Qin Feng

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Qin Feng (秦风)
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Donghai University Film Club; formerly part of Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue's “Iron Triangle” friendship group 2 12
Occupation/Role	University student; Film Club technician and positron-cannon operator 8 9
Status	His existence is absent from the altered worldline created by his ten-year spacetime message; his whereabouts are unknown 36 39
First Appearance	Chapter 2

Background

Qin Feng lost his father in an accidental death ten years before he requested to use a spacetime message to save him. His mother subsequently worked multiple jobs to support him, while Qin Feng endured bullying over being “a child without a dad” rather than risk causing her further trouble. He deliberately concealed his academic ability, keeping his grades in the middle of the class to avoid attention. 25 26 31

In high school, Jiang Ran intervened when a former middle-school bully insulted Qin Feng during physical education. The confrontation became a fight, and Qin Feng gradually became close with Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue afterward. He regards their support as the first time anyone had defended his dignity. 31

Qin Feng later became the top scorer in the college entrance examination, achieving 740 points. Despite being able to attend Tsinghua University, he chose to remain with Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue, whom he considered more important than academic prestige. 2 12

Personality

Qin Feng is highly intelligent, rational, and technically capable, but his judgment is strongly shaped by loyalty. He tends to press forward with experimentation when Jiang Ran hesitates, arguing that excessive caution prevents progress. 10 21 22

His friendship with Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue is central to his decisions. He mediates their disputes, supports collective voting, and initially abstains from the vote concerning his father because he believes his personal attachment would prevent an impartial choice. 11 12 27

Beneath his composed manner, Qin Feng carries lasting regret over his father’s death and his childhood hardships. He accepts Jiang Ran’s refusal to alter ten years of history, reassures him that he holds no resentment, then later covertly engineers the same alteration himself. 28 31 35 36

Abilities & Skills

Technical Engineering

Qin Feng is the group’s primary engineer for the positron cannon and its spacetime-message experiments.

• Repairs the positron cannon after it is obtained from the school warehouse. 8 9
• Masters the cannon’s operation and serves as its designated operator during experiments. 9 13
• Studies methods of controlling how far into the past a message is sent. 15
• Installs a compatible LCD knob control panel, giving the cannon adjustable year, month, day, and hour settings. 25
• Continues attempting to improve the cannon’s 0.7-second operating limit and capacitor failures, though he considers the core component too dangerous to dismantle. 30
• Secretly reverses the effective year and day controls, allowing a setting presented as ten days to send a message ten years into the past. Jiang Ran later deduces the modification. 38

Analytical Reasoning

Qin Feng regularly develops rational explanations and technical hypotheses for the group’s anomalies.

• Identifies that Jiang Ran retained memories from an original timeline after a spacetime fluctuation. 9
• Questions the timing and meaning of the mysterious messages rather than accepting them at face value. 10 11
• Suggests that the grammatically incorrect “ha” in the warning message may be incomplete pinyin. 24
• Possesses photographic memory, a trait Jiang Ran and Wang Hao explicitly contrast with their own forgetfulness. 32

Acting

Qin Feng performs in the Film Club’s productions alongside Jiang Ran.

• Plays a manipulative antagonist in the rooftop sequence of the Film Club’s film. 2
• Uses a prop gun and fake blood pack during the scene, convincing Jiang Ran’s character that he has been shot. 2
• Receives praise from underclassmen for his composed performance and reputation as a genius. 2

Equipment / Items

• Positron cannon — Repairs, maintains, modifies, and operates the device used to enable spacetime text-message transmissions. 8 9 25
• LCD knob control panel — A compatible control board Qin Feng modifies for the cannon; it appears to govern the transmission’s year, month, day, and hour. 25
• Hidden button phone — Concealed phone used to send a separate spacetime message while Jiang Ran sends the visible message from Qin Feng’s primary phone. 35 36

Relationships

• Jiang Ran — Best friend and fellow Film Club member. Qin Feng admires Jiang Ran’s ideas, credits him with defending him from bullying, and considers him a friend he would protect with his life. Their bond is strained by Qin Feng’s deception over the message sent to save his father. 12 31 35 36
• Cheng Mengxue — Closest friend and member of the Iron Triangle. Qin Feng mediates between her and Jiang Ran, shares concerns about her feelings for Jiang Ran, and values remaining with both friends over attending Tsinghua. 12 19 20
• Qin Feng’s father — Deceased father whose death ten years earlier motivates Qin Feng’s wish and eventual covert worldline alteration. 25 26 38 39
• Qin Feng’s mother — Raised Qin Feng alone while working multiple jobs after his father’s death; Qin Feng concealed both his bullying and his academic talent to avoid burdening her. 26 31
• Wang Hao — Friend of Jiang Ran and Qin Feng in the original worldline; Wang Hao remembers the title Genius Playground but not its details. 30 32

Story Role / Major Arcs

Film Club and Spacetime Experiments

Qin Feng first appears as Jiang Ran’s co-star in a Film Club production. The apparent betrayal, gunshot, diary, and invocation of “Lilith” are ultimately revealed as part of a filmed rooftop scene. 2

After Jiang Ran’s message arrives three days in the past, Qin Feng supports the investigation despite finding Jiang Ran’s account strange. He repairs the positron cannon and becomes the group’s technical specialist as they test and refine spacetime-message transmission. 3 8 9

Debates Over Changing History

When Xu Yan dies, Qin Feng proposes voting on whether to send a warning into the past. He consistently supports moving forward with experiments and argues against treating the mysterious warning messages as proven danger. 11 12 21 22

After Cheng Mengxue uses a message to pass her calculus retake, Qin Feng reveals his own wish: saving his father, who died ten years earlier. Jiang Ran fears the scale of the butterfly effect and refuses, while Qin Feng accepts the decision rather than force a vote. 25 27 28

The Ten-Year Deception

Offered another wish, Qin Feng outwardly settles on acquiring a control board for the Film Club. He continues working on the positron cannon, however, and secretly alters the control-panel wiring. 29 30 38

When Jiang Ran insists on personally sending Qin Feng’s apparently harmless message about obtaining a control board, Qin Feng allows it. At the decisive moment, he uses a hidden button phone to send another message, triggering a worldline jump. 34 35 36

The hidden alteration causes the transmission to reach ten years into the past rather than ten days. Qin Feng’s younger self can therefore prevent his father’s death, but the resulting butterfly effect removes Qin Feng from Jiang Ran’s life and contributes to Cheng Mengxue’s death in the new worldline. 38 39

Notable Quotes

“To me, you two are more important than Tsinghua... much more important.” 12

“I want to save my deceased father.” 25

“You two are friends I’d protect with my life.” 31