Traveling through ancient times: daily life on the run

The young man who stood up was a local student, a young master of a wealthy local family, the Zheng family. He was seventeen years old and had passed the imperial examination to become a scholar at the age of sixteen.

"Are you setting the questions or am I setting the questions?" Qin Bingrui just wanted to finish the task quickly.

"As long as you're not better than women at it, it's up to you!"

His ancestor just looked down on women.

Qin Bingrui sneered and said coldly: "If women can read, how can you still stand in front of me and sway around?

If there were no women, where did you come from? Did your father take you out of the asshole of a cow or a horse? "

"You, you, you always speak dirty words."

The young master of the Zheng family's face flushed red. No matter how self-righteous a rich young man was, how could he tolerate Qin Bingrui's vulgar and unbearable words? These few words were considered mild.

Bai Lingyi's face flushed red. He looked at Brother Bingrui with a different eye again. He also believed that although he was a girl, he was actually a man at heart. No woman would talk like that. Sister Luo Rui would not do that.

The old headmaster was indeed a man of great knowledge, but his face darkened and he stroked his beard with a darting look in his eyes.

In fact, it sounds like what Brother Qin said is not wrong. You can satirize anyone, but you cannot satirize women. Who is not born by a woman? Isn't satirizing a woman the same as satirizing your own mother?

"Okay, enough nonsense, I'll start asking questions now. Let's start with the easiest ones, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle it."

After saying this, Qin Bingrui turned around and asked the dean sitting in front of the stone table, "Dean Wen, I'd like to ask how many students are currently enrolled at Songming Academy?"

"About a thousand people."

"Understood. Let me use local resources. Let's say there are a thousand students at Songming Academy. Suppose a student's family has planted many peach trees, and when the peaches ripen, they plan to sell them to all the students. But the first student buys only one, the second buys two, the third buys three, and so on, until the thousandth student buys a thousand peaches. How many peaches does that student need to prepare to distribute to everyone?"

"This requires me to calculate." The Zheng family is in business, and arithmetic is not too difficult for him.

But these numbers have to be added one by one, and you have to use an abacus, so it's not that fast.

Qin Bingrui chuckled: "Don't count it, it's just a peach."

"You, you must have calculated it before."

"I know you'll say that. How about I explain an arithmetic principle to you, starting with simple arithmetic from one to ten. Ten numbers, one plus ten equals eleven. I'm sure everyone knows this."

"Yeah." Everyone nodded.

"Then two plus nine is eleven, three plus eight is eleven, and so on. Four plus seven is eleven, five plus six is eleven, so there are five elevens. Five times eleven is fifty-five. The same principle applies to any number you add.

"Multiplication? How can you figure that out?"

"Didn't the multiplication table exist during the Warring States Period? It's impossible that none of you know it, right?"

Dean Wenshan immediately stood up and bowed respectfully to Qin Bingrui, saying, "I also teach this subject, but I haven't mastered it as well as Young Master Qin."

"We can't just focus on literature and neglect arithmetic. A lot of the common sense we need to use in life is related to arithmetic. It seems like none of you have much common sense."

Qin Bingrui imitated Mr. Zheng's sarcastic expression and showed contempt.

Master Zheng's face flushed red and white, and he said unconvincedly, "You just remembered the answer. If you really have the ability, then let me set the questions and you answer the results."

"Whatever you want, it's best to have someone use an abacus to calculate with me so you don't lose track of right and wrong."

Mental arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division was a piece of cake for Qin Bingrui, but Mr. Shen was very polite and handed him a piece of paper and a pen, fearing that he could not remember the numbers.

"My family has 568 peach trees, and the Shen family has 683 peach trees. Then a strong wind hit, and 66 of my peach trees fell, while 92 fell. Each of my peach trees bears 34 peaches, while each of the Shen family's peach trees bears 42 peaches. How many peaches do we have in total?"

Hehe, I still can't get along with peaches. Qin Bingrui thought, I have to buy some peaches later. It would be really good to make canned peaches and eat them cold. I enjoyed it so much last time.

After half a minute, Qin Bingrui wrote the result directly on the paper without having to remember any numbers. He and Luo Yu had extraordinary memory and mental arithmetic talents, but this was not too difficult for children born after the 21st century.

"It's just a peach." What a boring question.

Then everyone was waiting for the abacus student to give the result. After waiting for half a quarter of an hour, the abacus student gave the answer that he had calculated twice. Master Qin's answer was correct.

To be honest, he was too nervous the first time, and he had only calculated one-third of it after Master Qin finished answering. He didn't quite believe that anyone could calculate better than abacus, and he didn't expect that someone could do mental arithmetic at such a speed. As a result, he saw that his answer was the same as Master Qin's, and he was obviously a little surprised, so he patiently calculated it again.

Qin Bingrui propped his chin up with his hand and said lazily, "If you want to continue calculating, you can have more people use the abacus at the same time. That way, we can prove it more accurately, right?"

Dean Wenshan had already noticed his slackness and knew that no student could rival him in this area, so he opened the conversation and asked, "Didn't Master Qin say that arithmetic can be applied to everyday life? Then, Master Qin, could you please explain to the students where this common sense can be applied?"

"No problem. If I teach well, would you, Master Shanzhang, agree to allow my young masters to enroll? After all, my lectures aren't free. Many elite scholars can't afford me. His Royal Highness Prince Ning once paid ten thousand taels of silver to have me lecture for a day."

"..."

"If what you say is good, Master Qin, my Shen family will definitely recommend a few young masters to enter the academy."

The headmaster chuckled and said, "Whatever you want!"

"Okay, then I'll start teaching."

Qin Bingrui stood up and saw the steps of a pavilion. He turned his eyes and asked the students to get a ruler.

He then said, "I presume all of you students come from wealthy families, so your houses must be large. If there's a staircase leading up to a pavilion, it would need to be built by a skilled craftsman. Can anyone tell me exactly how long the slope of the staircase should be, given the height of the floor and the length of the staircase? How many steps are needed, and how high should they be?"

"What Young Master Qin is talking about is the construction of buildings. Although not everyone understands mathematics, it is indeed common sense in life."

Wenshanzhang was secretly surprised, it turned out that Master Qin's real talents and knowledge were not just talk.

After someone brought a ruler, Qin Bingrui found the five steps of the pavilion and asked people to measure the height and bottom length respectively. Then he asked the students to calculate the length of the slope and the height of the steps.

It's just a simple Pythagorean theorem, and there's an algorithm for it in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, but I don't know how many students can actually calculate it.

After waiting for an incense stick, no one could calculate the standard size.

Based on the known numbers, Qin Bingrui calculated a number for the headmaster and asked several students to measure it. Sure enough, the number was exactly as he calculated, without any mistake.

Qin Bingrui sighed and feigned disappointment, "Alas, everyone has their own specialization. I'm just bored and like to study various subjects. To be honest, how to build this building and the accuracy of the dimensions are a huge project. Food, clothing, housing and transportation are the four major necessities of life, and housing ranks third, so it's obviously very important. I didn't expect such common sense to be overlooked by students. What a shame!"

Wenshanzhang seemed to be thinking deeply, and asked, "May I ask, Master Qin, have you studied the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art?"

"Well, my sister bought me this book a few days ago and I've mastered it all by heart. I've also developed a specific algorithm that makes it much easier to use in real life."

"Young Master Qin's memory and comprehension abilities are truly admirable to me."

"Don't dare, don't dare."

Qin Bingrui stood up. This must have convinced these guys. But he wasn't ready to let them go yet. He had to temper their spirits and make them realize that there was no one outside of the universe, and the universe was vast. How insignificant you were.

"Dear students, if anyone still disagrees, feel free to come forward. I won't be modest. You will ask the questions and I will answer them. Of course, the questions must be technically demanding."