Genius Playground

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Jiang Ran couldn’t help but click his tongue.

’This Assassin is full of secrets! I wonder when I’ll be able to peel him clean like an onion, layer by layer!’

Fortunately.

Thanks to his younger brother Fang Ze’s heartfelt confession today, I should be able to pry his mouth open at least a little when I get to the Future Prison in 2045 tomorrow morning.

”Fang Ze, thank you for trusting me enough to tell me so much about your brother.”

”Sorry, I just didn’t have any other choice.”

Fang Ze said frankly,

”If the police were willing to take the case, it would be fine if they just arrested my brother. I don’t want to see him get in any deeper on this path of killing.”

”But if we’re going to call the police, we need to find some evidence, some clues.”

”Otherwise, we’d have nothing but our word for it. If we just say my brother is going to kill someone at East Sea University, without a specific time, place, motive, or victim... the police won’t take us seriously.”

”Don’t worry.”

Jiang Ran faced the night sky outside the window, standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed at the moon, a silver disc hidden behind dark clouds.

”I’ll figure something out.”

...

The next day, Jiang Ran arrived early at the Film Club’s activity room.

It wasn’t time to meet Chi Xiaoguo yet, so he sat on the sofa, closed his eyes, and sank into thought.

The things Fang Ze had told him last night had left him feeling a little uneasy and worried.

The Regrets Mutual Aid Association.

This mysterious organization, which seemed like a brainwashing cult, always made him connect it to Zhou Xiong, Lilith, the script, the film company, and the exorbitant 12-million-yuan hush money.

By now, of course, he no longer believed that Cheng Mengxue had been resurrected by Zhou Xiong and Lilith.

And he certainly didn’t believe that the Regrets Mutual Aid Association could, as its doctrine claimed, make up for all of life’s regrets.

Then the organization’s purpose...

Could only be deception, brainwashing, crime, and swindling people out of their money.

’But I still feel like the Assassin isn’t the type to be so foolish as to be deceived and brainwashed.’

Jiang Ran frowned.

A contradiction.

His roommate Fang Ze’s story was full of contradictions when compared to the impression the Assassin, Fang Yang, gave off.

Fortunately, he could go directly to 2045 to see Fang Yang and get to the bottom of it.

’At the very least, I have to find out who Fang Yang is planning to kill—which person at East Sea University.’

’With that clue, I can report it to the police. They can put the victim under surveillance or protection and wait for Fang Yang to show up in 2025.’

In any case.

Although Jiang Ran had a fairly good impression of the Assassin, murder was murder. A crime was a crime, and there was no excuse for it.

Not to mention... the Assassin’s target was very likely someone close to him, which was all the more reason to protect them.

Therefore.

This morning’s trip to the future in 2045 had two main objectives:

1. Hear the second half of the Magician Qin Feng’s sentence, ”42 is—”

2. Find out from the Assassin who he killed 20 years ago, why he was imprisoned, and the secrets of the Regrets Mutual Aid Association.

Neither of these tasks would be easy. It was unlikely he could complete them in just one or two loops.

But it didn’t matter.

He had countless chances for trial and error. All he had to do was slowly accumulate experience, slowly advance, and slowly adjust his tactics.

’Faced with infinite loops and reloading saves... the success of anything is just a matter of probability and time.’

About ten minutes later, Chi Xiaoguo arrived at the Film Club’s activity room right on time.

Jiang Ran placed one hand on the windowsill, vaulted over it, and leaped out.

THUD.

The sound of his shoes landing on the soil.

”Well, well!”

An exclamation of surprise suddenly came from the flowerbed nearby.

Jiang Ran turned his head.

And saw... it was the same cleaner he’d met yesterday!

”Young man, why are you climbing out the window again?”

The cleaner sounded rather peeved.

”Doesn’t this room of yours have a door?”

”Haha...”

Jiang Ran let out an awkward, helpless laugh.

”The window’s more convenient. If I go out the door, I have to go all the way around to the front of the building.”

Sigh.

He sighed internally.

’This is so annoying!’

Every morning, he was excited to carry out the Positron Cannon experiment, but he just had to run into the cleaner tidying up here every single time.

But being annoyed didn’t help; it was an unavoidable coincidence.

For Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo, starting the Positron Cannon experiment required a time slot with a low electrical load. They also needed to avoid drawing attention, doing it when there weren’t many students around to prevent their secret from getting out.

Under these conditions, the only time that worked was between 6 and 7 in the morning. Any earlier wasn’t realistic, first because the student dorms didn’t open until 6 a.m., and second, Jiang Ran felt bad putting Chi Xiaoguo through so much trouble.

Meanwhile, the campus cleaners were also required to have the paths cleaned before students went to class, so their only available time slot was also between 6 and 7 a.m.

Any earlier was unnecessary; any later, and the paths would be full of students, making it impossible to clean.

As luck would have it,

Jiang Ran’s and the cleaner’s paths were fated to cross.

The cleaner’s designated area was the square patch behind the club activity building. There were only flowerbeds and lawns here, no trees, making for a flat and open view.

So, if they didn’t find a way to get the cleaner out of the way, the ”strange ritual” Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo performed here every morning would be in his plain sight, completely exposed.

”Sir, let me help you sweep.”

Deciding action was better than complaining, Jiang Ran strode forward and picked up a spare broom from the tricycle.

”Oh, no, no! I can’t have a student like you helping me every day!”

The cleaner tried his best to stop him, but Jiang Ran had already started working seriously, entering his ’robot vacuum’ mode.

It was hard to refuse such enthusiasm, so the cleaner had no choice but to accept.

Twenty minutes later, the cleaning was finally done...

It really wasn’t an easy job. The main problem was all the trash blown into the flowerbeds by the wind, including plastic bags, food wrappers, and scraps of paper. These things had to be picked up by hand or with tongs, which was naturally very slow.

As for sweeping the main path, that didn’t take much time at all. A big broom pushed from north to south did the trick.

”Thank you so much, young man.”

The cleaner shoveled the trash into his tricycle and put his hands together in a gesture of sincere thanks.

”You’re so warm-hearted, young man. I don’t know what to call you.”

”My name is Jiang Ran.”

Jiang Ran said with a smile,

”You can just call me Xiaojiang.”

”Alright, alright.”

The cleaner nodded, taking note.

”My surname is Tian. You can just call me Old Tian from now on. That’s what everyone calls me.”

”To be honest... look at me, I can’t really help you high-achieving students with much.”

”From now on, if you have any large trash to get rid of, or anything you can’t move, just find me. I’ll help you haul it away!”

”No problem.”

Jiang Ran waved goodbye to Old Tian, watching his trash-filled tricycle disappear around the corner.

Returning to the Film Club window, he found Chi Xiaoguo leaning on the windowsill, her feet dangling in the air.

”Senior... helping him clean up every day isn’t really a long-term solution, is it?”

”You’re right.”

Jiang Ran was troubled by it too.

”But there’s nothing we can do for now. Logistics management was reformed this semester, and they started a contract system for sanitation in designated areas. Old Tian just happens to be in charge of this area, so we can’t really say anything...”

”Besides, someone has to be in charge of sanitation in this area. Even if Old Tian left, some Old Li or Old Wang would come to take his place.”

”So, let’s just go with it for now. I’ll just treat it as my morning exercise. Maybe the new head of logistics is just a new broom sweeping clean. This wave of strictness will probably blow over in a week or two and things will get lax again.”

After getting everything calibrated, Chi Xiaoguo stood inside the room and shouted:

”5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 0!”

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

Amid the ringing of his phone and the roar of the Positron Cannon, Jiang Ran felt dizzy as the world spun around him, and he fell into darkness.

「Two seconds later.」

”Sang Biao!”

Jiang Ran struck first.

”Open the door!”

After a brief argument, Sang Biao quickly opened Jiang Ran’s Cell 3 and went to pick the lock on the stupid young man’s cell, Cell 2.

Jiang Ran walked straight into the corridor, turned right, and looked through the iron bars at the man in Cell 5—a refined, fair-skinned man with long, slender fingers.

”Assassin.”

he said in a low voice.

”Or, perhaps, I should call you Fang Yang.”

!

Hearing his real name, the Assassin’s head shot up. He stared in disbelief at this unknown visitor.

”You are...?”

”Heh, I trust you’ve been well.”

Jiang Ran smiled faintly, meeting the Assassin’s eyes, which were filled with confusion and shock.

”Your brother, Fang Ze, asked me to give you a message!”