Genius Playground

Jiang Ran’s lips were pressed into a tight line.

Finally...

He’d said it.

For a moment, as he gazed into Nan Xiuxiu’s innocent eyes, his resolve had wavered several times.

But he had to say it.

He had to understand what he needed to do.

He also had to understand what it meant to truly respect Nan Xiuxiu.

"I’m sorry."

Jiang Ran watched as Nan Xiuxiu lowered her head, strands of her wavy pink hair drifting in the night breeze.

"It’s my fault."

He said softly,

"We should... part on good terms..." "I don’t agree!"

Nan Xiuxiu’s head snapped up, and she glared fiercely at Jiang Ran.

"I don’t agree."

She repeated herself.

?

Jiang Ran was taken aback by her forcefulness.

’This...’

’Since when is a breakup something you can just disagree with? It’s not a negotiation.’

In Jiang Ran’s understanding, a breakup was always a declaration, not a proposal or a discussion.

It was a ritual that could be completed unilaterally.

He sighed.

"It doesn’t matter... if you disagree."

"What do you mean it doesn’t matter?!"

Nan Xiuxiu planted her hands on her hips.

"When we decided to start dating, it wasn’t a one-person decision! We both agreed to it! So why should you be the only one who gets to decide that it’s over?!"

Jiang Ran’s mouth hung half-open.

He was speechless.

"I don’t care."

Nan Xiuxiu, as if having found the high ground,

"Anyway, as for this breakup! I don’t agree!"

"Since it took two people to decide to be together, it has to take two people to agree to break up!"

...

Faced with this kind of illogical, rule-bending argument, Jiang Ran truly didn’t know how to respond.

"Fine."

Jiang Ran made up his mind.

There were some things he hadn’t wanted to say.

But now, he had no choice.

"Maybe I wasn’t clear enough just now. Let me tell you again."

Jiang Ran looked into Nan Xiuxiu’s resolute eyes.

"[The Jiang Ran you like is gone.]"

"I mean that literally. Do you understand?"

Nan Xiuxiu held her breath.

Then, her breathing became ragged.

"So... it’s you. You don’t like me anymore."

"You can see it that way."

Jiang Ran needed to sever this karmic tie.

"[We’re not from the same world. In every sense of the word, we don’t belong in the same world.]"

"I’m sorry for intruding on your life and disturbing you... but no matter what, our involvement must end now."

"I’m not going to say any of that irresponsible crap like ’it’s for your own good’ or ’it’s for the best for both of us’."

"Our story was my mistake from the very beginning. My negligence led to all of this."

"So, I have to go [correct this mistake]. And so, I have to go to [East Sea University]."

Jiang Ran turned around.

"Let’s part ways amicably. I’ll go to my university, and you stay at yours."

"I wish you... a bright future."

With that said, he started walking away, his back to Nan Xiuxiu.

TAP.

Nan Xiuxiu took a step forward, reached out, and grabbed the hem of Jiang Ran’s shirt, holding on tightly.

Jiang Ran couldn’t move forward.

He sighed inwardly, wondering how much longer this breakup would have to drag on.

"East Sea University."

Nan Xiuxiu gritted her teeth and stared at him.

"You’re only breaking up with me because you’re going to East Sea University for grad school."

Jiang Ran felt helpless.

At this point, unless he explained everything about the Positron Cannon, the Time SMS, and Worldline Theory, it would be impossible to make Nan Xiuxiu truly understand.

His words would inevitably be twisted into the classic story of "the first thing he does after getting ahead is dump his sweetheart."

But there was nothing he could do about it.

From an outsider’s perspective, that was indeed how it looked.

Nan Xiuxiu clutched the corner of Jiang Ran’s shirt tightly.

"[What if I went to East Sea University too?]"

Heh.

Jiang Ran laughed and turned back around.

"You want to come to East Sea University too?"

"What about it?" Nan Xiuxiu’s gaze was serious.

"’What about it?’ what?"

"[If I went to East Sea University too, then we’d be people from the same world, right?]"

Jiang Ran met Nan Xiuxiu’s gaze, looking her straight in the eye.

He realized something.

In this girl’s eyes, there wasn’t a hint of surrender, not a trace of compromise. There was... only an unyielding, inextinguishable persistence.

Sometimes.

In some moments.

He really did think this girl was wonderful.

But...

Just as he’d said, they weren’t from the same world, nor did they belong to the same worldline.

Jiang Ran belonged to World Line 0.

Nan Xiuxiu belonged to World Line 1.

The Jiang Ran of World Line 0 and the Nan Xiuxiu of World Line 1 should have been two parallel lines, never meant to intersect.

If Qin Feng hadn’t switched sides at the last moment and sent a Time SMS spanning ten years, their life paths would never have had any chance of colliding.

But there was one unchangeable fact.

For Jiang Ran, the most important thing was to return to World Line 0, and that would inevitably require annihilating everything that was happening now.

He and Nan Xiuxiu were like the stars Shen and Shang—one rises in the east as the other sets in the west. The distance between them...

...was that of "never meeting in a lifetime."

"I know what you’re thinking, but you’ve misunderstood me. I’m not breaking up with you because of this. The two things are completely unrelated."

Jiang Ran explained,

"Besides, trying to get into East Sea University by winning an archery award is impossible. Maybe if you won an Olympic gold medal, but the next Olympics aren’t until 2028."

"In any case, stop obsessing over East Sea University. It’s hopeless, and it’s meaningless."

However, it was as if she hadn’t heard a word Jiang Ran said.

Or perhaps, she just thought he was making excuses.

Nan Xiuxiu’s gaze remained firm.

"If I can get into East Sea University to study, just like you, then you have to take back what you just said!"

"Sigh."

Jiang Ran let out a soft sigh.

’The ignorant are fearless.’

Nan Xiuxiu was someone who really disliked studying. She’d probably never even cracked a book, and likely had no idea what it even took to transfer from a vocational college to a university.

Therefore, she had no way of knowing that there was no pathway in this world for a vocational college student to get into East Sea University, not even if her dad was rich.

If such a path truly existed, would Jiang Ran even be in this difficult position?

He took Nan Xiuxiu’s wrist and freed the corner of his shirt from her grasp.

Then he let go of her hand and turned to leave.

Everything that needed to be said had been said. Jiang Ran didn’t want to get tangled up with Nan Xiuxiu any longer.

This time,

Nan Xiuxiu didn’t chase after him.

Jiang Ran walked along the school’s perimeter wall in the opposite direction, the only sound being his own footsteps.

’Nan Xiuxiu must be heartbroken.’

’After all, from her perspective, I’m just another guy who used her and threw her away. I’m the one who dumped his sweetheart after getting ahead, who forgot his roots after getting into a better school, who looks down on her for her vocational degree...’

’So be it.’

’This relationship.’

’Let it end... just like this...’

"Jiang Ran!!!!"

From behind him, Nan Xiuxiu’s furious roar suddenly erupted.

Jiang Ran turned back.

He saw Nan Xiuxiu still standing in the same spot.

She raised her right hand, her index finger pointing at Jiang Ran from ten meters away, full of anger and judgment.

"You just wait!"

She spat the words out through gritted teeth.

"[I will! I will get into East Sea University!!]"

The night wind gusted suddenly.

Fallen leaves seemed to come to life, transforming into flitting butterflies that swirled in a vortex between the two of them.

They looked at each other across the swirling currents of time.

One, a gaze from the past.

The other, a look back from the future.

"Give up."

Jiang Ran’s voice was swallowed by the East Sea night wind.

"You’ll never make it."