Chapter 3
After he swallowed the last bite of rice, he finally lifted his head, looking a bit dazed as if he had just heard Wang Chen speak. “Why aren’t you eating?”
Wang Chen glanced at Zheng Fa’s plate, which was cleaner than if it had been washed, then looked at his own untouched meal, opening his mouth but unable to find the words. He was starting to doubt himself.
Is it really that good?
He picked up his chopsticks, closed his eyes, and took a few big bites...
Ugh!
### Chapter 3: Choosing a New Book Boy
After finishing their meal, Zheng Fa and Wang Chen headed straight back to the classroom.
The classroom was quiet, with more than half the seats empty. The day students had gone home to rest, and a few others were dozing off with their heads on their desks.
Wang Chen had planned to take a nap himself; for a senior who had to wake up at seven for morning self-study, sleep deprivation was a common issue.
Especially after just having lunch, it made him even sleepier.
Just as he was about to lay down, he noticed Zheng Fa, sitting a few seats behind him, had pulled out a book and was mumbling to himself.
“Damn…” Wang Chen muttered under his breath, “Are you seriously studying again? You might as well memorize all the textbooks!”
After years of knowing Zheng Fa, he was well aware of his peculiar habit—memorizing textbooks.
Subjects like Chinese and English, which relied heavily on memorization, were one thing.
But math and physics? Zheng Fa insisted on memorizing those too.
“Insane!” Wang Chen couldn’t help but curse again.
“I’m not memorizing textbooks,” Zheng Fa replied.
“Now that sounds more human.” Wang Chen relaxed and laid down. “Weren’t you memorizing before?”
“Finished it.”
Who can sleep with that going on?
Wang Chen straightened up, trembling as he reached over to flip through the book in Zheng Fa’s hands:
“Three Hundred Problems on Conic Sections”...
“You really are something else!”
Seeing Wang Chen’s incredulous expression, Zheng Fa felt a bit embarrassed. “I was just passing the time.”
“Damn!”
Wang Chen watched as Zheng Fa pulled out the test paper they had received that morning and began to study diligently.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Zheng Fa asked.
Wang Chen shot him a sideways glance. “What do you think?”
...
After a while of studying, when Zheng Fa looked up again, he found Wang Chen had already fallen asleep on his test paper...
He chuckled and put away his book.
To Zheng Fa, memorizing textbooks was a foolish method he resorted to out of necessity.
When he first arrived in this world, he had nothing but an identity; his mind was essentially blank.
His knowledge base would have qualified him as a complete illiterate in his previous world, let alone in this modern one.
As a middle school student, he might not even have been able to earn a kindergarten diploma.
In the early days after his arrival, he scored single digits on several tests.
Fortunately, teachers and classmates assumed his plummeting grades were due to significant family issues.
On the other hand, middle school was compulsory education, so as long as he wanted to learn, he wouldn’t be expelled.
Zheng Fa naturally wanted to improve his grades and keep up with the curriculum.
But he believed he was only average at best and had fallen too far behind in foundational knowledge for ordinary methods to catch him up.
Eventually, he made a bold decision to adopt a foolish method—rote memorization.
He started with elementary school textbooks, not caring whether he understood or not, just memorizing every single word!
In this world, he would memorize for seven days, then spend another seven days in his original world trying to recall and understand it in his mind.
The only advantage of this method was that it allowed him to utilize twice the time compared to others.
It suited his situation perfectly.
Later, after learning a bit about biology, he dubbed this method “rumination.”
Initially, the efficiency wasn’t high.
His memory wasn’t exceptionally gifted, and at first, he could remember less than one-tenth of what he had memorized after seven days.
However, he later learned various memory techniques, like the memory palace method, and gradually became more skilled at this learning approach.
Now, he wouldn’t dare say he had a photographic memory, but he could remember about 80 to 90 percent of a book after reading it two or three times.
Compared to the study techniques of true academic prodigies, his method was undeniably silly and exhausting.
Yet, on the flip side, his foundational knowledge was exceptionally solid.
His grades steadily improved, and while he might have entered Qing Shui High School due to his parents’ legacy, he was now consistently ranked in the top twenty of his class.
After all, while others had spent five years in school, Zheng Fa had genuinely memorized for ten.
The hardships and efforts he endured were not something outsiders could comprehend.
...
Seven days later, when Zheng Fa returned to the Xuan Wei realm, he not only had a belly full of meat but also a head full of knowledge.
Even when listening to his mother speak, he found himself a beat behind.
It was his little sister’s loud cheer that snapped him back to reality.
“Is it true that the lady won’t let Wang Gui return as the book boy?”
Zheng Fa was taken aback; this was no small matter.
Though it seemed like just a position of a book boy, for the tenant farmers in the estate, it represented a significant leap in social status.
“Yeah, I heard that Wang Guan Shi has been going around asking people to speak well of him, but the lady has already said she wants to choose a new book boy and won’t take him,” Zheng Mu recounted the rumors circulating in the estate that day.
The estate was small, and Wang Guan Shi’s past glory had made him a target of envy.
Moreover, Wang Gui returning home to the Zhao family was no trivial matter.
This gossip had been the talk of the estate for the past few days.
Zheng Fa thought deeper than his mother and sister.
In his view, Wang Guan Shi was a very ambitious and clever person.
In just five years, he had not only become the estate manager but had also caught the lady’s eye, with his son becoming the young master’s book boy.
That was no small feat.
It wasn’t impossible for him to become a trusted confidant of the lady and the young master in the future.
Losing the book boy position was a minor issue; what Wang Guan Shi’s family truly feared was incurring the lady’s wrath.
“The lady must have seen through Wang Gui’s true nature!”
Little sister Zheng Shan was clearly the most delighted one.
“Yeah, the lady is a good person. When your father passed, she even gave us ten taels of silver,” Zheng Mu spoke with gratitude when mentioning the lady.
“The lady is a good person! A really good person!” Zheng Shan nodded her little head in agreement.
Seeing the admiration on their faces, Zheng Fa couldn’t help but recall a saying from a sage in another world:
“...the era of stable slavery and the era of striving to be a slave but failing.”
This saying was indeed accurate, striking a chord, and it was both repulsive and irrefutable.
He nodded along with his sister’s words, seemingly excited about the lady’s “restoration of order.”
After all, some things, when spoken, not only bring no benefit but can also harm those around you.
Little sister began to daydream: “What if the lady wants brother to be the book boy!”
“I wonder if Wang Gui would dare to bully us again!”
“I heard Wang Gui say there’s a monthly allowance!”
“And he can learn martial arts with the guards!”
“Then brother would be the strongest person in the estate!”
As she spoke, little sister Zheng Shan’s eyes sparkled: “If the lady lets brother be the book boy, she would be the best person in the world!”
Meanwhile, Zheng Mu glanced at Zheng Fa and gently patted her daughter’s head: “If brother doesn’t become the book boy, does that mean he’s not impressive anymore?”
Little sister clung to Zheng Fa’s arm, sweetly saying, “Brother is already the strongest, but he can be even stronger!”
After little sister fell asleep, Zheng Mu approached Zheng Fa’s room.
“Your sister is still young and doesn’t understand. Don’t think too much about it…”
“Mother?” Zheng Fa looked at her.
“What book boy? We can’t be too ambitious. When Wang Gui comes back, he’ll be in a weak state and won’t even be able to get out of bed. If you... end up like that, your mother and sister wouldn’t know how to live.”
“I understand.”
Watching his mother leave, he lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
A book boy, huh?
He had to admit, even if his mother disapproved, he was tempted.
If his little sister could see the benefits, how could he not?
With a monthly allowance, the family wouldn’t have to ration meat anymore.
He wouldn’t have to endure the cold stares in the estate.
And there was even the most anticipated and curious thing for Zheng Fa in this world—practicing martial arts, or even cultivating immortality.
Striving to be a slave but failing...
The next morning, Zheng Mu was outside washing dirty clothes when a familiar farmer from the estate rushed over. “Old Zheng’s family! Old Zheng’s family! Big news!”
“What news?”
“The lady is selecting a book boy, and this time she wants someone older and more stable. Your Ah Fa is just the right fit!”
### Chapter 4: The Country Folk
The day for selecting the book boy arrived quickly. Three days after the news spread through the estate, a cart came to take Zheng Fa to the Zhao residence.
“I want to go to the city too!” Little sister Zheng Shan clung to Zheng Fa’s sleeve, her voice sticky and sweet.
The Zhao family’s main residence was located in the inner city of Jingzhou. Not to mention little sister Zheng Shan, who was only six, even Zheng Fa had never been there.
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