Genius Playground

[July 21, 2025. Weather: Sunny.]

[Finally.

After waiting for so long, I’ve finally received my mission.

I’ve waited for too long... I can’t hold on much longer...

I am willing to sacrifice everything, just for a good final result.

This is the most important thing in my life.

And the last thing in my life.

I must obey.

I must succeed.

I must... make up for my regrets.

I know full well that I am just an insignificant pawn of the Mutual Aid Association.

But I do this willingly, without any regrets. I am even grateful.

After all.

My life, my past, my future—it has all been for this moment.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written in a diary.

I should probably write more in these final days, just to secretly leave something of myself in this world. In case... later...

Sigh.

Forget it.

Let me bear this sin alone.

With no one to confide in, writing in this diary is for the best. It’s better to get it out than to keep it locked away.

I’m sorry!

I’m sorry!

I’m sorry!

I know this is wrong.

But...

I’m sorry.

I have no choice.]

...

...

...

"Aaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!"

At the hotel entrance, several female students shrieked in unison, clapping their hands over their mouths as they got a clear look at the girl. They scrambled to hide behind their homeroom teacher!

The boys had the same reaction. Their drunkenness vanished in an instant, their faces turned deathly pale, and they couldn’t help but take a step back.

THUD!

Wang Hao’s face was blank, his eyes trembling. His legs gave out and he collapsed right to his knees, which landed on Jiang Ran’s sneakers.

But Jiang Ran had no time to worry about that.

He held his breath, his eyes fixed on the aqua-blue figure in the evening breeze.

That was...

The figure he had yearned for day and night, the one he had never forgotten for a single moment.

That was...

His childhood sweetheart, whom he had known since they were kids and spent most of his life with.

That was...

The girl who had been cruelly killed by the Butterfly Effect in the vortex of a Worldline Jump—the girl he hadn’t seen for a full three months!

"Xiao... Xiaoxue?"

Jiang Ran’s lips barely moved. He couldn’t believe that what he was seeing was real.

But how could he possibly mistake that girl’s face?

Especially not this girl.

The one girl in the world he knew better than anyone.

The girl who’d been his neighbor since birth, grown up with him, and been inseparable from him through elementary, middle, high school, and college... He absolutely could not be mistaken about her.

[The same figure, the same hairstyle, the same face, the same eyes. Even the mole on her collarbone and the fine lines at the corners of her eyes were identical, a perfect match.]

There was no doubt.

The girl before him.

Was none other than his childhood sweetheart, the one he had been searching for so desperately, the one he had tried everything to save from the grave of a worldline—

[Cheng Mengxue].

But the problem was...

On the current World Line 1, Cheng Mengxue was clearly already dead.

Every one of the 41 teachers and students present knew about the car crash from two years ago. Jiang Ran and Wang Hao had even visited the cemetery several times to sweep her grave.

How could she possibly be alive?

It was no wonder the other girls were so scared their faces lost all color, jumping behind their homeroom teacher.

Jiang Ran felt his own scalp tingle, goosebumps erupting all over his skin. If the person standing there, "back from the dead," hadn’t been Cheng Mengxue, he was sure he would have reacted just like the other girls.

A person who had clearly died, been cremated, and buried.

Was now suddenly standing before him, so full of life...

A ghost?

A spirit?

Anyone else would have thought the same thing.

But Jiang Ran was different.

He had experienced several shifts in worldlines, so he immediately thought of another possibility—

’Could it be? Did the worldline just secretly shift, secretly jump? Are we no longer on World Line 1, but on a brand new World Line 2? Or have we even returned to World Line 0?’

That was the most logical explanation for the current situation.

But it was obvious that wasn’t the case.

First of all, the buzzing, dizzying sensation that came with a spatiotemporal shift hadn’t occurred.

This was ironclad proof that a Worldline Jump had not happened.

He had confirmed it countless times before: no matter why a worldline jumped, he would always experience about two seconds of discomfort—a buzzing in his ears, dizziness, and a feeling like the world was spinning.

Since none of those reactions occurred, it proved the worldline definitely had not jumped.

Secondly, and more tellingly—

The other students were all shocked by Cheng Mengxue’s "return from the dead."

This meant the worldline had not, in fact, changed. The established history of Cheng Mengxue dying in a car crash two years ago remained unaltered—a fact everyone here was well aware of.

So...

’Who exactly is this Cheng Mengxue in front of me?’

Or perhaps...

’This girl in front of me, who looks, sounds, and is in every detail identical to Cheng Mengxue—who is she, really?’

Contradiction.

Horror.

Denial.

A storm of suspicion and confusion rooted Jiang Ran to the spot, unable to take a single step toward the girl.

After a moment of shocked silence, the surrounding students erupted into chaos:

"Oh my god!" "Xiao-Xiaoxue!?" "A ghost!" "How is this possible!" "You! Weren’t you already..." "Zhou Xiong is dead, so how is Xiaoxue alive again?!"

The students, both men and women, were in a panic, their eyes wide as they stared, unblinking, at the ghost-like appearance of Cheng Mengxue.

"Ahaha..."

Cheng Mengxue scratched her head, looking a little awkward, and gave an embarrassed smile.

"Whoops, sorry about that. I seem to have scared everyone."

"I didn’t originally plan to show up like this... I was afraid of scaring you all, which is why I didn’t say anything in the QQ group or contact you ahead of time."

"I was hoping to come back to the country sooner and explain everything in person... but things didn’t go as planned, and I got delayed. If I hadn’t rushed over now, I really would have missed the reunion."

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