Divine Tang Era

The bookshelves in front of Xu Dan are mostly filled with Confucian classics, histories, philosophical works, and literary collections. These kinds of books are headache-inducing, so it's best not to bother with them.

He replaced the bookshelf with a new one, but the shelves were filled with poems and essays, which were not what he wanted.

He moved to another bookshelf, and the first thing that caught his eye was a book on the shelf called "The Legend of the Azure Lotus Sword Immortal." Throughout history, there has only been one person named "Azure Lotus Sword Immortal," and that is Li Bai, the "banished immortal" who made Yang Guifei pour wine and Gao Lishi remove his boots.

I don't know what kind of legendary story it is.

Xu Dan was curious and reached out to take it, but he was too short to reach it, so he thought of jumping up to get it.

"What are you doing?"

A voice rang out beside him. Turning his head, he saw a cute little girl with her hair in two buns, her cheeks puffed out, hands on her hips, glaring angrily at him. Xu Dan was completely bewildered, having no idea what he had done to upset the little girl.

"Hey, I'm asking you a question!" The little girl got even angrier when he didn't respond.

"Oh, I'm getting a book, didn't you see?" Xu Dan replied.

"Can you read?" the little girl asked proudly, puffing out her chest.

"Of course I know." Xu Dan felt insulted. He was a person who had shrunk, not become stupid.

"Hmph, I don't believe you. You wait and see, don't move."

The little girl turned and ran back into the house, quickly taking out several cards with words written on them. She then adopted a serious, teacher-like demeanor, holding up one of the cards and saying, "You say you can read, so let me test you. What's this word called?"

Xu Dan was speechless. What kind of situation is this?

I've really fallen behind, to the point where I'm being tested by a little girl.

Seeing that the little girl wouldn't give up until she answered, he could only helplessly say, "One."

"Correct answer." The little girl nodded affirmatively, then picked up another card and asked, "And what about this word?"

Xu Dan didn't want to answer, but the little girl seemed interested. "Help!" he cried inwardly, turning to look at the man reading in the corner. This guy, perhaps truly engrossed in his book, didn't move an inch.

"Don't you recognize me anymore!" the little girl said proudly.

"How come I don't recognize it? It's the character '女' (woman)."

"Hmm, not bad, very clever." The little girl changed to another card and asked, "And what about this word?"

"Father, the father of fathers." Xu Dan was extremely helpless. Luckily, he didn't use "mother," otherwise he wouldn't know whether to call her or not.

"Yes, you got it right, great job."

"Thank you for the compliment." Xu Dan thought to himself, secretly scoffing. He realized that the little girl was applying the same teachings her parents had given her to herself.

After the little girl finished speaking, she wanted to change the card again. Xu Dan couldn't let her keep asking questions indefinitely, especially since the cards were written in traditional Chinese characters, while he only knew simplified characters. Although both evolved from ancient Chinese characters, he was used to simplified characters and couldn't recognize some of the traditional ones. If he couldn't answer later, wouldn't he be in trouble?

Therefore, it is essential to seize the initiative.

He quickly replied, "Third time's the charm. I've already answered three of your questions. Now it's my turn to ask."

"Okay, okay, go ahead and ask!" the little girl said happily when she heard someone ask her a question.

"Have you ever seen an elephant?" Xu Dan asked.

"Are you talking about the elephant in the story of Cao Chong Weighing an Elephant? My mother said that you can only find elephants in the far south, we don't have any here." The little girl shook her head.

"Since we've never seen an elephant, let's try a woolly cow. You've seen woolly cows before, haven't you?"

"I've seen it, and I've even eaten it. The meat of woolly cattle isn't good."

Do you have any large cabinets with doors at home that you can use for storage?

"Yes, I have a special closet for my clothes. I have lots and lots of pretty clothes," the little girl boasted.

"That's good. Now, here's my question, please listen carefully." Xu Dan glanced at the little girl who was listening intently to the question and said, "How many steps are involved in putting a woolly cow into a cabinet?"

Upon hearing the question, the little girl tilted her head and thought for a moment, "We don't have a cabinet that big at home."

"Never mind whether we have a cabinet that big. I just want to know, how many steps does it take to put the woolly cow into the cabinet?"

"How can you fit it in a cabinet that big? You've asked the wrong question. You can't even ask a question properly." The little girl put her hands on her hips, clearly doubting Xu Dan's knowledge level.

Xu Dan had never heard such an answer before, and since he couldn't explain it to the little girl, he changed the question. "Okay, let me try another one. Listen carefully. After a male and a female longhaired cow live together for a year, how many longhaired cows are there in total?"

"Both ends." The question wasn't difficult, and the little girl quickly came up with the answer.

"Are you sure?" Xu Dan glanced at her.

"Yes," the little girl nodded firmly.

"Answer...incorrect."

"How could it be wrong? One plus one equals two, it's clearly two ends!" the little girl said indignantly.

"It's obvious you weren't paying attention to the question. I asked, 'If a male and a female Angora cow live together for a year, how many Angora cows are there in total?' If a male and a female Angora cow live together, don't they have offspring? How could one plus one equal two? So your answer is wrong."

"You...you're giving me random questions. There's no such thing as a question like this. It's not even in the textbook. You're talking nonsense, rambling, and spouting gibberish."

Xu Dan had witnessed firsthand the unreasonable and capricious nature of girls. Indeed, whether in ancient or modern times, in big or small matters, girls' way of handling things remained consistent and unchanged.

What could he say to a girl who seemed to have all the world's wisdom around her? He could only make do.

"Okay, then I'll change the topic again. This time it's a riddle, super easy. You can do it, right?"

"Yes, my mother and father both taught me," the girl said proudly.

"Since you know it, then I'll give you a question. The finest needle in the world—guess the Chinese idiom. It's very simple, how about it?"

When the little girl heard the question Xu Dan posed, she tried hard to think, but unfortunately, she didn't know much and her mind was blank. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out the answer. So she looked for help at the man in the corner.

Sensing the girl's helplessness, the man looked up from his book.

Xu Dan looked over and realized that the guy was alive. He had thought it had been reborn.

Seeing Xu Dan staring at him, the man didn't want to give any obvious hints, so he pointed to the gap between the bookshelves. The girl thought for a long time but couldn't figure it out, and got angry, "Your question is wrong, there's no such idiom, neither my parents taught me that."

"This question is very simple. Your father has already pointed it out to you: it's called 'everywhere you look.' See, you still can't answer it!"

"Your questions were too hard! Even my parents never set such difficult questions. Humph, you're no good person!" The little girl angrily turned her head to the side.

Xu Dan ignored her and jumped up to take down the Legend of the Azure Lotus Sword Immortal.

After a moment of anger subsided, the girl turned back and saw him intently flipping through the book. She leaned closer, glanced at it for a while, and asked, "Do you recognize the words in this?"

"I know him." Xu Dan nodded.

The girl was about to ask another question when the man in the corner spoke up, "Luo'er, don't disturb others while they're reading."

Hearing her father's words, the girl stopped asking her question, turned to look at Xu Dan, and said with dissatisfaction, "I'm going to study with my mother, to learn lots and lots of things, and to give you the hardest questions to test you, so you'll know how amazing I am."

Xu Dan was speechless. It seemed like you were the one making things difficult for me from head to toe, so how did it become my fault?

The little girl ignored it, haughtily snorted, and ran into the house.