When Bright Moon Encounter the Dark Clouds

“These two timelines…” Zhuang Yu said all of a sudden.

As she said that, a thought appeared in my head.

These two timelines.

The two timelines that seem to be related.

A possible ending to all this had slipped my mind. I should have noticed this earlier, but all the time jumping and emotional swings had occupied my mind.

I looked up at the paper Zhuang Yu was holding and examined the two lines that Tan Jiao had drawn.

If one keeps going back, while the other goes forward, then what would the result be?

Zhuang Yu was probably thinking about the same thing as her eyes sparkled with excitement. “Look here, the two of you have been traveling back in time ever since July 2017, right? But when the two of you return to that ship, time moves forward at a normal pace…”

Tan Jiao let out an “Aha!” and seemed to have noticed something too.

With that, Zhuang Yu quickly drew a few more lines: one from left to right, the other from right to left. “The timeline going back is faster, basically leaping jumps. So, what will happen when this continues?”

She continued drawing the lines with dashes until the lines met.

“They will cross. The two timelines will meet at some point and converge.”

Zhuang Yu looked at me with approval and said, “Tan Jiao, your man is pretty smart… What he said is correct. So, what will happen when the timelines meet?”

The two of us said nothing. Tan Jiao even looked somewhat worried after hearing this possible outcome.

“I don’t know what will happen when the timelines cross, but if the rules of physics are still applicable, time would neither go forward nor backward at that point. In other words, everything would come to a halt! If not, that would go against the rules of physics, causing time itself to collapse.

“Thus, some mystery must be hiding at that point, including that mysterious force and the reason behind your time jumps. The convergence of the timelines would be the end and the start. Everything would be revealed at that point!”

Midday, the weather had become warmer, and the snow on the trees was melting a little. I took a smoke at the balcony while the two ladies talked some more in the room.

I was relatively confident with the theory we came up with just now. The two timelines would surely cross, and it would be the end or the start of something. What I was not sure about was where Tan Jiao and I would be at that point.

The door to the balcony was opened, and Tan Jiao asked, “Zhuang Yu is going back. I already asked her to help us look up information about that lake.”

Tan Jiao and I sent Zhuang Yu to the nearest bus station. She still had a worried look on her face, and then she gave a serious nod and said, “Don’t worry Tan Jiao. We science students have a great community. I’ll get my friends in meteorology, geology, and physics to help with this.”

“Thank you.”

The two gave each other a long and tight hug. It was as though Zhuang Yu had figured something was going to happen to us. “Take care, okay? Call me if you need me.” After saying that, Zhuang Yu gave me a doubtful look. Knowing what she meant, I replied with a nod, telling her I would take care of Tan Jiao.

“Zhuang Yu, I wonder when we’ll see each other again…” Tan Jiao mumbled.