Chapter 14 reveals that the Mountain God himself is illiterate! ...

The next morning, before the morning mist on Fangze Mountain had dissipated, I heard voices and was pulled by Mu to the Sutra Repository to study.

Although the mountain god temple had been uninhabited for a long time, neither the meditation room where Wenrensheng lived nor the scripture pavilion here were in a poor and shabby style. On the contrary, they exuded the elegance of a noble family, which made Wenrensheng feel a little uncomfortable.

He pulled his legs back and sat down at the long table in the quiet room, smelling the faint scent of pine soot and ink, and looked around curiously.

For the next year, I will be studying here every day.

Although I was still feeling groggy, I heard people say that I should do what I said I would do, and the resistance in my heart had long since disappeared after a good night's sleep.

Now that he has become family with the mountain god, he must work even harder to catch up with the mountain god.

“I don’t know what you should start learning at your age. Last night I asked the owner of the bookstore in Xiangcheng, and he said this is more suitable for you.”

He Mu sat opposite Wen Rensheng, pushed a book in front of Wen Rensheng, opened it, and said,

"arithmetic."

"Arithmetic." The voice repeated itself, and he nodded.

So that's counting things, right?

He used to help the clan chief count the number of rabbits in the rabbit burrows, so arithmetic shouldn't be too difficult for him.

Having prepared himself mentally by hearing the voices, he straightened his back and focused on the arithmetic manual in front of him.

Great, let's start with the first question.

The mountain god had told him that the great heroes of the martial world were all intelligent men well-versed in literature and poetry. The mountain god must have come from that background as well, so he too had to study diligently to become... um, what was the third character again...?

He Mu, standing to the side, had no idea that Wen Rensheng's thoughts were wandering so far. He only knew that the child had been reluctant yesterday, but had suddenly become serious today, which pleased him greatly.

He didn't disturb Wenren's focused voice any longer, got up, picked up a miscellaneous book he had bought at the foot of the mountain, and leaned against the wooden ladder to casually flip through it.

"The Heavenly Spiritual Root is so great, you can learn everything so quickly."

However, even after finishing the book, Wenrensheng never wrote a single word.

He Mu finally couldn't take it anymore. He slammed the book down, walked around to Wen Rensheng's side, placed one hand on the table, and asked in confusion, "Is it that difficult?"

Hearing voices, she looked up at He Mu, pointed to the arithmetic book in her hand with a wronged expression, and muttered, "I don't recognize many of the characters here."

He Mu: "..."

I almost forgot, what kind of words could a little monster who has lived with rabbits since he was a child know?

"Okay, I'll identify it for you. Listen carefully, okay?"

He Mu then pulled the book in his hand closer to himself and looked at the first line of text.

"This question is: There are pheasants and rabbits in the same cage. There are 35 heads and 94 feet. How many pheasants and rabbits are there?"[1]

After He Mu finished reading the question, he felt as if chickens and rabbits were jumping around his head and biting his ears whenever he heard a voice.

This was completely different from what he had imagined when counting rabbits.

Hearing someone bite their pen, they shook their heads in confusion and looked at He Mu for help again.

This time, however, Mu did not put on that confident and composed demeanor. He frowned and read the question twice, looking quite troubled.

"this……"

Hearing a voice, she asked cautiously, "You don't know how?"

"Of course I can."

He Mu denied it outright, and simply took the pen from Wen Rensheng's hand, sat down on the ground, and started writing and drawing.

"Wait."

Hearing the voice, he suddenly realized his hand was empty and blinked blankly.

It was stolen!

There were no more calligraphy brushes on the table, and feeling embarrassed to interrupt He Mu, who was focused on solving the problem, she could only puff out her cheeks and stare at him, sitting there waiting.

And so, the incense sticks in the Sutra Repository burned out little by little, and they waited for a long time, until their butts went numb, but Mu still couldn't find the answer.

"So slow..."

Hearing the voice, she looked at He Mu with a resentful expression.

What? The mountain god knows absolutely nothing.

He pouted and decided to stop pinning his hopes on He Mu and start learning the later material on his own.

Hearing the voice, he picked up the arithmetic book again, turned over the first page with the chicken and rabbit pictures, and looked at the arithmetic problems on the second page.

Fortunately, the second question looked much simpler, and I recognized most of the words in it when I heard the voice.

He pointed to each word with his finger and slowly read them aloud:

"There are things now, the number of which is unknown."

“When you count threes, there are two left over; when you count fives, there are three left over…[2]”

"Count to seven...ask about things...call..."

Before the question was even finished, the sound of someone else's voice made him feel sleepy. He had a premonition that if he continued reading, he would fall headfirst and get ink all over his face.

Hearing someone's voice, he yawned and finally chose to lie on the table to study in order to avoid getting ink on his face.

"After counting to seven... there is still..."

After lying there muttering to myself for a short while, I couldn't concentrate on the sounds of people and started playing my shadow puppet game.

He made a small dog hand shadow with one hand, waving it back and forth in front of himself, and even changed his tone to imitate it, saying:

"I hear you say, in order to become a great hero, you must study extremely hard."

Then he switched back to his own voice and replied, "But I'm really stupid, I can't learn anything."

Hand Shadow said, "Is it because you didn't study that you're so stupid?"

Hearing a voice say, "But actually, you don't need to be well-read to be a great hero. The mountain god himself doesn't seem to have read many books either."

Hand Shadow said sarcastically, "Hearing people's voices means you want to be lazy, you want to take shortcuts, and you always make excuses for yourself."

"..."

Unable to answer the voices, he closed his eyes in a daze, his consciousness drifting back to his morning dream.

...

By the time He Mu finally sorted the chickens and rabbits into two correct numbers, more than an hour had passed.

He stretched and said with some delight, "Okay, I'll teach you—"

Halfway through his sentence, he noticed that Wenrensheng had already slumped onto the table and was fast asleep.

"Oh, so sleepy?"

He Mu lowered her voice and carefully leaned closer to look at him.

Hearing people's voices, she slept quietly and calmly, leaning against her arm. Even her breathing was light. From He Mu's perspective, she looked like a soft, white dough ball, as if biting her cheek would make her cry.

Thinking this, He Mu couldn't help but poke Wen Rensheng's face.

So soft.

*

The first day of learning didn't get off to a good start, and for the next few days I was in a bad state of "concentrating on doing problems with Mu and falling asleep whenever I heard someone talking".

This pattern continued for about half a year until Wenrensheng finally couldn't take it anymore.

After sitting down in the quiet room that day, Hearing someone holding their book, she looked at He Mu with a rather resentful expression.

He Mu immediately sensed the displeasure in his eyes. He crossed his arms, looked at Wen Rensheng, and raised an eyebrow, saying, "What's wrong today, Miss?"

Hearing the voice, he pursed his lips and muttered, "Even the mountain god isn't as smart as me."

He Mu was both angry and amused. He leaned down and gently poked Wen Rensheng's forehead, asking in return, "You little ingrate, didn't you ask me to be your teacher?"

Hearing the voice, he suddenly changed his mind. He snorted and turned his head away, saying defiantly, "What I said was that it was okay if the mountain god didn't come to teach me, not that the mountain god had to come to teach me."

After saying that, he suddenly realized that what he said was inappropriate, so he quickly corrected himself: "No, but it's alright! I can study on my own now."

"Hmm, just a little bit." Wenren paused, then added softly.

At this rate, it would take him fifty years to learn arithmetic.

Hearing someone's voice, he held back from saying the second half of his sentence.

He Mu wasn't angry. Of course, he knew that his studies over the past six months hadn't been very effective, and Wen Rensheng had basically been sleeping the whole time.

The reason he left it unattended was mainly because the reinforcements he went to Heaven to ask for kept making excuses, saying they were too busy, which took him a lot of effort to deal with.

Fortunately, he finally managed to get the person to come today.

“Since you think I’m not teaching well,” He Mu said, “then I’ll hire a great tutor for you. Would you be willing?”

Hearing the voice, his eyes lit up. He twisted the hem of his clothes with his fingers and stole a glance at He Mu, only to find that He Mu was not angry.

He then sat up straight and asked, "Do I not need to go down the mountain, nor do I need to leave you?"

He Mu smiled and said, "Of course, this is your home."

Upon hearing this, Wenrensheng twisted the hem of her clothes even faster.

He was silent for a while, and finally said hesitantly, "I... I didn't think the mountain god was stupid, um... it's just that I want to become a great hero as soon as possible so that I can protect this home."

After saying this, Wen Rensheng lowered his head even further, staring at the crumpled hem of his clothes, and added in a voice barely above a whisper:

"I didn't mean to upset the mountain god."

After listening to the child's explanations, Mu also understood his thoughts.

He squatted down, rubbed his face, and chuckled, "The God of Literature, have you ever seen him in storybooks?"

Wenquxing (文曲星)?

That name sounds so familiar.

Hearing the voice, he tried hard to recall and then remembered.

A few years ago, he loved to play at the foot of the mountain. At that time, there was a popular miscellaneous book among children called "Dreaming of Climbing the Eight Immortals' Heavenly List".

This book tells the story of a person who dreamed of visiting the Heavenly Court and, upon returning, wrote down all the deities he had encountered in this small book.

Children and teenagers in Xiangcheng love to read this "Heavenly Ranking" and they even leave some marks on this booklet.

If someone is a deity they like, they will draw a vertical line after the deity's name to indicate that they are a "believer" of that deity.

Hearing the voices, he turned two pages. The list was filled with famous deities, such as Yuanshi Tianzun, Dongwanggong and Xiwangmu, with densely drawn lines next to them.

At first, he was very excited and thought of drawing some symbols on the mountain god's name to show his support.

But even after flipping to the last two pages, I still couldn't find any trace of "True Lord Cangyu".

After searching through it twice without finding it, he closed the booklet in disappointment and left when he heard voices. From then on, he always looked down on this "Heavenly List" and thought it was a trick to fool children.

Any list of heavenly or earthly rankings that doesn't include the name of the mountain god is just a bunch of unofficial lists.

That being said, the Dharma name of the God of Literature was indeed written on it, and in Wenrensheng's memory, there was quite a bit of history behind it.

Thinking of this, the voice suddenly realized, "Oh, I know—"

He was speaking when he felt something cold wrap around his ankle. The sensation startled him so much that he jumped up from the prayer mat.

Looking down, they saw a giant gray-white python coiled up under the long table, its spotted body completely surrounding Wenrensheng and He Mu.

The snake stood upright, as tall as two people, its green pupils fixed on Wenrensheng, its forked tongue flicking as if it wanted to devour him whole.

"...Heavenly Spiritual Root?"

The voice was neither human nor non-human; upon hearing it, every word seemed to tremble and echo, yet upon closer listening, nothing seemed amiss—it was quite eerie.

He wasn't afraid of snakes because of the sound of human voices, but seeing such a huge creature for the first time, he was still terrified and couldn't help but hug Mu's legs tightly.

"Is this the snake?" Wenrensheng said quietly, pointing at the snake. "It doesn't quite look like a schoolteacher."

He Mu scratched Wen Rensheng's chin and comforted him, "That's how cultured people are, they like to put on an act, please understand."

Upon hearing a human voice, he exclaimed "Oh!" and corrected, "It's a cultural snake."

He Mu nodded: "Yes, cultural snake."

Wenquxing: "..."

A note from the author:

----------------------

[1][2] From Sunzi Suanjing