novelraw Chapter 18 Cheating
Chapter 18 Cheating
BOOM!!!!!!
Jiang Ran hit the water flat on his back. A huge wave surged up.
“Pah!”
Cheng Mengxue wiped her face.
“If I was a bomb just now, you were straight-up atomic-bomb level. Do you even know how to dive?!”
“Does he look like he knows how?”
Qin Feng stood on the board.
“But I didn’t expect you’d actually dare to jump.”
Jiang Ran floated up, rubbing his back.
“Your turn!”“I’m not jumping.”
?
“You’re backing out?” Jiang Ran flipped him off.
“Who told you to go first.”
Qin Feng laughed as he walked down from the platform.
…
Night fell.
The top-tier suite had a private viewing deck, and you could eat out there.
After the service staff brought their food, they left.
The three of them sat around a small round table, marveling at how well rich people knew how to enjoy life.
Where they were sitting now—when they looked up, there were brilliant stars without a single obstruction;
when they looked down, there was a crowd on the cruise ship deck dancing to the DJ’s music.
To the west was Donghai City, blazing with lights.
The coastline was a band of neon. The Oriental Pearl Tower stood out among the riot of colors like a beacon that would never fade.
To the east was the pitch-black sea.
A black darker than black—true nothingness, where you couldn’t see anything at all.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
In the clink of red wine glasses, all three of their phones chimed with WeChat notifications at the same time.
It was their high school class group chat.
When they’d just started college, the group had been lively every day—everyone complaining about school, complaining about military training, complaining about dorm life.
But gradually, it had gone completely silent.
They opened their phones and saw the message was from [Wang Hao].
Wang Hao had been their high school class monitor, and everyone had been on good terms with him. Sure, it wasn’t the same ironclad bond the three of them had, but it was more than just ordinary friendship.
The message was pretty long:
[Wang Hao: Classmates! It’s been almost two years since we graduated high school—we should get together!
Let’s do a class reunion this summer. We’ll decide the exact date later. There are still a few months, but I wanted to give you a heads-up first.
If you have time and can come then, make sure you come!]
…
“A class reunion…”
Jiang Ran put his phone down.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them. We got along great back then, and everyone said even after going to college we’d keep in touch… and then we all scattered across the map, and little by little nobody said anything anymore.”
“As expected.”
Qin Feng set down his fork.
“Distance only produces beauty. Distance absolutely does not produce feelings.”
“Otherwise, why would I have applied to the same university as you two? Recruiters from Tsinghua and Peking University practically moved into my house, but I still insisted on coming with you here—to Donghai University.”
“I trust our friendship. But that’s what distance is. One inch farther is one inch farther, and no matter what you do, it won’t get closer.”
“Honestly, there’s nothing in this world more important than true friends… especially friends from when you were young.”
Heh-heh.
Cheng Mengxue scratched her head awkwardly.
“Sorry. We dragged you down. With our grades, Donghai University was the best option. And Xu Yan was here too, so we applied here.”
“Speaking of which… Wang Hao went to a junior college, right? Then doesn’t that mean he’ll be going out to do an internship next semester?”
It seemed like a heavy topic.
Junior colleges were three-year programs. Their old good brother Wang Hao really was about to go out into society and become a workhorse.
“How can someone be so dumb they can’t even score 500?”
Qin Feng honestly couldn’t understand.
“You just need passing scores in each subject.”
“Shut up.” “Shut up.”
Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue spoke in unison.
Especially Cheng Mengxue—she’d failed two classes last semester.
“You don’t need to worry about Wang Hao.”
Jiang Ran peeled a lobster.
“That mouth of his is more lethal than the Positron Cannon. He won’t have trouble finding a job.”
“A lot of undergrads can’t find jobs right now anyway. Besides not being able to do grad school or certain civil-service exams, junior college doesn’t make that huge a difference in the real world. In the end it comes down to personal ability.”
“Wang Hao was class monitor in high school. Everyone saw what he could do. Who knows—maybe he steps into society a year early and ends up doing better than all of us.”
Qin Feng wiped his mouth.
“That’s possible. But… now it isn’t.”
He smiled faintly.
“Now we’ve mastered [time-traveling text messages]. We can change history at will. We can correct mistakes.”
“Unless we deliberately keep a low profile, it’ll be hard for anyone among our classmates to end up doing better than we do.”
“Ugh, you two are dragging me off track too. What ‘doing better’—we’re all classmates, what’s with ranking people into tiers?”
“When we succeed later, when we have a certain social standing, we can absolutely give our classmates a hand.”
“But the secret of time-traveling text messages can only be known by the three of us.”
Jiang Ran emphasized it again.
He’d emphasized it so many times he’d lost count.
“We might only want to use time-traveling text messages to make a little money, take a shortcut in life or something. But other people might not.”
“[If time-traveling text messages fall into the hands of bad people… revenge against society, hegemonic wars, even destroying the world could all happen.]”
“So we have to protect this secret. Protecting this secret is protecting the entire world.”
“Of course.” “We’re not idiots.”
Cheng Mengxue held her fork between her lips, tilting her head.
“Since we’re talking about this… what are we actually going to use time-traveling text messages for in the future?”
“Or rather… what are we ultimately going to do with them? What’s the final purpose?”
“Make our dreams come true.”
Jiang Ran answered.
“Speaking of that—what are your dreams, anyway? What kind of life do you want later?”
“I want to be a Rhine Cat designer!”
Stars burst out in Cheng Mengxue’s eyes.
“After I graduate, I’m definitely applying to Rhine Company. I want to design Rhine Cats I actually love so badly!”
Jiang Ran smiled.
“That’s a normal dream. Qin Feng, what about you?”
“I want to go… do research in the world’s top laboratory.”
Qin Feng was serious too.
“There are a lot of problems in this world that individual power can’t solve. I want to work with the smartest geniuses in the world to explore the deepest secrets of physics, the microscopic world, and even the universe.”
“Wow. That’s… great.”
Cheng Mengxue sighed, then turned.
“Jiang Ran, what about you? What’s your dream?”
“Me…”
Jiang Ran rolled the napkin between his fingers. For a moment, he really couldn’t think of one.
“I might not have something as specific as you two. My thought is… if you only get one life, you should do something meaningful, right?”
“On the small end, live your life well and protect the family and friends around you. On the big end, contribute something to society, the country, even humanity—make the world a little better.”
Oh~
Cheng Mengxue thought about it.
“Then that’s… a savior?”
“That’s not that dramatic!”
“Then… a genius like Einstein who pushes science forward?”
“Do I look like it?”
“Then…”
Cheng Mengxue smiled slightly. In her pupils, the shoreline neon reflected and linked into one continuous glow.
“[Then be like this—keep being a hero.]”
Bang bang bang bang!!
Fireworks time.
A massive burst of fireworks rose from the cruise ship deck, exploding into brilliant, multicolored flames—like the universe opening countless eyes… silently watching the idle conversation at the highest point of the ship.
“…”
Jiang Ran slowly swirled his wineglass.
“Do you think… I count as a hero?”
“Of course. You saved Xu Yan, and you saved those two kids who fell into the water.”
“That was cheating.”
He looked at Cheng Mengxue.
“I already knew the answer. I already knew the solution. If I didn’t have that buoyant life jacket, I wouldn’t have jumped.”
“You would’ve jumped.”
With the wine in her system, Cheng Mengxue was bolder tonight.
“We grew up together. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you be that brave. Even without that life jacket, you would’ve jumped.”
Waves swayed. Wineglasses trembled.
The fireworks drifted downward, like the sky shedding tears.
“Besides… even if it was cheating, so what? No matter what the reason was, you still jumped in the end…”
Cheng Mengxue’s cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were hazy, reflecting the last traces of light in the night sky.
“If cheating can make the world better… if it can make you a hero who saves lives…”
The world returned to darkness.
“[Then maybe… cheat for a lifetime.]”