novelraw Chapter 77 Speedrun
Chapter 77 Speedrun
“Jiang Ran.”
Zhang Yang asked softly,
“How much do you know about quantum mechanics?”
Uh…
Quantum mechanics?
Jiang Ran couldn’t help scratching his head.
Even on Worldline No. 0, he had only been a student from the School of Computer Science. Although quantum computers were developing rapidly in the current era, that was still far beyond the scope of what undergraduates actually touched.
If it were Qin Feng, he could probably chat with Zhang Yang about quantum theory for a while.
But him?
Yeah, no.“To be honest, I don’t know much.”
There was no need to lie to Professor Zhang Yang. He was far too professional—two or three sentences and any bluff would be exposed. It was better to tell the truth.
“I’ve only learned about things like quantum entanglement and the double-slit interference experiment from science popularization videos on Douyin.”
Professor Zhang Yang raised his index finger seriously.
“The double-slit interference experiment is not a quantum experiment. It’s a photon experiment. It demonstrates wave–particle duality.”
“But it’s good that you know about it, because what I’m going to talk about next does involve the quantum eraser experiment. With the foundation of the double-slit experiment, it’ll be easier for you to understand quantum erasure and the principle of […] delayed choice.”
“All right, I’ll just draw a diagram and explain it to you.”
As he spoke, he turned toward the blackboard.
Only to realize…
The blackboard was already packed with writing, filled to the brim, with no empty space left to draw anything.
“I’ve got it, I’ve got it!”
Quick and considerate, Chi Xiaoguo immediately grabbed the blackboard eraser and prepared to wipe the board.
But at that very moment—
“Ouch!”
The thick-soled shoes she was wearing caught on the edge of the lectern. Face-first, her entire body pitched forward toward the sharp corner of a desk!
“Careful!”
“Xiaoguo!”
Seeing that she was about to smash her face, both Jiang Ran and Zhang Yang were startled and reached out at the same time to help her up.
“Ah!”
At the instant they steadied Chi Xiaoguo, Zhang Yang suddenly let out a cry of pain.
Neither Jiang Ran nor Chi Xiaoguo knew what had happened. They only saw Zhang Yang clutching his right hand with his left, his face twisted in pain.
They followed his gaze downward…
And only then did they realize!
A pencil had been driven deep into Zhang Yang’s palm! It was lodged in the muscle beneath his thumb!
“Hey—hey—hey!”
“Professor Zhang! Are you okay?!”
Now it was Chi Xiaoguo and Jiang Ran’s turn to panic.
Only then did Jiang Ran understand what had just happened.
Just moments ago, when Chi Xiaoguo stumbled, both he and Zhang Yang had rushed to help her.
In that split second, Jiang Ran hadn’t even noticed that he was still holding a pencil in his hand…
It was a pencil sharpened to a very fine point, basically a decorative prop—something he’d brought to make himself look more like a student from the university.
In the lightning-fast moment of reaching out to help Chi Xiaoguo, no one knew whether Jiang Ran had stabbed Zhang Yang, or whether Zhang Yang’s palm had come down onto the pencil.
In any case, the outcome was exactly what they were seeing now…
The sharp pencil was embedded in Zhang Yang’s palm. Blood mixed with black graphite instantly welled up.
“I’m sorry, Professor Zhang!”
Jiang Ran apologized immediately.
Zhang Yang glanced at his palm, gently pulled out the pencil, checked that the tip was intact, then pressed on the wound and smiled faintly.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. The pencil tip didn’t break off inside. Just a small wound—put a bandage on it when I get back and it’ll be fine.”
“Who hasn’t been poked by a pencil while they were in school, right? The office has bandages and a first-aid kit. I’ll just go clean it up.”
“It’s just…”
He cast a regretful glance at the blackboard and shook his head.
“It looks like I won’t be able to explain the problem to you today, Jiang Ran. Next time, when you don’t have class, you can come directly to the School of Physics office to find me.”
“Okay.”
Looking at Zhang Yang’s palm, still bleeding, Jiang Ran apologized again.
“Professor Zhang, I’m really sorry.”
“Hey, I already said it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
Zhang Yang laughed heartily. With his left arm holding his lesson-plan notebook and his right hand raised, he waved to Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo as he left.
Chi Xiaoguo looked at the blackboard eraser in her hand and let out a breath.
“Sigh…”
She felt like she’d ruined the good atmosphere just now, making Senior Jiang Ran miss the answer he wanted to hear.
“Sigh, I’m really so stupid—clumsy and useless.”
Jiang Ran shook his head.
“This isn’t your fault. Besides, it really isn’t a serious injury. A bit of iodine, a bandage, and it’ll heal in a few days.”
He reached up and touched the back of his own neck—the spot where he’d been stabbed by a pencil as a child.
“Professor Zhang just said it too—who hasn’t been poked by a pencil at school? I got stabbed by a pencil when I was little as well. It was nothing. At most, it leaves a small bluish mark, like a tattoo…”
As he spoke, Jiang Ran froze in place.
A bluish mark.
Like a tattoo.
Carried for life.
Oh my god.
[…Is there anything more unforgettable than that?]
A lucky accident.
Without even meaning to, he had left an anti-counterfeiting mark on Professor Zhang—a mark that would never fade with time, an absolutely unforgettable imprint.
Twenty years later.
In 2045.
Whether or not Professor Zhang remembered him wouldn’t matter.
Even if he had dementia and had forgotten everything.
Just now, Jiang Ran had already changed the course of history, leaving behind a pencil wound on Professor Zhang’s right palm.
The wound itself would heal in a few days, but the bluish mark left afterward would inevitably follow Zhang Yang for the rest of his life!
Therefore—
As long as in the 2045 prison, he carefully examined Bookworm’s right palm…
If he could find that bluish mark left by a pencil wound…
Then it would prove—
[…The future spacetime of 2045 that I experienced is real! It is continuous! It is precisely the future world twenty years from now!]
“Lucky girl.”
Jiang Ran lowered his head, looking at the two cheerful Nezha-style buns on top of Chi Xiaoguo’s head, and sighed with emotion.
“You really are a girl with maxed-out luck…”
There was a saying.
No matter how hard a smart person racks their brain, it still can’t beat a fool’s moment of inspiration.
Of course, he didn’t think Chi Xiaoguo was a fool.
But what he’d achieved through all that mental preparation and all those hypothetical questions was, in the end, not as effective as Chi Xiaoguo’s adorable little stumble.
Next.
All that was left was to wait until tomorrow morning, repeat the same steps, activate the Positron Cannon again, and go take a look at the future world of 2045.
By then…
All the answers would be revealed!
“Xiaoguo, can I trouble you again tomorrow morning?”
“Of course!”
Jiang Ran smiled slightly.
“Thank you so much. I keep dragging you into all this chaos every day, and you’ve never complained—always cooperating with me. I honestly don’t even know how to repay you.”
“Oh, Senior, how can you say that!”
Chi Xiaoguo waved her hands in a panic.
“You brought me into the Film Camera Club and even made me the president! That’s a huge favor. I’m the one who doesn’t know how to repay you!”
“That’s why I said it before—if you need me, I’ll always come help. I don’t really have much ability… but if I can help you even a tiny bit, I’m really happy.”
Jiang Ran nodded.
Up to now, after going through so many events together, he and Chi Xiaoguo could be considered comrades who had fought side by side. No more words were needed.
He took out his phone and glanced at the date.
May 29, 2025.
By now, it had already been over a month since he’d left his original Worldline No. 0 and come to this unfamiliar Worldline No. 1.
And yet—
Worldline No. 1 was gradually becoming more and more familiar, while Worldline No. 0 felt increasingly distant.
That wasn’t a good sign at all…
He suddenly remembered something Qin Feng had once said:
“Distance can only produce beauty. Distance will never produce feelings.”
Now that he was living within that distance, he felt the depth of those words more and more.
June was almost here.
Time flew by—far too quickly.
“Let’s hurry up and resolve what’s in front of us.”
The next day, May 30, Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo once again gathered in the Film Camera Club activity room.
The Positron Cannon had finished cooling down.
Jiang Ran took his position.
Chi Xiaoguo held her phone in one hand, ready to dial, and pressed the Positron Cannon’s activation switch with the other, beginning the countdown:
“5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 0!”
The Positron Cannon emitted a blue humming glow. Amid the ringing phone, Jiang Ran pressed the answer button!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Buzz!
Dizziness. The world spinning.
Once again, he crossed spacetime and arrived at the familiar damp prison.
Opening his eyes.
He stepped forward.
Took a deep breath.
“You”
“Have”
“Successfully”
“Escaped”
“From”
“Prison”
A sequence of events he could already recite backward. The plot accelerated and skipped ahead at high speed, and in just a few seconds, everything turned into a script.
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Zhi Ying, like an obedient elementary school student, followed Jiang Ran’s arrangements and pried open each cell door one by one.
Jiang Ran rushed out impatiently, stopping in front of Cell No. 4 across the way, and helped the elderly man inside over into the corridor light.
He grabbed Professor Zhang Yang’s withered, rough hand, raised it, turned it over, and examined it carefully.
The left palm—somewhat sallow, but the skin was still smooth, with no scars at all.
Then he looked at the right palm.
Also sallow. Also smooth.
But—
Above the wrist, in the area beneath the thumb—
There, unmistakably, was a […] bluish dot!
Jiang Ran couldn’t suppress the surge of excitement in his heart. His heartbeat sped up.
That’s right.
The course of history had changed.
The course of history had changed—because of him.
The mark he’d made with a pencil on Zhang Yang’s palm twenty years ago, in 2025, had now surfaced in the future of 2045!
That alone was enough to prove that his previous assumptions were correct.
Enough to prove that the place he was standing now, everything he was seeing, every story he was hearing, and everything that was about to happen next… was real!
This was all real!
This was the real future!
This was the world twenty years later!
[…September 17, 2045]
“Professor Zhang…”
Forcing down the excitement in his heart,
Jiang Ran pulled the aged Zhang Yang closer to the light, making sure his own face was fully illuminated.
“Professor Zhang.”
He swallowed, eyes wide.
“Do you still… remember me?”