Ran Shanshan's work meant that she couldn't stay in one city for too long, so Su Li didn't keep her there.
Before getting on the plane, Ran Shanshan said regretfully, "I wanted to invite you to travel together."
"The videos you helped me shoot were great. My fans all said that I spent a lot to hire a photographer."
Su Li smiled. "If there's time for you to come back, I can help you shoot more."
Ran Shanshan hmm-ed, and both of them fell silent the moment they looked into each other's eyes.
The broadcast started announcing the boarding, Ran Shanshan waved at him. "I gotta go, goodbye."
"Goodbye." Su Li saw her off.
Ran Shanshan looked back once more, but didn't say anything.
Zhou Yao was waiting for him in the car. Seeing him come back, he said, "I thought you would either leave with her or ask her to stay."
"I'm thirty-two this year, not twenty-two," Su Li fell silent for a bit. "If I were twenty-two..."
He would have asked her to stay.
"So what?" Zhou Yao scratched his head. "It doesn't matter where you are. Just take a plane and you'll be there in no time. Are you afraid of long distance relationships?"
"I do have some feelings for her," Su Li said. "But it's just some feelings."
He sounded regretful.
The feelings were not enough to carry the weight of life, let alone someone like him.
"Let's go, to the lab," Su Li soon said.
Zhou Yao nodded and started the car.
The lab was located in the suburbs. When they went in, someone wearing a white coat came out to greet them. Su Li put on a mask and went inside.
The professor was obsessively debugging a machine, and didn't even hear his assistant calling him.
Su Li sat on a stool and waited until the professor noticed him before asking, "How is it going?"
"I need a lot of experiments!" The professor had devoted his whole life to the research of time travel. Now with sufficient funding, he finally made some progress and was so excited that he almost fainted.
"As long as the experiment can prove my machine and theory viable, I will succeed!"
Su Li thought for a moment. "What kind of experiment subject do you need? Animals?"
"Humans! I want living humans!"
Zhou Yao was so frightened that he immediately walked over. "Boss! Human experiments are illegal!"
Su Li nodded, indicating that he understood.
The professor also heard it. "I won't hurt them. I just need them to test the machine to see if they can travel through space-time or read memories from different space-times."
Zhou Yao was still worried. "Forget it, Boss! This is simply impossible!"
"It will work! Absolutely! I pledge everything I have that it will definitely work!"
"Then experiment on yourself! If not, let your assistant do it!"
The assistant immediately backed away reluctantly.
Zhou Yao seized the opportunity upon seeing that. "You see, even you yourselves are unwilling! You don't even believe it yourselves!"
The professor turned around to grab his assistant's hand. "You do the experiment! Tell him it's possible! It will work!"
"Shut up, all of you!" Su Li frowned. "I'll do it!"
"No way, Boss!" Zhou Yao shrieked.
"Will it endanger my life?" Su Li asked the professor.
"It won't."
"Then I'll do it."
"Don't even think about it!" Zhou Yao took out his phone to call the police.
Su Li stopped him. "I have to do this for a reason. Trust me, I'll be fine."
Zhou Yao refused to budge. "Have you been brainwashed by him?!"
"Then keep me company. Take me to the hospital immediately if anything goes wrong."
After a long standoff with neither side willing to give in, this turned out to be the best solution.
Su Li took off jewelries with metal and lay on the machine. The professor outfitted him properly with devices while Zhou Yao stood guard on the side, holding a phone in each hand, both phones prominently displaying 110 and 120. He would dial them immediately at the slightest problem.
Su Li closed his eyes. Strange unknown forces were linking up his brain waves. He felt more and more weary, and lost consciousness shortly after.
Zhou Yao watched Su Li nervously. The professor also broke out in cold sweat.
Su Li only saw white fog. He slowly walked forward and saw a catalpa tree.
Under the tree was a gentle and beautiful woman, gently caressing her belly.
Su Li couldn't help but take two steps forward.
But the woman couldn't see him.
After trying for several times, Su Li came to this conclusion.
He found a place to sit down and watched the woman stroke her belly while singing some unknown song.
After sitting for a while, the woman looked a little uncomfortable. Perhaps she was tired. She struggled to get up with her belly to go back and rest for a bit.
The frail body carrying such a big belly looked precarious. As she walked, she tripped over a rock and lost balance, falling to the ground.
Su Li was so shocked that he stood up, having forgotten she couldn't see him. He tried in vain to help her up.
He watched her skirt slowly soaked with blood, flowing more and more. Su Li wanted to find someone to save her, but no one could see or hear him.
He could only watch helplessly as she bled more and more, her cries for help growing weaker and weaker.
Finally, when the neighbor came over, the woman had already lost consciousness.
Su Li gazed at her blankly as she was taken away, tears streaming down his face.
Zhou Yao watched Su Li who was originally quiet but now shaking more and more violently, the veins on his neck bulging as he screamed in pain.
"Save...save...!"
His words came intermittently as he struggled harder and harder.
"Stop! I told you to stop!" Zhou Yao yelled at the professor.
The professor was also flurried, hastily operating the machine before saying, "Okay...okay..."
Like a dying shrimp, Su Li sat up from the seat. He tilted his head to one side, retching incessantly, apparently in great pain.
While taking off the wires connected to him, Zhou Yao asked him repeatedly, "How do you feel? Are you okay? Should we go to the hospital? Do you want water?"
Su Li coughed a few times before waving his hand. "I'm fine..."
"How could you be fine! You struggled so violently!"
"I saw some things," Su Li stumbled to get up, grabbing the professor's collar. "What happened? Why couldn't anyone see me?"
"Space-time irreversibility. Once changed, the present you, me and even others may change trajectory or directly disappear. Going back to the past also means perishing the present." The professor said.
Su Li was stunned. "Then...then what's the point of me doing all this?! Tell me! What's the point?!"
Su Li cried and laughed, covering his face.
Zhou Yao rushed over to hug him. "Let's not do this anymore! Let's not do this! You still have me, Wen Yu! And...and the company! And Miss Ran!"
Zhou Yao babbled incoherently. Su Li sat there dejectedly. "The past is irreversible. What if it wasn't my past..."
"Huh?" The professor was puzzled.
"Not my past... not..." Su Li suddenly recalled something. He pulled the professor into the adjacent office.
Zhou Yao was a beat slower. Anxiously banging on the door outside, he shouted, "Boss! Su Li!"
Inside the office, Su Li told the professor about his dream and the reality he found in the dream.
The professor paced excitedly for two laps. "Parallel worlds! This must be parallel worlds!"
"The history of parallel worlds can be changed! As long as she gets through the difficult labor, everything can change!"
Su Li only asked him, "How much more money do you need?"
"Let me make some improvements..." The professor was no longer listening.
Su Li opened the door. Zhou Yao who was about to lose all hope crashed inside. He held onto Su Li tightly, refusing to let go.
"Let's go home," Su Li said.
Zhou Yao was worried about him. That night, he laid out his bedding on the floor of Su Li's room.
Su Li opened his phone and saw Ran Shanshan's latest post.
It was a picture of an adorable carved pony. The caption contained only three words.
"Like it."
