Nightfall

On the table near the western window under the starlight was a sheet of paper, two sheets of paper, three sheets of paper…

Chen Pipi looked at the dense small characters in ink on the paper, with wider and wider eyes staring. He could feel his scalp prickling. He wondered about what kind of problem this was, with actually three full sheets of paper, and read them from the beginning subconsciously:

“Haotian shines all over the world, just like the cattleman who loves and is concerned about all the creatures. If you think you’re a bit smart, then try to calculate the number of cattle raised by Haotian.”

“The cattle gather in the Kaiping Market of northern Tang Empire. They’re divided into four groups to pass through the gates heading towards the barbarians’ grassland to graze leisurely. The first group is white as milk. The second group has shiny black skin. The third group is yellow-brown, and the fourth group is colorful. Each group of cattle has bulls as well as cows in unequal amounts.”

“Firstly, I’ll tell you the proportion of the bulls: the number of white cattle is equal to the number of brown cattle plus one third and a half of the number of black cattle. In addition, the number of black cattle is equal to a quarter and one fifth plus all the brown cattle… When the brown bulls and colorful bulls gather together, they form a triangle where no cattle dare break into…”

“Please find out the exact number of different cattle. And please note that I could solve this when I was seven years old.” (Note)

…

…

In the following time, Chen Pipi stared at the dense characters in ink on the paper and began to bite the brush holder. He scratched his head, tugged on his hair, swung his legs around and bit his lips. He took a deep breath of the cold air, licked the tip of the bush and started calculating before giving up. He repeated the actions above and cursed loudly deep into the dark night.

The mountain behind Academy was surrounded by thin fog in the morning. The pavement was surrounded by a few fences, with a faint sound of pecking chicken nearby. Random sounds of reading and questioning could be heard from within Academy where the pavement led to.

The fog gradually disappeared and Chen Pipi went out with an obese body. His eyes were bloodshot after staring at the question all night and the usual tightly tied hair was a mess, like hay tugged on by chicken, which made him look very pathetic. He did not look like he had been reading all night, but more like a poor kid who had been caned by his mother with sticks all night.

He went to the door of the school, listening to the sounds of reading and questioning inside and thinking about his own arrogance in the usual days, and could not help but let loose a look of shame on his fat face. However, the impulse of solving this problem was eventually defeated by the humiliation he might face. Therefore, he made up his mind, pushed the door open and went in to bow to everyone without looking around respectfully.

After a moment, the laughing sounds of shock and ridicule showed up in the study room.

“Is there actually a math question in the world that even our Junior Brother can’t solve?”

“If you, the only genius in this world can’t solve the problem, how can we solve it?”

“Pipi… don’t fool us.”

At this moment, a person appeared in front of the study room’s door. The laughter inside suddenly came to an end and everyone including Chen Pipi quickly stood up to respectfully bow and say, “Hello! Second Brother.”

This man called as Second Brother was very tall, wearing a very ancient crown cap and a suit of ordinary college summer clothes, and was tied with golden silk braided ribbon on the waist. With sword-shape eyebrows and bright eyes, he looked awe-inspiring and was covered with a trace of preciseness and politeness. The whole person standing here was like an unshaken palace.

“Spring is the start of a year. Now it’s still the end of the spring, not the summer yet. You guys have been lazy! Dawn is the start of a day. Now it’s still the beginning of the dawn. You guys have been mischievous! Have you forgotten the rules?!”

Everyone knew that Second Brother always abided by preciseness and rules and was even more nervous when facing him compared to facing the headmaster of Academy and Eldest Brother. Because they had long been accustomed to this cliche, they tended to ignore it and did not mind at all, just smiling and acting dumb as a response.

Chen Pipi could not act numb, so he forced an ugly smile and tidied up his disheveled hair with the fastest speed under Second Brother’s strict eyes. Then he pulled the wrinkled clothes on the body and went forward after a cough, very respectfully handing the sheets of paper in his hands over to Second Brother.

“At the academy entry exam, you scored A+ in six subjects. Is there actually a math question you can’t solve?”

Second Brother frowned slightly and glanced at the three sheets of paper. The words were similar, but were not meant to mock at Chen Pipi, but expressing his doubts. Who gave the question that had stumbled a genius like his Junior Brother?

“Yes?”

After reading the question on the paper quickly, Second Brother frowned and his thin lips tilted upwards. After a long time, he finally uttered a few words. “This… Who raised the bloody question? It’ll take too much trouble and time to solve it. I have to study the ancient rituals. There’s no time for me to do this with you, so do it by yourself.”

After saying that, Second Brother whipped his sleeves around, placed his hands on the golden silk woven ribbon on his waist, and then proudly turned away from the study room and went straight toward the fence surrounded by fog outside the door.

Everyone was silent in the study room and glanced at the back of Second Brother surprisedly, thinking that even the serious and proud Second Brother used this method to avoid solving the question. Thinking of the serious Second Brother in his daily life, some people wanted to laugh but immediately raised their hands to cover their mouths for fear of letting him hear them.

Seeing Second Brother gradually go away, Chen Pipi looked much unhappier with convulsions and even waves on his fat face, and then went to the door with a cry. “Second Brother! You can’t just leave without any suggestions!”

At this point, Second Brother slowly walked towards the stone land outside with rigorous and regular paces, just like an emperor on the stage of a play. Listening to Chen Pipi’s plea, he did not return but raised his hand impatiently to rebuke annoyedly. “As I said, do it yourself. This crazy question’s answer turns out to be a huge number… Don’t talk about Kaiping Market, even the whole Tang Empire can’t contain so many cattle. I’d rather be curious where Haotian ranch is!”

…

…

“Well, I admit that I can’t figure out this crazy problem. But I don’t believe you can solve it, especially when you were seven years old. Unless you immediately tell me the answer, I’ll think you’re cheating. To tell you the truth, if you cheat, there’ll be a very serious consequence in Academy, especially for me and someone who was pissed off today. That’s not a warning to you but a friendly reminder.”

Beside the table near the western window, Ning Que stepped on the chair with his right foot and put his right arm on the window to support his jaw, happily reading that guy’s message with eyebrows that twitched with pleasure from time to time. When he saw the words “pissed off”, he could not help but laugh loudly, which caused the female professor at the eastern window to frown and glance at him.

Ning Que quickly straightened his body and then continued to read that guy’s message.

He did not know who was pissed off at the message, and thought that it was an excuse for that guy to keep the face. If he knew it was the legendary Second Brother from Second Floor that was pissed off and angrily whipped his sleeves around to leave, one would wonder if he would become much happier or be scared out of his wits.

As for that guy’s accusation of cheating, Ning Que simply did not care about it. As a Stockholm patient solution for solving math problems, he was very aware of the pain and anger when one could not find the answer to a question—that guy’s accusation in the message was nothing more than being extremely curious about the answer.

“Do you want to know the answer to this question? That’s simple, tell me the answer to your medicine question and then we tie in this test. If you’re not convinced, we can continue the game later.”

Out of the window were the brilliant final spring and young cicadas crying desperately. Ning Que shook his head and chuckled, rolling his sleeves up to pour in water and grinding ink, and then, he dipped the brush in the ink stone to write the words above on the paper.

…

…

On the second night, the horse carriage left Academy, going through the Vermilion Bird Gate in the south part of Chang’an, and then arrived in Lin 47th Street of Eastern City, stopping in front of Old Brush Pen Shop. Ning Que turned back to thank the carriage driver and walked into the shop.

Sangsang closed the shop and walked out carrying a bowl of leftover hot and sour noodle slice soup from the morning. She put the soup together with chopsticks and towels in the front of Ning Que, and then took out a bowl of vinegar-soaked vegetable heads and a plate of salad from under the table.

After a whole day of studying hard in the Academy, Ning Que had to eat leftovers and small salted vegetables after arriving home. He thought that they should treat themselves better, for they had two thousand taels of silver in hand after all. If it happened in the daily life, perhaps he would directly teach the little handmaiden a lesson. But he was in a good mood today, so he just shook his head and picked up the chopsticks to eat happily, while asking about the shop’s business today.

Sangsang has already eaten them in the afternoon. She sat beside him, with thin folded arms on the table and little black face on her arms. Staring with the willow-shaped eyes, she leaned the head to look at Ning Que’s face. After a long time, she curiously asked, “Young master, are you in a good mood today?”

“Yeah.” Ning Que put a piece of a little black salted vegetable heads into his mouth and crunched on it. He frowned painfully at its sour taste and replied vaguely, “I met a fascinating guy in Academy recently.”

Sangsang laughed happily and lifted up her little face to ask with concern upon hearing that he had met a new friend in Academy. “Is the person your classmate? Male or female?”

Ning Que looked at the little handmaiden’s face and went slightly blank, dipping the chopsticks in the warm hot and sour noodle slice soup. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “I’ve never seen the person, but… probably a man?”

“No, no.”

Thinking of that guy’s obscene metaphor for reading without getting the meanings in the first message, he shook his head and categorically said, “Not probably, that guy is certainly a man, a very poor and wretched man who has suffered losses in the hands of women many times.”

“Poor and wretched…” Sangsang began to think and wrinkled her nose. “They seem to be two different words.”

“Poor experience, wretched temperament.” Ning Que seriously explained.

Sangsang sat up and curiously asked, “Does it mean he’s very ugly?”

“Just as I said, I’ve never seen him.”

Ning Que took out a piece of paper from the body and handed it over to her. “There are several medical herbs and their uses written in the paper. Tomorrow you go to the pharmacy to take medicine, and then come back to deal with them by yourself. Remember not to let the others see it.”

Sangsang received it and frowned. “Why can’t the others see it?”

Ning Que thought of the guy who left the messages for him in the old library and could not help but laugh to say, “If I guess it right, that guy should be the student on Second Floor of the Academy. So this prescription is certainly an exquisite secret recipe from Second Floor. We’ve got this huge benefit from that guy secretly, so we’d better keep it a secret.”

(Note from the author: This problem belongs to the Archimedes question on cattle. Because of its long length, it’s impossible to write it out all, or I’ll write this chapter too easily. Ha, ha. Everyone can search it on Google. What math means for me is like cultivation for Ning Que. There are a lot of acupoints blocked. I just casually used the math question. If there’s any problem, those math learners can treat me like a kind of gas and just let it go. Therefore, it can be considered as a disclaimer for Nightfall.)