Chapter 82: Teacher and Student, Senior and Junior Fellow Disciples

Chapter 82: Teacher and Student, Senior and Junior Fellow Disciples

Leaving the narrow and dark Mud Vase Lane, walking on the wide and bright Erlang Lane, the clever-eyed young man walked briskly, his wide sleeves swaying, holding in his hand the couplet he had stolen from the wall of Mud Vase Lane.

A tall man who should have appeared at the Supervisor's Office had been waiting outside the door for a long time, with his eyes closed and breath held, focusing his mind. Hearing footsteps, he opened his eyes and saw the familiar yet unfamiliar young man. He quickly stepped aside, stood with his hands at his sides, and said respectfully, "Teacher."

The young man grunted in acknowledgment, casually handed the couplet to Wu Yuan, took out a key to open the door, and just as he was about to step over the threshold, he suddenly took a step back and pulled the two courtyard doors closed again.

Wu Yuan almost bumped into his teacher's back. The magistrate of Longquan County quickly stepped back several paces, somewhat puzzled by his teacher's action.

The young man named Cui Chan put his hands in his sleeves and pouted his lips towards the two painted door gods. "Your father-in-law's ancestor is hanging right here. Impressive, isn't it?"

This extremely awkward statement gave Wu Yuan a headache.

Although he had a strained relationship with his father-in-law, who held the title of Pillar of State, he was truly in love with his fiancée, who was still unmarried. They were a well-known perfect couple in the capital. Especially since he was a handsome, poor scholar who, despite failing the imperial examinations, won the beauty's heart. Under circumstances where no one believed in their match, he became the personal disciple of the Great Li National Teacher, causing a stir both in court and among the public, instantly becoming a celebrated tale. This even alarmed the Emperor, who summoned Wu Yuan to the Yangzheng Study for an audience.

After that, his future father-in-law turned a blind eye to Wu Yuan and no longer threatened to break his three legs.

Cui Chan stepped over the threshold and said casually, "I've been thinking about a question: can our Confucian claim of 'sincere faith, clear righteousness, exalting virtue, rewarding merit, and ruling the world with effortless grace' ever be realized?"

Wu Yuan asked softly, "Has Teacher found the answer?"

Cui Chan curled his lip. "It's hard."

Wu Yuan was speechless.

Cui Chan laughed and asked, "Do you think I asked a pointless question?"

Wu Yuan answered honestly, "A little, perhaps."

Probably because the dialogue between teacher and student had always been so candid, Cui Chan was not annoyed. He just glanced sideways at Wu Yuan and said regretfully, "In many things in this world, the precious part is not the result but the process."

Wu Yuan mustered his courage and asked, "Could Teacher give an example?"

Cui Chan led Wu Yuan towards the large vermillion square table under the plaque in the main hall, saying, "For example, you and the young lady of the Yuan Pillar of State's family are now deeply in love, entangled with each other. Holding hands can make you happy for days. But when you finally marry her according to all proprieties and have a 'divine battle' in bed, you'll quickly feel a sense of loss, thinking, 'So it's just like this after all.'"

Wu Yuan grimaced. There was no way to respond to that.

Cui Chan gestured for Wu Yuan to find a seat, while he himself remained standing, looking up at the plaque. "But would you give up the chance to roll in the sheets with Miss Yuan because of this boring result? Obviously not, right?"

Cui Chan himself felt this analogy was a bit crude. "Let me put it another way. Take cultivation. Ordinary Qi practitioners aim for the Middle Five Realms; the more talented ones choose the Upper Five Realms. Or take officialdom. Those with small ambitions just want to enter the ranks; those with greater aspirations aim to become high-ranking officials in purple and gold. Then, on the long climb up the mountain, many people keep their heads up, staring at the scenery at the summit. They don't see the lush trees around them or the blooming flowers at their feet. Even if they do see them, they don't stop to appreciate them, wasting the saint's earnest teaching: 'Heaven and Earth have great beauty yet speak not.'"

Wu Yuan fell into deep thought.

Cui Chan suddenly burst into loud laughter. "You actually believe such bullshit reasoning? The most boring thing in the world is reasoning."

Wu Yuan said helplessly, "In the past, I certainly wouldn't have pondered such questions deeply. But since Teacher emerged from seclusion, first changing this 'outfit,' then inexplicably coming to this small town to see an old acquaintance, your student is truly at a loss."

Cui Chan, after laughing, lazily slumped into a large chair. "That said, this grand talk isn't entirely nonsense. Although I value practical achievements over scholarly learning, that doesn't mean learning itself doesn't require sincere effort. To put it most bluntly, ordinary people who don't put in hard work and diehard effort to accomplish something have no right to talk about talent or lack thereof."

Cui Chan tapped the armrest of the chair with one finger, his expression calm and composed, smiling faintly. "Only those who have truly worked hard can feel despair towards those who are truly gifted. At that moment, they will suddenly wake up and, with tears, tell themselves, 'I really can't compare to that genius.'"

Wu Yuan laughed. "In the game of Go, all the national champions and Go masters of the entire Eastern Treasure Vial Continent must face Teacher with that same mindset."

Cui Chan twitched the corner of his mouth. "But in some matters, even a prodigy like me looks at certain people with the same eyes."

Wu Yuan shook his head. "Your student does not believe that!"

Cui Chan extended a finger and pointed at the righteous Supervisor, grinning. "Magistrate Wu, that's a rather clumsy attempt at provocation."

Wu Yuan burst into laughter, cupped his fists, and bowed in apology. "Teacher's eyes are like torches."

Wu Yuan's peripheral vision occasionally swept over a wooden, dull-witted boy with crystal-clear skin. He sat vacantly on a small stool near the courtyard, his hands gently on his knees, slightly tilting his head up, posing like a frog at the bottom of a well looking at the sky.

In fact, Wu Yuan had noticed him as soon as he entered the room and felt very uncomfortable, but since Teacher didn't bring it up, he didn't dare ask.

Wu Yuan looked at the Spring Festival couplet on the table, picked up one sheet and examined it carefully. Looking up, he asked, "Teacher, who wrote this couplet? This person is very interesting."

Cui Chan yawned, changing to a lazier, more comfortable position curled up in the chair. "For now, he's still called Song Jixin, but I reckon in a few years, he'll change back to the old name crossed out in the Imperial Clan Court files: Song Mu."

Wu Yuan immediately felt the light piece of paper become very hot in his hands.

He couldn't help asking, "Why does Teacher want this couplet?"

Cui Chan laughed. "To let your precious junior brother see some real skill, so he'll stop claiming he writes better characters than me just because he's older. Now, with this couplet written by his own twin brother, I don't think he'll find any more excuses."

Wu Yuan thought for a moment, suppressed a smile, and said softly, "For example, Song Jixin, in the rural areas, had nothing to do all day but practice calligraphy, so diligence could compensate for lack of talent, and thus his characters turned out better?"

Cui Chan looked surprised. "That works too?"

Wu Yuan nodded with a smile. "Junior Brother is capable of that."

Cui Chan shook his head. "Say what you will, it still comes down to too little beating. Rules have always come from the rod."

Wu Yuan put the couplet back on the table and said casually, "Teacher's teacher must have been very strict with rules."

Wu Yuan had never known where his own teacher studied, nor even the general lineage of his scholarly tradition. He suspected that within the entire Great Li Dynasty, those who knew such matters could be counted on one hand.

Cui Chan suddenly straightened slightly. "Wrong. My teacher taught me much the same way I teach you. So my teacher ended up with a student like me: forgetting one's ancestors, forgetting one's roots, and even betraying one's teacher."

Wu Yuan thought he had misheard.

Cui Chan said calmly, "You didn't mishear."

Cui Chan stretched. "When I was studying, I wasn't as radical as I am now. I only dared to propose the idea of 'balancing scholarly learning with practical achievements.' My teacher rewarded me with eight characters: 'The chief culprit of a declining era.'"

Cui Chan sat up straighter, looking directly into the eyes of his student across from him. "Do you know what the most infuriating part is? My teacher interrupted me before I could finish my argument. This teacher, renowned throughout the world for his rigorous scholarship, wouldn't even spare a day, an hour, or even the time it takes to burn an incense stick to think about the issue. He just threw those eight words at me. I have a junior disciple. Every time he asked my teacher about difficult points in the classics, my teacher would carefully instruct him, as if in deep contemplation, afraid of the slightest deviation. On one occasion, do you know how long my teacher thought before giving his answer?"

Cui Chan held up one finger.

Wu Yuan tried to guess the largest possible number. Tentatively, he said, "A month?"

At this moment, the National Teacher of Great Li, appearing as a handsome young man, had an extremely strange expression on his face—half-smile, half-tears. "Ten years."

Wu Yuan swallowed his saliva and dared not say another word.

Cui Chan exhaled heavily and said self-deprecatingly, "Old friends, old stories, old piles of paper—none of it matters anymore. And even if it does, what can I do about it?"

Cui Chan stood up, gathered his rare complex emotions, and said to Wu Yuan, "I asked you here today because I want you to meet someone. I have some things to take care of first. You wait at the door."

Wu Yuan, feeling as if he had been granted a pardon, stood up and left.

Cui Chan walked over to the dull-witted boy with the exquisite face. He crouched down, rubbed his chin, as if looking for flaws.

In the twilight, Wu Yuan returned to the main hall with a man wearing a bamboo hat. Cui Chan stood up and said to them both, "We're on the same side. Sit wherever you like."

The man sat down, gently removed his bamboo hat, revealing a handsome but sickly pale face. His spirit and energy were extremely poor, as if he were severely injured. He coughed repeatedly, emitting a faint smell of blood.

Wu Yuan's face turned serious. "Cui Minghuang of Guanhu Academy?!"

Then Wu Yuan quickly looked at his teacher.

Cui Chan, Cui Minghuang. Great Li National Teacher, Guanhu Academy.

Could it be?

Wu Yuan's scalp tingled, his heart shaken, and he began to worry whether they would leave this residence alive. Teacher's catchphrase for killing was "acting according to the rules."

But the problem was that almost no Qi practitioners in the Great Li Dynasty could understand Teacher's rules.

Even a direct disciple like Wu Yuan never dared to claim he truly understood Teacher's thoughts.

Cui Chan moved a chair next to the dull-witted boy, turned his back to Wu Yuan and Cui Minghuang, and laughed. "No need to be nervous. One is a family junior I rarely appreciate; the other is a proud disciple I hope will inherit my legacy. So you two don't need to guess about each other. You can think positively."

Wu Yuan mustered his courage and asked, "Does Teacher come from the Cui clan?"

Cui Chan ignored him.

Cui Minghuang smiled bitterly. "Grandmaster Master was expelled from the Cui clan long ago, with orders that in life he cannot share the ancestral hall, and in death he cannot share the burial mountain."

Wu Yuan's expression shifted uncertainly.

Cui Chan, still without turning back, said with a smile, "Don't worry. Our wise and heroic Emperor knew about these sordid past events from the very beginning. By the way, Cui Minghuang, answer any question Wu Yuan asks, with complete honesty."

Wu Yuan's mind moved quickly. He directly asked the biggest question. "Was Qi Jingchun's death your doing?"

Cui Chan was unwilling to speak.

Cui Minghuang replied calmly, "Qi Jingchun had received a secret letter from Shanya Academy. The letter writer told Qi Jingchun that their teacher, who had imprisoned himself in some academy's merit forest, had truly died."

Wu Yuan frowned. This was a huge secret he had never heard of, probably only known to the heads of the three Confucian academies and seventy-two schools. But regarding other rumors, Wu Yuan, like many scholars from aristocratic families, had heard most of them.

However, in just a hundred years, the statue once enshrined in the fourth position of the Confucian temple had first been removed from the position of Literary Sage, moved to the ranks of the seventy-two accompanying sages, then continuously moved back from the leading position until it was last. This spring, it was completely removed from the temple. Not only that, but someone tried to secretly enshrine it in a Daoist temple only to be discovered, and eventually the statue was pushed over and smashed by a group of so-called ignorant commoners. Both in court and among the people, this sage's life work, the classic articles he wrote, were all banned and destroyed. The laws and policies he promoted were overturned by all major dynasties, and his name was deleted from official history.

First, it was like a river declining day by day, then the sun setting behind the mountains, teetering on the edge, and finally, overnight, it vanished like a clay ox entering the sea—silent and without a trace.

Cui Minghuang slowly recounted a shocking conspiracy. "Shanya Academy has now been stripped of its status as one of the seventy-two schools. Your Great Li Dynasty is unwilling to accept this, after all, Qi Jingchun and the academy were instrumental in educating the people and helping Great Li shed its identity as northern barbarians. Moreover, without the academy attracting scholars from the northern powerful families of Eastern Treasure Vial Continent, Great Li's civil official system will inevitably suffer a huge blow. But the trend is unstoppable. Great Li cannot act like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. The Great Li Emperor is not foolish enough to offend so many extremely formidable forces both on and off the mountain for the sake of one Qi Jingchun."

"Since external support was no longer reliable, the huge problem of how Qi Jingchun could single-handedly keep Shanya Academy from being dissolved, after receiving that letter, was placed on his desk along with the secret letter."

"But he knew full well that once the sixty-year period passed and he left Lizhu Cave Heaven, the startling truth that his seclusion had caused his realm to rise instead of fall would inevitably attract even greater suppression from certain influential figures within Confucianism. And not just Confucianism. Daoism and other schools of thought would also stir. After all, it's too ridiculous to finally suppress an old one and then have a new one rise."

Cui Minghuang showed a hint of a smile and unconsciously looked at Cui Chan, the senior of his clan, who was still staring at the boy.

Admiration filled Cui Minghuang's eyes. "At this time, Ruan Qiong's early appearance became a decisive move. It completely cut off what would likely have been Qi Jingchun's most probable retreat path."

Cui Chan, who had at some point stood up and was gently prying open the boy's eyelid with his finger, muttered upon hearing Cui Minghuang's words, "Wine? When I passed the tavern earlier, I should have bought a few jugs."

Seeing Wu Yuan's confusion, Cui Minghuang explained, "Ruan Qiong came to Lizhu Cave Heaven early. Although this military grandmaster does not interfere in the town's affairs and maintains absolute neutrality, his very existence is significant. It means Qi Jingchun had no way to bargain further, to propose to the four saints of the three teachings and one school that he remain in the town for another sixty years of self-imposed confinement, in exchange for another sixty years of Shanya Academy's precarious survival."

Cui Minghuang smiled slightly. "His teacher died. No one read his teacher's moral writings. His policy proposals were no longer implemented. And after Qi Jingchun came to Eastern Treasure Vial Continent, the Shanya Academy he painstakingly established in barbarian lands was also gone. His footing in the mundane world was lost, and the place that had supported him to this point seemed gone as well. If not dying, what else was there? Only by dying could Qi Jingchun make some people feel completely free of threat. As for the shattered Shanya Academy, they wouldn't bother to look at it again. In fact, without Qi Jingchun, it wouldn't even have the qualifications to be one of the seventy-two schools in name, let alone substance. The Shanya Academy within Great Li's borders probably doesn't have even half the foundation of our Guanhu Academy."

Cui Chan commented, "Guanhu Academy has ample foundation but lacks vitality. If not for the existence of Shanya Academy forcing Guanhu Academy to make many changes, it would be even worse. In the coming great upheaval, it would only fall further behind step by step and gradually fade away."

Cui Minghuang praised sincerely, "Grandmaster Master's insights are penetrating and hit the nail on the head!"

Cui Chan finally stopped tormenting the boy who had no trace of "humanity." He stood by the pool, which had no water, and looked up at the blue sky alongside the boy. After withdrawing his gaze, he said a very strange conclusion. "So I carefully arranged a grand examination. There was only one examinee: an orphan from Mud Vase Lane named Chen Ping'an. He comes from a very ordinary background but has had a very interesting upbringing."

Wu Yuan was even more confused. What did this mean?

Cui Chan began to pace slowly around the pool, hands behind his back, head lowered, muttering to himself. "Logically, Qi Jingchun, faced with certain death, would struggle desperately. So three people had to be watched: his junior fellow disciple Ma Zhan, who suffered with him in Lizhu Cave Heaven; his personally taught book attendant Zhao Yao; and Song Jixin, who seemed to have an ordinary relationship with him. These three were the most likely candidates for Qi Jingchun to entrust his hopes."

"Let Ma Zhan continue the incense fire of Shanya Academy, even if there is only one disciple. That's fine."

"Let Zhao Yao spread the teachings of their school far and wide, even if it's not in Great Li, even if it's not on Eastern Treasure Vial Continent. That's fine too."

"Initially, when I learned that Qi Jingchun had left all his books to Song Jixin, I thought Song Jixin would be one of his inheritors of the incense fire. But soon, I realized this was a smoke screen."

When Cui Chan reached this point, he fell into a long silence, as if retracing his steps to confirm there were no omissions.

Wu Yuan cautiously interjected, "And behind the smoke screen, there is that person named Chen Ping'an?"

Cui Chan, interrupted in his thoughts, stopped walking, abruptly raised his head, and stared coldly at Wu Yuan.

Wu Yuan immediately stood up, cold sweat beading on his forehead. He bowed his head and said, "I beg Teacher's forgiveness."

Cui Chan continued his stroll. "Ma Zhan can be considered half a disciple of that person, but compared to Qi Jingchun, he's far inferior. 'Aim higher than the sky, fate thinner than paper'—that describes him perfectly."

"I had Cui Mingguang deceive Ma Zhan into believing he could replace Qi Jingchun as the next head of Shanya Academy. Although the title of one of the seventy-two schools was lost, the academy itself remained. If the academy remains, it needs a head. In this way, it would be face-saving for Qi Jingchun's lineage and for the Great Li Emperor. This was also an ending tacitly accepted by all parties initially."

"But I don't like it. Such a neat, happy ending is too boring. Besides, within Confucianism, there were already voices demanding that the Literary Sage, Qi Jingchun, and Shanya Academy all disappear together, to prevent unstable hearts and resurgence."

"So I proposed establishing a new academy on Piyun Mountain, and the three Confucian academies agreed to promote this academy to one of the seventy-two schools within fifty years. When our Emperor heard this, he thought it sounded good. Compared to Qi Jingchun, a tasteless asset, a puppet completely obedient to Great Li would better suit the dynasty's southern expansion ambitions, wouldn't it?"

"So Cui Minghuang deceived Ma Zhan again, telling him that since things had come to this, he might as well settle for second best, change his allegiance, sever ties with Shanya Academy, and return to the town to become the head of the new academy. And he would be its first head, much better than being someone else's underling at Shanya Academy."

Cui Chan kept walking, but looked at Cui Minghuang, who was breathing steadily. "Did a problem arise at this point?"

Cui Minghuang nodded. "It was around this time that he became suspicious and began to play along with me. He didn't show it, and although I was cautious, I never expected that a waste like Ma Zhan, when pushed to the limit, would be so relentless. He shattered his own meridians and blew up his acupoints just to kill me."

Cui Chan nodded. "Ma Zhan is far inferior to Qi Jingchun, but he was under that person's tutelage for over a decade. He can't be dismissed as a pure fool."

Cui Minghuang covered his mouth with his hand and spat out a mouthful of stagnant blood. After clenching his fist, his complexion eased somewhat, gaining a hint of redness. He asked, "Grandmaster, why did you allow the remaining old master of Shanya Academy to lead his students away from Great Li to the enemy state Great Sui, and continue using the name Shanya Academy? How did the Great Li Emperor agree to this? This junior has never understood."

Cui Chan walked slowly. "First, even if Shanya Academy were preserved, it would exist in name only. Without the golden signboard of being one of the seventy-two schools, it would be an empty shell, unable to compete with the thriving Guanhu Academy for the brightest scholars of Eastern Treasure Vial Continent. Second, once the new academy is established on Piyun Mountain, the vice-head of Guanhu Academy will come to take charge. Of course, the second head will be the Guanhu gentleman sitting beside you. Third, by accepting the remnants of Shanya Academy, Great Sui takes over a hot potato. Great Li can use any pretext to declare war on Great Sui. When that happens, won't Shanya Academy still be within Great Li's territory?"

"Everyone knows Shanya Academy is equivalent to the Great Li Imperial Academy. But which dynasty's emperor would dare claim Guanhu Academy as his own private school? So for the Emperor, having a school completely under Great Li's control has been a lifelong dream since childhood. Of course, the Emperor may also have some desire to compensate Qi Jingchun. During Qi Jingchun's years as head, although he refused to grovel before the Emperor, the Emperor truly admired him, perhaps even felt some awe."

Cui Chan suddenly laughed. "Of course, the main reason is that I needed it. I needed such a chess game."

"Besides needing Qi Jingchun to die in Lizhu Cave Heaven, I also needed him to follow my playbook and choose the pieces I wanted him to select. In the end, I would destroy them one by one. Before dying, Qi Jingchun was like someone still holding a few seeds or a few sticks of incense. He had to hand them to those close to him."

"The matter of scholarly lineage is about passing the torch. Even if all disciples of a certain doctrine die, the incense fire may not be extinguished. So what incense and literary fortune really are is unclear. Qi Jingchun probably grasped a clue, but I still can't quite figure it out. I'm not too sure. I need facts to prove my theory."

"So setting up this grand examination and laying out this chess game is both to cut off that person's lineage incense and to be an opportunity for my own enlightenment."

Cui Chan walked behind the boy sitting on the stool. He reached out and gently patted his head, laughing. "There is a poem: 'An immortal touched my head, binding my hair to receive long life.' It's written with... quite an immortal flair."

The joints of the boy's body creaked and cracked. Finally, with stiff movements, he slowly stood up. His eyes gradually lit up with dazzling brilliance. After standing straight, he turned around to face Cui Chan, who had pieced together his body. The boy could not yet speak, babbling like a baby, waving his hands and feet in joy. At the same time, he showed a natural reverence towards Cui Chan.

Even Wu Yuan, who was not a cultivator, was stunned by the sight. As for Cui Minghuang, he was dumbfounded.

Wu Yuan, for some reason, after hearing his teacher's words today, felt a chill throughout his body, weak and powerless. His voice hoarse, he asked, "Teacher, couldn't you just kill them and be done? Why go through all this trouble?"

Cui Chan burst into laughter, as if he had been waiting for this moment to ask a truly interesting question. He clicked his tongue. "The struggle for the Great Dao is not as simple as wiping out a family or exterminating a clan in the mundane world. To truly eradicate the roots is very, very difficult. Often, killing people only turns simple matters into a tangled mess. So you have to attack the mind. Why can cultivators reach as high as fifteen realms? Because they cultivate the mind. But martial artists who cultivate physical strength can only go so high—nine realms is the peak. To reach the tenth realm is harder than ascending to heaven."

Cui Chan suddenly jumped into the pool directly facing the courtyard. He stepped on the colorful pebbles embedded at the bottom, walking freely in the pool. But compared to the ground, the space there was obviously more cramped. He thought for a moment and said, "Let me tell you two frogs at the bottom of a well about two cases that were originally kept secret. After hearing them, you'll see that my methods are nothing special, nothing special at all."

"There was a prodigy who almost helped the military school establish its own doctrine. Although he failed in the end, he was someone with immense luck. No one dared to kill him outright. Do you know how the true sages dealt with him? They threw him into a blessed land, arranging chess pieces to stay by his side life after life, constantly wearing down his martial spirit. In one life, he became a village teacher, with food and clothing, but no worries. In another life, he became a timid, vulgar butcher, but had a beautiful companion. In yet another, he became a cynical, pleasure-seeking wealthy son who squandered his fortune only for it to return. In another life, he became a literati emperor in a time of peace. Life after life, he was always toyed with like this. Even now, it's the same. Later generations of the military school want to intervene, but they only dare to act secretly, trying to awaken their ancestor's consciousness. But what hope is there? How can they compete with those old monsters in cultivation, strategy, and patience? How can they win?"

"There was another military tyrant, astonishingly powerful in battle. But one misstep led to total defeat. For a puppet woman, his soul scattered. Immediately, the sages seized the opportunity, dividing his three souls and seven spirits among themselves, making him the foremost exiled immortal in various blessed lands. Each of his souls rose from those blessed lands to our world, and their paths were smooth, each becoming a hegemon in their own realm. Now, these nine individuals, each at least at the tenth realm of cultivation or the seventh realm of martial arts—would any of them be willing to abandon their independent will to become 'one person'?"

"It sounds simple enough, but implementing it requires an extremely long period of time."

When Cui Chan reached this part, he sighed with emotion. "The struggle for the Great Dao—how cruel it is."

Cui Chan stretched widely, rubbing his neck. "Ma Zhan died of guilt and indignation. Zhao Yao has lost his identity as the master of the 'spring' character seal. Now, only the 'tranquility' character that broke the rules remains."

"A poor orphan from a humble alley, who has endured countless hardships and deeply desires stability, has now seen his dream come true. He has suddenly become the wealthiest person in the town. Then he encounters a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get rich, taking all five mountain peaks in the blessed land into his hands. A full three hundred years of steady wealth—all belongs to him."

"Besides these timely aids, I added two more touches. The first was helping him choose that Desolate Mountain. As for this mountain, I will have Great Li appoint a mountain god to reside there. Do you think the boy will be pleasantly surprised? The second was the Grass Root Shop and the New Year Shop. They will soon be sold at low prices, and as expected, Chen Ping'an will 'logically' buy them. Imagine: outside the town, five mountain peaks generating daily income; inside the town, two established shops. Below the mountain, Magistrate Wu Yuan will befriend him. Above the mountain, Vice-Head Cui of the academy will look upon him favorably. What do you think? Does this boy have almost nothing left to pursue?"

"But."

When Cui Chan said this word, his smile was particularly playful. He muttered to himself, "In worldly affairs, this word is the most feared."

He continued, "But just at this moment, when the group went out with two carriages and one oxcart and returned with only one carriage and one oxcart, with the refined Cui Minghuang of Guanhu Academy missing and one Ma from the school dead, that's when the carriage driver will find Chen Ping'an and tell him that before they died, Schoolteacher Qi and Schoolteacher Ma both hoped he could lead those six children to the Great Li Dynasty's mortal enemy, to continue their studies at the Shanya Academy relocated to Great Sui. This journey will be arduous, with wolves and tigers lurking all around. Finally, the carriage driver will considerately persuade the boy, saying, 'If Schoolteacher Qi were still alive, he would surely not want you to risk going to the Shanya Academy in Great Sui.'"

Wu Yuan asked cautiously, "If those already frightened children want to stay home in the town, wouldn't that give Chen Ping'an a legitimate reason not to go? Isn't Teacher's plan..."

Cui Minghuang laughed. "Not long after these children leave the town, their families will have been forcibly relocated to the Great Li capital. Naturally, Great Li will not deprive them of wealth and honor. But each family will leave a few people behind, telling the children how rare an opportunity it is to enter Shanya Academy and how eagerly their parents and elders hope they can go to the academy and return accomplished."

Cui Chan stood directly under the courtyard, his expression blank.

Wu Yuan became even more cautious. "Teacher, how can you be sure that this grand examination will completely extinguish the incense fire of Qi Jingchun's lineage?"

Cui Chan raised an eyebrow, turned to look at Wu Yuan, and smiled. "Haven't you realized that Qi Jingchun and I were fellow disciples under the same master? As his senior, I once substituted for our teacher, who was traveling, to explain the Confucian classics to him for a full three years. So how could I, Cui Chan, not know his Great Dao?"

Cui Chan stepped out of the pool and murmured softly, "A righteous gentleman with the heart of a child... that's all. But Qi Jingchun was too fortunate. He actually possessed two life-character seals. If he hadn't died here, he might have achieved an unprecedented three-character seal. If not him, who else should die?"

Cui Chan walked towards the gate. "I went to so much trouble to set up such a big scheme, all for such a small matter. This small."

Cui Chan raised his hand, pressing his thumb against his index finger, clicking his tongue. "If I still lose..."

The last few words Cui Chan spoke were barely audible.

Cui Chan had just opened the door and stepped over the threshold when he suddenly stopped. The Great Li National Teacher, who had intended to go buy wine, suddenly felt that drinking wine was somehow pointless.

So he simply sat down on the threshold.

Wu Yuan and Cui Minghuang looked at the slightly slender young figure's back, exchanging bewildered glances, not knowing what had happened.

Cui Chan, hands tucked in his sleeves, bent over, looked at the house across the street. Cheap black-and-white door gods, vulgar couplets, an ugly "fortune" character pasted upside down.

Cui Chan muttered to himself, "Qi Jingchun, in the end, you will still be disappointed."

From somewhere, a warm, slightly smiling voice gently sounded. "Is that so."

Cui Chan remained unmoved, still staring straight ahead, and nodded. "When that time comes, I'll drink."