Genius Playground

「September 15, 2025. Weather: Windy.」

Tomorrow is the day of God’s Punishment.

So, this will probably be my last entry.

Come to think of it, this journal has been with me for a long time.

But I’m really not the type to keep a diary... I’ve only written sporadically, often finding myself at a loss for words. I still haven’t managed to fill it up.

Ah, whatever.

Maybe these thoughts were never meant to be recorded. They should leave this world along with me.

Tomorrow is finally here.

The tomorrow I’ve been waiting for for so long.

I once thought this moment would make me incredibly excited, or incredibly nervous.

But as I write this entry now, my heart is inexplicably calm.

Why?

’Is this... the peaceful relief that comes before a regret is mended?’

It feels like I’ve lost the ability to tell right from wrong.

It feels like I’m just using numbness to numb myself.

Outside, the wind is picking up.

A strong wind.

The glass and the window screen are RATTLING.

Tomorrow, in East Sea City...

It’s not going to pour, is it?

...

...

...

VMM!

VMM!

VMM!

Jiang Ran’s eyes flew open. He never expected to hear the name ”Zhou Xiong” from the Assassin’s mouth!

Zhou Xiong... The same Zhou Xiong who, at their high school reunion, had pulled out his phone, called out Lilith’s name, and granted all his classmates’ wildest wishes. The same Zhou Xiong who was later hit by a truck in his Maybach, his body mangled into an unrecognizable pulp...

Had been killed by the Assassin! The murderer was right in front of him!

However, Jiang Ran was given no chance to feel shocked or emotional.

The moment the digital clock struck 12:00 AM, the familiar dizziness and vertigo hit him right on schedule.

His vision went black. He plunged into a swirling vortex of space and time, leaving the endlessly looping Future World of 2045.

Two seconds later, all discomfort vanished.

Amidst a cool, blowing night breeze, Jiang Ran... opened his eyes.

”Senior!”

From inside the Film Club window, Chi Xiaoguo was leaning on the sill, looking at him.

”We need to hurry back to the dorms! They’re about to turn off the lights and lock the gates!”

Jiang Ran picked up his phone and glanced at the time.

Indeed, it was almost 11:00 PM. He had to make sure Chi Xiaoguo hurried back to her dorm.

The graduate dorms didn’t have lights-out or power cutoffs, but the curfew was currently just as strict as the undergrads’... the gates were locked promptly at 11:00 PM.

”You go on ahead!”

Jiang Ran waved to Chi Xiaoguo.

”I’ll take care of closing the windows and locking the door.”

Considering Chi Xiaoguo was a girl and her nighttime routine was probably more involved, Jiang Ran let her leave first while he handled locking up.

After locking the doors and windows, Jiang Ran left the club activities building and returned to the graduate dorms.

He pushed open the door to his room...

...and found that Fang Ze had already washed up. He was sitting under a desk lamp in light blue pajamas, reading a book. The faint scent of body wash and shampoo lingered in the air.

”You’re back?”

Seeing Jiang Ran enter, Fang Ze looked up and smiled faintly.

”Yep, right under the wire.”

Jiang Ran took off his jacket, hung it up, and glanced over at Fang Ze.

The book he was reading was still the English edition of *Narrow Gate*.

’Fang Ze doesn’t seem to be making much progress. It’s already past mid-September, and it’s not like he goes out at night...’

’So why isn’t he finished with this book yet?’

’*Narrow Gate* doesn’t even look that thick. It can’t be that difficult of a read, can it?’

”Is that book any good?” Jiang Ran asked.

”It’s so-so.”

Fang Ze answered honestly, ”Mainly because of the limitations of its era, it’s hard to feel any connection when reading it. And all that stuff you mentioned before, about literary and artistic merit... it’s actually difficult to express in English writing.”

”The aesthetic beauty of a character’s form, of its combinations, of its omissions—I believe that’s a unique art form only pictographic languages possess.”

”Take Chinese characters, for example. You can piece them together and coin new words freely. There’s no absolute right or wrong, no rigid grammar or sentence structure.”

”So, the freer the language, the freer the beauty that can burst forth from it. In that respect, Chinese characters are far superior to English.”

Jiang Ran listened, then chuckled.

”So let me get this straight. You think this book is not only a bad read, but it also lacks literary and artistic merit, and even has no aesthetic beauty in its language.”

”I wouldn’t put it so absolutely.”

Fang Ze closed the book, looked up, and recited:

”’Before the Narrow Gate is clamor; after the Narrow Gate is eternity. But this narrow, narrow gate, only a few can find.’”

Jiang Ran tilted his head.

”What’s that? A line from the book?”

”Yes.”

Fang Ze chuckled lightly.

”A very interesting line.”

...

Afterward, Jiang Ran went to the bathroom to wash up.

Wiping his face dry, he looked at his own frowning reflection in the mirror, recalling what the Assassin had confessed to him after the successful prison break in 2045.

’I can put the matter of the Time Travel Machine aside for now.’

’The most important piece of intelligence at the moment is...’

’*The target of the Assassin, Fang Yang, was not someone on the East Sea University campus as Fang Ze and I had guessed... but Zhou Xiong, who has been dead for two months.*’

’This is a piece of information I can’t share with Fang Ze.’

’Otherwise, Fang Ze would be just as shocked as I am.’

’The two of them had been waiting like idiots at East Sea University for the Assassin to walk right into their trap, for them to save the victim and stop some ”deeply affectionate older brother” from committing his crime...’

’And the result?!’

’Turns out the Assassin already killed his target two months ago, and here they were, two clueless idiots, still waiting for him in the dark.’

’We can’t even get to the shit while it’s still hot.’

”But, the Assassin... why would he kill Zhou Xiong?”

That was a question Jiang Ran couldn’t figure out for the moment.

He had originally assumed that Zhou Xiong’s death was because he was too high-profile and too rich, which made him a target of jealousy.