Genius Playground

July 21st.

The time for the previously announced high school reunion had finally arrived.

To give everyone plenty of time to eat, have fun, and drink to their hearts’ content, they didn’t choose a daytime gathering, but an evening one.

The notice Wang Hao sent out said the reunion would officially start at 6:30 PM, but in reality, everyone knew... it would be a small miracle if everyone showed up even by 7:00.

"You should have said in the notice that our reunion starts at five. That way, everyone would’ve definitely been here by six."

Jiang Ran complained:

"People drag their feet so much these days. They’re all habitually late."

After attending all sorts of events in college, you come to understand that procrastination is incurable. It’s the real terminal illness.

If you tell them to arrive at 6:30, no matter how many times you repeat it, for many people, that just means it’s time to leave the house at 6:30.

And then, no matter when you call them, it’s always, "Almost there, on my way, be there in a sec." As for where they actually are, only God knows.

"That wouldn’t work."

Wang Hao rejected the idea outright:

"After all, some people are very punctual, and some even arrive early. If you did that, the punctual ones would be left waiting for way too long."

"So when you send out a notice, you have to account for the stragglers, but you can’t make it too early. You have to consider both sides and find a compromise."

"Alright."

Jiang Ran nodded. It made a lot of sense.

’As expected of the class president.’

It seemed that once he was outside the learning-focused environment of school, the whole of society was Wang Hao’s comfort zone. He handled everything with ease, like a fish in water.

At this moment, Jiang Ran and Wang Hao were standing at the hotel entrance greeting guests, and classmates began to arrive one after another.

"Yo! Fatty!"

Wang Hao launched himself forward in a human cannonball charge, bumping his big belly against the other guy’s. Ripples undulated across their stomachs.

"Hahaha, you’ve gotten fatter." "Hahaha, right, you’re the skinny one, happy now? Head on up to the second floor and have a seat."

A little while later.

"Yo! Old Five!"

Wang Hao went for another human cannonball charge, but his target dodged it with a flash step:

"Are you trying to kill me?!" "Hahaha, just wanted to see if your agility has dropped. Hurry up to the second floor!"

And so, Wang Hao welcomed the male classmates one by one, greeting them with his belly.

When he saw the female classmates, Wang Hao was much more behaved, obediently waiting for his Skill to come off cooldown.

However, it seemed many of the female classmates had already heard the news that Jiang Ran had gone from a vocational college to a graduate program. As soon as they arrived, they ignored Wang Hao, grabbed Jiang Ran, and started chattering away in astonishment.

"How did they find out?"

Jiang Ran was puzzled.

Wang Hao scoffed:

"With stuff like this, if one person knows, everyone knows."

"It’s already common knowledge at our college, and on top of that, your parents have probably been broadcasting it everywhere. It’s no surprise anyone would know. It’s a small world."

While greeting his classmates, Jiang Ran noticed a new face he’d never seen before.

His name was Song He. A guy.

Jiang Ran had never seen this person; in his memory, there was no such person in their high school class.

But he had figured this out long ago.

Since Cheng Mengxue was absent from East Sea University and Chi Xiaoguo had filled her spot, it was only natural that with Qin Feng absent from Hang City High School, someone had to take his place.

Therefore, whether on World Line 0 or World Line 1, their high school class had the same number of students: 42.

The only difference was that on World Line 0, Qin Feng was in their class, while on World Line 1, Song He was.

Song He, however, greeted Jiang Ran enthusiastically. It seemed the two of them had a good relationship in high school.

Of course, Jiang Ran had no such memory; he was just playing along.

Still, he took a few extra glances at Song He.

’After all...’

’If the spot Song He filled was Qin Feng’s original spot...’

’Then his student number in the class must be—’

’42.’

...

Finally, just before 7:00, their homeroom teacher arrived fashionably late.

"Sorry I’m late."

Their homeroom teacher, Teacher Gao, smiled apologetically and shook hands with Jiang Ran and Wang Hao.

"There was some traffic on the way. I miscalculated the time."

Jiang Ran quickly said it was fine, as there were still classmates who hadn’t arrived.

In reality, everyone knew that Teacher Gao had intentionally not come so early. A class reunion was, after all, a class reunion. Inviting the teacher was just an added bonus.

By arriving a little later, he allowed the students to relax and chat for a while without feeling constrained.

Wang Hao escorted Teacher Gao to the small banquet hall on the second floor, then came back down the stairs and pulled out a list to check:

"Only Zhou Xiong is left."

"Zhou Xiong..."

Jiang Ran started to recall.

He was a guy in their class who was... um... hard to describe.

Zhou Xiong’s family was average, but he was obsessed with saving face, extremely vain, and loved to put on airs.

To be honest, none of the classmates really liked him back then.

But Zhou Xiong couldn’t have cared less. What could you do? The guy was arrogant.

Most of the time, it wasn’t like people were idiots. They could all see that Zhou Xiong was lying, showing off, and making himself miserable just to save face.

But since they were classmates and there was no great animosity between them, no one bothered to call him out.

Of course, it was possible that some classmates truly saw this "Jiahao-style" guy as a joke, but Jiang Ran definitely held no such prejudice.

’After all...’

’We all went through middle school. Who hasn’t had a more or less similar experience?’

’Who hasn’t fantasized about brandishing a sword in the rain?’

’Who hasn’t fantasized about showing off their amazing powers in front of everyone?’

’Who hasn’t pretended to be deep and melancholic, imagining themselves as Sasuke or Rukawa Kaede?’

"I wonder how Zhou Xiong is doing now."

Jiang Ran smiled faintly:

"He must have gotten a little better in college, right? After all, in high school, the gap between everyone wasn’t that big, and we all wore uniforms, so there wasn’t much to compare."

"But college is different. The gap between people, between families, is huge. Some people drive BMWs and Mercedes to school, while others can only afford the cheapest meal set in the cafeteria."

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