novelraw Chapter 15 Summary
Chapter 15 Summary
“So far, we’ve sent three time-traveling text messages. I think we need to summarize the patterns and the puzzles we’ve seen.”
Jiang Ran dragged the small blackboard up in front of the workbench. As he wrote, he spoke.
“[The first time-traveling text message], pure accident. A blind cat stumbling into a dead mouse.”
It fit.
Back then, the chain of coincidences had been ridiculous to the point of absurdity.
When Yan Rui, the senior from the Film Camera Club, was packing up, he dug out an old relic—the Positron Cannon. Out of curiosity, he set it on the table, and it just so happened to be aimed at the transformer distribution box outside the window.
After the Positron Cannon activated, it ran for only 0.7 seconds before it burned out the line and caused a power outage.
Within those 0.7 seconds, the positron beam struck the high-voltage transformer and just so happened to form a 0.7-second spacetime black hole.
And at that moment, Jiang Ran just so happened to be standing next to the distribution box, and just so happened to press send within those 0.7 seconds, launching the radio wave of the text message.
So the spacetime black hole captured the radio wave, carried it through spacetime back into the past, transmitted it to three days earlier, and completed a wholly accidental delivery of a time-traveling text message.It had been a tiny-probability fluke—so many “just so happenneds.” With slightly worse luck, it wouldn’t have worked at all.
“[The second time-traveling text message] happened after we fixed the Positron Cannon—our first test.”
It had only been a test experiment.
None of them had any confidence. No one knew whether it would work. But it did.
The test message successfully sent to three days earlier. The original history was altered, and the worldline shifted again.
The test should’ve been perfect, except…
Cheng Mengxue’s phone received two text messages.
The second message had appeared out of thin air. The mysterious garbled digits in it still hadn’t been cracked.
Jiang Ran kept writing.
“[The third time-traveling text message] was our first deliberate send after we’d grasped some rules—an attempt to actively rewrite the historical trajectory, actively trigger a worldline jump, and resurrect Xu Yan, who had died by accident.”
That attempt had been crucial.
Because it was purposeful…
A challenge thrown at established history.
It was the opening of Pandora’s box—
the beginning of trying to manipulate history,
the verification of Worldline Theory,
proof that spacetime could be controlled.
…
Jiang Ran set the chalk down and flicked the white dust from his fingertips.
“Through these three experiments, we can say we basically understand the principle and usage rules for time-traveling text messages now. Xiaoxue—your turn.”
“Coming!”
Cheng Mengxue had been writing on a whiteboard sheet the whole time.
She stood, picked up a magnet, and slapped the sheet—covered in bold characters—onto the small blackboard.
“This is what I just summarized… the rules and key knowledge points for time-traveling texts. I’ll go through them one by one.”
At the top of the sheet, in bold, it read—
Time-Traveling Text Message User Manual (Version 1.0)
[1. Time-traveling text messages can only be sent to three days earlier.]
[2. The sending window for a time-traveling text message is only 0.7 seconds.]
[3. After the Positron Cannon overloads, it needs to be powered off and left idle for 20 hours before it can be used again.]
[4. A successful send triggers a temporal shift, and only Jiang Ran can perceive that shift.]
[5. A temporal shift means a worldline transition, but only Jiang Ran possesses “All-Spacetime Memory.”]
…?
Jiang Ran stared at the last line.
“What is [All-Spacetime Memory]?”
“I named your special constitution.”
Cheng Mengxue put her hands on her hips.
“Isn’t it cool?”
“It’s painfully cringe…”
“Agh, it’s such a perfect definition! The old way of saying it was too long. We needed something concise.”
She fought for it.
“The worldline’s changed so many times, and you’ve kept your memories every time, haven’t you? All the spacetime histories that the rest of us don’t remember—histories that already disappeared—they’re all in your head.”
“So if you have the memories of every spacetime, naming your special constitution [All-Spacetime Memory] is basically the perfect name!”
“Whatever,” Jiang Ran said. He didn’t really care what it was called.
He stared at Time-Traveling Text Message User Manual (Version 1.0) and thought…
Honestly.
A lot of those rules might not be absolutely accurate.
But since it was a provisional version, it was fine for now.
If they discovered more later, they could always update it to Version 2.0, Version 3.0.
So.
Next.
It was Qin Feng’s turn to summarize.
“I’ll just talk about what I think of this Positron Cannon.”
Qin Feng walked to the workbench.
“This device—unknown principle, unknown structure, unknown effects. I don’t believe it can actually fire a positron beam. Sure, it seems like it can shoot out some kind of energy-body, but I have to say: that cannot possibly be a positron beam. Physics doesn’t allow it.”
“Get to the point,” Jiang Ran cut in.
“Because we don’t dare dismantle the core components, our research progress has been slow.”
Qin Feng continued.
“But I feel like time-traveling text messages can’t possibly be limited to only three days earlier. There has to be some [variable] that can control the ‘depth’ of the spacetime black hole—so the text can be sent to an earlier time point.”
“Like ten days earlier? A month earlier? A year earlier?”
Possible.
Jiang Ran had thought the same thing before.
“So for the next experiment, I’m planning to try finding that variable.”
Qin Feng pointed at the Positron Cannon.
“Through the external circuit, we can control the intensity of the focusing unit, changing the beam density.”
“I think there’s a high probability that… as long as we increase the beam density, we’ll be able to send text messages to an earlier time node!”
Jiang Ran nodded.
“Worth trying. But I’d suggest we don’t increase density first—let’s reduce it and see what happens. Try sending to two days earlier, one day earlier… even just a few hours earlier.”
Qin Feng laughed.
“You’re still as cautious as ever. But you’re right—this is safer.”
“More than that.”
Jiang Ran lifted his index finger.
“If we’re running experiments, we should try more possibilities.”
“Next time we send a message, we can switch who sends it, switch which phone sends it… see if you two can also retain All-Spacetime Memory.”
Right now—
Why he possessed [All-Spacetime Memory] was still a complete mystery, with no lead at all.
He’d thought about it before.
Could it be related to who sent the text, who pressed the send button?
It sounded superstitious.
But if they had no direction, they might as well test the superstitious angle—maybe a blind cat would stumble into a dead mouse again.
“Alright.”
Jiang Ran glanced at his watch. 9:01 p.m.
The dorm buildings wouldn’t lock for another two hours—more than enough time to run one time-traveling text experiment.
“So. We’ve done the summary. No time to waste—let’s start the experiment.”
He wiped the small blackboard clean.
Then he wrote, in big characters:
Fourth Time-Traveling Text Message Experiment
He turned back and smiled faintly.
“Right now we don’t need to run a test, and we don’t have any emergency to save. We can decide freely what the content of the time-traveling text message should be.”
“So—let’s brainstorm.”
“This time, what are we going to use a time-traveling text message to do?”