Chapter 347

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The Knowledge Solvent is a colorless, transparent liquid, slightly viscous, contained in a beautiful glass bottle.

Every minute of fused footage requires 1 milliliter of Knowledge Potion. When Chen Yi tossed a disc recorded with Professor Lei Gongpo's classroom lectures into a large bottle of Knowledge Potion, the disc dissolved silently and without a trace into the liquid, as if corroded.

The colorless, transparent liquid began to solidify.

Ninety minutes of video data fused into a fist-sized piece of jelly, soft to the pinch, with Professor Lei Gongpo's likeness faintly visible inside.

"Doesn't look poisonous." Chen Yi cracked his usual joke and popped it into his mouth.

Good elasticity, slightly sandy-sweet, with the texture of a brand-name snack.

Chen Yi nodded as he ate, and his mind began fast-forwarding through Professor Lei Gongpo's political economy lectures at roughly 100 times the recording speed, in an automatic playback mode that required no mental effort to understand — it simply imprinted itself on his mind.

100x speed is what Timothy the Great Mage calls the limit an ordinary person can endure. As for a high-speed Knowledge Solvent a Holy Knight could withstand — the Saint Qiao Kingdom does not produce it.

According to Timothy the Great Mage, the Knowledge Solvent helps produce stable knowledge, and reviewing after consuming it yields even better results. In most cases, the Knowledge Solvent is suited for stockpiling common knowledge — that is, non-dialectical instructional tutorials have the best effect.

It is like returning to the era of being a clever infant: no need to question the knowledge gained, no need to draw inferences, just memorize it.

What is a mother.

What is a car.

What is earth.

With sufficient knowledge accumulation as a foundation, then explain the concepts of "express train," "local train," "wet soil"...

The second time, Chen Yi tried a profound organic chemistry tutorial, also from a Jiangning University classroom, and the effect was very poor. He knew a protein's chirality, but did not understand what chirality was...

Although there are slight limitations, one can imagine that if he truly wanted to reach the level of a same-age chemistry major, the cost he would need to pay is really not high.

Calculating by a student's class hours: a normal high school graduate, taking 6 major and core courses per semester, 240 class hours total, figured at 10,000 minutes — over four years he would need at most 80,000 minutes of courses, roughly 1,333 hours, to grasp the basic content of a subject. Replaced with Knowledge Solvent, that is merely 13 hours of quiet life, not even a full day. Even factoring in tenfold review time, it is only about a month.

Mastering a major in one or two months — that is a super-genius learning speed.

In Chen Yi's view, what truly limits this method is not the price of the Knowledge Solvent, but one's personal appetite.

80,000 minutes means 80,000 milliliters of liquid, which ultimately becomes 80,000 grams of jelly. Eating 80 kilograms of jelly in a week? Even the most annoying child shouldn't have to endure such torture.

Chen Yi brought back a total of 8 tons of Knowledge Potion, worth 8 million Gold Coins, completely cleaning out the Saint Qiao Kingdom's Treasury — given the Mages' current wealth, they'll likely be able to resupply soon.

He does not intend to use the Knowledge Solvent himself; compared to the High-Level Intelligence Scroll's effect, the Knowledge Potion only has an advantage in memorization-type knowledge, but compared to the systematic knowledge summarized in books, the Knowledge Potion based on video data often still requires two to three rounds of review.

For an ordinary person this is already excellent — a knowledge weapon that yields a hundredfold return for half the effort — but in Chen Yi's eyes, the Knowledge Potion is more suited for those who cannot withstand the effects of an Intelligence Scroll.

Then, who should be the first batch of test subjects?

Chen Yi needed only a minute to think of the candidates.

The Group's lawyers!

There is no more annoying memorization-type knowledge than boring legal materials. Especially the Anglo-American case law system — good lawyers often have tens of thousands of important rulings memorized; this is the biggest obstacle for Chinese lawyers overseas, and they certainly don't stare at American court records every day.

"You lucked out." Chen Yi shook his head and grinned, then called Chen Zhenxing, telling him to notify the lawyers to dig up the full set of European and American legal materials, especially anti-dumping data, and then submit a list of lawyers proficient in English.

Chen Zhenxing agreed dully, hung up, and thought: Damn it, I'm not the head of Legal, I'm not your secretary.

On the other end, Chen Yi reached Zhu Guangliang and asked: "That background check on the Chen Group's lawyers you did last time — is it done?"

"Already done. You need it now?"

"Bring it to me." Chen Yi practically treated Zhu Guangliang and his team as a private institution; if the old man doesn't fall, there likely won't be any problem, and if things develop into an infinitely bad state, this charge probably won't affect his sentencing anyway.

Background checks are what upper-class gentlemen routinely do before hiring people, often becoming convention. Chen Yi originally had no such upper-class access, but with Zhu Guangliang, it became waste-not-want-not.

Zhu Guangliang does things very seriously; due to the low classification level, he first faxed over a summary, then sent subordinates with document bags containing all the files. Zhu Guangliang would mentally trample little people when facing aristocratic scions like Chen Yi, but if his subordinates did a poor job, he'd be trampling real people.

With the summary in hand, Chen Yi gave it a quick scan, then had Su Yuanchun from the Martial Arts Hall Archive Room help. The Martial Arts Hall's evaluation system has a complete calculation method; just treat Zhu Guangliang's background check as a blueprint, combine it with the Hall's evaluation system, and you can determine a lawyer's Control Coefficient, thereby deciding whether they are suitable for such a pure, fresh, and distinctive Knowledge Solvent.

Zhu Guangliang's courier arrived at Chen Yi's office as fast as possible, handed over the document bag, took the stamped receipt, and left. Su Yuanchun quickly produced a table listing 32 lawyers, each with a Control Coefficient.

He worked very fast, finishing in at most 20 minutes. Chen Yi said "Thanks," then called Chen Zhenxing again: "Trouble you to have the Group's legal representative, plus Zhu Feng and Yin Shiwang, come to my office."

"Meijiang Building?"

"Correct."

Chen Zhenjiang put down the phone muttering, sulking alone in the room. The Light Industry Department's sale had entered the countdown phase; the Group's deputy general manager was out daily hunting buyers, meaning before long the number of staff he managed would drop by more than half — no matter how you looked at it, that wasn't good news.

While waiting for the lawyers to arrive, Chen Yi carefully read Zhu Feng and Yin Shiwang's background files. One had a Hong Kong further-study record, the other a Hong Kong University education — so English and Anglo-American court rules were no problem.

This was the main reason they stood out. Compared to others with A- or even A-level Control evaluations, the two lawyers who had studied in Hong Kong had Control grades of only B and B+. Two months ago, Chen Yi would almost never heavily use personnel with Control Coefficients below A-, especially forbidding them from participating in Magic Subway-related matters. But as the Chen Family's and his own power grew, Chen Yi had intentionally or not relaxed the use of members with Control grades of B and above. Actually, B is already a very safe grade — it means that barring major mental or life upheavals, they will remain loyal and keep secrets as best they can... From Chen Yi's perspective, as long as it's not a conspiracy-style leak, ordinary students or staff leaking things is no big deal.

Yin Shiwang is a near-50-year-old veteran lawyer. After university he went to Hong Kong, worked at a law firm there while studying for a solicitor's license, then shuttled between the two places, never making a name for himself, finally joining the Chen Group to handle some of their overseas legal documents. Zhu Feng is a generation younger than Yin Shiwang; after graduating from Hong Kong University he couldn't find a suitable law firm, drifted for a while, then entered the Chen Group. They count as the Legal Department's more impressive resumes, but expecting them to battle top American law firms in court — it's a thousand difficulties, ten thousand hardships.

However, Chen Yi doesn't expect them to go to court and litigate — that's what the lawyers hired by the responding color TV enterprises should do. But on the other hand, the Chinese side must have its own capable lawyers to guarantee its interests aren't harmed. Overly complex lawsuits always have countless biases and balance-destroying clauses.

Chen Yi first asked the two some ordinary questions, then said: "I intend to have the company send people to assist the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce in responding to the color TV anti-dumping case."

The legal representative immediately understood and objected: "Mr. Chen, the Group's workload is extremely heavy..."

Chen Yi waited patiently for him to finish, earning the "Humility" searing heat, then said: "This is already decided. The question now is: Yin Shiwang and Zhu Feng, are you two willing to support the Federation as company representatives?"

The two pondered for half a day, then answered in succession: "Willing."

Chen Yi had already listened enough via the Listening Scroll, so he waved a hand and told the legal representative: "You arrange their work. Where's the data I want?"

"A lot. About two more days to get it all."

"This much?"

"Four trucks."

Chen Yi looked at Yin Shiwang and Zhu Feng with pity; after this, the two of them probably wouldn't want to eat jelly ever again.

"Mr. Chen?" Lawyers never like wasting time, interrupting his wicked thoughts.

"Oh, you need to supplement your Anglo-American legal knowledge and relevant precedents. For this, I've hired a special expert to teach you using an advanced tutorial."

Chen Yi was not lying; any expert could be special.

Yin Shiwang asked curiously, "Advanced teaching?"

Chen Yi answered pointedly, "A state-secret educational method, absolutely safe. It can enable you to master enough knowledge to control the progress of anti-dumping cases in the shortest time, about a month or so. You can choose to give up, and I will select others. But if you wish to join, you must sign a Special Entrustment Agreement of over ten years with me."

He turned to the group's legal representative and said, "You will draft the entrustment agreement, ensuring they provide ten to twenty years of service to me personally and to the group at half the market price or less."

Yin Shiwang and Zhu Feng were immediately tempted.

They were nothing like the seductive 007 lawyers in movies, but if they possessed enough knowledge to control the progress of anti-dumping cases, they would at least be the unattractive 007 among lawyers, sought after by countless places, able to serve as agency lawyers for the most famous companies... Of course, serving as Chen Yi's personal agency lawyer was not bad either.

"Sign?" the legal representative asked first.

"Sign," the two answered decisively.

"Come find me after signing the contract," Chen Yi waved his hand, then added, "Send all the vehicles carrying legal materials to the Central Storage Area. Also, find as much video material as possible."

Early the next morning, the two lawyers who had signed the indenture contract arrived at Meijiang Building again.

The person receiving them this time had become Naked Bear.

As Chen Yi's designated contact for travel to the West Continent, Naked Bear held the second-highest status within the Wuguan System. The former dockworker had transformed into a thorough leader and manager; his youth did not surprise the two lawyers, but his healthy skin and robust muscles made them very curious.

"You two must listen to me from today for one week, and you must listen to me. Any questions?" Naked Bear's voice was high-pitched like an instructor's.

"Oh, okay," Zhu Feng shrugged, while the older Yin Shiwang merely looked at Naked Bear.

"You will receive a completely new educational model, mainly through 24-hour uninterrupted video, as well as controlled sleep and food, to achieve the maximum absorption of knowledge," Naked Bear almost recited the lines Chen Yi had given him.

Writing lines does not affect honesty, so it is not necessarily going to happen. Signing a contract is different; it involves not only honesty but also commitment.

Whatever Naked Bear said, Yin Shiwang and Zhu Feng listened. Under the guidance of the Wuguan staff member, they came to the newly renovated eighth floor of Meijiang Building, only to see two rooms filled with countless monitors and televisions.

Every monitor and television was playing legal videos, faint sounds mixed together, buzzing like a beehive.

Needless to say, they were all decoys.

But Zhu Feng and Yin Shiwang did not know; they stupidly stared at hundreds of screens playing videos and asked, "We're going to learn like this?"

"Listen nonstop for twenty-four hours a day, watch nonstop, review nonstop; we will arrange scientific sleep and diet for you..." The last sentence was the key point: diet.

The two lawyers nodded blankly.

Naked Bear hehe smiled, bent down, and produced two buckets from under the desk, like feeding pets, saying, "Then, today's learning starts with diet. Your food."

Two iron buckets, each containing five kilograms of jelly, crystal clear, like pig feed—at least in appearance, it indeed was.

... (Unfinished. If you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)