Chapter 359: The Relationship Between Zhu Yuanzhang and the Old Nine Gates

Filter out the unlucky ones, so they don't affect the nation's fortune?!

After a moment of stunned silence, all that was left was a wry, helpless smile.

This statement... if you think about it carefully, there's actually nothing wrong with it!

But the truth is the truth — saying it out loud is incredibly insulting though!

Many people who failed the civil service and public institution exams felt as if they'd been dealt a brutal blow.

【Holy crap! This is the first time I've learned that me not passing the exam is actually doing the country a favor.】

【Honestly, if you really want to argue about it, there's nothing wrong with what he said.】

【If you lack the ability and don't pass, that's a competence issue. But if you're just unlucky and don't pass, then...】

【As a member of the unlucky species, I really want to cry!】

【The way you put it, with a country this big, could I alone really affect its fortune?】

【One person like you is nothing, but what about millions upon millions of unlucky yous running rampant together!】

【Still, some things are better believed to exist than not. National fortune may be vague, but I believe it's real!】

【I believe it too! Just look at modern history — you have no choice but to believe.】

In an instant, the online discourse shifted from complaining about not having enough time to debating whether something like luck actually exists.

Many people felt that luck definitely exists.

Unlucky people are best off not doing anything high-risk.

Tomb raiding counts as one!

The underground world is different from the surface — dark, sunless, sealed off for ages — so nothing is too strange to happen down there.

If someone really is unlucky, they're likely to run into trouble once they go in.

In this world, due to the loss of historical inheritance and the disappearance of many ancient cultures...

... there is no such thing as the I Ching, the Eight Trigrams, or the practice of generating birth characters (bazi).

So when people of Xia Country call someone unlucky, they don't say their bazi is bad.

But no matter how much ancient culture has been lost, plain, simple philosophical ideas still exist.

Luck, as a concept, became something everyone loves to talk about.

Zhang Lin scrolled through his phone, watching Yang Lusi settle the netizens' crusade against the Archaeology Institute in just a few words.

He laughed and said, "You're quite skilled at shifting the blame."

Yang Lusi replied, "Sigh, I'm used to being a teacher. I know that a lot of problems simply can't be solved."

"People's energy is limited — they won't stop until they've vented it all out. So the best way is to give them a new topic, something to do."

Zhang Lin nodded, then said, "But regarding the talk about fortune, you weren't exactly misleading them."

"A country is too vast. For such a colossal entity to function, it needs coordination in every aspect."

"The saying 'pull one hair and the whole body moves' — that's exactly the principle."

"You can't look down on any single link responsible for keeping this colossus running, even if it's just one tiny screw."

Hearing this, Yang Lusi grew interested.

She asked curiously, "Senior Brother, I heard my grandfather talk about things like the Zhou Yi and the Eight Trigrams when I was little."

"But I was young then and didn't listen carefully, so what I learned was half-baked — I never even got past the basics."

"Do you really think something like a person's luck affecting national fortune exists?"

Zhang Lin's expression turned serious as he replied, "Of course it exists! A person with great fortune doesn't just carry their own luck — they can affect the fortune of an entire nation, even the fortune of an entire people."

"History isn't short of such figures. In fact, I mentioned one just yesterday in my storytelling."

Yang Lusi quickly went over Zhang Lin's storytelling from yesterday in her mind.