Chapter 1: Computers from the Future 'Oh no, my wallet!' 'My phone! My brand new Nokia!' 'Damn it, where are my brand new Nike shoes?!' In dormitory room 207 of building 14 at Hexie University, a group of men with hoarse, shrill voices made such a cry. The sound was so mournful and plaint
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Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Computers from the Future
"Oh no, my wallet!"
"My phone! My brand new Nokia!"
"Damn it, where are my brand new Nike shoes?!"
In dormitory room 207 of building 14 at Hexie University, a group of men with hoarse, shrill voices made such a cry. The sound was so mournful and plaintive that someone who didn't hear it clearly might have thought that these animals had been gang-raped by Sister Furong and Ruhua.
Several people stared at the pried-open lock on the door, tears welling up in their eyes. Anyone would feel the same way... Their things had been stolen, and on the very first day of school! What's even more unforgivable is that this was a freshman dorm room.
What could be more frustrating than losing something on your very first day of university? It's probably just as frustrating as watching a Chinese men's football match!
Several people hurriedly checked their belongings, but Chen Xu stood blankly in front of the bed, staring at the pillow as if a flower had bloomed on it...
"Third brother," Qin Xiao'an, the second brother, said with a hint of sourness, "you didn't lose a single thing?"
Chen Xu slowly turned his head, his face looking like he was about to cry: "You didn't lose it? Damn it, you only lost a pair of fake Nikes you bought for 80 yuan at a roadside stall... I lost my brand new laptop that cost 8,000 yuan!"
The commotion inside room 207 quickly attracted a crowd. Upon learning that Chen Xu had lost his laptop, worth eight thousand yuan, on his first day of school, some sympathized, some secretly gloated, and some angrily sought out the dormitory administrator. However, everyone on that floor was a freshman, inexperienced since they had just entered the university. In the end, it was only after alerting upperclassmen upstairs that everyone was persuaded to return home, and then the police were called.
"Here, have a cigarette." Sitting across from Chen Xu was a burly, dark-skinned man, a third-year student from the same college named Wang Dong. He was the one who had just dealt with the police officers who came to investigate. He expertly lit a "Huangshan" cigarette and waved it at Chen Xu.
"Damn it, you guys are really unlucky. You just got in as freshmen and you've already lost something, and such a valuable one at that." Wang Dong lit a cigarette for Chen Xu, whose hands were still trembling, blew a smoke ring, and laughed, "Never mind, this kind of thing happens a lot every year, especially at the beginning of the semester. With so many people around, remember to put your valuables in your suitcase and lock them next time. Also, don't use the locks the school gives you; go buy one at the school gate, it's only ten yuan, and it's much sturdier than the ones the school gives you."
Chen Xu didn't know how he felt right now; perhaps mostly regret. He and his roommate both had laptops, but his roommate would lock his laptop in the cabinet after each use, while he, finding it too troublesome, would just toss it on his bed. Now, well, his roommate's laptop wasn't lost, but Chen Xu's was. If they were going to lose it, they should have lost it together; at least they'd be in the same boat, right?
Eight thousand yuan is no small sum. Although his family is quite wealthy, they wouldn't let him squander eight thousand yuan so easily. If he told his family that he lost his most valuable possession on his first day of school, his mother would probably nag him to death.
"Senior, who could have done this?" The fourth brother, Dong Qingjie, gritted his teeth. His wallet was gone, but the thief was relatively ethical; he only took the money, leaving his bank cards and ID on the table. Although they didn't know the exact amount stolen, his furious expression made it seem like millions were missing…
Wang Dong laughed: "There are plenty of opportunities. Do you really want to catch the thief? The students in this building, the scammers who pretend to be parents to get into the dorms, the vendors who come to the dorms to sell things—anything is possible. Forget it, forget it. This kind of thing happens every year, but no one has ever been caught. So, we just have to accept our fate."
Seeing the still indignant looks on their faces, Wang Dong smiled. These were just freshmen, inexperienced in such matters. In their shoes, who hadn't lost something? One of the top students in their department had a record of losing two cell phones, an MP3 player, a wallet, and their school meal card in three days… they were used to it.
"Alright, I'm going back now. Don't worry about it too much. Learn from your mistakes and be more careful next time." Wang Dong walked to the door, then turned back and said, "Someone of you come up in a bit, and I'll give you some of the reference books we used before. They're useful when preparing for the exam, but they're useless after the exam. You can pass them on to the next year's students."
"Thank you, senior!" The four people in the room thanked him in unison. Wang Dong waved his hand, said "You're welcome," turned around and walked out, leaving behind only a powerful figure as tall as a black iron tower.
"Forget it, third brother, don't be upset," the eldest brother, Wu Yuan, advised. Although he had also lost his phone, Chen Xu's lost items were the most valuable. So, the thought that someone was worse off than him made this sleazy guy feel less upset.
The second brother, Qin Xiao'an, also said, "Let's go eat. Damn it, what's the big deal about losing something? Just don't let me run into that thief, or I'll kill him!"
Chen Xu rolled his eyes: "Damn, you lost the least, so of course it's easy for you to talk. Never mind, you guys go eat, I'll think about what to do, whether I should tell my family and let me have some peace and quiet."
After hearing what he said, the others fell silent. Only the eldest, Wu Yuan, patted him on the shoulder and said, "I'll bring you some food later." Then the group walked out the door.
"Damn it, this is so unlucky!" After the others left, Chen Xu punched the door, making a dull thud, which vented some of his frustration.
Should I ask my family to buy me another computer?
There's no way I'm even considering that possibility. I practically begged my way back with this laptop. My dad was worried that I was only bringing it to school to play, not to study... But that's exactly what he was after. Now that it's gone, I'm lucky if I don't get a good scolding from him. How could I possibly get it back?
"Fine, I guess I'll just have to accept my bad luck!" Chen Xu rolled his eyes as he lay on the bed, cursing the thief who had a son without an anus, and then cursing the school's poor management, saying that they let just anyone into the school!
He randomly grabbed a magazine, one that Chen Xu had bought at the train station when he arrived. It was full of random, nonsensical stuff—things like Ultraman vs. the Calabash Brothers, and aliens being George W. Bush's godfather, and so on…
Chen Xu's mind was in a mess. After all, he was just a freshman in college, and losing something so valuable had left him with trembling hands. He picked up the magazine not because he was oblivious, but because he wanted to do something to distract himself.
After quickly flipping through a few pages, Chen Xu still couldn't settle down. Just as he was about to toss the magazine aside, a line of text suddenly caught his eye: "Time tunnels and parallel universes..."
This topic is hardly novel to people today, but Chen Xu noticed this article not because of its clichéd main title, but because of its subtitle: "Cambridge Dissertation".
Cambridge, my foot! Anyone unfamiliar with the university would immediately picture that world-renowned London institution. But Chen Xu knew that these days many private schools use names like Oxford and Cambridge on their signs; for example, right next to Hefei University of Technology, there was a "Cambridge English Crash Course"...
I glanced at it casually and found that what this person was talking about was actually quite interesting. They started by mentioning the "grandmother paradox," which refers to the idea that someone could travel back in time and kill their young grandmother—is such a thing possible?
A paradox is a complex, inexplicable question, like the chicken-or-egg dilemma. Chen Xu had heard of the famous grandmother paradox; if you really delved into it, it would be an endless, recurring cycle. But Chen Xu thought the guy who came up with this paradox was just a bored kid... Why don't you go back and kill your own grandmother for fun?
"Scientists are all lunatics and mentally ill children!" Chen Xu flipped through the magazine and casually tossed it aside. But just then, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind, and he sat up abruptly.
This is a ridiculous idea!
A wildly imaginative idea!
Normally, even if he had this thought, he would never have acted on it, because it was too absurd, utterly absurd, even more absurd than the idea that George W. Bush and Uncle Rudy were brothers! But now, Chen Xu was so angry that he was a little dizzy, and in desperation, he actually did it…
Chen Xu found a sturdy piece of paper, then took a black pen and wrote the following line on it:
"My descendants, I am your ancestor Chen Xu. The time is now 12:07 PM Beijing time on September 1, 2006. Today, your ancestor has encountered the most tragic thing in his life... On my first day of university, my laptop, worth eight thousand yuan, was stolen. If you are my descendants, then please do something for your ancestor."
If time machines existed in your time, please send a laptop to my current time period at Room 207, Building 14, Hexie University, XX City, XX Province.
After writing this, Chen Xu carefully put the note into his wallet and kept it safe.
"Sigh, I must be a bit obsessed, otherwise how could I have come up with such an absurd idea?" Chen X
……
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Chapter 156
Chapter 157
Chapter 158
Chapter 159
Chapter 160
Chapter 161
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164
Chapter 165
Chapter 166
Chapter 167
Chapter 168
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189
Chapter 190
Chapter 191
Chapter 192
Chapter 193
Chapter 194
Chapter 195
Chapter 196
Chapter 197
Chapter 198
Chapter 199
Chapter 200
Chapter 201
Chapter 202
Chapter 203
Chapter 204
Chapter 205
Chapter 206
Chapter 207
Chapter 208
Chapter 209
Chapter 210
Chapter 211
Chapter 212
Chapter 213
Chapter 214
Chapter 215
Chapter 216
Chapter 217
Chapter 218
Chapter 219
Chapter 220
Chapter 221
Chapter 222
Chapter 223
Chapter 224
Chapter 225
Chapter 226
Chapter 227
Chapter 228
Chapter 229
Chapter 230
Chapter 231
Chapter 232
Chapter 233
Chapter 234
Chapter 235
Chapter 236
Chapter 237
Chapter 238
Chapter 239
Chapter 240
Chapter 241
Chapter 242
Chapter 243
Chapter 244
Chapter 245
Chapter 246
Chapter 247
Chapter 248
Chapter 249
Chapter 250
Chapter 251
Chapter 252
Chapter 253
Chapter 254
Chapter 255
