Chapter 23: Magnanimity

Math doesn't lie, but it can insult people.

After Bai Lao chattered on and on, every word Zheng Fa heard felt like it was knocking against his skull.

"Do you understand now?"

Hearing Bai Lao ask him, he raised his head and gave the old man a confused expression.

"What about you?"

The old man asked Tang Lingwu beside him.

"More or less," Tang Lingwu said softly, "This isn't difficult, is it?"

Bai Lao nodded at Tang Lingwu, glanced again at Zheng Fa, and let out a deep, long sigh.

Zheng Fa:... Even though you two weren't targeting me, I feel like both of your insults were pretty filthy.

"I'll explain it again, Student Zheng, listen carefully this time."

Bai Lao didn't give up either; he picked up his pen again, as if he wanted to break the lesson into tiny pieces and feed them directly into Zheng Fa's mouth.

Then he made Zheng Fa realize that for some things, if you don't go all out, you won't know just how incapable you really are.

Tang Lingwu beside him had already started yawning out of boredom, while Zheng Fa's face remained blank with confusion, able to claim only half-understanding.

"I've never taught a student as stupid as you!"

Bai Lao flung the pen in his hand and said angrily.

Zheng Fa felt a bit depressed too, when he heard Tang Lingwu whisper beside him:

"Bai Lao used to be a professor at Jingcheng University; it's normal that you can't compare."

Zheng Fa was actually comforted; Jingcheng University was the top-tier institution in the country, ranking far above Jiang Nan University, which was Zheng Fa's dream school.

Zheng Fa had self-awareness; at best he could be called diligent, but absolutely not a genius.

But the old man was getting more and more impatient, his words full of disdain.

"Stupid!"

"Your brain won't open up!"

"Are all students at Qingshui Middle School like you? I think the salary your teacher gets is basically compensation for mental anguish!"

Zheng Fa's mindset remained stable, but the old man had clearly exhausted all his patience.

He kept cursing Zheng Fa.

Even halfway through the lesson, he angrily left the two of them and ran to the balcony to smoke.

Zheng Fa didn't break down; the teaching broke him down.

"Are you okay?" Tang Lingwu had been listening to the old man's evaluation of Zheng Fa from the side; now, seeing Zheng Fa's expression, she was full of sympathy: "What Bai Lao just said was a bit excessive."

"He's used to teaching geniuses; teaching me is, for him, a tribulation." Zheng Fa stated that his mindset was very stable.

Compared to the vulgar jokes back at the Zhuangzi, this scolding was actually quite refined.

"That's true..." Tang Lingwu nodded: "I heard him say before that he never understood how people who scored full marks on the college entrance exam math test dared to apply to the math department at Jingcheng University."

"?"

"Because true geniuses mostly get in through competitions."

After Tang Lingwu explained that, Zheng Fa deeply understood once again how, in Bai Lao's eyes, he was a piece of rotten wood that could not be carved, someone whose math scores only occasionally reached one hundred and thirty.

"But his words were too excessive."

"It's fine; being strict with me is a good thing!" Zheng Fa comforted Tang Lingwu instead.

The girl looked at him deeply, somewhat impressed: "I've discovered you're quite magnanimous; if it were me, I couldn't stand it!"

"Alright, you won't learn the rest in the short term; let me explain these few diagrams clearly!" Bai Lao finally gave up: "These few diagrams are actually just two patterns."

"Some parts are probably incomplete." He added a few strokes to the patterns and drew two simpler shapes on the paper: "These diagrams are derived from these two simplest patterns."

Zheng Fa looked at the two shapes and memorized them in his mind.

"Teaching you for thirty minutes costs me three years off my life!" Bai Lao was still complaining, clearly regretting it and showing signs of wanting to back out.

"How about I teach you?"

"Hmm?"

"A secret never passed on, a supreme technique of our sect." Zheng Fa smiled with particular innocence.

"Come, come!" The old man suddenly got excited and led Zheng Fa to an empty room.

"Follow me!"

Zheng Fa truly taught; he assumed the posture of the Pine-Crane Stance to demonstrate for the old man. Tang Lingwu watched curiously from the side, but he ignored her.

The old man twisted his body and assumed the shape of a twisted dough stick.

"Smack!" Zheng Fa slapped the back of the old man's head.

"What are you doing!"

"Your head's position is wrong!" Zheng Fa said with a serious face.

"Oh."

Bai Lao obediently straightened his head.

"Smack! Pull your arms back!"

"Smack! Don't stick your belly out!"

"Smack! Stand your legs steady!"

The constant series of smacks made Tang Lingwu feel the pain from the side, and she grimaced along with Bai Lao.

"Step your legs forward!"

"No, no! My legs are going to break!"

Bai Lao let out a wretched cry.

Then they heard Zheng Fa speak in a tone of exasperation, as if scolding iron that refused to become steel:

"Fool!"

"Didn't you oil your body?"

"That previous master of yours probably got so angry at you he refused to teach you anymore and turned himself in!"

Tang Lingwu glanced deeply at Zheng Fa from the side.

In her heart, she sincerely bowed and apologized to the very concept of magnanimity.

Only when Bai Lao had stood in the stance for ten minutes and could finally bear it no more did Zheng Fa let the old man off.

According to Xu Jiaotou, this old man's talent was indeed poor, at best average-to-low.

Add to that his advanced age and stiff bones.

It would be good enough if he could practice the Loose Crane Stance at one-tenth of Zheng Fa's speed.

Bai Lao rubbed his sore arms and hopped once in place: "Don't say it, I feel much lighter all over."

Zheng Fa was certain that given this old man's aptitude, he could achieve nothing in this short time; it was most likely a psychological effect.

"Then we shall take our leave first."

Zheng Fa wanted to slip away.

"Wait!" Bai Lao blocked the doorway: "Done cursing? Want to run?"

"..."

"Teach me for another half hour!"

The old man dragged Zheng Fa, fetched a reference book from the study that had been used during previous lectures, and began to torment Zheng Fa.

When Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu left, it was already around ten o'clock at night.

"Did you do it on purpose?" In the hallway, Tang Lingwu blinked and asked Zheng Fa: "Did you deliberately provoke Teacher Bai? To make him teach you again?"

"No, he did it on purpose." Zheng Fa, carrying his schoolbag, looked back at her: "This old man would be delighted if someone taught him."

He had not missed the fleeting loneliness on Bai Lao's face when the two parted.

When he woke up again, he was back in the Zhao Manor.

Gao Yuan lay sprawled crookedly on the other bed, with several sheets of paper scattered beside his pillow.

The patterns on them were so familiar to Zheng Fa that he was nearly sick of them.

After an intensive tutoring session at Bai Lao's house over the weekend, although mathematics remained very difficult, Zheng Fa had finally figured out those few diagrams.

At least he had memorized how to understand their patterns mathematically.

"Awake?" Gao Yuan rolled over groggily, looked at the rising Zheng Fa, and rubbed his eyes.

"Get up quickly; Xu Jiaotou is waiting for us."

Zheng Fa urged him. After Xu Jiaotou had handed them the Loose Crane Stance, he had acted like a hands-off manager; yesterday, or rather, the day before Zheng Fa transmigrated to the modern era,

he suddenly said he wanted to see how the two of them had practiced over the past few days.