Chapter 8 Good Teachers and Friends

  Cai Yong arrived at the accounting room, without paying attention to what Xiao Lan'er said, and called out with a smile: "Zi Jin."

  "It was Old Master Cai after all." Qin Feng hastily stood up and, seeing the little Lan'er following behind him, secretly squeezed his eyes.

  Xiao Lan's face turned red and she said with a pout: "Master, Qin Feng is slacking off."

  Cai Yong had come to ask for advice on arithmetic rhymes, and upon hearing this, he felt somewhat embarrassed. If it were an ordinary maid, she would have been scolded long ago. However, Xiaolan had grown up with Cai Yan, and was like a half-daughter to him. He could only say: "Lan, do you have any evidence that Mr. Qin is lazy?"

  Xiao Lan hastily walked over and flipped open a recent account book, saying: "How can there be none? Master, look at this. These past few days' accounts haven't been settled and archived. If it's not laziness, what is it?" She had always suffered in silence from Qin Feng's bullying, and now that she saw an opportunity to make him suffer a loss, she couldn't help but take a triumphant glance at Qin Feng.

  "Oh!" Cai Yong took a look and indeed there was no sorting or filing, it's quite troublesome to accumulate so many.

  Qin Feng smiled slightly and took over the account book. On the first page, there was a record: on the 20th, the mansion bought 100 dou of rice, 21 dou were spent the day before yesterday, and 18 dou were spent yesterday... This was really simple for him. He picked up his pen and wrote "100" at the top, "21" below it, and "18" below that. "Hmm, borrow one to ten, hmm, there are 61 dou left in stock." In just a few breaths, Qin Feng had calculated out the result.

  Other accounts are similar, and the only difference is that the items have changed to vegetables, wine, and other daily necessities. In less than half a stick of incense time, dozens of kinds of supplies in stock were calculated clearly. In Qin Feng's view, if it were business transactions, there might be some difficulty, but for household accounts, it was really not difficult at all.

  Cai Yong and Xiao Lan'er stared in amazement.

  "Master Qin is indeed a great talent in the way of arithmetic, it's been many years since I've seen the old master so surprised by something." A servant whispered to his companion.

  "Cough, cough, Little Orchid, you can go back now. And all of you, go down first." Cai Yong said.

  Qin Feng winked at Xiaolan, who stomped her foot and walked out with a huff.

  "Mr. Qin, I studied your vertical multiplication and division method all night yesterday, but I only understood the units digit multiplication and division, and I'm still unclear about the tens and hundreds digits...I'd like to ask for your guidance..." Cai Yong said after seeing that there were no outsiders in the house. He didn't expect that at his age, he would still have a day where he would seek guidance from a young man, and his old face turned slightly red.

  Qin Feng thought Cai Yong was really called by Xiao Lan to check the post, but it turned out he came to ask about this. The ancients were indeed ancient, with rigid thinking and no insight. He took out a piece of paper and once again carefully taught Cai Yong the vertical calculation format for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. "Remember? Even if it's in the thousands or tens of thousands place, it's still like this. The more you practice, the more skilled you'll become. Go back and practice more."

  "Yes, elder……!" Cai Yong's face turned bright red as soon as he finished speaking, and he hastily grabbed the paper and left. Today was truly embarrassing, thinking that I, Cai Yong, a master of my generation, always being a senior wherever I go, didn't expect to almost call out "teacher" just now. How embarrassing, it's better if I don't see Qin Feng from now on.

  Qin Feng saw Cai Yong and other great masters coming to ask for advice, and he couldn't help but feel proud. His confidence doubled, and he thought about continuing to work hard, and retiring was not without hope.

  ……

  "Dead Qin Feng, stinky Qin Feng." At this time, Xiaolan returned to Miss's boudoir with a huff.

  Cai Yan was tuning her zither in the room. When she saw her come in, she said: "Lan'er, who made you angry?"

  It wasn't for you, miss, that I was humiliated by Qin Feng again, ah no, it was twice. Xiao Lan's face turned red instantly, and she felt a tingling sensation in her chest, saying: "I'll go see Qin Zi..."

  Cai Yan saw that she really went to find Qin Feng, anticipating the outcome, hastily put down the strings in her hand and said: "Oh, what happened next......"

  "I won't tell you!"

  "You damned girl."

  "Alright, alright, don't scratch, I'm talking. Mr. Qin Zijin is really amazing, he just listed a few numbers and within the time it takes to burn half an incense stick, he calculated the accounts for over ten days clearly...". And then Xiao Lan started speaking well of Qin Feng, who knows what she was thinking.

  "Mr. Qin indeed has extraordinary talent......" Cai Wenji recalled the first time she saw Qin Feng, the piece he played made her even more curious about him.

  Before he knew it, two days had passed and Qin Feng was bored again. He missed Cai Yan in his heart, so he sneaked into the inner courtyard once more. The pleasant sound of a guqin came from afar, and as he turned around a cluster of flowers, he saw Cai Yan practicing her zither in a small pavilion again.

  There's a saying that if you want to pick up girls, you need to have thick skin. Qin Feng walked out and bowed, saying "Sorry for the disturbance."

  "Ah, so it's Mr. Qin who has arrived." Cai Yan hastily stood up and greeted him.

  "Hmph!" Little Orchid saw him walking over and turned her head to one side.

  "Hello Miss Wenji." Qin Feng said politely as he walked in.

  "Mr. Qin's 'Xiao Xiang Shui Yun' is a delightful and moving piece, I wonder if he would be willing to teach it to Cai Yan." Cai Wenji said with a blush, her face turning red afterwards. She didn't know if Qin Feng would be willing to teach this exclusive score to herself either.

  "Unattainable, Miss was born with a beautiful quality, and being able to play this piece from her fingertips is also the brilliance of this song." Qin Feng really couldn't attain it, but afterwards he could properly come to find Cai Wenji. A good teacher and friend, maybe they can even develop further.

  "Mr. Qin." Cai Wenji bowed. The little orchid beside her saw the young lady bowing to Qin Feng again, and her mouth pouted high in discontent.

  "It's my pleasure, miss." Qin Feng took the rare opportunity to walk over and sit down. In fact, he didn't know how to teach either, so he had to force himself to improvise on the spot, saying one phonetic sound at a time to Cai Yan. Unexpectedly, Cai Yan was clever and understood it after just one round, and could play it simply after two rounds.

  Qin Feng taught with ease, and then brought out a set of more effective and precise techniques for playing the guqin that had been summarized by later generations. In fact, he himself couldn't play some of the techniques perfectly, but in theory, Qin Feng was over a thousand years ahead.

  As the future generation of guqin masters, Cai Yan's skills at this time have already reached the pinnacle. She compared her previous techniques with Qin Feng's adjusted techniques and felt that her previous techniques were far from satisfactory in playing the music chapter, and could not be mentioned in the same breath as Qin Feng's adjusted techniques.

  Mr. Qin is indeed extraordinary, and he actually has such a mysterious skill. What kind of person is this?

  One teaches and one learns, complementing each other perfectly. This technique cannot be mastered overnight, so Qin Feng comes every day to teach Cai Yun the techniques of modern qin playing. Each time they meet, they are polite and courteous, with a deep understanding of each other.

  After getting familiar with each other, Qin Feng would often tell Cai Yan some strange and unusual stories from later generations during his spare time playing the piano. This would often make her and Xiao Lan'er burst out laughing together, and Xiao Lan'er gradually stopped being hostile towards Qin Feng. She focused on her own idea of being a matchmaker, intentionally or unintentionally bringing the two together.

  Qin Feng had a wealth of knowledge accumulated over thousands of years, and every day he would bring out something new. Cai Yan found it interesting, so she looked forward to his appearance every day. Gradually, in her eyes, Qin Feng became a strange man who was knowledgeable about astronomy and geography, skilled in music and mathematics, and also proficient in weird seal cutting (hard pen calligraphy).

  Also didn't know when, in Cai Yan's heart, Qin Feng's shadow gradually rose.

  On this day, Qin Feng and Cai Yan played a piece of music on the zither together, then chatted idly.

  "Sir and madam, you're still here? The literary meeting in the front garden is about to start." said Xiaolan as she came in.

  "Sir, you'd better hurry up. My father rarely holds a literary gathering, and many famous scholars will be coming. This is a rare opportunity." Cai Wenji said tactfully. She knew Qin Feng was talented, so she thought for him and didn't want him to miss this chance.

  "Alright then, I'll go take a look." Qin Feng said as he stood up and bowed, before walking out. He muttered to himself: "The literary gathering at the Cai Manor, I wonder which big shots will be attending this time."