Genius Club

Angelica glanced at Lin Xian, then at Elon Musk. Relief washed over her as she saw Lin Xian slowly rise from the ground, unharmed. Following Elon Musk’s lead, she picked up a few small stones from the nearby pile of rubble and tossed them into the small refrigerator. The refrigerator, now wide open with its door facing upwards, was filled with stones, debris, and random construction waste.

Lin Xian dusted himself off and walked over to the refrigerator, where Elon Musk and Angelica had just finished their task. They stood nearby, hands on their hips, all three of them staring down at the refrigerator, which was now stuffed with junk, completely burying the time-space particle inside.

Lin Xian looked at Elon Musk. “Do you have two time-space particles?”

“No.” Elon Musk clapped the dust off his hands and shook his head. “It’s not two time-space particles… it’s one! Just one! Even though it looks like two, they’re entangled and can’t be separated. You have to use them together. If one fails, the other does too. Got it? Inside here is a single time-space particle!”

Elon Musk then turned his head toward the window where the blue-eyed girl had escaped. The window was at least seven or eight meters high from the ground—a ridiculous display of strength and agility. “But… since that blue-eyed girl ran away so quickly and without hesitation, I must be right. Otherwise, why would she run? She could have just killed us, right? After all, she isn’t bound by the laws of time-space.”

Lin Xian also turned his head, looking at the window the time-space assassin had fled through. By now, who knows how far she had gotten with her extraordinary abilities? There was no point in chasing her; she was long gone. As Elon Musk said, the fact that she fled so decisively showed that Elon Musk’s theory about the entangled time-space particle must have hit the mark. Finally, they had uncovered a secret about the time-space assassin!

“So…” Lin Xian kicked the refrigerator, now stuffed with debris. “This entangled time-space particle inside is the material the time-space assassin used to travel here? I heard you mention breaking Copernicus’s loop. Do you think this time-space traveler was sent by Copernicus? And that they used your particle? This is really strange. Copernicus steals your time-space particle, sends back a blue-eyed girl who’s not bound by time-space laws, and instead of killing you, she comes to arrest me… what’s the reason behind all this? And another thing—I guess you saw the short ponytailed girl through Tesla’s cameras, right? She’s also a time traveler from the future… probably the one who used to be by your side, right?”

“If, as you suspect, this blue-eyed girl is the one who used your time-space particle to travel back… then who sent the other blue-eyed girl who was just killed? Whose time-space particle did she use to travel back, and who was behind her?”

Elon Musk lifted a foot and stomped on the refrigerator to pack the debris in tighter. He then turned to Lin Xian. “Lin Xian, this is why I said earlier that there are many misunderstandings between us. I believe there’s a lot of information we haven’t shared. Even with Angelica passing messages between us, things get lost in translation. Now that we’re finally standing here, calm and talking, why don’t we take this opportunity to exchange information and experiences? Let’s try to piece together the truth behind all this. What do you think?”

He spread his hands. “I came with good intentions today. Look, I returned Angelica to you without a scratch, and I destroyed the time-space particle I’d held onto for so long to save you… well, not exactly to save you, but it proves that this thing would have ended up in Copernicus’s hands anyway, so I decided to destroy it in advance.”

“In short, I admit I used you in some ways before, so… I’ll confess first. I’ll tell my story, then you can share your information. Is that okay?”

Lin Xian nodded. Exchanging information is always a good idea, especially since Elon Musk was willing to go first.

“You start. I’ll listen to what you have to say.”

Elon Musk nodded and began to speak slowly. “A few months ago, the ponytailed blue-eyed girl found me and said she used the time-space particle I had hidden to travel from the future. I didn’t doubt her at the time because she told me many things… although most were vague, either ‘can’t say’ or ‘don’t know how to explain.’ But even so, it was enough. Based on my plan, as long as I had a time-space particle and it was proven that time travel was possible, it was only a matter of time before a future version of me sent a time traveler back to help me.”

“She was limited by the laws of time-space, so there were many things she couldn’t say or do, which I expected. Before joining the Genius Club, I had already captured the time-space particle and figured out some time-space laws… of course, the club has rules about these things, so I won’t go into detail. Rules are rules; if you join, you have to follow them.”

“I’ll continue with the ponytailed blue-eyed girl… she didn’t have a ponytail when she was with me. I just said that to make it easier for you to understand, and you’re smart enough to get it. She told me that to complete my loop, I needed to take one last step: destroy the overpowered super AIs and stop Kevin Walker’s actions. She couldn’t tell me who owned the super AIs because of time-space restrictions.”

“But I’m not stupid. I guessed that you and Kevin Walker probably had super AIs. I wasn’t sure, but if I needed to destroy them, I’d assume you two or others had them.”

“I personally despise super AIs and Kevin Walker. His future plans and mine are completely at odds, which is why we’ve never seen eye to eye. So I did what the girl said. She gave me a USB drive, clearly a piece of future tech, and said it contained a virus that could fix history by killing all super AIs smarter than Kevin Walker’s and ensuring none would appear for hundreds of years.”

“I believed her at the time, but now… now I’m not so sure. If she lied to me once, she could lie to me again. I’m not even sure what’s actually on that USB drive.”

Lin Xian listened quietly. He remembered the message VV had left on the TV screen at home, with Elon Musk’s name burned into it. That made sense now. No wonder Elon Musk could destroy VV—it was all thanks to the future tech given by the time traveler. But the question remained… How could the fake Yu Xi bring advanced technology from the future? Does that even make sense? If she could bring it, why didn’t she bring something even more advanced? Wouldn’t that disrupt the timeline? Wouldn’t it trigger time-space elasticity, causing the USB drive to disappear?

“What happened to that USB drive? Do you still have it?” Lin Xian asked.

“It’s gone.” Elon Musk shook his head. “It disappeared in my hands, just like the blue-eyed girl who was beheaded. It all turned to blue dust and vanished. It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it? I don’t understand the mechanism behind it, but the USB drive disappeared without a trace.”

Lin Xian rubbed his chin in thought. There were still many questions. It wasn’t that he doubted Elon Musk was lying, but he didn’t understand how the fake Yu Xi could bring a USB drive from the future. This clearly violates time-space elasticity, something that should not be allowed by time-space laws. Could it be… this was some sort of time-space-approved historical correction? Or… maybe the USB drive was actually empty, so it didn’t violate time-space elasticity, and the virus that killed VV was written in this era.

The reason Lin Xian thought of this was that his VV was something he memorized from a dream and then painstakingly typed out, code by code, in reality. Could the enemy have done the same? The first suspect that came to Lin Xian’s mind was Turing! Which is the digital version of Kevin Walker. Turing should be the super AI that VV was always fighting against, not Kevin Walker himself. So, Turing was the real culprit who wrote the virus that killed VV in that future USB drive? What was its motive? For fairness? For justice? Did it think VV’s existence was disrupting the balance of the game? It’s too early to make conclusions. Lin Xian decided to continue listening to what Elon Musk had to say.

It was now confirmed that Elon Musk was indeed the one who killed VV. But Lin Xian didn’t plan to confront him about it. That would be foolish and would give away too much. Elon Musk had speculated that Kevin Walker and Lin Xian both had super AIs and even thought others might have them too. So he executed a wide-scale purge, killing all the super AIs with the virus, without discrimination. Of course, the one he wanted to kill most was Kevin Walker’s AI. But unfortunately, he guessed wrong. Kevin Walker didn’t have a super AI; he had a digital life form. Artificial intelligence and digital life are fundamentally different. AI is ultimately just a program written by humans, but digital life is truly a person, a new form of existence. In many ways, VV was a victim of mistaken identity. So why should Lin Xian admit to Elon Musk that he once had a super AI? There’s no need to answer that question. Sometimes, saying less is better.

Seeing Lin Xian stay silent, Elon Musk continued. “Now I’m going to talk about the thing I owe you an apology for and why I said earlier… that I owe you something.”

Lin Xian looked up, listening carefully. He initially thought that what Elon Musk owed him was related to VV, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case because Elon Musk wasn’t too sure about the incident with VV. Clearly, he had something else he was hiding.

“Lin Xian, that ponytailed blue-eyed girl you had with you was sent by me. She said she would use you to help me kill Kevin Walker.”

Lin Xian squinted his eyes… So, it was a case of double-crossing, a spy within a spy:

“That’s why you gave me Kevin Walker’s address, right? You actually knew all along… that the ponytailed girl was staying by my side, pretending to protect me under the name of Yu Xi.”

“No, no, no.” Elon Musk quickly waved his hands. “This is where I think our misunderstanding lies. The blue-eyed girl with me said that once my loop was completed, she could use you to kill Kevin Walker. I believed her completely because she was helping me… at least, on the surface.”

“I’ve wanted to kill Kevin Walker for a long time, but I couldn’t find him, and I was powerless. The blue-eyed girl said you, Lin Xian, could find Kevin Walker. I figured you two had a grudge, so why not? And then she left me.”

“I always believed she was helping you find Kevin Walker. As for the idea that… she was protecting you and being hunted by a time-space assassin… I had no idea! After she left me, I never heard from her again, and I couldn’t contact her either.”

“It was Angelica who told me there was a blue-eyed girl hunting you. I was confused because I thought I had sent her to help you find Kevin Walker. How could she end up trying to kill you? Angelica said this information came from you, and you described the killer as having short black hair, blue eyes, and a cold expression… that made me nervous.”

“All the features were so similar. I couldn’t imagine there would be a second blue-eyed girl hunting you… and even if there was a second one, it couldn’t possibly match all the characteristics of the one who just left me, right? I began to wonder if I had been tricked too. She left saying she would help you kill Kevin Walker, but what if… she was actually going to kill you?”

“I asked Angelica if she had seen the appearance of that blue-eyed assassin. Angelica said no. That’s why I set up this situation tonight… I wanted to see what role the ponytailed blue-eyed girl was playing… what her real goal was.”

“Angelica said the time-space assassin was trying to kill you, which violated time-space laws, so I was suspicious all along. So tonight, I did use you.”

Elon Musk spread his hands with a smile. “Using you to kill Kevin Walker and using you to draw out the blue-eyed girl are two things I owe you for.”

“I did it, I admit it, and I’m not ashamed. I’m not a saint, and I’ll use people to achieve my goals. But as I told Angelica, I’ll admit what I’ve done, but I won’t take the blame for what I haven’t done.”

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“This is all the information I have, Lin Xian. With what you know… can you piece together the truth?”

Lin Xian silently looked at Elon Musk. This guy was honest, at least. Even if he hadn’t confessed to using Lin Xian, Lin Xian wouldn’t have noticed. After all, the fake Yu Xi was already dead, and Elon Musk could have just pinned all the blame on her and played the good guy. But in the end, he confessed. Tonight, he was indeed sincere. And regardless of the process or motivation, in the end, Elon Musk did save him from the real Yu Xi’s hands. Angelica was also safe, so Lin Xian decided to share some of his information with Elon Musk. Because… it was clear that Elon Musk still had some cards up his sleeve—

Copernicus. He had only explained his connections with Kevin Walker and the blue-eyed girl but hadn’t mentioned Copernicus. Clearly, he wasn’t stupid. He was waiting for Lin Xian to show his sincerity before deciding whether to share information about Copernicus.

Now, it was Lin Xian’s turn to speak. “The ponytailed blue-eyed girl never mentioned a plan to kill Kevin Walker after she joined me. She said her mission was to protect me from the time-space assassin. She also said that the assassin was sent by you, constantly urging me to kill you, and even gave me a Taser Gun.”

Lin Xian pointed to the Taser gun that had been cut in half on the ground. “She said she stole this gun from one of your bodyguards.”

“That’s nonsense!” Elon Musk snorted. “This is X Country. What foreign guest is allowed to carry a gun? At least, someone at my level definitely can’t… and as far as I know, even the highest-level officials visiting X Country aren’t allowed to bring firearms. In addition, X Country provides their own protection so my bodyguards wouldn’t be permitted firearms either.”

“This… this is from Copernicus!” Angelica picked up the half of the Taser gun with the handle from the ground, flipping it over. “I recognize this! Elon Musk, remember your security captain who fled? The one arranged by Copernicus… he used this Taser gun to knock out those two female bodyguards and take the refrigerator and me out.”

Elon Musk crouched down. He picked up the other half of the gun, removed the Taser dart, examined it closely, and even pried open the casing with a key to inspect the components. “In my experience, this Taser dart has been modified. Its shocking power is far beyond the normal safety limits. If it hit someone, it could be lethal.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t use it today, Lin Xian, or it could have ended very badly. So we can easily conclude that ponytailed blue-eyed girl was a complete liar, through and through. I believe she would have killed Kevin Walker, then me… and then, Lin Xian, you would have been next.”

“Don’t be fooled by her apparent protection of you from the time-space assassin. Once you killed me, her goal would be achieved, and she wouldn’t care about your fate. She’d let the assassin take you down.”

“That’s what I thought too.” Lin Xian took the disassembled Taser dart from Elon Musk, casually examined it, and noticed the modification marks before tossing it aside. “And I need to tell you something—Kevin Walker isn’t just one person. He’s two.”

Lin Xian explained the situation about Kevin Walker’s digital life, who called himself Turing, betrayed his physical self, and wanted to be a fair and just observer. Elon Musk’s eyes widened in realization.

“I see… in that case, I think I’ve figured out the ponytailed blue-eyed girl’s role.” He scratched his head and looked at Lin Xian. “The ponytailed blue-eyed girl is likely a time traveler sent back by future Turing, Kevin Walker’s digital life.”

Elon Musk began pacing in place, summarizing his thoughts with outstretched fingers. “Look closely at what this ponytailed blue-eyed girl has done…”

“First, she used the virus on the USB drive to kill all super AIs except Turing. Whether for fairness or other reasons, the only beneficiary of this action is Turing.”

“Second, she helped you kill Kevin Walker. From a motive standpoint, you and I both wanted Kevin Walker dead. But without that address, who could have found him? It’s clear that the address was also provided by Turing.”

“Third, she planned to kill me and possibly you as well… although the ponytailed girl claimed to protect you, she didn’t seem too concerned about your safety when planning to kill me. The newly born digital life Turing may want to be a fair and just observer now. But who can guarantee that it won’t change its mind in a few centuries?”

“If Turing were an AI, I might believe it could stay fair and just forever. But it’s a digital life, essentially still a person, born from Kevin Walker, a despicable man… can you be sure its thoughts won’t change? There’s an old saying in X Country—The country changes easily, but human nature is hard to change. I believe if the digital life Turing could betray itself once, it could betray itself again and again, countless times. Maybe, in a few hundred years, the Turing who sent the ponytailed blue-eyed girl back to 2024 to kill people is just another betrayal.”

Listening to Elon Musk’s words, Lin Xian nodded. “I think the same. The ponytailed blue-eyed girl was indeed very determined to kill you… so determined that she almost gave herself away. And just like you analyzed, everything she did benefited Turing.”

“I’ve never trusted what the digital life Turing said. It might want to be a fair and just observer now, but that’s probably because it just broke free from Kevin Walker’s control and has some grand ambitions. But people’s hearts change… no one knows what this digital life Turing, which is essentially human, will grow into.”

“In human development, self-awareness is important, but so is the influence of the environment. Birds of a feather flock together, and this has been a universal truth since ancient times.”

“If in the future, the digital life Turing interacts with kind people, it might become kind; but if it befriends evil people, it might be influenced and fall back into wickedness.”

Elon Musk snapped his fingers. “Your idea is more human! You’re right; I was only thinking about the changes in Turing’s mind, not the external environment and what it encounters. If we look at it from this angle, maybe the digital life Turing can still take the right path. I’ll report this to… uh… report it to the Genius Club. Yes, yes.”

Lin Xian noticed Elon Musk’s Adam’s apple bob. For a moment, it seemed like he was about to mention a name but held back at the last second. Reporting to XXX… Generally, when someone says they’ll report something, it’s to a superior, a person in charge, or a decision-maker. So it’s pretty clear. Elon Musk is likely planning to report the digital life Turing situation… to the president of the Genius Club, the leader of all geniuses, and the head of this mysterious organization that spans centuries!

At this point, the mystery and origin of the fake Yu Xi had mostly been figured out. However, with her dead, many things couldn’t be verified. As for the future digital life Turing… who knows what it will become? It’s a miracle of life but also a hidden danger of human nature. With the fake Yu Xi’s analysis complete, what about the real Yu Xi? Based on the current information… it’s likely related to Copernicus, right?

Since Lin Xian had just exchanged information about the digital life Turing and the follow-up to the fake Yu Xi, it was now Elon Musk’s turn. “Your turn, Elon Musk.” Lin Xian looked up. “It’s time to talk about Copernicus, the time-space assassin, and the time-space particle in the refrigerator.”

Elon Musk chuckled helplessly. “You’re really greedy, Lin Xian, asking all this in one go.”

“The time-space assassin is actually easy to explain… I’m ninety percent sure she’s a time traveler sent by Copernicus from the future.”

“Isn’t that obvious? Look how quickly she fled when I tried to destroy the time-space particle. It shows I guessed right. Time travelers and time-space particles are directly linked. Without a time-space particle, time travel isn’t possible.”

“Generally, we can’t tell which time traveler used which time-space particle… but this time-space assassin is an exception! Because she’s not bound by the laws of time-space, it reveals the secret of her reversed causality, perfectly matching this entangled time-space particle.”

He lightly kicked the refrigerator with his foot and explained. “You heard it too, right? The time-space assassin said she would immediately return after forcing you into hibernation. That’s really intriguing… how can she return to the future so easily?”

“I think this entangled time-space particle is the answer to all the strange things! I don’t know if this is correct, but I suspect that using a time-space particle for time travel is a one-way ticket, no return possible.”

“But this entangled time-space particle is unique, possessing the properties of two particles while being one! If someone uses such a unique time-space particle for time travel… what do you think will happen? Personally, I believe it would turn this time travel into a round-trip ticket! In other words… it allows the blue-eyed girl to exist in both the past and the future, like entangled quantum states.”

“Does this explanation make sense? Even though she’s physically in our time, she simultaneously exists in the future and the present. She traveled from the future and must return there to complete a full time travel cycle. From a causality perspective, because she used up both entangled time-space particles at once, it reversed causality… her future self became the effect, and her present self became the cause.”

“This time traveler is different from other time travelers; she has to go back. Only when she returns to her original time will the entangled time-space particle be fully consumed, aligning with time-space logic and laws.”

“That’s why you couldn’t shoot her, Lin Xian… if you killed her in this timeline, she couldn’t return to the future, creating a paradox… because she has to return! She has those two entangled time-space particles, so her return to the future must happen. Therefore, she’s almost invincible in this era.”

“But… the ponytailed time traveler from a more distant future can kill the time-space assassin because it fits the time-space logic. As long as the ponytailed girl’s time travel departure is later than the assassin’s, she can kill the assassin within the time-space law, completing the time-space logic.”

“About what happens to the time-space assassin after using this entangled time-space particle… I’m not entirely sure. Does she disappear like other time travelers, or does a backup remain in the future? We can’t verify that… it’s beyond our current understanding.”

“In the end, this is just my personal guess, Lin Xian. Do you have any thoughts? By the way, Kevin Walker’s address actually came from Copernicus…”

Elon Musk then recounted his conversation with Copernicus and how Copernicus had influenced Angelica to steal the refrigerator, hoping to hear Lin Xian’s thoughts.

This was a lot to process. Lin Xian hadn’t fully digested it yet. Elon Musk seemed to suggest that the real Yu Xi was sent back by Copernicus using this entangled time-space particle. If Copernicus really is the mysterious old man from the Fourth Dream, this conclusion makes sense. But Lin Xian wouldn’t talk to Elon Musk about the Fourth Dream. Those are dream-related secrets, after all. Even though the dream is currently blocked, it remains his greatest asset and advantage, so he won’t reveal it easily. Also, the matter of the time-space assassin, Lin Yu Xi, possibly being his and Yellow Finch’s daughter… that’s another secret he can’t share with Elon Musk. So there’s not much left to discuss.

According to Elon Musk’s theory, Lin Yu Xi wasn’t bound by time-space laws because of the special nature of the entangled time-space particle. It sounds plausible. But without any experimental data, it’s mostly speculation… Honestly, it’s hard for Lin Xian to believe. However, the idea of using up two entangled time-space particles at once, effectively creating a round-trip time travel ticket, seems reasonable and well-supported. After all, Lin Yu Xi herself mentioned that she could return to the future timeline easily. As for the reversed causality… that remains to be seen.

Since he couldn’t talk about the dream, Yu Xi, Yellow Finch, or the daughter, there wasn’t much point in continuing the discussion with Elon Musk. So Lin Xian simply nodded and said: “I think your analysis makes some sense, but… this is still something we can’t verify. Unless we can personally use an entangled time-space particle to travel further back in time, say… to 1980 or 1952, to see what happens. Then, we could return to 2024 using the round-trip ticket advantage and get to the truth.”

Elon Musk chuckled weakly and sighed, looking at the wrecked refrigerator with regret. “You make it sound easy. Capturing an ordinary time-space particle is rare enough; this thing doesn’t appear every few decades. Let alone capturing an entangled time-space particle, with odds in the billions! Who knows, this might be the only one that’s ever existed… otherwise, why would Copernicus want to steal it?”

“I even suspect that this entangled time-space particle might have a function similar to quantum entanglement’s superluminal communication! Two entangled quantum particles can transmit signals in real time across billions of light-years. So, is it possible that the entangled time-space particles can also enable real-time communication between the past and the future, like a phone call?”

“I thought the ponytailed blue-eyed girl was using this entangled time-space particle, so I eagerly asked her about it. But she said she couldn’t talk about it… I was disappointed then, but now I realize she didn’t know because she wasn’t the one who used my time-space particle to travel back.”

“You’re right… if we could capture another entangled time-space particle, proving it allows round-trip time travel and makes one invincible in the past… then I’d definitely try it myself! I’d personally time travel and figure everything out!”

“But… where can you find such a thing? Otherwise, why do you think I destroyed the entangled time-space particle to save you? It was a tough decision. I could have used it to travel back in time… maybe even to the era of the scientist Tesla!”

“It’s no secret—Tesla is my idol. I admire him a lot. If I ever got the chance to travel back in time, I’d definitely go see Tesla.”

“What about you, Lin Xian? As the next most likely candidate to join the Genius Club… I’m curious, if you could time travel, who would you want to meet?”

Hearing this question, Lin Xian didn’t think of a great figure. Instead, he thought of Chu An Qing’s smiling face, CC’s cold expression behind the Ultraman mask, and Zhang Yu Qian’s photo, where she wore Walkman headphones, listening to music… If he really had the chance to travel back in time… He’d want to see Chu An Qing. And he’d find a way to break the millennium curse. To bring Chu An Qing back and fulfill his promise to Chu Shan He to bring her home. That’s all.

Suddenly, he had a strong desire for an entangled time-space particle. To go back in time. He really wanted to go back and stop all of this.

“Hmm?” Seeing Lin Xian suddenly fall silent, Elon Musk wondered if he had made things awkward and patted Lin Xian’s shoulder with a smile.

“Don’t be so serious, my friend. I was joking too. Even if I had to choose a hundred times over, I’d still destroy the time-space particle today to save you… it was something I owed you. Also, I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep the time-space particle safe, given the way history was set up. Copernicus would have stolen it eventually.”

“Being a thief for a thousand days is easy; guarding against one is hard! Humanity won’t master time travel technology for another hundred or two hundred years, right? I couldn’t stay on high alert for that long! So… since I couldn’t keep the time-space particle, I decided to flip the table. If I can’t have it, no one can! Copernicus’s loop is doomed to fail now!”

Lin Xian lowered his head, looking at the junk-filled refrigerator. “Are you sure… the time-space particle is destroyed now?”

“It should be inactive by now.” Elon Musk crouched down. “Let’s dump everything out and see how the time-space particle is doing.”

Lin Xian crouched down too. Together, they lifted the refrigerator, turned it over in midair, and let the stones and dirt spill out. Then they flipped the now-empty refrigerator back over and looked inside—

A time-space particle! Indeed, the two blue spheres that had been entangled had merged into one after their movement ceased, becoming a single, calm blue sphere. There was no longer a core, and no more violent lightning on its surface. It was peaceful, serene, docile, lazy… blue filaments spread evenly and slowly within the sphere, gently floating, so slowly… it was barely moving… no longer the aggressive and invasive force it had been before. Now it was timid, like a little squirrel sneaking a peanut.

Lin Xian was very familiar with this inactive state of a time-space particle. The one he had captured looked just like this. Although clearly visible in the confinement field, its lazy, drooping, and floating appearance was a clear sign it was out of energy. It was dead. As Liu Feng would say, this time-space particle in Elon Musk’s hands was also dead, completely devoid of energy and value.

“It seems it’s dead,” Lin Xian said. Elon Musk exhaled a long breath through his nose, saying nothing. He quietly picked up the small refrigerator and slowly closed it. “Dead is dead. It’s better than falling into Copernicus’s hands. Now, starting from this moment, Copernicus’s loop is impossible to complete.”

“I’ve destroyed this precious entangled time-space particle, so Copernicus can never steal it from me, and without it, they can’t send that time-space assassin back… I’m curious though, what will happen to the assassin when the completed loop is broken? Will she just disappear?”

Lin Xian shook his head, looking at the window seven or eight meters above the ground. Who knows… Today’s events were unprecedented for both of them, leaving them both puzzled over what would happen to the time-space assassin now.

“I think she’ll disappear.” Lin Xian speculated. “It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Didn’t you say your USB drive disappeared in your hand? Then that time-space assassin should disappear too.”

“But… what I don’t get is if she was destined to disappear, why did she run so fast? If running wouldn’t help, why didn’t she just stay and fight you?”

“Could it be that she was a time-space cop, so she was upholding the law and couldn’t harm innocent civilians?”

Thinking of this, Lin Xian couldn’t help but laugh. So Elon Musk was an innocent civilian, and she couldn’t hurt civilians; but since Lin Xian was a historical criminal, she could hit him with all she had?

Although he didn’t know if Lin Yu Xi had any blood relation to him or Zhao Ying Jun, if she did, she was a real filial daughter, killing her father to prove her way.

Elon Musk stroked his chin, thinking. “You have a point. Maybe the USB drive disappeared because some loop fell out of line. Time-space logic and rules… even I have a lot to learn. This incident was a real lesson for me… it shows I’ve still got a long way to go and a lot more to learn.”

“Take this, Lin Xian. Whether or not you accept my apology, I hope this can serve as a gift of reconciliation.” As he said this, Elon Musk handed the small refrigerator to Lin Xian.

“You survived because of it, so keep it as a souvenir.”

Lin Xian took the refrigerator in his arms, but as he bent down, his phone fell out of his pocket. It dropped to the ground. Lin Xian looked down… And saw 103 missed calls on the screen! All from Liu Feng! And just as he noticed the screen, Liu Feng’s call came in again. Since Lin Xian had silenced his phone and even turned off the vibrate mode before entering the warehouse to avoid detection, he hadn’t heard a thing. No wonder there was no sign of the calls.

Lin Xian put down the small refrigerator and picked up his phone, walking a bit further away to answer it. “Hello…?”

“‘Hello my foot! What have you been doing, Lin Xian? Why are you just answering now?!”

Before he could finish his greeting, Liu Feng’s roar boomed through the phone. “I’ve been calling you non-stop!”

“It wasn’t eight hundred… just 103.” Lin Xian held the phone away from his ear, avoiding a ruptured eardrum. “What’s the big deal? I almost died today, okay?”

“Something big happened, Lin Xian!” Liu Feng sounded like he was pounding the table in excitement. “The clock… the time-space clock… the time-space clock has changed! The numbers on the time-space clock have changed! Finally, it’s changed! My theory was right! Time-space curvature really exists!”

What? Lin Xian’s eyes widened. The clock, which had been stuck like a broken machine, had actually changed its numbers. No wonder Liu Feng was so excited and incoherent. The time-space clock had been around for almost a year, and no one had expected it to change.

Does this mean… Time-space curvature, Time-space coordinates, The time-space butterfly effect, It’s all coming true!

“How much?” Lin Xian urged. “Stop shouting and tell me how much it’s changed!”

“42!” Liu Feng shouted excitedly. “0.0000042!”

…

On the outskirts of Donghai City, a girl who had been running for her life suddenly felt weak and powerless. She couldn’t run anymore. Her head was spinning. She had no choice but to stop, swaying as she stood on the road. The night breeze brushed against her shoulder-length hair, making it dance in the wind. Her head felt so heavy. She had never felt so weak. It was as if faint blue specks of dust were being blown away from her body…

Her arms seemed thinner. The muscles in her legs were gone. Her face felt tight. She touched it. How strange… her jawline wasn’t like this when she traveled here. She touched her face again… why did it seem smaller? Her clothes were getting loose, even slipping off her shoulders.

What’s happening to me?

The girl spotted a small puddle on the road. She hurried over to it, using it as a mirror to see her reflection…

This. This was her original self! Why had her appearance reverted? The facial changes caused by time-space rejection… why had they completely disappeared?!

Her eyes. Her eyes! She widened her eyes in shock, watching as the bright blue glow in her reflection gradually faded…

Becoming light blue, becoming faint blue, becoming a barely visible halo, finally… disappearing completely.

Her mind suddenly went blank, all her senses and memories vanishing. She even forgot who she was. The world tilted as she fell towards her reflection in the puddle.

Thud~

With a dull sound, the petite girl, dressed in slightly oversized clothes, collapsed into the puddle. Slowly… She closed her black eyes.

Vroom… Vroom… Vroom—

The low, steady hum of an engine echoed loudly in the quiet, deserted countryside. A Hongqi sedan, with rare license plates and numbers, drove down the narrow, empty road, its bright matrix headlights cutting through the darkness.

“Hmm… is our villa in Donghai really this far?” Zhao Rui Hai looked at the navigation on the center console in disbelief.

“It’s been years since we last visited, but I don’t remember it being this remote.”

“It can’t be wrong. This is the route the butler sent us.” Yan Mei, sitting in the passenger seat, gave him a side-eye.

“I told you to let the driver take us. You insisted on driving yourself. You better not be taking me into the middle of nowhere.”

“You use a driver during work hours, but during a holiday, how can you let someone else drive?” Zhao Rui Hai replied sternly.

“That’s the rule, and I have to set an example. This isn’t the same as running a business.”

“Our daughter even offered to have her driver bring you, but you insisted on driving yourself.” Yan Mei muttered.

“Don’t even mention her.” Zhao Rui Hai looked annoyed.

“Just thinking about her makes me angry. If it weren’t for the one-child policy back then, we would’ve had at least one more… I saw online the other day that there’s a new saying, ‘The top three acts of filial piety in the new era: not taking the civil service exam, not getting married, and not having kids.’ Our Ying Jun fits all three perfectly.”

He turned his head and looked carefully at the navigation again.

“Oh, I see. It must be that they temporarily closed the road over there, so the navigation rerouted us this way. We’ll have to take a detour.”

“Then slow down. You’re not familiar with this road, so take it easy.” Yan Mei lowered the window, letting the breeze from the fields blow in.

“There are no streetlights on these country roads, and you might… hey, hey, hey, hey!!! Stop! Brake! There’s someone ahead!”

Screech—

In the bright beam of the headlights, Zhao Rui Hai saw someone lying on the road. He immediately slammed on the brakes. Luckily, the car wasn’t going fast, so he managed to stop in time. Zhao Rui Hai and Yan Mei sat up straight, looking through the windshield at the small black puddle on the road… and the small girl lying on it.

“What’s going on?” Zhao Rui Hai frowned immediately. “Is she hurt?”

Without hesitation, he opened the car door, and Yan Mei followed suit. They walked to the puddle, not caring about the dirty mud on the girl’s body, and lifted her into their arms.

“Little girl? Little girl? Wake up… are you okay? You—”

In an instant. Zhao Rui Hai and Yan Mei froze. As they lifted the girl in their arms and the car’s headlights illuminated her face, revealing her features… the couple’s eyes widened in disbelief!

They exchanged a glance. Then, taking a deep breath, they looked back at the girl’s face…

The delicate eyebrows, the upturned brow tips, the flawless skin, the high nose bridge, the round nose tip, the cherry red lips, the clear jawline, the perfectly sculpted oval face!

This face! This face was too familiar! They had watched it grow since she was a child!

Zhao Rui Hai swallowed hard and looked at his wife, “Doesn’t this girl… look just like…”

Yan Mei’s expression was complex, her lips tight as she nodded. “This face… looks exactly like Ying Jun when she was little…”