The low-key prince summons trainees from the Imperial Household Department at the start of the game.

He hesitated for a moment before finally asking, "Grand Tutor, I have been studying the classics for over ten years and feel that my inner strength is quite abundant. Why, then, am I still unable to break through to the fourth rank? Is there some... secret?"

"The secret, Your Highness, is too polite." Kong Yan looked at Zhou Cong with piercing eyes. "What Your Highness wants to ask about is the method."

Zhou Cong's heart skipped a beat. He didn't speak, but his eyes had already given his answer.

"The biggest difference between the path of literary cultivation and the path of martial cultivation lies here."

Kong Yan stood up, put his hands behind his back, walked to the window, and looked at the few clumps of bamboo in the courtyard outside the window. "Martial arts cultivation is about hard work, while literary cultivation is about enlightenment. The path of martial arts is one step at a time, and anyone can walk it."

"The path of literature is easy at first but difficult later. Anyone can reach the first three levels as long as they are willing to study."

"But to break through from the third rank to the fourth rank, you need a method. Without a method, no matter how much righteous energy you cultivate in your heart, it's just wine sealed in a jar that you can't pour out."

He turned around and looked at Zhou Cong with a deep gaze: "This is why the inheritance of literary cultivation places so much emphasis on lineage."

"No matter how well a poor scholar studies, without a proper method, he will never pass the fourth rank. But my Kong family has been Grand Tutors for generations, and in every generation, some of us have been able to reach the seventh, eighth, or even ninth rank. This is all thanks to this method, which has been passed down through the generations."

"Of all the civil officials in the court, how many of those holding the rank of fourth grade or above truly came from humble backgrounds?"

"Grand Protector Yuwen Lie was the eldest son of the Yuwen family, and Marquis Chen Jing's great-grandfather was a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) during the reign of Emperor Taizu."

"Those self-proclaimed 'humble origins' are actually either collateral branches of declining noble families or apprentices of some great Confucian scholar if you investigate them carefully."

"The Dharma is the true threshold for literary cultivation."

Zhou Cong remained silent for a long time, then stood up, straightened his clothes, and knelt down properly.

He didn't speak, but his gesture said it all.

Kong Yan looked down at the prince he had raised and remained silent for a long while.

Then he bent down and helped Zhou Cong up, reverting to his previous leisurely, scholarly demeanor.

"Your Highness, there's no need for that. You were raised by this old minister. Although we are not formally master and disciple, we are in fact master and disciple."

"I will naturally pass on this method to you, but not today. Breaking through to the fourth rank requires a special opportunity, and Your Highness's opportunity may not lie in the Grand Tutor's mansion, but in a wider world."

Kong Yan sat back down at his desk, put his reading glasses back on, and tapped the poem on the desk with his finger. "Your Highness need not delve into these matters for now. What this old minister truly wishes to discuss with Your Highness today are two other things."

"Please speak, Grand Tutor," Zhou Cong straightened his back.

First, regarding Su Shi.

"This man is indeed a great talent, but Your Highness need not rush to bring him under your command. A talented man needs to be tempered, his sharp edges need to be smoothed out, and his character needs to be tempered as well."

"With the imperial examinations approaching, he will naturally prove himself in the examination hall. At that time, Your Highness can recruit him in the name of the court, which will be more legitimate than making friends in private and will also make him feel the court's high regard."

Kong Yan held up one finger. "Secondly, regarding the Second Prince."

"This old minister has heard that His Highness the Second Prince has recently been getting very close to a monk named Yao Guangxiao."

Zhou Cong frowned slightly: "Yao Guangxiao? That fortune-telling monk from the Great Bao'en Temple?"

"Indeed." Kong Yan slowly said, twirling his prayer beads. "Your Highness, do not underestimate this monk. The Empress and the Second Prince have both visited the Great Bao'en Temple to offer incense, and each time they had a long private conversation with him."

"This person's words subtly hinted at offering guidance to the Second Prince. Although he has not returned to secular life, his heart is not in Buddhism."

His gaze darkened slightly. "Your Highness only needs to do your own thing and doesn't need to compete with him."

"Let him do what he wants, but Your Highness must remember that knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory in every battle."

"I have heard that the Zhenwu Division has a great responsibility to monitor people in the martial arts world. Commander Qin Wu is incorruptible and cannot tolerate any wrongdoing."

"If anyone oversteps their bounds, the Zhenwu Division will not stand idly by."

Zhou Cong kept every word of the Grand Tutor's words in his heart.

As he rose to take his leave, he glanced again at the poem on the table and couldn't help but ask, "Grand Tutor, may I take this poem back with me?"

Kong Yan waved his hand, picked up his reading glasses again and put them on: "Take it, go back and think about it carefully, see how others write about ordinary scenes in an extraordinary way."

"It's not shameful that Your Highness can't write such lyrics right now. Your Highness is the Crown Prince; you don't need to be like Su Shi."

"But Your Highness needs to learn to distinguish what kind of person is the real Su Shi and what kind of person is merely a figurehead. This poem contains the answer."

Zhou Cong held the Xuan paper up with both hands, bowed solemnly, and left the study of the Grand Tutor's residence.

On the carriage back to the palace, he unfolded the poem "Butterfly Loves Flowers" and read it again.

The carriage curtain was half-rolled up, and the afterglow of the setting sun shone through the gaps onto the paper, making the six characters "情却被无情患" (a sentimental person is troubled by indifference) appear slightly reddish.

He suddenly realized that if he were the beautiful woman inside the wall, then those who wanted to get close to him, follow him, and assist him would be the passersby outside the wall.

Are they willing to climb over the wall?

Or will they eventually drift apart because of a wall separating them?

In the Grand Tutor's study, Kong Yan was still sitting behind his desk, twirling prayer beads in his hand.

An old servant came in to refill the tea and casually asked why the old tutor had been staring at the poem for so long today.

Kong Yan picked up his teacup, took a sip, and did not answer. He took off his reading glasses and placed them on the table, then slowly leaned back in his chair.

Dusk seeped in through the south window, casting his profile in half-light and half-shadow.

He was thinking about two things.

Firstly, the breadth of vision and magnanimity in Su Shi's poem truly embodies the spirit of a great Confucian scholar. If such a person could pass the imperial examination next spring, the court would gain a new star.

The second thing is that the monk Daoyan from the Great Bao'en Temple. The Empress and the Second Prince visited him one after another, and there was something about him that made them feel uneasy.

He opened his eyes, took a small wolf-hair brush from the pen holder, and wrote two lines on a blank sheet of paper.

First line: Check the birthplace of Daoyan of Dabaoen Temple, the reason for his ordination, and the people he associated with.

The second line: Inform Commander Qin that there have been unusual movements by the Jianghu forces in the capital recently. Please keep a close eye on them.

He folded the letter, put it in an envelope, sealed it with sealing wax, and handed it to the old servant.

The twilight outside the window deepened, and the candlelight in the Grand Tutor's study flickered slightly in the night, casting Kong Yan's slender figure onto the "Landscape in Mist and Rain" painting on the west wall, blending him into the thousands of mountains and rivers depicted in the painting.