"Not only do I know, I've seen it." As soon as he said this, Ilale looked at him immediately.
"real?"
"Absolutely true."
Ayan Lianshan looked at Zhao Xiu as if he was looking at a charlatan.
Hu Shang waved to Ilale, Ilale saluted the Confucian scholar, and then walked towards the few people.
"Ilale, this is..." Hu Shang was about to introduce, but found that he didn't know Zhao Xiu's name yet.
"Zhao Xiu." Zhao Xiu bowed to Yilale, "Nice to meet you."
Yilaer returned the greeting, "I'm Yilaer." Then he continued, "I heard everything you just said. Have you really seen the Donglingzi Collection?"
"This Donglingzi Collection was originally in the hands of the Jisheng Bookstore, but was later split by the unscrupulous shopkeeper Zhou Shancai, who made two copies of it, half-authentic and half-fake, and sold them at a high price. One copy was sold to Qingzhou, and the other was first sold to Yuan Zuzhi, the chief academic officer of the Imperial College. The copy sold to Yuan Zuzhi was later discovered and returned, and then resold to a gullible silk shop owner for three thousand taels."
Yilaer was stunned. "A fake one sells for three thousand taels?" If Dong Lingzi's disciples had an authentic one, how much would it sell for? Could he afford it?
"So Zhou Shancai got his comeuppance," Zhao Xiu said, his hands folded in his pockets. "When the news of his counterfeiting and selling fake books got out, the Bandoushan Bookstore held a book appraisal meeting right there on the street, and among the books they appraised was this set of 'Donglingzi Collection'."
"So what happened next? Did you find out if it was real?"
"Fake is fake, it can never be real, and it was discovered. Zhou Shancai was eventually sued by the government and ordered to pay triple the original amount in compensation, totaling nine thousand taels to the unjust victim. Zhou Huai was also dismissed from his position, and the Zhou family's influence plummeted from then on. The Jisheng Bookstore also closed soon after."
Zhao Xiu straightened his clothes and raised his head, saying, "Later, I took over and renamed it Wanjuanlou."
"It's karma," Yilale said bitterly, "I was forced out of the capital by that Zhou family member. I left too early, otherwise I would have seen them punished with my own eyes."
Zhao Xiu was surprised, "I never thought you had such a grudge against them." Then he smiled and said, "So, I can be considered to have indirectly avenged you."
Ilal was puzzled.
Zhao Xiu smiled like a fox that had eaten meat, "I was the one who leaked the news about the fraud of Jisheng Book Bureau to Bandoushan."
Upon hearing this, Yilaer smiled happily, then patted Zhao Xiu's shoulder vigorously and said, "Well done!"
Ayan Lianshan rolled his eyes and said that this man was not a good person and seemed to have done a lot of immoral things.
Ilale's laughter startled the scholar. He opened his eyes, sighed, and then bowed to the monk. "I lost."
"Cultivating the mind doesn't matter whether you win or lose." The monk put on a smile and returned the greeting to the scholar. "If your heart is not here, your body will be unstable."
The scholar sighed. He was cultivating the Way of Exploring the World, and his heart was not in Buddhism. He said to the monk, "I will come again."
"Amitabha." The monk knew that the day he came again would be the day he said goodbye.
The scholar walked towards the people outside the cave and asked Yilale, "Who asked you to find the book?"
Yilaer glanced at Zhao Xiu, then said to the scholar, "That's the Yuan Zuzhi that Brother Zhao just mentioned, Mr. Yuan."
Now it was Zhao Xiu's turn to be surprised. "It was him?" Then he sighed, "He must have put a lot of effort into this."
Yilale asked, "Brother Zhao and Lord Yuan know each other?"
"Every scholar in the capital knows this Master Yuan. He is a great admirer of Dong Lingzi and is the most comprehensive inheritor of Dong Lingzi's teachings today. That's why he was appointed as the Imperial College's Chief Academician."
Zhao Xiu looked at the scholar and said, "Master Yuan often regards himself as an outer disciple of the Dongling Sect. If you are indeed a disciple of the Dongling Sect, if you meet him, you will definitely treat him as a close friend."
After hearing his words, the Confucian scholar asked, "Why is the Central Plains so appreciative of the teachings of our ancestor now?"
"Mr. Donglingzi specializes in the study of practical affairs." Zhao Xiu, eager to help Yilale, said, "From the imperial court to the millions of students, who doesn't read Donglingzi these days? His teachings even determine the direction of the imperial examinations. Lord Yuan is one of the examiners this year. If you don't believe me, you can return to the Central Plains and take a look."
Yilale said at the right moment: "Master Yuan also wrote a letter and asked me to give it to the disciples of Dongling Sect."
The scholar pondered for a moment and said to Ilaer, "You take the letter and follow me."
A surprised smile suddenly appeared on Yilale's face, "Yes!"
The caravan followed Ilaer away. Before leaving, Ilaer gave him a bag of wine to express his gratitude and said, "If we meet again in the future, I will definitely treat Brother Zhao to a good meal!"
Zhao Xiu waved goodbye to him, then sat down at the entrance of the cave with the wine bag and started drinking.
Ayan Lianshan kicked him and said, "You should at least be mindful of the situation. This is a Buddhist cave."
Zhao Xiu took a sip of wine and said beautifully, "Wine and meat pass through the intestines, while the Buddha sits in the heart."
Ayan Lianshan couldn't help it, so he grabbed the wine bag and took a big gulp.
“Good wine.”
The meditating monk raised his eyelids and glanced at the two of them, then closed them again with a smile.
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