Chapter 47: Reversing the Past (I)

This laptop was one of the items his father had left behind, and it was the last device Lin Fan had used before the accident occurred.

It carried many memories of his life before, as well as clues that might exist.

Lin Fan knew that if he rashly repaired it, he might destroy some important evidence he couldn't perceive.

He dialed Zhang Ming's communicator, his voice low and calm: "Zhang Ming, proceed according to the plan. I want to re-verify the things that happened in the past."

Zhang Ming's voice came from the other end of the communicator, carrying a hint of gravity:

"Understood. Are you really determined to recreate it using the original timeline? This is very dangerous, it might…"

"I know," Lin Fan interrupted Zhang Ming, "but this is the only way. I must know whether that car accident was an accident of fate or a man-made conspiracy."

The flickering of the screen gradually subsided, and the image stabilized, but the data inside the computer remained like a fog, hiding important secrets.

Lin Fan did not open the file immediately but shifted his gaze toward the window.

He recalled the scenes from a hundred lifetimes ago; every detail of that car accident replayed in his mind like a nightmare.

"The original time, location, scene…" he muttered to himself, his mind already made up.

He did not want to find answers to past events only from data; he wanted to personally place himself at that point in time and re-examine everything with his own eyes.

Lin Fan stood up, tidied the computer on the desk, and carefully placed it into his backpack.

He took a deep breath and recalled the time and location of that day: a hundred lifetimes ago, at midnight, on that remote highway.

It was a cold and dangerous road, and also the place where he had driven for the last time in his life.

He looked down at his communicator and dialed Zhang Ming's channel again: "The operation is tonight, and the location is that highway. Execute all plans exactly as I said."

Zhang Ming was silent for a moment on the other end of the communicator, then finally agreed: "Understood, I will arrange everything. Lin Fan, you need to be careful yourself."

After hanging up, Lin Fan sat back in his seat, closed his eyes, and recalled a sentence Jiang Xingyu had once mentioned: "A true opponent is more terrifying than you imagine."

Lin Fan muttered: "Then I will see just how terrifying they really are."

The night deepened, the wheel of fate was about to start turning again, and Lin Fan was ready to face everything.

August 20, 2134, 10:30 PM.

The night curtain over the slums in the south of Ningguta arrived as scheduled, accompanied by the drizzle that arrived on time, washing the streets until they were slippery and greasy.

Lin Fan held that old laptop, walking through the dimly lit alleys.

The air was filled with the smell of machine oil mixed with rain, and the dilapidated streetlights flickered, occasionally dimming and extinguishing.

He stopped in front of a familiar shop. The neon sign above was still flickering, and the slogan "Nanxing Digital Repair — Computers, Mobile Phones, No Charge If Not Fixed!" was no different from years ago.

The neon light tube occasionally sparked, illuminating the dim doorway with flickering light.

"Old Master, I've come again. This time, let me see what secrets I really carry."

Lin Fan took a deep breath, pushed open the creaking glass door, and stepped into the shop.

The air was mixed with the smell of aging wires, solder, and metal, and piles of old electronic equipment filled the corners.

The old equipment was covered in thick dust, as if time had stood still here.

Behind the counter, a middle-aged Repair Master wearing oil-stained work clothes looked up, a tired but professional smile on his face:

"Welcome! Sir, it's so late, and you still drove here. You've really worked hard."

Lin Fan was stunned, then shook his head and replied in a low voice: "I came on foot, I caught a ride."

A subtle expression flashed across the Repair Master's face, seemingly skeptical, but he did not pursue it, just casually replied: "Ah, I see. Then you've really worked hard."

In reality, Lin Fan had indeed come by car. "starfire c9", a luxury sports car full of futuristic style, a symbol of the upper class in 2134.

However, to fit the original plot, Lin Fan parked the car in a remote corner; he even turned off the automatic driving function and the superconducting levitation function.

The Repair Master lowered his head, took the laptop Lin Fan handed over, patted it with his hand, and joked: "Brother, did you get this laptop from a museum? It's so old there's almost nowhere to fix it."

Lin Fan smiled faintly: "It can still turn on, but the screen flickers. Please take a look and see where the problem lies."

The Repair Master nodded and connected the laptop to his repair tools.

A blue light flashed from the device, and the display began to analyze the internal condition of the machine. The data jumping on the screen made the Repair Master frown slightly.

"Strange, the data port of this machine seems… hmm, a bit off," the Repair Master's voice carried hesitation, "It's like it has been tampered with, or rather, this isn't just a hardware issue."

Upon hearing this, Lin Fan leaned forward, his tone intensifying: "Explain in detail."

The Repair Master looked up, his expression slightly serious: "I can only say that someone has moved this machine before, perhaps attempting to clear or cover up something. If you need to recover the data, it might take some time."

Lin Fan nodded, his tone low: "How long will it take?"

The Repair Master thought for a moment and said: "Three hours, but I can't guarantee it can be fully recovered. If you are in a hurry, I can prioritize it."

"As fast as possible." Lin Fan's voice was calm. He pulled over a chair to sit down and swept his gaze over the equipment in the shop.

The rain outside the neon lights gradually grew heavier, beating against the windows and making dull sounds.

Lin Fan sat quietly, hands clasped, his gaze calm and deep.

His thoughts returned to a hundred lifetimes ago, that sudden car accident and that blurry memory.

Suddenly, Lin Fan felt a chill run up his spine into his mind, and his whole body involuntarily tensed up.

His gaze fell involuntarily on the Repair Master's face, and a storm surged in his heart.

A hundred lifetimes ago, when he first came here to repair the laptop, things were far less complicated than they were now.

At that time, the Repair Master just glanced at it casually and said offhandedly: "Young man, it's not easy that this old antique can still turn on. To fix it, just a pack of cigarettes' money will do."

The whole process was as simple as could be. In his eyes, that laptop was just a piece of old junk, and after repairing it, no abnormalities were found.

Lin Fan even thought he was overthinking it at the time. But now, the Repair Master's expression, words, and even the hint of hesitation revealed when checking the equipment made him feel extremely strange.

"A tampering issue?"

Lin Fan was surprised; the Repair Master had not mentioned such a thing a hundred lifetimes ago.

Recalling it, the repair process back then was extremely fast, completed in less than half an hour.

However, his later conflict with Lin Yue was inexplicably delayed by more than two hours, making the total time exactly three hours.

Now, this Repair Master said it would take "three hours" and specifically mentioned the possibility of the data port being tampered with.

Was this a coincidence, or was it because his cognition a hundred lifetimes ago was simply insufficient to understand these technical issues?

What if the Repair Master at that time had already discovered the clues but didn't tell him?

A feeling of being manipulated by fate shrouded Lin Fan's heart like a haze.

"Something is wrong."