novelraw Chapter 34 Trust
Chapter 34 Trust
The night wind rose, willow branches swaying.
In the dead of night, when no one was around, outside the Film Camera Club’s window, the tension was razor-sharp.
Jiang Ran held his palm suspended in midair, his eyes locked on Qin Feng’s phone.
Qin Feng gripped the phone in his right hand, staring at Jiang Ran with disbelief in his pupils.
“You don’t trust me?” Qin Feng’s voice was very soft.
Jiang Ran neither confirmed nor denied it.
He didn’t move at all.
“Can you let me see the phone?”
He knew his expression must look awful right now—must be hurting Qin Feng badly.
But…He couldn’t set his mind at ease.
That unprecedented, horrifying hallucination just moments ago had driven his fear to its peak.
Qin Feng took a deep breath and handed the phone over.
“Here.”
Jiang Ran took it and looked at the screen.
It was the text-message sending page. The recipient was indeed Qin Feng’s own number. The message itself wasn’t long—just four short lines:
[This is a time-traveling text message from ten days in the future. Please go to Old Liu’s Appliance Repair Shop on Old Electronics Street as soon as possible. There’s a rotary control board there that’s very suitable for the old electronic cannon.]
That was all.
Jiang Ran read it twice.
There was no hidden information, front or back.
And he knew that shop that sold circuit boards was really called Old Liu’s Appliance Repair Shop.
This message… had no problems at all.
The one who was being overly suspicious and anxious was himself.
Qin Feng smiled as he looked at Jiang Ran.
“You think I’d pull some kind of trick, try to find a way to bring my father back to life?”
As always.
He still saw straight through Jiang Ran—just as Jiang Ran always saw straight through him.
Years of tacit understanding meant there were no secrets between them. Everything was transparent.
“I’m sorry.”
Jiang Ran said it quietly.
A thousand words collapsed into a single sentence.
This kind of behavior—doubting a friend—he didn’t know how to explain it, and he didn’t know how to defend himself.
“It’s fine.”
Qin Feng was as generous as ever.
“It’s normal for you to have concerns like this. And you being overly suspicious isn’t something that started yesterday—I got used to it a long time ago.”
With that, he held out his hand.
“You’ve confirmed the message. So how about giving me the phone back, and we restart the countdown to activate the old electronic cannon?”
Unexpectedly.
Jiang Ran didn’t move.
After a few seconds of thought, he set the phone down and looked at Qin Feng.
“Can I be the one to send this message?”
?
“Jiang Ran, you—”
Cheng Mengxue, who had been leaning at the window, had heard the entire exchange.
To be honest.
With things at this point, even she felt Jiang Ran was going too far.
If he really didn’t trust Qin Feng, then they shouldn’t send the time-traveling text at all this time.
Yet after refusing Qin Feng once, then agreeing to make it up to him, he was still doubting his friend like this…
How could he do that?
“It’s okay.”
Qin Feng shrugged, took a few steps back, and leaned against the transformer distribution box.
“Then you send it.”
Cheng Mengxue’s mouth fell slightly open as she looked at the two of them.
In the end—
She bit her lower lip hard and stepped back inside.
“Fine. Do whatever you want.”
She pushed the window all the way open.
“It’s late and quiet now. There shouldn’t be much interference. I can handle the countdown from inside.”
“The rhythm stays the same. When the countdown hits zero, I’ll activate the old electronic cannon, and then Jiang Ran sends the message.”
“Qin Feng… then you stand outside.”
Shaking her head, Cheng Mengxue walked back to the workbench.
…
Leaves rustled softly. The chirping of cicadas rose and fell in fragments.
Jiang Ran stared at the already edited message on the phone, his thumb hovering in midair.
It was awkward.
He had no face to talk to Qin Feng, and he didn’t dare look at him either.
“Jiang Ran.”
Of course. Afraid of what would happen, and it happened anyway—Qin Feng called his name.
Jiang Ran lifted his gaze from the phone screen and looked toward Qin Feng by the distribution box.
“Back when I first suggested using a time-traveling text to save my father, I hesitated too—just like you.”
Qin Feng spoke softly.
“Do you know what I was hesitating about?”
Jiang Ran paused for two seconds.
“You were worried about being separated from us, right?”
The temporal butterfly effect was uncontrollable. No one could predict how history would shift after a change.
Qin Feng meeting Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue, the three of them becoming an inseparable trio—it all happened because Qin Feng came to attend Hang City No.1 High School, and then, after his father’s death, was bullied by others. That was what forged their friendship.
Look at it from another angle.
If Qin Feng’s father hadn’t died ten years ago…
Would Qin Feng still have come to Hang City No.1 High School?
Maybe yes. Maybe no.
Both probabilities existed.
If his father had moved for work or some other reason, then Qin Feng wouldn’t have come to Hang City No.1 High School at all. Naturally, he wouldn’t have met Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue, and this friendship would never have existed.
Take another step back.
Even if Qin Feng still came to Hang City No.1 High School, if his father hadn’t died, those bad kids wouldn’t have bullied him. That, too, would have erased the opportunity for him to meet Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue.
There’s an old saying: on the road of life, one wrong step leads to wrong steps all the way.
Isn’t a worldline shift the same?
Each person’s life looks accidental on the surface, but in truth it’s an inevitability driven forward by countless accidents…
Miss by a hair, and you’re a thousand miles off.
“Heh.”
Qin Feng laughed, exactly as Jiang Ran expected.
“You always see right through me. You can guess everything I’m thinking.”
“That’s right. What I was most hesitant to give up back then was the two of you.”
He lifted his head, looking up at the moonlit, star-filled sky.
“I’m not like you. I don’t have that kind of special constitution. I won’t retain memories from before a worldline change.”
“So once I send a time-traveling text to myself ten years ago and save my father, the entire trajectory of the past ten years will change. Without even realizing it, I’ll walk into a completely different life.”
“It’s very possible that I won’t go to Hang City No.1 High School. I won’t attend Donghai University with you. We might not even become friends at all…”
“After the worldline changes, on a brand-new worldline, we’ll be complete strangers.”
He paused.
Then he continued.
“I’ve said this before. I really want to save my father, but I’m also unwilling to lose you. To me, the two sides of the scale weigh exactly the same.”
“So when Xiaoxue suggested voting back then, I chose to abstain. I just didn’t want to face that kind of ending.”
“Jiang Ran, don’t you think that feeling is cruel?”
Turning back, their eyes met. Qin Feng’s voice was clear.
“After the worldline changes, the three of us—so close right now—become strangers in an instant.”
“All emotions and experiences vanish without a trace. Each of us lives our own life… no one will remember the iron triangle we are right now.”
“I will remember.”
Jiang Ran reminded him.
“I have All-Spacetime Memory, this special constitution. So no matter how the worldline changes, I’ll remember everything we went through. I’ll remember how close we were. I’ll remember that we’re the best friends in the world.”
Qin Feng smiled faintly.
“Yes, you’ll remember. But only you will remember.”
“And emotions and friendship are two-way things… if only one person remembers, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“The feelings in a person’s heart come from a series of shared experiences. Without those experiences, all those words are empty.”
“You and Xiaoxue are childhood friends. No matter how the worldline changes, it won’t affect your relationship.”
“But I met you in high school. The slightest temporal butterfly effect could push me out of your lives.”
“So there’s a question, Jiang Ran. I’ve always wanted to ask you.”
He let the smile fade, his voice growing heavy.
“If a worldline change makes me drift away from you, turning me into a stranger on the new worldline… what would you do?”
The night wind turned cool. Qin Feng looked straight into Jiang Ran’s eyes.
“On the new worldline, would you come find me again?”