Chapter 195

Chapter 195: The Dirty World Cannot Tolerate Smart Women

Red Luan said: “For example, if you select the number 1, every 1 on the grid lights up or changes color. That way, using the game’s feature, you can find where the other 1s should go.”

She went on: “Sometimes there are too many hidden numbers, so you cannot find them all in one pass. In that case, do not waste time on the same number. Switch to another number and search again.”

She summed up: “After a few rounds, the empty spots get fewer and fewer, and filling them becomes easier.”

She sighed: “Too bad we do not have paper and pens here. We could use different colored pens to mark things. If one sheet gets messy, we could switch to another…”

She stopped mid-sentence, lips parting: “Ah…”

Yu Zhi Yi snapped her fingers, and every 1 in midair lit up.

Before, all numbers had been a dull red. Now the 1s glowed bright red. They were still red, but no longer dead and heavy. They looked warm and lively, even pleasing to the eye.

“Like this?” Yu Zhi Yi asked.

“Yes, exactly like that,” Red Luan said, delighted.

Yu Zhi Yi nodded and said: “Then let’s solve it.”

“Okay,” Red Luan answered.

At that moment, only three 1s were given in the 81 squares. Red Luan quickly located several more, soon leaving three 1s still to place.

Yu Zhi Yi watched her process, thinking it over.

When they switched to the number 2, Yu Zhi Yi found two 2s in a flash, and Red Luan found another.

They continued like that.

Working together, they filled in the entire grid in no time.

The young lord and the others stared, dumbfounded. The young lord simply could not accept it and snapped: “Impossible. You are a woman. How could you solve such a hard puzzle?”

Yu Zhi Yi ignored him and looked up at the female ghost in the air, asking: “I have solved it. Can you let them go now?”

“Go? Go where?”

The female ghost’s chilly voice slid through the trees: “Staying here is not good? Why must you go outside? The outside is dangerous. It does not tolerate smart women like you.”

Her voice twisted, sharper and darker: “Why help these stinking men? They deserve to die. They deserve to die.”

A gale roared through the grove. The wind hurled black clouds overhead. The clouds swallowed the sky and sun, like a sign of the end of the world.

The young lord was blown into the air.

Miss Su rose after him.

Yu Zhi Yi frowned at the black cloud mass above. In the cloud, a gloomy crimson light flickered, like a bloody mouth hiding in the dark, waiting to swallow any prey that fell in.

Yu Zhi Yi flicked a talisman and said: “Enough.”

The talisman paper flew upward and turned into a long sword shining with golden light.

The sword drove straight into the clouds and scattered the darkness in an instant.

The wind stopped. The clouds thinned.

Only a woman’s shrill wail remained.

“Why help them? They deserve to die. They deserve to die.”

The female ghost showed herself.

She wore a black long dress. Her ink-black hair hung loose down her back. Her face was white as paper. Her eyes had no dark pupils, only a pale, burning hatred and refusal to give in.

“You suffered injustice, but that is not a reason to hurt the innocent,” Yu Zhi Yi said, her voice cold.

Red Luan tugged Yu Zhi Yi’s sleeve and asked in a low voice: “What injustice did she suffer?”

Before Yu Zhi Yi could answer, the grove changed.

In a blink, they stood inside a mansion.

It was spring. The world was bright.

Countless peach blossoms were in full bloom. A breeze lifted pink petals into the air until it looked like rain made of flowers.

Inside the petal rain, young boys and girls walked side by side or sat chatting at stone tables. The air felt peaceful.

Behind a nearby window, a girl in a black dress did not fit this harmony at all.

She held a brush. A book lay open before her.

The title was Counting Rod Arithmetic.

She wrote and drew with her brush. Each time she reached an answer, her face lit with a bright smile.

Spring left and autumn came. Winter passed and spring returned. The peach trees bloomed over and over.

The little girl became a young woman.

What did not change was that she still did not fit in with the other youths. She still loved reading and solving problems.

Suddenly, several girls came to her desk. While the black-dressed girl wrote hard, one of them reached out and snatched her paper.

The black-dressed girl did not expect someone to be so rude. Her brush dragged a long smear across the page, blacking out the part she had already solved.

Her face darkened as she snapped: “What are you doing?”

The girl in a pink dress lifted the paper with disgust and said: “I should ask you that. What is the point of a girl reading so many books? Will it help you marry into a good family?”

The black-dressed girl pressed her lips together and said: “I study for myself. Also, who says a girl must marry?”

The girls laughed as if they had heard a joke: “Not marry? Do you want to be the laughingstock of our Lin clan?”

Another added: “Do you think because your mother is the principal wife, you can just stay in the manor forever? How naive.”

A third girl sneered: “If you cannot marry well, even your mother’s place as principal wife will not be safe.”

“Mind your own business,” the black-dressed girl said coldly. “I believe girls are not worse than boys. We can achieve great things. Is the eldest princess Jia Luo, who protects the realm, not such a person?”

The pink-dressed girl’s smile turned sharper: “You think you are worthy to compare to the eldest princess Jia Luo?”

The black-dressed girl pressed her lips into a thin line and spoke no more.

She shut the window with a firm hand.

She refused to be shaken. After calming down, she went back to her problems.

Another year passed quickly.

The black-dressed girl put on a red wedding dress.

The former pink-dressed girl watched with a curl of her lip and said: “I told you a girl’s books are useless. In the end you married the son of a small merchant.”

She laughed proudly and added: “Unlike me. I can enter the commandery governor’s manor as a concubine madam.”

Scenes spun fast.

After marrying, the black-dressed woman still disliked bright colors and disliked social games. She only loved reading and solving problems.

She also began to study strange things.

The merchant’s son did not complain. He truly admired her talent.

More importantly, she was widely read and helped a lot with business talks. So later, when the merchant’s son went out to do business, he liked to bring her along.

Later still, the black-dressed woman invented a repeating crossbow with great power. The merchant’s son reported the invention up the chain, and those above were very pleased.

After that, the black-dressed woman invented a few more things. The merchant’s son reported them all, and each one earned rewards.

The Ministry of Works thought the inventions were his. They broke the rules and admitted him into the Ministry of Works. He started as an eighth-rank section chief, but it still meant he had stepped onto the official path.