The First Order

Chapter 316 Encountering Lu Yuan again

An Yuqian could not accept Ren Xiaosu’s bragging. “Do you really know what programmable matter[1] entails?”

Ren Xiaosu looked at An Yuqian. “What?”

An Yuqian raised his voice and said, “Programmable matter is a type of ‘intermediary matter’ that changes its physical properties based upon user input or autonomous sensing.”

Ren Xiaosu thought for a second. “Real words, please.”

“In short,” An Yuqian said, “if you want to build this kind of armor, its components must at least have the ability to shapeshift and self-reconfigure. Without programmable matter, you can’t create flexible self-combination and separation processes.”

“Mhm.” Ren Xiaosu said calmly, “No worries about that.”

An Yuqian nearly went crazy. “Don’t you understand what I am saying? How can you not be worried about something this important!”

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu could solve all the problems An Yuqian brought up, other than the problem with the power source. As for the “programmable matter,” the nanomachines were better performing than that.

Ren Xiaosu realized An Yuqian definitely had not specialized in the field of nanotech research. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly be unaware of the current progress that nanomachines were making. Furthermore, he was certainly not a core member of the Yang Consortium.

But how did An Yuqian end up in this state? Although Ren Xiaosu’s knowledge was still quite far from allowing him to become an academic, he could feel An Yuqian’s stubbornness and pride in the face of science. Why was An Yuqian willing to be a mere librarian here?

In the following days, An Yuqian focused on teaching and playing mahjong, no longer bothering with the so-called power source and programmable matter.

Ren Xiaosu urged Wang Yuchi and the other male students to come up with designs for the armor after they got home and to approach An Yuqian for help during their breaks during the day to resolve any technical difficulties. For some reason, An Yuqian was willing to help them out.

From An Yuqian’s point of view, if he helped Ren Xiaosu solve all of his current difficulties and led him to the issues he mentioned, Ren Xiaosu would come to realize how wise he was.

He felt that Ren Xiaosu was not bothered by the state of programmable matter technology only because he wasn’t at that level and had yet to encounter the bottlenecks of the technology! After all, An Yuqian did not think that a tenth grader could possibly understand his vision and previous position in the academic field. Thinking of this, An Yuqian even wanted to bug Ren Xiaosu to teach him remedial courses so Ren Xiaosu could quickly understand just how awesome he was.

One day, when Ren Xiaosu wanted to resume studying a textbook from the day before, he found a notebook placed next to it. This was something he had not seen before.

Ren Xiaosu opened the notebook and saw someone had carefully sorted the learning order and key points of knowledge. With just a glance, he knew exactly who had written it. It was definitely An Yuqian!

Ren Xiaosu turned around and looked at An Yuqian in amusement. Was that guy trying to act mysterious? “Is this your notebook?”

An Yuqian was a little embarrassed. “Oh, it’s just something from the past I stumbled upon and thought would be useful for someone else. You can have it if you think it’ll be useful. It’s pretty suitable for you. Some topics are deliberately simplified in high school. If you follow the curriculum, you’ll end taking a lot of repetitive steps. So why don’t you just follow the method I used to learn?”

Ren Xiaosu said, “Thank you, how much is it?” He was about to pay for it.

However, An Yuqian flew into a rage. “I didn’t give you the notebook for money!” Then An Yuqian angrily went back to the entrance to watch the door.

Ren Xiaosu returned to his seat with a grin.After getting guidance from An Yuqian, the outlook for the armor was becoming better and better. In An Yuqian’s words, “Science is an extremely mysterious subject. When a design moves closer to rationality, it will have an even more special charm to it.”

It was a charm that could truly conquer the mind.

Wait. Ren Xiaosu remembered he’d just received a Basic Skill Duplication Scroll. Although it could not be used to copy superpowers, it was still very useful for learning normal skills.

He had wanted to use it when he saw Yang Xiaojin again, but Ren Xiaosu suddenly realized he did not have to copy Yang Xiaojin’s skills by all means. Couldn’t he just copy from An Yuqian, who was right in front of him? Yang Xiaojin’s knowledge of mathematics and physics would definitely not be as good as a professional academic’s like An Yuqian.

It was not that Yang Xiaojin was not smart, but that people specialized in different professions. There was no need to compare an amateur to a professional.

Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu said in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Skill.”

The voice from the palace answered, “Randomly copied target’s skill: Master-level mahjong playing. As the host does not have the corresponding advanced-level skill, the host will only be able to learn it up to the advanced level. Do you want to learn it?”

Ren Xiaosu immediately looked at An Yuqian. Why would he still lose money every day when he clearly had a master-level skill in playing mahjong? There had to be something wrong! Could it be that someone set up a scam for him? Or did the opponents cheat?

An Yuqian noticed Ren Xiaosu staring at him. “What are you looking at me for?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu replied to his mind palace, “Yes.”

By now, Ren Xiaosu had almost recovered from his injuries. As long as he did not exercise vigorously, he would be alright. He did not find it painful anymore even if he moved around.

Finally, it was time for him to learn about hand-to-hand combat. He wondered who Yang Xiaojin had arranged for him to learn hand-to-hand combat from.

Yang Xiaojin had given him an address not far from the library. When he felt that his injuries had healed, he could go there by himself. A martial arts school stood there.

During the day, he would spend his time in the library. In the evening, he would head to the martial arts school. Ren Xiaosu’s life had never been more fulfilling.

He went to look for the place based on the address Yang Xiaojin had given him. It seemed that the martial arts school was located inside a small alley, so it didn’t look well-known at all.

“Nangeng Alley. Here we are!” Ren Xiaosu said.

It really was a small alley. Ren Xiaosu felt that whoever ran a martial arts school in this alley was likely losing money. They probably could not even cover their overheads.

But when he got to the entrance of the martial arts school, Ren Xiaosu was surprised to see a lot of students inside. Several dozen students were standing in a yard slightly over 200 square meters. Many parents were waiting outside the martial arts school to pick up their children after class ended.

When he looked up, he was surprised to see the door frame and school signboard were carved out of a solid piece of wood. From the look of it, it was quite old. Rainwater had eroded the surface, creating white stains.

He saw the words “Lu Family” written on the sign.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if he might actually know the owner of the school. He went in and said to an instructor, “Hello, I’m looking for the owner.”

The instructor shouted to the inside loudly, “Old Lu, someone’s looking for you!”

Lu Yuan walked out. When he saw Ren Xiaosu, he said with a kind smile, “Quick, come in. We haven’t met in a while!”

The parents standing at the entrance were stunned. When they saw Ren Xiaosu earlier, they thought he was just a normal young man. But they could not have expected Lu Yuan would personally come out to meet him.

[1] Programmable matter is matter which has the ability to change its physical properties (shape, density, moduli, conductivity, optical properties, etc.) in a programmable fashion | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_matter