Fortunately, This Student's Rote Memory Was Passable

When Chen Xu hobbled down from the carriage on his crutch, he happened to see Cui Yunqi and the others disappearing into the Bamboo Grove.

Xu Wenyuan awkwardly tried to support him, while the people from the County Academy and students from neighboring counties all turned their eyes toward them. Every gaze was complicated.

"Brother Chen..." Xu Wenyuan grew even more embarrassed. His cheeks burned red, and even the roots of his neck had flushed crimson.

The greatest humiliation in the world was not when others openly looked down on you, but when they did not care in the least—and yet, in some instant, you could not help but clearly feel just how enormous the gap between people truly was.

Xu Wenyuan had thought Chen Xu would feel just as inferior as he did, but to his surprise, Chen Xu seemed completely unaffected by the strange looks around him.

He limped on one leg and leaned on a crutch, yet he somehow appeared far more composed than Xu Wenyuan, whose limbs were whole and sound.

Among the County Academy students, someone cleared his throat. At that moment, he stepped forward and cupped his hands to Chen Xu with a smile. "Brother Chen, you have come at just the right time. Mr. Zhou's grand formation has truly stumped us all.

Now we can only place our hopes on Brother Chen. I hope you can show us the way, so that those talented men from the Prefectural City may know that Jichuan County is not without capable people."

The speaker looked twenty-seven or twenty-eight, far steadier than the teenagers present.

It was Wang Mochuan, a man of considerable prestige at the County Academy. He had already earned the title of Xiucai Scholar, but for various reasons had never gone to the Prefectural City to continue his studies, remaining instead in Jichuan County.

Xu Wenyuan looked at Wang Mochuan again in surprise. He had thought that Chen Xu, limping past on his crutch, would surely suffer another round of mockery from his County Academy peers.

Yet Wang Mochuan had stepped forward and defused that possibility with a single sentence.

Just moments ago, these people had spoken so unpleasantly whenever Chen Xu was mentioned. How had they suddenly become so cordial?

Xu Wenyuan held an indescribable frustration in his heart. Seeing Chen Xu return the salute with easy grace, he smiled faintly and said, "Brother Wang, such excessive praise will not do. If even all of you talented gentlemen find this difficult, what makes me, Chen, any different? I have merely encountered this grand occasion and will do my best."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Mochuan burst into hearty laughter.

Before the laughter had faded, someone suddenly pointed toward the Bamboo Grove and cried out, "Look! The Bamboo Grove—the Bamboo Grove is moving..."

The Bamboo Grove was moving?

How was it moving?

Everyone hurriedly turned to look, and then a sight that would leave them shaken for the rest of their lives appeared before their eyes.

Mist suddenly rose within the Bamboo Grove, and amid the haze, bamboo leaves rustled and swayed.

Then, before everyone's very eyes, the stalks of slender bamboo seemed to sprout legs and feet. Like living creatures, they began to move!

Very quickly, the little grove that had been somewhat scattered transformed into a field of stars, becoming a military formation.

Seven across, eight vertical, three above, four below; the nine palaces stood in ranks, tangled and bewildering.

When had the County Academy students ever seen such a transformation?

Someone muttered, "When we entered the formation, this Bamboo Grove did not move an inch. Why is it shifting like this now?"

Someone answered blankly, "Naturally, because Cui Yunqi and the others from the Prefectural City have entered."

"So this is the Bamboo Grove's true first trial? How wondrous and uncanny."

And strangest of all, the gap between people could sometimes be so vast that it was even greater than the gap between man and dog.

As the mist billowed, starlike motes of light drifted down through the Bamboo Grove like a fine, misty rain.

The motes transformed into lines of text in midair, such as:

"Now let a Gougutian Field and an Oblique Field be joined together. The south width of the Gougutian Field exceeds the north width by three paces; its north width is four paces less than its breadth, and its area is thirty square paces. One end of the Oblique Field is thirty paces wide, the other end is forty-two paces wide, and its perpendicular length is sixty-four paces.

Question: What is the hypotenuse of the Gougutian Field? What is the combined area of the two fields in mu?"

And another: "Now there are nine hundred hu of Official Grain, to be distributed in declining proportions among Storehouses A, B, and C. Storehouse A has a declining ratio of seven, Storehouse B a ratio of five, and Storehouse C a ratio of three..."

The text fell swiftly, and vanished just as swiftly. One had to focus completely to see it clearly.

Some people could not even read as fast as the words disappeared. Before long, sweat broke out on their foreheads as they cried anxiously, "What was the rest of it? I cannot see it at all!"

Fine sweat appeared on Wang Mochuan's forehead as well, but he was more knowledgeable than the others and quickly grasped the purpose of these questions. He hurriedly said, "So the first trial requires us to memorize the questions first, then answer them afterward.

It tests not only our ability to solve the problems, but our memory as well."

He asked the people around him, "How much did you remember?"

The others looked at one another. How much had they remembered? They could barely see the text at all—what was there to memorize?

At the side, a hesitant voice spoke up. "I... I remembered three questions."

The speaker was Xu Wenyuan. He pointed ahead again. "Brother Chen—Brother Chen went in."

Only then did everyone realize that Chen Xu, who had just been outside the Bamboo Grove with them, had vanished.

Xu Wenyuan murmured again, "After memorizing three questions, I also tried to enter the Bamboo Grove to answer them. But a voice sounded by my ear, saying that if one had memorized fewer than nine questions this time, one must not enter the Bamboo Grove."

Outside the Bamboo Grove, silence fell. Not even a crow or sparrow made a sound.

No one knew that, in that very instant, sweat had also appeared on Chen Xu's forehead as memorization became difficult.

None of the questions drifting out from the Bamboo Grove counted as difficult problems to him. But the questions were not difficult; memorizing them was.

Remembering nine questions in one breath was even harder.

Chen Xu focused his mind, driving his brain as fast as it could go. At the same time, he unhesitatingly summoned the Cauldron Scripture and added points!

[Accumulated Likes: 579]

[Free Attribute Points: 14]

[Firework Value: 222]

It turned out that during Chen Xu's journey to the north of the city, right up until this very moment, his Accumulated Likes had increased by another 125 points.

His Free Attribute Points had also increased by twelve.

Granny Lai truly could be called diligent and conscientious—she was practically a genius at small-scale trade.

With ample free points at hand, Chen Xu did not hesitate. He immediately added two points to his Divine Soul.

The moment the two points of Divine Soul were added, a clear, ethereal current surged straight into his brain.

In an instant, Chen Xu's thinking rose to unprecedented heights. His mind was clear, and his thoughts were focused.

At this moment, let alone memorizing nine questions in a row—even nineteen, twenty-nine, or thirty-nine would not have been a problem.

[Right-Triangle and Oblique-Field Problem], memorized!

[Equal Distribution and Graded Allocation Problem], memorized!

Leaning on his crutch, Chen Xu stepped into the Bamboo Grove. Blank bamboo slips suddenly flew toward him in sheets.

Then a crisp child's voice rang out beside his ear. Solemnly, it said, "Students entering the Bamboo Grove, if you have memorized fewer than nine questions, please withdraw on your own."

Chen Xu raised a hand and caught a handful of bamboo slips. Smiling faintly, he said, "Fortunately, this student's rote memory is passable enough. I will not be withdrawing just yet."

He then swept the bamboo slips through his hand and immediately counted fewer than twenty.

Chen Xu said, "I ask that you bestow more bamboo slips upon me."