Chapter 720: Burning Books in a Fit of Rage

Chen Changsheng had thought they might chat about interesting things happening in Ximing City over their wine.

But as they talked, the conversation took a different turn.

Long Zhongzheng had nothing but bitterness left to speak of.

The sheer pressure of staying alive had forced him to forget a great deal, paring him down to something much simpler. The year they first met, he had still spoken of Great Jing; now, he spoke only of survival.

The world had changed.

It had changed into something Chen Changsheng no longer recognized.

He let out a long sigh.

Raising his head to look at the full moon above, he couldn't help but wonder if he ought to do something.

Lately, he often found himself suddenly unable to understand his own mind.

It seemed the affairs of the world always followed their own laws, and he had no business interfering with them.

And yet...

He had never been like this in the past.

"What are you thinking about?" Long Zhongzheng asked.

"I was wondering if I should do something."

"Do what?"

"About the state of the world."

Long Zhongzheng chuckled at that. "You must have had too much to drink. How the world turns isn't for the likes of us to decide."

"You never know."

Chen Changsheng smiled. "Ultimately, isn't the state of the world decided by people? Aren't people the ones who change it? Am I not a person? Are you not a person?"

Long Zhongzheng paused, then said, "Why are you cursing yourself like that?"

"I was merely making an analogy," Chen Changsheng said with a smile.

Long Zhongzheng waved his hand. "Find a better way to phrase it next time. But honestly, you really do sound drunk. Stop thinking about such unrealistic things. For us, just managing to stay alive is good enough."

"What if I have the power to do it?" Chen Changsheng asked.

Long Zhongzheng laughed, joking in return, "If you have the power, then go give it a try. I'd love for the world to go back to how it was too, so I wouldn't have to worry about this and that all day. So why don't you hurry up and do it? Why are you still here asking me?"

He didn't take Chen Changsheng's words seriously, merely treating them as the usual drunken boasting.

Chen Changsheng thought for a moment before replying, "I've thought about doing such things in the past. But later on, I realized that a lot of what I did wasn't actually worth it. For example, you might want to change the world for the better, but those in high positions of power don't want it to return to how it used to be. What they need is chaos. No matter how hard you try, they will always plunge things back into turmoil."

"Because of that, certain things lose all meaning."

"You really are drunk," Long Zhongzheng said, shaking his head.

Chen Changsheng smiled. "This Chen is not drunk. Am I not discussing a serious matter with you right now?"

"Alright, alright, I'll pretend you aren't drunk." Long Zhongzheng looked up at him and asked, "So, where exactly does the problem lie?"

Hearing the question, Chen Changsheng pondered it as well.

Where exactly did the problem lie?

Was it the greed of human nature? Those people's thirst for imperial power? Their indifference toward life? Their contempt for morality...?

Chen Changsheng snapped back to reality and looked at Long Zhongzheng. "Thought!"

"Huh?"

Long Zhongzheng met his eyes and suddenly felt that something was off. Chen Changsheng's gaze was exceptionally serious; he didn't look like a drunk man joking around at all.

Chen Changsheng stood up. He offered a smile and looked at Long Zhongzheng. "Thank you."

"Huh?"

Long Zhongzheng let out another confused grunt, holding his wine bowl as he looked at Chen Changsheng in bewilderment.

Chen Changsheng raised his own wine bowl, gesturing a toast.

Long Zhongzheng had no idea what Chen Changsheng had just figured out.

He hesitated for a moment before raising his bowl to clink against it.

He then watched as Chen Changsheng tilted his head back and downed the wine in one gulp.

Seeing this, Long Zhongzheng also drained his bowl.

He then said, "If you have any more madness to let out, let it out all at once."

Chen Changsheng laughed. "No more madness."

The two jugs of wine were emptied, and the food prepared on the table was all eaten.

Long Zhongzheng tidied up a room for Chen Changsheng and invited him to stay the night. Chen Changsheng didn't decline; he expressed his thanks and settled in.

It was worth noting that the nights in Ximing City were particularly quiet.

However, this sort of quiet was rather unsettling.

It was far too quiet.

It felt like a dead city.

It had always been this way here.

...

When he woke up the next morning, a few more corpses had appeared by the city gates. Chen Changsheng glanced at them as he passed by, noticing that one of them was someone he had seen just yesterday.

That person had been blocking his path at the time.

The temperature difference between day and night here was extreme; they had likely frozen or starved to death in the cold wind.

Seeing this left a bitter taste in Chen Changsheng's mouth.

But there was nothing he could do. He might be able to save one person, but he couldn't save thousands.

Human strength had its limits.

Long Zhongzheng patted him on the shoulder and said, "Instead of pitying them, you'd be better off pitying me, or pitying yourself."

Chen Changsheng smiled helplessly and said nothing.

Many of the shops lining the streets of Ximing City stood empty. In times like these, doing business was an incredibly difficult endeavor. The endless barrage of miscellaneous taxes meant that a merchant wouldn't just fail to turn a profit over the year, but would actually suffer heavy losses. Over time, practically no one kept their shops open.

The few stores that still operated these days mostly had powerful backing.

Chen Changsheng's gaze eventually landed on a shop selling paper, ink, and brushes.

He paused in front of it.

"This Chen is going to buy a few things."

"Alright."

Chen Changsheng bought a few sheets of paper, a brush, and a couple of blank books.

Seeing his purchases, Long Zhongzheng couldn't help but ask, "You still study?"

"I practice calligraphy in my free time to pass the hours."

"That's not so bad, then."

"Why? Is being a scholar looked down upon nowadays?"

"In this day and age, what use is there in studying?"

"It can't be completely useless, can it?"

Long Zhongzheng shook his head with a laugh. "You don't know the half of it. The people at the top have confiscated all the books. When scholars have no books to read, how the hell are they supposed to study?"

Chen Changsheng frowned at this. "I remember back during the time of West Xiao, the King of West Xiao heavily promoted education. Books were never neglected."

"They were all burned."

Long Zhongzheng explained, "Back then, many scholars in the Northwest harshly criticized Prince Kang for ignoring the livelihood of the people. They cursed him quite viciously. In a fit of rage, Prince Kang ordered his men to go door to door and confiscate their books. For every book they found, they burned it. As long as it was a book among the common folk, it was tossed into the fire—whether it was a play script or random musings. Without books, the scholars lost their access to reason and principles, naturally leaving them entirely at the mercy of those in control."

"To go so far, leaving no room for compromise..." Chen Changsheng sighed.

Long Zhongzheng said, "Isn't it obvious? These people never had any humanity to speak of in the first place. Aside from power and silver taels, they don't care about a single thing."

"If scholars like to curse me, fine—I'll just burn all their books and cut off their path right at the root. Then, I'll execute them one by one until they no longer dare to speak."

"It's highly effective."