Chapter 141: System Ultimate·Civilization Witness

Zhao Jianguo's finger just lifted off the confirm key, and the Terminal jolted violently, as if something had struck it from inside. Instinctively he hugged the Shuang Baotai, stepped back half a pace, and pressed his back against the old locust tree behind him. The bark was rough and scraped uncomfortably, but he didn't move.

The silver‑gray stabilizer kept spinning, blue light sweeping the Courtyard in rings, but the red characters on the Terminal Screen suddenly vanished, replaced by an inky blackness as dark as a well mouth at midnight.

"This thing... don't break down at a crucial moment," he muttered low, tapping the Screen twice lightly, as if knocking on a door.

No one answered.

But the kids in his arms suddenly twisted their bodies—one pointing at the sky, the other gripping his sleeve and pulling hard. Zhao Jianguo looked down; both little faces were stretched, their gazes fixed, murmuring, "Dad... there's a plane."

He looked up at the sky, clear and bright, with not even a bird's shadow.

"Where? Where's the plane?" he asked with a forced smile, trying to ease the mood.

The two kids said nothing, but both raised their hands together, pointing to the same direction—north, toward the tech building.

At that moment, the Terminal hummed, and the Screen burst open a golden light, like the sun erupting from the ground. The light crawled up his arm, neither hot nor cold, just a slight tingling, like a childhood static shock.

Immediately after, a line of text floated in the air, neither a Projection nor an illusion, just hanging there as if written with an invisible pen:

**Civilization Witness·Final Stage Binding**

Zhao Jianguo blinked, "Did the system... upgrade?"

Before he finished speaking, the hovering wind column above his head suddenly shook three times, as if someone had patted his shoulder. Then, with a light 'pop', it dispersed. Fragmented light floated down like ash, landing on the Courtyard's blue bricks and vanishing on impact.

Special Forces Captain stood five steps away, neither approaching nor speaking. He simply placed his hand on the instrument at his chest, stared toward the Terminal, and the blue pattern behind his ear flickered faintly, as if breathing.

Zhao Jianguo ignored him, lowered his head to look at the Terminal. The interface had changed, no longer the previous mechanical menu bar, but a flowing star river, countless fine lines woven into a net, each labeled with a year and a name. The most prominent line read "Chen Jianguo", emitting a faint glow.

His heart skipped a beat.

His finger, uncontrollably, touched it.

The system instantly popped up a prompt: 【Accessing high‑level files requires paying a mental load, continue?】

"Mental load?" he snorted, "I'm not a machine, why this gimmick?"

Even so, he bit his tongue, the pain bringing clarity, then pressed heavily.

The scene shifted.

A city, skyscrapers towering, but all collapsed. Rebar twisted, glass shattered on the ground, the sky a dark red, like fire‑scarred clouds at dusk. The camera pushed forward, a man knelt amid the ruins, clutching a photograph, his shoulders twitching.

Zhao Jianguo held his breath.

The person in the photo wore a white lab coat, a ponytail, delicate features, a hint of a smile at the corner of the mouth—Su Qing, whom he knew.

But this place, this attire, this background... it was certainly not the present.

The footage continued. The man lifted his head, his face covered in dust, eyes red to a frightening degree. He shouted something at the air, unintelligible, but subtitles appeared:

"Su Qing! You promised to wait for me!"

The next second, the scene cut to a file page.

【Name: Chen Jianguo】

【Original Timeline: 2045】

【Identity: Former Researcher of the Management Bureau】

【Spouse: Su Qing (missing in a temporal collapse incident)】

【Anchor Match Rate: 98.7%】

【Determination: Cross‑temporal Same‑origin Entity】

Zhao Jianguo was stunned.

His first reaction was to laugh, thinking the system must be bugged, using a look‑alike face to claim they're the same person? Yet as he laughed, his throat tightened.

He recalled Old Chen's usual demeanor—quiet, always inclined to walk toward Su Qing's house, pausing longer when passing the pharmacy, even stopping when he saw the bamboo pole where she hung laundry. He had thought the old bachelor was being foolish, but actually she was searching for the way home.

"So... he crossed over, not for a mission?" Zhao Jianguo murmured, "Was it for her?"

The Terminal gave no answer, but that line remained lit: **Cross‑temporal Same‑origin Entity**.

He suddenly felt the Terminal in his hand was heavy, as if cradling someone else's lifelong concerns.

The Shuang Baotai moved at this moment. One wriggled free from his arm, squatted on the ground, picked up a small stone, and drew a crooked circle on a brick. The other leaned over, tapped the circle with a finger, and shouted, "Dad! The plane flew into the circle!"

Zhao Jianguo turned his head and saw the two kids gesturing seriously over the empty ground.

He frowned, activated the Terminal's scan mode, and aimed the camera toward the direction they were looking.

The Screen flashed, instantly spawning a holographic frame:

【Detected 1978 temporal fluctuation】

【Intensity: +102%】

【Source coordinates: 39.9°N, 116.4°E】

【Landmark match: Former capital's gaokao examination hall site】

He stared at the string of numbers, his heartbeat slowed by half a beat.

1978.

The note Old Chen wrote before leaving, the system's self‑destruct countdown endpoint, and that long‑awaited incident—all pointed to this year.

"Gaokao examination hall..." he whispered, a flood of images flashing in his mind: Zhao Changhe carrying a backpack through the Hutong, Su Qing correcting papers under a lamp, factory workers discussing news of "restoring exams"...

He had experienced all these events, but never imagined they would be linked to crossing, the system, and temporal rifts.

"So what exactly happened in 1978?" he looked up at the Special Forces Captain, "Do you know?"

The man remained standing upright, and only after hearing the question did he slowly reply, "We know the node, but not the details. A historical observer's duty is not to inquire about causes, but to record the process."

"Oh, so you're good at passing the buck," Zhao Jianguo sneered, "I'm now a 'Civilization Witness', not a note‑taker."

"The higher the Permission, the heavier the responsibility," the Special Forces Captain said evenly, "What you just saw is only the beginning. The true trajectory hasn't unfolded yet."

Zhao Jianguo gave no reply. He lowered his head, watching the Terminal, its star‑river interface still flowing, other crossers' files faintly visible yet all grayed out, only the "Chen Jianguo" entry still lit.

He tried to swipe the page, looking for any other acquaintances, such as Jia Dongxu, or Sha Zhu. But as soon as he touched it, the interface shook violently, and several red lines sprang out:

【Out‑of‑bounds access prohibited】

【Insufficient permission】

【Mental load has reached threshold】

"Well, still not letting me see." He withdrew his hand, gave a wry smile, "So I can only know Old Chen's secret?"

As soon as his words fell, Shuang Baotai suddenly stood up in unison.

One pointed to the sky, the other pointed to the Terminal, and they shouted in unison: "Here it comes! Here it comes!"

Zhao Jianguo looked up.

Still a clear sky.

But the fluctuation value on the Terminal screen jumped suddenly, shooting from +102% straight to +118%, with the arrow still climbing.

He quickly called up the map, locked onto the Signal Source. The image zoomed in, freezing on an old bungalow area north of the Science and Technology Building—precisely the former site of the college entrance exam venue. The satellite image should have shown a daytime scene, but now a thin layer of gray mist hovered above the rooftops, its shape resembling the outline of an old propeller plane.

"This isn't an illusion..." he murmured.

The two children had already run to the center of the Courtyard, holding hands, heads raised, humming a strange tune—words indistinct, but the rhythm steady, like some kind of time‑keeping chime.

Zhao Jianguo strode over, squatted down intending to scoop them up, but as soon as he reached out, the Terminal sounded again.

This time it wasn't a prompt, but a recording that played automatically.

A low, intermittent voice:

"... Don't trust the surface calm... On October 21, 1978, someone tried to alter the timeline... They thought no one saw... But I am... I have always been..."

It was Old Chen's voice.

Zhao Jianguo stiffened all over.

The recording played only once, then cut off abruptly.

New words slowly appeared on the Terminal screen:

【Civilization Witness Permission Activated】

【Accessible: Travelers' Historical Trajectory (Limited to Certified Individuals)】

【Available: Spacetime Anchor Point Monitoring】

【Maintainable: Exemption Field (Radius Fifty Meters)】

He stared at those words, then slowly rose to his feet.

The wind stopped, the blue light faded, even the Special Forces personnel fell silent. The entire Siheyuan grew so quiet that the sound of falling leaves could be heard.

Shuang Baotai were still humming.

Zhao Jianguo lowered his head to glance at the Terminal, then lifted his gaze northward.

That layer of gray mist hadn't dispersed; instead, it grew thicker.

He moved his lips, as if confirming some long‑predetermined fact.

"1978... it has finally arrived."