Mind Over Matter [Quest]

[Lu Xun {Zeffy}]

Quest: Mind Over Matter [10 Intelligence]
Type: Normal
Mod: No
Difficulty: Medium
Description: Some people have been questioning who really is the smartest guy around. Show them that there really is no contest against you.

The breeze over the small village picked up, gently blowing green, brown, red, and other colours of leaves around the place. It was very gentle - a nice, calm wind. One that people would enjoy on any day except a cold one. A child, only ten years old, stepped out of his house. His short, brown hair blew slightly in the breeze, but not that much. A voice yelled from within at him, and he yelled something back. The boy then took a stroll around town.

It was a buzzing day in Wu. With the nice weather, merchants were anxious to get their good sold today, before anything could mess it up. People flooded the streets like sharks trying to get meat, surrounding the market stalls along the roads. The boy, Lu Xun, smiled. Wu was a wealthy city now, thanks to the efforts of many people within Sun Jian's force, and the enthusiastic people of the city. Xun himself contributed to it, even at his young age. He had a brilliant mind.

Rumors were spreading that a man, claiming to be the smartest in all of China, arrived in Wu and was telling fortunes and the like. Xun sighed, knowing this to just be another scam. Common folk could not tell a moderately smart man from a brilliant mastermind, as they had probably encountered neither. Xun, determined to put a stop to the wasting of people's money, approached the man.

"Good afternoon, good sir. You claim to be the smartest man around." The man turned around in the seat behind the counter. Xun could see his features clearly now. He was of average build, not fat nor muscular. He had a small beard, more of a goatee, though. He had fair-toned skin and dressed fairly nicely for a commoner. For a commoner. The man spoke to the child.

"Yes, I do, young man. Now, unless you need me to tell you something, go run along to your parents now." The man and a few surrounding others laughed. One woman in the crowd knew of this child. She knew him to possibly be the smartest person in Jiang Dong.

"Excuse me, boy. Would you happen to be Lu Xun?" Xun turned and looked at the woman. She was a fairly average commoner, probably out to buy food for her family today.

"Yes, ma'am, I am. And this man is a fraud! He is just tricking you people into thinking he is smart." Xun looked back at the man and glared him in the eyes. The fury in them was clear to all the people around the stall. The commotion was gathering quite a crowd.

"Hahaha.. I don't know who you are, kid, but you better scram." The man laughed again, as did nearly the entire crowd. It was cruel to see them laughing at a child like that. But Xun did not care for it.

[Lu Xun {Zeffy}]

"If you are so smart, then answer this problem for me. Parents with two children - a son and a daughter - came to a wide river. There was no bridge there. The only way to get to the other side was to ask a fisherman if he could lend them his boat. However, the boat could carry only one adult or two children. How does the family get to the other side and return the boat to the fisherman?" The man was startled by the sudden question. He tried drawing out the scenario on a paper, and the entire crowd waited ten minute for him to answer. Lu Xun had already figured it out in one minute. In his head.

"Er... I don't-" Xun quickly intervened.

"Then I shall tell you. It is really quite simple. First, the children both go across to the far side. The son comes back, and father goes on the boat to the first side to his daughter. Then the daughter goes back on the boat to pick her brother up and they both go to the far side to the father. The son comes back to give the boat to the mother, who goes to the far side. The daughter jumps in and goes to her brother so they can both return to their parents. The daughter gets off and the son gives the boat back on the first side of the river to the fisherman, who goes on the far side. There, the daughter jumps in and goes to her brother to take him back to parents where she returns the boat to the fisherman. The boat crossed the river 13 times." The crowd was dead silent. Practically the entire marketplace had swarmed around Lu Xun and the man. The man was seething mad that he couldn't get such an easy puzzle, and this little runt did. One man clapped, and then two, and then the entire crowd. The "smart" man angrily rose from his chair, and then picked up Lu Xun by his collar. Xun had not expected this scenario, and the crowd grew angry. The man quickly pulled a sword on him for embarrassing him in public.

"You've ruined my reputation! You deserve death." One man cried out from afar. There was no one in between the angry man and this new one. He was holding a bow, with an arrow notched.

[Lu Xun {Zeffy}]

"You shall not touch him, foul beast who would attack a child. May death take you slowly!" His aim was true, and the man saw the flight of the arrow as it passed under the hilt of his sword and into his chest with a thud.

The man dropped the sword, gasping for breath. But the wound was too deep, irrepairable. Straight through the heart. The archer had excellent aim, he did. The man crumpled to the ground in pain, and slowly died. The crowd gasped, and slowly dissapated after the scene was over. The archer rushed over to Lu Xun. The child noticed who this man was for the first time.

"Father! How great it is to see you here. It looks like you made it just in time." Lu Jun, Xun's father, could only smile and hug his boy.

"What did you do to anger him so, son?" Xun shrugged.

"I merely challenged him to a battle of wits, and he failed miserably. He thought his lost honor was worth killing a child for." The father merely tutted and the pair walked home after the incident.

[Zhou Yu]

Task reward
150 gold
15+ Intelligence
5 + Cunning
10+ Calm