Chapter 57
Cui Zui held back for a while, but finally couldn't help asking Xue Jin'an again: "So how did you do it? Don't tell me it's as simple as having hands. I have hands, but I can't do it. There must be some trick to it."
If we're talking about a secret, and if Xue Jin'an had to summarize it, there really is one: calculation.
Once known information such as distance, gravity, air resistance, target hardness, arrow hardness, and bow weight is processed in the mind, a complex series of calculations are completed in an instant to determine the optimal trajectory and string tension. Errors can be completely eliminated with a maximum of two adjustments. If necessary, other data such as the arrow's initial velocity and acceleration can also be calculated.
Theoretically speaking, once he masters these parameters, he can achieve such terrifyingly accurate hits regardless of the angle or posture.
For code with superhuman computing power, this is an instinct that requires absolutely no thought.
However, when Cui Zui pressed for an answer, Xue Jin'an merely glanced at him without replying. Instead, he mimicked Cui Zui's teasing tone and said, "If I've taught you these things, I should be considered half a teacher to you. Why don't you call me that?"
Cui Zui gave a reaction that Xue Jin'an did not expect. The surprise on his face flashed for a moment, and then turned into ecstasy: "Are you serious? A gentleman's word is as good as his bond, you can't go back on your word!"
As he spoke, he knelt down with a thud.
Cui Zui knelt down swiftly and without hesitation, seemingly without any problem in kneeling before a child ten years his junior. To him, kneeling before anyone was acceptable as long as he could learn skills; otherwise, how could he acquire such abilities?
It's well known that there's an old saying, "Teaching a disciple can starve the master," which is why many skills are passed down through families, and martial arts are no exception. Cui Zui, as the son of a courtesan, was able to master martial arts because of his quick wit in seizing every opportunity and his shameless drive to climb the social ladder.
Cui Zui's sudden kneeling startled Shou Quan, who was carrying a tray to refill tea and water. Shou Quan stammered, "What...what are you doing?"
Cui Zui ignored him, as if afraid that Xue Jin'an would regret it. With lightning speed, he grabbed a cup of tea from the plate and stuffed it into the latter's hand, then shouted from his dantian, "Master, please accept my bow!"
Then he kowtowed three times firmly.
Xue Jin'an clearly said "teacher," but Cui Zui cunningly changed it to "master."
Although there is only a one-word difference between "teacher" and "master," both refer to teachers who impart knowledge, teach skills, and resolve doubts, the degree of intimacy between them is vastly different.
There can be many teachers and masters. From the beginning of enlightenment, anyone who has been involved in imparting knowledge, teaching skills, and resolving doubts can be respectfully called a teacher. The so-called disciples and old friends are mostly the same. However, the word "master" is added to the title of father. A teacher who is a teacher for a day is a father for life. One day when the person dies, one must wear mourning clothes, hold the memorial tablet, and break the basin. It is not a title that can be used by just anyone.
Actually, if it were just for Xue Jin'an's displayed archery skills, Cui Zui wouldn't have kowtowed and called him master so directly. Although the skill was difficult, it wasn't impossible to learn if one really wanted to. What Cui Zui valued more was Xue Jin'an's nonchalant attitude, which meant that his abilities were far more than that.
What's even more chilling is Xue Jin'an's age; his life has only just begun, and his martial arts skills haven't even reached their peak yet.
It's hard for Cui Zui not to be tempted by this.
He used to think that he was determined to enter officialdom through literature and wanted to pursue a life of literary pursuits. But today he realized that when a sufficiently outstanding person appeared in the martial arts world, he absolutely could not let go of this opportunity.
He is inherently attracted to strength.
Cui Zui raised his head, his forehead covered in red marks, and saw Xue Jin'an silently watching him. He quickly smiled, his eyes crinkling and his dimples deepening, revealing a harmless smile. "Master, please have some tea."
Xue Jin'an: "..." I miscalculated. I didn't expect humans to be so flexible and adaptable.
Xue Jin'an eventually drank that cup of tea and accepted this disciple who was more than ten years older than him as payment for learning the "shameless" skill. He also taught Cui Zui the technique of mathematical calculation archery without reservation.
"Wait, wait!" Cui Zui was bombarded with unfamiliar terms like "gravity, acceleration, and wind resistance." Although he had no idea how to calculate them, he at least understood what they were.
Therefore, he was even more shocked, his face blank with a worldview completely shattered. It took him a long time to find his voice, and he swallowed hard before saying, "If what you say is true, then nothing in this world can escape these things. So, if one can master these things, wouldn't that mean—"
"Theoretically speaking, this algorithm is applicable to all fields," Xue Jin'an affirmed his conjecture.
Xue Jin'an used this algorithm to kill Chu Wenwan, and it was very precise in making her die on the spot.
Cui Zui now truly felt that becoming an apprentice was worthwhile; this one skill alone was enough to recoup his investment. He immediately called out "Master" even more enthusiastically and eagerly took out his brush, ink, paper, and inkstone to take notes. "Master, how do you calculate all of this? I want to learn!"
Xue Jin'an rattled off a string of formulas like a machine gun, completely baffled Cui Zui. He had clearly written them down word by word on the paper, but when he looked at them again, he realized he hadn't memorized a single one.
"Master, I didn't understand. Could you please say it again?" Cui Zui asked again with a well-behaved and cute face.
Xue Jin'an looked him up and down with some suspicion: "..." He was supposed to be the future rebel king who dominated the Northwest in the original story. It was a bit strange that he couldn't even do this basic math.
Moreover, these words gave him a sense of déjà vu, as if he were seeing a voice-activated smart assistant.
Teacher X was summoned by his inner voice: I am here.
Teacher Xiao X popped up a message complaining: AI isn't that stupid; this kind of substandard product should be sent back to the factory for repair.
Xue Jin'an thought it made a lot of sense, but then she thought about how in campus novels, human students who didn't attend elite schools seemed to have a lot of homework to do every day, especially in their senior year of high school. The main and supporting characters stopped dating, and the content that was only briefly mentioned was doing test papers or workbooks. Humans even had a special name for this: the "sea of questions" strategy.
Xue Jin'an felt that Cui Zui probably needed a lot of practice questions, so he directly extracted all the relevant questions from the database, slightly changed the numbers and formulas, and created a set of "Five Years of College Entrance Examination and Three Years of Simulation" for him.
In Cui Zui's eyes, it was as if Xue Jin'an had picked up a brush and written a thick stack of paper full of celestial script for him. The characters on it were even more square and rigid than the official script used in the imperial examinations, and the spacing between each character was exactly the same.
"If you do some practice problems to reinforce your understanding, you'll get it later," Xue Jin'an encouraged him.
Cui Zui stared at the heavenly book in silence: "..." Forget about consolidation, Master, I can't even do the first question!
Cui Zui tried to ask his master for help: "Master, which formula do you use for the first question? I can't quite remember..."
Xue Jin'an looked at him with a heavy expression: "You can forget what you just learned?"
“…Okay, Master, I remember now.” Cui Zui, being very pragmatic, pretended that he really remembered, silently took out his class notes and compared them, carefully considering which formula to use.
Xue Jin'an watched him for a long time without writing anything, and finally took a cup of tea from the tray and shoved it into Cui Zui's hands without saying a word.
The latter instinctively accepted it with both hands, his eyes somewhat blank, but he still thanked him, saying, "Thank you, Master."
He wasn't very thirsty and was just about to drink the tea to live up to his master's expectations when he heard his newly apprenticed master say, "From now on, don't say you're my disciple outside, and don't mention my name."
Bodhi Patriarch told Sun Wukong not to mention his name outside because he thought it would cause trouble; Xue Jin'an forbade Cui Zui to mention his name outside because he felt that his disciple was too incompetent and it would be a disgrace to CodeLife if word got out.
Cui Zui met his master's gaze and, for some inexplicable reason, understood the meaning behind his words, pausing in his tea-drinking motion.
Cui Zui tried to retract the tea ceremony that Xue Jin'an had withdrawn: "Master, please demonstrate it once, and I will definitely understand it this time."
"Hmm." Xue Jin'an picked up the brush and quickly completed the first three questions. "Look at the questions to get the following known conditions, then substitute them into the formula, and you'll get the answer. Do you understand?"
Cui Zui: "…………" Do I understand?
Just when Cui Zui was beginning to despair and began to doubt that he was actually not suited for a career in literature, Cui Pengfei finally returned.
"Master, Grandfather, you two can chat for a while. I'm going to do some practice questions over there." To avoid being expelled from the sect on his very first day as an apprentice, Cui Zui quickly grabbed a thick stack of test papers and slipped away.
Hearing him address him, Cui Pengfei was taken aback. Watching Cui Zui flee as if running away, he felt both angry and amused: He was told to seize the opportunity to find a way to enter officialdom and become a disciple of the Seventh Prince. Now look what happened, he seized the opportunity and became a disciple of the Seventh Prince, but not as a staff member, but as an apprentice.
Having lived for so many years and experienced so much, Cui Pengfei has developed a broad-minded attitude towards everything. He doesn't mind that Cui Zui, a grown man, is taking a young boy as his teacher. As the saying goes, "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me." For the Seventh Prince to be willing to become Cui Zui's disciple, he must have some extraordinary qualities.
Cui Zui's bow was a huge blunder for his elders, especially for him. He was originally more than a decade older than the Empress Dowager, and as the youngest and least experienced of the three regents, he was on equal footing with her. Now, decades later, he was almost in his grave, but he was inexplicably two generations younger than her.
Cui Pengfei was both amused and exasperated, but aside from that, he was still pleased that Cui Zui had managed to seize this opportunity to connect with the Seventh Prince.
He instructed the people behind him to place the books they had brought from the library onto the table.
Xuan Shiyi carried the book with his eyes downcast and his mind at ease. This was the closest he had been to the Seventh Prince in recent days, but he felt no excitement, only a head full of questions.
He'd only been gone for an hour or two, but it felt like a whole day and night. How did the Seventh Prince and Cui Zui suddenly become master and disciple? This inexplicable and seemingly fabricated news—how was he supposed to get it to the Emperor?
Xuan Shiyi even wondered if he had been working himself to the bone for days and was hallucinating, which was why he heard such an absurd title. However, Cui Zui had already run out, and the Seventh Prince and Cui Pengfei sat calmly facing each other, remaining very composed. Even when Xuan Shiyi had put the books away and was about to leave, neither of them mentioned Cui Zui at all.
Xuan Shiyi knew he wouldn't get any answers even if he asked others. His current status in Zhaoyang Palace was only slightly higher than Xia Xiazi's. He couldn't even enter the Seventh Prince's bedroom on ordinary days, and the people in Zhaoyang Palace were watching him openly and secretly. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh silently, feeling unusually depressed.
Ever since he returned and found Xiaxia working in the yard, Xuan Shiyi had a bad feeling. He knew that his absence from his room at night must have been discovered. Fulu and Shouquan already had doubts about his identity, let alone now.
Fortunately, Xuan Shiyi had already made two preparations. He informed the emperor immediately that his identity had been exposed. After thinking it over, the emperor still kept him by the side of the Seventh Prince. The reason was that with Lingzhi and Fuling there, it would be difficult to send in other unfamiliar spies. Moreover, the number of people serving the Seventh Prince was already full, and adding more people would exceed the limit.
The emperor could not prevent the seventh prince from overstepping the bounds. In fact, there were more than just one or two princes who overstepped the bounds. Take the second prince for example, what aspect of his food, clothing, and daily necessities did he not exceed the bounds? His residence in the princes' quarters was covered with nine python patterns. While python patterns could be used by everyone from princes to officials, nine was the extreme number. Nine pythons represented the highest level of python patterns and could only be used by princes, dukes, and the crown prince.
The fact that the second prince, who was not even old enough to attend court and participate in government affairs, was allowed to wear a nine-python pattern was bound to be against regulations; it was just that the emperor did not pursue the matter.
The emperor's double standard in not allowing the seventh prince to overstep the bounds is that he intends to suppress him first, so that he can be better tamed and used by him later.
In any case, as long as the Seventh Prince doesn't expose him, Xuan Shiyi will have to pretend to be deaf and dumb and continue acting around him. He can only be sensible and try to keep a low profile so that others won't be disgusted and want to kill him. He can hide for as long as he can. The Emperor also meant the same thing, waiving his daily reports and telling him to lie low and act cautiously.
—Speaking of which, this was also a miscalculation. Xuan Shiyi wanted to keep a low profile and work diligently, so that others could rest assured and not keep too close an eye on him. However, he never expected that he could only do sweeping and cleaning work in Qifeng Courtyard before, and he almost could only do sweeping and cleaning work in Zhaoyang Palace as well. All of this was because of Xia Zi who suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
In order to start anew as soon as possible and to earn his daily meals, Xia Xiazi is now working very hard. He is so hardworking that Xuan Shiyi has to compete with him to show off. In the words of the Seventh Prince, this is the involution of competition.
The two were working too hard together. Xuan Shiyi was used to working the night shift as a spy, so he didn't get enough sleep. As a result, he was visibly depressed during the day because of his busy work schedule, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
This indirectly caused Xuan Shiyi to be a little slow-witted and occasionally make mistakes. For example, he still doesn't know that the last day he saw the emperor was the same day that the fifth prince crawled through a dog hole to see Xue Jin'an.
Xuan Shiyi had informed Commander Wei before leaving Zhaoyang Palace, so much so that the guard whom the Fifth Prince knocked unconscious while trying to leave Zhaoyang Palace was always assumed to have been knocked unconscious by Xuan Shiyi. The squad leader of this Imperial Guard looked at the soldier under his command who had been carried home and lay in bed for two days before returning to duty, and he was still cursing in his heart: Didn't I give him a heads-up? Why did I knock him unconscious? No one was paying attention, why did I have to go to such lengths to put on an act? It's really despicable.
Xuan Shiyi and Commander Wei were completely unaware that they had been framed for the despicable map and the despicable Fifth Prince.
Cui Pengfei laid out all the books and said, "It's getting late today, and Your Highness has just finished fighting, so we won't have a class. Your Highness can choose which subject you prefer, and I will teach that subject tomorrow."
Xue Jin'an picked up the books and opened them one by one. With the high-definition camera on, his eyes quickly scanned the pages. The rustling sound of the pages turning was incessant, creating a scene reminiscent of quantum reading.
Seeing him flipping through the book, Cui Pengfei frowned slightly, but ultimately remained silent.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, Xue Jin'an closed the last book and said very calmly, "I'm done studying."
"You've finished learning that?" Cui Pengfei didn't believe it and casually gave him a test, but Xue Jin'an answered all of them correctly.
Cui Pengfei nearly choked on his tea and couldn't help but ask the same question as his grandson: "Your Highness, have you really never read these books before? How did you manage that?"
Xue Jin'an blinked: "Isn't it something you can do just by having eyes?"
Cui Pengfei: "..."
Even Choi Jae, who has studied for seventy years, is going to become withdrawn.
In the end, Cui Pengfei and his grandson Cui Zui left in a daze.
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