Savage Humiliation, a Shame Beyond Endurance!

Xu Wenzhao had seen everything perfectly clearly.

For the first nine questions, Young Master Shen had taken only a moment. There had been no calculations whatsoever—he had practically written down the answers after a single glance.

Xu Wenzhao had originally thought Young Master Shen was simply scribbling nonsense.

He had never expected every single answer to be correct.

This was utterly absurd.

Those nine questions were already exceedingly profound arithmetic problems. In all of Xuanwu City, there were barely a few people capable of solving them.

Even Xu Wenzhao himself needed a fair amount of time and extensive calculations before he could solve them all.

Yet Young Master Shen had needed only a brief moment.

How... how had he done it?

More importantly, he had not used Counting Rods at all. How had he carried out the calculations?

Young Master Shen should never have come into contact with arithmetic before. Could he have been born knowing it? That was simply terrifying.

Xu Wenzhao closed his eyes, calming himself before looking at the tenth question.

Young Master Shen had answered the previous nine questions correctly, so Xu Wenzhao was destined to lose face.

But the tenth question was a battle for arithmetic honor—a contest of his arithmetic wisdom.

Twenty trees, planted four to a row. How many rows could be planted in total?

He had found this question in the Ancient Arithmetic Classics and spent more than ten years before devising an arrangement of fourteen rows.

Xu Wenzhao firmly believed Young Master Shen could not possibly solve it, because this was true great wisdom in arithmetic.

And yet...

With just one glance—

Xu Wenzhao felt his scalp go numb, while shivers ran through his entire body.

Damn it, Young Master Shen... have you gone mad? No, has Heaven gone mad? This was a Geometric Pattern Problem, clear at a glance.

Xu Wenzhao immediately saw that Young Master Shen's answer went far beyond thirteen rows.

Then, he began to count.

Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen... twenty-three!

A full twenty-three rows!

It was enough to make one question life itself, enough to send chills down one's spine! H-how was this even possible?

Twenty trees, four trees in every row, and you had planted them into twenty-three rows.

How had you done it?

Were you human or a ghost?

I, Xu Wenzhao, spent more than ten years just to plant fourteen rows.

And how long had Young Master Shen taken? Less than half an hour! For one brief instant, Xu Wenzhao truly doubted his own intelligence. He truly felt disheartened.

He loved arithmetic and had attained a very high level in it.

Though he had achieved nothing in the imperial examinations, when it came to arithmetic, he believed he had no rival.

That was precisely why he managed the accounts of the entire Earl's Manor, playing an indispensable role there.

He had taken pride in that.

Yet now, he discovered that his little achievements in arithmetic had been crushed into dregs.

How could that not drive him to collapse?

The Earl's Wife was painting.

Her Martial Arts were very strong, but she had been forced to practice them since childhood and did not like them in the slightest.

She only liked painting, though as for her skill...

In any case, no one in the Earl's Manor dared say it was bad.

At that moment, the Earl's attendant hurriedly called from outside, "Madam, my lord asks that you quickly make a trip to the Academy."

The Earl's Wife said flatly, "What? Is Jin MuCong about to be beaten? Then let the teacher beat him."

The Earl's attendant said, "It isn't the Young Lord being beaten, it's..."

Before he could finish, the Earl's Wife said, "It is only natural for a teacher to beat a student. The same goes for anyone else being beaten."

The attendant said, "It is Young Master Shen, Madam's son-in-law. Xu Wenzhao is going to give Young Master Shen one hundred lashes."

Swish... The brush drew a long streak across the Rice Paper.

The Earl's Wife's painting was ruined.

"What kind of madness has possessed Xu Wenzhao? Has his brain filled with water?" the Earl's Wife raged. "Lang'er is so clever, so well-behaved, and he still wants to hit him?"

With that, she flung aside the paintbrush in her hand and strode swiftly toward the Academy.

The attendant followed behind her, unable to catch up no matter how he chased. He could not help mourning for the Young Lord for half a quarter of an hour.

Xu Wenzhao held Young Master Shen's answer sheet, his hands trembling and his face deathly pale.

What was he supposed to do next? Was he really to admit defeat and apologize to Young Master Shen, that little brat, before everyone?

Where would that leave his dignity?

In life, what mattered was one's face.

No, absolutely not!

With his heart hardened, Xu Wenzhao suddenly tore Young Master Shen's answer sheet to pieces and rebuked him, "What kind of muddled nonsense did you write? You didn't get a single question right!"

Once it had been torn up, there would be no proof left.

Seeing this, Young Master Shen was genuinely taken aback.

The Xu Wenzhao before him was no longer merely narrow-minded. He practically had a personality defect.

Were mathematicians all this emotionally inept? How had the Earl tolerated him until now?

The Earl frowned.

Even if Young Master Shen had not gotten a single question right, why did he have to tear up all of his answers? After Xu Wenzhao completely shredded Young Master Shen's answer sheet, he said coldly, "You got every one wrong, a complete mess. What do you think should be done?"

However...

Young Master Shen remained utterly calm and took out another identical answer sheet.

He had always liked to assume the worst of people, so he had prepared for this in advance.

"What a coincidence. I had plenty of time just now and was bored out of my mind, so I wrote out two sets of answers."

Young Master Shen handed the sheet to Old Master Lin, who taught the "I Ching," and said, "You are also proficient in arithmetic. Please help me see how many questions I got right."

The moment those words came out, Xu Wenzhao froze.

Good you, Young Master Shen—you were actually this sinister?! His body swayed violently, and he nearly fainted.

Old Master Lin accepted Young Master Shen's answer sheet and said, "Those who study the 'I Ching' all enjoy arithmetic. Though my attainments in arithmetic fall short of Mr. Xu's, I can still tell right from wrong."

Then, Old Master Lin began grading the paper.

After reading it from beginning to end, Old Master Lin was completely stunned.

He had been full of confidence in Young Master Shen and felt that he would at least answer three or four questions correctly.

Yet he had never expected them all to be correct! Some of the questions on this paper were truly tricky.

The most astounding of all was the final question.

He, too, had studied it for many years.

Xu Wenzhao had completed a fourteen-line arrangement, while he himself had completed fifteen lines. He had simply never shown it, though he had remained secretly pleased with himself.

Who would have thought Young Master Shen had completed twenty-three lines? This... this was too heaven-defying!

This... this was simply a genius of arithmetic! The Earl asked from the side, "Master Lin, how is it?"

Master Lin, the old master of the I Ching, bowed to the Earl and said, "Congratulations, my lord, on obtaining a genius of arithmetic! This old man has never seen nor heard of such a thing!"

The Earl said, "He... how many questions did he get right?"

Master Lin said, "Every single one. Moreover, Young Master Shen's attainments in arithmetic have already far surpassed the limits of these ten questions. This old man is ashamed to compare myself with him."

The Earl could scarcely believe it, overwhelmed with joy.

This son-in-law of his had already given him several surprises before, especially that photographic memory of his.

But arithmetic required a teacher's guidance, did it not? Could someone truly be born knowing it? "Lang'er, how did you do it?" the Earl could not help asking.

Young Master Shen said, "Father-in-Law, I taught myself."

The Earl said, "But without a teacher's guidance, how could you teach yourself to this level?"

Young Master Shen said, "Father-in-Law, sometimes geniuses are just this outstanding. It makes people despair. Mathematics relies on ninety-nine percent talent and one percent sweat."

Now it was not just Jin MuCong who did not want to speak to him. Even the Earl did not want to speak to him anymore; he wanted to hit him instead.

No wonder you, Young Master Shen, had no friends! Next, the Earl had wanted to directly question Xu Wenzhao about why he had torn up Young Master Shen's answer sheet. But seeing that there were still more than a dozen students present, he did not voice the question.

The Earl was incapable of publicly slapping someone in the face.

But Young Master Shen loved this sort of thing most.

"Mister Xu, why did you tear up my answer sheet just now? Could it be that you wanted to leave no proof behind?" Young Master Shen asked.

Xu Wenzhao's face immediately turned green, his teeth chattering with rage.

Young Master Shen said, "Mr. Xu, you said that if I answered five questions correctly, you would apologize to me. Now that I have answered ten correctly, what should be done?"

"Of course, I would not dare force you, Teacher, to apologize to me. After all, I am someone who respects teachers and values the Way. But as a model for others, Mr. Xu, you will surely keep your word, won't you?"

The moment those words were spoken, the dozen or so students present all grew excited.

Something like this was rarely seen even once in decades.

The harsh and overbearing Xu Wenzhao was actually going to be slapped in the face?

At once, everyone turned their eyes toward Xu Wenzhao.

Xu Wenzhao's entire body burned with embarrassment. This was the most humiliating moment of his life; he truly wished a crack would open in the ground so he could crawl into it.

Was he really supposed to apologize to Young Master Shen, that wet-behind-the-ears pretty boy? Where would his dignity be then?

"Hmph, utterly ridiculous. What kind of conduct is this?"

Then Xu Wenzhao turned to leave outright.

He intended to go back on his word.

He had already decided that, at worst, he would stop teaching in the future and devote himself solely to managing Earl's Manor's accounts. Then he would not need to face these students again.

Just then, the Earl spoke.

"Mr. Xu, for one who teaches others, the most important thing is to lead by word and example, and set an example with one's own conduct."

For the Earl, those were already remarkably harsh words.

Xu Wenzhao wanted to fling his sleeves and storm out, but in the end he did not dare. After all, this was his master.

Immediately afterward, the Earl's Wife entered with graceful steps. Her voice was gentle yet firm. "If you have done something wrong, you must bear the consequences. If you have given your word, you must honor it."

Xu Wenzhao was a distant relative of the Earl's Wife, so she could be considered his backer.

With both masters having spoken, he no longer dared act too presumptuously.

Thus, Xu Wenzhao clenched his teeth and walked over to Young Master Shen.

Under the gaze of so many people, every step weighed as heavily as a thousand jin.

He cupped his hands and bowed to Young Master Shen. "I'm sorry, Young Master Shen! I was too rash just now and wrongly accused you!"

Humiliation—unprecedented, monstrous humiliation!

Oh earth, split open a crack and let me burrow inside.

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