Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Celebration
The next day.
Jiang Ran arrived at the club room and pushed open the door.
Hundreds of pairs of eyes stared back at him!
"Holy crap!"
Jiang Ran was stunned.
"The Rhine Cats have multiplied!"
Previously, there were only a dozen or so Rhine Cat dolls in the club room, all brought from the dorm by Cheng Mengxue.
But now...
The entire club room had been taken over by Rhine Cats!
Rhine Cat dolls, Rhine Cat pillows, Rhine Cat mugs, Rhine Cat pen holders, Rhine Cat desk lamps, Rhine Cat trash cans, Rhine Cat sofa cushions... and on and on.
All sorts of Rhine Cat merchandise filled every corner, like a full-scale invasion by the Rhine Cat Legion.
"What are you yelling about?"
Cheng Mengxue emerged from a pile of Rhine Cats.
"Rhine Cats are dolls. How could they possibly multiply?"
"So, what do you think? Isn’t the club room so much cozier now? Being surrounded by Rhine Cats just naturally puts you in a better mood!"
"Not really."
Jiang Ran only felt a sense of dread.
"This must have cost a fortune, right?"
"Not that much. They’re mostly the standard models that cost a few dozen yuan. Only this one is pretty expensive..."
Cheng Mengxue walked over to the sofa and picked up a Rhine Cat that was both round and square.
"Look, this is the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat I’ve always wanted!"
It was a Rhine Cat in the shape of a rice cooker, or perhaps a rice cooker in the shape of a Rhine Cat.
It was too bizarre; Jiang Ran couldn’t make sense of it at all.
"This thing costs 3,000 yuan?"
"It’s 4,000 now."
"That’s ridiculous. What kind of idiot would buy this?"
"What do you know? This is a super limited-edition model personally designed by the founder of Rhine Cat!"
Cheng Mengxue gave a mysterious smile.
"And, hehe, do you know... why it’s more expensive than the other limited editions?"
"Because it can cook rice?"
"NONONO~"
Cheng Mengxue hooked her fingers under the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat’s forehead. With a POP!, she pried open the top of its head and took out a shimmering blue sphere.
"Because—ta-da! Because hidden inside is a Time Particle Rhine Cat!"
"Hahaha, bet you didn’t see that coming! There’s another one hidden inside! Buy one, get one free. It’s such a steal!"
...
Jiang Ran was speechless but also wanted to laugh, like one of those popular internet reaction memes.
’Is this a design a carbon-based lifeform could come up with?’
He was genuinely concerned about the mental state of the Rhine Cat founder.
"It’s a genius design, isn’t it?" Cheng Mengxue pressed, full of excitement.
"What a piece-of-shit design!"
Jiang Ran couldn’t wrap his head around it.
"What is all this nonsense? A Rice Cooker Rhine Cat... Is there a Microwave Rhine Cat? And what about a Mini-Fridge Rhine Cat?"
"There really is!!"
When it came to Rhine Cats, Cheng Mengxue’s eyes were full of stars.
She hurried over, grabbed Jiang Ran’s arm, and shook it vigorously.
"There really is, I’m telling you! There’s a Mini-Fridge Rhine Cat! It was a collaboration with Jask SPACE-T, made to commemo—"
"Okay, okay, that’s enough," Jiang Ran interrupted Cheng Mengxue’s endless torrent of words.
Sigh.
It was bad enough that the Rhine Cat Legion was growing in the real world; he really didn’t want the Rhine Cat family tree in his mind to expand any further.
"You two are certainly a pair, bickering every day."
Qin Feng appeared at the door to the club room.
"I could hear you clearly from the stairwell."
"Where were you this morning?"
Jiang Ran turned around.
"You were being all secretive, and you wouldn’t tell me when I asked."
"Hehe."
Qin Feng smiled faintly and whipped out three boat tickets.
"Look what I got. Tickets for the most luxurious cruise ship in East Sea City. And it’s for the top-floor luxury suite, complete with its own pool, restaurant, and a panoramic ocean view."
"What did you buy this for?"
Jiang Ran began to suspect that maybe the worldline had secretly jumped without notifying him... Why had his friends suddenly become so abnormal?
"I’ve noticed that ever since you two got money, you’ve both gotten way ahead of yourselves."
"What’s wrong with splurging a little every now and then?"
Qin Feng shrugged.
"Besides, if we’re having a celebration banquet, we should obviously pick a nice place."
A celebration banquet?
Jiang Ran was confused.
"Didn’t you guys already have your celebration banquet days ago?"
"Yeah, but you don’t remember it, do you?"
Qin Feng walked over and patted Jiang Ran’s shoulder.
"You’re the biggest reason we’ve gotten this far. How could we have a celebration banquet without you?"
"Since you don’t have the memory, Xiaoxue and I talked it over... and we decided to have another celebration, just for you!"
Jiang Ran finally understood what Qin Feng had been doing that morning.
So, he wanted to help him recover the lost memory of the celebration.
’It’s not really necessary...’
But.
’This is what friends are for, right?’
’They always care about the little, unintentional details, about things you yourself don’t even notice.’
"You know, I’ve never been on a cruise ship before," Jiang Ran said with a smile.
"Me neither," Cheng Mengxue added, getting up with a grin.
"I haven’t either, for the record," Qin Feng said, spreading his hands.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
Jiang Ran looked out the window at the bright, sunny day.
"Let’s go!"
SPLASH—
Water erupted from the swimming pool.
Cheng Mengxue leaped from the four-meter-high platform, sending a cascade of shimmering water down onto Jiang Ran and Qin Feng’s heads.
The two of them, sitting on the edge of the pool, wiped the water from their faces.
"Was that a cannonball?"
Qin Feng complained.
"Could that splash have been any bigger?"
"Just daring to jump is impressive enough."
Jiang Ran jumped to her defense.
"Would you dare to jump?"
"Would you?"
"If you go, I’ll go."
"If you go, I’ll go too."
Thirty seconds later.
The two of them stood one behind the other on the four-meter diving platform.
It didn’t look like much from below, but actually standing up here, they realized that four meters was pretty high.
They were in the pool of the highest suite on the cruise ship, and the diving platform added another four meters... which meant this was the highest point on the entire vessel.
At the same time, it was also the highest point above this stretch of ocean.
Jiang Ran stood at the end of the diving board, gazing at the horizon where the sky met the sea, curving toward the end of the world with the Earth’s shape.
Qin Feng stood behind him, looking up at the sky.
"Does this scene feel familiar to you at all?"
"What do you mean?"
Jiang Ran turned his head, only to be stopped by two fingers.
They were Qin Feng’s fingers.
Qin Feng’s right hand was shaped like a gun, pressed against Jiang Ran’s brow.
"[Lilith.]"
His expression grim, he said in a low voice:
"[Let the sky... grow dark.]"
In the next second, a miracle happened.
The surrounding sunlight rapidly dimmed until it vanished, plunging the entire world into darkness as it lost its light source!
Jiang Ran raised his head.
Only then did he realize that a passing dark cloud had just happened to block the sun.
"Heh!"
No wonder Qin Feng had glanced at the sky just now... He must have seen the dark cloud about to cover the sun and, on a whim, let the actor in him take over.
"Lilith is omnipotent."
Qin Feng looked into Jiang Ran’s eyes.
These were the lines from the script they were filming on the rooftop that very first day.
The script was written by Jiang Ran and given to the film club to shoot. So... who would be more familiar with the lines than Jiang Ran himself?
"Omnipotent, but not a god."
Playing along with Qin Feng’s performance, Jiang Ran delivered his line and slowly turned around.
"Only those who control history, who manipulate history, can be considered gods."
This moment, right now, was just like that moment back then.
Now that he controlled the Time SMS and could rewrite history at will, reciting this line again felt completely different inside.
Just as he had stood on the edge of the rooftop that day, Jiang Ran spread his arms, bathing in the sea breeze on the diving platform.
"And now, we are the ones who possess this power! Our lives have only just begun!"
He altered the lines, improvising.
The vast blue sky rang with the cry of gulls as the sun emerged from behind the clouds, its light pouring down!
"[The future is ours!]"
He took a leap, weightless between the sky and the sea:
"[History... is ours as well.]"
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