you for help.

"I've told you the time, place, number of people, and even the cars they drove, the attire they wore, and the weapons they used. I also paid special attention to you. There is a person with abilities among them who is very good at escaping. Be sure to pay attention to him.

"At that time, I hoped that you could set up an ambush based on the known information and catch them all.

"But in the end... you just sent a patrol car and asked them to go to the bank at the time I told you to 'take a look'. There is no doubt... that was useless. Your police officer was killed. The monster rampage happened as usual, and my plan...failed again."

When Robinson heard this, he didn't even want to smoke: "What about the sixth time? What did you do again?"

"What happened in the morning was basically the same as the fifth time... But the sixth time, after I was arrested, I didn't pretend to be smart, and I didn't mention the matter of going back in time. I just chatted with you for a while rationally." Uncle Xue said, "Otherwise, First, I want you to think that I am a calm and sober person; second, based on the first point, I want you to pay attention to the bank robbery." He paused, "To be honest... By the sixth time, I had given up on preserving my innocence and safety. Even if I was regarded as an accomplice of a robber, an indiscriminate murderer, etc... I accepted it. I always had a way to escape anyway. In addition, I also kept an eye on it and tried to get as much information about you from your mouth as possible... In case there is a seventh time, I will have a certain amount of capital to avoid having to start from scratch with you again. chat."

"Then the sixth time...did I listen to you?" Robinson asked.

"Listen, not only did you confirm that the robbery was real, you also found out through your intelligence network that it was a 'robbery order initiated by a third party.' Compared to ordinary private gangs, this order is very difficult. "Uncle Xue replied, "So, you mobilized all the police forces you could mobilize in less than two hours, and set up a dragnet in advance... But you didn't expect that before you took action, you were discovered by the other party. They were like this. Abandoned the plan and still triggered a monster rampage somewhere."

"Huh...were you discovered?" Robinson laughed, "Are you implying to me that there is an undercover agent in the police station?"

"Considering the way Becker died on the third or fourth time..." Uncle Xue said, "You think it's no longer a hint. It's basically certain that there is an undercover agent in the police station."

"Okay, okay... the story is very exciting. Although the content is ridiculous, your words are very pertinent, and I can't find any logical loopholes." Detective Robinson leaned back in his chair, "Then you need me now What are you doing? Do you want me to hand over the command to you... and let you stop the robbery that hasn't happened yet? "

There was obvious sarcasm in his tone.

This is the sorrow of those who go back in time; every time you go back, your previous efforts will be in vain, and almost no one will believe you or understand you, no matter whether you do good things, bad things, right things, or wrong things...

If you do nothing, bad things will happen; and if you do something, others will not know that you prevented the bad things from happening, they will only see the puzzling or disgusting actions you did.

"That's why I said... you are a good policeman, but you are also a stubborn person." Uncle Xue continued, "Fortunately... during the last retrospective, I found a good moment and went to the toilet."

"What do you want to say?" Robinson asked.

"The toilet is diagonally opposite the door. If I remember correctly...it's Office 203. There are many police officers gathered inside to watch the baseball game. Because there are so many people, the sound of the monitor is turned up very loud..." Uncle Xue said, "And , it’s a live broadcast.”

"Ha...I understand what you are going to do." Robinson's mind was spinning very quickly.

"In the second half of the ninth inning, Guy hit the fourth bat of the Eagle Helmets. The bases were full at this time. On the first pitch, Dawkins, the player on second base, failed to steal the base and returned the base. After one defense, he hit. Out of bounds; the second ball, the batter hit (bunt), the opponent's pitcher missed the ball, one person scored, the others advanced one base, and the bases continued to be full; the next batter, Tony, miraculously hit a home run." Uncle Xue. He said this immediately, and finally added, "It will take a while before the game reaches the ninth inning... We can talk after you go and watch it."