WC ⋆ Chapter 1

23:55.

On Jiangbin Road’s Pedestrian Street, next to the city’s largest New Year’s Eve countdown screen, above the bustling crowd, on the second-floor terrace of a café.

Qi Lin lowered his head and took a bite of a red bean popsicle. His right hand, reddened by the cold wind, shivered as he turned to the next page of his notebook. Tiny words filled the page, with a few keywords highlighted in red pen.

23:56:21, Xu Baili called, inviting him to a New Year’s party. Agreed twice, declined twice, had no effect on the loop.

The next second, the phone in his pocket buzzed.

Qi Lin sniffed, glanced at the clock on the big screen at the street corner, 23:56:21, not a second off.

“Xiao Qi, are you coming to the New Year’s party? It’s a last-minute gathering, all familiar faces, the subway runs all night, and I’ll cover your travel expenses.”

Qi Lin stared blankly at the rotating second hand on the screen, reciting lines as if they were deeply ingrained in his mind, calmly replying, “Maybe another day, I’m at Jiangbin Road.”

Xu Baili said something else, and it felt like Qi Lin had two lines of karaoke lyrics hanging in his mind. As each familiar word came out of the other person’s mouth, the lyrics turned blue.

The neon lights flickered before his eyes, pink heart-shaped balloons dotted the lively, crowded scene, music filled the air, the atmosphere was intense, and people’s high spirits pushed the clock’s hands closer to midnight.

To Qi Lin, midnight was just a reset, the end of a day he couldn’t cross.

He had been stuck in a single-day loop on December 31st for five times.

He didn’t know how it started or how it would end. He tried his best to conduct control experiments on everything around him, but nothing worked. No matter what changes he made, a new reset would arrive on schedule.

He even spent a full 24 hours wandering around the city, but forget about murder cases or romantic encounters like in anime, no one paid attention to his passing except for the Old Man at the breakfast stall.

Qi Lin closed the notebook, stuffed it into his down jacket pocket, and continued gnawing on the popsicle. Xu Baili was still reciting his lines in his ear, going in one ear and out the other.

He realized that changing insignificant side plots was as meaningless as plucking a few cat hairs. In this loop, he began trying to stir up big events.

For example, he spent tens of thousands to buy an ad on the Jiang’an Building’s exterior screen, displaying a missing person notice, trying to discover if anyone else was in the loop, but unfortunately, no one responded.

Besides that, he bought over thirty firework tubes, hired a group of people to distribute them in various corners nearby, planning to set them off at 59 minutes, creating a spectacular variable in the city’s most eye-catching place.

For the first time in over twenty years, he went out to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The noisy sea of people was headache-inducing, but he had no choice. There was no place in the city more eye-catching than here.

If there were indeed other loopers, Qi Lin bet they would gather here at night.

Xu Baili’s call was nearing its end, with only three sentences left before it would hang up.

“…not coming either, I thought I could get him…”

“—Wait!” Qi Lin snapped back to reality, his nerves jumping as if electrified. The lyrics in his mind suddenly deviated. He was sure this sentence hadn’t appeared in the last loop. “What did you just say?”

Xu Baili hesitated for a moment, then repeated questioningly, “All drinks are 20% off?”

“The next sentence.” Qi Lin felt a cold sweat break out on his back.

“Fan Zi isn’t coming either.”

Qi Lin tightly gripped his phone, the cold wind lifting his bangs, but he couldn’t feel the chill anymore. The excitement rising from his feet swept through his body in an instant. He didn’t even dare to blink, staring intently at the clock’s hand turning to 23:58, quickly asking, “Why isn’t he coming? He should be coming, he’s come every time before.”

Xu Baili naturally didn’t truly understand his words, thinking he was referring to past gatherings, but he stammered for a long time without answering.

There were only two minutes left before the loop would end. Qi Lin propped one hand on the terrace railing, the popsicle brushing against the iron railing. His heart was about to jump out of his chest. This was the first difference he’d encountered in five loops: “Xu Baili? Why?”

“Because… uh, Jiang Yishen, Jiang Yishen said he wanted to take Fan Zi out shopping tonight.”

“Jiang…” Qi Lin’s pupils shrank tightly, his gaze falling on the crowd below at that moment.

Xu Baili’s voice suddenly seemed distant: “Didn’t you two break up? I thought I shouldn’t mention him on such a good day, bad luck… Qi Lin?”

Qi Lin’s throat felt stuck with milk and red beans, unable to make any sound, his eyes fixed on a figure at the bottom edge of the screen.

That person was wearing a black down jacket, ears turned red by the wind, hair cut very short with a spiky side part, the upper half of the face with sharp eyebrows and eyes, the lower half buried in a fluffy black scarf.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of several fireworks exploding rose from all directions, echoing the thirty-second countdown on the big screen, colorful streamers fluttered in the wind, the crowd erupted in cheers and screams, pushing the night’s atmosphere to a climax.

The person below heard the sound, looked up, and happened to meet Qi Lin’s gaze on the second-floor terrace.

Separated by swirling golden streamers, under the dazzling lights, accompanied by the deep drum sound effects in the countdown audio, Qi Lin and his ex-boyfriend Jiang Yishen locked eyes for a full three seconds.

The tightly strung chord in his mind exploded together.

Yesterday, this position was occupied by two unfamiliar passersby—variables had appeared.

Qi Lin almost didn’t think, immediately turning and running downstairs.

Plunging into the sea of people was like raindrops falling into the ocean. He charged through the tightly packed crowd, not needing to look up at the screen. The flickering lights above and the shouts around him were helping him count down.

—”10! 9! 8!”

Qi Lin’s palms were sweaty, he felt his mental state on the verge of collapse, teetering on the brink of breaking down in the repeatedly looping single-day cycle, the feeling of being abandoned by the whole world like a dull knife grinding bones, panic, helplessness, numbness devouring him.

At this moment, the world’s only “variable” appeared, finally stirring his dull emotions, becoming the last straw that broke his strong resolve. He didn’t care who this person was, let alone if it was his ex-boyfriend, even if it were a dog, he would pounce and hug it, kissing it wildly.

“6! 5! 4!”

Qi Lin watched helplessly as the loop approached its end, pushing through layers of people blocking his way, colorful streamers falling on his head, nose tip.

He seemed to hear someone calling his name, but it was quickly drowned out by the countdown.

Qi Lin couldn’t get close to the edge near the screen, only watching Jiang Yishen from afar in the surging crowd.

Jiang Yishen was a few steps away from him, those few steps filled with an immovable human wall.

“3! 2! 1—”

He stopped running.

Jiang Yishen was tall, looking over the layers of heads at Qi Lin, the dancing lights falling on them, like a grand farewell.

“—Happy New Year!”

The scene froze at this moment, fading, twisting into a bizarre flashback, everything before his eyes like a montage film.

The sound faded away, like sinking into the sea, blurring into a sharp ringing, suddenly piercing the darkness before his consciousness was about to sleep!

Qi Lin’s foot slipped, and he suddenly sat up from the bed.

The repeated rewinds intensified his mental stress, his heart pounding wildly. He relied almost entirely on instinct, turning on the bedside lamp, grabbing the notebook on the table, drawing a deep and heavy timeline, burying his head in recording.

He had just finished the fifth loop, now it was the sixth.

Qi Lin drew the “6” so hard it nearly tore the paper.

The most terrifying thing about the time loop was the blurring of memory. He couldn’t forget the current time’s number, couldn’t forget the details of each loop, getting lost was extremely frightening, he had to ensure his mind stayed clear.

Qi Lin drew page after page of tables by hand, comparing his actions for every hour in the first five loops, including choices made, triggered side plots, people encountered.

The phone beside his pillow suddenly vibrated.

The messy handwriting abruptly stopped, Qi Lin glanced with his peripheral vision and saw the caller ID was Jiang Yishen.

Jiang Yishen.

Qi Lin blinked his dry eyes. He remembered that moment, the frenzied crowd before midnight, the dull chime, the intense music.

In this fixed loop playing like a single disc, in a world where gears interlocked, the only variable that saw him, felt him, came towards him.

This phone call breaking the silence lasted a full 50 seconds, Qi Lin’s mind was a mess because he suddenly realized he couldn’t remember many details.

The notebook recorded the subway at 3 PM, but in the third loop, which station did he get off at?

After getting off, he encountered a stranger asking for directions, which loop was that? Did he give directions?

The small night lamp barely lit a corner of the notebook, Qi Lin lowered his head, his fair, slender neck bent into a fragile arc, the protruding wrist bone pressed against the notebook’s edge, fingers unconsciously rubbing the pen.

That clean, pretty face turned pale, Qi Lin gritted his teeth, turned the notebook over a page, and re-engraved the contents of his mind.

Sweat beaded on his forehead, with the last word falling, he weakly tossed the notebook onto the bed, grabbed the phone, and called Jiang Yishen back.

Qi Lin pressed the cold phone hard against his cheek, listening to the dial tone, looking at the clock in the small rental room, 12:04.

At 12:04 in the last loop, he filled a brand-new notebook with content, swallowed a sleeping pill, forcing himself to sleep for four hours.

The call connected.

Qi Lin could hear his own pulse, he wanted to say “Is it convenient to talk?”, and also wanted to ask “Do you remember?”, but Jiang Yishen spoke first, he seemed to be moving, his voice a bit unstable, with the sound of the wind.

Jiang Yishen asked, “Where do you live?”

Qi Lin opened his mouth, his heart thudding back into his belly, he walked to the window, pulled open the curtain, and looked at the city still brightly lit at midnight, saying, “I live…”

“Alright, I remember now, wait for me, ten minutes.” Jiang Yishen interrupted him unceremoniously.

Qi Lin was choked, he suddenly forgot the confusion and panic just now, as if being trapped in an endless loop was no longer a big deal, nothing was more important than talking to Jiang Yishen, he instinctively replied, “You remembered again, what did you remember?”

Jiang Yishen “tsk”ed, reluctantly saying, “Before we broke up, I ordered takeout to your place.”