novelSusiti Chapter 4 Child Prodigy?
Chapter 4 Child Prodigy?
In the spring of the fifth year of the Chongzhen reign (1632), Ma Changsheng was five years old.
The private school in Majia Village was located in a side room of the ancestral hall at the east end of the village.
The tutor's surname was Zhou. He was an old scholar who had repeatedly failed the imperial examinations. Even in his fifties, he still clung to the faint hope of "rising from a humble peasant in the morning to a high-ranking official in the evening."
More than twenty children from the village began their education here, learning from the Three Character Classic to the Thousand Character Classic and then to the Hundred Family Surnames, which is the entire path for rural children to learn to read.
On the day of his initiation, Li dressed Ma Changsheng in a clean set of coarse cloth clothes—the sleeves of which had been altered from Ma Sanbao's old clothes.
She wrapped a small piece of dry food and two copper coins, and stuffed them into her son's arms: "Listen to your teacher, don't be naughty."
Ma Sanbao squatted down and patted his son's shoulder: "Study hard, and in the future..." He didn't finish his sentence, but his eyes were full of expectation.
The ancestral hall was filled with incense smoke, and a memorial tablet of Confucius was placed on the offering table.
Mr. Zhou, dressed in a faded long gown, looked solemn. The children took turns kowtowing, offering incense, and then received their primers, sitting on simple wooden stools.
The copy of the *Three Character Classic* that Ma Changsheng received was yellowed, with torn edges and somewhat blurred ink. He turned to the first page and saw those three familiar columns of characters:
At the beginning of human beings, nature is good.The sex is similar, but the habit is far away.
In that instant, a switch deep within his brain was triggered.
Text recognition module: Activate
Detected: Chinese regular script, variant of Ming Dynasty printed font
Database matching: Classical Chinese corpus, matching accuracy 92.7%.
Startup: Character shape parsing, character meaning retrieval, and syntax analysis submodules
Mr. Zhou began reading aloud: "At the beginning of life—"
The children, in varying degrees of confusion, recited: "The beginning of man."
Ma Changsheng's lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.
His eyes quickly scanned the pages, and the once unfamiliar symbols now seemed to come alive.
Each stroke is being decomposed and recombined, establishing a connection with a vast database deep within the consciousness.
Character: 人 (rén). Character analysis: Pictographic, depicting a human figure standing sideways. Meaning: Humankind; related words: people, life, humanity…
Character: 之. Character analysis: Ideographic compound, composed of 止 (stop) and 一 (one). Meaning: of; grammatical function: structural particle…
Character: 初 (chū). Character analysis: Ideographic compound, composed of 衣 (yī, clothing) and 刀 (dāo, knife). Meaning: Beginning; related words: initial, original intention, beginner…
Information flooded in like a tide, but its flow was strictly controlled.
Ma Changsheng felt a slight dizziness—a normal reaction of the brain when processing excessive information.
"Ma Changsheng!" Mr. Zhou's voice pulled him back to reality. "Why aren't you reading aloud?"
All the children turned their heads.
Ma Changsheng stood up, his small face calm: "Sir, I'm reading."
Mr. Zhou frowned: "Read the words? You recognize the words, but do you recognize them? Read them!"
Ma Changsheng took a deep breath and recited clearly and steadily: "At birth, people are inherently good. Their natures are similar, but their habits differ. If they are not taught, their natures will change. The way to teach is to focus on one thing at a time."
Not a single word is wrong. The tones are accurate.
The ancestral hall was completely silent.
Even the most mischievous child gaped open.
Mr. Zhou's hands trembled slightly.
He walked up to Ma Changsheng and pointed to the second character in the book: "What's this pronounced?"
"Of."
"What about this one?"
"early."
"How about this one?"
"Once, Mencius' mother chose a good neighborhood. When her son neglected his studies, she cut the threads of her loom."
Mr. Zhou pointed to seven or eight places, and Ma Changsheng answered them all fluently.
The old man's wrinkled face trembled with excitement: "You...you studied this before?"
Ma Changsheng shook his head.
This is the truth—at least in this timeline, he didn't actually study it formally.
Mr. Zhou then turned to the middle section of the Three Character Classic and pointed to a more complex line: "Like carrying firewood, like hanging horns. Though the body is weary, the struggle is still arduous."
Ma Changsheng glanced at it, paused briefly—actually waiting for the database to retrieve the data—and then read it fluently.
"A child prodigy... truly a child prodigy!" Mr. Zhou exclaimed excitedly, his beard trembling. "The child of Ma Sanbao's family, literate at five years old, with a photographic memory!"
The news spread throughout the entire village that very day.
When Ma Sanbao came to pick up his son in the evening, he was surrounded by villagers.
"Sanbao, your ancestral graves are emitting auspicious smoke!"
"This child, Changsheng, will surely pass the imperial examination in the future!"
"He'll not only pass the provincial examination, he'll probably pass the imperial examination!"
Ma Sanbao chuckled sheepishly, unsure how to respond.
He looked down at his son, Ma Changsheng, who was quietly holding onto his clothes, his eyes clear, as if unaware of the commotion he had caused.
Only Ma Changsheng himself knew the price he paid for that "miracle".
Text recognition module activation rate: 12%
Instantaneous information processing load: peak value reaches 37 times that of an average five-year-old child.
Side effects: Mild headache, lasting about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.
The suppression mechanism has been activated, and subsequent performance will be adjusted to the range of "excellent but reasonable".
On the way home, Ma Sanbao asked his son, "Changsheng, can you really recognize those characters at a glance?"
After thinking for a moment, Ma Changsheng chose an answer that was closest to the truth without being too shocking: "Father, those words... seem to have known me all along."
Ma Sanbao didn't understand the hidden meaning in his words, taking them only as the innocent utterances of a child. He patted his son's head: "Study hard, your parents are counting on you."
From that day on, Ma Changsheng's position in the private school became delicate.
Mr. Zhou took special care of him, often letting him sit in the front row and asking him the most questions.
Some of the other children were envious, some were jealous, and some simply felt that "Chang Sheng is different from us."
The most noticeable change occurred in calligraphy class.
A month after he began learning to write, Mr. Zhou started teaching him to write characters.
He first demonstrated the basic strokes on the sand table: "Horizontal strokes should be flat, vertical strokes should be straight, dots should be like melon seeds, and downward strokes should be like knives."
The children practiced crookedly on the sand tray using twigs.
Ma Changsheng gripped the tree branch, yet his wrist remained remarkably steady.
When his pen touched the sand, muscle memory was triggered—not the memory of a five-year-old child in this body, but a writing experience from the depths of his consciousness in the future.
Calligraphy Basics Module: Activate
Detected: Brush writing posture, basic strokes of regular script
Matching: Historical calligraphy database; Recommended: Yan Zhenqing and Liu Gongquan's regular script structure
Warning: This age is not suitable for demonstrating excessively high levels of calligraphic skill.
Adjustments: Mimicking the normal learning pace of a five-year-old child, and incorporating reasonable errors.
The first "person" character written by Ma Changsheng had a slightly upturned horizontal stroke and a slightly curved vertical stroke—just like the level a clever but beginner child should have.
Mr. Zhou stood behind him for a long time, then nodded: "His brushwork is still weak, but the structure is already showing promise. Given time, he will surely be able to write beautiful characters."
In reality, Ma Changsheng was deliberately suppressing it.
Whenever his wrist tries to write a smoother stroke, the inhibitory mechanism in his mind forcibly intervenes, causing his fingers to tremble slightly, creating the awkwardness that a child should have.
This suppression is not easy.
Just like having a master pianist pretend to be a beginner, every deliberate mistake requires precise control.
During the midday break, the children played in the open space outside the ancestral hall.
Ma Changsheng usually sat on the stone steps, watching them chase and play.
It's not that he doesn't want to participate, but rather that he doesn't know how—although the social module in his consciousness has activated the basics, he still needs to learn how to interact naturally with his peers in this era.
One day, Tiezhu, the strongest boy in the village, ran up to him and asked, "Changsheng, what came after 'Heaven and Earth, Black and Yellow' that the teacher taught us today?"
Ma Changsheng blurted out: "The universe was vast and boundless. The sun and moon waxed and waned, and the stars and constellations were arrayed in the sky."
"What does that mean?" another child asked, coming closer.
Ma Changsheng was taken aback. He "knew" what it meant—the consciousness database contained a complete commentary on the Thousand Character Classic—but how could he explain it to a five-year-old?
He thought for a moment, then pointed to the sky: "That means the sky is black, the earth is yellow, the world is very, very big, the sun and moon are turning around, and the stars are lined up."
The children nodded, seemingly understanding. Tie Zhu scratched his head: "You know so much."
"It's written in the book," Ma Changsheng said.
"But we all read books, how come you're the only one who remembers them?"
Ma Changsheng couldn't answer.
At this moment, Mr. Zhou came out of the ancestral hall and came to his rescue: "A person's natural endowment cannot be forced. You should also work hard. Although you may not live forever, diligence can make up for any shortcomings."
But Mr. Zhou himself had his own doubts.
He had been teaching for thirty years and had seen many bright children, but he had never heard of anyone as bright as Ma Changsheng.
What troubled him even more was that the child would occasionally say things beyond his years.
During a lecture on the Analects, Mr. Zhou said, "To know what you know, and to know what you don't know, that is true knowledge." Ma Changsheng suddenly asked, "Sir, what should one do if one 'doesn't know' what one doesn't know?"
Mr. Zhou was stunned.
This is an epistemological question that even many adult scholars have not explored in depth.
"This...this requires learning and asking for advice."
"What if no one knows?" Ma Changsheng pressed. "For example, why is the sky blue, and why do stars shine?"
The children in the ancestral hall burst into laughter, thinking that Changsheng had asked a silly question.
But Mr. Zhou's expression was solemn.
Looking into the clear eyes of the five-year-old child before him, he suddenly felt a chill—the gaze was too profound, unlike that of a child.
"These are matters of course and need not be investigated further," Mr. Zhou finally replied, ending the topic.
After school that day, Mr. Zhou deliberately kept Ma Changsheng behind and asked him some questions indirectly.
Ma Changsheng realized he had talked too much, so most of the time he would just shake his head and say "I don't know" or "I'm just thinking."
On the way home, my consciousness log was updated:
Social module warning: Demonstrates cognitive abilities beyond one's age, raising concerns.
Recommended adjustment: Reduce the frequency of questions related to philosophy and science.
Imitation goal: Refer to the behavioral patterns of the best children of the same age and maintain a 10-15% advantage.
Current age: 5 years and 3 months
Text recognition module activation rate: 18%
Overall level of consciousness awareness: 0.07%
The walls of a private school could not stop the tide of the times.
In the fifth and sixth years of the Chongzhen reign (1632-1633), the situation of the Ming Dynasty deteriorated rapidly.
Each time Ma Sanbao went to the county town to sell firewood, the news he brought back became increasingly heavy:
"The bandits in Henan were scattered, but they regrouped, and it is said that there were more than a dozen groups."
"The imperial court levied an additional 'suppression tax,' three li of silver per mu."
"The Later Jin bypassed Shanhaiguan and invaded through the Mongolian border wall, and martial law was declared in the capital."
These messages reached Ma Changsheng's ears intermittently through the adults' conversations.
Each time it is heard, the historical event comparison module in the seed of consciousness will automatically activate:
Event: The expansion of peasant uprisings at the end of the Ming Dynasty
Timeline match: 98%
Key figures: Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng — Li Zicheng's activity record was detected; he is currently a subordinate of Gao Yingxiang.
Prediction: Within five years, the rebel army will form a large-scale mobile force.
Event: Increased military pressure from the Later Jin
Timeline match: 99%
Key milestone: Huang Taiji declared himself emperor and changed the dynasty name to "Qing" in 1636; it is still currently called "Later Jin".
Prediction: Multiple raids into the Central Plains are expected in 1634-1635.
This information flows through the surface of consciousness like cold code.
But for five-year-old Ma Changsheng, the more direct feeling was that the family's finances were getting tighter and tighter.
With the increased taxes, Ma Sanbao had no choice but to sell some of the grain he had originally set aside for planting to make money.
The porridge on the table is getting thinner and thinner, and the proportion of wild vegetables is getting higher and higher.
The worry on Li's face became increasingly apparent, and she would only show a slight smile when watching her son read.
One night, Ma Changsheng was awakened by his parents' whispers.
"...If all else fails, then those two acres of dry land..." It was Ma Sanbao's voice.
"That's ancestral property, we can't sell it," Li said, her voice choked with emotion.
"If we don't sell land, how will we pay taxes? How will we support Changsheng's education?"
After a long silence, Li said softly, "I'll take on more embroidery work... It seems the Wang family in the county is looking for an embroiderer."
"You're not feeling well..."
"I can endure it for the sake of immortality."
Ma Changsheng lay in the darkness, his eyes wide open.
A strange emotion welled up in his chest—it was guilt, helplessness, and a sense of his parents' hardships.
The emotional module within the seed of consciousness recorded this experience:
Emotional experience: Anxiety caused by family responsibilities
Intensity: Medium
Physiological response: Increased heart rate, slightly rapid breathing
Analysis: This is a normal human emotional response and contributes to the development of social cognition.
He suddenly remembered that at the Europa base, although the trillions of clones shared consciousness, each individual had an independent nutrition supply system and never knew what "hunger" was.
Now, he truly feels the oppression brought about by material scarcity.
The next day, Ma Changsheng went to the private school and was exceptionally attentive.
He knew that education was the family's only hope, and the sole reason for his parents' perseverance.
Mr. Zhou also noticed something.
One day after school, he stopped Ma Changsheng and took out a small cloth bag from his pocket: "There is half an ink stick in here. Take it home and use it. Practicing calligraphy on the sand tray is limited; it's time to use paper and pen."
Ma Changsheng was stunned.
Ink was a valuable item at the time, and ordinary farming families simply couldn't afford it.
"Sir, this is far too valuable..."
"Take it." Mr. Zhou stuffed the cloth bag into his hand, sighed, "I'm old, and there's no hope for the imperial examinations. If you become successful, it will fulfill one of my wishes."
The inkstick in the cloth bag was only the size of a thumb, but it was fine in texture and had a pine soot aroma.
Ma Changsheng held it in his hand, feeling its weight.
When he got home that day, he showed the inkstick to his parents.
Ma Sanbao and Li Shi stared at the ink for a long time. Finally, Ma Sanbao said, "Sir, you have shown me great kindness and longevity. You must remember this."
Li then spent the night finding a treasured piece of fine cloth and sewed a pencil case for her son.
In the autumn of the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633), Ma Changsheng was six years old.
The learning in the private school proceeded in an orderly manner.
He has already finished learning the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, and has begun to read the Thousand Character Classic and the Young Scholar's Jade Forest.
Mr. Zhou even began teaching him how to compose couplets—an essential skill for the imperial examinations.
"Clouds against rain, snow against wind, sunset against clear sky."
Ma Changsheng replied: "Mountains face water, green faces red, earth faces the sky."
Mr. Zhou was surprised to find that the child not only had an exceptional memory, but also a natural sensitivity to rhythm and tones.
He would occasionally pose some challenging couplets to test Ma Changsheng, who could usually answer them correctly. Although there were occasional flaws, the ingenuity of his thinking often impressed the old gentleman.
The other children in the private school have been left far behind.
While Tiezhu was still struggling to memorize the Three Character Classic, Changsheng was already reading the Analects.
The gap is so large that even jealousy seems powerless.
One day in October, a wandering Taoist priest came to the county town.
This Taoist priest didn't solicit alms or tell fortunes, but he set up a stall in the market to test children's "wisdom potential."
When the news reached Majia Village, several villagers took their children to see what was going on.
Ma Sanbao didn't want to go, but he couldn't persuade Li Shi—she wanted to ask the Taoist priest to look at her "fate" for longevity.
The Taoist priest was about forty years old, with a thin face and wearing a tattered Taoist robe, but his eyes were unusually bright.
His stall displayed several strange items: a bronze compass, several stones of different colors, and a blank yellow scroll.
When it was Ma Changsheng's turn, the Taoist priest told him to place his hand on the compass.
The compass needle suddenly spun wildly, then stopped at a strange angle—neither north nor south, nor any conventional direction.
The Taoist priest's expression changed drastically. He stared at Ma Changsheng for a long time before making him touch the stones again.
When Ma Changsheng's hand touched a black stone, the surface of the stone emitted a faint luster that vanished in an instant.
The onlookers erupted in commotion. The Taoist priest quickly put away the stone and said to Ma Sanbao, "This kind sir, may I speak with you in private?"
The three walked to a secluded spot, and the Taoist priest lowered his voice: "This boy is no ordinary person."
Ma Sanbao asked nervously, "Master, is it good or bad?"
The Taoist priest pondered for a moment: "I have cultivated for thirty years and have seen no fewer than a hundred people with wisdom, but none like your son... it is as if a jade is hidden in a shell, its brilliance concealed within. However, this jade is too great, and the young shell may not be able to contain it."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that his talent is so high that it is beyond the reach of ordinary people. If he is not properly guided, he may die young." The Taoist priest said very seriously, "I have a suggestion: let him come with me into the mountains to cultivate Taoism. After ten years, he may achieve great success."
Ma Sanbao was stunned. Li Shi's face turned even paler: "The Taoist priest is going to take Changsheng away?"
"We're not taking him away, but saving him," the Taoist priest said. "If this child stays in the mortal world, he will surely incur the wrath of Heaven. At best, he'll become mentally impaired; at worst, he'll die. Entering the Taoist order for quiet cultivation might avert this."
Ma Sanbao looked at the Taoist priest, then at his son.
Ma Changsheng stood quietly to the side, his face devoid of the fear or curiosity that a child should have, only a detached calm.
In reality, Ma Changsheng's brain was working at lightning speed:
Target detected: Suspected cultivator (Taoist)
Energy characteristic analysis: A weak biofield anomaly, with an intensity 1.3 times that of a normal person.
Analysis of the statement: It may be based on some experiential judgment, but the "divine jealousy" claim has no scientific basis.
Threat assessment: Low (no malicious intent, but may disrupt the original growth path)
Recommendation: Refuse, maintain your current lifestyle.
"Father, Mother," Ma Changsheng said clearly, "I don't want to become a monk."
The Taoist priest looked at him, his eyes filled with complex emotions: "Child, do you know what you are rejecting?"
"I know I need to study hard, pass the imperial examinations, and be filial to my parents," Ma Changsheng said. "This is my parents' wish."
Ma Sanbao's eyes reddened. He gripped his son's hand tightly and said to the Taoist priest, "We appreciate your kindness, Master. But this is our only child, and we can't bear to part with him."
The Taoist priest sighed, took out a small wooden plaque from his robes, and handed it to Ma Changsheng: "In that case, keep this. If you ever encounter any difficulties in the future, you can come to Wudang Mountain to find me."
The wooden sign was rough, with a simple Tai Chi symbol carved on it.
Ma Changsheng accepted it and bowed to express his gratitude.
On the way home, Li held her son tightly, as if he would disappear if she let go. Ma Sanbao remained silent for a long time, then suddenly said, "Chang Sheng, is what that Taoist priest said true? You...you really have some kind of 'divine envy'?"
Ma Changsheng shook his head: "Dad, I'm fine. I'm just a little smarter than other kids, nothing else."
That's partly true and partly false. He is indeed "very good," but "a little smarter" is a serious understatement. As for "divine jealousy"—if it refers to the potential risks arising from the mismatch between consciousness and body, then the Taoist's warning isn't entirely without merit.
That night, Ma Changsheng lay in bed, looking at the moon outside the window.
Deep within consciousness, a fragment of encrypted memory suddenly unlocks—scattered pieces of information from the black hole network:
There are many forms of consciousness carriers in the universe. Carbon-based life is just one of them.
Some spiritual traditions are essentially early explorations of the potential of consciousness; they are inefficient but in the right direction.
Warning: It is not advisable to come into contact with advanced consciousness technologies at the current stage of civilization, as it may trigger cognitive collapse.
Ma Changsheng gripped the wooden plaque tightly.
The texture of the Tai Chi symbol is clearly visible under the fingertip.
He suddenly remembered that on Europa, the shared consciousness of hundreds of billions of clones had discussed a question: if civilization is destined to perish, how should individuals cope?
The conclusion at the time was: record. Record everything about civilization as completely as possible, even if the medium will eventually be destroyed.
And now, he is in this civilization. Not as an observer, but as a participant.
Log update:
Encountering an unexpected event: A practitioner intervenes and makes a suggestion.
Option: Deny, maintain the original path
Impact: Increased parental protectiveness may limit certain aspects of subsequent exploration.
Current age: 6 years and 2 months
Consciousness Awareness Level: 0.11%
The next stage will focus on: fundamental study of classics, history, philosophy, and literature, while observing historical processes.
The moonlight shifted, illuminating the book bag in the corner. Inside were inksticks given by Mr. Zhou, a pencil case sewn by Ms. Li, and several well-worn primers.
Ma Changsheng closed his eyes.
Before he fell into slumber, he made a simple wish:
Live until the day you awaken.
Let's see for ourselves where this era is headed.
Then, at the appropriate time, he did what he was supposed to do.
As for what that matter was, even he himself wasn't entirely clear about it.