Do You Not Know the World's Hardships and Dangers

The sounds of children in the small bamboo forest fell silent for a moment.

After a moment, another handful of bamboo slips fluttered over.

Chen Xu raised his hand and caught them. He lightly drew a stroke across them, but this time he counted and found there were only ten slips.

"Not enough," Chen Xu said. "Please, honored presence, grant me more bamboo slips."

The childlike voice fell silent once more, then seemed to carry a hint of emotion within its clear and solemn tone: "One bamboo slip represents one question. Are you sure you want more slips?"

Chen Xu replied, "Why not?"

"Hmph!"

Above the mist, a soft hmph exploded into a cloud of fog.

The next moment, a rustling sound was heard as a cascade of bamboo slips rained down like a downpour.

Chen Xu immediately raised his hands to catch them, his sleeves stirring up a series of wind sounds as he gathered all the slips into his grasp.

"Please be aware, scholar, that if you cannot fill all the fallen bamboo slips, blank slips will result in a deduction of points."

A hint of laughter could be heard within the clear childlike voice from the mist:

"One point for each correct answer, one point deducted for each wrong answer, and one point deducted for leaving a slip blank. This is what the teacher taught us: moderation in all things, avoid greed.

If you lose points due to excessive greed, you must bear the consequences yourself. Do you understand?"

Chen Xu immediately clasped all the bamboo slips in his palm, then bowed deeply towards the depths of the bamboo forest with his fists clasped. "The teacher's words are well-received, student has learned."

"Hmph!" The childlike voice hummed softly again, then vanished, saying no more.

Chen Xu found that he had bamboo slips in his hands but no ink or brush. He wasn't in a hurry, however. He held the slips and walked through the bamboo forest for a while.

His steps were slow as he observed his surroundings. After a moment, he felt something sharp under his feet.

Chen Xu's mind stirred, and he quickly bent down to search.

Soon, he found a small stone chip with a slightly thinner edge on the ground.

Chen Xu picked up this stone chip and found another, slightly larger stone. He placed the two stones together and began to grind them against each other.

Before long, the thinner stone chip had been ground into a sharp point.

Using this sharp point as a knife, Chen Xu began to carve characters onto the bamboo slips.

First, he wrote down the first question he had remembered, concisely summarizing the problem and then answering:

"Following the previous question, with three steps for the 'gou' and four steps for the 'gu', multiply them and take the square root to get five steps for the hypotenuse. The area is clear. Gou is three, gu is four, half of which is six steps..."

He then answered the second question: "Granary A received three hundred and fifty 'hu', but actually contained three hundred and forty-six 'hu' and five 'dou'; Granary B received two hundred and fifty 'hu', but actually contained two hundred and forty-eight 'hu', seven 'dou', and five 'sheng'..."

And so on, question after question.

In a short time, he had answered a total of nine questions.

During the process, the sharp edge of the stone would sometimes become dull. Chen Xu didn't rush, simply re-grinding the stone. Once it was sharp again, he would continue carving.

Just as he finished the ninth question, and the stone became dull again, requiring re-grinding, Chen Xu suddenly heard a heavy voice in his ear.

The voice sighed heavily and said, "Scholar, the way you're answering these questions, half the day has passed, and most of the time has been spent grinding stones. Don't you find it wasteful?"

What voice was that?

Chen Xu instinctively turned his head to look. It was an old monkey with enormous ears, bulging eyes, and sparse fur that stood on end like scattered needles.

The first thought that came to Chen Xu's mind upon seeing the old monkey was: Ugly!

But more than just ugly? It was incredibly hideous.

So ugly that a close look felt cruel.

Not cruel to the monkey, but cruel to the observer.

Chen Xu's first instinct was to look away, but for some reason, even though he wanted to avert his gaze, his eyes seemed to have a will of their own, refusing to move.

Chen Xu's ears buzzed, and his mind seemed to go momentarily blank.

In that instant, he almost forgot who he was, and why he was there.

He only knew to earnestly answer the ugly monkey's words: "Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood. If I don't grind the stone, what will I use to answer the questions?"

The ugly monkey tilted its head and said in a heavy, strange voice, "But young man, do you know that the scholars who entered this place with you, who came to answer questions, are all from wealthy families and carry swords with them? Even if they don't carry swords, they bring daggers. They don't need to grind stones like you do."

The heavy voice was like the beating of a drum, each beat resonating deeply in Chen Xu's heart.

Although Chen Xu was merely listening to an ugly monkey speak, he felt as if he were hearing an echo from the depths of time and the mortal world.

Chen Xu's heart pounded, and he said, "They bring their swords, their daggers. I have neither sword nor dagger. Is it wrong for me to grind a stone?"

"There is nothing wrong with you grinding a stone, but scholar, how long will you spend grinding stones before you can catch up to the swift stroke of their swords and daggers?"

This sentence, striking directly at his heart, caused Chen Xu to pause for a moment.

After a moment, Chen Xu retorted, "Then why must I compare myself to them in terms of time, in terms of speed?"

The ugly monkey faltered.

Chen Xu smiled and said, "Even if they have swords and daggers, and can carve characters easily without the effort of grinding stones, have they answered as many questions as I have?"

As he spoke, he picked up another bamboo slip and continued carving it with a flourish.

The tenth question was quickly carved and answered by him.

Then came the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth...

By the time he reached the fifteenth question, Chen Xu was once again polishing a stone.

This time, he heard the Ugly Monkey beside him say faintly, "Scholar, among those wearing swords and daggers, some have already answered twenty questions. Aren't you in a hurry?"

Chen Xu replied, "If I were to only worry and stop polishing the stone, that would truly be terrible."

As he spoke, he continued to polish the stone, when suddenly he heard a crisp snap, crack--

It turned out that the stone in his hand had been polished too many times and had now split apart in his hands!

Chen Xu froze for a moment.

The Ugly Monkey clapped its hands and laughed, "Young man, young man, you are still young and impetuous. Don't you know that the hardships and dangers in the world are far more than just polishing stones?"

Chen Xu put down the stone, which was now broken and unusable, and said with a frown, "It's just a broken stone. What's the harm in finding another one?"

With that, he gathered all the bamboo slips he had by his side and bent down again to search in the bamboo grove.

He held the bamboo slips in one hand and leaned on his cane with the other, hobbling and bending down to search for something on the ground, truly showing that every step had its own difficulty.

The Ugly Monkey, however, continued to chatter in his ear, "Scholar, do you think that just because you found a suitable stone, you will definitely find two or three more? Heh heh, you are too naive.

You must know that even if you find a usable stone, just searching aimlessly like a headless fly is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Finding one is luck, but can a person's luck always be with them?"