Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 40: Getting a high school diploma is a success!

There is a Chinese saying that goes, "A person's handwriting reflects his character." Yayoi, Aqing and Aman are quite suitable for this saying.

Yayoi was very afraid of wasting. Even when she first started learning to write, her handwriting became smaller and smaller. It was obvious that she subconsciously thought that the smaller the handwriting, the better, and the more paper she saved, the better. From the very beginning of her learning to write, she was already aiming for tiny regular script.

Ah Qing is very serious and takes writing very seriously, striving to write neatly, with horizontal and vertical lines straight and each stroke accurate, just like a primary school student. Even if she makes a mistake accidentally, she will carefully correct it with a square piece of ink and get full marks on the paper.

Ah Man was much worse, her personality was too lively, and this was also reflected in her handwriting. All her characters were stretching their arms and kicking their legs, and when they were arranged in a row, they were all jumping up and down. At first glance, they all had a bit of the flavor of Zheng Banqiao's "Random Stone Paved Street Style". Moreover, when she made a mistake in writing a character, she would scribble it all over, not caring whether it was square or round, or whether it was erased or not. There were seven or eight twisted black balls in between the various stretching arms and kicking legs, and the paper was full of ink dots. It was so messy that it almost blinded Yuan Ye.

However, Yuanye read it from top to bottom three times and could not find any typos or misspellings. He even compared it with the original book and found no missing words or sentences, which made him start to doubt his life.

This is a bit unscientific. Memorizing more than a hundred new words in just one night and writing them down without any mistakes, this doesn't seem like something a human can do!

Yuanye found it a little hard to believe. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes and someone had told him, he would have kicked that man - aren’t you taking me for a fool?
But this is what happens in the real world...

Seeing him frowning and looking at her page over and over again, seemingly endlessly, Ah Man couldn't help but lean over and asked curiously, "What are you looking at? Is there anything wrong? There shouldn't be any mistake! If there is, you must have remembered it wrong..."

Yuan Ye was a little embarrassed by her nonsense, and felt that his dignity as a teacher was not protected. However, he was a pragmatic person and immediately began to reflect on what was wrong - this was too strange, could it be that A-Man was a genius? Or did she cheat on the test?
Cheating is unlikely, and we can't think badly of her for no reason, but then she must be a genius...

He quickly took a closer look at "Genius A'man", but he really couldn't see how she looked like a genius. No matter how he looked at her, she was still that lazy and wild child!

Or is it normal for someone to start learning to read in his teens and be able to memorize more than a hundred new words a day?
The more Yuanye thought about it, the more confused he became. The main reason was that if he didn't mention the new words, even if he was asked to memorize two pages of a book in one night and write them out the next day without making any mistakes, he couldn't guarantee that he could do it.

So, what the ancients said about "photographic memory" is actually true? Although A-Man is not a perfect memory, it seems that there is still a gap, but her memory is already very strong, better than 99.99% of people, right?
He was surprised and turned his gaze to Yayoi and Aqing, and began to wonder if these two might also be geniuses.

It's not impossible. This kind of thing often happens in anime. A genius is surrounded by geniuses and eccentrics, and they are all very powerful. Moreover, Yayoi is well-behaved and docile like a little rabbit, and Aqing has a cool and elegant temperament like a little crane. She looks much smarter than Aman, that funny guy with doggish eyebrows. She really looks like a little talented girl.

Otherwise, let them try it too. It’s their first time teaching and they have no experience, so they should not accidentally mislead the students…

"Is it wrong or not?" Aman kept asking with his head stretched out. He was very concerned about her grades and had a strong competitive spirit, but it seemed as if he wanted to slap Yuanye in the face to prove that she was very smart.

Yuanye glanced at her and endured it.

He always admits his mistakes and doesn't care much about face. Ah Man is a good student, so he won't say anything against his conscience just to save face. He said directly: "No mistakes, not at all. I underestimated you last night. You have learned... very well, much better than I thought. Keep it up!"

After saying that, he did not forget the other two students, and turned to Yayoi and Aqing and said, "I didn't think of it before, and I might be a little slow in teaching. You should also improve your learning progress in the future, and follow Aman's example and work hard!"

Although Yayoi and Qing may not be geniuses, they can give it a try. If they succeed, after a month or two, when he is away from home, they can write to him to report the situation at home, so that he can know what is going on. He can also leave notes for them when he has something urgent to do, which will make life much more convenient.

Yayoi and Qing nodded seriously. They didn't understand anything, so naturally they just believed whatever teacher Yuanye said.

So, that night, Yuanye tried to speed up the teaching progress, and everyone learned two pages of new words. Tao Liulang also wanted to improve, so he came. He also wanted to learn to read, but he didn't dare to ask for it at the moment, so he eavesdropped and peeped at the door of the earth room, and brought his younger brother Jing Qilang with him.

These two boys are Yuanye's "employees" and may become the "backbone of the entrepreneurs" in the future. He will definitely give them the necessary training and might as well enroll them in the night school. At the same time, theoretically they both have the potential to be geniuses, so he will try to make them memorize two pages of new words and recite the entire text.

After trying it for a day, everyone except Aman failed.

A-Man still handled the situation with ease, made no mistakes, and got full marks directly;

When Yayoi was writing from memory, she was disorganized, with many mistakes and forgotten words. She could only read with difficulty. Her face turned pale with fear. She regretted that she was not working hard enough and was afraid that Yuanye would kick her out of the literacy class.
Tao Liulang and Jing Shichilang are even worse than Yayoi. They are completely stupid. The two of them struggled hard to put together a short paragraph. They never expected that literacy would be so difficult. They have already started to back off and feel that it is easier to feed donkeys.
Ah Qing was the worst, having only written the first sentence and a half, which was almost the same as handing in a blank paper. He then knelt there with his head down, clenching his fists tightly, his body still shaking, and the little hair on his head trembling as if he was waiting to be beheaded.

The savages were also confused. They didn't expect to get such an effect. It turned out that only the wild boy Aman was special, and the others were worse than each other.

Ah Man was very proud and laughed out loud. She was so happy that she felt that she was indeed the smartest. She also had the bad habit of eating and taking more than she wanted. She tried to monopolize the teaching resources because she had a little advantage. She actively suggested to Yuan Ye: "They are just four fools. It's useless for you to teach them. Why don't you teach me alone? Give me more time. I can learn faster!"

Yuan Ye was feeling regretful. He glanced at her and said unhappily, "Shut up! You just have a little talent. There's nothing to be proud of. Why do you want to eat alone? And you have to learn to be down-to-earth, avoid being arrogant and impatient, and be low-key, otherwise you will not go far in the future!"

Ah Man was not convinced: "I am so smart, why should I pretend to be stupid? Then I am smart for nothing." How dare you talk back, you wild child? Yuan Ye pointed at the desk, frowned, and became even more annoyed with her wild child in front of the teacher, "Go copy the book and practice your handwriting. I can hardly recognize what you wrote!"

"Just copy the book, why are you so fierce..." Aman was still very dissatisfied, but she just grumbled and let it go. She didn't dare to be stubborn anymore. After all, she also cherished this opportunity to learn for free. If Yuanye was really angry and she was not allowed to get it for free, everything would be over.

Yuanye turned around and said to the other four people in a gentle voice, "Don't be discouraged. Hard work is more important than talent. As long as you keep studying, it will only take you a little longer than Aman, and the final effect will be the same."

Now it's all over. He originally wanted to try if there was any genius among these four, but after trying, not only did he find no genius, but these four people also became depressed. He could only feed them chicken soup and forcefully smooth it over - the gap between people is sometimes even bigger than the gap between people and dogs. Aman's random learning in one night can achieve the same as Aqing's serious learning for half a month. It doesn't make any sense at all!

"Yes, Lord Saburo, I will work hard! Please look forward to my performance!" Yayoi felt relieved. As long as she was not driven away, it would be fine. She had never thought about competing with Aman. She was even a little afraid of Aman and did not dare to provoke her.

The Taojing brothers also pecked at the rice, and said that they would continue to work hard. But Qing seemed to be hit hard, as if he couldn't accept that he was the worst. He still looked at the ground with his head down, clenched his fists and said nothing.

Yuanye glanced at her and updated her label from [a weird, somewhat stubborn child] to [a weird, somewhat stubborn child who seems to have a strong self-esteem]. However, there was no other way but to let her recover on her own.

Asshole, cartoons are really unreliable. Geniuses don’t come from the same nest. I shouldn’t have believed in that shit!
…………

The literacy class continued, and after more than ten days, the top student Aman continued to lead the way, his progress surpassing everyone else. He even did not use the same textbook as them. Yayoi and Xiaoyou also made good progress, but the Taoi brothers were mediocre and could only be described as so-so. In the end, only Aqing became a poor student, lagging far behind others.

It's hard to explain talent. I used to think she could at least get into a 211 university, but now look, she will be considered a success if she can just get a high school diploma!
Yuanye was still relatively weak. After seeing a patient in the afternoon, as soon as he walked out of the "black clinic", he saw Aqing muttering to himself and writing and drawing on the ground. It seemed that while completing his guard work, he was also working hard to review his lessons.

Yuan Ye couldn't bear to see her trying so hard, so he squatted over and advised her gently, "Don't force yourself. It doesn't matter if you learn slowly. A-man can read and write in a few months, and you spend one or two years to learn it, but the effect is actually the same. Besides, you are better than A-man in some aspects. Aren't your martial arts much better than A-man? You should be able to beat A-man easily!"

Ah Qing looked up at him. He didn't like others denying Ah Man, not even him. He shook his head gently and said, "It was an accident last time. Ah Man was injured and ate too much, so I kicked her. She is actually very powerful and has created many life-saving tricks. If we really fight, I am not sure I can hold her down."

"Oh, a life-saving trick?" Yuan Ye's heart was moved when he heard it, and his attention was immediately diverted. He asked with great interest, "What life-saving trick?"

Ah Qing opened his mouth to speak, but stopped himself. He quickly lowered his eyelids, leaving only his eyelashes trembling slightly, and stopped talking.

She was just trying to save face for A-man. In fact, A-man's martial arts skills were lousy, and the life-saving moves he invented were even more bizarre:

When A-man encounters an enemy head-on, her first move is usually the "ferocious-looking axe". She will charge towards the enemy with a small axe raised high, shouting, her face distorted, her shouting shrilly, and her small eyebrows squeezed together, like a short-legged devil from hell. She will try to scare the enemy so much that he pee his pants and flee without a fight, and then she will be safe.

However, she never succeeded once with the first move, so she would usually use the second move "the grease-on-the-feet step", which means that when she saw that she could not scare the enemy, she would turn around and run away. But this move was a feint. If the enemy took the opportunity to chase and hack her, she would counterattack with the third move "the despicable and shameless powder", taking out a handful of quicklime and throwing it in the opponent's face, and then taking a small axe and starting to chop people.

If spreading lime doesn't work and she still can't win, she will start to run away for real, using the fourth trick "empty as wild bullets", throwing handfuls of homemade gunpowder bombs on the ground to create a large cloud of smoke, and then take the opportunity to run away, crying and shouting all the way, running as fast as she can.

It would be best if there was a river for her to jump into. She also made a "well tree" by herself, which allowed her to run wildly on the water for a short distance. She was not afraid of falling into the water. She was a good swimmer and also prepared an inflatable urine bubble, which allowed her to float down the river for dozens of miles without drowning, which was enough time to get rid of the enemy.

Of course, she was not happy about running away like that, feeling very ashamed, so she continued to develop her fifth move, "The Equality Cannon", and prepared to change the fourth move to one where she could run away while calling the enemy a dung beetle, luring the enemy to chase her so that she could find a corner, turn around and kill the enemy with a single shot, in order to prove that practicing martial arts was useless and that one still had to rely on their brains to survive in the world.

But she could never make any money and always lost in gambling, so she couldn't afford to buy a cannon. She could only think of this trick but couldn't use it. She often complained to Aqing why they were born paupers.

The set of "life-saving tricks" that A-man developed by herself was embarrassing to a certain extent. It was completely shameless, full of meanness, and without any martial ethics. A-qing was too embarrassed to explain it in detail, which led to Yuanye misunderstanding, thinking that it was a secret of their school - they were all "life-saving tricks", so it was normal for them to be secrets. If it were him, he would not tell outsiders easily. He could understand.

He smiled sheepishly, ready to leave, and finally said, "Just pretend I didn't ask, but you really don't have to make it so hard on yourself. You are you, you don't have to compete with A-Man, just take your time!"

Ah Qing is really like a little donkey, very stubborn, still shaking his head: "I just feel that I am not good enough and can't learn better than anyone else. I don't want to compete with Sister Ah Man. She is smarter than me, so it's right that I can't learn better than her. Otherwise, Grandpa wouldn't have chosen her to learn our Yang Art of Life-saving Flow."

"Oh?" Yuanye paused when he heard that. He didn't expect to hear something different by accident. They have been together for almost two months, but they have never said which branch of the Koga clan they belonged to. It was like an instinct to be on guard.

Of course, this is normal. If they were naive and innocent, they would act naively when they meet someone and tell him everything. The grass on their graves would have been three feet high long ago, and they would never have met him.

Yuan Ye was very interested in this matter. The art of Flowing Yang to keep alive sounded quite powerful. He couldn't help but want to learn more about it and see if it would be useful to him. So he cautiously asked, "What does the art of Flowing Yang to keep alive mean?"

(End of this chapter)