Genius Playground

”What else could it be?”

Jiang Ran shot back.

”It can’t be that some elementary school kid tried to save me by throwing a pencil down the mountain, and it just so happened to bounce around, just so happened to land point-up, just so happened to land right under my neck, and I just so happened to fall on it... What kind of god-tier elementary schooler is that?”

”It wasn’t necessarily that elementary school kid.”

Qin Feng stood up straight.

”It could have been someone else.”

”It doesn’t matter who it was.”

Jiang Ran raised his hand and threw the green jujube hard at Qin Feng—

SMACK!

Qin Feng raised his hand and caught it, holding it in his palm.

”No one could make a throw that accurate.” Jiang Ran shook his wrist.

”But that’s too much of a coincidence. So coincidental it’s unnatural.”

”What’s so unnatural about it? With enough coincidence, a monkey with a typewriter could hammer out the complete works of Shakespeare.”

”That’s impossible.”

Qin Feng rubbed the green jujube and shook his head.

”Theoretically, yes, if you give monkeys enough time, they could potentially type out Shakespeare by randomly hitting the keys.”

”But in reality, it’s impossible. Even if the monkeys typed until the end of the universe, they’d never produce Shakespeare.”

Jiang Ran chuckled lightly.

”That just means the universe’s lifespan isn’t long enough.”

”Why have you suddenly lost your faith in science, Qin Feng? This is just how probability works—”

”’As long as the probability of something happening isn’t zero, it will eventually happen.’”

WHOOSH.

The green jujube flew back and was caught by Jiang Ran again.

”Murphy’s Law,”

Qin Feng said.

Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Broadly interpreted, it means that no matter how small the probability of failure or an accident, it’s bound to happen.

Teacher Zhang Yang had covered this point in his general education course.

Since the probability of a child falling, their backpack opening, a pencil case flying out and scattering its contents, a pencil rolling down the mountain, and bouncing to land right under his neck was not zero...

...then there was a chance it could happen.

It was like the lottery. Even though the odds of winning the jackpot are tiny, someone always ends up hitting it.

The same logic applied to everything.

”Don’t tell me you weren’t listening in Teacher Zhang Yang’s class.”

Jiang Ran tossed the green jujube in his hand and walked back onto the observation deck.

”To be honest, Xiaoxue and I weren’t interested in Teacher Zhang Yang’s gen-ed course. We only took it because you liked it.”

”Of course I was listening.” Qin Feng couldn’t argue.

’It’s true. Any low-probability event can happen. That’s the appeal of probability.’

’It was logical and well-founded.’

”Murphy’s Law certainly sounds like a sad principle.”

Jiang Ran continued tossing the jujube.

”Every possible mistake, accident, failure, and regret will eventually come to pass.”

”But now that we have Time SMS, Murphy’s Law no longer applies to us, since we can change history and fix our mistakes at any time.”

He made one last toss, snatched the green jujube from the air, and smiled at Qin Feng.

”Besides, didn’t Teacher Zhang Yang offer a reverse deduction for Murphy’s Law in class?”

”Since everything that can possibly happen will eventually happen...”

Jiang Ran drew back his right arm, muscles tensing.

”That also means—”

He whipped his arm forward, throwing the green jujube with all his might—

”’All good things will eventually come to pass, too!’”

The green jujube became a shooting star streaking across the night.

Thrown from the highest point overlooking the ocean, it soared toward the starry sky, parting the clouds, trailing moonlight before plunging into the silent, black sea.

Submerged.

...

The next day, a heavy rain began to fall.

Cheng Mengxue didn’t wake up until noon.

She’d had a complete drunken blackout and couldn’t remember anything she’d said yesterday.

”My last memory... is Qin Feng saying his dream was to do research in a top-tier lab. I don’t remember anything that happened after that.”

She scratched her head and looked at Jiang Ran.

”What did you say after that? What’s your dream?”

”To become the savior of the world,” Jiang Ran teased her.

”So noble!”

”A genius like Einstein.”

”You... really think you can do that?”

”Doraemon.”

”Now you’re just messing with me!”

Amid their playful bickering, the events of the previous day were glossed over.

Jiang Ran and Qin Feng had a tacit understanding and both pretended nothing had happened.

When Cheng Mengxue asked, their unified story was that she had barely said a few words before her face fell onto the crab shells and she passed out.

...

It was already evening by the time the three of them returned to school.

The downpour grew heavier, with frequent thunder and lightning.

”The weather in East Sea sure changes on a dime.”

The three of them, holding umbrellas against the wind, decided to head back to the clubroom first to take shelter from the rain.

When they arrived at the clubroom, they were all soaked to varying degrees.

After drying off with towels, the three of them made some instant noodles, deciding to just make do with that for a meal.

The two great unsolved mysteries were still written on the small blackboard:

[1. The mysterious SMS, the mysterious numbers—what do they mean?]

[2. Why is Jiang Ran the only one who remembers the original history, the memories from before the worldline changed?]

The first question still seemed unsolvable.

Since that one message, they hadn’t received any others. With no further clues, they were at a dead end.

”That’s why I keep saying that mysterious message was probably just a glitch.”

Qin Feng said, blowing on his noodles.

”A meaningless string of jumbled numbers—it looks exactly like some kind of machine error. It’s even possible the glitch was with the telecom provider and has nothing to do with us.”

”Don’t you guys ever get random verification code texts? The Time SMS has to go through cell towers, so it was most likely just a random signal disturbance that created that garbled message.”

...

Qin Feng still stuck to his ”glitch theory.”

Because if, as Jiang Ran imagined, it was a warning... then they had already ”ignored the warning” and sent many more messages.

But so far, nothing bad had happened.

Everything was stable.

Everything was orderly.

Everything was normal.

”If that mysterious message really was a warning from our future selves...”

Qin Feng gave a dry laugh.

”Then shouldn’t we have faced some kind of retribution by now for being so disobedient?”

KABOOM!!!!

A bolt of lightning struck, followed immediately by a clap of thunder.

The incandescent lights flickered a few times before steadying.

”Don’t jinx us.”

Jiang Ran lifted the lid of his instant noodles, watched the steam rise, and fell into thought.

’He had a point, even if he was blunt about it.’

’Qin Feng actually had a point.’

’If ignoring the warning didn’t lead to anything bad... then it meant the warning was meaningless. Maybe it wasn’t even a warning at all, and I was just overthinking things.’

”Let’s put this question aside for now.”

He stirred his noodles with his fork and looked at the second question on the blackboard.

”Actually, I’ve always been curious. This special constitution of mine—am I really the only one in the world who has it?”

”I’ve searched a lot of keywords online, and it’s true I haven’t found any related information. But that doesn’t mean anything... because any sane person wouldn’t post about something like this online. Otherwise, they’d get snatched up, taken to a lab, and dissected.”

”So, is it possible...”

”’...that there are many other people in the world just like me, who can sense worldline shifts and retain memories of the original timeline?’”

...

Jiang Ran’s words made the temperature in the clubroom plummet as silence fell.

RATTLE, RATTLE, RATTLE.

The violent rain and strong wind battered the windows, making them rattle loudly.

The curtain of rain clung to the glass like a monster spying on its prey.

This was...

...a question they had never considered in detail.

Just as Jiang Ran said, what if this special constitution wasn’t unique to him?

Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue glanced at each other.

Both of them frowned.

Once you started to think about it, the implications were truly terrifying.

If there were many other people scattered across the world who had this special constitution, just like Jiang Ran...

Then...

...every time the worldline shifted, many people would feel dizzy, just like Jiang Ran.

...after every shift, many people would retain their memories of the original worldline, just like Jiang Ran.

And that meant—

If these people paid attention to the lottery, they would have noticed that five extra second-prize winners appeared after the worldline shift!

If there was someone like that at East Sea University, they would have noticed Xu Yan’s death and resurrection!

’Then these people, hidden in the shadows, might have already noticed the trio’s unusual activities!’

KABOOM!!!!

Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the entire room.

Eyes.

Eyes.

EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES EYES!

Amidst the rumbling thunder, hundreds of pairs of Rhine Cat eyes lit up, staring at them from all directions.

”We couldn’t be...”

Cheng Mengxue swallowed hard.

She slowly raised her head, looking at the fleeting gazes of the Rhine Cats.

”We couldn’t... already be being watched, could we?”