1843 A Fairy Maiden in the Mortal Realm (1/2)
”What the hell? What the hell? I've read 12 volumes of medical books and recited 1,000 time-honored ancient prescriptions. Why did he give such a question to us? Why? That's unimaginable, unimaginable...” An old man grasped his hair with a pale look as if he had seen a ghost right on Zhang Tie's side.
At this moment, many people felt deluded like this old man beside Zhang Tie.
They all came here with great hope. Previously, they thought Bian Heng would test their medical science. Unexpectedly, the first pass was such a mathematical problem.
It was like how a group of sportsmen went to a school to attend the examination for being P.E. teacher; however, when they arrived at the school gate, they found they were requested to play the violin; instead of finishing test items on the playground.
Those numbers and checkers had nothing to do with medical science!
Watching the 25-checker magic square, Zhang Tie's face turned weird too. In a split second, Zhang Tie recalled those paper being filled with magic squares, numbers, patterns and lines in Bian Heng's study room and Bian Heng's frivolous words about enrolling disciples. Unimaginably, Bian Heng really did so only after a few days. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
The words in ink were still fresh on the white piece of cloth. At the sight of those numbers, Zhang Tie had known that it was Bian Heng himself who left the question on it.
'Why did Bian Heng do this? What for?'
Zhang Tie knew that Bian Heng was eccentric; however, he knew that Bian Heng would never play mischief in front of over 10,000 people.
Therefore, even Zhang Tie was confused about Bian Heng's intention to give such a question.
At this moment, the most desperate ones were a few nerds who had not even heard about 9-checker patterns at all; instead of those like that old man beside Zhang Tie.
”Ah? What's a 9-checker pattern?”
”It's composed of 9 checkers in 3 rows and 3 columns. Each checker contains a number. The three numbers in the first row are 2, 9, 4 respectively; the three numbers in the second row are 3, 5,7 respectively; the three numbers in the third row are 6, 1, 8 respectively. However, if it's composed of 25 checkers in 5 rows and 5 columns, it would be difficult to calculate...”
Among 10,000-odd people, someone looked pale; someone looked distant; someone deeply frowned who were calculating silently.
The incense in the burner had been lighted. They preferred to have a try rather than complain about it. If they could solve it, they might give an opportunity to be Bian Heng's disciple.
Bian Heng didn't explain why he gave such a test; nobody asked about that either. Nor were they qualified to ask about that. If they couldn't pass the first test, they wouldn't even have an opportunity to meet Bian Heng.
On Tang Mei's side, all of them became silent including Tang Mei. They could never imagine that Bian Heng tested his disciple in this way.
At this moment, Tang Mei remained as quiet as before. As she was in veil, her expression couldn't be noticed by others. However, those beside her could sense her attentive look.
This question was as easy as addition and subtraction within 10 for a university student. Even though Zhang Tie didn't understand why Bian Heng did that, if he wanted the answer, he only needed to run the gears of the virtual difference engine for a short while. Almost in a split second, Zhang Tie had got all the solutions of this 25-checker pattern. It contained 24 solutions in total. Through rotation and reflection of three basic solutions, he could get 24 solutions. In each solution, the number of the addition of the neighboring 5 numbers was 65, horizontally, vertically or diagonally...
When Zhang Tie was thinking about giving Tang Mei's favor, someone had already come out of the crowd and entered the room beside the decorated archway.
A person beside General Butler Qin also entered the room. Closely after that, he took out a piece of paper and gave it to General Manager Qin. After taking a look at it, the person who had entered the room was taken out of the room and stood right under the archway.
Seeing someone pass the first test, the crowd at the square were in hubbubs at once.
It was actually not strange. Among 10,000-odd people, there were always some smart ones. Although sportsmen were good at sports, some sportsmen could also play the violin.
Unimaginably, the moment that person stood under the archway before Zhang Tie told the answer to Tang Mei, Tang Mei had already walked towards the cabin.
Among 10,000-odd people, Tang Mei was the second one who found a solution of the 25-checker pattern.
After coming out of the cabin, Tang Mei also stood under the archway, which meant that she had passed the first test.
”Ah, a woman...” someone beside Zhang Tie exclaimed. In an instant, Tang Mei in veil became the focus of so many people.
After Tang Mei, more and more people got the solutions; some of them were not invited to stand under the archway; apparently, their answers were not correct.
The period of lighting incense was only about 40 minutes.
During this period, over 200 people got the solutions. After passing the test, they all waited quietly under the archway. As the incense in the burner was becoming increasingly shorter, over 10,000 people at the square became more flurried.
What was more interesting was that the two nice-looking youths beside Tang Mei and the immortal general who came here at the last moment also passed the first test.
After the incense was lit up, General Butler Qin raised his hand, which meant that all the remaining people who couldn't get the answer had lost the opportunity to be Bian Heng's disciples from then on.
It was pretty quiet at the square. Some looked ashy; some let out a deep sigh. All the remaining people were watching the 200-odd people under the archway who had passed the first test as they wondered about the second question.
After taking a look at those people under the archway, General Butler Qin opened his mouth in an instant.