The staff then spoke with Grand Secretary Lin in detail.
Grand Secretary Lin was also quite interested, and after listening attentively, he began to enthusiastically pose questions.
As expected of a former top scholar, he was also quite skilled in mathematics and quickly posed a question as a warm-up.
After mastering the technique, he began to create a rather difficult Sudoku puzzle.
The official from the Ministry of Revenue was clearly putting on a good show; he chewed on his pen and pondered deeply before daring to put pen to paper.
The aide looked on with smug satisfaction and slowly began to solve the problem.
Suddenly, out of the blue, the official from the Ministry of Revenue threw down his pen and exclaimed, "That's it!"
The staff member was shocked, "What?!"
He quickened his men's pace, but they couldn't keep up with the speed of the Ministry of Revenue officials.
Grand Secretary Lin stepped forward to compare the answers, and both sides answered correctly, but it was clear that the Southern Vietnamese were a step behind.
Tazashi protested, "Best of three! I forgot we agreed on best of three!"
Seeing the confident expressions on the faces of the Ministry of Revenue officials, Grand Secretary Lin gave his approval.
So he started setting another question, this one more difficult than the previous one, with even fewer numbers.
Everyone watched nervously.
This time, the staff dared not underestimate the enemy again and quickly wrote down their plan, winning by a narrow margin of two numbers.
Then, Tazara walked in wearing a glamorous and sparkly outfit, once again attracting everyone's attention.
She walked to her seat and sat down, continuing to watch the Sudoku competition unfold.
This was the final round, and Prime Minister Lin had specially set an extremely difficult question.
The official from the Ministry of Revenue lost the second round and was clearly a little nervous, frequently glancing at his staff's movements.
Emperor Shunqing also straightened up, watching the contest between the two with some nervousness.
The aide suddenly threw down his pen, laughed out loud, and bowed to the Ministry of Revenue officials and Chief Minister Lin, saying, "You flatter me, sir."
The official from the Ministry of Revenue finally finished filling in the last number, put down his pen, his face flushed, and said with great shame, "It's because my skills are inferior..."
Ye Ning stepped forward and kicked the official in the buttocks. "You useless piece of trash! You had the nerve to say you played with this thing seven years ago?!"
The crowd gasped in astonishment, "What? They did this seven years ago?"
The official bowed to Su Youran and Madam Su, his face flushed, and said, "This student is ashamed and has failed the teachings of Yiren and the County Princess."
Everyone stared at the Su mother and daughter in disbelief.
Su Youran did not get up, but smiled slightly, "It must be because you haven't practiced for years, so you've become rusty. It shows that all skills in the world are mastered through practice, and lost through neglect. I hope you can learn from this lesson today. For any skill, you must practice diligently."
The official bowed again, saying, "Thank you for your instruction, Magistrate."
Emperor Shunqing asked, puzzled, "What's going on?"
Ye Ning said with exasperation, "Your Majesty, do you remember that seven years ago, Su Yiren and the little county princess competed in an accounting contest with the officials in the Ministry of Revenue? The little county princess, at the tender age of five, won decisively and was subsequently ordered to teach the Ministry of Revenue numerology and new accounting methods. It was at that time that the little county princess taught them this Sudoku game."
Everyone sighed in dismay.
Tazashi exclaimed in disbelief, “Impossible! This method is a puzzle that my people have spent more than ten years figuring out. How could you have known it seven years ago?”
Ye Ning was too lazy to argue with him and only glanced at him indifferently.
The aide stroked his beard and chuckled, "So what if they knew it seven years ago? They still lost to me, didn't they?"
Tazashi then laughed heartily, "That's right! We won!"
At this moment, Prime Minister Lin suddenly said, "No, you haven't won. This gentleman from Nanyue filled in a number incorrectly on his answer sheet."
The aide's expression hardened. "Impossible!"
"Please take a look, everyone." Prime Minister Lin displayed his answer sheet to everyone. "The rule of this riddle is that there are only numbers one to nine in both the horizontal and vertical rows, but in this third row, there are two sixes."
Those nearby craned their necks to look and exclaimed, "Just as I suspected!"
The advisor took a closer look and, sure enough, it was so. He was furious. "You deliberately said you knew this riddle seven years ago, but it was just a smokescreen so you could change the number when we weren't looking! The number is clearly one, but you've changed it to six!"
"Nonsense! Chief Minister Lin is a man of high moral character and prestige; how could he commit such a despicable act?"
Prime Minister Lin's face was gloomy.
He would never do such a thing, nor would he bother arguing with him.
Because they used simplified Chinese characters to fill in the numbers faster, it was indeed too easy to add or modify them.
Su Youran smiled and said, "Since neither you nor the eldest prince believe that we could play this Sudoku game seven years ago, why don't I give you a puzzle and you try to solve it? This time, please use capitalized numbers for accounting."
It's a pity that the people of southern Vietnam didn't understand Arabic numerals, otherwise they could have easily filled it in.
The aide replied arrogantly, "Princess, please pose your question!"
Su Youran smiled slightly and secretly summoned her notebook, "Give me the most difficult Sudoku puzzle in the world."
A moment later, a question popped into her mind.
So Su Youran copied the question onto a piece of paper.
The aide picked up the paper with an arrogant expression, then froze.
The official from the Ministry of Revenue also picked up the paper and was stunned.
There are only a dozen or so numbers in the eighty-one squares.
The questions that Prime Minister Lin had previously set included at least twenty or so numbers, and some even had more than thirty.
Both of them filled in a few numbers with some difficulty, and then they were at a loss for what to do next.
Suddenly, the advisor challenged Su Youran, "I'm afraid the county princess is unaware of the rules for setting the question. These numbers alone are simply not enough to solve it!"
Su Youran smiled. "What? You clearly filled in the wrong number just now, but you insisted that someone else changed your answer. Now that you can't solve it, you're saying that I, the county princess, made a mistake?"
She stood up and had the same questions that had just been copied distributed to several other eager officials in the Ministry of Revenue.
They had also been taught by the county magistrate, but they were just a step too slow and missed the chance to compete.
Seeing that neither of the two players could fill in the blanks, he felt that his opportunity had come and raised his hand to signal to the county magistrate.
Su Youran selected three people to go on stage and distributed the same answer sheets to them.
The three then began to answer, racking their brains for a solution.
Tazashi sneered, "You set the questions yourself, so you've probably practiced them before, and you might already know the answers."
Su Youran asked, "Didn't you also use your own questions to compete with us before? How come it's okay for you to set questions, but not for us? How about this, since you think my questions are unfair, why don't you set a question that you think is the most difficult, and we'll solve it?
The advisor immediately agreed and called over a few of his colleagues to come up with questions. While they were studying the questions Su Youran had set, he also set his own questions.
A moment later, the aide brought out a piece of paper.
Su Youran glanced at it twice and then gestured for it to be handed over to any of the Ministry of Revenue officials present.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com