Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 282 - 241: Underestimating a Science Student_1

Chapter 282: Chapter 241: Underestimating a Science Student_1

"Do I need to write comments on these articles?"

Li Xuan felt a little guilty, as well as a burden on his shoulders.

After all, these articles were written by prominent scholars. Can you imagine a middle school student correcting a professor’s homework?

"If you don’t want to, just use the Wenshan Seal."

Quan Dingtian had thought about Li Xuan’s poor handwriting: "Actually, it’s better not to write. Those old scholars are extremely arrogant. Which of them would like their articles to be criticized? The reason they asked you for reviews is actually to get the Wenshan Seal, to boost their scholarly legitimacy. But you’d better rank all the articles in three, six, nine, indicating the different levels of scholarship to stimulate self-reflection."

Li Xuan understood, it turned out that he was not really asked to review these papers, but to stamp his approval.

This was like modern professional associations, only when the products were certified and awarded by the associations, they could be considered authentic and high-quality.

This was simpler than he had thought, just stamping and grading, would not be too much trouble.

"There is one more thing!" Quan Dingtian hesitated slightly, then said, "If Mr. Hufa has time, please attend the selection ceremony to the end."

Li Xuan thought about it, it seemed that Quan Dingtian had called him over not just to hand over these articles. He felt puzzled but agreed promptly.

As the saying goes, one should do the work after taking other people’s money. Since he had received the salary from the Ministry of Rites, he naturally had to make some efforts.

After Quan Dingtian hurriedly left, Li Xuan could not wait to open the bulging cloth bag.

Then he felt upset, thinking that these scholars really showed no sign of pecuniary interest.

There were calligraphy and paintings, fans, inkstones, handwritten Confucian classics in the bag, but there was no gold, no banknotes, and not even any elixir.

"Quite impressive!" Xue Yunrou took a glance, then praised lightly: "It seems that these people put a lot of effort into preparing the gifts, with extraordinary taste."

As she spoke, her eyes shifted, looking at Li Xuan’s expression sideways, and then laughed, "those are also worth a lot, you see, this ’Painting of Stacked Peaks of the Smoke River’ by Shen Qinan, once it hits the market, it would worth at least three thousand patterned silvers. Shen is now rising to fame, many people are unable to get his paintings. After his death, the price of this painting is estimated to increase tenfold.

And this handwritten ’Book of Poetry’, obviously written by the great scholar Lin Dong Hai himself. You see this calligraphy, vigorous and fluent, has a forceful yet thin structure, like a frosty forest without leaves, and a waterfall rushing by. Lin Dong Hai comes from a poor family, after ten years in office he still only has a clean salary. The fact that he sent this ’Book of Poetry’ shows he put deep thoughts into it."

"But there is no silver bar."

Li Xuan helplessly threw all these things into the little Sumi Ring. He asked himself, could he really sell these items?

Once these calligraphy and paintings hit the market, could he still maintain his prestige as the protector of Neo-Confucianism?

But his purse had just taken a hit and needed to be replenished urgently.

When the two returned to the vicinity of the examination field, they found that the ceremonial examination had ended. Both Long Rui and Wang Jing had made top grades.

The next test was ’music’, with the theme of ’expressing ambition’, either a poem or song. The two passed without suspense.

Their poetic talent was not that outstanding, but the overall standard of the Guozi Bureau was just average. The two received ’above average’ evaluations which were actually quite outstanding among all students at the Guozi Bureau.

The best among them was not more than ’average’.

When Li Xuan looked at the poems and verses posted, he felt the overall level was indeed mediocre with few shining pieces.

It seemed that poetic talent could not be elevated with simply an increase of intelligence or cultivation of Great Rectitude.

It was a pity that he could not participate, otherwise the poems such as ’the world does not know my aspiration until I reach the top’ and ’through hardships and trials, I remain strong and stand against the wind from all directions’, he would perform outstandingly among all. He had dozens of poems expressing ambition that he could choose from, which was a missed opportunity to show off.

The admirable aspect was the Great Rectitude. The so-called expression of ambition through song, expressing ambition was the easiest way to express one’s Great Rectitude. The poems written by the five thousand participants stirred up tremendous energy, which broke through the sky, so powerful that they seemed to shake mountains and move seas, extremely positive and righteous, that drove away demons.

Li Xuan saw how the dark energy lurking in the crowd outside the Guozi Bureau was swept away by this overwhelming force.

The weak ones were directly dissipated, and the strong ones were also frightened and ran away. But as long as they left the crowd, the people of Mingyou City no longer need to worry about hurting the innocent. They either captured them or exterminated them, simply and decisively dealt with them.

The next test was ’mathematics’, and the only two hundred or so people left in the examination field. The majority of the five thousand students from Guozi Bureau were eliminated in the previous four stages.

Especially the ’ceremony’ test that Li Xuan missed. Any mistake in any action was not allowed, not even a less elegant posture, not to mention the unacceptable ’average’ performance. This stage alone had already dashed the hopes of 90% of the Guozi Bureau students.

The subsequent ’music’ test was simply the pang of death.

As Li Xuan entered the field and came to the side of Long Rui and Wang Jing, he noticed that both of them looked a little pale.

"What’s wrong?"

"You see there, those two jerks are practically cheating!"

Long Rui pointed to the left and said helplessly: "They have invited Zhen Huandou."

"Zhen Huandou?" Li Xuan was puzzled: "Who is that?"

He followed the direction Long Rui was pointing at and saw that the two jerks he was talking about were Chu Wen and Xi Hanqing, who had conflicted with them earlier.

This moment, standing beside the two of them, was a handsome young man in white, about eighteen years old, with regular features, and a prominent nose.

This gentleman sat at the desk with a graceful demeanor, his eyes not straying.

Chu Wen and Xi Hanqing were laughing and winking at Long Rui in mockery.

"He is the second most popular young person in the South Zhili literary world. Our Brother Zhang is known as ’Little Wenzong,’ and this Zhen Huandou is referred to as the ’Leader of Jiangzuo.’ He is not only of high moral character, beyond reproach, but also top-level talent. Especially in the field of mathematics, hardly anyone in Nanjing City could match him."

Long Rui was inexplicably explaining, "I really don’t know how these two got Mr. Zhen to come."

"What’s so unusual about inviting Zhen Huandou? They are all fellow students after all."

Wang Jing sighed, "In any case, do your best. As the teacher said, participation is what matters."

——he didn’t hold out much hope now.

Li Xuan thought to himself, you two, somewhat underestimating me, a science student from the modern world.

It’s only been two years since I graduated from university; I haven’t given back all that I learned to my teachers.

However, he didn’t say anything more, also sitting cross-legged in placid anticipation for the Guozi Bureau test paper.

What Li Xuan, Long Rui and the others did not know was that at this moment, Quan Dingtian and the two Siye of Guozi Bureau standing behind him were all watching them.

"Isn’t that Mr. Hufa?"

One of the Siye, with a clear complexion, looked very astonished, "Is he invited to participate in the math competition? Does Mr. Hufa understand mathematical calculation?"

The other stroked his long beard, "I wonder what level Mr. Hufa is at? However, with the presence of ’Leader of Jiangzou’ today, I’m afraid everyone else will lose their luster."

Quan Dingtian said indifferently, "Let’s just watch. Notify the people below to distribute the test paper."

He was actually quite upset about Long Rui and Wang Jing inviting Li Xuan to participate.

Being the Hufa of Neo-Confucianism, a win for Li Xuan in this competition would be a matter of course and a loss would hurt his dignity. It could greatly damage the authority of the Hufa.

But at this moment, he couldn’t say anything. Long Rui and Wang Jing did not know of Li Xuan’s status. The latter’s participation was within the rules, he couldn’t have him leave the competition, could he?

Seated at the desk, Li Xuan soon received his paper. Three copies were presented to the three of them.

Long Rui and Wang Jing both frowned and looked concerned. Li Xuan, a graduate in science, carefully reviewed the paper — there shouldn’t be any math problems in this era that they couldn’t solve.

The issue was understanding the question — the language of this era was obscure and the exact interpretation of the phrasing was crucial.

"A herds sheep to graze, B drags a sheep and follows behind, teasingly ask A if they add up to one hundred? A claims no error; if it’s like this a group of sheep, add half a group and a little half group; only when add yours it becomes complete, who could guess through this wonderful mystery."

The rough meaning was that A was herding a flock of sheep to a lush grassland when B, pulling a fat sheep, followed from behind. B asked A, "Do you have 100 sheep?" A replied, "I don’t have 100 sheep. If you add to the number of my sheep now, half of the existing sheep, half of half of the existing sheep, and the one sheep you’re pulling, it would be exactly 100. Could you guess how many sheep I have now?"

At this moment, rapid calculations could be heard throughout the examination hall. Including Long Rui and Wang Jing, even Zhen Huandou was quickly making calculations.

Li Xuan thought for a moment, then an equation appeared in his mind.

(100—1)/(1+1/2+1/4+1)

In just a blink of an eye, he wrote down the number thirty-six on his test paper.

"Give me the second question!"

The proctor near him was a seventh-ranked official from Guozi Bureau. Taken aback, he asked, "Didn’t you even calculate?"

"I did mental calculations!"

Li Xuan looked composed, "Do I need to write down my problem-solving method?"

The practice in this era was to solve problems with abacuses and counting rods, what kind of problem-solving method is there to write down!

Even if required, it would just be to show off using mathematical formulas from the future.

"You don’t need to."

The official walked over, first looking at Li Xuan’s answer. His eyes first revealed surprise, then, he distributed the second question to the three.

Long Rui and Wang Jing couldn’t help but stare in shock, they only just figured out how to solve that question!

Meanwhile, dozens of feet away, Zhen Huandou was also writing numbers vigorously on his test paper, "The second question!"

At the same time, he glanced in Li Xuan’s direction, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Where did this guy come from?