My lord, spare his life!

He Ning: "..."

Zhang Yang's lame jokes weren't even the most speechless thing for him.

What's most speechless is that it took his sworn brother several breaths to realize the humor in the lame joke, and he slapped his thigh and laughed.

Zhang Yang felt as if he had found a kindred spirit when he heard the laughter.

"You also find this funny?"

"Haha... If the mountain spirit hadn't mentioned it, I really wouldn't have noticed..." He no longer cared that He Ning had chosen the courtesy name Wu'an while he himself had chosen Gongsun. Wang Qi had always felt that the courtesy name Wu'an was more suitable for him, but the old man refused to give it to him, spouting nonsense like "Wu'an is a better match for A-Ning's name." He was incredibly annoyed; he wanted what he wanted.

Make a note of Wang Ba's name, and also make a note of He Ning's name.

Now—

I can barely forgive this.

Seeing this, He Ning sighed and did not refute.

He secretly used his fingertips to control his internal energy and give his sworn brother a little "surprise".

So, just as Wang Qi was laughing the loudest and making the biggest movements, the enlightenment scroll slipped out of his clothes. Before it even hit the ground, Zhang Yang, with lightning speed, caught it. Wang Qi didn't even have time to react and snatch it back: "Huh, what's this?"

Players lacked a concept of respecting NPC privacy.

For example, when Zhang Yang is doing a quest, she will open and look at any quest items that the NPC gives her to pass on or escort.

Perhaps because players have done this so often, the game designers occasionally act inhumanely, secretly adding settings that indicate mission failure if the player opens the game midway through. Some missions also arrange for NPC assassins to give players a surprise attack before they wake up in the retail market.

all in all--

Zhang Yang was curious, so he opened it.

"Isn't this an introductory textbook?" When she first started learning the mainstream language of the Homestead side map, the textbook she used was also this version. It was said to be compiled by talents from various academies, and it had gained extremely high market recognition and had been a bestseller for many years.

Zhang Yang asked Wang Qi, "You're learning too?"

"You said it's for early childhood education, so why would I use it?"

Don't they even consider how old Wang Qi is this year?

Zhang Yang: "It fell off you..."

Wang Qi argued, "That only proves it's mine, not that I used it. I saw it on the street and bought a copy. Tianjiang County has many academies, and the auxiliary materials they use are the best in the surrounding area, which Dongxian County can't match."

Zhang Yang understood.

"It was originally for the children at home."

Without blinking, Wang Qi immediately agreed: "Yes, yes, it's for the old man's youngest child."

He Ning: "..."

Not to mention that the youngest of his adoptive father's children had already passed the age of enlightenment, even if they hadn't, it would be good enough if his adoptive brother hadn't slaughtered them all. Why would he act as a good older brother and buy them primers? Clearly, his adoptive brother wanted to learn something secretly but was afraid of being embarrassed if word got out.

He had just finished his internal monologue when he looked up and met Wang Qi's warning gaze.

The latter's eyes revealed a blatant murderous intent.

He Ning: "..."

"I didn't expect you to have such an elder brother's demeanor. It seems the rumors aren't accurate." Zhang Yangsheng became suspicious. Could there be more to Wang Qi's sudden attack and killing of his two brothers at the banquet? This mystery might only be solved when Wang Qi undertakes a related mission.

He Ning: "..."

The rumors are indeed somewhat distorted, but the claim that the sworn brother committed murder is false. If He Ning hadn't been present that day, not only would those two unfortunate sworn brothers have died tragically, but their godfather would likely have been nearly killed as well. Sworn brother Wang Qi genuinely wanted to experience what it was like to be an only child.

Zhang Yang then changed the subject: "This textbook version is outdated."

Wang Qi opened the early childhood education book and flipped through it.

He was furious at himself for being deceived: "Am I out of touch?"

"Look, this kind of early education uses the sound of one character to represent another, which means that children need a considerable vocabulary to begin learning. This might not be difficult for children from well-off families, but for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, it's completely unreasonable. Early education is only necessary if a child doesn't know how to read; how can you expect a child to recognize characters before they've even started learning?"

Wang Qi was somewhat bewildered: "Isn't this wrong?"

Zhang Yang said, "Of course not. This level of enlightenment is too high and too difficult. Even if you learn to read and use the fanqie (a method of indicating pronunciation) while simultaneously learning characters, you still need to learn hundreds or thousands of characters. Adult scholars who are used to it don't find it difficult, but it's different for beginners."

Studying requires taking time off work.

For a family, given the same amount of learning, the shorter the time spent on full-time study, the better. Excessively high barriers to entry will lengthen the time spent on full-time study, directly increasing the family's financial burden.

Wang Qilai found it difficult to understand what Zhang Yang was saying, but looking at the face of the mountain spirit, he unconsciously became engrossed in listening.

"Studying is an activity that requires a very high investment and has a very long return cycle, which ordinary families will resist and do not want their children to go to school. Therefore, if we want more children to go to school, we must lower the cost and reduce the barriers to entry."

Wang Qi didn't understand the logic in her words.

Why should more children go to school?

"What's the point of not studying?"

Without hesitation, Wang Qi replied, "When there's turmoil, we fight; when there's peace, we farm, start families, and have children. Generally, once you're on the battlefield, death isn't far off. Ordinary people have short lifespans, maybe thirty or forty years at most. What's the use of studying?"

Zhang Yang: "But the war will eventually end."

Although the observers have stated that there have been wars in their areas, these were all wars against other civilizations, not civil wars. They also say that more than two thousand years after the end of the civil war, they regained lost territories and their status as a civilization. Nowadays, wars against other civilizations are only fought in localized areas.

The battlefield was extremely far from their planet.

The requirements for participating in the battlefield are also very high.

Ordinary people are not even eligible to be conscripted.

Wang Qi said, "There is no end."

"How could it be endless? Nothing in this world is eternal." Zhang Yang cursed the game designers inwardly when he heard Wang Qi say that the average person's lifespan was only thirty or forty years. After all, the average human lifespan in reality is between two and five hundred years.

Some people with special talents and abilities can live for thousands of years.

Using a millennium as a reference point, thirty or forty years is just the beginning. The observed samples are considered adults only after the age of thirty, leaving the ranks of minors, while the lives of the NPCs in the homestead side map have already come to an end. Zhang Yang reasonably suspects that the game designers created these backgrounds mostly to scare players, making them see more, think more, and cherish peace more.

"Thirty years old is just the beginning of life!"

"It's the perfect age to explore and adventure!"

Zhang Yang spoke these two sentences with great certainty and naturalness.

Wang Qi disagreed, but he didn't want to disturb the mountain spirit's interest.

Zhang Yang scrolled up the system log conversation and complained, "It's your fault for changing the subject. Where were we? Oh, right, I was saying that education should have lower costs and lower barriers to entry. This version of introductory textbooks doesn't meet my needs."

Wang Qi muttered, "The requirements are quite high."

Zhang Yang: "Not tall at all."

The solution to this problem is quite easy.

This involves a seemingly insignificant game setting. As a game aimed at minors under thirty, the game interface text is compatible with hundreds of different intelligent races' languages, and its players range from thirty years old to as young as three or five.

To facilitate barrier-free use for younger players and those whose native language is not Chinese, players can adjust the system panel to use a dual-interface interface with text and pinyin. Text is at the bottom, pinyin at the top. When Zhang Yang developed self-awareness, she was completely illiterate. Aside from her innate language, which was compatible with players, everything else had to be learned from scratch. Pinyin truly helped her immensely.

And so—

While everyone was discussing lowering the barrier to entry for beginners and trying a more convenient, low-barrier phonetic notation system, Zhang Yang raised his hand and proposed a solution.

Use symbols other than written characters to replace initials and finals.

After learning the initials and finals, one can basically spell out any character independently.

However, while Zhang Yang's words were easy, putting this idea into practice was an extremely large undertaking. The collection of texts and their phonetic transcription alone was unimaginably tedious.

In addition, there are many local dialects, and even the official standard language recognized by the Three Enclosures and Four Symbols varies greatly due to accents.

How could a small county like Tianyue achieve unification?

Therefore, Zhang Yang's method could only be disseminated on a small scale, first used for literacy education among laborers, and then applied to children within the territory after gaining experience. To this end, Tianyue County also made localized phonetic modifications based on widely circulated early childhood education materials.

Wang Qi's mood was somewhat melancholy, and he began to mutter to himself.

If it were really not difficult or challenging, why would it be different for him?

Zhang Yang was just passing by; after exchanging a few words, he continued exploring the map. Wang Qi, on the other hand, stared at the primer with venom, regarding it as the enemy who had killed his father… no, the mountain spirit, filled with utter hatred. Realizing Zhang Yang was gone, he then shouted at He Ning.

"Crawl over here!"

He Ning rolled his eyes inwardly.

He stepped forward respectfully.

Wang Qi, unusually ignoring whether he crawled or walked, held the calligraphy brush in his mouth and gestured towards He Ning with his lip: "You read it!"

He Ning did as instructed.

"Write it again!"

He Ning did as instructed.

Wang Qi muttered some skeptical words, memorizing both the pronunciation and the strokes. Wang Qi's memory was by no means bad, and his hand was as steady as a mountain when killing. When these two were used for good, they produced an effect far greater than the sum of their parts.

After practicing calligraphy on a hundred or so bamboo slips, his previously crooked characters gained some spirit and energy. The only drawback was that they looked too much like He Ning's calligraphy. Wang Qi felt increasingly uneasy and said with dissatisfaction, "Secretly, go and get me a scroll of calligraphy practice books."

Even if he were to learn to write, he couldn't learn He Ning's writing style.

He Ning's buttocks had just left the mat.

Wang Qi cautioned, "Don't let the mountain spirits discover us."

He Ning: "Why is my sworn brother afraid of her finding out?"

What does it mean to be afraid?

Can't that dog talk?

Wang Qi: "Do you even know what it means to be impressed? I'm just waiting for her to be so shocked that she'll rip her eyes out for me to see! The mountain demon's eyes are quite beautiful; I can rip them out and keep them."

Even if a person's skin is changed, their eyes should be unique.

He Ning: "..."

Calligraphy copybooks aren't so easy to find.

Moreover, He Ning and the others are currently prisoners.

Thinking that his godfather's men should be arriving soon, he picked up his pen and wrote another letter home, which he then had urgently sent to his godfather.

Wang Ba had just arrived in Tianjiang County when this special conferment was delivered to him, leaving him completely stunned.

He calculated the time and realized something was wrong.

How could a round trip be that fast?

Wang Ba took a sip of tea, opened the letter home, and read it quickly.

"puff--"

The commotion of spitting out tea alerted the guards.

"My lord!"

"Cough, cough, cough—it's nothing, I just choked." Wang Ba coughed as he reread the letter word by word, repeating it several times before realizing he hadn't misread it at first. His son, who had cruelly killed his brothers and was even eager to kill his father, had actually started studying? He wanted to learn to read? Had he really been possessed by some ghost?

Wang Ba looked worried.

"It must have been invaded by a ghost..."

His trusted confidants rushed over as soon as they heard the commotion.

Knowing the cause and effect, the confidant's feelings were very complicated.

If he weren't afraid of getting a beating from his lord, he would have had a reckless idea—no matter what kind of ghost is currently occupying the young general's body, he must not return the body!

This kind of possession is good; it's good for the lord and everyone else!

I still had to offer a few words of comfort.

"My lord has seen the young general tear ghosts apart alive before. The ghost inside him is terrified of him. What kind of foolish ghost would dare to have such a thought of harming him?" The confidant had never seen any ghost of the Rank 18, which was so unlucky and pitiful.

Wang Qi is far more terrifying than any ghost.

Wang Ba said sheepishly, "That's true."

The confidant said, "Perhaps the young general is truly infatuated. A scholar dresses up for the one he loves. Judging from the letter, this Lord Boyuan is strong enough to move mountains and rivers, his talent is comparable to that of a famous scholar, and his appearance is as beautiful as a hibiscus flower. The young general is just feeling inferior."

Wang Ba thought for a moment and nodded.

"That makes some sense."

He had someone send a copy of the calligraphy model he had copied to Wang Qi.

Why is it a copy of a calligraphy model instead of the original?

Even Wang Ba feared that his calligraphy copybook would be cruelly destroyed.

At the same time, Wang Ba's reply reached Zhang Yang. She read it briefly and found that the result was better than she had expected.

However, Zhang Yang did not relax.

Yuan Xie, Xiao Sui, and the others thought it was bad news.

Until the letter had passed through their hands once.

Zhang Yang said, "I'm worried there might be a trap inside."

What flashed through her mind were the various power struggles and palace intrigue dramas that the observation subjects shared with her, each one intricately linked, subtly foreshadowed, and full of twists and turns. For example, "You thought this person was yours, but actually, they're mine," or "I just made you think this person was yours, but they're still mine," or "Actually, I knew all along that you knew that I knew that you knew."

Wang Ba is definitely not simple!

Zhang Yang shared his guess.

Yuan Xie and Xiao Sui both laughed: "It's not that complicated."

With that kind of scheming and intrigue, they could easily have arranged for hundreds of axemen to chop the person into mincemeat. Given Wang Ba's strength, they'd rather come and kill him than trick him into going there to be killed. Besides, the lord still has hostages in his hands.

"If the lord is not at ease, detain one of them as a hostage."

One hostage for one hostage, so that Wang Ba would have something to be wary of.

"Then should we detain Zaowan?"

Who is Zaowan Di?

"He Ning".

As for why it's called "early and late brother"?

Because He Ning → He Wu'an → He Zao'an Wan'an → Zaowan, and also because he is Wang Qi's sworn brother, he is simply called Zaowan Brother.

Yuan Xie: "No, at least this kid can do some work."

He Ning is obedient and humble, and can be a temporary partner in flood control. What can Wang Qi, a complete scoundrel, do if he is sent back?

Zhang Yang: "Then should we detain 'Wild Man Brother'?"

We need to discuss this matter with Wang Qi and seek his opinion.

Wang Qi made a decisive decision after hearing just the beginning.

"No need, just choose me!"

"How could he not deserve it!"