Schemes Upon Schemes (Seeking Reads)

The next day.

Cell No. 24 of Section D.

The jailers carried in a paint-chipped writing desk and a long bench for Xu Xing.

The desk was laid out with brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, along with a yellow-jade armrest.

"These are the Four Treasures of the Study..."

"A fine Chengchi Inkstone, Golden Pine Ink, and paper and brushes bought from Wenchang Studio..."

Commandant Deng of the Celestial Prison entered the cell carrying a bundle of paper. He shot Xu Xing a glare and said, "Commander Liu has granted your request, but he wants to see results within three days..."

"Otherwise, all of this will be taken away."

"And Old Wu, keep an eye on him. Don't let him scribble anything he shouldn't."

Commandant Deng instructed the clerk behind him.

The Celestial Prison did not ordinarily provide paper or brushes because it feared that disgraced officials might suddenly start biting indiscriminately, leaving behind evidence.

When people were driven into a corner, anything could happen.

"Fine."

Xu Xing nodded and agreed.

He did not try to outdo himself by claiming that he would produce results that very day.

A clash born of momentary pride was useless.

Obtaining paper and brushes through connections was only secondarily for writing mathematics.

His true purpose lay elsewhere.

Commandant Deng left with the jailers, leaving only Clerk Wu to share the cell with Xu Xing.

Clerk Wu was an old hand. Though he sat in the corner of the cell sipping tea, his gaze never left Xu Xing, his face the picture of shrewd competence.

Xu Xing paid Clerk Wu no heed, treating him as air.

He first thanked Academician Su, then sat directly on the long bench. Rolling up his sleeves, he took a wolf-hair brush from the brush stand, spread out a sheet of xuan paper, and slowly ground ink with one hand.

A faint fragrance of ink spread through the air, carrying the scent of pine soot.

He put brush to paper.

Lines of mathematical formulas and step-by-step deductive proofs filled the plain sheets.

They looked exceedingly complicated.

Before long, Clerk Wu approached with his teacup in hand.

He took one glance and felt his head spin.

Yet after carefully studying what Xu Xing had written on the xuan paper, understanding the annotations beside those strange symbols of the formulas... then comparing the formulas on the paper and working through the derivations himself, he discovered that they were indeed sound and well-founded.

Clerks like them inevitably dealt with mathematics in their daily work.

Thus, they had ordinarily learned some mathematics as well. Though they were far from proficient, they understood far more than ordinary scholars.

Gradually, Clerk Wu became absorbed in what he was reading.

"Good thing I bought a copy of Ink Sea Publishing House's Talks on Heaven from a bookshop early on. Otherwise, with my own mathematical attainments... I could fool ordinary people, but if I had to delve any deeper, I simply wouldn't have the ability..."

Inside a dormitory room at Taste Classics Academy, Xu Xing flipped through the thick volume and secretly counted his blessings.

Through the Ancient Bronze Mirror, he could see what his other self in the instance world was reading.

Using this, he copied the Western geometry, algebra, and astronomy discussed in Talks on Heaven onto blank paper. That would be enough to deceive the officials of Phoenix Creek Kingdom.

The cultures and customs of the two worlds might differ, but mathematics was universal.

One plus one could only equal two; it would never equal three.

The mathematical theories of the instance world were clearly more advanced than those of Phoenix Creek Kingdom. With him forging things this way, no one would spot anything amiss.

Ink Sea Publishing House had been established on the third day of the eleventh month in the twenty-third year of the Daoguang reign, opening its offices in Shanghai.

It was the first printing house of modern Xia Kingdom.

Talks on Heaven was a Western work jointly translated by Li Shanlan and Alexander Wylie, and it was immensely popular throughout the country. Taste Classics Academy, which championed practical learning, had even made it required reading for its students.

The academy did not distribute books, so Xu Xing had searched the bookshops outside for quite some time before finally purchasing this volume.

"Brother Xu, the academy examinations are only two days away."

"Help tutor me in geometry these next few days. You won't be doing it for nothing—I'll give you two taels of silver before the examination, and another two taels if I pass."

Chen Jian'an pushed open the door and entered, coming to discuss business with Xu Xing.

Taste Classics Academy held an examination once every ten days.

The examinations in the two halls were different. Timely Diligence Hall tested only practical learning, while Daily Renewal Hall also included the standardized compositions of the examination halls: posted classics questions, interpretive questions on the classics, and, most importantly, regulated essays. In quantity, they were almost on par with the imperial examinations.

Chen Jian'an was a young master whom Father Chen had spent a hefty sum to send to Taste Classics Academy. He was not a scholar who had earned admission through examination.

He had entered the academy not for any other reason, but to build a broad network of connections there.

In the future, he hoped his classmates would safeguard and escort his family's business.

Friendships forged in humble circumstances had the truest loyalty.

Of course, if he truly learned something at the academy and earned an official degree, that would be an unexpected delight for the Chen family.

There were many gentry young masters like Chen Jian'an in the finest academies.

After all, not everyone was born with the seed of scholarship.

Under the imperial examination system, the county examination admitted only around fifty men, the prefectural examination only around fifty, and the provincial examination only around fifty. In other words, each provincial examination, held once every two or three years, conferred the xiucai degree upon only fifty candidates.

(Fifty was not a fixed quota, but roughly fifty. The county and prefectural examinations each admitted around fifty candidates, while the provincial examination made roughly one-tenth of its participants xiucai.)

These were all the scholars of an entire province, competing over two or three years for merely a few dozen places.

It was even more cutthroat than civil service examinations in later generations.

"Of course..."

"Brother Jian'an has come to seek my guidance. I'm not the sort to cherish my own broom as though it were a treasure."

Xu Xing accepted the two taels of silver Chen Jian'an handed him and said with a soft laugh.

Though these two taels were ostensibly Chen Jian'an's tutoring fee, they were really just a means of drawing him in.

Xu Xing saw through it, but did not expose it.

Only with exchanges of benefit could a relationship deepen more quickly.

And right now, he was short of this little bit of money as well.

"However, Brother Jian'an, I have a favor to ask of you too."

"The Confucian classics... well... I have yet to master them, so I fear I may not fare well in the examination. I saw that you have Small-Question Essay Treasury, Thirty Thousand Selected Essay Topics, and Small-Question Essay Treasury: Sequel. Might Brother Jian'an be willing to lend them to me for a look?"

After teaching Chen Jian'an geometry, Xu Xing brought up borrowing the books.

He was not borrowing books at random.

Thirty Thousand Selected Essay Topics, Small-Question Essay Treasury, and Small-Question Essay Treasury: Sequel were essential collections of model Qing-dynasty imperial examination essays published by Tongwen Publishing House in Shanghai. The books divided their contents into six major categories according to the Four Books: Great Learning, Doctrine of the Mean, Upper Mencius, Lower Mencius, Upper Analects, and Lower Analects, further subdivided into minor and major topics.

Each different prompt included model essays by different authors in different styles, all annotated by renowned masters.

It could be said that once one had memorized these model examination essays, the imperial examinations would feel as though aided by the gods.

The questions set by examiners basically could not stray beyond the scope of these model essays...

So long as he copied down all these model essays, passing the provincial examination might still be somewhat difficult.

But the county examination...

What was so difficult about the county examination? Its standards could not possibly be that high.

So long as he passed the county examination, his fortune would surely rise considerably, and his fate would undergo corresponding changes as well.

The later prefectural and provincial examinations would not be impossible either. With model essays for reference, even if his writing failed to satisfy others, beginning like a phoenix's head and ending like a rat's tail, his chances of succeeding in the imperial examinations would undoubtedly be far greater than everyone else's.

"You and I share the same dormitory. Why talk about borrowing or not borrowing..."

"Just take them and read them. Looking at those things gives me a headache."

Chen Jian'an generously opened his book cabinet and let Xu Xing choose as he pleased.