“How was that?”
Jiang Ran dropped the theatrics, his acting switching on and off at will.
Clap clap clap clap clap.
Scattered applause rang out.
“So cool!” “A little showy, but way better than the student council president.”
“All right, let’s get down to business. Don’t pop the champagne at halftime—the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.”
Jiang Ran waved a hand and came to the small blackboard, pointing at the diagrams and text on it.
“The conditions for creating a space-time black hole are extremely complicated, and extremely demanding. The timing has to be grasped perfectly.”
“So, before the experiment begins, let’s clarify the procedure one more time.”
“First, task assignments. Qin Feng will operate the positron cannon. I’ll be responsible for sending the text message beside the distribution box. Xiaoxue will be responsible for coordinating the countdown by the window.”
He explained every step seriously.
Over the past few days, Qin Feng had already mastered how to use the positron cannon.
But due to design flaws—or perhaps certain lingering issues with the core components… after the positron cannon was activated, it could only run for 【0.7】 seconds.
After 0.7 seconds, the capacitor would burst, and the entire positron cannon would enter an overloaded state; it would need to be powered off and left alone for 【20 hours】, then fitted with a new capacitor before it could be used again.
Qin Feng stated outright that this problem could not be solved unless he dismantled the positron cannon’s core component—the CRT picture tube modified by their senior.
But for something whose principles were unclear and that had been cobbled together from random parts, it was best not to take it apart and mess with it.
No one knew how this thing operated. Once it was taken apart, it definitely couldn’t be fixed—not even if its creator showed up in person.
In any case, capacitors weren’t expensive, so they might as well treat them as disposable consumables.
In addition, Qin Feng had specially installed a fuse socket to ensure that even if the circuit board short-circuited, it would not damage the building’s electrical wiring, thus avoiding their illegal appliance being confiscated by the student council again.
“The positron cannon can only activate for 0.7 seconds, which means the positron beam can only be fired for 0.7 seconds. At the same time… the duration of the 【space-time black hole】 will only be 0.7 seconds.”
Jiang Ran continued,
“What I need to do is get as close to the transformer distribution box as possible, then send the text message within those 0.7 seconds.”
There was nothing difficult about that.
The text message could be edited in advance. 0.7 seconds was enough time to press the send button.
Because this experiment was only a simple test and verification, the contents of the message didn’t need to have any practical meaning. It contained only four words: “Test, test.”
If everything went smoothly.
This text message would be like the previous text message that had crossed space and time, sent to three days earlier.
History would change because of them.
……
At last, the final arrangements were complete.
The experiment officially began.
Qin Feng aimed the positron cannon at the distribution box outside the window, plugged it in, and made an OK gesture.
Jiang Ran ran out of the activity room, left the building, circled around, and arrived beside the transformer distribution box, where he made an OK gesture toward the club’s window.
“Received!”
Cheng Mengxue sat astride the window, looking at Jiang Ran outside and Qin Feng inside.
“Then I’ll start the countdown! When I count to 0, Qin Feng starts the positron cannon first, then Jiang Ran immediately sends the text message!”
She took a deep breath.
“5!”
A breeze brushed past. Cicadas chirped on all sides. The world grew quiet.
“4!”
Time seemed to slow as well. The sizzling current from the transformer thundered in his ears.
“3!”
An inverted clock and a setting sun moving in reverse flashed through Jiang Ran’s mind.
“2!”
Finned fish crawled out of the water, and apes stood up from the earth!
“1!”
The Earth opened its eyes.
“0!”
The positron cannon activated! A roar erupted!
Jiang Ran clenched his teeth and pressed the send button—
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
The sky spun and the earth reeled. His vision blurred. His head felt heavy and his feet light.
It’s here!
That familiar dizziness was here!
A 【space-time shift】 had occurred!
His ears rang, his head ached, and his body tilted uncontrollably. The sky was turning upside down.
“Ah!”
Jiang Ran pressed his right hand against the ground, supporting his body.
Two seconds later, all discomfort vanished, and the world before his eyes no longer swayed.
He stood up and looked toward the club window.
“The space-time shift happ—”
The words stuck in his throat.
No one was there.
He had wanted to report the good news to Cheng Mengxue, who had been sitting on the windowsill, but before his eyes… the club window was closed.
It seemed the trajectory of history had changed.
In this new worldline, this new history, they had not conducted the space-time text message experiment today.
“Then did the space-time text message actually send successfully?”
He had to confirm it quickly!
The curtains of the club window weren’t drawn. Jiang Ran stood on tiptoe and looked inside… Qin Feng was tinkering with the positron cannon on the table, while Cheng Mengxue sat on the sofa playing with her phone.
“Having unsynchronized memories really is inconvenient.”
After this space-time shift, just as expected, he was still special enough to retain his original memories, and he was still completely unaware of the altered history.
He didn’t know what Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue’s situation was.
He jogged all the way into the club activity building and shoved open the door of the Film Club.
“Did you receive the space-time text message?”
The two of them raised their heads and looked at him blankly.
“What are you talking about? Didn’t we receive it three days ago?”
Three days ago.
Jiang Ran let out a breath of relief.
Good.
The text message had still been sent to three days ago, received right on schedule.
A perfect reproduction!
A perfect success!
“Fantastic!”
A smile rose to his lips.
“Our theory was correct. A space-time text message sent into the past… we finally succeeded!”
……
The room was silent.
Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue completely failed to keep up with Jiang Ran’s rhythm and could not cooperate with his performance.
“Um… didn’t we already succeed three days ago? We even held the celebration banquet. Are you still half asleep or something?”
Cheng Mengxue tilted her head.
“Three days ago, my phone received the test message, and you refused to admit you sent it. That obviously proves… this text message, just like the previous one, came from some day in the future.”
“That’s right.”
Qin Feng raised his head.
“This means all our guesses about space-time text messages were correct. As long as I repair the positron cannon, we’ll be able to send text messages to the past too.”
Good.
Jiang Ran was secretly delighted.
It seemed everything was normal, developing as expected.
It was just that Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue still had no memories from before the space-time shift. He was the only special one.
“Qin Feng, did our celebration banquet delay your repairs on the positron cannon?”
“What do you mean?”
“In the original history, the repair progress wasn’t this slow.”
Jiang Ran smiled faintly.
“In the original history, you repaired the positron cannon this morning. Otherwise… how did we conduct the experiment?”
?
!
Qin Feng’s eyes widened, and realization struck him.
“So that’s it! Jiang Ran, did you just finish sending the text message, then experience a space-time shift, while still retaining the memories of the original history?”
Cheng Mengxue also hurriedly stood up.
“In other words, in the original history, we had just carried out the space-time text message experiment! The message was successfully sent three days into the past, and the original course of history changed again!”
Jiang Ran nodded.
As expected of top students from Donghai University. A single hint was enough.
He had already figured out the logic of space-time just now.
In the original history, on the morning of March 25, Qin Feng repaired the positron cannon. That afternoon, they carried out the experiment and successfully sent the test message three days into the past, meaning March 22.
After the three of them on March 22 received the test message, they immediately realized this message had come from the future and that the experiment had succeeded, so they held a celebration banquet on the spot.
The holding of the celebration banquet belonged to the altered history and delayed Qin Feng’s time repairing the positron cannon.
Thus, in the altered history—in other words, the current worldline—by the afternoon of March 25, the positron cannon had still not been repaired.
However, none of that mattered anymore.
What mattered was—
【They had already successfully mastered the ability to send text messages to the past! Their cheat-like lives were about to take off!】
“You guys really held that celebration banquet too early. You didn’t even wait for me,” Jiang Ran complained.
“You ate plenty,” Cheng Mengxue retorted.
“But I don’t have any memories of the celebration banquet.”
Jiang Ran shrugged.
“Sigh, not having the memories of these three days after the space-time shift really is troublesome. Every time, I have to ask you two to synchronize information. It feels like opening a blind box.”
He sat down on the sofa.
“All right, all right. Let’s not talk about anything else for now. The two of you, hurry up and tell me what happened from the moment you received the text message three days ago until today.”
Qin Feng sat across from him.
“We received the two test messages you sent at 4:06 p.m. on March 22.”
“Mm.”
!
“Mm?”
Jiang Ran abruptly raised his head, a chill running down his spine.
“What did you say?”
“Is there a problem?” Qin Feng asked, puzzled.
Jiang Ran stared at him.
“How many text messages did you say you received?”
“Two!”
Qin Feng was a little confused.
“Weren’t they both sent by you?”
“How could there be two?”
Jiang Ran could no longer remain seated. He immediately stood up.
“I clearly only sent one test message! How could you have received two?”
“It… it really was two…”
Cheng Mengxue blinked innocently and handed over her phone.
“Take a look yourself. They were both received at the same time.”
Jiang Ran slowly took the phone.
He felt as if something was wrong, as if he had been pulled away from the world itself.
He opened the messages page.
Three days ago, Cheng Mengxue’s phone had indeed received two text messages.
The sender of both was himself.
The first was the test message containing the four words: “Test, test.”
And when he opened the second.
It was a completely unfamiliar,
and utterly eerie string of numbers…
【289269426494642】