Attendant Guo's Skills
You can call me Guo Zi, or Xiao Guo, it's fine too!
Guo Sheren was always happy to play archery with anyone, whether they came to him or he came to him.
As a master archer certified by the new emperor, he made a living with this skill and saved up a considerable amount of money.
If he had connections, Guo Sheren would have even considered challenging some officials with poor archery skills to a duel, hoping to make a fortune off them.
Seeing Sang Hongyang arrive with two unfamiliar men to shoot, Guo Sheren quickly sized up the two men.
Zhang Xuezhou and the others were not rich, but they were not poor either.
"How about betting on 100 and a half taels of silver?"
After quickly assessing the situation, Guo Sheren offered his own betting suggestions, which Zhang Xuezhou nodded in approval.
"I didn't bring much money with me when I came out, just exactly one hundred and a half taels of silver," Zhang Xuezhou said. "If you win, you can take it all!"
"Haha, maybe you'll beat me!"
Guo Sheren laughed loudly, then took the wooden box and let Zhang Xuezhou propose the conditions for the return of the arrow.
"Don't touch anything after you've put the items inside. Then we'll just have to guess," Zhang Xuezhou said. "Whoever has the best luck wins!"
"I agree with that," Guo Sheren nodded repeatedly, "Will you hide first or should I?"
"I'll do it!"
Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
He took the wooden box, unlocked it, checked it, and then touched his cuff; dozens of half-ounce coins immediately slid into the box.
He locked the wooden box and gestured for Guo Sheren to guess.
I guess thirty-six!
Guo Sheren's guess didn't last long; just over ten seconds later, he gave his answer.
"Very close to the correct answer!"
Zhang Xuezhou had someone open the wooden box, and then asked Sang Hongyang to count the coins in front of everyone before taking back the thirty-eight and a half taels of silver.
"Since you asked me to guess the value of half a tael, then I'll let you guess the value of half a tael too!"
Guo Sheren's method of guessing the answer was exactly the same as Zhang Xuezhou's; he also chose to guess the number using half a tael of coins.
He reached out and took out the twenty and a half taels of silver that Li Yannian had just lost, and then put them into the wooden box one by one in front of Zhang Xuezhou.
He placed nineteen half-ounce coins into the box, then reached out and shook it before quickly locking it.
Just like Zhang Xuezhou, he held the wooden box in his palm and let Zhang Xuezhou guess.
"Cousin, how many half-ounce coins do you think are hidden inside?" Zhang Xuezhou asked casually.
"I was counting just now. He put nineteen in front of us. I don't know if he put the last one in or not," Rong Tianding said. "I guess he put it in, so let's make it twenty then!"
"Since you guessed twenty, then I'll guess twenty-one," Zhang Xuezhou said.
"Who's really in charge here?" Guo Sheren asked, pursing his lips.
"Of course it's me," Zhang Xuezhou shrugged. "After all, it's my money."
Are you absolutely sure?
"Absolutely certain!"
Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
Guo Sheren took out twenty half-ounce coins in front of everyone, but the other party had hidden one half-ounce coin in his sleeve, which was mixed in with them.
Zhang Xuezhou didn't often cheat, but he was quite knowledgeable about it.
He saw Guo Sheren slip half a tael of coin into the wooden box by trickery, but he couldn't see exactly how the other man had put it there.
"Etc!"
Zhang Xuezhou pondered for half a second, then reached out to stop Guo Sheren from opening the box.
"What, you want to change the numbers?" Guo Sheren asked suspiciously.
"The numbers won't change, but I had Sang Hongyang verify them when I opened the box, so you'll have to have Sang Hongyang verify them too," Zhang Xuezhou said with a smile.
"He?"
Guo Sheren frowned slightly.
Only then did he realize that he had encountered a formidable opponent.
Guo Sheren was not afraid of whether his opponent's guess was accurate or wrong. If his opponent guessed wrong, he would open the box normally. If his opponent guessed right, he could use a method that was almost imperceptible to switch the items when opening the box, causing his opponent to guess wrong.
Zhang Xuezhou handed over the right to open the box to someone else, which undoubtedly cut off Guo Sheren's means of cheating.
However, when verifying the contents of Zhang Xuezhou's box, the other party did indeed ask Sang Hongyang to perform the counting, and this request was not unreasonable.
"Brother Hongyang is the best at math among us, especially at calculating money," Zhang Xuezhou said with a smile. "He's fast and accurate at it!"
"Just this reason?"
Guo Sheren remained silent for a moment, then had no choice but to hand the box over to Sang Hongyang.
Watching Sang Hongyang unlock the door and take half a tael of money, he felt a dull ache in his liver.
"Twenty-one! It really is twenty-one!" Sang Hongyang exclaimed after opening the box and checking. "Li Yannian, didn't you only lose twenty and a half taels of silver? How come there's an extra half tael of silver here!"
"Guo Zi put the money in his bag, how was I supposed to know how many half-ounce coins he had in his bag?" Li Yannian complained. "Luckily, I wasn't made to guess, or I would have lost again."
"Sharp!"
Guo Sheren finally gave a word of praise.
He had no choice but to untie the half-ounce coin he was wearing and add seventy-nine more coins to complete the archery contest.
"It's just luck," Zhang Xuezhou waved his hand and said, "My cousin has been guessing for years, and he always falls just short of winning. I rely on my cousin's guesses. Anyway, his guesses are definitely wrong. If I just change them, I might get it right!"
"Is that even possible?" Guo Sheren asked in surprise.
"If we know that someone will definitely guess wrong in the guessing game, then we've eliminated the worst possible answer. Even guessing blindly is better than using the wrong answer," Zhang Xuezhou said. "This is a little insight I've gained from years of playing guessing games!"
"That's strange!"
Guo Sheren spent a long time thinking about the technical approach, but Zhang Xuezhou didn't talk about the techniques at all; instead, his answer sounded more like a wild guess or a mystical theory.
But the other party guessed correctly, albeit by sheer chance.
Guo Sheren was very confident in his skills. He was only an amateur at shooting, but his real strength lay in his versatility. His "Shadowless Hand" technique was second only to some of the top masters in the thief's world, and it was very difficult for ordinary people to see through it.
This is their livelihood; if a normal person could see through it, it wouldn't be considered a skill at all.
Guo Sheren may doubt many things, but he certainly wouldn't doubt his own incompetence.
Even when he used this technique in front of some great cultivators, they would find it difficult to see through it.
He didn't believe Zhang Xuezhou had seen clearly that he had secretly slipped an extra half-ounce coin into the wooden box.
"Want to play another round?" Guo Sheren invited.
"I still need to introduce a talented person to Brother Hongyang. We can play together again next time," Zhang Xuezhou said, waving his hand.
"Jun Jie, oh..."
Guo Sheren nodded.
Zhang Xuezhou's style of winning and then running away is quite unethical, but he couldn't stop the other party from doing serious business.
They were brought out by the new emperor, who also encouraged them to get to know each other better, and meeting people was undoubtedly one of the reasons.
"Can I go and get to know them too?" Guo Sheren asked.
"He is Kong Anguo, a scholar who serves as a court attendant at the Golden Horse Gate. If you share common interests with him, that would be most welcome," Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
"A bachelor... a bachelor!"
Guo Sheren muttered a couple of times.
What he hated most in his life was studying; otherwise, he wouldn't have ended up spending his time playing with the new emperor.
Upon hearing that Zhang Xuezhou was going to introduce a scholar, he immediately lost interest.
He muttered to himself as he followed behind Zhang Xuezhou and the others, but after walking a few dozen meters, he fell behind and went off to find other rich guys.