Jask's confident smile remained unchanged. His large, generous hand left Lin Xian's clenched fist, leaving the wax seal with the Genius Club emblem in Lin Xian's palm.

He straightened his loosened collar, shrugged, and without another word, turned and joined the cheering crowd.

Behind him, several circles of young entrepreneurs, eyes wide, clamored to take photos with Jask.

It wasn't surprising that these somewhat successful entrepreneurs were so excited.

This was the world's richest man!

A philanthropist who had just donated $500 million to the Donghai Science Development Fund!

Normally... even the richest man in Dragon Country wasn't someone they could meet easily.

Even if they were lucky enough to encounter him at an event, the Dragon Country's richest man would usually be surrounded by bodyguards and secretaries, making it impossible for just anyone to get close.

But Jask was an exception among the wealthy.

Unless he was in a region with poor security or dangerous conditions, he always went out without bodyguards, preferring to do things unconventionally.

Online, you could see many photos of people with the world's richest man in various situations. You could even chat with him on the street, making him very approachable.

The legendary world's richest man was standing right beside them, attending the same banquet. These young entrepreneurs, who already admired Jask, couldn't resist the temptation to take a photo with him.

And Jask didn't act like an outsider at all.

He directly took over Chu Shanhe's banquet, chatting and laughing with everyone.

Lin Xian was expressionless.

He walked to a table on the periphery and sat down, placing his clenched right fist on the table. From an angle only he could see, he slowly unfurled his fingers…

He saw it.

Sure enough.

Just as he had guessed—

The wax seal he held in his warm palm was indeed a sealing wax stamp with the Genius Club emblem!

Identical to the one on the fake invitation that Huang Que had given to Zhao Yingjun!

The familiar circular inner ring,

The familiar finger gesture,

The familiar English letters,

Perfectly identical.

He looked up at Jask in the middle of the hall, posing for photos with the crowd of admirers, and couldn't quite figure out the state of these Genius Club members.

Were they…

[So relaxed?]

[What have I been fighting all this time?]

Lin Xian suddenly felt a sense of unreality.

This was too strange.

In his previous assumptions, even if the Genius Club wasn't an organization of mass murderers, it should at least be similar to the Seven Sins, killing with a purpose, right?

Considering that the Genius Club's primary principle must be concealment, it should have left no trace for 600 years, as if it didn't exist.

So, if they discovered someone was investigating them, treating them as an imaginary enemy, and had even killed their lackey, the Seven Sins…

Wouldn't it be logical to kill him?

But in reality!

Huang Que had been leisurely playing riddles with him from beginning to end. Jask, who was clearly a member of the Genius Club or at least aware of it, was even more relaxed, simply greeting him before going off to take photos and give a speech.

Even Kevin Walker, the genius hacker whom he suspected of being a Genius Club member and considered most qualified to join, was acting like a carefree kid, scaring him in his earphones and then disappearing without a trace for days.

[What are these people doing?]

[What is their purpose?]

Lin Xian was becoming increasingly confused.

He had always treated the Genius Club as an imaginary enemy, but he had no real evidence that the Genius Club was doing anything wrong.

Thinking carefully about the clues that had led him to "misunderstand" the Genius Club, they all seemed like "hearsay"—

1. Big Face Cat, the bandit in the First Dream, claimed that the Genius Club had killed his father and daughter, and swore he had investigated it. But… considering his intelligence, Lin Xian doubted it. Could Big Face Cat have been misled?

2. The black handprint on the moon in the Second Dream didn't seem like something a righteous organization would do. But on the other hand, this action, other than blocking a negligible amount of moonlight, didn't seem to cause any real harm to humans, the world, or society.

3. In the Third and Fourth Dreams, there was still no evidence of the Genius Club committing evil or wrongdoing. Everything came from his own imagination, including the Genius Club monitoring Zhao Yingjun, suppressing technology, and the mysterious old man possibly being a Genius Club member. All of this was based on conjecture without any concrete evidence.

So, what was the truth?

Could it be that… he had been misunderstanding the Genius Club all along? Could the Genius Club actually be righteous, positive, and progressive?

Lin Xian shook his head.

That would create another contradiction, another inconsistency.

[The Seven Sins and Copernicus.]

Undoubtedly, Ji Xinshui's killings were instigated by Copernicus.

Although Lin Xian knew very little about Copernicus, Ji Xinshui's bizarre rise began with him. He promised Ji Xinshui an invitation and even showed him a glimpse of it, which was why Lin Xian was able to deceive Ji Xinshui with a fake invitation that day.

This was enough to prove that Copernicus was also undoubtedly a member of the Genius Club, evil, cold-blooded, and a ruthless killer.

So…

In conclusion.

Was the Genius Club evil or righteous? Light or dark? Doing the right thing or the wrong thing?

Lin Xian couldn't figure it out at all.

It couldn't be that the club was like a college women's dormitory, where four people could create eleven group chats, right?

It was hard to imagine that an organization full of internal strife and contradictory actions could remain hidden and persist for 600 years… It would have perished long ago in self-struggle and internal friction.

"What is the truth?"

Lin Xian frowned.

Just when he thought he was understanding the Genius Club better, he realized he knew less and less. Just when he thought he was getting closer to the Genius Club, he found himself getting further and further away.

[If only I could get a Genius Club invitation.]

Lin Xian recalled what Huang Que had said to him when he first met her:

"You can choose to circle in the mystery and vortex for the rest of your life, you can keep treading in place, you can drift like an ant. But you can't escape being drawn into it… That's how history is. You can't resist it, you can't avoid it."

"The easiest way to find the answer to all of this… is to get a real Genius Club invitation. Right and wrong, justice and evil, you have to figure it out and judge for yourself."

…

In this light.

Many things had been predicted by that woman.

Or rather.

Predestined by established history.

He would always reach this point, always think about these questions, and always… take action.

"Lin Xian, Lin Xian, what are you looking at! What did Jask give you? Let me see! I can't see!" VV's urging voice came from the Bluetooth headset.

Because Lin Xian's palm was constantly shielding the wax seal and the angle was extremely tricky, none of the hall's surveillance equipment could see this blind spot.

VV was just a stream of computer program data, without eyes. She could only observe the world through visual devices, so… what the camera couldn't see was a blind spot for VV.

Lin Xian took out his phone from his pocket and pointed the rear camera at the stamp in his palm.

"VV, have you seen this stamp anywhere else?"

"No."

VV replied quickly:

"Aside from seeing it next to you, I've never seen this stamp anywhere else I can reach. But… after these months of updates and iterations, my abilities are now completely different. I've been able to analyze—"

"[There are a lot of deleted and modified traces on the Internet in this era. This indicates that some people, some organizations, are secretly plotting, tampering, and hiding something.]"

"As you said before, both the real world and the online world have been too calm lately. Kevin Walker and the network black hands that surrounded Dragon Country have all disappeared without a trace. This feeling… makes me feel very uneasy, as if it really is a prelude to something big happening. Everything is waiting for a key moment to… explode!"

"We still know too little."

Lin Xian supported his chin with his hands:

"VV, can you monitor and eavesdrop on Jask 24 hours a day without leaving any trace and without being detected?"

"No problem. As long as there's internet and electronic equipment, I can monitor him. But if he goes into the bathroom without his phone or into a room without any network or electronic signals, there's nothing I can do. That's the limitation of artificial intelligence. And if there's a risk of exposure or leaving a trace, I'll retreat immediately."

"That's fine, it's good enough."

Lin Xian nodded. "From now on, you monitor Jask 24 hours a day. If anything unusual happens, any information related to the Genius Club, report it to me immediately."

"While we're strengthening ourselves, we also need to figure out the Genius Club's purpose as soon as possible. Maybe this is a new race, a new cat-and-mouse game. But the difference is… this time, we don't have to play hide-and-seek. Everyone is almost showing their cards, it just depends on what each other's purpose is."

"Of course, the most direct and efficient way is still to find a way to get a Genius Club invitation as soon as possible. Although I have no clue right now, my intuition tells me it's related to the painting 'The Sorrowful Einstein' and the space-time particles Liu Feng is looking for. Anyway, let's take multiple approaches and make progress on all fronts."

And then…

He rubbed the wax stamp in his palm.

What was Jask's purpose in traveling all the way to Donghai to find him, and from what standpoint?

On the surface, he didn't seem like an enemy, but rather very relaxed and didn't treat him as one.

But he had encountered too many smiling tigers lately, and he couldn't assume that a handshake made them friends.

And.

What did that riddle-like "We'll meet in the sky" mean?

Did the Genius Club have another language?

Couldn't they just speak properly?

Suddenly.

The lights in the hall dimmed, interrupting Lin Xian's thoughts.

He looked up.

In the time he had been thinking, Jask had already left the hall. The melodious sound of a cello began, signaling the inevitable dance.

"Hey, Mr. Lin~"

A sweet, gentle voice came from behind him.

Lin Xian instinctively clenched the red wax seal and turned his head.

He saw…

The person was a very beautiful woman, tall, wearing a perfectly fitted one-shoulder red evening dress, revealing her elegant collarbones and fair neck.

It was a rather daring dress, as fiery, passionate, and intense as its color. The slit at the thigh was barely visible, accentuating the woman's graceful curves.

"Hello," Lin Xian said softly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lin Xian, I've been watching you for a long time," the woman said, blinking her sparkling eyelashes.

"May I invite you… to dance?"

The woman reached out to take Lin Xian's fist on the table.

Clack!

"Sorry."

A blue figure arrived with a fragrance, her sharp high heels stepping between the two of them first.

Then, with a turn, the blue dress swirled, and Zhao Yingjun, arms crossed, looked at the woman in front of her and smiled slightly.

"We have something to talk about."

The woman showed a surprised expression and turned to leave.

Zhao Yingjun pulled out the chair next to Lin Xian and sat down directly.

"Did I interrupt your pleasure?"

"No, no."

Lin Xian shook his head.

"I wasn't planning on dancing anyway."

"But looking at you…" Zhao Yingjun looked into his eyes.

"You don't seem very good at refusing others. That's not a good habit."

"Indeed."

Lin Xian nodded and smiled.

"People often said that about me when I was in school. My childhood friend Gao Yang, the one who ran around with the lobster shell at the MX Company celebration last year… he often said I was too nice, too easily persuaded, and would agree to anything if they kept nagging me." "Kindness is always like that."

Zhao Yingjun said softly:

"Kindness can also be a knife."

She smiled, crossed her legs, and the teardrop-shaped earrings on either side of her cheeks swayed, reflecting the colored lights of the dance floor, shining like stars in Lin Xian's pupils.

"You disappeared in the blink of an eye, and then I saw you here, frowning with a troubled expression. What's on your mind?"

Lin Xian stared at the swaying blue earrings, at the flawless woman in front of him. At that moment… Huang Que's figure inexplicably overlapped with Zhao Yingjun.

Even though she and Zhao Yingjun didn't look alike, with very different facial features and face shapes, at that moment, in the dim light and under the changing spotlights of the dance floor, they blurred into the same light and shadow.

"Someone gave me a riddle,"

Lin Xian tapped the table with his finger.

"I've been thinking about it for a long time, but I can't figure out the answer."

"Oh?"

Zhao Yingjun became interested.

"Such a difficult question?"

She changed her posture and sat up straight.

"What is it?"

"It's like this." Lin Xian also turned to look at Zhao Yingjun.

"Someone told me that when I have nothing to do, I should look in the mirror more often, that the answer I want is in the mirror… How do you think that sentence should be understood?"

Zhao Yingjun was slightly stunned, never expecting such a question.

She thought for a moment and shook her head.

"This question is too vague, I don't really understand it. I think the answer to this question should vary from person to person, right? The answer to such a subjective riddle… usually has a lot to do with the questioner's personality, thoughts, and mentality."

"Then what if… it was you?"

Lin Xian looked up at Zhao Yingjun.

"If you were the one asking me this mirror riddle, what do you think the most likely answer would be?"

…

…

Zhao Yingjun pursed her lips, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

"If it were me…"

She paused and said softly.

"Then I think the answer might really be hidden in the mirror. You really should look in the mirror [more]."

Lin Xian laughed.

"Why such a simple answer? I'm really surprised."

"I didn't think about it too much either."

Zhao Yingjun replied.

"I just think that if I really said this sentence, then it would probably only be the literal meaning, and there wouldn't be any deeper meaning. After all…"

The music in the dance floor stretched out, gradually ending with the final notes of the violin. The men and women stopped dancing, the lights came up, and Zhao Yingjun's blue earrings sparkled, reflecting a crystalline blue light.

"After all…"

She smiled.

"[I wouldn't lie to you, would I?]"

…

Whirr, whirr—

The water from the faucet in the bathroom flowed rapidly.

Lin Xian cupped his hands and splashed water on his face, rubbed it a few times, pulled out a few paper towels, and prepared to wipe his face clean before leaving the bathroom.

He looked up.

At the huge mirror that covered the entire sink wall.

The Lin Xian in the mirror was also wiping the water droplets from his cheeks and chin, and tidying up the bangs that had been messed up by washing his face.

"Lin Xian."

VV, who had been silent for a long time, spoke in the Bluetooth headset.

"You're right, meeting face-to-face is indeed a different feeling. Although today is the first time I've met Zhao Yingjun, I've actually seen a lot of her profiles, photos, and videos online before, but the feeling is completely different from meeting her face-to-face…"

"How so?"

Lin Xian was a little surprised.

"Did you remember anything?"

"No."

VV's voice was low.

"But… didn't you say that I don't understand emotions, don't understand human inner feelings? But today, after observing Zhao Yingjun for so long, especially when she was talking to you and looking at you, I can really feel an unprecedented feeling."

"What is it?"

"[Loneliness]."

VV's voice slowed down.

"I can't really describe that feeling, but every time I see Zhao Yingjun looking at you, I can only feel loneliness. I suddenly realized… have you noticed? Zhao Yingjun is always alone, whether it's work, life, or even resting, she's always alone."

"She is so independent and so confident, a completely different type from Chu Anqing. Chu Anqing has loving and kind parents at home, many classmates and friends at school, she dares to love, dares to hate, and dares to express all her thoughts, she is pampered wherever she goes, and Donghai City is her family's backyard."

"But… Zhao Yingjun, she seems very rich, but she also has nothing. Originally, I always thought Chu Anqing was a little girl, a little girl who needed to be cared for; but now I don't think so, I think Zhao Yingjun is the real little girl… Even though she is already 25 years old this year, glamorous and imposing, she is still as lonely as a child."

"Wait a minute."

Lin Xian reacted.

"Zhao Yingjun is already 25 years old?"

"Yes, yesterday was her 25th birthday," VV replied.

Lin Xian raised his wrist and looked at the date on his smart watch—

January 16, 2024.

"Ah…"

He sighed, closed his eyes.

Covering his forehead.

One day late… He had completely forgotten Zhao Yingjun's birthday…

He recalled the Third Dream, the brand new blue Bentley GT sports car in the middle of Zhao Yingjun's personal exhibition hall at the Rhein Museum, and the crumpled, 600-year-old plastic rose bouquet on the back seat.

"Why didn't you remind me…"

Lin Xian said softly.

"You remind me every day that Chu Anqing's birthday is March 28th, March 28th… You never mentioned a word about Zhao Yingjun's birthday."

After saying that, Lin Xian also felt that he was being a bit resentful.

VV's memory didn't have any memories related to Zhao Yingjun. It was just a CP robot obsessed with Chu Anqing.

It wasn't VV who forgot Zhao Yingjun's birthday, but him.

But.

Time couldn't be reversed.

This was the cruelest thing in the world.

Even if he could travel through 600 years, even if he could repeat August 28, 2624, an infinite number of times, he could never reverse time by even a second.

"It's too late to say anything now."

Lin Xian straightened up and looked at himself in the mirror, as if asking himself, or questioning. "What else can I do?"

…

"Show me the flower."

VV suddenly said in the Bluetooth headset.

"Let's set off fireworks for Zhao Yingjun!"

Ah.

Lin Xian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Why are you always thinking about fireworks, fireworks? Can't you think about anything else?"

"Because girls like fireworks!" VV said with a smile.

"No girl can resist fireworks! Whether it's a little girl or an older woman, no woman can resist a sky full of fireworks!"

"But, it's already this late…" Lin Xian spread his hands.

"Where are you going to get fireworks? It's too late."

"Disney!"

VV shouted.

"The nightly fireworks show at Shanghai Disney is all controlled electronically. The fireworks are all pre-loaded, and there's always a surplus. They only set off a portion every night! I just checked. Although Disney is already closed and the lights are off… But I'm here! None of this is a problem!"

Lin Xian was still hesitant.

"No, are we really going to do such a childish thing? Disney doesn't really suit Zhao Yingjun's style at all."

"Do it, do it!"

VV pleaded in the Bluetooth headset.

"Although I'm still determined to bet on Anqing, when I saw Zhao Yingjun today, I still had an unspeakable feeling, which is… I strongly resist, I don't want to see her looking so lonely."

"Please, Lin Xian, I've never been so impulsive to do something. I feel like… this is like a nagging thought, an obsession, I want to set off fireworks for Zhao Yingjun!"

Suddenly.

Lin Xian blinked.

He recalled the last night, the last moment of the Third Dream.

The dilapidated, rusty trash can robot, as if suddenly coming to life, grabbed his ankle.

"If you ever see Ms. Zhao Yingjun again, please say hello to her for me—"

"VV… misses her very much."

…

…

"Ai…"

Lin Xian stuck his index finger into his tie knot, loosened the tie that had been tight all night, like a collar.

"Zhao Yingjun just said that I'm not good at refusing others, that I'm easily persuaded, and too nice."

"But… never mind."

He turned his head and looked at himself in the mirror.

"VV."

"I'm here!"

"Prepare me a…" The Lin Xian in the mirror pursed his lips.

"The fastest car in Donghai City."