Jiang Ye had originally expected to see a grand, massive circle emitting light like a star. Or perhaps a majestic black void, absorbing all light like a black hole, utterly mysterious.
However, the actual Gate of Time was only the size of a toilet stall door.
The surface of the door emanated flowing, iridescent colors, like the layers of foam on soapy water.
“Go ahead, just walk through,” Li Nannan smiled. “Good luck.”
Jiang Ye took a deep breath and stepped forward, touching the surface of the Gate of Time.
He felt nothing.
Jiang Ye closed his eyes and walked straight through.
When he opened his eyes, he was in a vast expanse of milky white space. The floor was a giant white light, and at intervals, there was a colorful, flowing Gate of Time. The air was cold, only about ten degrees Celsius.
Some young military officers were moving about, and soon a cute-looking female officer trotted over. “General Jiang? You arrived twenty years ago?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Ye blinked in confusion. Had he really arrived twenty years later? He hadn’t felt anything. It felt like a scam…
“Please follow me. Your time is limited, and the spacecraft is ready,” the female officer said.
Jiang Ye followed her, jogging lightly, traversing the enormous space filled with hundreds, even thousands, of Gates of Time. As they reached the edge, he saw the view outside the window: the vast, boundless starry sky. It seemed this was also a space city, likely an expanded version of the space city near the planet of exile twenty years ago.
Even though twenty years had passed, many facilities in the space city looked unchanged. For instance, the sweeping robots and security robots had only been repainted. The military officers coming and going were also the same, their uniforms similar to before, and the accents of the passersby were still just as noisy.
The only thing that made Jiang Ye feel the passage of time was a self-propelled vending machine.
There were many such self-propelled vending machines in the space city. They were large refrigerators, with goods stocked in compartments, mainly snacks and drinks, as well as daily necessities like condoms. These large refrigerators had wheels at the bottom and possessed a form of self-awareness. Every time an item was sold, it would feel pleasure and then run around looking for people to hawk its wares. Sometimes, it would chase after you, shouting, which was quite annoying.
Jiang Ye glanced at the drinks inside the self-propelled vending machine. The brands had all changed; they were completely unfamiliar to him.
Soon, the female officer led Jiang Ye to a docking bay for a small spacecraft.
“The route is set. The destination is your home. You and your wife are waiting for you at home,” the female officer saluted.
“Thank you,” Jiang Ye nodded and entered the spacecraft.
The interior decoration style of the spacecraft hadn’t changed much from twenty years ago.
However, Jiang Ye found evidence of the passage of time in the wine cabinet.
He used to see a brand of wine called “Qin Dao” frequently. It was a short-lived brand; a few years after its release, the winery was destroyed due to interstellar war, and the brand declared bankruptcy. The lettering on the wine bottles, which used to say “20 Years Old,” now read “40 Years Old.”
Jiang Ye opened a bottle and poured some into a glass to taste.
The taste had changed drastically from his memory, with a strange flavor appearing.
As he savored that taste, Jiang Ye suddenly believed that twenty years had indeed passed.
The spacecraft started and shot into the vastness of space, soon entering warp mode.
After a brief warp, a planet appeared in his vision.
Jiang Ye could see the planet’s night hemisphere. The outline of the land was very familiar, but the brilliance of the lights on the land was completely different from his memory. Most astonishingly, a ring of space cities was rotating around the planet, shimmering brightly.
“Entering Jiang Ye Star controlled airspace. The spacecraft will now enter landing orbit,” a broadcast announcement sounded.
“Holy crap,” Jiang Ye was stunned.
He had expected Jiang Ye Star to be more prosperous twenty years later, but he hadn’t anticipated it being so prosperous that even a ring of space cities had appeared!
The spacecraft began to descend.
The speed increased.
As the distance to the planet’s surface decreased, the glowing city clusters on the land gradually became clearer. Golden light shone everywhere, like lava cracking through the dark earth. Jiang Ye had looked down on the planet’s nights countless times; areas that were completely dark without city lights were now connected by continuous light.
It was impossible to estimate the population of Jiang Ye Star, but it was likely in the tens of billions!
Jiang Ye frowned, pondering. Twenty years for the population to grow to tens of billions was indeed possible.
Finally, the spacecraft landed at the starport.
The starport was completely under martial law, and a red carpet had been laid. The waiting military band immediately played music, with full honors befitting a welcoming ceremony for an alien head of state.
A familiar face waited outside: Secretary Su Yueming.
Jiang Ye disembarked and met her face-to-face, instantly seeing twenty years of time etched on her face.
Su Yueming’s demeanor had completely changed. Her eyes, which used to hold the innocent look of a young girl, now belonged to a middle-aged woman who had seen much of life. However, her skin was still as delicate as before, but the subtle changes in her expression made her seem like a different person.
“Commander, you’ve arrived,” Su Yueming said with a smile full of emotion. “Twenty years ago, when I heard you were going to the future, I couldn’t sleep all night. I really hoped you would still see me twenty years later, and that I would still be your secretary. Now that day has finally come, my hope has not been in vain.”
“I’m very happy to see you too,” Jiang Ye said. “It seems you’ve done well these past twenty years.”
Su Yueming opened her arms and gently hugged Jiang Ye.
She led the way, guiding Jiang Ye to a special car. The car was different from twenty years ago; it was larger and more imposing, not like a private vehicle, but more like a combat model.
Su Yueming sat opposite him and closed the car door. The special car automatically took off, heading towards the distant night sky. Jiang Ye looked out the car window. The scale of the starport had expanded at least tenfold, stretching as far as the eye could see, with thousands of star-class spacecraft taking off and landing, their lights like a sea.
“Is this still the old starport?” Jiang Ye asked.
“Yes,” Su Yueming nodded. “I remember it was quite a small starport twenty years ago.”
“It wasn’t small twenty years ago either, but now it’s outrageously large,” Jiang Ye sighed, then looked at her and asked a series of questions. “What is the current population of Jiang Ye Star? What is the economic scale? Are Cen Yemeng and I doing well? How is Jiang Senlin? Have you had any more children?”
“You told me not to say,” Su Yueming replied with a smile. “You’ll have to ask yourself these questions later.”
“I told you not to say?” Jiang Ye raised an eyebrow. “I’m telling you to say it now.”
“But the current you told me not to say. I just received your orders before coming; don’t talk about important matters,” Su Yueming’s smile grew even wider. She had always obeyed Jiang Ye, and now, for the first time, she had the chance to refuse him, which felt inexplicably good. “The current me serves the current you, and the me from twenty years ago served the me from twenty years ago. You can’t let the previous administration dictate to the current one, can you?”
“I’ll fire you as soon as I get back!” Jiang Ye threatened.
“You won’t,” Su Yueming’s smile became practically unrestrained. “You find me very useful and wouldn’t bear to fire me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be sitting in front of you.”
Jiang Ye suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.
He couldn’t even command this girl.
She had really grown wings!
But why, twenty years in the future, did I tell my secretary not to discuss important matters with my present self?