Chapter Fifty-Four: This Child Learns Everything So Quickly

After Su Lu finished speaking, everyone in the main hall was stunned, as if turned to stone, and only the fire in the hearth continued to crackle.

“What’s the matter, are you all hard of hearing now?” It was the old lady who broke the silence.

“Mother, isn’t this a bit much?” Su Youcai was visibly shaken. “Son, where did you learn this talent for talking nonsense?”

“Never mind that, just tell me—does it sound profound or not?” Of course, Su Lu wasn’t about to reveal that it was actually the jargon of the underworld from the future.

“Profound, indeed.” The eldest uncle admitted, utterly convinced. “After hearing it, I feel unworthy… I don’t understand a thing, how am I qualified to meddle in Sweetwater Record?”

“Exactly!” The proprietress rubbed her hands eagerly. “I’ll tell this to Commandant Ma, so he won’t dare to get involved!”

“You should tone it down a bit though. If you go too far and get thrown out midway, that won’t do.” Su Lu reminded her.

“Don’t worry, I can’t remember it all that clearly anyway.” The proprietress laughed happily. “Having a son is wonderful! I’ll buy you something tasty later.”

“I want something easy on the teeth.” Su Lu immediately took his leave. “You all carry on, I need to finish my homework.”

With that, he dashed back to his room as if his seat were on fire.

“I feel this child’s schooling is wasted,” the eldest uncle mused, stroking his chin as he watched Su Lu’s retreating back. “He’s a born idea man.”

“Brother, you’re mistaken. All trades are inferior to study—only scholarship is noble. Not studying with a clever mind is the real waste.” Su Youcai quickly corrected him.

“That’s right, what’s the point of doing business, no matter how big?” The proprietress agreed. “A single commandant or magistrate can ruin your family and leave you with nothing.”

“I was only joking, do you think I don’t know that?” The eldest uncle chuckled awkwardly, then asked, “How much should we offer Commandant Ma?”

The proprietress didn’t need anyone’s advice on this matter—she already had a plan. “In my opinion, twenty percent is appropriate. It won’t make him feel like Sweetwater Record is his own business, but he’ll still have enough incentive to help.”

“That makes sense.” The Su brothers had discussed it privately. The eldest uncle said, “You shouldn’t bear the whole share, we’ll each contribute ten percent.”

“No, we should each contribute twenty percent of our own shares. I’ll put in sixteen percent, and you two the rest,” the proprietress insisted.

“That’s too much in our favor,” Su Youcai objected. “It’s only fair if we give more.”

“It’s settled!” The proprietress stood firm. “Otherwise, your shares will be too small, and I’ll worry you won’t put in the effort.”

She fixed Su Youcai with a burning gaze. “Second Brother, I’m relying on you and Eldest Brother now.”

“Hey, aren’t we all family?” Su Youcai responded gently.

The warm glow of the fire flushed their faces and cast a pair of clear shadows on the wall.

On that wall still hung the bright red wedding character from the youngest uncle’s marriage.

The eldest uncle suddenly felt he shouldn’t be here, but downstairs instead…

~~

Su Lu returned to his room, lit the oil lamp, and entered study mode at once.

He had spoken the truth earlier. Given the current situation, even if he poured all his energy into study, it might not be enough to stay at the academy. How could he dare to be distracted by anything else?

He had to summon the same focus he’d had last year preparing for exams—utterly shutting out the world…

Luckily, it was only the first day of term, and the teacher’s assignments were light: two passages to copy, plus reciting today’s classics and Zhu’s commentary.

Su Lu finished everything within half an hour, then quickly pulled out “The Measuring Cord of Scholarship,” devouring it hungrily.

~~

As Mr. Zhang had said, this was a treatise compiled by Song scholars specifically for examinees. The whole work consisted of ten volumes; Su Lu held the first, “On the Formula,” which detailed the structure of the Eight-Legged Essay—opening, development, introduction, and so on…

Several model essays were appended at the end, most by Song Confucians, with only a few added by modern editors.

Su Lu started with “Opening the Topic.” He learned that ‘opening’ meant clarifying, analyzing. In Eight-Legged Essays, the opening must highlight the topic’s meaning at the start.

The rule was that the opening consisted of only two sentences. Some essays appeared to have three or four, but these were merely longer sentences with pauses; essentially, still two.

These two sentences were meant to summarize and explain the topic, but could not state it directly.

If the summary was incomplete, it was called “leaking the topic”; if stated outright, it was “scolding the topic”—both against the rules.

“Leaking the topic” was easy to grasp. Su Lu understood “scolding the topic” as: suppose I’m overweight, you can only say I’m ‘well-built’ or ‘present a large profile,’ but if you bluntly call me fat, that’s an insult…

Moreover, one mustn’t “encroach upwards or offend downwards”—referring to the previous text is “encroaching upwards,” and referring to what comes after is “offending downwards.”

All right, these are the rules for the opening. Go wild, young man!

Not really! These are just the rules—the act of writing the opening is a whole other matter.

It's like knowing the rules of basketball doesn't mean you can play.

~~

Still, it wasn’t in vain. Su Lu carefully previewed the section, so at least he wouldn’t be lost when the teacher explained it the next afternoon.

Mr. Zhang was again seated behind the lectern, his tone entirely different from the morning, as he explained:

“Opening the topic is like crafting a riddle. The two opening sentences are the riddle’s surface, the topic itself is the answer.”

“When composing the opening, one must grasp the essence of the topic, embody its spirit, striving for concise, precise expression.”

The teacher’s language was always half classical, half plain, but Su Lu, after some time training in classical texts, could now follow.

Mr. Zhang continued: “To open the topic well, recognizing the topic is fundamental. The vital spirit and meaning in the topic must be understood clearly, settled in the heart, then the pen may be set to paper, and every word, every phrase, will reveal the inner logic.”

“There are over twenty methods: direct, indirect, sequential, reverse, positive, negative, divided, paired, and so on. Which is most suitable depends on mastery and intuition.”

With that, he began explaining:

“For example, positive opening affirms the topic; negative opening uses denial to prove the topic’s truth. For ‘Not being known, yet not resentful,’ one might say, ‘If not resentful, how is it virtuous?’—that’s positive opening. Or, ‘If resentful, how is it not virtuous?’—that’s negative opening…”

Su Lu understood—this was just the positive-negative comparative argument he’d learned in his previous life. Did the skills he’d used for writing civil service essays still apply?

“Direct opening uses clear, straightforward language to explain the principle. Indirect opening, by contrast, employs allusion, metaphor, or implication to conceal the topic’s meaning behind the text, revealing it indirectly.”

Su Lu listened—it was the example and metaphor argument methods again…

Was the Eight-Legged Essay akin to the civil service essay?

He had no way to verify, nor time. He focused intently and found that most opening methods corresponded to argument techniques in essay writing.

Even those without direct parallels were not hard to grasp. For the whole afternoon’s training, Su Lu understood everything.

He realized he was not a complete beginner; the education he’d received was still supporting him!

Su Lu was almost moved to tears.

~~

After class, Mr. Zhang gave a topic, as he had yesterday—“Understanding limits leads to stability”—and instructed the students to use four methods (positive, negative, direct, indirect) to write eight sentences.

He told Ma Qianli, the head monitor, to collect them and bring them to his study, then went next door to prepare his lessons.

The students hurriedly opened their notebooks and began to answer seriously.

Su Lu scratched his head again. Understanding how to open a topic was still far from mastering it.

In all things, knowing is easy, doing is hard…

But at least this time, he could force himself to try. After much agonizing, he managed to squeeze out the required answers. Despite the brevity, it took all his effort, and he was the last to hand in his work.

Monitor Ma was patient, waiting for him. Su Lu apologized, handing his notebook to Ma Qianli.

The Cheng family boys were itching for trouble. Yesterday, they’d been humiliated by Su Lu, and today they were determined to reclaim their pride!

They’d found out that Su Lu had been kept after class yesterday because he handed in a blank sheet. If he couldn’t do such a simple opening, he clearly knew nothing about composition.

With today’s more difficult assignment, if he managed to answer, it would be a miracle.

As Su Lu turned back to his seat, Cheng Wanfan, the pockmarked one, picked up his notebook and, in a mocking tone, said, “Let’s see how Sun Shan has agonized over his work—let’s read this masterpiece!”

“You shouldn’t call Su by that name anymore,” Monitor Ma frowned. “We should address each other as classmates.”

“Fine, then let’s read the great Su’s masterpiece,” Cheng Wanfan agreed readily.

Monitor Ma couldn’t object further, since sharing and critiquing each other’s essays was standard practice. Good essays were even read aloud as examples.

Of course, Cheng Wanfan was intent on embarrassing Su Lu…

“You!” Su Dan and Li Qiyu slammed their desks, caring nothing for rules—they couldn’t let their brother be humiliated!

But Su Lu held them back, calm as a cloud. “Let them read. Writing is meant to be seen—if I’m laughed at, it’s only because my skills are lacking.”

Ma Qianli and the others, watching the scene, couldn’t help but look at Su Lu, thinking: Though he’s not much of a scholar, he has a bit of gentlemanly spirit.

The Cheng brothers didn’t care, and Cheng Wanfan began reading in a dramatic voice:

“First, let’s see Great Su’s positive opening—‘To stop is to reach where one should stop; knowing to stop is the foundation of a settled heart.’”

Cheng Wantang and Cheng Wanzhou quickly jeered, “Ha! Utter nonsense…”

“Is it nonsense?” The classmates were puzzled. “That’s a quote from Zhu’s commentary—it explains ‘Understanding limits leads to stability.’ Isn’t that a standard positive opening?”

“Pretty standard…” Even the four roommates—the ‘Seven Sons of Ren Hall’—couldn’t agree with the Cheng trio. They were scholars, not street thugs.

The Cheng brothers realized Su Lu had answered correctly. Cheng Wanzhou quickly tried to cover, “Didn’t hear clearly just now.”

Cheng Wantang coughed, “Positive opening’s too easy, next.”

“Negative opening—‘Not knowing to stop is the cause of inner turmoil.’” Cheng Wanfan frowned as he read.

“No fault in that!” The classmates praised. “Zhu says, ‘Overstepping propriety, not knowing to stop’—this lack of restraint leads to chaos.”

“That’s exactly how I opened.” A student named Lin Zhihong spoke up. He was the top student in the class, ranked second in the entrance exam… and yes, that’s second in the positive numbers.

ps. Please keep voting and reading!