Jiang Ran had already guessed yesterday that the text ssage’s accidental jump through spaceti was very likely connected to electricity—electric fields—electromagnetic fields.
Wasn’t an SMS, at its core, just a string of radio signals?
Transmitting an SMS was, in essence, transmitting a segnt of radio waves.
If phone A wanted to send a text to phone B, then the radio signal would first be transmitted from phone A, then captured by the nearest base station tower, and finally sent by that base station tower to phone B.
That process was inevitable.
Even if phone A and phone B were stacked right on top of each other, the ssage still had to go to the tower first, and then be relayed to phone B by the tower.
So, obviously—if a text ssage was going to cross spaceti and return to the past, there were only two possible routes:
The ssage’s radio signal traveled back in ti before it reached the base station tower.
At the instant the base station tower received the ssage’s radio wave, it traveled back in ti.
No matter how you thought about it… a steel tower hundreds of feet tall “traveling through ti” was way too terrifying.
And base station towers processed massive amounts of information every second. If one of them had ti-traveled, then at Donghai University, hundreds—thousands—of people would have received a ti-traveling text ssage.
But clearly, ti-traveling texts weren’t a common phenonon. He’d never heard even a whisper of anything like it.
Therefore—
Jiang Ran ford a bold hypothesis:
The radio wave from that text ssage he sent, for so reason, traveled through spaceti to three days earlier.
Then that radio wave was captured by the base station tower from three days earlier, and forwarded to Cheng ngxue’s phone from three days earlier.
Radio waves were one of the rare things in the universe capable of traveling at the speed of light.
Even today, humanity’s first radio broadcast—sent in 1906—was still wandering the cosmos at light speed.
The speed of light was always romantic, always ambiguous.
So, from this angle of thought… that hypothesis wasn’t necessarily impossible.
“Feels like I’m getting closer and closer to the answer.”
In class, Jiang Ran clicked his ballpoint pen again and again, staring out the window.
…
In the afternoon.
The trio regrouped and headed to the first floor of the student activity building—the Film Cara Club.
“Upperclassman Yan Rui just got disciplined…”
Cheng ngxue lowered her voice in reminder.
“If we go to him right now and start asking about the details of a high-power electrical appliance, won’t he get angry?”
“Relax. I asked around.”
Jiang Ran peered through the crack of the door into the clubroom.
“Everyone says Upperclassman Yan Rui has a great personality—easy to talk to. And that kind of warning doesn’t go into your record. For a graduating senior, it doesn’t really affect anything.”
Inside the Film Cara Club, old objects were everywhere. An upperclassman in glasses was tidying up at a table.
That had to be Yan Rui.
Ahem.
Jiang Ran cleared his throat and pushed the door open.
Creeeak…
The old wooden door sounded like it was being torn apart, letting out a hoarse groan as ancient as the ti in this room.
Yan Rui turned, looking at the three of them.
“You are…?”
“Hello, Upperclassman Yan Rui.”
Jiang Ran stepped forward and introduced himself.
“We’re second-years. My na is Jiang Ran—I’m in the School of Computer Science. These two are from the School of chanical and Electrical Engineering and the School of Fine Arts.”
“Oh, oh—hello.”
Yan Rui adjusted his glasses, glanced around as if to invite them to sit, then saw that the room was full of clutter and dust… and gave up.
“So what can I do for you?”
“Sorry, Upperclassman. We hope you won’t mind—we ca because we saw the disciplinary notice outside.”
Jiang Ran pointed toward the door.
“We all felt the punishnt was too harsh. It seed really unfair. You just used a high-power appliance… tons of students secretly use hair dryers and induction cookers in the dorms, and you don’t see anyone getting disciplined.”
“Heh. Not the sa thing.”
Yan Rui shook his head with a smile.
“Thanks for caring about . But I’m about to graduate. A punishnt that doesn’t go into my record doesn’t affect at all.”
“Besides, I completely understand why they disciplined . It wasn’t a simple short-circuit and a tripped breaker… I burned out the main first-floor line and the ter box. The school didn’t even make pay for it. They were already being considerate.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Ran put on a look of surprise.
“What kind of high-power electrical appliance is that brutal? Equipnt for developing photos?”
“No, no…”
Yan Rui shook his head.
“It was the Positron Cannon.”
!!!
The three of them went stiff as hedgehogs.
“Hahahaha—don’t be so tense. It’s just a na.”
“You’ve seen Neon Genesis Evangelion? Whoever made it was just making a joke.”
Yan Rui laughed openly and pointed at an old cardboard box on the floor.
“I only dug it up yesterday while cleaning. No idea which batch of upperclassn built it—it was basically a toy.”
“I saw the na on the label and thought it was funny, so I got curious and tried it. Who knew… the second it powered on, it blew up the power lines.”
Jiang Ran crouched and rummaged through the old cardboard box.
It was empty now. Lots of dust. And stickers had fallen off—robot ani stickers, unmistakably from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
“Even though it’s called a Positron Cannon, it’s basically a CRT monitor picture tube that soone modified. You’ve all seen those old bulky monitors, right?”
Yan Rui continued explaining to them.
“And old-style televisions too. The imaging principle is accelerating an electron beam to near light speed, then blasting it into phosphor on the screen—then the TV displays an image.”
“The label on that Positron Cannon said they modified a CRT picture tube so it could fire a positron beam outward, so they nad it a Positron Cannon.”
“That’s impossible.”
Top STEM student Qin Feng ca online.
“Electrons carry negative charge. What ‘positrons’ are you talking about? A picture tube works by using an anode to accelerate electrons, emitted from the cathode… there’s no way you can modify it into a positron beam.”
“And besides, electron beams can only be emitted in a vacuum. Air is full of gas molecules and dust—an electron beam wouldn’t make it even a centiter.”
“You’re right.”
Yan Rui spread his hands.
“So doesn’t that explain why it blew up?”
“…” “…” “…”
Silence fell over the three of them.
Well-reasoned. Impossible to argue with.
“I’m a science student too. Of course I know how ridiculous a device that fires a positron beam would be.”
Yan Rui turned back and kept tidying the windowsill.
“At the end of the day, it’s a failed heap of nonsense—or just a joke toy, nothing more.”
…
Qin Feng and Yan Rui reached a consensus: this so-called “Positron Cannon” was complete nonsense.
But—
Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes. He’d caught the keyword.
Electron beam.
Another thing connected to electricity.
Could it be…?
“Upperclassman.”
He stepped forward and asked,
“Yesterday afternoon, when you turned on the Positron Cannon… that joke toy—was it on this table?”
“Yeah.”
Yan Rui gestured with both hands.
“Right here. And the so-called barrel was pointed straight at the window.”
Jiang Ran looked out the window…
As if fate were arranging an encounter, he saw an old friend again—the massive, sizzling transforr distribution box.
“In other words.”
Jiang Ran pressed his palm to the tabletop.
“If—hypothetically—the Positron Cannon really could fire a positron beam… then once it turned on, that high-energy beam accelerated to light speed would hit the transforr distribution box outside the window.”
“Probably.” Yan Rui sounded completely uninterested.
“Can I ask one last question, Upperclassman?”
Jiang Ran straightened, unable to stop his heart rate from climbing.
“Can you tell us… about what ti it was when you turned on the Positron Cannon that day?”
Yan Rui paused what he was doing.
Slowly, he turned around.
He looked at Jiang Ran and smiled helplessly.
“You’re an interesting person.”
“But I actually rember the exact ti. Because the power went out instantly, and I specifically checked my phone to see what ti it was.”
Sunlight refracted through the corner of the window, scattering a rainbow across Yan Rui’s body.
“So I rember it very clearly.”
He adjusted his glasses and lifted his head.
“The ti I turned on the Positron Cannon was exactly the evening of March 17…”
“Six oh five.”
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