Otaku Translation: Literary Genius: This Kid Was Born Smart C39

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Trigger warning: First, this is a fictional story. Second, please distinguish between ethnicity, nationality, and political parties. Third, the story celebrates literature from around the world. If you find yourself specifically objecting to the praise of Chinese literary works while accepting others, it may be worth reflecting on whether your reaction stems from unconscious bias or prejudice. While the piece in this chapter expresses cultural pride, please understand that feeling proud of one’s culture does not equate to feeling superior to others. Pride in one’s heritage can coexist with deep respect for the cultures of others.

Chapter 39: Choosing the Topic

On Friday, the sky seemed to cheer for Gu Lu, with sunlight shining particularly bright.

After school, Mr. Li and Gu Lu set off together, arriving in Rongcheng at eight in the evening.

Mr. Li was bustling about, arranging everything from the hotel to dinner.

The experience of staying in a hotel with his teacher—Gu Lu had never had that in his previous life.

"Rest well; you're not one to be picky about beds, right?" Mr. Li asked.

"Don't worry, not at all. With my family's situation, having a bed to sleep in is already a luxury," Gu Lu replied as he flopped down onto the bed, arms spread wide. The soft mattress cradled him, bouncing slightly.

"What do you feel like eating?" Mr. Li said. "The school gave us a meal allowance of a hundred each, which should be more than enough."

"How about hot pot? I've been wanting to try it for ages," Gu Lu suggested.

"If spicy food doesn’t upset your stomach, then sure," Mr. Li responded.

There was no chance of an upset stomach—after all, the original Gu Lu’s blood practically ran with chili peppers, being a native of Chongqing!

They found a hot pot restaurant near the hotel, ate their fill, and returned satisfied.

Gu Lu went to wash up and prepare for bed, while Mr. Li settled into a long phone call.

After about half an hour, just as Gu Lu was drifting off, Mr. Li finally returned to his own bed.

Noticing his student’s curious glance, Mr. Li explained, "Ah, if your teacher’s wife doesn’t see me every day, she insists on calling, otherwise she feels insecure. And my son needs to hear my voice daily…"

Realizing suddenly how unnecessary this information was, Mr. Li quickly changed the subject. "Let’s get some rest. We need to be fresh for tomorrow."

Ah, truly happy families are rare gems, Gu Lu thought, comparing his own parents to Mr. Li. The difference between them felt wider than that between a paramecium and a human.

"It really is wonderful to have loving parents," Gu Lu mused. Before his transmigration, his parents hadn’t divorced but were on the verge of collapse, arguing constantly—small fights every three days, big ones every five. His mother had told him more than once, "I’ve wanted to divorce your father for years, but I stayed because of you." After his transmigration, they did divorce. Progress, perhaps—being stuck in a loveless marriage only made the children suffer. With these thoughts swirling in his mind, Gu Lu drifted into sleep.

The next morning, Gu Lu’s internal clock woke him around the same time as Mr. Li.

"Don’t stress. Let’s take our time getting there," Mr. Li reminded him again.

"I’m not stressed," Gu Lu replied.

If Mr. Li hadn’t noticed his student walking stiffly, limbs moving in sync, he might have believed him. But instead of pointing it out, he simply nodded in trust.

At 1:40 PM, Gu Lu arrived at the Experimental Foreign Language School. As soon as he stepped onto the premises, he could feel the pressure mounting.

Students stood beside their mentors, who were giving last-minute advice. On the young faces of the students lay expressions of determination tinged with nervousness.

"Write carefully, remember the techniques."

"I heard there’s someone in our exam room who scored highest in the national preliminaries."

"Who?"

"Avoid typos if possible, but if you make one, don’t black it out—just draw a slash. Neatness matters."

"That guy over there seems like he’s pretending to be a genius."

…

In the Sichuan-Chongqing region, there weren’t many students scoring above 90 in the preliminaries. All seventeen of them could fit comfortably in one classroom. Among them were teams advancing to the finals together.

But to secure a recommendation, Gu Lu wasn’t competing against just those seventeen—he was up against hundreds of students across nineteen regions nationwide.

The person labeled as “pretending to be a genius” was none other than Gu Lu himself. Unlike the others in casual attire, he wore his spring school uniform.

"Wearing a uniform doesn’t make you look smart—staying silent does."

Gu Lu wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, so he didn’t bother introducing himself to strangers.

At 2:10 PM, staff members from the Ye Shengtao Cup greeted the participants and conducted checks—not as stringent as college entrance exams, but thorough enough, such as installing signal jammers.

Gu Lu sat upright, waiting for the test papers to be handed out.

Promptly at 2:30 PM, the exams began. Two supervisors oversaw the contestants: Xiao Yi, a younger staff member from the Secretariat of the Contemporary Chinese Literature Research Association, and a judge from the judging panel.

For the Ye Shengtao Cup offline competition, different venues used randomized A or B versions of the test paper. This ensured both comfortable seating arrangements and differing questions.

Gu Lu received version A. The essay prompts read:

1. Write an essay titled I Saw It, in any style.

2. Adapt the following poem into a prose piece, microfiction, or short play:

- Departing Early from White Emperor City by Li Bai

- Dawn sees me leave White Emperor amidst clouds bright,

To Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day’s flight.

On either bank, apes cry ceaselessly through night,

My light boat has already passed ten thousand peaks in sight.

3. George Bernard Shaw once said: A confident person can turn insignificance into greatness and mediocrity into wonder.

A nation, a people, especially so. The nation that stands confidently among the world’s great civilizations is China, is the Chinese people! This isn’t arrogance—it’s confidence rooted in history. From ancient times to now, China’s journey shines with glorious self-assurance…

Faced with three options, Gu Lu had two ideas. One involved crafting something original but starting with Yu Guangzhong’s Remembering Li Bai. In this world, Yu Guangzhong didn’t exist, so even if the rest of the writing faltered, the inclusion of Remembering Li Bai would surely earn points.

The full poem needn’t be quoted here; just its final lines:

"Wine enters his heroic gut, seven parts turning into moonlight;

The remaining three parts scream into sword qi;

One utterance from his embroidered mouth births half of the Tang Dynasty’s splendor."

With that alone, couldn’t he practically win standing up?

"Wait," Gu Lu paused. "This isn’t just about Li Bai—it’s about the poem itself. What state of mind is captured in 'My light boat has already passed ten thousand peaks'? When was this poem written again?"

Racking his brain, Gu Lu recalled watching the movie Three Thousand Miles of Chang’an in his past life. The context? Li Bai, exiled to Yelang due to Prince Yong’s rebellion, learned mid-journey that he’d been pardoned.

"So, if I focus solely on Li Bai, I might stray off-topic."

After careful consideration, Gu Lu chose the third prompt: national pride.

"In that case, there’s only one article for this," he thought, recalling a highly provocative piece stored in his memory.

Why Do We Have National Confidence? He wrote the title boldly, knowing this essay would dominate the junior high category.

It was rumored to be either a gaokao perfect-score college entrance exam essay from his past life or an anonymous masterpiece from an online forum. Its origin was unclear, but its widespread popularity on the internet was undeniable.

While most students were still brainstorming, Gu Lu began writing. He’d practiced briefly the week before.

Improving handwriting from 9/10 to 10/10 was challenging, but bumping it from 4/10 to 6/10 came relatively quickly.

[Aside from us, no country in today’s world continues to systematically use pictographic characters…]

"Is that Gu Lu?" Xiao Yi whispered.

He’d heard Director Jian specifically requested to oversee the Sichuan-Chongqing region for this student’s sake, rather than staying in Shanghai or the capital regions.

"He’s the first to start writing—looks like he’s got a plan," Director Jian remarked to Xiao Yi.

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