023 A New Beginning?

(As usual, the triple plea! Vote, recommend, and collect!!)

Hearing Hua's words, Zhan Song’s face instantly turned ashen. He glanced at the watermelon knife on the ground, but ultimately lacked the courage to grab it and fight with Hua and his men. Looking toward the main entrance, he saw that Da Fei and the others had completely blocked the way. Gritting his teeth and stomping his foot, he suddenly let out a wail and actually darted out through the window Hua had pointed to.

“Damn, this kid is really something. He actually believed it when I told him to jump, and really went for it!” Old Bi, after giving Zhan Song a thumbs up, turned and glared at Hua. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know that the back window is a story higher?” The implication was clear: the second floor at most would be three and a half or four meters high, but with another story, it’d be at least six or seven meters.

Hua shrugged. “I wasn’t the one who threw him out the window. He jumped on his own… Besides, this is your shop, your window. What the hell does it have to do with me?”

Old Bi was momentarily stunned.

“Oh right, Old Bi, I heard you’ve got cameras around here. You keep those recordings for your own amusement. If anyone comes asking, neither of us will be able to escape blame!” With that, Hua led his crew out in a noisy flurry.

“Bi—Brother Bi, what do we do now?” the sultry woman asked.

Smack! Old Bi raised his hand and slapped her across the face. “Still asking me what to do? Someone, string up that blond Han for me! Taozi, you lead the way to the control room.”

The woman could only cover her cheek and lead the way.

Thus, Old Bi made sure to get the surveillance footage himself at the first opportunity and destroyed it completely.

As for Zhan Song, who jumped out the window, he suffered a comminuted fracture of his leg and passed out on the spot. Fortunately, a delivery guy happened to pass by and managed to save him.

******

At noon, Yang Tang was solving math problems at a pace of about one every ten minutes.

Half an hour before lunch, his speed had increased to one problem every five minutes, though he simply assumed the questions were easier and didn’t give it much thought.

Just after one o’clock, his mother called him to eat. Yang Tang casually solved another problem—this time in less than three minutes.

The changes in his problem-solving speed were insignificant compared to the "feast" of home-cooked dishes his mother had prepared. Stuffed, Yang Tang went back to his room and fell asleep, not getting up until after three.

After taking care of nature’s call in the bathroom and splashing his face with cold water to wake up, Yang Tang was preparing to dive back into his studies when a sudden clarity washed over him.

“Physical enhancement complete. Skill [Superior Memory] has been solidified!”

“[Superior Memory]: Anything you have seen, no matter how small the detail, will be noticed and never forgotten. Passive skill.”

“The skill description sounds so plain, and it doesn’t even say how to activate it.”

“Please note, [Superior Memory] is a passive skill. It is based on intellect, but does not completely rely on it. It works at all times!”

“Wait, does this mean [Superior Memory] is just like those game skills that passively increase damage by a certain percent, always in effect?” Though Yang Tang understood what a “passive skill” was, he still found it hard to believe.

“That’s one way to see it.”

“Then what does ‘based on intellect but not completely reliant on intellect’ mean?”

“The skill required a certain level of intelligence to solidify, but now that it’s done, as long as the brain is largely intact, the skill will function; its effectiveness depends on your current intelligence.”

“What does ‘the brain is largely intact’ mean?”

There was no answer from the clarity.

Still, Yang Tang figured that as long as his brain wasn’t smashed to pieces, [Superior Memory] would remain useful. That part about “current intelligence” also underscored the importance of not damaging his brain.

******

Over these past two days, Yang Tang had skimmed through the first year math textbook, and felt pretty good about his problem-solving. So, when he entered the study, he went straight for the second semester’s math book.

After only four or five pages, Yang Tang came across a concept he didn’t understand but vaguely remembered seeing before. “Damn, this seems like a formula from the first semester, but I can’t recall it… huh?” Just as his hand subconsciously reached for the old textbook, a formula suddenly surfaced in his mind. Not only that, but several related formulas quickly followed in succession.

OMG!

Could this be [Superior Memory]?

Wait, something’s off. When I was reading the first semester math, [Superior Memory] hadn’t even started solidifying, right?

Puzzled, clarity spoke again.

“Before death, people experience a flash of memories—everything from their life flashes before their eyes. In other words, memories from long ago don’t disappear, but are stored in the brain’s complex folds, just inaccessible. [Superior Memory] compensates for this human shortcoming!”

“So, with [Superior Memory], I can recall everything I’ve ever experienced?”

The voice fell silent again, providing no further answer.

But Yang Tang was stubborn. He set aside his books and focused on recalling his first meeting with his “wife.” To his amazement, not only could he remember every word they exchanged, but also the conversations of those around them that day. Even the brief flash outside the café—a gleam he now understood was likely a high-end telephoto camera taking pictures—as well as the license plates and models of the cars parked nearby, all appeared clearly in his mind.

“This can’t be possible!”

The crystal-clear memories made Yang Tang cry out in disbelief.

Almost immediately, his mother’s concerned voice came from outside, “Xiao Hong, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, Mom!” Yang Tang replied, barely able to contain his excitement. “If that’s the case, does it mean I can remember every newspaper and magazine I’ve read, every line of code I’ve written, every one of the thousands of short reviews I’ve typed?”

He tested it out—and, unbelievably, he really could recall them. But there was so much detail that it would take careful sorting to extract anything useful from the mass of memories.

Not only that, Yang Tang realized he could recall details of songs and movies, too. Even those countless incomplete pop songs—he remembered not just the lyrics, but entire melodies that now echoed in his mind.

“Looks like I’ll need to practice singing the standard Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do one day, so I can transcribe all these melodies!”

There’s a legend in the chess world about a grandmaster who was not only highly intelligent but also had an incredible memory—he’d memorized over a thousand chess games. Once, he received a frantic phone call from a stranger in a language he didn’t understand. Because the caller repeated the same sentence two or three times, the grandmaster memorized the pronunciation perfectly and later asked a linguist friend about it. The expert was astonished: “Hey, where did you learn such pure Norwegian? But the message is quite negative—it’s a cry for help…” Later, the authorities rescued the person who called the grandmaster.

Now, Yang Tang possessed an ability even beyond that, so given enough time, converting the tunes in his mind to sheet music would be no challenge.

“Damn, with a power like this, it’s as good as holding a golden ticket!”

The more he explored [Superior Memory], the more excited Yang Tang became, fidgeting at his desk like the Monkey King awaiting a fresh batch of elixirs.

But once the excitement subsided, a careful analysis revealed that much of his previous-life memories weren’t so easy to use.

“Write books?”

“Forget about fast-food web novels. Aside from the three or five I’ve read in full, I usually only skimmed chapters here and there. Sometimes it was just a few chapters, which I could try to fill in myself, but more often it was whole blocks of dozens at a time. Trying to fill in the gaps would take more effort than just rewriting everything from scratch!”

“As for bestsellers like ‘Those Ming Dynasty Stories,’ that’s out of the question. The Ming history in this world is completely different. Except for imitating the style, everything else would have to be redone.”

“‘The Legend of Wukong’ won’t work either, since three of the Four Great Classical Novels—‘Dream of the Red Chamber,’ ‘Water Margin,’ and ‘Journey to the West’—don’t exist in this world. Only ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ remains, so how could I write ‘Wukong’?”

“Some of Jin, Huang, and Gu’s martial arts novels could be partially copied… but now is the crucial time for exams. If my parents find out I’m secretly writing wuxia, they’ll kill me!”

“As for songs and poetry—oh, right, didn’t I register some lyrics and music before?”

Muttering to himself, Yang Tang moved his mouse and quickly logged into Tianyin Entertainment’s website.

As soon as he entered his account, a series of “ding-dong, ding-dong” notifications rang out!

“Damn, I’m screwed! All of them actually got approved!”

If an application isn’t approved, you can get back eighty percent of the fee, but listening to that cheerful notification tone, Yang Tang knew there was no hope of a refund. Sure enough, twenty approval notifications in a row made him want to bang his head against the wall.

Just then, his phone rang.

“Hello, who is this?”

“It’s me!” came a familiar female voice.

“Lü—Class Leader Lü?” Before his recent memory upgrade, Yang Tang might not have recognized her voice.

“Hee hee, you can tell it’s me?” Lü Qin sounded delighted. “Let me tell you, you were absolutely right to take this week off from school!”

“Oh? Did something happen at school?” Yang Tang didn’t mention that he’d taken the whole semester off.

“Yes. A boy from Class Two of the key liberal arts stream—Zhan Song—was beaten up by people from outside school. Both his legs are broken. The whole school is talking about it. Who knows what kind of chaos Monday’s classes will bring!”

“Hey, Class Leader Lü, why are you so concerned about someone from Class Two? Don’t tell me you and Zhan Song…”

“What nonsense are you spouting? I only care because… Actually, I heard Zhan Song was originally looking for someone to teach you a lesson.”

“Me? I don’t even know anyone named Zhan!” Yang Tang felt completely baffled.

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