Emily Sullivan turned around and smiled at Henry Carter when she heard this, but then she snatched the little bell and handed it to David Foster.

David Foster was taken aback. Henry Carter was also quite angry, but on second thought, wouldn’t it be even better to let the whole school see David Foster make a fool of himself?

※※※

“Please name at least five historical Chinese terms that use the number four. Each correct answer earns twenty points, each wrong answer deducts ten.” The host teacher adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose and asked slowly.

This question was indeed rather difficult, and since wrong answers would lose points, no class dared to press the bell first. Instead, the three students from each class buried their heads together, writing down whatever answers they could remember. Emily Sullivan saw that the students from the other classes all looked worried, so she quickly nudged David Foster.

David Foster sighed softly, picked up the little bell with two fingers, and gave it a shake.

A crisp “ding-dong” sounded.

The previously noisy classroom instantly fell silent. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the young student holding the bell and smiling. Henry Carter, who sat at the same table as David Foster, looked over in astonishment. He had just racked his brains and only thought of four—could this guy really have found the answer so quickly?

David Foster glanced at Emily Sullivan, gave a wry smile, and said, “The Four Talents of Early Tang, the Four Great Masters of the Tang Dynasty, the Four Scholars of the Su School, the Four Spirits of Yongjia, the Four Great Poets of the Southern Song Restoration, the Four Great Masters of Yuan Drama, and the Four Talents of Wu Region.” He paused and added, “Seven in total, that should be enough, right?”

The host checked the correct answers in his hand, couldn’t help but adjust his glasses again, and said with a hint of disbelief, “That’s enough, that’s enough.”

“Wait a minute.” A female student from Class Three suddenly stood up. “I understand the Four Talents of Early Tang, the Four Scholars of the Su School, and the Four Great Masters of Yuan Drama, but I’ve never heard of the Four Great Masters of the Tang Dynasty or the Four Spirits of Yongjia. Are you just making things up?”

David Foster looked at the girl, smiled, and calmly explained, “The Four Great Masters of the Tang Dynasty doesn’t refer to the four great writers, but to the four great calligraphers. In the Tang Dynasty, regular script was held in the highest regard, so Ouyang Xun, Yu Shinan, Yan Zhenqing, and Liu Gongquan are called the Four Great Masters of the Tang Dynasty… As for the Four Spirits of Yongjia, they are the Southern Song poets Xu Zhao, Xu Ji, Weng Juan, and Zhao Shixiu. All four were from Yongjia, which is now Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and each of their courtesy names contains the character ‘Ling’. Xu Zhao’s courtesy name was Linghui, Xu Ji’s was Lingyuan…”

The youthful voice, not yet fully matured, echoed in the spacious audio-visual classroom.

……

“What is the earliest dictionary in ancient China? Which dictionary contains the most characters? How many characters does each contain?”

The principal’s questions were truly tough, but unfortunately, today’s quiz competition had an even tougher contestant.

After several difficult questions in a row, the students from the other classes finally gave up trying to answer and instead watched the answer table of Class One with great interest. At this point, the county high school’s quiz competition seemed to have become a solo stage for David Foster, the famous scavenger from Class One, Grade Eleven.

David Foster felt uncomfortable under everyone’s gaze, and even more uncomfortable that he had to ring the little bell in his hand.

“The earliest dictionary is the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen of the Eastern Han, which contains 9,353 single characters. The dictionary with the most characters is the Kangxi Dictionary, which contains 47,035 characters.”

“How many West Lakes are there in China?” The host teacher didn’t even ask the students to buzz in anymore, and naturally looked toward David Foster.

David Foster couldn’t be bothered to ring the bell again and answered directly, “According to Wang Shizhuo’s ‘A Study of West Lakes’ from the Qing Dynasty, there are thirty-one places nationwide named West Lake. But in the Qing Dynasty’s ‘Notes from the Cold Cottage’ it says, ‘There are thirty-six West Lakes under heaven, but only Hangzhou’s is the most famous,’ though it doesn’t list the locations of all thirty-six. According to current information, besides Hangzhou, there are also West Lakes in Huzhou, Huaxian, Hanzhou, Shouchang…”

“About how many languages are there in the world?”

“Five thousand six hundred and fifty-one, of which fourteen hundred have not yet been recognized as independent languages, and some are disappearing…”

“How far apart are the Cowherd Star and the Weaver Girl Star?”

“One hundred and fifty trillion kilometers.”

“How many light years is that?” The host teacher, now quite curious about this student, noticed he hadn’t used the common unit of light years, and, on a whim, asked an extra question.

“Hm?” David Foster was taken aback, then suddenly grinned and said, “Everyone can do the math themselves. I forgot, and I can’t calculate it right now.”

Seeing the scavenger king so knowledgeable, as if he knew even the most obscure things, yet at this moment admitting he couldn’t do the math, all the students who had been quietly listening couldn’t help but find it odd. The classroom was silent for a long time, and this strange atmosphere in the air finally made everyone burst out laughing together.

Along with the laughter came long-lasting, enthusiastic applause. On this early summer day in 1994, the applause at Gaoyang County High School was the warmest in its history. The applause seemed to fly out through the plane trees outside the classroom, soaring into the sky, as if foreshadowing something. This scene remained in David Foster’s memory for many years, never to be erased.

Chapter Fourteen: The Rogue with Three Fingers