The Joy of Learning

Afterward, Luo Shengrong, Huang Shujun, and Su Hao sat around the table and formally convened a family meeting of great significance.

The topic was "A Discussion on How Little Luo Zhaohui Should Go to School."

After a fairly heated discussion, the family council decided on Su Hao's future study plan: he would skip grades to enroll, first obtain a student record, spend half his time studying on his own, and spend the other half attending school to have teachers answer his questions.

After negotiating with the school and having Su Hao tested, the school gladly agreed to admit him. It even took the initiative to waive a series of tuition and miscellaneous fees for him. A plan beneficial to both sides was quickly finalized.

At just over five years old, Su Hao became a proud middle school student.

Yet subjects like middle school math, physics, and chemistry were beneath his notice. After a brief review, he began gnawing his way through high school material.

The only slightly troublesome subjects were liberal arts courses such as history and politics.

But even that could not stump Su Hao. He simply used Marble Space to Record all the material.

However, when he actually needed to use historical knowledge in an exam, Su Hao discovered a problem. The knowledge recorded by Marble Space was not, in essence, information he had personally recorded. If he wanted to find it again, he had to spend time Searching for it, making Extraction terribly inefficient.

Thus, Su Hao had an idea. Could he store the recorded information in neatly classified categories, so that whenever he needed something, he could directly find the corresponding subcategory?

No sooner thought than done. Through an inexplicable connection, Su Hao's consciousness entered Marble Space. It was a barren expanse that seemed to contain nothing, yet held boundless information.

The first step was to classify the information.

But how?

The space contained every piece of information from the moment of his birth until now, all in utter disorder. Sorting it all into categories looked like an impossible undertaking.

However, through his deep understanding of Marble Space over the years, Su Hao had discovered that the information stored within was arranged in chronological order. In other words, the newest information could be found quickly, but to find information from long ago, he had to delve deep into the space and keep flipping backward.

After thinking for a moment, Su Hao came up with an idea.

He only needed to assign a corresponding number to every tiny span of time, and he would be able to Locate the events or information within that time span. If he then classified those numbers, it would be equivalent to classifying all information.

For example, in one minute of sixty seconds, each second could be given a number: 1, 2, 3... 60. During that minute, Su Hao might Record a passage of history in the first ten seconds; sneeze between the twentieth and thirtieth seconds; Record a mathematical formula from the thirtieth to fortieth seconds; scratch an itch from the fortieth to fiftieth seconds; then Record another mathematical formula from the fiftieth to sixtieth seconds. The events in that minute could then be classified as "history," "trivia," and "mathematics." Seconds 1–10 would be categorized under history, 20–30 and 40–50 under trivia, and 30–40 and 50–60 under mathematics.

In this way, the information could be classified.

But the time and energy required for such categorization were absolutely beyond what Su Hao could accomplish. Nor could he distract himself at every moment to classify every single thing he encountered.

So Su Hao thought of a corresponding solution—intelligence.

Handling incomparably trivial and fragmented information had never been something the human brain excelled at. Thus, humans invented Computers to help process and store vast amounts of complicated information.

If he could turn Marble Space into a supercomputing center capable of automatically processing information, its usefulness to Su Hao would be self-evident. It would be like carrying an intelligent system with him at all times.

But building such a system would be extremely difficult.

The main difficulties lay in Su Hao's time and his store of knowledge.

Time was manageable. As long as he could wait, he could slowly piece it together. But what he lacked now was the most crucial information technology: how to accurately filter, classify, Search, Extract, and, further still, compare, communicate, automate, and more.

Su Hao withdrew from Marble Space and slowly sorted through his plans.

There was no need to think too much about what came next. He just needed to study, study, and study—first, to pick up all the high school science knowledge. With Marble Space's assistance, his learning speed was anything but ordinary.

At seven years old, Su Hao finished all high school science subjects, took the College Entrance Examination, and was admitted to a famous domestic university. The whole country was shaken. He was recognized as a Genius, the future of the nation.

If nothing unexpected happened, Su Hao could truly rely on Marble Space to become one of the top tier of scientific research talents in the future.

He enrolled smoothly in September. His parents also quit their jobs, moved to Shangzhou City, where the university was located, found new jobs, and accompanied Su Hao in his studies.

Four years later, he had completed the undergraduate coursework in mathematics, Physics, chemistry, biology, information technology, and other majors.

Of course, he encountered many difficulties during his studies. Yet all around him were helpful older brothers, older sisters, and elderly professors, who gave him the greatest help with incomparable patience. This was the chief reason Su Hao was able to complete these courses smoothly within four years.

Without anyone's help, relying solely on self-study, he might not have succeeded even in twenty years.

During those four years, in order to ease his parents' financial burden, Su Hao also became a literary copyist, copying several books and songs. For a time, his fame was unmatched. He was hailed as Hua Country's youngest and most versatile Genius, with popularity surpassing even the hottest top-tier celebrities.

Of course, copying books and songs was not Su Hao's goal. Learning was. So once he had earned enough money, he stopped.

Still, whenever he thought about how this world lacked the Four Great Classical Novels, Su Hao felt regret. Such classic literary works, yet the people of the Otherworld could not see them.

To repay the help this world had given him, Su Hao decided that when he had time, he would write out the Four Great Classical Novels so everyone could witness Brother Monkey's grandeur.

As for whether people would suspect a little brat like him of copying books...

So what if they suspected him? They would not be able to find any evidence. Making money was what mattered—who had time to care about all that?

Freeing up time and energy to learn knowledge as soon as possible was what truly mattered.

Thus, when he graduated in his senior year, an adapted version of "Journey to the West" was published.

At first, "Journey to the West" had little fame. But with deliberate promotion by interested parties and the boost from Su Hao's reputation, it quickly caught fire.

That year, the adapted "Journey to the West" became the hottest and best-selling book in all of Hua Country, without rival.

Although those who bought it might not necessarily read it, the blessing of the "Light of Genius" made many people think that buying the book would let them rub off on some Genius aura...

Then, using the money Su Hao had earned, his parents bought a luxurious villa in Shangzhou City.

In the villa, Luo Shengrong and Huang Shujun held a graduation party for Su Hao and congratulated him on being admitted to graduate school.

"Congratulations on graduating, our precious son Xiao Hui. You've entered a new stage of life!"

Pop!

The pressure confetti cannon exploded.

Luo Shengrong and Huang Shujun immediately cheered as they lifted Su Hao and tossed him into the air, then caught him steadily.

By then, Luo Shengrong had become a pale, plump, enormously fat man. His former handsomeness was gone forever.

His mother, Huang Shujun, on the other hand, no longer showed any trace of her former age when she dressed up. Her whole person glowed with radiance, like a young girl of twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

Sure enough, wealth could change a person's spirit and vitality.

Huang Shujun said to Su Hao, "Xiao Hui, do you have any wishes? Your father and I can each grant you one."

Luo Shengrong nodded with a beaming smile beside her.

Su Hao nodded. "I really do. I want to learn low-level source code development and system software programming."

Two question marks immediately popped into Luo Shengrong and Huang Shujun's minds, but they were too embarrassed to ask. They merely smiled as if nothing were amiss. "Alright, we promise you. What else?"

Su Hao thought for a moment. "I want a younger brother or sister."

"What?"

Luo Shengrong and Huang Shujun were utterly dumbfounded. Then the two exchanged a glance and, unexpectedly, both blushed—a rare sight indeed.