Genius Playground

He had even suspected the Maybach driver was an accomplice, whose goal was simply to kill for money. Then, the act of taking the phone would also make sense... Who wouldn’t want an omnipotent assistant like Lilith?

With Zhou Xiong’s complete lack of subtlety, the driver must have known about Lilith’s existence long ago and realized that the phone could grant any wish.

Under such temptation... it would have been perfectly normal to develop malicious intent.

However, tonight, the truth had come to light.

The one who murdered Zhou Xiong was none other than the man from the Future Prison who had unconditionally supported him—the handsome man who looked like an overbearing CEO. He was also Fang Ze’s older half-brother...

Fang Yang.

His moniker: the Assassin.

According to the Assassin, he held no personal grudge against Zhou Xiong; they were complete strangers.

But this was a mission given to him by the Regrets Mutual Aid Association, an order from the Priest that he had no choice but to carry out.

The Regrets Mutual Aid Association’s reason for killing Zhou Xiong had nothing to do with money or power... In fact, the Mutual Aid Association itself possessed more than enough of both; they couldn’t care less about such things.

The main objectives of the mission the Priest assigned to the Assassin this time were to steal Zhou Xiong’s phone, which could contact Lilith, and the gold coin embossed with the image of a princess in a white dress.

Jiang Ran still didn’t know what ultimately happened to those items—whether they were handed over to the Priest, destroyed, or given to someone else...

He hadn’t had time to ask about those things, as he was pressed for time back then.

The Assassin had also said that the front of the gold coin was engraved with the image of a princess and the English word PRINCESS, while the back was inscribed with a strange Ferris wheel icon.

A Ferris wheel.

That was very intriguing...

Jiang Ran was instantly reminded of the strange symbol on the burnt courtyard wall of Qin Feng’s house—it was also a simple drawing of a Ferris wheel.

’Are these two Ferris wheel symbols the same?’

An image flashed through Jiang Ran’s mind: the two Ferris wheel symbols overlapping. The gold coin and the burnt courtyard wall drew closer, intersecting, and merging into one... and the large eye in the center suddenly snapped open, observing the world.

”So, a lot of things are actually connected.”

His finger traced across the condensation on the mirror, linking several keywords—

’Regrets Mutual Aid Association, Priest, Lilith, the phone, the Ferris wheel, Qin Feng, Magician, the coin, Princess... These things must all be connected!’

But the information he had was too fragmented to assemble into a complete picture.

Jiang Ran shook his head, deciding to put it out of his mind for now. He should focus on the matter of ”the Assassin and Zhou Xiong” first.

”Hah...”

He breathed onto the mirror and took out a tissue to wipe the fingerprints clean.

’From the looks of it, the Assassin is a member of the Regrets Mutual Aid Association and a subordinate of the Priest.’

’In 2025, the Assassin is about twenty-five or twenty-six. He does the Priest’s dirty work, mainly for the money, for his brother, and to make up for the regret of losing his family.’

This part, at least, matched what Fang Ze had said.

Fang Ze had said long ago that his brother was doing dirty work for the Regrets Mutual Aid Association in exchange for a hefty payment.

Fang Ze also said that his brother, Fang Yang, had transferred a large sum of money to him over the summer break.

Now, with the clues all tying together, the logic of the events became clear:

1. Zhou Xiong somehow obtained a phone that could contact Lilith, as well as a Princess Coin.

2. Zhou Xiong’s behavior was too flashy and high-profile, and he was soon noticed by the Regrets Mutual Aid Association. They dispatched the Assassin, Fang Yang, to silence him and steal the phone and the coin.

3. The Assassin, Fang Yang, successfully completed the mission and handed the phone and the coin to the Priest. The Priest told the Assassin that Zhou Xiong was just a front, a decoy, and that there must be a hidden mastermind behind him.

4. The Assassin received a large ”bonus” from the Priest, or perhaps from the Regrets Mutual Aid Association itself. He wired this money to his younger brother, Fang Ze, who was studying at Harvard University, and told him to study hard and live a good life.

5. After making that last phone call, Fang Yang vanished from the face of the earth, disappearing completely. Fang Ze found out that the last call Fang Yang made was routed through a cell tower near East Sea University.

6. To find his brother, Fang Ze applied to be an exchange student at East Sea University. He thought he could stake out the place in advance to stop his brother’s murder plot, but unexpectedly... he was too late. His brother, Fang Yang, had already committed the murder two months prior and had long since fled.

...

That was the complete sequence of events.

It was clear that Zhou Xiong was just a pitiful pawn, ”played by everyone.” Even if he hadn’t been so high-profile, from the moment he obtained that phone and that coin... his death was already a foregone conclusion from a god’s-eye view.

So, in this game of chess, who was the one with the god’s-eye view?

The Priest?

’Mm, the Priest is definitely one of them, but not the only one.’

’The person who gave Zhou Xiong the Lilith phone and the Princess Coin... is probably the real mastermind.’

Jiang Ran came to this obvious conclusion.

Without that phone and the Princess Coin, Zhou Xiong most likely wouldn’t have brought disaster upon himself and met his death.

’What was the motive of the person who started all this? Why did they orchestrate Zhou Xiong’s death as a performance at a class reunion?’

Jiang Ran committed the questions he had just been pondering to memory, preparing to go to the year 2045 tomorrow to ask the Assassin about them.