Worldline Jump

"Ah, the elevators were too busy. Delivery's here~"

A cute figure popped in at the hospital room door.

It was Cheng Mengxue.

She walked in wearing a light blue dress, carrying a takeout bag.

Seeing someone familiar,

Jiang Ran felt a little safer.

"Why am I in the hospital?"

he hurriedly asked.

"Did the Spacetime Bulletin send successfully? Did Xu Yan survive?"

"Huh?"

Cheng Mengxue froze for a moment.

Then she grinned.

"Just like we expected, Jiang Ran, you just experienced a Spacetime Shift, didn't you?"

"From your perspective... you sent the bulletin at the club one moment, then opened your eyes and found yourself in a hospital bed the next, right?"

Jiang Ran nodded.

Three days ago, they had already figured out the principles behind the Spacetime Bulletin, the rules of Spacetime Shifts, and Jiang Ran's unique trait of retaining memories from the original history.

Not to mention, Jiang Ran's sudden panic and out-of-sync memories had already happened twice before.

So Cheng Mengxue immediately understood what had happened.

"We received the bulletin on March 26, so it must have been sent on March 29. That means the Spacetime Shift affecting you was bound to happen on March 29."

"That's why I've stayed by your side all day today, waiting for your memories to fall out of sync again so I could explain things to you right away."

Cheng Mengxue set the takeout on the table, her thoughts perfectly clear.

"I see."

Since everything was still within the rules they understood, there was nothing to be nervous about.

"Did Xu Yan survive?" That was Jiang Ran's biggest concern.

"Of course!"

Cheng Mengxue gave him a thumbs-up.

"We're amazing! We successfully saved a life! This feeling is incredible!"

Whew...

Jiang Ran let out a breath and finally relaxed.

"How is it?"

Cheng Mengxue looked at him.

"Is it the same as before? Do you only have memories from before the time travel, with no memories of the three days after it?"

"Yes, same as before."

After a pause, Jiang Ran smiled.

"I need to correct one thing. What happened to me isn't called time travel."

"Time travel in the conventional sense usually means traveling across time itself, like going from the present to the past, or from the present to the future. The kind of thing Hollywood movies always show."

Cheng Mengxue tilted her head.

"Isn't it the same?"

"Not quite."

Jiang Ran continued explaining.

"Look, in my case, I didn't travel across time. I didn't return to the past, and I didn't go to the future. My time has always been continuous."

"I sent the bulletin one second, then appeared in the hospital the next. Although my location changed, the time didn't. It was still March 29. I didn't go anywhere on the timeline. I only moved through space."

Cheng Mengxue more or less understood.

"Then what should we call this?"

"Hmm..."

Jiang Ran thought back to the general studies class they had taken before, when Zhang Yang had taught them about Parallel Worlds and Worldline Theory.

Back then, Zhang Yang had brought up a term that was quite interesting.

"Worldline Jump."

Jiang Ran spoke softly.

"A situation like mine, where the point in time doesn't change but I cross Worldlines, is better described as a Worldline Jump."

"When we took that general studies class together, Zhang Yang talked about it. Weren't you listening?"

"No." She said it without a shred of shame.

"...All right."

Jiang Ran took out a pair of disposable chopsticks from the takeout bag, snapped them apart, and arranged them one above the other.

"Let's assume the chopstick on top is the A worldline. It represents the original history: Xu Yan drowned, we got into an argument, and we voted on whether to save her."

"On March 29 in the A worldline, we sent a Spacetime Bulletin back to March 26. History began changing from that moment onward."

"That... gave rise to a brand-new historical trajectory, and thus a brand-new Worldline."

He shook the lower chopstick.

"This brand-new Worldline is called the B worldline. It represents the altered history: we learned the news in advance, stopped the tragedy from happening, saved Xu Yan, and I ended up lying in this hospital."

"Oh~"

Cheng Mengxue was quick on the uptake.

"[So according to this theory, we're currently in the B worldline.]"

"That's right."

Jiang Ran liked people who understood things at a glance.

"After we sent that Spacetime Bulletin, a Spacetime Shift occurred. The original historical trajectory changed, and the A worldline ceased to exist."

"Therefore, we all jumped from the A worldline to the B worldline. Or, to put it another way—"

"The spacetime we inhabit as a whole jumped from the A worldline to the B worldline. You, me, this world, everything in the universe—all of it shifted over from the perspective of spacetime."

Cheng Mengxue nodded.

"I understand that. Since the historical trajectory changed, the things that happened on the original A worldline shouldn't exist anymore."

"But that still doesn't explain your problem—"

"[Why are you the only one who retained memories of the original A worldline after the Worldline changed?]"

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

"Who knows."

"Hey, forget that for now. Hurry up and tell me what happened before this. How did we save Xu Yan? And how did I end up in the hospital?"

Cheng Mengxue had Jiang Ran eat his takeout first, then began telling him what had happened... It went like this:

Three days ago, on March 26 at ten in the morning, Cheng Mengxue received a Spacetime Bulletin on her phone telling her that Xu Yan would drown.

They immediately sprang into action. They borrowed a buoyancy life vest from the swimming club, rushed out of campus, hailed a taxi, and headed for Qing'an Bridge.

The buoyancy life vest was filled with air cushions and foam. Even someone who couldn't swim at all could easily float on the water while wearing it.

Traffic was a little congested. By the time the three of them reached Qing'an Bridge, they happened to run into Xu Yan.

They had barely exchanged a few words when the cries of children came from the rushing river.

Beneath the bridge, two children were thrashing in the water. They had fallen in upstream and been swept all the way down. One of them had already lost consciousness and stopped moving, while the other struggled and cried for help.

At the time, Xu Yan didn't hesitate for even a second. She swung a leg over, ready to jump into the river to save them.

Fortunately, Jiang Ran reacted quickly and grabbed her.

The current was swift, and the two children were about to be swept away. Jiang Ran gritted his teeth, snatched the buoyancy life vest from Cheng Mengxue's hands, climbed over the bridge railing, and jumped into the river.

He had learned to swim as a child and was a decent swimmer. After jumping in, he immediately put on the life vest and swam toward the children.

The rescue wasn't difficult. He quickly pushed both children ashore. The one who hadn't been moving coughed up river water after chest compressions and woke up as well.

It could be called a perfect rescue.

The only person who was injured... was Jiang Ran.

No one knew what had cut him. He only discovered after getting ashore that there was a wound on his right arm, blood steadily seeping out.

But it wasn't serious. He went to the hospital, had the wound cleaned and stitched, and it was bandaged up.

"That's what happened."

Cheng Mengxue finished.

But Jiang Ran raised a question.

"I'm not that fragile, am I? A tiny injury like this made me lie in the hospital for three days?"

"No."

Cheng Mengxue waved her hand.

"We went back to school that same day. We only came to the hospital today to change your dressing. Your wound seems to have gotten infected and inflamed, so the doctor told you to lie here and get an IV."

"All right."

With that, his memories came full circle, and the logic made sense.

No.

There was still one extremely important matter!

"The bulletin."

Jiang Ran put down his bowl and chopsticks and looked at Cheng Mengxue.

"Little Xue, this time, your phone..."

"[How many bulletins did it receive?]"