Genius Playground

The waiter brought their milk tea over and left. Jiang Ran then told Xu Yan what had happened at Dazhi River Park the day before.

”Hmm...”

After listening to his story, Xu Yan sank into thought.

”That’s a completely understandable reaction, and a very realistic one, too. What happened when you two were six or seven has always been a source of deep trauma for Xiaoxue. It took her a very, very long time to move past it when she was a kid.”

”I remember after that, Xiaoxue dragged you to sign up for swimming lessons. She trained incredibly hard—she even won awards in competitions later on. Your attitude toward practice, on the other hand, was something she was really unhappy about.”

”Oh, right! Speaking of which, did you get a good look at her swimming skills yesterday? If you suspect this Xiaoxue is an imposter, her swimming ability should be different, right?”

Jiang Ran pressed his lips together, recalling how she had cut through the water like a torpedo the day before.

”Her swimming skills are incredible, just like the Xiaoxue I remember.”

He said honestly,

”I got in the water well before she did and had already swum a good ways. But after she jumped in, she caught up to me in no time... That level of skill is definitely not something you can fake.”

”And like you said, her frantic reaction didn’t seem like an act. Especially that slap at the end... her whole body was trembling. I find it hard to imagine someone could fake that kind of emotion and physical response so convincingly with acting alone.”

Xu Yan was getting a headache.

”So... what are you thinking now?”

What was real, what was fake... at this point, Xu Yan genuinely couldn’t tell the difference.

”You’ve been investigating for a while since we last talked. Have you reached a conclusion?”

Jiang Ran nodded.

”I’m 99.99% sure this Xiaoxue is a fake.”

”Then what are you hesitating for? Why don’t you call the police?”

Xu Yan asked, confused,

”99.99% certainty. Isn’t that high enough?”

Jiang Ran let out a soft sigh.

”Because... there’s still that 0.01%...”

”A 0.01% chance of what?” Xu Yan pressed.

”I don’t know.”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

”Maybe that last 0.01% is just a sliver of baseless hope I’m clinging to.”

”But I’ve already figured out how I’m going to run a final test.”

As he spoke, he rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a cork-stoppered glass bottle, placing it on the table.

Xu Yan looked at the glass bottle.

It was something she’d seen over the summer—the time capsule she and Cheng Mengxue had buried as children. It contained a letter each of them had written to their selves twenty years in the future.

Her own glass bottle and letter were hidden away at home; she had already read the letter from Cheng Mengxue’s bottle.

”I remember we already talked about this,”

Xu Yan said.

”You did ask Xiaoxue if she remembered what was in the letter, and she did say she didn’t. But considering how shy and reserved girls can be, it’s completely understandable for her to lie or be unwilling to admit it.”

”Exactly.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

”But when she lied and refused to admit it, it was under the assumption that she didn’t know I had already dug up this glass bottle.”

He looked into Xu Yan’s eyes.

”[If I take the glass bottle right to her and tell her I’ve already read the letter, do you think she’ll still have any reason to be shy or reserved?]”

Xu Yan thought for a moment.

”She’d probably still be shy, but she wouldn’t have any reason to hide or lie about the letter’s contents.”

”After all, since you’ve already read it, she’d either remember or she wouldn’t. There’d be no point in being stubborn.”

Jiang Ran put the glass bottle away again.

”Either way, this is the only slip-up she’s made so far that I can actually verify.”

”If I confront her with this bottle and she still claims she doesn’t remember anything in the letter, not a single word... then that will obviously prove something.”

”At that point, my 99.99% certainty will become 100%, and the East Sea City Public Security Bureau can move in immediately. We won’t have to worry about tipping our hand, and we can finally dig out the people with ulterior motives behind all this!”

The thought of someone impersonating Cheng Mengxue, his closest childhood friend, was more than Jiang Ran could stomach.

”The East Sea City Public Security Bureau and I have already identified a target, but unfortunately, we don’t have any evidence, so we can’t make a move.”

”But if we can confirm that this Xiaoxue is a fake—100% a fake—then we can arrest her directly. From there, we can follow the trail and catch the mastermind behind it all.”

”I don’t care what their motives are for doing this... defiling the memory of the dead, twisting the truth...”

Jiang Ran clenched his fists.

”I will never forgive them!”