The Beginning

Chapter 13: The Ninth Cycle of Time (VII)

The results of the tests came back quickly and both young men were in good health with no problems or the possibility of being high on drugs.

When the results came in, all the police officers were left with a major headache.

The "testimonies" that they give are not unbelievable, they are simply a "fantasy", not many people dare to write novels like this, and it is basically impossible to convince people.

"Take another close look at their experience, focusing on what they say in the internet, their friendships, to see if there's any possibility of a cult."

Officer Du struggled to make reasonable speculation, "Some cults are usually buried deep, and if this is the case, it's best to get rid of them all together."

While the police officers in charge of the forensic investigation went to work, Officer Du's team didn't stay idle either.

"Anyway, they knew there were explosives in the car without us telling them, and they were able to tell us when and where the explosion was expected to happen, so if they're not the main culprits, they're at least co-conspirators or people with knowledge. ..."

Officer Du's face is sullen.

"Next, it's just a matter of questioning."

So, instead of the police trusting them more, the two young men's confessions pushed them into the abyss of being "suspects".

When the interrogation room was replaced with tighter security and more equipment, Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun knew that their plan B had also failed.

Round after round of more severe questioning began.

"How did you and Li Shiqing meet? Through some kind of organisation?"

Officer Du looks through Xiao Heyun's file and asks tentatively.

"Will you be transferred to W because Li Shiqing is here?"

"No, I didn't know her before I got on this bus."

Xiao Heyun was already tired and said with little energy, "I only remember her and the driver's uncle in the car when she dragged me off, I don't know anything you ask me."

"So it was by arrangement with someone else that you got into the same car? Who was it?"

The glare of the arraignment lights shone directly on Xiao Heyun's face, so strong that any expression on his face was visible, and Boy, who was wearing glasses, was blinded by the glare, which seemed to take on substance, like a million needles stabbing him at the same time, making even his temples ache.

"If someone did arrange it, it was probably God ......"

Xiao Heyun smiles bitterly to himself.

Unfortunately, no one could appreciate his humour.

"What was your and Li Shiqing's mission? Was it to cover for the real terrorists?"

Officer Du frowned, "Would you guys get off early because you got an early blast time?"

"We didn't have a mission, we would get off early because we had been through this many times, the tanker at that intersection was a 'bump in the road' that we hadn't avoided several times before and none of us wanted to get blown up, it hurt too much."

Xiao Heyun mumbles, in a trance: "The burns hurt too much ......"

Officer Du looked to the expert who had arranged it aside, who shook his head with him and said that he could not tell a lie from his facial expression.

Boy's eyes were already glazed over by the light and he couldn't help himself, his eyelids drooped and he tried to hide from the glare by closing his eyes.

"No closing your eyes!"

Officer Du walked up to Boy and suddenly shouted into his ear.

"Ho!"

Boy, who was already in poor spirits, shivered with fright at such a yell and regained his wits.

"Keep asking."

Officer Du looked up at Mr. Zhang and gestured for him to ask.

"I know you're sleepy, it's late and you've been tossing and turning all day, everyone is tired, we're tired too and we can understand that."

Mr. Zhang said kindly, "Look, even if we believed the statement you gave earlier and made a statement, the public and the families of the victims would not believe it. We need to be responsible to society, we can't rely on this to fool people. Even if these are your actual experiences, they lack sufficient conditions to convince people, for example, how did the bomb get on board?"

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"I don't know."

Boy's response was getting slower and slower, "If I knew how the bomb went up, I would have solved the problem myself with Li Shiqing and wouldn't have come to the police station ......"

"So you still want to help us, right? Then please think about the details more. Is it possible that the bomb in the car was remotely controlled? You said you heard a mobile phone ringing, could that phone have been the remote control device?"

Mr. Zhang is a good guide.

"I don't know, I never saw where the bomb was from start to finish and I don't know where in the car it went off."

Boy shook his head off and tried to remember, "I don't think it was at the front of the car, I've been in the front position with Li Shiqing before and it seemed to lift the heat flow from the rear."

Mr. Du, who had already lowered his voice, asked his colleagues from the trace section to help him focus on the rear of the car.

Previously the bus was almost misled as to the cause of the explosion because it was a collision with a tanker, and it was the Traffic Accident Division and the Dangerous Goods Transport Department who later examined it together and deduced from the rupture of the tank that there was an external cause of the explosion before the case was transferred to the criminal police side.

Because of this, survey and laboratory time were limited, and because the extent of the damage at the scene was so great, no particularly useful clues have been obtained to date.

Exactly which type of bomb and by what means it was detonated is not known.

"The rear? Which rear exactly? Is it the last row of the car, or the last few rows?"

Mr. Zhang A little bit of coaxing.

"I don't remember, I really don't. ......"

Boy tried to remember, but couldn't remember if there was anyone sitting behind him.

Who rides a bus and has nothing to do with looking at who's sitting in the back?

Not to mention that all they had wanted before was for the driver to stop and let them off, and it was the driver who had the most communication, not the passengers!

When questions about the explosives were unsuccessful, the officers turned to questions such as "What was Li Shiqing's role in this" and "What was the purpose of the bomb", questions that Boy with glasses simply could not answer.

"I really didn't know Li Shiqing before. She is a victim like me ......"

The more Boy spoke, the more aggrieved he became, his spirit taut as a string, and not knowing when it would break.

"We are obviously all victims, no, we are all survivors, and it is not fair for you to treat us like this!"

He wailed.

"I know it was hard for you to escape, you were all out of your depth, so I was eager to help you." Mr. Zhang is like a great coachman, pulling on Boy whenever he's on the verge of an emotional breakdown without breaking his spirit.

"But you have to tell the truth so that we can protect you, don't you think?"

"The truth is that I didn't know Li Shiqing before and both Li Shiqing and I have time cycled countless times, returning to the bus each time we die."

Boy's eyes were shaking and his voice was getting softer, "If you don't believe me, put us here and watch, we might even enter the time loop again ......"

"Want us to relax and unwind you?"

Officer Du was amused, "Are you going to be put to sleep again?"

Boy doesn't answer either, just nods sleepily.

It's late at night, and with hours of continuous questioning, normal people would be too sleepy to keep their eyes open by now, and Boy is no exception.

"Then you can sleep for a while."

Suddenly Officer Du laughed, "Think carefully in your dreams about what to answer when you wake up."

The bright lights went out at once in response, and the questioning room was dimly lit again.

Almost as soon as the lights went out, Boy fell head over heels on the table and fell asleep with his eyes closed.

When Boy fell asleep, Officer Du walked out of the interrogation room and asked Officer Jiang next door through the headset: "How are you? Any progress there?"

" Li Shiqing's story reveals quite a few details, and excluding these implausible parts, there is a part of the information trail that can still be extrapolated."

Officer Jiang lowered his voice and said, "The car had many 'accidents' in the story she told ......"

"Usually in a bombing like this there is a normal demand for either fame or profit, but it doesn't make sense that no organisation or individual has made a request to the police before the bombing."

Officer Jiang speculated, "Is it possible that, as Li Shiqing revealed, the original location of the bombing was on the bridge, and the real plotters were perhaps trying to blackmail the hostages with something, only to have a sudden accident interfere with the planned bombing? For example, a sudden car accident?"

"It's possible, but there's no way to explain how Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun would know the time of the original plan and the location of the original plan unless they were the main culprits and got off the bus early."

Officer Du leaned against the wall and took a drag on his cigarette, the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt.

"Are you trying to get us to believe that third-rate shit story of theirs?"

Officer Jiang on the other end of the line was silent.

As an evidence-based police officer, he could hardly admit to believing such uncritical conclusions beyond scientific basis.

If we can believe in things like "coming back from the dead", then what is the point of investigating cases in the future? For every murder case, you can just go to a psychic and seek help from the "ghosts", why do you need the police?

"You keep asking questions, repeatedly and carefully, to find out all the details available."

Officer Du glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled morosely.

"Gave the boy ten minutes sleep too, it's time to 'get up'."

He stepped into the interrogation room and signalled for the bright lights to be turned back on.

The intense light shone once again on Boy's face, and an assisting policeman stepped forward and gave him a few violent pushes, pushing him out of his fresh slumber.

The sudden awakening of a person who had just fallen asleep was a form of mental torture, not to mention the mental exhaustion caused by the high pressure and repeated interrogations that made Xiao Heyun not know what day it was and think it had been a night when he had only slept for ten minutes.

Boy, who had opened his eyes, suddenly shivered at the sight of the familiar scene before him, and then at the room, which was completely indistinguishable from the sky.

Has the time and place of his time loop changed since then to the interrogation room?

Boy closed his eyes in horror and despair, and when he opened them again, he found that nothing had changed.

"Why am I still here!"

His eyes were wide and he was gasping for air.

"I... I don't want ......"

He'd rather be stuck in a bus forever than be stuck in an interrogation room being repeatedly asked questions he can't answer!

At least he could sleep in the bus and find a way to get off, what could he do when he was stuck in the police station? What could he do to trick these real police officers into letting him go?

Catching perverts?

This is supposed to be a police station!

When the police officer who questioned him repeated the questions he had just been asked, Boy was shaking like a leaf about to fall in the autumn wind, too frightened to breathe.

"I, I ......"

He was so scared that his teeth bit his tongue and he stumbled, "I, I don't know, I know."

This "fatigue questioning" is a common interrogation technique, which takes advantage of the psychological relaxation of the suspect when he has just woken up to get the desired clues.

"Stop! Stop talking, all of you!"

As Boy's pupils grew wider and wider, and he looked as if he had just been pulled out of the water, the psychologist sent to assist him immediately interrupted the interrogation process.

"If you want a lunatic, keep asking again!"

She frowned and reached out with a disapproving "stop" gesture.

Everyone threw in the towel and did not continue the questioning.

"Give him a nap."

The psychologist walked slowly up to him and stroked his hair like a soothing animal cub.

"He's in a bad state of mind, so when he comes to his senses, I'll try using hypnosis."

--

On the other hand, Li Shiqing's mental health was deteriorating.

She's not on the verge of a breakdown like Boy, but she's clearly too tired to think properly.

When confronted with questions from the police, she also began to babble and make things up, giving as many garbled answers to the same question as the police asked several times.

"How did you and Xiao Heyun meet?"

"Met online at ......"

She said in a trance.

"You just said you met them on WeChat."

Officer Jiang asks impatiently.

"Feel free to shake it, shake it, shake it in the car."

"Why are you getting out of the car?"

"We see eye-to-eye, well, eye-to-eye, to get off and make friends ......"

"And you said before that you were catching perverts!"

Officer Jiang yelled in anger.

"Erotic, yes, it's our erotic, bus pervert and all that."

Li Shiqing Nonsense.

"Bloody bus perverts!"

And I'm an old man pushing a cart!

When they heard the question and answer session, the officers next to them couldn't help but "poof".

"What exactly did you discuss in the locker room? Why did you get off early?"

"We, we dry humped ...... um, locker room passion? Uniqlo, no, or Indy?"

She blurted out the truth with two eyes.

"We can't wait to get to the station."

This girl has no more shame!

Officer Jiang narrowly avoided spurting out a mouthful of blood in anger and slammed the table viciously.

"Give me a good answer!"

"Ah!"

Startled by the loud slap on the table, Li Shiqing leaned back and the chair fell backwards, unsteadily.

After a muffled sound, Officer Jiang jerked back to his senses and rushed to Li Shiqing's side, crouching down in a frenzy.

" Li Shiqing? Li Shiqing?"

After probing, he looked up in a panic, "Get someone to see if there's anyone else in the infirmary quickly ......"

" Li Shiqing passed out!"

--

After what seemed like a long time, and what seemed like an instant, Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun, who had previously lost consciousness, opened their eyes in a daze.

"Great!"

They looked at each other and suddenly burst into tears as they realised they were back on the bus.

There was never a moment when they felt that the bus was so cosy and peaceful, the warm breeze blowing in their faces and the small but regular swaying of the bus as it moved were so suitable for sleeping.

Then they made the same gesture in unspoken agreement.

--reclose your eyes.

The swaying bus was like a mother's cradle, easily lulling the two young men into a deep sleep.

As for whether it will explode later?

What the hell, let's blow it up!

Nothing could be more intimidating than a police officer (tears)!

Author's Note: A little theater.

Psychologist: I'll try "hypnosis" later.

Buses: (shaking) Leave me alone!

Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun: (hugging and crying) Great to be back on a cosy bus at last!