Lincoln Faulkner only remembered one time when he debated with a foreign angry youth from some unknown country about a minor issue regarding the quality of Chinese people. Relying on his decent English skills, Lincoln Faulkner managed to communicate smoothly with the other party. The discussion started with national character, escalated to exchanging insults about each other's families, and finally devolved into some rather indecent personal anatomical references. In the end, Lincoln Faulkner sent over an extremely vulgar video of a Chinese person using a welding torch on a foreigner's butt, which brought the argument to a close.

Although Lincoln Faulkner thought that the way the foreigner flipped over after a burst of sparks was quite artistic, the other party clearly didn't see it that way. Referring to the previous line, "I'm going to seal your talking asshole, blah blah..." the other person obviously grasped the deeper meaning of the video. He immediately kicked Lincoln Faulkner off MSN and never spoke again.

Lincoln Faulkner was quite pleased with himself for a long time afterward, secretly thinking, "Even if that foreign angry youth didn't get angina, he must have at least gotten coronary heart disease. While it's unlikely he had a seizure on the spot, if he did have a fit from sheer rage, it wouldn't be surprising."

For several days after that, Lincoln Faulkner felt a sense of pride, as if he had swept across Europe and America, bringing honor to his fellow countrymen.

Thinking back, aside from that international shouting match, Lincoln Faulkner couldn't recall having any other entanglements with foreigners.

As soon as Lincoln Faulkner returned to the classroom with his things, someone immediately rushed over, snatched the mail from his hands, and performed a "security check."

The few guys who had been timidly hiding behind the door watching the show earlier now all came out. They were the three boys closest to Lincoln Faulkner: Jack Martin, Benjamin Brooks, and Isaac Wynn. The three of them rather rudely tore off the outer packaging of the mail, and after fumbling it open together, found that inside the layers of wrapping was only a very old ancient book.

The whole book was thick, with yellowed pages that looked extremely old. The pages seemed to be made of a thin silk-like material, feeling very smooth to the touch. On the cover were two ancient seal script characters. Jack Martin, Benjamin Brooks, and Isaac Wynn stared at them for a long time, but none of them recognized the characters. Jack Martin gently pinched the book and discovered that every page was stuck together and couldn't be opened. So, giving up on peeking at its mysteries, he tossed the book back to Lincoln Faulkner.

Isaac Wynn said suspiciously, "Old Fang, when did you start hanging out with foreign archaeologists? But the writing on this book looks like ancient Chinese! Could it be a Chinese artifact that was lost overseas?"

Lincoln Faulkner didn't really know how to answer Isaac Wynn either, but his eyes darted around and he grinned, making up a story: "I am the grand leader of the Bird Language Cult on seven major websites and sixty-eight BBS forums. I have countless foreign underlings. I suppose one of my foreign underlings, out of respect for my personal character, bought a Chinese artifact at a high price and returned it to me."

"Shhh..."

Just as they were about to continue bickering, Lincoln Faulkner spotted the homeroom teacher coming from afar and quickly shouted, "Danger! Scatter!" He pushed Isaac Wynn and the others aside and darted back into the classroom.

After the day's classes ended, without Lincoln Faulkner needing to invite them, Isaac Wynn, Jack Martin, and Benjamin Brooks followed Lincoln Faulkner to his house, planning to continue studying this highly valuable antique there.

Lincoln Faulkner's parents were quite busy with work and always came home late, so his friends often gathered at Lincoln Faulkner's place to pass the time. The four of them studied the book for a long time and finally discovered its strange feature—it was sturdy, extremely sturdy. Not only could none of the four tear off even the tiniest scrap, but even when Jack Martin tried to burn it with a lighter for seven or eight minutes, making the Zippo too hot to hold, the book didn't change at all.

Such a bizarre object immediately set their imaginations running wild.

Isaac Wynn sprawled out comfortably on Lincoln Faulkner's sofa and suggested, "Why don't we try sprinkling it with fresh blood? Maybe that'll open some ancient contract. Then we can ascend to greatness and become monsters..."

Before he could finish, Lincoln Faulkner gave him a hard knock on the head.

"You've watched The Lord of the Rings six or seven times and even dream of becoming a monster. That's just tasteless. But..." Lincoln Faulkner suddenly changed the subject, grabbed Isaac Wynn's hand with a sly grin, and said, "Since you're willing, I'll draw some blood from you and make some blood tofu for everyone to try."

At school, Lincoln Faulkner was known as a prankster. He could casually go with a bunch of online friends he'd never met to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to look for Shangri-La, so of course he could do even crazier things.

Seeing the mischievous look in Lincoln Faulkner's eyes, Isaac Wynn hurriedly pulled back his lamb-like fair hand. Because he moved too quickly, he banged it on the corner of the table, and blood immediately started flowing. Isaac Wynn had always been clumsy, and in the ensuing chaos, he tripped over his own feet, fell to the ground, and even knocked the book off the table.

Lincoln Faulkner immediately burst out laughing mercilessly, and even the uninvolved Jack Martin and Benjamin Brooks took pleasure in Isaac Wynn's clumsiness.

Back when they first started high school, Isaac Wynn always spoke to others in a particularly sneaky way, preferably whispering in their ears.

Lincoln Faulkner used to tease him, saying, "Isaac Wynn's expression is so lecherous! It's like he's advertising that he has porn for sale, so everyone keep it quiet." Even now, Lincoln Faulkner hadn't stopped making fun of him.