Madame

Madame

In the waterside pavilion, the boys who had turned in their papers stared fixedly at a white wall before them. Behind that wall was a room lined with bookshelves.

At the center of the room stood a black wooden desk. Teacher Shen and Steward Wu stood before it, heads lowered as they flipped through everyone's answer sheets.

After a long while, the two exchanged a glance and both shook their heads with sighs.

"Most of them did not remember even a tenth of it. The better ones probably remembered only twenty or thirty percent."

Steward Wu said with a bitter smile.

Teacher Shen picked through the stack of papers and selected four answer sheets.

"These few remembered around forty percent. They can be considered promising seedlings."

Steward Wu picked up those papers and looked them over, then nodded. Afterward, he sighed. "You were right, Teacher. These are from those three Licentiates, and the last one belongs to someone who has also studied for six or seven years."

"That is perfectly normal." Teacher Shen was not surprised. "Aside from true geniuses, the more one learns, the more one knows how to learn. Leaving aside anything else, after several years of elementary education, one will have grasped at least some methods for memorizing texts."

"As for geniuses born knowing, how could one possibly encounter them so easily?"

As he spoke, he idly sifted through the pile of papers.

After a while, he pinched one answer sheet between his fingers, his brow faintly furrowing.

"Eh, could there be a pearl overlooked in the dust?" Seeing his expression, Steward Wu curiously leaned over for a look, then found the answer sheet extraordinarily familiar.

"Isn't this... this Zheng Fa's?"

Steward Wu could be said to have had a particularly deep impression of Zheng Fa.

He had even specifically paid attention to the other's answer sheet. After reading it, he had felt only one thing—what the hell was this!

Not a single character had been right!

Remembering how confidently he had claimed that Zheng Fa had something in him, even though Steward Wu had seen his fair share of things, he could not help feeling a trace of embarrassment.

Teacher Shen ignored him. He merely studied the paper in silence for a long time before suddenly raising his head and cupping his hands toward him. "Brother Wu, I have truly witnessed the wisdom of your discerning eyes!"

"..." Steward Wu lowered his head and looked over Zheng Fa's answer sheet again. No matter how he looked at it, it only burned his eyes. Naturally, his face darkened. "Teacher Shen, I know that having you come here to test book boys is like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken, and you are unhappy about it. But being so sarcastic to my face is hardly decent! We are both carrying out orders."

Seeing that he had misunderstood, Teacher Shen waved his hands and explained even more earnestly, "I truly admire your judgment!"

How could Steward Wu believe such nonsense? He only felt that scholars were truly skilled at angering people, launching solemn-faced mockery right in one's face. Who could stand that?

"Yes! I know, I misjudged him! I should not have thought highly of that Zheng boy. My eyes must have gone blind today, then!"

"Brother Wu, you do not understand. There is something most extraordinary about Zheng Fa's answer sheet!"

"What is extraordinary about it? It looks like he wrote so many characters, yet not half a character is right..."

Faced with Zheng Fa's appalling answer sheet, Steward Wu could not help feeling that Teacher Shen was calling him blind.

"Exactly—half a character is right!" Teacher Shen clapped his hands and exclaimed in admiration.

"...Huh?"

Teacher Shen set Zheng Fa's answer sheet aside, then brought out the original text of the Scripture of Clarity and Stillness and compared the two.

"Did you notice?"

"Notice what?"

"The Scripture of Clarity and Stillness Zheng Fa wrote appears, at first glance, to not have a single correct character. But look closely!" Teacher Shen pointed at Zheng Fa's answer sheet with one hand and the original text with the other, comparing them character by character.

"...He really got half a character right?"

It took Steward Wu quite a while to see it.

Zheng Fa's answer sheet was very peculiar. In nearly every character, he had written only part of it correctly.

If one did not inspect it carefully, it was even difficult to tell what he had intended to write on the paper.

"What did you see?" Teacher Shen's tone was slightly excited.

"I saw... an illiterate person, desperate but hardworking?"

"...It means this child truly has talent!" Teacher Shen pointed at Zheng Fa's answer sheet. "Though every character he wrote is wrong, if you compare them side by side, he has actually reproduced nearly ninety percent of the original text!"

"Photographic memory?" Steward Wu somewhat understood what Teacher Shen meant.

"Yes. For someone who cannot read to remember these characters in such a short time, photographic memory is the only explanation."

"So you really were not mocking me..."

"Of course not! Though photographic memory is indeed somewhat unusual, honestly, I have heard of such people before. But there is another point that makes me find this child even more extraordinary."

"What?" Steward Wu had become interested as well.

"Look. Every character he wrote seems to be missing strokes, yet if you consider it more closely, you will find that these characters have their own rules. I even have the feeling that he has his own way of writing every single character, and that this method has preserved nearly all the essence of the original characters."

Upon hearing that, Steward Wu became less inclined to believe it.

Creating a script all by himself?

That could not be explained by genius alone. That was monstrous.

"Could it be that he simply failed to remember the correct forms of the characters?"

"This..." Deep down, Teacher Shen also felt that Steward Wu's words made more sense. His own conjecture was perhaps far too absurd.

Thinking this, Teacher Shen shook his head. "No matter what, in terms of talent, I would say Zheng Fa is the foremost among this group."

Steward Wu immediately laughed. "See? How could my eyes possibly be wrong? This boy is a talent!"

"Yet this answer sheet also shows that his family circumstances are likely ordinary. He has not had much schooling, and he is already rather old. Even with some talent, he may not amount to much in a short time. I fear Madame will not favor him." Teacher Shen sounded somewhat regretful.

At that moment, Steward Wu instead placed Zheng Fa's answer sheet among the four previously selected papers and held them in his hand.

"Then you do not understand our Madame." Smiling, he walked outside. "As far as Madame is concerned..."

"Family circumstances." Through the wall, he pointed at the boys still craning their necks in anticipation. "Whether they are a little poorer or a little richer, they are all merely servants' children."

"Learning." He turned and pointed first at himself, then at Teacher Shen. "It is nothing more than that. Those who are useful are kept; those who are not are replaced."

"I would wager that, among these people, the one selected will definitely be that Zheng boy. Our Madame cherishes talent."

Holding the few answer sheets, he walked all the way toward the depths of the estate, passing a lotus pond and then crossing the rear garden.

Until he arrived beneath a two-story building.

From upstairs came waves of silk and bamboo music.

He climbed the agarwood stairs to the second floor. Layer upon layer of curtains hung there, and through the gauze drapes, he could see a soft, graceful figure reclining on a broad low couch.

The woman propped her head with one hand as she listened to three young maidens playing music in the corner, while her other hand lazily toyed with a golden hairpin.

Steward Wu did not dare raise his eyes, nor did he make a sound.

He merely stood silently before the curtains.

After a long while, the song came to an end.

The woman raised her hand and gently tapped a jade ring hanging from the curtain with the tip of her golden hairpin.

Clang~

The clear, ringing sound passed through layer upon layer of curtains.

Steward Wu knew that he could speak now.

"Madame, today, while selecting a book boy for Seventh Young Master, there were several answer sheets that were still passable. This servant has brought them."

Clang~

A young maiden slowly walked out, took the answer sheets from Steward Wu's hand, then turned and returned to the couch.

She handed the few answer sheets to the person reclining upon it.