Genius Playground

”Senior, you’re the one who fixed the Positron Cannon before. Can you find the problem and fix it again?”

Unfortunately.

Jiang Ran shook his head.

”My previous repairs were just child’s play. It was nothing more than swapping a circuit board or connecting some wires.”

”This malfunction obviously involves the Positron Cannon’s core component, which can’t be disassembled.”

”Forget about me. Even if you brought in some science whiz, or even the inventor who randomly slapped this Positron Cannon together in the first place, they wouldn’t be able to fix... it...”

Jiang Ran’s voice trailed off as he spoke.

Then, suddenly.

He thought of a Worldly Master—

Old Qi!

This boisterous old man claimed to have over thirty years of experience repairing old home appliances, a veritable authority in the field. Even Qin Feng had praised his skills.

”The reason I charge so much is because I include after-sales service, so you won’t get ripped off. If this board breaks down the line, just bring it back. I guarantee I’ll fix it, and if I can’t, you get your money back!”

”From now on, just call me Old Qi. If you have any old things you can’t fix or don’t know how to fix, you can bring them to me.”

Recalling Old Qi’s confident guarantees...

’Could he... fix the Positron Cannon?’

”Hold on a second.”

Jiang Ran had Chi Xiaoguo step aside, then pulled open a drawer and took out a blue plastic bag.

Inside were twenty unused, Japanese-made capacitors and the business card Old Qi had given him.

”Old Qi...”

Jiang Ran’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the headshot on the business card.

’They say true masters hide in plain sight.’

’The Positron Cannon is broken... could I ask Old Qi to take a look?’

...

「Two hours later.」

Jiang Ran arrived at the home appliance street, carrying the Positron Cannon in both hands. He found Old Qi’s Home Appliance Repair Shop and gently placed the Positron Cannon on the glass counter.

Old Qi’s jaw dropped. He stood up, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

”What the hell is this thing?”

Even with over thirty years of dominating the appliance repair world, this was the first time he’d seen such a bizarre-looking contraption.

”A picture tube? One of those old CRT TVs? No, that’s not it. It doesn’t even have a screen. What the hell *is* this thing?!”

Old Qi looked up at Jiang Ran and instantly recalled their previous transaction.

”Oh, oh, oh, it’s you, kid! The one who bought a ton of capacitors in one go.”

”How are they? The capacitors okay? I told you, you can abuse those Japanese-made capacitors all you want. They’ll never break!”

”And you called them ’consumables’... You really gave me a good laugh.”

Jiang Ran clicked his tongue.

He had to admit, Old Qi really knew how to put on a show.

”I was hoping you could take a look at this for me.”

He got straight to the point.

”We dug this old thing up in our university club. We’re not sure which upperclassman made it as a toy.”

”It was working fine before, but look here... something must have hit it, and it hasn’t been working right since.”

”Can you see if you can find what’s wrong with it? Of course, I hope you can be careful when you take it apart and try not to damage its structure.”

Old Qi scoffed, snatching up a screwdriver and sneering.

”Looking down on your elder? I’ve taken apart more things than you’ve eaten grains of rice! Step aside! Watch a pro at work!”

To be fair,

Although Old Qi seemed rough around the edges, his hands were incredibly meticulous. He removed all the visible screws one by one, laid them out neatly, and disassembled the Positron Cannon’s external components piece by piece.

”Any part with a screw can be taken apart, you can rest assured of that.”

Old Qi explained to Jiang Ran as he worked.

”Screws are made to be unscrewed.”

Before long, all the Positron Cannon’s external parts were disassembled, leaving only the un-disassemblable, sealed Vacuum Image Tube.

Taking out a multimeter and some other instruments Jiang Ran didn’t recognize, Old Qi began his highly professional inspection.

”Hmm, the wiring you did here is all fine.”

Old Qi gave Jiang Ran an appreciative glance.

After all, there weren’t many young people these days who liked to tinker with circuit boards.

After a series of tests, Old Qi lit another cigarette and patted the core of the Positron Cannon—the sealed Vacuum Image Tube.

”Found the problem. The Beam Converger inside is broken.”

”What?”

Jiang Ran’s eyes widened.

He was shocked, on one hand, by Old Qi’s skill, and on the other, by the fact that the broken part was precisely the Beam Converger.

According to Qin Feng’s theory, adjusting the Beam Converger’s intensity was what set the time point in the past to which a Time SMS was sent.

’So if the Beam Converger is broken now...’

’Doesn’t that mean the Positron Cannon has completely lost its ability to send messages to the past?’

”Can it be fixed?” Jiang Ran asked urgently.

”Are you kidding me...”

Old Qi let out a dry laugh.

”The image tube is vacuum-sealed. How are you supposed to fix something like that? Decades ago, when I used to fix TVs for people, if the image tube had a problem, we’d just replace the whole thing. They’re disposable.”

”What’s more, this machine of yours has clearly been modified. It only has the shape of an image tube; the insides are a jumbled mess of slapped-together parts that I can’t make sense of...”

”It’s a miracle this thing can even run. I can’t figure out the principle behind it, and I have no idea what it’s supposed to do.”

...

Sure enough.

In the end, Old Qi reached the same conclusion as Qin Feng.

An ”accidental product” with an unknown principle and an unknown effect, cobbled together from random parts—this was the frustrating and unsolvable Positron Cannon.

”Are you willing to let me take it apart?”

Old Qi asked, his cigarette hanging from his lips.

”If you’re willing to let me open up the image tube, I can take a look inside.”

”But I can tell you for sure, once it’s open, it’s not going back together. Once it’s open... this ’toy’ will definitely never run again.”