“How do you play this?” Shen Shangling didn’t pay attention to the little brat’s surprised gaze; he picked up the bundle of small bamboo strips, looked at them, and smiled. “Is it tiao gun (pick-up sticks)?”
He had seen others play it when he was young: you take a bundle of small, thin sticks, scatter them on a slightly elevated surface, and then the friends take turns picking them up one by one. You cannot touch the other sticks while picking one up; if you break the rule, it’s the next person’s turn, and the winner is whoever picks up the most. This game was excellent for training a child’s patience and meticulousness. Seeing this bundle of Jiang Sanwen’s, Shen Shangling assumed it was a similar toy. It was just that it seemed to have been touched with something like cinnabar to make it reddish… Is a bundle of pick-up sticks really made this exquisitely?
“Old Shen, this is a suanchou (counting rod),” Jiang Sanwen said, his little face full of confusion. “Haven’t you learned this?”
Shen Shangling suddenly froze; a layer of goosebumps erupted along his spine. So this thing is the counting rod used by the ancients? He knew the “Six Arts of a Gentleman”: Rites, Music, Archery, Charioteering, Calligraphy, and Mathematics. Among these, “Mathematics” was related to calculations. After all, the ancients needed to measure land, calculate taxes, distribute grain, and perform engineering calculations, none of which could be done without some mathematical knowledge. This was a skill a “gentleman” was supposed to master. In this era he had transmigrated into, it was clear that “counting rods” were used for counting and calculation.
Shen Shangling nervously pursed his lips. It seemed that every person in this era who had even a little bit of education would know how to use these “counting rods,” especially someone like the original owner a “famous scholar” whose Six Arts were presumably not bad. Even if the original owner’s attainments in “Mathematics” were only mediocre, he would absolutely not… fail to recognize them. If it were just Jiang Sanwen here, it wouldn’t matter, but the problem was that Lu Xiao and Jiang Yuanlin were also present.
“The Snow Demon doesn’t recognize counting rods?” Sure enough, Lu Xiao’s cool voice sounded from the side. “I am truly surprised.”
Shen Shangling: “…” He stiffened, then stood up in silence.
“Does the Snow Demon have something to say?” Lu Xiao’s expression was quite mocking.
“Your Highness,” Shen Shangling gritted his teeth and quickly found an excuse for himself. “I have recently (deeply regretted my past mistakes). I feel that in the past, I was far too obsessed with fame and vanity, always showing off with words, which served no purpose other than decorating the moonlight.”
He bowed deeply, continuing with a sincere, reflective look: “Since ‘nothing can be established without first destroying,’ I have abandoned everything I learned from my teachers in the past, and my heart now holds only some heterodox, miscellaneous studies—consequently, as for these counting rods, I have simply considered them forgotten.”
He spoke fluently; the excuse was also quite ridiculous. But in reality, he was gambling. He didn’t have a shred of the original owner’s memories. He was gambling that, with Lu Xiao’s vigilance, the man had likely already seen through the anomaly and perhaps had long suspected that he wasn’t the original person… Ever since he offered the soap and used Journey to the West to coax Jiang Sanwen… the fact that Lu Xiao hadn’t exposed him or killed him outright meant he was likely just waiting to see his utility. This excuse was just to muddle through. Lu Xiao was likely watching him spout nonsense like someone watching a monkey show; he probably didn’t truly care whether his excuse made sense or not.
“Oh, this ‘nothing can be established without first destroying’ of yours is quite interesting,” sure enough, Lu Xiao was clearly playing with him like a cat with a mouse, his tone laced with mockery. “The literary words are one thing, but to have even forgotten the counting rods—does that mean you can’t even count now? You destroyed, alright, but you ended up establishing an idiot, and now I’m stuck providing for you in vain.”
He was becoming increasingly certain that this man was definitely not a spy. What spy is this much of an idiot? He had originally intended to play dumb to see what the man was plotting… who would have thought this man would leak flaws at every turn, almost exposing his own bottom line, and would even try to plant himself in a giant pit right in front of him. He was almost amused to the point of laughter.
Shen Shangling: “…” Dog Prince, you’re the idiot.
“Your Highness, I have cast aside the counting rods,” Shen Shangling swallowed his internal complaints, putting on an appearance of panic and explaining carefully, “because I have another heterodox method of calculation; its counting ability, I dare say, is superior to these rods.” At the very least, he was a college graduate. Even if he was a liberal arts student, liberal arts high school students still studied mathematics, right?
“Oh?” Lu Xiao raised an eyebrow, his tone playful. “Tell me about it, Snow Demon.”
Jiang Yuanlin had remained silent the entire time. He naturally realized that Lu Xiao had long since seen through something, but was deliberately not making things difficult, just waiting for the man to reveal more tricks. At this moment, Shen Shangling tried to start by reciting the multiplication table, then extended it to things like the Pythagorean theorem, and various area and volume formulas. He felt quite ashamed as he spoke; these basic things… he was solemnly teaching the ancients. Tsk. Shen Shangling’s expression revealed a touch of indifference.
But after he finished, the expressions of Lu Xiao and Jiang Yuanlin changed significantly.
“This…” Lu Xiao narrowed his eyes and remained silent, but Jiang Yuanlin, seemingly impatient, stared at Shen Shangling and asked, “This ‘heterodox study’ called… the ‘multiplication table’? It is similar to the Great Yin’s ‘multiplication rule,’ but the things you said afterward… can you write them down?”
“Old Shen?” Jiang Sanwen was also stunned. But he was still young and didn’t fully understand; he grabbed Shen Shangling’s hand and asked in a crisp voice, “Is this more powerful than counting rods?” Then he had to learn it! Old Shen knows the Great Sage, so the skills Old Shen teaches must also be related to the Great Sage!
Write it down? Shen Shangling paused again.
“What is it? The Snow Demon refuses to write?” Lu Xiao’s voice was calm, but Shen Shangling felt a chill.
“Cough…” Shen Shangling cleared his throat, forced himself to continue, and said, “To write the multiplication table and these formulas, I must first write several numerical symbols. This way of writing comes from… from foreign lands.”
The four treasures of the study were ready on the large table. As he spoke, Shen Shangling took up the brush and paper, writing the numerals from 0 to 9, and also wrote a few letters. Writing the Chinese characters for one, two, three, four, etc., with a brush wasn’t difficult, but he couldn’t replicate the grace of an ancient scholar, and he feared Lu Xiao would spot another flaw, so he decided to write out the Arabic numerals first. After writing them, Shen Shangling pointed to the numbers with his fingertip and read them out one by one.
Lu Xiao walked over, watching the strange, ghost-like symbols on the paper with a composed expression, though his gaze could not help but fall on the man’s snow-white fingertips. Because they were so close, a faint, indefinable scent from the man wafted over. It was very fresh and… not unpleasant.
Shen Shangling, however, dared not look at Lu Xiao and Jiang Yuanlin. After teaching the numbers, he took a large sheet of paper and buried his head to write out the multiplication table. He knew that the ancients already had their own multiplication rules, but the subsequent things he mentioned required these Arabic numerals as a foundation, so he naturally had to start by writing down this formula to let them familiarize themselves with it. Soon, a large sheet of paper was filled with a multiplication table written entirely in Arabic numerals.
“Write the corresponding characters,” Lu Xiao said, tapping the table with his fingers. “Write the numbers and your ghost-like symbols again alongside the characters.”
Shen Shangling: “…” Never mind, like a dead pig that doesn’t fear boiling water.
Shen Shangling gritted his teeth, picked up the brush, and carefully wrote the Chinese characters one, two, three… next to the numbers 1, 2, 3…
Lu Xiao narrowed his eyes again, his expression one of utter dismay. Jiang Yuanlin, on the other hand, was incredibly shocked: Ah, this… the stroke for “one” is written like a crawling earth dragon. Is this really Shen Shangling’s handwriting? Jiang Yuanlin quickly looked at Lu Xiao again. Lu Xiao’s expression, however, was very calm.
“The Snow Demon’s ‘destroying to establish’ is truly thorough,” Lu Xiao said, mocking him once Shen Shangling finished. “You’ve even discarded your style of calligraphy from so many years. Are you intending to abandon the old methods and create a new style?”
Shen Shangling: “…Yes, exactly.”
Jiang Yuanlin was filled with indescribable subtlety, but he didn’t say anything more. He couldn’t even care about Shen Shangling’s eccentricity; at the very moment Shen Shangling mentioned those “formulas,” he realized the simple brilliance of this foreign mathematical method.
“This foreign stuff of yours…” While shocked, Jiang Yuanlin couldn’t stop himself from seeking knowledge, “Besides these… are there other ways of calculation?”
Shen Shangling immediately indicated that addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and basic geometry were just the basics. Above that, there was even deeper and more extensive knowledge and utility. He could basically explain everything from elementary to high school mathematics…
Jiang Yuanlin tentatively asked a few more questions and even used some famous difficult problems to quiz him. Shen Shangling found it amusing; the “chickens and rabbits in the same cage” problem was one thing, but there was also a rope-measuring-well problem… it was hilarious. He quickly did the math on paper; using algebra was like using a cheat code it was effortless. Jiang Yuanlin watched him draw the answer in a few strokes using those “ghost-like symbols,” his eyes filled with disbelief.
“Using this foreign method is quite simple,” Shen Shangling explained earnestly. “However, the things passed down by our ancestors are likely difficult for the average person to change immediately.”
Jiang Yuanlin’s expression became much more grave. He glanced at Lu Xiao and saw him looking at an ornament on the bookshelf with his head tilted, appearing quite indifferent.
Jiang Yuanlin: “…” He is pretending. He knew Lu Xiao was just like him—both were well aware that Fuzhou was short of talent. Lu Xiao needed to avenge his father and brother, he needed to plan major undertakings… and Fuzhou was Lu Xiao’s base. But Fuzhou was not a prosperous land, and coupled with the previous chaos caused by Northern Hu and the frequent warfare… it could be said to be in ruins, needing talent everywhere. This didn’t mean they needed famous scholars, but people who could shoulder the trivialities of reconstruction, such as accounts and engineering calculations… someone had to be able to carry the burden. They needed people who were not only literate but also had some shallow attainment in mathematics. The science of counting rods was overly complex. Even he himself was sometimes irritated by the calculations. But now, after hearing Shen Shangling’s foreign method of calculation, he felt his mind clear up significantly. This is… truly rare! If Wen Qiantan were to find out about this method… Jiang Yuanlin could even imagine the exaggerated surprise on that man’s face.
Seeing Lu Xiao and Jiang Yuanlin fall silent, Shen Shangling felt a weight lift from his heart. I bet on the right thing. Sure enough, the two of them didn’t question him any further.
“Old Shen, tell Journey to the West first!” Jiang Sanwen naturally had the Great Sage on his mind.
Shen Shangling cautiously cast a glance at Lu Xiao. Seeing he wasn’t looking at him, he sat back down and continued Journey to the West. After Tang Seng took the White Dragon Horse as a disciple, he continued to talk about taking Zhu Bajie.
“Greedy, lecherous… that’s not good…” After hearing the story of Zhu Bajie at Gao Village, Jiang Sanwen frowned, puzzled. “Old Shen, why would Tang Xuanzang take on such a disciple?”
Shen Shangling paused. He noticed that as soon as the little brat asked this, a cold gaze seemed to fall upon him… An invisible pressure swept toward him instantly.