Chapter 190

Chapter 190

Prison.

Wen Tangtang sat in a corner, gazing at the sky through the tiny ventilation window high on the wall.

“Hey! New girl.”

A shrill voice came from behind her, dripping with unpleasant malice.

Wen Tangtang’s thoughts came to a halt, but she did not move.

Apparently angered by her lack of response, someone hurled a slipper at her shoulder. A burst of laughter followed.

“Don’t push your luck. I’m talking to you-are you deaf?”

Someone shuffled over in slippers and shoved Wen Tangtang’s shoulder.

Caught off guard, Wen Tangtang pitched sideways and hit the wall with a dull thud.

“Hahaha!”

Another round of laughter erupted.

Prison life was so tedious that they seemed able to amuse themselves only by tormenting other people. It was both pitiful and pathetic.

Wen Tangtang silently clenched her right fist. She rose from the floor without a trace of expression and gave them one final warning. “Do me a favor and stay away from me… Don’t provoke me.”

“Ooh, she says not to provoke her!”

“Hey, are you guys scared? I’m terrified!”

“You little bitch. No one’s ever dared threaten me before!”

“Why don’t I teach her how she’s supposed to behave in prison…”

A powerfully built woman rose from one of the bunks. She appeared to be the group’s leader.

The moment she stood, it was as though a switch had been flipped. Everyone else immediately fell silent and settled in to watch, their faces bright with anticipation for the spectacle to come.

The woman rolled her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. Without wasting a word, she seized Wen Tangtang by the collar and drove a fist straight at her face.

Wen Tangtang narrowed her eyes. Just as the fist reached her, she tilted her head and let it sail past.

The woman had put most of her strength behind the vicious punch. When it struck nothing, her own momentum sent her stumbling several steps forward.

Wen Tangtang took advantage of her unsteady footing. She caught the woman’s arm and wrenched it hard in the opposite direction.

One move was all it took to bring her down.

The woman hit the floor like a dropped sack, landing with a heavy thump. The cell fell instantly silent. Shock and uncertainty spread across every face.

Wen Tangtang planted one foot on the woman’s lower back and swept a cold gaze around the room. “I told you. Don’t provoke me.”

How could any of them know that, in order to kill Xu Lei and avenge Wen Miao, Wen Tangtang had trained her body day after day and enrolled in martial arts classes?

She was no longer the frail, delicate young woman she had once been.

Wen Tangtang had only just removed her foot from the woman’s back when footsteps sounded outside the cell.

“What are you doing?” The prison guard frowned, fixing every person in the room with a stern glare.

Wen Tangtang stood there with an icy expression and said nothing. The others looked nervous and quickly plastered smiles on their faces.

“Nothing, nothing. We were just playing around.”

They said that because if a fight or any other disciplinary violation occurred in the cell, everyone present-not only the people involved-would be punished collectively.

The guard’s frown deepened. Whether they believed the women or not was impossible to tell. They turned to Wen Tangtang. “Come with me. The police want to question you.”

===

Question her?

Her case could not have been more straightforward, and she had no intention of hiding anything. What else was there to ask?

Wen Tangtang followed the guard out and found two uniformed police officers waiting. One of them was Qiu Ziyu.

“Go take care of the paperwork,” Qiu Ziyu said.

When Wen Tangtang appeared, he took custody of her from the prison guard and instructed Fang Yue to handle the formalities.

Only after Fang Yue and the guard entered the office did Wen Tangtang ask softly, “Isn’t my case clear enough already? Why do the police need to question me again?”

Qiu Ziyu did not lower his head. He kept his eyes on Fang Yue and the prison guard inside the office, though his voice was clearly subdued on purpose. “Nan Mu asked me to bring you a letter. You know every letter sent into a prison has to be inspected before it reaches you. This one… isn’t something other people should see.”
Wen Tangtang tilted her head at him in confusion. “A letter? From whom?”

Qiu Ziyu took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her, then opened the door of the police car beside them and motioned for her to get in.

“Read it inside.” He glanced at his watch. “The handover paperwork will take five minutes at most. You need to give it back before they return.”

Still bewildered, Wen Tangtang climbed into the car and finally examined the envelope in her hands.

It looked ancient. The paper had already yellowed, and written across the front were the words: “For Wen Xin.”

Wen Tangtang knew that handwriting. It belonged to Wen Miao.

When had Wen Miao ever written Wen Xin a letter?

Questions clouded Wen Tangtang’s mind, but when her gaze fell on the postmark at the top of the envelope, her entire body jolted.

The date on the postmark was October 7, 2032.

“How is that possible?”

For a moment, Wen Tangtang felt as if her heart had stopped. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Only after confirming she had not misread the date did she tear open the envelope with trembling hands.

===

Dear Wen Xin,

How are you doing in that other timeline?

In my timeline, we developed the Time Machine together. I’m guessing that in the other timeline, you managed to invent one too, right?

So, have you figured out who I am yet?

You’re so smart. I’m sure you have.

I’m writing because I need you to do me a favor.

In my timeline, a vicious murder took place at our school on October 24, 2022: Nan Mu killed Xu Lei, a senior researcher at Wisdom Biotech Company. (Please don’t be alarmed. I’m guessing things unfolded rather differently in your timeline, so you can ignore that part for now.)

But the incident was entirely my fault.

Nan Mu killed Xu Lei by accident while trying to protect me.

It wasn’t his fault.

But he had still killed someone, and because I was an interested party, the court refused to accept my testimony.

The police arrested Nan Mu, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

He should have had a bright future. Instead, because of me, he spent the rest of his life trapped in darkness.

His ten years in prison were ten years of misery. In the end, he fell ill and died behind those walls.

…

Wen Xin, I don’t know if you can understand how that made me feel.

He was once so radiant. His life should never have withered away in a prison cell.

So I decided to change his fate-his ending. I couldn’t bear the thought of him spending his whole life surrounded by thieves and lowlifes.

After I developed the Time Machine, I kept trying to alter the past and change his life.

But no matter what I did, his ending in my timeline never changed. Every time I altered the past, someone else would come along and change his fate all over again.

I truly can’t find a better solution, so I’m writing to you.

I hope this letter somehow reaches you.

And I hope you can find a way to change his fate.

Please!

P.S. I hope you and Wen Tangtang finally get together soon.

(You need to make an effort! Stop thinking about research all the time. Being a little more proactive isn’t going to kill you, is it? You have a mouth so you can explain yourself, not so you can keep your head down and shovel food into it!

You worry me to death! In my timeline, if it hadn’t been for me, you could’ve had another eight hundred years and still wouldn’t have managed to marry Wen Tangtang.

Here’s a secret: your son turns one in 2033, and he’s absolutely adorable! So stop dragging your feet, or you’ll procrastinate your own son right out of existence.

So! In that timeline without me, you’d better pull yourself together!)

Sincerely,

Wishing you peace and good fortune.