Jiang Li watched her tremble and stutter inaudible words to herself for a while. Then when he got bored due to her still not speaking after some time, he got up and picked up a writing set from the study. When he went back, there was already something written on the piece of paper. He showed it to Jiang Ying Yue."You have five seconds to memorize all the symbols."
The muddle in her eyes became more intense. He could see that she was very puzzled. But that was it. He saw no panic. She still looked unruffled as if what he asked her to do was not anything difficult. Her eyes swept over the Arabic numerals and their equivalent in the current crude counting system.
"Good that she"s obedient and cooperating," he thought with a corner of his lips tugged up.
When the time was up, he put away that piece of paper. After dragging a low table in front of her, he handed her a brush and another piece of paper, this time, a blank one. The ink, ink slab, and water were also prepared.
"I"ll tell you two numbers and all I want you to do is add them and write down the answer using the symbols I showed you. Are we clear?"
She was silent for a while, weirded out by both his instructions and his way of speaking. Then she blinked and asked, "Your Highness, pardon this one"s rudeness. But may I know the reason for doing this?"
Because she didn"t recognize any of the symbols shown to her, she was feeling uncomfortable and wary. She couldn"t understand the reasoning behind the man"s action. What if he was already training her to be some sort of spy and she just didn"t know?
Jiang Li naturally saw her confusion. However, since he could not say that he testing to see if she was Na Yu, he looked away and said, "This Prince is bored. And upset because This Prince"s vacation which he has been looking forward to for so long is revoked. You entertain me to make up for this."
The girl shut her mouth after. But in her mind, she already had a guess that he was not telling the truth.
Jiang Li did not explain more and started giving her math problems to work on. The numbers to add started from single digits. After three successfully answered problems, while outwardly he remained expressionless, he was actually debating whether to increase the digits. The tranquil look on her face made him proceed with this plan... from two, it became three, until, he made the girl add numbers that have six digits.
His objective was basically completed the moment she started answering three digits addition questions in Arabic numerals. However, he got carried away. Or probably annoyed. It was because she could answer every question within five seconds, in which she only took a long time due to her slow writing!
"... Let"s have her do the other three operations. The higher the number, the better." This seed of childishness momentarily bloomed in his heart. Engrossed in thinking of what problems to throw on here didn"t notice he already became comfortable with her.
An hour later, he sighed and leaned his back on the chair, feeling defeated.
Should he be in any more denial and only recognize this girl after she memorizes the English alphabet and composes a poem using those letters?
He looked at her who was busily comparing her current brush strokes of the number 5 to the one she wrote when she first started writing.
"It"s a weird set of characters. But it"s easier to memorize and write. And not many too. If commoners learn this... it could potentially cause quite an impact on the commerce world." Jiang Ying Yue exclaimed at Jiang Li.
The way she stared at him was full of admiration as if she was looking at a huge genius. It made him feel awkward. So even though he knew he should stop now and get to business, he ended up jotting down the English alphabet and have her compose a poem. She didn"t ask again why she had to do something like this again, but he explained anyway, using the same reason as earlier.
"I heard you"re good at this. Let"s see if people"s praises are not undeserved." He said as he handed her a new sheet of paper. Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"Your Highness, may I know what topic should I write for?"
He thoughtlessly said, "Peace."
Jiang Ying Yue nodded, her eyes showing him that she was having fun being challenged into stuff like this.
The man crossed his arms and sat down again. It was probably nearing 11 pm. Yet both of them were still awake. Looking at how serene and peaceful the atmosphere between them was, probably not many would be able to guess the young lady dressed like a maid in front of the man had just attempted to escape from him.
Since he never stopped watching her, for quite a few times, he caught her stealing glances at him, her look filled with admiration. He noticed that every time she did that, it would be after she nodded at the letters and numbers on the pieces of paper.
A question flashed in his mind, "Is she perhaps thinking it"s me who invented the writing and reading system?"
A minute later, he had basically confirmed it was the case, so he laughed, but didn"t explain.
...Be with me, and that I don"t get hunted down for this late update. Haha