Chapter 83: The Hamster’s Work
While Pei Ningle was following behind Han Yixuan and eavesdropping, Wang Heng also finished a day of programming and slacking off, returning to his dormitory.
Tang Hexing and Fu Hanwen teamed up to play together, Wang Ke was watching loli anime, and tonight’s dormitory was still a scene of peace and busyness. There were less than two hours until lights out, so they had to seize the last entertainment time of the day.
That white cat was lying on Wang Heng’s desk, but not in the languid pose common for cats. To be precise, the opposite was true—the white cat was practically in a kneeling apology posture, respectfully bowing deeply to the cage. Inside the cage, the hamster was holding a dried fish almost a third of its own size, seemingly pondering where to start gnawing.
Wang Heng picked the white cat up from the desk, then carried the hamster cage and left the dormitory again.
The destination was still the rooftop.
Normally, there was no one there at night, and as long as they didn’t speak too loudly, it was the best spot for secret conversations.
Bringing the cage up to his face, Wang Heng teased, “Getting bolder and bolder, huh? Snatching food from a cat’s mouth?”
The hamster set down the dried fish, spreading its little paws: “I have no interest in bullying a masochist. This was its voluntary tribute.”
“Voluntary tribute of dried fish?” Wang Heng couldn’t help but feel curious. “What exactly did you do to leave such a deep psychological shadow on it?”
“Amitabha,” the hamster put its little paws together, chanted a Buddha’s name, and sighed, “Sin, sin, cannot be told.”
Wang Heng: “Alright, if it cannot be told, then it won’t be. First, let me ask: you didn’t sneak out of the dormitory today, right?”
Hamster: “Why ask that?”
“Because of what Pei Ningle said to me today—it was a bit strange,” Wang Heng rubbed his chin with his other hand. “So I reasonably suspect she might have been influenced by something.”
The hamster tilted its little head: “How are you slandering my innocence out of nowhere?”
Wang Heng stared at it for a good while, but couldn’t spot anything suspicious. Of course, given this guy’s shamelessness, even if there was something off, it probably wouldn’t let him see it.
So he shared the idea he’d come up with on the subway: “Let’s set a rule from now on. You can manipulate me—whether through threats, intimidation, temptation, or whatever—but one thing: you absolutely cannot influence others. Especially not communicate directly with them, just like you said at the start—play the role of an honest, dutiful hamster well.”
“Cannot influence others, like Pei Ningle and Han Yixuan?”
“Right, you’re a time-space administrator who can foresee worldlines that might come true in the future. If there’s an anomaly, tell me, and let me handle it. Since I’m the key point in this current worldline, and also the owner of this body of yours, this request isn’t over the top, right?”
After Wang Heng finished speaking, he saw the hamster lying on the dried fish, its little eyes shifting about, seemingly thinking.
After a while, the hamster said: “Then you agree to one condition of mine too.”
Wang Heng: “What condition?”
The hamster lifted its head and stared at him, its tone becoming very serious: “Something like directly refusing Pei Ningle today cannot happen a second time.”
“Good!”
Wang Heng spat out this “good” through gritted teeth.
The hamster mentioning today’s refusal of Pei Ningle proved it had indeed contacted her; otherwise, there’d be no need to use it as a bargaining chip. With it scheming behind the scenes like this, Wang Heng had zero certainty about Pei Ningle’s movements—it was more dangerous than keeping her by his side.
The opponent in the dark while he was in the light—that was the most dangerous situation.
The hamster straightened up, still speaking solemnly: “Since this transaction is established, and you’ve recognized your primary work, then…”
“Wait!” Wang Heng quickly interrupted it. “What primary work do I have?”
Hamster: “Correcting anomalies in the worldline.”
Wang Heng: “Isn’t that just my daily routine now?”
The hamster grinned its little mouth, which counted as a smile: “You think it’s that simple? What you’re doing now is just scraping by! Do you know I never use the exercise wheel in this cage? Why?”
Wang Heng: “Why?”
Hamster: “Because I have big tasks every night—huge exercise volume! Though you yourself are the biggest anomaly in this worldline, it’s not completely stagnant beyond you.”
“But you, a mere hamster, how could you…” Wang Heng suddenly realized something and widened his eyes.
The hamster shrank back: “Looks like you’ve guessed how I correct the worldline?”
Wang Heng carried the cage and ran down from the rooftop, returning to the dormitory at top speed. He sat back at his desk, set the cage aside, and opened the computer.
Then, he carefully checked the computer’s usage traces.
If a mere hamster could stir up world events, the only possibility was probably using the internet, right?
Sure enough, Wang Heng quickly found many operations not his own in the uncleared traces, and the computer system showed they all happened after 3 a.m.
Imagine the scene: when the four boys in the dormitory were sound asleep, a hamster crawls out of the cage and turns on the computer.
In the dead of night, the hamster dances on the keyboard…
Wang Heng closed the laptop, carried the cage to the balcony, and shut the door between the balcony and the dormitory interior.
Then he lowered his voice and asked: “What exactly have you been doing with my computer?”
Hamster: “Lots of things. For example, last night I provided some insider information to the intelligence department of the federal government. That way, in a few more days, the Silk Road website will be raided by the feds as you wished.”
Wang Heng: “But according to the original progress of the worldline, Silk Road was supposed to be taken down anyway!”
The hamster sighed: “So naive. Haven’t you realized yet? You’re the source of the butterfly effect! From the moment you filled out the Rongdu application and refused Han Yixuan, you’ve been causing endless butterfly effects.”
“Butterfly effect…”
Wang Heng repeated the term, of course not needing an explanation. He knew exactly what the butterfly effect was.
In a sufficiently complex system, any tiny disturbance can cause massive changes—like a butterfly flapping its wings, leading to a storm on the other side of the Earth dozens of days later.
And there were more intuitive examples, like the one in that story:
Because of losing a horseshoe nail, the horse’s hoof was ruined; because of the horse’s accident, the general fell; because the general fell dead on the battlefield, the war was lost; because of one war’s defeat, the nation fell. Who would think a single nail could destroy a country?
And the real world is even more complex. Countless factors interlock, with complexity beyond human comprehension. The tiniest changes, after passing through countless links, produce changes that affect the worldline…
At this point, the hamster said again: “Since we’ve reached an agreement, this kind of thing can be left to you from now on?”
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