20: Gift-giving is an art.

At noon, the meal was still delivered to the entrance of the dilapidated house by a servant, who then dropped it off like garbage and left.

Two coarse porcelain bowls, and this time, the contents were a bit more “generous” than last night’s watery porridge.

It was half a bowl of coarse rice, the grains dry and hard, topped with a few wilted salted vegetables.

Zhao Rui stared at the bowl of rice, his expression changing several times, but in the end, he picked it up, fiercely shoveling it into his mouth with chopsticks, chewing as if he held a grudge against someone.

He was hungry.

Dignity was no match for hunger.

Su Ming still ate quietly and earnestly, as if savoring some rare delicacy.

“Cognitive Restructuring Course, Lecture Two: Sublimation of Suffering.” Lin Yu’s voice lazily sounded in Su Ming’s mind, “Disciple, you must imagine this bowl of rice as a whetstone. Each chew is grinding your Heart-Nature. Each swallow is ingesting humiliation, transforming it into your motivation to move forward.”

“See, thinking this way, don’t you feel like you’re undergoing a great cultivation? Even the salted vegetables become imbued with Zen.”

Su Ming ignored his Master’s nonsense; he simply ate every last grain of rice in his bowl.

After eating, Zhao Rui placed his bowl heavily on the broken table and spoke in a muffled voice: “My Aunt secretly visited this morning.”

Su Ming looked up at him.

“She… she gave me some money.” Zhao Rui pulled out two strings of copper coins from his embrace, roughly two hundred wen. He placed the money on the table, his eyes darting away, “She said, when we go to the County School to register, we should be clever. It’s best… best to buy a gift for Maternal Uncle-in-law to appease him.”

His voice grew softer and softer.

Yesterday he found his Maternal Uncle-in-law detestable, but today he was already thinking about how to curry favor with him.

“Buy what?” Zhao Rui irritably scratched his hair, “At the best ‘Drunken Immortal Restaurant’ in town, a jar of good wine costs an ounce of silver. We don’t have enough money to even buy a wine jar!”

Su Ming looked at the copper coins on the table and remained silent.

“Master, this is an opportunity, but also a trap,” he said to Lin Yu in his mind.

“Exactly.” Lin Yu’s tone was unusually serious, “Giving gifts, this is a skill. If you give the right gift, it’s a stepping stone; if you give the wrong one, it’s like splashing dirty water on your own face. Your companion is clearly an amateur.”

“Disciple, I ask you, what do we lack most right now?”

“Money, resources, a stable cultivation environment,” Su Ming replied.

“Wrong!” Lin Yu flatly denied, “What we lack most is ‘information’! Information about the Zhou Family, about Qingshi Town, about the upcoming Child Scholar examination!”

“Zhao Rui wants to use these two hundred wen to buy Zhou Kang’s ‘goodwill.’ This is like climbing a tree to catch fish. People like Zhou Kang are arrogant; if you give him something worth two hundred wen, he’ll only think you’re poorer and more unpresentable. Even if you give him something worth two hundred ounces of silver, he might accept it, but he won’t necessarily think highly of you.”

Su Ming listened quietly.

“So, our target cannot be him.” Lin Yu’s voice carried the confidence of someone in control, “He’s merely the recorder for the second branch. Above him are the first branch, and the Zhou Family patriarch, Prefectural Instructor Zhou Wenhai of the County School. Zhou Kang is just a gate-keeping imp; we don’t need to waste our ammunition on him.”

“Then this gift…”

“A gift must be given, but not to him.” Lin Yu chuckled, “Disciple, I’ll teach you a trick called ‘catering to preferences, precise strike.’ We need to spend these two hundred wen to achieve the effect of two thousand wen!”

Su Ming looked at Zhao Rui and said, “Buying wine is not appropriate.”

Zhao Rui was stunned for a moment, then asked grumpily, “Then what do you suggest we buy? The four treasures of the study? Those are even more expensive! A decent inkstick would be enough for us to eat for a month!”

“We don’t buy expensive things, only the right ones,” Su Ming said calmly, mimicking Lin Yu’s tone, “Let’s not rush to buy things. First, let’s gather information.”

“Gather what?”

“Find out what your Maternal Uncle-in-law Zhou Kang and the Zhou Family patriarch Zhou Wenhai usually like,” Su Ming’s thoughts became clearer, “For example, what tea they like to drink, what books they read, or… what troubles they have.”

Zhao Rui’s mouth hung open, staring at Su Ming as if he were a monster.

He had never imagined that giving a gift involved so many twists and turns.

“How… how do we find that out?”

“Go to the place the boy who was copying books mentioned yesterday,” Su Ming stood up, “West City Corner, Old Scholar Tree, Xu’s bookstall. There are many people there, and many scholars, so we might hear something. Also, we can go see if the books there are really cheap.”

He looked at Zhao Rui and added, “The money your Aunt gave us cannot be wasted.”

Zhao Rui was dumbfounded by his words, but finally, as if possessed, he nodded, “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”

The West City Corner was indeed much quieter than the main street.

A giant old scholar tree spread like an open umbrella, and in its shade, a white-haired old man had spread a blue cloth on the ground, with dozens of books scattered haphazardly on it.

Most of the books were handwritten copies, their pages yellowed and bindings crude.

This was the bookstall belonging to Old Man Xu.

Three or four simply dressed scholars were already squatting on the ground, engrossed in flipping through the books.

Su Ming and Zhao Rui walked over. Old Man Xu merely lifted his eyelids, then lowered his head to doze off again, seemingly not at all worried that someone would steal his books.

Su Ming squatted down and picked up a handwritten copy of “Qingshi County Records.”

“Well done, disciple.” Lin Yu praised, “To strike precisely, you must first look at the ‘user profile.’ These county records are Qingshi Town’s ‘product manual.’”

Su Ming flipped through quickly; his purpose wasn’t to memorize, but to find useful information.

Zhao Rui also mimicked him, picking up a book and idly flipping through it, but his eyes occasionally darted to the several scholars nearby who were conversing in low voices.

He heard a tall, thin man say, “Have you heard? Prefectural Instructor Zhou hasn’t been in a very good mood lately.”

Another square-faced man chimed in, “What else could it be? It’s all about his precious son, Young Master Yu Lin. Young Master Zhou is about to take the Provincial Examination, but he still hasn’t produced an enlightened essay in the Investigation of Things subject.”

“Investigation of Things?” The tall, thin man curled his lips, “That stuff is ethereal; who can explain it clearly? Prefectural Instructor Zhou himself is a Master of this Dao, and even he can’t teach it well, so how can we ordinary people even hope to?”

“Shh, keep your voice down, don’t let anyone hear.”

Their voices were soft, but every word drifted into Su Ming’s ears.

Su Ming’s fingers, which were turning the pages, paused slightly.

“Prefectural Instructor Zhou, Zhou Wenhai. Son, Zhou Yulin. Trouble, the Investigation of Things subject.”

He silently noted it down in his mind.

Lin Yu’s voice grew excited: “Here it comes, here it comes! An opportunity! This is our ‘market demand’! Disciple, that copy of ‘essential techniques of farming and husbandry’ you bought yesterday is now our only ammunition!”

Su Ming’s heart stirred.

“essential techniques of farming and husbandry” talked about agricultural matters, how to breed seeds, how to compost, how to distinguish solar terms.

What did this have to do with “Investigation of Things”?

“You’re so dense!” Lin Yu said, disappointed, “What is ‘Investigation of Things’? Investigating Things to attain knowledge! It’s about exploring the principles of things! While others are researching grand things like wind, rain, thunder, lightning, and the movement of stars, we’ll do the opposite!”

“We’ll start with the most inconspicuous ‘agricultural matters’! For example, why do seeds germinate faster after being soaked in warm water? Why do different soils produce different crops? Does this count as Investigation of Things? It absolutely does!”

“While others are drawing cakes in the sky, we’re digging for gold in the ground! This is called ‘differentiated competition’! Understand?”

Su Ming’s breathing quickened slightly.

He understood.

He put down the county records and started searching through the bookstall again.

Finally, he spent two wen and bought the cheapest handwritten copy of “Miscellaneous Talks on Plants,” which explained plant identification.

Zhao Rui was dumbfounded: “You’re just buying this?”

Su Ming nodded and carefully put the book away.

“Let’s go buy a gift,” Su Ming said.

The two left the bookstall, and Zhao Rui couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly are we going to buy?”

Su Ming didn’t answer directly but led him into a general store.

He walked around the shop, and finally, his gaze fell on a bundle of very ordinary hemp rope and some of the cheapest coarse pottery jars.

“Master, will this work?” Su Ming asked in his mind.

“Yes, absolutely! Disciple, you have grasped the essence of The Way of Cautious Survival’s gift-giving!” Lin Yu’s voice was full of relief, “Remember, the gift itself isn’t important; what matters is the ‘story’ and ‘reason’ it carries!”

Su Ming spent ten wen to buy a small bundle of hemp rope and two coarse pottery jars, each the size of a palm.

Zhao Rui was completely dumbfounded.

“Su Ming, are you… are you sick? We’re going to give this stuff as a gift? My Maternal Uncle-in-law will surely beat us out!”

“This isn’t for your Maternal Uncle-in-law,” Su Ming said calmly, “This is our ‘introduction’ for Prefectural Instructor Zhou.”

He looked at the bewildered Zhao Rui and, for the first time, patiently explained.

“We are insignificant and humble; it’s harder than ascending to heaven to meet Prefectural Instructor Zhou. If we directly give a gift, he won’t accept it at all. So, we need to create an opportunity to meet him and make him interested in us.”

“I just found out that Prefectural Instructor Zhou’s son is troubled by ‘Investigation of Things.’ And that copy of ‘essential techniques of farming and husbandry’ I bought yesterday happens to contain some peculiar methods for crop growth.”

Su Ming pointed to the pottery jars in his hand and the newly bought “Miscellaneous Talks on Plants.”

“We’ll use these pottery jars to try planting some things in the courtyard. Then, using the methods recorded in this book, we’ll make some special fertilizers. At that time, we just need to let this matter ‘accidentally’ reach Prefectural Instructor Zhou’s ears.”

“A poor boy from the countryside, not studying classics, but tinkering with plants and flowers in the courtyard, and even achieving some results. Don’t you think Prefectural Instructor Zhou, who is worried about his son, might become a little curious about us?”

Zhao Rui listened blankly, his mind a complete void.

He felt as if he were listening to an incomprehensible scripture.

Yet, he also felt that every word Su Ming spoke seemed to carry a strange magic that made him unable to refute.