Regarding whether Er’ya would stay or leave, Xiao Anzi didn’t make the decision on his own.

He found a doctor for the grandfather and granddaughter, left behind two taels of silver, made proper arrangements, and only then returned to see Wei Yu and tell him what Er’ya had said.

A little girl who claimed she’d never miscalculated and wanted to repay him?

Wei Yu wasn’t a pedophile, nor was he some walking hormone or breeding stallion. Liking “Mary Sue” novels didn’t mean he wanted to be the male lead himself.

It just meant he was still in his cringey teenage phase.

After hearing Xiao Anzi’s report, Wei Yu’s first reaction was — could this Er’ya be an early mathematician?

Otherwise, what kind of child in ancient times, after being helped by someone, would say they want to repay the kindness with math?

In ancient times, kids who showed early talent were usually geniuses.

But due to limited access to education, the fate of geniuses from noble families, poor families, or wealthy merchant households who could access education, and those among common folk who couldn’t, were two totally different paths.

The former had smooth-sailing lives; the latter usually faded into obscurity as time went by.

Due to a certain awareness of this, Wei Yu could really understand how geniuses thought.

He was kind of excited.

What excited him was that he knew how much Great Wei longed for talent — and he wanted the sense of accomplishment from cultivating a genius!

Building a career is always the most satisfying thing.

Even if Wei Yu was a total slacker, that didn’t mean he didn’t want to “collect stamps”!

It’s just raising a little genius — why would he have to do it all personally?

A genius!

Just give her a book and let her chew through it herself!

Driven by this yearning for a future math prodigy, Wei Yu half-assed his entire prayer ritual at the temple.

Not in terms of attitude though — on the outside, he was still sincere and focused!

Face full of devotion, knelt when he should, and wholeheartedly recited only to the God of Wealth among all the deities in the hall.

Praying for wealth was one thing, but the truth was, he didn’t know the other gods or Buddhas.

Didn’t need them. Wasn’t familiar!

Just getting rich was enough.

What he was half-assing was the thoughts in his head.

Other than mumbling to the God of Wealth for money, he was flipping through material on his tablet — from first grade math all the way to college-level calculus and linear algebra…

Whether that little girl turned out to be a math prodigy or not, it was never wrong to have all the textbooks ready.

Even if she wasn’t, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be others in the future!

With over fifty million people in Great Wei, it’d make no sense if no one turned out to be a mathematician!

This whole temple worship session lasted over two hours.

Wei Yu’s knees were about to go numb, and his legs were swelling.

Fortunately, he and the Eighth Prince were in the back row — not up front — and stood a bit away from his dad, so they probably wouldn’t be overheard when they chatted during the boredom.

On the way down the mountain, since he hadn’t exercised and had been a slacker for too long, Wei Yu’s physical condition was worse than even his old man’s. He just barely didn’t need to lean on his Eighth Brother to get down.

Every step down the stone stairs, Wei Yu would suck in a breath.

“Hiss…”

“My legs are numb.”

“This is painfully refreshing…”

The Eighth Prince was speechless. “You totally deserve this. Back then I told you to practice martial arts with Master Wu, but you kept slacking off. Look at you now — I bet even the imperial consorts have better stamina than you!”

“Hey, that’s an insult.”

Wei Yu wasn’t having it. He straightened up, suddenly energized. “You can insult me, but how dare you insult the imperial consorts? Saying I’m weaker than them?!”

Eighth Prince: …

His back stayed straight for all of two seconds before collapsing again. Wei Yu looked to the sky and sighed dramatically.

“Honestly, they really are tougher than me. The consorts can walk the Imperial Garden twenty times a day without even panting. Kneel on the floor for two hours with steady breath and no flushed faces. Under the blazing sun, they’ll run from the West Palace to the East Palace just to chat… I totally admit defeat.”

Wei Yu was self-aware.

Those women in his dad’s harem — they talked like delicate, helpless things, but in reality, they were all terrifyingly tough.

Not even gonna mention the gossip-loving Consort Xian — everyone knows what she’s like.

The Empress was the daughter of a general and used to charge into battle, killing northern nomads with a spear in hand — actual blood on her hands.

The Imperial Consort was the daughter of a great scholar, mastered all the refined arts, and yet her favorite activity was drinking and gambling with a crowd.

Consort Qi and Consort Shu? Smiles that hide knives — the kind who’ll subtly mess with people when they’re in a bad mood.

As for the rest ranked below “Consort,” Wei Yu hadn’t interacted with them much, but he had occasionally heard about the drama they caused fighting for favor.

None of them were pushovers.

Wei Yu had grown up in the inner palace — not only did he not develop any love for women, the fact he didn’t have gynophobia was already pretty impressive!

Enough.

Wei Yu pulled himself together.

No more rambling — the most important thing now was finding his math prodigy.

By the time they descended the mountain, it was already late.

By the time they got back, it was right around the time the city gates were closing.

At this hour, it wasn’t appropriate for Wei Yu to send someone to find Er’ya again, so he returned with the group for now and decided to send someone out tomorrow.

And the next day, he really did send a trusted guard.

But the guard came back alone — no Er’ya.

Wei Yu asked what happened.

The guard replied, “Your Highness, the other party lives near Cang Mountain. Liu Er’ya has no parents and lives with her grandfather. When I arrived, someone was causing trouble at their home.”

Huh?

Bullying a lonely old man and a little girl?

Wei Yu frowned. “Explain in detail.”

“Yes, Your Highness. The Liu family is poor. Liu Er’ya’s mother died early, and her father never remarried. Three years ago, her father drowned in the lake after getting drunk, burdened by gambling debts. The debt then fell to the grandfather and granddaughter. When I arrived, debt collectors were at their door.”

What a mess.

Wei Yu rubbed his chin.

By modern law, children aren’t obligated to repay a parent’s debt — unless they inherit the parent’s estate, in which case they only pay within the scope of the inheritance.

But in ancient times, repaying debts was a moral duty — a father’s debt was the son’s to repay!

Great Wei’s law even clearly stated “father’s debt, child repays.”

So that meant Liu Er’ya had to repay her father’s debt.

Wei Yu asked, “How much do they owe?”

“One hundred and twenty taels.”

“That much?!”

Wei Yu was shocked.

Silver taels in ancient times were no joke — one tael was very valuable.

In Great Wei, a regular commoner could earn 300 wen per month at most — and one tael was worth 1,000 wen.

By that math, it’d take nearly 34 years of not eating or drinking just to repay 120 taels!

And that’s not even counting interest.

Hearing that number, Wei Yu immediately knew — this had to be loan sharking. Otherwise, why would a poor family need to borrow that much?

What were they trying to do, go to heaven?

Wei Yu’s face fell — any sympathy he had for lending Er’ya money evaporated on the spot.

Raid them!

They had to take down the crooks behind this loan sharking!

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