She stopped talking, slumped on the sofa, and slowly drank milk and ate rice cakes, looking completely relaxed and unsuspecting.
Nan Jing didn't go back to sleep. He brewed himself a strong cup of tea and took out some yellowed files from his study to start reading.
As Ruan Chen ate her milk and snacks, she felt more at ease and chatted casually with Nan Jing, "Nan Jing, do you live alone?"
"We're divorced." Nan Jing didn't mince words and said frankly, "When I was young, I was immature and offended someone, who then came to our door. The child was scared, and her mother also felt that this couldn't go on, so she brought up divorce."
He looked at Ruan Chen and gestured with his hand, "Her mother took the child abroad. I met her once when I was on a business trip the year before last. You two were born in the same year. My child is much taller than you."
Ruan Chen was probably sleepy. She smiled with her eyes half-closed, seemingly lost in thought. She chuckled for a while, then her eyelids grew heavier and heavier until she finally fell asleep.
When Ruan Chen woke up, it was bright outside. The unfamiliar decor came into view. She sat up abruptly, looked around, and remembered what had happened last night.
"You slept well." Nan Jing came out of the study after hearing the noise and pointed to the clock on the wall. "It's almost ten o'clock."
Ruan Chen yawned, "I'm currently unemployed, with no school to attend and no job. Whether I become a wanted criminal or not depends on your decision, Director Nan. What's wrong with sleeping until ten o'clock?"
-------------------------------------
Ruan Chen met Yan Qian at the research institute.
She got straight to the point, "You said last time that you felt you knew me very well. Could we talk a little more about that?"
Yan Qian looked at Ruan Chen with a strange gaze, a mixture of heartache, pity, and a hint of superiority.
The moment Ruan Chen met her gaze, a hint of doubt crossed her mind, and she asked, "You know too, don't you?"
What made Ruan Chen realize this was the condescending look in Yan Qian's eyes, which was exactly the same as the look in Yan Qian's eyes when she first met Ruan Chen in the main timeline.
But this sense of superiority is not an annoying feeling of superiority; rather, it is a sense of superiority that comes from the belief that because I am stronger than you, I should protect you.
“I remembered it not long after I lost control last time,” Yan Qian said calmly, her bright red wavy hair shimmering like silk, her dark red eyes fixed on Ruan Chen. “Now I have all the memories of the main timeline. What do you want to know?”
Ruan Chen drifted off into thought at an inopportune moment. Her hair looked so good; it seemed she had been doing well lately.
She let out a breath, tugged at her black hair in annoyance, and asked, "Can you tell me what exactly happened?"
"I think Fu Jianzhi might... have indeed used you."
Ruan Chen's eyelashes trembled, and she pursed her lips, not continuing the topic of Fu Jianzhi, but instead asked, "I have a question. It is known that everyone exists in both the main timeline and the sub-timeline, so why can some people perceive things in the main timeline while others cannot? To be precise, only a handful of people around me can perceive them—you, Fu Jianzhi, Duan Jingfu, and even I can only glimpse them in my dreams, unable to see the whole picture."
“The Ark needs a tremendous amount of energy to tear open the secondary timeline. At that time, there were very few human experts left. It was the three of us who worked together to activate the Ark. The collision of spacetime created our current timeline,” Yan Qian explained methodically, a stark contrast to the Yan Qian who had angrily told Ruan Chen to get lost last time. “The weight of the three of us and the intertwining of the main and secondary timelines mean that there are no time barriers for us.”
After a moment's thought, Ruan Chen continued, "If the timeline converges, what consciousness is retained...?"
Before she could finish her question, Yan Qian answered decisively, "It's the main timeline. But for the three of us, whether it's the main timeline or the sub-timeline doesn't matter much. But it's different for you. No one will remember your existence, including everything you did in the sub-timeline; it will all be erased."
Ruan Chen buried her face in her palms, unable to express her feelings.
She said in a muffled voice, "That's why you said Fu Jianzhi used me."
Yan Qian's eyes showed even more pity. She stood up, walked to Ruan Chen's side, and looked at the girl who had buried her face in her palms. After hesitating for a moment, she raised her hand and carefully ruffled Ruan Chen's black hair. "Don't be afraid."
Ruan Chen wasn't afraid; she just found it absurd.
She really wanted to ask, "Why?"
“Ruan Chen, actually I saw you in the main timeline when the timeline was interfered with—I don’t know if you remember,” Yan Qian wasn’t good at comforting people, and racked her brains to organize her thoughts. “We will find a way.”
“If only one of us could exist,” Ruan Chen said softly, “no, that’s really the case. Only one of us could exist—who would you choose? You must have had more contact with her. If it was her who disappeared completely, you would be very sad, wouldn’t you?”
Yan Qian paused, and after a long while sighed, "Ruan Chen, actually you and her... even though you have completely different life trajectories, your personalities are just too similar."
She didn't say anything more.
Yan Qian even doubted whether Fang Zhou's plan could really succeed.
The Ark supercomputer's plan is to tear apart the timeline and cultivate a harmless Ruan Chen from the age of twelve, waiting for her to grow to the age of twenty-six. Such a calm and peaceful Ruan Chen will not add fuel to the fire when the catastrophe comes. On the contrary, she will stand on the side of humanity without hesitation.
In this way, civilization will not be destroyed, and everything will return to normal.
Fu Jianzhi will keep the person he loves most, the girl he picked up with his own hands.
None of them realized how unfair this was to Ruan Chen in this timeline.
"Don't overthink it. There's still plenty of time. We'll definitely find a solution before you turn twenty-six. Research on time is ongoing. I've joined a research group now, and we're studying particle collisions..." Yan Qian frowned, stammering as she tried to figure out how to comfort Ruan Chen. But then she looked up and realized that Ruan Chen had already gotten up and left.
He left only one sentence: "Fifteen minutes are up."
Nan Jing waited for Ruan Chen at the door. He kept his promise and gave Ruan Chen and Yan Qian some time alone.
"Why are you in an even worse mood?" Nan Jing looked Ruan Chen up and down. "Didn't you have a pleasant conversation?"
"It was very pleasant, thank you, Director Nan," Ruan Chen replied perfunctorily.
"Give me the address." Nan Jing exhaled and got to the point, "The address of his lab."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com