Genius Playground

”Of course, the dimmer the light, the better. And you should avoid light as much as possible. You can use a changing bag to cover your hands and work by feel.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

Chi Xiaoguo had already explained this point before.

The film inside the roll is coated with silver halide, its main photosensitive material.

When taking a picture with a film camera, the moment you press the shutter, external light hits the film. The silver halide then reacts to the light, forming a latent image.

This latent image is invisible to the naked eye. It must be processed with chemical solutions to be developed and fixed, which makes it a visible image.

After that comes the next step: printing and enlarging the complete image from the film onto photographic paper. Finally, after a series of additional steps, you get the finished photograph.

The entire process was not only complex but also had extremely strict requirements for temperature, time, and chemical concentration.

No wonder this craft had been ruthlessly cast aside in the face of advanced digital cameras and printing technology.

At first, Jiang Ran had been extremely curious about the photo developing process, which was why he had followed Chi Xiaoguo into the darkroom.

But the room was cramped and hot, and now he regretted it.

Unfortunately, the developing process had already begun, so he couldn’t open the door and leave; doing so would let in the bright light from outside. So... he had no choice but to sweat it out until the very end.

After a long while, Chi Xiaoguo finally finished the entire process and gave the signal that he could open the door.

”Holy crap, holy crap! It’s too hot in there!”

Jiang Ran couldn’t wait to push open the darkroom door. Wiping the sweat from his face, he walked out and threw his jacket onto the sofa.

”I’m never going in there again!”

”Hey, it can’t be helped.”

Chi Xiaoguo followed right behind him, also taking off her jacket.

”Our conditions here are pretty rough, so of course it’s small and hot inside.”

”But it’s always like this the first time. The experience isn’t great, but you get used to it after a while.”

CREAAAK—

The activity room door was pushed open.

Fang Ze stared, dumbfounded, at the two of them, steaming in the heat, their discarded jackets, and... processed the incredibly suggestive words he had just heard from Chi Xiaoguo.

CREAAAK—

Without a word, as if rewinding a tape, he closed the door again.

”Hey, hey, hey! Why are you closing the door?!”

Jiang Ran quickly called out to him.

”Get in here!”

’Damn it,’ Jiang Ran thought. ’If I let Fang Ze get away, this is going to be impossible to explain!’

”I’m going to the bathroom.”

The innocent Chi Xiaoguo was always so frank and unreserved, completely unaware of any deeper implications. Humming a little tune, she walked right past Fang Ze, said a quick hello, and headed to the bathroom.

In the activity room, only Jiang Ran and Fang Ze remained, standing on opposite sides of the coffee table and looking at each other without a word.

”You’re pretty impressive,” Fang Ze said with sincere admiration.

”No, don’t jump to conclusions.”

Jiang Ran felt like he was suffering in silence, unable to explain himself.

”I’m baffled, too. How do you guys always walk in at the most coincidental times?”

”That’s definitely not our problem,”

Fang Ze said bluntly.

”You should take a good look at yourself. Don’t let things get out of hand.”

”Get what out of hand?” Jiang Ran asked, confused.

Fang Ze sighed and spread his hands.

”One minute you’re flirting with Cheng Mengxue, the next you have this shady thing going on with President Xiaoguo. What exactly are you playing at?”

”I’ve read a lot of Dragon Country youth novels, and the male protagonists in them are exactly like you. They’re all scumbags with a girl on each arm.”

”Are you sure you were reading proper novels?” Jiang Ran retorted.

”According to those novels, scumbags like that are always two-timing. They’re never satisfied with what they have. Not only are they surrounded by beautiful women, but they’ve got a side piece everywhere they go...”

At this point, he narrowed his eyes judgmentally and stared at Jiang Ran.

”You don’t... have another girlfriend off-campus, do you?”

”Heh!”

Jiang Ran couldn’t help but laugh.

”Bro, you really overestimate me. You think I’m that charming?”

’Seriously? Flirting with Cheng Mengxue?’

’If it were the Cheng Mengxue from World Line 0, back when their relationship was so good, he couldn’t completely deny it.’

’But the Cheng Mengxue before him now? Not only was it hard to tell if she was the real deal, but Jiang Ran even suspected she was here to kill him.’

’Was he crazy? Flirting with an ”Assassin” whose identity and motives were a complete mystery.’

Yes. An Assassin.

Jiang Ran glanced at the shelves in the corner of the activity room.

In a cardboard box behind the shelves lay the critically important Positron Cannon.

Since he now suspected Cheng Mengxue was connected to the Regrets Mutual Aid Association and might be an ”Assassin” they had sent...

...the best way to verify this was to take a trip to the Future Prison in the year 2045 and have a good chat with the Assassin, Fang Yang, to see if he could get any information.

But alas...

He turned his head again to look at the dozens of Rhine Cat dolls scattered everywhere, their eyes bright and piercing.

At this moment, every one of these cute Rhine Cats looked like a vicious special agent, staring intently at his every move, waiting for him to slip up.

Ever since Cheng Mengxue had caught him red-handed that night, Jiang Ran hadn’t dared to use the Positron Cannon again.

And it was from that day on that Cheng Mengxue had started, intentionally or not, to bring up topics like ”Time Travel” and ”changing history” with him...

Therefore, at this critical juncture, Jiang Ran felt he absolutely could not take the risk.

If she really was after the Positron Cannon...

...then using it rashly now, in front of the Rhine Cat Legion, would be tantamount to throwing everything away and walking right into the lion’s den.

...

「In the afternoon」

Jiang Ran went to a bubble tea shop off-campus to meet with Xu Yan.

Without them realizing it, the corner table on the second floor of this bubble tea shop had become their secret meeting spot.