Genius Playground

"Zhou Xiong comes from an average family. At university, surrounded by so many genuinely rich kids, you’d think he would have toned it down a bit."

Hmph.

Wang Hao’s lips twisted into a smirk:

"Zhou Xiong is the same as always. He hasn’t changed a bit. His Moments used to be a little more normal—he’d just post some random photos with melodramatic captions, or steal pictures from the internet to pretend he was traveling or staying at fancy hotels."

"But lately, his faking has gotten way out of hand. He’s even daring to post pictures of watches worth millions and stacks of gold bars on his Moments."

"Sigh, I can’t even be bothered with him. Everyone wants to show off a little, I get it, but does it have to be so obviously fake? Did you see his Moments yesterday? Oh, right, you’re always studying, so you probably missed it—"

"Zhou Xiong actually started showing off the interior of a Maybach! It’s so damn funny. I have no idea where he stole the picture from. It even had a chauffeur in white gloves driving. I’m so speechless I don’t even know how to roast him anymore. If you’ve really got one, I dare you to drive it here today!"

"Trust me, if you ask him later, ’Hey, where’s the Maybach?’ he’s guaranteed to say it’s in for maintenance or something. He’ll have a million excuses. You can only ever see that stuff on his Moments; you’ll never get a glimpse of it in real life."

"If you ask me, a low-key person like you is the one who’s truly impressive! What’s the word? Right, reserved! Trust me, at the reunion today, there’s absolutely no one who’ll shine brighter than you! You’re going to be the absolute star of the show!"

"Hey, yes, yes, that one! That’s the Maybach! Look, that’s the exact model Zhou Xiong posted on his Moments yesterday—"

Jiang Ran followed Wang Hao’s gaze. Sure enough, an incredibly luxurious, two-tone Maybach was slowly approaching.

Although Jiang Ran didn’t know much about cars, he could tell this Maybach sedan was worth a fortune.

Furthermore, the Maybach’s license plate was yellow, which meant the car was over six meters long—one of the top-tier models.

To drive this kind of Maybach, a standard C-class license wasn’t enough; you needed an A1 license to be qualified.

"I wonder which big boss that is."

Wang Hao clicked his tongue.

"This car... If I could just ride in it once in my life, I could die happy."

As they spoke, the Maybach, to their astonishment, stopped right in front of them.

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao exchanged a confused glance.

Immediately, the driver’s door opened, and a burly, well-built man in a sharp black suit and white gloves stepped out.

He jogged over with professional posture, stopping at the Maybach’s rear right door. He gently pulled the door open, shielded the top of the doorframe with his left hand, and bowed.

"President Zhou, please step out."

Pres-President Zhou!?

Jiang Ran and Wang Hao stared at each other, dumbfounded.

SWISH...

A pristine leather shoe appeared from the Maybach’s back door, followed by a hand wearing an ostentatious Richard Mille watch. The hand emerged and gave the cuff a slight shake.

Then, a young man, only eighteen or nineteen years old, stooped to exit the Maybach, straightened up, and smiled in their direction:

"Class President, Jiang Ran, long time no see."

"Zhou Xiong!"

Wang Hao was momentarily dumbstruck.

"You... you..."

Having just played the Clown by launching into a long tirade against Zhou Xiong for showing off and accusing him of stealing pictures for his Moments, Wang Hao now found himself completely tongue-tied.

"I... Holy shit! This Maybach is really yours?! I saw your post on Moments yesterday and I didn’t dare believe it!"

Wang Hao quickly scrambled to recover.

"You’re doing well, bro! You’ve struck it rich!"

"Haha, it’s nothing, really."

Money really did change a person. Zhou Xiong had become gentle and refined. He put on his jacket, straightened his collar, and said to the driver:

"Bring a case of the Maotai from the trunk upstairs. And the gifts I prepared for our classmates—bring them all up."

"Yes, sir!" The driver moved with swift efficiency.

Then, Zhou Xiong walked up and shook hands with Jiang Ran and Wang Hao.

"My apologies for being late. Has everyone else arrived?"

"Everyone’s here," Jiang Ran stated plainly. "You were the last one."

"Ah, I’m truly sorry about that. Let’s go, let’s go, we should hurry upstairs. I need to apologize to everyone."

...

As it turned out, Zhou Xiong had no need to apologize at all.

Every girl in the class received a Hermès handbag, their eyes practically sparkling.

Every guy received a 5090 graphics card; they looked ready to drop to their knees and call him Godfather!

Who cared that he was late?

"Teacher Gao, this is for you."

Zhou Xiong took a carefully packaged piece of porcelain from his driver and presented it to their homeroom teacher.

"I heard you have a fondness for these."

Teacher Gao clearly knew its value and quickly waved their hands in refusal.

"I can’t accept this, I really can’t. I appreciate the thought, though. Thank you, Zhou Xiong."

Zhou Xiong’s tardy arrival had, unexpectedly, given their two-year high school reunion a show-stopping opening.

Now that everyone had arrived and taken their seats, the homeroom teacher gave a few opening remarks, and the reunion officially began with a buzz of excitement.

Across the four tables, no matter which one, the conversation always revolved around Zhou Xiong.

This really irked Wang Hao.

It wasn’t out of jealousy, nor was he lashing out in humiliation after being proven so spectacularly wrong.

It was just...

He had originally believed that at this class reunion, the focus of everyone’s attention should have been his best friend, Jiang Ran.

Because of a car accident two years ago, his best friend Jiang Ran had missed a day of the Gaokao. Despite his excellent grades, he ended up having to attend a vocational college with him.

Although no one would say anything to his face, he knew there was no shortage of gossip behind his back. Especially in the two years since, when Jiang Ran had an emotional breakdown and fell into a deep depression, many people had privately written him off as a lost cause.

Even though Jiang Ran didn’t care about any of this, Wang Hao cared a great deal.

He refused to let people look at his best friend with pity, as if he were some kind of failure.

That was why, for this class reunion, he had carefully rehearsed what he was going to say. He was determined to make everyone take a good, hard look—

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