Plan to cut off the nine states

Through Fei Bing's mouth, Yin Fu raised a question that put the other party in a dilemma.

Xu Chu was silent for a long time, and the two people opposite him did not urge him. They drank water and chatted quietly. The noise outside the house still came in waves until the old servant scolded it. It was completely silent.

The old servant brought a pottery jar more than a foot high and said with a smile: "The stream water just brought is still a little cold. Please bear with it, both adults."

The old servant always respected the guests with power and background. He had long suspected that these two guests must have status to enter the valley at will, so he quietly went to the valley entrance to ask the officers and soldiers. He heard that they had all served as ministers of the Ministry of Rites, and his respect for them increased a little.

In his mind, the minister was a high official, even if it was a "former" minister, it was superior to others. He was very happy that the young master could associate with such people.

Fei Bing pushed the two bowls to the side of the table and said "thank you". The old servant held the jar with both hands and carefully filled it with water. Then he stepped back two steps, smiling apologetically, watching the two adults taste the water, and completely forgot about the owner on the other side.

The bowl in front of Xu Chu was still full.

Although it was spring, the stream water was still very cold. With just a small sip, a line of coolness could gradually extend from the mouth to the soles of the feet. Fei Bing felt that he had goose bumps and praised: "Drinking this water often should be able to clear your mind and wake up your mind."

"If the two adults like it, I will fill two large jars and send someone to deliver it to your mansion."

Yin Fu shook his head and said: "How can a sojourner come to the mansion? Although this water is good, it can only be kept in the Siguo Valley. Once it leaves this place, it will lose its spirituality."

"Ah." The old servant winked at the master, hoping that he would say something, but the master was not as considerate as usual and did not respond at all.

The old servant had to bow and leave. As soon as he reached the door, the master spoke.

"Wait a minute."

"Yes, sir, I'm here. What else do you want me to do?"

"I want to ask you something."

"Yes." The old servant took two steps forward and put the pottery jar on the table.

"Do you like meditation?"

"Haha, sir, you are joking. Meditation is a practice. Only those with Taoism can do it, such as the two adults and the young master. I am a servant, how can I do such a thing? I am not even qualified to talk about it."

"It's just a casual chat. I just happened to talk about this with the two adults. What did Master Fei ask just now?"

The old servant was obviously an extremely ordinary and vulgar old family member. Xu Chu actually asked him for help. Fei Bing was a little surprised. He glanced at Yin Fu beside him and repeated: "I asked Master Xu: You claim to be the orthodox of the Fan family. Why do you only learn Mr. Fan's meditation, but not learn from Mr. Fan to do things in the world?"

Xu Chu nodded, looked at the old servant, and waited for his answer.

The old servant was even more surprised, and stammered: "Master Fei is asking about the young master, it's none of my business..."

Xu Chu laughed and said: "I'm stumped by the question, I need some advice."

"Ha, how can I give advice to the young master?"

Yin Fu said: "Since it's just a casual chat, everyone can speak, why don't you come to the table and talk together?"

The old servant was called "honored manager" for the first time, and he felt a little flattered, but he hadn't completely lost his mind. He shook his head hurriedly, "How can I step on the place where the two masters and the master sit and lie? I'll stand here and talk." He said to the master again: "Young master, do you really want me to speak?"

"Hmm?"

The old servant chuckled twice, "Then I'll dare to say a few words. In fact, I didn't even understand what this Master Fei was asking. I only remembered the two sentences of "quietly thinking" and "doing things in the world". I didn't know what the world was, so I took it as doing things. Why did the young master quietly think instead of doing things? This is the question, right?"

Fei Bing smiled, "To put it simply, That's the question. "

The old servant was encouraged and became more courageous. He smiled and said, "If you want to tell me what my son is thinking, I definitely don't know. I can only tell you my guesses. My son is not the kind of person who must become an immortal. He has loved reading since he was a child, but he doesn't read books blindly. He often discusses with friends, saying that reading is for use. After reading so many principles, he must practice them in person. I still remember that it was five or six years ago. My son was about fourteen or fifteen years old. He read a book and was moved by a sentence. He dragged Yuefu Hou to the temple to listen to people ringing bells. He came back and complained that the bells were not loud enough. If they were loud enough, he shouldn't be able to hear them. But in those days, I had to speak at the top of my voice so that the son could hear me..."

The old servant was long-winded and easy to go off topic. As he spoke, he turned into a recollection of the past, all about how studious his master was and how weird his behavior was. Xu Chu himself didn't remember many things, but the old servant could tell them vividly, as if it was yesterday.

Xu Chu was slightly embarrassed. Fei Bing lowered his head and listened patiently. Only Yin Fu listened with great interest, interrupting from time to time to ask a question. The old servant talked more excitedly, talking about all sorts of things, which had less and less relevance to the original question.

After nearly two quarters of an hour, Xu Chu had to interrupt and said, "I will talk about the ridiculous things I did in the past later. What about Lord Fei's question?"

The old servant came back to his senses, "Yes, yes, where was I? The young master danced with a sword at night and raised his head to question the sky, which seemed to have nothing to do with this. Um... what did Lord Fei ask?"

"Why did Mr. Xu learn to meditate instead of learning to act?" Fei Bing asked again.

"Quiet contemplation... only takes a moment, you must still act. You are very smart, you have a photographic memory, when you read a book, you can understand it at a glance. Several times I saw you reading a book and laughing, it seemed very interesting. I don't know many words, so I secretly showed the book to others and asked them to tell me what was written in the book, but it was so boring that I couldn't listen at all. People who read it also said that the book was a good book, but there were no jokes in it..."

The old servant was about to fall into memories again, but this time he stopped in time and changed his words: "Even the young master's meditation is different from others. I have seen monks and Taoists practice in a quiet place, sitting on a futon with their hands in their hands. If you put a magic formula or something in it, you won't be able to hear what others say. My son is not like this. There is no futon under his butt and no magic formula in his hand. He can see people coming and hear what they say. Let me tell you, there is no difference between my son’s meditation and his actions, he just doesn’t want to leave the house.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the three people at the table said nothing, and there was no smile on their faces.

The old servant was frightened, "Did I say something wrong? I made it all up. My young master...how do I know what meditation is and what action is? I am just an old fool. Yesterday I had to open a lock and it took me a long time." I couldn't find the key, and I lost my temper with others, but in the end, the key was on me..."

Xu Chu straightened his posture on the table and said to the old servant: "Thank you for taking care of me over the years."

The old servant was even more frightened, "Young Master...are you going to drive me away? I'm not familiar with the place here, and I can't even find anyone to beg for food..."

"If I can only leave one person by my side, it will be you."

The old servant breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the two adults seemed to have no intention of asking questions, he smiled and said, "What kind of chat is this? I just listened to my chatter. The two adults continued to chat, and I stood guard outside. Just come."

The old servant turned around and picked up the pottery urn and left the house. When he got outside, he exhaled and murmured: "Thankfully, I always want to teach you how to speak. It turns out that I am the one who can't speak the most."

The three people in the room had different thoughts. Apart from those trivial memories, both Yin Fu and Fei Zhen thought the old servant's answer was excellent.

Yin Fu said: "Your servant is extremely loyal to Mr. Xu. Although he is confused, he still remembers all the little things that happened to Mr. Xu many years ago."

Xu Chu smiled and said, "And I never noticed that when I fled Dongdu before, I never thought about how he was doing."

"After all, he is a servant. Although he is loyal, he is of no great use." Fei Zhen said, not thinking that the old servant deserved too much gratitude.

"I don't even know his surname or name." Xu Chu was aroused with many emotions, "Not just him, I let down too many people, especially when I became king. There was once a general who treated me extremely Loyalty is unparalleled among all generals. Just because he took it upon himself to do a few things that I didn't know about in advance, I forced him to commit suicide..."

"At that time, you were the king of Wu, so you should enforce orders and prohibitions. It is not wrong to kill anyone who makes his own decisions." Fei Zhen defended Xu Chu instead.

"The King of Wu is not wrong, the fault is mine." Xu Chu forced a smile, "When I was studying history, my classmates and I had an argument: when the world is in chaos, all the heroes will inevitably rise together. Or die, and in the end only one family will be left to dominate the world. This is true. What we wonder is that no matter whether they live or die, no matter how many, there are always some loyal followers under their command. They are all successful in persuading enemy chieftains, and they are all considered to be highly talented. Why are they unwilling to stand on their own feet? In contrast, some of those who want to be kings and emperors have only middle-class talents."

"Is there a result of the argument?" Yin Fu asked.

"No. Some people say that they are self-aware, some say that they are unlucky, some say that they are afraid of danger, some say that superiority and inferiority are determined by fate, and they are destined to be ministers."

"What do you think, Mr. Xu?"

"I thought they had no ambition at the time, but now I think... Secretary Shi was wrong."

"Master Xu thinks he is right, but the history books are wrong?" Fei Zhen's tone was a little stiff.

"Of course I was wrong. The biggest mistake was to learn the principles from the book first and then practice them one by one. When I said there were mistakes in the books, it was not that the records were wrong, but that the judgments were wrong. In the history books of the Tiancheng Dynasty, only Zhang How did Emperor Xi decide the tripod step by step? It seems that he was the only one who cared about the world from the beginning to the end, and the other countries only wanted to make peace. I think there is never a shortage of people who care about the world, but there is only one winner. Unfortunately, he is the loser. It’s just losers. In the book, they are evil people. Why do some people refuse to stand on their own? They are just defeated. They are evil people and follow them after defeat. There is no more truth in it.

"Master Xu thinks he has been defeated?" Yin Fu asked.

"I was defeated, completely defeated."

Just when Fei Zang wanted to ask Xu Chu whether he refused to accept defeat or followed after defeat, Yin Fu stood up and bowed deeply, "If you enter the Tao from the real end, you will never be enlightened, and it is full of loopholes, and you will often get defeats, but there may be many defeats." Maybe he will gain something in the end. He may seem enlightened, invulnerable, and invincible, but in the end it will be in vain. "

Yin Fu paused, "Master Xu should stay in Siguo Valley, but he shouldn't sit at the table for a long time. It's the time when all things are revived. Why doesn't Master Xu walk through the mountains and rivers?"

Fei Zhen was surprised, "Shilang Yin really doesn't want to fight for this valley?"

Yin Fu still looked at Xu Chu, "Xu Gong wants the world to forget the 'King of Wu', so he needs to find another way."