"Yo, not bad!"
A half-baked voice pulled Wang Ji out of a mountain of text and formulas. Along with an elegant, sweet fragrance, an extra weight shifted the swing's center of gravity.
The ropes swayed, and the side of his raised right knee was casually leaned against.
Wang Ji looked up. It was a figure in a black trench coat, with long legs, long boots, and chestnut-brown hair—the intelligent goddess he had only met in the past two days.
The Sun Goddess, Leina.
"Morning."
That morning, he had once again come here to read in peace, utterly oblivious to everyone else. After looking around the academy yesterday, he had decided this was the place best suited for him.
Leisurely and secluded.
Hardly anyone came by.
"Now that you've got superpowers, you're still studying this hard? Is there really a need?" Leina sighed, patting the tall stack of books in front of Wang Ji with a smile.
Wang Ji lay there while she casually plopped down on the outer edge of the swing chair beside his legs, crossing one leg over the other with all the bearing of a mature goddess.
"What else am I supposed to do?" Wang Ji continued flipping through his book, unconcerned that, to others, he was turning the pages rather quickly. He replied calmly, "Making a friend means getting lectured, and I don't know where any monsters are to fight. I can't beat games without cheats, either. I can't just hug my food bowl and keep stuffing my face in the cafeteria all day.
You people have truly delayed the rise of an emperor."
As he spoke, he used his knee to push against the back of her slender, belted waist without the slightest politeness. "Go sit over there. You're crowding me."
"Hey! I say..."
Leina froze for a moment, then slapped his thigh with a smack. "You little punk, why are you so full of yourself?"
Wang Ji lifted his eyelids and gave her a sidelong glance. "Is being full of myself illegal?"
With that, he crossed his legs and used his book to cover his face.
"If you've got something to say, say it. If not, don't interrupt my studying."
What the hell! Leina nearly choked on the breath stuck in her chest!
What business did she have? Wasn't she just bored? Besides, this cocky guy was kind of handsome...
"Being full of yourself isn't illegal," she said, clenching her little fists as her voice squeezed through her teeth, "but it makes other people want to break the law..."
She gritted her teeth, her eyes gleaming fiercely. Her big eyes looked adorably ferocious.
Staring at the book concealing that hateful face, anger gradually built in her chest.
"If you dare hit me, I'll just lie down," Wang Ji said lazily as he turned a page. "Without a million tons of Dark Alloy, I won't get back up. If I don't scam you into bankruptcy and force you to borrow money to go home, then your trip to Earth was for nothing."
The morning sunlight was truly pleasant. The academy had been built among the mountains, and the fresh air was invigorating.
In the morning, the swing could not borrow shade from the evergreen tree, but it was still not unbearably hot.
"You... you... you..." Leina had never met anyone this infuriating!
She really wanted to beat him up, but after thinking about it, she did not dare lay a hand on him...
"If you're not going to say it, stop stammering. Making an alien speak Chinese must be hard on you. Is your seven-day Chinese trial card about to expire?"
Without even lifting his head, Wang Ji said, "How about this? Call me Big Brother, and I'll start teaching you from ABCD. I'll design a Chinese-learning video course for ages three to five.
If you're willing to offer up some genetic resources as tribute, I can even design a crash course in Chinese for you. You'll learn it instantly, and I guarantee it's green and harmless.
That way, we won't have to teach mouth to mouth. That's pretty troublesome."
Buzz!
"Say that one more time!" Leina gritted out, her voice as cold as frost.
An ancient, elegant steel blade knocked the book from Wang Ji's hand and stopped at the tip of his nose.
Wang Ji glanced at the blade before him, then beckoned with one hand. The fallen book passed through a wormhole and returned to his hand.
This left Leina slightly stunned...
"When you can't win an argument, you fight... The sage was right after all. Only women and petty men are difficult to deal with: get close and they're insolent, stay distant and they resent you." Wang Ji lightly pinched the blade between two fingers and slowly moved it aside.
Then he sighed faintly. "Under my eyebrows aren't two glass balls, nor are they two Hand Grenades. Goddess, you're quite beautiful, so don't test my taste in women.
I just want to honestly read some skill books, raise my experience level a little, and prepare for fighting monsters later.
As for bonding with classmates, let's talk about it next time we're competing in the high jump, okay?"
"You... heard all that?" Leina frowned.
"You had open mics on. Of course I could hear it," Wang Ji said as if it were only natural.
Leina mentally translated that for herself and understood. She had not expected Wang Ji's hearing to be so good that he could normally hear and distinguish what they said from hundreds of meters away.
"But it looks like you're just flipping through the books at random. Are you really studying that seriously? We're all going to be friends from now on. What's wrong with chatting a little?"
She put away her long blade and snorted. "I think you're pretty interesting. You'd rather get acquainted with some pretty ordinary girl than get friendly with a ready-made goddess like me, or Du Qiangwei and the other future comrades-in-arms.
What's the matter? Got a guilty conscience?"
She stood there with her hands on her hips and chuckled.
"Even if I do, you're not the ghost I'm worried about." Wang Ji was not embarrassed in the slightest.
But after thinking it over, he nodded. "Fine, I'll admit it. I just wanted to see whether the books had any information about aliens like you, and to learn what this universe is like.
So there's no rush to get familiar.
You don't need to think I'm being overly suspicious, and you don't need to go out of your way to make me feel cared for. I'm not a child. I won't throw a tantrum and leave just because of something small.
If you're truly here to help my country out of goodwill, then I'll apologize for my previous doubts and rudeness."
Hearing this, Leina found it surprising, yet not surprising.
What surprised her was that this guy was rather perceptive and had actually noticed the special care they gave him.
What did not surprise her was that he really was still wary of them, carefully studying them behind the scenes.
What surprised her again was that he was actually fairly reasonable. He had merely hidden it deeply before, so they had not noticed.
"Heh, you little brat really are interesting. You're both petty and calculating, and you've even been secretly researching us."
After that exchange, Leina revised her impression of Wang Ji. Smiling brightly with her hands on her hips, she said, "I knew the charm of a goddess like me shouldn't lose to some ordinary person...
Well, other than that, nothing much."
Then, grinning, she sat back down on the swing and patted his lower leg. "Take your time researching, kid. If there's anything you don't understand, ask your goddess here. Your goddess knows a whole lot—you'd be wasting the opportunity if you didn't ask.
As for apologizing, whatever.
Call me Big Sister, and Big Sister will look after you from now on."
The beginning sounded fine, and Wang Ji had even wanted to thank her. But after hearing that last line, he merely glanced at her and returned to turning the pages.
Leina laughed when she saw that. So this kid really refused to accept her authority!
After laughing for a while, Leina asked curiously, "No one's teaching you, and you're just randomly flipping through books. Can you really learn anything?"
"I wouldn't say I've completely learned it."
The enthusiasm of this female alien had affected Wang Ji. She was cheerful, generous, broad-minded, kind, and, like yesterday, playful and amusing. He truly felt a warm sincerity from her.
If all that was real, then aliens might really be pretty decent.
So he stopped provoking Leina and said with a faint smile, "But I can still store it in my head. I can't say I've fully mastered it, but it's enough for basic use."
Unexpectedly, after he spoke honestly, Leina merely clicked her tongue. "You're so young, yet you've already learned how to brag your head off."
She said disdainfully, "Look at the books you're flipping through. They're a complete mess, with every kind of subject in there, and they're far beyond your Earth's era.
Even if you had photographic memory, you couldn't possibly remember things you don't understand at all, because you have no relevant memory framework... much less learn them.
If you could learn that fast, wouldn't that make this goddess an idiot after all these years?
Since you're so amazing, why don't you teach me how the brain can quickly learn something it's never studied before?"
She made herself very clear: she meant brain memory, not the Gene Engine System.
Wang Ji frowned and looked at her for a while... He was confirming whether she was joking.
Five seconds later, he smiled. "Then I'll teach you. Watch closely. I'll only demonstrate it once."
He sat up and spread open a book on the swing bench.
Leina watched seriously.
Wang Ji slowly stretched out both hands and scooped across the open pages as though he were cupping a handful of water.
Leina watched him strangely.
Wang Ji carefully held the air in his hands and brought it before her, saying cautiously, "Look, it's full of knowledge!"
Leina rolled her eyes.
Wang Ji did not mind. Then he drew his hands back.
Smack!
He slapped both hands onto his forehead.
Then, looking refreshed, he said, "If I had to memorize it bit by bit, how long would that take? One scoop, one absorption, and it's all knowledge!"
He turned a page, scooped his hands over it, and slapped them onto his forehead. "Ah, marvelous!"
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