Genius Playground

HISS————

The bus door hissed as it released its compressed air, creaking as it folded open.

"Let’s go, let’s go! Hurry up and get on!"

It was Sunday again, and it happened to be Children’s Day. The bus stop was packed with students, all swarming to get on. Nan Xiuxiu grabbed Jiang Ran and hurried along with them...

Come to think of it.

This was the first time in Jiang Ran’s life that he had ever experienced a real date between a boyfriend and girlfriend.

Although on World Line 0, the trio of him, Qin Feng, and Cheng Mengxue had hung out together every day.

But...

...it was still a little different from a date like this, between a boyfriend and girlfriend.

Jiang Ran felt like a tagalong.

Trailing after Nan Xiuxiu.

Watching her browse boutiques with a giggle and a laugh, listening to her chatter away with stories, helping her carry her bags big and small, and eating the snacks she handed him.

"Want some of mine?"

Seeing that Jiang Ran had already finished his bubble tea, Nan Xiuxiu offered him her own, half-drunk one.

Jiang Ran looked at the straw, stained with a bit of her lipstick, and shook his head.

"No, thanks. I’m not a fan of this."

"Huh?"

Nan Xiuxiu was a little surprised.

"But you’ve always loved this drink... I only started buying it so often because you liked it, and then I gradually grew to like it myself."

"I’ve had too much of it. I’m a bit tired of the taste."

Jiang Ran smiled, brushing it off.

"Alright then."

Nan Xiuxiu didn’t seem to mind. She put the straw back between her lips.

"I’m tired from all this walking around. How about we go see a movie?"

"Sure."

"What should we watch?" Nan Xiuxiu scanned the posters at the entrance of the movie theater.

"I’m fine with anything."

Jiang Ran’s mind wasn’t on the movie.

In fact, he saw the theater as a rare moment of peace, a chance to sort through his thoughts on everything that was happening.

"Let’s watch this one, then."

Nan Xiuxiu pointed to the earless, blue, chubby character on a poster.

"I remember you said you really liked Doraemon when you were a kid~"

"Nobita————!"

On the cinema screen, Nobita was in trouble again, and the robotic cat Doraemon swooped in to save him with a Hopter.

It was an animated film that had just been released for Children’s Day, *Doraemon: Nobita’s Marvelous Painting Adventure*.

The plot was simple: Nobita and his friends entered the world of an oil painting and got caught up in a magical adventure.

It was mainly aimed at children, after all, so the core of the story was the same old tale of a hero, a princess, and a dragon to be slain.

Nan Xiuxiu watched intently, clutching a bucket of popcorn.

Jiang Ran, however, was preoccupied with his troubled thoughts and felt a little bored.

He couldn’t help but marvel at how the story template of a prince fighting a dragon for a princess had been told for hundreds of years, from ancient times to the present, without ever getting old.

Not only did writers never tire of telling it, but audiences never tired of watching it.

It was as if people just loved to hear such happy-ever-after stories, or perhaps... they were always hoping for something like that to happen in their own lives.

He blinked.

Jiang Ran suddenly realized: wasn’t his current situation, being so focused on saving Cheng Mengxue, just like a hero saving a princess?

If so...

...then who was the evil dragon?

In an instant.

Several images flashed through Jiang Ran’s mind:

Qin Feng’s backward glance in front of the transformer distribution box,

the giant eye in the center of the spinning Ferris wheel suddenly opening,

a criminal in a burlap sack kneeling on a high execution platform,

an executioner’s blade rising and falling, a Magician’s head hitting the ground.

The world’s number one criminal.

The public enemy of humanity.

Qin Feng...

’Are you the evil dragon?’

...

"That was great!"

The moment they stepped out of the theater, Nan Xiuxiu was full of praise.

"You know, the ending where they turned the tables thanks to the portrait Nobita drew of Doraemon was pretty awesome."

"Oh, that reminds me, when will the photos you took of me last time be developed?"

Jiang Ran recalled.

The Fuji GW690 camera Nan Xiuxiu had given him had been sitting on a shelf at the Film Club for half a month.

"Probably next semester."

Jiang Ran said,

"The Film Club at East Sea University can develop photos, but they’re out of materials and chemicals. They need to wait for next semester’s activity funds."

"Oh... okay."

Nan Xiuxiu nodded.

’Next semester isn’t that far away.’

"Sigh, time flies so fast. Once next semester starts, we’ll be juniors—our last year before graduation."

As she spoke, she turned her head.

"Jiang Ran, what do you plan to do after graduation?"

"I don’t know."

"Well, do you plan on staying in East Sea after you graduate?"

"I don’t know."

Jiang Ran shook his head.

"I haven’t thought that far ahead."

Nan Xiuxiu looked at him.

"Okay."

The two arrived at the bus stop again.

The sky had darkened, and they waited for the bus back to school.

Jiang Ran stared down the road, waiting for the bus to appear.

Nan Xiuxiu kept her head down, hands in her pockets, scuffing the ground with the toe of her shoe. She looked like she wanted to say something but was hesitating.

"Jiang Ran."

In the end, she spoke up.

The traffic was heavy, and the crowd was noisy.

Nan Xiuxiu looked up at Jiang Ran, who was just half a step away.

"If you decide on any plans for the future, will you tell me in advance?"

Jiang Ran looked down at her.

He didn’t quite understand what she meant by that.

"Why bring that up all of a sudden?"

Nan Xiuxiu bit her lip.

"I want to prepare in advance."

After a pause, she glanced at Jiang Ran’s hands, which were also tucked in his pockets.

"I don’t want... to be too far from you."

...

「Night.」

After taking Nan Xiuxiu back to her dorm, Jiang Ran returned to his own, pulled the curtain around his bunk, and lay flat on his back, covering his eyes with his arm.

His heart was a whirlwind of complicated emotions.

’I can’t let this go on.’

He had never spent such a long time with Nan Xiuxiu before. But today, being with her from morning till night, he had truly felt her unreserved passion and undisguised affection for him.

The feeling was truly strange, and it was growing stranger by the minute.