After being mistaken for a fellow by Long Aotian

"I know that those who make big things don't care about small things," Zhou Xun said immediately before old man Shen could speak again, "I understand what Master said. But how should this small thing be defined? Who gave me the power of another person? The power to define life as a small section that can be sacrificed for the future?"

Old man Shen squinted at him and said, "Have you ever thought about why you survived?"

What is the purpose of surviving?

"...for revenge, for being respected, and for not being a pawn in other people's stories that can be manipulated at will."

The library was so quiet that it was as if a hair could be heard falling to the ground.Zhou Xun knew that his words might offend Old Man Shen, but he slowly cupped his hands and walked towards a chess table in the library.

On the chess table, there is an endgame.Zhou Xun picked up a chess piece and said, "As Master said, life is like a chess piece. If today I threw away this pawn unnecessarily in order to stay behind the scenes..."

He moved a "pawn" off the board.

"In the next moment, I'll throw a horse away."

A "horse" was moved out of the chessboard.

"There will be more and more things, which I regard as small pieces and be discarded. At first it was just a pawn, but later it was for horses, cannons, chariots, and soldiers..." He removed the pieces from the chessboard one by one. remove.

In the end, there was only one "handsome" left on the side of the boundary that originally belonged to the red side.

It stands silently on the vast chessboard.Behind it, only empty matts remained.In front of it, across the Chu River, is the dark enemy.

"In the end, except for me, no one is in my heart." Zhou Xun drooped his eyelashes, "I don't want to become like this. Regarding the Zhou family's affairs, I will retreat behind the scenes and secretly stir the wind and rain to achieve my goal. But Lu Bin...he shouldn't be just a pawn. If I regard other people's lives as pawns, others will also treat me as a pawn. Even if we..."

He smiled: "It's already on the chessboard."

—I was the most insignificant and most expendable subsection of that story.

— but someone held me back.He said, where there is a will, there is a way.He said he didn't want me to stay here.

——Therefore, I don't want to only think about myself and draw my bottom line step by step.Treat others as insignificant "subsections".

There was a long silence in the library, and when Zhou Xun thought that old man Shen was no longer willing to talk to him, old man Shen finally spoke.

"...I was just as stupid as you when I was young." He said, smiling in his wrinkles.

"If Master didn't have this 'stupidness', he wouldn't have spent the rest of his life rehabilitating General Shen." Zhou Xun smiled, knowing that his answer was right, "And... I have a little selfishness. "

"What selfishness?"

"The Zhou family is unscrupulous. If I only succeed in revenge through unscrupulous means, even if I watch their blood splatter five steps, this is just a story of 'the winner is king and the loser is bandit'. The relationship between me and them , It’s just the outcome. The decisive point of the outcome is nothing more than the skill of the trader.” Zhou Xun said softly, “But now, I want them to see——”

"The story of a person who can walk uprightly into the sun is worthy of his deeds and heart. Even the most picky spectators can't be picky about it, and except for them..."

He suddenly smiled again, this smile was a bit sly.

"I want another person to see too."

……

It has been more than two hours since Zhou Xun packed today's library.It was afternoon when he came, but it was already night when he left.As soon as he came out of the library, he saw old man Shen staring at the chess game in a daze.

He bid farewell to old man Shen, but before he left, he couldn't help asking about the chess game.The old man Shen snorted, and said: "You still have the nerve to ask, if you are reasonable, you should be reasonable, why did you even move your hand? It messed up Lao Tzu's chess game!"

Zhou Xun: OAO

Zhou Xun apologized repeatedly, and said anxiously: "I wonder if this chess game has ever been restored?"

Old man Shen smiled, and then his expression quickly became gloomy: "If you can't recover, do you think you can still stand here safely?"

Zhou Xun: ...

"In this chess game, I know the positions of every piece and every place by heart." Old man Shen picked up a chess piece and said leisurely, "This is a half-life chess game between me and him... "

he?

Zhou Xun pondered the identity of that person in his heart.He saw that the old man Shen was facing the red square, but picked up the "handsome" black square, and stared at the chess piece without blinking, as if he was thinking about something.

Red and black...

For some reason, he suddenly remembered something.

He remembered that Zhou Cai's teacher was also a great Confucian, and when this great Confucian was young, he was also a person who was the pride of heaven above the court, but because he was speechless by one person on the lectern, the second day So he handed in his resignation to the court and left the court.

Is this chess piece...

But soon he shook his head, smiled and thought that he was simply bewildered.The world is so big, how could there be such a coincidence?However, old man Shen is right in saying that he really cares too much about the Zhou family now.So that even a little matter, I will consider the relationship with them in my heart.

"...you say," at the end, when Zhou Xun pushed open the door of the bookstore, old man Shen's voice came from behind him.

Zhou Xun turned back.

"Under the moon in the Northern Wei Dynasty, will there be wind blowing through the wind chimes at this time?"

Those words were like the sound of wind chimes in Youhuang Alley, which soon fell into the night.

It was already midnight when Zhou Xun returned to the palace.On the way, he was hiding something in his heart, so he was delayed for some time.Because the weather was too hot, he had to open the car window to let in a little wind, and also took the opportunity to look at the scenery outside the window.

Just as he was passing a certain road, Zhou Xun just raised his eyes from his thoughts, and said to the guard at the front of the car: "Where is that place over there?"

"Which side?"

Zhou Xun looked up at the messy mansion and said, "That's right there."

That mansion is really strange, it stands in an upright mansion, it looks extraordinarily unrestrained, even the surrounding walls have been half pulled.The guard looked over there and said, "This place... looks familiar. Let me think about it. Now this place is called 'Tongfuli', and most of the people who live here are court officials. They are close together, and most of the people who live there are people from the Hanlin Academy. Although this house is a bit weird, it seems to be newly built a few years ago, so..."

The guard talked for a long time, Zhou Xun listened to him patiently, but he heard the guard suddenly shut up when he was talking about a certain moment.

—and cast a cautious, furtive look at him.

Zhou Xun:?

He didn't understand the look on the guard's face, so he couldn't help but glance at him in confusion.Seeing him like this, the guard smiled awkwardly, and finally said: "That...Mr. Zhou."

Zhou Xun: "Yes."

Guard: "The half-collapsed house next to it seems to be the Zhou family."

Oh, the Zhou family...

Wait, the Zhou family?

Zhou Xun: ...

He looked at the house in front of him and didn't know whether to describe it as "broken walls and ruins", and was speechless for a moment.

It took Zhou Xun a little time to remember that when he came out of the brothel a few days ago, the emperor promised him "to go to the Zhou family to make a big construction project...a big project to do one-eighth of the construction project". Now it seems that this job has been completed well. .

He really didn't expect the emperor to actually do it, and the effect...is so funny.

Zhou's house in the distance was still lit, and there seemed to be workers still working inside, and Zhou Xun faintly heard Zhou Xiaomei's scolding.The guard glanced at him carefully, saw Zhou Xun's calm face, and remembered that Mr. Zhou had an enmity with the family, so he suggested, "If Mr. Zhou wants to see it, why don't we go and have a look?"

"I won't go to see it anymore." Zhou Xun said straightforwardly, "If you want to go back to the palace, do you have to cross this road?"

The guard nodded, and Zhou Xun said again: "Let's take a detour over there, pass here, and look upset."

The guard therefore took the order to detour.On the way, Zhou Xun thought about the scene he had just seen.

In his eyes, the Zhou Mansion was so strict and inviolable, but now it is nothing more than that.In fact, Shen Huanju said something, and in a sense, it was true.

He wanted to take revenge on Zhou Mansion... In fact, he really didn't need to do it himself.

...For example, the emperor has built one-eighth of the civil engineering for him now.

When thinking of this, Zhou Xun somehow remembered the legend that King Zhou built Lutai to make Daji smile.

Zhou Xun: ...

Feel a little numb.

He scratched his fingers, and eventually his wrist, wondering why he had such absurd associations.

Daji is a demon concubine, but he...he...

It was already late at night when Zhou Xun returned to the palace, just before leaving the door.When he entered the Donghua Gate, the guard who opened the door for him saw that there was no one around, so he whispered to him: "Today Zhou Hanlin went into the palace and met the saint."

After saying this, he opened the door for Zhou Xun.

——Zhou Cai?

——What did he come to the palace for?

Zhou Xun sat in the carriage, his heart still like water.After getting off the car, the guard asked him: "Young Master Zhou, is he going to bed now, or is he going to meet the emperor?"

"Let's meet the emperor first." Zhou Xun thought for a while and said.

He was not surprised that Zhou Cai would come to the palace to meet the emperor—if it was him, he would also come to the palace to meet the emperor after seeing his home being dismantled in such a mess.

The emperor still stayed in the imperial study, and the hibiscus incense was still burning in the imperial study.As soon as Zhou Xun entered the hall, Xiao Lizi saluted him and said, "Young Master Zhou."

Zhou Xun nodded.He saw the emperor sitting at the desk in the distance, holding a book and reading. For some reason, this scene warmed his heart.

He approached the emperor, who seemed to be immersed in the book and did not notice his arrival.When he saw that the booklet was actually the ancient handbook he had written to the emperor, his heart warmed even more.

Even Zhou Xun didn't realize it - his pace became brisk because of this.He watched the emperor look at the booklet with a concentrated look, but for some reason, he really wanted to sneak around behind the emperor and give him a...

Surprise...surprise?

This idea flashed away, and Zhou Xun quickly suppressed it.He thought to himself that he couldn't do such a transgressive thing, so he just went to the emperor and saluted, "Your majesty..."

He didn't expect his words to make the emperor jump up.

"Ah, hehe, you're back..."

Zhou Xun looked down.

He saw a book, from the booklet "Look" in the emperor's hand...flicked out.

Zhou Xun: ...

And bounced to his side.

"No—" The emperor was shocked when he saw his hand touch the booklet, "Don't look—"

The author has something to say: Zhou Cai has discovered that Xun Xun is a "stand-in" x