Chapter 15 Safe Molecules
"Aren't you bored?"
The next afternoon, listening to the rustling of leaves in the dense forest not far away, Lu Yusheng broke the silence first.
Seemingly surprised by her sudden remark, Hua Manlou paused for a moment before saying, "This place is very nice, I'm not bored."
Although his words were polite, Lu Yusheng didn't quite believe them, even though he had practically worn the little flowers by the door bald from touching them so much.
Last night, Lu Xiaofeng and Sikong Zhaixing left together. They seemed to have something urgent to do, and didn't even have time to say goodbye properly.
Only Hua Manlou was specially left here by Lu Xiaofeng.
If there's any ulterior motive, it's probably because they're worried about leaving her alone.
"Is this man really so good at causing trouble that even the shop owners who have patronized his shop before are in danger?" she asked helplessly to the two who had not yet left.
In the end, only Sikong Zhaixing, who was forcibly taken away because her disguise ability was useful, gave her a helpless smile that said, "What do you think?"
Lu Yusheng, having finished reminiscing, stared blankly at Hua Manlou's clean profile. She rarely interacted with such a refined and cultured man.
Just like now, once he sits there without saying a word, she feels like she can't guess what he's thinking at all, even though the faint smile on his lips is enough to show that he's not difficult to get along with.
But in any case, it is already commendable that they were willing to go to such lengths for a stranger out of unfounded worries.
Lu Yusheng sighed and took the initiative to start a conversation: "I actually have a lot of things to play here. It's not good to just wait like this. I have a game you'd like to try. You look quite literary, so you should like it."
If it were truly Hua Manlou's personality, he wouldn't really like these things, but since Lu Yusheng took the initiative to invite him, he readily agreed.
So she immediately took out her phone excitedly and skillfully downloaded a small game from the app store that she had prepared for her younger cousin to pass the time during summer and winter vacations.
This is an educational game with a voice recognition system. It's hard to say what the target audience is, but Lu Yusheng personally categorizes it as belonging to the 5-12 age group.
With the store's full-speed internet, two minutes later, she tapped the "Poetry Prodigy" icon that had appeared on her phone's homepage.
"This is a classical Chinese poetry fill-in-the-blank game. The game gives you an incomplete poem, and your task is to complete it. The difficulty increases progressively, from filling in individual characters to filling in individual words. Later on, there are also sections for filling in sentences and completing the next line. If you come up with a good sentence, you can also choose..."
She stopped herself from saying, "You can also choose to share it to the game forum with one click and garner everyone's comments and likes."
The explanation I gave to my 8-year-old cousin was edited and re-narrated by Lu Yusheng and given to someone else.
Once Lu Yusheng authorized the app's microphone permissions and turned on voice mode, the game started.
The two were initially some distance apart, but because Lu Yusheng was really curious about his next reaction, he dragged his stool closer to him.
"The ospreys cry, 'Guan Guan!'"
Before the question was even finished being read, Hua Manlou, still pondering the source of the sound, had already subconsciously uttered the phrase "on the islet in the river."
As the game's built-in AI voice says "Correct answer," the next question appears.
"The reeds grow thick and green, and the white dew turns to frost."
“The reeds are green and lush.” Hua Manlou continued to fill in the gaps in his voice without thinking.
"Beans are boiled with beanstalks as fuel, and the beans weep in the ___."
"Picking chrysanthemums by the roadside, I leisurely gaze at the Southern Mountains."
…………
These poems and essays are so well-known that anyone who has read even a little bit of literature can easily match them. Given Hua Manlou's literary background, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he completely outclasses Hua Manlou.
More than the core gameplay, the framework that supports it impressed Hua Manlou even more.
If he hadn't been able to clearly confirm that there was no third person in this space, he probably would have had the illusion that he was talking to a living person.
Seeing his expression remain calm and composed after his initial shock, Lu Yusheng, who had been watching closely, thought that this was indeed too easy; he could have answered every single question.
Fearing he might get bored again, Lu Yusheng took the opportunity during the pause to pick up his phone and operate it a few more times.
The next line of poetry, delivered by the slightly punctuated AI narration, successfully pulled Hua Manlou's mind away from his contemplation of the various conveniences of mobile phones.
"On this journey to the underworld, I will summon my old comrades, with ten thousand banners—the King of Hell."
This poem clearly amazed him, so much so that Hua Manlou subconsciously murmured and repeated it twice after hearing it.
At the same time, they began to seriously analyze the questions and rack their brains to think about them.
Soon, the one-minute time limit for answering the question passed, and before he could answer, the system announced the correct answer: "Going to the netherworld to summon old comrades, with ten thousand banners to slay Yama, the King of Hell."
From that point on, it was as if a switch had been flipped, and the questions that came one after another made even the faint smile that Hua Manlou had always worn on his face turn into a serious one.
What about "The scenery of the Northland is frozen for thousands of miles and snow drifts for ten thousand miles"? And "Fallen petals are not heartless things, they turn into spring mud to protect the flowers."
There's also the line, "Though battered and bruised, it remains firm and strong, letting the winds from east, west, north, and south blow as they may..."
Even though what he heard at first was incomplete, it still greatly shocked him.
Some of these verses were matched by Hua Manlou, while others were not. This only deepened his impression, as if he were engaging in a dialogue with the thoughts of a great Confucian scholar.
It's not that the words he filled in were bad; it's just that the verses from the past are fixed, and the AI can only determine one answer.
Hua Manlou was a scholar, and that's why he understood the rarity of these poems.
This dynasty values martial arts over literature. There are many martial arts masters in the folk, but very few famous scholars. Poetry has also developed slowly, and there have been no masterpieces that have shocked the literary world and been widely circulated for a long time.
Even his mind was stirred at this moment, and he couldn't help but ask, "Who created these questions?"
Lu Yusheng, standing beside him, clearly saw his expression. Seeing his astonishment, he first felt a surge of genuine pride, after all, this was the culmination of five thousand years of cultural heritage in their motherland. But then he realized something...
If even this young gentleman, who looks like he's read a lot of books, praises these poems so highly, doesn't that mean that these works are not only of high quality but also acceptable in this era?
A desire to become a plagiarist arose spontaneously.
But she quickly dismissed the idea. She didn't know if this world was a parallel universe to her original one. If it was, she would feel guilty for taking out these poems that others had worked so hard to accumulate and write, and she would also ruin the opportunity for the true owner of these poems.
After much deliberation, Lu Yusheng decided to give up. Coming to his senses, he suddenly realized he had forgotten about the customer in front of him while his thoughts were wandering.
She did remember Hua Manlou's question from earlier, and after organizing her thoughts, she replied, "These are all poems that have been passed down in my hometown, accumulated by our ancestors over hundreds of years."
This was the first time Hua Manlou had heard Lu Yusheng mention his background. He was taken aback for a moment, then asked, "May I ask where Miss Lu's hometown is?"
When asked about this, Lu Yusheng did not shy away from the question, but only said, "It is a place far away from the Central Plains, even farther than the farthest place ever explored by any dynasty. I'm afraid I will never be able to go back in my lifetime."
Upon hearing this, Hua Manlou instinctively offered words of comfort: "Miss Lu, please accept my condolences. It's alright if you can't go back. Now that you've come to the Central Plains, you can settle down here in peace. Although the martial world is a mixed bag these days, there are also many heroes and righteous people out there. If you encounter any difficulties that you can't resolve, you can always come to me."
Although the origins of Lu Yusheng's numerous magical items remain unclear and shrouded in mystery, he has actually come to believe her words about her hometown to a great extent.
Hua Manlou could only do half of the skill of reading between the lines, but it was enough for him to sense the regret in her tone.
After hearing these words, Lu Yusheng, though not entirely convinced, finally felt a little more at ease.
She thanked them with some emotion, but also realized that this game was not suitable for other guests, lest someone with ulterior motives copy the poems.
There's no need to worry about Hua Manlou in front of us. He's not fast at answering questions, and he takes these words and phrases very seriously. He chews over every word he hasn't heard before before carefully considering his answer, so far he has only answered less than one percent of the questions in the sea of questions.
Even so, we can't let Hua Manlou play anymore. We should tell him that he has completed all the levels in his current theme.
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Soon, Lu Yusheng found the third game that Hua Manlou would encounter since he arrived here.
In fact, Hua Manlou's enthusiasm for this so-called "mobile game" had waned slightly, but sensing Lu Yusheng's cautious and ingratiating words, as if he was afraid she wouldn't play it to her heart's content, she continued playing to put his mind at ease.
Although he had a general understanding of Hua Manlou's character, Lu Yusheng was still worried that he might offend Hua Manlou if he didn't treat him well.
Because we need to take care of his eyes, we can only choose games with voice broadcast and sound search functions, which greatly narrows down the range of options.
For a time, although Lu Yusheng had played countless mobile games during his university years, he could only think of one or two.
Moreover, because the internet here is not connected to the outside world, she cannot directly post questions and answers, so she can only rely on her memory to make choices.
But after finding the game, Lu Yusheng hesitated before giving it to Hua Manlou.
Indeed, there aren't many positive educational games like "Poetry Prodigy" that we just played. After all, these kinds of games often don't have a market, and even if they are educational, parents who really care about nurturing their children won't let them learn through video games.
But switching to the one she has now is obviously a big leap...
The game she found was similar to a simulation game, but unlike the dating simulation games she had played for Hu Tiehua, it was a combat simulation game, the complete opposite.
There are no combat actions involved; the game's progress is entirely determined by text-based choices. Perhaps the game was made too small, which is why the development team added full voice acting and player voice recognition.
As for why she hesitated to give it to Hua Manlou, it's simply because this game can easily lead one astray.
In short: It starts with being transmigrated into the body of a pathetic high school student, and ends with him slaughtering his way across the entire Earth...
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