Genius Club

Chapter 120: Chapter 115: The Blank History

As expected, Zhao Yingjun’s expression and eyes were very complex.

There was surprise, joy, and confusion.

But in the end…

She affirmatively nodded her head:

“Lin Xian… it seems I really underestimated you before. You are truly a master of music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.”

“I’m only decent at painting. Don’t count on me for the rest.” Lin Xian stood up:

“If you think the song is alright, why don’t we use it as the ‘Rhine Cat Theme Song’?”

“Well… since I’m the one who designed the cat, I’d prefer to take better care of her myself.”

He said so.

Zhao Yingjun couldn’t possibly refuse.

After all, she was the big boss of the company, and besides, Zhao Yingjun now faced the “threat” of going solo.

“I don’t see any problem with it.”

Zhao Yingjun still looked at Lin Xian, eyes brimming with a smile:

“At least I quite like it.”

“As you said, you designed the cat, so you have the final say.”

Lin Xian didn’t know if she genuinely liked it or if she was just going along with what he wanted…

But in any case, she agreed.

Then, Zhao Yingjun made a phone call to the agent of that music producer. After a formal apology, she canceled their meeting for the evening.

“Well, since that’s the case, Lin Xian, I don’t have any plans for tonight either.”

She put down her phone, crossed her hands and leaned on the desk:

“About your dinner… do you want to have it today, or tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,”

Lin Xian responded without hesitation:

“It’s also my fault for bringing it up so late today.”

Since Zhao Yingjun’s schedule had been rewritten today, dining out tonight would be meaningless.

The opportunity for this meal should be saved for tomorrow. That way, it would also ensure that Zhao Yingjun’s schedule for tomorrow would be altered, keeping her from being involved in the shooting incident.

“Alright.”

Zhao Yingjun stretched her arms:

“Since that’s the case… it’s rare for me to have no plans tonight; I should just go home and rest well. I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t had a good sleep in a long time.”

“By the way, Lin Xian, go find a recording studio tomorrow during the day, to record a demo of this theme song. Have them make it more professional, so we can play it directly for the singer later.”

“Okay, I will prepare for it.” Lin Xian nodded in response, then left Zhao Yingjun’s office.

Bang.

The heavy double password door closed behind him, once again isolating their two worlds.

…

Around five in the afternoon, Zhao Yingjun’s business car drove out of the company, heading in the direction of her home.

Lin Xian stood in front of the blinds of his office, seeing everything clearly.

This should be the earliest Zhao Yingjun had left work.

Because based on her previous workaholic mode, she would definitely fill every day, even every minute, to the brim. She would be hands-on with nearly everything, excessively busy.

But today…

The Rhine Cat theme song that I came up with out of nowhere disrupted all of Zhao Yingjun’s plans for the day.

Her “original schedule” and “original historical trajectory” have both been altered.

So, if the shooting was to occur tonight, that bullet probably would not reach Zhao Yingjun.

The bullet won’t wait for her, and she won’t wait for the bullet.

If some murderer was determined to kill Zhao Yingjun, carrying a gun right to her door…

Then there’s nothing Lin Xian could do, he could only trust the security of Zhao Yingjun’s residential area.

Considering she lives in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Donghai City, the security should definitely not be a problem.

This is Donghai after all, not somewhere like Florida.

Lin Xian checked his watch.

It was approaching five thirty.

If he went home now and entered his dream from there… it was evident he would miss the plot with the three-sword thief, fail to join the Lian Gang, and miss Lee Cheng’s planned action for the evening.

“I might as well sleep at the office.”

The office had a designated rest area anyway, and the formaldehyde and odors had mostly dissipated, so it should be okay for one night.

He felt it was still necessary to go into the dream to check the Garbage Factory in dream 314 and see if Zhao Yingjun’s history had changed.

“If the shooting really does happen tonight, then that record in the ‘Me and MX’ autobiography… it should change.”

“With the powerful Space-Time Butterfly Effect at play, it’s even unsure whether there would be that bald CEO, or MX Company, or New Donghai City in the future.”

Lin Xian went to his rest room and drew the curtains.

After a simple wash-up, he lay down on the fresh bedding…

…

…

…

“Lin Xian! Found it!”

From across the pile of books, Lee Ningning shouted.

“Throw it here!”

Whoosh…

Splat.

The ‘Me and MX’ book was thrown at Lin Xian’s feet again.

Upon entering the dream as usual today, he followed the previous routine: catching the three-sword thief, joining the Lian Gang, informing Lee Cheng of the information about the Waste Treatment Plant, and then, along with Big Face Cat and his group, came here to steal books.

Lin Xian picked up ‘Me and MX’…

On the cover, it was still that bald Caucasian CEO.

A bad premonition.

He immediately flipped to the latter chapters and opened a familiar page—@@novelbin@@

[——Just as the company was taking off, Miss Zhao Yingjun unfortunately died in a shooting incident. She passed away at midnight at the age of 23.

Subsequently, MX Company was officially taken over by the Imperial Capital’s Zhao Corporation and underwent large-scale staff restructuring and business integration. Since then, MX Company embarked on a new journey!]

“Heh, no change.”

Not a single word had changed.

Lin Xian closed the book and sighed.

This indicated that Zhao Yingjun’s risk of death had not been eliminated… because tonight was not her actual time of death.

“As January 12th passes without the shooting, it can only likely be the night of January 13th or January 14th.”

However, fortunately, Zhao Yingjun has already agreed to dine with him tomorrow night, which also constitutes a change in the original schedule and a deviation from the original historical path.

At this point in time, “Zhao Yingjun having dinner with me” has not yet happened; it cannot yet form an irreversible Temporal Flux anchor point.

Because I can cancel this dinner at any moment, and Zhao Yingjun might also ditch me to continue with her original schedule.

It must be an [irreversible] event that can accurately trigger a temporal change and become an anchor point.

So…

The record in this book currently cannot rule out the possibility of the shooting happening tomorrow night.

The dinner with Zhao Yingjun is still to come; there are uncertainties.

“It all comes down to tomorrow.”

Whoosh————Whoosh————

Outside the fence of Waste Treatment Plant 314, the retreat whistle of Big Face Cat sounded as Lee Ningning, hugging a stack of books, looked at Lin Xian:

“Lin Xian, we need to hurry! It’s time to retreat. Starting at 00:19, there’s only a 30-second blind spot in the surveillance!”

“Yeah, okay.”

Last time, because they had retreated too late, he had ended up with his brains almost blasted out by a swarm of drones. He didn’t want to experience that feeling again.

Lin Xian stuffed the book “Me and MX” into his waistband and then hurried to catch up with Lee Ningning, racing toward the edge of the fence.

Buzz…

Buzz…

Distant drones were fast approaching; they had just 30 seconds left to retreat!

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Lin Xian and Lee Ningning, quick as a flash, threw all the books they were carrying over the fence.

“Ning Ning, you jump first.”

Lee Ningning promptly scurried up the wall and leapt down—

Thump.

Outside the fence, Big Face Cat and three others safely caught her.

“Lin Xian!”

From outside the fence, Lee Ningning’s shout came.

Lin Xian took one last look back at the piles of books inside Waste Treatment Plant 314, at the steel wall blending with the dark night, invisible as it reached into the sky… and he vaulted over and jumped down!

“Hoist!”

Big Face Cat, Ah Zhuang, Er Zhuzi, and San Pang were already down there to catch him; they caught Lin Xian with steady hands.

Lin Xian was pleasantly surprised to find…

…that actually, Er Zhuzi wasn’t too bad a person.

Despite seeming to look askance at him every day, always clashing with him… when push came to shove, the man proved to be dependable.

As long as you don’t covet my sister-in-law! We can be friends!

—That may well have been Er Zhuzi’s principle for making friends.

It was just unfortunate that Lin Xian currently wasn’t trusted enough by Er Zhuzi… Was it because he was too handsome?

“Run! The surveillance range outside the fence is also 20 meters!”

The surveillance drones were drawing even nearer!

Tumbling and scrambling, with books in hand, they all rushed into the underbrush!

Buzz!!!!!!!

The surveillance drones swept past with a roaring sound but detected nothing amiss, continuing their patrol route as usual.

“Phew…”

Lin Xian too breathed a sigh of relief:

“That was truly a spirited operation.”

This was the first time since he’d joined Lee Cheng’s book-stealing activities that they’d achieved a perfect outcome.

The books had been stolen,

not a single person had died,

and the entire plan had been executed on time, flawlessly.

“Perfect,” Lin Xian couldn’t help but exclaim.

As a full participant, he felt a great sense of accomplishment, and inexplicably, a sense of honor as if he were battling for the history and knowledge of humanity.

“What do you mean?” Big Face Cat turned his head curiously.

“It means perfect.”

“Yo! You know some foreign words!” said Big Face Cat, grinning:

“Then teach me a couple!”

“Forget it, you don’t have a knack for foreign languages.”

“Hey, bro, who do you think you are looking down on? I have a strong knack for languages, okay! Don’t believe me? Just teach me anything!”

“Shit.”

“Shift!” Big Face Cat, spraying saliva, enunciated the word deliberately, then snorted:

“Classy!”

…

The group did not rush back to the little hill but reveled in the joy of their substantial haul of books, laughing till they could hardly close their mouths.

Lee Ningning said this was the most bountiful result they had seen in years.

Lin Xian sifted through the books on the ground.

Popular science, textbooks, engineering blueprints, academic books…

Indeed, for Lee Cheng, for the world outside the steel walls, this knowledge was like a treasure trove.

But…

“Why are there no history books?”

Lin Xian remembered that when he searched through the soggy pile of books, he also hadn’t seen a single history book!

How could such a large bookstore, with tens of thousands of water-damaged books, not have a single history book?

“Ning Ning, did you find any history books while you were searching the piles?”

After asking, Lin Xian realized his question was redundant—if she had found any, of course she would have thrown them out:

“Have you ever found history books in the garbage factory before?”

“No.” Lee Ningning shook her head:

“Not a single one. We’ve never found any.”

Lin Xian frowned…

This was not a natural occurrence.

It would be reasonable if they hadn’t found a single history book when previously blindly searching in the waste treatment plant.

But today, with such a massive collection of books for him and Lee Ningning to search through, they still hadn’t found any history books!

Not one!

“This is too abnormal.”

Lin Xian turned his head to look at Big Face Cat, who was practicing ‘Shift’ with Ah Zhuang and Er Zhuzi…

The information about history books in New Donghai City had come from Big Face Cat himself.

Now that he thought about it, Big Face Cat must have been guessing.

His simple logic must have been: New Donghai City has everything, so naturally, it would have history books too.

But now, seeing as it turned out…

It was very possible that everyone had been mistaken.

History books, such items, not only did the old Donghai lack them, but New Donghai City might be without them as well!

Could it be that in the world of the future, there was no existence of history books anywhere?

“Why would that be?”

Lin Xian was puzzled.

He looked up.

Toward the moon on the disk above, where a black silhouette stretched out its index finger, pointing straight at the sky:

“Could it be that this world… has no history?”