Genius Playground

Jiang Ran swiped down on his phone screen, his eyes landing on the date.

June 1, 2025, 00:00

’Time... it really flies.’

He had originally thought that by now, he would have already saved Cheng Mengxue and returned to World Line 0.

But plans could never keep up with changes.

Instead, things had only gotten more and more troublesome.

June 1st.

This was the date he had agreed upon with Nan Xiuxiu.

Before this day, Nan Xiuxiu was not to disturb him in any way. But after this day, he would have to go on an occasional date with her, just like before.

There was nothing to be said about it.

When Jiang Ran had made the promise, he figured the world line would reset soon. This part of history would vanish, and all his promises would be null and void.

But now, since he was still on World Line 1...

...he had no choice but to fulfill the promise he had made.

Even if...

...deep down, he didn’t want any further entanglement with Nan Xiuxiu.

But a promise was a promise. Being a man of his word had always been one of Jiang Ran’s life principles.

He opened the message reply screen and sent Nan Xiuxiu a reply of his own:

"Happy Children’s Day."

The moment he did...

...his phone exploded with a frantic DING DING DING!

"Jiang Ran!"

His roommate on the top bunk stuck his head down.

"Put it on silent!"

He had indeed disturbed his roommate’s sleep. The main issue was that Jiang Ran hadn’t expected Nan Xiuxiu to start spamming him with messages right at the stroke of midnight.

He quickly silenced his phone and looked at the messages Nan Xiuxiu had sent.

They were mostly fluff.

It was all just her complaining about how Jiang Ran hadn’t been spending time with her, followed by a recount of everything happening in her life. There was the time she got an upset stomach from a certain cafeteria window, the fact that the rice noodle shop they used to frequent by the school gate had closed down, how she had done his political thought homework for him and turned it in, and how her dark roots were growing in and she was debating whether to dye her hair again but was worried about the color difference...

And so on and so forth.

She spared no detail.

It was as if Nan Xiuxiu was a balloon that had been holding its breath for days, filled to the point of bursting, now letting out over a dozen days’ worth of unsaid words all at once.

Jiang Ran stared at the chat bubbles that kept popping up, lost in thought.

It was the same two weeks, a little over ten days.

’Her ten-plus days.’

’My ten-plus days.’

’What we experienced, what we thought about, what we did—they were all completely different things.’

Finally.

Nan Xiuxiu quieted down and sent a final question:

"Tomorrow is Sunday! Let’s go for the full package—shopping, dinner, and a movie?"

Jiang Ran stared at the sentence in the white dialogue box on WeChat.

Sunday.

’Such a perfect, full day.’

’I could research the Positron Cannon.’

’I could figure out how to get into East Sea University.’

’I could review the events of the Future World in 2045.’

’I could investigate the old photos from the 2005 Film Club.’

So many things were waiting for him.

Jiang Ran’s lips tightened.

His thumb tapped on the keyboard, and he pressed send, replying with a single word—

"Okay."

...

「The next day.」

At the entrance of the dormitory building.

The dazzling, elf-like Nan Xiuxiu waved at Jiang Ran.

"Over here, over here!"

Jiang Ran looked over.

Today, Nan Xiuxiu was dressed up quite beautifully.

Although her outfit was simple—white sneakers, youthful denim hot pants, a white short-sleeved shirt with some lettering, and a small, reflective silver necklace around her neck...

...with her natural good looks, she looked good in anything.

As Nan Xiuxiu waved her hand high in the air, her white shirt lifted with her arm, and her waterfall of long pink hair swayed rhythmically behind her head.

In that moment, bathed in the bright sunlight, she looked like a figure frozen in a beautiful painting.

Passing students, both male and female, couldn’t help but turn back to look at Nan Xiuxiu, their eyes filled with amazement and envy.

But many others were already used to it.

After all, her waist-length, wavy pink hair alone was enough to make Nan Xiuxiu a well-known campus celebrity, an existence that was practically a landmark.

After two years of seeing her around—if not in the classroom, then in the cafeteria—many students no longer found it strange.

"You’re so slow!"

Nan Xiuxiu said with her hands on her hips.

"Have you eaten? Should we grab a bite at the cafeteria first? Or just get snacks at the mall?"

"Either is fine."

Jiang Ran said casually.

"Up to you."

"Then let’s go straight to the mall!"

Nan Xiuxiu looked at Jiang Ran, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time, her eyes filled with glee.

"We can shop for longer~"

The campus wasn’t that big.

To leave campus, you had to pass the cafeteria no matter which way you went.

But as they passed the cafeteria, Jiang Ran almost did a spit-take!

He saw...

...that at the entrance to this technical college’s cafeteria, just like at East Sea University, two tables had been pushed together to form a booth. A poster board next to it clearly read—

"Registration for the Qiu Tongcheng College Student Mathematics Competition is now open! Ambitious individuals are welcome to form teams and compete!"

If that were all, of course, it wouldn’t have been enough to make Jiang Ran do a spit-take.

The key was...

...the person promoting it with a megaphone was none other than his roommate from the top bunk!

"What the hell are you doing?"

Jiang Ran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as he walked over.

"You’re entering the Qiu Tongcheng College Student Mathematics Competition?"

"What else?"

Roommate #4 said dismissively.

"Why else would I be out here yelling at people?"

"No, I mean..."

His frankness left Jiang Ran speechless for a moment.

"Were your college entrance exam math scores that good?"

"They were okay. Math is the only thing I’m good at. I suck at the other subjects, totally unbalanced. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have ended up here."

"..."

Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes.

This time, he didn’t blindly believe what Roommate #4 was saying.

After dealing with Roommate #1’s iPhone 16, Roommate #2’s lottery tickets, and Roommate #3’s investment Burning Technique... he already had a premonition of how this would go.

"If I may be so bold as to ask,"

Jiang Ran said, looking at Roommate #4.

"When you say you’re ’good at math,’ what exactly was your score on the college entrance exam?"

"Who remembers that?"

Roommate #4 put down the megaphone.

"That was two years ago, how am I supposed to remember my exact math score? Anyway, I passed. I always pass math."

"Right, right, right."

Already mentally prepared, Jiang Ran wasn’t surprised. He started to slip away.

"You do you. Good luck."

SLAP!

"Hold it!"

Roommate #4 slapped a hand on Jiang Ran’s shoulder, his sharp, expectant eyes fixed on him.

"What was your college entrance exam math score?"

"I got a zero," Jiang Ran said.

"Oh, oh, oh. Nope, nope."

Roommate #4 waved his hand, shooing Jiang Ran away.

"You’re way too trash."

"Ah, yes, yes, you’re right."

Jiang Ran waved his own hand.

"Hope you bring back a gold medal."

"A gold medal is impossible."

Roommate #4 was surprisingly self-aware. He shook his head with a serious expression.

"My goal is a bronze medal. I’m not gonna lie, my accuracy on multiple-choice questions is pretty high. As long as there are enough multiple-choice questions, and my guesses are on point, it’s not impossible for me to win an award."

"Jiang Ran, I don’t like your attitude! Other people can look down on you, but you can’t look down on yourself!"

"There are a million prejudices in this world, but who says a technical college student can’t win an award in a math competition?!"

This speech, broadcast through the megaphone, was powerful, indignant, and impassioned, quickly attracting a crowd of students.

Jiang Ran stood there, watching it all unfold.

’It’s not that I don’t want to win an award.’

Right now, on this technical college campus, no one wanted to win the Qiu Tongcheng Award more than he did.

Winning this award would solve his biggest headache with ease. A recommendation letter from Academician Qiu could get him directly into a PhD program at Qinghua, and it could certainly get him into an undergraduate program at East Sea University.

It was simply the most direct, effective, and fastest way to get into East Sea University.

But.

How the hell was he supposed to win?

This wasn’t just an exam.

It was an exam consisting of five of the most high-level mathematical problems.

A competition of this caliber was far beyond what diligent studying could overcome.

Honestly, Jiang Ran felt that even if Qin Feng were here, he might not be able to win an award in the Qiu Tongcheng Mathematics Competition.

Er...

He scratched his head.

’Then again, it’s hard to say.’

After all, back in high school, Qin Feng had entered the Math Olympiad because of a joke Jiang Ran made, and he’d easily won first place.

’Forget it.’

In any case, it came back to the same thing.

Math wasn’t like other subjects. Math was truly a game for geniuses; non-geniuses, please stay out of the way.

He had thought about it last night, too.

If he could have searched for the answers to the 2025 Qiu Tongcheng Mathematics Competition online back in 2045, and then memorized them by rote, he might have actually been able to squeeze into the top ten overall.

But that idea was impossible.

In 2045, his range of movement didn’t even extend beyond that tiny prison. He had no computer and no internet—absolutely no way to obtain answers from 20 years ago.

Therefore.

The idea of using the Qiu Tongcheng Award to get a "technical-to-bachelor’s PLUS" opportunity was fundamentally a dead end.

"Let’s go, let’s go."

Jiang Ran waved his hand, urging the gawking Nan Xiuxiu to hurry up and leave.

They walked to the school gate.

By the side of the road.

Waiting for the bus.

Nan Xiuxiu was still a little curious.

"What’s the Qiu Tongcheng Award? And what’s with that math competition?"

Jiang Ran looked at her, not sure where to begin.

"Have you ever heard of Academician Qiu Tongcheng?"

"Never heard of him," Nan Xiuxiu said, shaking her head.

"..."

Jiang Ran took a deep breath.

"To put it simply, it’s a college student mathematics competition established by and named after Academician Qiu Tongcheng. The competition treats all university students equally, so anyone can participate."

"If you can place in the top ten in total points across the five exam subjects, you’ll win the Qiu Tongcheng Award. After that, no matter which top university you want to go to, Academician Qiu can write you a letter of recommendation to transfer directly, or even secure a spot in a graduate or PhD program."

"Whoa."

Nan Xiuxiu said with awe.

"Then this Academician Qiu is really amazing. Can he get you into any university? Even Qinghua and Peking Universities?"

Jiang Ran chuckled.

"Qinghua and Peking Universities are just the basics. Academician Qiu has his own research center at Qinghua University. If you wanted to go to Qinghua, you wouldn’t even need a recommendation letter; you could just go with him."

"And it’s not just for famous domestic universities. A recommendation from Academician Qiu is also extremely effective for top-ranked universities around the world, because the math competition itself has official partnerships with Harvard, Yale, and MIT."

Nan Xiuxiu smacked her lips.

"Seems like being good at math really is useful. You can go to any university you want. Too bad I’ve never been interested in math. I never listened in class, never did the homework, never even opened the book."

"Oh, look at you, acting all proud of it."

Jiang Ran looked at Nan Xiuxiu and shook his head.

"Actually, you don’t need to be envious of people with a talent for math. Everyone has their own talents."

"If you compare the field of mathematics to archery, your talent for archery is definitely top-tier."

"You just aren’t willing to enter similar competitions. If you were willing to compete in archery tournaments and win a title, it’s basically the same principle as winning the Qiu Tongcheng Award. You could use the athlete track to get into a prestigious university."

Hmph hmph~

Nan Xiuxiu, of course, loved archery, and was happy just to hear the word.

She crossed her arms and hummed proudly.

"So you’re saying, whenever I feel like going to Qinghua, I just have to enter an archery competition and win?"

"Heh."

Jiang Ran laughed.

"Now you’re just dreaming. It might get you into a regular top-tier university or a sports academy, but Qinghua and Peking Universities are a bit of a stretch."

"Besides, those pathways are for high school students. Now that you’re in a technical college, it’s too late for all that. It’s a real shame."

Nan Xiuxiu waved her hand dismissively.

"What’s there to be ashamed of? Even if Qinghua and Peking begged me to go right now, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t go to Harvard or MIT either. I like it here, at our school."

"Well, you’re something else."

Jiang Ran said perfunctorily. He had no desire to debate this topic with Nan Xiuxiu.

"Not everyone can be as nonchalant as you."

"That’s not it!"

Nan Xiuxiu quickly denied it.

"What does being nonchalant have to do with it? Who wouldn’t want to check out Qinghua and Peking Universities? If you had told me to go to Qinghua or Peking right after the college entrance exams, I would have gone in a heartbeat."

"But if you asked me to transfer now, I wouldn’t go even if you beat me to death. I’d refuse without a second thought!"

"Why?"

Jiang Ran looked at her.

"After two years, you’ve grown attached to this school?"

"..."

Nan Xiuxiu fell silent.

In the distance, the bus rounded a corner and slowly approached.

She brushed a stray lock of hair from her cheek with her right hand, tucking it behind her ear.

"I know archery, but you don’t."

Nan Xiuxiu reached out her right hand and gently took Jiang Ran’s left.

"If I really won an award for archery and went to Qinghua all by myself..."

Her eyes met Jiang Ran’s.

"...then what would you do?"