Chapter 6: Defusing The Timed Bomb In The Spacetime Turbulence
“Finally back.”
After experiencing 74 hours and 32 minutes, the positioning in Lin Ran’s mind chose the tent he personally pitched in Cherry Spring National Park.
Cold wind carrying snowflakes battered the tent with a rustling sound.
Lin Ran gripped the ice-cold mobile phone in his pocket, recalling the rainbow neon lights of Times Square, the perfume advertisement of Marilyn Monroe in the shop window smiling at him, passersby wrapped in wool coats slowing their steps—because his down jacket glistened under the streetlights.
Everything that had just happened felt like a dream.
And now the ice-cold curve of the iPhone XS edge was reminding him that this timed bomb in the spacetime turbulence had finally been successfully defused by him, the spacetime ghost.
Stored inside were future fragments enough to make Area 51 agents collectively climax: orbital trajectories of the Shenzhou series rockets, blueprints of the ion propulsion system of the Artemis program, and even the Starship prototype he found on the SpaceX official website last year.
Looking around at the familiar surroundings, he boldly took the iPhone out of his pocket, checked that the signal was recovering, habitually grumbled in his mind about the damn signal of the iPhone, and then Lin Ran felt his suspended heart settle.
Being able to return meant everything was fine.
Even if the “gate” cannot be used anymore, his alienated body and brain were always real.
Just relying on this brain, achieving financial freedom in the present was no big deal.
For the previous Lin Ran, Graph AI being a big pit was certainly true, but for the current him, with the general solution to the N-S equation known, Graph AI was no longer a big pit, but an all-purpose industry that could do anything.
Publishing articles would be a breeze; knowing where the gold mine was, digging out a bit each time, the N-S equation alone was enough for him to live off for a lifetime.
His whole body was in a relaxed state; about thirty seconds passed before the iPhone recovered its signal. He checked the time, compared it to the time he went to find the gate, and found it differed by about an hour.
“If calculated strictly by time, then the time flow rate between both sides is about 60 to 1?
One hour passes there, one minute here?” Lin Ran pondered. “In that case, even if I stay in the 1960s for a year, it would only be 6 days here.
What if I stay here for a year?
Is the time flow rate here to there also 60 to 1?”
Lin Ran pressed the timer function on the iPhone, planning to strictly calculate the time flow rate between both sides.
After a quick sort-out, Lin Ran hurriedly called Li Xiaoman. “Hello, Sister Xiao Man.”
First came a sharp scream from the other end of the phone, then a crisp and pleasant female voice:
“Randolph! Where are you?”
Li Xiaoman, third-generation Chinese descent, Lin Ran’s roommate and landlady, and also his senior at the State University of New York.
Over the past two years, their relationship had been ambiguously unclear; it wasn’t quite a romantic relationship, but if called ordinary friends, they had interacted too intimately.
Who goes stargazing on New Year’s Eve with ordinary friends?
“I’m in my own tent; I inexplicably passed out just now.” Lin Ran explained.
About twenty minutes later, the panting Li Xiaoman pulled open the tent door. Although there wasn’t a trace of physical discomfort visible in Lin Ran’s complexion, “I searched the entire park just now and didn’t see you!
Sigh, forget it. Do you want to go home now or stick to the original plan and go back tomorrow morning?”
Lin Ran smiled; it was rare to see Li Xiaoman so anxious.
Li Xiaoman had lost both parents since childhood and grew up with her uncle and aunt, living as a dependent.
In such an environment and background, for her to make it all the way to a PhD in the law department at the State University of New York, her mental core was evidently incredibly strong. She always appeared calm and meticulous in front of him; Lin Ran had never seen her panic.
Lin Ran thought for a moment and said, “Now. Sorry, Xiao Man, I’m really feeling physical discomfort right now. I want to get back to my warm bed as soon as possible, not stay in the tent—the ground’s dampness is too heavy.”
“Dampness?” Li Xiaoman asked, puzzled.
Even though Li Xiaoman’s name was so Chinese, “a little fulfillment in life is better than complete perfection,” the concept of dampness was still a bit too esoteric for a third-generation Chinese descent.
“The moisture content in the air is too high; it’s too cold.” Lin Ran explained.
It was a four-hour drive back to New York from here. Along the way, Li Xiaoman sat in the driver’s seat, and Lin Ran gave simple brush-offs to her questions, acting like he was physically discomforted and didn’t want to say more.
“During that time, I was holding a biodegradable plastic bag planning to go to the woods to use the toilet, but halfway there I felt particularly unwell, my whole body sweating profusely on my forehead.
I hurried back to the tent, and before I could sit steady, I passed out.”
“Oh, the mobile phone signal? The mobile phone signal suddenly cut out somehow.”
Although Lin Ran’s explanation was full of doubts—just the point of returning to the tent, Li Xiaoman had been sitting at the tent entrance the whole time waiting for him, and only after half an hour without contact did she go looking everywhere.
Even more fatally, there were no footprints on the ground; there were only footprints from the tent to the roadside forest, but none from the forest back to the tent.
All these doubts made Li Xiaoman completely disbelieve Lin Ran’s pale and powerless explanation.
So on the way back, Li Xiaoman was unusually cold: “Oh,” “Like that,” “Got it.”
In short, it was all about brushing her off throughout.
While driving, Li Xiaoman wondered where exactly Lin Ran had gone; could she receive a federal police investigation notice tomorrow saying there was a murder case in Cherry Spring National Park and they needed to cooperate with the investigation?
But no matter how Li Xiaoman guessed, she couldn’t guess Lin Ran’s miraculous experience of taking a trip to 1960; such a tall tale was too hard to guess.
Lin Ran rested with his eyes closed in the second-hand Corolla, occasionally saying a few words to Li Xiaoman. He knew she was dissatisfied with him, but to him now, none of that mattered at all.
Upon returning home, Lin Ran first messaged his client on WeChat to change the appointment time: “Madam Li, can we start now?
Sorry, I’m feeling a bit physically discomforted and want to move it up to now. Is that okay?”
Four a.m. New York time was exactly seven p.m. Yanjing time; the reply came quickly: “Now?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll prepare.”
Besides going to school, Lin Ran also did some remote consulting business, specifically providing study abroad consultation to university students domestically.
To be precise, he had started this business back when he was in Shanghai. One, to earn some pocket money—F1 visas make working in America not easy; two, it also built him a lot of connections.
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