novelraw Chapter 26 Seeing Through
Chapter 26 Seeing Through
Inside the activity room, no one spoke anymore.
Tick-tock—the crisp sound of the clock’s hands echoed, like sweat dripping from an executioner’s brow, the blade flashing as it descended on the platform.
Xiaoxue lowered her head.
Of course she knew why the cheerful atmosphere from just moments ago had instantly turned into this.
That was [ten years ago].
All the spacetime text messages they had sent so far had only changed things that happened days ago, within a span of days.
Let alone ten years—sending a message even a few months back was something they had never dared to try.
The reason was simple.
[The spacetime butterfly effect is uncontrollable;
the longer the time span, the more uncontrollable it becomes.]
That had been an openly stated fact from the very beginning.Ten years.
From such a distant temporal node, reviving someone who had already died—what kind of violent butterfly effect would that cause?
No one knew.
No one could predict it.
And no one dared to imagine it.
Countless people’s fates would inevitably be altered. Many lives would veer off course. And there could be even stranger, more unforeseeable things waiting to happen.
Of course, it was also possible that this was just needless worry.
Perhaps Qin Feng’s father returning to life would have only a very, very small impact on the world.
But who would dare to gamble on that?
She stole a glance at Jiang Ran from the corner of her eye.
He was the same as her.
Head lowered. Silent.
Jiang Ran’s eyes were tightly shut, his thoughts in chaos.
During this period of time—
Ever since that mysterious text message, those mysterious digits appeared—
Why had he been so anxious all along?
Why had he been so hesitant?
Because—
He had already had this premonition long ago. He had long known that Qin Feng would raise this request sooner or later.
Every time this thought surfaced, he would immediately push it aside, refusing to dwell on it.
Of course he knew that Qin Feng’s father had died ten years ago, killed in an accident.
Back in high school, when they had just met, Qin Feng had already told them about it.
Naturally, he and Cheng Mengxue also knew that because he lost his father, Qin Feng’s childhood had been very difficult.
Not only did his mother work multiple jobs to support him through a hard life, but at school, because he had no father, he was repeatedly bullied by bad kids.
From elementary school, to middle school, to high school—those bad kids always called him “a kid without a dad.” Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue had seen it with their own eyes.
After the three of them became close friends, Qin Feng was never bullied again. Because Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue were Qin Feng’s strongest backing;
they would never allow such things to happen.
But what about the years before that?
In order not to trouble his already overworked mother, Qin Feng clenched his teeth and swallowed every grievance, silently enduring the humiliation.
And all of it—
Stemmed from losing his father. Losing the pillar of his family. Losing his greatest support. Losing the broadest shoulders. Losing the strongest back.
So.
Returning to the wish itself.
Qin Feng was his best friend in life, and the other’s wish was to save his biological father……
Once Qin Feng voiced that wish, how could there be any justification to refuse it?
And yet every instinct and every ounce of reason warned Jiang Ran—
[No.]
[Absolutely not.]
To change the life or death of an adult ten years ago—to rewrite ten years of history—this was not a risk they could dare to take.
Jiang Ran slowly raised his head.
He looked at the Positron Cannon that had just been modified.
The dials on its control panel could easily set the node for sending spacetime text messages—year, month, day, hour… precise beyond doubt.
Year.
Normally speaking, was it really necessary to include such a long unit?
In an instant—
Fragments of doubt snapped together. Countless things Qin Feng had said floated up in Jiang Ran’s mind—
“Since the Positron Cannon has already been repaired, why don’t we conduct another verification experiment and see whether that mysterious text message was an accident or an inevitability?”
“Isn’t this just making things difficult for ourselves?”
“[I support using the time machine we built to send a text message to ourselves three days in the past…] [Save Xu Yan.]”
“[I feel that spacetime text messages definitely aren’t limited to just three days back. There must be some variable that can control the ‘depth’ of the spacetime black hole, allowing messages to be sent to earlier points in time.]”
“[So I’ll say it directly—the mysterious text message was very likely just a malfunction. A string of meaningless garbled digits like that looks exactly like some kind of machine failure. It might even be a fault on the telecom operator’s side, unrelated to us.]”
“Hey, hey. You’re kind of scaring yourself now, aren’t you? Caution is right, but excessive caution isn’t necessary. If you’re afraid after every step, nothing can ever move forward.”
“[I think those last two pinyin letters aren’t complete. There must be more information afterward.]”
At this point—
The puzzle was complete.
Whenever Jiang Ran hesitated or worried, Qin Feng always pushed him to continue the spacetime text experiments.
Whenever he feared that mysterious text message, Qin Feng always—
Dismissed it as a malfunction or an accident.
When Jiang Ran believed spacetime text messages could only be sent three days into the past, Qin Feng had been tirelessly modifying the Positron Cannon, striving to send messages further back in time.
And especially when he and Cheng Mengxue argued over whether to save Xu Yan—Qin Feng, who was always cautious and rational, had unexpectedly stood on Cheng Mengxue’s side and supported saving Xu Yan.
So that was it.
From the very beginning, he had a clear objective.
From the very start, he had already begun laying the groundwork.
Qin Feng.
Jiang Ran stood straight, facing Qin Feng backlit by the window.
“Tell me the truth.”
He narrowed his eyes and looked at his best friend in life.
[From the very beginning, were you planning to use spacetime text messages to save your father?]
A silent tug-of-war.
Cheng Mengxue also stood up, hugging the rice-cooker Rhine Cat, looking back and forth between the two.
Branches swayed. Sunlight turned into scattered flecks on the floor, flickering into a glare too bright to face directly.
“[Heh.]”
Qin Feng lowered his head and let out a dry laugh, weakly shrugging his shoulders.
“[Still got seen through by you.]”
He took a deep breath.
Then met Jiang Ran’s gaze directly.
“I admit it. Ever since we successfully verified spacetime text messages, I’ve always had this plan.”
“But your constant worries and concerns made it impossible for me to say it out loud.”
“I really have been researching modifications to the Positron Cannon, trying to make it capable of sending messages further into the past… just as you said, I want to save my father.”
“But I never intended to hide it from you—Jiang Ran, Xiaoxue.”
His eyes were resolute.
[If either one of you disagrees, I will abandon this idea.]
Ring—ring—ring—ring—ring—
Jiang Ran’s phone rang.
He picked it up and saw that it was his father calling.
He pressed to answer.
“[Hello?]”
“[Hello! Son! Come back quickly!]”
On the other end of the line, his father shouted anxiously.
“[Something happened to your mom! She needs emergency brain surgery!!]”