Chapter 35: A Man of Talent

In chaotic times, do not underestimate anyone who has managed to survive.

The Confucian scholar before them looked a bit foolish, like the bookworm people often spoke of.

But if he were merely a bookworm, how did he survive?

Therefore, County Lieutenant Zhou remained on guard against him, always suspecting that the man's accomplices might be following them from the shadows.

Wen Gu looked at the sky and said to County Lieutenant Zhou, "You all rest for a while."

He then turned around, performed a scholar's salute to the Confucian scholar from the Town, and invited him to sit on a dry rock nearby.

Wen Gu took out a teacup, poured a cup of hot water, and handed it over.

Just a moment ago, when County Lieutenant Zhou and his men entered the Town to scout, Wen Gu had asked Ma to boil a pot of water for everyone to replenish their fluids.

The scholar clutched the rice bag in his hand, hesitated for a moment, then stood up to return the salute awkwardly, took the teacup, and said, "Many thanks!"

Perhaps seeing that Wen Gu also possessed the demeanor of a scholar and appeared easy to talk to, the scholar's tense expression softened considerably after drinking the cup of water to soothe his throat.

Sensing that Wen Gu and his group were indeed not malicious people—he even saw a few children—

The scholar adjusted his mindset and introduced himself.

This man's surname was Cheng, and his name was Cheng Zhi. He had previously studied at the County Academy. News traveled faster at that academy, and upon learning that the world was suddenly descending into chaos, he had hurried home.

His mother and his brother and sister-in-law were still at home.

Wen Gu sat down beside him, sighed, and said, "I was also out on a Study Tour. Hearing rumors from all sides midway and seeing the world falling into chaos, I hurried home... but it was already too late. Brother Cheng is luckier than I."

Hearing Wen Gu's account, Cheng Zhi was filled with emotion. By comparison, he was indeed much luckier; at the very least, his most important family members were by his side.

Wen Gu did not immediately ask about the other man's family affairs, but instead, with a look of confusion, asked Cheng Zhi about the "Song of Righteousness" he had recited against the evil entities.

Cheng Zhi's expression, which had just relaxed, turned awkward again:

"I once saw in a book that it could ward off evil, change one's luck, and gather righteous energy. When I studied at the academy, my academic performance was poor; perhaps I took it out of context..."

Wen Gu thought to himself: This is the drawback of taking in all information directly without filtering it. Unable to distinguish truth from falsehood, following it blindly could lead to a bloody disaster.

Cheng Zhi said shamefully, "Every time the academy held an assessment, I was at the bottom."

Nowadays, the academy did not hold exams frequently, but they did conduct periodic assessments.

Whether it was internal examinations or literary gatherings outside the academy, he was always a peripheral figure. There was no helping it; in terms of academic talent and critical thinking, he was truly a laggard—he lacked that gift.

"I have wasted my family's wealth for nothing!"

Speaking of his sorrows, Cheng Zhi's words were filled with deep guilt, and his eyes turned red.

"When I was young, I studied under a teacher in the Town, and he praised me for having extraordinary talent, calling me a promising scholar..."

That one sentence made his family decide to exhaust their entire fortune to support him.

The teacher in the Town even recommended him for the County Academy.

The County Academy offered great rewards for excellent students, but in all his years of study, he had never received any rewards or commendations, and his assessments were often at the bottom.

He remembered every character in the books he recorded, yet he did not know how to use them.

Not far away, He Da and the others drank water from their Bamboo Tubes, pricking up their ears to listen to the conversation.

He Da even moved two steps closer, turning slightly to face that direction with his ear.

Just as he was eavesdropping, a follower came over and said to He Da:

"He Daqiu, his family's situation is a bit like yours. Both families are supporting a single scholar..."

Before the man could finish, He Da glared at him. He felt this was the worst slander his family had ever received.

"Pah!"

He looked around and lowered his voice, but still unleashed a string of fiery words:

"How is it like mine? Is he even worthy of being compared to my brother?!"

"My brother has always been at the top of his class at the County Academy. When County Magistrate Tan needs students to handle matters, my brother is even recruited as an exception. What is this guy's situation?"

"He's already twenty and hasn't achieved a single thing; even the teachers at the academy don't think highly of him. With a brain like that, his family still tightens their belts to support his studies—it's all the good fortune he's accumulated over several lifetimes!"

This is just a bookworm who reads blindly; his mind is inflexible, yet he stubbornly insists on pursuing this path of fame and rank, without even checking if he has the talent for it!

The follower thought for a moment: "That's true. In our Village, if there were brothers in the family, they would have already fought to split the household."

"Exactly, I don't know how his brother and sister-in-law put up with it."

He Da clearly remembered the scene of the man raising his hand to scatter glutinous rice; his first impression of Cheng Zhi was extremely poor.

Someone from the Yu family was also secretly listening; although they didn't voice their opinion, they agreed with He Da and the others in their hearts.

Studying costs money; even in the County Town, many families with decent conditions were ruined by it. Reading blindly, studying dead books, and stubbornly pursuing this path without talent—it sucks the blood and sweat out of the whole family.

However, since Cheng Zhi and his family had managed to survive until now, they must have other merits.

"I had previously read books related to epidemics and knew a few ways to cope. I knew not to drink raw water or eat raw food, to keep a distance from others, and so on, which helped me avoid the initial catastrophe. My academic talent is mediocre, but my memory is decent," Cheng Zhi said.

Wen Gu thought to himself: Your memory is not just "decent"; the memory level of most people belongs to—

Open the book: "A, B, C, D."

Close the book: "Blah, blah, blah."

However, in this dynasty, literature and education were flourishing, and there were countless scholars whose memories far exceeded the ordinary; some were gifted, while others were trained. Cheng Zhi only had a powerful memory, but his comprehension could not keep up, and he could not handle the various types of questions in the academy assessments, which was why he was always at the bottom.

Facing someone who was not flexible enough, one could not speak too tactfully or cryptically; one had to be direct so the other person could understand.

Wen Gu took out a Charcoal Pencil and a Notebook and asked, "Then how did your family survive while hiding in the Town? Did you store a lot of grain?"

Cheng Zhi said, "That is not the case. At first, we lived in our own home. The big merchants in the Town all ran away, and there were fewer and fewer living people. We could often hear the roars of monsters and the screams of people. We didn't dare go out, hiding in our own home with the doors and windows tightly shut."

"My mother had previously invited a deity statue and burned incense every day at home. The gods protected us, and we survived!"

Xiao Liu, who was eavesdropping not far away, really wanted to ask, "Which deity did your family invite?", but seeing that they were still chatting, he had to hold back and wait to ask clearly later.

Cheng Zhi was already lost in memory and spoke slowly: "Not long after, the weather turned cold, and those monsters moved slowly, so my brother and sister-in-law went out to find some food and firewood."

"Later, it snowed, and those monsters didn't go out much on snowy days. We really had nothing left to eat. I remembered there was a vinegar brewery across the street. Brewing vinegar requires grain and cereals, so perhaps there would be plenty of food."

"The residents there had long since fled, but the things they could take were limited. We found a lot of food there. Their house was built sturdily, and the courtyard walls were high, so my family and I took the opportunity to move in, and we have lived there ever since. Now my mother is weak, my brother has collapsed from exhaustion, and my sister-in-law has to take care of them, so I have taken on the heavy responsibility of going out to find food."

Wen Gu took notes, gently inhaling.

He lowered his eyes, not letting the other person see his gaze.

Vinegar brewing, huh? A good place!

The scent on Cheng Zhi was actually vinegar. Or rather, it was a mixture of vinegar and the various scents from the brewing and fermentation process.

Huh?

Wen Gu asked, "After you hid at the place where they brew vinegar, did you rarely encounter attacks from evil entities?"

Cheng Zhi nodded repeatedly: "Yes! My mother even invited the deity statue over. Although the incense has already burned out, she kowtows every day!"

Wen Gu said bluntly, "Evil entities likely don't like the smell of vinegar, or perhaps certain scents from the vinegar brewing and fermentation process... Wait, before, when you were being hunted by an evil entity, did it attack you on its own initiative?"

Cheng Zhi said, "I encountered it while looking for glutinous rice, so I hit it with a stick."

Wen Gu: "And then?"

Cheng Zhi: "The wooden stick was jarred from my hand, I grabbed the rice bag and escaped, and it kept chasing me from behind."

Wen Gu: "..."

Never mind, let's return to the issue of the Town's layout.

"We are just passing through and want to replenish some supplies here; we won't be staying long. So I would like to ask, what is the general layout of the Town? At the entrance to the Town, are there likely to be supplies left in the inns, taverns, teahouses, or residential houses?"

Cheng Zhi said, "At the beginning of the chaos, most people in the Town left, but for those who stayed, there were still many living people at the time. Many people have already been to those places like inns, taverns, and teahouses."

But Cheng Zhi still told Wen Gu the locations of these shops after entering the Town. The narration was very fluent.

Wen Gu's pen tip paused slightly.

Remembering it so clearly?

Is it an extraordinary memory or is he making it up?

This was not the rough information obtained when asking He Da; this time, Cheng Zhi was narrating in great detail.

Even for the few pieces of reversed information used to deliberately test him, Cheng Zhi pointed them out quickly.

Wen Gu remained calm and composed.

"Then, what about the residential houses?"

"Residential houses..." Cheng Zhi recalled carefully.

"Those with courtyards, preferably where they kept livestock at home," Wen Gu said.

"Oh, not far into the Town, there lives a peddler near the pastry shop. That peddler often carried his cargo rack to various Villages to sell goods, and when he stayed in the Town, he would also set up a stall at his door."

Wen Gu noted it down.

A peddler, a walking general store, a simplified version of a department store.

He asked, "I heard that peddlers also sell medicinal herbs; I wonder if there might be any medicinal herbs left at his house."

"He doesn't sell medicinal herbs. That peddler's variety of goods isn't large, but they are affordable; my mother bought needles, thread, and scissors from him. However, the peddler also left early on. The day I returned to the Town from the County Town, his family was driving a mule cart out of the Town."

Cheng Zhi thought, since the peddler was driving a mule cart the day he left, perhaps a livestock shed had been built in that courtyard, and with the items usually used to display the cargo racks and carrying poles, the space inside the courtyard must certainly be large.

However, Wen Gu's focus was not on this at all.

"Is the peddler's information in the Town so well-informed?" Wen Gu asked.

Cheng Zhi had received the news from the Academy first; there was no shortage of people with status there. Even though Cheng Zhi belonged to the fringe, at that time, all sides were in chaos, and even if they tried to hide it, it wouldn't last long; news spread quickly among the Scholars.

And after receiving the news, Cheng Zhi immediately returned to the Town.

It also takes time for a peddler to pack up his belongings; by the time Cheng Zhi returned to the Town, the peddler happened to be driving away.

Calculating it, the time difference between the two of them receiving the news was not much. This is not the information age.

"What kind of things does he sell, and how many people does he know, for his information to be this well-informed?" Wen Gu asked.

"This... peddlers travel through streets and alleys, they know many people, and their sources of information are broad," Cheng Zhi hesitated.

"He is someone who often goes to Villages to sell goods and has a small variety of items, yet he received the news almost at the same time as you," Wen Gu said.

Cheng Zhi did not know how to respond.

Wen Gu smiled: "It's fine, let's talk about the pastry shop next to the peddler's house; we'll go one by one."

Taverns, teahouses, inns, residential houses, pastry shops...

Asking one by one like this, Cheng Zhi no longer had the time to pay attention to the others around him; at this moment, he was focused on digging answers out of the corners of his memory.

He himself was also thinking about whether he had missed many things, perhaps he could find some for his own use.

At the same time.

The others in the group who were originally secretly eavesdropping and whispering to each other gradually quieted down.

Even He Da, who was full of opinions, was now looking at the two scholars over there as if he were a fool.

Feeling a series of information slapping against their faces, they were in a flurry of confusion, yet they hadn't remembered much.

Clearly, there were no fierce words or evil language over there, yet it made them feel a strange, tense atmosphere.

Wen Gu was also asking questions faster and faster.

The charcoal pencil in his hand was scratching away, never stopping.

And Cheng Zhi, who was constantly answering questions, only felt the pressure increasing, constantly trying hard to recall, searching for corresponding information from his memory.

His brain began to swell.

Sweat seeped from his temples.

His eyes stared blankly, gradually losing focus.

Rumble—

His stomach let out a hungry urge.

Cheng Zhi hadn't eaten anything today until now, having only drunk a little hot water just a moment ago, and with the continuous mental exertion, he was about to collapse.

Only then did Wen Gu stop, gave an apologetic smile, and then took out a small paper package.

Inside was dry grain powder.

"We have processed this twice; it can be eaten directly."

He then had Ma bring over a cup of warm water.

Cheng Zhi could no longer worry about too much, so he thanked them repeatedly and took it.

Wen Gu turned around and raised his hand to beckon Zhou Shan.

"County Lieutenant Zhou!"

Cheng Zhi was startled and nearly choked.

That person holding the blade just now was actually... actually a County Lieutenant!

Wen Gu stood up, tore a sheet of paper from his Notebook, and whispered a few words to Zhou Shan.

Even as composed as Zhou Shan was, he could not help but show surprise and suspicion on his face.

Wen Gu said, "It is getting late; clear out a place to spend the night as soon as possible."

"Understood, I will see to it."

Zhou Shan went to find people to discuss the operation.

Wen Gu turned back, looked at Cheng Zhi, and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, then he forced them back down.

What a talented smart navigator this is!

To put such talent in the wrong position is a waste!

Wen Gu's gaze was clear, upright, and frank.

I will go check out his home later; if there are no issues, then... I will pull him over to be a secretary.

(End of chapter)