Come Out, Exhortation to Learning

Zhao Xiaobai rolled her eyes. "Photographic memory? That's a bold claim! Do you dare to let me test you?"

Chen Zhao nodded, smiling confidently.

Zhao Xiaobai snatched the book from Chen Zhao's hands, flipped to a random page, and began her interrogation.

"There's a poem in the question at the bottom left of page eight. Recite it for me?" Zhao Xiaobai asked.

"The autumn wind is crisp, the autumn moon is bright. Falling leaves gather and scatter, the cold crow roosts and is startled again. When will we meet again in our longing? This moment, this night, is hard to bear! Enter the gate of my longing, know the bitterness of my longing. Long longing leads to long memories, short longing has no end. Had I known it would entangle the heart like this, I would rather we had never met." Chen Zhao blurted it out without a single stutter.

The smug smile that had just been on Zhao Xiaobai's face vanished instantly, and she stared at Chen Zhao as if he were a ghost.

He could actually recite it?

Is this for real?!

Zhao Xiaobai thought to herself that perhaps Chen Zhao had memorized this poem before, and it was just a lucky guess—a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse. A different question should surely trip him up.

"The third question at the top left of page 26, can you recite the answer?" Zhao Xiaobai watched Chen Zhao nervously.

Chen Zhao blinked, recalling the text.

Zhao Xiaobai wore a triumphant smile. "Can't recite it, can you?"

To her surprise, the next second, Chen Zhao suddenly remembered and began to recite!

"The first line of the upper stanza writes 'autumn shadows turn to dusk,' clearly indicating dim light; the first line of the lower stanza writes 'deep silence in the night,' clearly indicating the dead of night. Taken together, the poet uses chronological order as a thread. The author intends to write about his state of mind and emotions, but the primary focus is on the environment. The bleak and cold environment of the day permeates the protagonist's sense of desolation, while the silent and lonely environment of midnight further immerses the protagonist in a sense of isolation."

Zhao Xiaobai looked at the answer key in her hand, her face full of horror.

Everything Chen Zhao recited was word for word!

If the poem from earlier could be explained by Chen Zhao having memorized it previously, this reading comprehension answer clearly could not have been memorized beforehand. Therefore, there was only one explanation—Chen Zhao had truly memorized everything he had read in these short few dozen minutes!

In other words, he had a photographic memory!

"Are you... really capable of photographic memory?" Zhao Xiaobai's small face turned pale, and she stared at Chen Zhao as if looking at an alien.

"I am." Chen Zhao smiled confidently and nodded. "I've always been fast at memorizing things since I was a kid, and it got even faster after I entered my senior year. Slowly but surely, I trained myself to have a photographic memory."

Zhao Xiaobai looked at Chen Zhao as if she were looking at a living deity!

She never expected Chen Zhao to have such a trick up his sleeve!

"Are you... a genius?" Zhao Xiaobai asked, deeply shocked.

Chen Zhao felt a bit embarrassed and scratched his head. "I'm just a little smarter than average, I wouldn't go as far as calling myself a genius."

During the Chinese exam in the afternoon, Chen Zhao performed quite well. The types of questions at the beginning were very familiar, and he could apply them to the question patterns he had already studied, so he finished them quickly. After his intelligence increased, Chen Zhao's speed in analyzing questions also became lightning fast. Articles that previously required ten minutes to read now took him only a few dozen seconds. His efficiency in answering questions improved significantly.

After spending about forty minutes, he finished all the preceding questions and arrived at the essay section.

The essay prompt left Chen Zhao feeling like pulling his hair out:

"Li Hua is a student who has just entered high school, and his heavy workload has caused him to develop a serious aversion to studying. Recently, he sleeps in class, leaves his workbook blank, and doesn't even take exams. A classmate tried to have a heart-to-heart with Li Hua to persuade him to study. Li Hua turned his face away and said: Study? Study my ass!"

"Assuming you are Li Hua's homeroom teacher, please write an essay to Li Hua to persuade him to commit himself to his studies. Choose your own title, any style is acceptable except for poetry, and it must be at least 1,000 words."

Chen Zhao was speechless.

What kind of bizarre essay prompt is this?

Isn't Li Hua the protagonist of English composition prompts? Why has he run over to the Chinese essay section?

And seriously, Li Hua, why are you being so arrogant? How can you say something as rebellious as "Study my ass!"?

It seems this essay prompt was written by the school teachers themselves, which explains why it's so unconventional. However, the theme is very clear: it's about explaining the importance of studying and talking about learning to make Li Hua repent and turn over a new leaf. It's actually quite easy to write. After all, what student can't ramble on for a thousand words about the importance of studying?

However, writing it well is not easy.

The more cliché the topic, the harder it is to get a high score. Because everyone can write something decent, your essay will struggle to stand out if it's just average.

With plenty of time left, Chen Zhao decided to carefully structure his essay.

One minute.

Three minutes.

Five minutes.

Suddenly, an idea flooded his mind!

To be precise, an ancient text suddenly appeared in Chen Zhao's mind.

This excerpt of classical Chinese was originally content that every student had to memorize in textbooks from Chen Zhao's previous life. It could be called a classic among classics. However, ever since Chen Zhao obtained the system and the World Reset occurred, this article had been removed from the Chinese textbooks and replaced with another piece he had never heard of. Chen Zhao had even searched for the author online privately and found that in this world, even that author had disappeared, and history had been replaced by someone else.

Therefore, this ancient text was something no one in this world had ever seen before.

And the theme of this ancient text happened to be about persuading people to study, which fit the essay prompt perfectly!

Chen Zhao felt he could put it to good use!

Picking up his pen, Chen Zhao began to write in the essay grid on his answer sheet.

"The gentleman says: Learning must not cease."

"Indigo, extracted from the indigo plant, is bluer than the plant itself; ice, formed from water, is colder than water. A piece of wood as straight as a plumb line can be bent into a wheel, and its curve will conform to the compass. Even if it is dried in the sun, it will not straighten again because the bending has made it so. Therefore, wood becomes straight when it conforms to the marking line, and metal becomes sharp when it is honed on a whetstone. The gentleman studies broadly and examines himself daily, and thus his wisdom becomes clear and his actions are without fault."

One sentence of classical Chinese after another flowed from Chen Zhao's pen, clattering onto the paper!

Fifty words!

One hundred words!

Three hundred words!

Eight hundred words!

One thousand words!

The original text was quite long, totaling 1,987 characters, which clearly wouldn't fit into the squares on the answer sheet. Therefore, Chen Zhao made some cuts and revisions, discarding secondary content and adding a tiny bit of supplementary material. After patching, trimming, and adjusting, he finally wrote over 1,100 characters, filling the answer sheet almost to the brim.

Finally, Chen Zhao wrote the title on the first line:

"Exhortation to Learning"

That's right, this piece of classical prose was none other than the famous Exhortation to Learning written by Xunzi during the pre-Qin period!

If one were to rank the top ten essays on encouraging study from all times and places, this Exhortation to Learning would absolutely make the list!

After finishing, Chen Zhao felt completely relaxed and blew on his gel pen, much like a gunslinger blowing on a barrel after taking a shot.

With this essay brought out, I don't believe I won't get a high score!

"Teacher, I'm finished. May I hand in my paper?" Chen Zhao raised his hand.

The students in the entire classroom were shocked, turning their heads to look at Chen Zhao as if witnessing a deity. He finished math in half an hour this morning. Now, he finished Chinese in an hour and ten minutes. Are you the legendary quick-draw? This is just too fast!

The proctor, however, frowned. "Finished? You didn't write the essay properly, did you? The college entrance exam is almost here; can't you take every mock exam seriously!"