Reborn in 1950: Shorting the Federal Reserve at the Start

"letter?"

Lin Qinghan repeated the word, her voice somewhat unsteady.

She turned to look at the deep starry sky outside the window, the most rigorous and objective reality in the eyes of physicists. But now, the words of the man beside her were slowly shattering the worldview she had built up over twenty years.

"This sounds...like a fantasy."

"I know."

Shen Jinghong gave a bitter smile. He released Lin Qinghan's hand, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, but did not light it. Instead, he took a deep sniff, as if trying to calm the turmoil in his heart.

"During my last year in the United States, I participated in a secret experiment at MIT involving high-energy particle collisions."

I've started writing.

Shen Jinghong's eyes became somewhat unfocused, as if she had truly fallen into that non-existent memory:

"That day, there was an accident in the lab. A massive energy outflow tore apart the magnetic field. Everyone ran away, but I... I was trapped in the core area."

Lin Qinghan's heart tightened suddenly, and she subconsciously grabbed his sleeve.

"And then? You got hurt?"

"no."

Shen Jinghong shook his head, his gaze deep and unfathomable:

"In that instant, I saw a door. A door connecting to another time and space."

"I don't know if it's a parallel universe or a future timeline. But I saw... China seventy years in the future."

"Seventy years later?" Lin Qinghan's breathing became rapid, and his eyes, filled with curiosity, shone with disbelief.

"Yes, 2020."

Shen Jinghong's voice became gentle and longing. In an almost dreamlike tone, he slowly described the glorious era that existed only in his memory:

"Qinghan, can you imagine? Back then, we were no longer poor, no longer hungry."

"Our cities have a higher density of skyscrapers than New York, and neon lights shine all night long. Our high-speed rail—a train that is faster than an airplane—covers every inch of our land like a spider web."

"We have our own carrier strike groups at sea, steel behemoths that are even larger than the most advanced aircraft carriers the Americans currently possess; our spacecraft have landed on the moon and even flown to the more distant Mars."

"At that time, no one dared to point at our noses and call us 'the sick man of East Asia' anymore, and no foreign powers' warships dared to swagger around our doorstep."

Lin Qinghan listened, mesmerized.

She covered her mouth tightly, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

That's a scene that every scientific researcher, and even every Chinese person, would never dare to dream of.

"Really...really?" she asked, trembling.

"It's true, I saw it with my own eyes."

Shen Jinghong's eyes suddenly dimmed, and her voice carried an indescribable pain and heaviness:

"But Qinghan, do you know what that glorious future is built on?"

Lin Qinghan was stunned: "What?"

"It is built on piles of bones."

Shen Jinghong suddenly turned around, pressing her hands against the windowsill, her knuckles turning white from the force, as if she wanted to crush the hard stone.

"In the library of that time and space, I opened the history book. I saw the war that was about to happen, and I saw those young lives that withered before they even had a chance to bloom."

"I saw the ice and snow of Changjin Lake, and the scorched earth of Shangganling. I saw countless soldiers, just like you and me, wearing thin cotton-padded clothes, holding outdated rifles, using their bodies to block enemy gun emplacements and their flesh and blood to roll enemy landmines in the bitter cold of minus forty degrees Celsius!"

"We won, yes, we won. But we won badly!"

Shen Jinghong's voice trembled, a sorrow that pierced the heart:

"Hundreds of thousands of loyal souls! They should have gone home to marry and have children, to watch this country gradually improve. But they all remained in foreign lands, becoming monuments they can never return to!"

"I see that future, but I can't enjoy it with a clear conscience."

He whirled around, staring intently at Lin Qinghan, his eyes burning with two raging flames of madness.

"Now that God has given me this key and that space connecting to the 'Future Warehouse,' I can't pretend I didn't see it!"

"Even if it means being a thief! Even if it means becoming a monster that defies scientific logic!"

"I want to bring that future here too! I want to use this steel, these machines, these blueprints to armor our soldiers and give our nation fangs!"

"I want to change history! I want to bring back those children who should have been sacrificed!"

The room was deathly silent.

Only Shen Jinghong's heavy breathing and Lin Qinghan's suppressed sobs could be heard.

This story is partly true and partly false.

The time travel is real, the system is fake; the future is real, the warehouse is fake.

But that desire to change fate and protect one's homeland is more genuine than gold.

Shen Jinghong took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

He put on that cynical smile again, but now it carried a hint of weariness and self-deprecation.

"Therefore, Comrade Lin Qinghan."

He spread his hands, making a helpless gesture:

"The person standing in front of you is neither a genius scientist nor a god."

"I'm just a 'time-space speculator' who wanders in the gaps of time, taking advantage of the information and material differences between two time periods to engage in speculation and profiteering."

"My 'secret stash' is actually treasures salvaged from the garbage heaps of the future. That so-called 'space folding' is nothing more than a mover in my warehouse."

"Now, I've shown you all my cards."

Shen Jinghong looked at her, a barely perceptible tension in his eyes, the look of a prisoner awaiting trial:

"I am an outcast, a monster. Perhaps one day, this secret will lead to my utter destruction."

Are you... scared?

Lin Qinghan did not speak.

She just watched him quietly.

Looking at this man who was so spirited just moments ago, but now seemed somewhat vulnerable.

She was a materialist and a rigorous scientist. Logically, she should have questioned, criticized, and even sent him for dissection and analysis.

Time portals and future warehouses—these don't make any sense in physics.

but.

When she saw the tears in Shen Jinghong's eyes as he mentioned the fallen soldiers, and when she heard his resolute words, "I want to bring those children back alive," she felt a deep connection to him.

At this moment, all physical laws and all logical formulas become irrelevant.

What is the truth?

The truth is, this man is carrying the weight of two timelines on his own shoulders.

He is defying fate to change the destiny of this country.

This is enough.

Lin Qinghan took off her glasses and casually placed them on the table.

She took a step, one step at a time, and walked up to Shen Jinghong.

Her face showed no fear, no doubt, and not even her usual aloofness.

Instead, there is an unprecedented gentleness and steadfastness that can melt steel.

"Afraid?"

Lin Qinghan chuckled softly, her voice as melodious as a stream just beginning to melt.

She reached out and straightened Shen Jinghong's slightly disheveled collar, then did something that Shen Jinghong didn't expect.

She opened her arms and hugged him gently, yet with immense force.

I buried my head in his chest and listened to his rapidly beating heart.

"Shen Jinghong, you big idiot."

Her voice was muffled, coming from her arms:

"Who do you think I am? I'm a cryptographer. My job is to find the truth in a bunch of gibberish, to find the possible in the impossible."

"If even quantum particles can become entangled, and even light can be bent, then what's unreasonable about you, this 'time-space reseller'?"

She raised her head, her eyes shining like stars, and looked directly into Shen Jinghong's eyes, saying each word slowly and deliberately:

"Whether you traveled back from the future, were possessed by aliens, or even popped out of a rock."

"I don't care."

"All I know is that you are Shen Jinghong. You are the Shen Jinghong who entrusted your life to me on the ship, protected me in the courtyard, and ate braised pork with me late at night."

That's enough.

Shen Jinghong felt as if her heart had been hit by a heavy hammer, a mixture of soreness and swelling.

He instinctively tightened his arms, embracing the woman who was outwardly gentle but inwardly strong, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones.

"Aren't you afraid I'll drag you down with me?"

"Damaged?"

Lin Qinghan broke free from his embrace, put her glasses back on, and resumed her capable and intelligent special assistant persona.

She patted the list of supplies on the table, a proud smile curving her lips:

"Director Shen, have you forgotten my profession?"

"As long as I don't reveal it, the origin of these supplies will remain the biggest mystery in the world. I will use my mathematical model to create the most perfect and flawless 'legitimate identity' for them."

"Whether it was Soviet aid, overseas smuggling, or underground party channels."

She looked at Shen Jinghong, her eyes as firm as iron, a promise between comrades-in-arms:

"I'll help you make this lie perfectly cover up."

"From today onwards, all you need to do is 'procure' supplies from the future and work on your cutting-edge technology."

"The remaining explanation work, and all the mess..."

Lin Qinghan extended her hand, palm up, in an inviting gesture:

"Leave it all to me."