Chapter 42 Professional

By the time she returned home, it was already nighttime. The intermediate academy was presumably unmanned at this hour, and calling through the optical brain now would likely only connect to an artificial intelligence. This matter of Jiang Hui's was certainly not something an AI could resolve, so she planned to make the call early tomorrow morning.

As for coordinating with Attorney Jane, that could also wait until tomorrow. After a hard day's work, the woman deserved her rest.

With her mind preoccupied, Jiang Hui followed her memories upon returning home to dig out the promotional brochures of the various intermediate academies she had collected when choosing a school.

Beska Intermediate Academy was an above-average institution on Planet 732, catering to teenagers aged 15 to 18 in stellar years. It offered a wide variety of majors, covering virtually every field available on the market today.

Moreover, owing to its military background, its military-related majors were also quite reputable, ranking near the top of the planet. It was said that the military programs provided graduates with direct opportunities to advance to military district universities—though, of course, that required competition and evaluation, not something easily attained by anyone.

Naturally, alongside the military programs, the school also offered ordinary majors. Ordinary people still constituted the majority in the interstellar era, and society required diverse talents from all sectors to function smoothly.

Jiang Hui flipped through the promotional brochure, which was thicker than a book, and actually found quite a bit of interest in it. She became so absorbed in reading that it grew very late, and she somewhat lost track of her bedtime.

Unexpectedly, just moments before midnight arrived, she inexplicably entered the spatial realm. It was as if she had been forced into it; in the blink of an eye, she was pulled right inside. This made Jiang Hui realize once again how wondrous this mental space truly was.

Since she was already inside and had made sufficient preparations, she felt no particular alarm.

This time, Jiang Hui had grown wiser. Before browsing the brochure, she had fussed about for a while, intending to bring along some items for pastime into that bizarre space as well. Thus, she had deliberately tried to memorize things that could provide entertainment and amusement.

It was a pity that, likely due to a lack of precision, almost all of her attempts failed. The optical brain, smart gaming consoles, interstellar puzzle toys, and the like failed to appear in the mental space. Instead, the unassuming promotional brochure, which she hadn't even intended to bring in initially, was successfully carried across.

This brochure came from Beska Intermediate Academy, the school Jiang Hui was about to attend. At the very last moment before she lost consciousness in reality, she happened to be looking at the final page.

Jiang Hui flipped through it. Whether due to the relatively good memory of her current body or the properties of the space, the entire manual had been transcribed word for word, manifesting as a genuinely existing booklet within this domain.

Left with no other choice, Jiang Hui had no option but to continue reading the brochure to pass the time.

Although Jiang Hui felt the probability of her missing the deadline to change her major was not very high, a sliver of hope still lingered in her heart. Therefore, right after entering, she had scoured the brochure's descriptions of majors, which naturally consisted entirely of ordinary ones. She possessed thorough self-awareness; anything exceeding her capabilities was simply too much to handle.

To her surprise, she actually managed to find majors suitable for her studies and future career from among a pile of heavily interstellar-themed options.

One was Ancient Language and Literature, and the other was Human Origins.

Oh, the former was a major that studied subjects akin to humanity's ancient and modern languages. She had specifically searched for it beforehand; the so-called ancient language was basically similar to Earth's language system. There might be minor differences, but studying it should pose no problem for her. After all, even if she didn't know other minority languages, she certainly knew Huaxia Chinese, so she would face virtually no pressure in terms of study and employment.

As for the latter, it was said to focus on the culture of interstellar humans during their time on the mother planet prior to migration. According to what she had managed to gather so far, the culture of that mother planet bore a subtle, striking similarity to Earth's, giving off a sense of a shared origin. Having never eaten pork, she had at least seen a pig run; thus, she figured studying this wouldn't bring too much pressure either.

Yes, Mr. Jiang was simply such an unambitious person. She had never once considered choosing professions that sounded like a barrage of gunfire or braving fire and water. She merely wanted to lie flat and smoothly glide through life.

This was the precious life experience she had summarized as a seasoned veteran of contemporary society back on Earth. Do not strive too hard, or misfortune will follow... Although it was merely a joke, the reasoning held true. Besides, given Jiang Hui's current circumstances, it was better not to stand out too much; living a safe and peaceful life was her ultimate aspiration.

Putting the brochure down, she had roughly decided on a major in her heart, even picking out a couple of backups. Consequently, Jiang Hui found herself with nothing to do once again. The only things in the space that could barely be called amusements were the two brochures, both of which she had already read and found devoid of novelty. Even reading them a second time would consume very little time. Under such circumstances, she might as well just sleep soundly.

And so, Jiang Hui simply slept within the mental space until she was pulled back out.

This time, however, when she woke up, she had no intention of continuing to sleep in reality. She briskly climbed out of bed, determined to find herself some entertainment.

An interstellar version of a mother-in-law-and-daughter-in-law drama series, to appreciate the lives of interstellar people, followed by a serving of interstellar-style meat-sauce baked fries paired with happiness water.

This sounded like a quite leisurely lifestyle, yet as it crossed Jiang Hui's lips, it tasted somewhat bittersweet. Ah, how was she supposed to go on living like this in the future?

Having stayed awake all night, she watched as dawn broke, then got up to tidy herself before turning to sit outside in the living room.

By now, she had essentially confirmed that the cycle for entering that mysterious space was approximately twenty-four hours—once a day. However, this cycle was not fixed at a specific hour; it was floating, occurring at any point within the twenty-four-hour window. If she failed to enter on her own within that twenty-four-hour cycle, some coercive force would compel her to automatically transition into that mental space.

Once inside, she was required to stay for a full twenty-four hours before she could leave.

In other words, Jiang Hui lived forty-eight hours a day.

Furthermore, her actions within the space might exert an influence on reality. For instance, if she slept too much within this dreamlike space, she would basically find herself unable to fall asleep upon waking up. Conversely, if she ate too much inside the space, it would be difficult for her to quickly generate an appetite outside, even if she was actually hungry.

Jiang Hui was inclined to believe that this bizarre space was a static realm leaning toward mental substance.

Having forty-eight hours in a day meant genuinely splitting a single unit of time into two. Anyone perpetually short on time would undoubtedly envy her.

After all, human life is short, and time is forever insufficient. Possessing double the time of others also meant possessing double the possibilities.

However, for someone like Jiang Hui, who was accustomed to modern rapid-fire entertainment, this extra fold of time was temporarily a burden. Because she truly had no idea how to endure these protracted days in a place devoid of optical brains, computers, smartphones, and televisions. If she could find a reasonable way to pass the time, she would probably be much happier to possess such a golden finger.