Closed Cycle
Chapter 94
[1451.11.22 23:35:47]
Ning City.
Outside Venus Bar.
Drunk people noisily left through the bar’s back door. Under the neon lights, someone noticed a man leaning near the door.
The man was smoking a cigarette and wearing a rather outdated windbreaker. He looked like someone who had come from who knows what era. That person however was simply a person born for clothes. His enviable height and near perfect proportions made even clothes like this appear different on him, even making it look several degrees more attractive.
Unfortunately when one follows the clothes and look up, his face was hidden in the shadows.
Meeting such a man here, even if they couldn’t see his face clearly, it was enough for the more daring people to come forward and strike up a conversation.
“Handsome.” A young man with dyed chestnut coloured hair walked over. His pants hung loosely around his waist, revealing his thin hip bones, “Wanna hook up?”
A red ball of flame flashed between the man’s slender fingers.
A ring of smoke escaped from his mouth.
“Not interested.”
The other party’s voice was also very pleasant to hear. It wasn’t too thick and was instead a very sensual mid-bass that carried a slight resonance. It was enough to make one’s heart itch when heard.
The young man was very bold. He got a little closer and provocatively hooked his finger around the other person’s belt, “Don’t be so cold. Let’s have some fun together. It’s better than standing here alone smoking.”
The hand that loosened the belt didn’t leave.
It continued down like a snake. Just as he was about to deliberatly make the next move, the hand was suddenly grabbed.
The young man was caught by surprise by this sudden sharp pain on his wrist and let out a cry.
“Not interested.”
The man said again. His voice was piercingly cold. He spoke mercilessly, “Scram.”
The young man was thrown aside.
When he did this, the man’s face that was hidden in the shadows was also exposed.
It was a very ordinary face. The eyebrows were not thick or stylish, the nose wasn’t tall, and even the lips were extremely plain. Except for the pair of eyes which were quite deep, the rest of the appearance was rather disappointing. This ordinary face didn’t match with the enviable figure, it was such a waste.
The young man had strong self-esteem. He was about to make a fuss after being rejected but he lost interest when he saw the face, so he cursed and left while massaging his wrist.
Venus was a gay bar in Ning City. The name sounded very gaudy, but it was actually a rather clean place.
The man however showed a look of disgust. After driving away a fly, he felt that this place was even more of a problematic place.
He extinguished the cigarette in his hand and easily flicked it into a nearby bin.
He didn’t manage to wait for the person he was waiting for.
Perhaps that person won’t be coming today.
He got up to leave and entered an alley with his hands in his pockets.
Ning City’s early winter nights were very cold. The night winds felt like knives.
The man walked through Ning City’s never-ending night, went through alley after alley, went through business district with high-rise buildings, and went through all the hustle and bustle.
He lived in a cheap hotel.
As long as he worked a simple, non-eye-catching job, he would be able to pay the rent without much trouble.
The area where the hotel was in was dark and poor. There were small vendors who opened in the early hours with tendencies to cheat people, young people struggling to make a living residing in basements as well gangsters and prostitutes running their businesses. He didn’t fit in here but he also somehow blended in well.
He could hear low laughter coming from the room next door. He opened his own door and moved his hand along the damp wall to find the switch.
“Click.”
The moment the dim light turned on; he narrowed his eyes.
There was another person in the room.
The visitor wore glasses as well as a white dress shirt. He appeared to be less than forty years old. Having just entered his middle-ages, he still looked quite young. He had a somewhat familiar bookish air, but it was still completely different from a certain someone.
“Professor Sheng.” He said coldly.
“Cap Song.” There were slightly wrinkles between Sheng Yun’s eyebrows, “You aren’t easy to find.”
They had already met in the Rubik’s Cube mission. It was actually very easy for Sheng Yun to find out his identity.
But Song Qinglan used an artificial face which could simulate different facial features, and this made it more difficult for Sheng Yun to find him.
“As a witness of time coming from the future, I believe you have memorised and recited Tianqiong’s three laws: Never change the past, never talk about the present, never be obsessed with the future.” Sheng Yun said, “Strictly speaking, you haven’t violated those three laws because you are obsessed with the past.”
Song Qinglan raised his hand and lightly touched the device behind his ear to turn off the artificial face.
His originally heroic and handsome appearance was revealed. Facing Sheng Yun with his original face, he made no attempt to hide his coldness towards him.
Sheng Yun didn’t mind this dissatisfaction. Instead, he said, “The Inspectors in 1456 still have not discovered your disappearance but with you travelling so frequently, even if you turn off the communicator, you will inevitably leave traces. They will find you sooner or later.”
“You coming to find me is also risky.” Song Qinglan showed disdain, “Are you not afraid of being discovered by the Inspectors and making everything you did until now all in vain?”
“Not afraid.” Sheng Yun said, “Since you and Sheng Han would come to find me, it meant that I didn’t leave behind any clues in your time and space, and you only had the option of travelling back to that day to figure out the truth. I should be safe.”
As a father, Sheng Yun seemed too heartless when he said those things.
As an elder, he was still young at this time and his words didn’t carry much authority.
But the traitor in the twelfth squad, Xie Sian, was right. Although Sheng Yun didn’t look like Ji Yushi, the temperament of the two was very similar and the way they conversed and analysed was also very similar. They were both calm to the point that it was scary. As expected of this pair of father and son.
Song Qinglan gritted his teeth.Just noticing this point was enough to make his heart rage.
His state hadn’t been very good these past few days. He knew it himself.
He couldn’t sleep at night and would wake up again and again from dreams where his hands were covered in blood. He was like an addict suffering from withdrawal symptoms. He could only traverse again and again to see what Ji Yushi used to be like so that the desires burning in him would diminish a little.
It was just watching. He didn’t do anything.
And he couldn’t do anything either.
If he continued like this, he didn’t know if he would one day lose his mind and rush out in desperation to let Ji Yushi recognise him.
Letting him know him three or five years in advance.
With that, they could push everything that has happened ahead. Who cares about the stability of time and space, who cares about the grandfather paradox, who cares about the circle of fate.
He didn’t want to care about those at all.
To be a traitor.
Snatch away the Ji Yushi from before that incident and together fleeing to another time and space.
Song Qinglan had considered this idea more than once.
Facing Sheng Yun’s appearance, Song Qinglan almost couldn’t show his anger at this elder who had long been ‘deceased’, but the other party’s calm and self-assured tone made him feel incredulous. Rather than anger, he found that he couldn’t feel any respect towards this Sheng Yun.
Song Qinglan sneered, “You are indeed safe. Seeing that he was accidentally killed, you could actually still turn around and leave.”
Reaching this point, Song Qinglan’s eyes suddenly turned red. His eyes were full of anger, “I don’t care about your so-called stability or how much sacrifice you have made for this world. Perhaps you are indeed a great person in a certain sense, but you have completely failed in your responsibilities as a father. You are not worthy of him keeping you in his heart for all those seventeen years!”
The eight-year-old who had lost his childhood.
Hyperthymesia, cognitive dysfunction.
No one had a childhood like this.
The outburst was directed at Sheng Yun, but he didn’t say anything to justify himself.
He took off his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose tiredly. Although he was still young, he already had a lot of grey hairs.
“I originally thought that you two were perhaps good friends.” Sheng Yun murmured, ‘That’s why he would take you back with him to such an important day. Now it seems that this wasn’t the case….Your relationship was far from what I had I thought it was.”
“That’s right.” Song Qinglan directly declared possession, “He is mine.”
Sheng Yun wasn’t surprised.
He had been following the traces Song Qinglan had left behind in time and space the entire time, and the other party’s actions were enough to explain the whole situation.
As a scholar and a scientist who sees the big picture, Sheng Yun’s understanding of time and space may be better than anyone and possibly even more so than Ji Yushi.
Except for the moment when Ji Yushi was accidentally killed, Sheng Yun didn’t reveal any further breaks in his composure.
Even when witnessing his own death and given no choice but to travel around incognito all the time, his shirt had no wrinkles and was completely clean.
Song Qinglan, “Why? You still want to care about his sexual orientation?”
Sheng Yun shook his head, “No, I’m very happy that in a future that I cannot see, there would be someone who would love him like this.”
In fact, the two of them hadn’t spend much time together after confirming their relationship.
Song Qinglan’s throat tightened.
Sheng Yun put his glasses on again and asked, “So, how far can you go for him?”
Song Qinglan didn’t answer immediately.
Because he was able to keenly identify the deep meaning contained in Sheng Yun’s tone. He subconsciously clenched his fists, “What do you mean?”
Sheng Yun: “Or to be more precise, are you willing to sacrifice for him, even if it’s your life?”
“Your understanding of us is too limited. What we have experienced may not be less than you.” Song Qinglan replied through clenched teeth, “As long as this ending can be changed, I am willing to die for him a thousand times.”
The young man’s tone was filled with arrogance and determination. It left Sheng Yun stunned.
In the past, he also once had such courage. Although it wasn’t for love, he was also full of enthusiasm.
The traversing through time and space made one forget about the importance of time as well as everything he originally had around him. He hadn’t felt this way in a long time.
After a brief period of shock, Sheng Yun said a short ‘good’ and then returned to the dust covered table in the hotel room and turned on the transparent panel he had brought with him.
Song Qinglan stood in place, watching him closely.
“For me, several years had passed since that day.” Sheng Yun said as he typed on the keyboard, “In addition to looking for you over the years, I have also achieved some results.”
Song Qinglan was slightly surprised.
He knew that Sheng Yun was talking about the so-called ‘Tianqiong of all eras’ which was later known as Tianqiong’s parent system.
The interface flashed.
The Tianqiong symbol appeared on the holographic projection projected by the transparent panel.
Immediately afterwards, a mechanical female voice sounded, “Hello, Sheng Yun. Welcome to Tianqiong. It is detected that your current time coordinate is November 22, 1451, which is more than 12 years from your point of origin. The time and space fluctuation in the current coordinate is 7. There are a total of 7 traversing activities present……”
Song Qinglan felt that her voice sounded familiar. She was currently reporting the coordinates of the seven points of fluctuation including their point of origin and their destination. It was accurate and exhaustive. She had actually monitored the trajectories of all the Tianqiong branches in the world in one go.
This was the early form of the so-called ‘Tianqiong of all eras’.
Song Qinglan didn’t expect that Sheng Yun would be able to develop it to this level in such a short period of time.
“This wasn’t achieved by me alone.”
As if he could see what Song Qinglan was thinking, Sheng Yun said, “In addition to me, there are many people like me in time and space who are working hard and have sacrificed a lot more than me. For example, the one you met in Rubik’s Cube.”
Song Qinglan suddenly recalled the fat middle-aged man who appeared with Sheng Yun in Rubik’s Cube, and he also recalled the rumours of the R&D either dying or going mad.
In other words, perhaps what happened to them wasn’t what everyone had speculated and instead, everyone had used different ways of breaking free from the project and are now hiding undetected in time and space, secretly working on this.
Seeing Song Qinglan’s expression change, it was clear that he had understood everything. Sheng Yun nodded at him.
“The results we got was more than this.”
Sheng Yun re-entered a code.
Then, another softer and more human-like female voice sounded.“Welcome, Song Qinglan. Welcome to Tianqiong. I am very happy to see you again. It has been detected that you have performed and completed 12 A-level missions, 21 B-level missions, 2 Super S-level missions and 1 S-level mission. Current rating: Super one star. Your reward is zero. Do you wish to perform more missions to earn more rewards?”
Song Qinglan this time was really shocked.
Time, space, and what kind of existence they were. For the first time, he felt like he was inside a large chaotic mess and for the first time, he deeply realised how small and insignificant he was.
“When the prototype was first made, Tianqiong’s parent system’s complete body appeared and replaced it.” Sheng Yun said, “It’s like we…..only planted down a seed, and it had already at some unknown point in time in a world far in the future, grown into a large tree. The moment the seed appears, it could already control the entirety of time and space. Perhaps in a sense, this was the original meaning of ‘Tianqiong of all eras’.”
All eras cannot exist at the same time.
But it could exist in all eras at the same time.
Song Qinglan crossed his arms, “Its appearance can change this?”
Sheng Yun shook his head, “What happened to Sheng Han in 1439 was already in the past. It cannot be changed. But in 1456 where you two came from, in terms of time and space, he is considered to still be in a state of traversing. His death wasn’t his final ending.”
Song Qinglan slowly lowered his arms.
“Time is a continuous line. As long as your original line remains the same, the possibilities are endless. This means that you can choose to go back to 1456 from another point in time.” Sheng Yun continued, “Thank you for being obsessed with the past and not immediately returning to your original time and space in 1456. It allowed this to be able to be carried out.”
Sheng Yun wasn’t Ji Yushi. His analysis of the matter and his explanations were far less clear compared to that of Ji Yushi’s.
To him, it was like he was explaining 1+1=2. It was simple but too brief.
But Song Qinglan soon thought of something and asked, “So you’re saying that, without changing our original timeline and without changing the established fact that we have returned to the past, we just return to our original point from another point in the timeline?”
Thinking about it from the opposite direction, that was in fact—-Crossing back from the future.
And they happened to have previously gone to the future in 1470!!
Tianqiong’s female voice sounded, “I will seize you during your traversing from 1456 and take you to 1470 and overlap the current point in time with that point in time.”
Song Qinglan suddenly understood, “Wouldn’t this form a time anchor?”
The anchored point was the third second after they were hijacked.
It was equivalent to them being in a huge time anchor, never having left it. They would randomly overlap with their other self in a certain cycle of the Ouroboros mission and respawn together at the starting point.
“It could be understood that way.” Tianqiong said, “To be precise, it is a time anchor only belonging to you and Ji Yushi.”
“The Ouroboros mission in 1470 is both the past and the future for you. You will need to pay attention to the paradoxes arising from the new overlap of time and space and try not to affect the existing past while maintaining the final result. Once the mission is completed, you will return from 1470 to 1456, and the time coordinate would be after you redeemed the mission reward.”
That is to say, they would return to their original point in time and space, and it would be after he accompanied Ji Yushi to 1439.
With this, the timeline remains unchanged, and history also remains intact.
What happened to them in 1439 was nothing more than a past that repeats itself in the anchor of time.
In addition to the small time anchor, there would be an even larger time anchor belonging only to the two of them added over to the top of it.
If anyone else was to hear this, they would’ve had a very difficult time understanding it.
Sheng Yun’s logical thinking ability was precise and more meticulous than ever. He had actually managed to come up with such a perfect method of resurrection.
“I asked you earlier if you were willing to sacrifice for him,” Sheng Yun faced Song Qinglan, “was because of the trigger conditions for the time anchor.”
With that, Sheng Yun took out a pistol.
A silver-white compact pistol designed after the PPK style, named Diamond Bird.
The preferences of both father and son were very similar.
Song Qinglan received it. The cold and heavy body nestled in his hand, reminding him of the hand that gradually lost its temperature that day.
The trigger condition for the time anchor: All members dead.
And this was a time anchor for himself and Ji Yushi. What he needed to do was self-evident.
“Why are you doing this?”
Song Qinglan asked lowly.
Sheng Yun knew that Song Qinglan was asking the so-called ‘Tianqiong of all eras’.”
The gentle female voice spoke up, “I have already reminded you. After more than 170 million calculations, the probability of your squad succeeding is higher than all the other Guardian squads. I hope you can lead your squad to complete more missions. We need you to maintain the stability of time and space.”
Song Qinglan silently raised the corners of his lips. It was unknown if he was smiling or if it was mockery, “So the condition is how many missions?”
Tianqiong, “Next, I have prepared for you and your squad 2 Super S-level missions, 1 S-level mission and 1 A-level mission.”
“My squad.” Song Qinglan said, “I didn’t fucking help them agree to this condition. Don’t blame me if I break the promise when the time comes.”
Tianqiong remained silent. It didn’t refute. Perhaps it already knew the result.
This feeling of being left hanging made one feel irritated.
The energy bullets were already placed in the gun.
Song Qinglan copied Ji Yushi and pulled the safety latch. He suddenly fell silent for a few long seconds.
Super S-level missions, 1 S-level mission and 1 A-level mission.
The familiar rating reminded him of something. He stored away all his emotions and asked one final but deep question, “So, could this have been the reason why the seventh squad was originally hijacked?”
Otherwise, how would they explain the missions they completed after they were hijacked?
Everything had a cause and effect. Which came first and which came later?
Did the original hijacking happen first so that everything else that happened followed, or did the parent system hijack the entire squad because of everything that happened later?
Perhaps what Ji Yushi didn’t see, was this even larger circle.
They who were inside it were like ants running around.
“I cannot answer your question.” Tianqiong said, “Time progresses at the same time for me, irrespective of cause and effect, irrespective of before and after.”
Song Qinglan pointed the gun to his heart.
The answer was no longer important to him.
Sheng Yun, Inspector, 1439.
That was all in the past.
In any case, he would be returning to square one. Before pulling the trigger, he heard Tianqiong say, “You have triggered a branch mission and have exceeded the original mission conditions. The name of the mission for you: 【Overload】.”
KK has something to say:
I can see why Sheng Yun did all that but I just can’t find myself liking him…..Such a failure as a father