Yesterday, Jiang Ran had already speculated that the text message’s accidental crossing of spacetime was very likely related to electricity, electric fields, or electromagnetic fields.
Wasn’t the essence of a text message just a string of radio signals?
The transmission of a text message was, in fact, the transmission of a segment of radio waves.
If Phone A wanted to send a text to Phone B, then that radio signal would first be emitted from Phone A, then captured by the nearest base station tower, and finally sent by the base station tower to Phone B.
This process was inevitable.
Even if Phone A and Phone B were stacked right on top of each other, the text message still had to be transmitted to the signal tower first, then forwarded by the signal tower to Phone B.
Then, obviously, if a text message wanted to cross spacetime and return to the past, there were only two ways it could happen—
1. The radio signal of the text message traveled back to the past before reaching the signal tower.
2. The instant the signal tower received the text message’s radio waves, it traveled back to the past.
No matter how one thought about it… a hundred-meter-tall steel signal tower crossing through time was far too terrifying.
Besides, a signal tower processed massive amounts of information every moment. If it really had crossed over, hundreds or even thousands of people at Donghai University would have received a “spacetime text.”
But clearly, spacetime texts were not a common phenomenon. He had never heard any related news.
Therefore.
Jiang Ran came up with a bold hypothesis:
[The radio waves of the text message he sent, for some reason, crossed spacetime and arrived three days earlier.]
[Then those radio waves were captured by the signal tower from three days ago, and subsequently forwarded to Cheng Mengxue’s phone from three days ago.]
Radio waves were one of the few things in the universe capable of traveling at the speed of light.
Even today, the first radio broadcast humanity sent out in 1906 was still wandering through the universe at light speed.
The speed of light was always romantic and ambiguous.
So, looking at it from this angle… the hypothesis above was not necessarily unreasonable.
“I feel like I’m getting closer and closer to the answer.”
In class, Jiang Ran clicked his ballpoint pen again and again as he looked out the window.
……
In the afternoon.
The trio gathered once more and headed to the Film Society on the first floor of the club activity building.
“Senior Yan Rui just received a disciplinary warning…”
Cheng Mengxue reminded them in a low voice:
“If we go looking for him now and even ask him about the details of the high-power electrical appliance, won’t he get angry?”
“Relax, I’ve asked around.”
Through the crack in the door, Jiang Ran looked into the Film Society room:
“Everyone says Senior Yan Rui has a good personality and is easy to talk to. Besides, this kind of warning won’t be entered into his record, so it doesn’t really affect a graduating student much.”
Inside the Film Society room, old objects were everywhere. A senior wearing glasses was tidying up items in front of a table.
That had to be Yan Rui.
Ahem.
Jiang Ran cleared his throat and pushed open the door.
Creak…
The old wooden door let out a hoarse, heart-rending sound as aged as the time within the room.
Yan Rui turned around and looked at the three of them:
“You are…”
“Hello, Senior Yan Rui.”
Jiang Ran walked forward and introduced himself:
“We’re sophomores. My name is Jiang Ran, from the School of Computer Science. These two are from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and the School of Fine Arts.”
“Oh, hello.”
Yan Rui pushed up his glasses and looked around, wanting to invite the three of them to sit, only to discover that the activity room was full of clutter and dust… so he gave up on the idea.
“What can I do for you?”
“Sorry, Senior. I hope you don’t mind, but we came because we saw that disciplinary notice outside.”
Jiang Ran pointed outside the door:
“We all thought that punishment was too harsh. It feels really unfair. You only used a high-power electrical appliance… Lots of students secretly use hair dryers and induction cookers in their dorms, but I’ve never seen anyone get punished for it.”
“Heh, it’s not the same.”
Yan Rui shook his head with a smile:
“Thank you for worrying about me. But I’m about to graduate anyway. A punishment that won’t go into my record has no effect on me at all.”
“Besides, I completely understand why they punished me. This wasn’t just a simple short circuit or tripped breaker… I burned out the main circuit and the electric meter box on the first floor. The school didn’t even make me compensate them, so they’ve already been lenient with me.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Ran pretended to be very surprised:
“What kind of high-power electrical appliance is that powerful? Equipment for developing photos?”
“No, no…”
Yan Rui shook his head:
“It was a [Positron Cannon].”
!!!
The three of them bristled in fright like hedgehogs.
“Hahaha, you don’t need to be so nervous. It’s just a name.”
“Have you watched EVA, Neon Genesis Evangelion? The people who made this thing were purely making a reference.”
Yan Rui laughed heartily and pointed at an old cardboard box on the floor:
“I only found it by accident yesterday while tidying things up. No idea which previous seniors made this toy.”
“I saw the name written on the label and thought it was interesting, so I got curious and took it out to try. Who would’ve thought… the moment I started it up, it blew out the electrical wiring.”
Jiang Ran crouched down and rummaged through the old cardboard box.
It was empty now, with a lot of dust inside, along with fallen robot anime stickers—precisely from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
“Although it’s called a Positron Cannon, that device was actually modified from the picture tube of a CRT monitor. You’ve all seen those old bulky monitors before, right?”
Yan Rui continued explaining to the three of them:
“And old-fashioned televisions too. Their imaging principle was to accelerate an [electron beam] to near light speed, then bombard the phosphor on the screen, and the television would display an image.”
“The label on this Positron Cannon said they modified a CRT picture tube so that it could fire a positron beam outward, which was why they named it the Positron Cannon.”
“That’s impossible.”
Qin Feng, the top science student, came online:
“Electrons are all negatively charged. How could there be such a thing as a positron? The principle of a picture tube is to use the anode to accelerate electrons, which are emitted from the cathode… No matter how you modify it, you couldn’t produce a positron beam.”
“Moreover, electron beams can only be emitted in a vacuum. The air is full of gas molecules and dust. An electron beam couldn’t even travel one centimeter.”
“You’re right.”
Yan Rui spread his hands:
“So, didn’t it blow up?”
“…” “…” “…”
The three fell silent.
Logical and well-founded. They had no rebuttal.
“I’m a science student too. Of course I know how ridiculous a device that fires a positron beam is.”
Yan Rui turned around and continued tidying up the windowsill:
“In the end, it was just a failed product cobbled together at random—or rather, purely a joke toy.”
……
Qin Feng and Yan Rui reached a consensus, both concluding that the so-called “Positron Cannon” was complete nonsense.
But.
Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes, having caught a key term.
[Electron beam].
Another thing related to electricity.
Could it be…
“Senior.”
He walked forward and asked:
“When you started up the Positron Cannon yesterday afternoon… I mean, that joke toy, was it on this table?”
“Yes.”
Yan Rui gestured with both hands:
“It was placed right here, with the so-called cannon barrel facing the window.”
Jiang Ran looked out the window…
As if it were a fated encounter, he once again saw his old friend—the huge, sizzling [transformer distribution box].
“In other words.”
Jiang Ran pressed his palm against the tabletop:
“If, hypothetically, the [Positron Cannon] really could fire a positron beam… then after that device was activated, the high-energy electron beam accelerated to light speed would hit the transformer distribution box outside the window.”
“I suppose so.” Yan Rui had no interest in this.
“Can I ask one last question, Senior?”
Jiang Ran straightened up, unable to stop his heart rate from quickening:
“Can you tell us… about what time it was when you started up the Positron Cannon that day?”
Yan Rui stopped tidying.
Slowly, he turned around.
He looked at Jiang Ran and smiled helplessly:
“You’re quite an interesting person.”
“But I actually do remember the exact time, because the power went out instantly back then, and I specifically opened my phone to check the time.”
Sunlight scattered into a rainbow through the prism at the corner of the window, draping itself over Yan Rui.
“So I remember it very clearly.”
He pushed up his glasses and raised his head:
“The time I started up the Positron Cannon was exactly on the evening of March 17th…”
“Six oh five.”