Prodigy’s Playground

Chapter 53 Friend

“Qin Feng—who exactly is Qin Feng?”

After leaving the cemetery, Wang Hao kept pressing him:

“That night you called me in the middle of the night, all twitchy and weird, you kept muttering this name. You even said something about top scorer on the college entrance exam, our high school classmate… You sounded like you were sleepwalking, for fuck’s sake.”

“I thought you were just half-asleep and talking nonsense. I never expected there to actually be such a person!”

“So who the hell is this guy, really? You even said on the phone that he, you, and Xiaoxue were especially close. Don’t tell me Xiaoxue knew him too?”

Jiang Ran pulled open the taxi door and gestured for Wang Hao to get in.

“I can’t explain it clearly to you right now.”

He shook his head.

“It’s hard to describe what kind of relationship I have with him now… and what kind of relationship he has with me.”

“But… I think he should still remember me, right? Even if he doesn’t remember what we went through together, at the very least he should know my name. That’s what I think.”“What kind of garbled bullshit is that.”

Wang Hao felt his head starting to hurt.

“Why are you having your brain and cerebellum fight each other again, spouting nonsense? Are you two friends or not!”

“I’ve known you and Xiaoxue since middle school. I’ve never heard either of you mention this person.”

“Not in middle school, not in high school, not in college either… So where the hell did you meet him?”

Jiang Ran waved his hand.

“I already told you—it’s hard to explain. Stop asking for now.”

“We might not even be able to find him. Let’s talk about it after we do.”

Sitting in the back seat of the taxi, Wang Hao used his phone to search for the route to Kaihua County, while Jiang Ran closed his eyes and thought about Qin Feng.

He really didn’t want to tell Wang Hao about the time-traveling text messages right now, so there was no way to clearly explain the entanglement between him and Qin Feng.

On this current [Worldline 1], Qin Feng would definitely not remember anything from [Worldline 0]. That was the most troublesome part.

Even if he really did find Qin Feng and the two of them met face to face…

What would he even say?

Would Qin Feng believe him?

Jiang Ran had no confidence.

Worldline shifts, temporal butterfly effects—no normal person would believe things like that.

Even so, he firmly believed that a genius as smart as Qin Feng would never waste a single word in a time-traveling text message.

Seventy characters.

With the vast depth of Chinese and ruthless compression, that space could actually convey an enormous amount of information.

Would Qin Feng…

Have written his own name in that time-traveling text?

“He probably would.”

Qin Feng knew very clearly that a text message sent ten years into the past would inevitably trigger a worldline change;

and after that change, the only person who could retain memories of the original worldline would be Jiang Ran.

So if he truly cherished that friendship, at the very least he should have left some kind of instruction—or a reminder.

But.

There was still another point that needed consideration.

Jiang Ran opened his eyes.

[Who exactly was the recipient of the time-traveling text message Qin Feng sent?]

There were two possibilities.

1. The recipient was Qin Feng’s father ten years ago.

2. The recipient was Qin Feng himself as a child ten years ago.

After thinking it through, Jiang Ran felt the second possibility was more likely.

Because if that precious message were sent directly to his father, there was a high chance the man wouldn’t take it seriously at all and would simply ignore it.

But if it were sent to his ten-year-old self, gaining trust would be much easier.

After all…

Convincing yourself was always easier than convincing someone else.

In 2015, a young Qin Feng would still have been an elementary school student. It was unlikely he carried a personal mobile phone with him at all times.

But from another angle, a ten-year-old boy would definitely love playing with phones. If he had an old phone discarded by his parents at home, used as a “gaming device” or a “cartoon device”… that would be perfectly reasonable.

Especially since Qin Feng was exceptionally gifted and never caused his parents any worry when it came to studying. Even if they let him keep an old phone strictly for entertainment at home, his parents would feel at ease.

So.

Qin Feng’s plan back then.

Should have been something like this—

Compress as much information as possible into that seventy-character time-traveling text, then send it to his ten-year-old self;

The young Qin Feng would be convinced by certain pieces of evidence in the message, believe that it came from the future, and on the day of his father’s accident, stop his father from going out, thereby preventing his death;

At the end of the message, there should have been some content related to Jiang Ran, Cheng Mengxue, and Worldline Theory—but for reasons unknown, Qin Feng had never looked for him in the past ten years, vanishing without a trace.

[Was there some unspeakable difficulty? Did something happen?]

Jiang Ran couldn’t find an answer.

[What is Qin Feng avoiding? Or what is he running from?]

In any case.

First find him—or at least make contact with him. Overthinking it now was meaningless.

“Holy shit.”

Wang Hao stared at the navigation on his phone.

“Kaihua County is far. More than two hundred kilometers.”

“How about we go home first? I’ve got a license anyway. Tomorrow I’ll take my dad’s car and drive you there.”

Jiang Ran nodded.

That worked.

He didn’t know much about Qin Feng’s childhood. If they had to run around looking for clues, having a private car would make things much easier.

…

The next day.

Wang Hao picked up Jiang Ran in his dad’s manual-transmission Jetta. The two headed south under the guidance of the navigation system, straight for Kaihua.

Kaihua County lay in western ZJ Province, northwest of ZZ City, at the source of the Qiantang River, at the junction of three provinces: Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangxi.

Jiang Ran had never been here. He’d only heard a few scattered details from Qin Feng.

Qin Feng had said Kaihua County’s economy wasn’t very developed, lagging far behind surrounding areas;

the permanent population was small, there were no major enterprises, transportation wasn’t very convenient… in short, it didn’t sound like it had many advantages.

Of course, in anyone’s eyes, their hometown was always poor and rundown. Such evaluations were often not very objective.

Because they didn’t know Qin Feng’s home address—or even which area he lived in—they could only start their investigation from the schools.

The night before, Jiang Ran had searched online.

Kaihua County had a total of thirty-one elementary schools and seven middle schools.

Visiting them one by one would be a massive undertaking, extremely difficult.

Fortunately, Qin Feng had once mentioned that the elementary school and middle school he attended were a [nine-year integrated school]—a single school that included both primary and middle divisions, allowing students to complete all nine years of compulsory education without transferring.

That piece of information was incredibly useful.

In the entire Kaihua County, there was only one nine-year integrated school.

Malan Middle School.

So it went without saying: as long as they investigated at this school, they could find Qin Feng’s student records, and from there his home address, his parents’ contact information, and so on…

The journey really was long.

With the May Day holiday making the highways toll-free, traffic volume had surged as well. Wang Hao kept shifting gears and stomping the clutch, cursing nonstop.

Three and a half hours later, the old Jetta finally rolled to a stop in front of Malan Middle School.

“Fuck, my back is about to snap.”

Wang Hao yanked up the handbrake and collapsed into the seat.

“When I graduate college and get a job, I’m definitely saving up for an automatic transmission!”

“Tell me—given my vibe, should I get an Audi, or one of those electric cars like the Li Auto AITO?”

“Combine them,” Jiang Ran suggested.

Wang Hao froze.

“How the hell do you combine that? An electric Audi? Which model?”

“Audi Double Diamond.”

Jiang Ran opened the car door.

“My partner.”

“++! The one that takes AA batteries!”

Wang Hao climbed out of the car as well.

Malan Middle School was built against the mountains. Standing outside the school gate and looking up, one could see lush green hills—honestly, the scenery wasn’t bad at all.

“Let’s go. We’ll head to the student records office.”

Facing the sunlight, Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes.

No matter where Qin Feng was now… ten years ago, he really had studied at this school. That was a fact even the time-traveling text message couldn’t change.

Follow the vine to find the melon.

To look for someone, as long as you find the initial clue, you can follow the trail all the way down.

Recalling the promise he had made to Qin Feng before the worldline change—

“I will remember.”

Back then, he had never realized that such a promise was a farewell forever.

“I have a special trait called All-Spacetime Memory. So no matter how the worldline changes, I will remember everything we went through, remember how close we were, remember that we are the best friends in the world.”

“No matter how the worldline changes, I will never abandon any of you.”

Time passed. Circumstances changed. The words became a prophecy.

Since he had managed to find this place today, then surely the distance to meeting again was no longer far.

“Come back, Qin Feng.”

Jiang Ran gazed at the gate of Malan Middle School from afar.

“I hope we can still be like before…”

“The best friends in the world.”