Half the class had been lost to that math lesson, and only a few minutes remained. Chen Zhao had spaced out for a moment, and class was already over.
The second period was Chinese. The teacher arrived early and began writing on the blackboard, so Chen Zhao rummaged through his desk for his Chinese textbook.
After searching for ages, he pulled a Chinese textbook out of his desk compartment.
The top students in the front rows took out their books too and opened them. They were covered in dense annotations and lines in red and black ink, like a battlefield left in disarray after repeated clashes.
Chen Zhao opened his book. It was cleaner than his face—spotless and pristine, like new.
Well, it wasn't entirely unmarked. He'd drawn Du Fu riding a motorcycle, with a heavy machine gun sticking out from the front. It looked incredibly cool.
To be honest, Chinese was the subject Chen Zhao had studied the most.
But he never listened to the teacher!
Every class, he'd take out his textbook and read it aimlessly to himself.
Before long, he'd start daydreaming, imagining he was an ancient scholar and that a beautiful snake-woman would soon peek over the wall to call his name. If the class was in the evening, he'd stare out into the darkness and imagine demons wandering outside.
With all those wild thoughts, Chinese class passed in a relaxed, pleasant haze.
But his grades were a disaster. He'd often start daydreaming before he'd even finished reading the lesson, and as for the passages he was supposed to memorize, he never knew them.
During every exam, he got basically zero on recitation and dictation!
Recitation and dictation were basic questions. If he couldn't even get those points, his Chinese grade was easy to imagine.
Just as Chen Zhao was feeling dejected, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind:
Now that his intelligence had improved, could his memory have gotten better too?
He'd already tasted the benefits of solving math problems. Questions that had once seemed difficult now looked laughably easy. Surely his higher intelligence would help with subjects besides math, too?
The system had given him a full 400 IQ—several times smarter than Einstein!
To test whether his memory had improved as well, Chen Zhao opened his Chinese textbook, found a lengthy classical Chinese passage he had to memorize—Su Xun's On the Six States—and began reciting it!
He'd barely read this passage before, so studying it now felt like previewing a lesson. The words came haltingly:
"The Six States fell not because their weapons were blunt or their battles poorly fought, but because they bribed Qin. Bribing Qin weakened their strength; that was the path to ruin. Some say, 'The Six States all fell one after another. Did they all bribe Qin?'"
"What the feudal lords lost, compared with what they lost in battle, was more than a hundred times greater. Qin's greatest desire and the feudal lords' greatest fear were clearly not matters of war. Think of their forefathers, who braved frost and dew and cleared brambles to win even a tiny piece of land..."
"Later, when Qin attacked Zhao twice, Li Mu repelled them both times..."
"Now, the Six States and Qin were all feudal states. They were weaker than Qin, yet still had the means to defeat it without bribery. If a realm as vast as ours were to follow the example of the Six States and bow down to ruin, then it would be in an even worse position than they were!"
As he read, he felt something strange.
Before, when he read classical Chinese, he hadn't understood what it meant. The sentences passed through him without leaving any impression, like raindrops falling on parched earth and vanishing at once.
But now, after each sentence, he felt as if he were laying a brick. Each line was a brick, gradually taking shape in his mind.
At last, he finished reading the long passage.
As soon as he finished, he heard the Chinese teacher say from the front of the classroom:
"I assigned you to review and memorize the passage last night. You've all done it, right?"
A group of students in the back answered weakly, "Yes."
The top students in the front rows lifted their chins. "Yes!"
The Chinese teacher said calmly, "Then I'll call on people by number. Number 26!"
Chen Zhao froze, then looked horrified.
Number 26 was none other than him!
Xu Lanlan leaned over and whispered, "Can you recite it? Were you hiding your abilities when it came to Chinese?"
Chen Zhao's face went pale as he cursed, "How the hell would I know!" Shaking, he stood up and looked at the teacher.
He was just about to say he couldn't when the teacher immediately gave him the prompt:
"Recite On the Six States!"
The whole class turned to look. Seeing Chen Zhao's pale face, everyone knew he really couldn't recite classical poems and prose. He hadn't been hiding his abilities or anything. The teacher had called on him plenty of times before, and nine times out of ten he couldn't recite the passage and had to stand as punishment.
Chen Zhao thought for a moment and realized he could still remember the first sentence, so he struggled to speak, making one last desperate attempt:
"The Six States fell not because their weapons were blunt or their battles poorly fought, but because they bribed Qin. Bribing Qin weakened their strength; that was the path to ruin. Some say, 'The Six States all fell one after another. Did they all bribe Qin?'..."
If you enjoy this book, add it to your library so you won't have trouble finding it next time.
At readers' request, we're now offering an ad-free feature for VIP members.
Click to view
Before you continue