The Positron Cannon

Creak...

The wooden bearings groaned with an ancient, raspy scrape, and a stale smell hit him.

Moonlight spilled through the glass window.

This was the Film Club's activity room, once like a secret base, but now not a familiar face remained.

There was no Rhine Cat army taking over the entire room,

no screwdrivers of every size scattered across the workbench,

no neatly arranged bookcase filled with fragrant books,

no little blackboard covered in plans and questions, erased and rewritten over and over.

There was nothing here to show that the trio had ever been here.

Only haphazard boxes of old junk, a dusty coffee table and sofa, a few old photos clipped to a clothesline, and scattered, tattered sheets of paper...

This was what the Film Club had looked like at the beginning, just as it had when the trio first stepped inside in the original Worldline. Nothing had changed.

"This is normal,"

Jiang Ran reminded himself.

On this brand-new Worldline, Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue had never come to Donghai University. The trio no longer existed, and naturally, they had never joined the Film Club. So there shouldn't have been any trace of them here.

"Senior Yan Rui must have graduated and left campus by now, right?"

He walked slowly into the room, his feet stirring the dust on the floor.

"The Film Club must have been disbanded, too."

Without the trio to keep it alive, this once-glorious club had ultimately become a relic of the past.

In a daze, beneath the hazy moonlight...

He seemed to see Cheng Mengxue sitting on the sofa, holding Rhine Cat as she embroidered clothes.

He seemed to see Qin Feng hunched over the workbench, tinkering with one thing after another.

He seemed to see himself perched on the windowsill, counting down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

It was as if all the laughter and arguments from those days were still vivid in his mind.

"I should look for the Positron Cannon first."

The Positron Cannon was at the heart of everything, and their hope of saving it all.

Jiang Ran gathered his thoughts and began searching.

Afraid of attracting the campus security guards and causing unnecessary trouble, Jiang Ran left the lights off and searched by the faint glow of his phone screen.

He had already looked through these old things once before, so most of them seemed familiar.

He searched all around but found no Positron Cannon. Instead, he found two notices on the bookshelf.

One was a Club Dissolution Notice, and the other was a Disciplinary Notice for Senior Yan Rui.

The disciplinary notice made things quite clear. Just as in the previous Worldline, Senior Yan Rui had been given a warning for using a high-powered appliance on the evening of March 17 and burning out the wiring in the activity building.

It seemed that history had unfolded just as it had before, without any changes.

"In other words, the Positron Cannon isn't here."

Jiang Ran set down the notice and looked out the window.

"On this Worldline, Senior Yan Rui still got disciplined for activating the Positron Cannon."

"So now... the Positron Cannon must have been confiscated by the Student Union and stored in a school warehouse."

All right.

Though he hadn't found the Positron Cannon itself, he at least had a lead. He could figure out a way to get it back from the warehouse.

So his trip hadn't been for nothing.

Jiang Ran felt a little relieved, and his taut nerves finally relaxed.

Ignoring the dust around him, he dropped onto a thick cardboard box, covered his face with both hands, and let out a long sigh.

His breath lingered, circling around the room before fading...

Just like the tangled thoughts in his mind.

He wanted so badly to pull out his phone and call Cheng Mengxue. If that wasn't possible, even a call to Qin Feng would do.

Sitting alone in this lonely activity room,

he realized that he didn't actually hate Qin Feng all that much.

He knew Qin Feng hadn't meant to get Cheng Mengxue killed. It was the chaotic, unpredictable workings of the Spacetime Butterfly Effect, a coincidence no one could have foreseen.

The Butterfly Effect was a chaotic system. Everything was unknown and unpredictable.

So...

Qin Feng, where are you now?

Did your father survive?

Do you know that Cheng Mengxue is dead?

There was so much more he could have written in that 70-character message besides explaining how your father died.

You're such a genius. You'd never waste a single character. You must have hidden plenty of information in the Spacetime Bulletin.

So why didn't you come see me today, on the day of the Worldline Jump?

Jiang Ran raised his head.

He opened his eyes.

If Qin Feng were here now, everything would be easy.

They just needed to find the Positron Cannon and have Qin Feng repair it. Then they could send a Spacetime Bulletin to two years ago, to the day Cheng Mengxue died, and easily avoid the car accident and save her.

Then,

on the new Worldline, Qin Feng's father would be alive, Cheng Mengxue would be alive, and everyone would live happily ever after.

Could the time simply not be right yet?

Jiang Ran shook his head.

Whatever the reason on Qin Feng's end, whatever this Worldline's Qin Feng was plotting, he didn't have time to wait for him.

The longer he waited, the more trouble could crop up.

Saving Cheng Mengxue with a Spacetime Bulletin was something he had to do decisively. There could be no delays.

He began planning in his mind.

Now that he knew the Positron Cannon was in the school warehouse, and the Film Club was once again facing dissolution, history was following exactly the same course as on the previous Worldline.

So he could follow the same solution, step by step:

1. Tomorrow, find Xu Yan and use her connections to keep the Film Club alive, then make himself its new president.

2. As club president, he could submit an application and a written guarantee, then retrieve the banned electrical equipment from the school warehouse and bring the Positron Cannon back.

3. The hardest part would be repairing the Positron Cannon and installing the control board. That wasn't his area of expertise. But after watching Qin Feng modify it for so long, he had memorized all the principles. He only needed to study a little mechanical engineering, and the repairs shouldn't be difficult.

4. Once all the preparations were complete, he could reactivate the Positron Cannon and send a Spacetime Bulletin into the past, changing the Worldline... and rewriting history!

That was the plan.

It shouldn't be too difficult to carry out.

Even though Cheng Mengxue had died two years ago, his bond with Xu Yan as "childhood friends" was still there. That hadn't changed.

So Xu Yan would definitely help him.

Huh?

Jiang Ran's heart suddenly lurched.

On this Worldline... Xu Yan should still be alive, right?

He wasn't at all sure. All he could do was hope Xu Yan had been lucky.

With the plan settled, Jiang Ran braced his hands against his knees and stood.

Suddenly—

Thud.

He stumbled and backed into the edge of the table.

Someone!

He held his breath and stared at the half-open door of the activity room...

A shadow leaned silently against the doorframe, arms crossed, staring at him without moving!

Who was it?

When had they arrived?

"Jiang Ran, what are you looking for?"

A familiar, melodious voice rang out.

The leaves rustling outside sounded like the fuse of a bomb about to explode, leaving Jiang Ran nowhere to run.

Curly, fluffy hair bounced with each springy step.

The girl walked lightly out of the darkness and into the moonlight, starlight glimmering in her pink hair.

With her hands behind her back, she narrowed her bright, sparkling eyes.

"Are you... hiding something from me?"