Top Scholar

Chapter 226 Little Driver, Take Me With You

“Of course,” Su Lu said. “After the county exam, I’ll ask my senior uncle how the prefectural exam is conducted. Father won’t have to worry about these things; he can just focus on studying.”

"Ah, there's still the academy exam. Surely we can't pull strings with the Grandmasters?" Su Youcai whispered.

"Isn't this a good thing? Just rely on your real abilities to pass the exam," Su Lu said.

“But I don’t have any real skills, do I?” Su Youcai said awkwardly.

"..." Su Lu was speechless. "Then how does Father want me to help you?"

Su Youcai blushed and said, "I heard from Dan Ge'er that the students you tutored have all become enlightened. Can Dad become enlightened too?"

"No problem." Su Lu thought it was something serious. "We can start tonight."

"Alright, alright, but don't let your godmother know." Su Youcai said awkwardly, "I can't save face."

"No problem," Su Lu said with a smile, "I guarantee it will make Father very proud!"

~~
After dinner, Su Lu stood up and bowed to Su Youcai in a serious manner, saying, "Father, I have encountered a problem with my studies. Please give me some guidance."

"Pfft..." Su Youcai nearly spat out his tea, coughing repeatedly as he asked, "What's the problem?"

"There are too many, too many to count." Su Lu then turned to the side and invited, "Father, please come to the study and give me your guidance."

"Sigh, you child, what were you doing in class?" Su Youcai looked helpless with Su Lu and stood up, saying, "Let's go, what can I do? I'm your father."

"Thank you, Father." Su Lu quickly stepped forward and opened the door.

"Lanlan, I won't be able to play backgammon with you tonight," Su Youcai said apologetically to the proprietress.

"Go on, go on, business is important. Don't just keep instructing Qiu-ge, you need to study too." The landlady said sensibly, "I've boiled some sweet soup, I'll bring it over to you later."

"You've worked hard." Su Youcai then put his hands behind his back and strolled towards the study.

Little Tiantian, who was clearing away the dishes, looked at the backs of the three of them with a puzzled expression and asked softly, "If Uncle Su could have given Third Brother some guidance, how come he couldn't even pass the county exam before?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" The landlady glared at her. "Don't you understand the principle of 'seeing through but not saying it'? Your brother is protecting your uncle's face."

"Oh." Little Tiantian suddenly realized, thinking to herself, "Uncle is so lucky, the whole family spoils him..."

~~
As soon as he closed the study door, Su Lu asked with a smile, "How was it? Did you feel proud?"

"Why are you acting like this, it's so awkward," Su Youcai said with a wry smile. "Be more natural next time."

"Oh, okay, I'll definitely do it next time." Su Lu replied perfunctorily, then said seriously, "Let's begin, don't waste time."

"Yes, yes." Su Youcai obediently sat down at the lower seat.

"Father, please take a seat." Su Lu gestured with his chin towards the seat facing the door.

“I can sit here,” Su Youcai said, shaking his head. “I have to constantly remind myself that I am your student now.”

“Oh…” Su Tai suddenly realized: “I knew it! If Father could teach Qiu Ge’er, he would have passed the imperial examination long ago.”

"Can't you just stay silent and go to sleep?!" Su Youcai glared at him, her face flushed.

"I want to study too," Su Tai protested softly, sitting opposite Su Lu and picking up a military treatise.

Su Lu then gave his father a few sheets of paper and a set of writing materials, and instructed him: "Father, write an eight-legged essay for me on the topic of 'If you have made a mistake, do not hesitate to correct it'."

"This is easy." Hearing that it was the simplest single-sentence question, Su Youcai breathed a sigh of relief and began to think of a solution, rubbing his head.

Su Lu then ignored him and focused on organizing her class notes.

Along the way, the proprietress came in once to deliver sweet soup. Seeing the three of them studying together, she couldn't help but sigh with gratitude at her own good fortune to have encountered such a diligent, studious, kind, and loving family...

But after Su Lu finished his work and tidied up his afternoon lecture notes, he saw that his second brother had finally fallen asleep, while his father was still deep in thought...

Su Lu helped her second brother to bed and continued with her studies.

Only after he had finished all his tasks for the day did Su Youcai reluctantly hand in his homework. "It's been a while since I've done any crafting, I'm a bit rusty. Please be gentle with your criticism..."

"Of course, a son should not speak ill of his father." Su Lu smiled and took it. This was the first time he had seen his father's eight-legged essay. He thought to himself, how bad could his father's skills be after twenty or thirty years?

result--

"Even sages and saints cannot be without faults; both the foolish and the wise can strive to correct them. For our physical bodies are inevitably clouded by selfish desires; the key to self-cultivation lies in self-discipline to restore our true nature..."

"Humans are endowed with the energies of Yin and Yang, and are easily swayed by external influences; when navigating the path of good and evil, they are easily led astray by desires. Those who know their faults but hesitate to correct them are not afraid of the difficulty, but rather that their selfish desires prevail while the principles of Heaven are weak; those who see their faults and are able to correct them are not fond of the unusual, but rather that the principles of Heaven are clear while their selfish desires are subdued..."

"..." Eight hundred words in total, Su Lu forced himself to finish reading it. Let's just say, in his two years at the academy, he had never encountered an article so unpleasant to read...

It's practically a Frankenstein's monster, a hodgepodge.

Su Youcai looked at Su Lu anxiously, and seeing that he looked very unwell, he asked in a low voice, "How is he? Is there any hope?"

"There's hope! There's hope! Of course there's hope!" Su Lu nodded quickly and smiled, "Father probably hasn't written anything in a long time and has become rusty, making a few mistakes in quoting... Also, he's stuck between the official style and classical prose, not quite fitting either; furthermore, his understanding of the topic is flawed, the separation between reason and expression is quite serious, and the parallelism and tonal patterns need further refinement..."

"So it's completely useless?" Su Youcai said with a bitter face, "To be honest, son, I've forgotten how to write an article. This article was forced out of my mind."

"That's wonderful." Su Lu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. "Forget everything from before, I'll teach Father the craft from scratch."

"Forget everything from the past?" Su Youcai was still a little reluctant.

“Your father must have been working in isolation before, and many of his understandings and ideas are wrong.” Su Lu bluntly pointed out more than a hundred problems to him, saying, “It will take ten times more effort to correct these problems than to learn them all from scratch.”

"Really?" Su Youcai looked at the article that had been riddled with problems, and his confidence plummeted.

“Yes.” Su Lu nodded and smiled confidently, “If you don’t believe me, let’s take ‘Broken Continuation’ as an example. Father can keep the original text and rewrite it according to my method.”

"Okay." Su Youcai nodded.

Then Su Lu explained clearly: "There are three key points to solving a problem and reconstructing it. The first is to capture the king first – grasp the key word 'Do not be afraid,' and point out that the key to 'Do not be afraid' lies in 'courage,' not in the flat statement 'It is okay to correct mistakes'!"

"Secondly, irony reveals the true meaning—using 'not sick' to break through stagnation. The interplay of opposites creates a dramatic flow in the text!"

"Thirdly, the parallelism reveals the strength of the argument, with two lines forming a sharp point—the first line argues that the faults of sages are not a serious problem, while the second line argues that the key to correcting the mediocre lies in courage, creating a tension between the wise and the foolish, and the argument is revealed right from the start!"

Su Youcai quickly jotted down the key points Su Lu had made, and then heard him continue:
"There are three key points to follow in answering questions. First, discard the imagery and preserve the spirit; abandon the physical form and focus on the underlying principles. The original phrase 'the body of blood and qi' is a concrete image and should be removed, leaving only the principles of 'selfish intentions obscuring' and 'the obscuring of heavenly principles'!"

"Secondly, the principle of cause and effect is unified. It is presented in three progressive layers: 'selfish intentions obscure the inner self', 'heavenly principles are hidden within', and 'the essence of self-cultivation lies in removing obscurations and restoring clarity,' so that the continuation of the topic becomes the rational support for solving the problem."

"Thirdly, four-character phrases form golden sentences, short sentences reveal strength. The original sentences were a bit long, so we changed them into layered four-character phrases, with two sentences in parallel structure, and the last sentence stating the theme." Su Lu added, "Pay attention to the alternation of level and oblique tones, so that it is like the sound of an ancient bell, each note resonating in the ears!"

Finally, he passed on the practical tips he had summarized to his father:

"To break through a problem, one must be ruthless, seizing the key and establishing the core; to continue the solution, one must be steady, maintaining a logical flow."

Remove the form and retain the spirit; four characters are gold; parallelism demonstrates strength; tonal patterns create rhyme!

Su Youcai felt as if he had been struck by lightning; he felt that he had never had such a clear train of thought in his entire life when writing. He silently recited the key points his son had mentioned, and immediately had an idea. He picked up his pen and rewrote the essay, breaking down the topic:
"Sages and worthies err, but it is not a disease; the mediocre and foolish, however, should bravely correct their mistakes. For selfish desires obscure the truth within, while heavenly principles remain hidden. The essence of self-cultivation lies in removing this obscuring light and restoring clarity!"

Su Lu smiled and said, "Father, now compare these two versions and what do you think?"

Su Youcai looked at his first draft and then at the second draft written under Su Lu's guidance. He thought, "Comparison is the thief of joy, and comparison is the thief of joy..."

"What a world of difference!" Su Youcai shook his head and sighed incredulously. After a long while, he smiled bitterly and said, "There is indeed a reason why I failed the exam twelve times."

"That's normal. Father was mostly self-taught before, he never attended an academy or had any famous teachers to guide him, so it's inevitable that he went astray and made some basic mistakes," Su Lu said with a smile, trying to comfort him.
"But Father is extremely quick to learn. Look, he has only been learning for a short while and he has already written such a beautiful opening."

"Hahaha, otherwise how could I have such a smart son like you?" Su Youcai scratched his head and laughed, finally falling into Su Lu's trap. "It seems that what I lack is the right method! Then I'll listen to you, forget everything from before, and start learning from scratch!"

Su Youcai had no idea that he had been tricked by his son...

Even if he were a god, he couldn't possibly progress this quickly. Su Lu simply broke down the content of the second version and hid it in the formula. Su Youcai followed the formula and was naturally able to piece together the complete problem.

They might mistakenly believe they are quick learners and that the methods they learn will produce immediate results...

In fact, Su Lu used the techniques he learned from selling courses in his previous life. He first shattered the other person's confidence, making them realize that they were worthless, and then quickly helped them rebuild their confidence using new methods.

This method is somewhat underhanded, but it's extremely effective at selling lessons. It's especially necessary for troublesome students like Su Youcai, who are burdened by historical baggage, stuck in their ways, and have an excessive sense of pride. Unless he's completely submissive, teaching him anything will be much less effective…

Anyway, Su Youcai was encouraged by Su Lu and urged his son to teach him the mnemonic rhymes for speaking.

Su Lu said helplessly, "Father, let's take it one step at a time. First, learn how to break through the problem, and then we can talk about the rest."

"Okay," Su Youcai said listlessly, "I'm getting a little tipsy."

Su Lu then pulled out his old notebooks, found the problem-solving assignment that Mr. Zhang had given him, and made Su Youcai start from the beginning...

Su Youcai confidently began to solve the problem. However, he discovered that there were only mnemonic rhymes, lacking Su Lu's detailed and thorough analysis, making the problem much more difficult to solve...

Fortunately, we now have a method; we can break it down slowly and persistently until we succeed.

P.S. The next chapter hasn't been checked yet...

(End of this chapter)