One year: 365 days. 356.1 = 365. Two years: 365 + 365 = 730 days. 365.2 = 730. Three years: 730 + 365 = 1,095 days 365.3 =1,095.
As I am sure you will have realized, Duckling was using a dot to indicate multiplication — he did not know the proper sign and hence had to invent one of his own. Using this dual method of calculation, he had worked out a total for the first twenty years. But from the twenty-first year, he swapped the order of the two methods, giving his dot multiplication first and the addition second:
Twenty-one years: 365.21 = 7,665 days.
7,300 + 365 = 7,665 days.
At this stage, Young Lillie noticed that the figure of 7,665 obtained by multiplication had been corrected; the original answer had been something like 6,565. After that the total for every year was worked out the same way. The dot method came first and the addition came second, furthermore the result obtained by multiplication sometimes showed signs of having been corrected, to fit with the figure obtained by addition. However, the figure obtained by multiplication for the first twenty years of old Mr Auslander’s life did not seem to have been corrected. That meant two things:
1. For calculating the first twenty years, Duckling was using addition as his primary method, while his dot principle was just a kind of decoration, which he seemed to regard as something that could not necessarily stand independently. On the other hand, from twenty-one years on, he was using multiplication only, with the addition functioning merely as mathematical proof.
2. To begin with he had not completely mastered multiplication and thus made mistakes, hence there were corrections to be found in his workings. However, later on, once he came to understand multiplication fully, the corrections gradually disappeared.
He carried on multiplying one year at a time until he reached forty, and then there was a sudden leap to eighty-nine, which by his dot method of calculation he worked out to be 32,485 days, a figure from which he then subtracted 253 days to reach a final total of 32,232 days, exactly as before. He had drawn a circle around this number, to make sure that it caught the eye and stood out from all the other figures.
There was one final page of workings, which appeared very confused, but Young Lillie realized at first glance that he was trying to work out the principles of multiplication. At the very bottom of the page, the rules were clearly set out. As the old man looked at this page, he could not stop himself from reciting it out loud –
Once one is one.
Once two is two.
Once three is three. .
Two twos are four.
Two threes are six.
Two fours are eight. .
Three threes are nine.
Three fours are twelve.
Three fives are fifteen.
Three sixes are eighteen. .What he was reading was indubitably multiplication.
When he had finished, Young Lillie looked silently at the child, as he was enveloped by a very strange and unfamiliar sense of uncertainty. The quiet little room still seemed to resound with the echoes of his chanting; as he concentrated, he felt warmed and comforted. It was at that moment he decided that he had to take the child away. He said to himself, the war has gone on for years now and there is no end in sight; at any moment, with the very best motives at heart, an unconsidered action might bring disaster down upon me and those dearest to me. But this child is a genius and if I don’t take him away with me right now, I am going to regret it for the rest of my life.
Before the end of the summer holidays, Young Lillie received a telegram from the provincial capital to say that the university would begin classes again in the autumn. They hoped that he would return as soon as possible to prepare to begin teaching. Once he received this telegram, Young Lillie thought that he might well not return to take charge, but that he would have to bring back a new student for them. He called out to the major-domo and told him that he was leaving. When he finished, he gave the man a fistful of notes. The majordomo thanked him, imagining that this was a tip.
Young Lillie said, ‘This is not a tip. I want you to do something for me.’
‘What is it?’ asked the major-domo.
‘Take Duckling into the village and buy him two sets of clothes.’
The major-domo just stood there, thinking that he must have misheard.
‘Once you have done that, I will give you your tip,’ said Young Lillie.
A couple of days later, when the major-domo came for his tip, Young Lillie said, ‘You had better help Duckling to pack: we are leaving tomorrow.’
As you might imagine, yet again the major-domo just stood there, thinking that he must have misheard.
Young Lillie had to repeat what he had said all over again.
The following morning, just as the sky was getting light, all the dogs in the Rong family mansion suddenly started barking. First one started barking and then the next joined in, until the cacophony was indescribable and wrenched every member of the household — masters and servants — out of bed, to peer at what was going on outside through the cracks in the doors. Thanks to the lamp that the majordomo held, the residents of the Rong mansion were treated to such an amazing sight that they were hardly able to believe their eyes. They saw Duckling in a new suit of clothes, carrying the ox-hide suitcase that Mr Auslander had arrived with all those years before, walking silently in Young Lillie’s wake, trying desperately to keep up. He seemed scared, and moved like a bewildered little ghost. Because it was so amazing, they none of them dared believe their own eyes. When the major-domo got back from the docks, they learned from him that it was only too true.
There were many questions. Where was Young Lillie taking him? Why was he taking him away? Would Duckling ever come back? Why was Young Lillie so kind to Duckling? And so on and so forth. The major-domo had two answers to all these questions.
To his masters he said: ‘I don’t know.’
To the junior servants he said: ‘Who the fuck knows!’
4
If the horse made the world smaller and boat travel made the world larger, then the internal combustion engine made the world magical. A couple of months later, when the Japanese Army advanced from the provincial capital in the direction of Tongzhen, the advance motorbike division arrived within a couple of hours. They were the very first motors ever to be seen on the road between the provincial capital and Tongzhen and their speed made people wonder whether Heaven might not have finally taken pity on the Foolish Old Man who wanted to move a mountain and shifted the entire mountain range that lay between them out of the way. Up until that moment, the quickest way to go between the city and Tongzhen was to travel by horse. If you could find a horse with a good turn of speed and applied the whip when necessary, it was possible to make the journey in about seven or eight hours. Some decades earlier, Young Lillie had always made this journey by horse-drawn carriage: though this was of course slower than going on horseback, nevertheless, providing the driver pressed on, it was quite possible to reach your destination by dusk if you set out at dawn. However, now that he was getting on, Young Lillie could no longer cope with the jolting that entailed and so he had to travel by boat. The journey to Tongzhen took two days and two nights, but that was moving against the current. Coming back wouldn’t take nearly so long, but it would still be at least one day and one night.
Sitting on the boat, Young Lillie started to worry about the boy’s name. Even when the boat travelled the final stretch before the provincial capital, he still hadn’t come to any decision. Once he had started thinking about it, he discovered what a tricky problem this was. The fact is, Young Lillie was confronted with exactly the same problems that old Mr Auslander had faced when he was asked to pick a name for the baby: this was not a difficulty that had resolved itself with time. Having thought about it carefully, Young Lillie decided to put all other considerations on one side and give the boy a name suitable for someone who had been born in Tongzhen and grown up in Tongzhen, and that way he came up with two names, both of which seemed to him a little forced: Jinzhen, meaning ‘Golden Sincerity’ and Tongzhen, meaning ‘Childlike Sincerity’. He decided to let the boy decide for himself which one of the two he would prefer.