Genius Playground

”The short film I wrote the script for—the one for Xu Yan—won an award at the college film festival. It wasn’t announced publicly, though, because a production company bought the script. I got a cut of the copyright fee.”

’The NDA only specified that the script’s content had to be kept secret,’ he thought. ’The fact that the deal happened is fine to talk about, as long as I don’t reveal any details about the short film.’

”So, I want to buy a car for my dad. I know you’re a big car guy, so I wanted to ask you what would be a good fit.”

”Whoa!”

Wang Hao was clearly surprised on the other end of the line.

”You hit the jackpot, bro! You should’ve waited for me! I haven’t even started my internship at the dealership yet. What’s the rush?”

”Listen to me, just hang onto the money for now. Wait until next semester when I’m actually working as a sales intern at a dealership. You can be my first sale. Who knows? That first big sale might be what gets me a full-time offer.”

Jiang Ran switched the phone to his other hand.

”This is for my dad. I’m finally back for the holidays, so I want to buy it for him now.”

”If you really do intern at a dealership, I’ll definitely support you. I’ll just buy another one from you then. Worst case, I’ll just drive it myself. I have a license, after all.”

”Stop messing around and just give me some recommendations. For a guy my dad’s age, what kind of car is good these days?”

”Get an Aito.”

Wang Hao really did know his stuff about cars.

”It’s a favorite among middle-aged and older guys. Get him a tri-fold phone to go with it, and you’ve unlocked the ultimate middle-aged dad starter pack. He’ll look impressive no matter where he goes.”

”If you’ve got a lot of money, get the M9. If not, the M8 or M7 are fine too. Anyway, for a guy your dad’s age, you can’t go wrong just blindly buying Huawei.”

”OK.”

Jiang Ran didn’t know anything about cars, so he trusted Wang Hao’s judgment.

”Alright, that’s the plan.”

...

The next day, Jiang Ran contacted a few dealers, found a dealership that had the car in stock for immediate pickup, and bought it outright with a single payment.

”By card.”

DING—

With a single swipe of his card, the Aito M9 was his.

’It felt damn good to have money.’

He immediately took care of the temporary plate paperwork, drove the car home, and sent a photo to Wang Hao.

The guy on the other end was floored.

He called immediately:

”You actually just went and bought it! That was fast!”

”Why not?”

”I’m taking the high-speed train back tomorrow. You should come pick me up from the station. I’ll have a lot of stuff.”

”OK.”

After hanging up, Jiang Ran went for a casual drive and decided to go take a look at Cheng Mengxue’s old house.

But...

It wasn’t Cheng Mengxue’s home anymore.

After their only daughter passed away, Cheng Mengxue’s parents left town for good, moved to the United States, and sold the house.

Jiang Ran had no intention of judging Cheng Mengxue’s parents for what they did.

Even though he didn’t think that moving far away would ease the pain of losing a daughter... you can’t truly understand someone’s suffering unless you’ve walked in their shoes.

He drove to the neighborhood where Cheng Mengxue’s house was.

Her family lived on the first floor and had a small yard enclosed by a low wall. In his childhood memories, he and Cheng Mengxue had often played in that yard.

Standing outside the low wall now, looking at the layout inside—so completely different from his memories—he truly understood the depth of that ancient poem:

”The world remains, but the person is gone, and all is meaningless. Before I can even speak, tears start to fall.”

A poem by Li Qingzhao.

During this summer break, Jiang Ran was determined to uncover the truth behind Cheng Mengxue’s car accident all those years ago.

But he didn’t know where to start.

Just then, a woman came out of the house, holding a watering can, about to water the flowers.

She saw Jiang Ran and tilted her head in confusion.

”Can I help you?”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

”The people who used to live in this house were my neighbors when I was a kid. Their daughter was a good friend of mine.”

”Oh, I see.”

The woman relaxed her guard.

”I heard... their daughter passed away in a car accident, and then the couple moved to the United States. We’re the ones who bought the house from them.”

”We’ve been living here for two years now. They were in a hurry to sell, so the price was much lower than the market rate. I happened to need a place in this school district for my kid, so I bought it.”

Jiang Ran leaned closer to the wall and continued asking,

”Have you been in contact with them since?”

”No.”

At this, the woman sounded quite displeased.

”They left in such a hurry, and a lot of follow-up matters weren’t taken care of. Afterward, we couldn’t reach them by phone, and they wouldn’t reply to our WeChat messages. It was a real headache for my husband and me.”

”Anyway, that family was pretty irresponsible. We had to pull some strings to get all the paperwork sorted out. Otherwise, my kid wouldn’t have been able to enroll in the local school.”

Jiang Ran nodded silently.

This didn’t match his impression of Cheng Mengxue’s parents.

’Her parents were very kind people.’

’And they were very responsible.’

’Otherwise, they couldn’t have raised a daughter like Cheng Mengxue, who was so well-behaved and had such upright values.’

’If what the woman said was true, and her parents had become so irresponsible and just washed their hands of everything... it could only be because they were overwhelmed with grief after their only daughter’s death.’

”By the way, do you know any of their relatives?” the woman suddenly asked.

”I know one.”

Jiang Ran immediately thought of Xu Yan.

”Oh, that’s perfect. Could you do me a favor?”

The woman put down her watering can and wiped her hands on her apron.

”Wait here a moment.”

With that, she walked over to a tool shed in the yard and came back out carrying a square, basketball-sized iron box.

The iron box was covered in rust spots, mottled all over, and had long since lost its original color. It was clear it had been around for many years.

The woman placed the rusty iron box on the yard wall and dusted off her hands.

”A month ago, I dug up the pomegranate tree in the yard to plant some flowers. While I was loosening the soil over there, I dug up this iron box.”

”I shook it, and it sounds like there’s something inside, but it has a combination lock on it and I can’t open it.”

”I have no idea if there’s anything valuable inside, and I don’t dare throw it away. What if the original owners come looking for it someday? But leaving it around... it’s so ugly, it’s a real eyesore.”

”Could you do me a favor and give this iron box to their relative? Let them decide what to do with it. That way, it’ll have nothing to do with us anymore, and if there are any problems, they won’t come looking for us.”

Jiang Ran picked up the rust-covered iron box.

He gave it a shake.

It was much lighter than he’d expected. There seemed to be the sound of glass clinking inside, but he couldn’t tell what it was.

”Alright.”

Jiang Ran agreed.

’Clearly, the woman saw this box as a hot potato, or maybe just non-burnable trash. But she was afraid of the responsibility and was desperate to get it off her hands.’

So he had no choice but to take it.

Besides... Jiang Ran was genuinely curious about what was inside.

’Did Cheng Mengxue bury it?’

’Probably.’

But she had never mentioned this box to him, so Jiang Ran couldn’t be sure.

Driving his brand-new car home, Jiang Ran carried the iron box upstairs to his bedroom and set it on his desk.

He tried to open it, but it was locked tight.

Sure enough, there was a combination lock on the front, its dials caked with dirt and impossible to turn.

’It’s like a safe.’

Speaking of safes, he remembered a novel Wang Hao had complained to him about.

Wang Hao had said that reading that novel nearly drove him crazy with anger.

Can you believe it?

A safe that appeared in the very first Chapter wasn’t opened until the final Chapter, 2.83 million characters later!

”Who the hell writes a novel like that!”

Wang Hao had cursed up a storm during their barbecue that day.

”Serves him right that the book flopped! The whole internet was flaming it!”

But what happened next was dramatic.

After surviving its initial slump, the novel’s popularity skyrocketed.

”Actually, overall it wasn’t bad. It was pretty good.”

After he had calmed down, Wang Hao gave his objective assessment:

”At the very least, it was worth the [Monthly Passes] I voted with.”

...

Jiang Ran stared silently at the combination safe before him.

”I don’t have that kind of patience,”

he muttered.

With that, he got up, went to the balcony, and brought in his father’s toolbox.

He found a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer.

DONG DONG DONG! BANG BANG BANG! CLANG CLANG CLANG!

SNAP.

After some destructive disassembly...

the combination safe, sealed by time for years...

snapped open!