Chapter 491

After experiencing shock, panic, and drenched sweat, Donald suddenly dropped all his defenses and said calmly, “Alright, I admit you’ve noticed I’m different—but what does it matter?”

He wasn’t wrong: if not for their stubborn pursuit of Ge Xuan’s weaknesses, these things would have meant nothing—even if they truly were time travelers, time was now frozen, history gradually converging toward the point before their journey, rendering their temporal uniqueness utterly nullified.

“Hmm…” Zhang Qiu said after a moment of thought, “I believe this is a highly significant temporal phenomenon.”

“What?”

“If a time traveler who alters history enters a parallel world, then logically, the other histories in that parallel world should remain unchanged,” Zhang Qiu tapped her fingers alternately on the table. “That means you should know Xuan Jun intimately—he should be a historical figure in your world too.”

“And there’s another contradiction: if you arrived here via time travel, you should have appeared out of nowhere—but you have a complete, coherent life trajectory, which contradicts my hypothesis.”

Donald’s expression, briefly relaxed, grew serious again.

“So you’re not a time traveler—but you and Xuan Jun share vast amounts of information and knowledge nonexistent in this world, likely originating from the future. And since these involve the Muggle world, they couldn’t have come from divination.”

Zhang Qiu sat up straight, speaking slowly and firmly: “Once you eliminate all impossibilities, whatever remains—no matter how improbable—is the truth: you and Xuan Jun are people from two different parallel worlds, who coincidentally arrived in ours without time travel.”

Donald’s breathing grew tight; for any transmigrant, having a native expose their true identity was terrifying—perhaps not terrifying enough, but deeply inappropriate.

“Of course, as you said, even knowing this fact holds little significance,” Zhang Qiu’s tone and expression grew lighter. “But it’s certainly worth investigating—have you ever spoken with him about how you entered a parallel world? And could there be some special incantation to send us there?”

Harry suddenly remembered Grindelwald, who, before suicide, claimed he was about to begin another great adventure—if that wasn’t merely a tribute to Dumbledore’s famous words “Death is but the next great adventure,” but literally true, and he truly could reach some parallel world to mend his youthful regrets?

Of course, Harry didn’t voice his speculation yet—this was Zhang Qiu and Donald’s confrontation.

“Parallel worlds aren’t as good as you imagine,” Donald hesitated, then chose a more conservative answer. “Our world—well, perhaps thanks to Xuan Jun’s efforts—I feel it’s far better than my original one.”

“Then we could build up other worlds too,” Harry said. “If this one’s already good enough.”

“From another angle,” Zhang Qiu pointed to the sky, “since time is frozen and we can’t return to the past, it’s natural to hope for a way to reach a parallel world without time travel—we could explore it together.”

Donald frowned. “But why do you want to go to a parallel world?”

“Just a thought from a Tianchao citizen,” Zhang Qiu said casually. “In our long era of peace and development, we’ve reached the boundaries of magic. You might think magic is omnipotent, but we know it has limits too. To seek higher-level technology, parallel world theory is essential research.”

“Then why did you destroy time itself?” Donald asked, dissatisfied.

“What can we do? Death itself is blocking us.”

“I’ve got nothing to say—I used no special technique. I just died accidentally in my original world and was reborn here. And my original world had already reached 2019. By the way, in our world, Harry—”

“Harry’s deeds are common knowledge, so I anticipated everything that happened. That’s all.” He ultimately didn’t reveal anything further.

Harry accepted this easily—if fate unfolded as it should, he would become the hero who defeated Voldemort. And at that time, with the Ministry’s habits, they’d publicize every single thing he’d ever done, even something as trivial as answering a question correctly in class.

“Still, I’m curious,” Harry said. “Xuan Jun has pioneered many new, astonishing magical techniques. Does that mean the magical world will soon experience a technological explosion—producing things like Kamen Rider or floating cities?”

“Of course not,” Zhang Qiu answered for Donald. “Haven’t you noticed? Floating cities originated from Muggle imagination, then were evaluated by wizards as feasible before construction began. So even if we find zero traces of Kamen Rider here, we can still guess that, in time, a Muggle fantasy work will emerge—just the kind Xuan Jun noticed and borrowed to break through magical boundaries.”

“Muggle… imagination?” Harry was surprised, yet the conclusion felt strangely logical.

Donald shrugged. “Exactly. Not just Muggle science—Muggle fantasy can inspire magical techniques too. I think most people overlook this. Another benefit of the Statute of Secrecy.”

“If we broke the Statute of Secrecy and Muggles learned magic existed, they’d fixate on it—and then they might stop imagining so many wondrous concepts,” Donald said calmly. “Unrestricted Muggle imagination is a vital resource too.”

“As for Kamen Rider—it could’ve been a brilliant series. Too bad, since Ge Xuan annexed Yingzhou, it’ll probably never be released.” Donald’s tone carried a touch of regret. “Only after realizing this did I understand why he sealed off his country. Different nations and cultures produce countless unique fantasies—something beneficial for his magical development.”

At this point, Harry and Zhang Qiu both felt they’d gained far more than expected—they needed time to digest this new information. But if they didn’t ask further questions, it meant it was Donald’s turn to speak.

“Speaking of which, you both know about Daisy, right? Oh right—you call her Cassandra.” His tone was sincere, but his phrasing was shrewd. “I deeply regret her fate—it was another tragedy caused by temporal chaos.”

“My former wife—I mean, my wife in my original world—I loved her dearly. But an accident brought me here, forcing me to leave her behind. You don’t know how much pain I suffered after that…”

As he spoke, Donald rested a hand on his forehead, his expression filled with profound sorrow.

“I thought I’d lost her forever—until suddenly, I realized it might not be true… I noticed Daisy looked just like my original wife. At first I didn’t think so, but her every gesture, her personality, her mannerisms—they grew increasingly familiar.”

“At one moment, I suspected she was her from a parallel world—that perhaps they shared the same soul, the same person across different realities. I truly felt I’d reunited with her.”

Donald lowered his hand, exhaled deeply, and looked up at the ceiling.

“But… alas, it wasn’t true. The more time I spent with her, the more I realized how profoundly different she was from my wife. That period, I was utterly tormented—yes, my heart churned like a stormy sea. I just wanted to flee, to vanish somewhere no one knew, to ponder why fate had treated me so cruelly…”

He wiped his face with his hand and sat up straight again.

“That’s how it happened. When I came to my senses, I’d already committed an irreversible mistake. I kept hesitating whether to reveal myself to her—but never found the courage. In the end, I fabricated a lie to return to her side—or at least try to improve her life.”

Harry carefully weighed his words. He found them somewhat credible. Though waiting eleven full years after regaining awareness to make amends was a flimsy, pitiful excuse, it was no worse than Sirius Black, who spent thirteen years in prison after his awakening. Donald might even be slightly better.

With Sirius’s story as precedent, Zhang Qiu accepted his explanation easily—her opinion of Donald improved considerably. Yet Sirius’s own behavior—spending thirteen years in prison out of guilt—was equally irrational, baffling. Had they not known Sirius’s history, they’d have immediately questioned Donald’s tale.

In truth, Donald had no wife from a past life—he had merely fantasized Hermione from the films as his wife. This time, Donald used the same trick to deceive two young people who had once repeatedly deceived him with the same method.