“Ah!”
Two seconds later, the dizziness vanished. Gravity returned. Everything stabilized.
Gasping for breath, Jiang Ran opened his eyes.
This was…
Where?
Staring at the completely unfamiliar scene before him, he understood that after the worldline shift, his physical location had changed again.
But this wasn’t a dorm. Not a club room. Not a hospital. Not anywhere familiar.
He looked left and right, scanning the surroundings.
A television. A tea table. A wardrobe. A carpet. White sheets. An electronic clock…
A hotel room?
It seed like it.
The layout looked like a hotel room, only much larger.
The lights were off.
Only the faint glow of the electronic clock illuminated the room.
Fortunately, the curtains were drawn only with white gauze. Moonlight poured in, accompanied by a gentle breeze and the soft rise and fall of cicadas. It not only let Jiang Ran see the room clearly, but also brought a refreshing hint of sumr coolness.
“Qin Feng.”
It hit him all at once—there was no ti to worry about the surroundings. He had to find Qin Feng imdiately!
Obviously, Qin Feng had planned this for a long ti, deceiving him with a whole series of performances and setups.
He had thought that as long as he took Qin Feng’s phone and sent the ssage himself, he could avoid any risk.
But who could have imagined—
Qin Feng had truly calculated everything. He had anticipated every possibility and hidden another phone in his pocket!
An old-style button phone, very small, about the size of a senior phone.
But the advantage was precisely that it had physical keys. Even without looking inside his pocket, he could accurately press the send button.
Recalling that aningful glance Qin Feng gave him at the end of the countdown… Jiang Ran felt deeply unsettled.
Why?
Why deceive ?
He had already promised Qin Feng that as long as the ti-traveling text was sent within one month, no matter the content or what he wanted to change, he would agree.
With a promise like that, was there really any need to hide it from him?
“Call him first.”
As he spoke, Jiang Ran took out his phone.
It was just a single ti-traveling text sent ten days into the past. The resulting temporal butterfly effect should be very limited. He wasn’t worried at all about large-scale changes to history.
But—
“Hm?”
He flipped through his contacts and WeChat twice.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Why wasn’t there Qin Feng’s phone number?
That was impossible.
The two of them were inseparable. They talked on the phone intensely every single day. How could there be no contact information!
Forget ten days ago—
Even back in high school, they had chatted daily without interruption.
“This is too strange.”
That eerie feeling returned, as if an invisible black hand were reaching through the gauze curtain and squeezing his heart tight.
In any case, he should contact Cheng ngxue first.
Jiang Ran frowned.
After the worldline change, he had absolutely no mory of this new worldline.
The most urgent thing was to get in touch with Cheng ngxue and synchronize mories first.
And yet—
Nothing!
There was no contact information for Cheng ngxue either!
This was ridiculous.
The two of them were childhood sweethearts who had played together since they were toddlers. Anyone might lose Cheng ngxue—except him.
“You’ve got to be kidding …”
A chill shot up Jiang Ran’s spine as waves of ominous premonition crawled into his mind.
No.
No matter what ssage Qin Feng had secretly sent, the old core-point electronic cannon had been operated by Cheng ngxue, and the sending date of the ssage was locked to ten days ago.
So no matter how the worldline changed, at most it could only alter the past ten days of history.
Just ten days.
Could he really have fallen out with Qin Feng and Cheng ngxue, blocked them, and deleted them within ten days?
“What the hell is going on?”
Jiang Ran was completely at a loss.
No.
He had to contact a familiar person imdiately. Anyone would do.
He checked the call log.
On the first page, there were three calls made to Wang Hao.
Good.
Wang Hao would work.
They had eaten barbecue together just the day before yesterday.
Although on this brand-new worldline that barbecue might not have happened, at least Wang Hao as a person still existed.
Middle school classmates from neighboring classes. High school classmates. The class monitor.
If they talked often, that ant the relationship was still there.
Without any hesitation, Jiang Ran dialed Wang Hao’s number.
The ringing felt interminable. Jiang Ran unconsciously kneaded the bedsheet, hoping Wang Hao would pick up quickly.
Finally—
“Hello…”
On the other end, Wang Hao sounded half-asleep.
“What do you want, man… calling this late… you guys still not done playing?”
Playing?
Playing what?
“Do you have Qin Feng’s phone number? Send it to .” Jiang Ran ignored the irrelevant remark and went straight to the point.
“Qin Feng?”
Wang Hao sounded confused.
“Who’s that?”
Jiang Ran froze.
“The Qin Feng from our high school class! First in grade, provincial top scorer on the college entrance exam, Olympiad awards, that genius everyone knew.”
“Never heard of him.”
Wang Hao’s tone was flat.
“I’ve never heard of that person. At least definitely not from our class… there’s no such godlike figure in our high school.”
“How could there not be!”
Jiang Ran grabbed his hair.
“In high school, , Qin Feng, Xiaoxue—we three hung out together every day—”
“Fuck! Are you out of your mind?!”
Wang Hao let out a pig-like shriek.
“The one who hung out with you two every day was ! ! The three of us together every day! An unbreakable iron triangle, you bastard!”
“And also, damn it, my na isn’t Qin Feng! Jiang Ran, are you calling in the middle of the night just to piss off?”
“Ohhh, I get it. You guys are playing truth or dare, right? That’s ssed up! You don’t invite to the party, and then you ss with in the ga!”
…
Sweat broke out in Jiang Ran’s palms.
Confusion. Shock. A completely unknown situation.
Sure, back in high school they had indeed been close with Wang Hao—but… how could Qin Feng’s existence just be erased outright?
[Why, on this worldline, does Qin Feng’s existence seem to have been wiped away? Without a single trace?]
Not in his contact list.
Not in the iron triangle.
Not in Wang Hao’s mory.
Not even among their high school classmates!
Qin Feng… where did he go?
“Wang Hao, I have sothing extrely urgent and important to discuss with Qin Feng right now. This is very serious. Please don’t joke with .”
Jiang Ran’s tone was grave.
“If this is so prank or so kind of joke, end it imdiately and send Qin Feng’s phone number right now!”
He emphasized it again.
“Hey, what the hell is wrong with you tonight?! You’re annoying as hell!”
On the other end, Wang Hao was clearly irritated.
“Why the fuck would I lie to you! I’m asleep in the dorm, having a good dream—who’s got ti to ss around with you!”
“I’m telling you loud and clear: there is no Qin Feng! No! No! There is no Qin Feng’s number, and no person nad Qin Feng at all!”
“I was the class monitor in high school. You think I wouldn’t know who was in our class? I could recite the class roster backward! There was absolutely no one nad Qin Feng!”
“You could dig my brain out and you still wouldn’t find anyone fucking nad Qin Feng!”
…
Faced with Wang Hao’s shouting, Jiang Ran gradually cald down.
Wang Hao wasn’t the type to joke without a sense of proportion.
And besides, he had been pushed to the point of swearing. Based on Jiang Ran’s understanding of him… that ant he really wasn’t lying.
This was bad.
Jiang Ran’s heart rate spiked.
What exactly had been written in that ssage sent ten days into the past?
How had Qin Feng—perfectly fine just monts ago—disappeared straight from the world, from their lives?
No matter how he tried, Jiang Ran couldn’t make sense of the temporal logic behind it.
But since Wang Hao clearly had no knowledge of Qin Feng, continuing the conversation was pointless.
He should contact Cheng ngxue.
After all, the two of them were childhood sweethearts who had shared the secret of the ti-traveling texts. Communication would be easier.
And Wang Hao had just said it himself: in high school, the iron triangle had been him, Jiang Ran, and Cheng ngxue.
Even though Jiang Ran had no idea why Wang Hao had replaced Qin Feng—
[At least this ant Cheng ngxue’s life trajectory hadn’t changed.]
“I’m not arguing with you anymore.”
Jiang Ran cut off Wang Hao’s string of curses.
“Forget about Qin Feng. You have Xiaoxue’s contact info, right?”
“Send Xiaoxue’s phone number. Now.”
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