Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 16 Don’t you know the difficulties and obstacles in the world?

In the small bamboo forest, the children's voices fell silent for a moment.

A moment later, another handful of bamboo strips floated over.

Chen Xu raised his hand to take it, and again made a light stroke, but this time he counted that there were only ten bamboo pieces in the handful.

"That's not enough," Chen Xu said. "Please give me some more bamboo strips."

The child fell silent again, and then a hint of emotion appeared in the clear and solemn voice: "One bamboo stick represents the answer to a question. Are you sure you want more bamboo sticks?"

Chen Xu said: "Why not?"

"Humph!"

Above the fog, a soft humming sound exploded the mist.

The next moment, a handful of bamboo strips fell down like a sudden rain.

Chen Xu immediately raised his hands and grabbed them, and the flutter of his sleeves created a series of wind sounds, and then he caught all the bamboo pieces in his hands.

"Please be aware, students, that if you cannot fill all the bamboo slips you leave, points will be deducted for the blank ones."

A clear child's voice in the mist had a faint hint of laughter:

"One point is awarded for each correct answer, one point is deducted for each incorrect answer, and one point is also deducted if a blank bamboo slip is left. This is the teacher's teaching: in all things, we must be moderate and avoid greed.

If you lose points because of your greed, you will have to bear the consequences yourself. Do you understand?"

Chen Xu immediately grasped all the bamboo pieces in his palm, then clasped his fists and bowed towards the depths of the bamboo forest, saying, "Teacher, I appreciate your words. I am grateful for your guidance."

"Hmph!" The child's voice hummed softly again, and this time it disappeared without saying anything else.

Chen Xu found that he had a bamboo slip in his hand but no pen or ink. He was not in a hurry, but walked in the bamboo forest for a while holding the bamboo slip.

He walked slowly, observing his surroundings as he went. After a moment, he felt some gravel under his feet that seemed to hurt him.

Chen Xu immediately had an idea and hurriedly bent down to look around.

Soon he found a small stone with slightly thin edges on the ground.

Chen Xu picked up the stone and found another slightly larger stone, and put the two stones together to polish each other.

In a short while, he had polished the slightly thinner edge of the stone into a sharp edge.

Chen Xu used this sharp blade as a knife and began to carve words on bamboo slips.

He wrote down the first question he had written down first. He briefly wrote down the question in concise language and then answered:
"According to the previous question, the hypotenuse is three steps and the leg is four steps. Multiply them and take the square root, and you get the chord five steps. The area of ​​the field is already known. The hypotenuse is three steps and the leg is four steps. Divide it by half and you get six steps..."

Then he answered the second question: "Warehouse A received 350 hu, but actually collected 346 hu and 5 dou; Warehouse B received 250 hu, but actually collected 248 hu and 7 dou and 5 liters..."

So eloquent, one after another.

Soon he answered all nine questions in a row.

During the process, the sharp edge of the stone became blunt, but Chen Xu was not in a hurry. He just polished the stone again and started engraving the words after it was sharp.

Just when he finished the ninth question and the stone became dull again and needed to be polished again, Chen Xu suddenly heard a heavy voice in his ears.

The voice sighed heavily and said, "Scholar, you've been answering questions like this for half a day, but most of your time has been spent grinding the stone. Don't you think it's a waste?"

what sound?
Chen Xu subconsciously turned his head and saw an old monkey with huge ears, bulging eyes, and sparse hair all over its body that looked like broken needles standing up.

The first time Chen Xu saw this old monkey, one thought popped into his mind: ugly!
And it's more than just ugly. It's downright hideous. So ugly that upon closer inspection, it's cruel.

It's not cruel to it, but cruel to the viewer.

Chen Xu's first reaction was to turn his head away, but for some reason, although he clearly wanted to look away, his eyes seemed to have their own set of instructions and refused to move away.

Chen Xu's ears were buzzing and his mind seemed to be in a trance for a moment.

At this moment, he completely forgot who he was and why he was here.

He only knew to answer the ugly monkey's words seriously: "Sharpening the knife does not delay the chopping of wood. If I don't sharpen the stone, how can I answer the question?"

The ugly monkey tilted his head and said in a heavy, strange voice, "But young man, do you know the scholars who came here with you to answer the questions? They all came from wealthy families and carried swords. Even if they didn't carry swords, they would have brought daggers. They didn't need grinding stones like you do."

The heavy sound was like the sound of a drum, and each beat resounded heavily in Chen Xu's heart.

Obviously, Chen Xu was just listening to an ugly monkey talking, but now he felt as if he was listening to an echo from the years and the world.

Chen Xu's heart was pounding. He muttered, "They brought their swords and their daggers. I have neither. Is it right for me to sharpen a stone?"

"There's nothing wrong with you sharpening a stone, but scholar, how long will it take you to sharpen the stone until it can catch up to the light strokes of someone's sword or dagger?"

These words touched Chen Xu's heart, and he was stunned for a moment.

After a moment, Chen Xu asked, "Then why do I have to compete with them in terms of time and priority?"

The monkey is stagnant.

Chen Xu smiled and said, "Even if they have swords and daggers and can easily carve words without the need for grinding, can they answer as many questions as I can?"

As he spoke, he picked up another piece of bamboo and continued to carve it with great enthusiasm.

He quickly carved out the tenth question and solved it.

Then comes question 11, question 12, question 13...

When it came to the fifteenth question, Chen Xu polished the stone again.

This time he heard the ugly monkey beside him say quietly, "Scholar, among those wearing swords and daggers, some have already answered twenty questions. Aren't you anxious?"

Chen Xu said, "If I were so anxious that I put down the grindstone, that would be really bad."

As he continued to grind the stone, he heard a crisp sound, "Crack!"

It turned out that the stone had been ground too many times in his hands, and now it cracked in his hands!
Chen Xu was stunned for a moment.

The ugly monkey clapped his hands and laughed: "Young people, young people, after all, are full of youthful vigor. Don't you know that the difficulties and obstacles in the world are more than just millstones?"

Chen Xu put down the broken stone in his hand, frowning and saying, "It's just a broken stone. What's the harm in finding another one?"

After saying this, he gathered up all the bamboo pieces at hand and bent down to search in the bamboo forest again.

He held the bamboo strips in one hand and leaned on a crutch with the other, limping and bending over to look for something on the ground. It can be said that every step was difficult.

The ugly monkey kept chattering in his ear: "Scholar, do you think that if you find a suitable stone, you will definitely find two or three more? Haha, you are too naive.

You must know that even if it is a suitable stone, if you just search blindly like a headless fly, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Finding a piece is luck, but how can luck always be there?"

(End of this chapter)