The Genius Game - Chapter 1

Midsummer, Tonghua City, Chunbo Residential District.

Though summer had already arrived, a heavy downpour earlier in the day had tempered the heat.

Under the large trees in the community, a group of elderly residents chatted and enjoyed the cool air while children ran around noisily.

Jian Tanxi stood by the window on the 16th floor, gazing downward for a while before closing it.

Inside the room, a lovely long-haired girl asked her, “Tanxi, what are you looking at?”

Jian Tanxi turned around with a smile. “I was thinking about whether we should go down to play badminton. But the open space downstairs is full of children running around, we wouldn’t have a place to play.”

“Then let’s not. It’s too hot anyway. Let’s keep playing Gomoku instead.”

This long-haired girl was Jian Tanxi’s good friend and classmate, Gu Xinrou.

The two had been close friends since childhood, both living in the Chunbo Residential District. They had been classmates since kindergarten.

Later, they even got into the same university, truly a stroke of fate.

Now, during their summer break after junior year, both had returned home.

They often visited each other, and today Gu Xinrou had come over to play Gomoku with Jian Tanxi.

Jian Tanxi chuckled, “You’ve already lost over a dozen games. Still want to keep playing?”

“Of course! I refuse to believe I’ll always lose.”

“Actually, you’re quite skilled, but I’m an expert at Gomoku.”

“Alright, I admit you’ve always been smarter than me.”

Jian Tanxi shook her head. “Not at all, we’re about the same.”

“But ever since we were kids, you’ve always picked things up faster than I did. I really think there’s a difference in people’s intelligence, even among smart people, there are the ordinarily smart and the super geniuses.”

“Pfft, you think I’m a super genius?”

“At least in my eyes, you are. Haha.”

They played a few more rounds, with Jian Tanxi winning most and Gu Xinrou only managing one or two victories.

Gu Xinrou had the kind of personality that grew more stubborn with each loss, so she kept pulling Jian Tanxi into more games.

Jian Tanxi was starting to feel a bit bored, having already figured out Gu Xinrou’s strategies. Continuing to play would only repeat previous matches.

So, she suggested, “Let’s stop playing, my brain cells are running out. How about we watch a movie instead?”

“Sure! Let’s watch a mystery film. We both like those.”

“Sounds good.”

Just then, her mother, Song Lan, called from outside the door, “Tanxi, go call your dad back for dinner!”

Jian Tanxi replied loudly, “Okay!”

She turned to Gu Xinrou with a smile. “Wait for me a moment. I’ll go get my dad, and then we can eat. My mom made braised noodles and loofah with mushrooms, I can smell it. I know you love those.”

Gu Xinrou nodded. “Yeah, it’s been a few days since I’ve had Auntie’s cooking. I’ve been missing it.”

Jian Tanxi didn’t need to formally invite Gu Xinrou to stay for dinner, they were so close that eating at each other’s homes was a given.

Whenever one was at the other’s house, it was assumed they would stay for the meal, and the host’s mother would naturally prepare extra food.

Both mothers were very familiar with the girls’ tastes.

Jian Tanxi headed out the door.

Her father, Jian Guifan, enjoyed playing cards and often spent his free time at their neighbor Uncle Bai’s place.

He and his card-playing friends liked to smoke while playing, so Uncle Bai’s home was always filled with a haze of smoke.

Jian Tanxi found this exasperating but could do nothing about it.

The Jian family lived in unit 1601, and Uncle Bai’s home was right next door in 1602.

Jian Tanxi walked up to the door of 1602 and knocked. No one answered.

She knocked again, harder this time, but still no response.

She thought maybe her dad and Uncle Bai were too engrossed in their card game to hear the knocking.

So, she called her dad, but the call wouldn’t go through.

She tried Uncle Bai’s number, but still couldn’t get through.

Jian Tanxi muttered to herself, “That’s strange. Could there be no signal?”

She decided to go back home and make the call from there.

As she stepped inside, she felt something was off.

She couldn’t quite put her finger on it until she looked around and realized her mother, Song Lan, wasn’t in the kitchen.

But the stove was still on, and food was sizzling in the pan.

Was her mother in the bathroom?

She rushed to the bathroom, but it was empty.

She called out “Mom!” several times, but no one answered.

She ran to her parents’ bedroom, no one was there.

She checked her own room, her mother wasn’t there either.

Strangely, Gu Xinrou was also missing.

Jian Tanxi grew anxious and called out, “Xinrou! Xinrou!”

But the only reply came from the cicadas chirping outside the window.

She had only been gone for a minute or two, how could her mother and Gu Xinrou have disappeared?

Even if they had left, they would have had to pass through the hallway, and Jian Tanxi would have seen them.

Since she hadn’t run into them in the hallway earlier, where could they have gone?

Jian Tanxi searched everywhere: under the beds, inside the closets, every possible hiding spot, but found no one.

And why would they hide in the first place? It didn’t make sense…

Jian Tanxi felt both puzzled and a little scared.

Should she call the police?

As she hesitated, she suddenly caught a whiff of something burning.

She hurried to the kitchen and turned off the gas stove. The food that had been cooking in the pan was now completely burnt.

Jian Tanxi grabbed the lid and covered the pan to keep the burnt smell from spreading.

She wanted to call the police, but as far as she knew, a person had to be missing for 24 hours before they were officially considered missing. Her mother and Gu Xinrou had only been gone for about ten minutes…

Jian Tanxi decided to call Gu Xinrou’s mother, but again, the call wouldn’t go through.

“That’s weird. Is there no signal at home either?”

She opened the residents’ group chat to ask if anyone had seen her mother or Gu Xinrou.

But her message wouldn’t send, even WeChat had no signal.

Feeling lost and panicked, Jian Tanxi decided to go get her dad and let him decide what to do.

So, she ran back to the door of 1602, pounding on it and shouting, “Uncle Bai! Dad! Open the door!”

Still, no one answered.

In desperation, she thought about calling a locksmith to open the door of 1602, she could always pay Uncle Bai back for a new lock later.

Given the unusual circumstances, Uncle Bai would probably understand.

But then she remembered, she couldn’t make any calls…

Jian Tanxi felt a wave of despair.

However, she recalled that the elderly man in 1503 knew how to pick locks. Maybe she could ask him for help. If she explained the situation clearly, he would probably agree.

So, she rushed down to the door of 1503.

The door to 1503 was open. Jian Tanxi called out a few times, but no one answered.

She stepped inside.

The apartment was empty.

She searched the kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedrooms, not a single person was there.

The entire unit was eerily quiet and unsettling.

The food on the table was only half-eaten. Jian Tanxi reached out and touched the plates, they were still warm.

Could it be that everyone in 1503 had gone out? It shouldn’t be such a coincidence, right?

Jian Tanxi remembered that the elderly woman in this household had trouble walking and rarely went out.

In the corner of the living room, Jian Tanxi spotted a set of lock-picking tools. Without hesitation, she picked up the toolbox and went to the door of 1602 to unlock it.

Although taking things without asking wasn’t ideal, the situation was urgent. She could apologize to the elderly man later.

She had always been clever, and she had once stumbled upon some lock-picking tutorials online. After fiddling with the lock for a while, she actually managed to open the door to 1602.

She hurried inside, but 1602 was also empty.

Playing cards were scattered messily on the table, several cups held leftover water, and on the floor, an unextinguished cigarette butt had already burned a hole in the wooden floorboards.

Jian Tanxi stepped forward and stamped out the cigarette butt.

She carefully observed her surroundings and noticed her father’s phone lying on the table.

It was as if a group of people had been playing cards just moments ago, only to vanish collectively the next second.

Jian Tanxi shook her head, refusing to let her imagination run wild.

She felt the place was too quiet, so quiet it was eerie.

Suddenly, an idea struck her. She rushed to the window and looked down.

There wasn’t a soul downstairs either. The elderly and children who had been enjoying the cool air and playing earlier were all gone.

No wonder the surroundings felt excessively quiet, so many people had disappeared.

Could they all have had urgent matters to attend to in such a short time?

Jian Tanxi felt it was necessary to report this to the police.

But when she arrived at the police station, there was no one there either.

The computer screens were still on, indicating that someone had been working there just moments before.

Jian Tanxi ran out of the police station and shouted into the empty streets, “Hey… is anyone there?”

But no one answered.

A cat darted out from the bushes, glanced at Jian Tanxi, and then scurried away.

Jian Tanxi muttered to herself, “There are cats, there are cicadas, but no people… Am I having a nightmare?”

She pinched herself hard, it hurt. This wasn’t a dream.

Only one thought remained in her mind now: find her parents.

So, she ran back home and searched the place several times.

Nothing.

She rushed next door to 1602, hoping to find any trace of her father, but still found nothing.

Exhausted, Jian Tanxi stood dazedly in the living room of 1602.

Suddenly, she saw something strange.

On the coffee table in the living room, there had been a stack of documents, about several dozen A4 sheets. Those sheets had now grown hands and feet and were walking toward her.

The A4 papers remained their original size, and the hands and feet they’d grown were thin, as if cut out of paper.

Watching this scene, Jian Tanxi clenched her fists, forcing herself to stay calm.

As a few of the A4 sheets drew closer, she suddenly threw a punch, trying to knock them down.

But all the papers nimbly retreated, evading her strike.

Then, the papers began to dance in the wind, swirling upward like a tornado until they reached the ceiling. They spun incessantly, and Jian Tanxi felt as though the ceiling and floor were spinning along with them.

Her mind grew hazy, and she fainted.

When she woke up, she found herself in a vast, blank, white space.

She lay on the ground, enveloped in a dense mist that nearly covered her entire body.

The sky above was also a vast expanse of white, impossible to see through clearly. She couldn’t tell whether she was in a room or out in the wilderness.

The entire space was brightly lit, but she couldn’t discern the source of the light. It wasn’t like electric lights, nor sunlight, and certainly not like candlelight.

Uncertain of her situation, she didn’t dare make a sound.

Suddenly, a large piece of paper appeared before her.

The paper was roughly the height of a person, with a clown painted in the center.

The clown wore a perpetual smile, staring at Jian Tanxi as if it were alive, inexplicably eerie.

Like the A4 paper she had seen before fainting, this sheet also had slender hands and feet and could walk like a human.

Jian Tanxi instinctively pinched her hand, it still hurt, so this wasn’t a dream…

Then, where was she? Why was she experiencing this terrifying ordeal?

What was the deal with these papers? Had they gained consciousness? What was their purpose?

And where had the vanished people gone?