Chapter 1 The Heartbeat Before the Storm

Dong, dong, dong...

At this moment, Lin Xian.

Felt.

His own heartbeat.

Seemed.

Louder.

Than the knocking.

[I'm done for.]

He instinctively thought of these two words.

Two in the morning.

A lone man and a girl.

In pajamas.

This...

"Mmm!" Chu Anqing's eyes widened, and she hurriedly covered her mouth, her face instantly turning red.

She, she, she, she didn't understand it either!

Why was she so nervous!

Why cover her mouth!

What was there to fear if she had a clear conscience!

Lin Xian was amused, looking at Chu Anqing, who looked like she had been caught cheating by a spouse...

Miss.

If you were normal, nothing would happen. What was wrong with just chatting?

But your panic is only making things worse!

"Lin Xian?"

From the other side of the door, Huang Que's voice came again, sounding somewhat puzzled:

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Lin Xian watched Chu Anqing get more and more flustered, and knew he couldn't open the door:

"I got up to use the bathroom."

"I think I heard you talking about me behind my back," Huang Que said suddenly.

"I was just sending a WeChat voice message to Liu Feng, complaining," Lin Xian quickly regained his composure, and his mind started working. He shouted at the door:

"You know you're a riddle-maker, you can't stop people from talking about it, right?"

"Alright."

Huang Que's voice was much calmer:

"Get some rest."

With that.

Silence.

After a long while.

"Phew..."

Chu Anqing inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

"I-I'm sorry, Senior Lin Xian."

Chu Anqing's face was flushed:

"It's all my fault, I-I-I didn't know what to do."

"It's okay, it's okay."

Lin Xian waved his hand.

He also felt like he was protesting too much. For some reason, people's IQ drops at the speed of light when they're anxious.

There were a million better ways to handle this, but he chose the worst one.

After such a scare, Chu Anqing couldn't stay here any longer.

She stood up and smiled at Lin Xian:

"Then, Senior Lin Xian, it's getting late, so I won't disturb your rest. You should get some sleep too."

Lin Xian nodded and stood up to see her out:

"Yeah, you should rest too. There's still training tomorrow."

"Mm-hmm, good night, Senior."

"Good night."

Chu Anqing turned back one last time, waved goodbye to Lin Xian, and then twisted the doorknob, pulling the door open:

"Aaaah!!!!!"

A scream pierced Lin Xian's eardrums!

Chu Anqing was so scared that her hair stood on end!

"What's wrong?"

Lin Xian stepped aside and looked out the door—

His scalp tingled!

"Heh..."

Huang Que leaned against the white wall across from the door, arms crossed, watching the frightened Chu Anqing and Lin Xian behind her with interest:

"Excellent."

"[I haven't seen this part of history either.]"

…

Lin Xian was speechless. He opened the door wide and calmly looked at Huang Que:

"We were just chatting. Didn't you and Anqing just meet in the training room? You even talked about the space-time particles."

"Y-yes, yes, yes!"

Chu Anqing's face was as red as a monkey's butt. She nodded like a chick pecking rice, looking sincerely into Huang Que's blue eyes:

"T-that's right! Really, really!"

Hiss.

Lin Xian gasped.

What kind of acting was this by Chu Anqing...

Could she get VV to give her some pointers?

She was really turning white into black, and fake into real!

Huang Que straightened up, stood up from the wall she was leaning against, walked up to Chu Anqing, smoothed her frightened hair, and smiled slightly:

"Go to sleep."

"Mm-hmm!" Chu Anqing ran to her dorm door at the speed of a hundred-meter runner, like a soldier receiving orders.

Beep beep!

She quickly pressed her fingerprint lock!

Teleported inside!

Bang!

She quickly closed the door!

Click.

And locked it.

…

Lin Xian was really defeated.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" He turned to look at Huang Que and preemptively asked.

Huang Que smiled without saying a word, looked away, and looked at the empty corridor on the other side:

"The day after tomorrow is New Year's Eve. Tomorrow is the last day of training, and the day after tomorrow you'll have a day off, as promised."

"Actually, with such a tight schedule and such a heavy task, it's okay not to take a break," Lin Xian said.

"Hmph."

Huang Que snorted lightly and glared at Lin Xian:

"Take Anqing out for a walk. Go to the mall or the park."

"Hey, really, you don't have to," Lin Xian waved his hand.

"Good night."

Huang Que dropped the last sentence, turned and left.

Sigh...

Lin Xian sighed softly and returned to the room.

"What a tragedy, a shura field," the electronic alarm clock VV said with a sigh.

"Isn't it all your fault?"

Lin Xian frowned and looked at the electronic alarm clock:

"Let me tell you the truth, VV... When I brought you from 600 years into the future to the present, I thought it would be like adding wings to a tiger, inviting a great god who could flatten the Genius Club and sweep away all enemies."

"Why do I now conclude that you seem to bring me more trouble than convenience? Did I really copy something wrong in those 130,000 lines of code? For example... in the intelligence value setting."

"That's impossible," VV said decisively:

"I'm doing this for your own good!"

"That's really the most suffocating sentence from Chinese parents."

Lin Xian yawned and lifted the quilt:

"I'm going to sleep. I have to train tomorrow."

…

The next day.

After Liu Feng and Lin Xian met, they prepared to leave the training base:

"The [Space-Time Particle Capture Device] is complete, but the simple detector is not yet complete."

Liu Feng looked at Lin Xian:

"I still can't determine whether the space-time particles are visible to the naked eye or invisible. Anyway, if they are visible, that's of course the best, saving us a lot of trouble. But we still have to consider everything. If they are invisible, then I need to sit next to the pilot Wei Cheng with a simple detector and direct him to fly the aerospace plane."

"I have a question," Lin Xian said:

"Before, we had to use the Guizhou Tianyan Telescope to find space-time particles, and it took so long to find them. Now why can we locate them with just a simple detector?"

"Isn't that logic very simple?"

Liu Feng didn't think much of it:

"Is it easier to find a fish in the sea, or to track a fish that has just been released? Since we have already located that space-time particle, know its direction, know its characteristics, know its properties, it is of course much easier to track."

"However, the power of the simple detector is still too small. It can only be detected when the space-time particle is close enough to the earth. At least it has to be within a height of 2,000 kilometers. This distance is still quite close on the Earth scale. After all, the Earth-Moon distance is 380,000 kilometers. My simple detector can only locate space-time particles within a distance of 2,000 kilometers."

"Of course, the closer the better. I think Huang Que's arrangement is definitely fine, at least theoretically. The only difficulty for us is... space-time particles advance in a jump-like flash, and the trajectory is completely unpredictable. So to catch it, you must need a certain amount of luck."

"If you're lucky... maybe we don't have to do anything. The space-time particle flashes into the rice cooker by itself... that is, the space-time particle capture device, and then directly loses its activity and is bound. If you're unlucky, maybe we almost put it in the rice cooker countless times, but it flashes away at the last moment."

"I still can't determine what the space-time particle is here for, whether it will disappear, or whether it will leave the earth. In short, everything is unknown. I need to observe and analyze it more. Now, the space-time particle is flying through the asteroid belt, and may collide with some asteroids or cross them. I can also use this to study its other properties."

Lin Xian nodded:

"Okay, I'll see you later. Your physique isn't very good either. Usually, you should exercise more so that it will be easier to do gravity overload training here."

"Don't worry, see you later!"

Liu Feng and Lin Xian bumped fists and left in a special car.

Back in the training room.

He found Gao Yang arguing with Coach Wei Cheng, looking shocked:

"Brother Wei! The spacesuit placed here yesterday was white! The kind you see on TV, bulging, full of technology, and looks expensive as hell! I was drooling in my dreams, waiting to wear it! What... what's with changing them all to orange today! This is obviously too inferior! It's like a pirated version!"

Gao Yang pointed to the newly transported orange spacesuits next to him, and then pointed to the white spacesuits that were about to be pulled away.

"Because our target altitude has changed," Wei Cheng explained patiently to Gao Yang:

"Didn't Liu Feng say it when he came yesterday? According to the latest observations, the expected altitude of the thing we are going to capture will be between 10 kilometers and 100 kilometers. This altitude is too low compared to space. We don't need that kind of white spacesuit at all."

Wei Cheng walked to the white spacesuit that was about to be transported away, and patted the big helmet on it:

"This kind of bulky white spacesuit with many devices and very heavy weight is mainly used for environments outside the spacecraft, including extravehicular activities, space stations, and landing on extraterrestrial planets. The inside space is relatively large, and there are also some life support devices. Moreover, the materials are more advanced, which can block radiation and dust in space. But the disadvantage is that it is too bulky. Unless you are performing a space mission at an altitude of more than 500 kilometers, there is no need to wear this."

"And this one."

Wei Cheng walked to the orange spacesuit that had just been transported over. This set looked much lighter and thinner:

"The orange spacesuit is worn when performing tasks in suborbital space. Compared to the bulky white spacesuit, it removes many unnecessary functions and focuses on flexibility, safety, and utility. This orange spacesuit is also known as a high-level escape system spacesuit. It not only comes with air and water supply, but also a parachute and emergency survival equipment, such as radios, flashlights, and medicines. It is fully functional and fully equipped."

"For low-orbit missions like ours, wearing this is more than enough. To be honest, 100 kilometers is not even out of the atmosphere, and it doesn't count as reaching outer space at all. I think using an aerospace plane is a waste of talent. But there's no other way... besides an aerospace plane, there really isn't any spacecraft that can fly at this altitude range. Satellites and space stations are too high, and planes are too low."

"I don't want it!"

Gao Yang didn't listen at all:

"This orange one is too ugly. I want to wear that white one!"

Wei Cheng looked at Gao Yang like he was an idiot...

Good fellow.

He carefully explained so much just now, but this guy didn't listen to a word!

"Isn't this light and sassy orange better than that fat white guy who looks like the Mixue Bingcheng mascot?"

Wei Cheng still wanted to try to salvage the situation.

"No way!" Gao Yang exclaimed:

"Obviously this white guy is cuter! Oh, you wear orange, I wear white, leave me a set."

As he said that, Gao Yang went straight forward, wanting to move the white spacesuit that was about to be transported away.

He hugged it with both hands!

He stood in a horse stance!

He used force in his waist!

Pfft—

He squeezed out a fart.

"Hey, it's quite heavy!" Gao Yang exclaimed.

…!!!

Even Wei Cheng, the gentle, patient, and kind-hearted big brother, couldn't bear it at this moment. Veins popped out on his temples. He gritted his teeth, enduring the urge to beat Gao Yang, and looked at Lin Xian:

"Is this your childhood friend?"

"I guess... yes." Lin Xian covered his face, completely humiliated by Gao Yang's fart.

"What the hell is this guy here for?"

Wei Cheng pointed at Gao Yang incredulously and unbelievably:

"Aesthetic is offline, practice is perfunctory, behavior is indecent!"

"Letting him train at such a high-level base is simply the greatest insult to other astronauts!"

Lin Xian patted Wei Cheng on the shoulder and comforted him:

"Don't worry, just bear with it, it's almost time for him to show his talent."

Sigh.

Anyway, with VV hacking for Gao Yang behind the scenes, the accuracy of the robotic arm will definitely be no problem.

At that time.

He should be able to calm down the serious and strict Coach Wei Cheng, right?

This day's training ended again with Chu Anqing's praise, Lin Xian's seriousness, and Gao Yang's scolding.

"Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, everyone gets a day off."

In the cafeteria.

Huang Que crossed her legs and sat at another empty table, looking at everyone eating at this table:

"You can go wherever you want, pay attention to safety. The base has special people to pick you up and drop you off. Relax for a day. After this only holiday... there will be even more tense days ahead."

"Tomorrow is February 9th. From February 10th to the end of March, that is, more than a month, you have only passed physical training and gravity overload training. There are still many things to learn. After this day of fun, put your heart away and keep your nerves tight until the day of the mission."

"Lin Xian, where are we going to play?" Gao Yang turned his head and asked:

"Let's find a hot pot restaurant and have a good meal! Although the food here is delicious, the taste is too light. After eating too much, I feel like I'm turning into a rabbit."

Chu Anqing leaned over from the other side:

"Senior Lin Xian, let's go shopping in Xidan! It must be very lively there during the New Year!"

Gao Yang tactfully picked up his plate and left the dining table:

"Okay, okay... I'll get lost, I'll get lost."

"Let's go together," Lin Xian called out to Gao Yang.

"Hey, you kind of person..." Gao Yang waved his hand and rejected Lin Xian, shaking his head and walking away:

"Taciturn."

He said in a low voice.

…

The next day, morning.

Beijing, Xidan Shopping Center, heavy traffic, crowded with people.

The dark and dense crowds... Lin Xian felt that there were almost 100 million people at this intersection in Xidan!

"Senior Lin Xian! Here, here!"

Chu Anqing caught the last two seconds of the green light and ran across an intersection, waving to Lin Xian on tiptoe:

"Come over here~"

Lin Xian breathed out a breath, a large cloud of white mist.

The winter in Beijing... is indeed much colder than in Donghai. It snowed a few days ago, but it has almost melted now.

Chu Anqing stood in the vast crowd on the road, wearing a thick white down jacket, a cute bear-ear earmuff, and a red scarf around her neck.

This outfit...

Lin Xian recalled.

This was the outfit she was wearing when he first saw Chu Anqing.

That day, he came to Donghai University with the manuscript of the hibernation capsule filling fluid, ready to send it to Professor Xu Yun.

Then, at the school gate, he saw Chu Shanhe driving a Maybach to send his daughter to school.

Although he didn't see Chu Anqing's face that time.

But it was indeed the first time the two met in their lives.

At that time, Chu Anqing was wearing this outfit.

White down jacket, red scarf, and a bouncy and fluffy high ponytail.

These three keywords were Lin Xian's most straightforward impression of this Donghai little princess at that time.

As the number of meetings and contacts increased later.

He learned more and more about this little princess, and his impression of her became better and better.

At first, he also thought that there must be some connection or extraordinary relationship between Chu Anqing and CC. But now, apart from the copy-and-paste-like appearance, he couldn't find any common ground.

Considering that CC has her own life and her own memories.

In addition, Chu Anqing has a BCG scar as a trademark, while CC's arm is as smooth as jade, basically eliminating the possibility that the two are the same person.

Sigh…

Thinking of this.

Lin Xian felt that things were impermanent.

In the third dream, he didn't see CC at all. He didn't know where she had gone, and he didn't know if she still existed in the future world 600 years later.

Could it be that the wings of the space-time butterfly flapped too hard and directly erased CC's existence?

Probably…

Not to that extent, right?

Was this woman's vitality so weak?

No matter how you look at it, her ability to retain parallel space-time and memory fragments before and after space-time changes is like an amazing protagonist... Where is your protagonist halo, CC?

Lin Xian instinctively felt that the reason for CC's disappearance must be related to Time Bank.

Maybe when Time Bank reappears in the dream and in the future world, it will be the moment when he and CC meet again.

The difference is.

CC is still the CC who is obsessed with cracking the safe, but Lin Xian is no longer the Lin Xian who smiles under the gun.

[He is the boss behind Time Bank.]

[He will personally set the password for the hafnium alloy safe.]

But…

When will that be?

When will he be able to see the airship celebrating the 600th anniversary of Time Bank in the sky of the fourth dream?

And…

When can he truly get rid of the soldiers' encirclement, get rid of the control of the mysterious old man, and explore the fourth dream freely?

"The road is long..."

Lin Xian sighed and exhaled an exaggerated cloud of white mist in the sub-zero temperature.

He liked this feeling of swallowing and spitting out mist.

He never had this experience in the Donghai climate.

He started walking and walked to Chu Anqing, who looked like a white penguin.

Chu Anqing tilted her head:

"Senior, what were you daydreaming about just now?"

Lin Xian smiled:

"I just remembered that you were wearing this outfit when I first saw you."?

Chu Anqing was a little puzzled:

"Wasn't our first meeting... at MX Company's celebration party?"

"It was earlier than that."

Lin Xian told her about the situation at that time.

"Wow…"

Chu Anqing exclaimed:

"So we met so early! Hehe, there are encounters everywhere in life!"

"Actually, there was an earlier time," Lin Xian said with a smile.

He also told her about the time when he went back to Donghai University to get his file, passed by the playground, and heard Chu Anqing's speech as a freshman representative.

Chu Anqing's eyes widened even more:

"Ooh-wah!"

Her voice was slightly surprised:

"Was it that early? I didn't know at all! Hahahaha, that's really fate! Is there an earlier time?"

She blinked her expectant eyes:

"Is there an earlier time, Senior Lin Xian? Have we met... in an earlier time?"

"[Qianqian]!!!"

Suddenly!

An elderly white-haired woman wailing loudly knelt down in front of Chu Anqing with a plop!

She hugged Chu Anqing tightly!

Tears streamed down her face! She cried non-stop!

"Qianqian... Qianqian!! Qianqian, woo woo woo woo... Mom, Mom knew you weren't dead... knew you weren't dead! Mom has been looking for you! Qianqian... woo woo woo woo..."

"W-wait a minute!"

Chu Anqing was scared pale, and she hurriedly wanted to jump out.

However, the white-haired old woman was like a madwoman! Like pliers! Holding Chu Anqing tightly! Not letting go:

"Qianqian! Qianqian! Mom... Mom found you!! Woo woo woo woo! Don't leave Mom!"

"Let go! Let go first!"

Lin Xian felt that this must be some kind of lunatic. He was afraid of hurting Chu Anqing, so he hurriedly pulled the two apart!

"Senior Lin Xian!"

Chu Anqing was frightened, and the moment Lin Xian pried open the old woman's arms, she hurriedly jumped out and jumped into Lin Xian's arms.

More and more people gathered around.

Lin Xian protected Chu Anqing behind him and looked vigilantly at the white-haired old woman, protecting her with his arm.

"Qianqian! Woo woo woo... Give me back my Qianqian!!!"

The old woman cried painfully, unable to stand up, trembling all over, almost slumped on the ground, stretching out her wrinkled and skinny arms, crawling towards Chu Anqing step by step.

This…

Lin Xian's heart softened for a moment.

This old woman didn't seem to want to hurt Chu Anqing maliciously, but rather mistook her for someone else, or was simply mentally ill.

He couldn't be rough with the old woman either.

Just then, a middle-aged man wearing glasses ran over, helped the old woman, and kept apologizing to Lin Xian:

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, young man, young lady, I scared you. I'm really sorry, this is my wife... she has some mental problems."

He pointed to his head and shook his head.

Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed to be a misunderstanding.

Chu Anqing also recovered from the shock and withdrew from Lin Xian's arms.

Lin Xian then had time to examine the man and the old woman.

To be honest, if the man hadn't taken the initiative to say that he and the old woman were husband and wife, he really wouldn't have been able to tell.

Because this middle-aged man looked to be only in his 60s.

But this old woman...

Disheveled, mentally broken, white hair, messy, thin.

She looked like she had suffered a lot of torture.

Not physical torture, because they both looked well-dressed.

Mental torture.

Perhaps this middle-aged woman was only in her 60s, but the mental destruction made her look as old as 80.

"What exactly is going on?" Lin Xian asked.

The middle-aged man with glasses stared at Chu Anqing with a complicated expression for a long time, looking hesitant to speak.

Finally…

He lowered his head and said:

"We used to have a daughter, but she died in a car accident more than twenty years ago. We were very sad, but my wife couldn't get out of the pain and had a mental breakdown, just like what you saw."

"And this young lady..."

The middle-aged man plucked up his courage to look at Chu Anqing, his Adam's apple trembling up and down, his voice trembling, and tears glistening in his eyes:

"T-this young lady really looks a lot like our daughter Qianqian. So... my wife couldn't tell the difference for a moment and caused this kind of thing. I'm really sorry, please forgive us."

Lin Xian and Chu Anqing looked at each other.

They lowered their heads.

The old woman was still crying, reaching out and grabbing Chu Anqing's shoes:

"Qianqian... this is Qianqian... our daughter... you didn't die... woo woo woo woo..."

The middle-aged man sighed.

He took the old woman's hand off Chu Anqing's shoe, hugged the old woman, and helped her up:

"Hey... I told you, don't cause trouble for others. Our daughter has been dead for more than twenty years. Even if she didn't really die, she should be in her forties now... how could she still look the same as she did back then?"

Lin Xian listened to the middle-aged man's words.

He felt that things were becoming more and more complicated!

CC, Anqing…

These two people already looked like copy and paste.

Could there really be a third one!?

Qianqian?

Could it really come true and synthesize a two-star CC??

Or maybe…

Qianqian is CC?

"W-wait, uncle, wait a moment."

Lin Xian grabbed the middle-aged man:

"You said just now that your daughter who died more than twenty years ago... looks a lot like this girl now? Take a closer look, how much does she look like?"

He stepped aside, completely leaving Chu Anqing out, letting the middle-aged man see clearly.

He saw…

The old woman's lips trembled more and more.

Tears fell like a bursting tap, and her body trembled non-stop:

"Like... she looks like..."

He sobbed:

"[It's exactly the same...]"

"[Even the beauty mark on the corner of her left eye... is exactly the same!]"