The Unforgettable

After memorizing the first sentence, Chen Zhao found he could just about remember the second, so he continued reciting:

"It says: Those who did not bribe Qin were brought down along with those who did, because they lost their powerful allies and could not survive on their own. Therefore, the downfall of the six states was due to their bribing Qin."

Chen Zhao recited very slowly, stumbling over his words. It was obvious he was struggling, and everyone thought he could stop at any moment.

But he never did!

"Besides its military conquests, Qin gained small towns when the stakes were low and entire cities when they were high. Compared with what Qin gained through conquest, what it gained through victory in battle was a hundred times more; what the other states lost through bribery was likewise a hundred times more than what they lost in defeat..."

"Qi had never bribed Qin, yet in the end it followed the other five states into ruin. Why? Because it allied with Qin and did not help the other five states. Once the five states had fallen, Qi could not escape its fate..."

Before long, Chen Zhao actually stopped.

It wasn't that he couldn't remember what came next. He suddenly realized that he had recited the final sentence!

At first, the Chinese teacher had frowned slightly. After all, Chen Zhao was reciting so slowly and haltingly that she expected him to stop after just a few lines.

But as he continued, her expression relaxed more and more. By the time he finished the whole passage, she was looking at him with approval and satisfaction. She nodded for him to sit down.

Chen Zhao had passed. He sat down, a fine sheen of cold sweat on his back. At that moment, he was overwhelmed by astonishment and excitement!

He had memorized an entire passage after reading it carefully just once?!

It was several hundred characters of classical Chinese—long and tedious. Normally, it should have taken at least several hours to commit to memory. But he had only read it once!

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

If he really had a photographic memory, he was going to be incredible!

To test his hunch, Chen Zhao pulled a Chinese reader from his schoolbag and found an article titled The Transmission Study of Ebola Virus.

The article was an example of expository writing, by Richard Preston. The subject and content didn't really matter. He had chosen it because it was long!

It was the longest article in the entire reader, five full pages—probably over two thousand words, about the length of a web novel chapter.

Chen Zhao decided to read it silently once, then see if he could recite it—and how accurate he could be!

The Chinese teacher began going over the test at the front of the classroom. Chen Zhao lowered his head, ignoring her as he stared at the article.

One line!

One paragraph!

One page!

Five pages!

At last, he had read it once.

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

Xu Lanlan blinked in confusion. "What is it?"

"I'm going to recite The Transmission Study of Ebola Virus. Could you follow along and tell me how many mistakes I make, and whether I leave anything out?" Chen Zhao said.

Xu Lanlan was taken aback. She clearly had no idea what Chen Zhao was up to.

But she wasn't studying anyway, and it wasn't much trouble, so she agreed. She picked up the reader and turned to face him. "Go ahead."

Chen Zhao stared at the desktop in front of him and began reciting softly:

"Ebola virus, also known as the Ebolavirus, is an extremely rare virus. After its presence was discovered in 1976 in the Ebola River region of southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), it attracted widespread attention and concern in the medical community..."

At first, Chen Zhao spoke rather slowly. After two pages, his pace picked up. By the end, he was rattling it off like a machine gun, without even pausing for punctuation—fast as could be! He knew it by heart!

In just a few minutes, he had recited the entire article.

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

Xu Lanlan's eyes widened as she stared at him like he was a monster. "None... Not a single word wrong!"

Chen Zhao immediately broke into a radiant, triumphant grin!

Just as he'd thought!

Photographic memory!

No matter how long an article was, if he read it once, he could remember it all!

The system had really given him an IQ of 400! Not only could he solve math problems at lightning speed in his head, he could memorize books at a glance. His intelligence was off the charts!

He was going to be amazing!

Chen Zhao's desire to read burst into flame, the light of learning illuminating his soul. For the entire day, he hardly left his seat. He didn't even put his head down to sleep for a minute. Instead, he kept silently reading his textbooks!

One page!

Five pages!

Thirty pages!

A hundred pages!

One textbook after another passed before his eyes, and a vast sea of knowledge poured into his mind.

Xu Lanlan would sneak glances at Chen Zhao now and then, and the more she did, the more astonished she became. Usually, Chen Zhao would either sit staring blankly into space, his mind wandering over a single page of his textbook for an entire morning, or flop down on his desk and sleep like a log. But today, he was incredibly keyed up, flipping through his textbooks with bright, focused eyes. He seemed tireless, reading all day long.

When evening study ended, Xu Lanlan heard Chen Zhao let out a long breath and mutter softly:

"Finally finished learning it all."

Before Xu Lanlan could ask what he meant, Chen Zhao had already slung his schoolbag over his shoulder and left the classroom without looking back.

It was already late. The cars picking up students had clogged the road outside the school.

At dismissal, the school gate was always hopelessly congested. Whether you were driving a beat-up secondhand Xiali worth tens of thousands or a voice-controlled Maybach worth twelve million, you had to inch along the road. Headlights formed a red ocean, while parents craned their necks, searching for their children.

No one came to pick up Chen Zhao. He crossed through the gridlocked traffic and walked home alone.

Chen Zhao lived in an old residential complex not far from the school. His parents had rented him a place there so he could attend high school more easily. Usually, he lived there by himself while his parents worked back in their hometown. Life was quiet, but lonely.

Before he reached the building, he spotted a beautiful woman standing out front in very short shorts and a black tank top, her long, straight, pale legs on display. She had a cigarette in one hand and was angrily shouting into her phone with the other.

"That bastard made off with four hundred thousand of my money and ran overseas without a word! I can't get hold of him no matter what I try!"

"Wasn't he the virtuous, loyal man you vouched for? You were always sticking up for him! He could fart and you'd call it fragrant! You kept telling me how reliable he was. And now?"

"Call that bastard and tell him to get in touch with me! You two are so close you practically share a pair of shorts. He can't just ignore your call, can he?! Call him right now!"

Her voice was so loud that she could probably be heard in several nearby buildings.

The woman swearing on the phone was Chen Zhao's landlady, Deng Zixin. She looked young, perhaps only twenty. She was the sort of woman with a full bust, a slim waist, long legs, and fair skin—a model-level beauty.

Though 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 from collecting rent. She also seemed to dabble in all kinds of investments. Truly rich people never sat still.

From the way she was cursing on the phone, Chen Zhao could tell that one of her investments had gone wrong and someone had run off with the money. No wonder she was so furious after losing hundreds of thousands.

Chen Zhao decided not to bother her and tried to sneak past behind her.

But just as he was about to enter the stairwell, a hand reached out from behind and grabbed his schoolbag.