A few days later, when I saw Mr. Cheng again, he had changed a lot.
This change is not a change in appearance, but a difference in temperament.
He shed his sarcastic tone of an angry young man and became relaxed and open-minded.
In the office, a large plaque with the words "Dongfuhao" hangs on the wall opposite the desk. The other three sides are filled with bookshelves, but the dust on them shows that these books have been read for years and are not just for display.
"It seems that you still didn't sell this plaque to the Cultural Bureau in the end!" Looking at the plaque, Lu Guansheng said with a smile.
"They offered a high price, but I don't want to sell it." Cheng Fu knew Lu Guansheng's Heytea and said as he brought out the tea set, "History is always a fleeting present and a distant past. They won't regret it for too long."
"Oh? How do you mean?"
"I've lived alone in this life! After I die, the Cultural Bureau can take back this plaque."
"Why keep it?"
"It reminds me of the persistence of being a human being. The persistence of principles, the persistence of academic correctness, and the persistence of not blindly rejecting different opinions and ideas!"
"No wonder I feel so much more open-minded after seeing you this time!"
"Many of the students here have their own opinions. In the past, I would have used my own knowledge to judge right from wrong." Cheng Fu said this, glancing at the plaque. "Wouldn't that be the same as those old men who delayed me back then?"
"So, this plaque is a constant reminder that everything depends on the evidence, and that history can be corrected, just like the theories constantly updated in the scientific community, right?"
"Yes! That's right!" Master Cheng poured a bowl of tea and handed it to Lu Guansheng. "Do you remember what you said back then?"
"I said a lot to convince you. Which one are you referring to?"
"You said you wanted to learn from my theory, not because you knew I was right, but because without verification, how could you know the outcome?"
“That’s me coming at it from a scientific perspective.”
"It was this sentence that changed my approach to historical research. History and science, from an academic research perspective, are actually the same."
"I didn't expect you to be so capable of drawing inferences from one instance!" Lu Guansheng laughed.
"The purpose of studying history, besides restoring the past, is not the most important thing to learn from the stories about good and bad, right and wrong, and to serve our current decision-making and interpersonal relationships?"
Lu Guansheng nodded. Indeed, history is the stepping stone to the future.
"You didn't come to me today to chat about these things, did you? You are such a busy man, you wouldn't come here for no reason! Tell me! What do you want to ask?" Master Cheng got to the point.
"I know you're an expert on the Ming Dynasty, but how much do you know about the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms?"
"I've done some research. Which part do you want to know?"
"The part where Li Congke deposed the emperor and then set himself on fire."
"With such a long history, you're asking about something that happened in less than two months?" Cheng Fu said with a smile, "Are you going to pan for gold again?"
"I'm a businessman with a lot of money. Am I about to stink up at you?" Lu Guansheng laughed at himself.
"You really are capable of pretending to be humble!" Cheng Fu shook his head. He understood Lu Guansheng well enough and didn't think he had a penchant for money. "If I'm not mistaken, your goal is the Imperial Seal?"
"You're truly a history expert, you get it straight away!"
"What do you want to know?"
"The most important thing is the specific time and place."
"When?" Cheng Fu pondered for a moment. "At that time, his general was killed by Khitan reinforcements on the battlefield. It was also because he chose the wrong people. The Khitan teammate turned out to be useless. They turned against him and marched south to Luoyang, strangling his lifeline."
"So, don't trust the slanderous words of villains. If you are too wary of others, you will end up being isolated and helpless."
"Yes! He was caught between two odds, and Shi Jingtang, whom he wanted to suppress, took the opportunity to establish his own faction and depose him as the monarch.
"In the past, to claim the title of king, besides bloodline, one had to have no descendants. Li Congke's children had been almost all killed three years earlier, and his last son also died that same year. He probably only had a daughter who was a few years old.
"But he has another trump card, and that is the Imperial Seal in his hand! If we want to prevent Shi Jingtang from truly becoming the emperor, we must prevent him from obtaining the Imperial Seal."
"So, he burned himself and the imperial seal as well?"
"I think it's pretty much like this! If you're narrow-minded, don't let others get what you can't have!"
Although there are many versions of history, in addition to this version, there is also a saying that he gave the jade seal to his youngest daughter and hid it.
He also said that he had a little son who was secretly sent away. He passed the imperial seal to that son, hoping that he could restore the family prestige.
And so on and so forth...
But Lu Guansheng still agrees more with Cheng Fu's version.
"When exactly is that?"
Shi Jingtang established his kingdom in late November and has been searching for the imperial seal ever since. Fearing repercussions, the palace staff either defected or fled, leaving only a few loyal and close servants.
"It was almost the end of the Lunar New Year, but unfortunately it was a leap month of November. It is said that Li Congke, after lamenting, 'Heaven is not on my side; the month of joy is too late,' set himself on fire 'before the twelfth month.'"
"So, that was the end of the eleventh lunar month?"
"Well, according to the current Gregorian calendar, it should be around January 11th."
"Is it in the Luoyang Palace?"
"According to the records, it was definitely in his own bedroom." Cheng Fu sneered, "By not burning the main hall, is he still hoping he'll have descendants? After all, my mother had a family before she married the late king, so he's not the late king's biological son."
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