Replacing the Evil Way

Chapter 98: Welcome back

Black, an endless sea of black.

The thick, ink-like blackness was so familiar to He Wei, as he floated within it in a weightless state, somersaulting at will, fully enjoying the thrill of space travel.

Gradually, points of light began to appear around him, slowly arranging themselves into beams of light. He Wei watched quietly as they interweaved before his eyes, forming a massive cube that enveloped him.

Each of these beams of light represented a part of his life’s journey, but for some reason, this time the points of light were spaced further apart, and the beams were loosely arranged. The gigantic cube they formed seemed as fragile as a butterfly’s wing, ready to collapse at any moment, and He Wei found it not at all strange.

“We meet again.” 

The low voice sounded again.

He Wei’s reaction was calm as if he had expected the appearance of this voice. After returning to his childhood following the accidental exchange, he should have gone home with He Lu, but then the surroundings plunged into darkness again, and then his body floated, bringing him to this weightless space.

Time here could be visualized, and every moment was like a carefully arranged frame of a photograph. Even though He Wei was a layman in physics, having watched some educational videos, he understood that this level of detail couldn’t be achieved in three-dimensional space. This place might be in the fourth dimension, the fifth dimension, or even higher dimensions.

“Where is this?” He Wei reached out and grabbed a point of light from his flag-raising ceremony nine years ago, asking with curiosity.

“This is where all your memories begin, every moment of your past can be found here, including the parts you’ve always wanted to preserve and the ones you’ve tried to forget. They are all here.”

He Wei then grabbed another point of light, depicting the scene where he and He Lu embraced tightly after their parents’ divorce. He smiled, knowing that his parents had never actually divorced and that the person he was hugging was not his own brother.

“You asked me if this is my life. It is and it isn’t. I may have experienced it, but it doesn’t truly belong to me.”

Suddenly, the cube flipped, and the frames within the points of light still showed He Wei, but each frame depicted unfamiliar scenes: collapsing on the track during a run at school due to exhaustion, tears welling up after being bullied by He Lu, and crying in the restroom after being mistreated at work.

He Wei’s emotions were mixed. These were the life trajectories of Employee He Wei, a man who had always been timid and had faced setbacks at every turn. Coupled with his controlling and domineering brother, he grew up introverted and silent, avoiding interaction with others, always keeping his head down, and trying to hide in the crowd.

If it weren’t for the exchange during childhood, their destinies would have taken completely different paths. The personality of employee He Wei might have changed entirely, and he might not have faced these difficulties in his life.

“These don’t belong to another He Wei either.” the voice said.

He Wei nodded. “Yes, we’ve switched back.”

Cracks appeared in the cube, as if scissors had cut through these beams of light. The points of light, originally sparsely arranged, were all in disarray, scattered like pearls on a broken string. The gigantic cube crumbled instantly, and the life trajectories of Officer He Wei and Employee He Wei became intertwined, making it momentarily difficult to distinguish between them.

“I’ve been waiting, waiting for you to make the right decision. Countless times before, you made the same choice, which is so typical of your character—once you’ve decided on something, you persistently stick to it, stubborn and unwavering.”

A series of points of light were neatly arranged in front of He Wei, and he saw himself meeting and falling in love with Cheng Zesheng in parallel worlds. After the first loop, Cheng Zesheng died, and he started trying to save Cheng Zesheng, repeating some of the things he had done, but without exception, the end result was always him being strangled and the loop starting over.

The points of light were dense, and in all the loops he had experienced, there was not a single one with Cheng Zhenqing. From the initial confusion to later realizing he was in a death loop, every step and choice was the same, and the scenes in the pictures were uniform as if they had been copied and pasted.

“How could there be so many loops? And where is Cheng Zhenqing?” He Wei asked. Based on the information he had received from Cheng Zhenqing and given that this was the 13th loop, the arrangement of points of light here had exceeded dozens or even hundreds of times what Cheng Zhenqing knew.

The voice chuckled, “Because I found that without external interference, you will always follow the same path, making identical choices without exception, as precise as a machine. So Cheng Zhenqing plays a crucial role, as he introduces variability into your decisions each time, deviating from the normal loop trajectory.”

“This is exactly what I wanted. I’ve been silently watching here, seeing where your memory points of light show joy. When you discovered the secret of the exchange, I knew this time you would definitely be able to break this loop.”

He Wei was stunned, not expecting Cheng Zhenqing to join midway, and the points of light he currently saw were from the loops before Cheng Zhenqing joined. After he joined, every word and action would have a butterfly effect, influencing He Wei’s judgment and ultimately allowing He Wei to touch the essence of the matter.

“What about him? Where is he now?”

“Now that you’ve broken free from this loop, his mission is complete. Naturally, he will return to his own life trajectory.”

He Wei was taken aback. Cheng Zhenqing was already dead in his world, and now he was going back to his own life trajectory. Wouldn’t that mean… Thinking of Cheng Zhenqing’s usual annoying appearance, although he found him irritating, he couldn’t deny that Cheng Zhenqing played a significant role in the loop, including at the crucial moment when, if not for him charging out, He Wei would have been strangled and entered the next loop.

Just letting him go like this… He Wei gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice, “If I go back, from where would it start?”

“You’ll find out when the time comes.”

“Will my memories be retained?”

“Don’t ask so many questions, just go.”

The points of light in front of him formed a river of stars leading forward, and at the end of the star river, there was a warm and bright beam of light.

He Wei took two steps but turned back, “One last question, who are you?”

“Me?” The points of light converged into a human form before He Wei. “I am you,” ‘he’ said.

The translucent, radiant hand of ‘him’ touched He Wei’s forehead, and He Wei’s mind was instantly flooded with a multitude of images:

After the fate exchange, ‘he’ was born here. ‘He’ watched as the points of light continued to multiply in a void of darkness as time passed, and He Wei grew continuously, finally reaching this point in the loop.

‘He’ witnessed He Wei’s continuous struggles in the loop, finally having the opportunity to meet him, but He Wei’s choice was always a life after the exchange. ‘He’ had to stay here all along, feeling the passage of time, lonely and desolate, waiting for each He Wei to come, hoping he would make the right decision.

Gradually, waiting became a habit, and ‘his’ inner expectations turned into confusion, then into a calmness like still water. Just when ‘he’ had despaired, not knowing how much longer ‘he’ would have to wait here, this particular He Wei finally arrived, the one who had refused the exchange in childhood and returned to the normal life trajectory.

“Thank you.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the human figure formed by the points of light instantly disintegrated, like radiant pearls, illuminating the dense darkness. After a few seconds, they gradually dimmed, and everything returned to normal.

It should be me saying thank you.

He Wei silently thought in his heart as he walked on the river of stars under his feet, step by step, toward that bright light.

The dazzling white light occupied his vision, and in the blink of an eye, He Wei appeared in an unfamiliar room, dressed in a blue and white school uniform with a small backpack slung over his shoulder, as if he was getting ready to go to school.

The door was pushed open forcefully, and He Lu stood in the doorway, his brow furrowed as he spoke arrogantly, “Hey! Why are you daydreaming again? You’re going to be late for school!”

He Wei gave a faint smile and rubbed his wrist.

He Lu instantly covered his forehead, lowered his head, and his tone became much more obedient, “Ge, come on, let’s go. We’ll be punished for being late by having to clean the blackboard.”

He Wei picked up the blue cap hanging on the chair and looked back at his youthful self in the mirror. The student ID card on his chest had one line of text—Dingjia Road Elementary School, Class 3 (2), He Wei.

It was a fresh start.

He Wei took a deep breath, put on the cap, and said, “Let’s go.”

———

Cheng Zhenqing drifted in the darkness, dazed and disoriented. He didn’t know how long had passed, and the sounds around him gradually became noisy, making him increasingly irritated. He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt unusually heavy.

A basin of water was splashed onto his head, completely waking him up. Cheng Zhenqing reluctantly opened his eyes and, through the dripping water droplets, saw several burly men surrounding him. One of them had dark skin, and a fierce scar ran from his eyebrow to the corner of his lip. He was speaking Burmese.

Cheng Zhenqing shuddered all over, harboring an intense hatred for the man in front of him. He had glared at him with all his might before he died, etching the man’s face deeply into his memory and swearing that even in his next life, he wouldn’t let him go.

Well, he didn’t need another life now. He found himself back in this blood-soaked warehouse, still in the clutches of the electric chair. His hands were bound behind him, and he had no idea how much torture he had endured before this point. His whole body was screaming with pain.

He had either broken two or three ribs; his breathing was labored and difficult, and his body was shouting in agony. He moved his fingers slightly, finding that his finger bones hadn’t been smashed and his fingernails were intact. It seemed his body hadn’t been forcibly injected with poison either. It appeared that he was still in the early stages of torture; the main course had yet to come.

Cheng Zhenqing’s mind was in turmoil. Where was He Wei? Where had he gone? Had he broken the loop?

And why was he back here, at this horrifying moment? Instead of enduring torture again, he would rather disappear on the spot than be subjected to the drug traffickers’ torment and humiliation.

Suddenly, another man, this one with a tiger tattoo on his chest, grabbed Cheng Zhenqing by the neck, forcing him to lift his head. Using awkward Mandarin, he asked, “Where’s the Nidi copper fire?”

Cheng Zhenqing smiled and retorted in Burmese, asking about his father, mother, and ancestors from generations ago. He even spat, and the saliva landed precisely on the man’s right cheek. The man was infuriated, his anger trembling, and his muscular arm swung, punching Cheng Zhenqing in the stomach. Cheng Zhenqing furrowed his brow as the tremendous impact almost turned his stomach upside down, acid churning in his throat, threatening to spill out.

The man cursed in Burmese and gesticulated wildly, with the scar-faced man joining in. Cheng Zhenqing heard them say they were going to use high-purity drugs on him. He clenched his fists tightly, unable to resist the physiological fear despite having long ago accepted his fate. His whole body trembled slightly.

Scar-face, sitting on a chair, waved his hand, ordering his henchmen to prepare the “goods.” In no time, a syringe was brought over. Cheng Zhenqing widened his eyes, and his pupils dilated in a seismic shock as he watched the sharp needle get closer, its tip piercing his flesh.

Suddenly, chaos erupted outside. Gunshots, explosions, and shouts rang out incessantly. Someone burst into the warehouse, shouting, “Police!” Cheng Zhenqing felt puzzled. When he had been arrested earlier, the drug squad had been trapped in the mountains, unable to call for backup. Could it be the Burmese authorities?

The warehouse descended into chaos, with the traffickers fleeing like dogs with their tails between their legs. Scar Face had no time to deal with Cheng Zhenqing anymore, and he and his men made a quick escape. Soon, the warehouse door was riddled with the sound of gunfire. A few minutes later, the world fell silent, and the door was pushed open again.

“I didn’t expect to see you in such a sorry state.”

 A tall man in a camouflage uniform walked in. He had a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder and approached Cheng Zhenqing. Crouching down, he looked at him and said, “Hey, are you dead or alive? If you don’t speak up soon, I’ll report that the hostage is dead.”

“…” Cheng Zhenqing’s eyelids finally lifted slightly. He was temporarily blinded, unable to see the man’s face, but the voice was familiar, familiar to the point of disbelief.

The ropes binding his hands were cut, and as soon as he was freed, Cheng Zhenqing slumped to one side, caught by a pair of hands. The man lifted him up, saying, “It’s really me who came just in time. If I had been a little later, you’d be half-dead by now. How do you plan to thank me?”

“…” Cheng Zhenqing stammered, his voice unusually weak, “How…are you here?”

“Why wouldn’t I be here?” The man laughed. “I’ve been living here for over twenty years, still proudly serving as a People’s Policeman. Did you think I wouldn’t come to rescue you? Touched or not?”

Cheng Zhenqing stared for a moment, then suddenly realized. Joy welled up in his heart, starting as a small stream and turning into a mighty river. He couldn’t help but burst into laughter, ignoring the pain in his chest from the laughter, and he couldn’t catch his breath. He coughed violently, spitting out two mouthfuls of blood.

“Hey! Why are you coughing up blood? Cheng Zhenqing, you better hold on. It wasn’t easy for me to come and save you!” The man quickened his steps, shouting as he walked, “Wu Xiaolei! Bring the stretcher! And the first aid kit!”

Cheng Zhenqing laughed even louder, coughing several times in a row before saying, “Don’t worry, I won’t die. I’m just happy, hahaha… cough, cough…”

“…Just don’t laugh so hard that you cry.” 

They walked out of the dilapidated wooden house, and the air was filled with the smell of gunpowder. The fires, bodies, and remnants of a rubber plantation bore witness to a fierce anti-drug operation that had taken place here.

Footsteps approached. “Captain He! The stretcher is here! There’s a vehicle waiting outside. We’ll get Captain Cheng to receive medical treatment as quickly as possible!”

The two men worked together to place Cheng Zhenqing on the stretcher. His eyes temporarily lost focus, but in the hazy grayness, he looked in He Wei’s direction and grasped his hand.

“Welcome back,” Cheng Zhenqing said.

He Wei smiled and squeezed his hand firmly. “You too.”