Chapter 386: People’s Heart, My Heart

They drove out of Prince Ning's Mansion in a spacious and luxurious carriage and arrived at Fengyu Tower in Tangzhou Prefecture. The place was already full of guests. Even though the sky was dark, the black stone lamps illuminated the entire building. From a distance, it looked like a colorful pagoda erected on the river bank, not like a human creation.

Li Jianhu in the carriage had calmed down. He was neither happy about riding in a luxurious carriage nor sneered at it and asked the other party to change to an ordinary carriage to pick him up.

If it were before he started studying with Zhou Tieyi, according to Li Jianhu's naive nature, he would definitely ask to change the carriage to show that he was not in cahoots with the crowd. The Confucianists who invited him would also be happy to do so, and they would not even mind writing a few articles for Li Jianhu and finding a few people to scold him to show how friendly and frugal this new generation of Confucianists was.

If Li Jianhu really becomes a great scholar and a master of kendo in the future, it would be okay for him to come up with the idiom "the master changes cars" to teach future generations.

It was because of this that Li Jianhu understood about 70% of what Zhou Tieyi said when he invited him to ride in the carriage on Yujing Mountain.

Some formalism can be expressed by a luxurious carriage or a simple carriage. The most important thing is whether the people riding in the carriage will be controlled and lose their way.

At that time, no matter it is a luxurious carriage or a simple carriage, it will drive towards the cliff, and the vehicle will be destroyed and the people will die.

Li Jianhu was invited to get on the luxurious carriage. After getting off, he first thanked the coachman and then followed the waiter upstairs. The whole simple process was seen by everyone in Fengyu Tower.

One of the noble families said, "Although I don't agree with Zhou Tieyi's 'heresy', he is really good at teaching people."

The noble family member was quite moved, and if the current situation was not so tense, he would even want to send his own offspring to Zhou Tieyi for training.

The others nodded slightly and glanced at Wang Mingyi, who was sitting next to them and looked like a wooden sculpture. During this period of time, the various families in their Tangzhou Prefecture had also experienced Wang Mingyi's methods, and this man had also been trained under Zhou Tieyi.

They deliberately used an extremely luxurious carriage to pick up Li Jianhu today just to see how this newly shaped seed of Confucianism performed. At least for now, it seemed satisfactory.

Of course, this also made others even more worried. The people being trained were so amazing, let alone Zhou Tieyi?
Deng Zhenquan sat in the main seat and said, "Everyone, growing out of the mud without being stained, is it the lotus that is beautiful, or the mud?"

The noble families present instantly understood what Deng Zhenquan meant. The one who had just spoken laughed and said, "Art is art, and Tao is Tao. Zhou Tieyi can only teach people, but whether it is Li Sheng or Wang Sheng, they are both seeds of my Confucianism in the end. This just proves that my Confucianism is right. I use art to control Tao, which is really unworthy of the teachings of the saints."

He spoke, and the people around him naturally echoed a few words.

"Indeed, his remarks that everyone is greedy are as foul as mud and are truly unworthy of the saints' teachings."

While they were laughing, Li Jianhu was also brought up by the waiter.

Deng Zhenquan waved to Li Jianhu and said, "Come sit next to me."

Li Jianhu has been with Zhou Tieyi for so long, and was taught very well by Zhou Tieyi. So even though everyone said good things about him, it was inevitable to wonder whether Li Jianhu had been turned against him.

Deng Zhenquan's move was to show the aristocratic families in Tangzhou Prefecture that Li Jianhu was definitely a true seed of Confucianism, a lotus that grew out of the mud without being stained. I'm not worried, I endorse him, so don't overthink it.

Li Jianhu sighed in his heart. This General Deng certainly had nothing to say about him. When he first arrived in Tianjing, he lived in General Deng's home. Knowing that he had not read much, General Deng, who was so busy, took an hour to explain the introductory Confucian classics to him. Moreover, as a swordsman, Li Jianhu was very sensitive to the emotional changes of people around him, so he could feel that Deng Zhenquan was teaching him sincerely. When he found that his righteousness was backfired, Deng Zhenquan was the first to stand up and prepare to put it out. So from Li Jianhu's point of view, Deng Zhenquan was naturally very good to him, and there was nothing to complain about.

Li Jianhu walked up to Deng Zhenquan, bowed to him and said, "Meet Master Deng."

Just like Gongshu Ting asked Zhou Tieyi to call him master, Deng Zhenquan's only request to Li Jianhu was to call him master.

Deng Zhenquan stroked his beard, his smile brightened, and he looked at Li Jianhu seriously, "Not bad, you have made progress again. Let me introduce him to you."

After Deng Zhenquan and Li Jianhu greeted everyone present, Li Jianhu understood that in the past month and a half, Zhou Tieyi had opened up a gap in Shantong Prefecture, and Deng Zhenquan had also reintegrated the Confucian forces in Tangzhou Prefecture, allowing them to feel at ease from the worries and panic over the Huxin Academy case, otherwise so many people would not have come today.

After they sat down, one of them considered his words and asked, "Today's literary gathering is on the topic of 'People's Heart'. We wanted to invite Lord Zhou, but we were afraid that Lord Zhou and our Confucians would have many misunderstandings and start arguing, so we asked Mr. Li to come and listen to Lord Zhou's views from the side."

Li Jianhu was slightly stunned. Although he saw clearly the purpose of this literary gathering, he did not expect that these people would find a high-sounding reason for such a well-known purpose. He could not help but think of Zhou Tieyi's final sneer and shook his head slightly.

Seeing Li Jianhu shaking his head, another person couldn't help but say, "Marquis Zhou has done a lot of 'people's heart' matters in Shantong Prefecture, Mo City, and Jijia City recently. Is he avoiding Li Sheng?"

Zhou Tieyi has many idle people around him, and Shantong Mansion, Mo City, and Jigua City are not his bases, so everyone knows that Zhou Tieyi often summons Li Jianhu to give him instructions. Just imagine that when he meets the Mohist leader, this first-rank official, Li Jianhu can hear the remarks that affect the Mohist orthodoxy. Therefore, many things Zhou Tieyi does cannot be hidden from Li Jianhu.

Li Jianhu smiled and said, "That's not the case. It's just that I haven't read much. If you have any questions, please ask. Don't use fancy words to talk to me. I'm afraid that I will misunderstand the meaning and the topic will be irrelevant, which will affect your judgment."

After hearing this, everyone's brows relaxed. Although Li Jianhu's words sounded vulgar and lacked the beauty of elegance, he was indeed willing to answer their questions.

After confirmation, everyone started asking questions one by one, all about what Zhou Tieyi thought about the Mo Shi case and the reasons behind his actions, and Li Jianhu answered them one by one.

Everyone slowly delved into the matter and thought about it carefully, and before they knew it, they were immersed in the world that Zhou Tieyi had described through Li Jianhu, so their questions gradually became fewer.

At this moment, Li Jianhu suddenly stood up and said with a smile, "Everyone, I am here to answer questions today because Zhou Hou asked me to answer them. Zhou Hou asked you, how do you know if your questions are what he wants to say through me?"

Li Jianhu's words stunned everyone present, and the answer he had just given was shrouded in mystery.

Yes, Zhou Tieyi was so confident that he let Li Jianhu come over. Li Jianhu answered every question. How many of these answers are credible?

Before everyone could finish thinking, Li Jianhu walked to the railing and looked at the wind and rain outside. The gray turbid waves hit the two banks, carrying the docked ships up and down. Even if there were pedestrians as small as rice grains passing by, they would stay away for fear of being swept away by the waves.

Isn't this just like his current situation? He would be easily swept up in the waves raised by Zhou Tieyi and Confucianism and lose his direction.

He suddenly felt something in his heart, and some of the principles in the books he had read during this period made sense to him, so he said, "Today, everyone is discussing the 'people's heart' in the literary gathering. I feel something in my heart, and I have a fragment of a poem, 'The river is not stormy, but it is difficult to travel on the road. You all have too many thoughts in your mind, just like these turbulent waves, which make it difficult for the people to travel. I am afraid that I will be affected by one or two, so I can only give in to you."

(End of this chapter)