The Choice

"I don't agree."

Qin Feng immediately rejected the idea:

"There are two things that don't add up."

"First, if it was our more distant future selves sending us a warning message, why speak in riddles? Why couldn't they make it clearer? Sending a string of numbers is just making things difficult for us."

"Second, if they had more advanced technology and could send messages to an earlier point in time, why did they have to choose this exact moment and overlap with your test message?"

"No matter how you look at it, our future selves clearly would have had a more appropriate, efficient, and reliable way to warn us, rather than being this vague."

Jiang Ran said nothing.

Because he did not know how to explain it either.

In the end, the second message and those mysterious numbers had appeared far too strangely, forcing him to remain cautious.

Thud thud thud!

Suddenly, the sound of many people running came from the hallway outside, loud and chaotic.

"What's going on?"

Jiang Ran looked toward the wooden door of the activity room.

"Why are so many people running? Was there an earthquake?"

The three of them curiously opened the door and found members of the Film Club chasing after one another, sprinting off in panic.

"What happened?"

Jiang Ran stopped a girl.

Why was everyone from the Film Club so agitated? Had they won an award at the film festival?

But the timing was off... the preliminary round had not even begun yet.

"Something happened to Senior Xu Yan!"

Tears streamed from the girl's eyes.

"Senior... Senior Xu Yan jumped into the river and saved two children who had fallen in, but she... she didn't make it through resuscitation at the hospital..."

"What!?"

The three of them shouted in shock and immediately rushed out with the others.

Donghai People's Hospital was packed with people in the lobby.

Besides the patients there for treatment, more than a hundred Donghai University students had gathered outside the emergency room.

Xu Yan was usually warmhearted, kind, and always willing to help others. She was well liked, and once word spread that something had happened to her, many students rushed over, their faces full of worry and grief.

Cheng Mengxue was even paler with fright. Standing before Jiang Ran and Qin Feng, she trembled nonstop, her fingernails digging so hard into her palms that they turned blue.

A few minutes later, the emergency room doors opened, and a masked doctor walked out with his head lowered.

Cheng Mengxue's uncle and aunt hurriedly rushed forward, but after a brief exchange... the woman let out a wail and fainted on the spot, while the man dropped to his knees with a thud, his eyes vacant.

A vast sorrow spread through the crowd, accompanied by scattered sobs from the girls.

A few minutes later, a gurney covered in a white sheet was pushed out... the crowd slowly and heavily parted, making way for it to pass.

"Older Sister..."

Cheng Mengxue's legs gave out, and she collapsed against Jiang Ran.

Her tears burst forth as she broke down completely.

The gurney rattled past them. Jiang Ran stared at the outline beneath the white sheet, his lips pressed tightly together, unable to speak.

She was a girl he had watched grow up year after year throughout his youth.

And just like that...

She was dead.

They said Xu Yan had been beyond saving at the scene.

She could swim, but the river current had been swift. After saving the two children who had fallen in, she had run out of strength. Her foot had also become tangled in debris in the riverbed, and she had ultimately drowned.

The ambulance had arrived immediately and attempted emergency treatment. They put her on equipment and rushed her back to the hospital, but in the end... they still could not save that vibrant young life.

By the Huangpu River.

Jiang Ran and the other two sat side by side on the steps, watching the shimmering river water.

"She was only twenty..."

Tears glistened in the corners of Cheng Mengxue's eyes.

"Older Sister Xu Yan was such a good person. She never did anything bad... and she died saving two children. This world is so unfair."

Jiang Ran lowered his head.

Xu Yan's accidental death had saddened him deeply as well.

Especially since Xu Yan had just helped them solve such a huge problem.

Without Xu Yan's help, they would not only have failed to keep the Film Club, but they would not have gotten the Positron Cannon back either.

Twenty years old.

At their age, they were young and free, with an infinitely vast world before them. They had thought death was something impossibly distant.

Yet they had never expected... that a young girl right beside them would have her short life cut short so carelessly.

Death.

It was always so sudden, and yet so close.

"Jiang Ran..."

With tears in her voice, Cheng Mengxue tugged at the corner of Jiang Ran's clothes and looked up into his eyes.

"You think..."

He knew what Cheng Mengxue wanted to say.

"If we used that Positron Cannon to send a message to our past selves..."

Was he not struggling with the same thought?

"If we had told ourselves in advance that Senior Xu Yan would die today..."

But that mysterious message with its unclear meaning remained like a blade lodged in his heart.

"Could we change history and save Senior Xu Yan?"

Cheng Mengxue's little hand tightened around the hem of her clothes.

Qin Feng turned his head and glanced at Jiang Ran before looking away again.

The river breeze swept past.

It stirred Cheng Mengxue's long hair, brushing it across Jiang Ran's face and blocking his view.

Her hair danced before his eyes, while the Huangpu River seemed to flow backward, carrying boats large and small back to their starting points to sail their course once more.

"Maybe we could."

He spoke softly.

Maybe it would be worse.

That was what he thought.

Evening.

The three returned to the club activity room.

They had not eaten, nor did they have any appetite. They sat separately in three corners of the room.

Though no one spoke.

They all knew what they were waiting for.

Jiang Ran raised his head toward the small blackboard.

289269426494642—the string of numbers he had already memorized backward and forward—seemed to flicker beneath the fluorescent light.

A password.

A warning.

A code.

A malfunction.

It was the greatest source of unease, the greatest dispute, and the greatest culprit in this activity room.

"Let's vote."

At last, Qin Feng spoke.

He stood up, leaned against the bookshelf, and crossed his arms.

"Ever since we met in high school, hasn't this always been how our trio solved problems?"

He looked from one of them to the other.

"Whenever the three of us disagree, or our opinions don't align and we can't convince each other, we vote by raising our hands. The minority follows the majority."

"We've been inseparable for five years now. We've had plenty of disagreements like this, and there were even times when we fought and wanted to split up... but didn't we always resolve them with a vote in the end?"

Jiang Ran looked up at Cheng Mengxue.

She held a blue Rhine Cat in her arms and stared directly back at him.

Just as Qin Feng had said.

Their iron triangle had had no shortage of conflicts and arguments. They had even broken up several times in high school.

So later, they established a rule: whenever there was a disagreement or dispute, they would vote by raising their hands, and the minority would follow the majority.

When in doubt, put it to a vote.

Especially in the face of their current tangled, stalled situation, voting seemed to be the most effective way to solve the problem.

"Then let's begin."

Qin Feng straightened up, walked to the lab bench, and patted the Positron Cannon's casing.

"The facts have proven that we really can rewrite history by sending [Spacetime Bulletins]."

"That means we can send a message to our past selves, take precautions in advance, prevent this drowning accident from happening, and save Xu Yan."

"That's the situation. Now let's vote. On using Spacetime Bulletins to save Xu Yan..."

"Who's in favor, and who's against?"