After the monthly exam results came out, Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu went to Old Man Bai's house again.
"I heard you did pretty well this time?" Old Man Bai asked Zheng Fa.
The expression on his face looked less like praise and more like barely concealed pride.
"That's because you taught me so well, sir," Zheng Fa said, playing along perfectly.
Hearing that, Old Man Bai's face crumpled into a blooming chrysanthemum.
"I have a friend who's having some trouble with his studies..." Zheng Fa suddenly said while the old man was in a good mood.
"Stop right there!" Old Man Bai raised a hand, his brow faintly furrowing. "I refuse."
Zheng Fa had not expected the old man to be so alert. He had rejected him before he had even finished speaking.
He was in no rush. He merely glanced at Old Man Bai, said nothing, and waited.
Sure enough, seeing that Zheng Fa would not speak, Old Man Bai grew itchy with curiosity himself. "You really aren't going to say it?"
Zheng Fa looked at the old man as if puzzled. "Didn't you tell me to stop?"
"How about you beg a little more?"
Zheng Fa finally spoke as he wished. "For those talisman diagrams, do you have any simplest, fastest shortcut methods?"
"How could there be any faster shortcut?"
Zheng Fa opened his mouth, unsure how to explain.
Tang Lingwu understood instead and thoughtfully provided an accurate translation. "Three long and one short, pick the shortest. Three short and one long, pick the longest..."
Old Man Bai's face darkened. "No wonder you were rambling about some friend. I'm a professor at Capital University, and you want me to teach you how to guess? You're using these crooked little tricks to insult me!"
Zheng Fa truly wanted