Chapter Fourteen: Jade Born of Smoke

  "There were two wheat fields, the larger one was twice as big as the smaller one. All the farmers spent half a day cutting the larger field, and in the afternoon they divided into two groups: half of the farmers remained in the large wheat field to continue cutting, and finished by dusk; the other half went to the small wheat field to cut, but still had one block left by dusk, which was then cut by one farmer who spent another whole day on it. If the progress of cutting wheat is the same for all farmers, how many farmers are there?"

  Li Tu was taken aback for a moment. When did two girls appear on the bamboo building, and one of them was even staring at him in a daze, making people feel confused.

  Why did they come here after all? They don't seem to know each other either.

  However, upon hearing the girl's question, Li Tu surprisingly began to organize his thoughts and silently calculated, after a few moments of silence, he said: "There are eight people."

  "How is this possible so quickly?"

  The blue-robed girl's eyes widened in surprise as she stared at Li Tu, her mind finding it hard to believe. When she had done this problem before, it had taken her more than a minute to calculate the answer, and she had even used paper and pen. But he had simply calculated it mentally in just a few breaths, which was too astonishing to be believed. Could it be that he had done this problem before, so he could give the answer so readily?

  The Han Dynasty also looked slightly surprised beside him, and glanced at Li Tu who was sitting on the ground with a calm expression, and couldn't believe that he had solved the answer so quickly.

  "Have you done this question before?"

  "No, I've never heard of it before."

  "How did you solve it so quickly?"

  Li Tu heard the girl's words and was slightly stunned, asking in confusion: "Is this difficult?"

  "Isn't it easy?"

  The girl in blue heard Li Tu say this and was also stunned for a moment. Isn't this question easy? It had stumped many people back then, hadn't it?

  "The barley field is twice the wheat field, and all farmers cut half a day's worth of barley in the barley field is twice what half the farmers cut in half a day in the wheat field. The remaining barley in the barley field was cut by half the farmers in half a day, so the remaining wheat in the wheat field would take one quarter of all the farmers half a day to cut, which is equivalent to one eighth of all the farmers cutting for a whole day. But since the remaining wheat in the wheat field can be cut by one farmer in one day, then there are eight farmers."

  Li Tu hesitated for a moment and then explained his thought process, but soon looked puzzled and said, "Is this difficult? I don't think so."

  "Hmm, it seems easy if you put it that way."

  The blue-robed girl heard Li Tu's clear and logical thinking, and was stunned. It seemed that the problem wasn't that difficult after all, and the answer could be easily obtained. But why did it take her a whole minute to solve it, and even then, she felt like it was a struggle? Was it just his good luck that he happened to stumble upon the correct thought process, allowing him to solve it so quickly?

  Thinking of this, the girl felt that it was even more possible, and she also felt a bit resentful. Could it be that Blue Jade Smoke wasn't as good as a blind man? Let's test him with another question to see if he's just lucky or really that formidable.

  "Now there are chickens and rabbits in the same cage. There are 35 heads above and 94 feet below. How many chickens and rabbits are there?"

  Li Tu heard the girl beside him ask another question, and he raised his head in surprise, with a look of confusion on his face. Although his eyes couldn't see, his meaning was expressed very clearly. Suddenly, two strange girls walked over, one of whom was still testing her arithmetic skills. What's going on?

  "Was it just luck that you happened to get the right answer?"

  Lan Yu Yan looked at Li Tu who was getting confused and smiled slightly, with a hint of relaxation on his face.

  Li Tu felt speechless and her mouth was dry as soon as she heard the words. She obviously misunderstood her own meaning and couldn't believe what she had just said about herself, finally having to speak out: "No."

  "Why can't you answer now?" The girl asked again, with a hint of suspicion.

  Li was taken aback, unable to answer. What kind of thinking is this? After a few moments of silence, he said: "Twenty-three chickens and twelve rabbits."

  Lan Yu Yan's eyes paused for a moment, the relaxed expression on his face turned into shock, and he stared tightly at Li Tu. For a moment, he couldn't speak, how could he answer so quickly? It seemed that he didn't need to reason or calculate, and just blurted out the answer. Had he done this problem of chickens and rabbits in the same cage before? So he spoke again: "Have you done this problem of chickens and rabbits in the same cage before?"

  "Why did you say that? It seems like last time you asked the same thing."

  Li Tu was shocked again, really couldn't understand what this girl was thinking, didn't she think before speaking?

  "You casually gave the answer, I simply can't believe you could solve it in such a short time without using any tools like paper and pen. How is this possible? You must have done it before to be able to give the answer so readily."

  Lan Yu Yan's face also turned slightly red upon hearing this, but she still couldn't believe that the blind man in front of her was so formidable, formidable to the point where he could casually give out answers.

  "You can't, nor can anyone else on your behalf, got it?"

  "I can't, which means many others can't either, I believe in my own arithmetic."

  Lan Yu Yan said with certainty that she was very confident in her arithmetic skills, and among people of the same age, there were few who could compare to her, so she didn't believe that the blind man in front of her could be compared to her.

  "Is it really so?" Li Tu smiled slightly.

  "I believe in myself, but I can give you another question, let's see if you can solve it as quickly again."

  "So you tell me."

  Li Tu didn't bother arguing with her and said lightly.

  "Gazing afar at the seven-story tower, the red light is doubled and increased. With 381 lanterns in total, how many lanterns are on top of the tower?"

  "One hundred ninety-two lanterns."

  "Hmm! You know the answer now?"

  This time, Lan Yu's face showed a hint of anger. Who could possibly blurt out the answer as soon as the question was asked? If that were the case, then there was only one possibility - he already knew the answer.

  "It's not that I'm being clever, it's just that I know the answer. What do you mean by this? Do I have an obligation to try to please you? Even now, I still don't know who you people are or why you've come to my humble abode. Is it just to say these things? Then please leave."

  Li Tu said in a low voice that he felt the other party was being unreasonable and irrational, so he started practicing his finger techniques and ignored the other party.

  "Are you going to drive me away in a fit of anger just because I spoke the truth? I originally thought your math skills were impressive and wanted to see them in action, but it turns out they're not. Is this really amusing?"

  Lan Yu smiled lightly and said with some disdain.

  Quietly standing aside, Dantai Ji also looked at Li Tu with suspicion. Could it be that he really knew the answer beforehand, just as Yu Yan said? Otherwise, how could he have answered so quickly and casually? Even Yu Yan, who was skilled in mathematics, couldn't solve these problems orally, let alone Li Tu. Dantai Ji found it hard to believe that he could do it.

  Li Tu heard that the girl spoke like this, and he became somewhat angry in his heart. He also stopped practicing piano and said: "Since you say your arithmetic is good, I'll give you a question, how about it?"

  "Alright."

  Lan Yu smiled slightly. She didn't believe that the blind man's question could stump her, and she also wanted to show off her own arithmetic skills.

  "There are 81 cells in a 9x9 grid, with the numbers 1 to 81 placed in the cells so that the sum of each row, column and diagonal is equal."