Brain Repository
Warm reminder, this book is a bit slow to warm up, why not read a few more chapters _(:з」∠)_
5:43 PM
These were the last few most meaningless minutes of every high school day, because no student was focused on what the teacher on the podium was saying, and the teacher clearly knew it.
Glancing at the minute hand, which was about to reach '11', the teacher cleared his throat, turned back, and faced the entire class.
"That's all for today. For the remaining time..."
Before the words "self-study" could be spoken, the bell for dismissal rang, and the already restless class instantly "exploded."
The students of Class 3, Grade 3, as usual, split into two groups. One group rushed out of the classroom, heading towards the basketball court, football field, and cafeteria.
The other group flocked to the front row, window-side seats in the classroom.
"An Chen, the usual for me, one serving of meat and egg rice rolls!"
"Two fried dough sticks and a cup of soy milk!"
"Egg rice rolls, add a tea egg!"
With each shout, small denomination banknotes were thrown onto the desk.
These were for ordering breakfast for the next day.
Of course, An Chen also handled other "businesses."
Including bringing snacks, bringing mobile phones, and even game boosting.
Of course, he would charge a certain fee. The price for bringing breakfast was usually one yuan, and if he encountered "bosses" who were too lazy to wait for change, he could earn an extra one or two yuan.
Some people would also transfer a week's worth of breakfast money to him on weekends, saving the time of exchanging paper money and squeezing through the crowd.
With nearly fifty people in a class, An Chen could earn thirty yuan a day just from bringing breakfast.
As an excellent student, he often had many privileges, such as being allowed to live off-campus, not attending evening self-study, and even running this small business.
Of course, bringing mobile phones still had to be hidden.
Another reason was that the teachers also knew he was short on money.
"Meat and egg rice rolls, add a tea…"
"That's not enough."
An Chen suddenly interrupted the student who was halfway through his sentence, tapping the desk lightly with his index finger.
"Meat and egg rice rolls are eight yuan, a tea egg is two yuan."
What he didn't say was: if the running fee was added, the ten yuan this person threw on the table would not be enough.
His voice was not loud, light and airy, as if it had nothing to do with him.
"I said it wrong, it's not meat and egg rice rolls, it's meat rice rolls…"
That made sense.
After everyone else left, Sun He, who was left behind, scratched his head and walked over, placing ten yuan on An Chen's desk.
"Meat and egg rice rolls."
"That's too much."
"You keep it. You don't usually charge me a running fee, and I feel bad about it."
Sun He plopped down on his desk, turning to look at An Chen.
"Thank you."
An Chen nodded, uttering these two words, but nothing more.
This thanks seemed like a perfunctory one, but Sun He didn't mind.
He didn't mind if others were perfunctory with him; he just knew that An Chen was not being perfunctory with him.
"I really envy your brain. With such a large group of people, you don't even need to remember."
There were at least twenty people in that group just now, twenty breakfasts, and not all with the same configuration. Most people would have to take notes, otherwise, they would definitely get them mixed up.
But An Chen didn't need to. He didn't even need to listen attentively.
One reason was that these people ate pretty much the same thing every day, and the other was that he was born with a photographic memory.
He also remembered what he heard.
If he wanted to, he could even count how many sentences the teacher said during a class a month ago.
Sun He had not been exclaiming this for the first time; he said this almost every day.
An Chen was not only good at memory; he was proficient in everything, including thinking ability and calculation ability. High school exams were no challenge for him at all.
This was why he had so many privileges; it was because he was not just a good student, he was a true learning Genius.
In fact, An Chen could have taken the college entrance examination last year, but he gave up.
He hadn't saved enough for university tuition. If he studied for another year and got into a good university, the school promised him a substantial scholarship.
"I won't bother you anymore. I'm going to eat."
Sun He jumped off the desk and ran towards the classroom door, turning in the direction of the cafeteria.
An Chen turned to look out the window, watching the surging crowd outside the teaching building, splitting into several forks and heading to different places.
He watched silently.
The classroom for Grade 3 was on the fourth floor, offering a wide view, with the scene downstairs completely visible.
Thousands of students pouring out at once made the scene from his perspective appear chaotic and disorderly, but in An Chen's view, they were merely moving along their pre-set trajectories; each person could be broken down and their own movement path outlined.
The disorderly scene also became orderly.
Ten seconds later, An Chen retracted his gaze, arranged the scattered banknotes on the desk by denomination, pressed them down with a slightly thicker math book, and then put them along with the coins into the small compartment of his backpack.
An Chen packed his backpack and looked to the side.
The classroom was empty except for him, but his deskmate was an exception.
Ye Xinning was bent over her desk studying. At this moment, she seemed to be doing a set of math problems. An Chen glanced at them and then paid no more attention.
Class 3, Grade 3, had two top students who could aim for Tsinghua and Peking Universities, and they were deskmates.
However, unlike An Chen, who was a gifted individual, Ye Xinning had reached her current height entirely through hard work and diligence.
Perhaps Ye Xinning's mind was a bit better than average, but there were many people smarter than her, yet absolutely few who worked harder than her.
Even the chaos caused by the group of people surrounding An Chen just now did not affect her in the slightest.
An Chen understood why she worked so hard.
Because they were actually the same type of person.
The teacher arranged for them to be deskmates not only because they had good grades and didn't talk much, thus not affecting each other, but also partly because they both came from unfortunate families.
Perhaps this could be considered a common topic, but An Chen had never discussed these things with this deskmate who shared some similarities with him.
Or rather, they had actually only spoken a few times.
An Chen walked from the classroom all the way to the school gate, glancing at the electronic clock hanging in the guardhouse as he passed by.
"Six o'clock sharp."
An Chen softly uttered these words, and the digits on the electronic clock in the guardhouse had just changed to 18:00.
An Chen retracted his gaze and walked out of the school gate on his own.
His home was not far from the school; it only took ten minutes to walk there.
His parents had not left him any money to squander; even his tuition fees needed to be earned by An Chen himself through part-time jobs and business.
But they did leave behind a small house.
An Chen walked along the road as usual, but his gaze roamed back and forth over the scenery on the street.
The facade of every shop, the figures walking on the street, and even an apple slowly rolling off a fruit vendor's tricycle, were all imprinted in An Chen's mind.
But just then, An Chen suddenly looked at a person directly in front of him.
That person wore a white long gown, with a long sword hanging at his waist. Just by the way the long sword moved up and down with the person, An Chen judged that it was a very heavy long sword, likely made of metal, and very possibly a real sword.
Seeing An Chen's gaze, the man in the long gown met his eyes, which lit up, and he quickly walked towards him.
"Fellow Daoist, where is this place?"