“It’s not that—I don’t know qigong at all. I just used needles to stimulate your acupoints, making them more active. That way, you might feel like you’re being treated with qigong, but actually it’s just the effect of your own acupoints being activated,” Samuel Bennett quickly explained after hearing this.

“Oh, so that’s how it is. I thought you were so young and already knew qigong!” The middle-aged man didn’t think much of it. Most people wouldn’t really know what was going on, so after hearing this explanation, he was relieved.

“By the way, you look quite young—why aren’t you in school? At your age, you should be in class!” The middle-aged man, now barely feeling the pain that had plagued him for years, was in a great mood and started chatting with Samuel Bennett.

“I’ve never been to school,” Samuel Bennett replied.

“What? These days, it’s hard to get anywhere in society without an education. I see your calligraphy is quite good, and you speak well, so your literary foundation isn’t bad. But if you don’t go to school now, you won’t have the chance when you’re older, even if you want to.” As soon as the middle-aged man started talking about his own field, he began lecturing Samuel Bennett as if he were a truant student.

Seeing Samuel Bennett’s indifferent expression, the middle-aged man fully displayed his professional spirit as a teacher: “My surname is Liu, I’m Ethan Foster, a math teacher for the graduating class at Santang Middle School. Even though you have a literary foundation, you still need to learn other subjects. If you master ‘math, physics, and chemistry,’ you can go anywhere in the world without fear—you should know that.” Ethan Foster said earnestly.

“Master ‘math, physics, and chemistry,’ and you can go anywhere in the world without fear? I’ve never heard of that,” Samuel Bennett slowly shook his head. He usually read Buddhist scriptures, medical books, or miscellaneous foreign texts, but had never really touched books on math, physics, or chemistry.

Hearing Samuel Bennett’s answer, Ethan Foster was a bit at a loss. Had he really never been to school? He could only patiently explain: “Math is mathematics. You need math to calculate your daily income, to build a house, to run a factory—even farming uses math. And when you write prescriptions, you use math too. As for physics: it’s about why people can walk, why cars can move, why boats don’t sink in water, and how people can fly planes in the sky—all of that is physics. Chemistry is about what our food and water are made of, why the herbs in your prescriptions can cure illnesses, and how the salt we eat is made—all of that uses chemistry.”

Hearing Mr. Foster’s introduction, Samuel Bennett was genuinely interested. These were things his master had never taught him.

“But I have to run my stall now, and my mas—my family might not agree to let me go to school.”

“That’s easy. Just tell me where you live, and I’ll go talk to your family myself.” Seeing Samuel Bennett start to show interest, Ethan Foster felt a sense of accomplishment.

“Let me go home and discuss it with my family first. I’ll come find you if I decide to go, is that okay?” Samuel Bennett didn’t want anyone to know that his “family” was actually his master, and that he lived on a mountaintop where ordinary people couldn’t go.

“All right. If you come to find me during the day, just come to the school. Ask any teacher or student for the ninth-grade Mr. Foster, and they’ll tell you where my office is. If it’s at night, just ask the people living behind the school—they all know where my house is.”

“Thank you, Mr. Foster.” Samuel Bennett was truly touched by Ethan Foster’s enthusiasm.

“No need. In fact, I should thank you today. The pain in my lungs and legs that’s tormented me for years is almost gone thanks to you. Here’s two yuan for today’s treatment.” With that, Ethan Foster took out two yuan and handed it to Samuel Bennett.

Samuel Bennett didn’t want to take his money at all and quickly tried to refuse.

“You treated me today, so you must take the money. As for your schooling, that’s my duty as a teacher.” Ethan Foster insisted on paying.

In the end, Samuel Bennett had no choice but to accept the money, secretly resolving to help this kind-hearted Mr. Foster completely cure his illness.

After seeing Ethan Foster leave, Samuel Bennett began packing up his stall.

By the time he returned to the mountain, it was already dark. Seeing his master preparing to cook, Samuel Bennett quickly put down his plastic bottle and took over the cooking utensils to start making dinner.

After dinner, Samuel Bennett told his master everything that had happened with Mr. Foster that day.

Franklin was silent for a while, then said to Samuel Bennett, “Disciple, you’re growing up. I’ve basically taught you everything I can. If you want to make your way in society, you really do need to learn all kinds of knowledge. I support you going to school. Also, you should stop running your stall.”

“Master, I’ll definitely study hard. As for the stall, I’d like to keep it up. It doesn’t take much time—only once every five days. You should trust your disciple’s abilities; I definitely won’t fall behind others.”

Seeing Samuel Bennett insist, Franklin didn’t press the issue. It seemed his disciple was slowly starting to grow up.