Zhao Hanzhang had only read the “Book of Changes” after entering university, while young Miss Zhao Hezhen had also read it, but wasn’t particularly interested.

She didn’t read the “Book of Changes” for popular fortune-telling purposes, but rather during a time of great confusion when she wanted to find her place through philosophy.

The “Book of Changes” was the “source of the great way.” Though awkwardly difficult to understand, at that time she masochistically wanted to challenge herself, so she stubbornly read through it, memorized it, and studied it for a very long time.

After Zhao Hanzhang finished giving suggestions to Zhao Cheng, she ran all the way back to the county office and said to Fu Tinghan, “My ‘Three Character Classic’ and ‘Thousand Character Classic’ have successfully attracted Uncle Cheng’s attention. With him here, there shouldn’t be major problems with promotion later.”

She huffed, “I told them these two books would make good primers, but they dismissed them without even looking before.”

Fu Tinghan: “Congratulations.”

Seeing his cool and distant demeanor, Zhao Hanzhang sympathetically approached him, “Your teaching materials can only be taught by you, after all, they don’t recognize Arabic numerals either.”

Fu Tinghan raised his eyes, now showing more expression, and said with a smile, “You can too, can’t you?” It was just elementary school material—very easy.

“Uh,” Zhao Hanzhang scratched her head, “I suppose I could.”

So that afternoon, Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan went to the school together.

The excellent students who had been selected still sat in the classroom, having the honor of becoming the audience for the first class.

This time, Zhao Hanzhang sat beside Zhao Cheng, who was still leafing through the “Thousand Character Classic.”

The “Three Character Classic” was very short; he had already read through it once. It used many allusions, but they were all easy to understand. Zhao Cheng understood it after just one reading.

Very simple, but not easy to write, after all, one had to summarize from so many books, make it catchy, and also serve the purpose of teaching common characters.

The “Three Character Classic” used together with the “Thousand Character Classic” basically covered most of the characters they would use in their lifetime, while also learning considerable knowledge.

As Zhao Cheng read, he sighed with admiration, and mentally went through all the famous scholars he knew again and again, but truly couldn’t find anyone matching the two people Zhao Hanzhang mentioned.

This showed that in the world there was heaven beyond heaven, people beyond people. Who knew how many hermit masters still hid in these mountains and wilderness, while people in the red dust had only read a few books yet were already unbearably arrogant.

Though Zhao Cheng appeared to be looking at the “Thousand Character Classic,” he could still spare a thread of attention to hear the outside world, so he heard Fu Tinghan say, “Arithmetic is difficult to learn partly because the characters are hard to recognize. A single character for ‘one’ already stumps many people, so what I want to teach you today is a new kind of number. It will allow you to calculate faster and more conveniently. I hope you can seriously study this course.”

He said, “Mathematics is the most universal language of all things in the world. We may not understand each other’s languages or read each other’s writing, but using mathematics, we can definitely communicate.”

Zhao Cheng had different opinions, but since this was a classroom, he didn’t raise objections.

Then he saw Fu Tinghan write a line of symbols he didn’t recognize, and began teaching everyone to identify them, “This is 1, this is 2…”

The students followed along identifying them once. It was extremely simple—not to mention Zhao Cheng and the others, even the students in class could all distinguish them individually.

Though they might not yet be able to write them well.

Fu Tinghan didn’t require them to write them out immediately. For the first class, he could speak more simply.

Of course, this was what he considered simple. After all, these were students who had only studied for three months. Even though they were already considered excellent in the school, they still only half-understood the content Fu Tinghan taught.

Zhao Hanzhang also felt Fu Tinghan spoke very simply, and even asked Zhao Kuan and the others, “Did you understand?”

Zhao Kuan and the others nodded, “Naturally.”

It was just converting numbers—what was so difficult about that?

Zhao Cheng also didn’t find it difficult, but having been a teacher for many years, he knew what stage of knowledge should be learned at what stage. He glanced at them but said nothing.

Fu Tinghan had also been a teacher for many years. Though he hadn’t taught elementary students before, people’s eyes could express many things, and he now understood the confusion in their eyes. So he paused, twirling the chalk in his hand and asked, “Is it very difficult to understand?”

The students nodded together.

Fu Tinghan quietly watched them, and they unconsciously shook their heads again.

Fu Tinghan frowned slightly. Zhao Cheng had already said coldly, “To know is to know, not to know is not to know. You nod then shake your heads—who are you fooling?”

The students shamefully lowered their heads.

Fu Tinghan then closed his teaching materials, thought for a moment and said, “Then let’s start from the simplest, beginning with one plus one.”

Education was a gradual and long-term matter, not achievable in a single day. Though this was very different from the students he had taught before, Fu Tinghan was willing to show more patience.

Compared to the two primers Zhao Hanzhang produced, Zhao Cheng had little interest in Fu Tinghan’s teaching materials, so he just listened and let it pass.

Zhao Hanzhang disappointedly watched him leave, not daring to force him, and could only pull aside Zhao Kuan and the other brothers, “Brother Kuan, let’s have a talk.”

Zhao Kuan: “…About what?”

“I remember you taught them arithmetic?”

Zhao Kuan nodded.

“Don’t you want to learn the new numbers with us?” Zhao Hanzhang said, “For education, we need unified writing!”

Zhao Kuan frowned, “We don’t yet know which is better…”

Zhao Hanzhang had already made the decision, “It’s settled then. Not only Xiping County, but Shangcai County in the future as well—arithmetic classes will primarily use Arabic numerals, and character recognition classes will teach using Arabic numerals corresponding to Chinese numbers.”

“In the coming time, not only Tinghan but I will also stay here to teach. You elder brothers should learn with us. Only when we’ve learned it can we properly teach the students, right?”

Zhao Kuan found it very hard to understand, “Why do you want to create a new set of numbers? Complete replacement is very difficult. What if halfway through teaching it proves unsuitable…”

“There won’t be a situation of unsuitability,” Fu Tinghan said. “This also wasn’t created by us. We’re merely borrowing the numbers from the Arabs.”

Zhao Kuan tilted his head, thought for a moment and asked, “People from the Parthian region? You’ve met people from there? Did you meet them in Luoyang?”

Zhao Liang beside him couldn’t help but sigh, “In such chaotic times, I never expected there would still be people from the Western Regions who could come to Dajin. Tinghan, what are the Parthians like? Are they truly different from ordinary people as books say?”

This directly confirmed that he had met Arabs in Luoyang.

Fu Tinghan was speechless for a long moment. He finally understood why they didn’t doubt at all that Zhao Hanzhang had produced the “Three Character Classic” and “Thousand Character Classic”—because they would fill in the blanks themselves.

“Stop the nonsense for now. Come on, let’s form a study group,” Zhao Hanzhang pulled along all the brothers within her sight. “The school lacks enough teachers. It’s such a shame we have difficulty recruiting teachers. Sigh, if only Uncle Ming would agree to let the sisters from the clan come teach.”

Zhao Kuan just pretended not to hear.

But Zhao Hanzhang had already taken the initiative to mention it, “Brother Kuan, I remember you have a younger sister…”

“She’s engaged and will marry in June.”

“That’s still five months away, isn’t it? Fine, if she can’t, then you have a younger sister.”

Zhao Kuan: “She’s only twelve!”

Zhao Hanzhang: “I’m only fourteen too. Oh wait, almost fifteen, but that’s not important. The ambitious aren’t deterred by youth. My cousin is quite learned, and the children at school are learning from the very basics. For her to teach them would be more than sufficient.”

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