Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 106 Lilith

July 21.

The day of the previously announced high school reunion had finally arrived.

To let everyone eat more, play more, and drink a little longer, they hadn’t chosen a lunchtime gathering. Instead, they scheduled it for the evening.

The notice Wang Hao sent out said the reunion would officially start at six-thirty in the evening, but in reality everyone understood… even if people didn’t all arrive until seven, that would still be completely normal.

“You should’ve written in the notice that the reunion starts at five,” Jiang Ran complained. “Then everyone would definitely be here by six.”

“People nowadays are way too slow. Being late has become a habit.”

After attending enough university events, you come to understand that procrastination is incurable. It’s the real terminal illness.

If you say six-thirty, then in many people’s minds that means six-thirty is the time they leave the house.

And no matter how many times you call them, the answer is always the same—almost there, on the way, arriving soon. As for where they actually are, only the gods know.

“That won’t work.”Wang Hao rejected the idea immediately.

“Some people are very punctual, and some even arrive early. If you do that, those punctual classmates would end up waiting too long. When you send the notice, you have to consider the delay margin for the slow people—but you can’t push it too early either. You have to think about both sides and find a middle ground.”

“Fair enough.”

Jiang Ran nodded. It made sense.

No wonder he’d been the class monitor.

It felt like once he left the academic environment of school, society itself had become Wang Hao’s comfort zone. He handled everything smoothly, like a fish in water.

At the moment, Jiang Ran and Wang Hao were standing at the entrance of the hotel welcoming people. Classmates began arriving one after another.

“Yo! Fatty!”

Wang Hao launched himself forward like a human cannonball, bumping his belly against the other guy’s. Waves rippled across both stomachs.

“Hahaha, you got fatter again.”

“Hahaha, sure, say you’re the skinny one then. Go upstairs and grab a seat.”

A while later—

“Yo! Number Five!”

Wang Hao attempted another belly-slam, but the other guy dodged instantly.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

“Hahaha, just checking if your reflexes got worse. Go upstairs!”

And just like that, Wang Hao welcomed the male classmates one by one—with his stomach.

When female classmates arrived, however, Wang Hao behaved much more properly, patiently waiting for his skill cooldown.

But strangely, many of the girls already seemed to know about Jiang Ran’s transfer into a graduate program. The moment they reached the entrance they ignored Wang Hao completely, grabbed Jiang Ran, and began firing off questions in rapid succession, full of shock.

“How do they all know?” Jiang Ran asked in confusion.

Wang Hao sighed.

“When one person knows something, everyone knows it.”

“There aren’t many people like us who went from junior college upward in the first place. And your parents probably broadcast it everywhere too. Anyone hearing about it isn’t surprising. The world is just that small.”

While greeting classmates, Jiang Ran noticed a new face he had never seen before.

The name was Song He.

A boy.

Jiang Ran had never met him. In his memory, this person had never existed in their high school class.

But he had already figured out the reason.

Since Cheng Mengxue’s absence from Donghai University had been replaced by Chi Xiaoguo, then Qin Feng’s absence from Hangzhou No.1 High School would naturally have been filled by someone else.

So regardless of whether it was Worldline 0 or Worldline 1, their high school class still had forty-two students.

The only difference was that in Worldline 0, Qin Feng had been the one in their class.

In Worldline 1, it was Song He.

Song He greeted Jiang Ran warmly, as if they had been good friends during high school.

Jiang Ran obviously had no such memories, but he played along politely.

Still, he took a few extra looks at Song He.

Because…

If Song He had filled Qin Feng’s original position,

then his student number in the class now must be—

42.

Finally, close to seven o’clock, their homeroom teacher arrived late.

“Sorry for being late.”

Teacher Gao smiled apologetically and shook hands with Jiang Ran and Wang Hao.

“There was a bit of traffic. I miscalculated the time.”

Jiang Ran quickly said it was fine—there were still classmates who hadn’t arrived yet.

Everyone understood, of course, that Teacher Gao had deliberately come a little later.

After all, a class reunion was fundamentally a reunion of classmates. Inviting the teacher was just a formality. If the teacher came later, everyone could relax and chat more freely beforehand.

Wang Hao escorted Teacher Gao to the small banquet hall on the second floor. Then he came back downstairs, took out the attendance list, and checked it.

“Only Zhou Xiong hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Zhou Xiong…”

Jiang Ran began recalling.

He was a boy from the class who was… difficult to evaluate.

Zhou Xiong came from an ordinary family, but he cared deeply about face. Extremely vain. Extremely fond of putting on airs.

To be honest, most classmates hadn’t liked him very much back then.

But Zhou Xiong didn’t care. Pride was his nature.

Most of the time everyone could tell he was lying, bragging, desperately trying to maintain appearances.

But since they were classmates and there were no serious grudges, no one bothered exposing him.

Of course, some people might have secretly treated this kind of “CEO-type personality” as a joke—but Jiang Ran never held that kind of prejudice.

After all…

Everyone had gone through adolescence.

Who hadn’t imagined themselves dancing with a sword in the rain?

Who hadn’t imagined revealing their brilliance before a crowd?

Who hadn’t pretended to be deep and melancholic, thinking of themselves as some rebellious, cool hero?

“I wonder how Zhou Xiong is doing now,” Jiang Ran said with a small smile.

“In college he should’ve improved a bit, right? Back in high school everyone’s differences weren’t that big. Everyone wore school uniforms—there wasn’t much to compare.”

“But college is different. The gap between people—and between families—is huge.”

“Some people drive BMWs and Mercedes to class. Others can only afford the cheapest meals in the cafeteria.”

“Zhou Xiong’s family situation is average. Facing so many genuinely rich students, he should tone things down.”

“Hmph.”

Wang Hao snorted.

“Zhou Xiong is exactly the same as before. Nothing changed.”

“His social media used to be somewhat normal—random photos with gloomy captions, stealing travel pictures from the internet, pretending he was on vacation or staying in hotels.”

“But lately it’s gotten ridiculous. Showing off watches worth millions, stacks of gold bars.”

“Honestly, I can’t even be bothered criticizing him. Everyone has vanity, but at least don’t fake it, right? Did you see his post yesterday? Oh right—you study all day, you probably didn’t.”

“Zhou Xiong started showing off the interior of a Maybach! I nearly died laughing. No idea where he stole the photo from. There was even a driver wearing white gloves.”

“Trust me—if you ask him where the Maybach is later, he’ll definitely say it’s in maintenance or something. He’ll have ten thousand excuses. You’ll only ever see those things on his social media. In real life you won’t see them once.”

“But honestly, someone low-key like you—that’s the real style! What do they call it… right, restrained!”

“Relax. At tonight’s reunion there’s definitely no one more impressive than you. You’re the absolute star!”

Jiang Ran followed Wang Hao’s gaze.

Sure enough—

A luxurious two-tone Maybach slowly drove toward them.

Even though Jiang Ran didn’t know much about cars, he could tell it was extremely expensive.

And the license plate was yellow—meaning the car was longer than six meters.

That placed it among the highest-tier Maybach models.

To drive a car like this, an ordinary C-class driver’s license wouldn’t be enough. You needed an A1 license.

“I wonder which big boss that is,” Wang Hao muttered.

“Man… if I could sit in that car just once in my life, it’d be worth it.”

As he spoke—

The Maybach stopped directly in front of them.

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao exchanged a look, both completely confused.

Then the driver’s door opened.

A tall, muscular driver stepped out, dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit and wearing white gloves.

He jogged forward with professional posture, stopped beside the rear door, gently opened it, shielded the door frame with one hand, and bowed.

“President Zhou, please step out.”

P-President Zhou?!

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao stared at each other, wide-eyed.

A polished leather shoe emerged from the Maybach.

A hand wearing an exaggerated Richard Mille watch extended out, flicking the sleeve.

Then a young man—only eighteen or nineteen—stepped out of the car, straightened up, and smiled toward them.

“Class Monitor. Jiang Ran. Long time no see.”

“Zhou Xiong!”

Wang Hao was completely stunned.

“Y-you…”

“Holy crap! That Maybach is really yours?! Yesterday I saw your post and didn’t believe it!”

…

By the time the reunion had been underway for an hour and a half, everyone was a little drunk. Conversations became increasingly direct.

Many classmates gathered around Zhou Xiong, men and women raising glasses and asking what had happened to him—how he had made so much money just two years after graduating high school.

“No, no.”

Zhou Xiong had drunk quite a bit. His face was flushed and his body swayed slightly, but he still wasn’t drunk. His mind remained clear.

“It’s not as exaggerated as everyone thinks. I just encountered some opportunities and managed to seize them.”

“But no matter what, we were classmates for three years. I hope everyone can still treat me the same as before. I’m nothing special—I’ll always stand equal with you all.”

“When we were in school my abilities were limited, nothing I could do. Now that I’ve done a bit better, of course we should help each other.”

“As for the gifts and drinks today, don’t take them too seriously.”

“In short, being classmates is fate. From now on, don’t be strangers with me.”

“If anyone runs into trouble in life—any kind of trouble—you can come to me!”

“No matter how difficult it is, one phone call from me will solve it!”

…

Zhou Xiong took out his phone and raised it to his ear.

“[Lilith].”

Boom.

Jiang Ran’s spine turned ice-cold.

It felt as if a massive hammer had slammed into his chest.

His heart stopped beating.

His wineglass froze midair. The liquid surface trembled.

His neck stiffened as he slowly raised his head and looked toward Zhou Xiong, who stood surrounded by the crowd.

“I have a classmate whose mother is at Peking Union Medical College Hospital.”

Zhou Xiong spoke into the phone, his tone carrying unquestionable authority.

“Arrange the best hospital room, the best specialists, and the fastest surgery.”

“Do it now. Immediately.”