Making money, taking exams and supporting the family

chapter 48: Questioning

During this period, Lin Ze taught a lot of things, but there were not really many that he did not cover.

Apart from the basic tricks of phonetic recognition and rapid memorization, there was arithmetic involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The former ensures one would not be deceived in reading, while the latter was necessary for accounting in business transactions. After all, using the abacus was a skill in ancient times that ordinary people did not possess.

Being naturally smart and diligent, coupled with his daily practice of business transactions and money calculations, his arithmetic skills progressed faster than his literacy.

Zhang Xiu was able to barely pass all the questions posed by Mrs. Guo before, but the last one was his specialty. He could calculate the answer in minutes.

Because Madam Guo’s questions were actually simple multiplication arithmetic, they were not difficult at all for Zhang Xiu, who had memorized the multiplication tables.

Originally just trying to make up the numbers, Zhang Xiu unexpectedly broke through miraculously.

“No, it’s impossible. How could he calculate the answer so quickly? He must be cheating!”

Even the scholars outside the screen were shocked. The husbands and wives present naturally found it even harder to believe. Some could not believe it and loudly objected.

“Yes, how could he calculate it so quickly without using an abacus…”

“Yes, exactly! Even my husband would need to think about this, but he just calculated it orally. Impossible…”

The one who spoke first was a pretty young woman in a pink silk skirt.

Then, there were a few more voices, one after another. In short, no one believed that Zhang Xiu was so capable, but the voices were overlapping, making it hard to tell who exactly said what.

Although arithmetic was important in the imperial examinations, these husbands and wives were not taking the exam, so their husbands basically only taught them simple arithmetic and did not emphasize it too much, as it was not necessary.

Therefore, only a few wives, who had received a better education from their families, could calculate it, but because they had not focused on it, their speed naturally could not compare to Zhang Xiu’s daily practice.

She could not even beat a young man from the countryside? The young woman in the pink silk skirt who spoke first was particularly unconvinced.

Coupled with being spoiled at home, she rashly led the dissenting voice.

“…”

Zhang Xiu was not guilty, so he stood calmly in place, completely ignoring the words around him.

Actually, he could understand everyone’s doubts about him. In fact, he was also quite confused himself. He just felt that since he was here, he might as well answer the questions seriously, even if he was just making up the numbers.

Who knew Mrs. Guo would be so supportive and ask questions he knew the answers to? He had been worried about embarrassing himself by not being able to recite poetry…

He had thought he was competing with kings, but it turned out that they were all about the same as him, just useless trash (^ω^).

TL note
Moreover, this was someone else’s residence. No matter how much noise they made, the host’s mind was already made up. It was not like in the village where they competed to see who could shout the loudest. On the other side of the screen were a group of scholars, and making a fuss would only disgrace their husbands and wives, making them seem ignorant.