Genius Playground

Chapter 21 Eyes
"if not?"

Jiang Ran countered:

"It can't be that some elementary school student deliberately threw a pencil down the mountain just to save me, and then it just happened to bounce, just happened to land right under my neck, and just happened to hit my head... What kind of genius elementary school student is that?"

"It might not be that elementary school student."

Qin Feng straightened up:

"It could be someone else."

"No one is allowed."

Jiang Ran raised her hand and threw the green dates forcefully at Qin Feng.

Snapped!
Qin Feng also raised his hand to catch it, holding it in his palm.

"No one could throw that accurately," Jiang Ran said, shaking his wrist.

"But this is too much of a coincidence, so much so that it's abnormal."

"What's so abnormal about it? If you're clever enough, even a monkey can type out the entire collection of Shakespeare's works on a typewriter."

"That is impossible."

Qin Feng rubbed the green dates and shook his head:

"Theoretically speaking, given enough time, monkeys could randomly type out Shakespeare if they were given enough time."

"But in reality, this is impossible. Even if a monkey kept tapping until the universe was destroyed, it would still not be able to produce Shakespeare."

Jiang Ran chuckled softly:
"That only means that the universe is not long enough."

"Why do you suddenly disbelieve in science, Qin Feng? That's how probability works—"

"If the probability of something happening is not zero, then it will definitely happen."

Whoosh.

A green jujube flew over, but Jiang Ran caught it again.

"Murphy's Law".

Qin Feng said.

Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong. In essence, it means that no matter how small the probability of failure or an accident, it will happen.

Professor Zhang Yang covered this topic in his general education course.

Since the probability of a child falling, their schoolbag opening, their pencil case popping out and scattering on the ground, and a pencil rolling down a hill and bouncing right under their neck is [not 0]...

Therefore, there is a probability that this will happen.

Just like winning the lottery, even though the odds of winning the jackpot are so small, there will always be someone who wins by chance.

The same principle applies to everything.

"Don't tell me you didn't listen to Professor Zhang Yang's lectures."

Jiang Ran, tossing a green jujube, walked up to the viewing platform again:

"Xiaoxue and I weren't really interested in Professor Zhang Yang's general education courses. We only chose them because you liked them."

"Of course I listened," Qin Feng couldn't refute.

Indeed, anything with a low probability of happening can happen; that's the charm of probability theory.

Reasonable and well-founded.

"Murphy's Law is indeed a law that sounds very sad."

Jiang Ran continued to tease the dates:
"Any possible mistakes, accidents, failures, or regrets will eventually happen."

"But now that we have mastered time-space text messaging, Murphy's Law no longer applies to us, who can modify history and correct mistakes at any time."

Snapped.

With a final wave of his hand, he grasped the green jujube in mid-air and smiled at Qin Feng:

"Besides, didn't Professor Zhang Yang already give a reverse derivation of Murphy's Law in class?"

"Since everything that can happen will happen..."

Jiang then tilted his right arm back, tensing his muscles:
That means—

He swung his arm forward with great force, throwing the green dates with all his might—

"All good things will eventually come!"

The green dates turned into shooting stars and streaked across the night sky.

Thrown from the highest point of this ocean, it soars into the starry sky, parting the clouds and mist, catching the moonlight, and falls into the silent black sea.

Submerged.

……

The next day, it started to rain heavily.

Cheng Mengxue didn't wake up until noon.

She was so drunk she blacked out and had no recollection of what she said yesterday.

"My last memory... is Qin Feng saying that his dream is to do research in a top laboratory. I don't remember anything after that."

She scratched her head and looked at Jiang Ran:

"What did you say next? What is your dream?"

"Become the savior," Jiang Ran teased her.

"So great!"

"A genius like Einstein."

"Are you... sure you can do it?"

"Doraemon."

"You're teasing me again!"

Amidst the commotion, yesterday's events were glossed over.

Jiang Ran and Qin Feng tacitly agreed to pretend that nothing had happened.

When Cheng Mengxue asked, the unanimous story was that she had barely said two words when she fell asleep with her face on a crab shell.

……

It was already evening when the three of them returned to school.

The rain intensified, accompanied by frequent thunder and lightning. "The weather over the East China Sea really changes in an instant."

The three of them, holding umbrellas against the wind, decided to return to the club activity room to take shelter from the rain.

We arrived at the club activity room.

They were all soaked to varying degrees.

After drying themselves off with towels, the three of them made instant noodles and decided to just make do with that.

The small blackboard still lists the two major unsolved mysteries:

[1. What do these mysterious text messages and numbers mean?]

[2. Why is it that only Jiang Ran possesses the memories of the original history, before the world line changes?]

The first problem still seems to have no solution at present.

Since then, no further text messages or follow-up clues have been received, leaving the investigation at a standstill.

"That's why I've always said that the mysterious text message was most likely just a glitch."

Qin Feng blew on his instant noodles:

"The meaningless gibberish numbers are too much like some kind of machine malfunction. It's even quite possible that the malfunction is caused by the telecom operator and has nothing to do with us."

"Have you ever received strange verification code text messages before? Since text messages have to be transmitted through cell towers, it's highly likely that the garbled text message was created due to accidental signal interference."

……

Qin Feng still insisted on the "fault theory".

Because, if Jiang Ran's assumption is correct and this is a warning of danger... then they have already sent many text messages "ignoring the warning".

So far, nothing bad has happened.

Everything is stable.

Everything is very regular.

Everything is normal.

"If that mysterious text message really was a warning from our future selves..."

Qin Feng chuckled twice:

"Then shouldn't we have been punished long ago for being so disobedient?"

boom! ! ! !

A bolt of lightning struck, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.

The incandescent light flickered a few times before gradually stabilizing.

"Say less."

Jiang Ran opened the instant noodle lid, looked at the rising steam, and pondered.

Rough words are not rough.

Actually, Qin Feng's words make some sense.

Since ignoring the warning won't cause any harm... that means the warning is meaningless, or even not a warning at all, and is just me overthinking.

Let's put this issue aside for now.

He stirred the instant noodles with his fork, then looked at the second question on the small blackboard:
"Actually, I've always been curious whether my special physical condition is truly unique to me in the whole world?"

"Although I searched for many keywords online and didn't find any relevant information, that doesn't mean anything... because anyone with a sound mind wouldn't say these things online, otherwise they could easily be taken to a lab for dissection and research."

"So, is it possible that..."

"Are there many other people in the world like me who can sense changes in the world line and retain memories of their original world line?"

……

Jiang Ran's words caused the temperature in the activity room to plummet, plunging it into silence.

Clang, clang, clang.

The torrential rain and strong winds rattled against the windows.

The rain curtain clung to the glass like a monster eyeing its prey.

This is……

The problem they haven't thought about in detail.

As Jiang Ran said, what if this special physique is not unique to him?

Qin Feng and Cheng Mengxue exchanged a glance.

They frowned in unison.

Once you start thinking about this, it's truly terrifying.

If there are many people like Jiang Ran in various corners of the world who possess this special constitution...

Then.

Every time the world line shifts, many people, like Jiang Ran, feel dizzy and disoriented.
After each world line shifts, many people, like Jiang Ran, retain the memories of the original world line.

This also means——

If these people were paying attention to the lottery, they would have noticed that after the world line shifted, the number of second-prize winners increased by five!
If there were such a person at Tunghai University, he would have noticed Xu Yan's resurrection!
Those lurking in the shadows may have already noticed the trio's unusual actions!

boom! ! ! !

Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the entire house.

eye.

eye.

Eyes! ...

Amidst the booming thunder, hundreds of Rhinecat eyes lit up, staring at them from all directions.

"We won't..."

Cheng Mengxue swallowed and spit.

She slowly raised her head, watching the fleeting glances in the Rhine cats' eyes:

"Could we... be being watched?"

(End of this chapter)