42

"Of course."

Jiang Ran answered:

"I definitely will."

"[No matter how the Worldline changes, I won't abandon any of you.]"

"[No matter how the Spacetime Butterfly Effect changes our relationship, I'll find you two again and make things right, just like they are now.]"

Jiang Ran answered without hesitation, firmly and from the heart.

Qin Feng treasured the bond between the three of them most of all.

Wasn't it just as precious to him?

"It's just..."

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

"Just like you said, I'm the only one who remembers the original Worldline. If I tried to talk about bonds and friendship with the two of you in the new Worldline, you'd probably think I was crazy."

"So the biggest problem isn't whether I'll go looking for you. It's that after I find you... you might not believe what I say."

Qin Feng nodded.

"That's true."

What normal person would believe a stranger's rambling just like that? Especially when it was something as outrageous as a change in the Worldline.

"Sometimes, meeting someone really comes down to fate, chance, or coincidence. Once you miss your chance, you might miss it for the rest of your life."

Qin Feng looked up at the night sky.

"Come to think of it, the three of us meeting felt like it was arranged by the heavens. We didn't know each other when we started high school, but our student numbers were consecutive."

"Jiang Ran, do you remember our student numbers in high school?"

Jiang Ran smiled knowingly.

"Of course I remember. I'm not senile."

At Hang City No. 1 High School, the first few digits of each student number indicated the year, and the last two were the class number.

Often, when teachers called on students, they just called out student numbers, picking someone at random to answer like they were drawing from a mystery box.

No one knew how the student numbers were assigned. They weren't in pinyin order, nor were they sorted by the number of strokes in each surname... The system seemed chaotic and random.

As it happened, there was a curious coincidence.

Jiang Ran, Cheng Mengxue, and Qin Feng had consecutive class numbers—and they were the last three.

There were 42 students in their high school class.

So their numbers were 40, 41, and 42, in that order.

"I remember it very clearly."

Jiang Ran recalled:

"My number was 40, Little Xue's was 41, and yours was 42. Just like you said, wasn't that fate?"

"Hey!"

Little Xue called from inside the clubroom:

"How much longer are you two going to talk? Aren't we starting?"

Jiang Ran checked the time on his phone.

That was right.

They'd been chatting ever since they'd interrupted the experiment. It was almost half past eleven, and they couldn't afford to waste any more time.

"Then let's get started."

Jiang Ran picked up his phone and looked at Qin Feng, who stood with his hands in his pockets before the power distribution box.

"I hope you won't hold tonight against me. I'll apologize afterward."

"Give me a break."

Qin Feng rolled his eyes at him.

"After the Worldline changes, I won't even remember this. You're as cunning as ever."

Jiang Ran smiled and gave Cheng Mengxue an OK sign.

"Then I'm starting the countdown!"

The words she'd repeated an unknown number of times came from inside the clubroom, her voice passing through the window.

"5!"

Jiang Ran lowered his head and looked at his phone screen.

It was the text Qin Feng had drafted earlier. There was nothing wrong with it. It was simple and straightforward.

By comparison, Jiang Ran's own message seemed rather petty.

His thumb hovered over the send button.

He looked toward the transformer's power distribution box.

"4!"

The moon was round tonight, and its bright light washed the ground in a pale glow.

Qin Feng leaned against the power distribution box with his eyes closed and his hands in his pockets. His breathing was steady and faint, mingling with the rustling of the willow branches.

The transformer inside the box hummed steadily, its crackling buzz hinting at danger.

A black nameplate was set into the silver metal casing, with the power box number engraved in huge yellow letters—

Donghai University No. 42 Power Distribution Box.

Huh?

"3!"

Jiang Ran blinked.

42.

42 again.

Hadn't they just been talking about that number?

Right.

Qin Feng's student number was 42, too. What a coincidence.

Jiang Ran suddenly felt as if the number 42 had been cropping up everywhere lately, as though it were surrounding him, intentionally or otherwise.

Where else?

Where else had he seen 42?

"2!"

At the sound of Cheng Mengxue's voice, Jiang Ran suddenly understood.

Right.

He'd seen 42 as far back as the very first Worldline change, when he sent the Spacetime Bulletin for the first time.

It had been on the Rhine Cat charm hanging from Cheng Mengxue's phone.

It was a limited edition made in collaboration with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Only 4,200 had been released, making it extremely precious.

Jiang Ran vaguely remembered it: a Rhine Cat wearing a spacesuit, with a large blue 42 printed on the chest of its white suit.

"1!"

How strange. Why were there so many 42s?

Jiang Ran suddenly realized.

The mysterious text, that string of mysterious numbers, seemed to have contained 42, too.

289269426494642

There was a 42 in the middle, and another at the end.

In an instant, the numbers separated and grouped themselves in his mind, lining up with the Chinese characters produced by translating them through a phone keypad.

Don't (28) believe (926) it (94264) — (946) ha (42)

Don't (bu) believe (yao) it (xiang) — (xin) ha (ha)

No!

Jiang Ran's eyes widened as he drew in a sharp breath.

The Rhine Cat's 42, the power distribution box's 42, Qin Feng's student number—42.

In an instant, countless puzzle pieces that had haunted him for so long began to fall into place.

All the doubts and worries he'd carried...

All the hesitation and unease...

The answer had been right here all along!

It wasn't incomplete. There was no follow-up. It wasn't hard to understand!

[That mysterious string of numbers had conveyed a clear and complete warning to him!]

Don't believe ha,

Don't believe Ha,

[Don't believe 42!!!]

"0!"

"Little Xue, wait—" Jiang Ran shouted.

But—

It was too late!

At the very moment Jiang Ran shouted, Cheng Mengxue had already pressed the Positron Cannon's activation button! A roar erupted from inside the clubroom and blasted toward the transformer's power distribution box!

"Sorry, Jiang Ran."

Beside the power distribution box, Qin Feng pulled an old-fashioned button phone from his pants pocket.

He'd been hiding another phone!

Qin Feng's thumb rested on the physical send button.

Finally,

he looked up.

He glanced at Jiang Ran hesitantly.

"[Forgive me.]"

Bzz!

Bzz!

Bzz!

Jiang Ran felt dizzy and lost his senses. It was as if he'd been tossed into a spinning washing machine.

Damn it.

Why had he only realized it now?

Why had it only dawned on him now!

His intuition had been right.

That mysterious string of numbers had been warning him, in the simplest code imaginable, to watch out for Qin Feng!

Qin Feng was a genius. He must have seen through the truth long ago. That was why he'd been pretending not to understand and leading their thoughts in the wrong direction.

The malfunction, the incomplete information, the claim that there was more to come...

It had all been cover and misdirection!

Don't believe 42.

The final number, 42, was Qin Feng!

It referred to everything connected to the Spacetime Bulletin, from beginning to end!

The world spun faster and faster.

Everything before him blurred into darkness. He couldn't see a thing.

Jiang Ran couldn't resist the relentless wheels of history and time. He fell toward an unknown, entirely new Worldline...

And plunged into it.