Chapter 121

Fei Lu Shan is a person with a strong ability to accept.

Although she had been bewildered for a while about losing a hundred years of her own time, after wandering around the village a few times, her mental state improved.

Especially after seeing the engineer Ka Wei, who was responsible for designing and constructing these, she directly grabbed him and eagerly began a professional exchange of knowledge unique to the Wonderful Theory School.

Their conversation was extremely professional.

Standing to the side, Luo De could hardly understand a single word.

It was quite like how Dixiya initially felt: 'I recognize each character on its own, but put together I don't understand them.'

On the contrary, Ka Wei listened with great interest; although everyone said Fei Lu Shan's Wonderful Theory School knowledge was outdated, they nevertheless got along very well.

When the conversation got exciting,

Ka Wei then brought Fei Lu Shan straight to his home—the old house where his father once lived—and handed over all the drawings and models he had made.

However, upon hearing that many of the buildings here were based on Luo De's suggestions, Fei Lu Shan's interest shifted instantly from Ka Wei to Luo De.

"Do you still study the knowledge of the Wonderful Theory School?"

As soon as Fei Lu Shan said that, Luo De knew things were going badly.

Sure enough.

"Luo De is someone who studies three schools, and he might even be the most talented student in the Academy's history."

Luo De's mouth twitched; he wished he could go rip Ka Wei's mouth off right now to stop him from talking so much!

Too bad.

With Fei Lu Shan present, this kind of thing is impossible.

"Studying all three schools?"

"The Su School, the Miao School— which other school have you studied?"

Fei Lu Shan's eyes lit up, showing a keen interest; she stopped looking at Ka Wei's drawings and stared at Luo De as if wanting to get to know him anew.

"The Sheng School."

Again Ka Wei's answer, and he continued: "Senior Fei Lu Shan, you don't know that in A Ru Cun, the farmland, livestock, and newly built structures— he participated in designing all of them, and he brought investment from Elder Sang Ge Ma Ha Ba Yi to the village, which is why the village has seen so many changes."

Who Elder Sang Ge Ma Ha Ba Yi is, Fei Lu Shan doesn't know.

She still understands the two words "investment".

Looking at what the village is currently constructing, the amount of Mora needed is obviously not a small sum.

Studying all three schools, participating in so many designs, and bringing wealthy investors' money to the village— this kid really knows how to put learning into practice.

This made Fei Lu Shan's gaze toward Luo De grow more and more like she was looking at a rare treasure.

Fortunately, the imagined words of taking on students didn't appear; she just smiled and said, "The Academy having a student like you shows it's done not too badly over the past century."

"Hehe—"

Luo De gave a hehe laugh, offering no rebuttal to this.

Over the past century, the Academy has deteriorated year by year, having nothing to do with the phrase "not bad".

But given that Ka Wei is right beside him, Luo De really doesn't want to bring trouble upon himself.

No way.

Back when he was in Xu Mi Cheng, he had told Ka Wei plenty of lies, especially this "studying all three schools" matter, which was like a trump card; to this day Ka Wei still believes it wholeheartedly.

If he were to continue pestering him about this matter,

given Ka Wei's personality, he would surely break the sandpot and ask to the bottom.

By then it would be hard to wrap up nicely.

As for Fei Lu Shan's side,

Whenever she returns to the Academy, we'll explain it to her then.

Anyway, in A Ru Cun there's no way anyone would sell him out and reveal that he's merely a new student who just enrolled.

After skipping over this topic,

Next, Ka Wei took the eagerly curious Fei Lu Shan to tour the many newly constructed buildings he had designed and built.

Luo De originally didn't want to go.

But Ka Wei insisted on dragging him along, saying he hadn't returned in a long time and must personally see the results of his designs, and that this was a moment worth commemorating for every scholar of the Miao School.

Luo De really couldn't resist him, so he could only follow along as they walked around the village.

The first place they went to visit was

the newly built school, a school whose style is completely out of place with that of Xu Mi Cheng.

The last time Luo De left, the school had only just reached the finishing stage of construction and was not yet officially completed.

Now that it has just been completed, the children have already begun attending classes.

As soon as they stepped through the school gate, they could hear the clear, melodic sound of reading; these neat, uniform voices were especially pleasant to hear.

The school isn't particularly exquisite, its materials aren't expensive, and it lacks the elaborate decorations of Academy schools; from the outside it looks like an ordinary three-story building, with classrooms containing only desks and chairs, plus a blackboard, a lectern, and two lamps for lighting.

A Ru Cun has no electric lights; they use a lighting device produced by the Miao School, powered by electric crystals, whose appearance and function resemble those of a storage battery.

These lamps were all donated free of charge by Duo Li; their cost is not counted in the investment, but if the battery runs out of power, one must go to her to buy more.

However, these lamps don't consume much electricity; as long as they aren't left on all day, a single battery can last at least half a month, giving decent cost-effectiveness.

Following Luo De's suggestion, An Pu Shu generously allocated a large plot of land for the school; besides the area for constructing classrooms, he also specially built a playground and installed some play facilities (drawn by Luo De's blueprints). In addition, essential facilities such as the cafeteria and public restrooms are all present, and the school even set aside a classroom to serve as a library, filled with plenty of children's enlightenment reading material—two full bookshelves holding storybooks from Mondstadt, art albums from Liyue, enlightenment books from local Xu Mi Cheng, and image collections from Fontaine.

These books were also donated by Duo Li.

Moreover, these books are almost all brand new; given the strict ban on book circulation in Xu Mi Cheng, this shows how conscientious this "merchant" is in this matter.

Aside from marveling at this completely new architectural style,

the novel playground facilities on campus also seemed quite fresh to Fei Lu Shan; she touched them left and right, even tried them herself, and then exclaimed in surprise, "Are these toys already becoming popular in Xu Mi Cheng now?"

"These aren't toys; they're called playground facilities, designed by Luo De."

Ka Wei never takes credit for others' achievements, honestly saying: "These facilities only two are styles that existed before; the others are not Sumeru's popular styles, they are all new designs Luo De himself came up with, plus the soccer and basketball over there, those are also Luo De's creations. Not only do the kids love playing them, many adults also come over to play a while when they're idle. I heard those villagers are even preparing to raise funds to build their own field, so they don't have to keep fighting the kids for space."

Are these all the new designs you came up with?

Felushan's gaze toward Luo De showed even more surprise.

Just like Nadixa.

She also likes children a lot; back when she was still at the Academy, she had personally made many children's toys. The educational toys she designed were relatively difficult, and the market response was poor, so she eventually gave up on them.

Aside from these novel recreational facilities, she had likewise never even heard of the soccer and basketball Ka Wei mentioned.

Although no one is seen playing them now, since Ka Wei said both adults and children like to play, this shows that the gameplay is not only novel but also popular with the masses.

"Back then I just felt the school was missing something, so I drew out everything I knew."

Seeing Felushan's obviously interested expression, Luo De could only explain in a muffled way.

Actually, the design drawings for these recreational facilities weren't drawn by him either; he merely made a model in Nadixa's dream world, then Nadixa herself drew the plans, and he had them submitted on his behalf to Ka Wei.

This is also why Ka Wei continues to this day to firmly believe in his identity as a top student of the Wonderful Discourse Sect.

"Using knowledge for the public is a very good practice."

Felushan lavished praise on Luo De without reservation, and her gaze toward him grew increasingly appreciative.

"To be honest."

That look of hers really made Luo De's scalp tingle.

Even without Nadixa reading his mind, he could tell that Felushan was definitely considering whether to take him as her student.

Looking at it now, if it weren't for the fact that Luo De nominally already studies three schools, she would really likely have said that.

"Or maybe I shouldn't tell her that my identity as a Wonderful Discourse Sect top student is just an act."

Luo De thought as such.

Having this thought isn't because Felushan isn't a good teacher.

"In fact."

In the present-day Academy, it's probably hard to find a good instructor like her who is unreserved, open-minded, and doesn't suppress students.

But who made Felushan a member of the Knowledge Discourse Sect?

If she were from the Wonderful Discourse Sect, Luo De might still be somewhat interested.

As for the Knowledge Discourse Sect, it's really out of the question.

All day they're either studying ancient scripts or researching runology; those things are truly not something Luo De can bear to look at.

Back when he took the entrance exam, he managed to get a passing grade in the Knowledge Discourse Sect purely because his Teyvat universal language is self-taught; he innately can understand it, which has basically nothing to do with the actual research focus of the Knowledge Discourse Sect.

After finishing the school tour.

Afterwards, Ka Wei took Felushan to tour all the already-built and under-construction facilities in A Ru Cun.

And during this process.

With Ka Wei's commentary that never strayed from Luo De.

Felushan's intention to take Luo De as her student was practically written all over her face.

When the tour of the last facility ended—namely, the newly built orphanage and welfare home in A Ru Cun—Luo De's biggest worry finally came to pass.

"Do you like studying ancient literature?"

Felushan was speaking to Luo De with a very serious attitude, not joking.

Fortunately, she wasn't asking whether he wanted to be her student.

Luo De muttered to himself, then immediately shook his head and said: "I don't like it; I only enjoy fiddling with flowers and grasses, and the Life Discourse Sect suits me best."

"Oh, I see."

"That's really a shame."

"Then if you ever want to study runology or ancient literature, you can also come find me at the Shiluopo Dan Academy."

Although she was bluntly rejected, Felushan still, after sighing, hasn't given up on the idea of taking Luo De as her student.

On the way back, she repeatedly hinted to Luo De that if he wanted to study at the Knowledge Discourse Sect, he must definitely go find her.

In the end, being pressed to the point of having no choice.

Luo De simply spoke up: "Felushan Senior, the village still lacks an automatic irrigation sprinkler system. Ka Wei, that idiot, has researched it for ages but can't make it work. I saw in the Academy's archives that you are one of the founders of Mechanism Studies, so you must be skilled at making mechanisms. Why don't you help him?"

"Automatic irrigation sprinkler equipment?"

Felushan blinked, then immediately asked with interest: "If I manage to develop it, would you be willing to study under me?"

"At least I'll consider it."

Luo De still didn't immediately agree, just loosened his tone.

Even so, Felushan still exclaimed delightedly: "No problem, automatic irrigation sprinkler equipment, right? Just leave it to me."

(End of chapter)