The Path Toward Heaven

The girl uttered painful groans and asked for a drink in her bedroom in the middle of the night.

Jing Jiu was reading the mathematical papers of the Science Academy while lying on the couch with his eyes closed; he didn’t give a response when he heard her request.

And he wouldn’t take care of her even if he was not doing anything at the moment.

He hadn’t done such a thing in his life except that he had helped Nan Wang who was too drunk and Lian Sanyue who was wounded too severely; and another exception was that he had helped wipe Bai Zao’s face.

Zong Lizi staggered out of the door, took a bottle of water from the fridge and had a few mouthfuls of it. Feeling a bit better, she commented, “Why am I so drunk? Wasn’t it the rice wine?”

Jing Jiu opened his eyes and said, “The percentage of alcohol in it is three times more than beer.”

Upon hearing this, Zong Lizi was startled, saying, “It’s so strong! That’s why I’m having a headache.”

Having said this, she sat down on the couch while holding the cushion, occupying a large part of the couch, pushing Jing Jiu’s feet off it.

Jing Jiu wondered how this little child acted more dominantly than Zhao Layue.

“Hey, I’ve just thought of something. You’re the author, not me. I think I need to clarify it.”

“Hmm?”

“The Twirling Rain Company will pay a lot of money for it.”

“I have money.”

“Don’t you want the authorship?”

“If I were the author, would the Twirling Rain Company give you the quota of exchange student?”

Zong Lizi remarked while holding the cushion and staring into his eyes, “I’ve been thinking, is it that you really need the quota of exchange student? Or you would like to draw the attention of an important figure above so that he would take you above. Otherwise, why would you write the novel in the first place?”

“Why would I want to go up?” asked Jing Jiu.

Thinking of the stories she had imagined over the last few days, Zong Lizi asked nervously, “Is it because you want to take back what is yours, like the right to a clan or a company?”

Jing Jiu said while looking at her, “Don’t watch those videos anymore; otherwise, you’ll become stupid.”

…

…

Most of the programs were not inspirational; one would indeed become stupid if they watched them day in and day out.

The worst of all were the TV programs; only an idiot would watch them all day long.

Jing Jiu hadn’t turned on TV recently except for the news. However, his study of mathematics was interrupted by Zong Lizi, and he didn’t like to listen to her made-up stories. So he turned on TV.

He convinced himself that he was doing it to celebrate his success in solving all the issues in physics of this world.

The light screen had soon stabilized. The pictures in high definition were no different from the reality, the only exception being that they didn’t feel like three-dimensional as much as the reality.

A variety show was being played on TV. It took place in a large stadium; the spectators looked like a mountain and a sea, cheering in a way as if they were drunk or mad.

Jing Jiu calculated and figured out that there were at least one hundred and eleven thousand of spectators present after taking two glances at the screen, feeling a bit startled.

Zong Lizi couldn’t help but scream after she walked out from the bathroom and saw the scene on the TV screen, “It’s primary selection! I must be too drunk to remember it’s the primary selection day today!”

There was a female priest in each major region and planetary base in the Federation of Milky Way.

The female priests had a very high status; it was said that she was responsible for maintaining the traditions of the distant ancient civilization.

It was the year when the female priest of the Stargate would be re-selected. The so-called re-selection meant that the former female priest was too old and on the verge of dying.

The new Association of Female Priests would select three candidates from all of those eligible on the planet, and one of them would be designated by the former female priest as the heir.

The lavish ritual for the occasion would usually take place in October, which was called the “Water Festival”.

The selection of the new female priest was undoubtedly the most important event for this planet this year. The primary selection had already drawn so much attention.

It was a nighttime replay of the primary selection in a neighborhood on the third level of this world.

Zong Lizi took out the cushion from underneath and held it in her bosom. “As an exchange student, I’ll be able to stay at the University of Stargate for half a year. We might be able to see the ‘October Water Festival’ alive,” she said excitedly.

She added disappointedly after she suddenly thought of something, “However, the tickets must be hard to get. There is no way we can get them.”

In the next moment, she looked at Jing Jiu, her eyes beaming, and said, “If the Twirling Rain Company used your novel, we would be able to ask them to help us get the tickets.”

The emotions of the girl had changed three times within a short time. Perhaps, she felt relaxed due to the effect of alcohol; or more importantly, the October Water Festival was too appealing.

Yet, Jing Jiu didn’t care so much about the October Water Festival. He took out a piece of paper from underneath of the coffee table after he suddenly thought of something, and wrote a word on it.

Zong Lizi came before him and looked at the paper out of curiosity; she saw the word “month” beneath the words “year” and “robot” he had written previously.

“What are you going to find out? Don’t tell me who I am…

“What is a year? Why are there twelve months in a year? Why are there three hundred and sixty-five days in a year? Why is there any apparent difference between the two sides though there is no month on the other side?”

Hearing these questions, Zong Lizi was taken aback, thinking that they must have something to do with the distant ancient civilization given that the dates had been recorded this way ever since the revival of the human civilization.

These complicated questions were not fitting for her to think about since she was still recovering from intoxication of alcohol. She shook her head a few times, trying to forget the three words on the paper, and started focusing on watching TV.

…

…

The first test for selecting the primary candidates for the female priest…was quite old-style, which was similar to those knowledge contests for the primary school students. The questions had nothing to do with creativity and innovative thinking; they didn’t require a high IQ to answer them. The questions were related mostly to the knowledge in literature and history.

Zong Lizi was staring at the light screen. She would furrow her eyebrows each time a question was presented; and she would rake her brain for the answer and shouted out her answer while clenching her fist; sometimes she would murmur her choice unconfidently; and sometimes she would just keep on furrowing her eyebrows. Every time the answer was given on TV, she would either jump up in excitement or claim with regret that she had evidently known the answer but remembered it wrong. Sometimes she would look at Jing Jiu while smiling foolishly and explain that the subject she studied was science…

“I know the answer to this question!” she shouted when she saw this next question before Jing Jiu could give a response. “It’s the Pingmo Plateau, in the northernmost region on the Main Planet.”

Though Jing Jiu paid no attention to Zong Lizi who was displaying a performing personality after a large amount of alcohol consumption, he was however interested in the contents of the questions. Perhaps, it was because the questions for the selection of the female priest of the Stargate were mostly related to the history of this planet, which was the special knowledge the regular people didn’t wish to know.

Zong Lizi suddenly thought of the seven tests he had taken with full scores; she asked uncertainly while looking at Jing Jiu, “Are you sure you know the answers to all of these questions?”

Jing Jiu uttered “hmm”.

…

…

The tests for the second round were much harder. They looked like games in which the candidates must be able to operate precisely with a serene mind; yet, the most important skill was the ability to dismantle and reconstruct the objects in the space.

These questions had a high requirement for candidates’ intelligence; in other words, they required a highly developed brain.

With her eyes widely open, Zong Lizi stared at those colorful cubes that had been disassembled and then reassembled and hundreds of water cups that looked the same; she couldn’t wrap her head around any of them after a long while.

She was a very competitive girl; she had no intention of giving up even though she was aware that those tests were beyond her capability. She was so nervous that she was holding her breath most of time.

“You can do these too?” asked Zong Lizi in disbelief while looking at his countenance.

Jing Jiu thought that these tests were so simple that He Zhan could easily pass them, to say nothing of Tong Yan and Que Niang.

Looking at Jing Jiu’s face, Zong Lizi suddenly came up with a ridiculous idea.

If he were disguised as a girl to participate in the selection of the female priest, he might be able to win in the end.

As for whether anybody could tell he was not a girl…who would doubt such a beautiful person?

It took her many days to get accustomed to this handsome face.

Jing Jiu was still embroiled in reading the thesis collection, countless symbols and numbers drifting in front of his eyes like the falling snowflakes, which reminded him of the room in the hidden network. Later, he thought of Shangde Peak; the hotpots on Shangde Peak tasted better than those on Shenmo Peak. It was because he had lost the olfactory sense rather than Gu Qing didn’t do his job well enough.

The humans in this world were somewhat weaker than those in Chaotian; it was not because they were lazy or incapable, but because the rules of the two worlds were different.

The example was his body. It couldn’t perform the strength and speed it had had before.

After a long while, he suddenly heard a swear. He opened his eyes reflexively and looked over.

Standing in front of the TV set, Zong Lizi stared at the host of the program like she was looking at an enemy. “It’s the behind-scenes manipulation!” said she, gritting her teeth.

The primary selection of the district in the third-level world was near the end; and three candidates had been selected. But the girl Zong Lizi liked and supported the most had not been selected. “There is no doubt; it’s the behind-scenes manipulation.”

Jing Jiu fixed his gaze at the TV screen and found the candidates were pretty good-looking, especially the one in the middle.

The candidate must be an exceedingly pretty girl in the human society if Jing Jiu thought she was beautiful.

Judging from the tide-like cheers of tens of thousands of spectators and the attention paid to her by the host, the girl with black hair in the middle was the most popular candidate.