"Ah Qing, you did a wonderful job!"
Xie Yuan was generous with his praise.
In fact, Nanling lived up to Xie Yuan's high praise—
This timid and self-conscious young girl turned out to be a patient and meticulous math genius.
That's right!
He's a genius!
She has a very good sense of numbers and can calculate very quickly.
Even using the most primitive counting rods, she can quickly perform addition and subtraction of tens, hundreds, and even thousands of digits.
The counting rods are small wooden sticks of varying lengths and sizes.
The material can be wood, gold, silver, jade, etc.
Princess Nanling used copper counting rods, which were uniformly made by the Imperial Workshop.
Small wooden sticks, whether placed horizontally or vertically, can be used for counting, addition, and subtraction.
Even Xie Yuan, a person who had transmigrated from the future, was somewhat amazed when he saw such an ancient artifact.
Is this how you make a number?
She was once again amazed and in awe of the wisdom of her ancestors!
Xie Yuan admired Nanling, a mathematical prodigy who was skilled in using counting rods.
Nanling blushed, but her eyes sparkled. "No! I... I just like fiddling with these things!"
Having a domineering mother means that the mother makes all the decisions.
Furthermore, her childhood experience of living under someone else's roof meant she had no close family, no close friends, and no trustworthy servants.
She rarely participated in the social activities of young noblewomen in the capital, such as playing backgammon, polo, horse racing, incense burning, flower arranging, tea brewing, and other entertainments, due to her excessive inferiority complex and shyness.
When she was alone, she liked to fiddle with those counting rods.
It was as if numbers were her best friends.
But now, in the world of Nanling, there is one more Empress Xie!
Empress Xie would not despise her for being weak, nor would she think she was useless!
As long as he achieves even the slightest success, Empress Xie will shower him with praise.
At first, Nanling was shocked: I, I didn't do anything, I just calculated the accounts that the Empress gave me in the shortest amount of time.
She praised me as if I were an unparalleled genius.
A talented woman is not like her at all.
Instead, one should be like Empress Xie, proficient in poetry and prose, knowledgeable in the Six Arts of a Gentleman, and possessing many strange and unusual skills.
Nanling was used to feeling inferior, and even when Xie Yuan praised her, she instinctively denied herself.
Xie Yuan: ...Being able to do math is already pretty impressive, isn't it?
Mathematics is something that relies purely on talent.
If you know it, you know it; if you don't, you don't!
When pushed to the limit, even math problems you don't know how to solve will become impossible!
Xie Yuan is a liberal arts student, and her worst subject is math.
Now, in this fictional ancient dynasty, she has actually encountered a mathematical genius, and she even has the urge to worship the great god!
"If you like it, that's good!"
Seeing that Nanling's face was blushing from his praise, Xie Yuan decided not to continue praising her.
She glanced at the counting rods in Nanling's hand and suddenly felt that someone as skilled in arithmetic as Nanling should have more suitable tools.
"abacus?"
Nanling followed Xie Yuan like a little tail.
She witnessed firsthand the artisans from the Imperial Workshops being summoned by her, who were both explaining and drawing diagrams.
After listening for a while, Nanling finally understood that Empress Xie wanted to make something called an "abacus"!
"Yes! It's an abacus! It's much more convenient than counting rods!"
Although Xie Yuan wasn't very good at math, his parents forced him to attend extracurricular classes when he was young.
For example, calligraphy, and mental arithmetic!
Therefore, Xie Yuan understood the ingenuity of the abacus.
This is definitely another great invention of our ancestors. With just an abacus, not only can addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division be performed, but square roots can also be extracted!
There's nothing an abacus master can't do, only things that ordinary people can't imagine!
Xie Yuan drew out the abacus diagram according to his memory, and then carefully instructed the craftsmen to first make a wooden one.
The craftsmen in the Imperial Workshop were basically the best in the country.
It's just a matter of making a wooden frame, polishing some bamboo skewers, and carving out some round beads.
Let alone the most basic style, Xie Yuan wanted to carve patterns on the beads, and he could arrange everything clearly in the workshop.
In less than a day, a perfectly fitted and finely crafted abacus was presented to Xie Yuan.
Xie Yuan carefully explained how to use the abacus to Nanling and even taught her the formulas for abacus calculation.
"One up, one down; two up, two down;"
"One down, five minus four; two down, five minus three;"
"Six up, one down, five forward, one up...nine back, one back, five down, four down..."
Xie Yuan recited the mantra while demonstrating by manipulating the abacus beads.
Nanling stared intently, muttering to himself, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly.
"Your Majesty, I... I'll give it a try!"
After spending a few days with Xie Yuan, Nanling was finally able to communicate with her normally.
In other words, if they have a thought in their mind, they will say it.
This was also Xie Yuan's constant encouragement and patient guidance, which led to the gradual change in Nanling.
Of course, it would be even better if her voice were a little louder and she could look at the person while speaking!
However, Xie Yuan felt it was already quite remarkable that a girl who was insecure and timid could make such an improvement in just a few days.
We can't be too hasty; we must take it slowly!
"Okay! You give it a try!"
Xie Yuan stopped what he was doing and placed the abacus in front of Nanling.
"One up, one down; two up, two down... eight down, eight down; nine down, nine down!"
Nanling slowly typed out all the simple addition and subtraction problems, with and without carrying.
At first, she moved the abacus beads very slowly.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
