CHAPTER 321: CHAPTER 319: UNFAIRNESS

"Thank you, Teacher."

Ming Shuangli was the first to start applauding, and soon the other students followed suit, filling the hall with applause. Le Yu felt quite pleased with himself—well, it seems I can be a good teacher too.

The only one feeling puzzled was Qin Yueshi, who was sitting next to Le Yu: "Did Zhengwei really say something like that?"

"Whether Zhengwei said it or not, do you know more about it than I do?"

Le Yu directly aimed a harsh retort at Qin Yueshi, displaying the full force of his elder brother’s authority: "No one understands Zhengwei better than I do!"

Qin Yueshi gave him a disdainful glance, but her initial thought of leaving quickly diminished. Even though Qin Le Yin had used her several times as a teaching tool, Qin Yueshi still wanted to stay for the classes here.

She wasn’t sure how to describe it, but she found Qin Le Yin’s classes very interesting, unlike the other teachers’ tedious lectures. The other students shared her sentiment—after all, they didn’t know that Le Yu wasn’t fighting alone; countless online jokers were behind him, making the interactions and fun maxed out. The advantage was that his lectures were like comedy shows; the disadvantage was that he didn’t focus much on actual teaching.

But Le Yu’s course was elective, initially meant for him to slack off and steal a paycheck, so this disadvantage turned into an advantage, allowing him to idle for hours.

More importantly, he was never here to become a teacher, so he naturally had no obligation to maintain teaching ethics. Anyway, the sword-fighting contest lasted only half a year, so by the time the old principal started having issues with his teaching methods, he might have already been dismissed.

"Let’s see who’s faster: me resigning or you firing me?"

"Stop, you can stop now." Le Yu called for everyone to halt their applause, "That level of feeling is just right; if you keep clapping, I’ll become conceited."

"I believe everyone understands the essence of this race game—it’s a game of life." Le Yu spread his hands and said, "Our starting lines are different, as are our lives. Some are born into luxury, entering the Imperial Academy is just a small part of their life plan; others struggle just to survive, and entering the Imperial Academy is almost their greatest achievement."

"For some of you, your starting point might be someone else’s end point."

"Doesn’t it seem unfair? But when you think about it, others’ starting lines weren’t just given to them; your starting line is your parents, and if someone else’s parents work harder, spending significant money and effort to nurture their child, naturally, their child’s starting line would be ahead of yours, isn’t that obvious?"

"Life isn’t a sprint; it’s a relay race, got it?"

"And speaking of this, I saw an article in Dongyang District, its title was like this..." Le Yu recalled, "’How can multiple generations of hard work lose to ten years of your diligent study?’"

Le Yu chuckled, "Doesn’t it make a lot of sense? Feeling more convinced inside now?"

Everyone nodded along, but then Le Yu toned down his smile and calmly said, "You shouldn’t be convinced."

"If you truly are convinced, then you’re even worse off than those mud-laden folks in Dongyang District."

The crowd was stunned, unable to keep up with Le Yu’s train of thought for a while.

Le Yu said leisurely, "I’m not sure if any of you did any pre-reading when selecting my course, so let me briefly introduce—Silver Blood Association, which ruled Dongyang District for hundreds of years, was a political coalition of wealthy merchants."

"Each business consortium was developed through the hard work of patriarchs across generations; Silver Blood Association’s 88 business consortia collected over ninety percent of Dongyang’s wealth, and all commoners were either their workers or their slaves. All of Dongyang was their property, and everyone served them."

"In terms of starting line, the patriarchs of Silver Blood Association began at the finish line, no less opulent than the Radiant Imperial Family."

"In terms of effort, they all accumulated over multiple generations through hard work and countless struggles."

"Thus, the whole Dongyang trembled under the Silver Blood Association’s oppression, where everyone tried to survive by being their lackeys...There’s no doubt about their effort, but do you think it’s rational? Do you think the people of Dongyang are convinced?"

Before the students could respond, Le Yu took up chalk and wrote five large words on the blackboard.

"Our elective course’s name is: The Fall of Silver Blood." Le Yu tapped the blackboard, "When Silver Blood Association tried to continue exploiting Dongyang’s people through generations of effort, Dongyang people questioned them—"

"How can our lives on the line lose to your family’s generations of effort?"

"So when you feel there’s injustice, don’t try to comfort yourself with reasons, don’t whitewash peace, don’t defend those with vested interests..." Le Yu said, "Because fairness for the few is called privilege; fairness for the majority is true fairness."

"When the majority feels that injustice, they’ll use their knives to reclaim the fairness they deserve."

The classroom fell into silence; after a long while, Ming Shuiyun raised his hand and said, "Qin Sir, I don’t understand. You let us start at different lines on the racetrack, yet you tell us it’s not fair..."

"Because reality and theory are two different things; I need you to first recognize the harshness of reality, then make you aware that reality is wrong."

Le Yu said, "Within Dongyang, most people would rather deceive themselves than have the spirit of rebellion; they venerate money, fear Silver Blood, and think everything in Dongyang is fair...Rather than fighting reality, escaping into its shadows is much easier. Reality is so strong, so brutal, it’s easier to be assimilated by reality, become slick, and seem like one of its champions."

"I’m not asking you to rebel against reality; I just want to prepare you for the harshness of reality, so when life strikes you later, you’ll be ready, and don’t view the blows as normal—you can live in darkness, but don’t twist into worms."

"There is only one kind of heroism in life: it’s to love life after seeing its truth."

Artistic-minded Ming Dailan chewed on that statement, her eyes lit up, "Sir, I think this sentence deserves to be written and framed, hung on the wall to inspire us—"

"Then remember to write Zhengwei as the author." Le Yu reminded.

"Sir!" A student raised their hand, "I think your theory of starting lines is correct, but the Silver Blood Association case is flawed—Silver Blood Association perished from its evil deeds, but if we uphold righteousness and strive through multiple generations to carve a starting line for future generations then?"

Hearing that, Le Yu nodded repeatedly, "Classmate, what you say is reasonable, but you seem to forget the biggest unfairness in this race."

"What unfairness?" Everyone paused.

Then Le Yu grabbed the shoulder of his sister beside him, "She’s the biggest unfairness."

"Me?!" Qin Yueshi pointed at herself in surprise.

"Yes," Le Yu said, "As you’ve seen, she’s my biological sister, so I directly let her stand beside me. In the face of blood relationship, no matter how good your family is or how hard you try, it doesn’t matter—because I’ve predetermined her as the class captain."

"Now, I’ve only predetermined her as the team leader of the class, so you might not mind. But what if I were a Minister, intent on having my sister take my place? What if I were a Grand Scholar of the Cabinet, set on having my sister inherit my seat?"

"Would you then acknowledge my ’effort through generations’ as fair? Is it rational to monopolize national matters in the hands of family?"

The student who spoke suddenly fell silent, and at that moment, many students couldn’t help but focus their gaze on the few Radiant Celestial Maidens in the classroom.

"Seems you’ve already considered," Le Yu smiled, "The biggest unfairness in Radiance—"

"Is the Radiant Imperial Family eternally monopolizing the position of ruler within their own family."

"A friend of mine once wrote a line: ’Kings and ministers, are they hereditary?’...Yes, this friend of mine is called Zhengwei."