Chapter 412 - 207: You Seem to Have Been Captured
Chapter 412: Chapter 207: You Seem to Have Been Captured
For once, Shen Yuan didn’t leave the moment the bell for evening self-study rang. Instead, he only reluctantly closed his notebook and began packing his bag after correcting a physics problem he’d gotten wrong.
"Decided to leave now?" Li Zhi’s tone was casual, but the light in her eyes betrayed her true feelings.
Shen Yuan chuckled.
As he packed his bag, he felt a wave of intense fatigue wash over him as he came down from a state of high mental concentration. His mind felt numb, and his temples throbbed faintly.
’There’s no exploiting this damn bug. The time spent in Concentration is tallied cumulatively.’
’Then again, that made sense. How many people could actually stay focused on studying all day and night?’
’The college entrance exams weren’t just a battle of wits, but a battle of stamina!’
’Someone with boundless energy could naturally study longer. And when you’re on par with everyone else, studying longer means you can pull ahead.’
But Shen Yuan paid that no mind. He just looked at Li Zhi and, in a voice blending fatigue with a sense of accomplishment, said, "Let’s go, Li Bao. The last problem on this test is really something. Could you take a look for me on the way?"
Li Zhi huffed, then turned and headed out of the classroom. Her voice drifted back clearly, "Bring your error notebook and your steps."
...
This was only the beginning, but it was an extremely important and solid first step.
From that day on, Shen Yuan kicked into high gear.
The [Concentration (Basic)] skill, which he had obtained in the library from "revisiting an old haunt," became the most powerful oar helping him navigate the tidal wave of his senior year’s first-round review.
Outside the classroom window, the poplar leaves, urged on by autumn, quickly turned a brilliant gold. Then, after a few bleak autumn showers, they fluttered down, leaving only stark branches pointing toward the cold, clear sky.
Inside the classroom, the bright red numbers on the hanging college entrance exam countdown timer jumped and shrank, mercilessly ticking down.
It was as if time had hit the fast-forward button.
In the early morning, as the first glimmer of light pierced the horizon, Shen Yuan was already at his desk. With [Concentration] activated, the pronunciations and definitions of English vocabulary were seared into his mind, burning away the last vestiges of sleep.
Although Shen Yuan’s English was excellent, that didn’t mean he could skip reviewing vocabulary.
Remembering something was one thing; reinforcing it was another.
Furthermore, with the help of the Concentration skill, Shen Yuan’s retention period for English vocabulary was greatly extended, which meant he had to spend less time reinforcing it.
This freed up more time for his other subjects.
Lunchtime.
He deliberately avoided the noisy cafeteria and boisterous crowds.
Clutching his lunch box, he stayed in the empty classroom, picking at the simple meal specially prepared by Ms. Zhang Yuyan while his eyes were glued to the physics formulas and chemical equations he always seemed to mix up in his error notebook.
In the evening, the brightly lit classroom resembled a frontline command post on the verge of a fierce battle.
All around was the rustle of pens scratching across paper, the crisp snap of turning pages, and the low hum of hushed voices discussing problems.
Shen Yuan buried himself behind a high stack of books and materials, with test papers, new and old, spread out before him.
Within the domain of [Concentration], he could more quickly cut through the fog of a problem, grasp its core, and efficiently call upon the half-forgotten knowledge deep in his mind, connecting disparate points to form a solution.
His thought process, once stumbling and hesitant, became clearer and more coherent. His problem-solving steps grew more methodical, and the error rate in his work began a slow but steady decline.
Whenever he hit a wall, he was able to quiet his mind much faster and return to basic definitions and formulas, instead of descending into aimless frustration as he would have before.
He also keenly felt the price of this ability. Deactivating [Concentration] after a long session felt like finishing a mental ultramarathon.
It brought a crushing fatigue that emptied his mind in an instant, leaving his thoughts sluggish and his head splitting.
However, even as tidal waves of fatigue crashed over him after each session, the skill’s activation allowed him to temporarily bring order to the chaos.
It was just that sometimes, the pain was too intense. When Shen Yuan really couldn’t take it anymore, he would lay his head on his desk and nap for ten minutes.
Besides, with his [Vigorous and Full of Energy] skill, Shen Yuan was usually back to his energetic self by the next day, ready to start studying all over again.
Li Zhi saw all of these subtle changes.
At the same time, her way of "supervising" Shen Yuan began to change.
She no longer needed to constantly lecture him like before. That sense of anxious disappointment—of hating the iron for not becoming steel—was replaced by a calmer, more reassuring peace of mind.
When Shen Yuan was engrossed in a complex derivative problem, his brows furrowed in the way they always did when he encountered a difficulty,
Li Zhi would quietly place a glass of warm water beside his slightly messy yet efficiently organized stack of books, without making the slightest sound to disturb him.
The young woman would sit quietly to the side, no longer trying to interrupt his train of thought with words.
Instead, she would open her own book or test paper and immerse herself in quiet study, creating a silent but powerfully cohesive shared learning space.
Only on the rare occasion when Shen Yuan got stuck, chewing on his pen as his concentration was momentarily replaced by confusion, would Li Zhi turn her head.
Her gaze would land on the step he was struggling with, and she would always be able to pinpoint the error in his formula or, in a voice barely audible to anyone but the two of them, concisely point out an overlooked hidden condition.
Moreover, Li Zhi’s guidance was no longer tinged with the critique of, ’How could you not get this?’ Instead, it was more like a subtle hint shared between two people working together to solve a difficult problem.