A Clash of Gods - Chapter 187

Chapter 187 Misguiding
Shameless!

He had seen the shameless, but he’d never seen one to such extent. Yang Ning had thought Mr. Jiang might really have traveled overseas, likely to be an extremely rare overseas returnee in this era. But after this, he knew that this brat was just deceiving the world under the name of overseas returnee.

There was a flurry of activity within the book hall. The students exchanged words and had different looks, mostly full of surprise, a few slightly puzzled.

“You should know about the round sky and square earth. The sky is like a dome, the full moon is in the sky, and I always thought that was it.” Seeing how the audience reacted, Jiang Suiyun smiled, “But I went far across the ocean, only to find that the world outside is very different as the master said.”

“Senior Brother Jiang, is the moon overseas really square?” Su Zixuan asked urgently, “Is it not the same moon as ours?”

“Of course not,” Jiang Suiyun said solemnly, “And people overseas don’t call the moon the moon, but… Yes, it’s called Light Terrace!”

“Light Terrace?” Yang Ning stifled a laugh that almost made him gasp, thinking this Mr. Jiang was really good at making things up. He was afraid no one would suspect Mr. Jiang was making up the truth just with the look on his face.

There was no doubt if Jiang Suiyun said some ordinary things here today, it wouldn’t make him much of a talent. If he talked about some poetry and songs or even high commentary, the several old masters present, especially the learned scholar Zhuo Qingyang would easily recognize his level of learning. He might as well say something strange and bizarre to attract people’s attention.

The most important thing was that nowadays there weren’t many people who were able to travel across the ocean, and fewer people could see the world ten thousand li away. Jiang Suiyun claimed what he said about was all ten thousand miles away, but who could verify?

The students present, although studying in the academy, were almost girls who didn’t even go out of the door, not to mention knew something about ten thousand miles away. They might not even understand many of the things in the capital. Hearing what Jiang Suiyun said, they found it unbelievable, but were very curious too.

“Senior Brother Jiang, do people overseas look like us?” Suddenly someone asked.

Jiang Suiyun laughed, “Naturally, they are different. Most of the people overseas are very handsome. Both men and women are courteous and treat people warmly. Moreover, they are rich in resources. They treat people with rich dishes which taste really good, using varied cooking skills.”

“Then … What do they read then?”

“This I have carefully checked. They read different books from us, in fact, they rarely read. When it comes to reading and writing, they’re no match for us. I’m not going to hide from you, I went to a few countries and casually wrote some poems. They would feel incredible about them and worship them as the most precious.” Jiang Suiyun laughed and said, “I’m so ignorant and uneducated, but when I went there, I was worshipped like a god.”

“So they were that ignorant.” Su Zixuan laughed, “Senior Brother Jiang, not to mention overseas, even in the Central Plains, your talent stands out from the rest.”

“You flattered me.” Jiang Suiyun sighed, “At that time, the emperors of two countries invited me to a banquet, where they begged me to stay and teach them articles. In fact, I have thought about whether to stay over there for a few more years to teach them poetries and articles, but people overseas are not fluent in literature. It has taken countless years for Chinese poetry and songs to get to where they are today, which they will not understand in a short time.”

At this moment, the girls in the book hall were full of reverence.

With a smile, Yang Ning suddenly asked, “Mr. Jiang, may I ask if there is sun overseas during the day?”

“Naturally, there is.” Seeing that it was Yang Ning who asked the question, Jiang Suiyun still kept his smile.

“Then what is the shape of their sun?” Yang Ning had an inviting look on his face, “Is it also square?”

Jiang Suiyun laughed, “That’s not true.”

“Then as you said, the sun overseas is not the same as our Chu’s?” Yang Ning slowly stood up and said with a smile, “In other words, there are two suns in the sky?”

When these words came out, Jiang Suiyun’s face slightly went pale.

Since ancient times, there couldn’t possibly be two suns in the sky and two masters of one person. Once Jiang Suiyun said that the suns in foreign countries were different from the Central Plains’, it would be a big taboo.

Knowing all this, Zhuo Qingyang frowned and said, “Qionglin Academy has its own rules. Within this academy, just say it if you have you own doctrine. No need to worry.”

Yang Ning laughed, “Mr. Zhuo, in fact, I’m wondering, since the world is large, naturally there is no way Mr. Jiang could travel to every piece of land across the world. He traveled overseas and has been very far away, but naturally it can’t be the end of the sky. If he saw a square moon, does that mean that there are many places where the moon he didn’t see? Are there also triangular ones, or even baguette-shaped ones?”

Jiang Suiyun frowned and said, “What do you mean by that?”

“I’m just asking for advice with an open mind.” Yang Ning laughed, “Mr. Jiang, I wonder is the place you went to Europe, or Africa, or America?”

Jiang Suiyun frowned and said, “What… What Africa… What Europe?”

Yang Ning laughed loudly and walked up to Jiang Suiyun in full view of all eyes and sighed, “I’d like to ask you, the people you’ve seen overseas, are they blonde with blue eyes, or are they all black?”

At the sight of Yang Ning, Su Zixuan’s face, which had been wearing a sweet smile, immediately turned cold, and she sneered, “How dare you interrupt when Senior Brother Jiang is lecturing? You’ve never been overseas. What do you know?”

Yang Ning glanced at Su Zixuan and said indifferently, “Since the teacher is lecturing, how dare a student interrupt? Don’t you feel reckless?”

Su Zixuan was stunned and was instantly infuriated.

“What do you mean by people all black?” Jiang Suiyun didn’t look so joyful.

Yang Ning laughed, “You just said that the overseas people you’ve seen are all very handsome, so they shouldn’t be black. When I say black, I mean black skin all over the body.”

The crowd was immediately shocked again, thinking that there was no such person in this world.

“Could it be that you’ve seen that kind of person?” Jiang Suiyun, however, still maintained a faint smile.

Yang Ning didn’t answer, continued to ask, “I would also like to ask one more question. Mr. Jiang went overseas. I wonder how long the ship traveled. I’ve heard that there are many island countries in the Southern Ocean. You didn’t come to those countries, did you, Mr. Jiang?”

“Of course not.” Jiang Suiyun put his hands behind his back, “It took more than a year for the ship to make a trip, and naturally, we visited many countries along the way, and it took more than a year to the farthest country.”

“That’s really far, far away. It could never be the Southern Ocean.” Yang Ning said with a smile, “According to what you said, it should be Europe.”

He said so but sneered in his mind. He knew that although the era he traveled through was different from any dynasty in history, the geographical location was no difference, except that at this time, the Silk Road was obviously not yet open. If walking by sea, when the Suez Canal in Egypt was not opened yet, they could only go around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and make a great circle to reach Europe. If he went by this route and Mr. Jiang visited the countries along the way, it’d be impossible not to have seen the black people.

With this, he was clear this brat was talking tall.

“What is this Europe you speak of again?” Jiang Suiyun said indifferently, “I’ve never heard of it as I traveled overseas.”

Yang Ning laughed, “It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard of Europe, dare I ask if Mr. Jiang has heard of Herodotus? Thucydides? Xenophon? Haven’t you heard of Aeschylus? Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, do you know all of them?”

The names he mentioned were so strange that all the people in the room looked puzzled at once.

Jiang Suiyun had already frowned at this point and asked, “What are these things?”

“Didn’t Mr. Jiang just say that your poems were regarded as treasures overseas?” Yang Ning sighed, “You said that they don’t read and regard you as a god, but as far as I know, there are many scholars in their own culture and glory, just like our civilization, shimmering and glowing.”

Jiang Suiyun’s voice turned cold, “Oh, how do you know this? Could it be that you have also traveled overseas?”

Yang Ning laughed lightly, “I don’t need to tell you in a hurry as to where I know this from. Since you don’t know these people, of course you wouldn’t know philosophy, mathematics, theology, economics, and aesthetics.” Seeing that there was a smooth wooden board on the podium with a huge piece of white paper hanging on it and a brush and ink underneath, obviously for teaching purposes, he went over, lifted the brush, and drew three circles of different sizes on the white paper in a brisk manner.

At this time, there was already a lot of discussion offstage. They were so lost with what Yang Ning said. Zhuo Qingyang at this time, didn’t stop him though, examining the three circles on the paper.

“What is this?” Jiang Suiyun frowned and said.

“You said the moon is square, then I will teach you what the moon actually is today, so as to prevent you from misleading them!” Yang Ning put down the brush, picked up a teaching stick, pointed to the circles on the drawing and said, “Look carefully, this largest circle, is the sun we see during the day, and this middle one, is where we are… the Earth!”

“Earth?” Before Yang Ning was done, Jiang Suiyun already laughed, “Are you telling a joke? The sky is round, the earth is square. How did it become a round ball?”

“He’s uneducated, who can make up any kind of nonsense.” Su Zixuan said with hatred.

Yang Ning ignored and continued, “This smallest one would be the moon Mr. Jing mentioned. In fact, these three balls are always rotating. There are two ways of rotation, which are, revolving on its axis and around other planets…!”

An old man frowned and was about to speak, when Zhuo Qingyang coughed and slightly shook his head, indicating the old man not to disturb. He then looked at the drawing, actually seeming to be quite interested.