Chapter 51: The Cloudtop Academy
After Chen Bai finished recording the students’ facial data, the automatic door alone was enough to keep these little children playing for ages.
One by one, they lined up at the entrance with beaming faces, waiting for the door to open. They even found especially good excuses.
“We need to let the door recognize us a few more times. What if it forgets what we look like and won’t open for us?”
“Exactly. We need to go in and out a few more times.”
They were clearly just being playful.
After the recording was done and they entered the tower, everything felt different again.
It looked like a tower from the outside, but the interior decoration was like that of proper rooms. It was like a ship: from the outside, it was a ship, but inside, it was almost like a hotel.
First of all, the first floor had ceramic tile flooring. The other floors had wooden floors, and the walls were covered in rich golden wallpaper.
Back then, he had not decorated the multifunctional electronic classroom like this because he had no money. Now, since he had the chance, there was no reason not to do it. Who knew whose pockets the treasury’s money would benefit in the future? Better to use it now to make the environment better and more comfortable. It could be considered Great Qian investing in education.
The moment the students entered, their jaws practically dropped to the floor.
They stuck out their little bottoms and touched the floor, looking like a group of little cubs.
“What kind of stone is this? It’s way too smooth. How did they polish this stone?”
It was bright enough to reflect a person.
“And the walls! They’re so pretty. Look, there are faint little flowers on them.”
As soon as they cried out in surprise, the room suddenly lit up.
The inside of the tower was actually rather dim. Ancient houses all had this problem to some extent: insufficient lighting. But now, it was as bright as day.
The little heads were all stunned.
There was a jewel above their heads, giving off white light and illuminating the place so brightly.
Chen Bai glanced at the sensor light. The brightness was not bad. It was fairly soft and did not hurt the eyes.
Chen Bai said, “All right, we’re going upstairs now.”
If he let these little fellows keep staring in a daze, who knew how long they would keep at it.
“Master, master, you’re going the wrong way. The stairs are over there.”
Chen Bai smiled.
With such a tall tower, if they climbed stairs every day, would they not be exhausted?
Chen Bai led the students into an elevator. This was also the most expensive facility in the tower.
They entered a small room. The students were still puzzled. There was no upward ladder in this little room.
When the elevator doors closed, the students were even more confused. They saw Chen Bai press one of the numbers beside him, then say, “In the future, whichever floor you want to go to, just press the correct number.”
The elevator Chen Bai had bought was quite good and very steady. At first, he had planned to buy a sightseeing elevator, but after thinking about it, he decided against it. Seeing the outside suddenly rise might scare people.
This enclosed type was a little more convenient.
Even so, a student still said, “Why do I feel like this little room is moving?”
“My head feels a tiny bit dizzy.”
It was normal to feel this way when taking an elevator for the first time.
Chen Bai went to the classroom floor. He had already had people move the old student computers over and install them on this floor.
When they exited the elevator, the students still had not reacted, because every floor looked basically the same.
They were still scratching their heads. Why had they gone in and come right back out?
It seemed like they had not done anything at all.
Chen Bai said, “You all stay in the classroom first. I’ll go down and pick up the other students.”
One elevator could not fit everyone, so some students had been left below just now.
After Chen Bai left, several students scratched their heads in confusion, then looked out the window. At that glance, they could no longer stay calm.
“Ah, so… so high.”
“That’s not right. We went into that little room just now, but we didn’t climb upstairs. How… how did we get up here?”
“What’s going on?”
After Chen Bai brought everyone up, those students were still discussing it in amazement.
Fine. It seemed he would need to teach them specially how to use the elevator.
So outside the little room that looked so magical in the students’ eyes, Chen Bai taught them button by button.
The students hurriedly took out their notebooks and wrote everything down, their eyes shining.
This “elevator” was far too magical, was it not? But it was not impossible to understand, because there had actually been something like lifts in ancient times too, the kind of wooden basket pulled up by human strength. It was just extremely rare and used very little.
Chen Bai’s main purpose today was to familiarize the students with the new academy, and he did not plan to hold class. So he explained floor by floor.
“Have you memorized it clearly? This floor is the multifunctional electronic classroom. Classes will be held on this floor from now on. Don’t get lost.”
“When you come out of the elevator, there is a number pasted on the wall. You all know the numbers too. It tells you which floor you’re on.”
There was no helping it. It was impossible to make every floor a different style, so they could only distinguish the floors by numbers.
The students hurriedly wrote it down in their notebooks. To Chen Bai, this was common sense. To these students, it was amazing new knowledge.
He led the students around the classroom. In truth, it was not very different from before. It was just that the floor had become wooden, and because the room was not bright enough, eye-friendly LED lights had been installed overhead.
Even this little change made the students unable to look away.
Their classroom had become even more refined.
Today was destined to leave them dazed for the entire day.
Chen Bai began introducing the other floors. The multifunctional electronic classroom was actually on the middle floor, because the higher it went, the smaller each floor became. Any higher, and there would not be enough space to install so many computers.
The floor above was the reference room. Inside, there were many small cabinets. Each student received one, to store their books, notes, or even clothes.
Chen Xiaobu happily placed his skateboard into his own cabinet.
Chen Bai said, “From now on, every cabinet is your private space. Without permission, no one is allowed to rummage through another person’s cabinet.”
“However, I will inspect them once a month.” Otherwise, who knew if they would turn their cabinets into dog nests.
This reference room was very necessary. In the future, the students would have more and more notebooks and other materials. They really did need a private space to store them.
The next floor up was the cat room. The cats had been moved here. By now, the cats were familiar with the students and were not afraid of people. As soon as the students entered, the cats meowed and rubbed against their feet, acting spoiled. Someone immediately picked one up.
Chen Bai said, “You will still be responsible for taking care of the cats as usual. During your free time, you may come up here to play with them. But remember to close the door properly. If they run to other floors, it’ll be hard to find them.”
The students nodded their little heads rapidly. These cats were so obedient and especially healing. Every time they played with them, they felt especially, especially happy. Especially the students who did not have strange beasts of their own. They relied on these cats to satisfy their cravings. They wished they could hug these cats twenty-four hours a day. This was also why the cats were so clingy: they had been socialized.
The next floor up was the bee room. As the name suggested, it was for raising bees.
Hadn’t these students previously grown many flowers in flowerpots? Qi Zheng had also scattered the remaining flower seeds over several flower fields. Chen Bai felt it would be a pity not to make use of them, so he simply raised a whole floor of bees to collect honey. Add to that the mountain of fruit trees the students had planted before—once the flowers bloomed, they would definitely harvest a lot of honey.
Actually, from outside the tower, a spire wrapped in bees would be quite interesting too, would it not?
The final floor was the top floor. This floor was different from all the others, because it did not need heavy load-bearing walls. So all four sides were floor-to-ceiling windows. Aside from the lower section of the walls, the rest was made of very thick, sturdy glass, though the lighting was not affected at all.
In the middle of the top floor were tables and chairs. There were also seats beside the floor-to-ceiling windows. They could come up here to relax at ordinary times.
See? Quite a few students had already climbed onto the platforms by the windows. They just could not stand straight. If they stood straight, they could see outside through the glass.
This height was truly high. Even Chen Bai felt a little weak when he looked outside.
But there were also bold students who covered their eyes while leaving a slit between their fingers, constantly peeking outside.
“So this is our academy?” Their voices were filled with disbelief.
From now on, they would study in an environment like this.
Chen Bai also felt somewhat emotional. To be honest, this really was a magic tower. To the people of Great Qian, how was this place not like the magic academies in the eyes of commoners from the medieval era—mysterious and unknown?
Through the glass, they could even see the clean clouds outside.
Chen Bai nodded. “This is our academy, the Cloudtop Academy.”
An academy that seemed to roam above the clouds, so it was named the Cloudtop Academy.
“Cloudtop Academy…” The students’ voices sounded a little dreamy. Their academy truly was above the clouds.
After the students played for a while, Chen Bai led them downward again.
The floor below the multifunctional electronic classroom was the plant room. Since these students liked growing strange plants, this floor was reserved for them to grow indoor plants. Several extra windows had even been specially opened on this floor.
The next floor down was the music room.
Below that was the kitchen.
Speaking of the kitchen, it was rather interesting. Chen Bai had bought a fairly complete set of equipment.
Because there was no natural gas, he could only buy appliances with built-in energy reactors.
There was a set of induction cookers, a microwave, an oven, and a large refrigerator.
When he had time, he could teach these students to make some simple meals themselves.
As for water, Chen Bai had bought a water pump and a pressure pump. He had a well dug on the mountain, and the water was pressed up from that well. He had also bought a filter, but drinking water still had to be boiled before use.
Chen Bai lifted the faucet handle upward, and clear white water flowed out.
“This is the kitchen, also known as the cooking room. When there’s time, I’ll teach you how to use these things to cook.”
The students: “…”
A single faucet nearly drove them mad with excitement. Chen Bai’s forehead hurt. He had no idea how long it would take them to get used to all this.
There was no need to introduce the remaining floors. They were all small rooms, each with an individual bed, desk, and chair.
One thing worth mentioning was that because the commoner students had left, many student computers had been freed up. Chen Bai had installed these computers in the small rooms.
Sometimes, when they were tired from studying, they could go back to a small room to rest. It seemed quite nice. It was just that Chen Bai had not expected that the rooms he designed for short breaks would later be treated by these students as home. These students would stop going to Shangjing Academy altogether, spending most of the seven days of the week inside the tower. As for their culture lessons, their parents hired private tutors to give them classes whenever they had time. Of course, that was a story for later.
Also, each floor had a shower room.
Chen Bai briefly introduced it. “When you’re tired, you can rinse off here. I’ve already adjusted the temperature of the water heater above. Don’t mess with it casually. I’ve placed the toiletries in the shower room. If you run out, come report it to me.”
Looking at the streams of water falling from the showerhead, the students: “…”
Even taking a bath at their school could be this fun.
Chen Bai introduced the toiletries. It was simple: just two things, one for washing hair and one for washing the body.
Of course, because each floor had one shower room, to avoid trouble, the floors for male and female students were separated.
“Write it down, write it down.” The students held their brushes and wrote furiously.
Chen Bai found it amusing. After assigning them their rooms, he said, “You know how to use the elevator now too. You may move around freely and familiarize yourselves with your new academy. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come ask me.”
It would probably take them several days to get familiar with it.
Chen Bai also returned to his own room. There were only two rooms on his floor, because there was also a control room that took up a large area. From the control room, one could see the situation at the automatic door on the first floor and control whether it opened or closed. However, Chen Bai felt it probably would not be needed. Aside from Qi Zheng, everyone’s facial data had already been recorded.
Lying on the bed, he could still hear the students chirping in little groups of two or three. Who knew how excited they had become?
After explaining so much, his mouth had gone dry, so he simply decided to sleep for a while.
But once he fell asleep, he slept until rather late.
When he walked out, he could not help freezing for a moment. He looked at the sky outside, then at the group of students whose little faces were all flushed red. “Why haven’t you gone back to Shangjing?”
At this hour, the city gates were about to close.
“We’re not going back. We want to sleep in our little rooms today.”
“We already had people go back and report it.”
Chen Bai: “…”
They were all young masters from noble families. Since when had they ever slept in such small rooms? Yet they actually found it unbearably novel.
Chen Bai shook his head with a laugh. Since they had already sent word back, and by now the city gates were probably closed anyway, then staying here was fine.
Chen Bai said, “After you return to your rooms, don’t stay up too late playing on the computers.”
These students probably would not listen. In the future, he would have to arrange a student on duty to inspect at a fixed time every day.
In the end, Chen Bai actually played on the computers with the students for most of the night. After all, it was also his first time staying in their new academy, and he was a little excited too.
He installed a chess program on every student computer, then connected them online to play chess together.
Later, he regretted it a little, because once the students learned how to play chess online, they became difficult to manage. Especially at night, they would block the crack under the door with blankets so no light leaked out, then secretly play inside. A few rookies played against each other online, clumsily pecking at one another like little chickens, yet they played with astonishing enthusiasm.
Chen Bai nearly worried his brain cells to death.
Of course, he had not thought that far yet. Chess was an intellectual game, after all. It helped develop intelligence. That was what he was thinking now.
In the wilderness, the Cloudtop Academy was brightly lit. From afar, it looked unimaginably mysterious.
Chen Bai was teaching them how to play chess, and the students gathered around to watch.
After he taught for a while, the students ran back to their rooms with their notebooks and began trying to play by following the notes they had written down.
This place was like a paradise beyond the world.
Chen Bai was not in a hurry to teach the students new courses. He would let them familiarize themselves with the academy for a few days first.
Without Chen Bai needing to remind them, over the next few days, the students came to the academy every day and stayed for a very long time. Of course, they could not stay overnight every day, so they basically arrived early in the morning and only returned in the evening.
As for Chen Bai, he was the Grand Scholar of the Brush in the Golden Hall, so he actually came less often.
Qi Zheng was busy with potato seed cultivation and did not come at all.
Recently, Qi Zheng often happened to run into these students. Whenever they saw him, they would scamper over excitedly.
“Prince Zheng, Prince Zheng, why haven’t you come to the academy lately? If you don’t come soon, the academy door won’t recognize you anymore and won’t open for you.”
Qi Zheng: “…”
What nonsense was that?
The door could recognize people?
“Also, if you don’t come to the academy soon, you won’t know how to play chess. Then you won’t be able to play with us anymore.”
Qi Zheng was stunned as he listened.
It seemed he really did need to make a trip to the academy.
What Qi Zheng had not expected was that when he finally went, some time had already passed—and he went together with the Great King and Prince Zhuo.
Chen Bai also began his new course.
Because these students already had some foundation, Chen Bai’s new course was slightly more complicated.
Great Qian had a kind of wild vegetable called ju, which grew all over the mountains and fields.
There was a reason it was so abundant yet had never become a proper vegetable.
First, its taste was unbearably bitter and astringent. If people ate too much of it, their chests would feel tight, their hearts would panic, and they would vomit sour water, as if they had fallen ill. If they ate truly excessive amounts, it could even kill them.
But if poor families did not eat it, they would starve to death. So the common people of Great Qian both hated and loved this wild vegetable called ju. Still, one had to admit that without ju, many more people would probably starve.
Second, ju was especially prone to a kind of insect pest. Basically, before the ju had fully matured, its leaves would already have been eaten clean.
This was also what Chen Bai had seen most often on the road when he went to Lu. Many of Great Qian’s common people relied on this bitter, pest-prone ju as food, even though eating too much made them uncomfortable and sick.
So Chen Bai’s course this time had two research topics.
The first was directional cultivation: how to reduce the bitterness and astringency of ju, improve its taste, and truly turn it into a normal vegetable.
Given the quantity of ju, if this research topic succeeded, its impact would be enormous.
Chen Bai had said before that he could buy many things through his phone, but could he feed all of Great Qian by purchasing things alone? Impossible. In the end, it still had to depend on the people of this era.
The second was to research how to solve ju’s insect pest problem.
Buying pesticide would definitely work, but people of this era had no resistance at all to these messy chemical substances. Chen Bai did not know whether eating crops treated that way would cause problems, so the best solution was still to solve it from the root.
With these two research topics, the students had even more reason to stay at the academy every day.
The plant room specially set aside by the academy was now full of ju they had dug up from the mountains and planted in their flowerpots.
If these two research topics started completely from zero, who knew how many years they would take? They might even never succeed.
So Chen Bai specially consulted an agricultural expert and obtained a simple but effective research direction.
