Genius Playground

”This car! An AITO M9! Cool, huh?”

Wang Hao twisted around in his seat and started to show off:

”Jiang Ran is something else. He wrote a script for the film club, and a production company actually took a liking to it and bought it. As soon as he got the copyright fee, he turned right around and bought his dad a luxury car, paid in full!”

”Wow!”

Cheng Mengxue’s eyes were wide with disbelief:

”Jiang Ran, it’s been two years, and you’ve become so amazing! What genre is your script? Let me see it!”

”I signed an NDA.”

Jiang Ran flicked on the left turn signal and made the turn:

”But... you’ve probably seen the original version, right?”

He narrowed his eyes and said slowly:

”Back in middle school, I wrote a really cringey Setting Collection. You and Wang Hao should have both seen it. Remember?”

Perfect.

He hadn’t expected the first question to come up so smoothly, flowing naturally from Cheng Mengxue’s own question.

”I remember!”

Wang Hao answered in a flash:

”The— The weather today is great, real nice and sunny, yo yo, we don’t have class this afternoon, which is totally awesome!”

He instantly realized he’d messed up and quickly pivoted into a rap.

Looking back, he saw Jiang Ran glaring at him with an utterly speechless expression, as if to say, ’There goes your good start.’

”Ahem.”

Wang Hao quickly tried to patch things up:

”We’re not at the teahouse yet. It doesn’t count, it doesn’t count.”

Jiang Ran had stressed to him earlier that he was not to say a single word while they were chatting at the teahouse. They were still in the car!

”Hmm...”

Cheng Mengxue drew out the sound thoughtfully, then shook her head:

”I don’t think I remember. I just know you did write some kind of Setting Collection. But I wasn’t as interested in it as you boys were. I might have seen it... but I honestly have no impression of the contents now.”

...

In the front of the car.

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao exchanged a glance in their peripheral vision.

This explanation from Cheng Mengxue... had she truly forgotten? Or did she have no related memories at all, just offering a vague platitude to be polite?

”The script was adapted from that.”

Jiang Ran didn’t let the conversation drop, continuing:

”But since you don’t remember, let’s just drop it. I took their money and signed an NDA, so I have to play by the rules.”

”Oh, come on. I remember you not being this rigid!”

Cheng Mengxue had completely dropped her guard, her words and actions treating Jiang Ran as her closest childhood friend:

”Just tell me a little, secretly~”

”No.”

”Hmph, you’re really treating it like some precious treasure!”

...

The car soon arrived at the place for afternoon tea. Jiang Ran had already booked a private room, and the three of them followed the waiter inside.

Jiang Ran shot Wang Hao a ”buy the car” look.

Wang Hao immediately returned a ”Don’t worry, once we get inside I’ll just drink my tea and I absolutely won’t say a word; if I say even one word, you don’t have to buy me that car” look.

Inside the private room was a small, square table.

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao sat on one side, with Cheng Mengxue sitting opposite them.

After the waiter prepared their tea, he closed the door and left.

Jiang Ran leaned back in his chair:

”You said yesterday you had a lot you wanted to tell us?”

”Yes.”

Cheng Mengxue nodded:

”I was originally planning to fly in early to see you guys... I didn’t mean to just show up and scare you like I did yesterday.”

”Actually... these past two years... I’ve been really worried about you.”

Cheng Mengxue looked at Jiang Ran:

”Even if our classmates hadn’t said anything yesterday, I could have guessed... you probably haven’t been very happy these past two years.”

”Even though the car accident had nothing to do with you, you did pull me and run so far... I was afraid the adults would blame you.”

”When I woke up, I was already on a chartered flight to the United States, arranged by that scientist. My parents had already sold our house. Our whole family staked everything on getting me treated.”

”My parents told me that no one blamed you and that they didn’t press charges, but I knew... I know what kind of person you are, Jiang Ran. I knew you would blame yourself deeply for this.”

”Besides, with the scientist’s help, my parents faked my death. That must have made you feel even more guilty... I... I was so worried you would get trapped in a spiral of self-blame and never get out.”

As she spoke, sadness welled up in the kind-hearted and deeply empathetic Cheng Mengxue:

”I was always worried about you, but they wouldn’t let us have any contact with anyone back home, so I had no idea how you were really doing.”

”But I figured it couldn’t be good. You’ve always been like this, even as a kid, always taking all the responsibility onto your own shoulders. If I had just been alive and well, it would be one thing, but my parents even put up a Tombstone. You must have thought you were the one who got me killed... even though that wasn’t the case.”

”So...”

Cheng Mengxue lifted her hand from the table, reached out, and placed it over the back of Jiang Ran’s.

Then she looked into Jiang Ran’s eyes.

Her gaze was full of heartache and grievance:

”I’m sorry.”

...

Unexpectedly.

This time, Jiang Ran didn’t feel the visceral rejection he’d expected from the physical contact.

’He couldn’t tell.’

The Cheng Mengxue from that brief moment.

’He really couldn’t tell.’

It was as if the test he had designed for Cheng Mengxue hadn’t even begun, yet she had already submitted a perfect answer sheet.

So, Cheng Mengxue had figured it all out.

Just as she’d said, she really did know him well, analyzing him with startling clarity.

Before, Jiang Ran had wondered why Cheng Mengxue had lost control of her emotions the moment she saw him, why her tears had streamed down uncontrollably, and why a thousand words had ultimately been reduced to a single... ”I’m sorry.”

I’m sorry.

So, this was what she was sorry for.

Cheng Mengxue had already guessed the situation Jiang Ran would face after her ”faked death,” and the two years of grief, self-blame, and depression that would follow.

It was just a shame she had been powerless to do anything about it.

On one hand, her body needed treatment; on the other, her parents had staked everything for her sake.

She had no choice.

She could only accept the agreement to have no contact with the outside world and work hard with the medical team on her recovery.

At the same time...

She secretly counted the days on the calendar, calculating how much longer she had to endure the two years, hoping she could return home soon.

...

Wang Hao was under the Silencing Technique.

He looked left, then right, unable to speak and not daring to. He didn’t know if this atmosphere was also part of Jiang Ran’s plan.

But watching his two best friends, in the midst of such a difficult, long-awaited reunion, having to scheme and test each other for sincerity or deceit...

Honestly, it made him feel really uncomfortable.

He could only lower his head and drink his tea.

It was so bitter.

”It’s true that a lot of people hounded me with questions, but no one really gave me a hard time.”

Jiang Ran’s gaze moved from the back of Cheng Mengxue’s hand to the tea leaf standing upright in his cup:

”No one understood why, on the second day of the college entrance exams, the two of us didn’t take the test and instead went to the suburbs, far away in the opposite direction...”

”Do you still remember why?”

Jiang Ran lifted his head, staring into Cheng Mengxue’s eyes:

”Do you remember...”

”...why I took you to the suburbs that day?”

...

...

...

Cheng Mengxue was silent for a long time.

She took a deep breath and slowly raised her head:

”Of course I remember.”

She rubbed her forehead:

”Because... you were really strange that day. It felt like I didn’t know you.”

”Your expression, your words, your whole state of mind... it was like you were a completely different person.”

Swallowing, Cheng Mengxue recalled the scene from that day and said distantly:

”The entire time, you didn’t want to talk. You had a terrible look on your face. You wouldn’t answer any of my questions, just kept pulling my hand and telling me to go with you.”

”You kept repeating one thing over and over...”

”What?” Jiang Ran frowned.

This was the memory he could never recall, the one no one could get an answer about, a piece of history that no one in the world knew.

Only Cheng Mengxue.

Only Cheng Mengxue, the other person involved, still remembered.

”What was I repeating?” Jiang Ran pressed.

”At the time, you were looking all around, your forehead covered in sweat, as if you were begging for something, pleading for mercy—”

Cheng Mengxue frowned slightly, imitating Jiang Ran’s trembling voice from that day:

”Don’t come again... Don’t come again...”