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The police show up in August, the first time around.
At first, they take Qiao Ling and Cheng Xiaoshi into the station for questioning about a missing woman.
Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi had been searching for that same woman for their last client, the woman’s sister, having come to them after the police investigation turned up nothing.
A photo of her from the night before, taken by one of her friends, had been their ticket in, allowing them to get an idea of what happened, a timeline of when and where she disappeared. Surveillance footage from local businesses let them to track down her and one of the girl’s friends as they’d left that first gathering to go to another address. Cheng Xiaoshi had waited for as long as he could outside that address, but they never came out before his 12 hours were up.
They gave the sister the name of the friend she was last seen with, and the address that she was last seen at, which is more than what they’d started with. The sister had then gone back to the police with the tip, given them Qiao Ling’s name, and then someone had gone and checked the surveillance footage, only to see Cheng Xiaoshi in it where he hadn’t been before.
So Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling were brought to the station. Lu Guang goes with them too, unease pricking at the edge of his stomach. He hopes that his presence will help them mitigate the damage in case they admit to anything illegal, or better yet, serve as the voice of reason to stop them from admitting to anything illegal in the first place. There may be no rules about time travel, but there are certainly rules about spying and stealing a company’s proprietary information for a rival, which is where most of their lucrative jobs have been coming from, as of late.
Unfortunately for Lu Guang, he is not allowed to be in the room while they are being questioned, so instead he just waits around the station, ignoring the growing pit inside of him. They are going to be arrested, he is sure of it. If not for their actual crimes, then maybe for the girl’s disappearance. They had surveillance footage of Xiaoshi, after all, and in trying to help he’s made himself into a prime suspect.
They do not get arrested, much to Lu Guang’s surprise. Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling drag him out of the station, cheerily reassuring him that everything has been resolved and that he shouldn’t worry about it, much to his own annoyance.
-
They explain it to him when they get home, away from prying eyes and ears. Cheng Xiaoshi had been under some suspicion, and in order to explain his actions in the surveillance footage, Xiaoshi had revealed their secret.
“I was following her, Lu Guang! What else was I supposed to say?”
Lu Guang sighs.
-
The police bring them back in the next day. They place Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang in a room and put a photo in front of them.
It is a test. Lu Guang must tell them about something that happened shortly after the photo was taken, and Cheng Xiaoshi must tell them about something that happened in the room next door.
When they get it right, the police are baffled. They hum and haw about detaining them longer, having never seen anything like this before, and having no idea what to do about it.
Qiao Ling, who had been brought in after the “test” was over, puts her foot down at that suggestion, and nearly gets into a fight with the officers there.
In the end, though, they are allowed to go home.
-
In April, the first time around, Emma dies, and Lu Guang does not hide it from Cheng Xiaoshi.
The first time around, they have fewer qualms about changing the past, and Xiaoshi is desperate to save her.
Unfortunately, any photos of Emma from that time period are few and far between. The police say it was a suicide, and do not release any other images or footage surrounding the event.
They still try anyway, despite their limited resources. It is their mistake, after all. They have to do something . They hadn’t known that making such a small change would have such disastrous consequences.
In the end, Xiaoshi dives into a picture that he'd taken himself that night, and rushes to find her. Lu Guang is there too, guiding him with what knowledge he has. They intercept Emma, but she is in a rush, she needs to get to her family before they leave, she won’t listen to Xiaoshi, and he barely knows what to say anyway.
Then she runs into a man, who offers to drive her where she needs to go. Xiaoshi says that he also needs to go that way, and offers to come as well, but that seems to freak her out. She doesn’t know Xiaoshi, and she thinks he is following her. She threatens to call the police, and the other man, someone she seems to know, doesn’t let Xiaoshi come after her.
They do not save her that night.
-
Days later, Emma’s case is considered a homicide.
This reignites their efforts to save her, to fix their mistake. They scour social media now for any photo posted around the time and place that Emma left with that man. Perhaps he is the culprit. Perhaps they can save her from him.
They find a post, a picturesque photo of a nearby business. Xiaoshi dives in, into the body of someone who was out running errands. Eschewing that person’s plans, he instead heads to where they think the man will arrive, and waits.
Sure enough, a car pulls up, and the suspicious man steps out.
Their time is running out, soon enough the man will get back into his car with Emma, and at some point from there she will die. The person they possessed doesn’t have a car, and no hope of being able to chase them.
Lu Guang scours the information he’s gleaned from the image, trying to see if there’s something that Xiaoshi can do.
“Lu Guang,” Xiaoshi’s voice echoes in his head, “I have an idea. I don’t think I can stop Emma, but maybe I can stop her from leaving with whoever this guy is. Maybe that will change things.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” Lu Guang asks.
“Lu Guang,” there’s a hint of mischief in Xiaoshi’s voice, “Do you know anywhere nearby I can find something sharp?”
That pricks his ears. Whatever Xiaoshi’s plan is, he suspects it is not particularly legal. Or safe, more importantly.
“Remember that you are possessing someone else right now, if you are caught, that person will get into serious trouble. I won’t tell you if you are going to damage this person’s life.”
Xiaoshi is silent for a moment.
“This is our best chance,” he tells Lu Guang, “I’m not going to steal a car, or attack anyone. But if that car has two or three flat tires, it can’t go anywhere, right?”
Lu Guang considers this plan.
“It is still risky.”
“I’ll be cautious,” he tells him, “No one will notice, I promise.”
Lu Guang sighs.
“Alright,” he says, “But be careful,” and he scans the scene for something that Xiaoshi can use.
Once Cheng Xiaoshi is ready, he waits until the coast is clear. There is no one else around. This really is their best chance.
In the end, it takes a lot longer and a lot more fumbling than Lu Guang would have liked, and Xiaoshi almost gets caught. He doesn’t though, he makes it back home safely, or so they both think.
When they get back to the present, they frantically pull up the news, to find out if they managed to save her.
They did not.
Emma is still dead.
Worse still, they see a related article, about a different homicide, only days later. The person that they had possessed, who was not supposed to die that night, they were dead now, too.
Lu Guang feels a terrible pit form in his stomach, and he watches as Xiaoshi’s face pales in shock, as Xiaoshi sinks to the ground, trembling. Lu Guang comes down to meet him.
“I-” Xiaoshi says, his voice terribly small, “I did this. It’s my fault and I thought- I thought I could-”
“ We did this,” Lu Guang corrects him, his voice hoarse. He takes Xiaoshi’s hands, tries to comfort him, because he let Xiaoshi go along with this plan, he gave him the weapon to drive into this innocent person’s heart, even if the blood isn’t directly on his hands.
He feels a wave of nausea, and his chest constricting. All their efforts have only made things worse, it seems.
“Do you think-?” Xiaoshi asks, “Is it even possible to-?”
“I don’t know,” Lu Guang says, “I had hoped, but…”
They don’t open the photo studio for a week after that.
-
At the end of the terrible week, Cheng Xiaoshi snaps up with a start.
“Lu Guang!” he says, “Lu Guang we need to go down to the police station!”
“Now?” Lu Guang asks.
“Yes! We should have gone earlier, so much earlier, why didn’t I-,” and then something dawns in Xiaoshi’s expression. He pulls out his phone and starts looking for something.
“What are you-?”
“Aha! Here!”
Xiaoshi shows him a very blurry looking photo on his phone. It is a photo of their room, from the bottom bunk of the bed, out of focus and half obscured by the bedframe and blankets.
“What is this for?”
“I had a thought,” Xiaoshi says, tossing the phone at him, “About Emma’s case. Even if I can’t save her, maybe I can still do something.”
“How do you plan to do that with this photo?”
“I saw the last man Emma was with, I need to give the police his description. I should have given it to them a week ago. Her killer is still out there, and it might be him. Even if it’s too late to change things, we can help them catch the killer.”
Lu Guang thinks he is catching on.
“And the photo? It’s from a week ago?”
“A little less, but it gives the police more time, right? And it gives the killer less time to cover their tracks.”
“I-” Lu Guang says, “Alright, let’s do it.”
Lu Guang holds out his hand and-
-
The police come back in late August.
This time, it is about Emma’s case. Apparently, that case turned into the first in the series of related killings.
The second killing was that of the bystander that Xiaoshi had possessed.
“You gave us a statement about this case, back in April,” Captain Xiao tells them.
“I did,” Xiaoshi says.
We tried to save her, Lu Guang doesn’t say.
“Unfortunately, we still haven’t been able to catch the killer. But with your abilities, and our resources, we might be able to.”
“What do you mean?” Xiaoshi asks.
“We have surveillance footage, from the night Emma died. We have footage from the night other victims died, too. We have photos. We want you to go through them, and see what you can find out about him.”
Xiaoshi nods.
“We’ll do it.”
“Are you sure?” Lu Guang asks, remembering Emma’s case, and every other case they’ve taken like hers, “Do you think you can handle this?”
This is nothing like their usual jobs. Usually, if they must deal with something tragic, they only have to dive a few times, at most, and even that takes its toll.
Now there are hundreds of photos, hours of footage, and Xiaoshi will be experiencing what the witnesses lived through, or what the victims experienced firsthand.
Lu Guang isn’t even sure if he’ll be able to handle it, but for Xiaoshi, he knows it will be a hundred times worse.
“I’m sure,” Xiaoshi says, “We need to do this, we need to.”
“And if we try to save them?”
Xiaoshi looks aside, likely thinking of their most disastrous attempt with Emma.
“Only if I dive in as myself,” he says, “We owe it to them to try.”
“And if we can’t?”
“It’s still worth it,” Xiaoshi says, “Because this man is going to keep killing if we don’t stop him. It’s not just these people’s lives on the line, but all of his future victims as well.”
-
By mid-September, they are deep in a series of dives for this case.
They are building a web of connections. Lu Guang filters through the photos and videos to see which are most promising, and when he finds one, Cheng Xiaoshi dives in.
A lot of the evidence has come from surveillance footage, which means that Cheng Xiaoshi dives in as himself. They haven’t managed to save anyone yet, but they have so much more footage now, and infinitely more chances.
Xiaoshi prefers it this way, diving in as himself. Lu Guang does too, all things considered. It is risky, but the only alternative is to possess someone else and risk their own life instead, and Lu Guang has already seen how that played out once before.
It doesn’t mean that Lu Guang’s heart isn’t pounding in his chest as they trail their suspected killer through a trickle of people milling about on some drowsy August night. Tonight, the sixth victim will die. And if Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi don’t solve this case soon, a seventh person is likely to die too.
Cheng Xiaoshi is focused solely on the killer, and not paying attention to anyone else, aside from avoiding them.
He takes a step too far to the right than he was supposed to, and the timeline of events changes before Lu Guang can react and-
“ Cheng Xiaoshi?! ”
It’s one of their old friends from university, sounding a little bit drunk and far too loud for Lu Guang’s liking.
“Cheng Xiaoshi! How have you been? It’s been ages! How are you doing? I’ve heard through the grapevine that you’ve got your own photo studio going now, how has that been?
Xiaoshi freezes. Lu Guang notices the killer turn around at the sound of the commotion.
“I think you’re mistaking me for someone else,” Xiaoshi says, regaining his composure, “Don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, sorry!”
And then he keeps walking, keeps trailing the killer, who glances back, but then turns and enters a bar nearby. Cheng Xiaoshi steps inside, and orders something to drink.
“Lu Guang,” Xiaoshi speaks in his head, “How long will I have to be here? Is this where the sixth murder happens?”
“You will have to wait a little while,” Lu Guang tells him, “The victim doesn’t arrive for another half hour. Then the killer will approach him, and lead him out of the bar before-”
“Cheng Xiaoshi!”
Someone else is calling Xiaoshi’s name, and Lu Guang curses his luck, because if it’s another one of their friends-
It is not one of their friends.
Xiaoshi has locked eyes with the killer. The killer with the same face as the man who took Emma with him. The same hair, the same grin.
“This isn’t supposed to happen,” Lu Guang hisses, “Cheng Xiaoshi! Don’t look at him! What are you doing?!”
“It’s not my fault,” Xiaoshi hisses back, “It was an instinctual response, I didn’t know it was him!”
“Cheng Xiaoshi,” the killer says, striding over, “That’s your name, isn’t it?”
Lu Guang is panicking.
“Lie to him,” he tells him, “He can’t know your real name, he might track you down.”
“I know I know, I’m not stupid.”
“I’m sorry,” Xiaoshi says, “I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, or who you’re talking about.”
The killer looks at him, with gleeful eyes.
“I suppose doesn’t matter,” the killer says, and then, “But I bet you’d like to know my name, wouldn’t you?”
“I mean… I guess?” Xiaoshi says, still acting, “If you want to chat, then sure, sure. Who are you, anyway?”
The killer laughs, his eyes hollow, his grin sharp.
“Don’t lie to me,” he hisses,"I know you’ve been following me. I don’t know how, but you were even there when-” he cuts himself off, “Are you police? Do you think your rules apply to someone like me?”
“Someone like…?”
The man huffs, looking around.
“I don’t want to talk about it here,” he gestures to the door, and then false sweetness enters into his voice, “Come, I’ll tell you my name, and maybe then you’ll understand. Then perhaps you can even tell me yours.”
“Cheng Xiaoshi,” Lu Guang says, uneasy, “I don’t like this.”
“I know,” Xiaoshi says back, “But he might give us more information. Besides, I can always exit the dive if things go bad.
“Alright…” Lu Guang concedes, the pit in his stomach forming once more.
Xiaoshi follows the man outside, and into a blind spot from the surveillance cameras.
“I can’t see you.” Lu Guang tells him, “What’s going on?”
“Shhh, Lu Guang, he’s about to-”
Xiaoshi’s voice cuts off.
“Cheng Xiaoshi,” Lu Guang says, tense, “Are you alright? What’s happening?”
There’s more silence for a moment, and the pit in his stomach grows.
And Xiaoshi speaks again.
“Liu Min,” is what he says, “His name is Liu Min. Tell the police that it’s Liu Min.”
“Cheng Xiaoshi, what’s happening?”
“You were right, Lu Guang, I… just… hold on.”
Cheng Xiaoshi materializes back in the room, back on the couch beside him. His hands are in the air, clasped together, shaking.
“There…” Xiaoshi says, panting, “I managed to… get out… in time.”
There’s blood. Xiaoshi’s shirt is stained with blood. The stain is getting bigger, more is seeping out of it.
“Cheng Xiaoshi!” Lu Guang shouts, fumbling for his phone, and fumbling to grab him before he falls off the couch.
He dials the number for help and then puts it on speakerphone to free his hands. He catches Cheng Xiaoshi, cradling him in his arms, and eases him down to the floor.
“Liu Min,” Xiaoshi says, staring at where Lu Guang set the phone down, “That was his name. You need to tell them that it was Liu Min.”
“I’m getting you an ambulance first, idiot!” Lu Guang takes his hands and puts pressure on the wound- the wounds. Xiaoshi’s left abdomen seems to be torn to pieces.
“But you’ll tell them, right?” Xiaoshi sounds panicked, like he’s worried that for whatever reason Lu Guang won’t do it.
“ Yes ,” Lu Guang hisses, though it’s the last thing he’s worried about right now, he leans in further to put more pressure on the wound.
Somewhere distant, the call connects and a voice starts speaking out of the phone.
The next minutes feel like hours.
He talks to the person on the other end, tells them their address and Xiaoshi’s condition. And then he waits, his arms aching as he tries to keep the blood in. But he’s been stabbed in multiple places, and there might be internal damage that he can’t see. It’s nearly impossible to stop all of it on his own.
Xiaoshi is breathing heavily, gasping like he’s not getting enough air.
“Lu Guang,” he says, panting, “I think I’m going to die.”
Lu Guang’s arms are going numb.
“Lu Guang, you’re going to stop him right? He’s going to kill someone else, he’s-”
“ You’re not going to die ,” Lu Guang says, angry.
“They’re not going to get here in time, they’re-”
“No!” Lu Guang snaps, “Help is on the way.”
“No I’m not…” his breathing gets heavier, “Lu Guang, I’m…”
Xiaoshi stops talking, his gaze goes somewhere up to the ceiling, still breathing, Lu Guang listens to make sure he’s still breathing.
His heart is pounding in his ears. He grits his teeth and keeps pressing on the wound, for all the good that it is doing.
Xiaoshi is silent for a while after that.
When begins to speak again, it is mumbling and incoherent and Lu Guang doesn’t understand it anymore.
“Qiao Ling?” Xiaoshi says at one point, he sounds confused, like he is looking for her, and then he asks, “Lu Guang?”
“It’s just me,” Lu Guang says, exhausted, “Qiao Ling isn’t here right now.”
“Ah,” Xiaoshi says, sounding distant, then he murmurs, “Lu Guang.”
His eyes drift shut, and do not reopen.
“Cheng Xiaoshi!”
Lu Guang leans in further, tries to use his entire forearm now to push down on the wounds, desperate to stop the bleeding.
Cheng Xiaoshi keeps breathing, slower and slower and slower and…
In September, the first time around, the paramedics arrive too late.
-
Hours later, Lu Guang finds himself standing in the doorway to the photo studio. The police officer guides him inside and through the living room, which has been cordoned off by investigators trying to piece together exactly what happened.
He’s already told Captain Xiao exactly what happened. He gave him Liu Min’s name, just like Cheng Xiaoshi asked him to, but they need their investigation, they cannot just take his word on it.
“Come on,” the officer says, gently, “You’re almost there. Just grab some clothes and a toothbrush, and we’ll get you a place to clean up and rest.”
He lets Lu Guang off at his bedroom door, then goes to talk with the investigator, leaving him all alone.
The room has been left untouched since this afternoon. It is now a snapshot of his life with Cheng Xiaoshi, a life he can no longer return too.
There’s still a mug by Cheng Xiaoshi’s desk, half-filled with a drink that has been long since forgotten. Some of it has spilled, forming a ring around the edge of the cup. It will stain the desk if he doesn’t clean it up.
Lu Guang doesn’t touch it.
He gathers his clothes, careful not to touch any of Xiaoshi’s belongings as he does. He goes to the bathroom to grab his toothbrush, and finally sees what he looks like in the mirror. Gaunt eyes stare back, and he notices the blood that has dried in flecks on his face, Xiaoshi’s blood.
When he returns to their bedroom, something new catches his eye, and he stops. It is an old photo, one that he took, and one that Xiaoshi had taken and tacked up on the wall alongside others. It’s sentimental. It’s been there forever, Lu Guang almost didn’t notice it but…
Something in that photo is tugging at him, different to how it might if he were to just peer into it. Something changed, when Cheng Xiaoshi died. Something changed and he could feel it then, he can feel it now.
The photo stares back at him, beckoning him closer.
He could just reach out and… he could…
-
In October, the second time around, Lu Guang finds himself bleeding out on a couch, a knife wound twisting in his abdomen.
As he curls in on himself, he wonders if death truly is unavoidable, like he has been saying all this time. He wonders if this is the price he must pay to allow Xiaoshi to live.
In October, the second time around, Lu Guang lets go where, in September, the first time around, Cheng Xiaoshi had fought so hard to stay.
In October, the second time around, Lu Guang wakes up.