Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 149 A Lesson

Zhang Bo and his companions didn't know until now the purpose of Lu Zheng's study tour, which was to find a way to provide a stable life for the common people?
Everyone was immediately in awe. No wonder Lu Zheng could cultivate such a righteous spirit.

It would be unjust if such people could not cultivate a righteous spirit.

Zhang Bo's eyes flashed with admiration, and he said sincerely, "Brother Lu has great ambitions. I admire you! I will be taking the imperial examinations in the autumn, and I would like to ask for your guidance."

Lu Zheng couldn't help but laugh and said, "Brother Zhang, that's too much. I don't understand the provincial examination, so how can I give you any advice?"

Zhang Bo said with a blazing gaze, "But Brother Lu understands the words of the sages. You have cultivated a righteous spirit."

Based on this aspect alone, Zhang Bo felt that Lu Zheng could give him a lot of guidance.

Lu Zheng thought for a moment and said, "I heard that the provincial examination mainly tests the classics and policy essays, which I don't know much about... As for Brother Zhang saying that I understand the words of the sages, I can only say that there is nothing else to it but to learn and practice."

Lu Zheng laughed again and said, "I can't say anything else."

"Learn and practice." Zhang Bo murmured, "Brother Lu, what you said is very true. If you learn but don't put it into practice, then have you really learned it?"

Lu Zheng smiled without saying anything and continued to take notes.

Zhang Bo sat aside and thought carefully, then took out pen and paper, preparing to write an article.

Qing Wan crawled out of Lu Zheng's arms and ran to the grass nearby to learn the method of turning beans into soldiers, and she was having a lot of fun practicing it.

There is a saying that if you are close to vermilion, you will be red, and if you are close to ink, you will be black.

Seeing that everyone was so serious, Li Zhao and the other two felt embarrassed to just lie there any longer.

Li Zhao came up to Lu Zheng with a smile and asked, "Brother Lu, you are so good at math, do you have any tricks?"

Lu Zheng stopped writing when he heard this, "Did you bring your math book?"

"Yes, I have!" A student took out a booklet.

Lu Zheng took it and opened it, and found a question similar to the one about chickens and rabbits in the same cage.

He took a pen and drew a circle and a cross in the blank space.

"Next time you encounter a similar problem, just set up two unknowns, a circle, and a cross, and then calculate like this..."

Lu Zheng just said a few simple words.

Several people's eyes suddenly widened, as if they had been enlightened.

"It's so simple!" Li Zhao said in disbelief.

In the past, they would have had to calculate the problems for a long time, but after Lu Zheng said this, they could calculate them just by thinking about it.

Zhang Bo couldn't help but take a look, and then he learned it in one go.

The four of them found a few more similar questions and quickly calculated the correct answers.

For a moment, several people felt like they had become mathematical geniuses.

It turns out that mathematics can be learned so easily.

Zhang Bo was surprised and asked, "How did Brother Lu come up with such a simple method?"

"It's just the wisdom of our ancestors." Lu Zheng smiled slightly. "Everything in the world has its own laws, and mathematics is even more so. As long as you find the right method, no matter what you calculate, it will be extremely simple... Even calculating the height of the sky or the thickness of the earth may not be impossible."

The four of them looked at Lu Zheng in surprise, feeling shocked.

Has Lu Zheng's mathematical talent reached this level? No wonder he was so confident at the literary meeting.

Li Zhao smacked his lips and whispered, "Brother Lu, I think you could go to the Imperial Observatory. It's said that the people there know everything about heaven and earth and can even predict the future."

Lu Zheng had heard of the Imperial Observatory, but it was not a place that everyone was qualified to go to, as the officials there were all highly skilled in Taoism.

However, Lu Zheng doesn't really believe in predicting the future.

At most, we can do things like weather forecasts, but it is impossible to accurately deduce the fate of a single person or thing.

"Knowing everything about heaven and earth..."

Lu Zheng suddenly felt like joking.

He picked up a stone and then let go, and the stone fell straight to the ground.

Lu Zheng turned to look at the others and said with a smile, "Did you find anything?"

Zhang Bo and the others looked at each other, not understanding what he meant for a moment.

Lu Zheng continued, "Aren't you surprised that the stone actually fell to the ground?"

Li Zhao was puzzled and said, "Uh, what's so surprising about this? Shouldn't it have fallen to the ground?"

Lu Zheng looked at Li Zhao and asked, "So, why did it fall down instead of flying into the sky?"

"This……"

Several people were stunned for a moment and felt something was wrong.

Li Zhao thought for a moment and said, "This is the rule of heaven. Otherwise, the world would be in chaos."

Lu Zheng nodded and smiled, "It is indeed a pattern, but the most fundamental reason is that every pattern should have its explanation."

Lu Zheng paused, then continued, "It's like when you read the books of sages, you see the principles the sages said, but you can't explain the essence of it. That means you haven't truly understood it."

Several people thought what he said made sense, but they became even more confused because they had never learned this before.

Something as simple and ordinary as a stone falling to the ground cannot explain the reason.

"So why is this?" Li Zhao looked confused.

"Take your time to think about it. There are some questions that you need to think about." Lu Zheng said.

After saying that, Lu Zheng said no more and continued doing his own thing.

After finishing the record, he asked Qingwan for some peas.

Two kids, one big and one small, were playing with beans there.

Qing Wan is more talented than Lu Zheng in this area and can already create a small bean soldier.

But the bean soldiers were too weak and could do nothing, and couldn't even defeat the ants.

Qing Wan was still having fun, directing the bean soldiers to catch bugs. Li Zhao and the others were scratching their heads, feeling like they were back in the academy.

They couldn't come up with an explanation for this seemingly simple question, which was even harder than writing an article.

After a while, Lu Zhengjian felt that he had rested enough, so he suggested to hurry on.

Several people were hurrying through the mountains with their heads full of doubts.

This time, they were going to look for those monkey monsters, so Lu Zheng walked in front to explore the way.

After walking for a while, Li Zhao couldn't figure it out. He pulled Lu Zheng's arm and asked curiously, "So why? Brother Lu, you must know. Don't keep me in suspense."

Seeing this, Lu Zheng smiled and said, "Simply put, there is an invisible force within all things in the world. This force can attract external objects. If the land beneath our feet is large enough, that force can easily allow us to leave..."

Lu Zheng just explained it briefly and everyone understood.

"So that's how it is!" Li Zhao suddenly realized, "That explanation seems to make sense."

Zhang Bo asked curiously, "Brother Lu, what books have you read before? How did you know these principles? Could you recommend some books to me?"

Lu Zheng couldn't help but say, "They're all miscellaneous books, hard to find. Brother Zhang, you should just focus on the provincial examination. Besides, these principles aren't Confucianism or Taoism. If you want to delve into them, you'll probably spend your entire life studying them. It's best not to go too far."

Li Zhao grinned and said, "Brother Zhang, you'd better not learn these things when you become an official and govern the people! I guess at best you'll be a juren. What Brother Lu said is quite interesting. We can talk about it later!"

After hearing this, Zhang Bo no longer insisted. After all, he was indeed approaching the autumn examination and had to concentrate on the imperial examination.

For the time being, you should avoid these profound principles so as not to affect your performance in the provincial examination.

The group walked through the pathless mountains and headed towards the northwest mountains that the village chief had mentioned.

With Lu leading the way, the group rarely went into the dense thorny forest, and their movement speed was not slow.

After walking for a few miles, Lu Zheng suddenly stopped.

Zhang Bo and the others behind him also subconsciously stopped and looked around with vigilance and curiosity.

Lu Zheng whispered, "Have you found anything?"

After hearing this, several people looked around carefully, but did not find anything unusual.

Suddenly, Zhang Bo whispered, "I seem to smell a fishy smell."

"Huh, it does seem to have a strange smell." Li Zhao also spoke.

Lu Zheng said slowly: "What else?"

Zhang Bo calmed his mind and tried to emit some literary energy.

Seeing this, Li Zhao and his companions followed suit.

"There is evil spirit!"

Zhang Bo felt that there was something strange in his literary aura.

He had come into contact with demons and ghosts before, and knew how his own literary energy would react when it encountered the demonic energy.

Li Zhao and the other two were a little short on talent and had little experience in this area, so they were a little slow to make their discovery.

Lu Zheng took a few steps and said slowly, "I sense two demonic auras, five beast auras, and a bloody smell coming from over there."

Lu Zheng turned his head slightly and looked in one direction.

Li Zhao was surprised and asked, "You can even sense this?"

Lu Zheng smiled faintly and said, "Perhaps it's because of my righteous spirit that I am more sensitive to these auras."

Several people agreed with this. They were just ordinary scholars and could not compare with Lu Zheng's righteous spirit.

It is reasonable for Lu Zheng to be able to subdivide so many auras.

Lu Zheng was walking in front, and after walking for a while, he stopped again.

Ahead, there is a trace of a route trampled by wild animals.

There were even spots of blood dripping on some of the weeds.

The bright red blood has not completely dried up yet.

Lu Zheng reached out and touched the blood, then put it to his nose and sniffed it.

Zhang Bo and his companions followed suit and checked the bloodstains.

"It's pig's blood."

Zhang Bo soon discovered that the blood was pig blood.

He searched around carefully and found some animal hair, but there were several kinds of hair and it was difficult to distinguish them.

Zhang Bo speculated, "It must be some kind of demon that hunted a wild boar."

Lu Zheng observed the traces and said, "They were monkeys. Six monkeys, two of whom had become demons. They hunted a large wild boar, carried it on a rack, and then followed this path. They had just walked a short while ago."

There are bloodstains here, but no signs of dragging.

Lu Zheng expected that the monkeys made tools and carried away the prey.

Lu Zheng pointed to the various fresh traces left along the way, confirming his speculation.

"Brother Lu is really observant."

Zhang Bo felt that he had learned a lot.

Lu Zheng smiled and said, "It's all about learning first, and then exploring and getting familiar with it yourself... Let's go. If we hurry, maybe we can run into them."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhao excitedly drew the long sword from his waist.

Lu Zheng looked at Li Zhao and whispered, "Put away your sword. It's not the right time yet. If a fight really breaks out, there will be plenty of time for you to show your weapons. Drawing your sword right away will easily scare them away."

"All right……"

Li Zhao put away his sword in disappointment.

(End of this chapter)