Chapter 42 - 37: How Should the Eyes Move?

As his Constitution Attribute increased, a warm current surged around Chen Jue’s eye sockets.

His eyes, which had been staring at the sunset for a while, no longer stung and forced him to squint as before. Instead, a stream of tears flowed out, bringing with it a cool and refreshing sensation.

It felt as comfortable as looking up at a vast expanse of greenery after staring at a phone for too long.

’Special wavelength light irradiating mitochondria?’

’My Constitution went up, and my vision improved with it?’

’I can actually grind Attributes by watching the sunset!!!’

Chen Jue stared at the panel notification, completely baffled.

He had always assumed this attribute panel only gave feedback from exercise or stress-relieving massages.

Who would have thought that staring at the sun could also yield Attributes.

Humans aren’t plants; they can’t perform photosynthesis. How could they get energy stimulation from sunlight?

Filled with doubt, Chen Jue stared at the orange-red sunset for a few more moments, deciding to test it again.

The result was obvious.

Although the sunset’s light wasn’t as intense, staring at it for too long still made his eyes sore and sting.

Other than the constant stream of tears, the panel remained silent, with no new notifications.

’Was it a coincidence?’

’Or was there some other reason?’ Chen Jue muttered to himself.

Using the break after finishing his Tai Chi Twelve Forms practice, he took out his phone and searched for relevant information online.

He focused his search on keywords like "eyes," "sun," "mitochondria," and "vision repair." Soon, this typical office worker found scientific knowledge he’d never encountered before.

According to scientific research, the retinal photoreceptor cells in the human eye contain a large number of special mitochondria. These special mitochondria age and fail much faster than the mitochondria in other body tissues, which is one of the main reasons for age-related vision decline.

However, according to recent scientific studies, these special mitochondria are extremely sensitive to long-wavelength light between 650 and 900 nanometers. A certain amount of exposure each day can improve mitochondrial performance and increase the activity of photoreceptor cells, thereby achieving the miraculous effect of slowing down or even improving one’s vision.

As for long-wavelength light of 650-900 nanometers, it appears as red and deep red in nature. The most common sources are the light from the rising sun at dawn and the setting sun at dusk.

Just three minutes of red light exposure per day can have a vision-improving effect!

Although the degree of vision improvement from this external stimulation is very slight, often requiring long-term persistence to see any periodic improvement.

But for someone with severe nearsightedness like Chen Jue, this was absolutely fantastic news.

Because he had to work long hours in front of his phone and computer every day, his eyes were under immense strain. His nearsightedness had already exceeded -5.00 diopters, accompanied by varying degrees of astigmatism.

The moment he took off his glasses, he couldn’t tell a man from a woman half a meter away.

Even with his glasses on, distant objects appeared with double vision, which greatly affected his performance in Skills like [Darts] and [Stone Skimming].

’Only three minutes of optimal effect per day?’

’But it seems not many people know about this red light therapy.’

’Is it because it’s not universally applicable? It doesn’t work for everyone?’

Chen Jue thought to himself, guessing it was due to individual differences in Constitution.

However, he had only just come across this niche piece of human biology and still had only a partial understanding of the professional terminology.

Although his grades in biology class back in school were decent, after so many years since graduation, he had long since forgotten everything he’d learned.

He sat and researched for half an hour, right until the sun had completely set, before he managed to pull himself away.

The information online was endless, just like scrolling through Douyin or Bilibili. Once you got hooked, it was possible to waste days.

As a newly minted man of action, Chen Jue naturally wouldn’t waste his precious time on his phone anymore.

「 」

Covered in smelly sweat after his workout, he went back to grab a clean set of clothes before heading out.

Glancing at his attribute panel, Chen Jue saw that he had spent the day grinding [Tai Chi Twelve Forms] to Lv3 (1766/2000). He estimated he could level it up with a bit more practice tomorrow morning.

In addition, he had also ground out 0.06 attribute points today, making it his most efficient day since getting the panel.

In high spirits, Chen Jue forgot about his frustrating encounter with Zhu Hongbin that morning and drove to the Jingtang Club to meet up with Jiang Zhe.

The moment the two college buddies met in the parking lot, they exchanged a knowing glance and broke into identical, lecherous grins.

Inside, they started with the buffet, followed by the full spa treatment package.

This time, however, Chen Jue didn’t request the therapist named Nana.

It wasn’t that her skills were bad, but that too many other pervs were after Nana. There was already a queue for her services, so Chen Jue had to use the tablet to "select a new concubine," picking number 72, Xiaomo.

Since Chen Jue was treating, Jiang Zhe was especially lively, seeing his friend splurge for once.

He started gossiping with Chen Jue about the recent drama in their group chat, repeatedly bringing up the story of "Teacher Wu saving a little boy from a dog’s jaws."

He even pulled up photos of Wu Fang that were circulating online and started commenting on them right in front of Chen Jue.

"Old Si, this girl’s not bad, huh?"

"She’s super famous online right now!"

"Took down a huge pit bull with just two Darts! SWOOSH! SWOOSH! So badass and beautiful!"

"I heard she has a good family background, too. They own several properties from demolition compensations. The line of guys chasing her already stretches from West Lake to Qiandao Lake!"

Jiang Zhe clicked his tongue in admiration, though who knows where he’d heard this version of the story.

Meanwhile, the person who had actually taken down the pit bull with one dart was lying right next to him.

But Chen Jue didn’t say anything, just grumbled internally, ’A line from West Lake to Qiandao Lake? I have that many rivals already?’

After chatting about the girl, Jiang Zhe asked about Chen Jue’s new job.

After all, Jiang Zhe had pulled some strings to get him this job, so as the referrer, he was naturally concerned about how it was going.

"Base salary of 20k a month, a 40-square-meter studio apartment included, and the year-end bonus is calculated separately after the probation period."

"The benefits are pretty decent, right?"

Chen Jue said this while lying on the massage chair, letting the uniformed Xiaomo work on him as she pleased.

He had practiced Tai Chi Twelve Forms all day. While the muscle fatigue wasn’t as intense as from lifting weights at the gym, the sheer length and exertion of the practice took its toll.

When Xiaomo’s small hands kneaded his joints, Chen Jue felt an intense, pleasurable soreness, and a pig-like grunt escaped his lips.

As for Jiang Zhe, upon hearing about Chen Jue’s compensation, he whistled and remarked, "That’s amazing! With our crappy diplomas, making 20k a month is basically the peak for a wage earner."

He had been a boss before, so he knew the salary situation for employees in Hang City.

For someone like Chen Jue to get into a top financial corporation like Hengtong, he could be considered at the pinnacle for a vocational college graduate.

To climb any higher, you’d have to get a better degree or enter management and become a boss yourself.

As for the news online saying the average monthly salary for the class of ’23 reached 10,342 yuan, you should just take it with a grain of salt.

Because the word "average" here is used very cleverly!

Xiaowang graduates from a vocational college, goes to work in a factory screwing screws for four thousand a month, while Xiaoli graduates from Qingbei and gets a job at a top-tier tech giant like Ali, Byte, or Huawei, earning half a million a year.

They’re both recent graduates. Add them together and take the average, and suddenly "everyone has a bright future."

「 」

The dinner and spa took over two hours.

Xiaomo’s technique was excellent, but this time, the massage didn’t yield any attribute points.

Chen Jue guessed that as his base Attributes had increased, simple relaxation methods like massage were no longer effective.

’If I want to raise my Attributes from now on, I’ll have to rely on disciplined exercise.’

After leaving the Jingtang Club, the original plan was to kill time by teaming up for some games at an internet cafe until 11 PM.

Along the way, however, Jiang Zhe was hit with a barrage of calls from his wife, so they had to cancel the rest of their plans.

Driving back to the talent apartment complex, Chen Jue had planned to go to bed early to rest up so he could continue grinding Attributes with his workout tomorrow.

But when he recalled the ophthalmological science he’d learned online that afternoon, combined with the spa massage he’d gotten at the Jingtang Club to relax his muscles and improve circulation, a peculiar idea suddenly popped into his head.

’Since red light exposure can accelerate mitochondrial metabolism, improve vision, and increase the [Constitution] Attribute...’

’...then if I do targeted eye exercises, could I completely cure my nearsightedness?’

Once this absurd thought arose, Chen Jue found he couldn’t sleep at all.

He searched online for relevant eye workouts, and the video tutorial that popped up was none other than the Eye Health Exercises that had accompanied him through 12 years of elementary, middle, and high school!

’Should I give it a try?’

’It might actually work, right?’

Chen Jue watched the video tutorial, listened to the familiar music, took off his glasses, and began to try it.

But after several rounds of the four-part Eye Health Exercises, although the area around his eyes felt somewhat relaxed from the pressure, the panel showed no notification.

’Am I pressing the wrong spots?’

’Or can the panel not register this kind of Skill?’

Chen Jue was suspicious. He went back online and searched for the historical versions of the Eye Health Exercises.

From the four-part version to the five-part version, he finally found the origin of all Eye Health Exercises: the original eight-part version invented by Liu Shiming in 1961.

Chen Jue tried all the modified and abridged later versions, but none had much effect.

Only the original eight-part version, which came with an acupoint chart and detailed text instructions, elicited a reaction from the panel after Chen Jue tried pressing the acupoints around his eyes.

——————

[Ding~]

[You have completed one qualifying session of eye care exercises. The internal carotid artery, ophthalmic artery, and optic nerve near your eye sockets were stimulated by the pressure, accelerating blood flow to the eyeballs and promoting photoreceptor cell metabolism. Your visual ability has improved by a minuscule amount.]

[Skill Activated: Eye Health Exercises]