Attempt

Was this phenomenon a coincidence? Or could it be replicated?

Jiang Ran immediately picked up his phone and sent five messages to Cheng Mengxue, then five more to Qin Feng.

Beep beep beep beep beep—five notification chimes.

Qin Feng picked up his phone and looked at Jiang Ran, who was less than a step away.

"Are you sick or something?"

At the same time, Cheng Mengxue sent a question over WeChat, asking why Jiang Ran had sent her five messages containing the numbers one through five in perfect sequence.

It seemed... it had failed.

Jiang Ran furrowed his brow.

Or rather, receiving the messages as expected was the normal, reasonable outcome.

"Could it be that only the contents of that one message can travel through time?"

He tried again, retyping the sentence, "Hello, if you find this phone, please contact XXXXXXX. Thank you very much!" and sending it word for word to both of them.

Beep.

Qin Feng's phone rang again, while Little Xue sent an exasperated sticker.

That was it.

Jiang Ran was out of options.

He had thought he'd gained some superpower like [Messaging the Past], with wealth and glory within easy reach...

But judging by the situation now...

This had been a completely unrepeatable coincidence, making him doubt himself.

Could there really be something wrong with his memory?

Heatstroke?

A daydream?

Had he not fully woken up?

But all of this had felt so real...

"Hey, hey, hey!"

Qin Feng finally couldn't take it anymore and jabbed him with an elbow.

"If something's wrong, just say it! You've been standing here silently sending messages like some mute. Isn't that creepy enough?"

"If you've run into trouble, tell us. We can all think of a solution together!"

Jiang Ran sighed.

"Let's meet up with Little Xue first."

"I want to take a good look at her phone."

Half an hour later, in a corner on the second floor of a milk tea shop.

Qin Feng looked at Cheng Mengxue.

"Do you believe it?"

"I don't." Cheng Mengxue shook her head.

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

"I don't believe it either. Forget you two—even I don't believe this is real."

"No matter how you put it, [a message from today being sent three days into the past] is just too absurd, too sci-fi."

"We tried all sorts of variations just now, but not one of them worked. No message vanished or got sent into the past... every single one was completely normal."

"I also wondered whether the heat had knocked me silly or whether something was wrong with my memory."

"But! There's one thing that can't be explained."

He picked up Cheng Mengxue's phone and pinched the Rhine Cat charm hanging from the bottom.

"Qin Feng, do you know what this Rhine Cat is?"

Qin Feng shook his head.

"It looks like some kind of astronaut cat."

Jiang Ran turned to Cheng Mengxue again.

"Little Xue, have you ever introduced this Rhine Cat model to us?"

"No."

Cheng Mengxue shook her head as well.

"You two have zero interest in Rhine Cat. Trying to talk to you about it is like playing music to a cow—it's such a buzzkill."

Suddenly, she blinked.

"You don't mean..."

"Yes, I know."

Jiang Ran looked at the number on the Rhine Cat's belly.

"This is a Rhine Cat collaboration with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Only 4,200 were released in total, so it's extremely valuable."

"Wow!"

Stars sparkled in Cheng Mengxue's eyes.

"You actually did your homework!"

"How could that be..."

Jiang Ran waved a hand.

"You told me that yourself. Of course, you definitely don't remember it happening now."

"Although it isn't ironclad proof, you two know me. There's no way I looked this up online. I have no interest in Rhine Cat, and I don't even think it's that cute."

"That's why I'm saying this might not be so simple... maybe I didn't just have a daydream. Maybe some kind of spacetime butterfly effect really happened, and that message truly was sent into the past!"

Qin Feng pondered for two seconds.

Then nodded.

"True. You wouldn't be bored enough to make something like this up."

"But compared with that time-traveling message and the [Spacetime Shift] it caused, I'm more curious about something else."

He raised his head and stared into Jiang Ran's eyes.

"[Why are you the only one who remembers before the Spacetime Shift?]"

"Logically, the two of us were standing together then... no, according to you, all three of us were standing together, yet neither of us has those memories."

Jiang Ran fell silent.

For no apparent reason, he recalled the arrogant lines from the movie they had filmed that afternoon.

"As long as we return to the past and change all this... everything can begin again."

"The omnipotent are not gods. Only those who control history and manipulate history can be called gods!"

"You can never defeat me within history. Because in this game played across the river of time..."

"I am history!"

Thud.

Jiang Ran set down his milk tea, leaned back, and rested against the chair.

"I don't know."

He gently shook his head.

"I want the answer even more than you do."

That was the truth, and it was what concerned him most.

Neither Qin Feng nor Cheng Mengxue remembered anything from before the Spacetime Shift.

Jiang Ran was exactly the opposite. He had memories from before the Spacetime Shift, yet lacked memories of the new history after it... many changes that differed from the original history had to be explained to him by others.

The feeling was deeply unsettling. It gave him no sense of security at all.

"But you really did change history, just like you wrote in your script."

After years of mutual understanding, Qin Feng saw through Jiang Ran's thoughts at a glance and smiled faintly.

"Three days ago, after Little Xue received that message, she only took it as a prank, but it made her pay close attention to whether she might lose her phone."

"So she kept touching her pocket and checking her phone whenever she had the chance. That's why she didn't lose it while shopping this afternoon."

Phew...

Cheng Mengxue let out a long breath and giggled.

"No matter what, because of that bizarre message, I didn't lose my phone or Rhine Cat! That's a major achievement for you!"

"If something this good happens again, remember to send me some lottery numbers~ Then we can get rich overnight!"

"I wish I could."

Jiang Ran did not know whether to laugh or cry.

If he truly had a superpower that let him message the past, who wouldn't want to make up for their regrets, seize opportunities, and create a perfect life?

But for now, he had no clue where to start.

Still...

It was too early to give up.

From a physics standpoint, if an experiment could succeed once, then as long as its principles were understood, it could definitely succeed a second time.

"Tomorrow afternoon, at the same time, let's try again."

He looked at his phone screen.

"I remember sending the message at 6:05."

"It's very possible that only messages sent at that exact time can travel through time and reach the past."

"You're grasping at straws." Cheng Mengxue complained.

"You can't put it like that."

Qin Feng took a sip of milk tea.

"Scientific experiments are often empirical. Before you know why an experiment succeeded... strictly reproducing every action, every step, even every gesture of praying to gods and Buddhas, is precisely the most effective approach."

The next day, at six in the evening.

The three of them arrived at the spot where the message had been sent before.

This was the main route between the library and cafeteria. Beside it stood a huge [transformer distribution box], a full three meters tall. Up close, they could hear the buzzing sound of electricity.

Behind the distribution box stood the student club activity building, where faint chatter and laughter drifted out.

"Yesterday, I sent the message from this exact spot."

Jiang Ran positioned himself precisely, then directed the other two.

"Little Xue, come over here and stand beside me. Qin Feng, stand here, turned slightly to the side. The direction my phone was facing then... was this way."

That was right.

They really were grasping at straws.

But they did their best to reproduce every detail perfectly.

The message had been drafted in advance, exactly word for word.

He had even downloaded a mass-messaging app. The moment he pressed the button, it would bombard Cheng Mengxue's phone with one message per second.

Qin Feng raised his wrist and watched his watch count down.

"Ten seconds left. Five seconds. Three, two, one, send!"

Jiang Ran looked at the sunset, so similar to yesterday's, and slammed his thumb down on the send button—