บท 12: Glorious Freak

Guan Yuang Fei read over the page long summary that his student had handed him upon his return. He was slightly disappointed at first as he'd only been away for an hour or so. The first chapter of the book he had given to Ma Sa would almost take that long to read. Once he started reading, however, his disappointment quickly shifted to incredulity. Guan Yuang Fei knew very well just how difficult the text was in that book. It was as if the author had intentionally obfuscated his work with horrifically complex words. He had spent many nights poring over the pages of that damn book and coming away from it none the wiser until a moment of enlightenment later struck him.

The summary in front of him had succinctly condensed the thirty pages of intellectual grandstanding into a mere two pages. The boy's writing style was concise yet did not seem too abrupt. There was still a certain flow to the information that tied it all together. Of course, it merely outlined the information from the chapter without delving into it. Despite that, Guan Yuang Fei felt like he had absorbed more from the summary than he did from his first three hours of reading the original text.

Ma Sa looked at his teacher and suppressed a smile. He had reread the chapter a few hundred times in his inventory over the course of the last hour and thought very hard about what he wanted to write. Once he started writing he didn't stop until he had finished. To Guan Yuang Fei, a scholar who had read countless essays and books throughout his life, it looked like a continuous stream of consciousness had crystallised itself on the pages before him.

Ma Sa was watching his teacher read with great expectation. He hoped that Guan Yuang Fei would see value in his 'talent' in comprehension. Although his goal was to learn martial arts, Ma Sa really didn't mind learning anything that Old Guan wanted to teach him. He didn't want to become a muscle brained type. Dave had originally lived in a civilised Western culture where words came before fists. He was of the belief that the amount of force one could apply on one's surrounding world was finite if only physical force was considered. A better source of power lay in a sound idea which, when given proper voice, would resonate and borrow the force of those who listened.

"This... This is very impressive..." Old Guan finished reading Ma Sa's summary for the second time. "How did you finish so quickly though? I expected you to need a couple of days to interpret the text."

"Thank you. In response to Teacher's question, I do read quickly but in this case I had actually read the whole book before. It was in father's study. When I was three years old a servant told me that father had secret martial arts manuals and that they were encoded in his library books. I spent a year secretly sneaking into his study at night to read and hopefully decode all the books there. I guess the servant got tired of me constantly asking him questions... After I read all of the books in the study I realised that the servant had tried to trick me. Even so, I did learn a lot of obscure information and my vocabulary increased a lot. So I suppose I'm thankful for the experience even though I had been tricked into it."

Guan Yuang Fei was taken aback by the answer. The boy had read something as dry as 'A Detailed Compendium of The Flora of Qian' at the age of three. Not only had he read and understood it but he had searched it for signs of encryption! This was a little freak! A glorious little freak! Guan Yuang Fei had to suppress the maniacal laughter that was threatening to burst from his chest. A truly worthy student! Old Guan couldn't help but feel his teacher's instincts ignite.

"Ummm teacher? Are you alright?" asked Ma Sa. When he saw his teacher 's embarrassed looking nod as he exited his daze, Ma Sa continued, "This book in particular had caught my interest as the words were so pointlessly obtuse that I highly suspected there to be a code. Is that likely? Do people ever encode martial arts manuals in books?" Ma Sa tried to bring the focus back to martial arts. He wanted to demonstrate that he had a strong will to learn them. Until Old Guan revealed that he knew martial arts and agreed to teach him, Ma Sa would continue to redirect every conversation towards them. He was sure the old man could take a hint.

"Tsk! What's so great about martial arts that you would read that book? What do you want to be one of those martial artists for? Clearly your talent lies in studying!"

"Eh, I just wanted to study martial arts because I thought it was cool back then but... Now I want to study them even more! If I was strong maybe mother and father would still be here..." Ma Sa's voice trailed off as he spoke.

Seeing the gloomy look surrounding his student, Guan Yuang Fei suddenly remembered that he was talking to a child. It was easy to forget considering how articulate Ma Sa was.

"Hmmph... Well, if you study hard for a while and learn all the things I teach you properly, I'll consider trying to find a martial arts tutor for you. How does that sound?"

"I'll study hard teacher!" the gloomy mood around Ma Sa was instantly banished. "I definitely won't let you down!"

After a few moments of celebration, Ma Sa asked Guan Yuang Fei, "Teacher? Can I show you the code in the book? It doesn't make sense to me but it seems like it could be something..."