Chapter 7: Dismantling the time bomb in the space-time turbulence

"Finally back."

After experiencing 74 hours and 32 minutes, the positioning in Lin Ran's mind chose the tent he had pitched himself in Cherry Springs State Park.

The cold wind rolled with snow foam and hit the tent with a rustling sound.

Lin Ran gripped the cold mobile phone in his pocket, recalling the hissing neon tubes in Times Square, the perfume advertisement of Marilyn Monroe in the shop window giving him a sweet and greasy smile, and the passersby wrapped in wool coats slowing down as they passed—because his down jacket reflected an eerie metallic cold light under the streetlights, and there were still uncut 3M reflective strip cutting threads in the folds of the hem.

Everything he had just experienced seemed like a dream.

And now the cold arc of the iPhone XS edge was reminding him that this time bomb in the space-time turbulence had finally been successfully dismantled by him, the ghost of time and space.

Inside it were stored future fragments enough to make Area 51 agents collectively climax: the orbital routes of the Shenzhou series rockets, the ion thruster blueprints of the Artemis program, and even the Starship prototype he found on the SpaceX official website last year.

Looking around at the familiar scene, he boldly took the iPhone out of his pocket and glanced at the signal recovering. After habitually complaining about the iPhone's damn signal, Lin Ran's hanging heart was put down.

Being able to return meant that everything was fine.

Even if "The Door" couldn't be used, his alienated body and brain were always real.

Relying solely on this brain, achieving financial freedom in the present was not a difficult task.

For the previous Lin Ran, GraphAI was a huge pit, which was true, but for the current him, knowing the general solution of the N-S equations, GraphAI was not a huge pit, but a jack-of-all-trades industry that could do anything.

Publishing articles was even easier. Knowing where the gold mine was, digging a little bit out each time, digging a little bit out, the N-S equations were enough for him to eat for a lifetime.

The whole person was in a relaxed state. About thirty seconds passed before the iPhone recovered its signal. He glanced at the time and compared it with the time he went to find the door; there was a difference of about an hour.

"If calculated strictly according to time, then the time flow of both sides is about 60 to 1?"

"1 hour passed over there, 1 minute passed over here?" Lin Ran pondered, "In this case, even if I stay in the 60s for a year, only 6 days have passed here."

"Then what if I stay here for a year?"

"Is the time flow here and over there also 60 to 1?"

Lin Ran pressed the timer function of the iPhone, intending to strictly calculate the time flow on both sides.

After a simple sorting out, Lin Ran hurriedly contacted Li Xiaoman, "Hello, Sister Xiaoman."

A scream came from the other end of the phone, followed by a crisp and pleasant female voice:

"Randolph! Where are you?"

Li Xiaoman, a third-generation Chinese, Lin Ran's roommate and landlord, and also a senior at the State University of New York.

The relationship between the two had been ambiguous for the past two years. It couldn't be called a romantic relationship, but if it were said to be ordinary friends, it was a bit too intimate.

Who would go stargazing on New Year's Eve with ordinary friends?

"I'm in my tent. I fainted for no reason just now," Lin Ran explained.

About twenty minutes later, a panting Li Xiaoman pulled open the tent door, although she couldn't see any traces of physical discomfort from Lin Ran's complexion. "I searched the whole park just now and didn't see you!

Sigh, forget it. Do you want to go home now or wait until tomorrow morning as originally planned?"

Lin Ran smiled; he rarely saw Li Xiaoman appear so anxious.

Li Xiaoman's parents died when she was young, and she grew up with her uncle and aunt, living a life of living under someone else's roof.

In such an environment and background, the other party was able to read all the way to a PhD in law at Stony Brook University, State University of New York. Her mental core was obviously incomparably strong. She was always calm and meticulous in front of him, and Lin Ran had never seen her panic.

Lin Ran thought for a moment and said, "Now. Sorry, Xiaoman, I am really physically unwell now. I want to return to my warm bed as soon as possible, rather than in the tent. The humidity on the ground is too heavy."

"Humidity?" Li Xiaoman was puzzled.

Even though Li Xiaoman's name was so Chinese, "Life's small satisfaction is better than everything," the concept of humidity was still a bit too difficult for a third-generation Chinese.

"The proportion of water in the air is too high, it's too cold," Lin Ran explained.

It took four hours to return to New York from here. On the way, Li Xiaoman sat in the driver's seat, and Lin Ran just brushed off the other party's questions, looking like he was physically unwell and didn't want to talk much.

"During the period, I was holding a degradable plastic bag and preparing to go to the woods to go to the bathroom. As a result, when I got halfway, I felt very uncomfortable, and I was sweating on my forehead the whole time.

I hurriedly returned to the tent, and before I could sit still, I fainted."

"Oh, mobile phone signal? I don't know why, the signal was suddenly interrupted."

Although Lin Ran's explanation was full of doubts—just the point of returning to the tent, Li Xiaoman sat in front of the tent and waited for him to return the whole time, and it wasn't until she couldn't contact him for half an hour that she went everywhere to look for him.

What was even more fatal was that there were no footprints on the ground. There were only footprints from the tent to the forest by the road, but no footprints from the forest back to the tent.

Various doubts led Li Xiaoman to not believe Lin Ran's pale and powerless explanation at all.

Therefore, on the way back, Li Xiaoman appeared exceptionally cold: "Oh," "I see," "Understood."

In short, the whole process was mainly perfunctory.

While driving, Li Xiaoman was thinking about what Lin Ran had gone to do. Would she receive a notification of investigation from the federal police tomorrow, saying that a murder case had occurred in Cherry Springs State Park and they needed to cooperate with the investigation?

However, no matter how Li Xiaoman guessed, she couldn't guess Lin Ran's magical encounter, going to 1960 for a stroll. This kind of Arabian Nights was still too difficult to guess.

Lin Ran closed his eyes and rested in the second-hand Corolla, talking to Li Xiaoman from time to time. He knew that the other party was dissatisfied with him, but these didn't matter at all in his current view.

After returning to his residence, Lin Ran first changed the appointment time with his client on WeChat: "Ms. Li, can we start now?

Sorry, I am a bit physically unwell and want to start early, is that okay?"

Four o'clock in the morning New York time was exactly seven o'clock in the evening Beijing time. The other party's message came quickly: "Now?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'll prepare."

In addition to going to school, Lin Ran also did some remote consulting business, specifically providing study abroad consulting for college students in China.

To be precise, he started doing this business when he was still in Shanghai. On the one hand, he earned some pocket money—it was not easy for an H1B visa holder to work in America—and on the other hand, it also accumulated a lot of connections for him. ===== CHAPTER 8 =====