Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 41 Surprise

Nan Xiuxiu!

Jiang Ran’s right hand clamped onto the edge of the table.

Twice within just two hours—running into this girl in scenes this frightening both times. Was she some kind of ghost?

[…Why are you here?]

Jiang Ran stayed on guard.

[…Were you following me?]

“What do you mean, following? That sounds awful!” Nan Xiuxiu protested, hands on her hips.

Jiang Ran said nothing.

He didn’t believe her at all.

If she wasn’t following him, how could she have crossed two districts of Donghai and tracked him down this precisely?It was far too bizarre.

And standing silently at the doorway to spy on him—suspicious to the extreme.

“I came because I was worried about you!” Nan Xiuxiu emphasized.

[…How did you know I was here?] Jiang Ran pressed on.

He hadn’t answered Nan Xiuxiu’s calls, and he hadn’t told anyone he was coming to the Film Camera Club at Donghai University. Without precise location tracking, there was no way she could have found him.

“The dating app!”

Nan Xiuxiu shook her phone.

“Did you forget? On the dating app we’re bound on, we can see each other’s location and movements.”

……

That hit a blind spot in Jiang Ran’s knowledge.

There was an app like that?

He opened his phone. Sure enough, on the second page of his menu, there was an app called “Dating,” its icon two hearts stuck together.

He tapped it.

The homepage displayed huge text: 【We’ve been dating for 4 days!】 On either side were large profile photos of Jiang Ran and Nan Xiuxiu.

Oh god……

His scalp went numb.

Was that really him?

Jiang Ran fell into deep doubt.

He almost wanted to rush to a mirror immediately to see whether the Worldline Transition had gone wrong and dumped him into someone else’s body.

Below, the app really did have an activity log.

When he opened it, today’s route was laid out at a glance.

Not just his current location… it was absurdly detailed—every single path clearly marked on the map, including his sneaking route after slipping into Donghai University.

Likewise, he could see Nan Xiuxiu’s movements.

She had taken a taxi from the villa area just like him, then come to Donghai University and followed his old route all the way to the student activity building.

“What kind of deranged app is this?”

Jiang Ran frowned, immediately wanting to remove it from his phone.

It was suffocating.

Is this really how dating works? There was zero privacy.

“How is it deranged?”

Nan Xiuxiu snorted.

“This is a record of our love~”

Tch.

Jiang Ran locked his phone and stared at her.

“Why did you come?”

“To apologize.” Nan Xiuxiu blinked.

An unexpected answer.

“Apologize for what?” Jiang Ran asked.

“After you left, I called Wang Hao. That’s when I found out you have a childhood sweetheart named Cheng Mengxue…”

Nan Xiuxiu said seriously.

“Sorry. I wasn’t deliberately joking.”

She pressed her palms together.

“I didn’t mean any harm. Mainly, you’d never mentioned her before, and I didn’t know she had passed away… anyway, I said the wrong thing. I hope you won’t mind.”

……

Jiang Ran looked at her quietly.

Such a sincere, straightforward apology was quite at odds with her overbearing exterior—an unexpected contrast.

The “joke” Nan Xiuxiu was referring to was probably that line: “Cheng Mengxue—she’s not your ex-girlfriend, is she?” At the time, she’d just come out of the restroom and heard him say the name while talking to Wang Hao, so she’d asked.

To be honest, Jiang Ran hadn’t felt that line was offensive at all.

First, he didn’t believe Cheng Mengxue was truly dead. With the Positron Cannon and time-traveling texts, Cheng Mengxue could only be considered “temporarily” dead.

Second, he neither believed nor accepted that Nan Xiuxiu was his girlfriend. So no matter how she acted, Jiang Ran genuinely didn’t care.

“It’s nothing,”

Jiang Ran said casually.

“I didn’t mind.”

“Hehe~”

Nan Xiuxiu immediately switched back to playful mischief.

“Actually, you guys don’t need to hide things like that from me. Even though I’m your girlfriend, I’m not that petty.”

“Besides, even if you really did have an ex-girlfriend, it wouldn’t matter. We only met in college—I won’t fuss over things from before.”

“But next time, don’t run off because of something like that. It was the middle of the night—I was really worried about you. You didn’t answer your phone either…”

“That’s enough.”

Jiang Ran cut her off.

“Let’s go. The patrol’s coming.”

He really had seen the patrol guards’ flashlights in the distance and didn’t want trouble.

More importantly, he didn’t want to share these secrets with Nan Xiuxiu.

The Film Camera Club, Worldline Transition, the Positron Cannon, time-traveling texts… all of it—he didn’t want her to know any of it.

So—leave quickly.

The two left the activity room. Jiang Ran carefully locked the door, put the spare key back under the flowerpot, and only then led Nan Xiuxiu away.

After exiting the building, the patrol’s flashlights were already nearby.

The two immediately crouched low, detouring quietly. In the end, they reached the small wooded area near the west gate without incident.

“Hey, you still haven’t told me.”

Nan Xiuxiu poked Jiang Ran.

“Running out in the middle of the night is one thing, but why come here? What club was that? It was so rundown.”

“The Film Camera Club.”

Jiang Ran made up a reason to brush her off.

“It’s just a club for film camera enthusiasts. I have a friend here. I came by to look for something I might’ve left behind last time.”

It was a terrible excuse, but he couldn’t think of anything better on the spot. All he could do was stubbornly stick with it.

“Oh.”

Nan Xiuxiu didn’t think too deeply about it.

“Why haven’t I heard you mention it before?”

“Heh.”

Jiang Ran chuckled.

“Miss, we’ve only been dating for 【4 days】. I can’t exactly hand over my entire family genealogy to you, can I?”

“That’s not necessary.” Nan Xiuxiu waved her hand.

Jiang Ran checked his watch.

“It’s late. Let’s head back to the dorms.”

After all this, it was already four in the morning. Might as well just go back and sleep.

As he spoke, Jiang Ran started walking toward the dorm buildings. Nan Xiuxiu, however, turned and headed toward the university’s west gate.

?

?

They both turned around at the same time, question marks practically floating over their heads as they stared at each other.

“Where are you going?”

“And where are you going?”

Jiang Ran pointed south.

“The dorms are that way.”

Pfft—

Nan Xiuxiu burst out laughing.

“Bro! You’re still out of it! This is Donghai University!”

“Yeah. So?” Jiang Ran was confused.

He was a student at Donghai University. If not to the Donghai University dorms, where else would he go?

“Alright, alright, stop messing around.”

Nan Xiuxiu grabbed Jiang Ran’s arm and briskly headed for the west gate, then shoved him through a broken gap in the railing.

“Where are we going?”

Jiang Ran asked, but got no answer.

Clearly, Nan Xiuxiu couldn’t be bothered to deal with this topic anymore.

She walked up to a taxi, opened the back door, and pushed Jiang Ran inside.

Then she got in herself and shut the door.

“Driver, Donghai Overseas Economics and Trade Vocational College.”

???

Jiang Ran’s neck stiffened.

“Why are we going there?”

Nan Xiuxiu looked at him like he was an idiot.

“To go back to our school.”

Our school?

Jiang Ran froze completely.

Donghai Overseas Economics and Trade Vocational College.

A vocational college?

He sucked in a sharp breath.

“Junior college?!”