Chapter 78: Salted Fish Lying Flat, Day 78

The Desolate Planet.

Lu Yuan’s tablet was connected to a storage drive, playing videos with a very… strange… picture quality.

In the interstellar era, photography technology had advanced significantly. The ability of images to reproduce reality had improved vastly, and holographic photography had become ubiquitous.

Like most software, modern video files typically offered both holographic and non-holographic modes. In holographic mode, people could enjoy an immersive viewing experience; non-holographic mode was more convenient, allowing one to watch videos anywhere without being so immersed that they ignored their surroundings.

But whether in holographic or non-holographic mode, the images people saw were usually incredibly realistic and fluid. Modern filming and projection equipment possessed extremely high clarity and resolution.

However, such an experience did not exist on the Desolate Planet.

The camera Goudan used was extremely primitive. Even though Lu Yuan’s tablet was high-end, the footage it displayed was very…

Retro.

Indeed, the videos Lu Yuan was currently watching were raw materials personally filmed and edited by Goudan. They recorded recent events – specifically, the recent progress of the Desolate Planet people’s studies.

Goudan hadn’t decided how to use these materials yet or what kind of drama series to edit them into. However, there was nothing wrong with organizing them in advance, and now they were coming in handy.

As for why Lu Yuan had started watching these things…

It was mainly because he had asked about Goudan’s teaching plan.

And Goudan had been a bit stumped for an answer.

Goudan’s teaching had been going on for about ten days, but as for progress… there basically wasn’t any.

“Writing is just too hard; I’m afraid everyone won’t be able to learn it for a while. As for general knowledge… that’s simple enough, but remembering it isn’t easy. I’ve explained it all once, but most people just listened to it like a joke. Nothing stayed in their heads.”

Those were Goudan’s exact words.

Lu Yuan understood this well enough.

Teaching sounded simple, but doing it was difficult.

In particular, while Goudan’s students started from zero, they weren’t kindergarten or elementary school children. These people had lived on the Desolate Planet for decades; their concepts and ways of thinking were deeply rooted. Trying to lead them to understand the outside world was no easy task.

However, Goudan still emphasized a few points.

“But we’re all working very hard! The students are trying, and those of us teaching are trying too! If you don’t believe me, you can watch the videos I filmed!”

When Lu Yuan looked at him, Goudan scratched his head and gave a silly grin. “And while you’re at it, help us think of a way to make it a bit more efficient.”

…Give him an inch, and he’ll take a mile.

Resigned, Lu Yuan let Goudan take the storage drive containing the video footage and plug it into his tablet to pull up the recent files.

Once the video started playing, Goudan consciously sat to the side and began relaying Lu Yuan’s words back to Siming. Lu Yuan was left to manually go through Goudan’s videos clip by clip.

It had been quite a while since he had watched anything Goudan filmed – lately, he was rarely even dragged into watching dramas by Goudan.

Goudan had been busy lately, his feet barely touching the ground. He was managing such a large area while also worrying about Siming and the others on the outside. Every day when he came to see Lu Yuan, they mostly talked about Siming’s affairs; he no longer had the leisure to watch shows.

The first video opened, and many people appeared on the screen. It seemed to be the marketplace.

Goudan was standing on a large rock. He had snatched the iron pot Er Ya used as a makeshift cymbal and struck it hard in the middle of the street. With a loud “Clang!”, he grabbed everyone’s attention.

Lu Yuan: “…”

Then Goudan shouted, “Since everyone is here today, I’m announcing something!”

The camera panned around, showing everyone looking at Goudan.

“Starting tomorrow, everyone has to attend classes! We’re going to learn cultural knowledge! Learn to write! We’re going to become high-quality Desolate Planet people of the new era!”

“Uh…” someone raised a hand to ask. “What is cultural knowledge?”

Goudan immediately covered his face with his hand.

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but chuckle. Trying to teach cultural knowledge to the people of the Desolate Planet truly was a long and difficult road.

However, Goudan’s aesthetic sense had improved somewhat. Although this footage wasn’t particularly brilliant, it had at least moved past being cringeworthy.

The video ended quickly, and the second clip followed immediately.

This one was on a nearby barren mountain… they were probably picking mushrooms.

Lu Yuan tried his best to make out the content of the image, and then he heard Goudan’s shout.

“Today we learn Lesson One!”

Immediately following Goudan’s loud announcement, an audio clip began to play.

“Hello there, little children! Starting today, I will be your teacher. I am going to guide you through your kindergarten studies.

“Now then, let us begin our first lesson.

“The topic of Lesson One is –

“Meeting for the First Time: Allow Me to Introduce Myself.

“The main purpose of an introduction is to let others get to know you. Usually, we include our name, age, hometown, personality, hobbies, and so on in an introduction. That way, others can learn who you are, where you come from, and what makes you special!

“Once we have introduced ourselves, we will all be good friends!

“Now, I will give you a demonstration: My name is Honghong, I am forty-one years old, I come from the Capital Star, I am a very cheerful person, and I like to eat fish.

“Did you learn that, children? Now, why don’t you try making an introduction yourself?”

“…”

In the audio, the teacher’s voice went silent. On the Desolate Planet mountain, the people also fell into a deep silence.

Goudan snapped, “…What are you all just standing there for! She said to do an introduction! Everyone, introduce yourselves! Dajiang! You start!”

Not far away, a tall, thin young man sluggishly stood up next to Goudan, muttering under his breath, “We don’t really need to learn this kind of stuff, do we?”

“…” Goudan hesitated, whispering back just as quietly, “It’s the first day of class. If I just walk away halfway through, wouldn’t that be awkward?”

“Didn’t you watch this video beforehand?”

“I just got it from Lu Yuan last night. I took a quick look at what was on it and then went to sleep…”

“Serves you right,” Dajiang said dismissively.

Goudan patted Dajiang on the shoulder. “Are we brothers or not? If you’re my brother, help me out this once!”

“We’re not,” Dajiang refused.

“I’ll buy a movie from Lu Yuan for you to watch later.”

“For real?”

“For real!” Goudan said with a look of grim determination.

“My name is Dajiang…” Dajiang turned back around resolutely, and then… proceeded with his introduction in a lifeless voice. “I come from the Desolate Planet. I am a… uh…”

He got stuck and turned back again. “This personality part… what words are there to describe it?”

“And you said we didn’t need to learn this?” Goudan suddenly looked smug. “See? You still have to learn. Let me think…

“Just for helping me out like this – you are definitely a loyal person!”

“That works.” Dajiang gave a thumbs-up, turned back, and continued. “I am a loyal person. I like…”

He glanced at the mushrooms beside him. “I like eating mushrooms.”

It was the very definition of half-hearted.

The reactions from the others were just as indifferent. Most of them had already lowered their heads to go back to picking mushrooms.

“…”

Goudan stood in silence for a moment before turning off the player.

“Forget it,” he said. “This lesson really is a bit boring. I’ll go back and do some research, then find a more fun lesson for you tomorrow. That’s all for today.

“However, the literacy class tonight is still on! No one is allowed to miss it!”

And so, Goudan’s first class came to a hasty end.

Watching the video screen go dark, Lu Yuan let out a helpless sigh.