Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Gang Gye answered Teacher Lin's question.

"I studied Di Zi Gui with Father for a few days at home. I've learned up to, 'When someone asks who it is, answer with your name. If you only say "me," the other person won't know who you are.'"

Teacher Lin gave a small nod.

His expression barely changed, but inwardly, his heart was pounding.

He had become a xiucai early in life and had spent many years teaching beginners.

Naturally, he knew exactly where that passage appeared in Di Zi Gui.

And he had not missed Gang Gye's words.

A few days.

A child with no foundation had learned this much in only a few days.

It was almost unbelievable.

Teacher Lin said,

"I heard from the headmaster that you have the kind of memory that doesn't forget something once you've seen it."

"Can you still recite everything you've learned so far?"

Before Gang Gye came to Class C, Liu Yunhe had already explained his situation to Teacher Lin and asked him to teach according to Gang Gye's abilities so that his potential could be brought out as much as possible.

Still, seeing this tiny child standing in front of him was astonishing.

Gang Gye nodded.

"Yes!"

After answering, Gang Gye hesitated for a moment.

But Teacher Lin remained silent, clearly waiting for him to recite.

So Gang Gye had no choice but to begin from the very start.

He recited smoothly without pause.

There were only a few hundred characters, so it didn't take long.

Even though Gang Gye hadn't touched a book for more than half a month because of his illness, everything he had learned before still seemed engraved in his mind.

Of course, after recovering, he had reviewed the earlier sections once more.

When Gang Gye finished, Teacher Lin asked,

"Do you understand the meaning of these passages?"

Gang Gye answered,

"Some of them, yes. Some of them, no."

"Father didn't explain everything in detail."

The real reason was that Gang Jo-hang himself didn't understand every passage.

He had been afraid that teaching something incorrectly might harm Gang Gye's studies.

"I see."

Teacher Lin couldn't resist asking again,

"Do you truly never forget something once you've seen it?"

"It's true."

Gang Gye was extremely pleased with his excellent memory.

Even without such an ability, he had planned to study hard and take the Imperial Examinations.

But if there was an easier road available, who would deliberately choose the harder one?

Gang Gye's eyes curved into crescents, sparkling like stars.

The smile on his little face didn't look boastful.

Instead, it had a sweetness that seemed to reach straight into people's hearts.

Teacher Lin thought for a moment about how he should teach him.

First, he decided to find out just how strong Gang Gye's memory was and how much he could absorb at once.

"How about this?"

"Our class only started the Thousand Character Classic recently."

"I'll first teach you the earlier sections you've missed."

"Thank you!"

Gang Gye answered immediately.

Teacher Lin really did turn the book back to the beginning.

Since Gang Gye didn't recognize all the characters yet, Teacher Lin taught him each one individually and explained its meaning.

Gang Gye immediately focused.

His round little face became serious as he followed Teacher Lin's explanation, rapidly imprinting each character's pronunciation and meaning into his mind.

The pronunciation.

The meaning.

How it was written.

And the overall meaning of the sentence.

Gang Gye intended to memorize all of it.

Teacher Lin didn't speak especially quickly.

But Gang Gye had to memorize and understand the meaning at the same time.

For an ordinary person, the time available for that would have been almost instantaneous.

Yet Gang Gye didn't find it particularly difficult.

The Thousand Character Classic was written in neat four-character phrases arranged in matching pairs.

In other words, each complete line contained eight characters.

Teacher Lin taught around twenty phrases, roughly eighty characters, before pausing.

He lifted his tea and took a sip to moisten his throat.

"Have you memorized everything I just taught you?"

"Yes. I memorized all of it."

Before Teacher Lin could even ask him to begin, Gang Gye started reciting.

The twenty phrases were finished almost instantly.

Teacher Lin asked again,

"Do you understand the meanings too?"

Simply memorizing quickly wasn't enough.

Gang Gye also needed to understand.

After all, the Imperial Examinations weren't something one could pass through memory alone.

Many people spent decades studying until they could recite books perfectly.

That didn't mean all of them passed the examinations.

"Yes, I understand."

Teacher Lin had explained each passage carefully.

Gang Gye guessed that the teacher was trying to test how much he could absorb so he could plan how to teach him in the future.

That was why Gang Gye had listened with exceptional concentration from the very beginning.

He had kept forcing each explanation into his memory.

Now he repeated everything Teacher Lin had taught him.

Teacher Lin was astonished.

Gang Gye wasn't merely repeating his words.

He was roughly organizing and summarizing the explanations in his own way.

That wouldn't have been especially difficult for an adult.

But for a child barely over four years old...

He was extraordinarily intelligent.

After listening to Gang Gye's full explanation, Teacher Lin asked,

"You remembered everything."

"Can you remember more?"

Gang Gye answered,

"I don't know. I've never tried."

He had memorized everything for the moment, but after class, he still planned to review and refine it.

Gang Gye wanted this knowledge to become something closer to common sense, something he could pull out effortlessly whenever he needed it.

It wasn't enough to store it mechanically like a search engine and only retrieve it when prompted.

Gang Gye himself didn't know how much he could memorize at once.

He had never tested his limits.

Teacher Lin, however, became excited.

He immediately continued teaching as though he wanted to pour everything he knew straight into Gang Gye's head.

Roughly one shichen passed.

Two or three hours.

By then, the entire pot of tea was empty.

Teacher Lin suddenly realized he urgently needed to relieve himself and had no choice but to stop.

Then he noticed Gang Gye's pale face and dry lips.

He was startled.

"Are you uncomfortable anywhere?"

"Are you thirsty?"

"Would you like some water?"

Teacher Lin lifted the teapot.

Only then did he realize it was empty.

At some point, the entire classroom had also gone quiet.

Everyone was staring at Teacher Lin and Gang Gye.

Hearing the teacher's question, Fang Liang immediately stood up with his water pouch.

"Teacher, I have water."

Fang Liang hurried over.

He even thoughtfully opened the stopper and held the pouch near Gang Gye's mouth.

Gang Gye didn't even have time to speak.

He grabbed it with both hands and drank for quite a while.

Then he looked completely satisfied.

He had been reading and reciting after Teacher Lin for so long that his throat really had become dry.

He had simply been too focused to notice it earlier.

Gang Gye met Teacher Lin's worried gaze and smiled brightly.

"Teacher, I'm fine."

"Nothing hurts."

Teacher Lin had already brought him a cushion earlier, so Gang Gye had been sitting throughout the lesson.

He also hadn't deliberately increased the teaching speed, giving Gang Gye enough time to memorize comfortably.

So other than being thirsty, Gang Gye really had no problem.

His face had always been pale since birth.

There was nothing he could do about that.

In any case, after learning and remembering so much at once, he would need to spend some private time later organizing everything more thoroughly.

Seeing that Gang Gye truly seemed fine, Teacher Lin let out a breath of relief.

At the same time, he felt somewhat guilty.

Liu Yunhe had clearly told him that Gang Gye was physically weak.

Teacher Lin had remembered that too.

But once the lesson began, this tiny child seriously absorbed every piece of knowledge he taught.

The sense of satisfaction was incomparable to ordinary teaching.

Especially because Teacher Lin could be certain that if he taught something, the child would remember it.

That gave him an enormous sense of accomplishment.

And because he had also wanted to understand Gang Gye's limits so he could decide how to teach him in the future, one thing had led to another until several hours had passed.

Teacher Lin warned him,

"If I teach for too long again next time, you must tell me."

"Your health comes first."

"I won't blame you for interrupting me."

"Yes!"

Gang Gye nodded vigorously.

Seeing Teacher Lin's expression, he realized that remaining silent for so long had probably frightened the teacher.

So he hurriedly added,

"Thank you, Teacher. I'll remember."

Teacher Lin then told Fang Liang,

"Later, take Gang Gye to the physician and have him examined."

Fang Liang agreed.

Teacher Lin told the two children to return to their seats.

Once they sat down, Teacher Lin looked at the rest of the class.

"Today, I became so absorbed in teaching our new little student that I lost track of time."

"This child has an excellent memory, so the amount I teach him each day may be larger than usual."

"If this happens again and any of you have questions while studying, come forward at any time."

"I'll stop teaching him and help you first."

That was how things were supposed to work for students at different stages.

One by one, they came forward to receive the next section of instruction and continued learning something new every day.

But today, Teacher Lin had been so focused on Gang Gye from the beginning that it was almost lunchtime, yet he still hadn't taught the other students what he needed to or checked their homework.

"We don't have much time."

"Bring your homework up now."

"Those who need to recite something will recite it in front of me."

Teacher Lin swept his gaze across the students and pointed to the one sitting farthest to the right.

"Zhao Qi, you first."

Zhao Qi immediately pulled a miserable face.

He picked up his book and walked forward.

The other students who still hadn't memorized their work hurriedly started cramming.

A moment earlier, they had been completely distracted by the sight of a tiny child smoothly reciting book after book.

They had spent the entire time whispering among themselves.

They had completely forgotten about the homework inspection.

Seeing how excited the teacher looked, they had assumed they might be able to escape it today.

In the end, there was no escaping at all.

Before long, Teacher Lin's angry voice rang through the classroom.

"What did you do all morning?!"

"You had so much time to memorize yesterday's assignment, and you still haven't learned it!"

"And look at this homework."

"What exactly did you write here?"

"Go rewrite it and hand it in this afternoon!"

Zhao Qi retreated dejectedly.

The other students came forward one after another.

Some satisfied Teacher Lin and returned to their seats peacefully.

Others were scolded.

A few even managed to make Teacher Lin jump with anger.

A little later, a bell rang through the academy.

It was the signal for mealtime.

Normally, lessons ended before the bell sounded.

Today, Teacher Lin had spent so much time teaching Gang Gye that checking the other students' homework had been delayed.

That was the only reason the lesson had run late.

But no matter when class ended, the students' homework never became lighter.

There was no such thing as class ending late and therefore getting extra free time.

After hearing the bell, Teacher Lin finished checking the homework in front of him and said,

"All right."

"Class is over. Go eat."

"If you have questions, come find me in the back this afternoon."

Then he looked at Gang Gye.

"And Gang Gye, if you ever want to learn more, you can come find me whenever you like."

"The teachers at our academy are generally here throughout the entire day."

This was one of Liu Yunhe's rules.

Teachers were allowed to leave the academy.

But if they did, they had to inform someone beforehand or leave a note in their room explaining when they would return.

At the same time, they needed to arrange for another teacher to watch over their students.

In theory, any student could ask any teacher in the academy for guidance.

And the teachers usually wouldn't refuse.

But teachers and students held different social positions.

Teachers carried authority.

Some students found it difficult to approach them freely.

That was precisely why Liu Yunhe had established such rules.