Chapter 215
"Xiao Shen, what brings you here?" As the disheveled, middle-aged man stumbled out from a pile of abandoned machines in the laboratory, he knocked over a tubular metal object.
The dull, metallic sound of metal hitting the ground was extremely jarring.
Duan Shen wasn't surprised at all by the middle-aged man's appearance; instead, he addressed him as "Uncle."
"I have something I want to ask you."
"You've come all this way to my lab, are you just here to tell me to go home again?" The slovenly man picked up a strangely shaped clock from a messy table and fiddled with it for a while before saying:
"Tell your grandpa that my experiments have reached a crucial stage this year, and we've now built a model of the seventh-generation aircraft engine..."
“Uncle, it wasn’t my family who sent me,” Duan Shen suddenly interrupted the middle-aged man.
The disheveled man placed the clock aside, and his phoenix eyes, hidden beneath his thick hair, glanced at Duan Shen: "Little Shen, you wouldn't be saying that you wanted to come here yourself, would you?"
"Yes, I'd like to ask my uncle again, was the quantum machine successful back then?" Duan Shen asked.
“I remember you always refuted the idea of parallel universes.”
Duan remained silent.
Duan Yanhan casually sat down on a dusty chair and began to reminisce about the past: "You little rascal, you ran into my lab and caused a ruckus before."
"They found my lab notes from a few years ago and insist that I explain the principles of parallel universes to you."
"I never expected that after I talked for three days and my tongue was almost rolled back, you would say 'time only exists in the theoretical stage,' which almost made me faint with anger."
"I was still young then." Duan Shen wiped a stool clean and sat down.
"But Uncle, you proved it to me, didn't you?"
Back then, Duan Shen came to Duan Yanhan's laboratory after taking the college entrance examination.
Duan Shen was intelligent from a young age, and Duan Yanhan thought that he could cultivate Duan Shen's interest in scientific research, so he let Duan Shen wander around the laboratory for a few days.
Unexpectedly, the two got into trouble because of a failed research project Duan Yanhan had conducted a few years ago.
"Actually, it's not your fault. I've been researching parallel universes for over ten years, and I'm still only studying the laws of quantum mechanics. I can't prove anything to you."
“The quantum machine is also obsolete.” Duan Yanhan said with a wry smile.
"I gave up on that project seven or eight years ago. Now the experimental base has given me a project related to aircraft."
"Changing careers halfway through is really hard to get used to." Duan Yanhan stretched, his slovenly appearance making it hard to believe he was once so dashing.
Duan Shen lowered his eyes and asked inexplicably, "Uncle, if... parallel universes really exist..."
"So, are the laws governing the development of things consistent?"
"Although the current research focus is on the past and the future, that is, to define the different time patterns of parallel universes, I believe that the development patterns of parallel universes are ever-changing."
"The wave function in quantum mechanics has proven the randomness of the development of things, and even if we exist in parallel universes, the random collisions of quantum mechanics will naturally yield different results."
That is to say, the people and events in parallel universes cannot be consistent with our future.
Duan Yanhan agreed with Duan Shen's point of view: "That's natural."
"Countless quantum collisions and countless development choices will lead to earth-shattering development."
Duan Shen clenched his teeth, remaining silent for a long time, which caught Duan Yanhan's attention: "You brat, why are you talking to me about this kind of thing today?"
"It seems you're quite good at philosophy; parallel universes have long been a certainty."
"Uncle."
"Hmm?" Duan Yanhan turned his gaze to the young man sitting upright on the stool and heard his words.
"If I were to say that when you proved the principles of quantum machines to me a few years ago, I happened to..." Duan Shen hesitated as he spoke.
"I saw some things, as if they were things of the future."
"What do you mean?!" Duan Yanhan was so shocked by Duan Shen's words that he immediately stood up.
"Xiao Shen, what do you mean?!"
“I said…” Duan Shen’s eyes showed some weariness and confusion.
"I saw people and events from the future, even if it was just a few fragments, I saw them."
"You mean... my quantum machine worked?!"
"I think so."
“But I still have questions.” Duan Shen’s temples were a little sore, but he continued.
"I always feel that the future I see is wrong."
"Or rather, the 'she' I saw was not a person."
From the moment Duan Shen saw You Yingning, he felt that her face was very familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before. It wasn't until that kiss on the rainy day that Duan Shen's memory was awakened.
He had seen her before.
At the quantum machine, or rather, at a parallel universe, he had met You Yingning.
But then again, she doesn't seem to be 'her'?
"Xiao Shen, do you mean you encountered something supernatural?" Duan Yanhan, being a researcher, understood Duan Shen's meaning in just a few words.
No, not exactly.
"I just find it strange."
"In the quantum machine experiment, I seemed to see a girl."
"I saw her and me in the rain..." Duan Shen recalled that kiss again, and that tingling sensation filled his sensitive nerves once more, making his ears gradually turn red.
He changed the subject:
"Uncle, if the people I meet in a parallel universe are not from the original universe."
"You mean, people from the third timeline have become people from the second timeline?" Duan Yanhan stroked his stubble, his brain working non-stop.
"That's a novel idea. Since quantum particles can warp spacetime during collisions, your conjecture is very likely true."
"But what exactly did you see?" Duan Yanhan asked curiously.
"I saw it..."
Although there were only a few fragments, Duan Shen remembered them and they were imprinted in his mind.
He saw...
He kissed Ningning in the rain.
In a secluded corner of the hotel, he ripped her skirt, his eyes bloodshot as he questioned her why she had left him.
I saw it again...
She was crying.
I called him over and over again to explain why we broke up.
Why are you with other girls?
at last...
He seemed to be pleading with her amidst the blood-red sky.
I begged her...
What is it?
Every time Duan Shen recalls those moments, he feels that they are just like a bizarre and comical black-and-white film.
His and Ningning's roles kept changing; one moment he was leaving Ningning, the next Ningning was leaving him. But in the end, each story ended with an extremely tragic conclusion.
As for himself...
What role did it play in this absurd story?
*
Ferrari's aesthetically pleasing body lines trace its own unique path at night.
There were quite a few vehicles on the street, all stopped at the red light at the intersection.
The Ferrari also slowly came to a stop.
Pei Yuqing gripped the steering wheel with one hand, gently rubbing his aching shoulder with his left, taking a while to recover from what had just happened.
That You Yingning...
She pretended to agree and tricked him into going to a deserted place...
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