"Xiuwen, could you discreetly find out what kind of girl Zhang Shuai likes? I feel like maybe I came on too strong and scared him off. Is that why he keeps refusing to accept me?"
"Xiaoya, I think you should give up sooner rather than later. Don't hang yourself from the same tree. He probably doesn't like your personality. At those parties, you'd start getting wild and flirtatious as soon as you had a few drinks. You scared him."
"Then what if I start acting like a demure lady around him from now on and talk less? Could I change his opinion of me?"
"I doubt it. First impressions matter a lot between men and women. You ruined your image by drinking, and I'm afraid it'll be hard to recover from that."
Sun Xiaoya wore a troubled expression. "I didn't know he was so innocent before. Zhang Shuai has a childhood friend who lives in the same neighborhood as my family, so I asked him about Zhang Shuai's past. You wouldn't believe it—Zhang Shuai even suffered from depression when he was little. He stayed in his rural hometown and didn't talk to people. He only came to the city in the past couple of months, and he's working as an electrician with his childhood friend."
Lin Xiuwen was surprised. "He suffered from depression? He seems perfectly normal to me, apart from seeming a little innocent sometimes."
"He is innocent. After all, he grew up in the countryside, never went out into the world, and hasn't seen much. He's still inexperienced. But that's exactly why a man like him is such a treasure! I'm good at judging people. Zhang Shuai is definitely going to make something of himself. Don't you think?"
"I do. He's so talented. With a photographic memory like his, he could succeed in any field, right?"
"Exactly. And he's so handsome, too. He's just my type, so I don't want to let a treasure like him slip away."
Lin Xiuwen furrowed her brow, unsure how to persuade Sun Xiaoya to give up.
Just then, Zhang Shuai walked over and greeted the two women as naturally as could be.
"Sun Xiaoya, Lin Xiuwen, what are you two lovely ladies chatting about?"
Sun Xiaoya opened her mouth, ready to say they were talking about him, the handsome guy. But just as the words reached her lips, she seemed to think of something and swallowed them.
Lin Xiuwen smiled. "We were waiting for you. Come on, I'll take you to sort out the paperwork for auditing classes."
Lin Xiuwen and Sun Xiaoya took Zhang Shuai to the School of Liberal Arts' office building and found the Student Affairs Office. A staff member gave Zhang Shuai a form to fill out for his auditor application. One section asked for his educational background, and he shamelessly wrote down that he had graduated from high school.
Once he had filled in the basic information, he submitted the application.
Lin Xiuwen told Zhang Shuai to head back and wait for the approval. It should come through by the next day.
The next morning, Lin Xiuwen messaged him to say that his application to audit classes had been approved. She asked him to come collect his auditor pass for the semester and pay the auditing fees.
Zhang Shuai went to the university. With Lin Xiuwen guiding him, he collected his auditor pass and downloaded the course schedules for the Ancient Chinese Characters program from freshman through junior year. Then he picked out all the courses he wanted to attend.
The courses covered freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Zhang Shuai only wanted to attend classes related to the evolution of ancient Chinese characters. He skipped basic courses such as Ancient Chinese and Ancient History of the Dragon Kingdom. Most were freshman-level courses, and they wouldn't be useful to him, so he focused only on the important ones.
In the end, he paid eighteen thousand yuan in auditing fees. It was no small amount, and he was lucky to have made a pile of money in the Beautiful Country. Otherwise, even the fees would have been a problem.
After paying, he collected a huge stack of textbooks. By the time he had finished running around, the day was gone.
The next morning, Zhang Shuai attended his first class, Introduction to Philology.
The class was held in Multimedia Classroom No. 9, where the Ancient Chinese Characters program held its lectures. Zhang Shuai arrived before nine and quietly took a seat at the back.
When he arrived, only three or five students were in the classroom, all of them male.
The students were surprised to see Zhang Shuai. He looked about twenty-four or twenty-five, too old to be an undergraduate. He might have been a second- or third-year graduate student, but why would a graduate student come to a basic class like Introduction to Philology?
Zhang Shuai paid no attention to their curious looks. He had expected this sort of attention when he decided to audit university classes. Back in his rural hometown, he had grown used to people looking at him strangely from a young age. The villagers had all treated him like an idiot, so he was used to it.
A few minutes later, students began arriving one after another. There weren't many of them—only about forty or fifty in all.
Before long, Professor Wang Songlin arrived. His expertise in ancient Chinese characters was among the best in the country. He was a full professor, and when it came to research on the Origin and Evolution of Ancient Chinese Characters, he was a renowned name nationwide. He had even helped write much of the textbook for the subject.
"Before we begin, I want to make sure everyone understands what this course, Introduction to Philology, is about. To give you a general overview, it covers the origins and nature of ancient Chinese characters, their structure and evolution, and the rules governing the development of writing..."
Zhang Shuai listened intently, taking in every word Professor Wang said.
As he lectured, Professor Wang used a projector to introduce the origins and evolution of writing in the Dragon Kingdom.
"There are various hypotheses about the origins of writing. Two of the main ones are the mythological Cangjie Creating Characters Theory and the Knotted Rope Theory. By examining ancient legends alongside archaeological discoveries, we can explore how writing in the Dragon Kingdom might first have emerged..."
"We'll look at the forms of early writing, such as the symbols carved into pottery, and how early symbol systems relate to the origins of writing. We'll analyze how these simple symbols gradually evolved into characters with a systematic capacity to convey meaning..."
Professor Wang's lectures were vivid, and Zhang Shuai listened with rapt attention. Before he knew it, the class was over.
In the afternoon, Zhang Shuai audited two sophomore-level courses in ancient Chinese characters: General Theory of Oracle Bone Script and General Theory of Golden Literature.
For the next two months, Zhang Shuai attended every class on schedule. When there were no classes, he studied the ancient characters in the Small Heavenly Cycle Art. After more than two months of systematic study, he had gained a basic understanding of the field of ancient Chinese characters.
Zhang Shuai had thought that coming to university with Lin Xiuwen would bring them closer and give them more chances to spend time together and be intimate. But now he realized that, with Sun Xiaoya around, Lin Xiuwen didn't dare date him openly. And Zhang Shuai felt too embarrassed to ask her to spend the night at his rented place, in case she thought he was a lecher.
There was no need to rush. Zhang Shuai could live without a woman, and he devoted all his attention to studying ancient Chinese characters.
There could be no mistakes in deciphering the Small Heavenly Cycle Art, so Zhang Shuai studied ancient Chinese characters with great care.
Yet the more he studied, the less sure he felt.
He felt that even if he mastered all the knowledge of ancient Chinese characters available in the country, it would still be hard to translate the Small Heavenly Cycle Art perfectly. The characters in it bore a slight resemblance to oracle bone script, but they weren't the same.
There were too few reference points. Perhaps he could piece together a rough translation by guessing, but its accuracy would suffer greatly.
But there could be no mistakes in a cultivation method. Even a small error might cause problems with cultivation or make it ineffective.
For those two months, Zhang Shuai had thrown himself into his studies. He had barely seen Lin Xiuwen.
Although they attended the same university and were a couple, they had only managed to meet a few times during the first few days of the first month. Lin Xiuwen had found time to visit his rented place, and they had been intimate twice. Of course, that meant little more than kissing. They had both stayed behind the line and hadn't gone all the way.
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