novelraw Chapter 40 Positron Cannon
Chapter 40 Positron Cannon
Creak……
The wooden bearing let out an ancient, hoarse rasp as it rubbed, a stale, old smell rushing up to the nose.
Moonlight poured in through the glass window.
This place—the Film Camera Club activity room that had once been like a secret base—now held not a single familiar trace.
No Rhine Cat legion occupying the entire room,
no long and short screwdrivers scattered across the workbench,
no neatly arranged bookcases carrying a faint, pleasant scent,
no small blackboard filled with plans and questions, erased and rewritten again and again.
Here, there was nothing at all that belonged to the trio.
Disordered cardboard boxes of old belongings, a dust-covered tea table and sofa, several old photographs clipped along a clothesline, scattered sheets of paper fallen to the floor, broken and incomplete……This was what the Film Camera Club had looked like at the very beginning—exactly the same as when the three of them had first stepped in here on the original worldline. Nothing had changed.
[…This is normal.]
Jiang Ran reminded himself.
On this brand-new worldline, Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue had never come to Donghai University. The trio never existed, and naturally they never joined the Film Camera Club—so this place should never have borne their traces in the first place.
[…Senior Yan Rui should have already graduated and left campus, right?]
He walked slowly into the room, stepping on dust and sand on the floor.
[…And the Film Camera Club should already be dissolved.]
Without the trio to keep it alive, this once-glorious club had ultimately become a relic of the times.
In a daze, beneath the hazy moonlight……
He seemed to see Cheng Mengxue sitting on the sofa, hugging a Rhine Cat and embroidering clothes;
seemed to see Qin Feng sprawled over the workbench, tinkering and modifying things this way and that;
seemed to see himself perched on the windowsill, counting down 5 4 3 2 1;
as if the laughter and arguments of that time were still vividly present.
[…Better find the Positron Cannon first.]
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The Positron Cannon was the core of everything—and the hope of saving everything.
Jiang Ran gathered his thoughts and began searching.
Afraid of drawing the attention of the campus patrol guards and causing unnecessary trouble, he did not turn on the lights. Instead, he explored by the faint glow of his phone screen.
These old items in the room—this was already the second time he had checked them. Most of them still felt familiar.
After searching around, he did not find the Positron Cannon, but he did find two notices on the bookshelf.
One was the Club Dissolution Notice. The other was Senior Yan Rui’s Personal Disciplinary Notice.
The disciplinary notice was written very clearly. Just like what had happened on the previous worldline, Senior Yan Rui had been given a warning by the school for using high-power electrical equipment on the evening of March 17 and burning out the activity building’s wiring.
It seemed this segment of history was identical to the original history—there was no change.
[…Which means the Positron Cannon isn’t here.]
Jiang Ran set the notices down and looked out the window.
[…On this worldline, Senior Yan Rui was still disciplined for activating the Positron Cannon.]
[…So now… the Positron Cannon should have been confiscated by the Student Union and placed in the school warehouse.]
All right.
Although he had not directly found the Positron Cannon, at least he now had a lead—there was a way to retrieve it from the warehouse.
So this trip had not been in vain.
Jiang Ran felt a momentary sense of relief. The taut nerves he had been holding finally loosened.
He didn’t bother about the dust around him. He plopped down onto a thick cardboard box, covered his face with both hands, and let out a long sigh.
The breath lingered for a long time, circling back and forth, echoing through the room……
Just like his tangled thoughts.
How badly he wanted to take out his phone and call Cheng Mengxue;
failing that, even calling Qin Feng would do.
Only now, sitting alone in this lonely activity room,
did he realize that he actually didn’t hate Qin Feng that much.
He knew Qin Feng hadn’t intended to get Cheng Mengxue killed. It had been the chaotic mischief of the temporal butterfly effect—an accident no one could have predicted.
The butterfly effect was a chaotic system. Everything within it was unknown and unpredictable.
So……
Qin Feng, where are you now?
Was your father saved?
Do you know that Cheng Mengxue is dead?
A 70-character text message—aside from clearly stating the cause of your father’s death, it could hold so much more.
You’re such a genius. You’d never waste a single character—you’d definitely hide as much information as possible inside a time-traveling text.
Then why, on the very day of the Worldline Transition, did you not come to see me…?
Jiang Ran lifted his head.
Opened his eyes.
If Qin Feng were here right now, everything would be easy to talk through.
They would only need to find the Positron Cannon, have Qin Feng fix it, then send a time-traveling text back to the day Cheng Mengxue died two years ago. Naturally, they could easily avoid the car accident and save Cheng Mengxue.
That way,
on the new worldline, Qin Feng’s father would be alive, Cheng Mengxue would also be alive, and everyone would be happy.
Could it be that the timing still wasn’t right?
Jiang Ran shook his head.
No matter what reason Qin Feng had, no matter what Qin Feng on this worldline was plotting, he didn’t have the time to wait.
The longer things dragged on, the more things could go wrong.
Using a time-traveling text to save Cheng Mengxue was something that had to be decided and done decisively—there could be no delay.
He began making plans in his mind.
Now, since it was clear that the Positron Cannon was stored in the school warehouse, the Film Camera Club was once again facing dissolution, and the course of history matched the previous worldline exactly—
then the solution could also follow the same pattern:
1. Tomorrow during the day, first find Xu Yan. Use her connections to keep the Film Camera Club alive, and have himself become the new club president.
2. Once the president submitted an application and wrote a guarantee letter, he would be able to retrieve the confiscated electrical equipment from the school warehouse and move the Positron Cannon back.
3. The hardest part would be repairing the Positron Cannon and installing a control board—this wasn’t his area of expertise. But fortunately, after observing Qin Feng’s modifications for so long, all the principles were already firmly memorized. With a bit of study in mechanical knowledge, completing the repair shouldn’t be difficult.
4. Once all preparations were complete, he could restart the Positron Cannon, send a time-traveling text to the past, trigger a worldline change… and rewrite history!
……
That was the plan.
There was nothing particularly difficult about executing it.
Even if Cheng Mengxue had died two years ago, his “childhood playmate” bond with Xu Yan still remained. That wouldn’t change.
So Xu Yan would definitely help him.
Huh?
Jiang Ran’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
[…On this worldline… Xu Yan should still be alive, right?]
He truly wasn’t sure about this point. All he could do was hope that Xu Yan had been lucky.
With the plan settled,
Jiang Ran pushed himself up, bracing on his knees.
Suddenly—
Thud.
He staggered, stumbling backward and bumping into the edge of a table.
Someone!
He held his breath and stared at the half-open door of the activity room……
A dark figure was quietly leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed, staring at him without moving!
Who was it?
When had they arrived?
“Jiang Ran, what are you looking for?”
A familiar, pleasant voice rang out.
Outside the window, the rustling of leaves sounded like a fuse about to explode, leaving Jiang Ran with nowhere to escape.
Curly, fluffy hair bounced with a springy rhythm as she walked.
The girl took light, slender steps out of the darkness and into the moonlight, points of starlight shimmering through her pink long hair.
She clasped her hands behind her back and narrowed her bright, gleaming eyes.
“Are you… hiding something from me?”