Genius Playground

”That was over a decade ago. Xiaoxue and I were both five or six years old, childhood friends who were innocent and carefree. We’d run around and play together every day.”

Jiang Ran gazed out at the sea, feeling the wind grow progressively colder.

”Something happened that year. I nearly died.”

”Or you could say that I *was* dead. At least 99.99% dead.”

PFFT—

Qin Feng spat out his drink.

”Sorry.”

He wiped his mouth, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

”I know I shouldn’t be laughing at such a serious moment, but that death percentage is just... What kind of ridiculously specific metaphor is that?”

But Jiang Ran shook his head.

”It’s not an exaggeration at all. Under normal circumstances, I would have died for sure. But, well, I’m still alive. That’s why I said 99.99%.”

”The situation back then was a lot like when I jumped into the river to save that drowning kid the other day.”

”My six-year-old self played the hero once, too. But the one who fell in the water wasn’t a stranger. It was... six-year-old Xiaoxue.”

Qin Feng’s expression turned serious.

He had a vague idea of what was coming.

”We were running around on a small hill, and Xiaoxue lost her footing and slid down, falling into the river.”

”Of course, she didn’t know how to swim back then and immediately started flailing before sinking beneath the surface. And, of course, six-year-old me didn’t know how to swim, either.”

Qin Feng blinked.

”Don’t tell me you...”

”I did.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

”I didn’t even think. I just ran to the riverbank and jumped in.”

”It wasn’t really about being brave or anything. It was pure, fearless ignorance. Plus, back in kindergarten, my parents were always telling me to look after Xiaoxue and protect her from being bullied.”

”Kids don’t know any better. They drilled it into my head, so I saw protecting her as my responsibility. She fell in the water, so of course I had to jump in after her.”

”You can guess what happened next. After I jumped in, my feet couldn’t even touch the bottom, and I immediately choked on water. But I forced my eyes open and used all my strength to push Xiaoxue toward the bank.”

”It was just luck that Xiaoxue managed to grab onto a sewage pipe and climb out. But I was swept away by the current and quickly suffocated, losing consciousness.”

Qin Feng’s brow furrowed.

’He never would have guessed they had a history like this.’

No wonder... No wonder Cheng Mengxue had such an uncharacteristically frantic reaction when she saw Jiang Ran jump in the water to save someone.

”What happened then?” he urged.

”Everything after that is what other people told me.”

Jiang Ran looked out at the sea.

”Like I said, I had already drowned and was unconscious. I don’t remember anything that happened after.”

”They said that after Xiaoxue got to shore, she sprinted along the river, screaming for help.”

”Some adults nearby heard her cries, and a kind person immediately jumped into the water and pulled me out... but that was already several minutes later.”

”Apparently, I wasn’t breathing by then. My face was purple, and my heart had stopped. The adults immediately started giving me mouth-to-mouth and doing CPR, but nothing worked.”

Qin Feng’s palms grew sweaty as he tensed up.

Now he truly understood what ”99.99% dead” meant.

Suffocating in the water, heart stopping, unresponsive to CPR, deprived of oxygen for nearly ten minutes... Calling that 99.99% dead wasn’t an exaggeration at all.

”Then...”

He looked at Jiang Ran.

”What was the 0.01%?”

”What was the 0.01% situation that brought you back to life?”

Jiang Ran smiled.

He stretched in the sea breeze.

”A coincidence.”

”A coincidence?”

”That’s right. The ultimate coincidence.”

Jiang Ran continued.

”I almost have to laugh thinking about it now. You know how those adults were giving me CPR? When they saw I wasn’t waking up, they started pressing on my chest harder and harder. They even broke my ribs, and my head was bouncing up and down, smacking against the ground.”

”Just then, an elementary school student with a backpack was walking by on the hill. He slipped, and his backpack fell open on the ground. His school supplies flew out—pencils, erasers, rulers, all scattering everywhere.”

”And as luck would have it, one of the pencils bounced and tumbled down the hill, landing right under my neck.”

He subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck.

”The adult doing CPR happened to be pushing down with all his might right at that moment, and as a result...”

”Gah!”

Qin Feng sucked in a sharp breath. A gruesome image flashed through his mind, and he felt a phantom pain in the back of his neck, as if a sharp pencil point had been forcefully jabbed into it!

”The pencil point stabbed deep into the back of my neck.”

Jiang Ran scratched at the spot on his nape with his fingernail.

”You probably know I have a small dark mark here. You’ve asked me about it before.”

”I remember.”

Qin Feng opened his left palm.

”I got stabbed in the palm with a pencil when I was a kid, too. I still have a little dark blue dot. It’s kind of like a tattoo.”

”I do remember asking you why you had a dark spot on the back of your neck. You said a pencil did it, and I didn’t think much of it. Who hasn’t been poked by a pencil after all these years of school?”

”But I never imagined that little mark on your neck had such a story behind it. So... that pencil that just happened to fall was the 0.01% that saved you?”

”That’s right.”

Jiang Ran let out a soft chuckle.

”The pencil went in pretty deep. My whole body went rigid, my legs kicked out, and all the water in my lungs shot out. In the middle of a violent coughing fit... my heartbeat came back.”

”Incredible.”

Qin Feng was in awe.

Truth really is stranger than fiction.

That pencil must have hit a nerve, like a jolt of electroshock therapy, causing all his muscles to tense up and unexpectedly restarting his cardiopulmonary functions.

That kind of internal stimulus was far more effective than external chest compressions.

”When I woke up, I saw Xiaoxue. Her voice was hoarse from screaming, and her mouth was bleeding. She was hugging me and sobbing her heart out.”

Jiang Ran turned his head to look at the second-floor window.

That was Cheng Mengxue’s room. The sleeping beauty was long lost in her dreams by now.

”After that, she dragged me along to sign up for swimming lessons.”

”I just went there to splash around and have fun, but Xiaoxue practiced with an intensity that was almost excessive.”

”That’s why, you see, even her diving has perfect form. I guess... my near-death experience was just too much of a shock for her.”

...

「And with that.」

Qin Feng finally understood everything.

He had thought Cheng Mengxue was just overly worried about Jiang Ran, which was why she had lost her composure, realized her feelings for him, and was about to confess while tipsy...

All wrong.

He had been completely wrong.

This wasn’t some cliché love story, but a traumatic memory of being separated by life and death.

For Cheng Mengxue, the act of saving someone from drowning was the source of her deepest psychological scar, her greatest trauma.

The moment Jiang Ran jumped off the bridge, all Cheng Mengxue could see flashing before her eyes was the scene from over a decade ago... the little boy who jumped into the river to save her, the boy who had been 99.99% dead.

It was her most terrifying nightmare.

And the scene she feared most.

”Okay, I admit it. I was wrong.”

Qin Feng patted Jiang Ran’s shoulder.

”Sorry.”

”It’s fine.”

...

The two fell silent.

The moonlight vanished behind dark clouds again.

The crowds on the lower deck dispersed, and the lights went out.

The night grew quiet.

Seabirds landed in the moon’s shadow to fight over leftover scraps, and the sound of steel cutting through the water was a constant SPLASHING.

Waves lapped against the ship’s hull, layer by layer, washing away the traces of time, cleansing their hearts and minds.

”But there’s one thing I wasn’t wrong about.”

Qin Feng turned his head.

”Forget what other people think of you, and forget whether you’ve been ordinary or outstanding all these years. In Xiaoxue’s eyes, you haven’t changed one bit—”

”From the moment you jumped into that water at six years old, you became her one-and-only hero.”

Jiang Ran neither confirmed nor denied it, just smiled faintly.

”Why don’t you take an Adolescent Psychology class?”

”The three of us should take it together next semester.”

”Forget it.”

WHOOOOOM—

A low, deep blast from the ship’s horn sounded.

It was a signal that had long lost its meaning in modern seafaring, now repurposed as the cruise ship’s bell to mark the hour.

The horn’s blast signaled the end of all the day’s entertainment, reminding the tourists to return to their cabins and rest safely.

”Let’s go.”

Jiang Ran pushed himself off the railing with both hands and headed for the stairs.

”Huh?”

He noticed Qin Feng wasn’t following.

”What’s wrong?” Jiang Ran asked, confused.

Qin Feng still didn’t say anything.

He walked over to the dining table.

He picked up a green jujube from the fruit platter.

And tossed it to Jiang Ran.

THWAP.

Jiang Ran reached out and caught it neatly.

”Jiang Ran.”

Qin Feng narrowed his eyes, looking at the jujube in Jiang Ran’s palm.

”That pencil...”

”Do you really think it was a coincidence?”