Chapter 1 The Beginning

Boom!!!!!!

Boom!!!!!!

Boom!!!!!!

The white light that arrived promptly at 00:42 engulfed everything.

Just like time, engulfing history.

……

……

……

Lin Xian opened his eyes, the unpleasant smell of furniture filling his nostrils.

Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings.

He was still a bit disoriented.

He sat up, pulled back the curtains, and looked at the moon outside, almost a perfect disk...

Finding not a single history book among tens of thousands of waterlogged books, Lin Xian had a gut feeling that this was not normal.

Was it that history books were strictly controlled and couldn't be circulated on the market?

Or...

Was history itself controlled, preventing people from knowing what happened in the past?

But what was the point of doing that?

Lin Xian scratched his flattened hair, unable to understand.

"History itself is a fact that has already happened, at most serving to educate, warn, and inform."

"History itself is not very useful knowledge; at least compared to engineering, physics, and other applied sciences, history is a discipline with no productivity or destructive power."

"Because it's already completely fixed and unchangeable."

Suddenly.

Lin Xian remembered what Zhao Yingjun had once said—

"History will not change."

……

In an instant.

It was as if a cool breeze blew into the sealed room, seeping into Lin Xian's trouser legs and rising to his entire body.

What if...

History *could* change?

Lin Xian retracted what he had just said.

If considered from the perspective of time, from the perspective of the laws of spacetime...

History was not without destructive power.

On the contrary!

For those capable of changing history... history was the most powerful spacetime weapon!

"Like me."

Lin Xian seemed to realize something.

If he could get a sufficiently accurate and detailed history book, clearly writing the time, place, and later impact of every historical event... perhaps he could really change the future into what he wanted.

Although this was just speculation.

But even being able to slightly control the direction of the spacetime butterfly effect was a terrifying power.

For example.

Suppose Lin Xian didn't like the future world in the Second Dream, didn't like the new cities surrounded by high walls.

Then he might be able to find in the detailed history book which troublemaker proposed the concept of these new cities and why.

Then, following the trail, find out who this guy's ancestors were, who his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather was...

All the way back to 2023, to see which man and which woman fell in love and eventually gave birth to this troublemaker hundreds of years later.

As long as he could find the source, everything would be simple.

Find a way to break up their relationship, prevent them from getting married, wouldn't that be equivalent to easily destroying all the steel cities 600 years later?

Lin Xian knew his idea was exaggerated, extreme, and difficult to achieve.

But difficult to achieve didn't mean impossible.

Moreover, this was just the most direct example; in fact, with detailed historical accounts, he could do many, many things.

"Could it be... to prevent someone from tampering with history, changing history... that the future world so strictly controls history and creates historical gaps?"

……

Lin Xian felt this idea was subtle.

Unsure if it was possible.

But he firmly believed that history itself was made up of human beings.

Even with control and blockade, true history would still be preserved.

Even if fragmented and chaotic... there would certainly be traces of history in some corner of the world.

Just like in the First Dream.

Even if all history was vague and distant information was unavailable... wouldn't the list of champions of each World Cup still be passed down?

Although without specific scores or details...

But that was history.

Those were traces of history.

"It's also possible that the samples of waterlogged books were too few, or that the leak just happened to avoid the history book area."

Lin Xian felt it was too early to draw conclusions.

To determine whether there were any history books in New East Sea City, he would have to wait until he could sneak in and investigate.

Having slept from five in the afternoon until now, his schedule was completely turned upside down; he wasn't very sleepy.

Lin Xian went downstairs.

Left the company.

After eating some supper and taking a shower at home, he went back to sleep.

……

Evening.

At a relatively upscale Western restaurant.

Soft classical music was soothing and drawn out.

Waiters moved through the restaurant, serving lavish dishes to each diner.

The restaurant was quite crowded, but it was quiet; no one was talking loudly; everyone was chatting softly.

"Good taste."

Zhao Yingjun was dressed exquisitely; her shimmering green earrings reflected in the warm yellow light, like swallows flying in the sunset, with a unique mature flavor.

Her dark green coat was off, and she was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, sitting across from Lin Xian, looking at the restaurant's decor and atmosphere:

"I've heard of this restaurant for a long time; it's very close to where I live, but today is the first time I've come."

"The caviar here is good." Lin Xian followed her gaze, looking at the restaurant's classical decor:

"It's my first time here too."

In the past, Lin Xian certainly wouldn't have come to this kind of restaurant to eat.

The main reason wasn't the price, but that he couldn't taste how good the food was...

Although the price was indeed high.

But he really wasn't used to eating it.

But most people who came to this kind of place weren't there to eat; they were there to talk business.

Several appetizers were brought up by the waiters in order and the empty plates were promptly removed.

Lin Xian and Zhao Yingjun talked and laughed, discussing the dishes, the flavors, and the wine.

Zhao Yingjun was indeed very knowledgeable.

This should be related to her background.

But she was also very polite and smart.

She never went into depth in areas that Lin Xian didn't understand, such as wineries, wine vintages, the origin of ingredients, or the making of authentic Western food.

She would just touch on any topic that Lin Xian wasn't familiar with and then switch to areas that Lin Xian was familiar with.

Such as art.

Such as movies.

Such as university life.

She was indeed very smart.

Lin Xian could feel her catering to him in conversation, and chatting with her was comfortable and natural.

Perhaps Zhao Yingjun wasn't deliberately doing this, but her long-standing upbringing made her prefer listening to speaking.

This was actually quite rare...

In everyday life, many people liked to have others listen to them, but few were willing to listen to others quietly.

"Actually, when I heard you say you wanted to leave X Company, I was very reluctant."

After the dessert was served, Zhao Yingjun dabbed the wine stains on the corner of her mouth with a white handkerchief, looking at Lin Xian:

"I was quite surprised by what you said yesterday. Because in my opinion... at least from before, I always thought you weren't a very ambitious person."

"But undeniably, you've changed a lot recently, and you've been much more active in various things. I'm very happy for you; if a person can find their goal, find something they're willing to work for, it's actually a very happy thing."

"I mainly want to train myself and make my life more meaningful." Lin Xian put down his wine glass, wiped his hands, and began to establish his persona:

"Although I can lie flat for the rest of my life by living off copyright income and sales commissions, the ideas are different when you have no money and when you have money... Now that I have money, I have more ideas; I want to be like you, to create a career of my own in the future."

Lin Xian tried to establish a persona similar to Zhao Yingjun's, wanting to gain her trust, approval, and appreciation.

If the other party thought he was someone who wanted to improve, to be ambitious, to learn, maybe she would really consider letting him be her secretary in the future...

That way, he would have enough opportunity to see the invitation to the Genius Club and to investigate the traces of the Genius Club by observing Zhao Yingjun's itinerary.

"But I know myself; I know I don't have the ability to start my own business yet. So in the short term, I have no intention of leaving X Company."

Lin Xian said naturally:

"I think I can really learn a lot of business thinking and experience by being by your side, which is very beneficial."

"I also hope you can give me more guidance and advice in the future, in all aspects; I think I have a lot to learn."

"So..."

Lin Xian smiled, raised his wine glass, and looked at Zhao Yingjun:

"I'm not good with words, so what I'm saying might be a bit disorganized. In short, I'm very lucky to be able to work at X Company after graduation and to meet a boss like you."

Zhao Yingjun also smiled, raised her glass in return:

"I'm lucky to have a subordinate like you."

They each took a sip, put down their glasses, and began to talk about the company, Rhine Cat, Xu Yun, Xu Yiyi, and various other things...

Lin Xian learned that tonight, Zhao Yingjun had originally planned to meet with a director of an animated VTuber to discuss making a VTuber for Rhine Cat.

But for this dinner with Lin Xian, she turned it down.

Her schedule was really tight every day; yesterday she met with a composer, today she intended to meet with a director, and tomorrow, according to her arrangements, she had to meet with a female singer to talk about singing the Rhine Cat theme song...

Lin Xian couldn't help but sigh; Zhao Yingjun deserved to earn this money.

He couldn't stand such a busy life, which was very different from the life of a domineering CEO he had imagined.

"Actually, lying flat is pretty good." Lin Xian thought to himself, but naturally wouldn't say it out loud.

On the surface, he was going to be the tiger of X Company.

He had to always put progress first.

……

After dinner, Zhao Yingjun asked Lin Xian to get into the business car together, wanting the driver to take Lin Xian home first.

But Lin Xian refused, saying he had an appointment with friends here, and Zhao Yingjun could just go home directly.

He had deliberately chosen a Western restaurant very close to Zhao Yingjun's residence...

The purpose was to ensure safety and prevent her from running around.

It was always right to be cautious.

"Then I'll go first."

After the driver with the white gloves closed the car door for Zhao Yingjun, she lowered the car window and smiled at Lin Xian:

"Thank you for the dinner; the caviar was indeed good."

"Goodbye."

Lin Xian waved goodbye to her.

Boom...

The large business car started, carrying Zhao Yingjun towards her residence.

It was only a five-minute drive from here to her residence.

Lin Xian raised his wrist and looked at his watch; it was just past 9 o'clock now, still very early before "midnight."

"Tonight, in all likelihood, there won't be a problem either."

……

The next day.

After getting up, the first thing Lin Xian did was pick up his phone and search for news.

East Sea, shooting, he searched through various keywords, and read through all kinds of news...

"Nothing."

There wasn't a single related case.

In Dragon Country, the probability of a shooting incident was very small, and the nature was very serious; if a shooting incident really happened in East Sea City, it would definitely be reported.

This shows that.

Last night, the shooting incident that caused Zhao Yingjun to be accidentally involved and accidentally killed still hadn't happened.

Which meant that...

Lin Xian locked his phone and looked at the date on the bedside clock.

January 14, 2023.

"Tonight..."

"Is Zhao Yingjun's death date."