Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 114 The Truth Revealed

Clink.

The sound of glass cups colliding.

Following Jiang Ran’s lead, the three of them raised their wineglasses once again and toasted.

Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue still only took small sips.

Wang Hao still drained his in one gulp.

Across the table, Cheng Mengxue picked up a napkin and wiped her mouth.

She did not answer Jiang Ran’s question immediately. It was unclear what she was hesitating about.

Jiang Ran did not urge her.

He simply set down his glass and waited in silence.

This undercurrent-filled match had only just begun. He was in no hurry for the answer.But he would eventually get it.

At the moment, what he was actually doing was a double verification.

First, verification through alcohol tolerance.

Given the real Cheng Mengxue’s tolerance, once she finished the wine in her glass and waited ten or twenty minutes for it to settle, she should already be drunk enough to black out and collapse.

Just now Cheng Mengxue herself had said that she had never drunk alcohol before in her life.

Therefore—

Her “ant-level alcohol tolerance” was a physical trait even Cheng Mengxue herself did not know about. Only Jiang Ran had verified it on Worldline 0.

Second, verification through the glass bottle letter.

Those two glass bottles sealed inside a rusted iron box had been buried during Cheng Mengxue’s elementary school years. The letters inside had also been written at that time. That was an unquestionable fact.

And those letters had truly been buried underground for more than ten years. No one had ever known their contents.

Therefore.

If the Cheng Mengxue sitting in front of him could say even a single thing from the letter—its content, a rough description, even just one sentence—then Jiang Ran would discard that remaining 0.01% doubt and believe unconditionally…

that this Cheng Mengxue was real.

He narrowed his eyes.

Waiting for her answer.

This time truly was…

the final battle.

“Hehe, I kind of can’t remember.”

Across from him, Cheng Mengxue laughed sheepishly.

“The thing about burying a time capsule—I do vaguely remember it. I buried it together with Sister Xu Yan.”

“But that letter to my future self twenty years later… I really can’t remember it. I can’t recall what I wrote.”

At that moment.

The main dishes arrived.

The waiter replaced their plates and cutlery.

“…”

Jiang Ran smiled as if he had expected that outcome. He raised his wineglass.

“The main course is here. This is our third toast. Let’s finish this glass of wine and start eating.”

The three of them clinked glasses again.

There had only been a small amount of wine in the glasses to begin with—barely covering the bottom. Even though Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue had only taken small sips earlier, there wasn’t much left.

So, following Jiang Ran’s suggestion, Cheng Mengxue tilted her head slightly and poured the remaining red wine into her mouth, finishing the glass in one go.

The waiter who had been standing by with the wine bottle stepped forward and refilled their glasses.

After that.

Wineglasses clinked.

Conversation flowed.

Wang Hao could barely contain his excitement at seeing Cheng Mengxue again. His desire to share stories exploded. He kept talking nonstop about everything that had happened in the past two years.

Cheng Mengxue did the same, telling them about her life in the United States.

Every time their high school Iron Triangle memories came up, Cheng Mengxue became nostalgic, saying how every day in America she had been counting down the days, impatient to return home and explain everything to everyone.

Eventually the after-dinner desserts arrived. The exquisitely crafted little cakes made Cheng Mengxue’s eyes sparkle. She immediately picked up a fork and tasted one.

Behind them, the waiter carrying the wine bottle stepped forward.

“Sir, this bottle of wine is already empty. Would you like to order another?”

Jiang Ran looked up.

He looked at Cheng Mengxue across from him—still full of enthusiasm, speaking clearly, praising the cake as she tasted it.

Then he smiled faintly and waved to the waiter.

“I think… that won’t be necessary.”

The waiter froze.

He didn’t quite understand what such a strange phrasing meant.

Was the guest dissatisfied with today’s service? Or unhappy with the wine?

But in any case…

“Not necessary” clearly meant they didn’t need a second bottle.

He bowed and withdrew.

“Very well, sir. Enjoy your meal.”

After the waiter left, the huge private room contained only the three friends reunited after a long separation.

Wang Hao and Cheng Mengxue chatted happily, finishing the delicate and expensive cakes in just two bites, completely wasting their elegant presentation.

Jiang Ran lowered his head, lazily cutting his cake into small pieces with his fork and eating them one by one.

He was very quiet.

He didn’t participate in their conversation.

He wasn’t even listening.

Because just as he had told the waiter—

There was no longer any need.

At this point, the truth had already been revealed.

He could now be 100% certain—

The Cheng Mengxue before him had to be fake.

A chilling sensation spread through his body.

Even in the scorching heat of August, Jiang Ran felt no warmth at all.

There was no mistake.

The three of them had finished an entire bottle of red wine together. Although Wang Hao had drunk the most, Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue had also consumed quite a bit.

With the real Cheng Mengxue’s alcohol tolerance, she should have already blacked out and collapsed onto the table—just like she had on the luxury cruise ship in Worldline 0.

But none of that had happened.

After drinking so much wine, Cheng Mengxue was still completely sober, chatting and laughing with Wang Hao as if nothing was wrong.

There wasn’t the slightest sign of drunkenness.

Clearly.

This girl was not Cheng Mengxue.

And if that was the case…

Then why had someone disguised themselves—or perhaps undergone plastic surgery—to look like Cheng Mengxue and appear at the reunion at such a carefully chosen moment?

Was it to approach him?

Was she targeting him specifically?

Or was this simply the fulfillment of Zhou Xiong’s wish—a trick performed by the “omnipotent” Lilith?

Thinking of this, Jiang Ran suddenly felt a small sense of relief.

If this Cheng Mengxue was fake, then it proved that Lilith was not truly omnipotent.

Even a being called a god could not actually resurrect the dead.

At least the world was still normal.

There were no supernatural phenomena.

There was no omnipotent deity.

However…

Jiang Ran still had to remain vigilant.

He had to maintain a sense of danger.

That short film “Prodigy’s Playground” was most likely the real reason he had been dragged into this whirlpool and pushed into the spotlight.

The appearance of this fake Cheng Mengxue was almost certainly connected to that matter—and to the sky-high hush money offered by the film company.

Either she was here to test him.

Or she was here to investigate him.

In any case, he could not lower his guard.

He had to remain cautious at all times.

Until he figured out who she really was—or until she exposed her purpose herself—he would not startle the snake.

“Better to observe quietly,” Jiang Ran thought as he swallowed the last bite of cake.

“If you want to act, then I’ll act with you.”

“It’s very possible that the reunion, Zhou Xiong’s farce, and Lilith’s magical wish-granting were all part of a staged setup designed for me.”

“I still don’t understand their goal… but it’s clear something has started watching me. From now on, I’ll have to be careful.”

In the end.

His true priority remained the same—

reviving the real Cheng Mengxue.

Returning to Worldline 0.

That was the world that truly belonged to him.

In one month, the semester would begin again.

He would return to Donghai University and continue his plan.

As for the complicated and mysterious chaos unfolding before him…

Let it disappear into the graveyard of worldline transitions.

After dinner, the three of them went downstairs.

Jiang Ran called for a designated driver and first sent Cheng Mengxue back to her hotel. They arranged to pick her up tomorrow afternoon and go to West Lake, then visit Xu Yan’s house.

“We’ve arrived at the hotel,” the driver said, turning his head.

Since Wang Hao was sitting in the back row and it was inconvenient for him to get out, Jiang Ran got out of the car instead. He opened the trunk, picked up the shopping bags they had bought earlier, and carried them upstairs for Cheng Mengxue.

Most of the bags contained clothes she had purchased.

She had returned from the United States in a hurry and had not brought many clothes with her. On top of that, the temperature difference between America and Hangzhou was huge, so many of the clothes she had brought weren’t suitable to wear.

So she had simply bought new ones while shopping earlier.

Jiang Ran knocked on the car window.

“Wang Hao, wait in the car. I’ll help Xiaoxue carry these upstairs. She can’t manage them all alone.”

“OK.”

Wang Hao made a gesture.

“Go ahead. I won’t get out.”

Jiang Ran then followed Cheng Mengxue into the elevator, carrying the bags, and arrived outside her hotel room.

“I won’t go in.”

He stopped at the doorway and handed the bags to her.

“Oh wow, after two years you’re already acting this distant?”

Cheng Mengxue rolled her eyes.

“There’s nothing scandalous in my room.”

Jiang Ran simply smiled and said nothing.

Now.

In his eyes.

The woman pretending to be Cheng Mengxue was just a stranger with unclear intentions—someone completely unrelated to him.

Naturally he felt nothing.

No emotion whatsoever.

Just as he had thought earlier—

If you want to act, then I’ll act with you.

Until the moment you slip up and reveal your real purpose.

Responding to change with constancy, gradually turning passive into active—that was Jiang Ran’s current strategy.

“Well, I’m heading back.”

Jiang Ran turned around.

“Hey!”

“What?”

Cheng Mengxue called out behind him. Jiang Ran turned back.

“What is it?”

She bit her lower lip, hesitating.

Finally, she shook her head.

“That thing you mentioned during dinner… the time capsule, the glass bottle, the letters Xu Yan and I wrote to ourselves twenty years in the future…”

Jiang Ran nodded.

“Yes?”

“Sister Xu Yan… didn’t tell you anything, did she?”

Cheng Mengxue fiddled with the short hair on her forehead, her gaze drifting.

“She shouldn’t have told you anything, right? You said she remembered what was written in the letter, and that surprised me… because back then we actually read each other’s letters.”

“So if she remembers what her letter said, she should also remember at least some of what I wrote. She… didn’t tell you?”

…

Jiang Ran sneered inwardly.

Even now she was still acting. Still patching the story.

Enough.

“No.”

Jiang Ran shook his head.

“Xu Yan didn’t tell me.”

He wasn’t stupid enough to fall for the fake Cheng Mengxue’s trap.

She clearly wanted to extract information.

After all, this was a memory she didn’t possess. Naturally she would try every possible method to find out what the letter said so she could better impersonate Cheng Mengxue.

But Jiang Ran wouldn’t let her succeed.

If both of them were acting, then they would keep acting.

He had already decided.

When he got back, he would contact Xu Yan and warn her in advance about the situation.

Not to explain his suspicion about the real or fake Cheng Mengxue—just to remind Xu Yan not to reveal the contents of the glass bottle letter.

Because…

That letter was currently the only proof capable of distinguishing the real Cheng Mengxue from the fake.

It had to be protected.

“Do you really not remember?”

Human hearts were often contradictory.

Looking at the girl who seemed so real yet whom he knew must be false, Jiang Ran still couldn’t help giving her one final chance.

“Even just one sentence.”

He asked quietly.

“Can’t you remember a single line from that letter?”

Their eyes met.

Cheng Mengxue pressed her lips together.

Finally she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Jiang Ran. I really can’t remember. It was too long ago.”

“All right.”

Jiang Ran smiled in relief and waved.

“Goodbye. See you tomorrow.”

Bang.

After Jiang Ran left, Cheng Mengxue entered the room and closed the door.

“Phew…”

Leaning against the door, she covered her forehead and let out a long sigh.

“Honestly… he kept asking and asking. He definitely knows what was written in that letter.”

The girl muttered quietly.

“So why insist on making someone say it out loud? What terrible taste… what girl could say something like that directly…”

She shook her head, opened her eyes, and snorted softly.

“Jiang Ran… is still such a big idiot.”