Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 119 The Key

[July 23, 2025. Weather: Light Rain.]

[Today, I went to the hospital.]

I hate this place.

There’s a saying in a book—if you feel life is difficult, go to a hospital and see how many people are struggling just to stay alive.

Every time I come here, I think of that sentence.

But it doesn’t make me feel any better.

Because here, there is no audience—

only clowns toyed with by fate.

If it were possible,

I wish that every hospital in the world had no patients, no suffering, no struggle, no regrets.Unfortunately…

I can’t save everyone.

I can only save myself.

The Mutual Aid Society—

will fulfill my wish.

After that…

there will be no need to come to the hospital again.

And I—

will die without any regrets.]

Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter. Pitter-patter.

Outside the hospital, a light rain gradually began to fall.

Jiang Ran stood at the entrance of the building, holding the DNA report, listening to the rhythm of raindrops.

He hadn’t expected it.

The DNA report showed that Cheng Mengxue and Xu Yan’s father were biologically uncle and niece… which meant she was truly his niece—an undisputed blood relation.

Then…

could it still be fake?

Beside him, Wang Hao exhaled a long stream of smoke and patted Jiang Ran on the shoulder.

“Keep your word, brother.”

“Mm.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

For some reason—

even though he had already accepted that Xiaoxue was truly alive—

he felt no joy at all.

Instead, this ironclad proof only made him feel even more depressed.

Looking up at the pitch-black night sky, he felt completely lost.

Up until now—

everything he had done, all his motivation—

had been for one purpose:

to bring Cheng Mengxue back to life.

Whether it was sending signals through the Positron Cannon,

or using a time machine to save her—

all of it had been for reviving the Cheng Mengxue who had died.

But now…

the worldline had played a massive joke on him.

Cheng Mengxue—

had never died at all.

She was alive and well.

[Then… what should he do next?]

Repair the Positron Cannon.

Meet Lu Yu.

Build the time machine.

Did any of that still have meaning?

No.

Jiang Ran shook his head.

It still did.

To completely return to Worldline 0, he had to repair the Positron Cannon and send time-traveling messages again.

Even though, for now, the difference between Worldline 0 and Worldline 1 didn’t seem that great—

he still ended up at Donghai University,

and Cheng Mengxue was alive.

But no matter how much he tried to convince himself—

he felt no sense of belonging on this worldline.

Including toward the Xiaoxue in front of him.

Even though all evidence proved she was real—

Jiang Ran still couldn’t treat her as the Cheng Mengxue in his heart—

the one from Worldline 0, who had been by his side day and night.

And there was still one thing he couldn’t ignore—

“Qin Feng.”

He murmured the name again.

Jiang Ran didn’t understand what Qin Feng was secretly doing.

But one thing was clear now—

Qin Feng’s plan had already begun on Worldline 0.

The message he sent ten years into the past—

was not just to save his father.

There had to be other plans.

Other schemes.

Ever since learning that Qin Feng had bought the knob control board—

and broken into his basement—

Jiang Ran could no longer tell whether Qin Feng was friend or foe.

Suddenly—

he recalled the promise he had made during the Worldline Transition:

“No matter how the worldline changes, I won’t abandon any of you.”

“No matter what the butterfly effect does to our relationship, I will find you all again, and we’ll be just like we are now.”

Now—

that promise felt… idealistic.

But—

words spoken, promises made—

had to be kept.

That had always been Jiang Ran’s principle.

No matter what—

he had to find Qin Feng first.

Find out what he was secretly doing.

Find out what hidden secrets he carried.

[If I can’t find him in the present—then I’ll find him in the future!]

2045.

Future prison.

The Magician.

Execution ground.

The execution platform…

“Qin Feng… see you in twenty years.”

Jiang Ran took out his phone and checked the date.

July 23, 2025. 11:00 p.m.

There was just over a month left until graduate school enrollment at Donghai University.

In a month—

he would return there,

restart the Positron Cannon with Chi Xiaoguo,

travel to the future prison in 2045—

and uncover all the secrets.

All the answers.

After that—

time flew.

For the first time, Jiang Ran truly understood what Cheng Mengxue meant by “counting the days.”

In all his years as a student, he had never hated summer vacation this much.

Why couldn’t time move faster?

Why couldn’t the holiday be shorter?

He wanted to go back to school.

On Cheng Mengxue’s side—

under Xu Yan’s persistent insistence, she stayed for nearly a month.

If not for her studies forcing her to return, Xu Yan wouldn’t have let her go at all—she seemed determined to make up for the two years they had lost.

Today—

was the day Cheng Mengxue had booked her flight back to the United States.

Jiang Ran drove, taking Wang Hao and Xu Yan with him to see her off.

“Let’s stop here~ I’m going through security~”

After checking her luggage, the three of them said goodbye at the checkpoint.

Cheng Mengxue looked at Jiang Ran, smiled, and hopped over.

“When I come back next time, I’ll bring that Brooklyn limited-edition Mob Boss Caimao with me. You’ll hang it on your phone too, okay?”

“Forget it.”

Jiang Ran gave a helpless smile.

“What guy hangs a Caimao charm on his phone? People would laugh.”

“Then give it to me!”

Wang Hao raised his hand.

“No reason to refuse free stuff!”

“The hell you are!”

Xu Yan yanked him back, glaring at him in frustration.

“Do you even match the vibe of a mob boss?!”

Then she shot him intense looks, telling him to shut up.

Xu Yan sighed inwardly…

Wang Hao really was blind.

No wonder he got along with Jiang Ran—birds of a feather.

Anyone could see it—

Mob Boss Caimao and Wedding Caimao were a pair.

An obvious couple set.

Cheng Mengxue had already made it so obvious—she was willing to give up her favorite Caimao to Jiang Ran—

and it just so happened to be the Mob Boss one that paired with Wedding Caimao.

It was basically a couple charm.

And yet Wang Hao still had the nerve to shout “I want it!”

Absolutely clueless.

“By the way, does Wedding Caimao have some special backstory?”

Xu Yan stepped in smoothly.

“Is it some sweet romance story? Like a mob boss and a noble princess?”

But—

Cheng Mengxue shook her head.

“Actually, Wedding Caimao has a tragic story. She was originally a poor girl from Brooklyn. The happiest days of her life were the ones she spent with Mob Boss Caimao.”

“But their ending was full of regret…”

“[The bride ultimately died in the mob boss’s arms, scattering into the wind; and the mob boss eventually left this era, returning to the world he belonged to.]”

Ah.

Ah?

Xu Yan froze.

Her “assist” had completely backfired.

What kind of melodramatic love story was this?

Who even writes romance this painful anymore?

“Ahem.”

She coughed lightly, trying to patch things up.

“Regret… well, life is always full of regret. But those regrets remind people to cherish the present, cherish the people in front of them.”

“So! Regret is something very few people ever get the chance to fix—so you have to seize the moment! Jiang Ran, don’t you think?”

“…Huh?”

Now it was Jiang Ran’s turn to be confused.

What kind of coded conversation was this?

How did a Caimao backstory suddenly turn into life philosophy?

“Alright, I’m off~”

Cheng Mengxue slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped into the security line, turning back to wave.

“Jiang Ran! Wang Hao! Sis!”

“Next semester—we’ll meet in Donghai!”

Then—

she turned and ran off.

“…Sigh.”

Xu Yan watched her skipping figure disappear, letting out a quiet sigh.

The road ahead was long.

Especially when you fall for someone as dense as that.

Was there really some kind of curse between childhood friends?

Xu Yan didn’t know.

But from what she had observed—

it did seem that way.

Childhood friends rarely ended up together.

In fact…

most of them never even took the first step.

Just like Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue.

They had known each other for nearly twenty years.

Grown up together.

Always by each other’s side.

A relationship like that…

Honestly—

if they were going to be together, it would have happened long ago.

She had no idea where the problem lay.

“Let’s go.”

Xu Yan crossed her arms and walked away in her heels, click-clack.

Donghai City.

A luxurious conference room.

The curtains were drawn thick, all the lights turned off.

Only the projection screen glowed—

playing the micro-film Prodigy’s Playground.

In the dim, enclosed room—

only one middle-aged man sat in a chair, staring at the screen without blinking.

Creak—

Without knocking, an expensive wooden door inlaid with gold was pushed open.

An elderly man in traditional attire walked straight in.

He was surprised to see the room unlit.

He glanced at the screen, then at the man seated by the table.

“You’re still watching this micro-film?”

the old man asked.

“I remember you’ve already watched it many times.”

The middle-aged man smiled slightly.

“I need to find details in it. Clues.”

“And this time…”

“I really did find something very [interesting].”

The old man nodded, playing with a gold coin in his hand.

“How did things go?”

“Very smoothly.”

The middle-aged man answered concisely.

“There’s nothing to worry about. At the end of the day, Jiang Ran is just a teenager. What can he possibly use to fight us? He doesn’t even realize we exist.”

“Besides, there’s no need to focus too much on him for now. Our true target… is the person behind him—or the people around him. That boy is most likely just bait.”

“Mhm.”

The old man was satisfied.

The middle-aged man was his most capable subordinate.

“It wasn’t in vain that we prepared this ‘key’ for so long. I knew it would come in handy… though I didn’t expect the ‘lock’ to appear this late.”

“What’s next? In September, Jiang Ran will start graduate school at Donghai University. Are you planning to send the ‘key’ there as well?”

The middle-aged man nodded.

“Exactly. As you said—we need them to become the closest of friends. Only then can we gain the greatest level of trust.”

“Otherwise… it’ll be very difficult to pry open Jiang Ran’s mouth and uncover the secrets behind him.”

“This has to be gradual. It’s the only way. We can’t rush it. Friendship needs time to develop naturally.”

“Of course… it’s also possible that our ‘key’ is clever enough to figure everything out on their own through daily interaction.”

“Honestly, I have great confidence in the ‘key.’ Very smart. Very capable.”

“Heh.”

The old man let out a dry chuckle, idly spinning the [King Coin] between his fingers.

On the front—

a bearded king wearing a crown and holding a scepter, with the word KING engraved.

On the back—

a simple ferris wheel sketch, with a mysterious deep eye at its center.

He spoke slowly:

“No matter. Let them play.”

“Until we uncover who the true mastermind is.”

“Once we know their identity… once we understand their purpose…”

“That will be the moment we close the net.”

“Heh… Donghai University, huh? Just like a mahjong table gathering all the pieces together. Things are about to get very lively there…”

He turned to leave—

but suddenly stopped.

“Oh, right.”

He looked back at the middle-aged man.

“You said you found something interesting in this micro-film…”

“What exactly is it?”

The middle-aged man picked up the remote and rewound the projection to near the beginning, then pressed play.

“Run!”

On the screen, the second male lead clutched his bleeding chest, gritting his teeth:

“As long as we go back to the past and change everything… everything will start over… go!”

Then—

he grabbed the diary and ran to the rooftop.

“Not this page… not this one… this one!”

They flipped to a diary entry from 2009 and began reading aloud—

Click.

The middle-aged man paused the screen.

The image froze on the open diary.

“In this micro-film, most of what’s shown is real. Correct. That’s why we targeted the original author, the script, the writer—that boy, Jiang Ran.”

“But…”

“Is it really most?”

“Or all?”

He paused, then continued:

“Is it possible… that what we think is unrealistic is only because we think it is? Because our understanding is limited?”

He smiled.

“That’s what I meant by something interesting.”

Leaning forward, resting his chin on his hand, he stared at the diary on the screen.

“Is it possible…”

“[That boy Jiang Ran truly possesses a diary that can travel through time?]”