Chapter 37: New Troubles

Liu Hong was somewhat incredulous. How could you, young Fei Qian, possibly recognize this object? Furthermore, I only just finished making it; how could Fei Qian have known? Could there really be such a thing as a person born with innate wisdom?

Fei Qian looked at the "abacus" and finally understood why he had felt a strange sense of familiarity. It was familiar because he had learned this method of calculation in elementary school, but it felt awkward because this abacus required placing individual beads into slots on a middle tray, rather than having them threaded on wooden rods to be slid up and down.

"Why not string them on wooden rods?" Thinking this, Fei Qian let the words slip out.

"String them on what kind of rods?" Liu Hong asked, puzzled. Could this abacus, which he had spent so much effort to conceive, really have such a flaw?

"This..." Fei Qian hesitated. Was he about to accidentally unlock some strange technological advancement?

When was the ancient Chinese abacus finalized? The Tang Dynasty or even earlier? Regardless, it certainly existed by the Song Dynasty; he remembered that the *Along the River During the Qingming Festival* scroll depicted an abacus on a merchant's counter, its form essentially identical to the modern version.

If I reveal this design now, it shouldn't cause any major ripples, right? Fei Qian thought to himself. Since the words were already out, he couldn't take them back. He simply asked for a sheet of paper and quickly sketched out the abacus of later generations.

As soon as Fei Qian finished drawing, Liu Hong snatched the paper from his hand before Cai Yong could even react. He nodded repeatedly, clicking his tongue in admiration. "Yes, why didn't I think of this... This way, there is no fear of losing the pieces. Moreover, with the beads on the same column—Heaven and Earth added to Man—tut-tut... marvelous! Truly marvelous!"

The "Heaven and Earth added to Man" referred to the top row of beads being called "Heaven beads" and the bottom beads being called "Earth beads." Calculations involved combining Heaven and Earth beads, implicitly aligning with the three powers of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity.

However, Liu Hong also found something he didn't quite grasp. He pointed at the abacus Fei Qian had drawn and asked, "Why add two Heaven beads and five Earth beads?" (In a decimal system, the modern abacus doesn't actually require the extra beads, but Fei Qian had drawn it based on the modern form without thinking.)

Fei Qian didn't know why modern abacuses included those two extra beads, so he said, "The lower beads carry over at five, and the upper beads carry over at two; it makes calculation more convenient."

"Lower beads carry over at five, upper beads carry over at two..." Liu Hong nodded, then shook his head, leaving Fei Qian unsure if he agreed or not. In truth, Fei Qian was not a professional; he didn't know the history of the abacus's evolution.

In its development, the abacus spread from mathematicians to those who dealt heavily with numbers, especially merchants. In ancient times, there were not only decimal systems but also hexadecimal ones (for instance, one *jin* was sixteen *liang*). To facilitate hexadecimal calculations, merchants added one extra bead each to the Heaven and Earth rows, bringing the total value of the beads on one column to fifteen—perfect for both decimal and hexadecimal use.

Liu Hong stared at Fei Qian with piercing eyes. If his earlier thought of taking Fei Qian as a disciple had been a passing whim, he now truly felt the desire. The boy was skilled in mathematics and had improved in a mere instant an invention that had taken Liu Hong so long to refine. *Sigh, how did that old man Cai beat me to the punch?*

Cai Yong, standing to the side, sensed the shift. He pondered for a moment and said, "Ziyuan has recently been accepted by me. Although he has entered my tutelage, we have not yet held the formal ceremony. Tomorrow is the autumn lecture at the Imperial Academy, so we might as well perform the rites then. Yuanzhuo, if you are at leisure, would you care to witness it?"

The Han Imperial Academy typically recruited new students in the spring and autumn. After the Proscription of Partisan Prohibitions, the academy had been closed for a time, but after Emperor Ling rehabilitated the victims, it had been reopened.

Liu Hong looked at Cai Yong, nodded, and sighed. "I shall certainly come." *So, there’s no hope left,* he thought. *The boy belongs to Cai Yong now. I can't snatch him away. But, hehe...*

Seeing that Liu Hong had agreed, Cai Yong said no more. He instructed Fei Qian to prepare for the morrow and not to miss the hour, then sent him home.

When Fei Qian left the Cai residence, he still found it hard to believe. In just a few days, he had seemingly "leveled up." Cai Yong had told him to prepare for the ceremony—the *shuxiu* gift for his master. This meant that after the rite at the Imperial Academy tomorrow, he would no longer be a mere "nominal" student but a true disciple of Cai Yong.

*Happiness really came so suddenly...*

However, a sudden problem hit Fei Qian, causing his head to ache. He had originally planned to use the excuse of traveling to Jingzhou and Xiangyang for his studies to leave Luoyang in a few days. Now that he was Cai Yong's official disciple, that excuse would become a farce. How else could he leave? And if he couldn't leave, how could he hope to survive the coming turmoil?

Plans, as always, could never keep up with changes. What was he to do?

***

In fact, Fei Qian was far from the only person with troubles.

Yuan Wei was another. He had been quite distressed ever since Yuan Shao resigned and left.

Yuan Shao’s departure was tantamount to airing the conflict between the legitimate and illegitimate heirs of the Yuan family to the entire world. Every noble family faced such issues, but most digested them quietly within their own walls; few caused such a public spectacle as Yuan Shao.

Crucially, it had been exploited.

That boor Dong Zhuo had actually appointed that rebellious son as the Administrator of Bohai! It was a clear attempt to force the two sons of the Yuan family into conflict, yet Yuan Wei could not utter a word of dissent.

The Yuan family had always maintained a facade of prioritizing the state, standing as a beacon of the "Clear Stream" faction. Now, Dong Zhuo, in the name of the Imperial Court, claimed that although Yuan Shao had made minor mistakes, he was still a talent and thus appointed him Administrator of Bohai to protect the people, clear out bandits, and atone for his faults.

Every avenue of refusal was blocked. What could Yuan Wei say? That he shouldn't be an administrator? On what grounds? That the Yuan family’s descendants were incompetent? That they didn't want to serve the court? Or that they shouldn't be allowed to atone for their sins? Should he immediately issue a warrant for his arrest and hunt him down across the country?

Though Yuan Wei wished for Dong Zhuo to pursue him, the laws of the Han Dynasty held that shielding one's relatives was reasonable and legal. Could Yuan Wei really betray his own family and act with "righteousness" by destroying his own kin? In the Han Dynasty, "destroying one's kin for the sake of righteousness" was not a flattering term; what would happen to the reputation of the Yuan family? Thus, Yuan Wei had no choice but to swallow his pride and accept it.

However, he was unwilling to let Dong Zhuo and Li Ru continue to meddle in the Yuan family affairs. After much deliberation, he ordered a servant to summon Yuan Shu.

Since it could no longer be hidden or kept in the shadows, he would simply lay it out on the table! He would let the world see the resolve of the Yuan family, who had served as the Three Excellencies for four generations!