Chapter 1 A Fake Invitation

In Zhao Yingjun's enormous office, silence reigned supreme.

Lin Xian held the invitation to the Genius Club in his hand, turning it over in the moonlight.

"Dear Ms. Zhao Yingjun:

You are invited to... attend... the new product launch..."

Below was a website and a QR code.

He scanned it with his phone... and sure enough, it was a page for Apple's 2023 spring launch event, just as it said.

Lin Xian cursed under his breath.

To go to such lengths, expend so much effort, and finally sneak into Zhao Yingjun's office...

Only to discover that the invitation was a fake.

And a ridiculously obvious one at that.

For some time now, Lin Xian had repeatedly questioned why Zhao Yingjun would receive an invitation.

She didn't seem qualified in any way, and he hadn't noticed anything unusual about her behavior.

Moreover, wasn't the delivery method a bit too outdated and unreliable for an organization hidden for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of years in the river of history?

He had suspected many things,

Suspected many details,

Suspected everything about the Genius Club...

But he had never suspected that the invitation itself would be a fake!

This was simply too damn frustrating.

It made all his previous reasoning seem comical, turning it into a joke.

That woman.

"Huang Que."

Lin Xian murmured the name, knowing it was likely an alias, but it didn't matter. A name was simply a label, regardless of its authenticity.

Now, Lin Xian had figured it out.

The woman's purpose in ostentatiously presenting Zhao Yingjun with a fake invitation... was solely to provoke his suspicions about the dream's reality, to pique his interest in the Genius Club.

Therefore, even if Zhao Yingjun had told him the contents of the invitation, even if he had torn it open on the spot, it wouldn't have mattered to Huang Que.

As long as Lin Xian saw the words "Genius Club" appear in reality the day after dreaming about it, the mysterious woman Huang Que's goal would be achieved.

But why would she do this?

She claimed she wasn't his enemy.

Yet she hadn't helped him in any way, saying she couldn't give him any information. How was he supposed to interpret that?

The most important question was...

Who exactly was this woman?

Lin Xian walked over to the sofa she had been sitting on and touched the leather. It still retained a faint warmth.

This meant that the woman had been sitting here for quite some time.

Honestly,

In the initial flash of lightning, Lin Xian had momentarily mistaken her for Zhao Yingjun.

The two were similar, yet dissimilar.

It was an indescribable feeling.

Zhao Yingjun had a standard oval face, while this woman had a round face.

Zhao Yingjun had standard black pupils, while this woman had crystal blue eyes, like a mixed-race person, yet she had standard Long Country features.

Then there was the age difference. Zhao Yingjun had just turned 24, while this woman looked to be at least in her thirties. Her temperament, charm, and fullness of figure were distinctly different from Zhao Yingjun's.

Yet that unique aura and feeling... Lin Xian felt were so similar to Zhao Yingjun's.

"So who exactly is this woman?"

Lin Xian frowned, unable to figure it out.

Analyzing the woman's words carefully... there were still a few things that could be clarified:

1. She knew him very well, knew many of his secrets, including the Law of Space-Time he had summarized, and even encouraged him to study it further.

2. Although the invitation was fake, the emblem engraved on the sealing wax was likely genuine. The black hand on the eerie moon in the dream world was the best proof.

3. The woman said she would be waiting for Lin Xian in the Genius Club, so she was likely a member of the Genius Club.

4. The woman didn't seem to harbor any overt malice toward him. If she wanted to kill him, he would already be dead.

Based on this reasoning...

Lin Xian felt that perhaps the person who killed Xu Yun wasn't the Genius Club either.

Since this woman knew so much about him, she would definitely know that he had given Xu Yun the research materials. If she was the murderer, there was no reason Xu Yun would be dead while he was fine.

Could it be that the murderer wasn't the Genius Club, but someone else?

Then was the death of Da Lian Mao's (Big Face Cat) father also unrelated to the Genius Club?

...

Lin Xian was annoyed.

He felt that the thoughts he had just organized had been thrown into chaos.

Everything had been overturned in an instant, and almost all his conclusions about the Genius Club had to be re-examined.

"Too difficult..."

Lin Xian put the fake invitation back into Zhao Yingjun's drawer.

"The main problem is that there are too few clues. There are none in reality, none to be found in dreams, no one knows anything when I ask, and there's fake news everywhere."

At this moment, Lin Xian somewhat agreed with what the woman who called herself "Huang Que" had said:

"The easiest way to find the answers to all of this... is to obtain a genuine invitation to the Genius Club."

*Thump.*

Closing the drawer, Lin Xian also put the Ferrari car key inside. Then, he walked out of the heavy combination lock door, finally turning back to look at the desk in the moonlight, and the sofa that the woman named Huang Que had sat on... before closing the door and leaving.

*Bang!*

...

The next day.

The heavy double combination lock door opened, and Zhao Yingjun walked in, blinking her eyes as she looked at the clean and pleasing office, and Lin Xian, who was watering the potted plants.

"That's surprising... Your efficiency is really too high."

Lin Xian smiled slightly and put down the watering can.

Coming to Zhao Yingjun's office so early today to clean was also to clear the traces of last night, to see if there was anything left behind.

His own, that woman's, Huang Que's.

But there was nothing.

So Lin Xian simply gave Zhao Yingjun's office a thorough cleaning.

Actually, cleaning the office was very convenient, after all, it wasn't a home, there was no cooking fumes, no need to prepare meals, and not so many miscellaneous things, basically just mopping the floor, wiping the table, wiping the glass, and sorting out the documents.

It was very easy.

In any case... since he was nominally a part-time secretary, he still had to do some of the work. He would consider the rest after the New Year.

"Do you still need these things? If not, I'll throw them away as garbage."

Lin Xian pointed to a pile of sundries on the coffee table, with the fake Genius Club invitation on top.

Zhao Yingjun glanced at it, flipped through it simply, and shook her head directly.

"They're all useless things, just handle them as you see fit. I believe in your abilities, and there's no need to report everything to me in detail. The company is officially on holiday today, so you should go back to your hometown early, to avoid traffic jams on the road."

"Okay."

Later, when Lin Xian was throwing out the garbage, he still kept the fake invitation and took it back home.

Even though it was fake.

It wasn't completely fake.

He would keep it for now.

...

At the high-speed rail station, Lin Xian stretched lazily.

Even though Donghai and Hangzhou were so close, it had been a year since he had gone home.

After arriving in Hangzhou, he bought a lot of good cigarettes, good wine, and various gifts, and brought many things for his mother and father.

His parents were very happy to see Lin Xian, and asked many questions about his work and life. Lin Xian told his parents that he had made a lot of money, but he didn't say exactly how much... Knowing his parents' petty bourgeois mentality, if they knew he had so much money, they would probably worry every day and not be able to sleep well.

Lin Xian planned to buy his parents an apartment in the city for them to retire, but the old couple refused, saying that they had more friends and relatives here and lived comfortably. Lin Xian left them a bank card, but his mother quickly put it in the innermost drawer and hid it... It looked like she had no intention of spending it at all. His father also put the good cigarettes and wine in the innermost room and hid them... saying that he would take them out when Lin Xian got married.

Lin Xian saw this and sighed with a smile.

This was probably the Long Country style of parents.

Tomorrow was New Year's Eve, and Lin Xian helped his family prepare for the New Year. He had no time to enter his dreams for the next two days.

But since it was the New Year...

He would give himself a few days off.

As long as he didn't cause any strong butterfly effects, New Donghai City wouldn't fly away, so he would let Da Lian Mao and CC continue to play *wujian dao* (an undercover game).

*Pi li pa la pa pa pa pa pa-*

In the sound of firecrackers and fireworks, with the Spring Festival Gala countdown on the TV, the traditional Long Country New Year officially arrived.

*Ding-dong!*

Just in time for 0:00, Lin Xian's phone buzzed.

He opened WeChat and found that it was Zhao Yingjun who had sent a message:

"Happy New Year."

Four simple words.

Lin Xian didn't think much about it and was about to reply--

But he didn't expect the message icon in the upper left corner to explode! In the "unled small group" where the employees of their design team were located, the chat messages soared.

"Did you guys receive it? CEO Zhao actually sent me a personal Happy New Year!"

"The sun really has risen in the west! I got one too! And at 0:00! CEO Zhao is so thoughtful!"

"It's strange... There's never been this tradition in the past. CEO Zhao isn't someone who cares about these small details. It would be nice if she could say Happy New Year to everyone, but she actually sent it right on time for the New Year like today?"

"That's right, I'm also an old employee of the company. In the past, CEO Zhao never reacted to festivals at all, but now she actually sends everyone Happy New Year on time, which is really thoughtful."

...

So that's how it was.

Lin Xian put down his phone. It seemed he had been overthinking it.

He had thought that Zhao Yingjun had sent it to him individually, but he didn't expect it to be a mass message.

Was there any need to reply then?

After thinking about it, he decided to reply politely.

"Happy New Year to you too, may all your wishes come true!"

After replying, Lin Xian put down his phone and turned around to go out and watch the fireworks.

This year, Hangzhou had exceptionally lifted the restrictions on setting off fireworks and firecrackers during the Spring Festival, and the sky was colorful and showing off their magical powers.

*Ding-dong.*

The dim phone screen suddenly lit up, showing an unread message from Zhao Yingjun.

But in the sound of fireworks flying all over the sky, this ding-dong did not cause any ripples.

The lit screen lasted for a few seconds...

And then gradually went out.