[September 27, 2025, weather: clear.]
[I’m becoming less and less like myself, less and less able to control myself.
This situation is only getting worse.
At first, I could only barely fail to control my thoughts, but now—
I can’t even control my actions anymore.
The first ti this happened was at the teahouse in Hangzhou, when I was having afternoon tea with Jiang Ran and Wang Hao.
At the ti, Jiang Ran asked whether I rembered the glass bottle from the ti capsule we buried before, whether I rembered what was written in that letter.
Of course I rembered.
Even if I couldn’t recall every single word, I could still rember fragnts of what was written there.
At the ti, I wanted to admit it.
Because, very obviously—this was Jiang Ran testing my identity.
However.
In the end, unexpectedly, I denied it.
That was the first ti my thoughts wavered, and it all happened for no reason at all.
I got shy, the kind of extre shyness that made my scalp go numb, to the point where I simply couldn’t say it out loud.
So I denied it, saying I didn’t rember what the letter said.
I can’t understand why it happened.
I didn’t even write that letter. No matter how cheesy the words on it were, what did that have to do with ?
That night, Jiang Ran walked back to the hotel and asked the sa question again.
I knew very clearly that if I wanted to clear away his suspicions, this was the best chance.
As long as I said the words from the letter, I could have completely gained his trust.
And yet—
Once again, I couldn’t control myself.
That overwhelming shyness and embarrassnt made deny it again. After the room door closed, my mind turned hazy, almost like I had a fever, and I muttered thoughts that weren’t mine.
But if they weren’t my thoughts, then whose were they?
I imdiately contacted Doctor Garner, and his advice remained the sa as before: keep writing in my diary.
He said I had already entered a life environnt that did not belong to at all, and my sense of self would gradually weaken. Like an actor too deeply imrsed in a role, it would beco easy to slowly lose myself and beco trapped in the character I was playing.
I’ve kept writing my diary.
Only the inside this diary can truly be , can truly help find myself, can truly let understand who I am.
I’m not worried about what I’ll eventually beco. I’m only worried that I won’t be able to complete Father’s mission, that I won’t be able to make up for my regret—
Today, I slapped Jiang Ran.
I truly don’t understand why I did that. I can’t control my thoughts—does that an I can’t even control my actions either?
Please, don’t let lose myself.
I have to complete the mission.
I must obey Father’s orders and punish Jiang Ran, this sinner who has disrupted history and disturbed spaceti.
I’ve tried my best to uncover his secret. But every step has been painfully difficult, impossible to break through.
Father must be very disappointed in , right?
I must understand why I ca here, for what purpose I ca.
My mission, my persistence, my sacrifice, my regret—
When will that day finally co?
I hope it cos soon.
I will carry justice and light, and bestow upon Jiang Ran—]
[Divine punishnt.]
Splash, splash, splash.
Jiang Ran was showering in the hotel bathroom.
After rescuing the child who had fallen into the river, their group had gone to the nearest hotel and booked two hourly rooms. Jiang Ran and Cheng ngxue each went to wash up separately.
Fang Ze had gone to a clinic to get his wound bandaged, while Chi Xiaoguo went to a nearby shop to casually buy a few sets of clothes.
Once everything was done, Jiang Ran and Cheng ngxue changed into dry new clothes, called a business rideshare, and returned to Donghai University.
The whole ride back, the four of them were silent.
The driver sat in the front.
The passenger seat was empty.
There were two independent seats in the second row, with Fang Ze and Chi Xiaoguo each taking one.
Jiang Ran and Cheng ngxue sat in the back row, both turned toward the windows, staring outside in mutual silence.
No one knew what to say.
The only thing in the air was awkwardness. Awkwardness. Utter, extre awkwardness.
“I’m sorry.”
In the end, Cheng ngxue was the one who spoke first.
She lowered her head, rubbing one thumb against the other. “I’m sorry, I… I shouldn’t have slapped you like that, I—”
“Oh, it’s fine.”
Jiang Ran waved a hand and touched his left cheek.
It didn’t hurt anymore.
Well, okay, it still hurt a little.
It was even a little swollen.
That slap had really co down with terrifying force. Jiang Ran had to admit that in that instant, stars had burst in his vision and the whole world had spun.
It had nearly made him think it was another Worldline Transition.
It was obvious Cheng ngxue hadn’t held back in the slightest. It was a super critical hit delivered in a state of absolute fury.
At that mont, Jiang Ran finally understood why, on Worldline 0, when Qin Feng had described Cheng ngxue’s crazed state to him, he had used the term “rabid dog.”
Originally, Jiang Ran had thought Qin Feng’s assessnt was way too extre.
But now it seed Qin Feng had actually been conservative.
That had happened the second ti they used the ti-traveling text, when they tried to save Xu Yan.
Another river rescue.
Another trigger for Cheng ngxue’s childhood trauma from when Jiang Ran had nearly drowned at age six.
Another scene of wild screaming that no one could hold back.
The difference was that, last ti, Qin Feng and Xu Yan had pinned Cheng ngxue down and stopped her from jumping into the river after him.
But this ti, Fang Ze and Chi Xiaoguo were nowhere near Qin Feng and Xu Yan in either build or strength, so they failed to restrain Cheng ngxue in her frenzied state. In the end, she broke free and jumped into the river.
And because of that, he got slapped.
Right!
He’d almost forgotten sothing important.
On Worldline 0, Cheng ngxue’s bite had landed on Xu Yan’s arm.
But on the current Worldline 1, that bite had landed on Fang Ze’s arm instead.
“You really don’t need to apologize to . I’m not hurt.”
Jiang Ran let out a light laugh. “That apology should go to Fang Ze instead.”
“Ah, I’m fine! I’m totally fine! It stopped hurting ages ago!”
Fang Ze blurted out the denial from the front seat.
Even though he had never experienced Dragon Country–style youth, he still had basic situational awareness.
At a mont like this, absolutely do not get involved in the battlefield!
The two people in the back had been hitting and yelling at each other, crying one mont and laughing the next. Obviously this was not so normal relationship! Obviously there was hidden drama!
In short, this was exactly the kind of battle zone he needed to avoid at all costs. Jiang Ran could forget about dragging him in as cannon fodder.
Fang Ze suddenly recalled a line from a Dragon Country TV drama he had once watched:
“You only lost a leg, but she lost love!”
Right now.
Probably.
It was kind of like that.
Dragon Country–style youthful romance really was complicated, bizarre, and unhinged. The TV dramas truly did not lie.
Besides, it wasn’t like he had actually lost an arm. He had only been bitten once, got so iodine put on it, and a bandage wrapped around it.
He’d just swallow this silent loss.
After arriving at Donghai University—
Chi Xiaoguo and Fang Ze picked up the four caras, declared that the two of them would return the equipnt to the Film Cara Club, and fled at light speed.
Jiang Ran and Cheng ngxue walked side by side down the narrow campus path, step by step toward the dorm building.
Moonlight buried a layer of unspoken thoughts into the footprints they left behind, escorting them slowly deeper into the campus along the slope blanketed in ginkgo leaves.
“Your face looks kind of swollen.”
Cheng ngxue raised her head and looked at Jiang Ran’s cheek, then smiled for so reason. “Don’t go getting disfigured.”
“And whose fault is that?”
Jiang Ran grumbled. “It’s not like you don’t know I can swim.”
“You never practice properly!”
Cheng ngxue started scolding him again for how, every ti he attended swimming class as a kid, he never took it seriously and basically just soaked in the pool like a dead fish.
“Yeah, I’ll admit I’m not as good as you.”
Jiang Ran recalled her swimming form from that afternoon. “You really are amazing at swimming. You were fast like a torpedo.”
“You’re the torpedo!”
She kicked at him, and Jiang Ran dodged.
“Hey.”
For so reason, Cheng ngxue sighed and stopped walking, shifting behind Jiang Ran. “That little blue dot on the back of your neck, where the pencil stabbed you… is it still obvious?”
“No idea.”
Jiang Ran shook his head. “I can’t exactly see it.”
“Crouch down.” Like she was ordering around a puppy, Cheng ngxue gestured downward.
“What for?” Jiang Ran turned around.
“Co on, crouch down! Let look!”
Helpless, Jiang Ran could only crouch.
In the gentle night breeze, Cheng ngxue stepped closer and reached out with her right hand, touching the back of his neck, brushing aside his collar and the ends of his hair.
The wound where the pencil tip had pierced deeply more than ten years ago still retained the faintest scar.
And right at the center of that scar, a tiny blue dot the size of a sesa seed was still embedded beneath the skin, clearly visible in the bright moonlight.
It was the near-fatal mark from when he had almost died.
And also the dal of his fearless, self-sacrificing heroism in youth.
Cheng ngxue slowly traced it with the pad of her finger and closed her eyes.
“You really are a hero.”
She said softly, “You were like that before, and you’re still like that now. The mont anyone’s in danger, you throw yourself in without hesitation.”
“It’s not that big a deal.”
Jiang Ran gave a light laugh. “If I’ve got the ability, I can’t exactly just stand by and watch soone die.”
“You…”
Cheng ngxue lifted her finger from the scar and slowly opened her eyes. “It would be nice if you could stay like this forever.”
On the other side of Donghai City, in a luxurious conference room.
The old man in Tang robes rubbed the coin between his fingertips and stayed silent for a long ti.
“As expected, nothing ever happens without that troublemaker Aixi stirring the pot. She’s started moving again.”
“It’s just—I don’t know exactly what she plans to do. But ever since she had Zhou Xiong swagger around with the Princess Coin, she seems to have been plotting sothing.”
“I’d say there’s an eighty percent chance her ill intentions concern us. In Genius Playground today, no one dared disobey , but everyone also wants to break this deadlock.”
“Without question, the best way to break it is to get rid of —get rid of my veto power.”
Across the table, the middle-aged man was thinking as well.
“And it’s not just the Witch. The Puppet must also have guessed that you were the one who had Yan Chonghan eliminated. They both belong to the Dartmouth Academy faction.”
“Even though our plan wasn’t aid at the Puppet, from his perspective, what we did is no different from tearing down the bridge after crossing it.”
The old man in Tang robes pressed the King Coin with his middle finger and flicked it with his thumb.
It spun across the tabletop with a low rattling sound.
“How is the girl’s side progressing?” he asked, shaking his head.
The middle-aged man shook his head. “No progress. It feels like Jiang Ran is deliberately dragging out the tempo too, starting so make-believe campus life ga.”
“No matter what, Old Wu, we’re passive on every front now. I think it’s about ti this deadlock ends.”
His gaze remained fixed on the King Coin spinning and drifting across the table.
“Honestly, the intelligence we’ve gathered on Jiang Ran’s side is already more or less enough.”
“That strange device stored in the Film Cara Club—ever since the girl touched it, Jiang Ran has never used it again. I think there’s a high probability that it’s the ti machine we’ve been looking for.”
“On the night Old Tian shot Yan Chonghan, Jiang Ran just so happened to appear at the scene. Even though he ultimately failed to stop our divine punishnt, the fact that he arrived there at exactly the right ti—doesn’t that already explain everything?”
“[Jiang Ran must have learned about it in advance through the ti machine. Otherwise, I truly can’t think of any reason that explains such a coincidence.]”
“At this point, no matter who the hidden hand behind Jiang Ran really is, I don’t think we can keep dragging this out.”
“So far, he still hasn’t discovered the truth about the Key, nor does he suspect the girl is connected to us.”
“If we keep delaying, and all our plans are truly exposed—then the consequences for us will be impossible to bear.”
The old man in Tang robes watched the spinning coin gradually lose montum and let out a long breath.
“I think so too. Although we failed to achieve our original goal and couldn’t uncover the identity and intent of the force behind Jiang Ran—if we can really seize the ti machine, that would still be an unexpected gain.”
“Our original intention was to use the Key to get close to Jiang Ran, clarify everything, and then launch another [Hide-and-Seek Ga] to obtain the next valuable coin.”
“But as things stand, that’s still a distant dream. And with more and more factions entering the board, there’s a good chance this piece of at will fall into soone else’s hands.”
“In that case, it’s better to do what we did when we destroyed the Princess Coin—destroy every opportunity. We give up our chance, and at the sa ti deny everyone else theirs.”
“Of course that outco is regrettable. But preserving the status quo is still better than letting soone else possess a scepter equal to mine. At least then Genius Playground will remain my one-man domain. This farce will remain just a farce, incapable of stirring any real waves.”
The middle-aged man straightened his coat and stood.
“If that’s the case, then let’s start pulling in the net. As for the girl’s side—she’s probably already been waiting impatiently.”
At last.
The spinning King Coin lost all force and fell flat on the table.
Reverse side up.
The giant eye encircled by a Ferris wheel reflected the cold light of the fluorescent lamp, staring down at this world with icy judgnt.
“Mm.”
The old man in Tang robes looked at the emblem on the back of the coin and gave a quiet response.
“This little make-believe ga ends here.”
He pushed himself up from the redwood chair’s armrests and slowly walked to the huge floor-to-ceiling window, looking toward the three iconic skyscrapers spearing into the sky over Lujiazui.
“Call Fang Ze back from Arica.”
The middle-aged man froze. “Use him? The Hangzhou case is still under police investigation.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
The old man stood with his hands behind his back.
“Lilith already cleaned everything up. The police have no leads on Fang Ze, and no reason whatsoever to suspect him.”
“[In this world, no one knows Fang Ze is our killer. No one knows he has any connection to the Mutual Aid Society of Regrets.]”
“Having him carry out this task is the safest and most discreet option for us. In the current tangled situation, using Fang Ze to end this matter puts more at ease than anyone else.”
“All right.”
The middle-aged man accepted the order. “Then I’ll contact him. What day should the divine punishnt be set for?”
“Let the Key decide.”
The old man in Tang robes looked out at the neon-lit nightscape and smiled faintly.
“We’ve raised this soldier for a thousand days; it’s ti for her to prove her worth.”
“If luck is on our side, we may even be able to squeeze the very last bit of value out of Jiang Ran. And then let Fang Ze make his move—”
“To deliver Jiang Ran his final divine punishnt!”
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