Chapter 52
“Mother, you don’t know the whole story,” Miss Zhao explained. “This time I entered the inner sect with two positions for attendants. One has already been promised to a senior brother in the sect for his family. The other, I want to reserve for my brother, just in case.”
“Your brother? Isn’t he supposed to participate in the Immortal Product Conference?”
“When I returned, I heard that the requirements for this year’s conference have become stricter. My brother’s dual spirit root talent might not qualify him as a top-tier candidate to enter the Qingmu Sect…”
The lady had never heard of this and felt a bit at a loss. “What will happen to your brother then?”
“Mother, don’t panic. I invited Sister Zhang back specifically to teach my brother some talisman techniques. Sister Zhang is renowned for her talisman skills in the Hundred Immortals Alliance. With her guidance, my brother should have a chance to use talismans to elevate his status.”
Now the lady understood why her daughter had brought Sister Zhang back.
“What about the position for the attendant…”
Miss Zhao sighed. “Given my brother’s personality, as you mentioned in your letter, he’s not very ambitious. I’m afraid that even with Sister Zhang’s help, he won’t make much progress in talisman crafting. If he fails at the Immortal Product Conference, then he can just become my attendant and accompany me to the Qingmu Sect.”
The lady still felt hesitant.
“Mother! The requirements for the Immortal Product Conference keep getting higher. If he doesn’t succeed this year, he’ll have even less chance in the future!” As she spoke, Miss Zhao’s voice suddenly dropped. “Do you want him to end up like Father, wasting his life because he couldn’t enter the immortal sect, drowning in wine and pleasure?”
Hearing this, the lady finally nodded.
“No matter what, I must bring my brother into the immortal sect this time. If he successfully passes the Immortal Product Conference and enters the Qingmu Sect, then as you said, I’ll give that attendant position to Zheng Fa.”
The lady recalled Sister Zhang’s demeanor earlier and hesitantly asked, “Isn’t Sister Zhang a bit hard to get along with? With Fan’s personality, I’m worried he won’t learn anything and might even offend her. We can’t afford to offend a genius in talisman crafting, especially from the Zhao family.”
“Sister Zhang…” Miss Zhao’s expression suddenly turned strange. “She’s just not good at socializing; in fact, she’s a really nice person, almost naïve in some ways.”
“Not good at socializing?”
“To be precise, it’s that others are afraid to interact with her. Over time, she hasn’t had much to say to anyone.” Miss Zhao hesitated slightly, fear flickering across her face as she gritted her teeth and said, “Her hobbies are a bit… unusual.”
The lady’s expression turned puzzled.
“Mother, regardless of what kind of person Sister Zhang is, just know that if it weren’t for the old ties between our Zhao family and her family, and my good relationship with her, she wouldn’t have come to visit.” At this point, Miss Zhao’s expression showed a hint of pride. “Many people want to consult Sister Zhang about talisman crafting, but she’s very hard to invite!”
…
At Zheng Fa’s home.
After lunch, Zheng Fa stood in the courtyard practicing his stance.
He was always diligent; even though he had mastered the Songhe Stance, he still practiced every day.
A gentle knock echoed at the door.
Who could be looking for him?
He walked to the door and found a young woman in a cool blue robe, her expression calm and distant, holding a book in her hands.
“Did you write this?”
She handed the book to Zheng Fa, and he saw it was “Middle School Mathematics.”
This book was only available in the young master’s study and in a copy held by the lady.
“Someone taught it to me.”
Zheng Fa knew this person must have some connection to the Zhao family, and her background was likely significant, so he decided to be straightforward.
“Are you good at mathematics then?” To his surprise, the woman’s eyes suddenly lit up, her expression becoming more animated.
“Not particularly; I just… study more than others, I guess.”
Recalling his not-so-impressive math talent in the modern world, Zheng Fa remained humble.
However, compared to the people in this world, he felt he was still quite strong.
“Do you ever do math problems to pass the time when you’re bored?” The woman’s gaze grew even more eager.
“Do? When I’m bored? Do problems to relieve boredom?”
Zheng Fa found it hard to grasp the logic of her words, repeating them aloud.
Then he saw her nodding repeatedly, her expression fervent, her eyes sparkling with anticipation as if searching for a rare kindred spirit.
In the courtyard, Zheng Fa’s mother watched him, her expression seemingly asking who this uninvited guest was.
…Hmm, a bit eccentric.
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Chapter 59: The Addict
In the Zheng family’s main hall, Zheng Fa looked at the girl before him, her face calm to the point of indifference, her unique hobby lingering in his mind.
The last time he heard someone mention doing math problems to relieve boredom was during a modern school break when a math teacher walked into the classroom carrying a stack of papers taller than himself and said something similar:
“If you get tired of memorizing vocabulary over the break, you can do a set of math problems to unwind.”
He was sure that not a single student understood the logic behind that statement, or perhaps they were all logically questioning in their hearts: Why would I do math problems to unwind?
But now, in another world, Zheng Fa had found a kindred spirit in that math teacher!
He couldn’t help but voice the question that arose from the depths of his soul: “What’s the joy in doing math problems?”
The girl in blue looked up, seemingly having never thought about this question. After a moment, she replied, “Maybe it’s because they’re a bit challenging?”
“Just because something is challenging, it brings joy?”
“There aren’t many challenging things in this world, are there?”
Looking at her sincere face, Zheng Fa found himself at a loss for words, only able to return her a smile twisted with envy.
The girl raised her right hand, revealing a white jade bracelet on her wrist, its surface shimmering with a radiant glow. Then, a scroll about the length of her forearm appeared in her hand.
A storage artifact?
Zheng Fa recalled the overwhelming Qing Luan from before and guessed that this person must be Miss Zhao’s companion. As for why she wasn’t with Miss Zhao, if it weren’t for the Seventh Young Master’s slander, Miss Zhao’s hobby should be something other than mathematics; perhaps it was staff techniques.
“This book of yours is also meant to test your talent in talisman crafting, right?” The girl pointed at the “Middle School Mathematics” book. “Many talisman masters like to assess their disciples’ mathematical talent first. Although I’ve never seen this book, my master once threw a math book at me, and only after I solved all the problems in it did he accept me as a disciple.”
…Someone’s stealing my brain-sifting method!
That makes sense; although this world lacks modern mathematics, it doesn’t mean they don’t understand the significance of mathematical talent for talisman crafting.
The girl placed the scroll on the table, and it slowly unfurled, revealing a blank surface.
“However, later my master said this was just a formality. Even if I couldn’t solve it, he would still take me in. After finishing the problems in that book, I found it quite interesting, and when I became my master’s disciple, I still enjoyed solving challenging math problems.” She pointed at the scroll, and a problem appeared: “For this purpose, I even had someone craft this artifact to collect interesting problems.”
There are people who collect such things? And even made an artifact specifically for it?
What a wealthy eccentric!
“In the past few years, I’ve read all the math books in my sect and searched for ancient math texts everywhere. To this day, I’ve read every math book I could find, and it’s been a long time since I encountered a problem that could stump me.” The girl looked at Zheng Fa, her eyes bright with hidden excitement. “The problems in your book aren’t difficult, but I’ve never seen them before, and the methods of thinking are quite unique. I just feel a bit unsatisfied; do you have any harder problems?”
Zheng Fa couldn’t help but feel that saying she had read every math book sounded like something no human could say.
He had been thinking that there should be exceptionally talented mathematicians in the Xuanwei Realm, and this girl was one of them.
Modern mathematics is built on a complete system of axioms, and when he wrote “Middle School Mathematics,” he had deliberately avoided that aspect.
But with his current level of mathematics, he couldn’t help but leave some traces—this was what the girl referred to as her feeling of incompleteness.
Seeing Zheng Fa’s hesitant expression, the girl generously said, “I can trade you for other difficult problems!”
…Who would want to trade for that?
Recalling her glaring identity as a cultivator, considering her persistent approach, and most importantly, her rather unusual hobby that made him very uneasy…
Zheng Fa finally spoke, “I do remember some math problems, but I’m not sure if you’ve seen them.”
He took out paper and pen and wrote down a relatively simple fill-in-the-blank problem from the recent monthly exam.
“This problem…” The girl leaned in to look at the problem Zheng Fa had written, frowning slightly. “It’s quite a bit harder than the one in that book.”
Though she said it was difficult, Zheng Fa could clearly see the excitement in her eyes, like a wolf spotting its prey.
After nearly a stick of incense’s worth of time, the girl solved the problem.
Zheng Fa glanced at her work; the method wasn’t standard, but the answer was correct.
This meant she was using the existing mathematical knowledge of this world to think through the problem and was indeed able to arrive at the correct answer.
After finishing the problem, the girl squinted her eyes, seemingly enjoying the moment.
She asked Zheng Fa, “Is that right?”
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