Chapter 8

"When I was taking a walk this morning, I noticed an internet café on the street behind the hospital. I'll just go there. It can count as exercise too."

"Come on, aren't you worried about all that hassle?" Zhang Yang scratched his head. "What about my study notes? Don't you covet my study notes? Do you know how many students in the whole school are drooling over them? I'm letting you read them for free now, so you'd better cherish this chance—"

"I've already memorized them."

Lu Chi's single sentence seemed to hit the pause button. Not just Zhang Yang—even Yue Bin, who had been setting out the food with his head lowered, and the other friends who had been chattering away about game strategies, all fell silent. They raised their heads and silently stared at Lu Chi, their faces clearly saying, I'll just quietly watch you show off.

Under everyone's burning gazes, Lu Chi calmly nodded. "Really."

"How is that possible?" Zhang Yang instantly bristled. "Do you know how long it took me to organize those notes? Do you know how many times I ran to the teachers' offices for them? So many subjects, so many books—without counting charts and diagrams, there have to be at least a million words altogether. Forget someone with a mild concussion like you; even a normal person couldn't memorize all of that in a single day and night."

Zhang Yang said it with absolute certainty.

Lu Chi did not argue with him. He merely smiled faintly. "Nine subjects' worth of notes. Excluding punctuation, there are exactly 1,086,526 characters. Based on the exam syllabus, they cover every humanities and science knowledge point from all three years of high school. Comprehensive, detailed, accurate, progressive, with the right balance of depth and brevity. They're truly excellent."

Zhang Yang stared at Lu Chi in stunned silence, then immediately opened his computer, pulled up the nine documents, clicked on the word counts, and added them together...

Zhang Yang looked up, his face full of haughty pride. "Don't think I don't know you got the total word count for all nine notebooks by using the word-count function just because you praised me so much!"

Lu Chi was only a boy not yet seventeen. Carrying the expectations of his parents and younger brother, he had left his hometown in the Northeast for the capital, Yanjing. He had transferred from a county high school to the best high school in the nation, gone from a top student who had dominated first place in his grade for years to a failing student who could not pass several subjects, then experienced both rescuing a damsel in distress and retaliation from thugs within a single week. He had been struck into a mild concussion, his brain had inexplicably mutated, and he still had to worry whether the fugitive suspects would continue targeting his family, his younger brother and sister...

One trouble after another had come crashing down, piling onto the boy's thin shoulders and pressing him so hard that his nerves were stretched taut and he could barely breathe. Now, seeing Yue Bin and the others looking at him with such disbelief, Lu Chi suddenly remembered the same dismissive attitude the police had shown when they came to take his statement—

No one believes me. Even when I'm telling the truth, you all think I'm making subjective assumptions and talking nonsense... Then... I'll prove it to you!

Lu Chi blinked and smiled faintly at Zhang Yang. "High school mathematics knowledge points. Chapter One: Sets..."

Five minutes later, Zhang Yang's expression had turned solemn as he scrolled the mouse. The math notes on the computer kept flipping through pages, and every page, every word, matched Lu Chi's recitation exactly.

Six minutes later, the friends in the hospital room noticed Zhang Yang's expression. They all put down what they were doing and crowded around him to help watch the computer.

Ten minutes later, everyone's expressions changed slightly.

Thirteen minutes later, Zhang Yang interrupted Lu Chi's recitation, flipped the notes directly to the middle, and casually read out a sentence from a middle paragraph. Lu Chi thought for several seconds, then continued reciting from where Zhang Yang had left off.

Fifteen minutes later, Yue Bin snatched Zhang Yang's computer, closed the math notes, and switched to the English notes. He dragged the mouse directly to about two-thirds of the way down and read out a word in a standard British accent—Lu Chi picked up a bottle of mineral water to wet his throat, then continued from Yue Bin's prompt.

Twenty minutes later, another friend opened the chemistry notes and continued testing Lu Chi with random passages.

Over the next ten minutes, the friends switched through notes from seven subjects in succession, questioning him from different points each time. Whenever the mood struck him, Lu Chi recited them backward with perfect fluency.

Five pairs of eyes stared at the document on the computer screen, checking it word by word from back to front. In the end, they all looked at Lu Chi in utter disbelief.

Only then did Lu Chi, refreshed from reciting, stop. Looking at his friends' green faces, he smiled slightly and said to Zhang Yang, "Thank you for your notes. They're exceptionally good. I've benefited greatly from them."

Chapter 8

"Holy crap!" After a long while, Zhang Yang finally snapped out of his dumbstruck state. He patted Lu Chi on the shoulder in amazement. "You're something else, kid. There are over a million words in those notes. An ordinary person would need several days just to read them once, let alone memorize them. But you can actually recite them backward without a hitch... I'd say this is more than photographic memory. You must be able to read ten lines at a glance, too, right?"

"Exactly!" The other friends also came back to their senses. Looking at Lu Chi's bandaged head, they clicked their tongues in wonder. "That skill of yours is incredible. If I had it, why would I worry about not making the top hundred on exams?"

"More importantly, if I had that skill, then even if I did badly on an exam, I wouldn't be afraid of getting the mixed doubles treatment from my parents anymore—if they dared wave a feather duster at me, I'd immediately spill where my mom hid her secret savings passbook and all her secrets, then leak a few phone numbers for the mistresses my dad keeps. If they want to beat me, they can have an internal war first!"

The others stared at the speaking friend in horror, feeling as though they had just heard something they absolutely should not have.

Yue Bin was more attentive than the rest. He carefully examined Lu Chi's complexion and analyzed in an unhurried tone, "There are over a million words in those notes. Even if you can read ten lines at a glance, it would still take at least ten hours to finish notes from all nine subjects. Zhang Yang came over after six last night. We had dinner at seven, and even if we left at eight... You had to get another brain CT at ten this morning, and when we got here at twelve-thirty, you still hadn't returned from Doctor Sun's office... In other words, from eight last night to ten this morning, even counting the time you spent using the bathroom, taking walks, and eating breakfast, you had a total of fourteen hours to read 1.1 million words..."