Chapter 14

People on the forum have already made rough estimates of the volume of several boxes, and then everyone started calculating how much cash or gold a box could hold.

As soon as Ji Zhixing climbed to the second floor of the dormitory building, he saw countless eyes sweep over him in an instant, shining on him like spotlights.

Uh… He hesitated and stopped at the top of the stairs.

The eyes of the crowd held anticipation, excitement, and fervor...

Ji Zhixing felt like he had stumbled into some kind of fan meeting, or... a bit like a casino. Despite the complete silence around him, he vaguely heard frantic shouts of "Open! Open! Open!"

Yawning and sleepy, Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang staggered up the stairs, supporting each other. When they saw two rows of bright, searchlight-like eyes, they couldn't help but lean on each other and slowly straighten up.

Lin Lang cautiously moved his eyes and scanned the room. He could name about 90% of the people in these two rows, and he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"What...what are you doing?" Lin Lang asked.

"It's nothing, it's just that Ji Zhixing's family sent some more things, and they're all piled up at your dorm entrance." There was a suppressed excitement in the voice.

"We didn't know what it was, it was so heavy, none of us dared to go near it." To avoid suspicion, they didn't dare stay at the entrance of 310, and all returned to their respective dormitories, leaning against the door and eagerly waiting, finally welcoming Ji Zhixing back.

Lin Lang breathed a sigh of relief: "Hey, look at you guys, you can't be bombs, can you?"

Ji Zhixing, the person involved, was completely confused. He hadn't heard anything about when the system had sent someone over again.

"Ji Zhixing, do you... want to open the box and take a look?"

Although it was a question, Ji Zhixing heard the tone of an imperative sentence, and everyone's eyes were fixed on him, as if they couldn't wait to drag him from the stairwell to the door of dormitory 310 at the end of the corridor and make him rush to open the box.

What exactly is it? Ji Zhixing was filled with doubt. Why did everyone seem more eager than he was?

Urged on by everyone's expectant gazes, Ji Zhixing braced himself and walked towards the dormitory amidst the welcoming crowd. For the first time, he felt that the corridor was so long.

Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang followed behind Ji Zhixing and also felt extremely strange. Every time they took a step, someone would follow, a group of people silently trailing behind them, like silent ghosts or zombies without their own consciousness. Xu Dongyang was so uncomfortable that he didn't even know how to swing his arms.

The three of them were practically pushed by the crowd to the entrance of dormitory 310.

Ji Zhixing saw the four boxes but still couldn't recall the system mentioning sending him anything. With so many people around, he couldn't easily communicate with the system. What could they be? Would it be embarrassing to show them to everyone?

But given the current situation, if he dared to carry the box into the dormitory, close the door, and then open it again, he felt that everyone's sharp gazes could pierce through the stainless steel door and turn him into a hedgehog.

After thinking it over, he figured that the system sent by his beloved great-grandson wouldn't do anything too unreliable, so he felt a little relieved.

Ji Zhixing squatted down and tried to lift one of the boxes with both hands; it was indeed very heavy. He groped for the seal, snapped the lock open, pulled the zipper open on both sides, and forcefully lifted the lid.

Lin Lang was jostled by the crowd peering forward and stumbled, falling face-first onto the side of the box. The contents of the box slid to the ground as he bumped into it.

Everyone, who had been eagerly anticipating the opening of the box, craned their necks and squeezed to the front. After seeing what was inside...

"ah……"

"this……"

"That's a bit much..."

The forum users had been waiting for a long time, and finally saw that the original poster had sent a new message.

"The mystery has been solved. The things that Ji Zhixing sent were indeed extraordinary, and their value cannot be measured in tens of thousands, or even hundreds of millions!"

The commenters' appetites were whetted.

The poster knew that keeping the audience in suspense would likely get them beaten up, so they didn't do anything fancy like taking a data cable, drinking water, or going to the toilet. They simply took a few photos and quickly uploaded them to the forum.

When people clicked on the photo, they saw stacks of white paper with black text—all printed documents.

Ji Zhixing understood what was going on as soon as he saw these documents.

He decided to participate in the CUPT competition with Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang, but the project direction was undecided, the competition process was unclear, and the judges' preferences were unknown. In such situations, it's essential to learn from past experiences. Therefore, he asked the system to collect project proposals, design documents, review papers, and other materials from previous winning teams for reference.

They can certainly find these things online themselves, but it takes time, and time is exactly what they need right now.

The system was incredibly efficient; it collected, printed, and delivered everything in just one night. Looking at the overflowing box of documents, Ji Zhixing felt a surge of joy at his great success.

In stark contrast to Ji Zhixing's joy, the onlookers, upon realizing that the box contained only academic documents, all sighed in disappointment.

Ji Zhixing turned around, puzzled: "What did you think it would be?"

In front of Ji Zhixing, no one dared to admit how they had made wild guesses, so they all attributed it to that post.

"People on the forum are guessing it's banknotes or gold or something." That's why everyone is so excited.

Ji Zhixing was speechless. Just two months ago, he was one of the poorest people in the school, but now he was seen as a nouveau riche.

It's not surprising that people think this way. In everyone's eyes, the first time Ji Zhixing's family made a move, they bought a Patek Philippe worth 100 million yuan. The second time, they bought a mountain of various designer clothes and shoes. Their extravagant lifestyle has deeply impressed people and raised the bar for what people can imagine.

Even now, some people keep glancing at the other three boxes, hoping that they'll find something they like inside.

Ji Zhixing also realized this. To avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings, he opened the remaining boxes one by one in front of everyone, and they were indeed filled with printed papers, materials, and the like.

Each box was opened, and the onlookers sighed, eventually dispersing with a sigh.

"Poor Ji Zhixing!"

"Exactly, how long will it take to read these four large boxes of documents?"

"I thought only primary and secondary school students would receive such terrible gifts."

"So being a scion of a wealthy family isn't easy after all!"

The information on the forum was a step behind; everyone was still studying the photos.

What is this document?

"If it can't be in the hundreds of millions, could it be a share transfer agreement?"

"No, you can see the text clearly if you download the original image. The top one is titled 'Shortwave Radio Frequency Electric Eavesdropping Device Designed Based on Sound Field Generated by Amplitude Sound Wave Scattering in Planar Layered Medium,' which should be an academic document."

"Oh, so you lied to everyone and said 'it can't be in the hundreds of millions!'" (Sharpening knives.jpg)

The poster wasn't intimidated at all: "You know nothing! Knowledge is priceless!"

"..."

The forum was filled with laughter and banter as people attacked the poster. Ji Zhixing, Xu Dongyang, and Lin Lang dragged all four boxes into their dormitory. Looking at the mountain of documents, he waved his hand with boundless enthusiasm, declaring with the force of war, "Let's get to work!"

Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang huddled together in his shadow, trembling like two rookie recruits who hadn't received much training and had been forced to the front lines.

However, no matter how much you fear the vast amount of books, things still need to be done.

Ji Zhixing assigned tasks: Xu Dongyang was responsible for sorting out the project structure and composition of each participating team; Lin Lang was responsible for compiling project directions and summarizing the judges' preferences; as for himself, whose reading speed and comprehension were better than Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang, he was responsible for reading all the content carefully.

Xu Dongyang and Lin Lang both breathed a sigh of relief after learning about their assigned tasks. Compared to Ji Zhixing, their tasks were much easier.

From that day forward, the three embarked on a relentless journey of learning, charging towards the insurmountable barrier of knowledge with the spirit of preparing for the college entrance examination. Aside from eating, sleeping, attending classes, and necessary physical training, they spent all their time glued to their chairs, studying… studying…

Not long after, Lin Lang started having cramps. He was usually as agile as a rabbit, but now, asking him to be still as a virgin, after only five or six days, he felt that every bone in his body was stiff, and he could almost hear cracking sounds when he moved his hands and feet. The flesh on his buttocks was even more rigid, and it would hurt almost as soon as he touched a chair—he had been carrying a pillow with him to use as a cushion when he went to class these past few days.

Xu Dongyang was in a similar situation, but everyone participated in the competition mainly for him, and Ji Zhixing didn't say anything, so he was even more embarrassed to complain.

In fact, Ji Zhixing was only slightly better off than them. During the previous two months, especially during the summer vacation, he had to sit in the library for at least eight hours a day. His nerve cells in his buttocks had been subjected to a lot of training—some of them may have even died out. But it wasn't that he didn't feel uncomfortable sitting there.

On the eighth day, Lin Lang began to find a different way to study the materials and changed his location. Sometimes he lay on the bed, and sometimes he hung himself on the ladder leading to the bed, just to give his "respectable buttocks" a rest. But lying on the bed was tiring and made his neck and back ache, and hanging on the ladder made his chest hurt from the cold, hard ladder.

Lin Lang changed his position every half hour, but eventually sat back down in the chair. As soon as he sat down, he couldn't help but groan, "Ah! My butt!" and occasionally snorted.

Ji Zhixing had excellent self-control and ignored the noise Lin Lang made from time to time.

Xu Dongyang, however, was getting a little agitated from the disturbance, and he couldn't help but make a suggestion: "Could you... change your voice... even a scream would be fine."

These past few days, Lin Lang has been bringing pillows to the classroom to use as cushions. Some people with vivid imaginations have started to look at them strangely. And with the occasional noise coming from their dormitory, he can guess how far the rumors will spread.

Lin Lang readily agreed, and his wailing instantly became more boisterous, so loud it seemed to reach the heavens, making anyone who heard it think a murder had occurred in dormitory 310.

Lin Lang yelled a few times as if venting his frustration, then stopped and sighed, "If only there were some kind of magical seat cushion that would make sitting on it feel like nothing..."

"What did you say!" Ji Zhixing suddenly shouted.

Lin Lang was startled and stood up, clutching his backside. Looking at Ji Zhixing's serious face, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. Actually, of the three of them, Ji Zhixing had the heaviest task. He sometimes found all sorts of excuses to slack off. These past few days, Ji Zhixing had barely rested except for sleeping.

Xu Dongyang also stood up, unsure whether he should say something to smooth things over.

Seeing that Lin Lang was stammering and not speaking, Ji Zhixing urged again, "What did you just say? Say it again!"

Xu Dongyang realized that Ji Zhixing didn't seem to be blaming Lin Lang, but rather seemed to have been inspired by something.