Photographic Memory

After finishing the first sentence, Chen Zhao realized he could barely remember the second, so he continued reciting:

"It says: Those who do not bribe perish along with those who do, for having lost strong support, they cannot survive alone. Therefore it is said: The disaster lies in bribing the Qin."

Chen Zhao's recitation speed was very slow and stuttering; it was obvious he was struggling immensely. Everyone felt he would stop at any moment.

However, he never stopped!

"Beyond what the Qin acquired through conquest, they gained small towns, and in larger cases, entire cities. Compared to what the Qin gained, the gains from winning battles were actually a hundred times less; what the feudal lords lost, compared to what they lost in defeat, was actually a hundred times more..."

"The people of Qi never bribed the Qin, yet they eventually followed the five states into destruction. Why? Because they allied with the Qin and did not assist the five states. Once the five states perished, the Qi could not escape either..."

Before long, Chen Zhao actually stopped.

It wasn't that he couldn't recite anymore, but he suddenly realized he had already finished the very last sentence!

When he first started reciting, the Chinese teacher's brows were slightly furrowed; after all, he was reciting so slowly and haltingly that she expected him to stop after only a few sentences.

As Chen Zhao continued, her brows relaxed more and more, and by the time he finished, she already wore an expression of approval and satisfaction, nodding to signal for Chen Zhao to sit down.

Chen Zhao passed the test, sat down, and felt a fine layer of cold sweat on his back. At this very moment, he was plunged into a state of immense shock and ecstasy!

A text he had only read through carefully once, he had actually memorized the whole thing?!

A classical Chinese text of several hundred characters, long and tedious—logically, it should have taken at least several hours to commit to memory. Yet now, he had only read it once!

Could this be the legendary... photographic memory!?

If it really was a photographic memory, then he was going to be absolutely incredible!

To verify his suspicion, Chen Zhao pulled a Chinese reader from his bag and found an article titled The Transmission Study of Ebola Virus.

This article was used as an example of an expository essay, and the author was Richard Preston. In truth, the content and subject matter didn't matter; the reason he chose this article was because it was long enough!

The longest article in the entire Chinese reader, it spanned a full five pages and was estimated to be over two thousand characters, equivalent to a chapter of a web novel.

Chen Zhao decided to read this article silently once, then see if he could recite it! And if he could, how high would his accuracy be!

The Chinese teacher began lecturing on the test papers at the podium, but Chen Zhao kept his head down, ignoring her and staring at the text.

One line!

One paragraph!

One page!

Five pages!

Finally, he finished reading it once.

Chen Zhao placed the reader on Xu Lanlan's desk. "Can you do me a favor?"

Xu Lanlan blinked, looking confused. "What favor?"

"I'm going to recite that article, The Transmission Study of Ebola Virus, for you. Help me check how many mistakes I make and if I miss anything," Chen Zhao said.

Xu Lanlan was stunned at first, her expression clearly showing she didn't understand what Chen Zhao was up to.

However, she wasn't studying anyway, and it wasn't much trouble, so she agreed and picked up the reader to face Chen Zhao. "Start."

Chen Zhao stared at the desktop in front of him and began to recite in a low voice:

"Ebola virus is also translated as the Ebola virus. It is a very rare virus. After its existence was discovered in 1976 in the Ebola River region of southern Sudan and the Congo (Kinshasa) (formerly known as Zaire), it attracted widespread attention and concern from the medical community..."

At first, Chen Zhao's speaking speed was relatively slow, but after reciting two pages, his speed became faster and faster. By the end, he was like a machine gun, not even pausing for punctuation; he was flying! He knew it by heart!

In a few minutes, the entire article was recited.

"How was it? How many mistakes?" Chen Zhao asked.

Xu Lanlan widened her eyes, looking at Chen Zhao as if he were a monster. "No mistakes... not a single word wrong!"

Chen Zhao immediately broke into a smile! A bright, smug smile!

Indeed!

Photographic memory!

No matter how long the article was, as long as he read it once, he could remember it firmly!

The system said it gave him an IQ of 400, and it really did give him an IQ of 400! Not only was his mental math speed for solving problems incredibly fast, but he could also memorize books with a photographic memory; this level of intelligence was simply explosive!

I'm going to be a big deal!

Chen Zhao was completely ignited with the desire to read, the light of learning shining through his soul. For the entire day, Chen Zhao barely left his seat, nor did he lay his head on the desk to sleep for even a minute; instead, he read the textbooks silently without stopping!

One page!

Five pages!

Thirty pages!

One hundred pages!

One textbook after another flipped before his eyes, and a massive amount of knowledge poured into his mind continuously.

Xu Lanlan stole a glance at Chen Zhao from time to time, and the more she looked, the more shocked she felt. Usually, Chen Zhao would either be dazed, staring at a page of his textbook for the whole morning, or he would lay flat on his desk and sleep like a dead pig. But today, Chen Zhao was incredibly hyper, his eyes burning as he flipped through his textbooks. Tireless, he flipped for the entire day.

When the evening self-study session ended, Xu Lanlan heard Chen Zhao let out a long sigh of relief and mutter to himself:

"Finally finished learning everything."

Before Xu Lanlan could even ask for clarification, Chen Zhao had already shouldered his backpack and walked out of the classroom without looking back.

It was already quite late, and the school gate was jammed with cars picking up students, creating a chaotic mess.

The school entrance was always packed solid at dismissal time; it didn't matter if you were driving a beat-up second-hand Xiali worth a few thousand or a voice-controlled Maybach worth 12 million, everyone had to obediently crawl along the road inch by inch. The headlights on the street formed a sea of red, with parents craning their necks to search for their children.

No one was there to pick up Chen Zhao, so he wove through the stagnant traffic, reached the other side of the road, and walked home all by himself.

The place where Chen Zhao lived was an old residential complex not far from the school. To let their son attend high school, his parents had specifically rented this place for him to make his commute more convenient. Chen Zhao usually lived here alone while his parents worked back in their hometown. His life was very quiet, yet also very lonely.

Before he even reached the building, he saw a beautiful woman wearing denim shorts and a black tank top, her straight, fair legs exposed, standing in front of the entrance. She held a cigarette in one hand and was cursing loudly while on the phone with the other.

"That bastard swindled me out of four hundred thousand and ran off abroad without a word! I can't get a hold of him no matter how I try!"

"Wasn't he the virtuous and loyal official you recommended? You protected him so much! You even claimed his farts smelled like flowers! You told me every single day how reliable he was, and now look at this!"

"You call that bastard and tell him to contact me! You two are so close you practically share a pair of pants; if you call him, he can't possibly ignore it, right!? Call him right now!"

Her shouting was so loud that the nearby buildings could probably hear every word.

The woman cursing away was Chen Zhao's landlady, Deng Zixin. She looked very young, perhaps just twenty years old. She was the type of model-tier girl with a large bust, a slim waist, long legs, and fair, beautiful skin.

Although young, Deng Zixin was incredibly wealthy; the building Chen Zhao lived in and the one behind it both belonged to her. She could live in luxury just by collecting rent. She also seemed to be involved in various investments; truly rich people were never idle.

Listening to her rant on the phone, Chen Zhao knew she had suffered an investment failure and had been swindled. With hundreds of thousands down the drain, it was no wonder she was so furious.

Chen Zhao decided not to disturb her and tried to sneak past her back.

But just as he was about to enter the stairwell, his backpack was grabbed by a hand from behind.