Genius Playground

Chapter 26 See Through
The activity room was silent.

The ticking of the clock hands sounded crisply, like beads of sweat dripping from the executioner's forehead, pattering against the execution platform.

Cheng Mengxue lowered her head.

She knew perfectly well why the cheerful atmosphere had suddenly turned into this.

because……

That was ten years ago.

All the time-space text messages they sent during this period were altering events that occurred a few days prior or within a few days.

Let alone ten years ago, they wouldn't have dared to try sending a text message from just a few months ago.

the reason is simple.

The spacetime butterfly effect is uncontrollable, and the longer the time span, the more uncontrollable the spacetime butterfly effect becomes.

This was an open secret from the very beginning.

Ten years ago.

What kind of dramatic butterfly effect would it trigger to revive someone who was already dead at such a distant point in time?
no one knows.

No one can predict it.

No one dared to imagine it.

Many people's fates will inevitably be changed as a result, many people's lives will go astray, and even worse and more unpredictable things may happen.

Of course, this might just be needless worry.

Perhaps the resurrection of Qin Feng's father will have a very small impact on the world.

but……

Who would dare to take that bet?

She glanced at Jiang Ran out of the corner of her eye.

The other person was the same as her.

He lowered his head and remained silent.

……

Jiang Ran kept her eyes closed, her mind in turmoil.

this time.

Ever since I received that mysterious text message and those mysterious numbers...

Why is he constantly anxious and uneasy?
Why did he keep hesitating?
because.

He had a premonition that Qin Feng would bring this up.

Whenever the thought crossed his mind, he would quickly dismiss it and not dwell on it.

There's no way to think about this.

He knew, of course, that Qin Feng's father had died 10 years ago in an accident.

Qin Feng had told them this when they first met in high school.

Incidentally, he and Cheng Mengxue also knew that Qin Feng had a very difficult childhood because he lost his father.

Not only did his mother work many jobs to raise him with great difficulty, but he was also frequently bullied by bad kids at school because he didn't have a father.

From elementary school to middle school to high school, those bad kids always called him "the kid without a father," and Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue had seen it with their own eyes.

After the three of them became good friends, Qin Feng was never bullied again. This was because Jiang Ran and Cheng Mengxue were Qin Feng's strongest support and wouldn't allow such a thing to happen.

But what about those years before that?

To avoid causing trouble for his overworked mother, Qin Feng would grit his teeth, swallow his grievances, and silently endure the humiliation.

And all this.

It was all because he lost his father at a young age, the pillar of his family, his greatest support, his broadest shoulders, and his strongest back.

and so.

Let's return to the wish itself.

Qin Feng was his best friend, and Qin Feng's wish was to save his biological father...

Once Qin Feng voiced this wish, how could there be any reason to refuse?
But all of Jiang Ran's intuition and reason warned him—

【no. 】

【Absolutely not. 】

To change the life or death of an adult from 10 years ago, to rewrite the history of the past 10 years—I wouldn't dare take that risk. Jiang Ran slowly raised his head.

He looked at the newly modified positron cannon.

The knobs on the dashboard above allow for easy control of the sending of time-space text messages, with precise settings for year, month, day, hour, and more.

year.

Is it really necessary to set such a long unit of time normally?

For an instant.

Piecing together various fragments of doubt, countless words spoken by Qin Feng surfaced in his mind—

"Now that the positron cannon has been repaired, why not conduct another verification experiment to see if this mysterious text message was accidental or inevitable?"
.
"I disagree. If it's a warning text message from our future selves, why use cryptic language? Why can't we be more specific? Sending a string of numbers is just making things difficult for us."
.
“I agree to use the time machine we built to send a text message to us from three days ago… to revive Xu Yan.”
.
"I feel that time-space text messages can't just be sent to three days ago. There must be some variable that controls the 'depth' of the time-space black hole, so that the text message can be sent to an earlier point in time."
.
"That's why I've always said that the mysterious text message was most likely just a malfunction. These meaningless random numbers are too much like some kind of machine failure. It's even quite possible that the malfunction was caused by the telecom operator and had nothing to do with us."
.
"Hey, aren't you scaring yourself a bit? Caution is good, but excessive caution is unnecessary. If you're afraid of taking every step forward, nothing will get any progress."
.
"I believe that the last two pinyin letters are not complete; there must be other information following them."
.
"Increasing the electron beam density means increasing the power. We can wait until 10 or 11 p.m., or even after midnight, when the club activity building is empty and the circuit load is low, so even if we increase the power, it won't be a problem."
.
"Operating the positron cannon will be very simple from now on. Just point it at the external power distribution box, then use the knob to set the node for sending time-space SMS messages, such as 9 days ago, 1 month ago, 1 year ago, etc. Finally, press the start button. It's very simple."

……

……

……

Jiang Ran braced himself on his knees and slowly stood up.

This is the end.

The puzzle is complete.

Whenever he had concerns or worries, Qin Feng would always urge him to continue the spacetime text message experiment;
Whenever he was afraid of that mysterious text message, Qin Feng always attributed it to a malfunction or an accident.
When he believed that time-space text messages could only be sent back 3 days, Qin Feng kept trying his best to modify the positron cannon, striving to send the text messages to the distant past.
Especially when he and Cheng Mengxue argued about whether or not to save Xu Yan, Qin Feng, who was always cautious and rational, unexpectedly sided with Cheng Mengxue and agreed to save Xu Yan.

It turns out that he had a clear goal from the very beginning.

It turns out that he had started planning this from the very beginning.

"Qin Feng."

Jiang Ran stood straight, facing the backlighting Qin Feng by the window:
Tell me the truth.

He squinted at his best friend:

"Did you plan from the beginning to use time-travel text messages to revive your father?"

……

……

……

A silent tug-of-war.

Cheng Mengxue also stood up, holding the rice cooker, and looked at the two of them from both sides.

The branches swayed, and sunlight, in the form of specks, fell on the floor, shimmering with an almost blinding brilliance.

"hehe."

Qin Feng lowered his head and chuckled dryly, shrugging weakly.

"You saw right through me."

He took a deep breath.

Looked up.

Look directly into Jiang Ran's eyes:

“I admit that I’ve had this plan ever since we successfully verified the time-space text messaging.”

"But your concerns and worries have prevented me from expressing this idea."

“I have indeed been researching and modifying the positron cannon so that it can send text messages to the distant past… As you said, I want to save my father.”

“But I never intended to hide it from you, Jiang Ran, Xiao Xue.”

His eyes were resolute:
"If either of you disagrees, I will abandon this idea."

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring—

Jiang Ran's phone rang.

He picked it up and saw it was a call from his father.

Press to connect.

"Hey?"

"Hey! Son! Come back quickly!!"

The father on the other end of the phone shouted anxiously:
"Your mother is in trouble! She needs brain surgery!!"

(End of this chapter)