“Me, me, me!”
Cheng Mengxue raised her hand eagerly.
Jiang Ran held up a hand to signal her:
“What’s your wish?”
“Hehe…”
Cheng Mengxue scratched her head sheepishly:
“It’s… you know, I failed two courses last semester…”
“Didn’t you take the makeup exams a week ago?” Qin Feng interjected.
“Argh! Makeup exams are still nerve-wracking!”
Cheng Mengxue looked deeply aggrieved:
“Higher Mathematics is just too hard! I’m pretty sure I passed the other makeup exam, but I still don’t feel confident about Higher Mathematics. If only I could get one more major problem right!”
“All right.”
Jiang Ran interlaced his fingers and rested them on his stomach.
He already understood what Cheng Mengxue meant.
He only needed to send her the answer to one final major problem before her Higher Mathematics makeup exam, which she had taken a week ago, to ensure she passed.
Cheng Mengxue wasn’t stupid, either. If he highlighted a key chapter and had her review a certain example problem in the textbook, her score would rise.
“When do the makeup exam results come out?”
“The day after tomorrow.”
Mm, that’s not bad.
Jiang Ran calculated internally.
Changing the result before the final score was announced carried far less risk than trying to fix things after the final score was announced.
“I have no objections.”
He looked at Qin Feng:
“What about you?”
“I don’t have any objections either.”
Qin Feng spread his hands:
“It doesn’t get any smaller than this, right? I even feel like using a spacetime text message for something like this… is truly using a butcher’s knife to kill a chicken.”
“Only, the makeup exam was a week ago. Which day was Higher Mathematics exactly?”
Uh…
Cheng Mengxue took out her phone, checked the calendar, and looked up:
“Nine days ago.”
Qin Feng looked at the positron cannon on the lab table, somewhat worried:
“Nine days ago… that is indeed a challenge.”
Jiang Ran understood his concern.
Up to now, using the positron cannon and the transformer distribution box, the furthest they had sent a text message was three days into the past.
If they wanted to send a text to nine days ago, that meant operating the buncher to increase the electron beam density.
Wouldn’t that cause some kind of problem?
“Yes.”
Qin Feng saw Jiang Ran’s concern and nodded:
“Increasing electron beam density means greater power. Though it’s not a geometric increase, it would definitely be greater than the power in any of our previous experiments.”
“Then what do we do?” Cheng Mengxue was a little anxious.
“We can conduct the experiment at midnight, or in the early morning.”
Qin Feng proposed:
“The weather’s hot now, and the whole club building is running air conditioners. The circuit load is already high; if we increase the positron cannon’s power now, it’s very easy to burn out the wiring, or even burn out the positron cannon itself.”
“We can wait until ten or eleven at night, or even after midnight. By then, the building is empty and the circuit load is low. Even if our power is a bit higher, it won’t be a problem.”
…
No sooner said than done.
That night, the three of them stayed in the club activity room until the early hours, conducting the experiment while the world was quiet and still.
Jiang Ran sat astride the windowsill:
“5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 0—”
Hum!
Hum!
Hum!
As Qin Feng activated the positron cannon and Cheng Mengxue stood before the distribution box sending the text message, Jiang Ran once again felt dizzy, lost his balance, and the world spun.
Two seconds later, when he recovered, he found that his location had changed.
He was currently lying in his dormitory bed.
Wearing pajamas, covered by a blanket.
Jiang Ran sat up and put on his slippers. Just then, he ran into his upper-bunk roommate pulling up his pants:
“What’re you doing?”
“Gonna take a leak!”
The roommate replied:
“Haven’t slept yet?”
“Yeah, I’m going to the bathroom too.”
…
Jiang Ran came to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.
Obviously.
A temporal shift had occurred, established history had changed, the world line had jumped. This was now brand-new history, a brand-new world line.
On this world line’s night, the trio had not sent a spacetime text message, so naturally they wouldn’t be in the club activity room at this time; instead, they were sleeping in their dorms.
“Go back to sleep for now.”
He yawned:
“I’ll synchronize memories when I see Xiaoxue and Qin Feng tomorrow.”
…
The next day, the three met in the cafeteria to exchange information.
From the time Cheng Mengxue received the spacetime text message with the Higher Mathematics answers until now, nine days had passed. The historical changes were not large; one could even say there were virtually none.
Because at the end of the text message they composed for Cheng Mengxue, they had specifically noted that she didn’t need to tell Jiang Ran and Qin Feng about this message, and to just focus on reviewing. She could tell the two of them about it after nine days.
Therefore, the temporal butterfly effect caused by this spacetime text message was extremely small. Besides raising Cheng Mengxue’s Higher Mathematics score by a dozen or so points, it had no effect whatsoever on other established history.
Another day passed. Makeup exam results release day.
Cheng Mengxue was nervous and excited, refreshing her phone screen repeatedly:
“Yay!! I passed Higher Mathematics! Sixty-five points!”
Jiang Ran and Qin Feng wiped their sweat.
That score was a close call. If she hadn’t gotten that final major problem right, Cheng Mengxue’s makeup exam would have been a tragedy.
Afterward.
The three gathered once more in the club activity room.
“Unfortunately, the spacetime text message we received this time is still only one.”
Jiang Ran flipped through Cheng Mengxue’s phone:
“I really don’t know when we’ll receive the next mysterious text message. Without follow-up information, there’s simply no way to make sense of this malformed sentence ‘Don’t believe ha’ we currently have.”
Qin Feng was modifying the positron cannon at the lab table:
“Take it slow. We’re improving bit by bit each time.”
He stepped aside and beckoned the two over:
“Look, I went to a used appliance market a few days ago and found an LCD knob control panel compatible with this old equipment. I modified it slightly.”
Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue stepped forward.
They discovered that hanging on the positron cannon’s casing was an old-fashioned LCD knob control panel.
The panel had four knobs, corresponding to four red LCD screens that could display numbers. Beside them were labels, in order: Year, Month, Day, Hour.
Twisting the corresponding knobs could increase or decrease the numbers on the LCD screens.
The two suddenly realized.
This was a visualized control panel!
An intuitive, foolproof way to precisely control the time node for sending spacetime text messages!
“Tony Stark!”
Jiang Ran exclaimed in admiration:
“You’re basically Iron Man, Qin Feng. With such a straightforward control panel, even the two of us can operate the positron cannon.”
“It’s decent.”
Qin Feng wasn’t proud in the slightest:
“I could have made it look nicer, but these are all twenty-year-old parts. Accessories are just too hard to find.”
“Operating the positron cannon will be much simpler from now on. Just aim it at the distribution box outside the window, then use the knobs to set the node for sending the spacetime text message—like nine days ago, one month ago, one year ago, and so on… Finally, press the activation button. Very simple.”
“Excellent.”
Jiang Ran sat on the sofa and leaned back:
“According to our previous ‘Spacetime Text Message Phase Two Plan,’ all three of us can use spacetime text messages to realize one wish, taking turns.”
“Now that Xiaoxue’s wish has been realized, Qin Feng, you’ll go second…”
“What wish do you want to use a spacetime text message to fulfill? What regret do you want to make up for?”
…
A breeze lifted the curtains and drifted through the room.
The entire activity room fell silent.
Mournful cicadas rose and fell in chorus. Willow branches and tender buds danced with spring. The world outside the window was brimming with life.
“Qin Feng?”
Jiang Ran blinked, looking at Qin Feng, silent before the window.
Finally.
Amid the unceasing cicada song, Qin Feng turned around:
“【I want to save my dead father.】”
The cicadas stopped instantly.
As if he had long anticipated it, Jiang Ran’s heart skipped a beat, and he could hear nothing else.
Only the two people’s faint yet heavy breathing intertwined, each knowing full well.
Jiang Ran swallowed and lowered his head.
“When did your father pass away.”
He asked despite already knowing the answer.
With how close they were.
How could he not know?
How could he not have thought of it?
Cheng Mengxue hugged the Rhine cat in her arms tightly, staring straight ahead, not meeting either person’s gaze.
Sunlight pierced through dark clouds, pierced through the window screen, pierced through everything to shine in.
Hundreds of Rhine cats, hundreds of pairs of eyes reflected the daylight, bright and spirited, staring at the two people who were at once close and distant.
Qin Feng lifted his head and looked at Jiang Ran:
“【Ten years ago.】”