Time Is Like a River

Zhang Tianran did not pretend to be unconscious for long. After administering a series of emergency treatments, Caitlin actually brought over a syringe, intending to draw his blood.

To avoid having his blood drawn for testing, Zhang Tianran could only slowly open his eyes.

"Dr. Zhang, you're awake." Barry, who had been watching Zhang Tianran closely from the side, immediately hurried over.

"Mm. How long was I out?" Zhang Tianran remained calm, even having the leisure to ask about the time.

"Not long, less than an hour. Dr. Zhang, what exactly did you do? How could you possibly survive an explosion of that scale..." Caitlin asked in confusion.

Zhang Tianran did not answer Caitlin. Instead, he looked at Barry and spoke with complete sincerity. "I'm sorry, Barry. I studied your power without your permission."

Hearing Zhang Tianran's words, Barry froze for a moment before realizing what he meant, disbelief written across his face.

"Dr. Zhang, you mean..."

Zhang Tianran said nothing. He merely raised his right hand... A dazzling bolt of white lightning coiled around it. Barry knew very well that this was definitely not ordinary lightning.

"Dr. Zhang, you became a Metahuman? Because of the Particle Accelerator? No, you weren't in Central City when the Particle Accelerator exploded." Caitlin had not caught on yet, because what Barry had displayed was not lightning, but speed.

"Caitlin, Dr. Zhang became a Speedster like me." Barry looked at Zhang Tianran with a complicated expression.

Though he knew he might not be the only person in the world with such speed, seeing another one standing before him still made Barry think back to that night so many years ago.

"Developing supernatural abilities independently? That's impossible... The difficulty is no less than setting off the Particle Accelerator all over again." Caitlin could hardly believe it.

"Nothing is impossible. I prepared for this for a long time. I just didn't expect a little accident, but it still counts as a success," Zhang Tianran said casually.

Zhang Tianran did not intend to hide the fact that he had become a Speedster for too long. There was no need, and sometimes making something like this public was better than being found out.

Speedsters might be fast, but they were not impossible to discover. Unless Zhang Tianran never intended to use his powers, the day of exposure would eventually come.

"Dr. Zhang..." Barry's expression suddenly turned unusually serious. After hesitating for a moment, he finally asked, "I want to know—besides you, who else has become a Speedster like me? This is important."

Barry was not particularly resistant to the appearance of another Speedster.

Otherwise, Zhang Tianran would not have obtained the Speed Force so easily. Though he had injected the so-called Ultimate Speed Serum, Zhang Tianran's speed—no, the speed of all Speedsters—actually came from the Speed Force.

Zhang Tianran frowned at those words. This question was far more troublesome than Barry being unhappy about him becoming a Speedster.

"Barry, I don't want to lie to you." Zhang Tianran fell silent for a moment before continuing, "I know why you're asking me this. I can't give you an exact answer, but I have a story I want to tell you."

"You know who Reverse-Flash is, don't you?!" Barry's intelligence suddenly kicked in at that moment.

"Eobard Thawne, a scientist from the twenty-fifth century. He is the Reverse-Flash you mentioned, and he will become one of your greatest enemies." Zhang Tianran did not hide it, but neither did he reveal everything.

The truest lie was an incomplete truth.

"A man from the future? Why? Why did he kill my mother..." Barry Allen's expression became twisted with rage. No one could control their anger at a time like this.

"The reason? It's almost laughable. He only did it to vent his anger. That guy was originally your admirer,

but for some reason, he ended up hating you more and more." Zhang Tianran gave a bitter smile as he spoke. "What..." Barry suddenly froze. Thinking back to Hartley's attack on S.T.A.R. Labs a few days ago, a terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.

"Because... future me revealed my identity." Barry muttered to himself, suddenly looking lost.

Ever since deciding to become The Flash, Barry had been prepared to face danger himself. But the possibility of endangering the people around him was something he had never imagined.

"More or less. Barry, do you remember the research direction I had when I came to S.T.A.R. Labs? My original field was time and space. Traveling through time is actually possible." Zhang Tianran sighed and continued.

"You mean there's still a way to fix all this?" A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in Barry's eyes.

At that moment, he desperately wished Zhang Tianran would give him an affirmative answer. But clearly, that was impossible.

"No. I hope you never try to alter the timeline in the future. Time is like a river, and we are an anchor point in the present. This is reality!"

"If you change the past, then the anchor point of the present will change as well. The entire world will become something completely different, and only you will know what the original world was like."

"And according to my deduction..."

At this point, Zhang Tianran hesitated. But in the end, he still said, "According to my deduction, your mother's death was very likely inevitable."

"What!" Hearing this, Barry abruptly raised his head. Lightning filled his eyes, as though he might rush over at any moment.

But Zhang Tianran was completely fearless. He continued speaking calmly. "It's only a guess, but it's very likely. If your mother had not died, then your father would not have gone to prison, and you might not have become The Flash."

"I don't actually know that much about Reverse-Flash, but he is definitely a meticulous person. If he dared travel through time to kill someone in the past without worrying about affecting the future, then the only possibility is that the person he killed was destined to die."

"Killing someone destined to die while also inflicting severe psychological trauma on his enemy—he was clever to the extreme."

"But unfortunately, that guy never expected that even the most foolproof plan would still be a massive change from the perspective of the timeline."

"So... Reverse-Flash should be trapped in this era. What he wants is to return to the future."

Barry's heart was filled with rage. He wanted to vent it but did not know how. He wanted to refute Zhang Tianran's words, but he did not know how to refute them either.

As for Caitlin, she had long since been dumbfounded by the overwhelming amount of information.

For a time, the entire medical room fell into deathly silence. A few minutes later, Barry said nothing. He transformed into a streak of lightning and vanished.