No Need to Envy Immortals When Mandarin Ducks Are Free, Missing Matthew Every Day
The weather was just as lovely today as ever.
Even in Mondel Town, it was rare to have so many consecutive days of good weather.
People in town all said it had to be a good omen for the year.
The war would soon be won, and everything would get better.
The Kingdom of the Fog Capital would soon return to its former glory...
Twelve-year-old Toby thought so too.
After all, he had made a little money at the salon at Puxiu Academy today.
To sell things here, you needed a few connections!
His uncle worked in the academy kitchen and had a bit of influence there.
Yesterday evening, his uncle had mentioned some kind of academic salon being held on the academy lawn.
The whole school's teachers and students had crowded over and sat there for an hour or two at a time. By the time it ended, quite a few people's throats were bone-dry.
Toby had immediately hit upon an idea.
Early this morning, he had gone to the bakery and bought forty freshly baked round rye loaves and twenty white bread rolls spread with salted butter. He had also borrowed an insulated container from his uncle and filled it with barley water that had been boiled and left to cool. Then he had arrived at the lawn before four in the afternoon.
"Sir, here's your rye bread, and half a penny in change."
"Shh, keep your voice down..."
The middle-aged man spoke softly as he took the bread.
Li Mo was lecturing too quickly on the platform, skipping over things at the slightest excuse.
Sometimes, after looking down to take a note and then looking up again, the man could no longer make any sense of what was being discussed on the blackboard...
Toby promptly fell silent and retreated toward the back through gaps in the crowd.
The lawn was packed with people.
Students were even standing on the stone steps at the back and beneath the elm trees.
Toby recognized a few of them.
One was Perry, a second-year student with a half scholarship. He always carried his top hat in his arms, and now he was standing on tiptoe, peering toward the platform.
Perry often went to the bakery on the east side of town to buy discounted crumbs from day-old bread, and occasionally helped Toby calculate the remaining stock in his ledger.
In Toby's eyes, Perry, who had gotten into Puxiu Academy, was already exceptionally clever.
Yet even Perry could only stand on the outskirts now, staring at the platform as though he half understood.
Who was that on the platform? What on earth was he talking about?
Toby looked up, curious.
There was Li Mo, unkempt, his hair a mess and dried blood still on his face.
To put it more politely: uh, he looked every bit the genius scientist...
A piece of chalk moved swiftly across the blackboard, writing things Toby couldn't understand at all.
Listening to Li Mo speak was like listening to an incomprehensible language, too.
"For any given positive number ε, no matter how small, if we can find a corresponding positive number δ such that whenever the absolute difference between the independent variable x and x0 is less than δ, the absolute difference between the corresponding function values f(x) and f(x0) is always less than ε, then the function f(x) is continuous at x0..."
"Suppose a continuous function has a positive value at one endpoint of an interval and a negative value at the other. We repeatedly bisect the interval. At each bisection, one half must have values of opposite signs at its endpoints. As this bisection process continues indefinitely, the interval's length shrinks toward zero at a rate of one over two to the nth power, ultimately converging precisely on a zero within the interval..."
Toby looked at the symbol on the blackboard that resembled a backward "3," and of course couldn't understand it at all.
Yet for some reason, he thought it was beautiful.
These numbers, arranged and combined, were so beautiful, so elegant.
He couldn't help but feel a sense of longing.
If only I could understand it someday, too...
Soon,
the salon came to its close.
Li Mo said,
"For a sequence Sn, the necessary and sufficient condition for its convergence is that, for any given positive number ε, there always exists a positive integer N such that, whenever the indices n and m are both greater than N, the absolute difference between Sn and Sm is always less than ε. As long as the terms in the tail of the sequence draw infinitely close to one another, its limit must exist. Whether calculating a heat conduction equation or assessing pressure fluctuations in a steam pipe, passing this criterion provides a reliable mathematical guarantee for approximate truncation in engineering."
Li Mo finished speaking.
He put down the chalk and dusted his hands.
A few seconds later...
Applause rang out.
Whether you understood it or not, all you had to do was applaud!
Mr. Harrison pulled out a handkerchief, cried "Hey!" and stood on his chair, waving it as he said, "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
Several visiting scholars from outside the academy also stood and rapidly slapped their chairs, their way of showing respect.
The students in the back needed no mention.
The applause rose in a continuous wave, startling several gray sparrows from the tops of the elms.
Toby hurriedly stuffed his copper coins back into his apron pocket and joined everyone in clapping!
On the platform, Li Mo acknowledged the crowd. "That concludes today's second salon. Thank you all for coming. We'll continue tomorrow afternoon at the same time."
The second Mondel Academic Salon came to a smooth conclusion.
No one had caused trouble, and no one had rushed up to put on an awkward little show. It really took some getting used to; the whole thing felt rather flat.
No need to envy immortals when mandarin ducks are free, missing Matthew every day.
Before leaving the platform, Li Mo glanced at Estelle.
She was applauding along with her classmates.
But throughout the salon, she hadn't shown any particular expression, making it impossible to guess what was on her mind.
Li Mo was even more curious than he had been before the lecture.
Part of that curiosity stemmed from the emblem on Estelle's clothes.
The other part was curiosity about her true background...
What exactly is this girl's family background?
As Li Mo pondered, Mr. Harrison came hurrying over with a good friend.
"Li Mo! Well done, that was absolutely brilliant!"
"Mr. Harrison." Li Mo greeted him politely.
"Come, Li Mo, let me introduce you. This is my old friend, Mr. Arthur Kent. Mr. Kent once served on the Royal Trade and Railway Committee in the royal capital, and he's also a visiting council member at the Royal Capital Higher Institute of Technology. He happened to be passing through Mendel Port on an inspection recently, so I made a point of inviting him to hear your salon today."
Kent was in his forties and had a square face. He looked very stern, the sort of person who could make a child cry without even making a face.
He smiled at Li Mo. He was really trying to smile, but it still felt as though the smile didn't reach his eyes.
"Mr. Li Mo, I've heard so much about you. Harrison sang your praises to the skies yesterday, and I originally thought he was bound to be exaggerating somewhat. Having heard your lecture myself today, I must apologize to you. Yes, Harrison didn't exaggerate. If anything, he was being conservative."
"You're too kind, Mr. Kent."
The two shook hands.
Li Mo's first impression was that the man's hand was covered in calluses and terribly rough.
He didn't seem like a scholar who did research at an academy.
Mr. Harrison picked up the conversation from beside them. "Li Mo, besides attending your lecture, Mr. Kent actually has a very important proposal on this visit to Mondol."
"Oh? What proposal?"