Inside the activity room, no human voice remained.
Tick, tock, the clock hands clicked crisply, like beads of sweat dripping from an executioner’s brow, pattering onto the execution platform.
Cheng Mengxue lowered her head.
Of course she knew why the cheerful atmosphere from moments ago had instantly turned into this.
Because…
That was 【ten years ago】.
All the spacetime text messages they had sent during this period had been to change things that happened a few days ago, or within the past few days.
Forget ten years ago—even sending a text back a few months was something they had never dared to attempt.
The reason was simple.
【The spacetime butterfly effect is uncontrollable; the longer the time span, the more uncontrollable the spacetime butterfly effect becomes】.
This had been a fact laid bare from the very beginning.
Ten years ago.
From such a distant point in time, bringing back to life someone who had already died—what kind of violent butterfly effect would that trigger?
No one knew.
No one could predict it.
And no one dared imagine it.
Many people’s fates would inevitably be changed because of it. Many people’s lives would veer off course because of it. There might even be worse, even more unforeseeable things that occurred.
Of course, perhaps this was nothing more than groundless worry.
Perhaps the resurrection of Qin Feng’s father would have only a tiny, tiny effect on the entire world.
But…
Who would dare gamble on that?
She secretly glanced at Jiang Ran from the corner of her eye.
He was the same as her.
Head lowered, silent.
…
Jiang Ran’s eyes were tightly shut, his thoughts in turmoil.
All this time.
Ever since he had received that mysterious text message, that mysterious string of numbers.
Why had he been so anxious and uneasy?
Why had he been so hesitant and indecisive?
Because.
He had long since had this premonition. He had long since known that Qin Feng would bring this up.
Every time the thought surfaced, he would quickly fling it away, refusing to dwell on it.
There was no way to think about something like this.
Of course he knew Qin Feng’s father had passed away ten years ago, dying in an accident.
Qin Feng had told them this long ago, when they first met in high school.
Along with that, he and Cheng Mengxue also knew that because he had lost his father, Qin Feng’s childhood had been very bad.
Not only had his mother worked multiple jobs and struggled through hardship to raise him, but at school, because he had no father, he was repeatedly bullied by bad kids.
From elementary school, to middle school, to high school, those bad kids had always called him “a kid with no dad.” It wasn’t as if Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue had never seen it with their own eyes.
After the three of them became good friends, Qin Feng was never bullied again. Because Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue were Qin Feng’s firmest backing, and would never allow such a thing to happen.
But what about all those years before?
In order not to cause trouble for his exhausted mother, Qin Feng had always gritted his teeth, swallowed his grievances, and silently endured the humiliation.
And all of this.
Was because when he was young, he had lost his father, lost the pillar of his family, lost his greatest support, lost the broadest shoulders, lost the strongest back.
So.
Returning to this wish itself.
Qin Feng was the best friend of his life, and his wish was to bring his own father back to life…
Once Qin Feng voiced this wish, what reason could there be to refuse?
But all of Jiang Ran’s intuition and reason warned him—
【No.】
【Absolutely not.】
To change whether an adult had lived or died ten years ago, to make the history of these past ten years be rewritten—he could not take that risk.
Jiang Ran slowly raised his head.
He looked toward the Positron Cannon that had just been modified.
The dials and knobs on it could easily control the point in time to which a spacetime text message was sent: year, month, day, hour… incomparably precise.
Year.
Under normal circumstances, was there really any need to set such a long unit?
In an instant.
All sorts of fragments of doubt pieced themselves together, and countless things Qin Feng had once said surfaced in his mind—
“Since the Positron Cannon has already been repaired, why not 【carry out】 another verification experiment and see whether that mysterious text message was a coincidence or an inevitability?”
.
“I don’t 【agree】. If it was us from further in the future sending a warning text, why speak in riddles? Why couldn’t we say it more clearly? Sending a string of numbers—isn’t that just making things difficult for us?”
.
“I agree. Use the time machine we built to send a text message to ourselves three days in the past… and 【bring back】 Xu Yan.”
.
“I feel that spacetime text messages definitely can’t only be sent back three days. There must be some variable that can control the ‘depth’ of the spacetime black hole, allowing texts to be sent to an 【earlier】 point in time.”
.
“That’s why I’ve always said that mysterious text message might very well have simply been a 【malfunction】. A string of meaningless garbled numbers like that looks far too much like some kind of machine malfunction. It’s even very possible that the malfunction occurred on the telecommunications operator’s end and had nothing to do with us.”
.
“Hey, hey. Aren’t you scaring yourself a little too much? Caution is right, but there’s no need to be overly cautious. If you’re afraid after every single step, then nothing will ever 【move forward】.”
.
“I believe the last two pinyin letters are not 【complete】. There must be other information after them.”
.
“Increasing the electron beam density means 【increasing the power】. We can wait until ten at night, eleven, or after midnight. By then, the club activity building will have been empty for a long time, and the load on the circuit will be low. Even if our power is a bit higher, it won’t be a problem.”
.
“From now on, operating the Positron Cannon will be very 【simple】. We just need to aim it at the distribution box outside, then use the knob to set the point in time for sending the spacetime text message, such as nine days ago, one month ago, one year ago, and so on… Finally, press the start button. Very simple.”
…
…
…
Jiang Ran braced his hands on his knees and slowly stood up.
At this point.
The puzzle was complete.
Every time he had misgivings and worries, Qin Feng had always pushed him to continue the spacetime text experiments;
Every time he felt afraid because of that mysterious text message, Qin Feng had always attributed the message to a malfunction or accident;
When he believed spacetime text messages could only be sent back three days, Qin Feng had strived all along to modify the Positron Cannon, seeking to send messages to a more distant past;
Especially when he and Cheng Mengxue argued over whether or not to save Xu Yan, Qin Feng, who had always been cautious and rational, had unexpectedly stood on Cheng Mengxue’s side and agreed to bring Xu Yan back to life.
So it turned out he had had a clear goal from the very beginning.
So it turned out he had started laying the groundwork from the start.
“Qin Feng.”
Jiang Ran stood perfectly straight, facing Qin Feng, who was backlit before the window:
“Tell me the truth.”
He narrowed his eyes, looking at the best friend of his life:
“【From the very beginning, were you planning to use spacetime text messages to bring your father back to life?】”
…
…
…
A soundless tug-of-war.
Cheng Mengxue also stood up, holding the rice-cooker Rhine Cat, looking back and forth between the two of them.
Branches swayed, sunlight turning into speckled strands that fell across the floor, shaking into a brilliance too dazzling to look at directly.
“Heh.”
Qin Feng lowered his head and gave a dry laugh, shrugging weakly:
“You still saw through me.”
He took a deep breath.
Raised his head.
Looked straight into Jiang Ran’s eyes:
“I admit it. Ever since we successfully verified the spacetime text messages, I’ve had this plan all along.”
“But your worries and misgivings this whole time made it impossible for me to say the thought out loud.”
“I have indeed been researching and modifying the Positron Cannon all along, making it able to send texts further into the past… Just as you said, I want to bring my father back to life.”
“But I never intended to hide it from you two, Jiang Ran, Xiao Xue.”
His gaze was firm:
“【If either one of you disagrees, I’ll give up on this idea.】”
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring—
Jiang Ran’s phone rang.
He picked it up and saw that it was a call from his father.
He pressed answer.
“Hello?”
“Hello! Son! Come back, quick!!”
His father shouted anxiously from the other end of the line:
“Something’s happened to your mother! She needs craniotomy surgery!!”