Butterfly

The vote was in: two in favor, one opposed.

The plan to save Xu Yan with the Spacetime Bulletin... had begun.

"First, we need to make one thing clear: the secret of the Spacetime Bulletin can only ever be known by the three of us."

"Therefore, we can't send the bulletin to our senior. We can only save this tragedy ourselves."

Inside the club activity room, Qin Feng wrote on the small blackboard:

"This rescue operation isn't particularly difficult. We just need to stop the two children from falling into the water beforehand, prevent Xu Yan from jumping into the river to save them, or lie in wait with life rings and life jackets... There are plenty of ways."

Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue nodded.

That was right.

As far as the operation itself was concerned, there was indeed no difficulty at all.

The Spacetime Bulletin was such a miraculous and powerful cheat. If it could reveal accurate information about the future to their past selves, what regret could they not undo?

It was just that...

Jiang Ran looked at the small blackboard, now wiped clean, and said nothing.

He was still worried about that string of mysterious numbers.

But thinking it over carefully, Qin Feng had a point.

What was the point of wild speculation without any clues?

They might as well conduct another experiment within the still-acceptable scope of the Spacetime Butterfly Effect, see whether they could receive a second bulletin, and whether it might bring other clues.

"We'd better give our selves from three days ago some clear instructions."

Jiang Ran pointed at his watch.

"Because there isn't much time. The place where Xu Yan drowned is a forty-minute drive from the school. After receiving the bulletin, our selves from three days ago might not have much time to prepare."

Cheng Mengxue strongly agreed.

"The Spacetime Bulletin can only be sent back three days. Taking possible timing discrepancies into account, we have to send it immediately."

"If we delay any longer... I'm afraid we really won't have a chance to save Older Sister."

"Then let's begin."

Jiang Ran stood up.

"The more time we give our past selves, the greater our hope of saving her."

The operation began.

It was still the same setup. Jiang Ran would send the bulletin outside the transformer distribution box, Qin Feng would activate the Positron Cannon, and Cheng Mengxue would sit on the windowsill to synchronize the timing.

As Jiang Ran edited the bulletin, he walked out of the club building and around to the transformer distribution box.

"Please note, this is a Spacetime Bulletin..."

He described the situation as clearly as possible, and soon finished composing the message:

[This is a Spacetime Bulletin from three days in the future. Please act immediately.

Xu Yan will drown to death at noon on March 26. She will die after jumping into the river to save children who have fallen in. The location is near Qing'an Bridge. Please alter the original history and prevent this tragedy.]

Mm, that would do.

The time, place, event, and chain of cause and effect were all clearly stated.

Their selves from three days ago were not idiots. They would know what to do.

Of course.

The main reason...

Was that a single bulletin could contain no more than seventy characters. Anything beyond that would automatically be split into separate messages.

Jiang Ran was not sure whether split messages could still be sent successfully. At a critical moment like this, it was not worth taking that risk... What if it failed?

"The bulletin is ready!"

He shouted at Cheng Mengxue.

Then he moved as close to the transformer distribution box as possible.

Qin Feng had speculated that the Spacetime Black Hole was extremely tiny and had limited gravitational pull.

If the phone was too far from the Spacetime Black Hole when it sent the bulletin, the radio waves might not be absorbed by it. Naturally, the message would then fail to travel across time and space.

In any case.

A life was at stake.

They had to make sure nothing could go wrong.

Qin Feng connected the Positron Cannon to the power supply, carefully adjusted its direction so that the "barrel" aimed at the distribution box outside the window, then gave an OK sign.

"I'm ready too. I can activate it anytime."

"Good!"

After receiving the signal, Cheng Mengxue raised her right hand to signal to them both.

"Then I'll start counting down! When I reach zero, Qin Feng activates the Positron Cannon first, and Jiang Ran sends the bulletin immediately after!"

The exact same words.

Jiang Ran felt as if time and space were slightly out of alignment.

But it was understandable.

To him, who retained memories from before the Spacetime Shift, this was already the second Spacetime Bulletin experiment. But for Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue on the current Worldline, this was their first.

"5!"

Cheng Mengxue began the countdown.

A breeze stirred the willow branches against the back of his neck, while the buzzing current from the distribution box filled his ears.

"4!"

Jiang Ran looked at the sixty-five-character bulletin.

He had never sent such a long bulletin before.

He had never attempted anything this insane before, either.

"3!"

This was not an accidental occurrence, nor was it a test experiment.

For the first time ever,

they were going to use the power of the Spacetime Bulletin

to save someone who had already died.

"2!"

Could they save her?

Could she really be saved?

Jiang Ran suddenly grew nervous, his palms sweating.

And would nothing really go wrong?

"1!"

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

A ukiyo-e-like hallucination surfaced in his mind again.

The sun set in the east,

new buds withdrew into the branches,

spilled water flowed upward,

and starlight vanished into nothingness!

"0!"

Qin Feng activated the Positron Cannon, and a roar rang out!

Jiang Ran pressed down with his fingertip! He hit send—

Bzz!

Bzz!

Bzz!

The familiar sensation of inversion and dizziness came over him!

In an instant, the world spun, his five senses vanished, and Jiang Ran could no longer feel gravity.

Good.

Through the pounding haze in his head, Jiang Ran understood that the Spacetime Shift had occurred as expected.

That meant the bulletin had successfully been sent into the past, and established history had changed as well.

Once he opened his eyes again...

It would be a brand-new history, a brand-new Worldline!

"Ah!"

Two seconds later, all the discomfort vanished.

Jiang Ran slowly opened his eyes...

Hm?

He sucked in a sharp breath.

Where was this?

Before him were a pristine white ceiling, white sheets, a bright window, the pungent smell of disinfectant, and an IV stand beside him.

"This is... a hospital ward?"

He blinked, quickly confirming it.

That was right.

This was a hospital ward. He was lying in a hospital bed, an IV dripping beside him.

What was going on?!

He shot upright from the bed.

A sharp pain tore through his right arm, but this was no time to care about that.

How had he ended up in a hospital?

Just moments ago, when he had sent the bulletin, he had been at Donghai University, outside the club room window.

But after a moment of dizziness, he had opened his eyes...

And somehow teleported to a hospital?

"No."

Suddenly, a terrifying and uncontrollable term flashed through his mind—

[Spacetime Butterfly Effect].

He instantly understood. The bulletin sent back three days had triggered an unforeseen Spacetime Butterfly Effect, drastically altering the course of history!

In the original history of March 29, he had indeed been at Donghai University.

But after that Spacetime Bulletin was sent, the history between March 26 and March 29 had changed... In this new course of history, his March 29 self was lying in a hospital.

Huff...

The breeze from the ward's air conditioner poured in around his neck, as though some unseen Spacetime Butterfly had flapped its wings, and the slowly brewing tornado had swallowed him whole.

"What... happened?"