Long River Eternity

"Immortal? How do we look like immortals?" Shi Gang asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Suddenly, the woman who had been kneeling on the ground stood up and rushed into the house. A moment later, she came out with two children, one about four years old and the other five years old. The three of them knelt on the ground in unison. The woman mumbled something, then lay on the ground with the two children, as if waiting for something.

"What did she say just now?" Yang An turned to look at Professor Qin.

"It seems like she wants us to choose her child." Professor Qin said uncertainly.

While everyone was still confused, the people in the other rooms also noticed what was happening. After a moment of silence, as if they suddenly understood something, they brought their children to Yang An and the others, then knelt on the ground, their eyes full of anticipation.

"What should we do now?" Seeing this strange scene, Ye Tingxue hid behind Yang An like a frightened rabbit, her voice trembling.

"Let's leave the village first. In this situation, staying here will only cause more chaos." Han Dong, who had been silent, said at this time.

"Let's go first. It seems that we can't get anything out of him. Besides, the agreed time is almost here. We need to return to the forest and wait for the time tunnel to open." Yang An made a decisive decision.

He quickly led the team out of the village and ran towards the forest when they came.

The villagers did not stop them, but just looked up and watched them leave, their eyes full of disappointment and helplessness.

Everyone walked towards the forest without looking back. When they were a hundred meters away from the village, they found that the villagers did not chase them, they breathed a sigh of relief and gradually slowed down their pace.

"It's so weird. Do they really think we are gods? It seems like we didn't do anything?" Hao Fei asked, panting.

"At first, the village woman was quite wary of us. It seemed that she became excited after Professor Qin told her that we came from the other side of the mountain," Ye Tingxue recalled.

"Could there really be gods living on the other side of the mountain?" Hao Fei guessed in surprise.

"Where do gods come from in this world? How can you, a person who studies geology, be so superstitious?" Shi Gang punched Hao Fei and said unhappily.

"All the creatures in the Classic of Mountains and Seas have appeared. I think it's reasonable that there are gods and immortals." Hao Fei said unconvinced.

"Could it be that we didn't travel to ancient times at all, but just accidentally entered an undiscovered primeval forest. The natives here live an ancient life. Modern people once came here and were mistaken for gods by them. So when they saw our modern clothes, they thought we were also gods?" Ye Tingxue speculated.

"Tingxue, your imagination is too rich. Do you think this is the Peach Blossom Spring and we are Tao Yuanming?" Yang Nian rubbed Ye Tingxue's head and said with a smile.

"This is called a bold hypothesis, and it requires careful verification." Ye Tingxue pouted.

"No matter what, take the information you see here back first, and bring some plant and soil samples back for research later. Shi Gang, you should have made some marks on the way here, right?" Yang An said.

"Those who have made their mark, follow me." Shi Gang said as he came to the front of the team to lead the way.

"The passage will be opened in less than an hour. Everyone should speed up and be alert to your surroundings," Yang An instructed.

The team moved quickly through the woods, the rustling of leaves whispering about their adventure. Everyone felt complicated and nervous, as if they could hear their own heartbeats.

In the last five minutes of the agreed time, everyone returned to the place where they woke up.

"The time-space tunnel should be opened in this area by then. Everyone, please pay attention to the movements around you." Yang An said to everyone.

One minute... two minutes... three minutes, and soon five minutes passed. Except for the rustling of leaves in the wind, there was no sound around.

Everyone looked at Yang An in confusion.

"Wait a little longer." Yang An soothed him, but a strong sense of unease was spreading in his heart.

Soon, another ten minutes passed.

Hao Fei was the first to lose patience and complained, "Dr. Wang is so unreliable. He even delayed such an important matter."

"Old Yang, what do you think?" Shi Gang asked Yang An nervously.

"Something big might have happened..." Yang An said in a low voice after looking around unwillingly.

Hearing Yang An's words, everyone looked at Yang An, their eyes full of confusion and uneasiness.

"Are you saying that the earthquake when we came here damaged the time machine?" Ye Tingxue asked tentatively.

"It's not that simple. Even if the time machine breaks down, since China can build the first one, it can build the second one, even if there is a gap of 10 or 20 years in between. As long as the second time machine comes out, Dr. Wang will open the time channel at the agreed coordinates. For us, only three hours will have passed." Yang An explained.

"Could it be that our time travel created another parallel universe, and we are no longer in the same time and space as Dr. Wang in the future?" Ye Tingxue used his imagination again.

"No, before us, there have been other people who have successfully traveled back and forth in a short time span. Facts have proved that time travel does not create a parallel universe. That is just a plot in the movie." Yang An shook his head.

"Could it be that Dr. Wang has lost our coordinates and doesn't know where we are? So he can't take us back? After all, we originally only traveled to 5 years ago." Yang Nian asked unwillingly.

"No, as long as the time channel has been opened, it will leave traces in the computer. Even if a new one is built, the previous data can be restored to find the destination of the channel, and the channel can be opened again. Dr. Wang has said all this before." Yang An shook his head helplessly.

"Then what's going on? Don't keep us in suspense." Shi Gang said anxiously.

"The only possibility is that if the first time machine is damaged, no second time machine will be built." Yang An said the result that no one wanted to hear.

"Are you saying that China no longer has the ability to build a second one?" Shi Gang asked.

"No, I didn't explain it clearly enough. What I meant was that humans have never built another time machine. After all, even if the Americans finally got the time machine, they would open the passage and prevent me from going back after they learned that we had traveled through time. They also want to know the results of this experiment." Yang An said with despair in his tone.

"You just said that if you can build the first one, you can build the second one, unless..." At this point, Shi Gang seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly widened his eyes, his pupils trembled, and turned his head to look at Yang An in disbelief.

Everyone here is an elite in their respective fields, not a single fool. Having said that, everyone looked at Yang An, their eyes filled with despair.

At this time, Yang An's voice sounded faintly: "A long time ago, someone speculated that with the speed of human technological development, a time machine would definitely be created in the future. Then why has no one from the future ever come to our time? His final conclusion was that humans would have become extinct before the time machine came out."

"Stop talking, this is unbelievable. Everything was fine when we came here, but now you say that humans are extinct? This is impossible!" Hao Fei was timid to begin with, and now he was the first to collapse after hearing this devastating speculation. He slumped down on the ground, holding his head, and kept whispering the word "impossible".

The air was filled with despair, and everyone looked at each other, as if the whole world was collapsing at this moment.