NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 18: Chapter 18
On the seventh day after the paradox of the snowy night in 2048 was resolved, Xiao Nuan found an ice crystal embedded in the scorch marks of the original fragment when she was repairing it in the museum. The shape was exactly the same as the burn on the palm of 17-year-old Li Xiaoming. The mark on the wrist suddenly lit up with a double ring of light, and the delivery box automatically printed out a yellowed delivery note. The address bar read "1903 Laboratory, Winter 1998", and the sender was "the sausage-making apprentice in a white coat."
"This is the address before my father started running orders." Xiao Nuan touched the gear stamp on the delivery note, and the holographic projection in the background suddenly switched: the young Professor Kay was baking sausages in the laboratory, and the oven temperature showed 1378℃, which was exactly the same as the core temperature when the metal stick first glowed 20 years ago. What's even more weird is that the fog on the oven glass actually reflected the double ring mark on Xiao Nuan's wrist.
The museum's alarm sounded at midnight. The "Eye of Eros" model in the virtual exhibition area has cracks, and what seeps out is not cold data, but golden light spots with the aroma of sausages - each light spot hides a parallel Li Xiaoming: some handed out the last sausage on a snowy night in 2025, some taught Nuan Nuan to weld the small sun bracket in 2035, and some smiled at a mysterious woman wearing sunglasses in an unknown time and space.
"They are fighting for the time beacon of the first generation system." Bingdian suddenly pushed the door in, and the popsicle mark on his wrist rarely glowed with warm light. "The sausage beacon buried by Professor Kai in 1998 can make the warmth of all parallel time and space resonate instantly." He pointed to the metal stick fragment in the display cabinet, and the scorch marks on the fracture became a vortex at this moment, "But the core of the beacon is actually the sausage that your father burned for the first time."
Xiao Nuan then remembered the "Sausage Beacon Paradox" her mother said: when the sausage is burnt, the high temperature will burn a crack on the timeline, allowing the warmth of different time and space to meet. She took out the sausage left by 17-year-old Li Xiaoming, and the new words on the sausage casing appeared under the resonance of the beacon: "1998.12.24, the first burnt sausage, Kailan said it looked like the shape of a system vulnerability."
The sausage star map suddenly appeared on the dome of the museum, and each star corresponded to a convenience store in a parallel time and space. Xiao Nuan saw herself in a certain time and space teaching her daughter to weld the little sun bracket, while Kailan in another time and space was sticking the little sun sticky note drawn by Nuan Nuan on the first-generation controller. "We have to calibrate the beacon with the real smell of sausage." Xiao Nuan placed the hot sausage in the incubator next to the fragment, and the oil splashed on the star map, causing all the light spots to rotate clockwise.
The man in the gray coat reappeared. This time, there was no powder stain on his collar, but a sausage-shaped laboratory badge: "I am Professor Kai from 1998, and I am here to pick up the burnt beacon from that year." He took off his gloves, and the mark on his wrist was the original form that had not been split - half a sausage wrapped in a gear. "Your father's mistake in burning the sausage back then accidentally created a beacon that connects all time and space."
The server suddenly beeped, and the sausage machines in each parallel time and space reversed at the same time, and the popsicles stuck between the gears began to melt. Xiao Nuan remembered the delivery log of 17-year-old Li Xiaoming, and read aloud to the beacon: "On a snowy night in 2025, Kai Lan said that the burnt marks of sausages are the best time landmarks." Before the words fell, the sausage aroma of all time and space gathered into a golden torrent, welding the cracks in the beacon into the shape of a Möbius ring.
"Beacon calibration completed." Young Professor Kai smiled and handed Xiao Nuan a glass sausage, which contained the first burnt sample from the laboratory in 1998. "Now, every deliveryman in parallel time and space can receive warm beacons from other time and space - such as the sentence your father did not finish saying in 2025."
The glass sausage suddenly lit up, and the image of Li Xiaoming 20 years ago emerged: "In fact, I knew that the sausage would be cold and the system would be broken, but the warmth of the human heart -" The image was suddenly shrouded by the smell of sausage. When it became clear again, there was a line of small words on the back of Li Xiaoming's work card: "In every parallel time and space, it will be passed on forever by another me and another you with warmth."
The snow began to fall again, and the automatic sausage machine outside the museum made a "sizzling" sound. Xiao Nuan saw the new guy in blue overalls smiling at the machine. On the back of his work badge was a yellowed sticky note with the code Xiao Nuan had written in Chapter 17: "Warmth is not a one-way delivery, it is the light in the other person's eyes when you hand over the sausage." On the return delivery vehicle, the double ring marks on Xiao Nuan's wrist finally merged into one, turning into a warm orange - the color of the sausage just out of the oven. The phone vibrated, a new order came from the "Parallel Spacetime Convenience Store", and the note read: "Please deliver the beacon that never goes out, ingredients: burnt courage, cold persistence, and the 0.3 second warm encounter that happens in every time and space."