Those who travel back in time

Chapter 38 Time Paradox

"Chen Qing, what happened?" Fang Xiande immediately went over to check Chen Qing's wound. "A penetrating wound. The bullet didn't stay inside her body."

"I'll go get Sister Li!" Ah Jie hurriedly went out to call the base's doctor.

"I have to go back again." Chen Qing glanced at the bullet hole in his shoulder. "I was just one step away from finding the serum."

"We'll talk about it after you've recovered," Fang Xiande said.

Chen Qing did not refuse. This kind of injury would heal in a day for him, and he could wait.

Just as he had predicted, his shoulder was completely healed the next morning, without even a scar.

"Chen Qing, based on the scenario you described, if you go back to get the key, you'll likely encounter your past self. Remember, you absolutely must not meet your past self," Fang Xiande reminded him again before he left.

"Why can't I meet my past self?" Chen Qing asked.

"When two identical versions of yourself appear at the same point in spacetime, it means that a completely identical set of microscopic particle states and information has appeared out of thin air in the universe. This violates the law of conservation of information and constitutes a powerful information paradox..."

"Dr. Fang, you don't need to be so technical." Chen Qing felt overwhelmed as soon as she heard it.

"Okay, let me give you another simple example. If you meet your future self now and you have the thought that 'this person is me in the future,' then this thought will cause many of your future decisions to be different from before. Under this series of variables, it is almost impossible for your future self to travel back to the past. That's where the paradox comes in."

"What would I do if the paradox occurred? Dr. Fang, there's no need to explain the principles, just give me the result."

"That version of you will simply disappear in the future."

"Disappear..." Chen Qing thought for a moment, then tried asking a question: "Dr. Fang, it sounds like the key to the paradox is being recognized by my past self. What if I disguise myself and am not recognized by my past self?"

"Has a paradox arisen after we've known each other for so many days?"

"Dr. Fang, you are not me from the future; you are someone else."

"If you can't recognize your future self, isn't your future self just someone else to you?"

This time, Chen Qing went directly to the suburbs after returning to the past.

The factory buildings and the white houses are both still empty.

Zhao Dezhu hasn't yet brought back his past self and Li Mengfei.

Chen Qing went to the White House first. He wanted to hide there and see who had killed Zhao Dezhu.

Zhao Dezhu must have been doing some shady business here often. The white house has a bed, a wardrobe, and even a refrigerator.

I opened the refrigerator and found several bottles of red wine and some bread and other food inside.

Gollum~

He accidentally kicked a wine bottle in the corner, and it rolled to the ground.

Too lazy to help him up, he reached into the refrigerator and took out a piece of bread.

But he immediately put it back, just in case Zhao Dezhu was some kind of genius with a photographic memory and noticed that the contents of the refrigerator had changed.

Thinking that his past self would also appear here in a while, Chen Qing decided to disguise himself to avoid a time paradox.

I opened the wardrobe, and there weren't many clothes inside. Most of them didn't fit. I picked out two items, but only the cargo pants were a bit too big.

Chen Qing then changed into work pants and put on an oversized suit.

He stood in front of the mirror, looking out of place, but it didn't matter; all he wanted was to dress completely differently from his past self.

"Wait a minute..." Looking at herself in the mirror, Chen Qing realized who the bandaged man who had knocked her down with a stun gun was.

It's yourself!

Isn't my current attire exactly the same as that of the bandaged man from before?

"I came back to catch the murderer who killed Zhao Dezhu, so why did I attack my past self?" Chen Qing couldn't understand.

He had previously thought that the bandaged man was the one who killed Zhao Dezhu, but the bandaged man was himself!

I came here to find the key, not to kill someone.

Could the killer be someone else?

But a new problem has arisen.

How exactly did that murderer escape from my grasp?

Chen Qing's fighting prowess might not be the best in the world, but he had never seen anyone who could rival him in martial arts.

While pondering these questions, Chen Qing wanted to find a mask to cover his face, but he couldn't find one anywhere. So he grabbed a piece of clothing, tore it into strips, and wrapped them around his head.

"You only have half an hour to pry them open."

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhao, I guarantee they'll tell me everything in ten minutes."

You can hear Zhao Dezhu and the man with the middle parting talking outside.

Chen Qing quickly climbed out of the window, intending to monitor the inside from the outside. But as soon as she landed, she thought that if the murderer also came out of the window, he would definitely not come back if he saw someone at the window, so she climbed back in.

Looking around, Chen Qing opened the wardrobe, sat inside, and closed the door from the inside.

"I really didn't want to come to this godforsaken place." Then, Zhao Dezhu walked in.

Chen Qing saw through the crack in the door that Zhao Dezhu opened the refrigerator, took out a bottle of red wine and a wine glass, and sat down to drink.

boom!

He had been drinking alone for a while when a gunshot rang out. Zhao Dezhu was pouring wine with a glass in one hand and a bottle in the other when he was startled and dropped the bottle to the ground.

"These two idiots!" Zhao Dezhu put his wine glass on the table, stood up, and headed to the factory.

But he accidentally stepped on a wine bottle on the ground, slipped, and fell backward.

puff~

The broken bottle pierced the back of his head.

"No one killed Zhao Dezhu. Was his death an accident? Or did I kill Zhao Dezhu?" Chen Qing came out of the closet, his gaze falling on a beer bottle on the ground.

The beer bottle was originally in the corner, but he accidentally kicked it to the ground, which is how Zhao Dezhu stepped on it.

Zhao Dezhu was still conscious at this time. Blood foam was coming out of his mouth, and his eyes were full of the desire to live. "Help, help me."

"I will save you." Chen Qing knelt down. "Where is the serum?"

"Help, help..." Zhao Dezhu's pupils dimmed completely.

Zhao Dezhu was a man who took lives at the drop of a hat and was no good person. Chen Qing felt no remorse for his death and began searching through the body.

There was a stun gun in the inside pocket of the suit jacket, which was casually placed on the ground.

After checking his clothes pockets, Chen Qing checked his pants pockets and found a strangely shaped key.

"Got it!" Chen Qing was about to leave with the key when footsteps came from the doorway.

My past self is about to enter!

Chen Qing grabbed the stun gun from the ground and quickly hid under the table next to him.

"How do I leave?" Chen Qing's mind raced.

My past self was at the doorway, but going through the door wouldn't work; I had to go through the window.

But I'm too close to my past self now; if I get up, I'll definitely be discovered.

If Chen Qing were to run at full speed, his past self would definitely not be able to catch up with him, because they are both himself, and their speed limits are the same.

But he couldn't do that.

In this world, no one but myself can run at this speed.

If you go at full speed, your past self will realize that it's your future self, which creates a time paradox.

Therefore, if I were to run, I could only run at a normal speed so that my past self wouldn't suspect anything.

But a normal person can't run fast enough to outrun their past self, and will eventually be caught.

Even if you get caught, you'll still be found out.

Another warning about time paradoxes!