Chapter 30

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Present\nSeptember 30, morning:\n

Zhou Luoyang’s thoughts were in turmoil. He tried to sort through all of this information but found that he had no idea where to start.\n

Du Jing, on the other hand, was taking everything in stride. When he dropped Zhou Luoyang off at the store, he said something that somewhat soothed Zhou Luoyang’s panic.\n

“How can you be so calm?” Zhou Luoyang asked.\n

“Why are you so panicked?” Du Jing turned the question back to him. He flipped over the “Closed” sign once more, marking the shop’s second opening in the long river of time.\n

Zhou Luoyang stood in a daze by the door. Du Jing said, “It’s because the situation is currently still within our control.”\n

That statement relieved Zhou Luoyang’s anxiety for the time being. He understood what Du Jing meant. If it was within their control, that meant that the watch, as well as the reversal of time, would not put them in mortal peril or sweep them into an intractable situation.\n

“If you wanted to, you could even return to the day of your father’s accident,” Du Jing said. “Do you think you need to go back and save your dad?”\n

Zhou Luoyang had finally managed to calm down, but this question put him on edge again.\n

He met Du Jing’s eyes. If time turned back again and again, the way Du Jing hypothesized that it could, it was possible to return to the day of the car accident and stop his father from driving.\n

But as they held each other’s gaze, he picked up on what Du Jing was thinking:\n

It came back to Zhou Luoyang with clarity—from the examples provided by Yu Jianqiang and the head of that international extortion syndicate, he understood that death was unavoidable. In order to save one person’s life, they needed to pay for it with another’s. He wasn’t yet sure how this phenomenon came about, but those two cases proved it was not just an anomaly.\n

His father, his stepmother, and Leyao were in the car that day. Of the three people, two lost their lives. If he wanted to save his father, there was an overwhelming possibility that…\n

…he would have to sacrifice Leyao’s life in exchange.\n

“Not at the moment,” Zhou Luoyang said. “I’ve already accepted the past…I…don’t plan on doing that at the moment.”\n

“Uh-huh?” Du Jing had known Zhou Luoyang would answer this way. He reached out and ruffled Zhou Luoyang’s hair.\n

Even if they couldn’t get to the bottom of its mechanisms, they could still destroy the watch or lock it up in a safe in a bank and never use it.\n

This thought calmed Zhou Luoyang down a little bit.\n

“I have to think about it.” Zhou Luoyang planned on attempting to dig for its origins among the stack of waste paper.\n

“You could also give it a name,” Du Jing commented. He glanced at Zhou Luoyang from the driver’s seat.\n

“It?” Zhou Luoyang asked, puzzled.\n

Du Jing raised his hand, showing Zhou Luoyang the watch on his wrist, with the twelve-pointed shape on its face and its fine mechanical workings. “The machine and the phenomenon. You could call it something like ‘the Spin,’ for instance. I’m leaving. See you soon.”\n

Du Jing tossed on a pair of sunglasses, hit the gas, and sped off.\n

Spin was a science fiction novel Zhou Luoyang had borrowed from the library in college. In the novel, the Spin involved an accelerated passage of time outside of the Earth’s membrane, which was an entirely different concept from their own twenty-four hour rewinds. But it seemed very reasonable, now that Du Jing suddenly mentioned it.\n

Christ! Zhou Luoyang scratched his head. What’s going on in my life?\n

“Where’s the book?” Zhou Luoyang wondered aloud. He dug through Chang’an Clocks and Antiques’s chest and found the thick, black, open notebook in which all of the store’s antiques were logged.\n

The book’s pages were yellowing. Each page recorded two or three items, with simple sketches next to them: copperware, jade ware, lacquerware, machinery, and so forth were organized in perfect order. Some items were even accompanied by decades-old newspaper clippings.\n

Zhou Luoyang had helped his grandpa put this book together when he was in primary school. At the time, his grandpa had been struck with an idea—he wanted to make an inventory of all their antiques and record their origins and descriptions. So he continued to note down this information in the notebook Zhou Luoyang’s great-grandfather had used and even made his own additional annotations.\n

The elder’s sight had been deteriorating, so Zhou Luoyang had taken on the task of drawing and recording, just like a little assistant.\n

After his grandpa passed, his relatives had split between themselves nearly three fourths of the items in the book. Zhou Luoyang took stock of the entries, marking the ones that had been taken away to prevent future confusion.\n

“A mechanical product,” Zhou Luoyang murmured. He found a blue insert in the notebook, flipped the book open, and plucked a sticky note off the pages. On it was a line of Latin text:\n

No man ever steps in the same river twice. —Heraclitus\n

Can’t step in the same river twice? Well, clearly you could!\n

That was his grandpa’s familiar handwriting. Zhou Luoyang himself was more partial to the quote “No single thing abides, but all things flow.”¹\n

But behind that page in the notebook, he found that the following page had been torn out.\n

Who ripped it out? Zhou Luoyang was certain he’d never removed a single page from the book. Had his grandpa done it while he was still alive? Zhou Luoyang could no longer remember what had been written in that missing page.\n

Looking back at the book years later, many fuzzy memories came back to him. The Zhou family had been Huizhou merchants for generations. Over a hundred years ago, they engaged mainly in trade between the Manchurian Qing and the West. Back when his great-great grandfather was still alive, clocks and antiques were worth a lot, and the family accumulated no small amount of wealth. Coincidentally, their family business one hundred and twelve years ago had been called Chang’an Trading Company—an odd similarity it shared with their business today.\n

That was why when Du Jing had suggested the name “Chang’an,” Zhou Luoyang had agreed without a second thought.\n

The family business passed from his great grandfather’s hands to his grandfather’s hands. It did not experience much growth after the Communists defeated the Nationalists and rebuilt the nation. In order to stay away from trouble, the family ceased to engage in the antiques industry and switched over to maintaining and repairing clocks. In 1957, light engineering suddenly took off, and from it, the new China’s first wristwatch was developed. The clock repair industry adapted to this new era and allowed the Zhou family to once again find their footing.\n

For a long time, “the big four”—the sewing machine, the bicycle, the watch, and the radio—were purchases that newlyweds couldn’t do without, much like a house and car were for married couples today. That was how important watches were.\n

Meanwhile, the antiques, paintings, and calligraphy of that era were sure to have been destroyed in the campaign to destroy the Four Olds². In order to preserve what their ancestors had built up, his grandpa had, in his youth, asked someone to help hide all of it in an underground storehouse in Inner Mongolia. It wasn’t until after the economic reform that the antiques that had been hidden away and significant amounts of the property that his great-grandfather had left behind were finally exhumed, and business opened once again.\n

Zhou Luoyang thought of something his grandpa would often say: “I am a clock repairman.” It was the case that, due to circumstances, his grandpa’s understanding of antiques was not as profound as that of past generations—he hadn’t had the fortune of living during the golden age, and he couldn’t even tell you the origins of many of the items.\n

His father, paternal aunts, and paternal uncles were uninterested in the industry, though Zhou Luoyang’s father had a large ukiyo-e collection and made his living in Tokyo in the print-making industry. Thus, the old man could only place his hopes in passing his knowledge down to Zhou Luoyang and awaited the day his grandson would be willing to take over the business.\n

But many of the antiques were already over a century old by the time they reached the Zhou family. Furthermore, they came out of the ravages of the era with their origins purposefully concealed. As Zhou Luoyang flipped through the records, he found that it was very challenging to match up the old notes with today’s antiques one-to-one.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nThe bell on the handle of the door tinkled.\n

Zhou Luoyang didn’t even look up. “Mister Daniel, Miss Lin Di, hello. That’s a Nepalese demon-vanquishing bell hanging from the door. The thangkas behind you are not for sale. Chang’an Clocks and Antiques is still in its soft opening and hasn’t yet opened formally. Our inventory is scarce and the store is still very bare-bones. I’m afraid we won’t be able to participate in Sotheby’s autumn auction as we would like to this year. We only have two limited-edition Daytonas, a small token of regard. They’re kept in sections B3 and B6, respectively, of the glass and redwood case behind you. It’s unlocked, and you’re welcome to inspect them on your own if you don’t mind.”\n

Daniel had just taken off his tweed cap. His lips twitched.\n

Lin Di: “……”\n

Still flipping through his notes, Zhou Luoyang added, “Also, our store does not yet have a store treasure.”\n

Lin Di suddenly started to laugh. Daniel was deeply embarrassed to have been seen through as soon as he entered the store.\n

“Boss Zhou is quite discerning,” Lin Di laughed. “How did you know we were coming?”\n

“A guess,” Zhou Luoyang said calmly. “Have some tea. You’ll have to take off your shoes on the tea settee. I’m looking for something, but I’ll be with you in just a moment.”\n

Found it! Zhou Luoyang had a vague memory of seeing that watch before, and sure enough, it was recorded in the notes.\n

“The Eye of Forseti,” Zhou Luoyang murmured. “From Derbent, Russia? A Russian watch? That’s not right.”\n

Lin Di was making herself at home on the tea settee, and began boiling water for tea.\n

“What beverages do you have to offer, boss?” She smiled. “Where are you from?”\n

“I’m from Huizhou,” Zhou Luoyang answered. “We have taiping houkui and keemun black tea in the jars. Please pick whichever you’d prefer, Miss Lin.”\n

Lin Di smoothed her hair. Her slender, lily-white hands began to steep tea.\n

Daniel, on the other hand, hadn’t taken a seat and was looking around Zhou Luoyang’s store.\n

Lin Di thought for a moment. “Aren’t you worried about the cost of receiving guests with such fine tea?”\n

“Our big boss drinks it himself. He’s not in today,” Zhou Luoyang said.\n

“Oh? And what noble character might the big boss be?” Lin Di asked.\n

Zhou Luoyang didn’t take Daniel very seriously and merely used two old, limited-edition watches to keep him busy. He knew that although Daniel was the investment director of Sotheby’s, his knowledge of culture was far inferior to Lin Di’s. His position determined that he couldn’t become an expert in any one area, after all; he was constantly traveling for business and hardly even had time to rest and recharge.\n

Rather, it was likely Lin Di who was truly skilled, or else she wouldn’t be his consultant.\n

“A white collar worker,” Zhou Luoyang said after some thought, “working in security.”\n

Lin Di nodded. She seemed to be searching for the right words to use. A young master of the antiques industry and a manager of hired guns…Zhou Luoyang could guess that she wanted to say they were “a good fit for each other” but thought that description wasn’t quite appropriate. Daniel did not stand on ceremony with Zhou Luoyang. He pulled on a pair of gloves and took out the two collectibles that Zhou Luoyang had agreed to send to the auction. He brought them to the tea settee and examined them over the low redwood table. \n

All antique stores were equipped with cameras. Instead of watching him attentively, Zhou Luoyang sank into deep contemplation.\n

“I’m the investment consultant of the Asia Pacific region,” Lin Di brought up, noticing Zhou Luoyang’s expression. “Do you have any tough questions you would like to seek counsel on, boss?”\n

“How much for an hour?”\n

Lin Di laughed. “I won’t charge you. Just find us some nice collectible pieces. I’m stressing over the autumn auction.”\n

“We don’t have any pieces that are good enough for Sotheby’s…but I’ll keep an eye out for you,” Zhou Luoyang said firmly. “By the way, Miss Lin, what’s your primary field of study?”\n

“I studied Assyrian history in graduate school and dabbled a bit in other areas as well. Why?” \n

This gave Zhou Luoyang a better understanding of her expertise. After all, in history and museum studies, different fields could seem worlds apart.\n

“It’s a…I guess it could be considered a myth? From the Caucasus region.” Zhou Luoyang drew up a new sketch and handed it to Lin Di. “Does this design have anything to do with ‘Forseti’?”\n

“Forseti,” Daniel said, looking at the sketch. “The Norse god of justice.”\n

“Oh.” Zhou Luoyang nodded. “Is that who it is? Thank you for the guidance.”\n

He could have known as much simply by searching up the name on his phone, but he nevertheless behaved humbly, appropriate for someone who sought counsel.\n

“This is…” Lin Di peered at Zhou Luoyang’s sketch with a bit of confusion. It portrayed three squares layered on top of each other, forming a twelve-pointed shape.\n

“Is this a twelve-pointed star?” Zhou Luoyang asked.\n

Hesitantly, Lin Di answered, “Strictly speaking, no. But we can change it, of course.”\n

She took the pen and raised her eyebrows inquiringly. Zhou Luoyang nodded, giving her tacit permission to draw on the sketch. Lin Di added a few lines that connected the corners of the three squares, dividing them up in a new way. “Now it’s a twelve-pointed star.”\n

What Zhou Luoyang had drawn was the face of the “Eye of Forseti” watch. After Lin Di had connected the lines afresh, he could now distinctly make out the hands of a watch.\n

“From the three-pointed star to the twelve-pointed star, they all have specific meanings behind them,” Lin Di said.\n

Zhou Luoyang nodded. “That’s right.”\n

“In mythology, the twelve-pointed star represents the celestial star of absolute law and corresponds to justice. Forseti is the god of justice. Perhaps this is the connection between them?”\n

“Do Derbent and Scandinavia have anything to do with each other?” Zhou Luoyang asked.\n

Lin Di was momentarily stumped by this question, which didn’t seem to be related to his previous questions, but she didn’t ask. “Maybe? Derbent has its back to the Caucasus Mountains and faces the Caspian Sea. It was once a strategic location for the Russains and Tatars. Starting from the third century CE, goods from southeastern Europe, western Europe, and northern Europe would all pass through there.”\n

“‘Derbent’ means ‘iron gate’ in Russian,” Daniel looked up and explained to Zhou Luoyang with perfect pronunciation. \n

“Got it, thank you,” Zhou Luoyang said.\n

Lin Di gave Daniel a glance, and Daniel nodded and said, “Would Boss Zhou be interested in taking part in our autumn auction?”\n

Zhou Luoyang remembered that he had to attend, and he suddenly considered it again. “Could you give me three invitation letters?”\n

“I only have two left,” Lin Di said regretfully. “I don’t know why, but the attendees this year are especially many.”\n

Zhou Luoyang nodded. Just like last time, he settled the details with the two of them and agreed to soon send the watches that would be going on auction. He checked the time and realized that Du Jing might be arriving soon, so he politely saw them out. \n

As she was leaving, Lin Di suddenly smiled and said something.\n

“How strange. Meeting Boss Zhou gave me a sense of deja vu.”\n

“Is this the predestined affinity that you often talk about?” Daniel asked.\n

That was only an offhand remark from Lin Di, yet Zhou Luoyang got the vague feeling that there was a peculiar implication behind it. But he didn’t have the time to think too hard on it. “Then I’m sure we’ll have many chances to work together in the future. Take care.”\n

After seeing Lin Di and Daniel off, Zhou Luoyang remained standing, lost in thought.\n

Du Jing had not run into them. This was a deviation from the previous day. \n

It looked like in the “Spin,” not everything that happened in the “past” would happen again in exactly the same way. On the other hand, why had he been refused when he’d asked Lin Di for three invites?\n

Zhou Luoyang had made the request on impulse. Upon returning home the day before, he’d suddenly realized that he forgot to account for Leyao, while Lin Di had only agreed to give him two invites.\n

Zhou Luoyang scratched his head. He kept getting the feeling that he had found the answer to some important question in scientific history, but he was unable to ponder it more deeply.\n

The object of greatest importance was still this “Eye of Forseti,” which symbolized justice and came from Derbent of Russia. Was there some special connection between these things?\n

He couldn’t go entirely by the old notes. His great-great grandfather had obtained the watch either from Derbent or from someone from Derbent, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was manufactured there. Zhou Luoyang still trusted his own judgement—this was Swiss craftsmanship, that was for sure. He just couldn’t find the seal left behind by the manufacturer. It was currently on Du Jing’s wrist, so he would have to fetch it and study it.\n

Just as he was thinking about all of this, Du Jing returned.\n

“Did the people from Sotheby’s not come?” Du Jing looked around.\n

“They left already,” Zhou Luoyang said. “Today is different from yesterday.”\n

Just like yesterday, Du Jing removed his shoes, sat at the settee, and took out his bento, ready to eat lunch. Zhou Luoyang brewed some fresh tea and brought out snacks, his eyes never straying from Du Jing’s watch.\n

“Have you reached a verdict?” Du Jing asked.\n

Zhou Luoyang told Du Jing about the few slivers of information he’d discovered. Du Jing didn’t comment on them, but he did hand over the Eye of Forseti, as Zhou Luoyang requested.\n

“Should I give it back to you?” Du Jing asked.\n

Zhou Luoyang studied it, turning it over in his hands. He couldn’t find the maker’s seal. “You wear it. It’s been yours.”\n

Zhou Luoyang never asked for the things he gave away to be returned to him, though of course Du Jing was a special case. But Zhou Luoyang felt that the fact that Du Jing had taken a shine to it was, in some sense, fate.\n

“What’s mine is yours,” Du Jing said casually, “and what’s yours is mine.”\n

“That’s true,” Zhou Luoyang agreed. “It’s just that in this case, I believe it’s a coincidence as well as destiny.”\n

“So you’ll allow me to use it,” Du Jing said.\n

“If I said I didn’t allow you to, would you listen?” After a morning of contemplation, Zhou Luoyang realized something important—last night, Du Jing must have activated the Spin once again for a reason.\n

No matter what this guy did, he always had his own reasoning behind it; it was just that Zhou Luoyang couldn’t comprehend his reasoning much of the time.\n

“If you don’t allow me to use it, then I won’t,” Du Jing replied lightly.\n

“But didn’t you use it last night anyway?” Zhou Luoyang pointed out.\n

“That was just an experiment. It was an isolated case.”\n

“Was it really just an experiment?” Du Jing kept silent now that Zhou Luoyang had brought up this key point.\n

Zhou Luoyang then warned, “The twelve-pointed star symbolizes justice. You can’t use it to do anything bad.”\n

“True justice or procedural justice?” Du Jing asked.\n

Zhou Luoyang: “……”\n

He was teased speechless. He could tell that no matter what he said in response, Du Jing would be able to poke holes in his logic until it became a sieve. Whenever he disagreed with this guy, the smartest move was to not debate with him.\n

“How was today?” Zhou Luoyang asked instead.\n

“Made some progress,” Du Jing said, finally moving on to this particular topic.\n

Zhou Luoyang wanted to tell him about the suspicion Lin Di’s words aroused in him, but after thinking it through, he decided not to interfere with Du Jing’s judgement for now. \n

The two of them sat silently for some time. Zhou Luoyang spooned some food into his mouth. Du Jing piped up, “The French envoy made some concessions—if Vietnam and Cambodia extend invitations to visit, they can request some investigative exemptions for us from the local governments. Of course, it must be kept confidential.”\n

“Oh…is that so?”\n

If Du Jing wanted to go to Ho Chi Minh City to conduct an investigation and search for missing people, he would inevitably come into contact with government institutions and even local police, who, without these exemptions in place, could forcefully deport them as soon as the slightest disagreement arose, perhaps even leading to diplomatic problems.\n

“Vietnam ‘and Cambodia’?” Zhou Luoyang studied Du Jing’s face.\n

“It’s always best to make extra preparations ahead of time,” Du Jing said.\n

Now Zhou Luoyang understood. “The reason you turned back time was because of this.”\n

Du Jing’s motivations were very obvious now. His two previous visits to the French embassy hadn’t seen any success, so he needed to “redo” them and offer a different argument. Thus, he adjusted the time on the watch once more and went back twenty-four hours so he could pay another visit to the embassy.\n

This time, he switched tactics and got the envoy to give in.\n

“Will you need to redo it again?” Zhou Luoyang asked.\n

“No,” Du Jing answered. “I figure this is the best we can manage. They have their own principles to follow. I’m going to nap and then think about it some more.”\n

Du Jing was a bit stressed. Just like the day before, he took an afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Zhou Luoyang went through the tedious day one more time. When Leyao came to visit the store, he couldn’t muster up yesterday’s surprise anymore. He kept to the routine, and then brought Leyao home. He really didn’t want to repeat everything again, but he had no choice but to brace himself and work hard to put on the necessary performance.\n

After dinner, the two of them lay down, just like the day before. Zhou Luoyang thought, Please, please don’t repeat again. I don’t want to live the same day another time. He and Du Jing’s reactions during dinner were all very artificial—even Leyao noticed they were being weird.\n

“You act too unnatural. The whole time, it was like you were putting on a play,” Du Jing said.\n

Zhou Luoyang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “I can’t help it. Isn’t it all your fault, anyway?”\n

They lay on the couch shoulder to shoulder. Zhou Luoyang took hold of Du Jing’s left hand and gazed at the watch on his wrist.\n

He knew that to Du Jing, this string of disappearances overseas was a very important case, so he brought up a new conjecture.\n

“You said that time could be turned back infinitely,” Zhou Luoyang said. “Then if we returned to the day Little Wu disappeared, couldn’t the case be resolved?”\n

“Maybe,” Du Jing said, drunk. “Do you want to?”\n

They would have to go back months! Zhou Luoyang would have to consecutively relive multiple months, and in addition, for every twelve hours of living normally, he would have to rewind twenty-four hours. The thought of it was soul-crushing.\n

“What if it can save lives?”\n

“I don’t want to do it,” Du Jing said. “Have you forgotten what happened with the people who died previously?”\n

Death was the one thing that couldn’t be turned around with the reversal of time. No—in fact, it could be turned around. But as long as someone had died, then another death must occur in the twenty-four-hour rewind.\n

Two of their trips back in time verified this principle. There were too many complex rules in the world that humankind was yet unable to explore.\n

“But they might not die,” Zhou Luoyang pointed out.\n

“Human mortality is inescapable. What if we save them, but you end up having to pay with your life? Forseti is the god of justice, but not even justice is absolute in this world.”\n

Thus, Zhou Luoyang dropped the suggestion and considered things from a different angle. If it were him, and he knew that rewinding time might do irreversible damage to Du Jing, he absolutely wouldn’t agree to it either. \n

Du Jing had already done very well as far as doing everything in his power and protecting those important to him.\n

“I might have a solution,” Zhou Luoyang said, “regarding Vietnam and Cambodia’s invitation to visit.”\n

“Perfect,” Du Jing said. “Thank you for lightening my burden.”\n

Zhou Luoyang was a little hesitant. “But…it might take a few days.”\n

“That’s fine, I’m not anxious. Whoever courts disaster is anxious.”\n

Zhou Luoyang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He might be able to get Du Jing an invitation for an exchange visit through Sotheby’s, but he would have to wait until the autumn auction officially began.\n

“Does this count as changing the past?” Zhou Luoyang asked, a bit uncertain. “Maybe I should’ve waited until past midnight to mention it.”\n

“Some of the past can be changed, some can’t. For me, certain things which are decided by our hearts will never change,” Du Jing replied.\n

Having said that, he leaned closer to Zhou Luoyang.\n

Leyao’s door creaked open. Before he could reach the living room, Du Jing gave Zhou Luoyang a kiss, and then left to shower.\n

Zhou Luoyang: “……”\n

“Gege, where’s the luggage I brought home from school?”\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nFootnotes:\n

<ol>This line was quoted in the book Spin, in which the characters attributed the quote to Heraclitus, though my own quick googling suggests that the quote is actually from Lucretius? [Back]During the Cultural Revolution, the Four Olds refers to the Old Ideas, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Customs of the China before the Communist Party came into power. A campaign was launched to destroy the Four Olds and cultivate the Four News, during which architecture, classical literature, traditional paintings, and temples were destroyed. [Back]</ol>\n<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nTranslated by beansprout. Edited by opal.\n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nhey good news! tiandi’s manhua has been picked up by a translation group! \n

<hr class="wp-block-separator">\nPrevious | Table of Contents | Next\n

Like this:Like Loading...\n Related