Volume 12
Chapter 16: The Leader
The single “yes” from Zhu Xi effectively suppressed the sarcastic remarks Lu Li had on the tip of his tongue. He gradually began to understand why Zhu Qiao had said that “Sister Xi” was a lonely person. What she wanted was perhaps not to be literally belittled, but just to have a peer who could banter with her on equal terms. No wonder Zhu Xi’s face had been so grim when Lu Li had been speaking so formally just now.
“Zhu Xi, have you ever thought about overthrowing Yan Rujun and becoming the head of the Yan family yourself?” Lu Li finally said slowly after a long deliberation.
Zhu Xi pondered for a moment and didn’t immediately refuse. Lu Li noticed her slender fingers were intertwined. As if she had noticed Lu Li looking at her hands, Zhu Xi subconsciously pulled them back, not letting the scumbag man see the scars on them. “On what grounds? Lu Li, Yan Rujun is my grandmother. My grandmother and I are on the same side. For what purpose would I want to overthrow her? For you?”
“For yourself, and even for Zhu Qiao. Is this reason enough?” Lu Li took a deep breath. “I may not have the right to say this, but have you ever thought, if one day Zhu Qiao wants to reunite with you, what kind of resistance will she encounter? And you, Zhu Xi, are you really without any complaints?” When he said the last sentence, Lu Li directly reached out and grabbed Zhu Xi’s hand. Zhu Xi didn’t dodge, and her jade-like hand was caught by Lu Li. He pulled up her sleeve, revealing the old scars on her wrist, fine and dense. Some were left by her grandmother, and some were self-inflicted.
Zhu Xi violently shook off Lu Li’s hand. “Don’t touch me casually!”
Lu Li let her push him away with intense emotion and said to himself, “You once said that the Yan family still needs the Yan Matriarch to hold the fort. What if I can provide you with a way to preserve the Yan family?”
“You with the surname Lu, you’re pushing your luck. Who do you think you are? Christ? Does everyone have to listen to you? You’re just a commoner, without office or title. On what grounds can you preserve the Yan family?” Zhu Xi fired off several rhetorical questions in one breath.
Lu Li silently took out the research report he had printed from his backpack and handed it to Zhu Xi. “Take a look.”
Zhu Xi glanced at him, a look that was deeply meaningful, with resentment, anger, and a trace of an unclear connection. She waited for a long time, until Lu Li’s arm was a little sore, before she took the stack of paper and flipped through it roughly. “…What is this? A diary? What’s the use of this?”
“Mulan is a hub city in the central region of Shenzhou. Its political ecology should be able to represent the general views of the aristocratic families in the inland regions,” Lu Li said. “In my statistics, most of the aristocratic family members under the age of thirty are more inclined toward the Fourteenth Princess, while those over thirty are mostly neutral. That is to say, your taking over the Yan family will not cause a drastic external reaction. Other aristocratic families will tacitly accept this behavior. This is an external factor. And for the internal factor, you also said that you can easily take over the power from Yan Rujun. Both internal and external conditions are sufficient. This power transition will not cause any turmoil.”
Lu Li spoke with reason and order. Zhu Xi frowned slightly. “You can arbitrarily judge the stance of other aristocratic families just based on one report?”
“Of course, this is just a prediction. A specific investigation would still require the help of your Zhu family’s or Yan family’s intelligence system.” Lu Li wasn’t so arrogant as to think that the research report he had rushed out could be summed up in one sentence. He was not Zhuge Liang.
“And then? What about the method to preserve the Yan family? You didn’t write it here.”
“Before that, Zhu Xi, you and I must first reach a consensus.” Lu Li spoke very slowly, each word having rolled around in his stomach seven or eight times. “The Yan family has already failed. It has failed twice in the political struggle, once during the constitutional monarchy, and once in Yan Rujun’s hands. Natural selection, survival of the fittest. You cannot reverse the objective laws and prop up a family that has failed again and again, especially in this era of peace.”
Zhu Xi didn’t speak, looking thoughtful.
“The first reaction after a failure should not be Yan Rujun’s desperate revenge, a final dying struggle, but should be to cut losses in time, accumulate strength, and wait for a comeback,” Lu Li said. “It’s the simplest of truths, but your grandmother has been blinded by hatred. Up to this point, can you agree with my point of view?”
Zhu Xi nodded with difficulty. “Continue.”
“Then why not choose to admit defeat? Raise the white flag, and lay down your weapons,” Lu Li said, his words shocking.
This sounded quite rebellious. Zhu Xi was about to reprimand him, but on second thought, the surrender Lu Li was talking about was definitely not just disbanding on the spot. According to Shenzhou’s custom, a failed aristocratic family would be dismembered and carved up by other families.
“Surrender to the aristocratic families, become a vassal or even be annexed into a certain family. This way, you can preserve your strength to the greatest extent and also give the Yan family an extra protective umbrella,” Lu Li said, voicing the idea that had been brewing in his mind for a long time. “Surrender to the Chu family, become a vassal of the Chu family, in exchange for the Chu family’s protection.”
“You must be crazy.” Zhu Xi was so angry she laughed. “To hand over a century-old foundation, you think it’s as simple as just moving your lips? And, will the Chu family trust us? And will we trust the Chu family?”
“Trust is not born out of thin air. It requires a medium,” Lu Li said, looking directly at Zhu Xi. “You should know what I mean.”
Zhu Xi shook her head decisively. “Impossible. You with the surname Lu, ask yourself, in this plan, how much personal interest have you hidden? I know you have a deep relationship with Chu Xiaodong and Chu Jingyi. You might be able to persuade Chu Xiaodong to accept the Yan family’s kneeling, but you can’t persuade me. You only have hatred for the Yan family, no sense of belonging. If things really develop as you say, I’m more inclined to believe that you will join forces with the Chu family to devour us completely, which is even more tragic than being carved up!”
Lu Li didn’t say any more. He had said everything he needed to say. The first difficulty in his plan was to persuade Zhu Xi. After that, there would be a second and a third difficulty. Now it seemed that this first difficulty was insurmountable.
Persuading someone to surrender had always been an extremely shameful thing in Shenzhou. Lu Li knew that perhaps in the historical documents of a few years later, it would be mentioned that there was a man with the surname Lu beside the poison princess who had proposed surrender. His name would probably be forever nailed to the pillar of shame.
Reborn into a new life, Lu Li was facing the high and mighty, unshakeable aristocratic families. The most profound truth he had come to understand was: those who follow the trend will live, and those who go against it will perish. Other than that, there were no other tricks.
And the current trend was the demise of the Yan family.
Perhaps Zhu Xi and the Yan Matriarch could struggle for a short time, just as they had thrown the entire Shenzhou into deep water and fiery heat in his past life, but that would only bring them the cruelest backlash. Before Lu Li was reborn, the number of people who had emigrated from Shenzhou had already reached 40 million, and Shenzhou’s foreign relations were once very tense, with the navies of a multinational coalition conducting military exercises in the South China Sea several times.
He could imagine that if history were allowed to develop without restriction, Zhu Xi and the Yan Matriarch might become the sinners of the entire nation.
These trends were too distant from him, and also too distant for Zhu Xi. At this moment, no one could guess the future development, so she would absolutely not listen to Lu Li’s persuasion to surrender.
“I refuse,” Zhu Xi repeated once more.
