Genius Club

Chapter 104: Chapter 101 Starting Point (Requesting Monthly Pass~)

“Sir, have you finished the movie?”

“How was it?”

In the private cinema lobby,

the waiter saw Lin Xian coming out of the room and stood up to greet him warmly.

“It was okay,”

Lin Xian replied,

“I had watched it a long time ago, and today I just suddenly remembered it and wanted to watch it again.”

“Then you must be a sci-fi fan too! Let me show you something!”

The waiter grinned and pulled out a poster from under the counter, featuring a hodgepodge of famous characters from various science fiction movies, a real mix of elements.

And in the large background of the entire poster… there was a big, deep blue 42.

“Are you giving it to me? Your service is really great, thank you,” Lin Xian asked.

“How… how could I!” the waiter hastily folded up the poster,

“This is a treasure! I just bought it yesterday at the Donghai Exhibition Center.”

Lin Xian tilted his head,

“The Donghai Exhibition Center sells this stuff?”

“Yeah,” the waiter put the poster away, looked up with a smile, and said,

“Not to hide it from you… I am also a sci-fi enthusiast. My favorite movie is ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’!”

Rarely encountering a fellow enthusiast, the waiter seemed very excited:

“Since you came here specifically to watch Adams’s movie, you must be a hardcore sci-fi fan, right? The people who come here to watch movies usually choose romance, comedy, or some of the bigger Hollywood blockbusters.”

“It’s very rare for someone like you to come here to watch an old sci-fi movie, almost non-existent. If you really like ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, you should really go to the Donghai City Exhibition Center.”

“They are currently hosting the World Outstanding Science Fiction Works Expo there, which includes numerous valuable documents and first drafts from famous authors and their works, including some of Mr. Adams’s manuscripts and creative notes, also on display.”

Um?

The waiter’s words had successfully caught Lin Xian’s attention.

“Douglas Adams’s manuscripts? Related to ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’?”

“Yeah!” the waiter glanced at the date on his phone,

“Tomorrow is the last day of the exhibition, so if you want to go, you’d better hurry.”

“Is there an explanation for 42?” Lin Xian asked.

“Haha, how could there be!” the waiter chuckled,

“The number 42 is obviously something Adams made up for mystery’s sake, a poor joke for plot twists, with no deep meaning at all.”

“And as you know… precisely because it is so mysterious, it has become a popular sci-fi meme. The main storyline of the Marvel movies takes place in Parallel Universe 42, and 42 is a meme used in the lines of the great inventor in ‘League of Legends’.”

“Oh, and this June there’s supposed to be a release of ‘Spider-Man 2: Across the Universe’, where the mysterious spider that bites the protagonist seems to also have come from Universe 42, with the number 42 written on the spider’s back.”

“Anyway, it’s all about meme-ing, no real significance, and Adams himself has answered this question many times.”

Lin Xian nodded.

Clearly, this waiter was indeed a die-hard science fiction movie fan, treasuring all sorts of sci-fi movies and no doubt enjoying his job immensely.

“Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll go if I have the time.”

“Since you love movies so much, why not get a membership card, buddy! Come more often!”

“Definitely next time.”

…

Exiting the mall, he stepped outdoors.

Lin Xian looked up at the noon sun.

The stars shift, the sun and moon cycle on.

Only too bad the Dream World, the future world 600 years later… is forever frozen on August 28, 2624.

There were no shifting stars, no cycling sun and moon. Time never flowed, forever confined to that day, destroyed precisely at 00:42.

Again, 42.

Why is it always 42?

Before he noticed, he didn’t feel surrounded by so many 42s, but ever since he witnessed the strange phenomenon in Big Face Cat’s father’s room and explicitly learned that the cosmic constant is 42…

He felt as if he had been surrounded by 42s all along.

“I feel, it’s necessary to make a trip to the Donghai City Exhibition Center to look at Douglas Adams’s manuscripts from when he was writing ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’.”

Lin Xian was clear.

The sci-fi movie fan waiter, mentioning Universe 42 from the Marvel movies, the 42nd parallel universe from Spider-Man, and the inventions in ‘League of Legends’ dialogues…

All these mentions of 42 in the movies and games were mere playfulness, meaningless, playing on the 42 meme from ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’.

But.

The number 42 written by Douglas Adams when creating ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’…

[Lin Xian believed it definitely wasn’t a playful meme.]

Because it was his own creation, whose meme could he possibly be playing with?

There are so many numbers to choose from at will.

Why did Adams choose the number 42?

Lin Xian felt this was very doubtful.

Could it be possible…

that he had heard the number 42 somewhere else?

Or seen it somewhere?

Or had he once been in touch with the Genius Club and knew about the number 42?

“I always feel that things can’t be this simple, I should go and take a look.”

Lin Xian reached out to hail a taxi and headed for the Donghai City Exhibition Hall.

…

The Donghai City Exhibition Hall, also known as the Donghai City Exhibition Center, is a very large, historically significant and grand complex of buildings.

It was built in 1955 and is one of the landmark buildings in Donghai City, as well as the first large-scale building constructed in the 1950s, sharing the Russian classical architectural style with the Imperial Capital Exhibition Hall.

It has hosted many international events and witnessed many great historical events.

When there are no important events, the various exhibition halls are rented out to the public for all kinds of social activities.

Lin Xian had never been here before and was a bit overwhelmed when he got off the taxi.

There were as many as 40 large exhibition halls here, and most of them were hosting events.

After some effort, Lin Xian finally found the exhibition hall mentioned by the cinema attendant—

World Outstanding Science Fiction Works Expo

Today was a weekday, and the inside was not very crowded, especially compared to the other exhibition halls he had just passed by—the visitors here seemed sparse.

Perhaps the audience for science fiction works… is still somewhat limited in the country right now.

Lin Xian glanced at the index at the entrance and went straight into the exhibition hall.

Undeniable.

The contents of the exhibition were indeed very rich.

Many well-known science fiction works had dedicated areas inside, with settings collections, original film reels, props, precious materials, and footage, etc… It truly was a celebration for science fiction fans.

There were many young boys shouting excitedly; they must have seen things they admired.

There were also a few girls, but most of them came with their boyfriends, showing little interest in the science fiction works themselves.

After walking through several corridors, he finally arrived at The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy exhibition area.

Compared to the hot IPs of this year that were displayed earlier, this area was pitifully small.

After all, this movie could not really be considered very popular.

It was mostly known for the gimmick of the number 42.

Lin Xian walked straight to the glass cabinet displaying the manuscript drafts of the author, Douglas Adams.

There were many valuable materials inside and bound copies of the drafts were placed on top of the glass cabinet for browsing and inspection.

Although the handwritten notes inside were in English, Lin Xian’s command of English was quite good, and he could generally understand them.

After all, Adams was a science fiction writer, not a scientist, so there weren’t any technical terms in the drafts, making them easy to understand.

The content of the manuscripts was interesting.

As Lin Xian intuitively felt about Adams, he was a person with interesting thoughts and a great imagination.

Soon, he flipped to the draft notes about the setting of the number “42”.

Douglas Adams’ explanation was nothing extraordinary…

He generously said that this number simply came to mind from his “subconscious”:

“I can’t explain it clearly, but when I was writing the small stories in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the number 42 just came to mind.”

“This number has no particular significance to me, nor to anything else. But it was the first number that came to my subconscious mind…”

“It’s hard to describe that feeling. When I was writing this part of the story, I was also thinking, what answer would make the most dramatic, ironic, and convincing reveal as the ultimate answer to the universe, life, and everything from a supercomputer, something that would make the audience accept it?”

“When I thought of this idea… the first number that popped into my head was 42. I liked it, so I just wrote it down.”

…

From this draft statement, the author Adams himself apparently had a sudden inspiration for this turnaround, and it was to meet a creative demand that he came up with the number 42 as the ending to the episode’s plot.

But…

Lin Xian still keenly captured a keyword—

“Subconscious”.

He inexplicably recalled Gao Yang’s boastful talk:

“You know about the subconscious, right? Normally, you’re completely unaware of its existence, but it always influences your behavior, emotions, and even… your dreams in the unseen!”

“Often, you see things or hear words, and then you forget about them instantly. But have you really forgotten? Not at all! Your subconscious still remembers for you, that’s the feeling of déjà vu, that so often occurs in life.”

…

Click.

Lin Xian closed the manuscript copy in his hand and placed it on the glass cabinet.

He looked up at the photo of Douglas Adams on the wall…

If Adams truly had the number 42 come to mind from his “subconscious” as the ultimate answer to the universe, life, and everything,

Then, according to “Gao Yang psychology”,

“It was very likely that Adams himself had heard the cosmic constant 42 somewhere.”

If that was indeed the case.

It would mean that the Genius Club has existed in the river of history for a longer time than he had previously imagined…

Lin Xian closed his eyes.

In his mind, there seemed to be a mighty river flowing tirelessly eastward.

Its endpoint was on August 29, 2624, at 00:42.

So…

Where was its starting point?