APSIL -Chapter 10 Mathematics and the Eight-Legged Essay Don’t Mix

Inside the room, Zhang Shou smiled as he watched the two boisterous youths fooling around.

Normally, he would have restored order with a teaching rod, but today he made no attempt to stop them. These farm boys, burdened by life’s hardships from an early age, rarely smiled anymore. Only at this moment did they finally look like sixteen-year-olds.

Yes—both of the young men in the room were farmers’ sons, exactly the same age as him.

Deng Xiao’ai, nicknamed Deng Xiaodai, had grown up in the village. His maternal uncle served as a clerk in the Revenue Office of the Shuntian Prefecture, giving him connections.

The Deng family had farmed for generations. They owned only ten mu of land—not enough to support their large household—so they rented fields from the Zhang family.

Of course, Zhang Shou now knew that the land probably belonged to the Duke of Zhao’s estate.

As he watched the two laughing together, he suddenly sensed something. Turning his head, he saw that A-Liu had somehow appeared silently at the doorway, just as he always did.

Since A-Liu had always had an uncanny habit of appearing without warning, Zhang Shou assumed something had happened at home. Leaving the others behind, he walked over to the door.

“She just left.”

Just three simple words.

Anyone else would have been baffled, but after living with A-Liu for three years, Zhang Shou had become fairly skilled at deciphering his clipped speech.

The “she” could only be the young lady.

But judging from Zhu Ying’s personality, “left” certainly didn’t mean she had returned to the Duke of Zhao’s residence. More likely, she had come here, then suddenly gone away again.

Thinking about what they had just been celebrating inside the room, he quickly understood what had happened and merely smiled.

“A noble young lady naturally can’t understand why a country boy passing an insignificant clerk’s examination is something worth celebrating. Let her think whatever she likes. I wasn’t the one who asked her to stay in the countryside. Quietly follow her and make sure she doesn’t run into any trouble.”

A-Liu nodded once, turned around, and silently departed.

Accustomed to the taciturn servant, Zhang Shou was about to head back when another thought occurred to him.

Earlier, Zhu Gongquan had revealed something else—that not only the land and house, but even the servants had been provided by the Duke of Zhao.

Yet from A-Liu’s attitude just now, he didn’t seem to regard Zhu Ying—the real young mistress—as any more important than Zhang Shou himself.

Zhang Shou had never doubted the loyalty of the family’s three servants.

Although he had died of illness and awakened with another soul in his body, Madam Wu, whose husband was unknown, and he himself, whose father was unknown, had lived peacefully in the countryside for all these years largely because of those three servants.

So he quickly dismissed the thought and returned to his two students, who were roughly his own age.

Neither of the youths had noticed his brief exchange with A-Liu.

As soon as Zhang Shou returned, Deng Xiaodai hurried over.

“Little Teacher, my parents said they’ll be hosting a feast in your honor in a few days! And… all the food and help you’ve given my family over the years while teaching me—I promise I’ll repay everything!”

“No rush about repayment. Besides, it wasn’t really money. I only helped your family with a little grain and some meat.”

“That’s not right, Little Teacher!”

Living up to his nickname, Deng Xiaodai was clever but stubbornly earnest. He shook his head vigorously.

“My uncle has three sons. If I hadn’t studied arithmetic and literacy with you, practiced my handwriting, and learned how to handle official documents, how could I possibly have gotten the chance to take the clerk’s examination ahead of them? And besides…”

He lifted his head proudly.

“Several questions on this year’s examination were ones you’d already taught us.

One asked: If four monks share one bowl of rice while five monks share one bowl of soup, and there are a total of 297 bowls, how many monks are there?

Another was about a vine winding around a dead tree five full times. The tree is four zhang tall and has a circumference of six chi. Find the length of the vine.

And another was the Han Xin Counting Soldiers problem: counting them by threes leaves two over, by fives leaves four over, and by sevens leaves five over. What’s the smallest possible number of soldiers?

When I saw those questions, everyone else was sighing in despair because hardly anyone could solve them. But I knew I’d gotten them right!

So after all these years of eating your food, learning from you, and now passing the examination to become a clerk, it’s only right that I repay you!”

Zhang Shou couldn’t help laughing.

Problems like these would barely qualify as elementary-school mathematics in his previous world—perhaps not even difficult enough for elementary math competitions.

Yet here, they counted as extremely challenging questions.

Watching Qi Liang perform the calculations mentally and produce the correct answers in no time, Zhang Shou nodded with satisfaction.

He also found himself rather curious about whoever had written the examination.

Although it was only a clerk’s exam, the fact that an official had chosen to test candidates with mathematics instead of pure literary knowledge was quite unusual.

Still, seeing the two youths so excited, he felt obliged to temper their enthusiasm.

“Xiaodai, passing the clerk’s examination is certainly worth celebrating, but don’t become complacent. The Shuntian Prefecture has countless clerks. As a newcomer, even with your uncle helping you, it’s easy to be pushed aside. You’ll need to keep improving your skills while also learning how to deal with people.”

“You also told me there’s a girl you want to marry—a gentle, respectable young woman. In operas, you always see virtuous wives supporting poor scholars until they become successful, only for the scholar to abandon his wife for someone else while she never complains. But that’s fiction. A real man who expects a woman to support him while he studies—does he have any pride? If you truly care for her, then you should make sure she can marry you with honor and be proud of you.”

Having said that, Zhang Shou looked toward the thin, frail Qi Liang.

If one didn’t know their ages, no one would guess that Qi Liang was actually a year older than Zhang Shou. Years of malnutrition had severely stunted his growth.

“And as for you, Xiao Qi…”

“If you’re aiming to pass the xiucai examination, there’s only so much I can help with. The old gentleman who secretly taught me years ago made sure I memorized the Four Books and Five Classics, and I became quite proficient in mathematics…”

He coughed lightly.

“I mean arithmetic. But these so-called examination essays…”

“They know me, but I don’t know them. Just as the clerk’s examination and the county examination are completely different, mathematics and the Eight-Legged Essay simply have nothing to do with each other.”

Pfft!

A clear, melodious laugh suddenly came from outside.

Zhang Shou froze for a moment.

He immediately recognized Zhu Ying’s voice.

But hadn’t A-Liu just said she’d left?

The two youths inside, however, merely assumed another village child was eavesdropping outside and paid it no attention.

Qi Liang sighed bitterly.

“Essay writing really is too difficult. My father spent his whole life trying to become a scholar but never advanced beyond the county level. He started teaching me essay writing when I was very young. But his own understanding of the Confucian classics was mediocre. Simply mastering the format doesn’t accomplish much.”

Zhang Shou couldn’t help sighing inwardly.

This Great Ming differed from the historical Ming Dynasty in many ways, yet somehow the Eight-Legged Essay remained the indispensable gateway to the imperial examinations.

He truly couldn’t understand what the founding emperor had been thinking.

“Besides…”

Qi Liang continued.

“When my father died, all he left me was a mountain of debt and a pile of essay collections worn nearly to pieces. If it hadn’t been for Little Teacher, the creditors might have driven me to death long ago. I wouldn’t even have had the chance to continue studying, much less pass the county examination. I’m already deeply grateful…”

Before Qi Liang could continue pouring out his thanks, Zhang Shou interrupted him.

“You passed the county examination because of your family’s scholarly foundation, not because of me. But the prefectural examination will be much harder. Xiaodai, now that you’ve become a clerk in the Shuntian Prefecture, help Xiao Qi look around. See if you can find a respected teacher willing to read his essays. If he can’t study under one in person, corresponding by letter would still be a form of instruction.”

“No problem!”

Deng Xiaodai readily agreed.

“We’re brothers. Xiao Qi, don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can to find someone.”

Before the overjoyed Qi Liang could express his gratitude again, Zhang Shou changed the subject.

“Oh, by the way, Xiaodai—you’ve been assigned to the Revenue Office, haven’t you? If you have access to the capital’s household registration records, could you do me a favor? See if you can look up the marriage contracts of the children from the noble families in the capital. My mother once mentioned that, under the laws of this dynasty, marriage contracts have to be officially registered. I’ve got some capable relative in the capital who claims to have arranged an excellent marriage with one of the highest-ranking noble families for me. It’s got me so frightened I can barely sleep.”

Outside the door, Zhu Ying had quietly returned.

She had been secretly annoyed that Zhang Shou seemed to ignore the laugh she’d deliberately let out.

But upon hearing those last few sentences, she suddenly understood everything.

He had trained a village boy into a clerk in the Shuntian Prefecture, surely intending to use that connection to investigate his own origins.

And now, because of her, he had postponed investigating his own identity and instead wanted to look into their marriage contract first.

But…

What did he mean by saying someone had “arranged an excellent marriage” for him, frightening him so much that he couldn’t sleep?

Was she some kind of terrifying monster?