Genius Playground

”Of course I remember.”

Jiang Ran filled his glass with beer.

’How could I ever forget that?’

It was just a few days after high school started, and no one knew each other very well. Jiang Ran and Qin Feng hadn’t even spoken to each other yet.

But during one gym class, the same middle school classmates who used to bully Qin Feng started acting up again, shouting ”fatherless child” from a distance.

Jiang Ran couldn’t stand it and went to confront them. The argument quickly escalated into a fight.

Afterward, they were inevitably criticized by the teacher and had to write self-criticism essays.

But that incident was also the catalyst. Qin Feng, Jiang Ran, and Cheng Mengxue got to know each other and gradually became a close-knit trio.

Sometimes, fate is just like that.

A wonderful encounter can be completely unexpected, and a sudden departure can come without any warning.

”That was such a small thing.”

Jiang Ran stared at his glass.

”You don’t have to keep bringing it up over and over.”

Qin Feng also picked up the beer bottle and poured some into his glass.

”To you two, it might really have been a small thing.”

GLUG GLUG GLUG. The beer poured, and foam rose to the surface, blanketing the memories with a layer of unspoken thoughts.

”You and Xiaoxue have been kind and warm-hearted since you were kids. You’ve probably helped a lot of people and done a lot of good deeds.”

”But for me, from my perspective... after all those years of being bullied, you two were the only ones who ever stood up for me. All those years, only you two protected me and defended my dignity.”

”You’re exaggerating,” Jiang Ran retorted.

”Not at all.”

Qin Feng shook his head.

”Before I met you two, there were more people who bullied me, and they did even worse things.”

”To avoid causing trouble for my mom, I always just swallowed my grievances. In the end, I was always the one who apologized.”

”Because I was afraid the teacher would call my parents. Their parents were all in the city and could get there quickly by car. But my mom was back in our hometown, working multiple jobs. She barely even slept just to earn money for our family... How could I dare ask her to come to the school?”

”Of course, my mom doted on me. If she knew I was being bullied, she would have dropped everything to come to school and back me up.”

”But...”

He gave a helpless smile and shook his head, his eyes filled with powerlessness against the past.

’Yeah.’

Now, he could earn millions with a single text message.

With the Positron Cannon in hand, his future was limitless.

While he couldn’t get everything he wished for, 99% of his desires were achievable.

But.

When faced with the memory of his mother who had shouldered the burden of the family all by herself... what use was all his present and future glory?

”But, after she came to school to back me up, what then?”

Qin Feng continued:

”After she went back, she’d still have to face a whole mess of problems, an endless pile of work, and she might even lose the job she’d worked so hard to find.”

”Not to mention, my hometown is far from the city. My mom definitely wouldn’t have been willing to pay for a chartered car; she would have taken the slow, swaying public bus for a long time, exhausting herself with the trip back and forth.”

”So, many times, so many times before that, I did the same thing as that day in high school—I’d give them a meek apology, de-escalate the situation, and do whatever it took to keep the teacher from calling my mom.”

...

Jiang Ran listened in silence, not saying a word.

’Actually, Qin Feng had said these things many times over the years.’

’This was also the reason for my intense guilt over the past few days.’

’The tragic life of mother and son began right after the family’s pillar passed away.’

’The mother toiled for her son, the son’s heart ached for his mother. She didn’t want him to suffer, he didn’t want her to struggle... and so an unbreakable, vicious cycle was formed.’

’In fact, before he met us in high school, Qin Feng’s grades weren’t particularly outstanding.’

’With his genius-level intellect, he could have easily aced every test and been first in class.’

’But... for the sake of ”not causing trouble,” ”not standing out,” and ”not putting extra pressure on his mother,” Qin Feng had intentionally controlled his scores on every exam, precisely keeping his rank in the middle of the class.’

’That was something the younger me had never understood back then.’

’If he got first place, the teachers would treat him like a prodigy, the apple of their eye. So why control his scores?’

’But later, I gradually came to understand.’

Children from unfortunate families are cautious about everything.

After his father’s death, everything he experienced had taught Qin Feng one lesson... it was better to cause less trouble than more.

”So, to get back to your earlier question.”

Qin Feng’s voice interrupted Jiang Ran’s thoughts.

He raised his full glass of beer and looked at him.

”How could I possibly hate you?”

Qin Feng’s eyes were clear.

”I never will.”

”From the moment you two stood in front of me to protect me, from the moment you helped me pick my dignity back up... I knew you were the ones.”

”You two are friends I would protect with my life.”

...

CLINK.

The beer glasses touched.

After clinking glasses, Jiang Ran and Qin Feng each took a large gulp of beer.

A chilling cold spread down their throats.

An unspoken bitterness filled their hearts.

’Being a good person is truly difficult,’ Jiang Ran felt.

’If I don’t bring up Qin Feng’s father, my heart is filled with guilt, feeling like I’ve let Qin Feng down.’

’But if I do bring it up, I feel like a real piece of scum, unwilling to even save my best friend’s father.’

’Emotion and reason were in constant, fierce collision, neither willing to yield, yet unable to coexist.’

But.

In the end.

’It was good to get these feelings and thoughts out in the open.’

After a few glasses of beer and a frank conversation between good brothers, the matter was finally behind them.

”That guy Wang Hao is so slow...”

The empty bottles on the floor were starting to pile up. On WeChat, Wang Hao’s replies were always ”Almost there,” ”Be right there,” ”A bit of traffic,” or ”This bus is so clunky.”

”Looks like Wang Hao’s financial situation really isn’t great these days.”

Jiang Ran grumbled as he hurried him along on WeChat.

”Thinking about it, have we been too extravagant lately?”

They each had several hundred thousand in their pockets.

During their university life, they weren’t buying cars, houses, or luxury goods... so the money really didn’t seem to go down, giving them the illusion that they could never spend it all.

Other students took the subway or bus, but they had fallen into the habit of taking a taxi whenever they went out.

”This little bit of luxury is nothing.”

Qin Feng said dismissively.

”After all... we’re gods, aren’t we?”

He was obviously making a joke.

He was referencing a line from the movie they had acted in.

”You’re really running that one into the ground.”

As the creator of the script, Jiang Ran felt a wave of embarrassment.

”You used that line on the cruise ship, and you’re still using it now... Just how much do you like that script I wrote?”

”I told you a long time ago, I love it.”

Qin Feng said, intrigued:

”Because I feel like the settings you wrote are actually quite realistic.”

”Especially now that we have the Time SMS, it really does feel like we’re controlling history and steering fate.”

Heh heh.

Jiang Ran gave a dry laugh.

”I’m afraid you’re the only one who praises me like that. I vaguely remember that Setting Collection I wrote back then got me a lot of ridicule from my classmates. They all said I was a daydreamer who’d lost his mind.”

”I really wish you’d been my classmate in middle school... If you had encouraged me back then, I might have gone down the path of web novel writing and become a Platinum-level author by now.”

”I wish I had been, too.”

Qin Feng leaned back in his chair.

”To be honest, I’ve read the script you wrote for the film club several times in my spare time lately.”

”You really have too much time on your hands.”

”Don’t say that. It was the first movie I ever acted in, after all. Not only have I read the script several times, I’ve also watched the final cut that Xu Yan gave us several times.”

”Oh, right. I haven’t watched that yet.”

Jiang Ran remembered.

Back on the athletic field, Xu Yan had indeed given them a USB drive, saying it contained the edited final cut of the movie and that she wanted them to watch it and give some feedback.

But he had been so busy lately, where would he find the time to watch it?

”How is it? Did it turn out well?”

Jiang Ran took a sip of beer.

”I haven’t had a chance to watch it. Or maybe I have, but because I don’t have memories from after the world-line changes, I wouldn’t remember even if I did.”

”It’s actually pretty good.”

Qin Feng agreed.

”Our acting was good, the cinematography was good too. I feel like it wouldn’t be a problem to win an award at a university film festival.”

”But... as I was watching it, I kept having this one question.”

”You originally named this story ’Genius Playground’ and said it was a game with eleven geniuses participating.”

”But in the movie script, there’s no direct depiction of the game itself.”

”I’ve always been curious, how is this game played? And what’s its ultimate goal?”

He looked up at Jiang Ran.

”So, can you tell me...”

”Just what kind of game is the Genius Playground?”