Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 842: Big Liar
When Zhang Chen, along with Wu Dawei, Bai Shanshan and Bai Xiaoshui, two little guys who looked around and found everything new and interesting, walked straight into the public school gate and finally arrived at the door of Jiuzhang Hall, they heard complete silence inside - but to say complete silence is not quite accurate, because the sound of Zhang Shou's writing is still very clear.
When Zhang Chen saw Zhang Shou, who was at the front, standing in front of him, with five blackboards lined up in a row and covered with words, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. But then he pretended to be calm and said to Wu Dawei behind him, "When we finish solving this problem, you can report to me about borrowing the book."
Hearing that Wu Dawei didn't say anything, he mistakenly thought that the other party was frightened by the heavenly book that looked like a ghost painting. He couldn't help but feel a little complacent, and said slowly: "You haven't seen this before? My teacher's mathematical skills are among the best in the whole capital... No, in the whole world. Even some officials in the Ministry of Revenue are confused by these formulas..."
He was just about to brag on Zhang Shou's behalf when he heard an impatient rebuke: "Stop talking!"
Zhang Chen had never been scolded like this before, and he was furious for a moment. But when he turned his head and glared over, he saw the blond boy who claimed to be Zhang Shou's servant, muttering some proper nouns that he couldn't even repeat. Some of them he had heard when he was studying some basic science courses in Banshan Hall, but for some of them he had no idea what they were.
Especially the bird sounds like x, y, z, he felt the veins in his temples throbbing slightly, and his head became twice as big. At first he thought the blond boy was just pretending, but when he saw him tiptoe into Jiuzhang Hall, sit down in the corner of the last row as if no one was around, and then take out a notebook and a pen from his pocket, he suddenly realized.
It turned out that he was going to come to the public school to talk to Zhang Shou about borrowing books and asked him if he wanted to come with him. The blond boy agreed immediately. It was all planned! His trick of showing off his power played into his hands!
Zhang Chen had never suffered such a big loss in his life except at the hands of Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou. He could not help but feel angry. However, he would not dare to disturb the class in Jiuzhang Hall even if he was arrogant and domineering. After all, the emperor and the prince were behind Jiuzhang Hall!
Therefore, Young Master Zhang could only sulk there with a sullen face. After a long while, he remembered that there were two other little guys around him. One of them was personally identified by the Fourth Prince as having some talent for numbers.
Young Master Zhang, who had just made a mistake in judging a certain blond boy, immediately dragged them over with one hand each, and then asked in a low voice: "Do you understand what is written here?"
When he asked this question, the answer he got was a uniform shake of the head, followed by blank eyes and blank faces. Bai Shanshan even whispered, "Mr. Xiao Zhang, I don't understand a single word of what's written on the board..."
Until this moment, Zhang Chen felt refreshed and felt that the whole world was normal. That's right! Lu Sanlang, that fat little guy, turned into a genius, which was already frustrating enough, but then there was a seemingly talented blond boy from a foreign country?
Look at the two guys who have a little talent that he and the Fourth Prince picked up from Baijia Village. They are normal people! Who can understand that kind of math that looks like a ghost painting?
Although Zhang Shou in Jiuzhang Hall heard some sound like talking outside, he was too lazy to look back because the people speaking were speaking in low voices. For such a long time, there were often people lingering at the door of Jiuzhang Hall, and even Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan, who were not good at mathematics, would come to join in the fun.
Therefore, he waited until he finished writing the sentence after the proof by analogy, which was actually just laziness and skipped the proof process of the other two small problems. Then he put down his pen, clapped his hands, turned around, and saw the very conspicuous golden hair at a glance!
He didn't think that Liang Jiucheng, a conscientious teacher, would let out his only student casually. Therefore, when he saw Zhang Chen standing outside the door with Bai Shanshan and Bai Xiaoshui with sullen faces, he immediately told the others to deduce the omitted analogy steps again, and then walked out leisurely without even glancing at the blond boy who was working hard.
When they were out of the door, he gently beckoned Zhang Chen to follow him. He went all the way back to the school hall, where there was no one else, and then he asked Zhang Chen, who followed with two boys in each hand, "It's fine if you come alone, and it's reasonable to send these two children to the public school to see what it's like, but you kidnapped a book boy like me, what do you mean by that?"
Zhang Chen was immediately very depressed. "I didn't mean to kidnap him. I went to your place to borrow two books, but this kid claimed to be your book boy and refused to let me. No matter what I said, he wouldn't listen. So I said I was going to the public school and if he was still worried, he could come with me. How could I have known that he agreed right away? And then he came up with this idea?"
"You have bad intentions and want to embarrass this kid?"
Zhang Shou casually exposed Zhang Chen's thoughts. Seeing that he laughed and then looked around with a flickering look in his eyes, he said with interest: "A Liu, if you are here, come out and take Bai Shanshan and Bai Xiaoshui to the public school for a walk."
Zhang Chen instinctively turned around and saw Ah Liu, who he had not seen at all, coming in like a ghost and leading the two confused children out. He coughed and wanted to continue talking about something else, but Zhang Shou asked directly: "Tell me, why did you suddenly remember to borrow books from me?"
"Well... well, someone else wanted to borrow it. It's the first two volumes of Ge's New Mathematics, the one with your annotations. Well, the person who borrowed the book is the other person you know."
It was the first time that Zhang Shou had seen Zhang Chen speak in such a roundabout way. After a slight pause, he realized who the other person was talking about and couldn't help laughing. If things worked out in the future, he might tease him a little, but now it was obviously not yet at that stage, so he generously let Zhang Chen go.
"Don't tell me you came all the way here just to borrow a book!"
Zhang Chen finally came to life. "I heard about Zhu Er and his gang causing a big disturbance in Huitong South Pavilion when I returned to the city. I wanted to get involved, but Zhu Er was like a dog protecting its food, covering up the issue and not letting me intervene. He said that Lu Sanlang's fund was doing well, so I came to ask about it. There are still a few days before the Chinese New Year, and I would be too idle if I had nothing to do!"
Since when did these noble children, who were already known for their idleness, suddenly find life with too much idleness unbearable?
Zhang Shou found it both ridiculous and ridiculous, however, he knew that this change was a good thing and he should encourage it. He should let these guys use their inexhaustible energy in serving the people... Well, just kidding. Anyway, he would never pour cold water on the enthusiastic Zhang Chen.
Therefore, after hesitating for a while, he smiled and said, "Lu Sanlang was caught by Yingying to handle this matter. Now it has almost been completed. He has received money from thirty or forty families, including the emperor, the empress dowager, and several ladies in the palace. The follow-up is investment and financial management. He is more skilled in this. It would be a waste of your talent if you do it."
If Zhang Shou had meant that he was not good at that thing but Lu Sanlang was, Zhang Chen would definitely be unhappy, but when he heard this sentence of wasting talent, he immediately felt relieved.
It's not that we don't want him to go, but asking him to do Lu Sanlang's job would be a waste of his talent!
Seeing that Zhang Chen was temporarily fooled by his words, Zhang Shou started to think urgently. Zhang Chen and Ye had made some progress, so he actually came to borrow his annotated textbooks for her. However, he was so energetic instead of talking about love. Could it be that he wanted to show off in front of the girl he liked?
No, Zhang Chen is quite free-spirited in dealing with people, and he probably hasn't reached the stage of being attracted to Ye. If he knew how to pursue girls, he would probably be a sow climbing a tree. In other words, people are purely driven by their nature and can't sit still... In other words, they are bored to death. In this case, he remembered the deduction that had been temporarily reduced in priority due to a few things that interfered with it.
Therefore, after clearing his throat, he said earnestly: "Zhang Chen, after sending you and the Fourth Prince to Baijia Village, the Emperor actually visited the Ge Mansion and asked Mr. Baisha Chen Xianzhang and two other famous scholars a few questions. Then, according to the Emperor's instructions, I asked the students of Banshan Hall to deduce the past war situation between Song and Jin."
Zhang Shou briefly explained the whole story of the incident, and then talked about how the Earl of Xiangyang and a group of equally idle nobles had joined the Jin Kingdom's behind-the-scenes advisory group. Sure enough, after these few words, Zhang Chen's interest suddenly rose to the sky, and he was so excited that he was beaming with joy.
What's the point of going to Huitong South Pavilion to get angry with a little mountain lord? What's the point of begging for alms from a group of dignitaries like Lu Sanlang?
Since a real man cannot achieve great achievements throughout his life, then... he can only imagine himself in some turbulent era with many heroes emerging, and use all his wisdom and strategy to meet heroes all over the world!
So, the high-spirited Master Zhang immediately responded loudly without thinking: "This is interesting, I will go to Banshan Hall now! Well, although I am not the head monk now, I think my title can still intimidate people! Since that big guy Zhang is busy completing the emperor's instructions, I will take over his duties as the head monk and continue this deduction well. I can't let the emperor down!"
"I'll go to Banshan Hall right now, don't worry!"
Seeing Zhang Chen turn around and leave immediately after saying this, Zhang Shou couldn't help but twitch his lips before he could finish his sentence "I trust you to do your job" and then he forced down the smile that just appeared. It must be said that these guys who are best at imagining things really don't need to be fooled at all, and they will move forward voluntarily.
It's not that he's good at fooling people, it's just that these people are not good enough to resist being fooled...
It is conceivable that these noble children who were not good at studying and even less good at holding power in the past had so much free time. Now, with Zhang Chen, the former head of Banshan Hall and the most powerful head, coming forward, those students of Banshan Hall who were ambitious at first but later found that there was too much information to look up and gradually became lazy, should finally start to spin like a spinning top being whipped!
Otherwise, wouldn't such a group of guys representing the Song Dynasty be overshadowed by Liang Chu and Zhang Dakui, who represented the Jin Dynasty? After all, Zhang Qiong's group of advisors and several scholars were all deducing based on the Jin Dynasty. It would be strange if they didn't win!
Zhang Shou naturally felt relieved after arranging Zhang Chen, the idler, out of the way. As for the two little guys, Bai Shanshan and Bai Xiaoshui, who were brought here by Zhang Chen today, when Ah Liu took them to the elementary class to audit the class, he planned to follow the example of Xiao Cheng and Xiao Huasheng who had attended classes in the public school before and place them there first.
Of course, this was just a temporary solution. The next step was to find Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan and propose to open the elementary school class that he was most familiar with in addition to the previous elementary and intermediate classes, which were an alternative Sunday school setting. As for the courses, there were only four: Chinese, mathematics, science, and physical education (which was also a martial arts class in those days)...
Of course, he also has other ideas about what is absolutely indispensable to this era, that is, etiquette and law.
In view of the previously proposed system of visiting students in rural areas, he cautiously proposed that after the first batch of classes started, only two classes would be recruited. Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan felt that such a scale was still within an acceptable range . The only thing that made them hesitate was the textbooks.
They originally thought that the Chinese textbooks had enlightenment teaching materials such as Thousand Character Classic that could be used directly. However, Zhang Shou made another suggestion, which was... to compile a set of "Youxue Qionglin"!
Of course, even if Zhang Shou was gifted, he had listened to his well-educated grandfather read part of "Youxue Qionglin" when he was a child, and later read it, but he had no ability to re-edit this classic textbook of enlightenment education without missing a word. However, Zhang Shou was very jealous of the way "Youxue Qionglin" mixed etiquette, idioms, allusions, etc. in one book.
The selection of various famous works, ancient poems and essays in later Chinese textbooks is actually similar to "Youxue Qionglin". Of course, "Youxue Qionglin", which was compiled in the late Ming Dynasty and then added and deleted several times, inevitably has some dross, but can't the limitations of the times be compensated?
Therefore, seeing that Lu Wan and Liu Zhiyuan were quite interested, he said with a smile: "Teacher's "Ge's New Mathematics" can be used as a mathematics textbook, and this "Children's Learning Qionglin", if it is well compiled, can be used not only in public schools, but also in private schools, charity schools, clan schools, etc. outside, all of which can be used as teaching materials for children's enlightenment!"
"If you two can gather a group of wise men to compile such a book, it may be as famous as the Thousand Character Classic, a must-read book for elementary school students, and will be passed down through the ages!"
