novelraw Chapter 4 Disciplinary Action
Chapter 4 Disciplinary Action
“There are many hypotheses scientists have about time travel—and about the nature of spacetime itself.”
In general education class, the teacher wrote on the blackboard:
“One theory says that our universe contains countless parallel spacetime realities. Every tiny change or choice will split off a worldline that heads toward a completely different outcome.”
“These parallel spacetime realities—similar yet not the same—are like countless threads. They begin from a single point, radiate toward an unknown future, and keep splitting as they move forward…”
“This is what we’re talking about today: [Worldline Theory].”
…
General education classes were electives—anything could be offered. No restrictions by major or college;
as long as you were interested, you could sign up.
Jiang Ran propped his cheek on his hand and closed his eyes in thought.
Yesterday afternoon’s experiment had failed again.
Sixty texts sent in rapid succession—none were lost, every single one delivered to Cheng Mengxue’s phone. That dizzy, world-spinning sensation never came.Sigh.
So why?
Why was it that only that one text message crossed spacetime—never to be replicated?
Poke, poke.
Beside him, Cheng Mengxue poked Jiang Ran’s elbow.
“Feeling really crushed?” She looked straight into his eyes.
“A little,” Jiang Ran admitted.
“But it’s fine. I was mentally prepared. If it were that easy to text the past, wouldn’t the world have fallen apart a long time ago?”
“Hehe~”
Cheng Mengxue smiled and pushed a sheet of paper over to him.
“Look. I summarized the key points for you guys.”
Jiang Ran glanced at the draft paper. Across the top, in big letters, it read—
Time-Traveling Text Message Incident! Key Points Summary!
Pfft.
He couldn’t hold it in—he laughed.
The moment class started, Cheng Mengxue had gone scratch-scratch-scratch with her pen. He’d thought she was diligently taking notes. Turns out she’d been writing this.
“Why’d you write this?”
“To help you untangle your thoughts~”
Cheng Mengxue leaned close, her voice light.
“You’ve been frowning all day. I knew you were thinking about that text.”
“I can’t really help you with much, so I just organized the key points you and Qin Feng discussed—see if it sparks something for you.”
Heh.
Jiang Ran let out a quiet chuckle.
“You’re seriously thoughtful. Next time we go shopping, I’ll get you a little gift.”
“Can you buy me a Rhine Cat rice cooker?” Cheng Mengxue proposed.
“How much?”
“Three thousand.”
“???”
Jiang Ran sucked in a sharp breath.
“Why don’t you just go rob someone!”
“And even then, it’s not like you can just buy it whenever you want!” Cheng Mengxue shot back.
“Then we’ll buy it when it cools off and goes out of style.”
Jiang Ran snorted.
“Rhine Cat—what, is it supposed to stay popular for a few hundred years?”
…
It wasn’t easy to whisper in class. Jiang Ran lowered his gaze to the paper.
The handwriting was neat, delicate.
It recorded everything they’d discussed at the milk-tea shop the day before yesterday.
Back then, they’d just been saying whatever came to mind. Now that it was organized, it really was much clearer.
[Event Breakdown]
On the afternoon of March 17, Cheng Mengxue’s phone was lost. She found Jiang Ran, and he sent a text message to the missing phone.
The text unexpectedly traveled through spacetime, going back to the past and arriving on Cheng Mengxue’s phone on March 14.
The Jiang Ran of March 14 stubbornly denied sending the message, but the butterfly effect began from that moment, and the original course of history changed.
Because of the message’s content, Cheng Mengxue started paying closer attention to her phone. So on March 17, the phone was not lost. She didn’t go looking for Jiang Ran, and Jiang Ran naturally did not send that message.
With the historical trajectory altered, a temporal shift occurred. Therefore, from Jiang Ran’s perspective, the entire shift completed within two seconds—when he opened his eyes, both Cheng Mengxue and the text he’d sent were gone.
The most inexplicable problem is this: Jiang Ran possesses memories from before the temporal shift, yet has no relevant memories after the shift. He does not remember the argument from three days ago.
“So, students—pay attention!”
The general education teacher abruptly raised his voice and rapped the blackboard.
“This kind of behavior—jumping from worldline A to worldline B—is called [Worldline Transition]!”
A lot of students who’d been spacing out looked up toward the podium.
“Of course, this worldline theory is only a hypothesis—something that can’t be proven.”
“Time travel—even within serious physics—is a very romantic thing.”
The teacher set down the chalk and smiled.
“There are many similar spacetime hypotheses. If you’re interested, you can look them up after class.”
“Dismissed!”
…
The trio followed their usual route once more, returning to the same old place—back to the familiar transformer distribution box.
Jiang Ran stared at the hulking thing, listening to the sizzling hum of current.
“We’ve considered time, location, positioning, orientation—multiple factors.”
“But I think… we still missed some [Key Factor].”
Qin Feng followed Jiang Ran’s line of sight.
“You’re not thinking about messing with the distribution box, are you? That’s State Grid equipment. High voltage is dangerous, and vandalizing it is illegal.”
“I’m not an idiot.”
As he spoke, Jiang Ran switched on his phone’s flashlight and peered through the box’s ventilation slot.
Nothing special.
Inside was just an ordinary transformer.
Its function was to convert tens of thousands of volts of high-voltage electricity into low-voltage electricity for everyday use. These boxes were all over the campus.
It was peak electricity usage right now—the box was a little warm, and inside, the equipment noise was thick and constant.
And suddenly, he thought of something.
In the sci-fi film The Terminator, every time a robot traveled from the future, it came with violent electrical discharge—blue arcs crackling and snapping.
In the Back to the Future trilogy, the Doc used lightning’s energy to travel through time.
Arcs. Lightning. High voltage.
So—
Could it be…?
Was the mechanism of time travel related to high voltage?
Tsk.
Jiang Ran clicked his tongue.
Annoying.
If it was high voltage, then this transformer distribution box—stable as it got—had been sitting here the whole time. Whatever it looked like on March 17 when he sent that message, it looked like now. Stable.
So why was it that on March 17, that one text could be sent to the past, but none of the later attempts worked?
“What did we miss?”
Having personally experienced time travel and a temporal shift, Jiang Ran desperately wanted to understand the cause… especially what was special about him.
He shook his head.
“Let’s go. Get some food at the cafeteria.”
…
The next day, the three of them went to class as usual.
When they passed the student activity building, they found a crowd gathered in front of the bulletin board.
Up close, they saw a disciplinary notice posted there:
[NOTICE]
[On the evening of March 17, student Yan Rui of the Film Camera Club improperly used a high-power electrical appliance, causing damage to the power lines. In accordance with the school’s management regulations, the student is hereby issued a warning. This is publicly announced.]
“Film Camera Club?”
Cheng Mengxue tilted her head.
“What’s that?”
“Probably a club for old-school film camera hobbyists,” Qin Feng replied. “Nowadays everyone takes photos with digital cameras and phones. Film cameras were phased out ages ago.”
“An artifact of the times.”
Jiang Ran stood before the bulletin board, staring at the date on the notice, eyes narrowing.
“I think I’ve found the [Key Factor] we missed.”
“??”
The other two turned to look at him.
Jiang Ran smiled faintly.
“Do you remember that window behind the transformer distribution box… which club it belonged to?”
Remembering the film canisters on the windowsill—and the photos clipped along a clothesline—Cheng Mengxue’s face lit up in realization.
“It’s the film club!”
Then she snapped back to the notice and read it again, carefully.
Evening of March 17… high-power electrical appliance… damage to power lines…
“That’s right.”
Jiang Ran stepped forward.
“Evening of March 17 was exactly when I sent the text. And the location was right outside the window where that upperclassman was using a high-power electrical appliance.”
He extended a finger and tapped the punished student’s name.
“So it’s very possible…”
“That the secret of the text message crossing spacetime has something to do with that high-power electrical appliance!”