At eight o'clock in the evening, the sky is filled with stars and moon.
The nightlife in Hangcheng County has just begun, and wealthy people have come out to feast, dance and sing.
Watching the distinguished gentlemen in the city running around in carriages, the dancers in the dance hall stood at the door wearing provocative clothes to attract customers.
Li Zhen carried a basket on his back and a pair of gloves and wandered around the edge of the city, looking for things that could be used to make a living.
There are still a lot of trash cans, and these are places where treasures can be hidden. But there are many competitors. There are also many orphans like Li Zhen who have no parents and are begging and picking up garbage to make a living.
Iron is a very valuable waste product. A pound of iron can be sold for nine coins. Usually, only twenty coins are enough for Li Zhen to live for a month. One hundred coins is enough for Li Zhen to pay for teaching in a public high school for one semester. He has been studying on his own for these years, and he has never dropped out of school for a day. It can be seen that Li Zhen's attitude towards work is still very hard-working.
He has been determined to be a pillar of the Empire's revival since he was a child. Like most teenagers, he has dreamed of one day being admitted to Imperial College from high school and becoming a high-profile university student. Get more advanced education, be at the forefront of science in this world, and become the pillar of the Kyushu Empire.
Therefore, Li Zhen has always attached great importance to learning knowledge.
Unfortunately, the teaching quality of the only public high school in Hangcheng County is really poor.
The last time I graduated from Hangcheng County and was admitted to university was twenty years ago...
There is no way, there are only two universities in the entire Kyushu Empire, one is the Imperial College of Technology in the capital Zhongzhou. One is Fuxing University in Dongzhou.
There are one to two hundred million people in Jiuzhou, and hundreds of thousands of students take the college entrance examination each period. The two universities only enroll a few thousand people each year. This is really like thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge.
The college entrance examination in 10,000 years will be more difficult than it was 10,000 years ago.
People ten thousand years ago did not have much ambition to contribute to the country and the world.
And everyone ten thousand years from now dreams of becoming a pillar of the country, a scientist and a revivalist who will be famous throughout the ages.
This is a great honor, if you can become a 'scientist, inventor, and revivalist' recognized by the imperial power. Your hometown will be proud of you. People in your hometown will straighten their backs when they go out, and they are very proud to say that such and such a person was born in their place...
Li Zhen swore that what he wanted in his life was to become the person who could make the empire proud of him.
Of course, the most important thing right now is to become a college entrance examination candidate and have the qualifications to take the college entrance examination.
Because of the lack of monks and the lack of food, the college entrance examination environment in the Kyushu Empire is relatively bad, and most businessmen are making profits from it. You need money to open up relationships at all levels.
After doing some calculations, I wanted to go from a fresh graduate to a college entrance examination candidate and sit in that examination hall. It requires spending at least one gold coin. And this gold coin is equivalent to one thousand coins of the face value of the banknote...
After a leisurely stroll, Li Zhen walked to the largest garbage transfer station in Hangcheng County. This place is called 'Qiantang Valley', which is a very deep and long valley. Some people say that there was a river here in ancient times called Qiantang River, but no one knows whether it is true or not.
Stepping on the smelly ground of Qiantang Valley, Li Zhen's eyes became vicious, and he eagerly searched every inch of the surface to find anything of value.
In no time, the bamboo basket was almost full.
Looking at the time, it was already ten o'clock at night, and Li Zhen didn't care anymore about looking for a way to make money. Carrying the bamboo pole on my back, I ran quickly to the recycling bin.
He has more important things to do. He must go to bed before eleven every night and dream about her...
"You're very lucky today. You were able to find an iron cage that a rich family kept a pet in. Here, seven coins."
The female owner of the scrap station rummaged through and found a seven-dollar change.
Li Zhen smiled and nodded: "Thank you."
"Hello."
"how?"
"Do you really want to take the college entrance examination?"
"I must participate."
Li Zhen laughed.
The female boss frowned: "Forget it."
"Why?"
"To become a candidate, you need at least more than a thousand Kyushu coins. With this money, you can live a good life without picking up garbage every day. You can do some small business and marry a wife in the future. And this More than a thousand coins, but it is just the qualification to become a candidate. What if you fail? What if you fail to pass? People who fail to pass are worthless. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of people who take the college entrance examination every year, and those who fail every year are There are also hundreds of thousands...more than a thousand coins, which will be wasted."
Li Zhen was silent for a moment: "I have to take the exam."
"Is it worth it to be so persistent? For a fee of more than a thousand yuan, hundreds of thousands of candidates compete with you. For a wealthy family, more than a thousand yuan is not important. But for you, it is worth three years of picking up garbage and looking for scraps. Come. That’s just a reference qualification... Sigh. Hangcheng County can’t produce anyone who can get into college. The last time it happened was twenty years ago. It hasn’t happened since."
"I can!"
"Why do you insist on taking the college entrance examination? In fact, more graduates take the exam and have no hope of passing it. They just need a level of qualifications. In the future, their parents will arrange better jobs for them. After all, they have taken the college entrance examination. . And what about you? You have no parents, no backers, and it’s useless for you to have this qualification. Why bother?"
"I can pass the exam. For sure."
"Haha, the college entrance examination starts in ten days. If nothing else, do you have enough money?"
Li Zhen was silent for a long time, did not speak, and left.
The female owner of the scrap station shook her head and sighed: "What a crazy person. Is it that you have been picking up scraps for three years and scrimping on food and clothing, just to get away with it once? I don't believe you can. Because in the entire Hangcheng County, no one has passed the entrance examination in twenty years. of people.”
“…”
When I returned to my shack, it was already half past ten. It was dark.
It was still very noisy outside, with rich people having late-night snacks and making a lot of noise.
Picking up the seven coins he got from selling scraps, he walked to the center of the house, dug a hole in the sand, and took out an iron box.
Opening the iron box, there was a stack of plastic banknotes lying neatly inside.
This is the common currency of the Kyushu Empire, called 'Kyushu Coin'. The material is made of plastic that is easier to preserve in a sandy environment, but it is extremely difficult to imitate because its process was designed by scientists from Imperial College using ancient technology.
Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he counted all the money again and sighed: "Seven hundred and twenty coins. Alas, I only saved so much in three years."
Don't be discouraged either.
There are still ten days left, so you can think of some solutions as much as you like. You can also ask her if there is any way to pay for the college entrance examination.
There was no bed or any furniture in the shack, just a wall of old books.
Li Zhen lay down on the sand, covered himself with a layer of plastic to keep out the cold, and quickly fell asleep...
He was asleep, asleep in the world.
But awake in another world.
Once again, we came to a familiar yet unfamiliar space. It was dark in all directions. There was only a waning moon in the sky, but we couldn't always see clearly what kind of scenery was around us.
Li Zhen sat casually on the ground, looking at the waning moon, entranced, and waiting.
No matter how late it is, she will always come...
Under another starry sky.
In an upscale community, a girl in pink pajamas was reading books under a desk lamp.
'Jingle Bell'
The alarm bell rang, and the girl's eyes narrowed into crescent moons, and an expectant smile appeared on her face: "It's eleven o'clock again, it's time to sleep again."
"Dad, I'm sleeping."
"You are about to take the college entrance examination, so review again."
"Sleepy."
"It's not allowed. I boasted to your uncle and aunt that you would definitely be admitted to Peking University. Don't let me down."
"Mom, I'm really sleepy. Just take care of your husband."
"Hey, let the child sleep when she is tired."
"Hmph, then you can sleep, but you are not allowed to play with your phone."
"Won't."
“…”
Ever since I had that strange feeling a year ago, eleven o'clock every night has become the agreed time. He and she both fell in love with going to bed before eleven o'clock.
Until half past eleven, Li Zhen was getting a little anxious waiting, and she finally appeared in this dark space.
"real!"
"to!"
The two meet. They stared at each other, and after a moment, they laughed at each other.
He didn't remember her last name, he only knew her name was Zhen. She didn't remember his last name either, only that her name was Zhi.
"what did you do today."
"I told my teachers and classmates what you told me today. Many people applauded me when I said that the world will be destroyed by nuclear fission."
Zhi frowned: "That's just a guess. After all, we are in a peaceful era here. The Third World War has not started yet, and I don't know when it will start. But guessing, it must be a nuclear bomb or something."
"Anyway, I think it's very reliable."
"Come on, true classmate, I'm going to give you math tutoring tonight. Where did you learn last night?"
Li Zhen recalled it and said: "The relationship between functions and calculus."
"Yes, yes, calculus. Alas, I'm not very proficient in it either. I'm actually pretty bad at math. I studied math just to teach you. I didn't expect... I studied math for you, and now I can actually do well in the math test." He is number one in the whole school. How can you make sense?"
"Hehe, it's a pity that you can't bring your ancient books into the dreamland, otherwise I would have taught myself."
"Bah, what ancient times? You are from the ancient times, we are a modern technological civilization, okay?"
"The ten thousandth year of our New Calendar is the modern age."
"Call me sister, you are more than 10,000 years younger than me."
“…”
"Now, when a cannonball is fired from the barrel, what does its range depend on, apart from the original power?"
Li Zhen frowned and said uncertainly: "Angle?"
"Yes, at what angle can the range reach the furthest?"
"No... I don't know."
"Remember, 45-degree angle. This is an application of calculus. Under known conditions, use functions to find unknown conditions... Advanced mathematics is very important, and it will never be a simple number game. You want Use them in various fields. By the way, will mathematics really be lost after 10,000 years?"
"It can't be said to have been lost. Mathematics has always been used in daily life, but no one has studied mathematics as thoroughly as you did ten thousand years ago. There is no advanced mathematics."
"Ah, how happy will the students ten thousand years from now be..."
“…”
Not happy? Happy
Li Zhen smiled bitterly.
The time in dreams is the shortest and most pleasant.
He can see his beloved, and he can also absorb knowledge like a blood-sucking insect.
He could never imagine that people ten thousand years ago studied various subjects to the extreme. How unimaginable.
The subject level ten thousand years from now can be described as "elementary school level" in Zhi's words.
Over the past year, Li Zhen had learned too much knowledge in his dreams that was far beyond his time, so he was eager to get into Imperial College. Only by entering Imperial College can his knowledge be valued and he can make a huge contribution to the revival of the Kyushu Empire.
He often teased him, saying that he had the spirit of a revolutionary pioneer.
Li Zhen didn't know what a revolutionary pioneer was. He only knew that everyone in the world had the same thoughts as himself. It’s just that I’m more eager than they are…
Wandering in the ocean of knowledge, time passed unconsciously and was very short.
Suddenly, a strong feeling of heart palpitations came. This feeling was not unfamiliar to Li Zhen. It’s the tearing feeling when a dream is about to end.
"It's about to end."
Suddenly he spoke.
Li Zhen was a little disappointed: "Is it so fast?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhi's body began to fade and was about to disappear. Li Zhen lowered his head, and his body was slowly fading, as if being torn apart by some mysterious force.
The two looked at each other tenderly.
With their hearts moving, the two of them suddenly shouted to each other in tacit understanding: "What's your last name!"
“…”
A year of dreams, farewell like this at the end of every night. Every time I forget to ask the other person's last name, and I can only remember it at the moment of separation.
They knew each other a few times.
But after two days, I will forget it again.
Dreams are always easily forgotten...
(End of chapter)