Three Kingdoms: I rely on system loopholes to survive

Cai Yong felt that he was very angry.

Zheng Xuan was not so stubborn before. Even if he had to argue, he would not have been so fussy. Sometimes Cai Yong even thought that Zheng Xuan was too pleased with his editing of the book, or was jealous of his good disciple, so he had to make trouble like this.

There were several times when Cai Yong wanted to stand up and slam the table during the debate, and he almost blurted out: "Don't be unreasonable and make trouble..."

Zheng Xuan was a stubborn person. He spent dozens of days in a row promoting modern literature, and he used all the classics he found in the corners of some unknown book. Cai Yong was unable to refute his ideas, and he couldn't help but doubt his life: Am I really not as knowledgeable as him? How could he have so many unheard-of ideas?

However, these methods only worked for a few days. By the end of the month, Cai Yong gradually came to his senses and realized that Zheng Xuan's high-profile invitation to him to Yangzhou for a debate was just to keep him here and prevent him from returning to Xu Du.

Cai Yong immediately had a bad feeling in his heart.

A wise disciple is better than a teacher.

Cai Yong guessed immediately that it was Zhong Ping who caused trouble in Xudu.

"Kang Cheng, tell me the truth, was it Bo Heng who gave you this bad idea? You are so old, why are you messing around with him?"

Zhuge Liang was standing beside Zheng Xuan listening to his lecture. Seeing that Cai Yong looked angry, Zheng Xuan nodded slightly, then rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward to serve Cai Yong tea. After the greeting, he quietly retreated and closed the door.

Zheng Xuan took a sip of tea and said helplessly, "Since you know it was Bo Heng who came up with the idea, you should be able to understand his intentions. If he really wants to get you out of Xudu, even if he doesn't use the scripture debate as an excuse, he will always have other ways. Why does he have to keep harassing me?"

"Bullshit!"

Cai Yong blew his beard and glared: "Without your cooperation, would I have reacted to this matter only today? If it were someone else, I would have realized something was wrong and returned the next day! Besides, he is my disciple! What does it mean to be so close to you? Even if everyone in the world says that he 'inherits the learning of Zheng and Cai', he has never worshipped you as his teacher!"

Zheng Xuan was no longer surprised by his friend's behavior. "You also said it was the 'Zheng-Cai School', but I am ahead of you."

Cai Yong opened his mouth, but was unable to refute for a moment.

"That's also my disciple."

He lowered his voice and his expression became serious: "Kang Cheng, tell me the truth, what exactly does Bo Heng plan to do in Xudu? He is my last disciple. A hundred years from now, the Cai family's doctrine is counting on him... You can't let an old man like me die without anyone to pay tribute to him, right?"

Zheng Xuan heard something wrong: "Are you planning to marry your daughter to Bo Heng?"

"Don't interrupt."

Cai Yong pretended to cough twice and brought the topic back: "After all, I have a little reputation in my life. With me in Xudu, it can be of some help."

"...You were almost imprisoned, and it was Bo Heng who rescued you, right?"

Zheng Xuan didn't care about his old friend's face at all, and almost said that there was no point in Cai Yong staying in Xu Du.

Cai Yong was speechless again. He sat down angrily and took a big sip of tea.

Zheng Xuan wanted to remind Cai Yong that this tea was for warming the body, not for reducing internal heat, but after thinking about it, he felt that if he said this, the other party might get angry again. At this age, it was not a good thing to have a strong liver fire, so he chose to keep silent out of consideration.

"Mr. Bo Ji, Madam Wei and the young lady are waiting in the guest room."

Zhuge Liang's voice sounded outside the door.

Cai Yong was stunned, then he covered his chest and felt a little breathless: Even his two daughters were sent to Yangzhou, and there was a momentum of fighting with one's back to the river... Could it be that Bo Heng and Zhong Ji, father and son, decided to assassinate Cao Cao?
After taking a deep breath, Cai Yong no longer cared about Zheng Xuan. He pushed the door open in a hurry and ran to the guest room to find his two daughters to ask about the situation.

"come in."

Zheng Xuan knew that Zhuge Liang was outside the door, and he estimated that the other party had overheard most of his conversation with Cai Yong.

Zhuge Liang looked down at the ground.

Normally he wouldn't do such eavesdropping, but this time it involved Zhong Ping, and he really couldn't help his curiosity.

"How's your research on 'spring' going?"

"The historian once said that installing a spring on the plowshare of a plow can reduce the resistance of the soil when plowing the land, saving the effort of the farmer. I tried it with copper wire and found that it was too thin and the elastic force it provided was insufficient."

Zhuge Liang looked distressed. "I once wrote to ask about this matter. The Grand Historian said in the letter that leaf springs can be made of bronze... or they can be made of twisted tendon ropes or hair ropes to make torsion springs. The latter can be used on stone crossbows and catapults to enhance their power."

“Although I don’t know the various shapes of leaf springs, I have made torsion springs. Unfortunately, there is nowhere to use them.”

Zheng Xuan was quite interested in what he heard: "Are bronze and copper the only materials that can be used to make springs for farm tools?"

"The Grand Historian said that the best material is 'steel', which seems to be made using the 'white cast iron' technique, but I heard that it is difficult to make and there is a lot of waste."

Zhuge Liang had actually seen the method of frying steel in the Taiping Jing, but he did not dare to say it in front of his teacher.

"I also heard that there is a method of 'hundred-fold steel refining'. The swords made from the refined steel are all the sharpest weapons in the world. It's a pity that I can't see it."

Zhuge Liang felt a little unsatisfied. He also saw in the letter that Zhong Ping wrote that he had a method of making steel, which was much simpler than the above two methods. But perhaps because of some concerns, Zhong Ping only mentioned it briefly and did not elaborate.

Zheng Xuan seemed to be thinking about something: "In this case, let's put aside the method of improving farm tools. All skilled craftsmen in the world have their own unique skills that they never show to others. Zi Ni likes to make friends, so I can write him a letter to ask for some information. Bo Ji has a large collection of books, and perhaps there are some books on Mohism. If you really like to study this tool, you might as well start with steelmaking." Zhuge Liang was quite eager to try. He was confident that his hobby would not affect his daily studies. Since his teacher agreed to let him do the research, he would certainly not miss this good opportunity.

Zhong Ping didn't even know that a spring of his would turn Zhuge Liang from a villager in Nanyang into a blacksmith in Yangzhou.

He is eating on the boat now.

Perhaps Li Meng realized that if he let Zhong Ping eat dry biscuits again, he might really choke to death.

After spending five days on the boat, Zhong Ping opened his soulless eyes and prepared to repeat his daily routine. When he was stuffing a cake into his mouth, Li Meng, as if a god from heaven, took out roasted rabbit meat wrapped in cattail leaves from his arms.

The moment he smelled the aroma of meat, Zhongping almost cried.

He swore that he would prepare dry food in advance before running away next time. No matter how good the ingredients were, he couldn't eat the dry biscuits for five days!
Zhong Ping even felt that he would get constipated if he continued to eat like this...

"From now on, we will call each other brothers."

He took a bite of rabbit meat, sniffed in a very cowardly manner, and bowed to Li Meng: "Brother, please accept my humble respect!"

Li Meng quickly turned aside to avoid the greeting: "What are you doing, Grand Historian? I dare not accept this greeting!"

"It's okay, it's okay. From now on, we'll call each other by our own names. Anyway, I'll call you brother."

Zhong Ping waved his hand. Perhaps because they were almost in Jingzhou, he looked visibly more cheerful.

He had already made an appointment with Xun You, Wu Zhi and others to meet at Zhijiang Ferry near Danyangju.

Danyangju is close to Dangyang. It is said that Gan Ning was sent to Dangyang to be the city gate captain because of his feud with the Cai brothers.

"Old man, how long will it take to get there?"

This was the third boat they had changed. The boatman was still an old man. He looked like he often sailed outside and had a dark complexion.

"That's it."

The old man spoke in a loud voice, sounding energetic: "San'er, plug in the pole!"

The young man on the boat wiped his sweat and inserted the bamboo pole in his hand into the small hole at the stern.

Zhong Ping stood on the boat heading towards the shore and vaguely saw several people waiting at the ferry, but there seemed to be no elderly people among them.

He felt as if his right eyelid twitched.

"Maybe it's not at this ferry..."

Zhong Ping muttered to himself. The old boatman had good hearing and was close to Zhong Ping. Hearing this, he quickly shook his head and said, "No, no, you are going to Danyang for the gathering, right? There is only one ferry there, there must be one."

"Maybe that's not the person waiting for my ship..."

Seeing the boat stop by the shore, Zhong Ping paused. The distance was enough for him to see the faces of the two people waiting at the ferry.

It was Wu Zhi and Huoqiu.

Zhong Ping looked at it several more times without giving up.

Of course, there were other people waiting for their relatives and friends on the shore, but all I saw were strangers, and there was no such person as the one I was thinking of.

"...Maybe Dad went to Yangzhou to find a teacher?"

Zhong Ping made all kinds of self-deceiving guesses, even though the ship had clearly already docked and he could go ashore just by raising his feet; even though he could get the answer with just one question.

He stood on the boat for a long time without moving.

Afterwards, he felt a sour feeling that spread from his heart all the way to his nasal cavity.

It was as if he opened his eyes for the first time in Zhong Ji's arms. Zhong Ping once again felt the sadness of being out in the world with no one to rely on.

"Dad, why can't you choose me just once? Just once is enough..."

Zhong Ping felt that his lips were trembling when he asked this question.

His voice was so low that it disappeared in the river breeze as soon as it was uttered.

No one in the world heard this question, and naturally no one answered it. Only the sound of the wind rustled the cattails on the river bank.

(End of this chapter)