"Ha?" "Ha?" "Ha?"
The three of them all blurted out "ha" at once.
They looked at each other.
Ha?
What were they saying "ha" about?
"Don't believe... I understand the first four characters."
Qin Feng furrowed his brow.
"But this last one... 'ha'... what does it mean? This is a completely ungrammatical sentence, isn't it?"
Jiang Ran shook his head.
"Maybe there's another way to spell it?"
But no matter how he rearranged them, the other combinations didn't make words.
"Let's head back to the clubroom first."
He put away his phone.
"Anyway, this trip to see Teacher Zhang Yang wasn't for nothing. We got a lot out of it!"
Film Club, clubroom.
The small blackboard had been completely wiped clean. Five large characters had been written on it again—
[Don't, believe, ha]
"What does 'ha' mean?"
Qin Feng asked for what felt like the Nth time.
"I don't know."
Jiang Ran said "I don't know" for what felt like the Nth time, then looked up at Cheng Mengxue.
"That does sound a bit like Little Xue's catchphrase."
Sometimes, Cheng Mengxue liked to end her sentences with "ha."
The "ha" usually didn't mean anything in particular. It was just a sentence-final particle that could serve as a reminder, add emphasis, seek confirmation, or make something sound like a question.
For example, the things she said most often:
"I'm going to eat, ha!"
"I'm starting the countdown, ha!"
"Don't forget to bring it over, ha!"
"Then I'll buy it, ha?"
Huh?
At first, Cheng Mengxue hadn't noticed.
But after trying it out by talking to herself, she said:
"It really does!"
She blinked.
"But there's nothing unusual about that, is there? Lots of people talk like this. Oh, wait..."
She suddenly realized.
"You're not trying to say... this message was actually sent by me on some day in the future?"
Jiang Ran thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"I don't think so. The sender of this message was my phone number. It's possible you typed it, but I don't think it's that simple."
"Besides, whoever sent it aside, these five characters are completely ungrammatical."
"'Don't believe, ha'... It looks like it's trying to warn us not to believe something, but what exactly? Why does just one 'ha' stand in for it?"
Seeing that Qin Feng had been silent in thought, Jiang Ran turned to him.
"What do you think, Qin Feng?"
Qin Feng didn't answer right away.
He rested his chin on his hand and paced around the clubroom.
Finally, he stopped in front of the small blackboard and wrote the pinyin for the five characters—
bu, yao, xiang, xin, ha
Then he pointed at the final "ha."
"[I think those last two pinyin letters aren't the whole thing. There must be more information after them.]"
"For example, that 'ha' might actually be 'hai,' 'hang,' or 'han'... Or it could be 'ga,' 'gan,' or 'gang.'"
On a phone keypad, the 4 key had three English letters, GHI. Given the pinyin, it could indeed be an H or a G.
Jiang Ran nodded. He'd had the same thought.
Could it be...
That string of mysterious numbers was only the first part of the code, with a second part yet to come?
If there was another string of mysterious numbers after it, they could keep pressing the keys on the phone keypad to get more characters and more information.
As Qin Feng had said, the meaningless "ha" might not be complete. There could be more pinyin letters after it.
"Wow, but you're really clever, Jiang Ran."
Cheng Mengxue gave Jiang Ran a thumbs-up.
"When we first got that mysterious message, you guessed it was a warning. I can't believe you were right."
"I wouldn't say I was right."
Jiang Ran waved a hand.
"From what we can tell, even though we decoded the mysterious numbers into five Chinese characters, we still haven't gotten any useful information. We can't even tell whether this is a warning."
"It's just telling us not to believe something. But what, exactly, is it telling us not to believe?"
"Is it telling us not to believe in the Positron Cannon? Not to believe in Spacetime Bulletins? Not to believe in the Worldline Jump theory? Or..."
He glanced around the room, his gaze coming to rest on Cheng Mengxue and Qin Feng.
"[Or is it telling us not to believe each other? Not to believe... someone in this clubroom?]"
"Hey!"
The rice cooker Rhine Cat came flying at him with a menacing force!
Jiang Ran hurriedly caught it, but the lid popped open with a pop, and the spacetime particle Rhine Cat flew out. It landed an uppercut on Jiang Ran's chin.
So strong! It even had a second-stage attack!
"How could you say something like that?!"
The fact that Cheng Mengxue was willing to throw her most beloved rice cooker Rhine Cat at him as a weapon showed just how angry she was.
Now, with her hands on her hips, she glared at Jiang Ran.
"How could you suspect your own teammates?"
"From the beginning, the three of us have always made decisions together and taken action together when it came to Spacetime Bulletins and everything else. None of us has kept anything from the others. How could you say something like that?"
"I'm just putting the idea out there."
Jiang Ran caught the spacetime particle Rhine Cat and stuffed it back into the rice cooker Rhine Cat's head.
"I'm just making an exhaustive hypothetical. How could I not trust you two?"
"If anything, I've been the one making the final decisions on all the Spacetime Bulletin experiments. If anyone's the least trustworthy, I'm the most suspicious."
Qin Feng stepped between them again and waved his hands.
"Hold it, hold it... We're just discussing things. Don't get worked up."
"We're not going to start suspecting each other over one inexplicable message."
"It's obvious this message is incomplete. If we get a second mysterious message, with a second string of mysterious numbers... then we'll have the whole truth, won't we?"
"However you look at it, this doesn't seem to be telling us to suspect each other. It's warning us to be on guard against something or someone together."
"That 'ha' at the end—the 'ha'—could very well be 'Han,' 'Hang,' 'Hang,' 'Han,' 'Hai,' or any number of things... It's too early to draw conclusions."
Jiang Ran tossed the rice cooker Rhine Cat back to her.
"Qin Feng's right. We need more information."
He went to the small blackboard and erased the writing.
"What Teacher Zhang Yang said may not be entirely accurate, but at least it gave us some peace of mind."
"Right now, our top priority is to get more information about the mysterious message as soon as possible and figure out what comes after 'don't believe.'"
He began writing on the small blackboard with a scratch, scratch, scratch.
Qin Feng glanced over.
"Are we going to send another Spacetime Bulletin?"
"Yes."
Jiang Ran nodded as he wrote.
"Whatever that Spacetime Bulletin is trying to warn us about, it didn't warn us about sending Spacetime Bulletins."
"In other words, sending Spacetime Bulletins is safe in itself, and reliable."
"Besides, we received the first mysterious message at the same time as the Spacetime Bulletin. If we want to receive another mysterious message, we'll most likely have to repeat the process."
Tap.
Jiang Ran finished the last stroke and gestured for the two of them to look at the small blackboard—
[Spacetime Bulletin Experiment, Phase Two Objectives]
1. Continue sending Spacetime Bulletins while ensuring our safety, and see whether we can receive another mysterious message and string of mysterious numbers.
2. Find a way to decode the true meaning of the mysterious message, and figure out its origins and motives.
"We can set aside the matter of my unusual constitution for now."
He dusted off his hands and put down the chalk.
"I doubt we'll get an answer to that anytime soon. Let's focus on the two objectives above first."
Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue sat down, both in agreement with Jiang Ran's plan.
"Then..."
Cheng Mengxue hugged the Rhine Cat.
"What kind of Spacetime Bulletin should we send next?"
She tilted her head.
"Since we've already done several experiments and made a lot of money from the lottery..."
"Can we start sending Spacetime Bulletins to make up for regrets and correct past mistakes, however we want?"
Jiang Ran smiled faintly.
"The experimental phase is over, and we've learned how to use Spacetime Bulletins. We can be a little more flexible with their contents from now on."
"Of course, that doesn't mean we can send anything we like. We still need to discuss it and decide together."
He returned to his chair, leaned back, and looked at the two of them.
"I'm sure all of us have spent some time thinking about what we want to do with Spacetime Bulletins."
"So the three of us can each make one wish, and take turns making them come true."
"Who wants to go first?"
Before you continue