Win-Win

Suye hurriedly checked the time in the Magic Book, his face lighting up with joy. It was six in the morning.

Suye happily washed up, then basked in the sunlight in the courtyard to promote serotonin secretion. While he was still full of energy, he meditated deeply for ten minutes, then rapidly flipped through yesterday's notes before finally leaving the house.

He looked around as he walked, but unfortunately, he saw neither breakfast nor Uncle Figo.

Suye grabbed a quick bite at a breakfast stall, then hurried toward school.

When he arrived at Plato Academy, some students were walking inside.

Suye let out a sigh of relief.

On his third day after enrolling, Suye finally looked like a real student as he strode openly along the marble main path and into class.

There was no longer any mud or scent of grass on his feet.

There were only a dozen or so people in the classroom. Suye took a careful look and thought, Are even my deskmates working this hard?

Behind the Fifth Table sat four people.

Pallas, Hote, Lake, and Rolon were all reading intently.

Jimmy and Albert were absent.

Looking at the four of them, Suye revealed a faint smile.

When he reached the table, Suye smiled and said, "Morning."

All four turned their heads at once and stared at Suye in disbelief.

"How did you get here?" Hote could not help shouting.

Lake asked, "Suye, are you all right? We all thought you'd definitely be late today."

Suye smiled. "How could a student who loves studying as much as I do be late? From today onward, I'll arrive early and leave late. I'll Study Well."

"Only a ghost would believe that." Lake laughed, then lowered his head and continued reading.

Hote looked excited as he lowered his voice. "Thank you so much! That Map Memory Method you taught me yesterday really works! I'd heard before about the inner-sight forms of the different mages from the four nations, but they always seemed like a complete mess. After you taught me, whenever I think of them now, that map appears in my mind, and I can remember the four inner-sight forms and four Magic Artifacts perfectly. I definitely won't get them wrong on the exam."

Suye smiled. "As long as it works."

Suye thought, Every image and color on that map involves the image-memory method. The enormous Hourglass and Magic Tower belong to the exaggerated-memory method, while the moving images involve the dynamic-memory method. Putting all those things together follows the human principle of memory chunking. It's practically four methods combined into one. I spent ages mastering it, so of course it works.

Lake and Rolon seemed not to have heard their conversation at all, but Pallas listened attentively.

Pallas thought, I heard their conversation yesterday too. I didn't expect even Hote to say it was useful. I'll record this first. If they keep using this method in the future and their grades improve, I'll use it too.

Pallas carefully recorded it in her Magic Book.

Suye sat down and quickly reviewed yesterday's notes once more. Then he said to Hote, "Yesterday I found several particularly important points of knowledge. Do you want to hear them?"

Hote hurriedly replied, "Yes, I do! You're really great!"

Suye selected several pieces of magical knowledge that he considered the most important and began explaining them.

Hote listened with great interest. Whenever he asked a question, he inevitably managed to stump Suye.

Suye had no choice but to think through Hote's questions. If he came up with an answer, he gave it; if not, he wrote it down to think about later or ask the teacher.

Being unable to answer a question meant that his understanding of the relevant knowledge was still insufficient.

The other students in class went about their own business. A few students with decent but not top-ranked grades pointed at Suye and Hote, secretly mocking the two idiots for studying like idiots.

Only Pallas silently recorded portions of their conversation before continuing to study.

More and more people arrived, and the classroom began to grow noisy. Suye and Hote simply moved to the windows at the back of the room—one Teach to Learn, the other solely there to listen.

After speaking for a while, Suye realized that what he was doing violated his own principles.

As long as he had not confirmed that the other person was an enemy, and as long as cooperation between them was possible, he should use win-win thinking to guide his actions.

Besides, Hote was a close classmate who had helped him.

Suye still could not directly reveal the Feynman Technique, so he repeatedly asked Hote to explain things as well. But Hote absolutely refused, believing that he could not explain anything at all.

Suye tried several times, but Hote remained unwilling, so he had to give up. He thought that once his own grades gradually improved, he should be able to convince Hote after revealing the Feynman Technique.

However, guided by win-win thinking, Suye did not let Hote lose out. Not only did he help Hote answer questions, he also took the initiative to teach him little methods and tricks. For example, he deliberately used the various memory methods from before several more times. Once Hote had seen them enough and trusted the methods, Suye would extract the principles at the right moment and have Hote practice using them specifically.

In reality, the Feynman Technique was mainly intended for studying alone. One only needed to teach the knowledge to an imagined person. But teaching a real person produced better results.

Soon, the bell for the first class rang, and both Suye and Hote were reluctant to part.

Hote said excitedly, "Suye, how about you keep teaching me like this from now on? I feel like I've learned so much. It's amazing!"

Suye thought for a moment, then said frankly, "This is a study method I'm still exploring. Teaching you this way will improve my own study efficiency. I don't really want to keep doing it forever. I'm worried that after a while, you'll feel like I'm using you."

Hote grew even happier when he heard that. "I felt embarrassed just now, and even guilty, because I thought I was wasting your time! Since you said you're doing it for your own studying, and I feel like I'm doing it for my own studying too, then why don't we keep studying like this? Wouldn't that be great? It's settled, then. If anyone calls you an idiot again, I'll stand up for you! If I can't beat them, I'll call my classmates! If my classmates can't beat them, I'll call a teacher. I have two classmates who are already teachers at the academy!"

As Hote spoke, his eyebrows danced with excitement, and he looked like a big brother protecting his little brother.

Suye did not know whether to laugh or cry. Sure enough, only he and Lake were relatively normal at the Fifth Table.

The first class that morning was still taught by Teacher Niedern. His lessons covered relatively important material and took up more class periods.

After the class had gone on for a while, Niedern suddenly stopped and looked toward the Fourth Table.

"Who knows why Horton hasn't come?"

Many students shook their heads.

Only then did Suye notice that one seat at the front table was empty.

Suye shook his head as well.

"Hmm. Let's continue the lesson." Niedern's tone was clearly different from before.

Many students turned to look at Suye with inexplicable smiles.

Suye had come today, but Horton had not.

Someone had been late for three days in a row since the start of term. It would have been strange if Niedern were not angry.

Near the end of class, heavy footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

Everyone put down their Magic Books and looked toward the entrance.

A boy covered in blood stood at the doorway. Although his face seemed to have been washed just moments ago, his nose was crooked, his upper lip was split, and four or five teeth were missing, leaving his mouth pitch-black. His face was bruised blue and red, swollen like a pig's head. Tears shimmered in his eyes, while tear tracks that had not been wiped clean ran down his cheeks.

All the students looked bewildered. Who was this? Why had he come to the door of their classroom? A few seconds later, many of them realized.

Wasn't this Horton!