DLERB -Chapter 206 Full-City Cram School! The Chancellor Was Driven Into Seclusion by an Old Craftsman!

After the night in the Qilin Hall, Xianyang went mad.

Outside the Vermilion Bird Gate.

A massive white cloth banner hung high above the city tower like an imperial self-criticism edict.

On it were flowing, ornate Qin seal characters—every citizen of Xianyang could recognize them.

Yet when read together, not a single person could understand them.

“Angles? Geometry? What is that thing?”

“Supplying an army of 100,000 still requires calculating losses? Even gods couldn’t figure that out!”

“What kind of ghostly scribbles is this? A city layout? Why does it look like a turtle to me?”

Crowds packed the streets three layers deep, completely blocking movement.

Literate and illiterate alike stretched their necks to look.

They were not looking at a simple examination question.

They were looking at something like a divine decree descending from the heavens—beyond mortal comprehension.

……

Chancellor’s Residence.

“Bang!”

A fine inkstone was slammed violently onto the ground by Li Si, ink splattering everywhere.

His hair was disheveled, his official hat tilted, his eyes bloodshot.

On the floor lay a huge sand table, filled with strange lines drawn using wooden sticks and threads.

Several aides knelt beside it, not daring to breathe.

“Again!”

Li Si pointed at the sand table, his voice hoarse.

“Throw the stone from here!”

A servant nervously used a small slingshot to launch a pebble.

The stone traced an arc through the air and landed with a “smack” on the far side of the sand table.

Li Si lunged forward, staring fixedly at the landing point.

“Wrong!”

“Still wrong!”

He grabbed a handful of sand and smashed it onto his own face.

“Why! Why is it different every time!”

“How can you possibly calculate a trajectory flying through the air!”

“It’s witchcraft! This must be witchcraft!”

……

Generalissimo’s Residence.

The atmosphere was even more suffocating.

Wang Jian stood in the hall like an iron tower, arms crossed.

In front of him, more than a dozen military advisors and accountants knelt in a row.

Each of them had an abacus in front of them.

The rapid “clack-clack” of beads colliding was sharper than battlefield drums.

Sweat dripped from their foreheads onto the abacuses.

They were working on the second problem.

A 100,000-strong army, a 3,000-li expedition, mountain roads, attrition…

Every number felt like a mountain pressing down on their minds.

“General…”

An elderly accountant tremblingly raised a bamboo slip in his hands.

“We… we’ve calculated it. It’s about… about 1.2 million shi…”

Wang Jian walked over and snatched the bamboo slip.

He only glanced at it once.

“Smack!”

A loud slap.

The old accountant was sent flying, crashing into two others.

“About?”

Wang Jian’s voice was squeezed out from between his teeth.

“Can war be calculated with ‘about’?”

“Miss by one unit of grain, and one more soldier dies at the front!”

“Idiots!”

He kicked another sweating advisor.

“The prince wants an exact number! Exact!”

“Calculate!”

“If you can’t finish today, none of you will eat!”

……

The entire city of Xianyang had fallen into a kind of absurd frenzy.

Anyone who knew even a little arithmetic suddenly became priceless overnight.

An old scholar who had been writing letters on the street just to make a living was the next day carried into a noble residence in a palanquin.

His consultation fee had skyrocketed to astronomical levels.

Even so, people still couldn’t get one.

Some noble families fought in the streets over a tutor who had reportedly learned measurement techniques from an official in the Ministry of Works.

A simple wooden abacus jumped in price from ten coins to one hundred gold pieces.

And still—there was no supply.

Young noble ladies were even more devastated.

The poetry, music, calligraphy, chess, and other arts they once took pride in were worthless in front of those strange symbols.

Some locked themselves in their rooms, crying over copied exam questions for a full day and night, nearly fainting.

Others tore their handkerchiefs apart while cursing the Ninth Prince who set the questions, calling him inhuman.

……

Confucian Residence.

The atmosphere was solemn.

Confucian leader Kong Fu summoned all respected scholars and doctoral officials in Xianyang.

“Absurd! Utterly absurd!”

Kong Fu slammed a copied version of the questions onto the table.

“A royal selection of consorts is a national ceremony! It should judge virtue, appearance, speech, conduct, and family background!”

“But Ying Ziye is using such trivial tricks to evaluate them!”

“This is an insult to all noble women! It is trampling upon the rites of Great Qin!”

A young scholar stood up, full of righteous anger.

“Master! This trend must not be allowed to continue! If everyone learns these useless arithmetic and technical skills, who will read the classics? The state will collapse!”

“Exactly! We must stop him!”

Kong Fu stood and walked outside, staring toward the direction of the imperial palace.

“I have already written a memorial!”

“Tomorrow at court, we will jointly remonstrate—even if it means blood staining the palace steps, we will force His Majesty to revoke this decree!”

……

West of the city, a newly granted estate.

It was quiet—unnaturally quiet.

By the pond in the back courtyard, Ying Ziye sat holding a small handful of fish feed, slowly scattering it into the water.

Red koi surged and fought beneath the surface.

Qinglong’s figure appeared silently behind him.

“Your Highness.”

“The Chancellor’s inkstone has already been replaced three times today.”

“General Wang Jian’s residence has already knocked over seven people.”

“All the abacuses in the city have been sold out.”

“Kong Fu is contacting the Confucian scholars, preparing to remonstrate tomorrow—even at the cost of death.”

Ying Ziye did not turn around. He simply scattered another handful of fish feed.

“Oh.”

That was his only reply.

Qinglong continued reporting.

“Also, those thirty-three noble families who submitted portrait entries have all sent people asking whether the questions… could be changed into something they are good at.”

Ying Ziye smiled.

“Why rush?”

“It’s only the first day.”

He clapped the dust off his hands.

“Let them calculate.”

“If a brain is left unused for too long, it rusts. It’s time they moved it a bit.”

……

Night fell.

Li Si changed into an inconspicuous gray cloth robe and quietly left the Chancellor’s residence with two guards.

He could not wait any longer.

His daughter Li Yannan had been crying herself nearly unconscious.

And he himself was about to be driven mad by that damn projectile trajectory.

The carriage stopped at a side gate of the Ministry of Works camp.

Li Si entered a smoke-filled forging workshop.

An old craftsman, bare-chested and covered in bulging muscles, was swinging a giant hammer, forging a red-hot iron billet.

“Master craftsman.”

Li Si smiled ingratiatingly and handed over a bag of gold coins.

The old craftsman paused, glanced at the gold, then at Li Si.

“Spit it out.”

Li Si swallowed his frustration but kept smiling.

“I would like to ask about trebuchets…”

He asked carefully.

“If one wants it to shoot farther and more accurately… that… that arm, and the counterweight… how should they be adjusted?”

The old craftsman picked up a water ladle nearby and took a big gulp.

Then he looked Li Si up and down.

“You don’t even know what a lever is, and you’re asking about angles?”

“You’ve read yourself stupid, haven’t you?”

The old craftsman spat on the ground.

“Go back and watch how your family’s mill donkey uses its strength, then come back and ask me!”

Li Si froze completely in place.

……

Third day, dusk.

Only half a day remained until the deadline.

Not a single answer had been submitted.

Not one.

In a secret residence in Xianyang City:

Li Si, Wang Jian, Meng Tian, and more than a dozen top noble family heads were gathered together.

The atmosphere was deathly heavy.

“We can’t wait any longer!”

Li Si slammed the table and stood up.

“This problem is beyond human capability! It’s clearly the Ninth Prince toying with us!”

Wang Jian let out a low grunt.

“And what can we do? The Emperor himself approved it!”

A marquis said tearfully:

“But we can’t submit blank answers, can we? Where would that leave our dignity?”

Li Si looked around the crowd.

“We can’t solve it.”

He paused.

“Does that mean we cannot have His Highness change the question?”

Everyone froze.

Li Si continued:

“Tomorrow, we will jointly submit a memorial! We ask His Majesty to show mercy to the noble ladies, and to restore ancestral customs! A royal selection of consorts should be judged by poetry, talent, embroidery, and virtue! That is the proper way!”

“Exactly! Chancellor is right!”

“I agree!”

“We must pressure the court!”

……

Just as the nobles of Xianyang prepared to use their familiar political maneuvering to overturn the board…

In the southern city.

Inside the dirtiest district, outside a clanging blacksmith shop—

A crookedly copied version of the problem sheet was pasted on the wall.

A group of idle onlookers stood around pointing and discussing.

A thin, oil-stained girl squeezed through the crowd.

Her clothes were full of holes, and she held a pair of iron tongs.

She raised her head and looked at the paper.

The surrounding noise faded away instantly.

Those strange scribbles, those bizarre numbers—

To others, it was heavenly scripture.

But to her, it was like a door opening into a new world.

She dropped the iron tongs.

Squatting down, she picked up a piece of charcoal from the ground.

Without any hesitation at all—

She began drawing rapidly on the dusty ground.

The rough draft of the first question slowly took shape beneath her hands.