Chapter 59: Learning History
Chapter 59: Learning History
Huang Ji decided to learn history—not just as a collection of records, but as a scientific discipline. In its broadest sense, history refers to all past events, even those that were not documented. It is a study that involves examining and analyzing past occurrences to objectively determine their causes and effects.
The discipline employs various methods, using existing records or artifacts combined with logic and scientific tools to investigate and explain the progression of events. There are countless techniques involved, and Huang Ji saw no reason not to study them.
By mastering these techniques, he could reverse-engineer current information and decipher unknown historical puzzles. Just as he could unlock future states of information, he believed he could unlock past states as well. Huang Ji envisioned himself being able to directly observe the historical details of an object, tracing its history backward.
For example, when observing a tree in the past, he could sense information like “how much water it has absorbed in total” or “how many fruits it has borne.” Initially, he thought this was the tree’s historical record. While it could be called a historical record, it wasn’t the past state of information but rather its present state—details about the tree’s type, size, mass, and molecular composition in the present moment. These details continuously changed as time passed.
If he could truly access the past state of information, Huang Ji believed that even standing in an empty field, he could perceive who walked through a hundred years ago, who lived there a thousand years ago, or who roamed there ten thousand years ago.
“My current capacity to process information... How far back can I trace? How much detail can I perceive? I’ll have to experiment to find out,” he thought. “Logically, I should be able to trace back more than I can with future states.”
Huang Ji got off the train and checked into a hotel in Xinzheng City. Since only Lin Li had an ID, they shared a suite.
The sky was already dark. Huang Ji didn’t rush back to the countryside; he needed to create a new identity before treating his grandfather. After all, the identity of “Huang Ji” was supposed to be in Shanghai. Showing up suddenly with remarkable medical skills would raise too many questions.