Li Hongmei hadn't even noticed that she'd been smiling all the way to work on her bike. Everything looked pleasing to her, and even the sunshine seemed much brighter than usual.
When she entered the office, a female coworker in her forties glanced at her and let out an amused exclamation.
"Hongmei, something good happen at home?"
"Something good? What good news could there be at my age?" Li Hongmei said, but she stopped walking and left it at that.
She was waiting for the other woman to prompt her-one of the unwritten, slightly bizarre rules of adult conversation.
The loud-voiced woman obligingly played along. "Then what's got you looking so happy? You look a dozen years younger."
At 8:52, almost everyone had arrived at the office. Those dragging out chairs, making tea, flipping through notebooks, or laying out calligraphy practice books all pricked up their ears.
"Oh, it's nothing. My boy just made a little money over summer break." Li Hongmei waved a hand. "He was worried I'd tire myself out and absolutely refused to let me make breakfast this morning."
"He wasted money buying breakfast, and even said he'd take care of it from now on."
Now that they were middle-aged, apart from chattering away about gossip, the only pleasures these women with government jobs had were complaining about their husbands and showing off their children. It gave them something to be proud of.
"Your son's grown so thoughtful! That's really rare. That little brat of mine only knows how to play games," the loud-voiced woman chimed in, setting off a wave of responses.
The older coworkers nearby all added their agreement. The younger ones couldn't get a word in, until a smiling new recruit piped up.
"Auntie Li, how are your son's grades?"
Some people really were gifted: one sentence was all it took to make the conversation awkward. Who in the office didn't know that Li Hongmei's son had mediocre grades and would be lucky to get into university at all?
Knock, knock, knock!
At the knocking, Xu Qianqian irritably opened the door a crack. Sure enough, it was Jiang Nian.
"What's wrong with you this early in the morning?"
With a rustle, a bag of breakfast appeared in front of her. Xu Qianqian froze for a moment, at a loss.
"D-don't think you can bribe me!"
"Just eat it if I'm giving it to you. Quit babbling." Jiang Nian clicked his tongue.
Summer was especially hard to endure, and a single breakfast broke through the barrier between them. Xu Qianqian wouldn't admit it, but she was a little touched. After all, she was hungry too.
"Thanks."
"No need. Just lend me your homework to copy after you eat."
Xu Qianqian: "..."
They occupied opposite ends of the dining table. Xu Qianqian ate her breakfast in small, leisurely bites at one end, while Jiang Nian busily copied homework at the other. They weren't in the same class, but their science-stream worksheets were identical.
He didn't dare copy everything, only answers that were within his own ability.
With nothing else to do, Xu Qianqian narrowed her eyes at the molten-gold sunlight streaming through the window, then glanced at Jiang Nian, who was working away with his head down.
"Hey, have you never thought about improving your grades?"
Jiang Nian's pen paused. He looked up with a frown.
"I have. It's just that I've got two trains of thought in my head. One's empty, and the other one's empty too."
Xu Qianqian was speechless. "Then what are you going to do about the college entrance exam?"
Jiang Nian sighed. "I want to study too, but there's so much homework in senior year. My foundations are shaky to begin with, and all my time goes into doing homework."
"That's because you're slow."
"I'm slow because I don't know how to do it." He spread his hands. "By the time I finish one subject, there's no time for the next. What else can I do besides copy?"
Xu Qianqian folded her arms. "Oh, please. That's obviously just an excuse."
Ding!
[Learning quest triggered: live and learn. At thirty-eight, you have just divorced and stand at a crossroads in life. As you approach forty, turning your life around requires not only a strong body, but also the refinement to appreciate beauty. Quest: have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian. Reward: Memory Bread (five hours). While under this effect, you can rapidly memorize information.]
Jiang Nian stared at the panel, bewildered. What the hell kind of quest progression was the system handing out? So... my future self is pursuing Xu Qianqian?
He wasn't opposed to the idea. It just felt rather strange.
Whatever. The reward comes first.
"Xu Qianqian, you're right!" Jiang Nian suddenly grew serious. Looking earnestly at the girl across the dining table, he said, "Giving up is easy. Persevering is hard."
"My English is bad. Since I bought you breakfast, could you teach me how to memorize vocabulary?"
He hadn't suddenly become motivated. He simply knew very well that Xu Qianqian had excellent English grades. She was her class's English representative and scored full marks on almost every exam.
Even more absurdly, she'd not only memorized all 3,500 words required for the college entrance exam, but also the vocabulary for the college-level CET-4 and CET-6 exams. Whenever anyone asked her about English, she was delighted.
Sure enough, Jiang Nian had hit her sweet spot. Her eyes curved into crescents.
"All right. For the sake of breakfast, this princess will graciously enlighten you."
After five minutes of listening, Jiang Nian's inner monologue went like this:
*(*ˊˋ)* As expected of someone who gets perfect scores. She really knows her stuff. Mm-hmm, got it!
Ten minutes:
(_) She seems to be having a great time explaining this. Should I interrupt her?
Twenty minutes:
(﹃) Master, please stop chanting. I wanna die!
Half an hour:
(╯▔皿▔)╯ She goes on even longer than my mom!
"So, did you remember everything I just told you?" Xu Qianqian had talked herself hoarse. She took a sip of her now-cold soy milk, having passed on everything she knew.
"I remember it, but not all of it." Jiang Nian instantly stood and headed straight outside. "Let me mull it over. I'll talk to you this afternoon."
"Hey! You-" Xu Qianqian watched his retreating back, grinding her teeth.
She'd spent half an hour talking for nothing!
Back home, Jiang Nian opened the panel.
[Quest: have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian. (Completed) Reward: Memory Bread (five hours). While under this effect, you can rapidly memorize information.]
After listening to a half-hour study lecture, he'd finally secured the quest reward. Almost instantly, a piece of bread about the size of a Dali Garden snack cake appeared in his hand.
Well, damn. Instant payout.
Jiang Nian rubbed his chin. He was a practical person. Xu Qianqian was right: he couldn't keep slacking off forever. For now, the college entrance exam was still his most pressing concern.
As a resident of a small county town, Jiang Nian had a higher starting point than kids from the countryside. At least he had a fallback: if studying didn't work out, he could come home and use connections to find a job.
But that wasn't what he wanted.
Education was still the best way for ordinary people to change their fate!
Besides, getting into a good university meant not only lower tuition, but also giving his parents something that would let them hold their heads a little higher.
Rote memorization wouldn't guarantee high marks, but it would certainly keep them from being low. Five hours of enhanced memory would be more than enough to go through the 3,500 words required for the college entrance exam.
But spending all that time on vocabulary alone would be rather wasteful. In fact, mastering seventy or eighty percent of the words would be enough to keep his English grades respectable.
So he needed to allocate his time sensibly. After all, the other subjects had material he needed to memorize too.
Jiang Nian turned to the first page and immediately struggled to keep a straight face.
"abandon (give up)"
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