Chapter 80: Eightieth Day of Being a Salted Fish

“It wasn’t that bad,” Goudan said, scratching the back of his head. “Not many people live around here, and it’s mostly just us. Everyone is out during the day anyway. I specifically told Er Ya not to come over here and bang the gongs so she wouldn’t disturb you.”

“What you heard must have been the noise carrying from a distance.”

“…” Lu Yuan shook his head, feeling a bit helpless. “You guys really…”

“What’s wrong?” Goudan asked.

“It’s not like Old Fourth doesn’t know how to make megaphones. Yet you had children running through the streets banging gongs…” As Lu Yuan spoke, he found the situation increasingly amusing. “And you even stayed up all night making those gongs… You certainly have some creative ideas.”

Goudan countered, “The range of a megaphone is limited…”

“Have Old Fourth turn up the power a bit. Then, for the notification sound, you can choose something lower in pitch,” Lu Yuan explained. “The sound of a gong is high-pitched, but it doesn’t travel far easily. Playing low-frequency audio, like a large bell or a heavy drum, will carry much further.”

Goudan blinked. “Why?”

“Basic physics,” Lu Yuan said with a smile. “If you keep attending classes for a while, you might eventually learn why.”

“Alright.” Goudan nodded, then added, “Could you help find an audio clip? Er Ya has a drum, but we don’t have anything like a bell. It’s the first time I’ve even heard of such a thing. Besides, Er Ya’s drum isn’t big enough.”

“Sure,” Lu Yuan agreed, clicking on the next video.

This video followed almost immediately after the previous one in terms of timeline. The meeting had ended and people were trickling out, but Goudan’s “Common Sense Literacy Group” had stayed behind.

The teaching materials Lu Yuan provided included a syllabus, sample lesson plans, example videos, and more.

However, the syllabus was far too brief, and the lesson plans were somewhat difficult to understand – none of them had ever been teachers, so they naturally didn’t grasp the nuances.

Consequently, the group decided to take the syllabus and lesson plans and compare them against several video lessons to figure out the general pattern and structure.

So, while everyone else was spared from watching kindergarten lessons, someone still had to do it.

The camera captured several grown men staring wide-eyed at kindergarten teaching videos, engaging in heated discussions and taking notes with utmost seriousness.

There was a strange, contrasting charm to the scene.

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Is it really that funny!” Goudan glared at him.

Lu Yuan shook his head while laughing. “No, no, I just think it’s quite cute.”

And so, the Desolate Planet literacy classes began in full swing – quite literally with “swinging gongs.”

The pace of the subsequent videos was very fast, documenting everyone’s progress over several days. They studied while working, while cooking, while eating, and rushed to class immediately after being summoned by the gongs.

The Teaching Assistant Group fully transitioned into their roles as teachers, taking turns carrying megaphones to read out the key points compiled by the Literacy Group.

In just a few days, the people’s mental state showed visible signs of exhaustion. They were no longer as enthusiastic about classes and studying.

It was clear that Goudan was desperate to cram all sorts of common sense into everyone’s heads.

He constantly tried to arrange everyone’s work locations together to seize every possible minute for instruction. When it was truly impossible to gather people in one place, he sent members of the Literacy Group out in different directions to teach.

Because of this, both the Literacy Group and the Teaching Assistant Group were incredibly busy. The Literacy Group had it especially hard. Although they no longer needed to watch the videos once they became familiar with the content, it took a significant amount of time to comb through the lesson plans and identify the essential knowledge that the people of the Desolate Planet needed to know.

On several occasions, the lights in the meeting room stayed on from sunset to sunrise. Several members practically lived there, napping for only a few minutes when they were exhausted before waking up to continue reviewing the lesson plans.

However…

The effectiveness of the teaching was hard to describe.

The next video recorded the first assessment on the Desolate Planet.

A week after classes began, Goudan organized this “exam” not just to check everyone’s progress, but also to see if this teaching method was actually viable.

It was impossible for everyone to participate. With no paper, there was no way to create exam papers or conduct written tests. There were only twenty examiners in the Teaching Assistant Group. If they conducted individual interviews, even if each person’s exam only lasted five minutes, it would take a full twenty-four hours to complete the assessment for everyone.

But that would be too grueling for the Teaching Assistant Group.

There were children in their early teens among them, after all. Goudan wasn’t that heartless.

Therefore, this exam was conducted as a random spot check.

Goudan relied on his memory to pick out twenty names with the highest suspected rate of duplication in this district to serve as the list of examinees.

After discussing it with the Teaching Assistant Group, everyone agreed that the list was solid.

A quick mental review revealed that while the list was short, it covered a vast number of people. It spanned almost every age group on the Desolate Planet, including both old and young, men and women. The sample was exceptionally comprehensive.

Goudan was quite satisfied with his selection method.

There were no classes that morning. Goudan didn’t give any prior notice; instead, he waited until the people had gathered at the market at the sound of the gong before announcing the news of the suspended classes for the exam.

The crowd erupted in an uproar.

Goudan stood at the very front and loudly read out the twenty names.

The list even included his own name, Goudan.

Then, over two hundred people stepped out from the crowd.

Among them were even three cameramen.

The cameramen had to study too.

Goudan had about thirty cameramen, every one of them a tall, burly man. Back before Lu Yuan arrived, when Goudan was still the king of this district, these men had been his direct underlings.

Later… they became the direct objects of his exploitation.

Ever since Goudan started filming television dramas, these men had simultaneously begun their careers in cinematography. Moreover, while they were filming others, they couldn’t slack off on their own duties; their regular work had to be completed as usual.

For example, attending class. Not only did they have to film the scenes of others in class, but they also had to follow along and learn.

Though, it wasn’t as if they were learning particularly well.

The cameramen were all well-acquainted with one another. Consequently, as the three cameramen stepped out, the remaining thirty or so cameras were immediately shoved into their faces, recording their shock, confusion, and utter bewilderment from every possible angle.

Lu Yuan: “…Pfft.”

Goudan nodded with satisfaction. “Alright, you’ll do!”

The two hundred odd people looked at each other in dismay.

Goudan counted the heads and said contentedly, “Each person’s exam time is five minutes. The examiners will be the teaching assistants. The content of the exam covers everything we’ve learned over the past few days, including writing and general knowledge. Good luck to everyone!”

“…”

The two hundred people who had been called out remained silent. The thousands of onlookers in the outer circle were also silent.

Under normal circumstances, it was difficult to maintain silence at a gathering of thousands. Yet at this moment, the place was terrifyingly quiet.

The teaching assistants lined up in a row with Goudan standing in the center. Every gaze in the area was now fixed solely on Goudan.

Goudan spread his hands. “What are you looking at me for? Let’s get started! Assistants, you can start calling people over. Pick whoever you want for questioning. Cameramen, get in position. Every person’s exam process must be recorded so I can review everyone’s progress later.”

“…Hiss.”

The examinees clearly grew more nervous.

Before the cameramen could even begin recording the exam process, they first captured the collective sound of everyone drawing in a sharp breath.

Goudan glanced around and shouted, “Er Gouzi! Stop looking around, I mean you! Get over here for your exam!”

At that moment, at least a dozen Er Gouzis looked up, but the most panicked among them was a burly man holding a camera.

His entire body jerked, and his voice trembled as he replied, “…Me?”

“Yes, you.” Goudan beckoned him over. “Come, come, let me see how much you’ve learned!”

Er Gouzi walked toward Goudan with trembling steps.

And then-

He knew absolutely nothing.

Goudan had high expectations for his number one underling and capable assistant. Consequently, he asked several relatively difficult questions.

For instance, complex characters like the formal version of the number¹ “one.” Or general knowledge about the Empire, such as how many years it had been since the Empire was founded, what year it was on the Star Calendar, the approximate total population of the Empire, and the number of Habitable Planets – as well as the general naming and numbering conventions for those Habitable Planets.

The character was difficult, but Er Gouzi managed to scratch it out. Though it was crooked and missing a stroke or two, it was more or less recognizable.

But the other questions proved to be a struggle.

These questions were actually quite basic, but they were hard to memorize.

If they were residents of the Empire living outside the Desolate Planet, they would have known these things from childhood through sheer exposure.

But for the people of the Desolate Planet, trying to clearly remember these numbers was no easy task. Er Gouzi stammered for a long time without providing a single correct answer.

In the footage, Goudan was clearly disappointed and a bit angry. Outside the screen, the real Goudan looked at Lu Yuan with a mix of grievance and a silent plea for help.

“This is what I was telling you. They’ve studied writing, and they’re quite serious about it, but looking at this situation, they won’t be able to write well anytime soon, and their progress is very slow.”

“As for the general knowledge… they heard it, but it didn’t actually sink in.”

Lu Yuan reached out and closed the video.

He had recognized the problem long ago, and now he finally let out a sigh. “We were too impatient.”

He looked at Goudan, his gaze filled with warmth and helplessness. “When it comes to learning, you can’t just pry someone’s head open and force the information inside.

“The material isn’t so difficult that they can’t understand it. But if they don’t want to learn, if they don’t want to use their brains to memorize it, it doesn’t matter how many times you teach them – it won’t do any good. We still need to find a better approach.”

Translator’s Notes