Those who travel back in time

Chapter 21 Reunion

squeak~

The sound of the door opening reached Chen Qing's ears, and she instinctively turned her head to see a tall, slender young woman walk in.

He recognized the person; it was Li Mengfei, whom he had rescued at the airport.

"Dad, there are no classes at school today, so I'm coming home to stay..." Li Mengfei started to say, but then she caught sight of Chen Qing sitting opposite Li Qilin, and her eyes widened immediately: "It's you?!"

When they first met at the airport, Chen Qing's fruit knife left Li Mengfei with some psychological trauma. Three months had passed, and she had almost forgotten about it, but she never expected to meet him again, especially at her own home.

"You still remember me," Chen Qing said.

"Of course I remember you!" Li Mengfei's voice suddenly rose eight decibels. "That lunatic at the airport with a knife, spouting nonsense about the end of the world! What are you doing in my house?! Dad, get away from him! He's the dangerous guy I told you about! Be careful he doesn't hurt you!"

"Mengfei, you mustn't be rude to Mr. Chen. He did save your life." Li Qilin frowned slightly. "Quickly apologize to Mr. Chen."

"I should apologize? Dad, he's at the airport..."

"Mengfei, I know what Mr. Chen did at the airport, and I know you were frightened at the airport, but Mr. Chen had no choice but to do it to save you. At that time, time was tight, and Mr. Chen and you were strangers. It was impossible for him to gain your trust in a short time, so he had to resort to this desperate measure. If I were in his shoes, I would have taken the same approach."

"Dad, do you believe his nonsense about the plane crashing?"

"Mengfei, actually I learned from the airport later that UA632 had a malfunction and that if it had taken off, the probability of it crashing was as high as 89%. But you were busy with the choir at the time, so I didn't tell you."

"An 89% chance of an accident? Are you serious, Dad? Have you been fooled by his lies?"

"This is the aircraft's inspection report. Take a look for yourself." Li Qilin stood up, walked to his room, and a moment later brought out a document to give to Li Mengfei.

"The plane really crashed? He was really saving me?" Li Mengfei quickly flipped through the test reports, her face filled with disbelief.

"Mr. Chen saved you, yet you were rude to him. Apologize to Mr. Chen immediately." Li Qilin's tone became somewhat stern: "Don't make me repeat myself."

"I'm sorry." Li Mengfei looked at Chen Qing with a complicated expression. Although the test report was in front of her, she still found it difficult to process the information in a short time.

"It's alright." Chen Qing said, standing up. "President Li, thank you for your help and hospitality these past few days. I should head back now."

"Mr. Chen, I'll give you a ride." Li Qilin took the car keys and went out with Chen Qing.

"If the plane really does crash as he said..." Li Mengfei sat on the sofa, carefully reviewing the report again, "Then what about the end of the world? Is that also true?"

There is only one way for Chen Qing to "go back": wait for Fang Xiande in 2044 to use a time machine to recall him.

However, there is a difference between whether Fang Xiande took the initiative to recall him or he notified Fang Xiande to recall him.

Like last time when he was recalled in the interrogation room, it was because Fang Xiande discovered that the past had been changed, the operation to save Li Mengfei was successful, and he took the initiative to recall Chen Qing.

Although Chen Qing was hit by a car and broke into the Qilin Building during this time travel, Fang Xiande, 20 years later, could not possibly know all the details. The result he saw was that Li Qilin was still alive and the mission was not completed, so he would not recall Chen Qing.

Chen Qing was about to inform Li Qilin that he was going back.

How can we contact people 20 years from now?

It's actually quite simple: bury a box, or to put it in a more sophisticated way, call it a time capsule.

"October 27, 2022, mission failed, return." Chen Qing wrote this note, put it into the time capsule that Li Qilin had prepared for him, and then buried the time capsule in a secluded corner outside Shuguang Hospital.

Li Qilin said he was sending Chen Qing to Shuguang Hospital.

Twenty years later, when Fang Xiande unearths this time capsule, he will know that he needs to summon Chen Qing back on October 27, 2022.

"Why did it fail this time?" As soon as he returned to the morgue, Fang Xiande asked impatiently, "The information I found here is the same as before you went back, there's no change at all."

"We've got the wrong person," Chen Qing said in a deep voice. "Li Qilin did possess the serum at a certain time, but someone else caused the apocalypse with it; they stole the serum from Li Qilin!"

"Is that so?" Fang Xiande adjusted his glasses. "Li Qilin's visit to the virologist wasn't to synthesize a virus, was it?"

"He wasn't trying to synthesize the virus, he was trying to destroy the serum." At this point, Chen Qing punched the time machine in frustration, her voice rising, "It was us! We messed everything up! If I hadn't gone back in time to try and kill Li Qilin, he would have successfully destroyed the serum, and the theft of the serum wouldn't have happened."

"Chen Qing, don't rush to blame yourself. Tell me what exactly happened in the past," Fang Xiande said calmly.

"Doctor..." Chen Qing leaned against the time machine, somewhat distraught, and told Fang Xiande everything.

"Chen Qing, the other side is clearly very well prepared for stealing the serum. Based on their numbers, retreat plan, and the security situation of the Qilin Group, they will succeed regardless of whether you are there or not. Your presence will only make it easier for them." Fang Xiande was much calmer.

"What if they don't?" Chen Qing countered. "What if they fail?"

"What if that doesn't work out?" Fang Xiande shook his head. "If these people hadn't succeeded, there wouldn't have been zombies, there wouldn't have been this apocalypse, and you wouldn't have been able to go back in time."

"But what if..."

"Chen Qing, it's dangerous to dwell on the assumption of 'what if I hadn't existed,'" Fang Xiande interrupted Chen Qing. "The timeline is what it is now, and the only thing we can do is look forward. Whether you think you caused the serum to be stolen or not, the theft of the serum is a fact, and blaming yourself a thousand times won't change it. What we need to do is create a new timeline where they failed."

"I have another lead," Chen Qing said after a moment of silence. "The serum that Li Qilin had was bought from a man named Sun Fan. If I can find this seller, I can get the serum directly from the source, and the subsequent theft of the serum would not have happened."

"Do you know where to find Sun Fan?"

"I know. Li Qilin has already told me the exact time and place of his transaction with Sun Fan. I just need to go there in advance and wait for him to come to me, then I can get the serum and destroy it."