Genius Playground

"Jiang Ran."

Zhang Yang asked softly,

"How much do you know about quantum mechanics?"

Uh...

Quantum mechanics?

Jiang Ran couldn’t help but scratch his head.

Even back on World Line 0, he was just a computer science student. Although quantum computing was developing rapidly in this era, it wasn’t something undergraduates really came into contact with.

If Qin Feng were here, he could probably chat with Zhang Yang about quantum theory.

As for him?

Forget it.

"To be honest, I don’t know much."

There was no need to lie to Teacher Zhang Yang. He was too much of an expert; any lie would be exposed in a few sentences. It was better to just tell the truth.

"I’ve only learned about things like quantum entanglement and the double-slit experiment from those science-pop videos on Douyin."

Teacher Zhang Yang wagged his index finger.

"The double-slit experiment isn’t a quantum experiment, it’s a photon experiment. It’s an experiment on wave-particle duality."

"Still, it’s good that you know about it, because what I’m about to talk about does involve the quantum eraser experiment. With a basic understanding of the double-slit experiment, it will be easier for you to understand the quantum eraser and the ’delayed choice’ principle."

"Alright, let me just draw a diagram to explain it."

With that, he turned to the blackboard.

Only to find... it was completely covered in writing, with no empty space for him to draw a diagram.

"I’ll get it, I’ll get it!"

Quick-witted and considerate, Chi Xiaoguo immediately grabbed the eraser to wipe the board.

But just then—

"Aah!"

Her platform shoes caught on the lectern, and she pitched forward, face-first, right toward the sharp corner of a desk!

"Look out!" "Xiaoguo!"

Just as she was about to ruin her face, a startled Jiang Ran and Zhang Yang both reached out to catch her—

"Ah!"

Just as they caught Chi Xiaoguo, Zhang Yang suddenly let out a pained cry.

Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo had no idea what happened. They just saw Zhang Yang clutching his right hand with his left, his face twisted in pain.

Their eyes followed his gaze down...

And then they saw it!

A pencil was sticking deep into Zhang Yang’s palm! It was embedded in the muscle below his thumb, just hanging there!

"Oh my god!" "Teacher Zhang! Are you okay?!"

Now it was Chi Xiaoguo and Jiang Ran’s turn to panic.

Jiang Ran finally understood what had just happened.

A moment ago, when Chi Xiaoguo had stumbled, both he and Zhang Yang had rushed to help her.

In that critical moment, Jiang Ran hadn’t noticed he was still holding a pencil...

It was a very sharp pencil, really just a prop to make him look more like a student at the school.

In the split second he reached out to catch Chi Xiaoguo, he didn’t know if he had stabbed Zhang Yang or if Zhang Yang had slammed his hand onto the pencil. In any case, the result was what they saw before them...

The sharp pencil was buried in Zhang Yang’s palm, and blood mixed with black graphite instantly welled up.

"I’m sorry, Teacher Zhang!"

Jiang Ran quickly apologized.

Zhang Yang glanced at his palm, gently pulled out the pencil, and checked the intact tip. Pressing down on the wound, he gave a slight smile.

"It’s fine, it’s fine. The tip didn’t break off inside. It’s just a small wound, I’ll put a bandage on it when I get back."

"Haha, who hasn’t been stabbed by a pencil during their school days, right? There are bandages and a first-aid kit in the office. I’ll just go clean it up."

"It’s just..."

He glanced at the blackboard with a hint of regret and shook his head.

"It looks like I won’t be able to go over the problem with you today, Jiang Ran. Next time you have a chance, when you don’t have class, you can come find me directly at the School of Physics office."

"Okay."

Seeing the blood still flowing from Zhang Yang’s palm, Jiang Ran apologized again.

"Teacher Zhang, I’m really sorry."

"Hey, I told you, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it."

Zhang Yang gave a hearty laugh, tucked his lesson planner under his left arm, held up his right hand, and waved goodbye to Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo before leaving.

Chi Xiaoguo looked at the blackboard eraser in her hand and sighed.

"Sigh..."

She felt she had ruined the nice atmosphere, preventing Senior Jiang Ran from getting the answer he wanted.

"Ugh, I’m so clumsy."

Jiang Ran shook his head.

"It’s not your fault. Besides, it’s not a serious wound. A little iodine and a bandage, and it’ll be fine in a few days."

He touched the back of his own neck, where he’d been stabbed by a pencil as a child.

"Teacher Zhang said it himself, who hasn’t been stabbed by a pencil in their school days? I was stabbed by one when I was little, too. It was no big deal. At most, it just leaves a little blue-gray dot, just like a tatt... oo..."

As he spoke, Jiang Ran froze.

A blue-gray dot.

Like a tattoo.

Carried for life.

’Oh my god.’

’Could there be anything more memorable than this?’

It was a complete accident, a shot in the dark that hit the bullseye.

By chance, he had left an anti-counterfeit mark on Teacher Zhang Yang—a brand that would not fade with time, an absolutely unforgettable impression!

Twenty years from now.

In 2045.

It wouldn’t matter if Teacher Zhang Yang remembered him or not, even if he developed Alzheimer’s and lost all his memories.

He had just changed the course of history, leaving the mark of a pencil wound on Teacher Zhang Yang’s right palm.

The wound would heal in a few days, but the little blue-gray dot left behind would undoubtedly stay with Zhang Yang for the rest of his life!

Therefore,

all he had to do was get to that prison in 2045 and carefully examine the Bookworm’s right palm...

If he could find the little blue-gray dot from the pencil wound...

That would be enough to prove—

’—that the future time-space of 2045 I experienced is real! It’s continuous! It is the Future World, exactly twenty years from now!’

"Lucky girl."

Jiang Ran looked down at the two cheerful Nezha buns on Chi Xiaoguo’s head and sighed with emotion.

"You really are a girl with maxed-out luck stats..."

There’s a saying.

A clever person racking their brain is no match for a fool’s flash of insight.

Of course, he didn’t think Chi Xiaoguo was a fool, but all the mental preparation he had done, all the hypothetical questions he had devised—none of it had achieved an effect as good as her adorably clumsy stumble.

Next.

He just had to wait until tomorrow morning, follow the same old routine to activate the Positron Cannon, and go take a look in the Future World of 2045.

At that time...

All the answers would be revealed!

"Xiaoguo, can I trouble you again tomorrow morning?"

"Of course!"

Jiang Ran smiled faintly.

"I’m really grateful. I drag you into my crazy schemes every day, and you never complain, you just go along with it. I don’t know what I could do to repay you."

"Oh, Senior, how can you say that!"

Chi Xiaoguo waved her hands in a fluster.

"You helped me save the Film Club and even made me the president. That’s such a huge favor, I’m the one who doesn’t know how to repay you!"

"That’s why I said before, whenever you need me, I’ll be here to help. I don’t have many skills myself... I’m just happy if I can help you, even in the smallest way."

Jiang Ran nodded.

After going through so much together, he and Chi Xiaoguo were now comrades-in-arms. Nothing more needed to be said.

He picked up his phone and glanced at the date.

May 29, 2025.

Come to think of it, it had been over a month since he’d left his own World Line 0 and arrived on this unfamiliar World Line 1.

Now...

World Line 1 was gradually becoming more familiar, while World Line 0 was becoming more distant.

’This situation is really not good...’

He suddenly recalled something Qin Feng once said:

"Distance can create beauty, but distance absolutely cannot create affection."

Now, experiencing this distance firsthand, he felt the profound truth in those words more and more.

It was almost June.

Time flew by, passing too quickly.

’I need to hurry up and solve this.’

...

The next day, May 30th, Jiang Ran and Chi Xiaoguo gathered once again in the Film Club’s activity room.

The Positron Cannon had finished cooling down.

Jiang Ran was in position.

With her phone in one hand, ready to dial, and her other hand on the Positron Cannon’s activation switch, Chi Xiaoguo began the countdown.

"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 0!"

The Positron Cannon roared to life with a blue glow, and amid the RING RING RING of the phone, Jiang Ran hit the answer key—

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

BUZZ!

Dizzy and disoriented, the world spinning around him, he once again traveled through time and space, arriving at the familiar, damp prison.

He opened his eyes.

He walked forward.

He took a deep breath.

"You—"

"Me—"

"What—"

"Now—"

"Fine—"

"Go—"

Fast-forwarding and skipping through a scene he knew by heart, Jiang Ran speedran the Sang Biao encounter in just a few seconds.

KLANG. KLANG. KLANG.

Like an obedient elementary school student, Sang Biao followed Jiang Ran’s orders, prying open the cell doors one by one.

Jiang Ran hurried out, walked over to Cell #4 across the way, and helped the old man inside out into the light of the corridor.

He took Teacher Zhang Yang’s dry, wrinkled hand, lifted it, turned it over, and examined it carefully.

The left palm, though somewhat sallow, was still smooth, with no scars.

Then he looked at the right palm.

Also sallow and smooth.

But!

In the area above the wrist and below the thumb, he clearly saw a [little blue-gray dot]!

Jiang Ran couldn’t contain his excitement, his heart began to race.

That’s right.

The course of history had changed.

The course of history had changed because of him.

The mark he had made with a pencil on Zhang Yang’s palm twenty years ago, in 2025, had now appeared in the future of 2045!

This was enough to prove that his earlier speculation was correct.

Enough to prove that the place where he stood, everything he saw, the stories he heard, and everything that was about to happen...

...was all real!

It was all the real future!

This! Was the genuine article! The Future World, twenty years from now!

「September 17, 2045」

"Teacher Zhang Yang..."

Suppressing his inner excitement,

Jiang Ran led the elderly Zhang Yang closer to the light, letting his own face be fully illuminated.

"Teacher Zhang."

He swallowed hard and widened his eyes.

"Do you still... remember me?"