Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 116 True · The Eight Gentlemen of Wei and Jin

The old servant pushed the four-wheeled cart and quickly brought Li Ji to a secluded courtyard in the mansion.

The old servant seemed to help Cai Yong organize his collection of books regularly, introducing them as if they were his own treasures.

"Sir, these three rooms are where Master temporarily stores his classics. There are currently 9,367 volumes, each categorized and stored separately."

"Classics related to water conservancy…"

The old servant pushed Li Ji directly to the leftmost room and said, "Sir, you may enter and browse at your leisure. I must return to Master's side to serve him."

"Thank you, old man."

Li Ji returned the greeting to the old servant, and after the old servant left, he stood up from the four-wheeled cart on his own.

In the end, Li Ji was not injured. The fact that he had to use a four-wheeled cart as a means of transportation was just an order from the lord.

Now that Liu Bei was still in the main hall talking with Cai Yong, Li Ji naturally didn't need to make things difficult for himself and stood up on his own.

However, as soon as Li Ji stood up, he suddenly noticed a figure in front of him.

Li Ji looked up and discovered that it was a young man of about his age who had not yet reached the age of crowning. He was holding a bamboo scroll in his hand, and his expression seemed to have changed in an instant. By the time Li Ji could see the expression on his face clearly,

It was honest, upright, and even a bit dull…

However, Li Ji was sure that he had not seen wrongly. When he saw himself stand up from the four-wheeled cart, this young man's expression had shown a bit of shrewdness and shock that were completely different from his honesty and uprightness.

At this moment, Li Ji and the young man looked at each other.

Li Ji was puzzled by the identity of the young man in Cai Yong's mansion, and he became somewhat interested in the young man's momentary change in expression, and his seemingly deliberate attempt to disguise himself with honesty and uprightness.

The young man's hand, hidden in his sleeve, was trembling uncontrollably.

'How could I run into Li Zikun here…'

'Did I accidentally stumble upon some secret of Li Zikun's? Is he going to kill me to silence me?'

'Furthermore, is he deliberately sitting in a four-wheeled cart? Could it be that he has some plot against Master Cai?'

The young man's mind raced, but he showed a slightly restrained and honest smile on his face, and nodded at Li Ji proactively, then lifted his foot and walked past Li Ji, heading towards the door.

"Wait!"

Li Ji's sudden voice made the young man's movements stop instantly.

However, while the young man's palms were sweating uncontrollably as he held the bamboo scroll, his eyes looked back at Li Ji with a somewhat blank and dazed expression, and asked.

"What can I do for you, sir?"

"I am Li Zikun from Longxi. I have just arrived at Master Cai's library and want to find a few books. I wonder if you can help me?" Li Ji said gently and elegantly.

The young man seemed to nod a little slowly and honestly, and replied. "I am Gu Yong from Wu County, but I have only recently become a student of Master Cai, and I don't know much."

Gu Yong?

So it was him.

His name was listed among both the "Eight Gentlemen of Wei and Jin" and the "Four Chancellors of Eastern Wu", and he could be regarded as a famous chancellor of the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period.

A person from Wu County… the Gu family.

Li Ji recalled it slightly and quickly remembered that the Gu family was indeed among the list of aristocratic families recorded by Liu Bei, and the Gu family was originally an aristocratic family in Wu County.

In that case, with Gu Yong's ability to be famous in history, but now he is acting as if he doesn't know me at all, then it is worthy of pondering?

A master of playing dumb?

Li Ji's mind raced, but he was not in a hurry to expose Gu Yong. He still asked politely and sincerely, "It's okay. It just so happens that my legs and feet are inconvenient, and I'm worried about how to find the books. Mr. Gu won't refuse to help me, will he?"

As for how to deal with a master of playing dumb, the natural thing to do is to also play dumb and use moral kidnapping…

Perhaps, a master of playing dumb may not necessarily have morals, but he is muddled.

Gu Yong seemed to consider it for a few breaths in a daze before he reacted, and hurriedly went forward to support Li Ji, saying.

"Since Mr. Li's legs and feet are inconvenient, then please sit down quickly, and I will push you around to find them."

Li Ji raised his eyebrows upon hearing this…

Okay, okay, I can't avoid sitting in this four-wheeled cart!

Li Ji didn't refuse and simply sat back down, and said with great gratitude.

"There are still many good people in this world. Fortunately, I met Mr. Gu, otherwise it would be difficult for me to find books."

Gu Yong smiled honestly and didn't answer, seemingly not very good at dealing with other people's praise, and then said.

"Mr. Li, please don't call me 'sir'. I am only a student allowed to stay in the mansion by Master Cai because of my father's reputation. I don't know anything, I can't do anything, I'm dull and foolish. How can I be worthy of the name 'sir'?"

Li Ji looked at Gu Yong's dull and upright appearance, with his eyes seeming to be blank when he spoke. If he didn't know his ability in history, and had not accidentally seen Gu Yong's change in expression just now, he might have really believed Gu Yong's words.

Okay, okay, this is the "Eight Gentlemen of Wei and Jin"! Sure enough, each one is more like a gentleman than the last.

It's okay that Jia Xu, who is also one of the "Eight Gentlemen of Wei and Jin", has a gentle and gentlemanly appearance, but Gu Yong is actually a master of playing dumb, pretending to be an honest man?

Li Ji sat on the four-wheeled cart with a smile, letting Gu Yong push him from behind, and then said.

"You have not yet reached the age of crowning, so I will boldly call you Gu Yong. And Gu Yong doesn't need to be so polite. You and I are the same age, and we hit it off at first sight. Just call me by my courtesy name."

Gu Yong's expression seemed to stiffen for a moment, and then he obediently called out.

"Zikun."

"What I want to find are classics related to water conservancy."

Li Ji stated his purpose, letting Gu Yong push him deeper into the corner of the room with rows of bookshelves designed to protect the bamboo scrolls, and said.

"Ability is secondary. The most important thing for an official is moral character. In my opinion, your integrity and behavior can be called gentlemanly."

Gu Yong showed a polite but honest smile upon hearing this, only thinking about finding an excuse to slip away from Li Ji as soon as possible.

It was too dangerous to stay with Li Ji!

It was so dangerous that Gu Yong felt the hairs all over his body standing on end, and his heartbeat was completely out of control.

Just as Gu Yong pushed Li Ji to the front of the bookshelf storing water conservancy books, and was thinking about what excuse he could use to slip away smoothly without attracting Li Ji's attention,

"Gu Yong, do you seem to be afraid of me?"

Li Ji suddenly turned his head and said this, causing Gu Yong's pupils to shrink involuntarily. Looking at Li Ji, who seemed to be hidden in the shadows of the bookshelf, he almost subconsciously took a step back.

Afterwards, Gu Yong, who suddenly realized what he was doing, scratched his head with an honest expression and said.

"Zikun suddenly turned his head and scared me."

"Is that really all?"

Li Ji reached out and pulled out a bamboo scroll from the bookshelf in front of him, and opened it to read, while opening his mouth on his own.

"The Gu family of Wu County are descendants of King Goujian of Yue. From the Qin to the Han Dynasty, Goujian's seventh-generation grandson, Yao, helped the Han Dynasty destroy Xiang Yu and was rewarded for his meritorious service. As a result, he was enfeoffed as the King of Yue. Later, Yao enfeoffed his son as the Marquis of Guyu, and his descendants used the title of nobility as their surname, calling themselves the Gu family."

Although Liu Bei was fully responsible for handling the matter of settling the aristocratic families, it did not mean that Li Ji was completely ignorant of the information of the aristocratic families in Wu County. On the contrary, Li Ji knew the information of the aristocratic families in Wu County like the back of his hand.

It was just that Li Ji was too busy on weekdays and didn't have time to pay too much attention to the Wu County aristocratic families, which had already become insignificant.

However, when recalling the inheritance of the Gu clan, Li Ji suddenly really felt that Gu Yong might not be without the style of his ancestor Goujian.

Goujian tasted feces for Fuchai, endured humiliation, and was extremely patient. He must also have been a master of playing dumb!

Listening to Li Ji reciting the inheritance of the Gu clan word for word, Gu Yong only felt a chill in his heart, and fear arose spontaneously.

'Li Zikun, is he really targeting the Gu family already?'

'He has personally annihilated 70% of the aristocratic families in Wu County. Is that not enough to satisfy Li Zikun?'

Gu Yong's face turned pale for a while, and even his whole person was a little shaky.

Perhaps, the other aristocratic families in Wu County had not noticed, and even Gu Yong had no evidence for this, and did not dare to declare his guess.

But as a smart person, and a talented smart person, Gu Yong knew very well that if no one had secretly colluded, how could those bandits who were hidden in the mountains and forests on weekdays have launched an attack at the same time, and accurately attacked the aristocratic families that happened to have empty defenses?

Did a remnant of the Yellow Turban secretly collude?

Although some members of the aristocratic families suspected that it was done by the Yellow Turban, Gu Yong understood that this was simply impossible.

If the Yellow Turban had this ability, why would the uprising, which was so vast and swept across eight states, have completely failed in just a few months?

Looking at Liu Bei taking office, annihilating the bandits, and extensively investigating the fields of the aristocratic families in Wu County, and it seemed that there was an endless supply of money and food to settle the refugees.

Gu Yong understood that this matter was 99% related to Li Ji, and it was even completely manipulated by Li Ji in secret.

It was just that Gu Yong never dared to say this guess, fearing that once it was leaked, this matter would accidentally reach Li Ji's ears in the government office.

The next day, he would die by suicide with seven knives in his back, and his entire family would commit suicide by burning charcoal and accidentally cause a fire, burning the entire Gu family to the ground overnight.

Gu Yong suppressed his panic and echoed. "I didn't expect Zikun to know so much about the fallen Gu family."

Fallen?

Compared to his ancestors who were once kings of Yue, the current Gu family was undoubtedly considered fallen.

But as far as the local aristocratic families in Wu County were concerned, the Gu family was already completely the leading aristocratic family in Wu County.

"I wonder if Gu Yong has the desire to revive his family?"

Li Ji continued flipping through the books, seemingly asking a casual question.

However, in Gu Yong's eyes, this question was more like a death wish.

It was like a headsman asking, "Do you want to live? Or do you want to die?"

If he answered yes, would Li Zikun consider it ambition, and would the Gu family potentially disrupt the stability of Wu Commandery?

If he answered no, it would be too hypocritical and would trigger a series of suspicions.