24 Off To School

It took more than three days for Jiang Dejun to finish [Kunlun]. Closing the thick manuscript and rubbing his sore eyes, Jiang Dejun couldn't help thinking:

"Damn, how long has it been since I started reading this book?" Jiang Dejun murmured to himself.

As the editor-in-chief of Southern Weekly, Jiang Dejun had read more than 8,000 to 10,000 articles along with countless novels and manuscripts in his life, but this was the most captivated and drawn in by a book he had been in recent years.

The content was colorful, the plot was full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and the characters were full of charm and vividness.

[Kunlun] was split into multiple volumes in the manuscript but as a whole the series was about a million or so words.

If there was one thing in the book that Jiang Dejun didn't like, it was the fact that Liang Xiao assisted the Mongrel led Yuan Dynasty to attack the Song Dynasty, which completely violated the traditional ideals of patriotism and such he held. But even then he could comprehend Liang Xiao's train of thought and how everything had led him to that point.

His father Liang Wenjing tried to instill patience and pacifism into him. Only in the end to be beaten to death in front of Liang Xiao.

And although his master Qin Bofu later on, treated him sincerely, he was one who believed in teaching with the stick and Liang Xiao going through a lot of big changes in his life was less than easy to handle. His discipline only made Liang Xiao more and more rebellious;

The character Hua Wujing who Liang Xiao met later on, was old and disrespectful, he didn't want to teach Liang Xiao martial arts, so he tricked him into a bet, but Liang Xiao fulfilled the bet in the end only to find out that everyone was cheating him from the beginning.

After that, he was arbitrarily labeled an outlaw, causing him to begin to resent the people of the Song Dynasty;

And later on his friend Zhao Sangou was killed by the orders of a Song official, Wang Yunshu, and his sister, Axue, was beaten to death indiscriminately by the Song citizens, which caused Liang Xiao to break his oath and attack Xiangyang city.

So in the end Liang Wenjing saved Xiangyang City, only for his son to destroy Xiangyang.

To which, Jiang Dejun could only sigh.

It could be said that the first half of Liang Xiao's fate was caused by circumstances out of his hands however the second half was caused by him.

But overall the fundamental reason for his suffering was that his eyes and comprehension was far beyond that era, he could see what others couldn't see, he wasn't obsessed with worldly opinions, he didn't sink into the joys and sorrows of war, he wasn't careless about the merits and demerits of martial arts. What use was martial arts against an army of sharp, bloodthirsty veterans of war. His knowledge of everything from mathematics to astrology made him one of the sharpest and most dangerous individuals of that era.

And naturally for those who wished to rule everything under the heavens such a presence couldn't be tolerated, no matter how indifferent he claimed to be of power and ruling. He was a constant threat in their eyes.

Jiang Dejun called Jiang Cheng over and couldn't help but ask: "Why did you make Liang Xiao join the Mongols? It goes completely against the image of martial artists."

"I just wanted it to be different!" Jiang Cheng said languidly, "It's more realistic and grounder plus if he had stayed loyal to the Song Dynasty it would have been cliche. I didn't want him to be like the others. What's the point of a story where you know no matter what the protagonist has experienced, they will eventually take the road of protecting and defending the country. It's not realistic, it's heroic and all, but highly improbable. So I wanted to create a different hero and focus on describing his growth process.

Liang Xiao isn't some superior moral being. He has the same emotions and sorrows as ordinary people; he can also do wrong and he has to learn from his own experiences, just like us. He's not a purer, holier than thou type person but he's not pure evil either; he's just an ordinary person, going through things in life, good and bad. This makes him more realistic, and his story more heartbreaking. "

"Without experience, there's no growth and maturing." Jiang Dejun added.

"Exactly. You can't understand the preciousness of life without seeing the passing of life with your own eyes; If you don't experience loneliness, how can you truly cherish family, friendships, and love; without feeling pain, how can you feel empathy for others?

Liang Xiao reinterprets the meaning of 'hero'. Heroes don't fight for the country, but for the people. As long as his essence is of kindness and compassion, then he is a hero! In some ways, Liang Xiao attacking Song was good. He brought an end to the war quicker plus the development at Xiangyang was beyond his expectations."

Jiang Dejun couldn't help but say: "'Let the world's resentment disappear, there be no more evil people in the world, the Yellow River to no longer flood, and there be no war between people.'"

"Exactly! Liang Xiao's last four wishes, full of kindness and compassion!" Jiang Cheng said.

Jiang Dejun sighed in his heart, his son had grown up.

"So what do you plan to do with the book? Do you want to publish it?"

Jiang Cheng shook his head and said: "No [Stories About The Ming Dynasty] is enough, I don't want to draw attention from it. This book can be used to improve the literary section on Southern Weekly and accelerate the maturity of the literary section."

"You want to publish the book serially in Southern Weekly?"

"Kind of, I want to serialize the first two volumes but after that the remaining volumes will be published on Starting Point Literature, so we can draw in traffic for the website's launch and help it grow." Jiang Cheng corrected.

Jiang Dejun nodded and said: "Okay, we can settle it like that, but school will be starting in a few days for you, so you're not allowed to start anything new, take these last few days as an opportunity to get a rest. Okay?"

Jiang Cheng warmed up in his heart and promised, "Got it, dad."