Chapter 44

  Xie Mingxuan, 24 years old, from Hunan Province, a scholar. He is not tall, but looks quite dignified. However, what left the deepest impression on Chen Ke was Xie Mingxuan's amber-colored eyes. Amber color is not as light as yellow, nor is it dull. To be precise, Chinese people are not exactly black-haired and black-eyed, but rather have a deep brown color that is unique to China. It's as if a hint of yellow has been added to the blackness, giving off a warm feeling despite its thickness. Compared to this extremely deep color, amber stands out even more. Xie Mingxuan usually doesn't like to talk, and his bright eyes calmly observe everything happening around him, as if there's something he wants to express, yet remains silent.

  Chen Ke has a high opinion of Xie Mingxian, and every time he assigns tasks to him, Xie Mingxian is able to complete them very well. Chen Ke still remembers when he first recruited Xie Mingxian, at that time this young man was not arrogant or boastful about his "Xiucai" title, but instead had a down-to-earth attitude of working hard and earning money to eat. This kind of quality is rarely seen in this era. Later on, when Chen Ke wanted to continue employing Xie Mingxian, the latter expressed that he hoped to work more and earn more money, and was even unwilling to attend political classes for free. Only after Chen Ke promised to pay him his salary for attending classes did Xie Mingxian take out his notebook and listen seriously.

  Because he was worried about lecturing to Fudan students, Chen Ke wrote a manuscript full of "nationalist sentiment", which was very provocative for the seven young people. Not to mention 1905 China, even in 2005 China, this kind of article would still have enough market. As a result, Xie Mingxian's evaluation was unexpectedly "empty talk".

  Chen Ke knew that this nationalist agitation was always empty talk. From Chen Ke's political point of view, all so-called national things were pseudo-propositions. The birth of nationalism is a product of social development, and therefore nationalism must disappear in the course of social development. As a communist, or more accurately, a Maoist, Chen Ke did not like the concept of nation at all. Class struggle was the root of social contradictions, and advocating nationalism was just a means, not a real existence. In Chinese tradition, there is familyism and Huayi distinction, but never a nationalist tradition. The Chu culture in the Spring and Autumn period was still a standard southern barbarian culture, and now it is still a treasure of Chinese culture. If we must talk about bloodlines, I'm afraid that most people in China have ancestors who were "barbarians". Chen Ke has type B blood, Mongolian birthmarks, and polydactyly on his little toes, which are typical characteristics of the Huns' bloodline. However, Chen Ke was first and foremost a thorough Chinese, and no one, including himself and those around him, had ever doubted this.

  It would never occur to anyone that the Xiongnu culture is Chinese culture, but Mr. Sima Qian clearly recorded in "Records of the Grand Historian" that the Xiongnu are also standard descendants of the Yan and Huang emperors. From the perspective of the great division of labor in human society, the separation of nomadism and agriculture created the northern nomadic Xiongnu nation. This oldest nomadic enemy of China is just a branch of the Xia people. Later, the Xiongnu were reabsorbed into the Xia, and there are countless "Xiongnu descendants" who died to defend the Xia, and this number cannot be counted. Chen Ke was an ordinary person, so he did not like so-called "nationalism".

  Xie Mingxian can thoroughly negate nationalism and thinks that Chen Ke's inflammatory speech is nonsense, this insight is not ordinary.

  Looking at Xie Mingxian's slightly uninteresting expression, Chen Ke couldn't help but ask: "Mingxian, what do you really think? Please speak your mind and teach me."

  Looking at Xie Mingxian's expression, he had something to say to Chen Ke for a long time. He pursed his lips slightly, seemingly having made up his mind. As expected, Xie Mingxian replied: "Mr. Wenqing, when I first met you, to be honest, I thought you were also a fake foreign devil. I didn't like you. Later, I found your books to be reasonable and not heretical. I actually looked at Mr. Wenqing in a new light. However, Mr. Wenqing, as the saying goes, 'use people without suspicion.' Since you've employed me, please trust me. Let me do what I should do, and if you think what you say is right, I'll naturally follow your guidance after doing it. Now, all you do every day is lecture, lecture, lecture. You want us to completely follow your thoughts and actions. No matter how well you lecture, what's the point? Now you've written another article, and I actually don't know what Mr. Wenqing wants to do."

  These words are heavy, if it were someone else, Xie Mingxian would not have spoken so bluntly. But for some reason, Xie Mingxian believed that Chen Ke could understand his meaning and accept his ideas. For some unknown reason, although Xie Mingxian had many complaints about Chen Ke, he was very confident in Chen Ke's tolerance. As a scholar, Xie Mingxian had seen many famous teachers. To be fair, although he didn't like Chen Ke at first, he truly admired Chen Ke's knowledge. Although he didn't like Chen Ke at first, as time passed, he found that Chen Ke wasn't a despicable person after all. Moreover, Chen Ke was willing to listen to others' opinions on the surface. And Chen Ke was quite wealthy, Xie Mingxian had been hoping to take on more work under Chen Ke and earn some money. Unexpectedly, Chen Ke, despite having many ways to make money, didn't seem to care about it at all. Instead, he was obsessed with new ideas. Xie Mingxian had been dissatisfied for a long time, today he couldn't bear it anymore, so he spoke bluntly.

  Xie Mingxian finished speaking in one breath, looking at Chen Ke's serious face, and felt that he might have said too much. At Chen Ke's place, the pay wasn't high, but Chen Ke was after all a scholar, and his work wasn't physically demanding. If Xie Mingxian were to look for another job now, he didn't think he could find one of this type. And if Chen Ke were to turn against him in anger... Thinking of this, Xie Mingxian felt a bit nervous, and said: "This is just my own opinion, if there's anything wrong, please forgive me, Mr. Wenqing."

  Chen Ke fell into deep thought, he didn't guess Xie Mingxian's mind, and the thing he was thinking about had nothing to do with Xie Mingxian. Xie Mingxian's complaint made Chen Ke suddenly realize something that had been puzzling him recently. "How should revolutionary work be carried out from now on."

  If anything, Chen Ke himself was not a revolutionary trying to break everything. Born in the late 20th century when China had basically completed its industrialization construction, Chen Ke had been instilled with the word "system" from an early age. If the party of that year relied on theoretical study and became a real industrial political party in this agricultural country, then Chen Ke's awakening really conformed to Marx's original wish. The works written by Marx were originally for the people of industrialized countries to read. Chen Ke was completely within this "applicable range".

  Chen Ke knew what was "right and wrong", but he himself may not be a person who dared to innovate. Without sufficient social practice, it is not easy to make breakthroughs in theory. Back in this era, everything Chen Ke did was "imitation". Imitating his predecessors. And the nature of Chen Ke's "system" made him unable to accept "making mistakes". In the history of the party, many mistakes were made during this period. This is inevitable, and without experiencing failure, it is impossible to summarize experience and move on to the correct path. Chen Ke had been a teacher, and in this not-too-long period of his life, Chen Ke understood one thing. If teachers really taught seriously, then in the teaching process, the gains of teachers far outweighed those of students. Because students would only make their own mistakes, while teachers would see countless mistakes through their students.

  The correct path is not a straight line in theory, but rather one that has gone through countless failures and mistakes to finally discover the right way. This process is not completed by learning, but by practice. Chen Ke made an analogy, students see ahead of them often as an insurmountable high mountain, but in Chen Ke's view, it is a road or even multiple roads over the mountains. This is not only Chen Ke's own practice, but also includes many things learned from his students' practices.

  From this perspective, Chen Ke should let everyone practice the revolution on their own and experience it for themselves. What Chen Ke needs to do is analyze the results of these practices with everyone and explore the correct path together. Chen Ke himself doesn't have any revolutionary experience. Even if he wanted to go into practice, many tasks temporarily tied him up, and he didn't have time to go to the grassroots level. As a result, Chen Ke was desperately pouring theoretical knowledge into students and comrades, but the students seemed unappreciative.

  Everyone is facing the current difficulties, what is needed is a solution, what is needed is to take action, rather than learning theories that are completely detached from practice. The example in front of us is Xie Mingxian, and the students in school who are dissatisfied with Chen Ke are also examples. As long as they are given the opportunity to practice, classmates and comrades will definitely make great progress.

  But Chen Ke also knew that once he entered the practical phase, things would definitely get out of his control. Reality is always stranger than the most exaggerated, just like how a single physical theory can produce diametrically opposed understandings among students. When Chen Ke was in high school, there was a classmate who did multiple-choice questions all wrong, even when there was only one incorrect answer among the options, this classmate would always choose that one wrong answer and give up all the correct answers. The physics teacher at the time didn't get angry, on the contrary, he thought this classmate had really made an effort to study. Otherwise, just guessing the answers randomly wouldn't have produced such a result.

  Revolution is not a dinner party, nor is it doing an exam paper. If you let your comrades do it, there will inevitably be losses, and Chen Ke has no confidence in solving all problems at any time. Moreover, revolution will ruthlessly abandon many people, which has been proven by countless examples. Chen Ke asked himself, when reading history books, he could still agree with "killing decisively", but facing these classmates and comrades who are together day and night, Chen Ke cannot make up his mind to do so.

  While he was deep in thought, the door opened. Yu Youren pushed the door and came in. As soon as he saw Chen Ke, Yu Youren's face was full of surprise. "Mr. Chen has arrived."

  Chen Ke hastily put aside other thoughts and stood up, saying: "Mr. Yu, I have come to offer my apologies."

  Yu Youren burst out laughing, "The students are young and vigorous, what does it have to do with Mr. Chen? If we talk about apologizing for our mistakes, wouldn't I as a teacher be even more guilty?"

  After everyone sat down, Yu Rong roughly explained what had happened. The so-called fight wasn't a life-or-death struggle, and it didn't even involve any actual punches or kicks. It was just the students shoving each other around, resulting in one torn piece of clothing. Although people were shouting insults and some words were quite "radical", Fudan University didn't take it very seriously. Students these days are naturally radical, and shouting revolutionary slogans is a common occurrence; no one really takes it to heart. The matter has already been resolved, and the two parties involved in the dispute have returned to their dormitories.

  Chen Ke's purpose this time was to resolve the internal conflicts within the Huangpu Academy and also to pay his respects to Mr. Ma Xiangbo along the way. No matter what, the reason for the students' fight is their own fault. If he didn't show up at all, it wouldn't be quite right. Scholars like him may say whatever sounds good, but if the other party doesn't even have basic respect, they can easily hold grudges. This has nothing to do with fame or reputation. From the standpoint of a united front, this aspect cannot be ignored.

  Chen Ke proposed to go and pay his respects to Mr. Ma, Yu Youren said that Mr. Ma was in school. Chen Ke immediately expressed his desire to visit now. Yu Youren led the way in front, and the group walked through the campus towards Mr. Ma Xiangbo's office. Chen Ke was a celebrity at Fudan Public School, and many people had heard him lecture. When they saw Chen Ke appear, many students were greeting him. The attitude of ordinary students was not bad, but some Huangpu Academy classmates were not very satisfied. Seeing Chen Ke arrive, they looked at him uncomfortably, and two of them turned around and walked in another direction, don't know what to do.

  Upon arriving at Mr. Ma's office, Yu Youren opened the door and Chen Kei immediately saw a somewhat familiar face inside. After careful observation, it turned out to be Cai Yuanpei. Cai Yuanpei was also quite surprised to see Chen Kei arrive. It had been over two months since they last met, and neither of them had intended to have any further dealings with each other, yet here they were meeting again today.

  "Wen Qing, do you know He Qiong?" Mr. Ma Xiangbo asked, having sensed something.

  "I have met Mr. Cai before." Chen Ke smiled and said.

  The master just responded with one sentence.

  "This time I came specifically to apologize to Mr. Ma." Chen Ke also didn't want to entangle with Cai Yuanpei, he hastily said.

  "Wen Qing is too polite." Mr. Ma Xiangbo said with a broad mind.

  Cai Yuanpei casually chimed in, "I read the literary youth's masterpiece a few days ago. When I met Wenqing before, I really didn't know that his talent was so remarkable."

  "It wasn't just my own credit, when I was writing that book, this Xie Mingxian also helped a lot." Chen Ke introduced the Xie Mingxian beside him to Ma Xiangbo and Cai Yuanpei. Since Chen Ke said so, the attention of the two naturally shifted to Xie Mingxian. Anyway, it's always like that when literati meet, everyone is very polite on the surface. After chatting for a while, Chen Ke apologized again and saw that Mr. Ma Xiangbo didn't show any sign of blame, so he stood up and bid farewell.

  As soon as Mr. Ma Xiangbo's office came out, he saw a few people standing in the distance, and the first one was Xiong Mingyang. Seeing Chen Ke come out, he rushed straight to Chen Ke. Yu Youren said that Xiong Mingyang was indeed not injured, but looking at his fists clenched, deliberately swinging open his arms, walking over with big strides, with a very arrogant appearance, Chen Ke just stood still and waited for him to come over.

  Xiong Mingyang walked up to Chen Ke, looked him up and down, with a mocking expression on his face. He said in a hypocritical tone, "Mr. Chen, you actually came all the way to school to explain things. I had too much wine, spoke nonsense after getting drunk, and caused trouble for Mr. Chen. Here, let me apologize to you." After finishing speaking, he pretended to slightly bow his head and clasp his fists together in a salute.

  "You also understand revolution? After reading a few books, you think you can make a revolution?" Chen Ke laughed.

  "What?" Xiong Mingyang really didn't expect Chen Keshang to say something like that, the mocking expression on his face suddenly turned into shock.

  "The Huangpu Academy is about to start a social survey activity, with the aim of investigating China's current situation. You think you want revolution, but if you don't know what kind of country China is, how can you have a revolution?"

  "Does the revolution still need investigation..."

  "Do you think ordinary people know much about the cession of territory and indemnity? I'm not talking about ordinary people, but even you, who thinks you know a lot. Let me ask you, do you know how many treaties were signed between Europe, America, and China? What's the content of these treaties? How did they affect China? Can you tell me now?" Chen Ke's face had turned very cold, with a hint of mockery on his face.

  Several students came with Xiong Mingyang, and they all seemed to be supporting him, their faces originally filled with discontent. After being questioned by Chen Ke in such a manner, the expressions of Xiong Mingyang and his companions immediately changed to embarrassment. Their arrogant air flew away to the ends of the earth.

  "Let's forget it for today, you guys go gather all the members of the study society, tomorrow night at 7 o'clock come to the study society for a meeting. I will assign social survey work to everyone. Don't be too proud." Chen Ke said, looking at Xiong Mingyang who was still somewhat unhappy and couldn't let go of his pride. Chen Ke handed him a draft he had written, "If you want to hear nice words, I have plenty here, read this first, I wrote it randomly when I was in school today. See if there's any difference between these and my usual lectures."

  Having said that, Chen Ke didn't wait for Xiong Mingyang to speak and took Xie Ming away with a flourish.

  Until they walked out of the school gate, Chen Ke asked: "Ming Xuan, you said you wanted to take on some work, I don't know what exactly you want to do."

  "A job that can make money. I need to earn some money." Xie Mingxuan said frankly.

  "It's good to want to make money, but can you say why?"

  "This..." was asked by Chen Ke with a straightforward purpose, but Xie Mingxuan found it difficult to say the reason out loud.

  "I don't mean anything else. If you want to make money, you have to be determined. Different reasons bring different determination. Tell me your reason and I'll arrange a suitable job for you."

  Hearing Chen Ke say this, Xie Mingxian also felt that it made sense. He plucked up the courage to say: "I want to take my mother out, I must first have a family business of my own. So Mr. Wenqing, no matter how bitter or tiring it is, as long as I can earn money quickly, that's all that matters."

  "This determination is not small. But can Ming Xuan say it in detail?" Chen Ke asked with a smile.

  "It's a private family matter, I'm afraid I must decline."

  The 44th