Chapter 5: Memory Bread in Exchange for a Breakfast

Li Hongmei herself didn’t even notice; she was smiling the entire bike ride to work. Everything looked pleasant to her, and even the sunshine seemed brighter than usual.

Upon entering the office, a colleague, an auntie in her forties, glanced at her and exclaimed, “Oh!”

“Hongmei, good news at home?”

“What good news? What good news could I have at my age?” Li Hongmei said this, but stopped her steps and her words.

She was waiting for the other person to play along, one of the strange rules of adult conversation.

The loud-voiced woman was also very giving of her Face, “Then what is it? You look radiant, like you’ve become ten years younger.”

At 8:52, most of the people in the office had arrived. Those dragging chairs, making tea, flipping notebooks, and setting out calligraphy practice sheets all perked up their ears.

“Oh, it’s nothing much, just that my boy earned a bit of money this summer,” Li Hongmei waved her hand, “He was afraid I’d be tired, so he insisted I not make breakfast this morning.”

“Spending that unnecessary money to buy breakfast, and even saying he’d take care of all future breakfasts.”

In middle age, the only pleasure these women in the System had, besides gossiping, was complaining about their husbands and showing off their children, which made them feel good.

“Your son has become sensible, ah, that’s truly rare. My brat only knows how to play games,” the loud-voiced woman chimed in, stirring up a storm.

Older colleagues around them chimed in with a few words, while the younger ones couldn’t get a word in. A new, young colleague, smiling brightly, said, “Auntie Li, how are your son’s grades?”

Some people are indeed exceptionally gifted; one sentence can make a conversation awkward. Everyone in the office knew that Li Hongmei’s son’s grades were average, and getting into college would be difficult.

Knock, knock, knock!

A knock sounded, and Xu Qianqian irritably pulled open the door. Sure enough, it was Jiang Nian.

“What’s wrong with you, so early in the morning!”

Whoosh, a breakfast was handed to her. Xu Qianqian was stunned for a moment, a little at a loss.

“You, you stop trying to bribe me here!”

“Just eat it if I’m giving it to you, ‘abba abba,'” Jiang Nian clicked his tongue.

Summer was especially difficult to endure, but a breakfast broke the barrier between the two. Although Xu Qianqian didn’t say it, she was still a little touched, after all, she was hungry too.

“Thank you.”

“No need. After you finish eating, let me copy your homework.”

Xu Qianqian: “…”

The dining table was split into two sides. Xu Qianqian was on one end, slowly savoring her breakfast, while Jiang Nian was on the other, diligently copying homework. They weren’t in the same class, but their science test papers were identical.

He didn’t dare to copy everything, only the answers within his own ability.

With nothing else to do, Xu Qianqian narrowed her eyes, watching the molten golden sunlight stream through the window, then glanced at Jiang Nian, who was engrossed in his work at the table.

“I say, have you never thought about improving your grades?”

Hearing this, Jiang Nian’s pen paused. He looked up and frowned, saying, “Yes, but I have two lines of thought in my head. One is empty, and the other is also empty.”

Xu Qianqian was speechless. “Then what will you do for the college entrance exam?”

Jiang Nian sighed, “I want to study too, but there’s so much homework in senior year. My foundation is already weak, and all my time is spent on homework.”

“That’s because you’re slow.”

“Because I don’t know how to do it, I’m slow,” he spread his hands. “After I finish this, there’s no time for the other subjects. What else can I do but copy?”

Xu Qianqian crossed her arms, “Hmph, that’s clearly just an excuse.”

Ding!

【Learning task triggered: Live and learn.

At thirty-eight, you’ve just divorced, standing at a crossroads in life. At the age of forty, a life reversal requires not only a strong physique but also an appreciation for beauty.

Task: Have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian.

Reward: Memory Bread (five hours), under this state you can quickly memorize knowledge.】

Jiang Nian stared at the panel, a bit confused. What kind of strange task was the System issuing? So… his future self was pursuing Xu Qianqian?

He wasn’t opposed to it, but he just found the feeling a bit strange.

Never mind, the reward was important.

“Xu Qianqian, you’re right!” Jiang Nian suddenly became serious, staring earnestly at the girl across the table, “Giving up is easy, but persisting is hard.”

“My English isn’t good. Since I treated you to breakfast, can you teach me how to memorize vocabulary?”

He wasn’t genuinely motivated; he just knew very well that Xu Qianqian’s English grades were excellent. She was the English class representative in her class, scoring full marks almost every exam.

What was even more abnormal was that she had not only memorized the 3,500 words for the college entrance exam but also the CET-4 and CET-6 words. Whenever someone asked about English, she would be very happy.

Indeed, Jiang Nian’s words hit her sweet spot, and her eyes curved into crescent moons.

“Alright, for the sake of breakfast. This princess will mercifully tell you.”

After listening for five minutes, Jiang Nian’s internal monologue was like this:

*( *ˊˋ)*, As expected of a perfect-score player, there’s something to it, mm-hmm, understood!

Ten minutes:

(_), She seems to be enjoying her explanation. Should I interrupt her?

Twenty minutes:

(﹃), Master, stop chanting, I want to die!

Half an hour:

(╯▔dish▔)╯ She nags more than my mom!

“So, did you remember everything I just said?” Xu Qianqian’s throat was dry from talking. She took a sip of her cold soy milk, having taught him all her lifelong knowledge.

“I remembered it, but not completely,” Jiang Nian instantly stood up and walked straight out, “You wait for me to ponder it, I’ll tell you this afternoon.”

“Hey! You—” Xu Qianqian looked at his retreating back, her teeth almost grinding to dust.

This person really wasted her half-hour of talking!

Back home, Jiang Nian opened the panel.

【Task: Have a pleasant conversation with Xu Qianqian. (Completed)

Reward: Memory Bread (five hours), under this state you can quickly memorize knowledge.】

After half an hour of listening to the study discussion, he finally successfully received the task reward. Almost instantly, a piece of bread, about the size of a Daliyuan bread, appeared in his hand.

Good heavens, real-time settlement.

Jiang Nian stroked his chin. He was a practical person. Xu Qianqian was right; he couldn’t really keep slacking off. The most urgent matter at hand was still the college entrance exam.

Personally, Jiang Nian, as a resident of a small county town, had a slightly higher starting point than rural children. At least he had a fallback; if studying didn’t work out, he could come back and use connections to get a job.

But that wasn’t what he wanted.

Studying was still the best way for ordinary people to change their fate!

Secondly, getting into a good university not only meant lower tuition fees but also allowed his parents to hold their heads a little higher when they talked about it.

Rote memorization couldn’t guarantee a high score, but it definitely wouldn’t result in a low score. If he had five hours of memory time, browsing through the 3,500 college entrance exam vocabulary words would be more than enough.

But using it all just for memorizing words would be a bit too wasteful. In reality, English only requires mastering seventy to eighty percent of the words for grades not to be too bad.

So, time also needed to be allocated reasonably, as other subjects also had knowledge points that required memorization.

Jiang Nian opened the first page and instantly felt a little unable to hold back.

“abandon (give up)”