Genius Playground

But!

Back to the issue at hand.

Whether Qin Feng came to Hang City High School or not, whether Song He’s dad was the director of the Food and Drug Administration or not... what did any of that have to do with him drinking Pepsi or Coca-Cola?

Nobody could meddle in his affairs to that extent, right? If he wanted to drink a certain brand of cola, shouldn’t he be able to choose for himself?

Wang Hao had a strange expression on his face.

He reached out his right hand, placed it on Jiang Ran’s forehead, and felt it.

"You don’t have a fever. Why are you acting like you have amnesia?"

Jiang Ran slapped his hand away.

"If you have something to say, just say it. Why can I only drink Pepsi? Explain it clearly."

Wang Hao was out of ideas.

He could only sigh and begin recounting a story that everyone in their "iron triangle" of friends should have known.

"Telling you two this feels completely redundant."

"Have you forgotten? The first time we had PE class in high school, the three of us went to the school’s only convenience store to buy drinks afterward."

"Song He was playing ball with us back then, and that kid was super fast. We had to wait for Xiaoxue, so by the time the three of us got to the store, Song He was already at the counter paying for his drink."

"Speed it up," Jiang Ran said, skipping the fluff.

"Song He bought a Coca-Cola, and it was the last bottle of Coke in the fridge."

Wang Hao’s speaking speed tripled.

"In other words, the last bottle of cola in the fridge was bought by Song He. There wasn’t a single bottle left, Pepsi or Coke."

"You complained a lot back then, saying Song He had snatched the last bottle of Coke that should have been yours. The two of us looked down on you for it, asking what made you think it was yours. Obviously, it belonged to whoever got there fastest."

"I don’t remember what drink you ended up buying, but halfway through the next class... Song He suddenly started throwing up and had diarrhea. It scared the teacher, who sent him straight to the school clinic and even called his dad."

Suddenly, Jiang Ran felt like he had already guessed the answer...

Wang Hao continued his story.

"Song He’s dad suspected it was food poisoning, so he asked Song He what he had eaten."

"Song He said he’d had a bottle of Coca-Cola. His dad immediately had his colleagues from work come to the school store to investigate according to procedure and check the purchase orders."

"And they found out! The drinks this school store was stocking were all nearly-expired products! In other words, most of the drinks in the cooler were products that would expire in a day or two, maybe three!"

"Those nearly-expired drinks were super cheap. The wholesale price was less than one yuan a bottle, but the store owner still sold them to us at the original price of three yuan a bottle."

"So what?"

Jiang Ran thought it was perfectly reasonable.

"Nearly-expired products aren’t expired products. They comply with national food safety regulations. As long as the convenience store sells the drink before it expires, it’s perfectly legal and compliant."

"Besides, don’t all school convenience stores operate like that? Especially in a closed high school campus with only one store, the daily volume of drink sales is insane. If you put those nearly-expired drinks in the fridge, they’d all be sold out within two class breaks. There’s no way they’d last until they expired."

"And don’t worry about how much money they’re making. The fact that they secured the operating rights for that store is a testament to their ability and connections. As long as they aren’t selling expired, counterfeit, or shoddy goods in the school, it’s a legitimate business."

...

Wang Hao gave a helpless smile.

He threw up his hands and continued.

"Man, your memory... is your brain secondhand or something? I’ve explained this much and you still don’t remember. Ai, forget it. I’ll just keep going."

"It’s true, like you said, it’s legal for the school store to sell nearly-expired products. But a school is a school. Once this got out, would the parents allow it? Would parents accept the school store selling their kids drinks that are about to expire in a day or two?"

"So, the parents went to the school to protest. It wasn’t just Song He’s parents; all the parents were united against it."

"Actually, Song He secretly told us later that his vomiting and diarrhea weren’t from the Coca-Cola. It was probably because he’d stayed up all night reading a novel, didn’t sleep, and then went straight to playing basketball. His body was just exhausted... But he didn’t dare tell his dad that. If his dad found out he’d pulled an all-nighter reading, he would’ve been beaten to death."

"At the time, this whole thing blew up at our school. All the parents demanded that the school make changes. Even though nearly-expired food isn’t illegal, they couldn’t accept their kids eating it."

"Under pressure, the school replaced both the store’s operator and its suppliers. And even though the Coca-Cola distributor provided all sorts of food safety certificates, it was easier to just avoid trouble. The new store owner never stocked any Coca-Cola products again. They just cut them off completely to prevent any more complaints from parents."

"So... you get it now, right? It’s not a matter of what you like to drink. It was Song He’s vomiting and diarrhea that directly led to the school convenience store never daring to sell Coca-Cola again. You couldn’t drink it even if you wanted to!"

Speaking of this, Wang Hao couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

"And you just said you bought Coca-Cola after every PE class? In your dreams! Our school’s convenience store doesn’t even carry Coca-Cola!"

"But you really do like cola and nothing else. So, with no other choice, you had to settle for the next best thing and buy a Pepsi after PE every time."

Wang Hao had explained it all crystal clear, and Jiang Ran had finally sorted it out in his mind.

It was unexpected, yet it made perfect sense.

This was probably also a type of "closed loop" caused by the temporal Butterfly Effect.

On World Line 0, Song He wasn’t in Jiang Ran’s class, so it was impossible for them to have the same PE class.

Therefore, that last remaining bottle of Coca-Cola was most likely bought by Jiang Ran himself, or perhaps by someone else. But it definitely wasn’t bought by Song He.

Song He’s vomiting and diarrhea were due to him staying up all night reading a novel and had nothing to do with that bottle of Coca-Cola.

As a result, on World Line 0, no one got sick from that bottle of Coca-Cola, so naturally, there were no subsequent parent protests or the store changing owners.

And Jiang Ran drank Coca-Cola without incident for all three years.

However, that very same bottle of Coca-Cola became exceptionally interesting on World Line 1 due to the influence of the Butterfly Effect...

Song He replaced Qin Feng and ended up in Jiang Ran’s class.

Because of this, they had the same PE class. Song He was faster and beat Jiang Ran to buying that last bottle of Coca-Cola.

Afterward, he got sick, the Food and Drug Administration investigated, the purchase order for nearly-expired drinks was exposed, parents protested, the convenience store changed owners, and the Coca-Cola supplier permanently lost the right to have its products displayed at Hang City High School.

Consequently, Jiang Ran, who loved cola, was out of luck. With no Coca-Cola available, he could only reluctantly choose Pepsi.

And he drank it for all three years of high school.

"..."

At this moment, Jiang Ran was speechless.

’I’m the Clown.’

But he couldn’t be blamed.

After the Worldline Jump, he had no memory of World Line 1, so of course he didn’t know something like this had happened in high school.

’I can’t believe the spatio-temporal Butterfly Effect is so pervasive. Even something as small as a bottle of Coca-Cola was affected.’

This led to an even more unsettling realization—

’What Cheng Mengxue said was true, which means her memories are also real.’

Doesn’t that mean...

’My suspicions were wrong. The Cheng Mengxue in front of me, whether in terms of appearance, memories, inner self, or personality... is the one and only, 100% genuine, real Cheng Mengxue!’

Wang Hao sat down, sighed, and chugged the can of cola in front of him.

He patted Jiang Ran’s shoulder.

"Ai, you... dude, I don’t even know what to say to you. You should hurry up and get your head checked at a hospital."

Seriously. Wang Hao found it inexplicably funny.

’This Jiang Ran,’ he thought, ’is going around all day saying this person is fake, that person is fake, and insisting on finding evidence that they’re impostors...’

’But after all this checking and verifying, it turns out they’re all fine, one by one. Instead, he’s the one who can’t remember this and gets that wrong!’

HAHAHAHAHA.

’He really overestimated himself, trying to show off in front of an expert!’

HAHAHAHAHA!

HAHA...

HA...

Huh?

Wang Hao suddenly froze.

His right hand, clutching the cola can, was suspended in mid-air.

His neck turned slowly.

He looked over at Jiang Ran, who was chatting and laughing with Cheng Mengxue...

’Holy crap!’

It hit Wang Hao like a ton of bricks!

’Fuck!’

’My dude! After all this rigmarole... don’t tell me you’re the fake one!’

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