Zhao Xiaobai rolled her eyes. "Photographic memory? Big talk! If I quiz you, will you take the challenge?"
Chen Zhao nodded, smiling confidently.
Zhao Xiaobai snatched the book from Chen Zhao's hands, flipped to a page near the front, and began quizzing him.
"There's a poem in the question at the bottom left of page eight. Recite it," Zhao Xiaobai said.
"Autumn winds are clear, autumn moons are bright. Fallen leaves gather, then scatter again. Cold crows roost, then startle and take flight. When will we meet again, my love? This night, this hour, my heart is heavy. Step into the door of longing, and you'll know its pain. Long longing, long remembrance; brief longing, endless yearning. If I'd known love could bind my heart like this, why did I ever meet you?" Chen Zhao recited it without missing a beat.
The smug smile that had just appeared on Zhao Xiaobai's face vanished at once. She stared at Chen Zhao as if she'd seen a ghost.
He really could recite it?
Was this for real?!
Zhao Xiaobai had a thought. Maybe Chen Zhao had memorized this poem before, and it was just a lucky guess. She'd try another question. That ought to stump him.
"Can you recite the answer to question three in the upper left corner of page twenty-six?" Zhao Xiaobai asked nervously, watching Chen Zhao.
Chen Zhao blinked and tried to remember.
Zhao Xiaobai smiled in triumph. "Can't remember it, can you?"
But the next second, it suddenly came back to Chen Zhao, and he began reciting at once!
"The opening line of the first stanza, 'autumn clouds darken toward dusk,' clearly describes the dimming light. The opening line of the second stanza, 'the night grows deep and still,' clearly describes the quiet of late night. Taken together, the poet uses the passage of time to structure the poem. The author intends to express a state of mind and emotion, yet devotes most of the writing to the surroundings. The bleak, chilly daytime setting seeps into the protagonist's desolation, while the still, desolate setting at midnight deepens the protagonist's loneliness."
Zhao Xiaobai stared at the answer in her hands, her face full of alarm.
Chen Zhao had recited it word for word!
If Chen Zhao might have memorized the poem beforehand, there was no way he could have done the same with this reading comprehension answer. There was only one explanation: in a few short dozen minutes, Chen Zhao really had remembered everything he'd read!
In other words, he had a photographic memory!
"Y-you really have a photographic memory?" Zhao Xiaobai's face went pale as she looked at Chen Zhao like he was an alien.
"I do." Chen Zhao nodded with a confident smile. "I've always been quick at memorizing things. After I started senior year, I got even faster. Little by little, I trained myself until I could remember anything at a glance."
The way Zhao Xiaobai looked at Chen Zhao was as if she were gazing at a living immortal!
She had never imagined Chen Zhao had a trick like this up his sleeve!
"Are you... a genius?" Zhao Xiaobai asked in amazement.
Chen Zhao scratched his head, a little embarrassed. "I'm just a bit smart. Genius is going too far."
Chen Zhao did fairly well on the Chinese exam that afternoon. The earlier questions followed familiar patterns, and he could match them to question types he'd already seen, so he finished them quickly. His improved intelligence had also made him much faster at understanding questions. An article that used to take him ten minutes to read now took only a few dozen seconds. His efficiency had increased dramatically.
It took him about forty minutes to finish all the earlier questions. Then he reached the essay.
The essay prompt gave Chen Zhao a headache:
"Li Hua is a student who has just started high school. His heavy workload has made him seriously reluctant to study. Recently, he has been sleeping in class, leaving his homework blank, and even skipping exams. A classmate tried to talk to Li Hua and encourage him to study, but Li Hua turned away and said, 'Study? Screw that!'"
"Suppose you are Li Hua's homeroom teacher. Write an essay to Li Hua encouraging him to devote himself to his studies. Choose your own title and genre. Poetry is not permitted. Write no fewer than 1,000 words."
Chen Zhao was speechless.
What the hell was this ridiculous essay prompt?
Wasn't Li Hua the protagonist of English exam essays? Why had he shown up in a Chinese essay, too?
And Li Hua, how could you be so brazen? How could you say something as outrageous as "Screw studying"?
It seemed the school's teachers had come up with this prompt themselves. It was pretty unorthodox. But the theme was clear enough: explain the importance of learning, talk about studying, and get Li Hua to mend his ways and turn over a new leaf. It wouldn't be hard to write. What student couldn't rattle off a thousand words about the importance of studying?
But writing it well was another matter.
The more overused a prompt was, the harder it was to get a high score. Everyone could write something decent, which made it difficult for any one essay to stand out.
There was still plenty of time, so Chen Zhao decided to think the essay through carefully.
One minute.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Suddenly, an idea came to him!
More precisely, a piece of classical Chinese prose abruptly appeared in Chen Zhao's mind.
It was an excerpt from a text he'd had to memorize in his previous life. Every student knew it by heart. It was a timeless classic. But ever since Chen Zhao had obtained the system and the world had been reset, the text had been removed from the Chinese textbook and replaced with an unfamiliar piece. Chen Zhao had even searched online for its author in private, only to discover that the author, too, had vanished from this world, replaced in history by someone else.
So this was a piece of classical prose that no one in this world had ever seen.
And its central message was to encourage people to study, making it a perfect fit for the essay prompt!
Chen Zhao thought he could use it.
Picking up his pen, Chen Zhao began writing in the essay section of the answer sheet.
"The Master said: Learning must never cease."
"Indigo comes from the indigo plant, yet it is bluer than the plant; ice is made from water, yet it is colder than water. If a piece of wood is straight enough to fit a carpenter's line, it can be bent into a wheel, and its curve will conform to a compass. Even after it has dried and been scorched, it will never straighten again, because the bending process has made it so. Thus, when wood is measured against a straightedge, it becomes straight; when metal is sharpened on a whetstone, it becomes keen. A gentleman who learns broadly and examines himself each day will gain clear wisdom and avoid mistakes in his conduct."
Line after line of classical Chinese flowed from Chen Zhao's pen, appearing on the page in a steady stream!
Fifty words!
One hundred words!
Three hundred words!
Eight hundred words!
One thousand words!
The original text was long, with 1,987 characters in all, and there clearly wasn't enough room to copy it all onto the answer sheet. So Chen Zhao made a few cuts, discarded the less essential parts, and added a little supplementary material. After revising and tinkering with it, he ended up with more than 1,100 characters, nearly filling the answer sheet.
At the end, Chen Zhao wrote the title on the first line:
"Exhortation to Learning"
That's right. This classical text was the famous Exhortation to Learning, written by Xunzi, the celebrated philosopher of the pre-Qin era!
If you were to choose the ten best essays ever written to encourage people to study, this Exhortation to Learning would undoubtedly make the list!
When he finished, Chen Zhao felt completely at ease. He blew on his ballpoint pen, like a sharpshooter contentedly blowing on his gun barrel after firing.
With this essay, there was no way he wouldn't get a high score!
"Teacher, I'm done. Can I hand it in?" Chen Zhao raised his hand.
The entire class was stunned. Their classmates turned to look at Chen Zhao as if they were witnessing a living immortal. He'd finished the math exam in just half an hour that morning, and now he'd finished Chinese in an hour and ten minutes. Was he the legendary speed demon? How the hell was he this fast?!
But the proctor frowned. "You're done? You didn't take the essay seriously, did you? The college entrance exams are almost here. Can't you take these practice exams seriously?"
Before you continue