Chapter 25: On Seeking Truth from Facts

  Ever since he was punished, Liu Jincai, who was already ranked last among the deputy directors, became even more idle.

  Mr. Zhou advised him to take this opportunity to read more books and enrich his theoretical knowledge. Liu Jincai, although a graduate of the Normal University, had a cultural level that was not considered low. But what he learned was mainly technical knowledge, and his political theory foundation was a bit thin. As an administrative cadre, theoretical foundation is very important.

  Mr. Zhou's words have always been well-received by Liu Jincai.

  Mr. Zhou then handed him a stack of big books, such as "Das Kapital", "Political Economy", "Dialectical Materialism and Historical Materialism", "The Development History of the World Proletarian Movement" and so on.

  Liu Jincai was stunned and shook his head with a bitter smile.

  Before he knew it, October had arrived and Liu Jun had learned the entire Hamlet by heart. To be honest, the little English foundation from his previous life was only helpful at the beginning, but after a dozen or so days, it became completely useless. It was as if he was starting from scratch, and even Liu Jun himself couldn't have predicted such rapid progress. Originally, he had expected that it would take at least two years to barely finish learning Hamlet, but unexpectedly, it only took one year. Especially in terms of spoken language, if not for the concern of being too shocking, all daily conversations could be conducted entirely in English.

  "Learn English from a young age."

  It seems this saying is indeed somewhat reasonable.

  Liu Junzheng was secretly pleased with himself, but unexpectedly Mr. Nangong brought out an even thicker English book than "Hamlet" and stuffed it into his hands.

  MayGod！

  It turned out to be Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice".

  Liu Junhao felt dizzy for a while.

  But little did he know that things were far from over. The next book the gentleman pulled out was indeed a behemoth - the original Russian edition of "War and Peace".

  "Uncle, I... my Russian is no match for English... this... this 'War and Peace' is also too... too profound, isn't it?"

  Liu Jun stuttered in his defense.

  Mr. Zhou revealed a sly smile.

  "It's precisely because your Russian is poor that you need to be spurred on. This is called flogging a willing horse!"

  What in the world... Is there another unfortunate soul like me who's been reborn?!

  Liu Jun is completely confused!

  "Xiao Jun, ask your dad to arrange a time with Yu Cheng, and see when they have time to come over to Uncle's place. Uncle has something to discuss with them."

  "Ah......Oh, okay."

  Liu Junwu was so depressed that he almost didn't hear what Mr. said clearly.

  ……

  "This is an article I wrote, you two take a look, is it suitable or not?"

  Mr. Zhou handed over a few pages of manuscript and gently passed it to Yan Yucheng.

  This was the next day after noon, Yan Yuchen received a phone call from Liu Jinchai, and he rushed over the next day. Mr. Zhou had never proactively invited them to discuss things before, this time being so serious, it must be a big deal.

  Liu Jun stretched his neck and took a glance, seeing that the manuscript paper was written with "On Seeking Truth from Facts", which was exactly Mr. 's beautiful slender gold small regular script.

  Why did you suddenly start writing comment articles?

  Liu Jun scratched his head, somewhat perplexed.

  Liu Jincai leaned over and watched together with Yan Yucheng.

  Yan Yucheng and Liu Jincan nodded while reading, occasionally exchanging a glance, revealing an expression of admiration. To be honest, although Liu Jun was a man of two lifetimes, he didn't know much about this kind of purely theoretical article. He sneaked a peek from the side, feeling that the font was beautiful, the language was smooth, but as for the content, he didn't quite understand it. Yan Yucheng and Liu Jincan praised it so much, it must be extremely well done.

  The article is neither too long nor too short, a total of seven pages, about two thousand words.

  Yan Yucheng turned to the last page and was taken aback. He and Liu Jinchang looked up at Mr. together, very puzzled.

  The signatures at the end of the document were those of Yan Yuchen and Liu Jincan.

  "Teacher, what's this..."

  "Isn't it about three months since you were punished? Jin Cai has been standing aside these days."

  Mr. Zhou said slowly.

  Yan Yucheng couldn't help but smile bitterly. His old man was relegated to the sidelines, but wasn't he too? From being the number one in charge of the commune to becoming just one of seven in the district, someone who used to be busy beyond recognition suddenly became a idle shopkeeper with nothing to do, the sense of disappointment and helplessness in his heart can be imagined.

  During this period of time, I read newspapers every day, People's Daily, N Province Daily, all of which are must-reads. Through my observations during this period of time, I feel that the wind direction may be about to change...

  Mr. Zhou continued to speak in a calm and steady tone, his voice as even as ever.

  Yan Yucheng and Liu Jinchai were greatly encouraged.

  "Teacher, then you tell us, how will the wind direction change?"

  He asked "how will the wind direction change" rather than "will the wind direction really change", from which it can be seen that Yan Yuchen still has full confidence in this teacher.

  "That old fellow has returned to work."

  Yan Yucheng and Liu Jinchai both nodded. This they knew.

  On July 17, 1977, the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee passed a resolution to restore the chief designer to his important post in the central government.

  Such a big thing has been reported in the newspapers.

  "He is opposed to this theoretical guideline."

  "Ah, we know this."

  Yan Yucheng's excited expression faded a bit.

  "This veteran's letters to the Party Central Committee on October 10 last year and April 10 this year have been distributed to county-level units."

  "That's different."

  Mr. Zhou said firmly.

  Yan Yucheng was somewhat stirred: "What's different?"

  "When he wrote these two letters, he had not yet resumed his duties. Now that he has resumed his duties, this explains the problem. Looking at newspapers from recent times, there seem to be some different voices too, although they are still not mainstream, after all it is a kind of change."

  Liu Jun nodded silently.

  Mr. Zhou is actually a theoretical worker in the field of party history research, and he is quite sensitive in this regard. It's worth noting that the commentaries in party newspapers are sometimes equivalent to political weathervanes.

  "So I wrote this article on behalf of both of you."

  Liu Jinchai asked: "Mr. Zhou, why use our two names?"

  Yan Yucheng glared at Liu Jinchai, resenting him for asking.

  Mr. Zhou is an unremoved "reactionary academic authority", writing such articles, isn't it asking for trouble?

  Mr. Zhou smiled: "If you think it's feasible, I'll send it out."

  Yan Yucheng and Liu Jinchai looked at each other in dismay, unable to make a decision for the time being.

  Liu Jun stood up and said: "Uncle Zhou, which newspaper office are you going to send it to? I'll help you mail it."

  "Xiao Jun!"

  Liu Jincai sternly shouted for them to stop.

  The two adults have not yet made up their minds, and this little brat is making trouble again.

  Actually, Liu Jun had this idea for a long time and wanted to write something. However, he felt that his theoretical foundation was insufficient, so he hesitated to pick up his pen, fearing ridicule from others. Moreover, he also thought the timing wasn't quite right.

  In Liu Jun's memory, it wasn't until the second half of 1978 that People's Daily published that famous commentator article — "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth".

  At this time, he forced his way out, and really didn't know what the consequences would be.

  Liu Jincai inadvertently turned to the path of being an official, this small change is nothing, after all, it's a very local thing, and the impact won't be big. But the "Great Discussion on the Standard of Truth" is a super major event that affects the direction of China's history for decades to come, if it were to be triggered prematurely by someone like me, a mysterious reborn person from a humble background in my past life, just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine.

  In essence, Liu Jun is a cautious and prudent commoner.

  Now Mr. Zhou thinks the timing is ripe, and Liu Jun believes in his vision.

  "Mr. Zhou, shall we wait and see?"

  Liu Jincai hesitated and said.

  "Why?"

  Mr. Zhou calmly asked back.

  "Shouldn't we wait until the situation becomes clearer before making a move?"

  Mr. Zhou nodded and turned to Yan Yucheng, his tone still calm: "Yucheng, what's your opinion?"

  Yan Yucheng hesitated and said very carefully: "I think it's also possible to wait a little longer..."

  "Well, that's fine too. I'm just helping you guys come up with a plan, but the decision is still yours to make."

  Mr. Zhou was calm as usual, but there was a hint of disappointment in his eyes.

  Liu Jun picked up the teapot and refilled their cups, saying: "Uncle Zhou, I read 'The History of the Five Dynasties' today and came across the story of Li Cunxu... After the Battle of Puyang, the Later Tang dynasty had a clear advantage, so why did Zhuangzong still take the risk of leading a small cavalry to attack Luoyang?"

  Liu Jun often likes to talk about Li Cunxu's affairs, not because he has a special preference for him. It's just that this person indeed has many things worth learning from.

  "When it was prosperous, all the heroes in the world could not compete with it; when it declined, dozens of weak people besieged it, and its body died and its country was destroyed, becoming a laughing stock for the world."

  This is Ouyang Xiu's summary of Li Cunxu.

  An emperor who personally goes to the front line for every battle, an emperor who almost wins a hundred battles with a hundred victories, an emperor who is invincible when lucky but dies from an arrow in the back when unlucky, can there be no stories to tell?

  "Wealth and honor are found in danger."

  Mr. Zhou smiled faintly and glanced at Director Yan and Liu Jincai.

  "Everything must be waited for until it is fully grasped before doing, good things are all gone."

  The two directors' faces suddenly turned bright red, and they looked adorable!

  Mr. Zhou patted Liu Jun's head and smiled: "Being able to learn and apply, indeed a young child can be taught."

  Liu Jun could only smile bitterly in his heart. It was just Uncle Yan and his own father, if it were someone else, this would be a cause for resentment. Even though he was young and couldn't harbor hatred, at the very least it wasn't a good thing. After all, Liu Jun's mental age was already 40 years old, and while he could deceive others, he couldn't deceive himself.

  It's better to be even more low-key from now on.

  Perhaps provoked by this mismatched master and apprentice duo, Director Yan couldn't help but ask: "Teacher, will the newspaper dare to publish this article?"

  Mr. Zhou narrowed his eyes and said slowly, "If there's a newspaper that dares to publish it, I'll definitely try. I have an old colleague who is now an editor at the provincial newspaper, and he's also someone who isn't afraid of trouble..."