The Fierce Teacher of Zhenguan: Starting with Teaching the Crown Prince to Make a Comeback

Chapter 45 Are you trying to completely destroy me?

Upon hearing the word "flaw," Li Chengqian leaned forward, a look of urgency flashing in his eyes.

"Flaw? What kind of flaw? And how should it be handled?" he asked repeatedly, as if he had grasped at a straw.

Li Yichen slowly shook his head, a profound and inscrutable expression on his face.

“Your Highness, this matter cannot be rushed. Weaknesses are not created out of thin air; they must be exploited and acted upon accordingly. At present, we do not know what the other side will do next. Will they concentrate their firepower on the internal affairs of the Eastern Palace, or will they target the people Your Highness has befriended? Different tactics require different ‘weaknesses’ to deal with. If we act rashly now, we may end up making things worse.”

He paused, looking at the undisguised disappointment and anxiety on Li Chengqian's face, and then changed the subject.

"As for what I just mentioned, the other party may be spreading rumors... I do have a plan that may be able to deal with it."

"What strategy?" Li Chengqian immediately pressed.

Li Yichen slowly said, "Your Highness needs to tarnish your own reputation and turn the Eastern Palace into a breeding ground for rumors."

These words were particularly jarring to Li Chengqian.

His eyes widened suddenly, his face filled with disbelief, even anger at being humiliated.

"Self-defilement?" Li Chengqian's voice suddenly rose, becoming somewhat distorted with excitement.

"You want me to smear myself? Li Yichen! Do you know how I've survived all these years? I've been criticized by those old pedants every day! They say I'm immoral! That I'm eccentric! That I'm not fit to be a ruler! Do you know how that old scoundrel Zhang Xuansu used to curse me? He said I'm 'incorrigible'! He said I'm unworthy of being the crown prince! He said I... he said I'm not even as good as a street vendor!"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, his chest heaving violently.

"They called me unruly, they called me eccentric, they called me a good-for-nothing! Now... now you're letting me throw mud at myself?"

Li Chengqian's voice trembled slightly, a mixture of grievance and resentment that had been suppressed for a long time.

"I don't want to! I refuse! I already have enough stigma on me! So much that I can't breathe! I finally managed to turn things around a little by opening the Eastern Palace, and you're asking me to tarnish my own reputation? Are you trying to completely destroy me?"

He stared intently at Li Yichen, his eyes filled with incomprehension and resistance, and even a hint of suspicion, wondering if this companion who had always been advising him was just like the others who wanted to see him make a fool of himself.

Li Yichen listened quietly to the Crown Prince's roar, his face expressionless, but his mind was completely at ease.

In his previous life, as a teacher, he had seen too many "problem students" like Li Chengqian.

On the surface, they appear rebellious, defiant, and self-destructive, using a hard shell to protect their inner selves. However, at their root, it is often not due to their inherently bad nature, but rather to the long-term negative and high-pressure environment they have been under.

The great Confucian scholars who taught the prince constantly quoted the words and deeds of sages, using the highest moral standards to demand things of a young man who was not yet fully developed in body and mind, had a disability, and was under tremendous pressure.

They constantly emphasized the crown prince's "shortcomings" and pointed out his "mistakes," euphemistically calling it "honest advice that is hard to swallow," all for the sake of the heir apparent's success.

But in reality, how many of these people are truly doing this for education?

And how many people do this simply to demonstrate their "uprightness and integrity"?

Or is it to establish a personal image in order to gain political capital?

They used "truth" as a weapon to launch personal attacks, crudely attributing all of Li Chengqian's personality, struggles, and pain to "not being a proper ruler."

They never tried to understand the fear and despair in the boy's heart, and never gave him any real recognition or guidance.

They just kept denying and denying.

How can such "education" not lead to rebellion?
How can you prevent people from feeling rebellious?

In a way, weren't all of Li Chengqian's eccentric behaviors a form of resistance against this suffocating pressure? A desperate self-destruction that said, "Since you all say I'm bad, then I'll show you how bad I can be"?

Li Yichen knew that lecturing and continuing to deny a student like this was useless.

What they need is precisely that long-lost "recognition," that someone can see their true needs and pain hidden beneath their rebellion.

Once Li Chengqian's emotions had calmed down and his breathing was no longer so heavy, Li Yichen slowly spoke, with a strange, comforting quality.

“Your Highness, I do not wish for you to ruin your future, nor do I wish for you to agree with those slanderous words.”

He looked calmly at Li Chengqian and said, “The ‘self-defamation’ I am referring to is completely different from the unfounded accusations Your Highness has been subjected to.”

Li Chengqian was panting, his anger still lingering in his eyes, but now tinged with a hint of inquiry.

"What's the difference?" he asked in a muffled voice.

“What Your Highness detests is the ‘stigma’ imposed on you by others, a distorted accusation aimed at destroying your reputation. As for the ‘self-defilement’ I’m referring to, it is a proactive, controllable strategy with a clear purpose,” Li Yichen explained.

“This ‘filth’ is not the same as that ‘filth’. This ‘filth’ is for ‘self-preservation’, or even for ‘self-purification’.”

"How can someone who has sullied himself cleanse himself?" Li Chengqian found it absurd.

"Li Yichen, have you lost your mind?"

"Your Highness, please calm down." Li Yichen bowed slightly.

"Please allow me to offer Your Highness a plan—this is a method of 'absurd self-degradation'."

“Absurd and self-degrading?” Li Chengqian frowned. “What do you mean by ‘absurd and self-degrading’?”

“It’s about spreading some extremely absurd, bizarre, and unbelievable rumors,” a sly glint flashed in Li Yichen’s eyes.

"For example—the rooster of the Crown Prince's Palace laid a golden egg."

Li Chengqian was stunned, almost thinking he had misheard.

"A rooster... laying golden eggs? Yichen, are you out of your mind? Who would believe such nonsense?"

"That's precisely why no one should believe me," Li Yichen said calmly.

"Your Highness, please consider this: if two rumors circulate among the common people at the same time—one saying that Your Highness is secretly hoarding armor and forming a faction; the other saying that the Crown Prince's rooster laid golden eggs and Your Highness's cat can compose poetry—which one would the people believe?"

"Naturally, the latter is more intriguing, but nobody takes it seriously!"

"Not bad!" Li Yichen clapped his hands.

"What we want is to draw everyone's attention to these absurd rumors. When the whole of Chang'an is talking about whether the Crown Prince's rooster can really lay golden eggs or whether the Crown Prince's cat can really recite poetry, the real, deadly rumors about His Highness forming factions and colluding with foreign vassals will be drowned out, diluted, or even laughed off."

"The most important thing is to fabricate an absurd and outrageous rumor about His Highness; that's the key point."

Li Chengqian was stunned; he had never imagined such a thing could happen.

Li Yichen continued to explain: "This method has three advantages. First, it diverts attention and uses absurdity to dispel insidious rumors. People's attention is limited. We use the most exaggerated and absurd rumors to seize the talk of the town and deprive those truly malicious rumors of the soil to spread."

"Secondly, it creates the impression that the Crown Prince's Palace has become a target for rumors. When all sorts of bizarre rumors point to the Crown Prince's Palace, and even contradict each other, discerning people will naturally see the oddities. His Majesty will also realize that the Crown Prince's Palace has become a disaster area for rumors, and the veracity of any negative news about His Highness will be greatly reduced. At that time, His Majesty will instead use his power to investigate and suppress those truly harmful rumors, because this concerns the dignity of the royal family and the stability of the court."

(End of this chapter)