Chapter 81: Eighty-First Day of Being a Lazy Fish

“What do I need to do?” Goudan’s eyes lit up as he asked urgently.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment before asking a question in return. “Have you ever wondered why those lesson videos and teaching plans include so much ‘nonsense’? Why do they design all those introductions, structure the classroom flow, and include questions and discussions?

“Have you considered that every session of the General Knowledge course has a different theme? How were those themes selected, and why were they arranged in that specific order?”

Goudan was unable to answer for a moment.

Lu Yuan spoke seriously. “You’re trying to grasp the key information of the curriculum, but you’re actually missing the point!”

“Those self-introductions, that ‘nonsense’, and the discussions,” Lu Yuan explained, “in a sense, they are necessary. I noticed the content of the General Knowledge classes you’ve been taking. I believe there’s a connection between them, and perhaps a connection to the other courses as well.”

Lu Yuan pondered briefly, then picked up a tablet and pulled up the teaching plan for the “Self-Introduction” section of the first General Knowledge lesson.

After a quick skim, he confirmed his suspicions. He then pulled up the standardized schedule for the Empire Kindergarten, glanced at it, and handed it to Goudan.

“This schedule was in the files I sent you, but perhaps you didn’t notice it or didn’t open it. If you look at it, you should see that the arrangement and distribution of the courses have a specific purpose.

“The kindergarten has four types of classes: Literacy, Arithmetic, General Knowledge, and various Activity classes. These four subjects are interspersed throughout the schedule.

“The Activity classes teach things related to eating, drinking, and playing. Although they take up most of the time, I didn’t give them to you, and you don’t need to worry about them.

“The remaining three categories are the foundational knowledge you need to teach the people of the Desolate Planet. You’ll see that the first day is General Knowledge, the second is Literacy, the third is Arithmetic, the fourth is General Knowledge again… they rotate like that.

“You haven’t started the Arithmetic classes yet, but you should remember the content of the first few General Knowledge and Literacy lessons.

“General Knowledge covers self-introductions, dates and times, and star sectors and planets. Literacy covers numbers and operators, units and quantifiers, and transportation.”

Goudan suddenly realized something. “I remember now! At the very beginning of that Literacy class, there was an ‘introduction’ phase where the teacher asked everyone to recall what they learned yesterday.

“Then the teacher talked about ages and birthdays, and asked if anyone knew how many people were in our class in total… then said that numbers are used in all these cases, so today we would learn how to write numbers.”

“Exactly.” Lu Yuan nodded. “The self-introduction part actually involves a lot of the content that follows. Numbers, planets, time, personality… these link directly to the subsequent lessons.

“Later on, there should be a section on introducing one’s hometown. That can lead into vocabulary and teaching materials regarding food, plants, and animals.”

“So you’re saying I should focus on the connections between the lessons?” Goudan asked.

Lu Yuan shook his head. “No.”

He thought for a moment, then opened the Literacy teaching plan and showed it to Goudan.

“Look,” he said, “what’s written here is actually: ‘Let’s learn how to write numbers so that when it’s inconvenient to communicate with others face-to-face, we can introduce ourselves through writing.’

“That second half of the sentence is the key. If you want people to work hard at learning something, you have to give them a desire and a reason to learn.”

He looked at Goudan and asked, “Why did you learn to read and write?”

“…I just watched TV dramas and learned naturally,” Goudan replied.

“Many people watch foreign dramas and movies their whole lives without ever learning the language. That’s because people subconsciously ignore things they don’t understand,” Lu Yuan said. “Even if you’re an Awakener with a much better memory than the average person, it’s very difficult to learn naturally just by watching shows.”

“Hmm…” Goudan recalled. “It seems like at the very beginning, I didn’t pay attention to the subtitles either. Later, I wanted to search for dramas myself and found I didn’t recognize many words. That’s when I started paying attention to the subtitles while watching.”

He suddenly understood. He stood up and said loudly, “I get it! I have to make them want to learn and remember on their own. That way, they’ll work hard to find ways to memorize it!”

Lu Yuan nodded with a smile. “Learning is something where you can’t see external results immediately, and it’s hard to gain a concrete sense of achievement from it.”

“If you go out to pick mushrooms, you’ll have a basket full of them after a single day. If you go to study, after a day you’ll only have some knowledge that doesn’t seem to have any immediate use.

“On a Desolate Planet, people are exhausted just trying to stay alive; they live for the sake of survival. When you ask them to do something difficult that seems useless, they might try their best to obey you, but it’s hard for them to put their hearts into it.

“Comparatively, writing shows more immediate results, and they can grasp the significance of learning to write, so they’re more proactive about it. But as for that general knowledge… it’s common sense to people on the outside, but to those on a Desolate Planet, it’s too distant, too ethereal.

“If you want people to take learning these things seriously, you first have to find a way to make them feel that this knowledge is useful and can help them live better lives. Or-

“You could simply find things they can use immediately and teach those instead. Didn’t you have a good idea before? Knowledge about planting and breeding is exactly what everyone needs.”

Goudan pondered this, suddenly glancing at Lu Yuan before quickly looking away.

Lu Yuan was puzzled. “?”

Goudan’s eyes darted around as he asked, “I’m a bit curious, why did you study back then?”

“Ah… do you mean when I was in elementary school?” Lu Yuan smiled. “Probably because it was fun. I was different from the people on the Desolate Planet; I was too well-off and had too much time on my hands. Learning about new things was fun.

“But by the time I reached middle school, I’d already read everything available… so I went off to play video games.”

“…” Goudan was speechless.

He had just been thinking that to make people learn, one had to spark a desire for knowledge within them. But Lu Yuan had said himself that most of the time, he didn’t have much desire for anything.

That made him curious. Lu Yuan clearly knew a great deal, so he must have studied seriously!

He hadn’t expected to get an answer like that…

Then again, it made sense.

An Awakener’s memory and reaction speed far exceeded those of an average person, and the stronger their Mental Power, the stronger these abilities became.

For someone like Lu Yuan, learning likely presented no difficulty at all, so he didn’t need much motivation.

People really were different, Goudan sighed.

Regardless, he still had to consider how to give the people of the Desolate Planet the motivation to learn.

…The best way might be to tell people directly that Siming and the others were already working to lift the blockade on the Desolate Planet. To let them understand that sooner or later, the people here could leave, transform this place, and make the Desolate Planet as good as, or even better than, the world outside.

Only by understanding the outside world could they communicate normally with outsiders; only by learning this knowledge could they create more value and gain more recognition.

The purpose of work was survival in the present; the purpose of learning was a better future.

–

Sea Eagle.

As several small starships returned from afar, Siming knew that what he had been waiting for had finally arrived.

Ying Xun had been looking forward to it just as much.

After waiting a short while, Siming and Geshu Qing knocked on Ying Xun’s door.

Inside, Ying Xun was staring at his Optical Computer screen.

“What are the results?” Siming asked.

He knew exactly what Ying Xun was looking at. The people on those starships had gone out to perform DNA testing, and what they brought back was bound to be the results of the DNA comparison.

Specifically, the DNA comparison between Geshu Qing and the members of the Geshu Family.

Ying Xun looked up at him, then at Geshu Qing, and grinned. “You’re something else, kid, aren’t you?”

Geshu Qing looked back at him with a face full of innocence.

Ying Xun narrowed his eyes, chuckling as he shared the Optical Computer screen with Geshu Qing. “Looking at the results, it’s very likely you’re the younger brother of the eldest Geshu miss-no, I mean, the Geshu Family Head.”