Huaxia Federation, South Qiang Province
In Qingshan Town, apart from official documents, nobody calls it by that name anymore. It’s now known as Longma Town, because the whole town belongs to Longma Group’s industrial park.
More than twenty years ago, Longma Group bought all the land in the town and built a factory area. In addition to the car factory, they also redesigned residential areas, shops, malls, parking lots, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and many other facilities. Except for the post office and the police station, everything belongs to Longma Group.
So, the new generation of town residents were born at Longma Group’s hospital, ate Longma Group’s food, went to Longma Group’s schools, naturally worked at Longma Group, and even the nursing homes in the future will be owned by Longma Group. Their whole life will revolve around Longma Group.
Longma Group is just one of the industry branches under Liuhe Consortium. There are dozens of listed companies under Liuhe Consortium, not to mention the industries they invest in. Liuhe Consortium is one of the top ten financial groups in Huaxia Federation.
Lin Jiang arranged things and came to Qingshan Town alone, with the external identity of a young manager from Longma Group, settling in the town and attending junior high school there.
Reading books at Lin Jiang’s age and mindset is a funny thing. But it’s what Lin Jiang wants. His experiences of the past hundred years have had a big impact on his mindset, always making him develop into a crafty old monster. This makes Lin Jiang very uncomfortable, he prefers being an average person.
He doesn’t like feeling superior, it’s lonely at the top. Always plotting against others and preventing others from plotting against you is too tiring. People at school are undoubtedly a very innocent group within society. Lin Jiang hopes that the innocence of students can improve his mindset.
"Classmates, quiet down. Today we have a new student in our class. Student, please introduce yourself to everyone."
In Qingshan High School, Grade 11 Class 5, the homeroom teacher called out and the class quieted down, their gaze focusing on Lin Jiang."Hello everyone, I’m Lin Cong."
"Um, that’s it?"
The teacher waited for a while, but Lin Jiang only said one thing, which was a bit surprising. Shouldn’t he say more, like where he’s from, what his hobbies are, and so on?
"That’s it, teacher."
"Alright then, you can sit over there. Since it’s just the beginning of the school year, we haven’t started formal classes yet. Get to know your classmates first."
The teacher was a bit speechless. Mentally, she categorized Lin Jiang as an introverted person, which was a bit off-putting, as everyone likes friendly people, after all.
Lin Jiang found a place to sit, and as soon as the teacher left, his desk mate immediately approached him to chat. The two students in front of him also turned around to start a conversation.
Most of the students in the class were from the same town and had known each other since childhood. They bombarded Lin Jiang with questions, such as what his parents do, which department they work in, and what positions they hold.
Lin Jiang had already fabricated his identity and casually dealt with the questions. There wouldn’t be any obvious loopholes.
The students discussed various topics, mostly about their aspirations. They all hoped to get into a good university in three years and then secure a job at Liuhe Group through campus recruitment. Ideally, they wanted to work at the group’s headquarters. They believed that returning home in glory after achieving this goal might even impress their parents’ superiors.
However, if they couldn’t get into a university, they wouldn’t be able to join Liuhe Group, and they might not even be able to enter Longma Group unless they spend a lot of money to make connections.
The little children thought that Liuhe Group was their whole world.
The students’ world was simple, which made Lin Jiang let go of his worries and bond with them. They chatted all day, and Lin Jiang learned about most of their experiences from the past decade. He even learned the names of the girls they had crushes on in elementary school.
In the evening, they played ball together and shared a drink, solidifying their years-long friendship.
The next day, classes began. In this world, there was no English, but there was the language of cultivators. It was known as the Immortal Language, the official language of the Green Cloud Republic, said to be taught by immortals.
The Immortal Language and the Huaxia Language were the common languages in this world, while the hundreds of other languages were considered less important.
Lin Jiang found nothing special about language, until his history class surprised him. This semester, they were learning about the history of Huaxia, starting with Emperor Xia.
There were several portraits of Emperor Xia in the textbooks, taken from stone carvings or rare copies. Most were slightly distorted, but one resembled Lin Jiang quite a bit. He touched his own mask and found it amusing.
"Emperor Xia was the founding monarch of the first dynasty in Huaxia history, highly respected by historians and one of the eight most mysterious figures in Huaxia history. Who knows who these mysterious eight figures are in Huaxia history?"
"Teacher, I know."
"Okay, you go ahead and speak."
"Okay, teacher. In order of time, the first one is Emperor Xia, the founding monarch of Xia Kingdom, who established a rule over Xia Kingdom for a thousand years. The second one is Mr. Guigu, the originator of the Hundred Schools of Thought, a famous philosopher and martial artist in the history of Huaxia. The third one is the poet Li Taibai, who left behind hundreds of poems in various places. The fourth one is…"
A student stood up and said, Lin Jiang listened and his face became even more mysterious.
Most of the eight most mysterious figures in history are him.
"Do you disagree with this statement, student?"
Seeing Lin Jiang’s expression, the teacher said somewhat angrily.
"No, teacher, I completely agree."
"Then tell us, what were Emperor Xia’s achievements?"
"Um, teacher, I transferred here, and I studied a different version before."
"Even if it’s not this version, Emperor Xia is still the ancestor of our Huaxia culture. You don’t even know that. You must have been lazy before. Stand up and talk for this class. Any questions?"
"No."
Lin Jiang obediently stood up, feeling frustrated. The first class’s punishment was for not knowing what you had done. There was nowhere to argue.
The teacher quickly called on other students to answer; they responded fluently, like high school students on Blue Star. When discussing the deeds of Qin Shi Huang, even if they couldn’t explain everything, they could at least give a brief overview.
The teachers in the small town were also very knowledgeable. They didn’t just read from the textbooks, but kept the class engaged with interesting stories and incorporated other topics. The final assignment given to the students was about martial arts.
Martial arts had declined but not disappeared. There are still some martial arts masters in society today, and even the existence of internal strength has been proven. So, the teacher assigned the students a task to write about the impact of martial arts on modern life.
In physical education class, the teacher was no longer frequently ill. Apart from scientific exercises, he also taught a form of guidance that could help develop internal strength.
"Internal strength is not pseudoscience; it’s just that our current understanding of martial arts is limited. This form of guidance is widely recognized as the best foundational martial art. Practice hard at home. If you can develop internal strength, you can be recommended to the top 35 universities in the federation as a sports talent. It will also make it easier to work at Liuhe Group in the future, as it is one of the mandatory criteria for a few social recruitments in the group. Even if you can’t achieve it, it will still benefit your health."
As the class was about to end, the physical education teacher told everyone that there were instructional videos available for this kind of guidance, and they should go back, study, and practice.
The decline of martial arts not only led to less practical benefits from training, but also resulted in the loss of many traditions. After Demon Human was wiped out, Martial Arts Masters became a source of social instability. For a long period of time, the government banned martial arts, exacerbated by wars and other factors, causing many martial arts techniques to disappear, not to mention the secret methods passed down through generations.
However, in recent years, martial arts have slowly made a comeback. Those who excel in martial arts can now obtain good jobs, leading to the emergence of many martial arts schools.
Lin Jiang attended school day by day, seemingly forgetting his own identity and fully immersing himself as a student. The only downside was that he couldn’t engage in secret crushes like his classmates. Although there were some who secretly admired him, he found them too innocent and naive to make a move.
Furthermore, Lin Jiang took the time to learn about the history of Huaxia in this world. Almost every history book mentioned him, either for his achievements or the ideals he spread. To this, Lin Jiang wanted to say, "Does anyone really understand…?"