“Oh, the elevator was so busy. Takeout’s here~”
A cute figure popped up at the door of the ward.
It was Cheng Mengxue.
She was wearing a light-blue dress and walked in carrying a takeout bag.
Seeing someone familiar,
Jiang Ran felt at least a little safer.
“Why am I in the hospital?”
He hurriedly asked,
“Did the time-space text message send successfully? Was Xu Yan saved?”
“Huh?”
Cheng Mengxue froze for a moment.
But then she grinned.
“Sure enough, it’s exactly what we expected. Jiang Ran, you just experienced a shift in space-time, didn’t you?”
“From your perspective… did you just send the message at the club one moment, then open your eyes and find yourself lying in the hospital the next?”
Jiang Ran nodded.
Three days ago, they had already understood 【the principle behind time-space text messages】, 【the laws governing shifts in space-time】, and 【Jiang Ran’s unique trait of retaining memories from the original history】.
Not to mention, this sort of sudden panic and memory desynchronization had already happened to Jiang Ran twice before.
So Cheng Mengxue immediately understood what had happened.
“We received the message on March 26, so that message must have been sent on March 29. In other words, the space-time shift involving you was definitely going to occur on March 29.”
“So I’ve been staying by your side all day today, just waiting for the moment your memories went out of sync again, so I could explain it to you right away.”
Cheng Mengxue placed the takeout on the table, her thoughts extremely clear.
“I see.”
Since everything fell within their understanding of the rules, there was nothing to be nervous about.
“Was Xu Yan saved?” This was what Jiang Ran cared about most.
“Of course!”
Cheng Mengxue gave him a thumbs-up.
“We’re seriously amazing! We successfully saved a life! This feeling is way too incredible!”
Huff…
Jiang Ran let out a breath and finally relaxed completely.
“So?”
Cheng Mengxue looked at him.
“Is it the same as before? You only have memories from before the 【space-time traversal】, and none of the memories from these three days after the traversal?”
“Yes, same as before.”
After a pause,
Jiang Ran smiled.
“I should correct one concept for you. What’s happening to me isn’t called space-time traversal.”
“In the traditional sense, space-time traversal usually refers to traveling along the time scale, like going from the present to the past, or from the present to the future—the kind you always see in Hollywood movies.”
Cheng Mengxue tilted her head.
“Isn’t it the same?”
“Not quite.”
Jiang Ran continued explaining.
“Look at my situation. There’s no traversal along the time scale. I didn’t return to the past, nor did I go to the future. My time has remained continuous all along.”
“One second, I finished sending the message; the next second, I appeared in the hospital. Although my spatial location changed, the time didn’t. It was still the point in time of March 29. I didn’t go anywhere on the time scale—I only moved through space.”
Cheng Mengxue more or less understood.
“Then what should your situation be called?”
“Hmm…”
Jiang Ran thought for a moment.
He recalled the class on general studies from before, when Teacher Zhang Yang had lectured on Parallel Worlds and Worldline Theory.
At the time, Teacher Zhang Yang had proposed a term that was rather interesting.
“【Worldline transition】.”
Jiang Ran said softly,
“For this kind of behavior where the point in time remains unchanged while crossing worldlines, the term 【worldline transition】 should be more accurate.”
“When we took that general studies class together before, Teacher Zhang Yang talked about it. Weren’t you listening?”
“No.” She was perfectly confident about it.
“…All right.”
Jiang Ran picked up a pair of disposable chopsticks from the takeout bag, split them apart, and arranged the two chopsticks one above the other.
“Let’s suppose the chopstick on top is 【Worldline A】. It represents the original history at the very beginning—the worldline where Xu Yan drowned, we got into an argument, and we voted on whether to save her.”
“On March 29 of Worldline A, we sent a time-space text message to March 26 in the past. From that moment onward, history began to change.”
“And so… a brand-new historical trajectory was created, which also gave birth to a brand-new worldline.”
He shook the chopstick below.
“This brand-new worldline is called 【Worldline B】. It represents the altered history—the worldline where we learned the news in advance, went to stop the tragedy from happening, saved Xu Yan, and I ended up lying in the hospital.”
Oh~
Cheng Mengxue’s little head worked very well.
“【In other words, according to this theory, we are currently in Worldline B.】”
“Exactly.”
Jiang Ran liked people who understood things as soon as they were pointed out.
“After that time-space text message was sent, a shift in space-time occurred. The original historical trajectory changed, and Worldline A ceased to exist.”
“Therefore, in reality, we all leapt from Worldline A to Worldline B. Or, to put it another way—”
“The space-time we inhabit as a whole leapt from Worldline A to Worldline B. You, me, this world, and everything in the universe all shifted over from a space-time perspective.”
Cheng Mengxue nodded.
“I understand that part. Since the historical trajectory has already changed, the things that happened on the original Worldline A shouldn’t exist anymore.”
“But that still doesn’t explain the problem with you—”
“【Why is it that, after the worldline changed, only you still retain memories from the original Worldline A?】”
Jiang Ran spread his hands.
“Who knows.”
“Hey, let’s not talk about that for now. Hurry and tell me what happened before. How did we save Xu Yan? And how did I end up lying in the hospital?”
Cheng Mengxue told Jiang Ran to eat his takeout first, then began recounting the events…
Here was what happened:
Three days ago, March 26, at ten in the morning, Cheng Mengxue’s phone received the time-space text message informing them that Xu Yan was going to drown.
They immediately took action, borrowed a buoyancy life vest from the swimming club, then rushed out of campus without stopping and took a taxi to Qing’an Bridge.
The buoyancy life vest was filled with air cushions and foam. Even someone who couldn’t swim at all could easily float on the surface while wearing it.
There was some traffic on the way. By the time the three of them arrived at Qing’an Bridge, they happened to run into Xu Yan.
They had barely exchanged a few words when the cries of children rang out from the turbulent river.
Under the bridge, two children were splashing and struggling as they drowned. They had fallen into the water upstream and been swept down the river. One of them had already lost consciousness and stopped moving, while the other was still struggling and crying for help.
At the time, Xu Yan didn’t hesitate at all. She swung a leg over the railing and was about to jump into the river to save them.
Fortunately, Jiang Ran was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and hurriedly grabbed her.
The current was moving fast, and seeing that the two children were about to be swept away, Jiang Ran gritted his teeth, snatched the buoyancy life vest from Cheng Mengxue’s hands, flipped over the bridge railing, and jumped into the river.
He had learned to swim when he was young and was fairly good in the water. After jumping into the river, he immediately put on the life vest and swam toward the children.
The rescue itself wasn’t difficult. He quickly pushed both children to shore. As for the child who had stopped moving, after chest compressions, he spat out the river water and woke up.
It could be said that it was a perfect rescue.
The only person injured… was Jiang Ran.
No one knew what had cut him. It was only after he got ashore that he discovered a wound on his right arm, bleeding outward.
But it wasn’t a serious problem. He went to the hospital, had the wound cleaned and stitched up, and it was bandaged.
“That’s what happened.”
Cheng Mengxue finished speaking.
Jiang Ran, however, raised a question.
“I’m not that fragile, am I? With just this little injury, I needed to lie in the hospital for three days?”
“No, no.”
Cheng Mengxue waved her hand.
“We went back to school that same day. Today, we came to the hospital specifically to have your dressing changed. Your wound seemed to be a bit infected and inflamed, so the doctor told you to lie here and get an IV.”
“All right.”
At this point, the loop of memories was complete, and the logic made sense.
No.
There was still one extremely important matter!
“The text messages.”
Jiang Ran put down his bowl and chopsticks and looked at Cheng Mengxue.
“Xiaoxue, this time, your phone…”
“【Exactly how many text messages did it receive?】”