“Yes.”
Jiang Ran answered,
“I definitely will.”
“【No matter how the worldline changes, I won’t leave any one of you behind.】”
“【No matter how the butterfly effect of time and space changes our relationship, I will definitely find you both and bring us back together, just like we are now.】”
Jiang Ran answered those words without the slightest hesitation, decisively and from the bottom of his heart.
Qin Feng cherished the bond between the three of them more than anything.
But wasn’t Jiang Ran the same?
“It’s just…”
Jiang Ran spread his hands.
“It’s just like you said—the only one who has memories of the original worldline is me. If I actually grabbed you two from the new worldline and started talking about bonds and friendship, there’s a good chance you’d think I was insane.”
“So the biggest problem isn’t whether I go looking for you, but after I find you… you may not necessarily believe what I say.”
Qin Feng nodded.
“That’s true.”
What normal person would casually believe the ravings of a stranger, let alone something as absurd as a worldline shift?
“Sometimes, people meeting each other really is a kind of fate, a kind of chance, a kind of coincidence. Once you miss it, you might miss it for a lifetime.”
Qin Feng looked at the night sky.
“Speaking of which, the three of us meeting really was like something arranged by heaven. When we entered high school, we didn’t know each other, but the three of our student numbers were actually right next to each other.”
“Jiang Ran, do you still remember our student numbers from high school?”
Jiang Ran smiled knowingly.
“Of course I remember. It’s not like I have dementia.”
At Hangzhou No. 1 High School, the first few digits of the student number represented the year, and the last two digits were the class number.
Many times, when teachers called on students in class, they would simply call out student numbers, picking people to answer questions like drawing blind boxes.
No one knew what order the student numbers were arranged in. In any case, it wasn’t by pinyin, nor by the number of strokes in the surname… It felt very chaotic and random.
And as luck would have it.
Jiang Ran, Cheng Mengxue, and Qin Feng’s class numbers were indeed right next to one another, and just happened to be the last three.
There were forty-two students in their high school class.
So their student numbers were, in order, 40, 41, and 42.
“I remember it very clearly.”
Jiang Ran recalled,
“My number was 40, Xiaoxue’s was 41, and yours was 42. Just as you said, isn’t that also a kind of fate?”
“Hey!”
From inside the activity room, Xiaoxue urged them,
“How long are you two going to keep chatting? Aren’t we starting yet?”
Jiang Ran glanced at the time on his phone.
Indeed.
Ever since the experiment had been interrupted, they had been talking nonstop. It was already close to twelve-thirty. They couldn’t delay any longer.
“Then let’s begin.”
Jiang Ran picked up his phone and looked toward Qin Feng, who was standing before the distribution box with his hands in his pockets.
“I hope you won’t mind what happens tonight. Afterward, I’ll apologize to you.”
“Come on.”
Qin Feng rolled his eyes at him.
“After the worldline changes, I won’t even remember this. You’re as crafty as ever.”
Jiang Ran smiled and gave Cheng Mengxue an OK gesture.
“Then I’m starting the countdown!”
Words that had been repeated who knew how many times came from inside the club through the window in Cheng Mengxue’s voice.
“5!”
Jiang Ran lowered his head and looked at the screen of his phone.
This was the text Qin Feng had edited beforehand. There was nothing wrong with it. It was simple and open.
By comparison, it made Jiang Ran seem a little petty.
His thumb hovered over the send button.
His gaze turned toward the transformer distribution box.
“4!”
The moon tonight was very round, its light very bright, casting a pale, clear glow over the ground.
Qin Feng had his eyes closed, his hands in his pockets, leaning against the distribution box. His breathing was steady and faint, mingling with the rustle of swaying willow branches.
The hum of the transformer inside the distribution box was steady, the sizzling sound carrying an air of danger.
Embedded on the silver metal shell was a black nameplate, engraved in large yellow letters with the distribution box number—
Donghai University Distribution Box No. 42.
Huh?
“3!”
Jiang Ran blinked.
42.
42 again.
Hadn’t they just been talking about this number?
Right.
Qin Feng’s student number had also been 42. What a coincidence.
Jiang Ran suddenly felt as though the number 42 had appeared with extremely high frequency lately, as if it had been surrounding him, intentionally or otherwise.
Where else?
Where else had he seen 42?
“2!”
Hearing Cheng Mengxue’s voice, Jiang Ran suddenly understood.
Right.
As early as the very first worldline shift, the first time he sent a spacetime text message, he had seen 42.
It had been the Rhine Cat pendant hanging from Cheng Mengxue’s phone.
She had said it was a limited edition collaboration with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, with only 4,200 pieces released in total, making it extremely precious.
Jiang Ran vaguely remembered that it was a Rhine Cat dressed in a spacesuit. On the chest of the white spacesuit was a large blue number: 42.
“1!”
How strange. Why were there so many 42s?
Jiang Ran suddenly thought of something.
In that mysterious text message, in that string of mysterious numbers, there seemed to be 42 as well.
289269426494642
There was 42 in the middle, and it also ended with 42.
For a moment, the numbers separated and grouped themselves in his mind, corresponding one by one to the Chinese characters translated through a nine-key keyboard.
Don’t (28) want (926) to believe (94264) trust (946) ha (42)
bu (28) yao (926) xiang (94264) xin (946) ha (42)
No!
Jiang Ran’s eyes widened, and he drew in a sharp breath.
Rhine Cat 42, distribution box number 42, Qin Feng’s student number 42.
In an instant, countless puzzle pieces that had long lingered around him began to snap together at high speed.
All the worries he had carried all this time…
All the hesitation and unease he had felt all this time…
So the answer had been here!
It wasn’t incomplete, it didn’t have a follow-up, and it wasn’t hard to understand!
【That mysterious string of numbers had actually conveyed a complete warning to him, clearly and thoroughly!】
Don’t trust ha,
Don’t trust ha,
【Don’t trust 42!!!】
“0!”
“Xiaoxue, wait—” Jiang Ran shouted.
However.
It was too late!
At the same moment Jiang Ran shouted, Cheng Mengxue had already pressed the activation button for the positron cannon! A roar erupted from inside the club activity room, blasting straight toward the transformer distribution box!
“Sorry, Jiang Ran.”
Beside the distribution box, Qin Feng took an old-fashioned keypad phone out of his pants pocket.
He had actually hidden another phone!
Qin Feng’s thumb pressed down on the physical send key.
At the very end.
He raised his head.
He gave Jiang Ran a hesitant look.
“【Forgive me.】”
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Jiang Ran felt a wave of dizziness, his five senses disappearing, as if he had been thrown into a drum washing machine and spun around.
Damn it.
Why had he only realized it now?
Why had he only noticed it now?
His intuition had been right.
That mysterious string of numbers had been warning him to beware of Qin Feng with an extremely simple code!
With Qin Feng’s genius, he must have seen through the truth long ago. That was why he had been pretending not to understand, deliberately guiding their thoughts in the wrong direction.
Some malfunction, some incomplete information, some follow-up message…
All of it had been concealment and misdirection!
Don’t trust 42.
The final number, 42, referred to Qin Feng!
It referred to everything, from beginning to end, related to the spacetime text messages!
The world spun faster and faster.
Everything before his eyes blurred, darkened, until he could see nothing.
Jiang Ran was powerless to resist the rolling wheels of history and spacetime as, toward an unknown and brand-new worldline…
He fell.