Chapter 12.2
Gao Ling lectured all morning on the performance of only two or three rough stones, but the lecture was extraordinarily detailed, worthy of the professional teacher of the Gambling Stone Guild.
After his lecture, Bai Jing could already barely identify the field opening to which several different sandy crust rough stones belonged, and could also say a thing or two about the performance of the crust, so it could be said that in the whole classroom, the one who had gained the most was him.
When Jin Mao saw Bai Jing still writing furiously after class, his notebook full of dense handwriting, he was amazed by his efforts.
His family was moderately well-off, his father was one of the four major robot manufacturers on the planet Proxima Star, and was a minor celebrity in upper-middle class circles.
It was just that with the near saturation of household robots these days, the family’s business was deteriorating and even his allowance has been reduced considerably.
That was why he wanted to become a Stone Gambler, to open up another path for his family.
Jin Mao thought he had worked hard enough among his peers, not only saving his pocket money to buy rough stones, but also going to the rough stones section regularly to observe others gambling.
But now, as he looked at the less than one page of text he had recorded on his light screen and then at the notebook Bai Jing had filled, he suddenly felt ashamed.
“Bai Jing, I want to learn from you!”
The little fatty clenched his meaty fist as he looked at Bai Jing steadily. He would also write down word for word what the teacher would say this afternoon!
Half an hour had passed after Bai Jing finished sorting out all the knowledge points from the morning’s lecture.
It was midday, and everyone was taking out nutrient solutions to drink.
Ning Yuxuan took out a premium nutrient solution from her space storage. Its surface glowed with a fine stream of light, like a work of art. This nutrient liquid was a customized flavor that hadn’t been released yet, and was only sold to the nobility of the Empire, costing 2,000 starcoins for one.
Seeing the envious eyes of the others, Ning Yuxuan’s lips curled up into a smile as she deliberately slowed down to drink it gracefully.
This was her favorite creamy strawberry flavor, its smooth and delicate taste with a sweet and sour fragrance was a real treat.
Ning Yuxuan was enjoying the taste of the advanced nutrient solution when she suddenly smelled an extremely strong fragrance. It was the smell of…. curry beef!
She couldn’t be mistaken, she had eaten with her father at the ‘Imperial Rose Restaurant’ several times before, and it had been so delicious that she had almost bitten her tongue off, and it was still unforgettable.
Just how could this place smell so good?
Jin Mao looked at the rice box that Bai Jing had taken out. The glittering white rice was covered with potatoes and beef, and the rich soup had already seeped into the rice, giving off a unique curry aroma.
And then he looked at the tasteless nutrient liquid in his hand. All of a sudden his mouth watered with greed.
In the end, he couldn’t bear the tantalizing smell and asked cheekily, “Bai Jing, did you make this yourself?”
“Mmm.” Bai Jing moved elegantly but quickly, wiping out half of it in the blink of an eye.
“You actually know how to cook ancient Earth’s food?” The little fatty’s eyes widened at his words.
He had studied interstellar history. When the end times broke out and there were only a million people left humans emigrated hastily, causing all of the legacies of the surviving top echelons to the military to disappear.
“Bai, Bai Jing…. can you share a little of your lunch with me, just a little, I’ll just taste it.” Jin Mao looked at Bai Jing with pitiful eyes, giving those who saw it a bad chill.
Bai Jing’s eyebrows knitted slightly. People who had experienced the end times didn’t share their food with others.
But thinking that Jin Mao had told him about the exams, he took out a separate box and shared a small portion of it with him.
“Oooh – it’s so delicious.”
The little fatty burst into tears while he wolfed down a big mouthful of food. He had never eaten anything so delicious since he was a child, even the advanced nutrient solution was no match for this.
The teenagers around Ning Yuxuan all inhaled deeply, suddenly feeling that the nutrient liquid in their hands was tasteless, but their pride wouldn’t allow them to strike up a conversation with a civilian, so they could only suffer in silence.
A few of them whispered, muttering, “Hey, did you just hear that, the beef curry was made by that civilian himself.”
“So what if he made it, are you going to go and ask him for it?”
“Cough, I’d like to go and book lunch for tomorrow, do you think 2,000 starcoins is enough?”
“You’re crazy, Miss Ning hates lowly civilians, let alone those from the slums, do you want to piss her off?”
The crowd fell silent then gritted their teeth as they drank their nutrient solutions amidst the rich aroma, expecting to be able to resist the temptation of the food once their stomachs were filled…
Ning Yuxuan tried her best to control her breathing, making herself look as normal without being affected in the slightest.
In her heart, she secretly thought: she had to ask her brother to take her to the ‘Imperial Rose Restaurant’ for dinner tonight, and she had to order the beef curry!
When Jin Mao finished eating, the automatic scent cleaning device was switched on and in 10 seconds the air in the room was cleared and replaced with a fresh smell of grass and wood.
The crowd breathed a sigh of relief. They would no longer have to suffer from the scent.
At 1pm, Gao Ling arrived at the classroom on time to start the afternoon class.
He first recapped the morning’s content succinctly before continuing with the effects of the other planets on the surface layer of the rough stones…
Time flew by and by the time the lesson was over, he had finished talking about the performance of rough stones from several nearby planetary yards and began to ask random questions…
Ning Yuxuan held her head high, she had often followed her father in the rough stones section since she was a child to see all kinds of rough stones so knew this knowledge very well.
And her goal this time was clear, to get into the top ten in the exams and become an official Stone Gambler as soon as possible!
Gao Ling looked at her, then made her answer the first question, “What is the performance of the Planet Karrl No. 1 field rough stones?”
Ning Yuxuan spoke eloquently: “Planet Karrl is windy and sandy, the crust movement is violent, and the No. 1 field opening is of the old pit variety, so it has formed a unique yellow sandy skin with grey spots and a thicker crust.”
“A perfect answer.”
Gao Ling’s serious face eased a little and he asked a few more people to answer the questions in quick succession. These questions were relatively basic, and again, the answers weren’t wrong.
He turned his gaze to Bai Jing, who was sitting in the first row, and a touch of admiration flashed in his eyes.
He had a good feeling about this young man in simple clothes. He listened to the lesson with an extremely serious attitude, a trait every teacher liked in a student.
So Gao Ling raised the difficulty slightly and asked a question that wasn’t covered in class but was still basic:
“As we all know, Planet Karrl and Planet Dimmo are each other’s companions, and the two planets have roughly the same environment, so how will the rough stones from these two planets be separated?”
Bai Jing quickly recalled every point that Gao Ling had talked about in the class, but after searching through his mind he still couldn’t find any relevant knowledge. So he said honestly: “Teacher, I’m really sorry, I can’t answer that.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, a burst of laughter broke out behind him.
Although the apprenticeship exams was difficult, the first day of the course was the most basic, most of it was general knowledge, and only after that will they go deeper layer by layer.
This civilian couldn’t even answer such a simple question, didn’t that mean he was going to be at the bottom of the exams? Heh, it was true that all those who came from the slums were losers…
The crowd looked at Bai Jing with contempt in their eyes, and Ning Yuxuan even frowned in disgust, as if staying in the same space as Bai Jing was an insult to her.
There was a twinge of disappointment between Gao Ling’s brows as well; he, too, came from a civilian’s background so was familiar with their struggles.
The cost of becoming a Stone Gambler was very high, so the percentage of civilians who were Stone Gamblers was very small. To become a reputable gambler, a civilian had to work several times harder than the average person and get support from the family with excellent performance.
And the ranking of the apprentice gambler’s exams was a good opportunity to showcase yourself…
Seeing this youngster’s meticulous attitude, he had expected another Stone Gambler to emerge from among the civilians, but he didn’t expect that he couldn’t even answer the most basic knowledge.
“This concludes today’s lesson.” Gao Ling quickly lost the will to ask any more questions and just stated that the lesson was over.
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Laugh all you want brats, Bai Jing beat you all (figuratively speaking) in the end! 😤
Thanks for the chapter.
Teachers out there: unless you’re probing for the existing subject matter knowledge of the students and plan to use a lack of response or an incomplete response as a teaching moment, don’t ask questions you haven’t covered in class. Making your students feel dumb or inadequate isn’t an admirable quality in an educator.
I was just about to say that, he didn’t teach it but asked about it then had the audacity to be disappointed