Shang Clueless heard people say that the world is coloured. The sky was made up of blue and white, the soil was brown, yellow and black, and the flowers even included the colours green, yellow, red and white.
She couldn’t understand these colours because the whole world was grey in Shang Dui’s eyes.
Her father had depleted the family’s already small fortune in order to cure her.
No matter whether it was the ghost scholars of Crystal City in the north, the secret recipes of the elves in the south, those reclusive ancient spirits of Saniro City, or even the magic potion practitioners of the Temple Society of Yao City, none of them were able to cure Shang Dui’s eyes.
All the doctors and scholars gave the same judgement: the eye disease would only get worse with age, and there was no cure.
Shang Diao was used to the greyness of the world and did not feel sad.
She just saw her family getting poorer and poorer, eating less and less meat, sewing and mending clothes, and her father’s small business getting harder and harder, and she wanted to do something for her family.
Shang Clueless learnt to read and write at her initiation school in Salt Lake City, she read a lot of books and parchment scrolls, and at the age of fourteen she was admitted to the College of Engineering.
She studied engineering blood as her father was transitioning into the construction business.
It was only when she enrolled that she realised that engineering could not help a small businessman like her father, and that maths was a magical subject.
The most famous maths lecturer at the college was the Prophet Shippo. This thin and kindly old man always took great pains to explain mathematics to the students, emphasising the importance of this knowledge in the future.
Shang Diao was well aware that she was by no means the smartest of the maths students.
The one she remembered most was a student named Wine Sword.
Wine Sword was extremely good at calculations, always able to see the essence of a calculation at a glance, and he could casually tell the difference between different mathematical calculations and even the cross-applications with other disciplines.
While the genius was quick to learn maths, Shang Clu was slow to progress.
She was also once so devastated that she wanted to give up maths.
Maths is too hard!
It’s not something an ordinary person like me can learn.
She thought to herself, probably maths is just like theology, a talent that must be comprehended by the Chosen One.
On the last lesson, Shang Dui took the initiative to find Teacher Shi Bao.
“Teacher, I don’t want to learn maths anymore, thank you for helping me and explaining to me during this time.”
The old seer looked surprised, “Why don’t you want to learn anymore? Are there difficulties at home?”
“No, the money my father gave me is enough for tuition ……”
After hearing her reasoning, Shi Bao said smilingly, “So that’s it, that’s not a problem at all.”
“Shang Clueless ah, do you know? All the knowledge that the Yao Clan possesses is a poor modelling and depiction of the deity above our heads, Lord Yao Shen, and this world.”
“We try to paint the entire world with our pens, so we use theology to observe miracles, language to understand oracles, medicine to recognise our own infirmities, history to record and cross-reference the Yao Clan’s past, and engineering and geology to understand how mountains collapse and water floods .. knowledge is just the result of our artificial categorisation.”
“Different knowledge represents different coloured pens. I believe that whichever pen one chooses, one is describing and modelling the same thing, which is the ultimate truth of this world.”
The Old Prophet told her, “The same goes for maths. To learn maths, the basis of calculation is of course important, but the most important thing is an indomitable heart. We are all climbers standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, and every step counts.”
Shang Dui was sceptical in his heart.
Would it be fruitful to go forward regardless?
She was ready to grit her teeth and hold on a little longer.
Gradually, Merchant Clueless found that maths was too useful for businessmen. If one could set up and calculate every business deal and come up with a result with a manageable margin of error, then one could achieve an almost prophetic effect.
It was as magical as spells!
Maths was so much fun!
Shang Diao learned slowly, but she loved maths, so she didn’t feel bitter or tired.
It was just that her eyesight became worse and worse just as the healers had said, and places that were slightly farther away were a mould lake in her eyes, with grey fog everywhere.
But this turned out to be an aid to Shang Dui’s learning of maths instead.
Instead of being attracted by the distant colours and parties described by her classmates, she was able to focus on the numbers and calculations on the paper.
She stayed with maths and after graduation became a maths lecturer, earning a small salary, but enough to live a normal life on her own.
At the age of 29, something big and something small happened in her life.
The big thing was that she found the Equation.
An equation is a kind of equation containing an unknown number that was born based on Mr Shippo’s four operations.
That unknown number was the answer to be calculated, which could also be the size in engineering, the dosage in medicine, the incantation in theology, the ratio in smelting and casting.
This unexpected result turned Shang Clueless into a lifelong scholar of the White Castle, and also received the watchful eye and the gift of the Yao God.
She looked back and realised that she had come a long way.
Shang Dui cut into her teacher’s words.
–We are all climbers standing on the shoulders of those who came before us, and every step counts.
It doesn’t matter if you are not gifted.
As long as we are moving forward, every footprint has meaning.
A mediocre person like herself can make some contribution.
Apart from this big event, she also encountered a small thing.
Shang Clueless got married.
Her husband was an engineer named Mori Lu.
Senlu specialised in engineering and construction in wood and soil, and was always on the go. They met on a bridge project in Yancheng, where Moro was involved in on-site construction and Shangmu did the mathematical calculations.
Shang Diao’s eyesight is not good, Senlu is hard of hearing.
“I drowned once when I was a child, and when I recovered, my ears didn’t work very well anymore.”
Mori Lu even smiled as he spoke, and he pointed to his ears, “But if you get close enough, you can still hear clearly, and you, Miss Shang Dui, can also see clearly if you get close, right?”
Shang Dummy nodded.
Mori Lu said seriously, “Then when talking to me, you can word trouble your voice a little louder, I will also move closer towards you, please don’t mind it yet, and please help me keep this little secret.”
“That’s okay.”
Is Moroji’s ear good or not?
Shang Dui wasn’t too sure.
Sometimes when Shang Diao said something, he didn’t react for half a day, and sometimes when Shang Diao crumbled his words, he was very sharp.
Mori Lu just kept getting closer and closer towards her, and eventually asked Shang Dui to marry him.
“I’ll be blind before I’m even old.”Shang Dummy reminds the other that.
“That’s okay, I’ll be deaf before I’m old too, let’s be each other’s eyes and ears.”
Senlu said with a smile.
Shang Clu lakes and marries him.
Of course, it was just a small thing.
But after 1 year, another big thing happened.
A White Castle scholar approached Shang Clueless and said, “Mr Pasha has brought Aaron with him, saying that he wants to compete with the Brass Hearth Dragon.”
“Aaron …… Brass Hearth Dragon ……”
Shang Diao was still immersed in an equation, “Me? What am I going to do?”
“Have you forgotten?”
The scholar said, “Miss Shang Clueless, you are one of the designers of the new style of furnace dragon and the mathematical designer of this project, ah, Lord Fellows asked you to definitely go over there. This is an important moment to test the results, you can’t afford to be absent.”
New Style Furnace Dragon ……
It was only then that Shang Diao’s mind reacted.
Right, I almost forgot about this matter.
Just as she hurriedly packed up her drafts, the scholar kept urging from the side, “Don’t pack up, come back and do this, this is a historic moment! Hurry up and come with me.”
“Okay, well ……”
Carrying a bag, Shang Clueless followed and ran towards the outside.
He almost bumped into Mori Lu, who was holding a rose in his hand, head-on.
“Is there something else going on today?”Senlu’s face was slightly surprised.
“Well, there’s an experiment over at White Castle.”
“Important?”
“Very important.”
“Then you go, I’ll wait for you …… but come back early oh, today is our first wedding anniversary.”Senlu smiled and handed her a box, “This is the gift I prepared for you, I’ve been preparing for almost five years for this.”
“What’s this?”
Moroji winked, “Aren’t you going to do an experiment? Go to the White Castle, then open and use it.”
The scholar kept urging ahead.
“I’ll go first then!”
Merchant Clueless drilled into the fire-vapour carriage and arrived all the way to the testing ground within the White Castle.
By this time, the area around the testing ground was already filled with scholars, each of them dressed in white coats and whispering to each other, all of their gazes looking into the air.
As the crowd gasped, two behemoths of moulded lakes floated in the air.
Shang Clueless squinted hard to try and get a better look at Aaron.
But she was on the outskirts of the crowd and not very tall, and her weak eyesight could only see a shadow.
At this time, she suddenly remembered the box.
What could be inside?
Shang Dui carefully opened the box and found that inside was a small pair of glass sheets, which were framed by cowhide and oxbows, turning them into two rounded thin sheets.
Inside was a slip of paper.
–Wear it.
Put on this thing …… How should I put it on? Should the two glass pieces correspond …… to the eyes?
Shang Dui put it on, and his eyes opened steeply.
The original mould lake piece of the distant view, this time became incomparably clear, the sight has never been so clear and bright now.
The hair on the scholar s clothes in front of him, the brass handle of the spell casting bit on the distant steps, and the long horned strong creature …… there in the very middle of the centre was covered in hot air, with wings spread out and a ferocious gaze of a sub dragon!
So that’s what a sub-dragon looks like.
Merchant Clueless excitedly used his eyes to catch everything in the distance.
That’s when the crowd gave way.
From the front came the voice of the Apostle, Lord Fellows, “So, let’s have Miss Shang Dui introduce our new type of Stove Dragon, she is the mathematical designer of the whole plan and the key to making the Stove Dragon active.”
Everyone looked over.
Shang Clueless, who wore a slide on the bridge of her nose, saw clearly for the first time the many looks thrown at her by the crowd and tensed up.
“Miss Merchant Clueless, come.”
Fellows’ voice was gentle, only the skull smiled with a grimace, making Shang Dui a little weak on her feet.
She warily walked to the front.
Facing her was the Dark Sun Dragon with a tall and burly dragon body and a cold gaze.
Just facing the dragon’s gaze made Shang Diao feel her back chill and her fingers tremble.
She immensely wished that she was still in a state where she couldn’t see.
Shang Dui closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to maintain her composure.
Maths, it was maths time!
She opened her eyes and said, “…… New type of Furnace Dragon, 12 metres long, weighs 24,000 stones, has over 4,000 hp and can carry 3 Conqueror Purple Roses ……”
The Dark Sun Dragon looked puzzled.
Fellows coughed, “Miss Merchant Clueless, Mr Pasha is not interested in that, keep it simple.”
Almost forgot.
Shang Dummy looked at the size of the sub-dragon and held her fingers on the slide for a long time, observing it carefully.
Then she said to the Dragon King, “Mr Pasha, the size of this sub dragon is too small, and it will die when it encounters the new type of furnace dragon …….”
Only after the words fell, Shang Clueless felt a great sense of oppression.
The Dark Sun Dragon’s eyes flashed with killing intent and anger: “Very well, very well, since you guys are very confident, let your toys and my sub-dragon move directly.”
Shang Clueless had an anxious face, “I don’t mean that, it’s just that that sub-dragon can’t possibly win against the new type of furnace dragon based on its size, regardless of weight or strength ……”
“Enough!”
The Dragon King let out a roar and raised his dragon claws, “I’ve put up with you guys for a long time! Dragons aren’t the paralysing things you’ve come up with!”
“Since you said that the sub-dragon can’t do it, let’s follow the rules of the dragon clan! Dragon blood ceremony, fight!”
