Chapter 61: Top Student

Two boys who had never met before just started talking like that. Only then did Jiang Shisan learn that he was in Moyun Temple outside the city, and that his life had been saved by the temple's "High Monk," who had given him gruel.

They didn't talk long before he sank back into a deep sleep.

By the time he woke again it was already dusk. His spirits were much better this time, and his stomach had begun to rumble normally — in those two days under the bridge, he had stopped feeling hunger, only the numbness before death.

Yang Er was still bustling around the room looking after the five sick patients. When he saw Jiang Shisan awake, he went out to get food without a word. This time he brought back a bowl of thick congee with fish broth added. Poor Jiang Shisan wanted to eat the bowl itself. After finishing, he could already slowly sit up and lean against the wall to talk.

That night, one of the patients in the same room didn't make it. Early the next morning, Yang Er brought a new straw mat, helped his newly sworn brother Jiang Shisan change the mat, then wrapped the corpse in the old mat and carried it out.

At noon, Jiang Shisan again received fish-broth-soaked rice to eat.

He could no longer remember the last time he had eaten rice. Without time for sentiment, Jiang Shisan and the few fellow refugees in the room raced each other to shovel everything in their bowls into their stomachs.

Several skin-and-bones men sat leaning against the wall, rubbing their slightly bulging bellies, savoring the taste of the fish and rice, and all broke into foolish grins at the same time.

But the good times didn't last. Before long, several fierce-looking monks with short clubs in their hands strode into the room. The moment Yang Er saw them, he sprang up and went over to report a few words.

Jiang Shisan and the others, all old hands at begging for food, saw this formation and, without anyone teaching them, had already knelt down in unison, babbling "benefactor" and "Great Master" from their mouths.

The monk leading them, a Great Monk with a build like a mountain, looked down at them and smiled with satisfaction. "Not bad, not bad at all. Take them all for Purification."

A moment later, they were led out of the room and all the way to the back of the temple. Below the gable wall was a row of uneven, blue-stone-lined pools. Clear, cold mountain spring water was channeled down from the mountain through thick bamboo pipes. Before they could figure out what was happening, the monks waiting there pressed them into chairs, shaved their heads, then stripped off their clothes and shoved them into the pools.

Under the blazing noon sunlight, Jiang Shisan got himself a refreshing bath. After washing, they were herded into a lower pool next to it. This pool's water was somewhat murky and had a strange smell. After Jiang Shisan splashed around in the pool for a while under shouted orders, he was finally let back onto the bank.

Then he received one moon-white cloth short jacket, one pair of gray cloth trousers, and a pair of straw sandals. The rags he had been wearing before were all confiscated.

After this, each of them also received a medicinal tablet the size of a fingertip. They swallowed it on the spot, which counted as done, and were led back.

At dusk, he received his third meal of the day. This time it was even more abundant — a full bowl of dry rice, topped with shredded fish and vegetables. After eating his fill, Jiang Shisan excitedly grabbed Yang Er and kept pestering him with questions. Yang Er, unable to shake him off, told him the information he had gathered over the past few days.

According to him, everyone in this room had been "fostered" here by meditation masters from South Sea Putuo Mountain. The Great Master of Moyun Temple was recruiting disciples on behalf of fellow Daoists. Once they could recite a few lines of scripture, they would be sent to the temples of Nanhai and formally ordained as monks.

"No wonder we had our heads shaved today. Thank heaven and earth, we're Novice Monks now, right? Ah, I wonder when we'll get our Ordination Certificates." Hearing this, Jiang Shisan rubbed his smooth, bare scalp, savored the fragrance of the coarse rice, and said with an excited face.

"Hard. We still have to study the scriptures. Those who can't learn are all sent to haul dirt." Yang Er replied in a muffled voice. He wasn't as excited as Jiang Shisan. He didn't want to be a monk; he just wanted to go back to Hangzhou and be a carefree thief. But he also knew he couldn't dispel Jiang Shisan's yearning for the wonderful life in the temple, and could only sulk in silence for now.

"Studying scripture is good. A Novice Monk is supposed to study scripture." Jiang Shisan was already immersed in his own happy fantasies and didn't notice Yang Er's gloom at all.

Early the next morning, Jiang Shisan and the others were led into a side hall. Quite a few people were already seated inside, both young and old. The floor was filled with long narrow tables, and on the tables were sandboxes and twigs. There was even a blackboard on a wooden stand in front of the hall.

Not long after, someone at the door announced: "Master Pudu arrives!" Hearing the announcement, everyone hurriedly bowed and stood up. The person who entered was a tall, thin Great Monk draped in a monk's robe. The monk wasted no time after entering and began writing several simplified characters and Arabic numerals on the blackboard. After writing, the monk turned and smiled. "Today we continue studying scripture."

Everyone has their own type of activation method.

Jiang Shisan, this beggar boy from the countryside of Chuzhou, was, in this moment, correctly activated by a transmigrator.

Having never attended a private school and not knowing a single character, he spent just one morning and, using a twig in the sandbox, wrote out from memory the Chinese characters for one through ten, and along the way also wrote out the corresponding Arabic numerals. That wasn't all. That afternoon, he learned five more characters. Then, early the next morning, Jiang Shisan wrote out everything he had learned the previous day from memory in the sandbox.

Having lived to the age of fifteen and endured countless hardships before finally getting the chance to sit down and learn characters, Jiang Shisan discovered that the so-called "scriptures" the Great Master taught were not difficult at all. No matter the character, he only needed to close his eyes and silently recite it in his mind a few times, and it would be engraved in his memory.

Three days. In just three days, the youth's literacy speed, far surpassing his peers, alarmed Master Pudu. After a shocked personal examination, the name Jiang Shisan was changed to "Grade A" on a certain form. The youth would never have imagined, even if beaten to death, that yesterday's starving corpse would today become a sort of "man above men."

He would soon experience the meaning of the phrase "knowledge changes fate."

Jiang Shisan was subsequently assigned to a humble room. Though humble, it was at least a single room. Inside there was a proper bed, and including him, only three people lived there. One was a man past middle age, and the other was a young man in his twenties. He had seen both of these brothers in class; they were also quick at learning characters.

Whatever the reason, in such a harsh and difficult environment, people who could still rapidly learn to read and do arithmetic undoubtedly met certain people's requirements. Jiang Shisan soon discovered that ever since moving into the single room, the meals he received actually had chicken legs and pork slices added to them.

Unlike those passersby who were sent off to labor in less than two days, he now had a fixed seat at the front of the classroom and had received his own dedicated brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Every day he only needed to diligently study language and arithmetic. The "High Monk" who came to teach was always amiable and made time to specially "expound the scriptures" for those few in the front row.