Genius Club

“Did you find the safe in this world?”

Right then, in the middle of the plaza, the huge bonfire had already collapsed. The flames no longer soared high but had grown weaker, swaying with the wind.

The dance party had ended, but the lively crowd hadn’t dispersed or gone home to rest. Some people went back to the long banquet tables, continuing their battle with Big Cat Face over the remaining food. Others gathered in small groups around the plaza, either sitting on the ground or wandering around cheering, still enjoying the festivities.

After dancing with CC, Lin Xian sat on the edge of a nearby flower bed, watching the slowly dying fire as he chatted under the moonlight.

Hearing Lin Xian’s question, CC shook her head.

“No…”

“I’ve been here for a long time. I came to this place, the Old Donghai site, two years ago by ship. Since then, I’ve been searching for the aluminum alloy safes, but I haven’t found a single one—not even the slightest clue.”

Lin Xian was a bit surprised.

In the fifth dream, these villages were still digging up some safes. How could it be that now, in the seventh dream, there was no news about any of them?

Logically speaking, with so many villages digging up underground cryo-bases and micro nuclear batteries, statistically, they should’ve found at least a few safes by now. Even if they didn’t find his or someone familiar’s, there should’ve been at least one. It made no sense.

Thinking carefully, it seemed that there wasn’t even a trace of the safes in the seventh dream—just like in the sixth one. In that world, nearly every tribe was digging for Turing machines, and, according to Big Cat Face and Gao Wen, the Lynx Tribe alone had switched excavation sites several times, each one the size of multiple soccer fields.

Even with such systematic digging, they hadn’t found a single aluminum alloy safe. Had Time Bank vanished again?

Or perhaps… was there some other problem?

“Logically, that seems impossible,” Lin Xian said, puzzled. “If Time Bank existed, it should have left some historical trace. After all, those aluminum alloy safes are incredibly sturdy; once formed, they’re almost impossible to destroy.”

“In one of your memory fragments, we personally dug some up. Even after 600 years, those safes were still shining, with no signs of wear. How could none have survived?”

“I don’t know,” CC shook her head again. “I’ve searched for two years with no results. If I hadn’t been waiting for you here, I might have returned to Brooklyn or gone somewhere else. But in one of your memory fragments, we agreed to meet today. So, I’ve stayed in the Old Donghai site.”

“You told me you could roam freely on August 28, 2624, endlessly repeating the day. So I figured if I stayed somewhere in Donghai that was the most noticeable… you’d surely find me.”

“Donghai City is the largest in this area, and today there was a big celebration. I knew you’d come by sooner or later.”

With a smile, CC turned to Lin Xian. “See? I guessed right, didn’t I?”

…

Lin Xian had to admit that CC was quite clever. Using the three memory fragments he’d left her, CC had already figured out the mechanism of the dream and his ability to loop through the day.

As long as she stayed in Donghai on August 28, 2624, she would meet him. Even if he didn’t find her the first or second night, she would be waiting. Without wandering off, he would eventually find her.

For a moment, Lin Xian felt that he was always making others wait.

In the third dream, Zhao Ying Jun became a white jade statue, waiting for him for six hundred years.

Yellow Finch traveled back from the future, leaving riddles, then silently waited at the answer.

Now, CC was doing the same. She would wait for him at the most lively and noticeable place in every dream.

And what about Chu An Qing?

Chu An Qing, who had turned into blue stardust and scattered, could she also be waiting somewhere for him to find her?

Just like the time in the milk tea shop at the shopping center when Lin Xian smiled and casually told her:

“I won’t get lost; I’ll always find you.”

Who knew that offhand remark would come true.

Not long after, Chu An Qing disappeared from this world. Even though Lin Xian had broken his promise, he would never give up.

He believed that Chu An Qing was still alive. And, just like CC now, standing in one place, waiting, tiptoeing with hope, waiting for him to find her in the tangle of time and worldlines, and then… he would bring her home safely, back to Chu Shan He.

That was why Lin Xian had decided to join the Genius Club as soon as possible.

True, he cared about the mysteries of the dream, the purpose of the Genius Club, and the truth behind the 00:42 flash of light. But as a man, the first thing he had to fulfill was his promise to Chu An Qing and the commitment he made to Chu Shan He. That was his primary drive.

The mysterious Millennium Stake—so mysterious, so unpredictable—perhaps only after joining the Genius Club would he learn the truth.

Lin Xian snapped out of his thoughts. The bonfire in the plaza had completely gone out, and the charred wood was now giving off smoke.

Seeing CC this time had put his mind at ease and given him renewed hope and determination to save Chu An Qing.

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“Thank you for waiting here for me,” Lin Xian said with a light smile. “To be honest, it makes me look forward to each dream even more. So, let’s make a promise now—”

“In every world, you’ll wait for me in the most noticeable, iconic place in Donghai. I will find you.”

“Deal,” CC replied, her legs swinging as she sat on the edge of the flower bed, looking up at the full moon in the night sky.

“So… what do you think is going on with the safe in this world? Any clues?”

Lin Xian nodded, then shook his head. “I’m not sure. The great catastrophe in 2400 really messed everything up. It’s the most complete form of a historical gap, to the extent that I can’t even verify if Time Bank actually existed.”

“My current guess is twofold. One possibility is that, for some reason, Time Bank vanished from established history, possibly even collapsing before the 2400 disaster. If that happened, the safes might’ve been dealt with long ago, and it’s natural we can’t find them in 2624.”

“The other possibility is that the intensity of the 2400 disaster changed. In the original version, the disaster didn’t directly hit Donghai City; it was abandoned during later wars. But if the disaster was more severe this time—say, an earthquake or tsunami directly hit Donghai—who knows where the safes might’ve ended up.”

Lin Xian shrugged. “But no one really knows the truth of the 2400 disaster, and we can’t travel back to witness it firsthand. That’s why our search for clues about Time Bank and the safes has completely stalled.”

“There is a solution, though. The simplest one would be to prevent the 2400 disaster. If it doesn’t happen, then Donghai City would remain prosperous until 2624, and we’d naturally be able to see Time Bank.”

That was Lin Xian’s most straightforward plan.

According to Turing, the 2400 disaster was triggered by Galileo, a member of the Genius Club. So, if Galileo could be eliminated in 2024, the catastrophe four hundred years later could be averted.

However, knowing Turing’s deceitful nature, it remains to be seen whether Galileo is truly the culprit. One source alone wasn’t enough to reach a conclusion.

“Actually…” Lin Xian paused, then continued, “I have another way to find out what’s inside the safes.”

He turned to look at CC. “If you want, I can tell you directly.”

CC thought for a moment and shook her head.

“I still want to open it myself.” She took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, her gaze deepening as if reminiscing about the past and that bearded man, VV.

“The contents of the safe are very important to me. If I just hear it from you, I don’t think I’ll be satisfied with any answer.”

“Or rather… it’s the process of opening the safe, that event itself, that matters to me more than the actual contents.”

“So, even if you know what’s inside, please don’t tell me. I want to open it myself, to see what that bearded man VV left for me.”

CC’s response surprised Lin Xian. He had thought long and hard before deciding to reveal the contents of the safe to her, expecting her to happily accept and ask about it. But he hadn’t anticipated this—that she would refuse the shortcut, preferring to open it herself.

Suddenly, Lin Xian remembered that moment on the space shuttle twenty thousand meters high when Chu An Qing handed him a folded note:

“Look at it later, you’ll understand everything.”

And now, “understanding everything” seemed to mean more than just discerning the realness of the dream.

Based on current circumstances, the dream’s probability of being false approached zero. Lin Xian had indeed gained valuable insight from it.

He believed that Chu An Qing’s “understanding everything” had other meanings.

So, was CC’s and Chu An Qing’s attitude toward the safe and the note another form of a time-space loop?

“Alright,” Lin Xian said, completely giving up the idea of opening the safe in the real world or reading the note’s content ahead of time.

Since both CC and Chu An Qing were so insistent, how could he spoil things halfway?

He would follow their wishes… and find a way to open the safe and read the note within the dream.

“I’ll think of something about the safe,” Lin Xian continued. “After all, the future world won’t remain this way forever. Even though it’s a wonderful, happy place right now, I have a feeling it will change. There’ll be a new world, another future waiting for us.”

“Maybe in that next world, we’ll see Time Bank and the safes again.”

CC nodded. “Yeah… besides not finding the safe, this world is perfect. Though its tech level is a bit behind, there’s no war, famine, disease, or conflict.”

“Everyone is happy, content, and satisfied. That’s something Earth before the 2400 disaster could never achieve. Population explosions inevitably led to resource depletion and competition. It was nothing like the peace we have now.”

“I’ve been here for two years. I’ve even been to Cat Big Cat’s Village and seen lots of old friends—though I didn’t greet them. I’ve seen that they’re all living happy lives, and it truly makes me glad.”

“Even here in Donghai City, Li Cheng and Li Ning Ning no longer have to steal books from the garbage. You were late, so you probably didn’t see Ning Ning, did you? She’s so different now—she’s all dressed up, really pretty, like a carefree princess. Earlier, she was out walking around with her newborn baby sister, smiling so sweetly.”

Hearing that everyone was doing so well made Lin Xian smile warmly.

“I’ve been thinking all day that this is the best time, the best future,” he said. “Someone once asked me what makes the best future. Back then, I thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with an answer, nor could I picture it in my head.”

“Honestly, even now, I still don’t fully know what counts as the best future. But looking at this time, the people here seem to have no regrets or burdens, like living in a utopia.”

“I wonder how Wei Sheng Jin, Zheng Xiang Yue, and Angelica are doing. Will they take the Earth-Mars shuttle back to Earth? I’m quite looking forward to that.”

Suddenly, CC tilted her head, looking at Lin Xian in confusion. “Earth-Mars shuttle?”

“What are you talking about, Lin Xian? There’s no such thing here. Ever since Elon Musk emigrated to Mars before the disaster, he never returned. There’s never been a shuttle from Mars to Earth.”

“Hmm?” Lin Xian narrowed his eyes. “Never? Isn’t it supposed to run every two years?”

He found it strange.

In both the fifth and sixth dreamscapes, there was an Earth-Mars shuttle. In the fifth dream, the shuttle kept running, and Zheng Xiang Yue and Wei Sheng Jin came to Earth on it.

In the sixth dream, the shuttle existed initially, but due to the tribes led by Turing being too fierce, with constant warfare and even attacks on the shuttle, it was soon canceled.

But now, in the seventh dream, why had the shuttle disappeared entirely?

That wasn’t Elon Musk’s style. The Earth was so peaceful now, with welcoming natives, that there was no reason to cancel the shuttle service every two years.

“Not a single Earth-Mars shuttle?”

CC shook her head. “Never heard of it. Actually… ever since Elon Musk emigrated to Mars with a group of people, he vanished entirely. He’s never been seen again.”

Suddenly, Lin Xian remembered something else that didn’t add up.

In the original fifth dream, Elon Musk was known as a philanthropist, preparing the Mars migration plan in advance and, after the 2400 disaster, spending fifty years helping Earth’s survivors reach Mars.

Knowing this truth made Lin Xian call him “Saint Elon Musk”—a true hero.

Had the butterfly effect in the seventh dream… also made Elon Musk no longer a saint?

“That shouldn’t be,” Lin Xian shook his head.

Elon Musk’s Mars migration plan required people. He had no reason not to come back to Earth and rescue people after 2400. It was a win-win for his plan, too.

Something seemed wrong here.

When Lin Xian entered the dream, he thought the change between the sixth and seventh dreamscapes wasn’t that big—not a jump of six worldlines from 0.0000084 to 0.0000336.

But now… his perspective had shifted.

From Earth’s viewpoint, maybe the changes didn’t seem that significant.

But what if Mars was included too?

For some reason, in the seventh dream, the Earth-Mars shuttle had disappeared. After the catastrophe, Elon Musk didn’t return to Earth to rescue people. Mars and Earth had been completely isolated. The migration fleet went one way, never coming back.

What had happened? What about Elon Musk?

Why… did Elon Musk’s behavior seem so unlike Elon Musk’s?

Lin Xian sighed. “It seems that this world still has regrets. At the very least, Old Man Wei Sheng Jin and Zheng Xiang Yue can’t return to Earth. As for Angelica…”

“Huh? Angelica? You know that madwoman?”

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind.

Lin Xian and CC turned to see Big Cat Face holding a large bear’s head, gnawing on it and pulling out chunks of white stuff from the skull to eat.

“What are you eating?” Lin Xian frowned.

“Bear brains,” Big Cat Face said as if it were obvious, digging another handful out and stuffing it into his mouth. “You have no idea how popular this bear was. If I hadn’t been quick and had my eye on it, I wouldn’t have gotten this bear head!”

He then used his thumb to dig into the cooked bear head’s eye socket, plucking out the whole eyeball and offering it to Lin Xian. “Here, try a bear eye. It’s tender.”

“No thanks,” Lin Xian stepped back. “Who eats that kind of stuff? It’s disgusting.”

“Disgusting? Doesn’t everyone eat this way?”

Big Cat Face took a bite of the bear eye, juice squirting out. “Haven’t you eaten sheep’s head before? Sheep brains, sheep eyes, sheep tongue—delicious!”

“Alright, enough,” Lin Xian waved him off. “Wait, did you just say… madwoman Angelica? Are we talking about the same Angelica?”

“Is there another Angelica?” Big Cat Face chewed on the remaining bear eye, speaking between bites. “That name’s pretty rare; I doubt there’s a second one. She’s tall and thin, right? She was dug up from an underground cryo-base by people from Donghai City a long time ago. At least forty or fifty years, I’d say. When she first woke up, they say she was quite pretty.”

“But she was always acting strange, muttering to herself… and then I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t born yet, but when I grew up, I always heard people say there’s a madwoman named Angelica in the old part of Donghai City. Everyone avoids her.”

“She’s very reclusive, rarely comes out, and doesn’t interact with anyone. Look, today there’s this huge celebration, and she’s still not here. Maybe she’s too old now to be ‘mad’ anymore.”

“I shouldn’t say this, though. I’ve never seen her go mad. When I’ve seen her, she’s just been old, and honestly, she seems kind. It’s just that everyone’s called her ‘madwoman’ for so long that we’ve kept calling her that, generation after generation.”

Lin Xian stood up. It made no sense for Angelica to be on Earth. Elon Musk and she were so close—they’d become allies through adversity. In the fifth dream, they had fought side by side, and Elon Musk even wanted to send her back to Earth to protect her when his own life was at risk.

So how could she be left behind this time?

Things were getting stranger and stranger…

“Big Cat, where does Angelica live?”

“Over there,” Big Cat Face pointed with his greasy hand toward an alley leading to the old part of town. “Go straight, take the first right, and look for the house with the red door. That’s her place.”

“Take us there.” Lin Xian and CC stood up, ready to go.

“Huh?” Big Cat Face hesitated, “But… there’ll be lamb skewers at the banquet soon! I was waiting for that!”

“You need to eat less,” Lin Xian said, walking around the flower bed and patting Big Cat’s swollen belly. “You look like you’re going to burst. Does my sister-in-law not cook for you every day? Are you trying to die here in Donghai City from overeating? Enough talking, lead the way.”

…

Soon, the three of them, along with the bear head, arrived at Angelica’s house. Lin Xian knocked on the door.

They waited a long time before they heard slow, shuffling footsteps. The door creaked open—an old, worn-out door giving an almost painful sound. An old woman, frail, with sunken eyes and disheveled hair, stepped out of the shadows inside the house.

Instantly, Lin Xian felt a pang of sadness. He recognized her.

This was Angelica.

Though time had taken its toll, though she no longer had the sultry charm of the Hollywood diva, nor the commanding presence of a queen—those beautiful eyes couldn’t be mistaken. Even under those aged wrinkles, he saw the familiar face.

“Angelica,” Lin Xian called softly.

Suddenly, her eyes widened. She dropped her cane, stumbling forward.

Her frail hands touched Lin Xian’s face, full of disbelief.

“Lin Xian… Lin Xian!” Her voice was raspy, filled with shock. “Lin Xian! Didn’t you… die long ago?”

“It’s me, Angelica,” Lin Xian held her hands, trying to calm her. “It’s complicated, but I’m alive. Now… can you tell me what happened to you? Didn’t Elon Musk take you to Mars? Why are you still here, in cryosleep?”

Angelica’s breathing grew ragged.

“El… Elon Musk? No…”

She shook her head blankly as if recalling something terrible. Her eyes trembled.

“Elon Musk… after you died… not long after, he was killed too!”

Lin Xian’s eyes widened. “Elon Musk was killed too?”

He turned to look at CC. Their eyes met—something was off.

How would the Mars migration have happened if Elon Musk had died soon after Lin Xian’s death?

Both CC and Smith had been clear—Elon Musk had led people to Mars in this world.

“What happened?” Lin Xian supported Angelica’s hand. “Don’t be afraid, Angelica. No one can hurt you here.”

“Take your time… how did Elon Musk die? And if he was dead… then what about the Mars migration?”

Angelica took several deep breaths, calming herself before speaking.

“All of this… I wrote down in my memory notebook. After waking up from cryosleep, I pieced it together from that notebook. There’s also a photo of you and my brother, Ji Lin, sealed in plastic, which is why I recognized you today.”

“According to the notes, after your mysterious death, I met Elon Musk and attended your funeral. But… two weeks later, when I met Elon Musk again… he… he wasn’t Elon Musk anymore!”

“He looked just like Elon Musk—his expression, his voice, his mannerisms were all the same… but I knew he wasn’t Elon Musk! He absolutely wasn’t! Because I once helped him with makeup, disguised him… I knew who he was! He was pretending to be Elon Musk!”

Suddenly, Lin Xian understood.

“Could it be…”

“Yes.” Angelica nodded, her face darkened, looking at Lin Xian.

“Elon Musk must have been killed, and the one who replaced him was his former stand-in—Fake Elon Musk.”