The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

Bianjing City was in complete chaos.

Ever since those three hundred pigeons flew out of Jingshi Academy, the entire Kaifeng Prefecture has been buzzing and swarming like a hornet's nest that has been disturbed.

Three hundred candidates, each armed with their own stolen "heavenly books," turned the great Song Dynasty capital into chaos.

On the banks of Jinming Pond, in the royal forbidden garden.

Several scholars dressed in Confucian robes, carrying shovels, took advantage of a break in the guards' shift and jumped over the wall. They were convinced that the two characters "Jin Ming" in the clues referred to this place, and without saying a word, they began digging deep into the Imperial Garden.

"Be gentle! Don't damage the flowers!"

"Found it! Found it! It's a tough one!"

Excitedly, the group dug into the soil and unearthed the base of a Taihu stone. Before they could even feel disappointed, a squad of fully armed imperial guards had already surrounded them.

"You audacious scoundrel! How dare you trespass into the forbidden area!"

The scholars, trembling and clutching their shovels, cried out as they were dragged away, "Injustice! I came here to take the exam! This country has ruined me!"

The Xiangguo Temple was also in a state of chaos.

One candidate received the clue "Buddha observes a grain of rice," so he concluded that the brocade pouch was hidden in the vegetable garden. Ignoring the monks' attempts to stop him, he rushed into the vegetable patch and began pulling up radishes to look for clues.

"Benefactor! Those are winter radishes that this humble monk grew!"

"Master, don't worry, I'll just find a magic pouch and leave!"

"Amitabha! You've stepped on this humble monk's foot! Hit him! Hit him for me!"

A group of monks with sticks chased the scholar all over the courtyard, creating a very touching scene.

Even more outrageous, scalpers have appeared on the black market selling fake leads.

"Brother, I see you have extraordinary potential. I'll sell you this 'Imperial Garden Treasure Map' for twenty strings of cash! Guaranteed authentic!"

Some fools actually bought it. But when they opened it, the note clearly read: "Congratulations on being scammed." The scholar was so angry that he rolled his eyes and fainted on the spot.

In just half a day, Kaifeng Prefecture received more reports than it had in the previous month.

Bao Zheng sat in the main hall, listening to the bailiffs' report. His face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and the veins on his forehead throbbed.

"Have these bookworms gone mad from reading too much?! Pass down the order: anyone who disturbs the peace again will be given twenty lashes before being sent back to Jing Shi Academy!"

However, amidst the chaos and commotion throughout the city, a corner along the Bian River took a sudden turn, becoming eerily quiet.

A cold wind whistles, and withered willows sway gently.

A young man in an old cloth robe was squatting in the mud on the riverbank, hugging his knees and staring blankly at the murky river water.

He has been squatting here for two whole hours.

Passersby pointed and whispered about him, their eyes filled with pity.

"Sigh, look at that scholar, so young."

"Could it be that she failed her exams and is contemplating suicide by drowning?"

A kind-hearted old woman couldn't bear to watch any longer and went over to advise him, "Young man, if you're having trouble thinking about something, tell me. Don't do anything foolish, the water is cold."

Shen Kuo slowly raised his head, his eyes somewhat unfocused, as if he hadn't yet emerged from some deep thought:

"I'm thinking about something."

The old woman was taken aback: "What are you thinking about? Are you in debt? Or has your wife run away?"

Shen Kuo shook his head, pointing earnestly at the river:

"I'm wondering why water flows downhill."

aunt:"……"

The old woman walked away grumbling, thinking that instead of throwing himself into the river, the man should have his head checked first.

Shen Kuo paid no attention to the discussions around him. His world seemed to consist only of the flowing river in front of him and the crumpled piece of paper in his hand.

The clue above consists of only two lines of poetry:

"The waters of the Bian River come from the heavens, flowing towards Jinming and into the wine cup."

"Coming from the sky... not literally from the sky, but referring to the source. The Bian River draws water from the Yellow River, and the terrain slopes from west to east, with the upper reaches in the west and Jinming Pond also in the west."

Shen Kuo muttered to himself, his brows furrowed, as if trapped in a logical paradox:

"'Flowing towards Jinming Pond'... That's strange. Water flows downhill, from west to east. If it were to flow towards Jinming Pond in the west, it would be going upstream. How could water flow backward?"

He suddenly stood up and paced back and forth along the riverbank, his steps quickening as he muttered to himself, like a madman trying to solve an insurmountable problem.

Suddenly, he stopped and slapped his forehead, startling a dog passing by.

"Wrong! We're going in the wrong direction!"

Shen Kuo's eyes gleamed brightly:

"It's not the direction of the water flow, but the person's line of sight!"

"To see the water 'flowing towards Jinming Pond,' one must stand downstream and look back upstream! At that moment, the water's origin is precisely in the direction of Jinming Pond!"

Upon deciphering the first sentence, Shen Kuo's gaze immediately turned fervent.

"So, what does 'pouring into the wine glass' mean?"

"A cup is used to hold water, the water is in the cup, and the cup is underwater... What kind of building is shaped like a cup and is underwater?"

He stopped and looked in the direction the river was flowing.

In the most prosperous section of the lower reaches of the Bian River, there is a giant wooden arch bridge spanning both banks, resembling a rainbow lying on the water, with a magnificent presence.

Rainbow Bridge.

Shen Kuo narrowed his eyes, quickly constructing a structural diagram of the Rainbow Bridge in his mind.

"The Rainbow Bridge has no pillars; it is entirely supported by giant timbers. The bridge body is like a rainbow, and the bottom of the bridge... is eroded by the water flow, so in order to stabilize the foundation, an arched revetment is often built."

"That curve...it looks like a giant wine glass!"

"Not on the bridge, but under the bridge!"

Shen Kuo clenched his fist, ignoring the mud splattered all over his trousers, and sprinted towards the Rainbow Bridge.

The water flows swiftly beneath the Rainbow Bridge.

Shen Kuo ran breathlessly to the bottom of the bridge, but instead of climbing up to the bridgehead to search through the gaps in the railings like the others, he went directly to the riverbank at the base of the bridge piers.

It was late autumn, and although the Bian River was not frozen, it was absolutely bone-chillingly cold.

Shen Kuo spotted a backwater under the bridge and, without saying a word, began to take off his shoes and socks.

The onlookers were stunned.

"Hey! You scholar! What are you doing?"

"You're taking off your shoes in this freezing weather? Are you really going to jump?!"

Shen Kuo ignored him. He took off his outer robe, leaving only his undergarments, gritted his teeth, and jumped into the water with a splash.

"hiss--!!!"

The icy river water instantly enveloped his entire body, feeling like countless steel needles piercing his pores. Shen Kuo's teeth chattered from the cold, his lips turned purple instantly, and he shivered like a sieve.

But he did not back down.

He took a deep breath and plunged into the water, groping with his hands at the bottom of the moss-covered bridge pier.

You can't see anything in the murky water; you can only rely on touch.

Once, twice, three times.

He groped around in the curved groove at the bottom of the bridge pier, oblivious to the sharp stones that cut his fingers.

at last.

Just as he was about to freeze, his fingers touched a soft oilcloth bag in a very hidden crevice in the rocks.

"Found it...found it!"

Overjoyed, Shen Kuo grabbed the oilcloth bag, kicked off with his legs, and burst out of the water with a splash.

"It's out! It's out!"

A crowd of onlookers had gathered on the shore sometime earlier than anyone had noticed.

Shen Kuo was soaked to the bone, his hair plastered to his face, holding the oilcloth bag high in his hand. He looked as disheveled as a drowned rat, but his smile was as bright as a fool's.

He shakily climbed ashore and hurriedly unwrapped the tarpaulin.

Inside was a perfectly intact red brocade pouch.

A gasp went up from the surrounding crowd.

"Amazing! How did this kid find it?"

"How did he know the brocade pouch was hidden in such deep water?"

A daring idler approached, his face contorted with disbelief: "Young man, how did you know the brocade pouch was underwater? Do you have X-ray vision?"

Shen Kuo wiped the water droplets from his face; his lips were purple from the cold, but he straightened his back, looked intently at the idler, and pointed to the Bian River behind him:

"The water told me that."

The idler: "..."

The onlookers: "..."

Everyone looked at each other, completely bewildered. Had this scholar frozen silly? Could water really talk?

Shen Kuo offered no explanation. To him, everything had its own reason, and once one understood this "reason," all things in the universe would speak.

He wrung out his wet sleeves in high spirits and stuffed the brocade pouch into his bosom.

He decided to go back and write down the reasoning process, titled "A Study on the Flow of the Bian River," and maybe it could even be published as a book someday.

Shen Kuo had only taken a few steps when he heard someone shouting behind him, the voice filled with extreme shock.

"Look! Over at Fanlou!"

"Someone's going to jump from the roof of the building across the street!"

"That's three zhang (approximately 10 meters) away! Are you crazy?!"

Shen Kuo paused and turned around to look.

From afar, you can see a large crowd gathered in the direction of Fanlou, a dense, dark mass.

On the rooftop of a restaurant opposite Fanlou, a blurry figure stood against the wind, seemingly stretching his limbs, preparing to do something shocking.

Shen Kuo squinted; although he was far away, he recognized the figure.

He was the same fierce man who shot down a pigeon with an arrow in the martial arts arena.

"This guy..."

Shen Kuo subconsciously gripped the brocade pouch in his arms and quickened his pace.

"It seems I'm not the only madman in Bianjing."

He had to go and see what was going on.