Genius Crushes You Into Scum! Xu Wenzhao Was Stunned

Of course, Xu Wenzhao did not finish speaking.

If Young Master Shen answered more than five questions correctly, that would prove that he, Xu Wenzhao, had stirred up trouble over nothing, and he would have to apologize to Young Master Shen in front of everyone.

But was that possible? Not even if the sun rose in the west, so there was no need to say it.

"Remember, finish within half an hour. Once time is up, no more chances!"

Then Xu Wenzhao personally lit a stick of incense.

When the incense finished burning, it would be exactly one hour.

Seeing this, even the Earl could not help but shake his head helplessly.

Young Master Shen was probably going to suffer in a while!

Xu Wenzhao had been like this when he was young: utterly unable to tolerate others, with an extremely fierce desire to win.

But for a successful master, the most important thing was knowing how to use people. Key talents had to be placed in key positions.

Let every man make full use of his talents, and every object be put to its fullest use. In the past, the Earl could be counted as successful in this regard, but now, faced with this situation, he truly felt somewhat powerless.

On the left was his son-in-law. Though he was very naughty, and there was a certain generation gap between them, deep in his heart, the Earl admired and liked this son-in-law.

On the right was his trusted aide, who had also managed the Earl's estate Accounting Room for more than twenty years, a person he relied on greatly.

So sometimes, even as the master, it was very hard to do exactly as one pleased.

As for the dozen or so youths present, this was a completely wonderful show.

They were so excited they could hardly restrain themselves. Young Master Shen had actually gone head-to-head with the most mean-spirited and formidable Teacher Xu Wenzhao—something that might not happen once in ten years.

They were simply looking forward to it too much.

Although a tiny part of them stood on Young Master Shen's side, they wanted even more to see Young Master Shen whipped a hundred times.

Who told you to marry our Goddess? If you did not have rotten luck, how could everyone else be happy?

Young Master Shen took the ten questions and looked them over, and he could not help crying out softly in his heart.

Oh my!

I thought the questions you, Xu Wenzhao, racked your brains for more than an hour to come up with would be so difficult. So they were this simple!

Having a dignified master's degree holder like me answer these ten arithmetic questions of yours is simply using an ox-cleaver to kill a pig! Just look at this first question.

The first person holds one grain of rice, the second person holds two grains of rice, the third person holds three grains of rice, and there are one hundred people in total.

Question: how many grains of rice do these hundred people hold in all?

Was this a fourth-grade elementary school math problem? Or fifth grade? When Young Master Shen wrote down the answer, he even felt like an idiot, actually solving such a simple question.

Of course, to Young Master Shen, this question was indeed so simple he could not bear to look at it, but to the people of this world, it was already difficult enough.

At the very least, among the dozen or so students present, there was basically no one who could solve this question correctly in a short time.

(This question had appeared in a certain city's 1993 fourth-grade Math Olympiad, and a certain someone had failed to solve it. Don't ask me how I know.)...

Next, Young Master Shen looked at the second question.

Huh? A little interesting!

Though to Young Master Shen it was still very simple, to this world it was already extremely difficult.

There is an unknown number of objects. Counting them by threes leaves two, counting them by fives leaves three, and counting them by sevens leaves two. The total is less than one hundred. What is the number of objects?

Not bad, they were even using equations now.

In almost less than three seconds, Young Master Shen thought of the answer, 23, without even needing the alien computer.

The third question was even more interesting.

Three traveling together, seventy is rare; five plum trees bear twenty-one branches; seven sons reunite at half a month; divide by one hundred and five to know! You thought that by writing it as a poem, you could conceal its true face as a simple math problem? Young Master Shen still answered it effortlessly.

After that came the fourth, the fifth, the sixth... all the way to the ninth.

Truly, not a single question made Young Master Shen feel even the tiniest bit of difficulty.

Not a single question could make him spend more than two minutes.

So he placed all his expectations on the final, decisive question.

This final question actually took up an entire page. Young Master Shen glanced at it and could not help widening his eyes.

This question was somewhat interesting, somewhat difficult! It was even super difficult!

There are twenty trees in total. Plant four trees in each row. What is the maximum number of rows that can be planted?

Draw out the planting method. If there are fewer than fourteen rows, the answer to this question is a failure! This question looked simple, but it was actually a thousand-year math problem on Earth.

Ordinary people would always think: with a total of 20 trees, planting 4 trees in a row made 5 rows.

Of course, that was absolutely not the case, because the trees could be planted in an irregular shape, which would far exceed 5 rows.

In the sixteenth century, the Romans completed a sixteen-line arrangement.

In the eighteenth century, the famous mathematician Gauss completed an eighteen-line arrangement.

It was not until the end of the twentieth century that two computer experts used computers to complete a twenty-line arrangement.

This already set a record.

Twenty trees, four trees per row, had actually been planted into twenty rows.

Yet in the twenty-first century, a new record was born: someone completed a twenty-three-line arrangement.

This problem was also Xu Wenzhao's proudest problem of all. He had discovered it in an ancient Arithmetic Classic.

After that, he had taken tireless delight in it, spending more than ten full years before finally completing a fourteen-line arrangement.

Not only that, he also liked taking this problem out to make things difficult for everyone.

That included his colleagues in the Earl's Manor, the Earl, and those scholars who had just passed the imperial examinations and earned their titles.

Because no one's mathematical attainment could reach his level.

Whenever he drew out the fourteen-line planting method, he could reap expressions of shock and amazement from others.

Now he had taken this problem out again to test Young Master Shen, as the final, crowning question.

Of course, he had never intended for Young Master Shen to solve it at all; he was merely using it to show off.

Let a country bumpkin like you, Young Master Shen, see just how damn impressive I, Xu Wenzhao, am! Fine, for Xu Wenzhao, being able to solve a fourteen-line arrangement was indeed already damn impressive.

But for Young Master Shen, this had not even reached the level of the sixteenth century.

And he could easily draw a twenty-three-line arrangement, an answer at least a thousand years ahead of Xu Wenzhao's.

Twenty trees, four trees per row, had actually been planted into twenty-three rows.

It was simply heaven-defying, a complete crushing of Xu Wenzhao's fourteen lines! It would probably shock Xu Wenzhao until his soul scattered and his spirit fled! ...

For the first nine questions, Young Master Shen had used less than ten minutes to finish them.

For the final question, he used a full half hour or so! Of course, in his mind, he solved it very quickly; in an instant, he had the most awesome answer, the record-creating answer.

However, presenting it on paper required a certain amount of time.

This was an extremely precise geometric figure; even the slightest error would not do.

That was why Young Master Shen used a full half hour.

For the remaining time, he continued writing and drawing. One had to repair the roof before the rain fell.

While he was answering the questions, in order not to put pressure on him, the Earl and the Old Master did not stand at the side to watch.

Xu Wenzhao sat above, watching Young Master Shen answer the questions, and his heart was extremely pleased.

He had been paying attention to Young Master Shen the whole time, and discovered that Young Master Shen had spent practically no time on the first nine questions, instead spending the majority of his time on the final one.

This was a very normal kind of behavior.

In his view, the first nine questions were rigid problems. If you knew them, you knew them; if you did not, you did not.

And Young Master Shen definitely did not know them at all. Even if he thought until his brain exploded, he still would not know them. So after hurriedly scanning those questions, he had randomly written down answers.

As for the final question, though it was the hardest, it was a flexible problem.

Twenty trees, four trees per row—what was the maximum number of rows that could be planted?

Anyone who saw this question would hold hope in their heart, then throw themselves into it madly, constantly trying all kinds of reverse methods.

In the end, they would discover that even if they spent several months, they still could not possibly solve it.

He, Xu Wenzhao, had spent a full ten-plus years before completing the fourteen-line arrangement.

So it could already be concluded that Young Master Shen could not solve even half a question.

One hundred lashes had already become a foregone conclusion.

Why was Xu Wenzhao so certain? Because for the first nine questions, Young Master Shen had no calculation process at all, and did not use Counting Rods.

Even a great master of arithmetic would have to use Counting Rods to calculate for quite a long while.

In these times, who calculated without Counting Rods? Once he did not use them, it could only prove one thing: he knew nothing at all and was merely scribbling blindly.

It was not only Xu Wenzhao who thought this. The Earl thought the same.

Young Master Shen had not used Counting Rods even once. Most likely, he truly could not solve a single problem.

Now this was trouble.

Could he really just watch helplessly as Young Master Shen was lashed a hundred times?

This boy had tender skin and delicate flesh, and on top of that, Xu Wenzhao definitely would not know how to control his strength. What if he really injured him?

So the Earl very quickly sent out a look.

At once, a servant outside the door ran off swiftly to report to the Earl's Wife.

Next, Xu Wenzhao was going to lash Young Master Shen. It would not be appropriate for the Earl to stop him, but his wife was a woman, so she could intervene.

After all ten questions had been answered, Young Master Shen clearly could have handed in his paper, but he deliberately did not. Instead, he continued writing and drawing, and in the last few minutes, simply stared into space.

Xu Wenzhao felt even more delighted inside.

You milky-stink-not-yet-dry pretty boy. Even if you stared at the questions I set for ten years, you still wouldn't know how to solve them.

You thing that doesn't know the height of heaven or the depth of earth—you actually dared provoke me? You actually dared block my path, dared steal away my nephew's good fortune? In a moment, I'll beat you to death.

Because there was wind, in less than an hour, the incense stick had finished burning.

Xu Wenzhao said coldly, "Time's up. Hand in your paper!"

Then he walked straight down and snatched the exam paper off Young Master Shen's desk in one grab.

"You ignorant, incompetent thing. You didn't listen properly in class, yet you actually learned how to make wild claims. The ignorant fear nothing..." Xu Wenzhao said lightly.

Then he took Young Master Shen's answer sheet and looked it over.

The first question.

Xu Wenzhao swept it with a disdainful glance, then was about to let his gaze slide to the second question, instinctively about to mark a big cross on it.

But after pausing for a second, his gaze returned to the first question.

It was actually... correct?

How was that possible?

Although this first question was the simplest, it still far exceeded the content he was currently teaching.

Someone who didn't understand higher arithmetic could only keep adding one, then two, then three, then four, like that. By the time they added up to a hundred, the time it took for an incense stick to burn would have long since run out.

Yet Young Master Shen had given the most precise method of solution and answer.

He looked at the second question. It was actually right too.

The third question was still right.

Xu Wenzhao felt something was wrong, and his expression changed in an instant.

The fourth question, the fifth question—still correct.

So correct they couldn't be more correct. Young Master Shen's method of solving them was even more brilliant and precise than Xu Wenzhao's.

Cold sweat began bursting out across Xu Wenzhao's back.

He had said it with his own mouth: as long as Young Master Shen answered five questions correctly, he would apologize to Young Master Shen in public.

Now Young Master Shen had answered all five questions correctly. What was he supposed to do? Next, Xu Wenzhao looked toward the sixth question, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth!

He was no longer just breaking out in cold sweat. He was completely shocked.

Hell, this was definitely seeing ghosts!