Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 251 An Alternate Universe Novel in the Library

Next, when the school bell rang again, Xuan Chong suddenly tensed up; in the sunlight shining through the doorway, the new teacher walked onto the podium.

Mr. Gao, the math teacher, stomped his book on the desk, and chalk dust splattered slightly along the gaps in the desk.

"Attend class."

"Hello, teacher~"

His instincts kicked in, and Xuan Chong immediately sat up straight in his seat, completely focused. However, after carefully listening to the entire lesson on the conversions of "sin, cos, tan" and meticulously copying the problems into his exercise book, time passed second by second, and nothing else happened.

The time travel that happened in history class didn't happen in math class; it seemed like it was just a dream during history class.

However, Xuan Chong was still quite emotional: this knowledge should have been something he learned once in junior high school and quickly forgotten after adulthood; now, it's like a program being activated, and he can use it at will in his mind. That is, when he sees a triangular object, he can habitually deduce trigonometric functions.

"Reborn?" Xuan Chong was a little confused, but he felt more like he had returned to the past, when he was twelve or thirteen years old.

Nothing unusual happened in this math class. As the bell rang again, the class ended.

Then, during the third and fourth periods, until school ended at noon, Xuan Chong felt he had never listened to a lesson as attentively as he had in junior high. He thought to himself, "If I could really listen like this, I'd probably jump a whole level in the college entrance exam!"

However, the price was being starving. My brain was drained of nutrients. I was so tired after class that I didn't want to move at all. I didn't even have the interest to read the novel I kept in my desk drawer.

At lunchtime, Xuan Chong fumbled for the one yuan in his pocket, looked at the snack shops, and swallowed hard. In the end, he went to the steamed bun shop next door and ordered the cold steamed buns that were left over from the morning.

The next week was just routine.

My parents would nag, asking, "Did you listen attentively in class today?" and then, "Have you finished your homework?" After asking all that, they would let me go into my room while they turned on the TV outside.

Once upon a time, Xuan Chong didn't understand; but now Xuan Chong suddenly realized, isn't this the scene he would routinely collect resources in the game decades later? — A few years later, QQ became popular, and everyone would still click to plant vegetables every day; ten years later, WeChat came, and parents would post their daily step counts.

Xuan Chong silently experienced the habits of the past.

Xuan Chong: Yeah, if I were this age in my previous life, when the TV outside started playing the song "Hey friend, if you were here...", at least half, if not a third, of my mind would have been wandering outside.

However, considering that I'll have to spend all my time on exams at work in the future—well, I should focus on finishing my homework for now.

After finishing his homework, Xuan Chong walked out of his room and asked, "Dad, I feel like my brain isn't working properly. I feel dizzy in class."

The mother, who was knitting, immediately became anxious: "Could something be wrong with your brain? Go to the hospital for a checkup, get it checked right away."

Xuan Chong remembered that his family was well-off. Apart from a small allowance, they were never stingy with anything he needed; he still had some Brain Gold in his room, along with zinc gluconate and calcium supplements. Now, after being reborn, he knew that all that stuff was useless, a complete waste of money.

The next day, Xuan Chong asked for a box full of small candies and put it in his backpack. He would suck on one during math class so his brain would be energized and he wouldn't be hypnotized by the math teacher.

Before leaving home, my dad said, "After you finish eating, remember to drink water and rinse your mouth promptly, so you don't ruin your teeth."

Xuan Chong, carrying his schoolbag, said, "I know, I know, I know!"

…Xuan Chong's most familiar impression of his parents was: as long as he studied hard, they would try their best to meet all other needs…

Every morning thereafter, Xuan Chong ate two eggs, just like the pills used to aid cultivation in fantasy novels.

During breaks, we all diligently did radio calisthenics and eye exercises. — Although I can't remember exactly what "body-freezing technique" was, I know that good health is essential.

Xuan Chong knew that after he came of age, he would have to face the great tide of the times.

After these few days of testing, I realized that my reborn self doesn't have any cheat codes. So, I'll honestly and patiently do everything I can to get things done well.

Xuan Chong sighed: In a way, being reborn is like having a cheat code. Back then, at this age, I hadn't even figured things out yet. In my previous life, I only realized I needed to start learning when I was eighteen.

Boys usually mature later, but Xuan Chong is five years ahead of schedule. After all, he experienced the stages of being neither confused nor knowing one's destiny in his previous life, so returning to his youth means he won't be "dazzled by a riot of beautiful flowers."

A week later, during a class exam, Xuan Chong secretly ate a few candied dates and finished the test while keeping time.

Although I've been working very hard lately, it doesn't mean I can hand in my paper early. As an ordinary test-taker, I should face the exam with the same seriousness and determination as a general.

Generals should familiarize themselves with the "battlefield situation" in advance, then deploy "appropriate forces" accordingly, while reserving reserve forces.

The situation here is as follows: the test paper has several categories of questions, including "multiple choice," "fill in the blank," and "application analysis," and each question assesses a different level of understanding from different fronts.

In the exam room, the only "force" you can deploy is your calculation and thinking ability. You need to quantify your time in advance and accurately allocate your mental energy for "solving questions" to each time slot.

In the end, when Xuan Chong finished all the papers, he only had "five to ten minutes" of preparation time to think and review the entire paper.

Xuan Chong concludes: Apart from exceptionally gifted test-takers, most people, well, like myself, even with the most diligent study, cannot complete a two-hour exam in just one hour.

Reading takes time, thinking takes time, calculations and queries take time; in a rush, making a mistake and having to recalculate also takes time.

As soon as the exam bell rang, Xuan Chong raced against time to finish the questions. After filling in the paper, Xuan Chong realized he wasn't sure about three multiple-choice questions; for the fourth blank in the fill-in-the-blank section, he couldn't find a similar standard question type in the examples he had reviewed this week; and in the essay questions, the second-to-last question seemed a bit "too easy," indicating he had probably missed a key point. He figured these were the only points he would lose.

After collecting the papers, Xuan Chong heard the bell ring again, and as he stretched, the book "The Fierce Soldier" fell off the table once more.

Xuan Chong saw the books on the ground and the library card that had popped out, and suddenly remembered that he should return the books!
…In the photo on my library card, I look like a country bumpkin wearing buzz cut glasses…

When school was over, Xuan Chong bumped into his math teacher, Mr. Gao, in the hallway and instinctively made way for him. Mr. Gao stopped and said to Xuan Chong, "Your grades have improved recently. Keep up the good work. Try again next time."

Xuan Chong nodded perfunctorily, "Thank you for your concern, teacher. I will definitely study hard." He absentmindedly made sure that the teacher had moved past a few steps and then he was out of the teacher's sight.

After waiting for the teacher to come upstairs, Xuan Chong took a deep breath and carefully hid the novel he was holding in his backpack. Xuan Chong hid all his novels very well. In the eyes of his high school teachers, reading novels and playing King of Glory more than ten years later were both "causes of poor grades" during their student days. To this, Xuan Chong thought, "The teacher is right."

The school library is located in the science and technology building. The osmanthus trees in front of the building are fragrant. It is a 200-square-meter room on the right-hand corner of the first floor after entering.

The bookshelves are filled with all sorts of books: astronomy and science, novels; and, well, classic revolutionary stories from the 1960s and 70s, tales of Zhou Bapi (a notorious exploiter). There are also technical books on methods of steelmaking, their pages yellowed, indicating they're decades old. Of course, there are also new books.

Xuan Chong swiped his library card at the entrance and greeted the librarian on duty. After all, he remembered the librarian as being very kind to him.

The teacher pushed up his glasses: "Haven't seen you around much lately?" Xuan Chong: "I've been busy with exams."

After completing the formalities, Xuan Chong returned the book to the teacher, and after thinking for a while, he went into the library.

Unbeknownst to him, Xuan Chong arrived at the place where he had borrowed the novel "The Fierce Soldier," glanced at it, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

He discovered a historical fiction novel called "Heroes of the Late Qin Dynasty". As if guided by fate, Xuan Chong opened the book, but after reading just one glance, he was immediately stunned, because the content was incredibly captivating.

…Story Collection…

Later that afternoon, during the "Multimedia Information Class" (which was a class that taught students how to use the internet), Xuan Chong skipped that unimportant class and spent the afternoon in the library, quickly flipping through the novel.

This contains a story.

A boy surnamed Ma was born. His family's original surname was Zhao, but after a major defeat, they left their homeland and changed their surname to Ma. However, the knowledge he had inherited was of no use in this unified era. Moreover, the books in his family's collection were listed as forbidden books by the Qin government.

Yes, when the First Emperor unified the country, he collected all the weapons in the land and cast twelve bronze statues to quell the resistance of the nobles of the six states. The physical "weapons" were imprisoned, but what about the "weapons" in thought?

When the decree to burn books was issued, the young man surnamed Ma remembered that his elders personally supervised him to memorize all the military books passed down from his father, and then he threw the bamboo slips into the fire to burn them.

The elder, standing before the fire, asked the boy, "Do you know everything in the military treatise?"

The young man surnamed Ma nodded.

Then the elder asked, "What will you do if we need it in the future?"

The boy was bewildered.

The elder sighed: "Being well-versed in military strategy doesn't guarantee practical application. Start as a common soldier, follow a seasoned general into battle, and then take command of troops." — The young man learned that the reason his family changed their name from Zhao to Ma was because an elder in his clan had been well-versed in military strategy since childhood, but ultimately suffered a defeat in his first battle.

The young man surnamed Ma obtained a sword and then left his family. In order to conceal his surname, he came to the former territory of Korea, whereupon he resolved to establish his integrity and changed his surname to Han.

However, with the world now at peace, his military skills were rendered useless, and he was forced to wander the streets. Due to poverty, and carrying a sword once reserved for the nobility, he suffered much humiliation, often relying on others for food. He would eat for a day or two at a time, eventually provoking the host's impatience. One day, the host finished his meal early, leaving him with nothing, and the young man was forced to leave. He was ambushed by thugs in the marketplace and had to crawl between their legs.

However, just when he thought he was going to starve to death, the world fell into chaos, and he finally found a useful place.

The young man surnamed Han joined the Chu army, which was the most powerful army in the land at the time, and became a disciple of the same young general, "Yu".

After the legion won a battle, Han decided to offer his strategy; however, General Yu listened to his strategy with surprise and then inquired about his family background. After all, in this era, those who knew "military strategy" were rare talents, even in the Six Kingdoms period.

However, due to his youth, the young man surnamed Han, facing General Yu who was equally like a god, blurted out his family background like a first-time lover facing his goddess. But—precisely because he revealed his family, General Yu's attitude clearly turned cold, and he did not heed the advice.

The young man surnamed Han knew that this was the infamy brought about by the "great defeat" of his family's ancestors; after all, the entire army of the country was entrusted to a young general from a prestigious family who was "well-versed in military strategy," and in the end, they all became withered bones in a pit.

From that moment on, the boy surnamed Han knew that he could never reveal his real surname again.

…The book has been turned to the last two-thirds…

Xuan Chong saw the chapter titled "Ambush from Ten Sides"—General Han looked at Yu, who was finally trapped in a stalemate, and a hint of pleasure was conveyed in his breath.

Xuan Chong finished reading the book, and on the last page it was clearly written: "This article is purely fictional, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

Xuan Chong: "Fictional? Hmm, but it makes a lot of sense." Putting aside other things, the fact that Han Xin innovated the grain storage management rules proves that someone in Han Xin's family must have worked in the national grain storage system. Zhao She was an official in charge of taxation in his early years and was very effective.

At this point, Xuan Chong realized that under the conditions of ancient productivity, a complex "skill" was often passed down through generations within a family. Even when a master taught an apprentice, there was often a situation where he would hold back some skills.

Xuan Chong left the library and inexplicably walked to the librarian to renew his copy of the novel "The Fierce Soldier." After all, it seemed that this novel had some inexplicable connection to him in the entire library.

Finally, Xuan Chong glanced at the last page: "This article is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental."

What year is it tonight?

After Xuan Chong left the library.

The teacher pushed up his glasses, walked to the bookshelf, picked up the novel Xuan Chong was reading, checked the cover, and slowly said, "This story did happen, but not in the past timeline of the main world."

The school bell rang again. In the empty library, the teacher pressed the Enter key on the bulky CRT computer in front of him. Instantly, the entire library transformed into a strange place. The books on the shelves became smooth interfaces, each with a dimensional portal.

The teachers' clothing was no longer the homespun checkered clothes, and even their appearances changed to extremely youthful faces.

As for the bulky computer in front of her, it transformed into a spatial window. The teacher reached into the spatial window, picked up the "novel" interface of "Heroes of the Late Qin Dynasty" that Xuan Chong had just been reading, and entered some "feature codes" from the interface to perform a search.

In terms of dimensions, there is a special "historical spatiotemporal region" that continuously deduces historical lines, inputs broken historical records into it, and through spatiotemporal logic verification, it can reconstruct the past history.

Note: 21st-century videos can be restored to high definition using algorithms. In contrast, in the 40th century, fragmented historical records could be repaired through causal logic calculations across various celestial regions.

In front of the dimensional interface of the novel "Heroes of the Late Qin Dynasty", the teacher reached out and picked out seven or eight gem-like objects.

Inside these gems, a light shimmers like life itself.

Teacher: "Oh, the awareness of packaging. This poor thing (Pu'e) has invested quite a lot."

This refers to the teaching aids Xuan Chong encountered in his history class; in this dimension, they are normally called "filled consciousness." Each gem contains obsession information, and this obsession information preserves some remnants of consciousness.

This is the essence of the "character cards" drawn by time travelers like Pu'e in the Wisdom and Courage System.

The most dazzling gems in this librarian's possession were undoubtedly the two: "Zhao Cheng" and "Wu Hengyu." Of course, there were others as well. It was quite obvious that during Pu E's time travel, her character card inventory in the system was compromised and she was exploited.

This is the achievement of the "good student" who just entered the library, and returning the book is to confirm the achievement.

The teacher checked Xuan Chong's time travel information: "Hmm? He earned a total of forty-seven credits, but only used up less than five. Tsk tsk, his grades are really good. No wonder he was specially recruited by xxx (not approved)."

Credit calculation: Xuan Chong's total score on the exam was around 34 points; while Zhao Cheng's acceptance of defeat, Xian Daoren's admission of defeat, and Wu Hengyu's sigh—these obsessions were exposed and seized upon by the library, which then calculated the extracurricular credits.

(End of this chapter)