Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

“Use stories to describe people, use people to describe history, use history to describe culture, and use culture to describe human nature.”

On New Year's Day in 2006, "Lecture Room: Kang Qirui's Comments on the Three Kingdoms" was officially broadcasted simultaneously on Guangdong Provincial TV and CCTV. At noon, the Kang family and Mrs. Zhu gathered in the living room of the Kang family to watch Kang Qirui's program. Just this opening line attracted the intellectuals such as Lao Dou, A Yao and A Zu at once.

When Kang Qirui finished talking about how Zhou Yu was not a narrow-minded villain, everyone in the Kang family looked as if they had just figured it out. The more they listened, the more serious they became. If they had watched it just to support Kang Qirui at the beginning, now they really wanted to watch it.

"For example, when people mention Zhuge Liang, the first thing that comes to mind is the Empty City Plan. When people mention the Empty City Plan, they will show Zhuge Liang's military talent, which is actually portrayed and shaped in the novel. Of course, this shaping is not without source or root. In the Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Guo Chong, who was probably a die-hard fan of Zhuge Liang."

Hardcore fan?

Everyone wanted to laugh when they heard it, and the big boss laughed particularly exaggeratedly, so everyone quickly asked him to be quiet and watch TV seriously.

Kang Qirui on TV said: "He thought that people's respect and admiration for Zhuge Liang was far from enough, so he wrote an article "Five Things About Zhuge Liang That Are Hidden and Unknown to the World". What does it mean? I am now going to announce to everyone five things about Zhuge Liang that no one knows about. The third thing is the Empty City Strategy. So the Empty City Strategy was not made up by Luo Guanzhong, but it has this origin."

"Guo Chong said that when Sima Yi led his troops to attack Yangping, Zhuge Liang had no troops at the time, so he used the empty city plan, and Sima Yi retreated. But we all know that the words of die-hard fans are often unreliable. These five things were quoted by Pei Songzhi, one of the three Pei historians, when he annotated the "Three Kingdoms" and refuted them one by one."

"That is to say, Pei Songzhi believed that the Empty City Plan did not exist, because Sima Yi was the governor of Jingzhou and stationed in Wancheng at that time, and was not at the Yangping battlefield at all."

"Since this person hasn't even been to this place, how could this happen? Of course it can't happen!"

"But this story is very interesting. What is it about? It is said that Ma Su lost Jieting and Sima Yi's army was approaching. Zhuge Liang was quick-witted and ordered all four city gates to be opened. He sent some veterans to sweep the floor at the gates, and brought a zither and two boys to sit on the city wall to sing karaoke."

Hahahahaha.
The Kang family burst into laughter again, and the eldest brother Guang and the second brother were laughing so hard that they fell over.

"How did he sing it?" Kang Qirui sang on TV: "I was watching the mountain scenery from the tower, and heard the commotion outside the city. Then he sang that Ma Su was useless, and their generals and commanders were not in harmony. You, Sima Yi, got a lot of places by chance, and you are greedy and come to fight me again? Come and fight me, I am ready, I have swept the streets, set out wine, and prepared to reward your three armies. Since you are here, just come into the city."

"Let me tell you, I have two young musicians here, and there are no ambushes or soldiers here. Don't hesitate or be indecisive there. Come, come, come, please come up to the city and listen to me play the zither."

"Sima Yi had already arrived at the foot of the city. He looked up and smacked his lips, thinking... What does this guy mean? Inviting me to go upstairs and sing karaoke with you? Oh, I'll go upstairs and you'll accept me? I won't fall for this. Retreat! Retreat."

"First of all, Pei Songzhi has made it very clear that this is not true. Secondly, it is illogical. Why didn't Sima Yi dare to attack? He was simply afraid of an ambush in the city. How many people could be buried in such a large city? In the era of cold weapons, it is impossible to bury a Scud missile? There is no way there could be any weapons of mass destruction. Can I send a reconnaissance company in to take a look? Why did you withdraw your troops?"

Scud missiles?
Lethal weapons?
Everyone burst into laughter again!
"Third, Sima Yi, you could see Zhuge Liang, couldn't you hear him playing the zither on the tower? You could even hear him singing karaoke, which means the two sides were very close. Even if you were afraid of an ambush and didn't dare to enter the city, why didn't you send an archer to shoot Zhuge Liang down? Why did you leave?"

"Fourth, according to what Guo Chong said, or according to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the military strength of both sides was very different. Some said 200,000, some said 100,000. You besieged the city for three or five days. Can you just besiege it without fighting? Why did you withdraw the troops?"

"So the historical image and the literary image should be distinguished. There are great differences between them. But then again, does the literary image have no value? It is valuable. There are many things in it that are worth studying and analyzing. Take the Empty City Strategy for example. Sima Yi was a scholar. As a scholar, he sometimes thinks about things in a complicated way. Whenever you say something or do something, he will think, oh, what does this mean? What is the deep meaning of this? Haha, if it was a group of thieves or bandits who rushed into the city directly, who cares! What happened then? Zhuge Liang was arrested!"

We have no idea how many times we have laughed.

The one-hour program quickly came to an end, and Kang Qirui was already speaking in conclusion: "We appreciate the Three Kingdoms in order to bring the audience back to a time of magnificent history when heroes emerged in large numbers. As the saying goes, so many things in ancient and modern times are all talked about in laughter. In future programs, I will talk about the Three Kingdoms with the audience in laughter, so where should I start?
"I think we should start with the person whose historical, literary and folk image is the most complex, with the most divergent and controversial images. Let him lead us into the history that is already very complex but also magnificent. Please watch the next episode "The Real and False Cao Cao"!"

After the show, everyone looked at each other, all savoring the experience, and said nothing. Kang Qirui smiled and asked, "How was it? Was my performance okay?" His father patted his thigh and praised, "Not just okay, it was excellent. So this is what the Three Kingdoms is like. I used to watch Romance of the Three Kingdoms more often. I declare that this will be our noon show from now on."

"I've found that our little brother looks very photogenic on TV. His temperament is completely different from that dandy A Yao. He's simply a literary man." The second brother also started to brag. Upon hearing this, A Yao glanced at the second brother unhappily. If you want to praise him, just praise him. Why do you have to pull him down?
As everyone was talking, Kang Qirui's phone rang. He saw that it was Director Hu of CCTV calling, so he quickly picked it up. Director Hu said happily, "Congratulations, Professor Kang. Our show's ratings hit a new high, reaching 7.2%. Hahahaha."

Kang Qirui didn't quite understand the meaning of this, but he could tell that Director Hu was very happy, so he naturally understood how excellent this result was. He and Director Hu praised each other for a few words and then hung up the phone.

Of course, there are also a lot of critical and questioning voices on the Internet. Many people started posting on Tieba, Tianya and forums before they even finished watching the show.

"What does this Kang Qirui know about the Three Kingdoms? Zhou Yu is magnanimous? How can someone who can say that if there is Yu, why is there Liang? How can he be magnanimous?"

"The Empty City Scheme doesn't exist? Hahahaha, your ignorance is ridiculous!"

"I don't think he's that old, maybe around 25 at most. Can someone like him be a professor?"

Of course, there are also many people who have studied history and know the truth of the matter who have posted to support Kang Qirui's point of view. In short, the show is a hit! And it is a real hit!

"Hello, viewers."

"I'm Kang Qirui."

"Today on Lecture Room, let's continue talking about the Three Kingdoms."

After the show became popular, the subsequent recording became smoother and more positive. Soon it was time to record the last episode of "Taste of the Three Kingdoms". Because this was more symbolic, Kang Qirui invited his whole family to the recording site.

The Kang family was very enthusiastic when they heard that they could be on TV, especially the old man. He had already boasted to Liang Boden's friends that he was going to be on TV. Those who knew knew that he was going to be an audience member, while those who didn't thought he was going to be a lecturer.

When Kang Qirui stood on the podium and said the last thank you, the recording of "Taste of the Three Kingdoms" was declared complete, and from now on, all they had to do was schedule the programs and broadcast them one by one. After the program was recorded, the audience and the main creative staff took a group photo together, and Kang Qirui also kept a copy of this photo.

It was around 4 p.m. when everyone came out of the TV station and returned to Kang's house. Kang Qirui was tired after a day and was planning to go back to his room to rest, but he saw Yumei and a woman sitting on the sofa in the living room. Although Kang Qirui didn't know the woman, he was very familiar with her.

"Godfather, godmother, hello, everyone, you're back." Yumei hurriedly stood up to greet everyone when she saw them coming in, and pointed to the woman next to her and said, "Let me introduce you, this is my new friend, Huang Fei. I brought her here this time because I want to rent a house from Sister Wanling."

When Zhu Wanling heard that it was her business, she asked, "Hello, Miss Huang, what kind of house do you want to rent?"

Huang Fei smiled and said, "Don't be so polite, just call me Feifei or Huang Fei. It's like this, Yumei told me that a model tenant in your mother's house next door has moved out, and I want to rent her vacant room." Ever since Ye Mo started working at the clothing company, his income has been growing steadily. Unable to bear the harassment from the writer, he recently moved out and lived near the clothing company, but of course he still rented Zhu Wanling's house.

Zhu Wanling nodded and said, "That house hasn't been rented out yet. How about this, I'll take you there to have a look first. If you think it's okay, we can sign a lease and then you can move in today." (End of this chapter)