Grandpa bluntly said, "Yes." Based on the dates and hours you gave me, I can be sure that she conceived that night and gave birth to a child shortly after. It's just that I'm wondering, why don't you have a little sense? Ordinary snakes lay snake eggs, and then baby snakes break out of the snake eggs. However, it is a viviparous snake that reproduces like a human. Then, at least for a while, she will be physically blessed and her "temperament" will change greatly. "I never thought that my grandfather also had a certain understanding of Zhu Yeqing.

Zhang Jiu's hands shook in fright, and half of the tea in the teacup was scattered, "Master Ma, you said she gave birth to a descendant for me?" No way? I'm a human being, she's a snake! We, how could we ...... How could it be...... So? "His sissy makes me wonder whether to be surprised, delighted or shy. said that he was surprised, but his face was full of joy; said that he was happy, but he opened his mouth and looked frightened; said that he was shy, but his eyes were staring at his grandfather, and he wanted to ask what was going on.

Grandpa said: "The result of the calculation is indeed like this. Did I miscalculate? At this time, the grandfather was a little hesitant, and he looked at his withered yellow fingers again, as if he was suspicious of those fingers. This is a rare performance of grandpa.

Zhang Jiu stabilized his emotions and asked, "Master Ma, do ...... math Can it also be counted as this? ”

Grandpa said: "Not only can you calculate this, but if you give me a more specific 'number', you can also calculate whether you will give birth to a boy or a girl." ”

I interjected, "Grandpa, why haven't I heard you say it before?" ”

Grandpa smiled: "In ancient times, there were many patriarchal families, and even if we could, we would not say it. Otherwise, how many daughters were beaten down by their parents with "medicine" before they were born. ”

I knew that when Grandpa said "we" he was referring to the kind of people who used to know how to do magic. In fact, not only in ancient times, more than ten years ago was when family planning was tightened, and many "superborn guerrillas" fled from their hometowns in order to give birth to a male doll who could "inherit the incense". Our next-door neighbor gave birth to four daughters, and it wasn't until the fifth was born a boy that they came back from out of town. When the husband and wife returned to Changshan Village with their five children in their arms, they found that the family's house had been demolished by the family planning office.

At that time, the people in the family planning office were very fierce, and when they encountered the "superbirth guerrillas", they were brutally tied up and escorted to the hospital for ligation surgery. If someone's family is "overborn", the family planning office will raid his home and demolish his house. Although it seems that "forced" people to be ligated to this point is not humanized at all, these were commonplace at the time.

Therefore, it is reasonable for grandpa not to say some things easily.

Zhang Jiudao: "I've heard that mathematics can be applied to snake breeding and farming, but I haven't heard that mathematics can predict these things. ”

Grandpa looked at me, then at Zhang Jiu, and asked, "Do you know the "Sun Tzu Sutra"? That's the equivalent of an ancient math textbook, and you still use it in your current school, right? ”

Zhang Jiu shook his head.

But I know a thing or two about "Sun Tzu's Sutra". The book was written around the fourth or fifth century, and the author's life and year of writing are unknown. The current edition of the "Sun Tzu Sutra" consists of three volumes. The vertical and horizontal system and the multiplication and division rules of the calculation are described in the volume, and the calculation fraction algorithm and the calculation method are illustrated in the volume. Question 31 under the volume can be said to be the ancestor of the "chickens and rabbits in the same cage" question in later generations, and later spread to Japan and became "crane and turtle calculation". The book is described as follows: "Today there are chickens and rabbits in the same cage, with thirty-five heads on the top and ninety-four feet on the bottom. The meaning of these four sentences is: there are several chickens and rabbits in the same cage, counting from above, there are 35 heads; Counting from below, there are 94 feet. How many chickens and rabbits are in the cage? ”

When it comes to "chickens and rabbits in the same cage", I believe that anyone who has read elementary school and read math books knows it. When I was in elementary school, I was often overwhelmed by these kinds of problems. And these problems often occur in the Olympiad. At that time, I had a lot of headaches about these problems, and I could even say that I hated them to the core, so I was very impressed.

But this is a book about mathematical calculations, and I don't know what connection my grandfather suddenly mentioned about this book and the problem of having a boy and a girl.

Grandpa naturally wanted to talk about "chickens and rabbits in the same cage" is from "Sun Tzu's Sutra", Zhang Jiujing grandpa mentioned it, and finally "oh" and nodded. I believe that Zhang Jiu's head is also thinking: What is the connection between addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and fertility?

Grandpa naturally knew what we were thinking, and said with a smile: "Most of you only know the problem of chickens and rabbits in the same cage, but you don't know what the last question of "Sun Tzu's Sutra" is. ”

"The last question?" Zhang Jiu and I asked in unison.

Grandpa expected that we didn't know, so he took a sip of tea with a calm expression, and said: "The last question of "Sun Tzu's Sutra" is like this: There is a pregnant 'woman' today, and she is twenty-nine years old. Difficult September, born of the unknown? Answer: Born a boy. The technique says: Set forty-nine months and subtract the year, and the rest is divided by heaven by one, earth by two, people by three, four times by four, five elements by five, six laws by six, seven stars by seven, eight winds by eight, and nine in Kyushu. Those who are not exhausted are men, and even are women. ”

Zhang Jiu and I both heard it in a fog and didn't know what to do. But the last two sentences can know that after some calculation, if the remainder is an odd number, then the child born is male; If the remainder is even, then the child born is female. Because I don't know much about the five elements, six laws, seven stars and eight winds, I don't know what kind of algorithm I have to go through in the middle. But it can be known that grandpa predicted Zhu Yeqing's conception through this magical number technique.

I saw that my grandfather was interested in mathematics again, and hurriedly asked, "Grandpa, since Zhu Yeqing gave birth to a child for him, why didn't she tell Zhang Jiu?" ”

Zhang Jiu was reminded by me, and immediately woke up from his addiction to ancient mathematics, and asked urgently: "That's right." Master Ma, why is she hiding it from me? Why don't I feel anything strange? ”

"This ......," Grandpa turned the teacup in his hand and groaned.

"What's so hard to guess about this!" "Milk" "Milk" walked in through the door, and her hands were frozen like carrots. The three of us immediately turned our gaze to the elderly "milk" and "milk". A gust of wind rose, and the sheets washed with rice soup slurry hunted behind the "milk" and "milk".