Chapter 222: Abacus vs. Electronic Watch: Traditional Meets Modern in a Grand Clash

The sunlight had just crept onto the eaves of the Siheyuan, and the children were chasing each other in the Courtyard, their laughter coming in waves. The scene of Zhao Jianguo leaning against the wall munching a baked pancake hadn't faded, and the Courtyard was already buzzing with new excitement.

San Daye brought out a large Eight Immortals table, placed it in the middle, clapped his hands twice and said, "Everyone come over, everyone come over! Today we'll hold a competition!"

He Yushui peeked out from the house, holding a small notebook, and said, "We agreed, this time you won't scare the kids with any 'ancestral Rules Sign' again."

"Not scaring anyone," San Daye hummed, "We'll just compare calculations. Traditional abacus versus modern electronic watch. Whoever is faster wins."

A few children gathered around, eyes bright. A little boy in a blue vest raised his hand: "I brought a calculator! The newest model, it can compute ten decimal places!"

"Alright." San Daye leisurely opened a rosewood box, inside lay an old abacus, its beads polished to a shine. He gently lifted it, set it on the table, and slid his finger along the crossbeam, "Then we'll compare pi to a thousand digits. Whoever finishes first wins."

The children burst into noisy laughter.

"Grandpa, who still does manual calculation nowadays?"

"Exactly, a computer does it in a second."

San Daye said nothing, merely rolled up his sleeves, revealing an old pocket watch on his wrist.

He Yushui began registering the list, reciting while writing: "Twenty participants, divided into two groups; one group uses electronic devices, the other group trains courage with San Daye."

"I'm not a practice partner," San Daye glared at her, "I'm a formal contestant."

"Got it." He Yushui lowered her head to note, "San Daye, competition item: manual overclocked calculation."

Someone laughed out loud.

Before the competition began, Xiao Ming stepped forward. He is the factory manager's son, the Mathematics Class Representative, and won first place in last year's mental arithmetic contest. He pressed every button on his Casio calculator, and the screen glowed blue.

"I'm ready."

San Daye nodded, placed both hands on either side of the abacus, closed his eyes for three seconds, and when he opened them his fingers were already moving.

Pip— pip—

The beads' clicking sounded crisp and decisive.

Xiao Ming was no slower, his fingertips flew over the keypad, and he recited aloud: "3.14159265…"

The others followed suit, the calculators beeping in a chorus.

San Daye fell behind at first. By the time he reached the hundredth digit, three children had already recited the first two hundred digits.

"San Daye is only at ninety!" a little girl shouted.

"The abacus can't keep up!"

San Daye didn't look up, his fingers still moving steadily, muttering a chant under his breath.

"Three down, five divide two, four drop six advance one…"

His speed wasn't fast, but he never stopped.

When Xiao Ming reached the three‑hundredth digit, he suddenly looked up and said, "Why does it feel a bit gloomy?"

The moment his words finished, every light in the Courtyard went out.

"Ouch!"

"My power's gone!"

"My phone's screen is black!"

In the chaos, the calculators all died. The children scrambled, digging in pockets for spare batteries, while the parents stamped their feet anxiously.

Only San Daye sat unmoving.

He kept his eyes closed, his fingers continued to move across the abacus, the sound ticking like drops hitting a stone slab.

"Nine hundred seventy‑three… nine hundred seventy‑four… nine hundred seventy‑five…"

The whole venue fell silent.

Someone whispered, "Can he still remember it?"

"It's not about remembering," an old man beside whispered, "He's truly calculating."

San Daye's lips twitched, his fingers grew faster.

"Nine hundred eighty‑seven… nine hundred eighty‑eight… nine hundred eighty‑nine…"

Wind blew in through the Courtyard Gate, swirling a scrap of paper that drifted to Xiao Ming's feet. The paper held the first five hundred digits of pi he had copied last night, now looking like waste paper.

San Daye's voice did not pause.

"Nine hundred ninety‑six… nine hundred ninety‑seven… nine hundred ninety‑eight…"

Suddenly, the lights snapped on.

Everyone blinked.

San Daye slowly opened his eyes, lifted his hands from the abacus, and said softly, "One thousand digits, done."

No one spoke.

Two seconds later, Xiao Ming was the first to stand up: "You… you calculated the whole thing?"

"Mm."

"But you didn't jot any notes in between? No pauses?"

"The abacus can't hold the numbers, but the human mind can remember."

The children all gathered around. Someone reached out to touch the abacus, then pulled back.

"May I touch it?"

San Daye nodded.

The child gently tapped the rightmost bead; it was icy and smooth.

"It… really faster than a computer?"

"It just ran out of power earlier," San Daye chuckled, "but normally it is indeed faster than me. I just… can't afford a power outage."

He Yushui stood at the side, having forgotten to note it in her notebook, muttering, "So the oldest algorithm can still outrun the newest Crystal."

A bespectacled child nearby heard this, turned and scribbled in his notebook, "I want to learn abacus calculation!"

"I want it too!"

"San Daye, are you taking apprentices?"

San Daye looks at the kids, his eye corner furrowed into a line: "Next Saturday morning, the Courtyard will hold a class. Bring a notebook, bring a pen, don't bring laziness."

"Is there homework?"

"Yes. Practice a hundred addition/subtraction problems each day; if you don't do well, you aren't allowed to play electronic games."

The children actually agreed.

Zhao Jianguo, hearing the commotion outside while inside, pushed open the window and saw a crowd surrounding San Daye.

He was leaning his head down, tweaking the wheelchair's sensor, when a "ding" suddenly rang in his mind.

【Cultural Heritage Transmission +8%】

【Reward: Abacus Holographic Tutorial】

He froze for a moment, looking out the window.

San Daye put the abacus back into its box, wrapped it in a blue Cloth Bundle, his movement light as if bundling a baby.

Zhao Jianguo sat back in the Chair, opened the system interface, and clicked the new reward.

A semi‑transparent abacus floated in the air, hovering over the Desk; the beads automatically bounced, demonstrating the basic operation "3 times 5 equals 15."

He reached out and touched a virtual bead, producing a crisp "crackle."

It was the same sound as San Daye had just made.

The Courtyard's children were still making noise.

"San Daye, calculate it again!"

"This time we'll record it!"

"Recording won't help," San Daye shook his head, "When you're out of power, I can still calculate. If you don't know how, a recording is useless too."

Xiao Ming squatted on the ground, using a twig to draw abacus grids in the brick gaps, muttering, "One time five divided by four, second time five divided by three…"

He Yushui walked over to see what he wrote, laughed, "Only half a day and you're already fascinated?"

"I used to think these things were already obsolete," Xiao Ming looked up, "Now I realize they've always been waiting to be needed."

Zhao Jianguo turned off the Projection, got up, and walked to the window.

San Daye was surrounded by a group of children teaching finger techniques, his left hand resting on the Desk, his right hand gesturing: "Thumb pushes up, index finger down, middle finger handles the middle…"

A child mimicked the motion, and his fingers twisted together, causing everyone to burst into laughter.

San Daye wasn't annoyed; he slowly broke down the motion, teaching sentence by sentence.

"Don't rush. This thing, you won't master it in a day, but you won't lose it even after a year."

Zhao Jianguo watched, and casually picked up the old‑style mechanical watch on the Desk. He had repaired it a few days ago; the Gear Set meshed precisely, and it kept time without any error.

He pressed the crown, and the second hand "click"ed one notch.

A shout suddenly echoed from the Courtyard.

"San Daye! We've thought of a new rule!"

"From now on, if electronic devices break during exams, we'll use the abacus for a make‑up test!"

"Right! Abacus emergency channel!"

San Daye looked up; his face was expressionless, but the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Fine. Then it's settled."

The children clapped and cheered.

Zhao Jianguo placed the watch back on the Desk, was about to close the door, when another sound rang in his mind.

【Detected Expansion of Traditional Culture Application Scenarios】

【Suggestion: Open a Siheyuan Abacus Interest Class, with a matching teaching toolkit】

He glanced out the window; San Daye was teaching a chubby kid how to hold a pen and write, and the child wrote each stroke with extreme seriousness, sweat beading on his forehead.

Zhao Jianguo pulled open the drawer, took out a sheet of white paper, and began drawing a design diagram.

Abacus teaching device, with error‑correction prompts, manual input, and automatic verification.

As the pen tip laid down the first line, Footsteps came from outside the door.

He Yushui walked in, saw him drawing, and asked, "Messing with something new again?"

"Hmm."

"Related to that competition just now?"

Zhao Jianguo looked up: "What do you think, if we gave each child a smart abacus, what would happen?"

"Smart abacus?"

"It can teach mnemonics, correct mistakes, and record practice progress."

"Then aren't you stealing San Daye's job?"

"No," Zhao Jianguo continued drawing, "I'm just making a tool. The teacher still has to be him."

He Yushui leaned against the doorframe, looked at the blueprint for a while, and said, "You, you always think about helping others solve problems. But sometimes, when the problem is solved, the person loses their place."

"So I'm not making a replacement," Zhao Jianguo stopped his pen, "I'm making a backup."

"What does that mean?"

"When electricity's there, use the machine. When electricity's gone, there's still a person."

He Yushui said nothing, stared at the blueprint for a long time.

Outside, the sun was leaning westward, and the children were still practicing the abacus in the Courtyard.

"Three times five divided by two!"

"Four minus six, carry one!"

The chants rose and fell.

San Daye sat on the small stool, listening and listening, then closed his eyes.

The wind blew past the Courtyard, lifting the corner of his clothes.

Zhao Jianguo folded the drawing properly and stuffed it into the drawer.

He stood up, walked to the door, and glanced back at the virtual abacus hovering in midair.

The bead stopped at the 'nine nines return to one' position, motionless.