Time returned to the morning of the previous day.

When Zhang Jingchan woke up, he found himself in a familiar place: the office at the Furuida factory. He was wearing an iron-gray suit, his head pillowed on one arm.

Liu Ying, dressed in a blue business suit and skirt, walked toward him. “Ah Lan, how did you fall asleep? Are you catching a cold?”

Zhang Jingchan slowly sat up straight and said, “I’m fine. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

Liu Ying placed a cup of tea in front of him and sat down beside him, saying, “They’ll be here soon.”

Zhang Jingchan lowered his head to drink tea. Liu Ying looked at her “younger brother” with gentle eyes and said, “Your brain is still the smartest. Yesterday those two went to beg Zhang Boss for forgiveness on their knees, and Zhang Boss actually believed them and didn’t submit the evidence he has. But I still feel uneasy about tonight’s matter. Do we really have to be so ruthless? Those are several lives. What if the police find out?”

Zhang Jingchan pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose. Xu Yi’s prescription wasn’t high, only about 150 degrees. Zhang Jingchan simply took them off and placed them on the table, rubbing his brow bone. “I know what I’m doing.”

Liu Ying said nothing more, only feeling that her “younger brother” was especially quiet today. Perhaps he really had been working hard for everyone these days and hadn’t rested well.

She didn’t see that beneath Zhang Jingchan’s palm, his eyes were sharp. In just a moment, many thoughts had raced through his mind. He decided to call Li Weiyi immediately.

With just one phone call, he could determine whether the person on the other end was the real Li Weiyi.

However, at that moment, Zhang Fengming and Cheng Chuan rushed in. Cheng Chuan stared at him with eagle-like eyes. “Is everything prepared for tonight? There absolutely can’t be any mistakes, or we’ll both be implicated!”

Zhang Jingchan stared at him and didn’t detect any unusual emotions.

For the four-person gang, there was nothing more urgent and important than tonight. If Zhang Jingchan avoided the situation to make a phone call at this time, it would inevitably make them suspicious.

Zhang Jingchan put down his phone and said, “When I handle things, you can rest assured. Everything with Liu Guizhi and Li Yilin has been arranged.”

Liu Ying naturally sided with her brother. She glanced at them reproachfully. “Ah Lan arranged the Li Yilin chess piece so long ago, more thoroughly than we all thought. What’s there to worry about? Just wait until tonight is over, everyone divides the money and parts ways, and from then on we’ll have nothing to do with Fu Ming.”

The four discussed some details about tonight’s operation. After a while, Zhang Jingchan stood up and said, “That’s about it. You think about whether there’s anything we’ve overlooked. I’m going to the bathroom to smoke a cigarette.”

The other three paid no attention.

As Zhang Jingchan walked toward the door, Liu Ying’s phone rang. She looked at the number, her expression changing. She answered: “Hello.” Whatever the other party said, her expression became increasingly grave. She looked up toward the direction where her “younger brother” had left.

As soon as Zhang Jingchan went out the door, he took out his phone and called Li Weiyi. It rang seven or eight times, but the other party didn’t answer. Zhang Jingchan was about to call again when suddenly urgent footsteps sounded behind him. He turned his head and saw several workers holding iron rods running out from the factory building to the side and rear.

Zhang Jingchan took off running.

Liu Ying’s voice rang out behind him. “Catch him!”

During the last nighttime exploration of the factory, Xu Yi hadn’t shown his face. Those thuggish workers obeyed Liu Ying completely. Zhang Jingchan understood that Xu Yi’s consistent style was to hide in the background—Liu Ying was the actual person in charge at Furuida. So now when Liu Ying told the workers to catch her “younger brother,” the workers would have no objections. Zhang Fengming and Cheng Chuan probably still hadn’t figured out what was happening.

Zhang Jingchan guessed that Xu Yi must have tipped off his sister. This woman Liu Ying was truly decisive enough.

…

“So how did you escape?” Li Weiyi was listening nervously to death.

“Fortunately, Xu Yi’s car was parked not far away. I drove off, but two workers blocked me for a moment and I dropped my phone.”

No wonder when she called back later, no one answered.

“Were you injured?”

Zhang Jingchan lowered his head and rolled up one sleeve, showing her his fair, lean wrist with a thick, purplish-black swollen bruise.

No wonder the phone had fallen.

Li Weiyi avoided the injury and gently held his palm, lowering her head to blow on it. Such a childish gesture—she did it earnestly, and he watched earnestly.

“What happened after that?”

“At that time, I hadn’t yet realized that Xu Yi planned to replace me. The first thing I did was go to your family’s courtyard and dig up the third copy of the evidence.”

Li Weiyi was startled, then her eyes lit up. “You wanted to…”

Zhang Jingchan finally couldn’t resist and touched her fuzzy head. “No matter what identity I have now, no matter what Xu Yi wants to do, as long as I give the evidence to the police, they can’t escape.”

Li Weiyi’s heart trembled.

Zhang Jingchan’s choice was exactly the same as what Xu Yi, after disguising himself as him, had predicted his choice would be. Both had submitted the evidence to Ding Chenmo alone.

However, Xu Yi hadn’t expected the existence of a third copy of the evidence.

She sighed and said, “He and you really are kindred spirits.”

Zhang Jingchan pinched the back of her head. Li Weiyi met his cold gaze and finally shut her mouth.

“Did Old Ding believe you?”

“At first he was half-believing, half-doubting. But Xu Yi did something unnecessary.” Zhang Jingchan gave a slightly mocking smile. “He deleted some content from the evidence that was most unfavorable to himself.”

Li Weiyi froze, then her entire body turned cold.

She remembered yesterday at the villa, during that time waiting for Ding Chenmo and the others to arrive, that “Zhang Jingchan” had her go counsel Wu Xinhui. Later she had also thought this was just him performing Zhang Jingchan more convincingly to gain everyone’s trust. She also remembered that when she went back upstairs, she saw that person personally hand the USB drive to Ding Chenmo.

Since he had sent her away, naturally he could also find a reason to send Zhang Moyun away.

“Fortunately…” Li Weiyi murmured. “He’s too terrifying…”

Fortunately, Zhang Moyun had prepared a third copy of evidence. Fortunately, she had never mentioned this evidence to that person.

And fortunately, Zhang Jingchan had made such a crucial and decisive choice at the first opportunity—submitting the evidence.

She hadn’t spoken these words aloud, but Zhang Jingchan understood all her unspoken meanings. He touched her temple hair again and said, “You performed very well. If he had gotten more information from you, I would have been more passive. When did you realize something was wrong with him?”

“From the first moment I saw him, I felt something was off. I started suspecting him after coming to this apartment. So, precisely because he deleted part of the evidence, by comparing the two copies, Old Ding believed you were Zhang Jingchan?”

So that was it.

When she first saw Ding Chenmo at the Zhang house, she felt so awkward. Ding Chenmo had looked at that USB drive over and over—because at that time, he had just received a copy of evidence from Zhang Jingchan, who had told him about the unbelievable time travel and soul swapping. Then that “Zhang Jingchan” had also given him a copy of the same evidence. It would have been strange if Ding Chenmo hadn’t been confused!

But as long as Ding Chenmo saw the difference in the evidence, he understood who was real.

This really was destined by fate—Xu Yi had outsmarted himself.

Zhang Jingchan nodded. “Actually, the last time when I became a vegetable, Old Ding should have already noticed something. But he accepted it this time faster than I expected. He seems already very familiar with me. I think the timeline is also affecting him.”

Li Weiyi sighed.

The timeline—the timeline that gave them hope at the end of a dead-end road, the timeline whose butterfly effect was uncontrollable, the timeline whose interference and overlap with each person who experienced it was becoming increasingly obvious.

She felt even more urgently that this cycle must end this time and not be overwritten again. Otherwise, she didn’t know what would happen to these people—would it be the complete fusion of countless parallel lines, or an even more serious distortion and chaos?