Chapter 55 Comfort

After the monthly exam results came out, Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu came to Old Man Bai’s house again.

"I heard that you did well in the exam this time?" the old man asked Zheng Fa.

The expression on his face was more like a hint of pride than praise.

"That's because you taught me well." Zheng Fa said tactfully.

Hearing this, the old man's face wrinkled into a brilliant chrysanthemum.

"I have a friend who also has difficulties in studying..." Zheng Fa suddenly spoke up while he was in a good mood.

"Stop!" The old man raised his palm and frowned slightly: "I refuse."

Zheng Fa didn't expect the old man to be so vigilant. He refused without even saying a word.

He was not in a hurry at all. He just glanced at the old man and waited without saying anything.

Sure enough, when he saw that he didn't say anything, the old man felt itchy: "You really won't say it?"

Zheng Fa looked at the old man in confusion: "Didn't you tell me to stop?"

"How about you beg again?"

Zheng Fa said as he wished: "Do you have the simplest and quickest solution to those talismans?"

"How else can it be accomplished quickly?"

Zheng Fa opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

Tang Lingwu understood it, and gave an accurate translation: "If there are three long and one short, choose the shortest one; if there are three short and one long, choose the longest one..."

The old man's face darkened. "No wonder you're talking about friends. I'm a professor at Jingcheng University, and you want me to teach you how to lie? You're insulting me with these crooked ways!"

Zheng Fa wanted to develop this technique of guessing the answers for the sake of a friend - the Seventh Young Master.

In two months, the Seventh Young Master will ascend to the Immortal Gate. It will be too late for him to really start learning from "Elementary Mathematics". He can only rely on guessing, no, on the great and magical probability.

Even if it wasn't for the Seventh Young Master himself, just because of Madam's request, Zheng Fa would have to find some insurance for the Seventh Young Master.

As expected, the old white man shook his head quickly when he heard the request, and his curly hair danced in the air, expressing his master's refusal.

Zheng Fa winked at Tang Lingwu.

Tang Lingwu understood what he meant and assumed the Songhe stance.

Zheng Fa put his hands behind her back.

The old man watched from the side and asked curiously: "What are you two doing?"

"I've thought of a quick way." Zheng Fa said with a smile: "Let her practice faster."

"..." The old man blinked: "How fast?"

"According to my estimation, she will have no problem getting started with Songhe Zhuang in half a month." Zheng Fa thought about it.

The old man's eyes widened slightly. He remembered Zheng Fa saying before that Tang Lingwu was young and in good health, so she should be able to train faster than himself, but it would take at least two or three months to get started with Songhe Posture.

Now it only takes half a month? "Well..." The old man rubbed his hands and hesitated: "Well, can I... try this method too?"

"No, I can't use such crooked means to insult you." Zheng Fa's refusal was as sincere as it could be.

"Actually...it's not like you can't insult someone."

After the old man finished speaking, he looked at the unchanged smile on Zheng Fa's face, gritted his teeth, turned and went into the study. When he came out, he was holding a black-covered notebook in his hand.

"This is?"

"I don't know that kind of thing, and I can't teach you, but you can still learn this faster." The old man frowned and handed the notebook to Zheng Fa.

Zheng Fa flipped through his notebook.

What was written inside were some rules that Old Man Bai summarized through those symbol diagrams - not the rules for guessing the answers, but through the characteristic patterns of each symbol diagram, he determined which basic symbol the symbol diagram evolved from.

"Except for some very complex patterns, these methods are guaranteed to be 80% to 90% accurate."

Zheng Fa nodded. This notebook was not thin. Old Man Bai wrote it very carefully. Each Yuan Fu corresponded to a certain characteristic pattern, and each characteristic pattern had a dozen or so Fu pictures as examples.

Perhaps because he was slow in learning topology, the old man simply skipped the principles and went straight to the applications.

"What do you have?" Thinking that this was what the old man took out from his study, "Did you prepare it?"

"I'm not just bored when writing a book, so I just want to summarize it casually." The old white man coughed dryly, his eyes wandering.

Zheng Fa knew that the old man must have spent a lot of effort, and a moved look appeared on his face.

"Don't be so pretentious." The old man said uncomfortably, and continued: "I saw that you value these things very much and seem very anxious."

Zheng Fa was silent. He was indeed a little anxious, not only for the Seventh Young Master, but more because he wanted to use the talisman to escape from the Zhao family.

"Remember, this is just a small path." The old man reminded again.

Zheng Fa took the notebook and bowed seriously to the old man.

"I told you, don't be so hypocritical." The old man waved his hands uncomfortably, and suddenly looked at Zheng Fa and added: "I told you, I didn't want to accept you at first."

"You always said that I wasn't cut out for mathematics."

The old man pointed at the notebook in Zheng Fa's hand and said, "I was actually planning to give this to you later, but since I'm giving it to you today, I have something to tell you."

Zheng Fa rarely saw such a serious expression on the old man's face.

"I don't want to accept you, actually because you are not like her." The old man pointed at Tang Lingwu beside him.

"This little girl is simple-minded, but you are full of thoughts." The old man's eyes fell on Zheng Fa again: "You have two problems. You are too hasty and you are too proud of what you have."

These words were quite serious. Tang Lingwu on the side opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something for Zheng Fa.

"I'm not criticizing this kid. It's normal for him to have complicated thoughts given his background." The old man stopped Tang Lingwu from speaking.

"But this is not a good way to do academic research. I told you last time about the problem of rushing things." The old man continued to talk to Zheng Fa who was silent; "Speaking of cherishing one's own things, I really hope you are really asking me for help for a friend."

"You are a martial artist. In the martial arts world, whoever has the biggest fist is the boss. Everyone hides the secret manuals of magical skills in their hands, wishing that only they could practice them."

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Zheng Fa thought about the customs in the Xuanwei Realm and nodded.

"But academics are different, Zheng Fa, remember that." The white old man stared at Zheng Fa and said, "In academics, our enemies are never other people, but the mysteries of this world and the problems that have not yet been solved."

Zheng Fa began to understand what he meant.

"Why do I want to write a book?" The old man continued, "Because when I was studying mathematics, I read a lot of other people's books. I know that without these books, I would not have achieved what I have today. I am climbing the mountain by stepping on the shoulders of my predecessors. When I get old, I also want to be a shoulder for future generations to step on."

"I understand." Zheng Fa said to the old man.

He knew Old Man Bai's good intentions, but to be honest, at least in the Xuanwei Realm, he couldn't do what Old Man Bai asked, at least not now.

"No, you don't understand. Do you know? In my eyes, we academics are nothing more than a league of losers. The world is vast, science is endless. Maybe tomorrow the truth we believe in will become a fallacy, and maybe humans will never be able to see the truth of the world. It can be said that our failure is inevitable." The white old man shook his head. "So we must accept failure, but we must also stick together. There is a saying that may not be true for other people, but it is true for us - if we want to go far, we have to go together."

"I will keep your words in mind," Zheng Fa said solemnly.

He thought he couldn't do it, but that didn't stop him from thinking that what the old man said was right.

"No, you don't understand." The white old man suddenly showed a mischievous smile: "What I just said is all nonsense. The most important thing is - since we will all fail, we should not be troubled by temporary success or failure."

Zheng Fa suddenly raised his head and looked at the old man: "How did you know that?"

He finally understood why the old man Bai suddenly said these things - after meeting his wife, he felt a little upset, but Zheng Fa thought he was good at hiding his emotions and others could not see it.

Now he realized that whether it was the notebook given to him or these words about losers, the old white man was probably trying to comfort himself indirectly.

The old man curled his lips and pointed behind Zheng Fa: "This little girl told me quietly."

Zheng Fa turned around and saw Tang Lingwu standing behind him, holding a cup of milk tea and handing it to him. There was no expression on her face: "Here you go."

He was silent for a moment, took the milk tea and took a sip, then stared into Tang Lingwu's eyes and said, "It's very sweet."

The old man muttered in the back: "I knew it was troublesome to recruit students. I have to do a lot of ideological work... I didn't even learn martial arts, what a loss!"

"Grandpa Bai... your previous words were a bit one-sided, weren't they?" Tang Lingwu seemed a little confused about what the old man Bai said before: "Isn't the academic world all rosy? I've seen a lot of news about plagiarism."

Both she and Zheng Fa understood that what they said before was not really nonsense.

Even though the old man didn't want to accept them before and doesn't want to accept them now, from his teachings that he took every opportunity to give them, they could understand the old man's expectations of them.

Hearing Tang Lingwu's question, the old man pointed at Zheng Fa with a puzzled expression: "This kid has all these martial arts skills, is he just showing off?"

Zheng Fa translated the old man's words in his mind:

The scientific community is full of decent people.

But if someone doesn't want to be decent, Zheng Fa can help him be decent.

…

When he woke up, he was in the Xuanwei Realm again. Gao Yuan suddenly stared at Zheng Fa and said, "Zheng Fa, why do I feel that you smile a lot more this morning than in the past two days?"

"I was a little unhappy the past two days, but today I decided to do something that would make myself happy." Zheng Fa nodded.

"What's the matter?" Gao Yuan asked curiously.

"You've been studying math for a while now, so I thought we'd give you a surprise test today to celebrate!"

Gao Yuan suddenly turned his head and looked at Zheng Fa.

Seeing Zheng Fa's heartfelt smile, a question mark slowly appeared on his face: "You use the exam to have fun?"

"No, I'm making fun of you." Zheng Fa answered sincerely and impersonally.

(End of this chapter)