The massive popularity of "A Millennium Waiting for Once" had nothing to do with Songshan Town; in ancient times, the long, obstructed roads made news travel slowly.
Inside the Songshan Private School, Lin Zezu, Li Bendian, and three others were miserable and exhausted. Fortunately, Lin Zezu managed to secure a supply of paper for Wang Jixue and the other three. Otherwise, no matter how long a face Master Zhu pulled, there would have been no way for his students to show any improvement in their calligraphy. Of the five, Lin Zezu made the fastest progress, for the simple reason that he had been struck with the ruler the most. Lin Zezu called it "muscle memory," a skill that would stay with him for life—what people usually call foundational training.
As the five boys improved, everyone began to breathe a sigh of relief. Little did they know that Master Zhu would up the stakes, increasing the daily requirement from three hundred characters per hour to three hundred and fifty. After being thrashed twice, the lazy Li Bendian became as industrious as a tiny motor. Wang Jixue and Li Bendao had always been the type to suffer in silence; they would only write more, never less. Even the sharp-witted Xie Yousheng found himself struggling this time, summarizing his self-reflection in four words: "There are no shortcuts."
Chapter 184