Zhao Rui looked at the bundle of coarse hemp rope and two ugly clay pots on the table, feeling like his brain couldn’t process what he was seeing.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found he couldn’t utter a single word.

He was certain Su Ming had gone completely mad.

Being robbed by mountain bandits, then humiliated by the Zhou family—this series of blows had finally driven the usually quiet youth over the edge.

“Su Ming, you…” Zhao Rui’s voice came out dry and strained, “We… we’re really going to use these?”

“Mhm.” Su Ming responded briefly, already carrying the clay pots to the corner of the courtyard.

That corner was piled with old fallen leaves and mud. He brushed aside the surface layer of loose soil with his hands, revealing the relatively moist earth beneath.

“Disciple, pay attention to your technique, make it look professional.” Lin Yu’s voice echoed in Su Ming’s mind, like a director coaching actors on set, “Don’t dig like you’re unearthing sweet potatoes—there should be a sense of ceremony. You’re not playing with mud right now, you’re constructing a ‘micro-ecological circulation system’.”

Su Ming’s hands paused briefly, then he followed Lin Yu’s guidance, making his movements slow and methodical.

He first laid a layer of small stones at the bottom of the clay pots, then carefully filled them with soil. When they were half-full, he gently compacted the earth with his fingers.

Zhao Rui just stared blankly.

He watched as Su Ming carefully picked out three shriveled beans from that precious bundle he guarded so closely.

These were the last remaining provisions they had brought from the village.

Su Ming pressed the beans one by one into three different clay pots, then covered them with a thin layer of soil.

Throughout the entire process, his expression remained intensely focused, as if he were carving a priceless work of art.

“He’s mad, completely mad.” Zhao Rui slumped weakly onto the bed board, covering his face with his hands.

Lin Yu continued his on-site instruction, “Disciple, remember, from now on, this isn’t called planting beans—this is called ‘Investigating Things to Extend Knowledge: Comparative Examination of Plant Growth.’ The pot on the left, watered daily, is called the ‘Natural Way Group.’ The middle pot, using the hemp rope you bought to draw water for continuous moisture, is the ‘External Intervention Group.’ The right pot, not watered initially, left to struggle on its own, is the ‘Adversity Survival Group.'”

“Listen to those names, that commanding presence! Old scholars like Director Zhou eat this stuff up! What is this called? This is called professionalism!”

Hearing his master’s twisted logic, the corner of Su Ming’s mouth twitched involuntarily, but his hands never stopped moving.

After arranging everything properly, the three crude clay pots stood side by side in the corner, looking both pitifully shabby and strangely peculiar.

Just then, the courtyard gate creaked open a crack.

Zhao Chunlan poked her head in, and upon seeing the two youths in the courtyard, forced a strained smile onto her face.

She carried a small cloth bundle, quickly entered, and shoved it into Zhao Rui’s hands.

“Rui’er, these are a few steamed buns to fill your stomachs for now.” She lowered her voice, her eyes filled with worry and apology, “Your uncle… that’s just how his temper is, please don’t take it to heart.”

Her gaze fell upon the three strange clay pots in the corner, and she froze for a moment.

“What… what is this?”

Zhao Rui’s face instantly flushed bright red, wishing he could find a hole to crawl into.

But Su Ming straightened up at that moment, calmly meeting Zhao Chunlan’s gaze as he bowed respectfully.

“Aunt, this student is merely conducting some academic inquiry.”

“Academic inquiry?” Zhao Chunlan looked even more confused.

“Yes.” Su Ming’s voice remained steady and unhurried, as if reciting a thoroughly memorized text, “This student happened to read some miscellaneous texts and saw the saying: ‘One leaf can reveal autumn’s arrival, one tree can show the forest’s nature.’ All things that grow follow their own principles. Therefore, emulating the ancient sages, I use the subtle changes in plant growth to glimpse the great way of Investigating Things.”

His speech was half-classical, half-vernacular, entirely composed of the explanations Lin Yu had taught him last night.

Zhao Chunlan didn’t understand a single word of it, but she caught the terms “academic inquiry,” “Investigating Things,” and “great way.”

Looking at this youth in tattered clothes yet standing straight-backed, at those clear, bright eyes that remained undimmed despite adversity, she suddenly felt a strange sense of awe.

Though she didn’t understand, she felt that this seemed… impressive.

“Good… good… you… just focus on your studies.” Zhao Chunlan stammered, offered a few more words of advice, then hurried away.

After she left, Zhao Rui jumped up abruptly.

“Su Ming! What nonsense were you spouting to Aunt! What great way! What Investigating Things! It’s just planting beans!”

“Matters of scholars,” Su Ming looked at him, enunciating each word clearly, “how can they be called merely planting beans?”

Zhao Rui was left speechless, completely stumped.

In the Zhou family dining hall, the atmosphere was somewhat oppressive.

Family head Zhou Wenhai sat at the main seat, his face dark as water. Nearly fifty years old with temples slightly graying, he wore a scholar’s robe that was impeccably clean, his brow carrying natural authority.

The youth beside him was his only son, Zhou Yulin, who currently kept his head bowed, not even daring to touch his chopsticks.

Zhou Kang of the Second Branch sat in a lower seat. Seeing his elder brother and nephew’s expressions, his eyes shifted as he decided to lighten the mood with some casual conversation.

“Elder Brother, speaking of which, there’s recently been an ‘Investigating Things’ master appearing in our backyard.” He began with a hint of sarcastic amusement.

Zhou Wenhai lifted his eyelids slightly but said nothing.

Zhou Kang continued on his own, “It’s my wife’s worthless nephew and a companion he brought along. That companion is called Su Ming, also recommended by Teacher Zhou. This kid, who knows what nonsense he read in some wild text, has started planting beans in broken clay pots in the courtyard, even grandly calling it ‘glimpsing the great way of Investigating Things’! It’s absolutely laughable!”

He had expected his elder brother to chuckle dismissively or scold it as “mischief.”

But Zhou Wenhai’s reaction completely defied his expectations.

“What did you say?” Zhou Wenhai set down his chopsticks, his gaze sharp as he stared at him, “The person who recommended him was Teacher Zhou from Su Family Village?”

“Y… yes.” Zhou Kang felt unnerved under his stare, “That old fellow who spent his whole life studying only to achieve the Xiucai degree.”

“Silence!” Zhou Wenhai’s low roar, though not loud, made Zhou Kang tremble, “Teacher Zhou has been like half a mentor to me! He is upright in character and solid in scholarship, absolutely not the frivolous person you describe!”

Zhou Kang’s face instantly paled. He never imagined his elder brother would get so angry over a rural old Xiucai.

Zhou Wenhai ignored him, turning instead to his despondent son.

“Yulin, you tell me, what is Investigating Things?”

Zhou Yulin stood up and answered respectfully, “Replying to Father, Investigating Things to Extend Knowledge means exhaustively studying the principles of things to seek the acquisition of knowledge.”

“Well said.” Zhou Wenhai nodded, then asked, “Then do you know where the principles lie?”

“The principles are in books, in the classics of the sages.”

“Wrong!” Zhou Wenhai slammed the table abruptly, “The principles are in all things between heaven and earth! You spend all day clinging to old texts, delving into profound discussions of wind, thunder, and stars, yet you can’t explain why a blade of grass grows or why a drop of water freezes! Your essays have splendid rhetoric but no foundation whatsoever! This is the reason you cannot make a breakthrough!”

His words made Zhou Yulin blush with shame, his head bowing even lower.

Zhou Wenhai took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in his heart, and looked back at Zhou Kang.

“You just said, that youth named Su Ming, what is he doing?” His tone had become extremely serious.

Zhou Kang broke out in a cold sweat, not daring to show any further disrespect as he stammeringly repeated exactly what his wife had described—Su Ming’s explanations about the “Natural Way Group,” “External Intervention Group,” and so on.

With every sentence he spoke, Zhou Wenhai’s eyes grew brighter.

By the time he finished, Zhou Wenhai’s face was full of shock and… a hint of excitement.

“Comparative… examination?” Zhou Wenhai murmured to himself, “Using the natural way, human effort, and adversity as guides to examine their principles… Excellent! What a magnificent ‘one leaf can reveal autumn’! This youth is extraordinary! To have such insight!”

He stood up abruptly and began pacing back and forth in the hall.

“Teacher Zhou… Teacher Zhou indeed didn’t misjudge his person! This examination method, seemingly simple and unadorned, goes straight to the heart of Investigating Things! The great way is supremely simple! Why didn’t I think of it! Why didn’t I think of it!”

Zhou Kang and Zhou Yulin were both utterly dumbfounded.

In their eyes, this absurd “bean planting” had become, in the family head’s words, a “great way” that “goes straight to the heart of Investigating Things”?

Zhou Wenhai stopped pacing, his burning gaze fixed on his son.

“Yulin!”

“Your son is here!”

“Aren’t you troubled by your Investigating Things essay? The opportunity has arrived!” Zhou Wenhai pointed toward the door, “Go! Go to the backyard! See for yourself! No, not just see—go to learn! Go seek instruction from that Su Ming!”

“What?” Zhou Yulin and Zhou Kang exclaimed simultaneously.

Have the Zhou family’s eldest young master, the County School Director’s son, go seek instruction from a poor country boy living next to the woodshed?

If this got out, what would become of the Zhou family’s dignity?

“Father, this… this is absolutely unacceptable!” Zhou Yulin said urgently, “He’s just a country village child! Perhaps he’s merely picking up others’ scraps, accidentally spouting a couple lines of twisted logic! How can I…”

“Fool!” Zhou Wenhai roared angrily, “The accomplished are teachers—what does status matter! If you still cling to these prejudices about family background, your imperial examination path ends here!”

Looking at his son’s face, filled with reluctance and humiliation, his tone softened slightly.

“Your father isn’t telling you to acknowledge him as your master. Just go, go ask, go look, go record. See exactly how he does it and how he thinks. If he truly has genuine talent and learning, what’s wrong with lowering yourself to befriend him? If he’s just a fame-seeking fraud, you’ll see through his façade and report back to me, settling this matter once and for all.”

Zhou Yulin bit his lip, his heart in turmoil.

Finally, under his father’s unwavering gaze, he yielded.

“Yes… your son obeys.”

…

In the backyard, inside that dilapidated room.

Su Ming sat before the three-legged table, using the dim light to read the newly purchased “Essential Farming Techniques.”

Zhao Rui tossed and turned on the bed board, sighing repeatedly.

“It’s over, it’s over, my aunt definitely thinks we’re madmen. Tomorrow, my uncle will probably throw us out.”

Su Ming ignored him, his entire mind immersed in the book and Lin Yu’s teachings.

“Disciple, see? This is called an ‘information gap.’ Your companion only sees bean planting, while we see a shortcut leading straight before Director Zhou. Remember, knowledge itself is worthless—only knowledge that solves problems has value.”

Just then, the courtyard gate was gently pushed open.

The person entering wasn’t a meal-delivering servant, nor was it the apologetic-looking Zhao Chunlan.

It was a youth wearing clean blue robes, with delicate features, yet whose expression carried a mix of arrogance and reluctance.

Behind the youth followed a stern-faced old servant in gray clothes.

Seeing the newcomer, Zhao Rui sprang up from the bed board, his mouth agape.

He recognized this youth—it was the Zhou family’s eldest young master, Zhou Yulin!

Su Ming also looked up. He set down his book and calmly looked at the two unexpected guests at the door.

The air in the courtyard seemed to freeze at that moment.

Zhou Yulin’s gaze immediately fell upon the three ugly clay pots in the corner.

His eyes held curiosity, scrutiny, disdain, and a hint of… anticipation that he himself was unwilling to acknowledge.

He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound steady and detached, devoid of any emotion.

“You, are you Su Ming?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep