005 The Spacetime Administrator
On the screen, the mysterious pop-up window changed every ten seconds or so, displaying new text. This ‘page-turning’ speed was a little slow for Wang Heng, but it gave him just enough time to understand and think.
【In fact, the reason you died so tragically before your rebirth was because of a spacetime bug that caused a major problem with causality. In other words, you weren’t supposed to die, at least not at the age of 25. To fix the bug, we had to perform a rollback operation on this worldline. Your consciousness was a fixed point in the rollback, an anchor that couldn’t be deleted or altered, so we could only let you be reborn.】
【For you, this should be considered compensation. But the problem now is that in order to avoid creating new bugs, none of your actions can deviate too much from the norm. You can invest in a company that’s going to rise in seven years, like Doule, for example. After all, whether you invest or not, they’re going to rise anyway. But you can’t go and slaughter Doule’s entire founding team. That would create a massive bug.】
【To summarize, all of your actions must be within the bounds of reason. Therefore, you are already in trouble. According to common sense, when a girl you have a good impression of confesses to you, your eighteen-year-old self should not have refused. Understand?】
【Of course, for now, it’s just a small anomaly, not yet at the level of a bug. But if the anomaly escalates into a bug, I will have to take rather drastic measures to smooth it over. Simply put, I’ll arrange for you to have a car accident or something, an accidental death.】
After reading these few paragraphs, Wang Heng finally understood his situation.
“I knew it. Things like transmigration and rebirth are never that simple…” Wang Heng dropped the mouse and asked, “So what you’re saying is, I have to live my life the same way as last time and get entangled with those girls again?”
【Not necessarily, and you don’t need to worry too much about that. The worldline has a self-correcting mechanism. You just need to play the part of a normal, non-reborn boy.】
“The worldline’s self-correcting mechanism?”
【Yes. This mechanism is closely related to your future, but it’s difficult to explain. The principles involved are something I am quite certain you cannot comprehend with your current knowledge and logical abilities, so there’s no need for you to ask further.】
“…Are you looking down on my intelligence?”
【I’m just stating the facts. The mysteries of spacetime are beyond the comprehension of the human mind. In short, the only thing I can tell you right now is a single piece of advice: maintain your current prudent mindset, and strive to be even more prudent, for the sake of your own life. On the other hand, you can’t be so cowardly that you deviate from your original personality. You’ll have to find the right balance yourself.】
As this text was displayed, the window began to fade. After Wang Heng had read it three times, it became too faint to distinguish from the screen. He blinked again, and the window vanished completely.
He moved the mouse and typed on the keyboard. The computer’s response was perfectly normal, as if the supernatural chat window had never appeared. But Wang Heng was certain it wasn’t a hallucination, just as real as the seven years of memories he now possessed.
Besides lying low, I also have to stick to my pre-rebirth personality? Speaking of which, what was I thinking when I was eighteen?
Wang Heng thought back and immediately remembered. According to the original worldline, at this time, he and Han Yixuan had just confirmed their relationship and he was in a state of extreme excitement.
Such a typical rookie mindset…
**
Han Yixuan had forgotten how she got home.
When she came to her senses, she was already back in her house, changing into her slippers. Her parents were sitting on the sofa, one watching TV, the other reading a magazine.
Her mother turned down the TV volume, looked over, and asked, “Didn’t you say it was just a dinner? Why are you so late?”
Han Yixuan stood at the doorway, biting her lower lip, at a loss for words.
Her mother noticed something was off with her daughter and asked again, “Did something happen?”
“No, nothing…”
Han Yixuan avoided her parents’ gazes and hurried into her bedroom.
Closing the door, she habitually sat down at her desk. Seeing the notebook on it, she froze again.
She didn’t need to open it; she remembered what was inside—all the records of her dreams, written down stroke by stroke over the past few days.
She couldn’t remember where she’d read it, but the events of a dream are quickly forgotten after waking up, so if you don’t want to forget, you have to write them down quickly. But Han Yixuan felt that her situation was definitely an exception. She remembered every beautiful detail from her dreams over the past few days with perfect clarity. Even now, if she closed her eyes, they would immediately appear before her, including that guy’s warm smile…
But reality wasn’t warm at all.
The girl suddenly stood up, tore out all the pages with her dream records from the notebook, ripped them to shreds, and threw them viciously into the trash can.
Then, she picked up her phone and dialed her best friend’s number.
“Little Xia, are you free tomorrow?”
On the other end of the line was one of the two classmates who had blocked Wang Heng’s path at the restaurant entrance today, Song Xiaoxia. Among her classmates, she was Han Yixuan’s best friend.
Song Xiaoxia asked, “No plans. What’s up? Don’t tell me you won that boy over and you’re calling me out for some public display of affection?”
Han Yixuan said in a low voice, “No, he still said no.”
Song Xiaoxia was silent for a moment, then said fiercely, “That boy has no taste! His brain must be short-circuiting to reject our Little Xuan!”
Han Yixuan chuckled. “Alright, you don’t have to comfort me. I’m fine. I just wanted to ask if you were free tomorrow. If you are, want to come out and go shopping with me?”
“Shopping? Of course, no problem!” the girl on the other end agreed without hesitation, but then added with some concern, “Are you in a really bad mood right now? Let me tell you, it’s fine. It’s better not to be in a relationship now anyway. Once you get to university, there will be plenty of handsome and considerate upperclassmen. Then you’ll know…”
Han Yixuan interrupted with a laugh, “Okay, I know. There are so many boys in the world, why would I get hung up on one? Don’t worry about me, really.”
“Okay, okay. So tomorrow… what time?”
“Eleven, I guess. We can grab lunch together.”
“See you then.”
“Okay, see you then.”
After setting up their plans for tomorrow, she hung up the phone with a smile.
The room fell silent, with only the faint, indistinct sound of the TV from the living room seeping through the door.
Han Yixuan’s smile quickly vanished.
She slumped over her desk, buried her face in her arms, and began to cry silently.
***
Translator’s Notes
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Doule (抖乐): This is a fictional company name. “抖” (dǒu) is the first character of Douyin (抖音), the Chinese name for TikTok. “乐” (lè) means “joy” or “music.” The name is a reference to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. (I’m not sure tho, lol, but when I searched that term in google … “Tiktok” appears.)
