Chapter 5: A Breakfast That Bought Me a Memory Bread

Li Hongmei didn't even notice she was smiling all the way to work on her bike. Everything looked pleasant, even the sunlight seemed brighter than usual.

At the office, a female colleague in her forties glanced at her and let out an "Oh?"

"Hongmei, something happy at home?"

"What happy thing? At my age, what happiness could I possibly have?" Li Hongmei said this, yet she stopped walking and fell silent.

She was waiting for the other to play along—a strange unspoken rule of adult conversation.

The loud-mouthed woman played along nicely. "What is it? You look radiant—you've even looked ten years younger."

At 8:52, nearly everyone in the office had arrived. Chairs scraped, tea was brewed, notebooks flipped open, and those who'd laid out calligraphy practice sheets all perked up their ears.

"Oh, nothing much—my son made some money this summer vacation," Li Hongmei waved her hand. "He's afraid I'll tire myself out, so he insisted on buying me breakfast every morning."

"Spending money on breakfast? He even said he'd handle all my breakfasts from now on."

For middle-aged women in this system, besides gossiping endlessly, the only joy was complaining about their husbands and showing off their children—it made them feel proud.

"Your son's so thoughtful—rare indeed! My brat only plays video games," the loud-mouthed woman chimed in, sparking a flood of responses.

Older colleagues around her nodded in agreement. The younger ones couldn't jump in, but the new kid smiled broadly and said one thing.

"Li Yi, how's your son's grades?"

Some people truly had a gift for making conversations awkward. Everyone in the office knew Li Hongmei's son's grades were average—he barely had a chance at college.

Knock knock knock!

The knock came. Xu Qianqian yanked the door open with a scowl—and there was Jiang Nian.

"What's wrong with you this early in the morning!"

*Whoosh*—a breakfast was thrust before her. Xu Qianqian froze for a moment, unsure what to do.

"Y-you're just trying to bribe me!"

"Just eat it, stop babbling," Jiang Nian clicked his tongue.

Summer was especially grueling, but one breakfast broke the ice between them. Xu Qianqian said nothing aloud, but inside, she felt touched—after all, she was hungry too.

"Thank you."

"No need. After you eat, let me copy your homework."

Xu Qianqian: "........"

The dining table was split in two: Xu Qianqian ate slowly at one end, while Jiang Nian scribbled furiously at the other. They were in different classes, but their science worksheets were identical.

He didn't dare copy everything—only answers within his own ability level.

With nothing else to do, Xu Qianqian squinted as molten-gold sunlight streamed through the window, then glanced at Jiang Nian, head bent over his work.

"Hey, have you ever thought about improving your grades?"

Jiang Nian paused mid-writing, looked up, and frowned.

"I have. But my head has two ideas—one's empty, and the other's empty too."

Xu Qianqian was speechless. "Then what about the Gao San exam?"

Jiang Nian sighed. "I want to study, but Gao San has so much homework. My foundation's already weak, and all my time goes into writing assignments."

"That's just 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, I don't have time for the next. What else can I do but copy?"

Xu Qianqian crossed her arms. "Pfft, that's just an excuse."

Ding!

【Learning task triggered: Learn until you die】

At thirty-eight, you just divorced, standing at a crossroads of life. In your forties, a comeback requires not only physical strength but also the ability to appreciate beauty.】

Task: Have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian.】

Reward: Memory Bread (5 hours)—during this state, knowledge can be memorized rapidly.】

Jiang Nian stared at the panel, dazed. What kind of bizarre task was this system assigning? So... future me is chasing Xu Qianqian?

He didn't mind it, but it felt strange.

Whatever. The reward matters.

"Xu Qianqian, you're right!" Jiang Nian suddenly grew serious, fixing his gaze on the girl across the table. "Giving up is easy. Persistence is hard."

"My English is terrible. Since I bought you breakfast, teach me how to memorize vocabulary."

He wasn't suddenly motivated—he knew Xu Qianqian's English was excellent. She was the class rep, nearly always scored full marks.

Even more insane: she'd memorized all 3,500 Gao San vocabulary words—and also passed the CET-4 and CET-6. Whenever someone asked about English, she lit up.

Sure enough, Jiang Nian's words hit her sweet spot—her eyes narrowed into crescent moons.

"Fine. Since you bought me breakfast... the Princess will graciously teach you."

Jiang Nian's inner monologue during the five-minute lecture:

*(? *ˊ? ˋ)? *—No wonder she's a full-score champion, she really knows her stuff. Yeah yeah, I get it!

Ten minutes:

(?? _?)? She seems really happy talking. Should I interrupt her?

Twenty minutes:

? (ˉ﹃ˉ?)—Master, stop lecturing! I wanna sleep!

Half an hour:

(╯▔皿▔)╯—She's even more nagging than my mom!

"So, did you remember everything I just said?" Xu Qianqian's throat was dry. She gulped down her cold soy milk—she'd taught him her entire lifetime's wisdom.

"I remembered... but not completely." Jiang Nian stood up instantly and walked out. "Let me think it over. I'll talk to you again this afternoon."

"Hey! You..." Xu Qianqian stared at his retreating back, grinding her teeth in fury.

This person really is... all that talking for half an hour was wasted!

Back home, Jiang Nian opened the panel.

【Quest: Have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian. (Completed)

Reward: Memory Bread (five hours), grants rapid knowledge memorization while in this state.】

After sitting through half an hour of study talk, he finally smoothly obtained the quest reward. Almost instantly, a piece of bread the size of a Daliyuan loaf appeared in his hand.

Good lord, real-time settlement.

Jiang Nian rubbed his chin; he was a pragmatic person. Xu Qianqian was right—he couldn't really keep slacking off forever; the most urgent matter right now was still the college entrance exam.

Personally speaking, Jiang Nian, as a resident of a small county town, had a starting point a notch higher than rural kids. At the very least he had a fallback—if studying didn't work out, he could come back and pull some connections to land a job.

But that wasn't what he wanted.

Studying 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 letting his parents hold their heads a little higher when they talked about it.

Rote memorization wouldn't earn top marks, but it absolutely wouldn't yield low ones either. With five hours of memory time, breezing through three to five thousand gaokao vocabulary words would be more than enough.

But using it all to memorize words would be a bit of a waste—in reality, English only required mastering seventy to eighty percent of the vocabulary to keep scores from being too bad.

So the time had to be allocated reasonably too; after all, other subjects also had knowledge points that needed memorization.

Jiang Nian flipped to the first page and instantly could barely hold it together.

"abandon (to give up)......."