Genius Club

Chapter 511: 42, Blue Eyes, and the Origin of Everything

this novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation

on november 2, 1952, at precisely 12:37 pm, in a secluded house on marshall street, princeton, albert einstein had gone without sleep for an entire day and night. for a man in his seventies, staying awake for over 24 hours was nothing short of a challenge to death itself.

yet, he couldn’t stop.

for the past 24 sleepless, foodless hours, einstein remained seated at his desk in the study, motionless. the sound of a fountain pen scratching against paper echoed in the room as he scribbled furiously. sheets of draft paper, already filled with calculations, lay scattered across the floor. even now, another piece fluttered to the ground, discarded from his desk.

“the... cosmological constant...” einstein murmured hoarsely, licking his dry, cracked lips that hadn’t tasted water in hours.

he was overwhelmed with excitement.

thrilled beyond measure.

never in his wildest dreams had he imagined revisiting and making progress on a topic he had once proposed and dismissed.

his sharp eyes were glued to the lines of derivations on the paper before him.

it was only yesterday, after witnessing the detonation of a hydrogen bomb, that a new idea, a revolutionary method of derivation, struck him. before that moment, such thoughts had never crossed his mind.

now, as he reviewed his calculations, everything seemed to fit. the cosmological constant, the concept he had once doubted, truly existed!

with this fresh approach, the calculation process flowed smoothly, devoid of any obstacles. the beauty of the equations, their symmetry, and elegance assured einstein of one thing: only a correct path could yield such exquisite precision.

it was unimaginable.

he might actually be on the brink of calculating the cosmological constant!

“what could the value of the cosmological constant be?” he whispered.

tossing aside yet another sheet filled with equations, he began anew on a fresh page, advancing his derivations step by step.

closer.

closer.

the equations grew ever more concise, and the final result seemed imminent. what was the cosmological constant? what did it signify? what unique power did it hold? questions that had haunted him for half his life might soon find answers.nôv(el)b\\jnn

closer.

closer.

the pen’s scratching sound filled the room as einstein’s latest draft quickly filled with calculations. only one corner of the page remained blank, and there, the ultimate equation, now simplified to its purest form, awaited resolution.

einstein’s breath quickened.

his eyes widened in disbelief.

“a... whole number?”

though the exact answer wasn’t yet written, he had already calculated it mentally. the cosmological constant, astonishingly, was an integer!

“no, that’s impossible!”

a wave of panic washed over him.

according to his original hypothesis, the cosmological constant should have been an infinitesimal number, so small it was negligible even on a galactic scale. it should have approached zero—infinitely close to nothing.

but now...

why was it an integer?

“could i have made a mistake?”

shaking his head, einstein instantly dismissed the notion.

the calculations had progressed too flawlessly, as if guided by inevitability itself. there could be no error.

even if the result defied conventional wisdom.

mathematics, after all, was absolute. the answer had to be correct.

tossing aside the current draft, einstein inhaled deeply and focused on a fresh sheet of paper.

lifting his pen, he poised its tip over the blank surface.

with two quick strokes, he wrote the final value of the cosmological constant:

42.

buzz~~~~~

the instant his pen left the paper, the space behind him began to ripple, as if a stone had been dropped into a pond. waves of distortion radiated outward, accompanied by a high-pitched hum that seemed to slice through the air.

then, without warning, two apple-sized, crackling blue electric orbs emerged from the rift. their azure glow filled the room, painting everything in shades of eerie blue.

einstein, sensing something amiss, spun around abruptly.

but it was too late.

one of the glowing orbs darted toward him with blinding speed. in the blink of an eye, it fused into his chest, silent and seamless.

boom...

einstein’s mind exploded with a singularity of light, engulfed in pure whiteness. his vision faded to nothingness; every thought vanished, replaced by an all-consuming void. his body went limp, his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed, unconscious. his head struck the desk, landing squarely on the draft paper where the number 42 was scrawled.

the second blue orb didn’t linger.

with calculated precision, it zipped out of the house in a series of bright flashes, heading eastward into the sky—

...

at the same time...

on the rooftop of the williamsburg savings bank clock tower, lin xian leaned against the railing, locking eyes with cc just a few steps away.

below them, out of sight, the massive clock face ticked steadily. the hour hand strained toward one, the minute hand had just passed eight, and the second hand circled tirelessly, fulfilling its unending duty.

a brisk winter wind swept across the open platform above the clock, stirring the hems of lin xian and cc’s clothes.

“you lied to me?” lin xian blinked in mild surprise.

“about what?”

cc clasped her hands behind her back, shifting uneasily.

“huh?”

lin xian froze, trying to turn around to see what was behind him—

“lin xian, watch out!”

cc’s face went pale.

she used all her strength to push lin xian aside, throwing herself in the path of the “blue cannonball” instead.

“cc!” lin xian shouted.

he watched helplessly as the orb—a spacetime particle—collided with cc.

it wasn’t just an orb. it was charged with violent electricity, glowing with an eerie blue light, radiating both energy and life.

the spacetime particle brushed past lin xian’s ear as he stumbled, only to be intercepted by cc, who dove forward. the particle plunged straight into her body.

in an instant, cc’s body turned an ethereal, transparent blue, almost blending into the blue sky behind her.

“cc!”

lin xian scrambled to his feet, reaching out to catch her.

but his hands grasped at nothing.

cc’s entire form had become intangible, like air. no matter how much he reached, he couldn’t touch her.

“lin xian...” cc’s voice trembled as she stared at him, her gaze fixated.

“your eyes...”

lin xian turned toward the nearby glass, catching his reflection.

his pupils—once a deep black—had turned a brilliant, glowing blue, sparkling like galaxies. they were identical to yellow finch’s eyes.

at the same time, his face began to change.

his cheekbones rose. his sharp face became square and rugged. his nose grew taller, and his eye sockets deepened.

spacetime rejection.

the dreaded spacetime rejection was happening.

the laws of spacetime, the spacetime particle, the millennial stake, the blue eyes—lin xian immediately understood what was going on.

“cc!!”

he spun around.

but all he saw was—

whoosh.

whoosh.

whoosh.

cc’s nearly transparent body dissolved into a burst of stardust, scattering like sand in the wind.

“cc!” lin xian lunged forward, his hands clawing desperately at the air, but he caught nothing.

the stardust floated further and further away until it vanished into nothingness.

thud.

the white gift box containing the twenty-dollar watch fell to the ground and popped open, the watch tumbling out.

lin xian lowered his head, staring at the slightly crude watch face.

the hour, minute, and second hands pointed to a familiar time—

12:42.

converted to dragon country’s time, it was exactly 00:42.

“ah...”

lin xian clenched his fists, his heart breaking.

inside the white gift box, he noticed a folded piece of handwritten paper, faint black ink showing through the folds.

his heart pounded as chaos swirled in his mind.

suppressing the storm of emotions within him, lin xian picked up the note and unfolded it.

the handwriting was delicate, the words playful:

“starting tomorrow, daylight saving time ends. don’t forget to set your watch back an hour~”

thud.

lin xian punched the ground, gripping his head as chills coursed through his body.

he had seen it all too clearly—

the spacetime particle that had turned cc into stardust wasn’t meant for her.

if cc hadn’t pushed him aside, the particle would have hit him instead.

“which means...”

lin xian’s voice trembled.

he realized, even his voice was no longer his own. the spacetime rejection had altered his appearance and even his voice, leaving him entirely unrecognizable.

“the one who should have been hit by that spacetime particle, the one who should have turned into a millennial stake, the one who should have dissolved into stardust...”

lin xian took a deep, shuddering breath, his teeth clenched tight.

“...was me.”