Chapter 18: You Are My Great Cause!

Chapter 18: You Are My Great Cause!

This was a true memory genius!

Compared to this, what was he, Fu Baoshi, worth?

Was heaven finally opening its eyes, sending him a genius in his twilight years?!

Immediately, Mr. Baoshi threw all the classic texts aside, pressed Wuque into a chair, and said, “Wuque, right? Sit, sit, sit…”

Wuque nodded, feeling a bit awkward because Mr. Baoshi’s gaze was too fervent.

“Wait a moment, just wait a moment, I, your teacher, will go and select all the classic texts for the Scholarium Grand Examination right now. We’ll start studying immediately.”

Wuque said, “Aren’t you supposed to be correcting the classic texts? That’s the great cause.”

Mr. Baoshi replied, “Bah. Starting today, teaching you the Classics Interpretation is my greatest cause. Don’t rush, don’t rush, Wuque, don’t rush.”

While sorting the texts, he asked, “Wuque, are you hungry? Thirsty? I’ll have the kitchen bring something.”

“You have no idea how accurate my exam predictions are. Let me put it this way, as long as you memorize 150,000 characters, I guarantee you can score eighty points in the Classic Texts Examination.”

Wuque asked, “150,000 characters? Didn’t the Scholarium set a total of eleven books for the Classics Interpretation, amounting to 1.03 million characters?”

Mr. Baoshi said, “There’s only a month left, it’s too tight. And the more characters there are, the difficulty of memorization increases exponentially.”

“Out of the eleven Classics Interpretation books, only 150,000 characters are the essence. Mastering these 150,000 characters will get you eighty points. The remaining 880,000 characters are worth less than twenty points, so the payoff isn’t high. Besides, for that remaining twenty points in every major exam’s Classic Texts Examination, the examiners are just trying to be difficult.”

Then, Mr. Baoshi handed over five books and said, “This is the ‘Essence Collection of the Eleven Classics’ I compiled. It’s 150,000 characters in total, all the essence. If you memorize it, I guarantee you’ll score over eighty points in the Classic Texts Examination.”

“Wuque, the Scholarium Grand Examination has five subjects in total. The Classics, Mathematics, and Policy Essay are mandatory. What will you choose for the remaining two subjects?”

Wuque said, “Alchemy and Martial Arts.”

“You chose Alchemy?” Mr. Baoshi said. “Why on earth did you choose Alchemy? It’s too obscure, too difficult.”

Wuque gave a faint smile and did not explain, after all, he was maintaining a cool, quiet persona.

“Learning five subjects almost from scratch in one month to take the Scholarium Grand Examination? I don’t know if I’m crazy or the world is crazy,” Mr. Baoshi said. “Our Classics subject is the foundation, and rote memorization is the easiest part. So, we can’t spend too much time on the Classic Texts Examination—no more than seven days!”

Then, Mr. Fu Baoshi sighed and said, “Memorizing 150,000 characters in seven days? I can hardly imagine. Just memorize as much as you can.”

Many students spent several whole years just to finish studying the 150,000-character classic texts.

Note, studying them, not memorizing them.

Who could memorize 150,000 characters? Even one-in-ten-thousand geniuses probably couldn’t do it.

The more characters there were, the difficulty of memorization increased geometrically. Someone might memorize several thousand characters in a few hours, but they couldn’t memorize 150,000 characters even in several years.

Take Mr. Fu Baoshi for example. He could indeed recite those 150,000 characters backward and forward, but it took him a full two or three years.

Of course, during those two or three years, he was studying while memorizing, not deliberately trying to memorize.

But he felt that even if he forced himself to rote memorize, he absolutely couldn’t do it in just a few months because there was simply too much content. He had to understand while memorizing to not forget.

…

The study of the Classic Texts Examination officially began.

In the following time, Wuque used A Bing’s skill and devoted himself entirely to reading and memorizing this “Essence Collection of the Eleven Classics.”

These 150,000 characters were extracted from over a million characters of classic texts. One could see how much effort Mr. Baoshi expended to compile this “Essence Collection of the Eleven Classics.” It was absolutely a divine tool for the examination.

During this period, Mr. Fu Baoshi was not idle either. He began reading the “Empire Court Gazette” and the “Scholarium Monthly” from the past two or three years, extracting key information, and then started predicting topics for this year’s grand examination.

He planned to create ten sets of Classic Texts Examination questions in the shortest time. After seven days, no matter how much Wuque had memorized, they would stop rote memorization and begin mock exams.

The questions Mr. Baoshi came up with were quite accurate. The score Wuque got here would basically be the score he would get at the Scholarium Grand Examination a month later.

Mr. Baoshi took Wuque to another room. The environment here was much better, with dozens of lamps lit and expensive incense burning.

The old and the young forgot to eat and sleep. One was flipping through books and memorizing; the other was researching current affairs.

One hour, two hours, three hours…

The two of them were completely focused, as if no one else existed.

Mr. Wen Daozi came by once in the middle. Seeing the old and young working so hard that they didn’t even notice his arrival, his eyes showed approval, but he sighed inwardly: Do your best and leave the rest to fate.

No one dared to hold out hope for the Scholarium Grand Examination a month later.

But by doing their best, no matter how poor the result, they wouldn’t be letting Wuque down.

So, he took his butcher knife and walked toward the pigpen. Looking at the black pig that weighed less than a hundred jin, he felt reluctant.

He had raised this one personally. Killing it before it reached two hundred jin was a pity, let alone when it was less than a hundred jin?

But still, kill it, to nourish everyone.

The pig was pressed down and was about to squeal loudly. Mr. Wen Daozi lightly pressed a certain point on the pig’s meridian with his palm. Immediately, the pig went mute, unable to make a sound, even going limp all over and unable to struggle.

Mr. Wen Daozi thought this seemed a bit inhumane. Couldn’t the pig struggle a little before death?

So, he loosened some of the meridians. The pig began to struggle but still couldn’t cry out to avoid disturbing Wuque and Mr. Fu Baoshi.

Three, two, one.

That’s enough of a gesture!

Grandmaster Wen Daozi stabbed the knife in, killing the pig and draining its blood.

Thus, Wuque and Mr. Baoshi enjoyed a delicious meal of braised pork.

…

The 150,000-character “Essence Collection of the Eleven Classics” was just one book, over three hundred pages.

Wuque discovered that A Bing’s photographic memory skill was terrifying, but it wasn’t godlike.

As the content increased, the efficiency of photographic memory slowed down slightly.

But even so, after just five hours!

Wuque had memorized the entire book, even having a meal in between.

This skill was truly heaven-defying.

Five hours, a whole three-hundred-page book, completely memorized.

He looked up and saw that the sky was already bright.

Mr. Baoshi couldn’t hold on any longer and had slumped to the ground, fast asleep. Wuque took a blanket and covered him with it.

Then, he himself lay down to sleep.

Not long after, Mr. Baoshi woke up and found Wuque sound asleep. He took the blanket from himself and covered Wuque with it, then went back to researching current affairs and looking over past years’ Classic Texts Examination questions.

Thus, the two somehow ended up on opposite schedules.

When Wuque slept, Mr. Baoshi worked. When Mr. Baoshi slept, Wuque was awake.

After waking up and seeing Mr. Baoshi sleeping, Wuque didn’t disturb him. He picked up the “Essence Collection of the Eleven Classics” and began testing his memorization results.

He randomly opened a page, looked at the first line, immediately closed the book, and began reciting silently.

After reciting, he opened the page to check. Sure enough, it was completely accurate. He tested over a dozen pages randomly without a single mistake. He had memorized it all.

Truly amazing!

Since that was the case, why not aim for the highest score?

So, Wuque went and got the complete set of eleven classic texts, totaling 1.03 million characters, and began reading and memorizing.

1.03 million characters and 150,000 characters—the difficulty was indeed not on the same level.

One day passed, two days, three, four, five, six, seven…

If calculated by direct proportion, it should have taken less than four days to memorize everything because Wuque only slept three hours a day.

But it took almost seven days and nights, and Wuque still hadn’t finished memorizing.

Out of 1.03 million characters, he had completed about 95%.

About 50,000 characters remained unmemorized.

…

After seven days!

Mr. Fu Baoshi was ragged and smelly all over, and Wuque was no exception.

Seeing Wuque awake, Mr. Baoshi asked, “How did the memorization go?”

Wuque said, “Still a bit short.”

Mr. Baoshi sighed and said, “It’s fine, don’t be discouraged. Five thousand characters and 150,000 characters are completely different. Not to mention seven days, even if you hadn’t finished in seven months, it would be normal. You don’t need any psychological pressure at all.”

After saying this, he felt his comfort was insufficient and added, “We all saw how hard you worked these days. Even if the final result isn’t successful, you shouldn’t feel regret.”

Wuque didn’t explain and just bowed.

Mr. Baoshi said, “I researched the strategic direction of the Great Xia Empire and the Scholarium over the years, as well as the Classic Texts Examination questions from the past decade. I’ve prepared eight sets of Classic Texts Examination questions for you. The prediction accuracy should still be quite high.”

With that, Mr. Baoshi placed these questions on the table and said, “We scholars still care about a sense of ceremony. Before taking the exam, we should bathe, change clothes, burn incense, and play the zither.”

Next, Wuque and Mr. Baoshi went to bathe, of course in separate places.

Changing into new clothes, Wuque regained his handsome, graceful appearance.

Mr. Fu Baoshi said, “Of your father’s three sons, you look the least like him. You hardly have any features of foreign ethnicity, but upon closer look, you do: a higher nose bridge, deeper-set eyes. Truly good looks.”

Then, Mr. Fu Baoshi continued, “The study of the Classic Texts Examination is over. Let’s begin the mock exam.”

“Wuque, don’t feel pressured. After all, you started from zero and only studied for seven days. I’ll be satisfied if you just score fifty points.”