Chapter 1654: Reading History (Finale)

"Our Kongtong Mountain, when all is said and done, is still a small tribe. The Suiren clan of that time was already very vast, and all the various things that happened later demonstrate that we, Kongtong Mountain, simply do not have that kind of capability; we are only suited to follow what the Sage said and teach everything to them."

"What the Sage said has always been accurately fulfilled, without a single error anywhere. This is our Dao. It wasn't until it reached me that everything stopped matching up and began to go wrong, so I wanted to see you. I also want to know why, and furthermore, I feel that you might be the same kind of person as our Sage. What I say, is it correct?"

Baifeng sat down slowly: "Perhaps, it is correct, only he didn't have as much luck as I do. Then what about you all? Because of my existence, everything has stopped matching up. What do you, Kongtong Mountain, intend to do?"

Unexpectedly, Guangchengzi remained as calm as usual: "The wisdom and knowledge left behind by the Sage are meant to benefit the human race; they are not things belonging to our tribe alone. Even if there is Huaxia, even if there are changes, we will still continue to do this. After Xuanyuan, there will be Zhuanxu and Gaoxin; after Guangchengzi, there will also be others."

"Until the knowledge we possess has all been taught, and the knowledge of the human race has surpassed our own, we will naturally cease to exist."

Baifeng was suddenly struck speechless. He had not expected that the people on Kongtong Mountain would possess such great righteousness, yet he still did not quite understand: "Are you willing to do this for every generation?"

"What the Sage said never goes wrong, which shows he knew everything. Everything we have done and everything we are to do, he also knew. We only need to do as he said, and there will be no mistakes."

"Our former Sages also once said that we are the Teacher of Emperors and Kings, establishing the Dao of Heaven, the Dao of Earth, and the Dao of Man. This is for the human race, not for any one tribe."

Baifeng pondered for a long time, unable to collect his thoughts.

After a long silence, Guangchengzi stood up and pointed to a cave: "That is where our Sage and the Sages of past generations lived. On the cave walls are the words left by the Sage, as well as a notebook made of that kind of paper you have in Huaxia—it is called a notebook, right?"

"Since you and the Sage come from the same place, you can go and take a look."

Baifeng stood up quickly and rushed into the cave without a moment's delay, not even caring about Guangchengzi, because the things inside the cave were too great a temptation for him.

Guangchengzi followed behind Baifeng. After entering the cave, he added some firewood to the campfire and poked the fire to make the interior of the cave brighter.

Baifeng, aided by the firelight and the sunlight shining in from outside the cave, looked at the words on the wall, though they were no longer very clear.

Guangchengzi opened a wooden box for Baifeng. Inside, a notebook was exquisitely wrapped in animal skin, and beside it lay a fountain pen and a piece of pencil that was almost too short to hold.

Baifeng's hands trembled, his eyes moist; it turned out that everything was not a dream.

Baifeng slowly opened the notebook. On the title page was a sentence: "Ten thousand years is too long, seize the day!"

But because too much time had passed, the handwriting had clearly faded, and the paper had turned yellow and was somewhat brittle. Guangchengzi watched Baifeng's trembling hands and felt a bit panicked, fearing that Baifeng might accidentally tear the paper to shreds.

Baifeng flipped forward. What was written inside was basically Red Quotations. In fact, at the very first glance, based on the style of the pen and the craftsmanship of the notebook, Baifeng had already guessed which era this predecessor was from. The content in the notebook also confirmed everything, but he did not believe that this notebook only contained these things; he wanted to know the things he needed to know.

Sure enough, flipping further on, the content suddenly changed and became a suicide note.

"Since responding to the call, I have gone up to the mountains and down to the countryside, joining the production team at Maojiawan Commune. My heart has often held the teachings of the Great Man, but I have not forgotten the knowledge I learned and my research direction."

"Since discovering a suspected Neolithic site several years ago, I have kept it in my heart, but unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to explore it. Over a month ago, my order to return to the city was issued, but I was reluctant to leave this major discovery, so I stayed behind alone to explore. However, I accidentally encountered danger, and when I woke up again, I was already here."

"Looking at the local people, the language is unintelligible, they are barely clothed, they do not have enough to eat, and they are not yet civilized, as if it were a barbaric land not yet discovered by the country, and even more like an era still in a slave society. I have the heart to teach them and lead them into a new era, but I feel that I may not live for another three days before I freeze to death, starve to death, or be bitten to death by poisonous snakes and wild beasts, so I am leaving a suicide note."

………

October 13, 1978, Wenshangping."

The identity was now clear: an educated youth who had been sent to the countryside, originally likely someone in the field of historical research. Baifeng read the suicide note and continued to flip forward; he did not believe that this person would just die like this, otherwise, how could everything left behind be explained?

"1978, some month, some day—too much time has passed, I can no longer remember which day it was. I survived. This place is truly like the people of the Neolithic Age, using wood and stone as tools, and even making fire is difficult. Like a Sage, I began to teach them. I do not know if I am in a dream or if this is reality?"

By this page, the handwriting was already intermittent, likely because the ink had been left for too long and was no longer flowing smoothly.

Baifeng flipped further back, and the text was already written in pencil and was very blurry. Some paragraphs Baifeng could not even read, and the records were also intermittent because the pen was not long enough and the paper was not plentiful enough; he had to economize. He carved some situations onto the cave walls. There were many scratches in the cave, very regular, which looked like he used them to keep time.

When he flipped to the second to last page, the time was already 1984, though looking at his records, he seemed uncertain about this time.

And what he wrote were only a few sentences: "The people are civilized, self-reliant, and well-fed and clothed."

Flipping past that, on the last page, there was only a poem written on it: "Man and ape have bid each other farewell, with only a few stones polished; in the time of childhood, flames turn in the copper and iron furnace. I ask when this can be guessed? It is but a few thousand cold and hot seasons. It is hard to encounter a smile in the human world; on the battlefield, we bend the moon-shaped bows at each other, and blood flows across the wilderness."

"After reading the passage, my head is covered in snow, but I remember the spots and dots, a few lines of old traces. The sacred deeds of the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns have deceived the boundless travelers. How many romantic figures are there? After the fame of Dao Zhi and Zhuang Qiao, Chen Wang rose up and brandished the yellow battle-axe. The song is not yet finished, the east is white."

Baifeng whispered in his mouth: "The sacred deeds of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors have deceived the boundless travelers..."

The End