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Chapter 19 Xia Ge'er is too busy
So Su Lu looked for variables based on this assumption, and found that the biggest variable was that his second brother was working the night shift at the distillery the night before last; but last night, his second brother came back...

Could it be that his second brother is the real 'anchor'? Su Lu found it absurd; he hadn't even slept with his second brother in his arms. How could it possibly be related to him?

Is there anything that can affect you while you're sleeping without you having direct contact with your second brother?

After thinking it over, Su Lu came up with two things that met the requirements: one was his second brother's melodious snoring, and the other was the smell of his second brother's sweaty feet after a long day.

He quickly ruled out the second one, because all three of them had sweaty feet, and he didn't have a dog's nose to tell which one smelled like salted fish and which one smelled like shrimp paste...

But the snoring was different. Dad's was the kind of dull, constipated snoring that was dry and harsh. My second brother's was so unique—deep, moist, and free of any extraneous noise, melodious and lingering. That wasn't just snoring; it was practically the sound of a hulusi (a type of Chinese flute)...

The sound was so unique and so captivating that I came here myself and have been listening to it to fall asleep every night. There were only two nights when I didn't hear it!

I happen to have no memory of those two nights' sleep...

~~
However, out of a sense of rigor, Su Lu decided to conduct an experiment anyway.

That evening, he begged his second brother, "I need to verify something tonight, so I'll trouble you to get up and check it out."

"What's so hard about it? Just call me when the time comes." Su Tai readily agreed.

So that night, after finishing his pre-sleep review, Su Lu went back to his room and woke up his second brother, whispering, "Don't go to sleep yet, especially don't snore."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to sleep even if you kill me." Su Tai quickly sat cross-legged and used his index fingers to prop up his upper eyelids.

Su Lu immediately closed his eyes and began the experiment. But after trying for half an hour, he still couldn't eliminate distracting thoughts and get into the right state of mind.

Forget about sleep memory, I'm going to have insomnia.

"Brother, you can go to sleep now." Su Lu sighed.

"Oh." Su Tai was already incredibly sleepy and had only been forcing himself to stay awake. Hearing this, he felt like he'd been granted a pardon and immediately lay down. Before long, the familiar sound of snoring filled the air...

Strangely enough, amidst his gentle snoring, Su Lu quickly calmed down, recalled what he had studied before bed, and fell asleep.

~~
The next morning, after being woken by the rooster as usual, Su Lu began reviewing without opening his eyes. The content he had learned the night before floated into his mind in sections.

The sleep memory method worked again...

Su Lu was both amused and exasperated. Now he was certain that his "anchor" was indeed his second brother's snoring.

At this moment, Su Tai also woke up and saw his third brother looking at him with deep affection. He couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Qiu-ge'er, what are you looking at?"

"Second brother, I'm sure now. Without your snoring, I can't study in my sleep." Su Lu blinked ingratiatingly.

"Huh?" Su Tai was so surprised he couldn't close his mouth. He never expected his snoring to have this effect...

After thinking about it carefully, he said, "What will happen after we get married?"

"Second Brother's way of thinking is really far-sighted..." Su Lu said with a wry smile.

"Hahaha, is Xia Ge'er's snoring that amazing?" Su Youcai laughed and asked, "Does it have to be his? What's wrong with your old man's snoring?"

"It's not the right frequency, I don't feel anything." Su Lu smiled wryly, "My second brother wasn't home those two nights, and my dad just kept nagging me until my head ached, and I kept needing to go to the toilet..."

"Then there's nothing I can do to help." Su Youcai said, supporting himself on his two sons' shoulders as he got off the ground. "You two should think it over."

“Alright, then I’ll get married two years later,” Su Tai decided.

"No need, no need." Su Lu didn't expect his second brother to be so serious, and quickly waved his hand, saying, "There must be other ways to replace it. Do you think I can sleep with you forever?"

“Okay, let me know when you find it.” Su Tai nodded, then added resolutely, “I’ll sleep at home from now on.”

"Sigh..." Su Lu regretted telling his second brother. Wasn't this just adding to his burden?
He solemnly reminded himself, "Su Lu, Su Lu, avoid stress-related strange behaviors!"

However, he doesn't have time to look for a replacement right now; he should focus on getting into the academy first...

~~
In the days that followed, Su Lu continued his diligent study day after day.

He strung up rows of hemp ropes on the south wall of the house.

When Su Lu got up in the morning, she hung the content she needed to memorize that day on the wall... Banana leaf paper with mind maps drawn on it filled an entire wall.

Then, turn your back and pick a leaf; you won't rest until the wall is completely cleared.

However, the difficulty of memorizing the Four Books and their commentaries was too great. Su Lu found that relying solely on the 'timed review method' based on the forgetting curve was not enough to ensure a solid foundation, so he had no choice but to start using the 'Feynman Learning Technique'!
According to the 'Learning Pyramid Theory,' learners who use different learning methods will retain significantly different amounts of content after two weeks. Passive learning is far less effective than active learning; for example, simply listening to lectures will only result in retaining about 5%.

Active learning allows you to remember more than half of the content—and if you teach what you've learned to others, you can remember up to 90%! It is also the most effective way to retain knowledge.

The Feynman Learning Technique is based on this principle: deepening learning and understanding through teaching to achieve the goal of efficiently retaining knowledge.

However, the premise of teaching is understanding. If you cannot explain something in simple language, then you do not truly understand it. Therefore, the target audience should be eight-year-old children, and the knowledge should be explained to them in the simplest language possible.

Su Lu was accompanied by a three-year-old child who couldn't understand anything except about food.

Of the others, Grandma is hard of hearing, and Grandpa's been irritable lately. My eldest and youngest uncles are both educated, and my aunt falls asleep as soon as a lesson starts, and her sleep quality is excellent. My eldest aunt is even less likely to...

Obviously, the only suitable candidate is the second brother, this 'twenty-eight-year-old boy'.

But I've already said I shouldn't be so stressed. How can I keep chasing after the same sheep?

He reminded himself again, Su Lu, Su Lu, you can't have any more designs on your second brother!
~~
"Today we'll be discussing the 'King Hui of Liang, Part 2' section, specifically the part about 'the king speaking of other things to his left and right.'" Su Lu then explained to his second brother.
Mencius asked King Xuan of Qi, "If Your Majesty had a minister who, before going on a diplomatic mission to the State of Chu, entrusted his wife and children to the care of a friend, and upon his return found his wife and children starving and freezing, what should you do with such a friend?" King Xuan of Qi simply replied, "Sever all ties with him."

Mencius then asked, "What should be done if your judge cannot manage his subordinates?" King Xuan of Qi replied, "Remove him from his post."

Mencius then asked him, "What should be done if a ruler governs the country poorly?" This time, King Xuan of Qi looked around and changed the subject.

Su Tai was completely engrossed in listening, and then asked, puzzled, "Why isn't he responding?"

“Because Mencius was referring to him. The previous two incidents were merely a prelude to criticizing him; he has already fallen into Mencius's trap, so he cannot answer.” Su Lu then tried to explain in simple, plain language:
"King Xuan of Qi was so afraid of self-criticism and ashamed to consult with those of lower status; such a person is not fit to discuss important matters. Therefore, the great Song Dynasty scholar Zhao Shunsun said: 'This dialogue is saying that rulers and ministers, superiors and subordinates, should all be conscientious in their duties and not neglect them in order to ensure their own safety.'"

"I see." Su Tai understood now and clapped his hands happily, saying, "This story is great. Mencius's words make a lot of sense, but I still feel that something is a little strange."

"What's strange about it?" Although Su Lu was short on time, he still patiently discussed it with his second brother. He genuinely wanted to help his second brother learn more 'great principles'... because the military examination also required essay writing.

"We need to think about this carefully," Su Tai said self-consciously. "I'll ask you after I've figured it out."

"Alright, Second Brother, feel free to ask me anything, and I'll answer you to the best of my ability," Su Lu said with a bright smile.

Su Lu was really happy. The fact that his second brother could ask a question meant that he understood.

All of my explanations came from Zhu Xi's annotations. If my second brother could understand them, it meant that I had thoroughly grasped the passage, so I wasn't worried about forgetting it.

So whenever his second brother had free time, he would pull him aside and start telling him stories. Inevitably, during the first time he told the story, there would be pauses and parts that his second brother didn't understand.

These were precisely the areas where his knowledge was weak. He took this valuable feedback back to his studies, repeating the process until he completely resolved these weaknesses, thus mastering the knowledge he needed to learn.

This learning method is extremely efficient, but of course, it comes at a high price. Besides being very taxing on my second brother, it's also incredibly mentally taxing. Relying solely on my aunt providing one egg a day is simply not enough to make up for it.

Seeing Su Lu grow thinner and thinner each day, his aunt, at her eldest brother's instruction, finally showed him some leniency and allowed him to eat an egg every day, so he would have two eggs...

Su Tai would take every spare moment to go up the mountain and down the river to pick pine nuts, dig up gastrodia elata, fish and catch snails to supplement his nutrition, which kept Su Lu's body from collapsing, but he himself became so thin that his chin became pointed.

Su Lu was heartbroken. Oh, Su Lu, how can you repay your second brother?
With his family treating him this way, Su Lu had no way out but to get into the academy to give himself an explanation!

~~
Time flies, and winter is here in the blink of an eye.

Although the Southwest is not severely cold in winter, people here don't light stoves in winter!

It was alright during the day, but studying at night was unbearable... It was already cold enough at night, and we had to open the windows a little to let out the smoke from the pine torches. The mountain wind whistled through the air, and the feeling was more than just unpleasant; it was bone-chilling.

The only advantage is that you will never feel sleepy...

Luckily, the old lady made cotton shoes for her grandchildren, so their feet weren't freezing anymore. But their hands, ears, and noses were still freezing!
Su Lu gave himself the pseudonym 'Cangyingzi' because he had to rub his hands together and move around after writing for a while, otherwise his blood wouldn't circulate properly and he would freeze.

He never felt it was hard work, and insisted on completing his heavy daily plan meticulously and without fail.

Gradually, his handwriting became more and more decent; at least it became straight and regular, and no longer an eyesore.

There's also good news: he has already memorized two of the Four Books with commentaries—The Great Learning and The Analects—and will now study Mencius.

The bad news is that one volume of "Collected Annotations on Mencius" is equivalent to the other three volumes combined, totaling a full 126,000 characters!

Add to that the 18,000-character commentary on the Doctrine of the Mean, and it totals a whopping 144,000 characters, and there's even some to memorize...

P.S. I was too tired last night and fell asleep before I finished. The next chapter will be 15 minutes later.

(End of this chapter)