Genius Playground

The same heartwarming smile.

The same heartwarming words.

It was as if Jiang Ran could see Cheng Mengxue’s shadow, could hear her voice.

Almost involuntarily, he reached out and took the Time Particle Rhine Cat doll from Chi Xiaoguo.

Small, soft, and warm.

It was as if some energy surged through him like an electric current, filling his weary limbs with strength. Pushing himself up with his hands on the edge of the flower bed, he stood.

Brushing the dirt from his clothes, Jiang Ran gave a self-deprecating laugh.

"Sorry about that. I must have looked pretty pathetic."

’It’s pretty embarrassing,’ he thought. ’I’m over six feet tall, and here I am being comforted by a girl who’s barely five feet.’

"Not at all, not at all!"

Chi Xiaoguo hurriedly waved her hands.

"Everyone has their down days! When I was waiting for my acceptance letters after applying to college, I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep. I was terrified I wouldn’t make the cut for East Sea University."

"But look, I still made it in the end! I might have gotten into the School of Fine Arts by the skin of my teeth, but once you’re in, everyone’s the same. Nobody cares what you scored on the entrance exams."

"So, Senior, it’s way too early to give up on your experiment. At the end of the day, we’ve only failed ten times."

"Don’t you worry! I’ll definitely stick with you through all the experiments! If we can’t do it this month, we’ll keep trying next month! If we don’t succeed this semester, we’ll just continue next semester!"

"No matter how long it takes, I’ll be right here with you. I’m on call whenever you need me!"

...

A small president with a big sense of responsibility.

Chi Xiaoguo was as staunchly loyal as ever.

Jiang Ran studied the Time Particle Rhine Cat in his hand for a moment before handing it back to Chi Xiaoguo.

"You should take this back. From what I know... this doll is pretty expensive."

"Huh? It’s not expensive at all."

Chi Xiaoguo explained,

"This Time Particle Rhine Cat is really cheap. It only costs a few bucks."

Hmm?

Jiang Ran was confused.

"Isn’t this supposed to come with the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat? I thought the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat alone costs 4,000 yuan?"

"Wow! Senior! You know so much about Rhine Cat!"

Thrilled to have found another shared interest, Chi Xiaoguo’s excitement was palpable.

"But the Time Particle Rhine Cat that comes with the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat is the really big one."

She held her hands up, outlining a volleyball-sized space in the air.

"That one is definitely expensive because it’s a 1:1 scale model that comes with the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat."

"But this one is just a keychain plushie. As you saw, it’s only about the size of a baseball. You can get one at a gift shop for about 20 yuan."

So that was it.

Jiang Ran understood.

’Looks like even the Rhine Cat Legion has a strict hierarchy,’ he thought.

"Senior! Senior! Are you a Rhine Cat fan too?"

Chi Xiaoguo blinked, her eyes full of anticipation.

"Sorry, I’m not."

Jiang Ran shook his head.

"I only recognize the Rice Cooker Rhine Cat, the Time Particle Rhine Cat, and I think there’s an Astronaut Rhine Cat... Beyond that, I’m completely clueless about them."

"And the only reason I know that much is because someone else told me. She’s an absolute die-hard Rhine Cat fan."

"Speaking of her... remember how I told you I had a friend who also applied to the East Sea University School of Art, but didn’t get in?"

Chi Xiaoguo nodded.

"I remember. You said she got into her second-choice school."

"That’s such a shame. If she’d been able to come to East Sea University, maybe we could have become good friends."

Jiang Ran glanced from the Rhine Cat doll back to the petite and adorable Chi Xiaoguo.

"You probably would have,"

he said softly.

"After all, you’re both such huge fans of Rhine Cat."

...

The two of them walked a lap around the student club building and returned to the Film Club room.

The first thing Jiang Ran did was walk over to the lab bench and inspect the Positron Cannon.

Just as he’d thought...

’The capacitor still hasn’t blown.’

According to his research with Qin Feng on World Line 0, the capacitor on the Positron Cannon was supposed to blow and burn out exactly 0.7 seconds after every activation.

But here on World Line 1, he and Chi Xiaoguo had already run eleven experiments. Each time, the Positron Cannon activated on schedule, and for the same 0.7-second duration. The only baffling part was—

the capacitor, which should have reliably blown every single time, had never once burned out. It was even reusable.

During the second experiment, Jiang Ran had worried that the Time SMS failed to send because he hadn’t replaced the capacitor. So, he had specifically removed the original and installed a brand new one.

But the result was the same. The Time SMS still failed to send.

This process of elimination was enough to prove it: the Positron Cannon’s current failure had nothing to do with the capacitor.

The capacitor not blowing was merely a symptom of the Positron Cannon’s failure, not the cause.

"As it stands, the Positron Cannon must be malfunctioning."

Jiang Ran pointed to the dent on the casing, explaining to Chi Xiaoguo,

"It most likely got an ’internal injury’ from that knock it took in the warehouse. In other words, while it looks fine on the outside, some of the internal components are probably broken."

Chi Xiaoguo nodded.

"So it’s broken, but not completely broken. Is that it?"

"It’s like dropping your phone and cracking the screen. You can still sort of use it, but the touch sensitivity is definitely affected, and sometimes it might just stop working for a bit."

Chi Xiaoguo’s analogy was an apt one. That was more or less the situation.

She stood by the table and lightly tapped the capacitor with a slender index finger, quickly pulling it away as she felt the lingering heat.