Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 818 Where are the good people in the world?
The fake succubus has long legs, fair skin, and slender branches laden with fruit. The real succubus pays off with silver, earns status, and leaves her mark on history.

If Li Shimin was the strongest carbon-based life form in the 7th century AD, then Xia Lin must have been the number one succubus of the 7th century, the kind of succubus who would be considered a godfather if he were not abandoned by her.

Perhaps it's related to his major; compared to mathematics, physics, and chemistry, he's better at intelligence work, and within intelligence there's a special category: honey traps.

Of course, the term "honey trap" here is used generally, referring to temptations that can bewitch people. However, there are many intricacies involved.

For example, if you offer a young man ten thousand taels of gold, he might not care. But if you offer him a love stronger than gold, he'll agree to anything. And if you offer a group of old men countless beauties, even the old men might not be able to get up; to them, the so-called most beautiful women are nothing more than skeletons in disguise.

So the basics are the same, and they remain unchanged from ancient times to the present, but how to combine them is a skill.

When faced with these wealthy, powerful, and prestigious old men, money, beautiful women, and power are of no use. The fact that they dared to come and offer their remonstrance even at the cost of their lives shows that they don't even care about their own lives, let alone the interests of their families.

It should be noted that those who could serve as teachers to the emperor were basically leading figures among the purist faction.

But did they have any weaknesses? Of course they did. Loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness were their weaknesses; writing books and biographies were their weaknesses; and achieving lasting fame was also their weakness.

Xia Lin instructed the Third Prince to maximize their emotional appeal, using the promise of eternal fame to ignite the fire in their hearts. If they could still refuse at this point, Xia Lin would truly admire them as men of courage.

As expected, the old men did not reject Xia Lin immediately. That evening, a group of old men gathered together for a meeting. They were clever enough that almost no one was unaware that this was Xia Lin's delaying tactic. However, they also understood that if they missed this opportunity, someone else would still write the encyclopedia, but their names would no longer be on it.

Counting the days, most of them wouldn't live to see the second update, so the choice left here gave these old men a headache all night. Each of them had their own unspeakable thoughts, but they found it hard to speak up directly because they still remembered why they were there.

Damn it, Your Majesty!

However, now that the remonstrance has turned into a letter, not only will His Majesty not return, but these old men will also have to stay here. What kind of situation will this be if word gets out?

"Everyone..."

The Grand Tutor suddenly spoke, stroking his beard, but only called out "Gentlemen" before falling silent. Everyone looked up at him, but even so, he still did not continue speaking.

In fact, everyone present was a shrewd person. How could they not know who the person most wanted to write books and leave a mark on history was? It must be the Grand Tutor. After all, in terms of fame, he was not as good as Xia Lin, Zhang Shuo and other opinion leaders. In terms of prestige, he was not as good as the former Grand Tutor Feng and Ma Zhou, who were bestowed the title of "Teacher for Ten Thousand Generations" by the emperor. In terms of influence, he was not as good as Anmus, who forged a sword with his own body. In terms of talent, he was not as good as the masters of various schools of thought of his contemporaries.

He originally came here intending to promote his reputation for loyalty and righteousness by remonstrating to the death, but now someone has presented him with a path even better than death.

Even ants cling to life; how could a man in his sixties, in the prime of his life, simply choose to die?

But when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he didn't know how to say them. These old men had come because of his influence, and they were all united in their pursuit of a common goal. If he suddenly said that he actually wanted to repair books here, wouldn't that be a betrayal?

The old men around were mostly the same; everyone had similar plans. But their misfortune was that they were all cultured people, and cultured people are often pretentious.

"Ugh……"

A long sigh perfectly expressed the Grand Tutor's inner turmoil and anxiety, but who among those present felt the same way?

The meeting ended before it even began. After returning to their rooms, most of the old men tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Their longing became especially clear in the murky night. They knew this was the call of desire, just like when they were young and found out that the girl they had admired for a long time had been betrothed by her family to someone they didn't like.

My heart is breaking.

However, the next morning, Xia Lin did not intend to let these old men off the hook. He posted advertisements in prominent places everywhere. The advertisements were very simple. They explained his idea of ​​compiling a book, including the content of the book and its future impact, and then sincerely invited interested people to join him.

The old men are literate, and not only are they literate, they are also experts in their respective fields.

If their restless nights last night felt like their goddess had married someone else, then right now they felt like they were overhearing her husband outside the second day after her wedding, giving a detailed account of their wedding night—how long her legs were, how slender her waist was, how her little...

Pain! Heart-wrenching pain!

"To preserve the flame of human knowledge, so that it may never be extinguished. To impart certain knowledge to future generations, and to inspire critical thinking. To establish the essence of identity amidst the surging currents of life. To show the right path amidst the chaotic sea of ​​life. To encourage the continuation of the past and the enlightenment of the future, to help people reach great heights and go far. It is not about gold, silk, or power, but about unlocking the universe and leading to an infinite future."

The job advertisement contained a sentence that broke the Grand Tutor's composure. He stood there, repeatedly reciting it while sobbing uncontrollably, a truly pitiful sight, so much so that one might mistake him for a white-haired man who had mourned his black-haired son. Then, more and more old men stood silently gazing at the posted advertisement. Suddenly, an old man surnamed Shen tucked a tattered handkerchief into his robes and muttered angrily, "In my youth, I couldn't protect my beautiful bride, earning a lifetime of hatred. Now, in my old age, if I can't even protect my inheritance, what's the point of talking about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom! If you won't go, I will!"

After saying that, he turned around and went to the recruitment address marked on the advertisement without looking back. He walked with a brisk pace, as if he had become thirty years younger in an instant.

Once one person started, the old men, each with their own agendas, began to fall apart. Some said they were tired and left. Others said they were hungry and left. Some simply stopped pretending and said they wanted to go see what was going on, and then they left too.

By peeling back the layers one by one, only the Grand Tutor and a few core members remained, and the momentum of the Hundred-Deng Night March vanished instantly.

But then one of the core members coughed and said, "By the way, gentlemen, I need to go to the medical school to get my medicine. My old arms and legs are getting a bit stiff."

After that, the first core member to leave appeared.

The final result was predictable: only the old Grand Tutor remained standing there.

The Grand Tutor looked around, his heart filled with resentment, both for the Emperor's inaction and for the faithlessness of these old men. And the thought of where these old men would go, and the idea that in a few years his name would be absent from the encyclopedias passed down through generations, replaced by the names of his former underlings, hanging there for centuries, millennia…

"A bunch of old scoundrels!" The Grand Tutor uttered the most vulgar words he could muster, then turned and snorted coldly before turning and leaving.

Half an hour later, a man wearing a straw hat and a veil came to the registration office. He bent down and said to the recruiter, "I heard that you are recruiting scribes here?"

"Yes, sir. May I ask which field you are proficient in? What are your publications?"

"Oh, oh, oh, I am proficient in many things, mainly mathematics, classics, and architecture. The Benmen Arch Bridge over the Luo River was built under my supervision when I was working in the Ministry of Works in my youth. It has withstood dozens of floods. I also designed the twelve iron chain bridges over the Suzhou River. They are the iron chain bridges that are one of the twelve scenic spots of Jinling. Have you heard of them?"

"Yes, yes, sir! You're amazing! Do you have any publications? Let me register them for you."

"Yes, yes, yes, I wrote a book called 'A Detailed Explanation of Mathematics' when I was twenty-two, a book called 'Mastering Algorithms' when I was thirty-five, a book called 'On Bridges' co-authored with my wife when I was thirty-seven, a book called 'Mortise and Tenon Construction' when I was forty-one, a book called 'On the Counter-argument that 'Since Powers are the same, their products cannot be different'' when I was forty-seven, and a book called 'A Detailed Translation of Foreign Languages' when I was fifty." The old man looked around as he spoke, and lowered his voice as if afraid of being discovered, and said, "I am currently writing a book called 'On the Infinity of the Circumference'."

"Wow! Sir, I've studied your books!" The student in charge of registration exclaimed, his eyes wide with admiration. "Several of your books are required reading for science and engineering students in our academy! Please wait a moment, I'll go find a teacher to register you. I wouldn't dare register someone as great as you."

"Hey, hey, hey..." The old man waved his hands frantically, looking flustered. "Hurry up, don't let anyone else know. Just get on the way quickly."

"All right……"

After a quick registration, the old man carefully walked out, holding the nameplate with the steel stamp, looking around cautiously. But he saw someone in front of him and quickly lowered his head to cover his face with the brim of his hat.

The two brushed past each other without being recognized. After leaving the academy, the old man hurried away, only breathing a sigh of relief when he returned to his lodgings. Just as he took off his hat to take a sip of water, he saw a colleague hurrying back.

The Grand Tutor immediately sat up straight, his face stern, and said, "Fu Xia, what brings you in such a hurry?"

"Ah... Grand Tutor, it's nothing, nothing. I just went out for a stroll, hehe... This place is indeed prosperous, hehe..."

Seeing his unnatural expression, the Grand Tutor frowned: "Do you know why we have come here? You must not indulge in the pleasures of life."

"The Grand Tutor's words are correct."

The old man nodded hurriedly, then head down, he was about to go back into the house. Perhaps he was too nervous, because when he passed by the Grand Tutor, his leg bumped into a chair. He cried out and subconsciously bent down to touch it, but as he touched it, the nameplate in his sleeve slipped off and fell to the ground with a clatter.

"Fuxia, what is this?"

"It's nothing... I picked it up on the road, and it looked nice, so I took it." The old man quickly picked up the nameplate and ran back to his room like a thief.

At this moment, the Grand Tutor silently looked down at his nameplate, then clenched it tightly in his hand, looked up at the ceiling, and his smugness was evident.

(End of this chapter)