Invade the World

   Chapter 381 The umbilical cord in the crack of the door

   "Hey, don't run around!"

  Lin Xingjie ran from the stairs to the corridor and all the way down the stairs, but before reaching the door, she was caught by her mother who was standing by in the living room.

  Ms. Lin grabbed the little girl by the collar like a rabbit, and brought her to her side who was trying to escape.

   "What's the matter? Where are you going?"

   "I...I'm going out to play!"

  Lin Xingjie shrank her neck a little guilty, and relied on her loud answer to cheer herself up.

   "This point?" Lin Suya glanced out the window, the shape of the branches was smeared by the dim colors of the dusk into the shadow of claws and claws, "Your father and Uncle Meng are talking over there, don't disturb them."

   "This... they talk about theirs, I play mine, what does it matter!"

   When the little girl heard that the two were busy, she suddenly gained confidence.

   "But, it's too late now."

  Lin Suya hesitated.

   Usually this is the time when my daughter comes back after a wild day out, and she should also start preparing meals. At this time, if the husband has not come out of the basement, she will let her daughter call the door.

   Now Lin Mingyuan and Meng Zheng obviously have something to do. Ms. Lin doesn't want to disturb her husband's work, so when she sees Xing Jie choosing to go out at this point, she is worried that her daughter will be naughty.

   "It's okay mom, I'll just go around the neighborhood a few times and it'll be fine."

   Seeing that her mother's expression had loosened, Lin Xingjie immediately spoke, trying to convince the other party.

   Actually, Lin Xingjie was indeed there for the conversation between the adults in the basement. Just looking at her impatient reaction, it's easy to spot the flaw.

  Although she didn't intend to disturb the two of them, she wanted to squat in the corner to eavesdrop on the conversation, which was obviously not her motive to speak up.

   Fortunately, Ms. Lin is not the kind of person with very keen observation. After she looked at her daughter suspiciously, she finally let go.

   "Okay, go and get back. I'll be ready in half an hour. You have to come back before dinner, do you hear?"

"Okay!"

   "Also, remember to wash your hands first when you come back from outside, don't ask your mother to urge you every time..."

"I know!"

   Before the final sound of the last word dissipated, the little girl ran out of the door without looking back.

  …

  Two braids of sheep's horns swayed and undulated behind the back, and the dirty sneakers fell on the ridge, splashing a puff of dust. The little girl ran out of breath, her face flushed red, and there were crystal beads of sweat on her forehead.

   It wasn't until she was about to approach the basement that she stopped to let out a long breath, stroked her chest, and tried to calm her breath.

  Lin Xingjie certainly won't tell her mother that she met a ghost in the bedroom some time ago, not to mention that the two have become friends now.

  The reason why she came out to eavesdrop on her father and the uncle's speech this time was because she was harassed by her ghost friend.

  ...No, the current "it" is no longer a ghost, Lin Xingjie knows this.

  According to this friend, he is actually a person from the future.

   That's right, just like in the movie!

   However, because of "some technical difficulties", he has no way to truly appear in the past world in a human way, and can only float around like a ghost.

Because of this characteristic, not everyone can see him. For ordinary people, this person is no different from a real ghost. He can only connect with "special" and "talented" characters— —

   In other words, at present, only she can see this future person, and communicate and contact with him.

   And the reason why people in the future will appear in this era is naturally no trivial matter. Like all time-traveling sci-fi stories, his purpose is to prevent future catastrophe and save the world.

  I heard from people in the future that without her help, the entire city would be at stake, millions of people's lives were on the line, and an unprecedented disaster would spread even further afield.

   Destined adventures, future people, and saving the world, all of which are too in line with the fantasy of children of this age, and Xiao Xingjie is no exception, so she quickly agreed to the future friend's request.

   "Speaking of which, when will this happen?"

  Lin Xingjie was curious and a little worried. If it had happened recently, she might have to tell Mom and Dad.

  [Probably ten years later. ]

   The future person answered.

   "Huh?! Ten years from now, will humans be able to invent a time machine?"

  Lin Xingjie thought it would be a hundred years later, or at least a few decades later. She'd be dead by then, and there's no need to count on time travel to save anyone's life.

  Speaking of which, humans were able to land on the moon more than ten years ago, and maybe it’s not that far away from things like developing the universe and time travel—in a girl’s little brain, the world has never been complicated.

   "If a time machine can be invented in less than ten years, I was only a teenager at that time, still very young... Can I also use a time machine to go back to the present?"

  [No, uh no...not ten years. ]

  Lin Xingjie felt a little lost, but they cheered up quickly.

   "How many years was that?"

  […Fifty years? ]

   "Fifty years is enough?"

   Less than sixty. Although she is a little old, she should not be dead at that time, right?

  [That is a hundred years? ]

   "How come you don't even know yourself!"

  Lin Xingjie is always criticized by adults for being careless, but she feels that the person she communicates with may be more confused than herself.

  [Well, time has traveled for a long time, and it is really easy for people to not know the era they live in. ]

   "One hundred years is one hundred years. What will the world be like in one hundred years, can you describe it to me?"

  No one is not curious about the future world, this desire comes from the hearts of everyone who looks forward to tomorrow.

  […]

   "What? You forget about this kind of thing when time travels?"

   After a long silence, Lin Xingjie heard the voice ringing in her ears again.

   But this time, his voice was no longer buried by the noise like a disturbed radio, but suddenly became clear, as if someone was really talking to his ear.

   At this time, she could naturally tell that the speaker was a boy, and he was not very old. Although he is older than himself, he is more than a little younger than his father...

   should call him big brother.

  While Lin Xingjie was thinking, her heart was pounding. She was still young and had no extra thoughts, but she was a little confused because of the strange feeling she experienced for the first time.

   "Well, I'm actually from ten years later."

  The future elder brother seems to finally tell the truth.

   "However, humans at that time did not invent a time machine, just like things are now. However, a group of people with superpowers appeared."

"superpower?"

  Lin Xingjie suddenly became excited again.

"right."

   "Will it appear later?"

   "In this day and age, many signs are probably already happening in the dark, but ordinary people don't know the truth."

   "That's it... I get it!"

  The little girl is proud of her brain being able to think of the truth all at once.

The catastrophe    ten years from now has something to do with superpowers, and the reason why someone wants to go back to the present to stop it is for the same reason.

   "Super power, I wonder if I will have..."

  Lin Xingjie is very envious.

   "You must have. Otherwise there is no way to chat with me like this."

  The future man answered firmly.

   "As for me, my abilities... are a bit special."

   "Can go back in time, right?"

   The little girl smiled, she was happy for what the other party said, and for the first time couldn't wait to grow up quickly.

However, when Lin Xingjie asked about the specific situation of the disaster, the other party suddenly began to be vague and refused to go on. She only asked her to help eavesdrop on the conversation between her father and the guests, and called the man Meng Zheng. The man who is very likely to be the culprit of the disaster, so she must be careful and pay attention.

   Finally, Lin Xingjie walked to the stairs leading to the basement.

   There is no other place to enter except this door. She had no other choice but to tiptoe down.

   Leaning against the door, she carefully put her ear close, and there was a serious conversation from the adults—

  …

   "Did you leave the lab because of your daughter?"

   She heard Meng talking. In the girl's impression, the young uncle always had a cheerful expression with a smile on his face, and he couldn't see the appearance of "behind the scenes" at all, but it was different from the voice he was used to listening to at the dinner table these days. The young man's tone was slightly cold.

  “…”

   And for a long time, Dad didn't answer.

  *

   In short, after realizing that he can communicate with Xingjie in a certain way (at present, she is the only one in this world), Xu Xiangyang successfully used his identity as a "future person" to gain the girl's trust.

  Xiao Xingjie's reaction did not surprise him. To be honest, if he had met someone from the future when he was a child, the excitement would only have been stronger.

   However, in the process of communicating with the girl, he became more and more confused. Because when he tried to assume the role of the future man, he found that everything became more reasonable——

   is at least more reasonable than the guess that "all this is Xingjie's dream".

  So, if Xu Xiangyang can really go back to the past, does it mean that he has the ability to change the future-that is, the "now" he is in?

   This is like something out of a science fiction novel.

  According to Xu Xiangyang's reading experience, most people who do this kind of thing will have no good end: either the future will become worse after changing the past, or it will not be able to change at all.

  History is like a train that can only run on one track, never stopping. Those who try to stop the train with their arms only end up being smashed into flesh.

   In the end, "time travel" itself is impossible, a concept that human beings can't imagine but create. Because human's logical thinking is based on the stable concept of time and space causality, if it is violated, it will trigger a paradox - that is, "go back to killing your parents before you were born, then this person will still exist" and so on. The problem.

   It gives me a headache just thinking about it. The headache is not that it is difficult, but that it is impossible at all. Questions that no one can answer will easily become meaningless in the eyes of ordinary people.

   He even began to think about whether to find his past self, find a way to contact him, and tell him how to make money, at least to help Sister Lian share some family responsibilities.

   However, Meng Zheng's guy came soon, and Xu Xiangyang really didn't dare to leave the house, for fear of missing the opportunity.

  ... He's such a lingering ghost, even if he dies and goes back to the past, he will still cause trouble.

  Fortunately, whether it is a dream or reality, since he came to Xingjie, what he has to do has not changed.

  Xu Xiangyang tried countless times and realized that he could not interfere with the physical operation of this world. But in order not to be a mere spectator, he decided to use the only person he could influence to gather information.

   At this time, he was squatting at the door with Lin Xingjie, listening to the people inside. Although it was a ghost that others could not see, he held his breath subconsciously, as if realizing that the big curtain leading to the truth was about to open to him——

   At this moment, Xu Xiangyang suddenly felt a little cold on the soles of his feet.

   He looked down and saw a mass of blood-stained black flesh in the crack of the door. At first glance, he thought it was the corpse of a half-snake, but upon closer inspection, he found that it looked like a human umbilical cord...

   (end of this chapter)