Chapter 013: Write an Essay, Kill You with Praise
After dinner, Liu Shiqing returned to the classroom and picked up his English textbook. The once formidable "Bird Language," suddenly became incredibly simple, as clear as one plus one equals two. Liu Shiqing could even proficiently recite the textbook in various accents such as the authentic Fog City and Federation City tones.
Turning to the glossary, he first covered the Huaxia section and wrote the meanings of English words, then based on the Huaxia part, wrote in English. Not only did he not make mistakes, but he also wrote explanations beyond the high school curriculum.
Liu Shiqing then picked up an English test paper, his pen dancing across the page as he completed the entire exam in less than forty minutes. Except for an essay, he had essentially answered all other questions correctly, with very few errors.
Liu Shiqing couldn't help but smile. His headache wasn't wasted; he had mastered English. With an electronic document of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, he wouldn't need to spend time studying English anymore, freeing up two to three hours daily. Liu Shiqing considered himself lucky. If he were studying for postgraduate exams, he could save up to four or five hours. Huaxia students spend too much time on a language that might not be used again after leaving school.
Just as Liu Shiqing was thinking about where to find an electronic document of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, a classmate said, "Have you heard? This time, Silver Mountain Company has gone all out. Not only did they launch the Silver Mountain Word Master English 2012 Olympics edition, but they also launched Japanese, Russian, French versions and more. Each version is loaded with a massive word library, real human pronunciation, web page and text translation functions, and each original version costs less than two hundred bucks. I plan to buy a Japanese version. Now I won't have to worry about not being able to understand things online."
The classmate's laughter was a bit vulgar, and any man could tell what he meant. However, Liu Shiqing's heart stirred. If he could acquire the different versions of the Silver Mountain Word Master, wouldn't that be like having an electronic document on hand? Then, he could immediately grasp English, Japanese, French, Russian, and other languages, right?
Unfortunately, Liu Shiqing could only think about it. His wallet was now completely empty. His saved New Year's money, his parents' pocket money, and the living allowance they sent after going to Tibet, a total of over ten thousand yuan, had been spent by Liu Shiqing in the past two days. He had less than one thousand yuan in hand now. It was challenging for him to spare a few hundred for the original version of Silver Mountain Word Master. Another significant issue was that there was no computer at home. Even if he bought a CD-ROM, he wouldn't be able to install it.
Liu Shiqing had no choice but to give up this once-and-done idea. He planned to continue his search for various language-related electronic documents on the internet in the evening, regardless of whether they were textual or audiovisual, he wanted everything.
In the following days, Liu Shiqing's life returned to normal. Apart from attending school and completing assigned tasks on time, Liu Shiqing spent most of his time searching for electronic documents related to English, French, Japanese and other foreign languages, as well as history, geography, and other subjects. Every day, Liu Shiqing exhausted himself, his head was constantly aching. This hard way of studying, cramming information into his head, was somewhat painful for Liu Shiqing. Due to his lack of experience, it wasn't until he unintentionally came across an article on future internet one day that he realized this pain was avoidable. He just needed to do a set of massage exercises developed specifically for this learning method before bed every night, which could eliminate about ninety-five percent of discomfort. Of course, the prerequisite was that the volume of data transferred in sleep learning mode should be appropriate and avoid overloading the brain. Additionally, rest for about forty-eight hours after each transmission was essential.
After discovering this article, Liu Shiqing's pain was significantly reduced. Eventually, the pain disappeared altogether. He had become accustomed to this sleep learning mode.
In a blink of an eye, a month passed. Liu Shiqing had mastered multiple foreign languages such as English, French, Japanese, Russian, etc. And he had basically grasped various disciplines such as geography and history. The memorization part of the Chinese language was also mastered, but those parts that showed spirituality and insight were not something Signal Receiver could solve for him. He needed to learn, experience, ponder, and grasp them on his own.
Liu Shiqing was always careful to conceal all these. During the diagnostic test in class, he intentionally kept his performance at his "normal" level, Wuling County No.1 Middle School was no longer a stage that interested him. With his perspective widened by the future world, this place was not worth making a fuss about. However, Liu Shiqing also had another motive, and that was to reduce the possibility of exposure as much as possible. Rapid academic progress could alarm the wrong people, especially when Liu Shiqing was planning to take down Zhou Yupeng.
Today marked over a month since the deadline for the submission of Fog City Olympic Games theme song, and Liu Shiqing's paper "Transformation and Cultivation of Desert Plants" had been sent to Science Magazine over a month ago. This week, High School Second Year (Class 9) was on duty, and Liu Shiqing was allocated the task of monitoring at the school gate, checking for latecomers or early leavers, and assisting the school doorman with some duties.
As Liu Shiqing was chatting idly with his fellow duty partner Li Ziran, a flashy red Ferrari sped from the distance and parked neatly in front of Wuling County No.1 Middle School after catching everyone's attention. The car door opened, and a woman with slender legs, wearing black high heels, a sophisticated grey office lady's outfit, carrying a new Louis Vuitton (LV) Women's Bag and wearing LV Sunglasses, stepped out. The blonde took off her sunglasses, revealing her beautiful and enchanting blue eyes.
The blonde lady spoke, her fluent Chinese slightly accented, "Can I ask, is this Wuling County No.1 Middle School?"
Li Ziran was momentarily stunned and seemed to be scared by the unexpected development. Surprisingly, Liu Shiqing stepped forward, looked at the name on the school gate, and said, "If the name isn't written wrong, I believe this is Wuling County No.1 Middle School."
"You're interesting," the blonde laughed charmingly, her chest trembling seductively.