Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 174 An Unexpected Delight

The next day, professional forensic technicians from the Donghai City Public Security Bureau arrived.

They brought all kinds of instruments and swept the Film Camera Club activity room, Jiang Ran’s dorm, and the other classrooms he frequently used.

Originally, Jiang Ran had been worried about how he was supposed to explain this to Fang Ze.

But for some reason, even though several days had already passed since the National Day holiday ended, Fang Ze still had not returned from America.

Jiang Ran had messaged him before, asking whether he had found his brother.

Fang Ze replied that he hadn’t, but since it was rare for him to come back to the U.S., he decided to handle some matters at school there and return to China a few days later.

Jiang Ran didn’t think much of it.

A later return was perfect.

If Fang Ze had been staying in the dorm, it really would have been hard to explain why the Donghai City Public Security Bureau was inspecting the room.

As for Fang Yang—if he still got to see the Killer the next time they activated the Positron Cannon, Jiang Ran planned to ask him in detail.

Now that Wu Yuanzheng was dead and the Mutual Aid Society of Regrets had already disbanded, if the Killer truly was willing to wash his hands of it all and live a good life with his younger brother, that wouldn’t be a bad outcome.

By the afternoon, all inspections were complete.

The technical officer told Jiang Ran, “We’ve thoroughly checked every one of these places. There are no bugs or surveillance devices anywhere.”

“Looks like they were still very cautious. Compared to the bugs hidden inside the Caimao dolls, external electronic devices really are easier to discover.”

Jiang Ran agreed.

Those Caimao dolls were Cheng Mengxue’s treasures. Unless he was ready to openly lay everything on the table and completely fall out with Cheng Mengxue, there was no way he could forcibly tear them apart.

So even though he had long suspected there was something wrong with those dolls, he had only pretended not to know, acting confused while fully aware.

But bugs or pinhole cameras installed outside were different.

With any excuse as simple as a general cleanup, those could easily be found.

From that angle, Wu Yuanzheng’s people really had been extremely cautious.

A thought suddenly struck Jiang Ran.

Maybe in their eyes, he too was some kind of “dangerous figure” with “hidden skills.”

That was why they had been just as careful, unwilling to alert the snake in the grass, even going so far as to use a sniper rifle to kill him.

“Mm… there has to be some other reason they thought I was secretly powerful, or had someone backing me.”

Resting his chin in his hand, Jiang Ran thought it through.

“Since they targeted me because of the micro-film Prodigy’s Playground, then they most likely assumed I was connected to one of the members of Prodigy’s Playground…”

He closed the door to the Film Camera Club activity room, dragged over the small blackboard, and prepared to summarize everything they currently knew.

The room was safe now.

Whether he sorted out his thoughts here, or activated the Positron Cannon tonight, there would be no risk.

Jiang Ran picked up a piece of chalk and wrote in large letters across the board:

[Prodigy’s Playground]

Through Li Yini’s diary, Jiang Ran had realized that Wu Yuanzheng was not merely the leader of the Mutual Aid Society of Regrets.

He was also one member of another organization—far more mysterious and far more powerful.

Based on everything they knew, it was not hard to infer that the name of that organization was most likely [Prodigy’s Playground].

Inside this “playground,” every member seemed to possess a codename, an identity coin, and a phone capable of contacting Lilith.

That appeared to be the standard package for joining Prodigy’s Playground.

Then, one by one, Jiang Ran wrote down the codenames currently known to them.

[Priest]: the real identity was Wu Yuanzheng. He led the Mutual Aid Society of Regrets. Already dead.

[King]: identity unknown. But according to the Killer Fang Yang, the King Coin had been in Priest Wu Yuanzheng’s possession. Of the two burned coins on the airport pavement, the other one was most likely the King’s Coin.

[Princess]: although the Princess Coin had ended up in Zhou Xiong’s hands, no matter how one looked at it, Zhou Xiong felt like cannon fodder dragged out as a distraction. According to the Killer, once this Princess Coin was handed to the Priest, the Priest immediately knelt and smashed it.

[Puppet]: this codename had appeared for the first time in Li Yini’s diary. It was only mentioned briefly, but it was this person who had uploaded Cheng Mengxue’s memories two years ago, then downloaded them into Li Yini’s brain. Current identity unknown, objective unknown, but clearly connected to Qin Feng the Magician.

[Magician]: the true identity was Qin Feng, something already confirmed back in the 2045 prison future. Thinking back to the Ferris wheel emblem on the reverse side of the identity coin, which matched the carved mark on the ruined wall of Qin Feng’s childhood home, it was not hard to infer that as early as 2015, Qin Feng had already become the [Magician].

“No, that can’t be right. Qin Feng in 2015 was only ten years old. No matter how you slice it, joining Prodigy’s Playground at that age is too absurd.”

Jiang Ran shifted angles and reconsidered the source of that Ferris wheel carving on the courtyard wall.

“Could it be… that ten-year-old Qin Feng saw the identity coin somewhere else, and that’s why he carved the symbol into the stone wall?”

Good.

That line of thought was very clear.

So he pushed deeper.

A ten-year-old Qin Feng’s range of movement would have been limited.

There was a high probability he had seen the identity coin at home.

Then, connecting that with the unavoidable death of Qin Feng’s father across both worldlines—

the answer had already surfaced.

“It’s very likely Qin Feng’s father was the first-generation Magician. As a child, Qin Feng saw his father’s identity coin, which is why he carved the design into the wall.”

[In 2015, Qin Feng’s father died—most likely killed by another member of the Playground. Then the identity coin fell into Qin Feng’s hands, allowing him to become the second-generation Magician.]

Jiang Ran’s eyes widened.

Unexpectedly, the more he followed this line of logic, the smoother everything became.

This also explained why Qin Feng had spent all these years displaced from home, constantly hiding.

[Because the person who killed his father never got the identity coin, they naturally kept hunting Qin Feng!]

Qin Feng!

At the same time, it also explained why in the 2045 future prison, Qin Feng would be beheaded on the execution platform.

[Because Qin Feng was ultimately captured after all, then framed with a whole series of fabricated charges, becoming the so-called world’s number one criminal and public enemy of humanity.]

Only—

who exactly was the one who eventually captured Qin Feng and convicted him?

Priest Wu Yuanzheng?

Or some other member of the Playground who was currently hunting Qin Feng?

Jiang Ran stepped back.

Looking at the list of Prodigy’s Playground members on the blackboard, he couldn’t understand what they were all fighting and killing each other for.

According to the ideas in his setting notes, Prodigy’s Playground was a game involving eleven geniuses.

So if someone ultimately won this game—

what reward would they receive?

“Qin Feng… can’t you just give me that setting notebook back?”

Jiang Ran sighed.

He had already stolen it, already read it.

And besides, the Qin Feng of Worldline 1 wasn’t standing against him.

So why couldn’t he just return it?

Jiang Ran’s intuition told him that notebook definitely recorded the truth and answers to many things.

“Forget it. No point thinking about that first.”

“Qin Feng has his plan, and I have mine.”

“The most urgent matter right now is figuring out how to bring Xiaoxue back.”

Picking up the eraser, he wiped away the summary on the board and rewrote the two routes for reviving Cheng Mengxue:

[1. Repair the Positron Cannon and restore its ability to send spacetime information.]

This was the most efficient route, the most direct route—

and also the most difficult route.

If the Positron Cannon could be repaired, then by directly sending a spacetime message two years into the past, Cheng Mengxue could naturally avoid the car accident.

But the problem was—

how exactly could it be repaired?

At present, it seemed the key still lay with the one who tied the knot.

Only by finding the 2005 generation of Film Camera Club members could they obtain real clues.

[2. Find Lu Yu and use his genius brain to build a spacetime shuttle.]

The principle behind the spacetime shuttle was different from the Positron Cannon.

It was a device capable of transporting a complete individual to a point in the past.

If they could build that, they could still save Cheng Mengxue the same way.

At worst, Jiang Ran would personally go back two years and pull Cheng Mengxue back onto the path where she originally went to take the college entrance exam.

“In short, this is my main quest from here on.”

Jiang Ran snapped the chalk between his fingers, solidifying his plans for the coming period.

“Now then, aside from that—”

His gaze shifted toward the cardboard box behind the shelf, toward the Positron Cannon hidden inside.

Because of the earlier surveillance through the Caimao dolls, Jiang Ran had not visited 2045 in a very long time.

Now that the danger was gone, he naturally felt impatient.

He took out his phone and sent Chi Xiaoguo a WeChat message, arranging to meet in the Film Camera Club room that evening.

Chi Xiaoguo replied with an OK sticker and said that during this period she had discovered more clues related to relics left behind by the early Film Camera Club, so tonight was the perfect time to share them with Jiang Ran.

“President Xiaoguo really is reliable.”

Even before summer break, Chi Xiaoguo had already compiled a booklet on the history of the Film Camera Club.

Jiang Ran had read through it during the break as well, planning to search together for the Positron Cannon and clues about the older alumni once school resumed.

It was just that plans couldn’t keep up with changes.

Cheng Mengxue’s sudden reappearance had disrupted the entire rhythm, naturally shelving that idea.

Unexpectedly, Chi Xiaoguo had still remembered it and kept investigating quietly this whole time.

Jiang Ran couldn’t help feeling moved.

He walked to the bookshelf and picked up the research file Chi Xiaoguo had previously organized.

Opening it—

between the middle pages was tucked that old 2005 Film Camera Club group photo they had obtained by chance.

Jiang Ran took it out and laid it flat on the desk.

In truth, he had already looked at this yellowed group photo countless times last semester.

Other than the Positron Cannon visible in the corner, there had almost been no other useful information.

Something had apparently malfunctioned when the photo was taken.

The upper half of the entire picture was severely overexposed, swallowed in a blinding white glare that completely covered the faces of the three people, making it impossible to identify the senior club members.

The only recognizable details were that the “rocker guy” on the left had shoulder-length hair—

and the man and woman on the right were clearly a couple.

Only—

since this photo had been taken in 2005, twenty years ago, the three spirited young people in it had surely long since become middle-aged office workers, long stripped of their youthful brilliance.

“Time really spares no one.”

Jiang Ran couldn’t help sighing.

Time truly was a merciless carving knife.

It changed not only the shape of life, but could also smooth away a person’s sharp edges, making them lose all the fierceness of youth and blend into society’s great dye vat.

Twenty years had passed.

He wondered whether that young couple had married and had children, whether they were still as loving as ever.

He wondered whether that long-haired rocker had gone bald, and whether he could still rock on with a beer belly.

“What a shame. The age of rock has already passed.”

These days, popular music was basically divided three ways between rap, absurdist trends, and sad love songs.

Where was there any place left for rock music?

He tucked the failed photo back into the notebook, glanced at the time on his phone, and headed toward the school gate.

Today, besides his evening appointment with Chi Xiaoguo to activate the Positron Cannon, there was another important matter to handle.

That was—

Professor Zhang Yang was finally being discharged!

After more than a month, his injuries had mostly healed. Walking with a cane was no problem at all.

As the sect’s eldest disciple, Jiang Ran naturally had to go pick up his master.

Leaving campus, he took a taxi to Donghai University First Affiliated Hospital and entered Zhang Yang’s room.

Madam Zhang had already packed up all the bags and belongings, and the car was parked downstairs.

All that remained was carrying everything down.

“Senior Brother! Hurry and get Master his cane!”

Even now, Professor Zhang Yang was as unserious as ever.

Or perhaps he had been cooped up in the hospital for too long and was finally liberated, so his spirits were unusually high.

Jiang Ran picked up the metal cane from beside the wall and walked toward the bed.

“Professor Zhang, you really need to be more careful in the future. At your age, don’t play around with dangerous things like motorcycles anymore.”

“…”

“Hah! Small problem!”

Zhang Yang still looked utterly unrepentant.

“I’ve already toned it down a lot. When I was young, that was what real madness looked like. Riding a motorcycle felt like flying a plane!”

“And you’re proud of that?” Jiang Ran said speechlessly.

“Hehe.”

Madam Zhang, who was packing their things, smiled gently.

“Jiang Ran, you probably can’t tell, but your Professor Zhang was a completely different person in college. He was unserious all day long, wore flared pants, kept his hair long, and was always shaking his head around.”

“No way—”

Jiang Ran stared at Zhang Yang in disbelief.

“You had a black history like that?”

“Look at you! How is that black history? That’s youth!”

Zhang Yang rubbed the slightly thinning back of his head.

“Sigh, speaking of it, I really do miss my long hair from college. It’s just that later, when I joined the Dragon Country Academy of Sciences, Professor Gao Yan personally held my head down and shaved it off.”

Hm?

Jiang Ran suddenly froze.

Wait a second!

He abruptly realized that Professor Zhang Yang had done his undergraduate studies at Donghai University.

And now there were flared pants, shoulder-length hair—

Earlier Madam Zhang had even said he had been very popular with girls in college.

Jiang Ran directly threw the cane aside and rushed over!

“The cane! The cane! The cane!”

Zhang Yang gestured frantically with both hands.

Who could care about that right now?!

“Professor Zhang!”

Jiang Ran sat down at the bedside.

“In 2005, were you at Donghai University?”

“Of course.”

Zhang Yang looked puzzled.

“I enrolled at Donghai University in 2004. In 2005, I was a sophomore.”

“Then what club were you in back then?” Jiang Ran asked urgently.

“Hehe, don’t tell me you thought I was in the rock club.”

Zhang Yang chuckled.

“It’s true that I did start a band at school back then, but I didn’t join the rock club. People doing music in those days were all too arrogant—there was no way they’d mix.”

“But I bet you’d never guess what club I actually joined. I mainly went there to keep two very close friends company.”

“That was a club with a lot of stories behind it. The three of us really did spend quite a few happy times there.”

As he spoke of his youth, Zhang Yang’s eyes filled with nostalgia.

“That club’s probably been dissolved long ago. You young people definitely haven’t even heard of it.”

“It was called…”

“The Film Camera Club!”