Eyes

"Or else what?"

Jiang Ran retorted:

"You can't possibly mean that elementary school student saved me by throwing a pencil down from the mountain, which then bounced just right, point-up, landing right below my neck, and then my head just happened to fall onto it... What kind of god-tier elementary student is that?"

"It doesn't have to be that elementary school student."

Qin Feng straightened up:

[As I write this, I hope readers will remember our domain name. For Taiwanese novels, go to Taiwanese Novel Network, t͜͜͡͡w͜͜͡͡k͜͜͡͡a͜͜͡͡n͜͜͡͡.c͜͜͡͡o͜͜͡͡m͜͜͡͡ - it's awesome!]

"It could have been someone else."

"Whoever it was, it's impossible."

Jiang Ran raised his hand and threw a green date forcefully at Qin Feng—

Smack!

Qin Feng raised his hand to catch it, holding it in his palm.

"Whoever it was, they couldn't have thrown it that accurately," Jiang Ran said, shaking his wrist.

"But it's too coincidental, so coincidental it's unnatural."

"What's unnatural about it? If it's coincidental enough, a monkey could type out the complete works of Shakespeare on a typewriter."

"That's impossible."

Qin Feng rubbed the green date and shook his head:

"Theoretically, if you give monkeys enough time, they could randomly type out Shakespeare on a typewriter."

"But in reality, it's impossible. Even if the monkeys typed until the universe was destroyed, they wouldn't be able to type out Shakespeare."

Jiang Ran chuckled:

"That just means the universe isn't old enough."

"Why are you suddenly not believing in science anymore, Qin Feng? [Probability] is like this—"

"[As long as the probability of something happening is not zero, it will definitely happen.]"

Whoosh.

The green date flew over and was caught by Jiang Ran again.

"Murphy's Law."

Qin Feng said.

Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. In essence, it means that no matter how small the probability of failure or an accident, it will eventually happen.

Teacher Zhang Yang had covered this point in his general studies class.

Since the probability of a child falling, their backpack opening, their pencil case popping open and scattering its contents, a pencil rolling down a mountain, and bouncing just right to land below the neck is [not zero]...

Then, this event has a chance of happening.

It's like winning the lottery. Even though the odds of winning the jackpot are so small, someone always manages to hit it.

It's the same for everything.

"Don't tell me you didn't listen to Teacher Zhang Yang's lecture."

Jiang Ran tossed the green date and walked back onto the observation deck:

"We weren't interested in Teacher Zhang Yang's general studies class ourselves, Xiao Xue and I. We only chose it because you liked it."

"Of course, I listened." Qin Feng couldn't refute him.

Indeed, any low-probability event could happen; that was the charm of probability theory.

It was logical and well-founded.

"Murphy's Law is indeed a rather sad-sounding law,"

Jiang Ran continued to toss the date:

"Any possible mistake, accident, failure, or regret will eventually happen."

"But now that we have spacetime messages, and we can modify history and undo mistakes at any time, Murphy's Law no longer applies to us."

Snap.

With a final flick of his wrist, he caught the green date in mid-air and smiled at Qin Feng:

"Besides, didn't Teacher Zhang Yang provide a reverse derivation of Murphy's Law in class?"

"Since everything that can happen will happen..."

Jiang Ran leaned back, raising his right arm and tensing his muscles:

"That also means—"

He swung his arm forward powerfully, throwing the green date with all his might—

"[All beautiful things will also eventually come!]"

A green date turned into a meteor streaking across the night.

Thrown from the highest point of this ocean, it shot into the starry sky, parting the clouds, pulling the moonlight, and falling into the silent, dark sea.

Submerged.

The next day, heavy rain began to fall.

Cheng Mengxue didn't wake up until noon.

She had really gotten drunk and blacked out, completely unable to remember what she had said yesterday.

"My last memory... is Qin Feng saying his dream was to do research in a top laboratory. I don't remember anything that happened after that."

She scratched her head and looked at Jiang Ran:

"What did you say next? What's your dream?"

"To become a savior," Jiang Ran teased her.

"That's so grand!"

"A genius like Einstein."

"Can you... do it?"

"Doraemon."

"You're teasing me again!"

Amidst their banter, yesterday's events were glossed over.

Jiang Ran and Qin Feng exchanged knowing glances, both pretending nothing had happened.

If Cheng Mengxue asked, their unified story was that she had only spoken a few words before her face landed on a crab shell and she fell asleep.

By the time the three returned to school, it was already evening.

The downpour intensified, and lightning flashed frequently.

"The weather in Donghai really changes when it says it will."

The three held their umbrellas and pushed forward against the wind, deciding to head back to the club activity room to take shelter from the rain.

Upon arriving at the club activity room.

They were all wet to varying degrees.

After drying themselves with towels, the three prepared instant noodles, deciding to make do with that.

On the small blackboard, the two major unsolved mysteries of the current situation were still written:

[1. The mysterious text message, the mysterious numbers, what do they mean?]

[2. Why does only Jiang Ran have memories of the original history, before the worldline change?]

The first question seemed unsolvable for now.

Because since then, they hadn't received any additional text messages, nor any follow-up clues, leaving them at a standstill.

"That's why I've always said that mysterious text message was probably just a malfunction,"

Qin Feng blew on his noodles:

"Random garbled numbers with no meaning, it's very much like some kind of machine error. It's even possible that this malfunction occurred with the telecommunications operator, and has nothing to do with us."

"Don't you guys usually receive random verification code text messages? Spacetime messages themselves have to be transmitted through signal towers, so it's highly likely to be an accidental signal disturbance that caused that garbled message to appear."

Qin Feng still insisted on the "malfunction theory."

Because, if, as Jiang Ran hypothesized, it was a warning... they had already sent many text messages while "disregarding the warning."

But as it stood, no terrible things had happened.

Everything was stable.

Everything was orderly.

Everything was normal.

"If that mysterious text message was truly a warning from our future selves..."

Qin Feng let out a dry chuckle:

"Then shouldn't we have already faced retribution for being so disobedient now?"

BOOM!!!!

A bolt of lightning struck, followed closely by thunder.

The fluorescent lights flickered a few times before slowly stabilizing.

"You should say less."

Jiang Ran lifted the lid of his instant noodles, watching the steam rise as he pondered.

The words were crude, but the meaning was sound.

Actually, what Qin Feng said had a point.

Since ignoring the warning didn't lead to any negative consequences… it meant the warning was meaningless, or perhaps not a warning at all, and he was just overthinking it.

"I'll put this question aside for now."

He used his fork to stir the noodles, then looked at the second question on the small blackboard:

"Actually, I've always been curious, is this special physique of mine really unique in the whole world?"

"Although I've searched many keywords online, I haven't found any related information. But that doesn't prove anything… because anyone with a normal brain wouldn't talk about these things online, or they'd easily be captured and dissected in a lab for research."

"So, is it possible…"

"[That there are many others like me in the world who can sense worldline changes and retain memories from the original worldline?]"

Jiang Ran's words caused the temperature in the activity room to plummet, plunging it into silence.

Clang, clang, clang.

The heavy rain and strong winds battered the windows, making a loud clanging sound.

The curtain of rain clung to the glass like a watery veil, as if a monster was peering at its prey.

This was…

A question they had never deeply considered.

Just as Jiang Ran said, what if this special physique wasn't unique to him?

Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue exchanged glances.

They both frowned.

Once they started thinking about it, the implications were truly chilling.

What if, in every corner of the world, there were others like Jiang Ran with this special physique…

Then.

Every time a worldline change occurred, many people would feel dizzy like Jiang Ran;

After every worldline change, many people would retain memories from the original worldline like Jiang Ran;

This would mean—

If these people paid attention to the lottery, they would notice that the second prize had increased by five tickets after the worldline change!

If there was someone like that at Donghai University, they would have noticed Xu Yan's resurrection!

[Then these people, hidden in the shadows, might have already noticed the unusual behavior of the trio!]

BOOM!!!!

Another bolt of lightning split the sky, illuminating the entire room.

Eyes.

Eyes.

Eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes eyes!

Amidst the rumbling thunder, hundreds of Rhine Cat eyes lit up, staring at them from all directions.

"We… we aren't…"

Cheng Mengxue swallowed hard.

She slowly raised her head, looking at the fleeting glances of the Rhine Cats:

"We aren't… already being targeted, are we?"