Did He Not Know the World Was Full of Hardships and Perils

Within the Little Bamboo Grove, the child's voice fell silent for a moment.

A moment later, another handful of bamboo slips drifted over.

Chen Xu raised a hand to take them. With another light sweep, he counted only ten bamboo slips in this bundle.

"Not enough," Chen Xu said. "I ask that you bestow more bamboo slips upon me."

The child's voice fell silent once more. Then, a trace of emotion seemed to enter that crisp yet solemn voice. "One bamboo slip represents one question to answer. Are you sure you want more bamboo slips?"

Chen Xu said, "Why not?"

"Hmph!"

Above the mist, that soft snort blasted open a patch of fog.

The next moment, a clattering shower of bamboo slips rained down.

Chen Xu immediately reached up and snatched at them. His sleeves fluttered, whipping up a string of gusts, and only then did he seize every last bamboo slip in his hands.

"I ask that the student understand: if all the bamboo slips that fall are not filled in, blank bamboo slips will result in points being deducted."

The crisp child's voice within the mist seemed to carry a faint smile:

"One correct answer earns one point, and one wrong answer loses one point. Leaving a bamboo slip blank also costs one point. This is the teacher instructing us that all things must be kept within proper bounds, and greed must be guarded against.

"If you lose points because you are too greedy, then you must bear the consequences yourself. Do you understand?"

Chen Xu immediately clasped all the bamboo slips in his hand, then cupped his fists and bowed toward the depths of the Bamboo Grove. "The teacher's words are wise. This student has learned from them."

"Hmph!" The child's voice gave another soft snort, then vanished without another word.

Chen Xu found that he had bamboo slips but no brush or ink. He was not anxious. Instead, he held the slips and walked through the Bamboo Grove for a while.

His pace was slow. As he walked, he observed his surroundings, and before long, he felt small stones beneath his feet pressing painfully against them.

Chen Xu's thoughts stirred at once, and he hurriedly bent down to search around.

Very quickly, he found a small stone shard on the ground, its edge somewhat thin.

Chen Xu picked up the stone shard, then found another, slightly larger stone and placed the two together to grind against each other.

Before long, he had ground a sharp edge onto the thinner stone shard.

Using that sharp edge as a knife, Chen Xu began carving words onto the bamboo slips.

He first wrote down the first question he had memorized, abbreviating it in concise terms, then answered:

"Following the previous question: the base is three paces, the height four paces; square them, add them together, and extract the root, obtaining a hypotenuse of five paces. The field's area is now clear. With base three and height four, halve their product to obtain an area of six square paces..."

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

And so he went on in a sweeping flow, one question after another.

Before long, he had answered nine full questions in succession.

During this time, the stone's sharp edge would sometimes grow dull. Chen Xu was in no hurry; he simply ground the stone again, then resumed carving once it was sharp.

Just as he finished writing the ninth question and the stone had dulled again, requiring another sharpening, Chen Xu suddenly heard a heavy voice beside his ear.

The voice let out a weighty sigh.

"Scholar, answering questions like this, half a day has passed, yet most of your time has been spent grinding stones. Don't you think that is wasteful?"

What voice was that?

Chen Xu instinctively turned his head and looked. To his surprise, it was an old monkey with enormous ears, bulging eyes, and sparse fur sticking up like shattered needles standing on end.

The first thought that sprang into Chen Xu's mind upon seeing this old monkey was: Ugly!

And it was far more than merely ugly. It was grotesquely ugly beyond compare.

So ugly that looking closely at it was cruel.

Not cruel to it, but cruel to the beholder.

Chen Xu's first reaction was to turn his head away. Yet for some reason, though he wanted to shift his gaze, his eyes seemed to have commands of their own and simply refused to look away.

Chen Xu's ears buzzed, and his mind seemed to drift into a brief daze.

In that instant, he almost forgot who he was and why he had come here.

He only knew to earnestly answer Ugly Monkey's words. "Sharpening the knife does not delay chopping firewood. If I do not grind the stone, what will I use to answer the questions?"

Ugly Monkey tilted his head and said in a heavy, strange voice, "But young man, do you know that among those scholars who entered this place with you and came to answer these questions, every one of them was born into wealth and carried a sword at his side? Even if they did not carry swords, they would bring short daggers. None of them needed to grind stones as you do."

That heavy voice was like a drumbeat, each strike pounding against Chen Xu's heart.

Clearly, Chen Xu was merely listening to an ugly monkey speak, yet in that moment, he vaguely felt as if he were hearing an echo from the passing years and the mortal world.

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

"There is nothing wrong with grinding a stone. But scholar, how long must you grind stones before you can catch up to the light stroke of another's treasured sword or dagger?"

Those words pierced straight into his heart, making Chen Xu freeze for a moment.

A moment later, Chen Xu asked in return, "And why must I compare time and order with them?"

Ugly Monkey faltered.

Chen Xu smiled. "Even if they possess treasured swords and daggers and can carve words easily without undergoing the work of grinding stones, can they answer more questions than I can?"

As he spoke, he picked up another bamboo slip and continued carving in a sweeping flow.

The tenth question was swiftly carved out and answered.

Then came the eleventh, the twelfth, the thirteenth...

By the time he reached the fifteenth question, Chen Xu was grinding his stone again.

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

Chen Xu said, "If I only concern myself with anxiety and set down the stone instead of grinding it, that would truly be terrible."

As he spoke, he continued grinding the stone, when he suddenly heard a crisp sound—Crack—

It turned out that this stone had been ground too many times. It split apart in his hand just like that!

Chen Xu froze.

Ugly Monkey clapped his hands and laughed. "Young man, young man, in the end, you are young and hot-blooded. Did you not know the world is full of hardships and perils, and that there is far more to it than grinding stones?"

Chen Xu set down the shattered stone, which could no longer be used, and frowned. "It is only one broken stone. What harm is there in finding another?"

With that, he gathered all the bamboo slips at his side and bent down to search through the Bamboo Grove again.

One hand held the bamboo slips, while the other leaned on his cane. Limping along, he still had to bend down and search the ground for things. Truly, every step came with its own hardship.

Ugly Monkey insisted on chattering endlessly beside his ear. "Scholar, do you think that once you find one suitable stone, you will certainly find a second and a third? Heh heh, you are far too naive.

"You must know that even suitable stones, if sought by blindly wandering about like a headless fly, are no more than a needle in the sea. Finding one is luck—but how could a person's luck remain with him at all times?"