novelraw Chapter 58 Goodbye
Chapter 58 Goodbye
Nan Xiuxiu’s eyes flashed with a trace of wariness.
She took a step back:
“Why are you acting so serious?”
Jiang Ran looked at her.
“For the next while, I’m going to be very busy. So, I want to ask you for a leave.”
Nan Xiuxiu fell silent.
She stood there with her arms crossed.
“When you say ‘ask for a leave’… you don’t mean telling me not to look for you, not to contact you, not to bother you, right?”
“That’s right.”
Jiang Ran didn’t dodge it at all.“I have something very important to do. I need a period of time to act alone;
this matter requires a high level of confidentiality, so I can’t tell you anything either. I hope you won’t follow me or interfere.”
“You deleted all the dating apps—how am I supposed to follow you?”
Nan Xiuxiu snorted.
“I’m your girlfriend. Don’t you even trust me that much? What is it that you have to hide from me like this? I won’t tell anyone else.”
Jiang Ran shook his head.
“It’s not that I won’t ever tell you. I just can’t say it right now.”
He realized Nan Xiuxiu really was clingy, so instead of blocking her outright, he decided to stall for time:
“You also understand that many things need to be kept secret. Once I finish this, I’ll tell you everything.”
Nan Xiuxiu thought for a moment.
“Alright.”
She spread her hands.
“How long of a leave do you need?”
“Ten days.”
“So long!”
Nan Xiuxiu clenched her teeth.
“Fine! Then I won’t bother you for ten days! But it’s agreed—after ten days, you have to tell me the truth!”
“I believe you’re not the type to mess around outside, but if you hide everything from me, I’ll be very hurt.”
She lowered her right hand, hooked Jiang Ran’s little finger, and made a pinky-promise gesture.
“Pinky swear. It’s settled—don’t you dare be a little dog.”
……
Jiang Ran looked at their hooked little fingers.
To be honest, he really didn’t want to pinky-swear with Nan Xiuxiu over this.
But as things stood, there was no better way to shake off this clingy troublemaker.
If he left without a word, she would search everywhere for him;
if he broke up with her, there would definitely be endless pulling and tugging—an even bigger hassle.
After all, from Nan Xiuxiu’s perspective, they had only been dating for less than half a month. To suddenly pull a cliff-edge breakup at this point—she definitely wouldn’t accept it.
Then there would be relentless pestering, dragging Wang Hao into the fray, or roping in other friends… Just thinking about it gave Jiang Ran a headache.
By now, he had already mastered the knowledge of circuit boards, capacitors, picture tubes, focusing units, and the like. He only needed to buy all the parts, and he could fix the Positron Cannon.
At a critical moment like this, there could be no room for the slightest mistake.
So.
He might as well set clear rules with Nan Xiuxiu like this—ten days of no contact, each going their own way.
Ten days would absolutely be enough to activate the Positron Cannon, send the time-traveling text message, and complete a Worldline Transition.
Even so, Nan Xiuxiu still looked unhappy, puffing out her cheeks.
“So when do you plan to start this leave of yours?”
“Right now,” Jiang Ran replied.
He didn’t want to waste even a single second on Nan Xiuxiu.
Nan Xiuxiu’s almond eyes flew wide open, her whole body bristling with anger.
“Fine! Jiang Ran, you’ve got guts!”
With a sharp “slap,” she flung away the hooked fingers, turned to leave, then spun back halfway and pointed fiercely at Jiang Ran.
“Ten days from now, I’m waiting for your explanation! If you don’t explain it clearly, I won’t be done with you!”
With that said,
Nan Xiuxiu took off the protective gear she was wearing and stuffed it, along with the recurve bow, into the storage locker, then strode off.
Jiang Ran quietly watched that graceful figure disappear beyond the doorway, her pink long hair melting into the night.
“There’s nothing to explain.”
He murmured softly.
Ten days from now, with the worldline changed, you and I will be complete strangers.
Ten days from now, Nan Xiuxiu will still be here, at Donghai Vocational College of Foreign Economic and Trade, wearing that proud, dazzling pink long hair, studying for her junior college degree, living her free life.
And ten days from now, Jiang Ran will return to Donghai University, inside the Film Camera Club, facing the crowded and enormous Rhine Cat army.
Two completely different lives—that is where each of them truly belongs.
There was nothing to regret about that.
Because he and Nan Xiuxiu were never on the same path to begin with.
The distance between the two of them was even farther than two parallel worldlines.
“Ten days from now, I won’t be your boyfriend, and you won’t remember me.”
“In the vast river of history drowned by worldline correction, we won’t even count as passersby.”
Jiang Ran turned off the lights in the archery room.
He walked out the door.
One last look at the target at the end of the room, one last look at the large photo of Nan Xiuxiu in the frame on the wall.
“Goodbye.”
……
The next day.
Jiang Ran took a taxi to Old Electronics Street and found [Old Qi Appliance Repair Shop].
The shop was filled everywhere with home appliances from the last century.
Large rear-projection televisions, radios, VCRs, electric fans, cassette players… all kinds of relics from the past century, each one silently proclaiming the authority of this repair shop.
At the counter stood an elderly man smoking a cigarette, holding a soldering iron, the air thick with the sharp smell of rosin.
Jiang Ran was speechless. He opened the note in his hand.
“Look, what’s written on here is—”
“Yes!”
The old man shouted.
“You didn’t even look!”
Jiang Ran slammed the glass counter.
“Could you at least take a look before saying yes or no—”
“Yes!”
The old man cut him off again, set down the soldering iron, and turned his head.
“Kid, no need to ask. I’ve got everything here. I’ve been in this line of work for over thirty years—whatever parts you want, I’ve got them!”
“Alright.”
He hadn’t expected this old man to have such personality.
It looked like he had an idol complex—he wouldn’t allow people to ask whether he had something, as if that were questioning his authority.
Jiang Ran directly handed over the note.
“I want to buy these. The models and quantities are written on it.”
The old man was very satisfied.
This kind of unquestioning, non-inquiring attitude was the true recognition of his thirty-plus years of skill and experience.
He took the note and glanced at it.
“Hm… this circuit board—are you repairing a CRT monitor? Or a picture-tube television?”
As expected, a master was a master—he guessed it in one shot.
“So do you have it or not.”
“Yes!”
This old man was like an NPC, always triggering fixed dialogue.
“You also want these capacitors, but this quantity… fifty!? Why do you need to buy fifty of them!”
The old man lifted his head in surprise and stared at Jiang Ran.
“Did you write it wrong? What are you buying so many capacitors for?”
“Consumables,” Jiang Ran brushed it off.
“These things break easily.”
“What nonsense! These things don’t break that easily! What are you doing, nuclear testing or inventing a time machine!”
Cursing under his breath, the old man squatted down and rummaged through the cabinet for capacitors.
Jiang Ran wiped his sweat.
Honestly speaking, this old man was way too authoritative—his reads on people and situations were frighteningly accurate.
“Here, this model of capacitor—that’s all I have. I’ll give them all to you.”
“Kid, these are Japanese-made capacitors. As long as you don’t mess around with the voltage, they’re tough as nails.”
The old man counted them—twenty-four capacitors in total—then took out two sets of power-supply module circuit boards, wrapped them up, and handed them to Jiang Ran.
“Three sixty altogether.”
“Old man, isn’t that a bit of a rip-off?”
Jiang Ran really couldn’t help himself.
“You want over three hundred for just these scraps—is that reasonable?”
“What do you know!”
The old man snorted in disdain.
“Scarcity is value. Don’t look down on these things just because they’re old—leave my shop and you won’t be able to buy them anywhere in Donghai!”
“These things stopped being produced twenty years ago. Every piece sold is one less. You think they’re easy to get?”
“Besides, I charge this much because after-sales service is included. I won’t let you lose out;
if the board breaks later, just bring it back—I’ll fix it for you. If I can’t fix it, I’ll refund you!”
As he spoke, he pulled out a business card from under the glass counter and handed it over.
“In the future, just call me Old Qi. Any old junk you can’t fix or don’t know how to fix, bring it to me.”
Jiang Ran took the card.
At the top it read Old Qi Appliance Repair Shop, so this old man was definitely Old Qi. There was also a phone number on it.
“Alright, alright.”
Jiang Ran scanned and paid.
It was expensive, but the after-sales premium was acceptable.
“Oh right, there’s one more thing I need.”
The LCD rotary knob control board that controlled the focusing unit’s intensity—Jiang Ran didn’t know the model number, so he hadn’t written it on the note.
“Do you have that thing that—”
“Yes!”
The old man practically jumped.
“An LCD rotary knob control board! The kind that connects to a picture-tube focusing unit to adjust intensity!”
“Yes!”
The old man turned around and rummaged through the storeroom for a while.
“You kid really know how to look. I don’t even remember which machine I tore this thing out of. There’s only this one—if you want a second, there really isn’t one.”
Thud.
A familiar, long-lost LCD rotary knob control board was placed on the glass counter.
Jiang Ran carefully picked it up.
That’s right…
This was the very same piece Qin Feng had bought back on Worldline 0 to modify the old electronic cannon;
the very accomplice he had used to make a small routing swap and send the time-traveling text message ten years into the past.
At this point.
All the components had been purchased.
As long as he went to the Film Camera Club at Donghai University and fixed the Positron Cannon…
He could send the time-traveling text message!