"I love to bathe, watch the turtle slip, oh oh~ oh oh~
"Careful of the fleas, so many bubbles, oh oh~ oh oh~"
Chen Jingle spent a full ten minutes longer than usual taking a bath today. First, his muscles were truly sore. Second, although he hadn’t sweated much, his metabolism was running higher than usual. If he washed as casually as he normally did, he felt like he wouldn’t be clean.
"Tsk, it’s been a long time since I’ve bathed this thoroughly."
He even used body wash, something he usually only touched once in a blue moon. After scrubbing and rinsing off, he felt fragrant all over. Perfect! Although he didn’t go through the multiple steps of his northern friends, scrubbing every pore from head to toe, he put a bit more thought into it than his usual quick rinse. In short, he was squeaky clean.
[Great job, baby! You have successfully completed the bathing task. The system rewards you by removing one scar on your buttocks.]
TSK~
"Look at that, the reward is already here! Even taking a bath removes a scar. Not bad!"
It wasn’t like he was covered in scars anyway. At this rate, it really wouldn’t take long for him to be completely reborn. He would finally look like the handsome celebrities—Hu, Guan, and Zu—he had always wanted to resemble. Just thinking about it made him excited.
Normally, after drying his hair, Chen Jingle would sit at his computer to surf the web or boot up a game. Today, however, the appearance of the system and the series of changes it brought meant his attention was no longer on entertainment and leisure. Instead, he continued to ask, "System, are there any other tasks?"
[It is now after-school break time. If you really don’t know what to do, baby, why not read some extracurricular books? Reading classic literature can broaden your knowledge, expand your horizons, and cultivate your tastes.]
Chen Jingle’s eyes lit up. As long as there were tasks, he was happy. Still, he couldn’t help but tease, "Didn’t you say the evening is for entertainment? Why do I still have to read books at night?"
[For a smart baby, reading extracurricular books should be a relaxing entertainment activity, not a passive burden.]
SHEESH~
Chen Jingle shook his head. "Keep bluffing. No one can out-bluff you."
Read books, then! As long as there was a reward! Thus, he turned his gaze to his desktop bookshelf. The small shelf wasn’t big and didn’t hold much: "Selected Works", "Canglang Water", "Placing Oneself Inside", and "Small Town Bustle". They were all social science books. To put it bluntly, these books served more as window dressing than having any practical use. Look, they were already gathering dust.
After all, most of the time, Chen Jingle preferred reading web novels. Life was already tiring enough; why read heavy, depressing classics instead of mindless, satisfying web novels? It wasn’t like he needed to pursue further studies or do scientific research anyway. At noon, Liang City had asked him if he wanted to take the postgraduate entrance exams. Chen Jingle hadn’t dared to agree; he felt he currently lacked both the ability and the desire for it.
If liberal arts students wanted to pursue further studies, it was nothing like the sciences or engineering, which had intuitive experimental data. The only thing they could do was read more. Read all kinds of literature and books. Read until the pages fell apart! Ultimately, this would elevate their knowledge reserves, organizational thinking, and core inductive abilities to the next level. Only by enduring this "torment" could one achieve academic success and clearly describe what they wanted to express through words. Otherwise, without sufficient experience and knowledge, one would just write a bunch of self-righteous, nonsensical garbage. If one’s knowledge level was insufficient, they should go read. Without that patience and perseverance, one shouldn’t even consider furthering their studies; that path was nothing but punishment for slackers.
Chen Jingle was very lazy. That was why he had previously given up the chance to keep improving, honestly settling for being a piece of trash. However, when the system appeared and brought him a new choice, he didn’t hesitate to choose hard work over remaining a slacker. Why such a shift? The reason was simple. The difference lay in the fact that the system could give him timely positive feedback. He could clearly feel that his efforts were being rewarded. Therefore, he was willing to work hard.
Anyone who played video games knew that you needed rewards from clearing dungeons to have the motivation to keep playing; otherwise, who would play a garbage game? But reality wasn’t a game. No feedback and no rewards were the norm. He had previously become passive and lazy because he did too many things without receiving any feedback. If everything he did was like it was now, he wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of motivation.
If web novels were included in the category of books, then Chen Jingle could be said to love reading. But setting web novels aside, he only read texts that interested him. It might be poetry, reference materials, or short essays, but it would never be long, drawn-out volumes. He lacked patience and felt that he didn’t get good feedback from the time and energy spent reading. Over time, this had formed a vicious cycle.
Even though he chose English for his first system study lesson, out of all the subjects during his school days, his favorite had actually been literature. The importance of literature lay not just in being part of exam-oriented education, but in running through a person’s entire life. It was just that the delayed nature of education meant many people only realized the beauty of language after they truly entered society. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
"The chrysanthemums at the North Sea have bloomed; let me push you over to take a look."
"There is a loquat tree in the courtyard, planted by my wife in the year of her death; today, it stands tall and forms a canopy."
"The children meet me but do not know me; smiling, they ask where the guest is from."
"..."
The power of words tugged at people’s heartstrings.
After pondering for a moment, Chen Jingle picked up a copy of "Canglang Water". He had previously read a small portion of it but hadn’t finished, so he decided to just continue.
"When Canglang Water is clear, it can wash my hat strings;
"When Canglang Water is muddy, it can wash my feet."
This was a highly rated political novel. Through its critique of the official-centered culture and the dangers of power worship, it depicted the treacherous, dark, and corrupt side of officialdom, and was praised as a rare masterpiece among contemporary realistic themes. However, the several times Chen Jingle had tried reading it, he had just frowned. For someone like him who was used to reading mindless, satisfying web novels, he couldn’t keep going every time he picked it up. This time, he decided to try reading it again, wanting to see if he could finish the whole book with the system’s help.
Chen Jingle flipped the pages very quickly. Because the system granted him an ability comparable to a photographic memory during the learning and reading process, he no longer needed to read carefully word by word like usual. However, being fast didn’t mean he was being superficial. He was genuinely absorbing it.
He was completely immersed in the world within the book. It was only after flipping through the entire book that he finally let out a long sigh after a good while.
"It’s written quite well, but... it’s not the path I want to take."