Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 31 Candor

“Of course I remember.”

Jiang Ran filled the cup with beer.

How could he possibly forget?

It had only been a few days since high school started back then. No one really knew each other yet, and Jiang Ran and Qin Feng hadn’t even spoken once.

But during a PE class, a middle-school classmate who had bullied Qin Feng before came back to act like trash again, shouting from afar, “A kid with no dad.”

Jiang Ran couldn’t stand it. He went up to argue, and arguing turned into a fight.

Afterward, of course, there was no avoiding criticism from the teacher and writing self-reflections.

But it was precisely because of that incident that Qin Feng came to know Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue, and the three of them gradually became a close-knit trio.

Sometimes, fate is just like that.

Beautiful encounters arrive without warning;

sudden partings give no notice at all.“That was such a small thing.”

Jiang Ran looked at his beer glass.

“You don’t need to bring it up over and over.”

Qin Feng also picked up the bottle and poured himself a drink.

“To you two, maybe it really was just a small thing.”

Gulp, gulp—the beer went down, foam rising, burying memories beneath a layer of unspoken thoughts.

“You and Xiaoxue have been kind and warm-hearted since you were little. You must’ve helped a lot of people and done plenty of good deeds.”

“But for me, from my point of view… all these years of being bullied, only you two stood up. All these years, only you two defended me and protected my dignity.”

“You’re exaggerating,” Jiang Ran said dryly.

“Not exaggerating at all.”

Qin Feng shook his head.

“Before I met you two, there were even more people bullying me, and the things they did were even worse.”

“In order not to cause trouble for my mom, I always swallowed my grievances. In the end, I was always the one apologizing.”

“Because I was afraid the teachers would call parents. Their parents all lived in the city—drive over and they’d be there in no time. But my mom was back in my hometown, working multiple jobs. She wouldn’t even舍得 sleep just to make money and support the family… how could I dare let her come to school?”

“Of course, my mom dotes on me a lot too. If she knew I was being bullied, she’d definitely drop everything and come to school to stand up for me.”

“But…”

He smiled helplessly, shook his head, his eyes full of powerlessness in the face of the past.

Yeah.

The current him could earn millions with a single text message;

With a Positron Cannon in hand, the future was boundless;

Maybe not everything he wished for, but 99% of his wishes could be fulfilled;

But—

Facing the mother who had carried the whole family alone in the past… what use were present and future glory?

“But if she came to school to stand up for me, then what?”

Qin Feng continued.

“Afterward, when she went back, she’d still be facing a mess of problems, endless work, and might even lose the hard-won job she’d finally found.”

“Not to mention my hometown is far from the city. My mom would never bear to take a hired car. She’d definitely wobble her way there on buses, taking over four hours round trip.”

“So, many times—many times before—I did the same as in high school: apologizing to them, turning big things into small ones, small things into nothing, just to avoid the teacher calling my parent in.”

…

Jiang Ran listened silently, saying nothing.

Actually, Qin Feng had said these things many times over the years.

That was exactly why Jiang Ran had felt so guilty these past few days.

The tragic life of the mother and son began the moment the father—the family’s main pillar—passed away.

The mother exhausted herself for her son;

the son felt heartache for his mother. She didn’t want him to suffer;

he didn’t want her to be worn down… and so an unsolvable cycle formed.

In fact, before meeting them in high school, Qin Feng’s academic performance hadn’t been particularly outstanding.

With a mind as gifted as his, getting perfect scores and first place would’ve been effortless.

But… for the same reasons—“don’t cause trouble,” “don’t stand out,” “don’t put extra pressure on Mom”—Qin Feng deliberately controlled his scores in every exam, precisely keeping his ranking in the middle of the class.

This was something young Jiang Ran had never understood at the time.

If you got first place, the teachers would treat you like a chosen prodigy—why control your score?

But later, Jiang Ran gradually came to understand.

[…]Children from unfortunate families are cautious about everything.[…]

After his father’s death, every experience warned Qin Feng… fewer problems were always better than more.

“So, back to the question you asked earlier.”

Qin Feng’s voice snapped Jiang Ran out of his thoughts.

He lifted a full glass of beer and looked at him.

“How could I possibly hate you?”

Qin Feng’s gaze was clear.

“Never.”

“From the moment you two stood in front of me to protect me, from the moment you two helped me pick my dignity back up… I decided on you two.”

“You two are friends I’d protect with my life.”

…

Clink.

The glass beer mugs collided.

Jiang Ran and Qin Feng clinked glasses, then took a big gulp of beer.

A chill ran straight through the throat.

Words stuck in the heart.

Jiang Ran felt that being human was really hard.

If you didn’t bring up Qin Feng’s father, you were full of guilt, feeling sorry toward Qin Feng;

If you did bring it up, you felt like a piece of trash—unwilling to save even your good friend’s father.

Emotion and reason constantly collided, refusing to yield, incompatible with each other.

But—

All in all—

Saying what was in their hearts, laying things bare, was probably for the best.

A few beers down, good brothers talking candidly—this matter was finally turned over completely.

“Wang Hao is really slow…”

Empty bottles on the ground gradually increased. On WeChat, Wang Hao was eternally “almost there,” “right away,” “a bit of traffic,” “the bus is too crowded.”

“Looks like Wang Hao’s financial situation really isn’t great lately.”

Jiang Ran urged him on WeChat while complaining.

“When you think about it, haven’t we been a bit too extravagant lately?”

Each of them had tens of thousands on hand.

In college life—no cars, no houses, no luxury goods… this money really didn’t seem spendable, giving the illusion that no matter how you spent it, it would never run out.

Other students went out by subway or bus, while they’d already formed the habit of taking a taxi whenever they went out.

“This little bit of extravagance doesn’t count as much, does it?”

Qin Feng didn’t care.

“After all… we’re gods, right?”

He was obviously playing on a meme.

A line from their acting that day.

“You’re really not letting this go.”

As the script’s creator, Jiang Ran felt a wave of embarrassment.

“You played this meme in the game last time, and now you’re still playing it… how much do you like that script I wrote, exactly?”

“I told you long ago—I really like it.”

Qin Feng said with interest.

“Because I feel that the settings you wrote are actually pretty realistic.”

“Especially now that we’ve mastered spacetime information, it really does feel like we’re manipulating history and steering fate.”

Heh.

Jiang Ran gave a dry laugh.

“You’re probably the only one who praises me like that. I vaguely remember that when I wrote that setting book back then, I got mocked by classmates a lot. They all said I was daydreaming, completely lost.”

“I really wish you’d been my middle-school classmate… if you’d encouraged me more back then, maybe I would’ve gone down the web-novel writing path and already be a platinum-tier author now.”

“I wish I had been, too.”

Qin Feng leaned back against the chair.

“To be honest with you, during my free time lately, I’ve reread the script you wrote for the film club several times.”

“You’re really that idle.”

“Don’t say that. After all, that was also the first movie I ever acted in. Not only did I reread the script several times, I also rewatched the finished cut Xu Yan gave us several times.”

“Oh, that.”

Jiang Ran remembered.

Back on the track field, Xu Yan had indeed given them a USB drive, saying it contained the edited final cut of the film and asking them to watch it and give some feedback.

But things had been so busy lately—where would he find the time?

“So? Was it good?”

Jiang Ran took a sip of beer.

“I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. Or maybe I did watch it, but since I don’t have memories after the worldline change, even if I watched it, I wouldn’t remember.”

“It’s pretty good.”

Qin Feng agreed.

“The two of us acted well, the shots were well filmed too. Feels like winning an award at the University Student Film Festival wouldn’t be a problem.”

“But… when I watched it, I always had one question.”

“You originally named this story Prodigy’s Playground, and said it was a game participated in by eleven geniuses.”

“But in the film script, there isn’t any direct depiction of the game itself.”

“I’ve always been curious—how does this game work? And what’s its ultimate purpose?”

He propped up his head and looked at Jiang Ran.

“So, can you tell me…”

“What kind of game…”

“Is Prodigy’s Playground, exactly?”