Chapter 48 Chapter 48 (1/2)
Who Am I
Chapter 48
“What happened to you just now?” Song Qinglan asked.
“I don’t know.” Ji Yushi restored his gaze. His heart was still pounding. He didn’t understand why he had subconsciously followed those people earlier.
If it weren’t for Song Qinglan, he probably would not have been able to board this train.
The two sat down in their seats and the train rumbled on, throwing the strange scene back at the station far, far away.
Song Qinglan had purchased the tickets in a haste so there were only tickets for ordinary carriages available. The carriage at this moment was quite packed with almost no vacant seats left.
People chatted as they stored their luggage away. No one seemed to notice the two young men who were still recovering from a state of shock. There would sometimes be people glancing at them but that was because of their overly eye-catching appearance.
From the neighbour standing outside Ji Yushi’s door early in the morning to Ji Minyue’s appearance and the human wall formed at the station just now, it seemed that a certain part of the world had been touched on by them overnight and it was likely a critical part.
Ji Yushi felt an uncomfortable gaze again. He turned around and saw a male passenger with glasses staring at him.
He looked back at the other person for several seconds, but the other party showed no signs of looking away.
Despite the hustle and bustle in the carriage, Ji Yushi couldn’t relax.
It was even like this on the train.
He attempted to recall where he had met this male passenger, but it was to no avail. His mind was blank.
Song Qinglan said in a low voice, “No need to think. He should be looking at me.”
Ji Yushi turned back. There was some confusion in his eyes along with some traces of panic — Ever since they met Ji Minyue, Song Qinglan had noticed that Ji Yushi didn’t seem quite right and his mental state didn’t appear to be very good.
This kind of abnormality, let alone Ji Yushi, even someone as confident as Song Qinglan held doubts about the reality they were in.
The two had originally thought that they had found a key clue from Chief Wang’s end but they were now encountering something like this. It clearly told them that this wasn’t a simple case of a parallel world or overlapping memories.
Ji Yushi had unconsciously grabbed the armrest until his joints turned white. When he heard Song Qinglan’s words, he finally relaxed his grip, “Looking at you?”
Song Qinglan sat to Ji Yushi’s right. He was too tall and too conspicuous of a target.
He adjusted his sitting posture and lowered down so that the back of the seat blocked him from the other person’s line of sight. Sure enough, the other person immediately turned around and started doing his own thing as if nothing had happened.
“I’m thinking that these people who stare at us must have some form of connection with us. If it’s not you, then it’s me. This place is the city where you live so there are more people looking at you.” Song Qinglan said, “I have probably seen this person somewhere before, but I don’t remember.”
Song Qinglan didn’t seem to be affected much by this and the tone of his speech was the same as before.
He was the same when they were trapped in Runjin Building by the zombies and when they were trapped in the space capsule in the crevice. He seemed like he would never be troubled when put into a difficult situation and that his determination would never be shaken.
What others didn’t know was that Song Qinglan was only like this because he didn’t want to make the other people around him feel more at a loss.
He stretched out his arm, “Pinch me.”
Ji Yushi was confused, “Why?”
Song Qinglan said, “Pinch me to see if it hurts. If it hurts, it’s not a dream.”
Ji Yushi told him, “Cap Song, in fact, there is no scientific basis behind tha—–”
Song Qinglan just raised a brow. He proceeded to unceremoniously pinch himself and let out a low groan, “Fuck.”
Perhaps it was because he found it childish, even he himself was speechless. He spoke with a straight face, “Hurts. Alright, regardless of whether or not it has any scientific basis, it has been proven that we are currently not dreaming. Just trust me.”
A cabin attendant robot pushing a service cart passed by.
Song Qinglan got a cup of warm water for each of them.
It made sense to drink more hot water.
Ji Yushi recovered after drinking and his mind came online again, “Since our return, this is my first time encountering something like this. What about you?”
Song Qinglan said, “It is also the first for me.”
Ji Yushi frowned while deep in thought, “You said that the neighbourhood aunt stood outside my door early in the morning, but when we ran into her when we returned, she was still normal. My brother also met me yesterday and there was nothing out of the ordinary. Why on earth——” He suddenly stopped. His eyes moved to look at Song Qinglan, “Cap Song, I think I know now.”
Song Qinglan might have already guessed what he was going to say but he didn’t interrupt him.
For some reason, he looked forward to seeing Ji Yushi brainstorming and sorting his thoughts out. This calm and rational Ji Yushi would often be able to grasp the crux of the problem with one glance.
“It should be related to Chief Wang.” Ji Yushi said, “I was originally the only one who had memories of this, and it wasn’t enough to affect this reality but you managed to find her information and you similarly gained another memory yourself.”
Song Qinglan listened quietly.
Ji Yushi continued, “Last night, we discussed going to find Chief Wang because we found her approximate location —- If Chief Wang also has double memories, then she is a similar variable like us. To us, it would be proof of the two realities co-existing. The closer we get to her, the closer we are to the most contradictory point of the two realities.”
Song Qinglan asked, “That is, since we decided to find Chief Wang, it has resulted in these……reactions?”
Song Qinglan didn’t know how to describe these strange happenings but it was enough for Ji Yushi to understand what he meant.
The air-conditioning in the carriage was strong, making Ji Yushi a little cold. He held the cup in his hands to warm himself up, “Yes.”
Song Qinglan frowned, “Why is there such a reaction?”
Ji Yushi said, “I don’t know yet, but I have a vague guess. Do you know about the double-slit experiment?”
Song Qinglan nodded, “I’ve heard of it.”
“In the double-slit experiment, a single electron passes through a partition with two slits resulting in an interference pattern on the screen. Just like the single electron passing through the two slits at the same time, some people think that this phenomenon is proof of the many-worlds theory. Suppose a single electron passes through the slit on the left, in another world, the electron passes through the slit on the right. The two worlds could feel each other’s projections and the electron passing through the two slits at the same time interferes with itself, resulting in the interference pattern.” Ji Yushi said, “This is one of many conjectures about parallel worlds.”
Since acquiring time-travel technology, the theory of parallel worlds had been confirmed so Ji Yushi only briefly talked about it and jumped to the main point.
“What I wanted to talk about was something strange about the double-slit experiment. In order to understand how the interference patterns are formed after electrons pass through the double slits, people have tried to use equipment to observe the process of electrons passing through the slit, but when they tried to do it, the interference patterns that appeared on the screen was gone. After electrons passed through the two slits, only two parallel lines were left on the screen. The strange thing was that when the equipment was turned off, the original interference pattern returned. It was as if the electrons have their own thoughts and knows when people are observing it and can change its trajectory at will. In other words, human observation actually affected how electrons moved, changing the results of the experiment.”
So much information required time to digest.
Song Qinglan thought for a while and said, “So, you want to say that our current situation is related to this ‘observation’?”
“It’s just a preliminary guess using the double-slit experiment as an analogy. It might not necessarily be because of this.” Ji Yushi lowered his head to drink. His eyelashes were long and thick. “For example, our act of going to find Chief Wang, would it be considered a kind of ‘observation’? Just like when the electrons are observed, our behaviour affects how this reality works, resulting in self-interference.”
“I think I understand.” Song Qinglan didn’t dare say that he understood well because he felt that he would never understand how much knowledge was contained inside Ji Yushi’s mind, “Those who are in some way connected to us in this reality may all be affected by this interference so when they see us and see that we are ‘observing’, they would interfere with us.”
This may be the reason why they were suddenly encountering such abnormalities.
Right now, they had only made the decision to find Chief Wang and it was only the beginning. If they continued down this path, met Chief Wang and was able to thoroughly understand the contradictions in this world, what would happen then?
Neither of them spoke for a long time.
The world in which they are in, even if it was a parallel world created by a butterfly effect, these people here are all real human beings, not zombies without thoughts and souls. As they get closer and closer to Chief Wang, the interferences will definitely intensify. What should they do when the time comes?
Ji Yushi’s phone rang.
He looked down. The display name was: “Teacher”.
When Ji Minyue appeared in the morning, he kept on saying “Old Ji wants you to go home”. What was this phone call about?
Song Qinglan didn’t like to invade into other people’s privacy and just asked, “Answering?”
Ji Yushi hesitated for a moment. He placed down his cup and brought the phone to his ear after selecting the answer button.
“Jian Jian.”
It wasn’t the dull mechanical tone he had expected to hear. Professor Ji’s tone was as amiable as it was at dinner last night.
Ji Yushi breathed a sigh of relief, “Teacher.”
Professor Ji didn’t mention anything about him coming home nor did he mention Ji Minyue. He just told him over the phone, “The thing I told you about last night. The result is out. Your mission rating is S.”
So fast?
Ji Yushi was a little doubtful.
They hadn’t submitted their reports yet, but the results were already out?
Song Qinglan next to him noticed that his breathing was stagnant. He used his eyes to ask him what was going on.