Cultivation: I Have Studied Abroad in the Modern World-Chapter 22 - Generosity

Mathematics won't deceive you, but it will insult you.

Mr. Bai rambled on, and Zheng Fa felt like every word was hammering on his skull.

"Now do you understand?"

He heard Mr. Bai ask him, lifting his head to give back a baffled expression.

"And you?"

The old man asked Tang Lingwu, who was standing beside.

"Sort of," Tang Lingwu said softly. "It's not that hard, is it?"

Mr. Bai nodded his head at Tang Lingwu, then glanced at Zheng Fa and sighed deeply.

Zheng Fa: ... You two didn't target me specifically, but I feel like you both cursed quite nastily.

"I will explain it once more, Mr. Zheng, please listen carefully this time."

Mr. Bai didn't give up, picked up the pen, and wished he could break it into pieces to feed them into Zheng Fa's mouth.

Then he made Zheng Fa understand that without giving your all, you wouldn't know how truly inadequate you are.

Tang Lingwu was now casually yawning from boredom, and Zheng Fa still had a confused face, only half-understanding it.

"I have never taught such a foolish student!"

Mr. Bai threw the pen in his hand and angrily said.

Zheng Fa also felt a bit dismayed, then heard Tang Lingwu quietly say:

"Mr. Bai used to be a professor at Beijing University, it's normal you can't match up."

Zheng actually felt consoled by this, as Beijing University was the top university in the country, a notch higher than his dream school, Jiangnan University.

Zheng knew himself well—though diligent, he was no genius.

But the old man was getting more and more anxious, with nothing but disdain in his mouth.

"Stupid!"

"Dense-headed!"

"Are all students from Qingshui Middle School like you? I think your teachers are paid for their mental anguish!"

Zheng's mindset was stable, but it was clear the old man had run out of patience.

Constantly muttering curses towards Zheng.

Even in the middle of teaching, he stormed off in a huff to the balcony to smoke.

Zheng wasn't phased, but he was 'taught' to be phased.

"Are you okay?" Tang Lingwu, after hearing the old man's comments about Zheng, now looked at Zheng's expression filled with sympathy. "What Mr. Bai just said was a bit too much."

"He's used to teaching geniuses, teaching me is like a trial for him," Zheng said, indicating his mindset was still steady.

This criticism, compared to the crude jokes in Zhuangzi, was somewhat more elegant.

"That's true..." Tang Lingwu nodded. "I've heard him say before that he doesn't understand how those who scored full marks in the college entrance math exam dare to apply for the math department at Beijing University."

"?"

"Because true geniuses mostly get there through competitions."

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Tang Lingwu explained, and Zheng understood deeply how he, barely able to score above 130 in math, was seen as utterly uncarvable wood in Mr. Bai's eyes.

"But he still went too far."

"It's okay, being strict with me is a good thing!" Zheng comforted Tang Lingwu in return.

The girl looked at him admiringly, somewhat impressed: "I find that you are quite magnanimous. I couldn't have tolerated it!"

...

"That's enough, you won't be able to learn the rest any time soon, let me explain these few diagrams clearly!" Old Man Bai finally gave up: "These diagrams are actually just two patterns."

"Some parts might be incomplete." He added a few strokes to the diagrams and drew two simpler patterns on the paper: "These diagrams are transformations of these two simplest patterns."

Zheng Fa looked at the two patterns and memorized them.

"Teaching you for thirty minutes, I've aged three years!" Old Man Bai was still complaining, clearly regretting and seemingly ready to give up.

"How about I teach you?"

"Hmm?"

"An unspoken secret, an ultimate technique from the master." Zheng Fa smiled purely.

"Come on!" The old man immediately got excited and took Zheng Fa to an empty room.

"Follow my lead!"

Zheng Fa was seriously teaching, demonstrating the Songhe Stance for Old Man Bai while Tang Lingwu curiously watched from the side, paying them no heed.

The old man twisted his body and struck a twisted pose.

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

"What are you doing!"

"Your head's in the wrong position!" Zheng Fa said sternly.

"Oh."

Old Man Bai obediently straightened his head.

"Smack!" "Pull your arms back!"

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

"Smack!" "Stabilize your legs!"

The continuous smacking sounds made Tang Lingwu, who was standing nearby, wince in sympathy, grimacing along with Old Man Bai.

"Legs forward!"

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

Old Man Bai cried out in misery.

Then, Zheng Fa spoke with a tone of tough love:

"Clumsy!"

"Didn't lubricate your body?"

"Your previous master must have been so frustrated with you that he gave up teaching and turned himself in!"

Tang Lingwu gave Zheng Fa a deep look from the side.

In her heart, she sincerely bowed and apologized to the word 'tolerance'.

Only when Old Man Bai could no longer withstand standing in the stance for ten minutes did Zheng Fa finally let him off.

According to Mr. Xu's opinion, the old man's talent was indeed not good, merely below average.

Plus, being old and stiff in the bones.

His pace in learning the Songhe Stance was at best a tenth of Zheng Fa's.

Old Man Bai pinched his sore arms and hopped on the spot: "Don't say, I feel quite a bit lighter."

Zheng Fa was sure that with the old man's aptitude, the little progress made was likely just a psychological effect.

"Then we'll be taking our leave now."

Zheng Fa wanted to sneak away.

"Wait!" Old Man Bai blocked the doorway: "Had fun scolding? Think you can just run off?"

"..."

"Stay and learn for another half hour!"

The old man grabbed Zheng Fa, even pulling out a reference book from the study room that they used during lesson time and began to torment Zheng Fa.

By the time Zheng Fa and Tang Lingwu left, it was already around 10 PM.

"Did you do it on purpose?" In the hallway, Tang Lingwu blinked and asked Zheng Fa: "Deliberately provoking Mr. Bai to give you another lecture?"

"No, he did it on purpose." Carrying his backpack, Zheng Fa glanced back at her: "This old man, he's eager for someone to teach him."

He didn't miss the fleeting moment of loneliness on Old Man Bai's face as they said goodbye.

...

When he woke up next, he was back at Zhao Mansion.

Gao Yuan on the other bed was sprawled in disarray, several papers scattered around his pillow.

Zheng Fa was already sick of the patterns drawn on them.

After cramming over the weekend at Old Man Bai's house, although math was still challenging, Zheng Fa had figured out those few diagrams.

At least, he remembered how to understand their principles in terms of math.

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

"Get up quickly, Mr. Xu is waiting for us."

Zheng Fa urged him, as Mr. Xu, after handing over the Songhe Stance to them, had become a hands-off shopkeeper. Yesterday, or more precisely, the day before Zheng Fa traveled back to the present day.

He suddenly mentioned wanting to see how well the two had practiced over these few days.