Chapter 4: Selecting a Book Boy Again

After finishing their meal, Zheng Fa and Wang Chen returned directly to the classroom.

The classroom was very quiet; more than half the seats were empty as the day students had gone home to rest, while a small portion of the seats had people lying on their desks taking afternoon naps.

Wang Chen had originally planned to sleep for a while; for a Gao San student with morning self-study at seven, lack of sleep had become the norm.

Moreover, having just eaten lunch made one even sleepier.

As soon as he lay down, he discovered that Zheng Fa, sitting in the seat to his side and rear, had actually taken out a book, his lips moving as he muttered to himself.

"Damn..." Wang Chen muttered a curse: "Are you grinding again? You might as well just memorize all the textbooks."

Having been classmates with Zheng Fa for so many years, he had long learned of Zheng Fa's strange quirk—memorizing textbooks.

It was one thing for subjects leaning on memory like Chinese and English.

But Zheng Fa actually memorized Math and Physics too.

"Insane!" Thinking of this, Wang Chen couldn't help but curse again.

"I'm not memorizing the textbook."

"That sounds more human." Wang Chen lay down with relief: "Weren't you memorizing before?"

"Finished memorizing."

Who could possibly sleep after that?

Wang Chen straightened his body, tremblingly reached out his hand, and flipped through the book in Zheng Fa's hand:

"Three Hundred Problems to Break Through Conic Sections"...

"You really aren't human!"

Seeing his expression of disbelief, Zheng Fa felt a bit embarrassed: "Idle hands are idle hands."

"Damn!"

Zheng Fa watched as Wang Chen took out the newly distributed morning exam papers and began to work hard with a flurry of writing.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

Wang Chen glanced at him sideways: "Why do you think?"

After memorizing for a while, when Zheng Fa looked up again, the Wang Chen in front of him was already fast asleep on top of the exam papers...

He smiled and put away the book in front of him.

Memorizing textbooks was, in Zheng Fa's view, a clumsy method he was forced to use.

When he arrived in this world a few years ago, apart from an identity, he could be said to have an empty head.

His knowledge reserve would have counted as pure illiteracy in the previous world, let alone this modern world.

As a middle school student, in terms of ability, he might not even get a kindergarten diploma.

When he first transmigrated, his scores on several exams were single digits.

Fortunately, on one hand, teachers and classmates thought his grades had plummeted because of a major family incident.

On the other hand, middle school is compulsory education; as long as you want to learn, you won't be expelled.

Zheng Fa naturally wanted to improve his grades and keep up with the progress.

But he considered himself at most of average-to-above-average talent, and had fallen so far behind on basic knowledge that ordinary methods simply couldn't make up for it.

Later, he simply made a ruthless decision and started using the clumsy method—rote memorization.

Starting from elementary school textbooks, regardless of whether he understood them or not, he memorized every single word!

In this world, he memorized books for seven days, then in the original world, he used seven days to slowly recall and try to understand in his mind.

The only advantage of this method was probably that it allowed him to use twice as much time as others.

It suited his situation very well.

Later, after learning some biology, he called this method the "Ruminant Method."

At first, the efficiency wasn't actually very high.

His memory wasn't naturally extraordinary; in the beginning, less than one-tenth of what he studied could be remembered after seven days.

It was only later that he went on to learn some memory palace techniques and other messy methods, combined with his gradual mastery of this learning method.

Nowadays, he wouldn't dare claim to have a photographic memory, but reading a book two or three times allowed him to remember eight or nine-tenths of it.

Compared to the learning techniques of true academic achievers, this method was truly both stupid and exhausting.

But on the other hand, his foundation was actually laid very well.

His grades steadily improved; entering Qingshui High School during the high school entrance exam might have relied on his parents' legacy, but now he could consistently stay in the top twenty of his class.

After all, others studied for five years, while Zheng Fa actually memorized books for ten years.

The hardship and effort involved in that cannot be told to outsiders.

Seven days later, Zheng Fa returned to the Xuanwei Realm, carrying not only a belly full of meat but also a head full of knowledge.

Even when listening to Zheng Mother speak, his reaction was half a beat slow.

It was his younger sister's loud cheer that brought him back to his senses.

"Does the Lady really not let Wang Gui go back to be a book boy?"

Zheng Fa was stunned; this was no small matter.

Although it looked like just a position of a book boy, for the tenant farmers in the manor, it counted as a kind of class leap.

"Yes, I heard Manager Wang has been asking people to speak well of him these past two days, but the Lady has already said she will select a new book boy and won't take one from his family." Zheng Mother spoke of the rumors circulating in the manor today.

The manor wasn't big to begin with; Manager Wang's past glory hadn't gone unnoticed by envious eyes.

Moreover, Wang Gui returning to the Zhao family was no small matter.

These past two days, all the gossip in the manor was about this.

Zheng Fa thought a bit deeper than his mother and sister.

In his view, Wang Guanshi was a very ambitious, even very clever man.

In just five short years, he not only became the estate manager but also caught the Lady's eye, and his son even became the young master's page.

One could not call that less than impressive.

It was not impossible that in the future his family would become the Lady and young master's trusted confidants.

Now, losing the page's position was a small matter; what Wang Guanshi's family truly feared was offending the Lady.

"The Lady must have seen that Wang Gui is a great villain!"

Little sister Zheng Shan was absolutely the one who showed the most joy.

"Mm, the Lady is a good person. When your father passed, she even specially gave us ten taels of silver." Speaking of the Lady, Zheng Mother's words were not without gratitude.

"The Lady is a good person! A very good person!" Zheng Shan nodded her small head, repeating.

Seeing the slightly admiring expressions on their faces, Zheng Fa could not help but recall a saying by a sage from another world:

"... The era when one has secured the status of a slave, and the era when one struggles to become a slave but cannot."

This saying was truly accurate, piercing, disgusting yet impossible to refute.

He nodded along with his sister's words, seeming just as excited by the Lady's "restoration of order."

After all, speaking some things out not only brought no benefit but would harm those around him.

Instead, his sister began to daydream: "If only the Lady wanted brother to be a page!"

"I wonder if Wang Gui would dare bully us again!"

"I heard Wang Gui say there is even a monthly allowance!"

"And one can learn martial arts with the estate guards!"

"Then brother would be the most powerful person in the estate!"

As she spoke, Little Sister Zheng Shan's eyes lit up: "If the Lady lets brother go be a page, she would be the greatest good person in the world!"

Zheng Mother, standing nearby, looked at Zheng Fa, then patted Little Sister's head: "If brother doesn't become a page, does that mean he isn't powerful?"

Little Sister hugged Zheng Fa's arm and said obediently, "Brother is already the most powerful, but he can become even more powerful!"

After Little Sister fell asleep, Zheng Mother came to Zheng Fa's room door.

"Your sister is still young and doesn't understand. Don't overthink it..."

"Mother?" Zheng Fa looked at his mother.

"What page? We don't even hope for it. When Wang Gui returned, he was limp, and now he still can't get out of bed. If you were... like that, neither your mother nor your sister would know how to go on living."

"I understand."

Watching his mother leave, he lay on the bed looking at the ceiling.

A page, huh?

He had to admit that even though his mother disapproved, he was tempted.

If even Little Sister could see the benefits, how could he not know?

With a monthly allowance, the family wouldn't have to ration meat by the slice.

They wouldn't have to endure cold glares from people in the estate anymore.

There was even one of the things Zheng Fa looked forward to most and was most curious about in this world—practicing martial arts, or even cultivating immortality.

Struggling to become a slave but unable to...

Early the next morning, Zheng Mother was scrubbing dirty clothes at the door when a familiar estate farmer ran over: "Old Zheng's family! Old Zheng's family! Great news!"

"What great news?"

"The Lady is selecting pages. This time she said she wants someone older and steady; your Ah Fa is just right!"