Introducing a new setting.

April 12, 2026, 9:06 pm CST, Dongguan

The genie manifests in Zhao Lin’s dormitory as she puts on her pajamas.

He has horns, a long beard, and no shirt. His head nearly scrapes the ceiling; his shoulders span the bunk beds on either side of the room. His torso terminates in a wispy tail of smoke that hovers over the floor.

In perfect Mandarin, he speaks:

“I am Jinnī al-Amānī al-Muqayyad. What is your wish?”

Lin screams and falls over. Her roommate Sun Meili screams. Her roommate Liu Yan throws a chair at the genie. It passes straight through and clangs off Zhao Lin’s bed. The genie hovers in perfect stillness, arms crossed. It looks only at Zhao Lin.

Meili sprints out of the room. Lin forces her other leg into her pajama pants and hustles after her. The genie follows in silence, passing through the doorway like it doesn’t exist.

“What do you want?” shouts Yan. The genie ignores her as it leaves. She pulls out her phone and starts recording.

The genie phases through the floor and hovers between Zhao Lin and the building’s front door. Her screams have drawn a crowd, and she can’t easily retreat. She stands frozen as the genie speaks again:

“Ten seconds remain. What is your wish?”

The crowd startles at his booming voice.

Yan calls out: “Say something, Zhao Lin!”

Lin is speechless. The genie disappears, gone as abruptly as it came.

Yan posts the video on Douyin at 9:12 pm. 

By morning, there are thirteen other genie videos on the platform, and over a hundred scattered across Instagram, TikTok, Bilibili, and YouTube.

Tiruppur

Kavita Selvam, interrupted at her sewing machine, stares the genie down, even as younger garment workers scream and back away. Her supervisor, Ramesh, films with a shaky hand.

“Very well, sir. If you can grant wishes, take away all these aches and pains.”

“It shall be done.” 

The genie disappears. Kavita blinks. She twists her torso. She stands, eyes wide.

“What is this?” She bends her knees. “What is this?”

She flings herself into a girlish cartwheel. Ramesh drops his phone.

Lahore

Muhammad Qureshi lies prostrate, praying at a frantic tempo. The other old men prostrate themselves and pray.

Hamza, a younger man with modern instincts, continues to record. His legs have given out, so he leans back against the wall of the mosque. He hadn’t believed in jinn, but his prayers are the loudest of all.

The men pray. The genie hovers.

“Ten seconds remain. What is your wish?”

The men pray. No one answers. The genie disappears.

Bakersfield

“What the fuck!? It’s that genie! It’s here!”

Yvonne Duarte sits frozen on a wooden bench in the courtyard of Liberty High School.

The genie watches her. Nine phones record the encounter.

Her pizza slice is face-down in the grass. When the genie appeared, three of her classmates were already watching Reels of it. This tempers the shock enough that no one flees.

“Wish for a million dollars!” someone says.

“Are you stupid? Wish for a trillion!”

“Hurry up! It only sticks around for a minute!”

“I wish,” says Yvonne, “for… one trillion dollars.”

“No.”

The genie disappears.

The Genie of Medium Wishes Wiki has its first entry. More content coming soon.