Chapter 172: Chapter 172: Ti Travel Chapter 172: Chapter 172: Ti Travel 11:02 AM, at an outdoor café on Raffi Road.
Wang Ailin, wearing a red silk off-shoulder blouse and a black mini skirt complented by brown high heels, sat waiting for Diana.
A white handbag lay on the chair next to her, and two cups of chocolate ice cream adorned the table.
Perhaps it was because Opportunity City was near the inland sea, but the temperature soared at noon today; the air felt oppressively hot and humid, small beads of sweat appearing on her forehead and the bridge of her nose, her neck and collarbones damp.
Wang Ailin took out a wet wipe from her purse to dab at her face, then watched helplessly as the dollops of cream in her cup slowly lted, the chocolate chips on top resembling teary eyes.
She sighed and took out her compact mirror for a quick check; her lip gloss seed a bit faded, so she reached for her lipstick to reapply.
Bang!
Suddenly, her left elbow felt a bump, her entire arm going numb for a split second, the expensive lipstick tumbling to the ground.
The strange sensation made Wang Ailin furrow her brow, and she turned to look behind her, finding nobody. She bent down to pick up the lipstick, but another hand beat her to it.
“Hey, you dropped your lipstick,” Diana appeared from Wang Ailin’s right side, placing the lipstick on the table before sitting down across from her.
“Diana! When did you get here?” Wang Ailin started, noticing Diana’s left arm was in a splint.
“Just now, it seems I startled you?” Diana said with an amused look at Wang Ailin.
Her right hand twirled the teaspoon on the table, stirring the ice cream before scooping up a piece and placing it into her mouth, her face lighting up with bliss.
“This is great, chocolate flavor,” Diana said contentedly.
“It’s really hot today, so hot I’m having hallucinations. Is Opportunity City always this warm?”
As Wang Ailin spoke, she stowed her makeup compact back into her purse.
“I’d prefer it always be sumr, then I could eat chocolate ice cream every day,” Diana said with a laugh.
Wang Ailin shook her head and lightly prodded Diana’s bandaged left arm, a pained expression crossing her face.
“Don’t worry, Ailin, it’s just a dislocated joint, nothing serious,” Diana patted her hand, then went back to savoring her chocolate ice cream.
Seeing Diana enjoying her treat so much, Wang Ailin relaxed and steered the conversation to the matter at hand.
“Well, let’s talk about that gun, Diana. When you saw the gun, what did it look like?” Wang Ailin leaned in closer and pulled out a recording pen.
“You’re recording this?” Diana looked at the recording pen with a hint of surprise.
“I haven’t written in years, don’t make embarrass myself,” Wang Ailin turned on the recording pen.
Diana reached out, pinched the recording pen’s microphone, and then said, “Well, I have to make it clear first; everything about the West Gold Building case is confidential.”
“I understand, Diana, I promise it won’t go any further. I’ll convert the recording to text and then delete the file when I get back,” Wang Ailin assured her.
“And… none of your research can cite this information,” Diana warned cautiously.
The Spiritual Ability Research Institute’s reports would usually indicate the sources of any cited information because if they referenced their topics, the Administration Bureau could find out Diana was leaking confidential details to her classmate. The chance might be slim, but it was not impossible.
“There won’t be any written reports, we always handle things carefully, your secret’s safe with us,” Wang Ailin said.
“And…” Diana started to say.
“Two more cups of chocolate ice cream, please,” Wang Ailin told the server.
Diana, seeming to hold back further words, leaned back in her chair, gesturing with a que sera, sera hand wave.
“Alright then, tell about the gun, Diana, that gun… you told last ti its registration ti was incorrect…” Wang Ailin inquired.
“That’s true, but it turned out to be just a data entry error. It’s been corrected by the firearms storage departnt, and the gun is now lying in the evidence room,” Diana explained.
“Did you notice anything unusual when you saw that gun?” Wang Ailin prodded.
“Well… of course, there were no fingerprints, and it was out of bullets, as if the thief left it for us on purpose,” Diana replied.
Wang Ailin shook her head, that wasn’t what she was after, so she pressed on, “Anything more unusual? Like… did it give you a particular feeling, make you think the gun didn’t belong in this ti period?”
Diana paused for two seconds, then laughed, saying, “I get it, you’re suggesting this gun traveled through ti? Hmmm…”
“I’m not joking, Diana… the information about that gun might be crucial to the investigation into Parker’s body,” Wang Ailin frowned.
“Parker? Is that body still…” Diana was taken aback.
“Now, it has turned to ashes… but we can still detect signs of life in that handful of ashes, Diana, it’s weird and I think that gun could hold my answers,” Wang Ailin stated.
Diana, looking at Wang Ailin’s earnest face, realized she wasn’t joking; she suddenly rembered an earlier visit to Weber Spirit Production, where she searched for Parker’s data with the CEO and failed to find anything.
“You scared , Aileen. Do you an Parker actually traveled through ti? Is he a ti traveler who transversed from the future to the present?” Diana laughed awkwardly.
“It’s not impossible, just that the likelihood is quite large,” Wang Ailin said.
“That doesn’t make sense… Maybe… maybe it’s just a Spiritual Energy infection, you know how mysterious and unpredictable Spiritual Energy can be,” Diana shook her head.
So things have nothing to do with scientific research, there are many ways to make a data error, or to make a person non-existent.
“And ti travel, that is sothing Spiritual Energy could possibly do,” Wang Ailin said.
“Ti travel would bring about paradoxes. If a real human ti traveler existed, the world would be in chaos by now,” Diana shook her head.
“Ti paradoxes used to be just a hypothesis, but if they really happened, what form would they take? No one in this world has ever seen a real ti paradox; maybe Parker is one?” Wang Ailin said.
“You make sense… and you’re a researcher, I can’t refute you, but many things can be forged. That gun might not prove anything,” Diana said.
She still didn’t quite believe in ti travel.
Ti travel, being reborn into the past, would be equivalent to a second chance at life. If soone truly possessed the ability to ti travel, whether they went back to the past or to the future, they would inevitably cause irreversible impacts on reality.
Of course, that assus ti paradoxes truly exist. If humanity’s hypotheses on ti travel hold water, with ti travelers in existence, this world would have already turned into a ss.
However, it hasn’t.
This world only has spooky Spiritual Energy and the unknown Great Void.
“That gun, if possible, could you take it out and lend it to for so research?” Wang Ailin didn’t want to discuss hypothetical topics too much; she just wanted the gun.
“I’d like to help you, Aileen, but the Administration Bureau’s control over guns is very strict, especially since this gun has already been lost once…” Diana shook her head.
“Can you swap it out? Apply to have that gun as your service weapon and take it out from the Administration Bureau,” Wang Ailin persisted.
“You may not know, the agents of the Administration Bureau and the investigators of Spiritual Businesses are ranked, and so are the guns. Agents can’t possibly apply for an investigator’s weapon as their service weapon,” Diana sighed.
At this mont, the waiter brought over two cups of chocolate ice cream.
“Is it that slow?” Diana said.
The waiter showed an awkward expression, put down the ice cream, and imdiately scampered away.
“This place’s chocolate ice cream is fantastic, but they’re so slow with the orders,” Diana complained while picking up a spoon.
“Boom boom boom…”
Right then, the sound of rumbling thunder ca from the sky, as if sothing was being torn apart and stripped away in the heavens.
Almost everyone looked up at the sky simultaneously; the sun was shining bright, and there wasn’t even a cloud. The thunder was strange.
“That’s so weird thunder; what did the weather forecast say?” Diana said, shoving the ice cream into her mouth.
“Okay… then let’s start from…” Wang Ailin was about to speak when she suddenly felt a discomfort in her throat, and her whole body wouldn’t obey her commands, as if her soul had left its shell.
Everything around her seed to stop moving; even the hot wind that had been blowing continuously had ceased to flow.
Her mouth was slightly open, voiceless; she couldn’t move her body, only her eyes.
Diana, sitting opposite her, was frozen in the motion of lifting the ice cream cup; a car passing by next to them had a blurred outline, like a lingering afterimage.
“What… is this…” Wang Ailin couldn’t feel her heartbeat, nor her breathing. The feeling of stagnation terrified her.
Just then, the entire world flickered like a slideshow, dark, then light, switching to another scene.
She found herself and another man in a black suit lying on the ground, her right hand and the man’s left hand both grasping a candleholder emitting a faint blue light…
It was pitch-dark around her, and under the blue light, the walls and floors were all bloodstained and visceral, it looked like it could be the Research Institute…
This scene was static, it lasted only for 2 seconds; then, in a flash, the scene cut back to reality.
Like falling from a great height, Wang Ailin bounced up from her chair and tumbled to the ground.
“Aileen!” Diana exclaid, standing up to help.
Wang Ailin gestured with her hand to show she was alright and pulled herself back into her seat using the table.
“Are you… okay?” Diana asked with concern.
“No… no… just now, my… leg cramped…” Wang Ailin laughed.
She turned off the recorder; her heart was still pounding uncontrollably, a na erged in her mind as if she had known it for a long ti.
That na was Chen Ke.
Reviews
All reviews (0)