The Mohist Knight Spirit / The Doctor with the Strange Name
"Of course."
Si Ming turned and hurried after her.
Chapter 42: The Mohist Knight Spirit
Murong Qing hadn't gone far, and Si Ming soon caught up with her. But once he did, he found he had nothing to say.
The conflict between Murong Qing and her father wasn't a matter of who was right or wrong. Each had their own ideas, and neither was willing to yield half a step. It was just like the philosophies of the Mohist and Confucian schools: both believed they were right and refused to compromise in the slightest.
Which was right, honesty or humility?
If you scored a hundred on an exam and a neighbor asked how you'd done, choosing honesty and saying you'd done quite well would be pride and complacency. Choosing humility and saying you hadn't done very well would be lying and deception.
Si Ming couldn't choose between their positions, so he couldn't offer Murong Qing any comfort. All he could do was walk beside her.
"I want to be a great knight, one who helps the weak."
Murong Qing suddenly stopped and said, "I used to be a citizen of Li State. There were many Confucians there, but very few knights, because those Confucian scholars hated knights. They always said, 'Knights use martial prowess to violate the law,' but conveniently forgot the first half of the saying.
"When I was little, a great calamity befell my family. Father took my younger brother and me away from Li State, but many people came after us to kill us. The people who rescued us were from the Mohist Knight Guard. Looking back now, there must have been deep political factors involved, but I was too young to understand the reasons. All I knew was that bad people wanted to kill my family, and our only way out was to flee to Su State.
"While we were fleeing, Father held my newborn brother and pressed on without a glance at me, so I became a burden. But not a single Mohist Knight Guard suggested abandoning me. Once, we even fell into a trap and were surrounded by our pursuers. They all escaped, and I alone was captured.
"I still remember Father's reaction. He shouted, 'Go, go, quickly!' and showed no intention of turning back to save me. I can't begin to describe how desperate I felt then...
"But one of the Mohist Knight Guards rushed back without hesitation. He fought his way into the crowd and risked his life to throw me out, but he was trapped by the enemy and ultimately hacked to death by their blades.
"Later, on the ship back to Su State, I heard the Mohist Knight Guards talking. Their mission had been to save my father and my younger brother. My name wasn't on it...
"How ridiculous. My own father wanted to abandon me, while a stranger who didn't know me was willing to sacrifice himself to save me. It wasn't his mission or his responsibility. He did it solely to uphold the belief of a 'Mohist Knight.'
"Into fire and onto blades, never turning back even in death!
"From that moment on, I resolved to become a great knight like him."
After hearing her story, Si Ming suddenly understood why Murong Qing had been so excited when she first learned he was a Mohist Knight Guard, her IQ dropping to the level of those fanatics who chased after idols.
He hesitated, then asked quietly, "Do you resent your father because of that?"
Murong Qing shook her head. "No, my father didn't do anything wrong. After we escaped danger, he apologized to me again and again. I could tell he had reasons that left him no choice. Over the years, he's worked himself to the bone without neglecting my brother's or my education. His life has been exhausting, so I don't resent the decision he made back then."
Then she clenched her fists. "But when it comes to becoming a great knight, I'll never yield half a step! One day, I'll join the Mohist Knight Guard, help the weak, uphold justice, and carry out justice on heaven's behalf, just like the man who sacrificed his life to save me."
Si Ming sensed a powerful resolve in Murong Qing. It was nothing like a child saying, "My dream is to become a scientist when I grow up." It was an unwavering determination for which she was willing to give her life.
He recalled what he had learned from books. The Mohist Knight Guard had arisen from the Mohist principle: "There have been many rulers under heaven, but few have been benevolent. If all follow the example of their rulers, they follow the example of the unbenevolent."
This meant that throughout history, there had been many rulers, but very few had been benevolent. Taking their words and deeds as a standard was, in fact, imitating a lack of benevolence.
Those words went straight to the hearts of emperors and kings, tearing away their masks without the slightest mercy. They stopped just short of pointing at those who styled themselves "benevolent rulers" and shouting that they were all a bunch of hypocrites.
The Confucian School upheld "heaven, earth, ruler, parents, and teacher," believing that a ruler's authority was granted by heaven and that an emperor possessed an innate sanctity. The Mohist School was entirely different. They had no rosy notions about rulers and never believed rulers and commoners could love one another. In their view, if a ruler didn't spend all day thinking about exploiting the common people, one could thank heaven and earth; he was already a benevolent and righteous ruler.
Extending that principle beyond the ruler, if the ruler could not be trusted, then naturally the government could not be trusted entirely either. Thus, the Mohist School proposed "scrutiny from above and below": above referred to ghosts and gods, and below to the common people. Ghosts, gods, and the people would oversee the government's administration.
The Mohist School believed that "when those above conceal matters or neglect benefits, those below can find and make use of them." That meant that if those above failed to do something, or did it poorly, those below would help them complete it, making it beneficial.
The oversight of ghosts and gods was difficult to guarantee, but the oversight of the people could be put into practice. Even now, when the Mohist School governed itself and had established a state and government, it still maintained that government, as an institution of power, had inherent limitations. There were blank areas where it was powerless to act, and it might not be carrying out the shared righteousness of everyone under heaven. External forces were therefore needed to make up for those shortcomings.
And so the Mohist Knight Guard was born.
"Would you like to visit the Mohist Knight Guard's base?"
Si Ming thought for a moment, then made a suggestion to ease the atmosphere.
"You're willing to take me?"
Murong Qing's eyes immediately lit up. She turned and stared fixedly at Si Ming, looking ready to fight him to the death if he said a single word of refusal.
"Of course. It's not difficult. If you want, we can set off right now."
Murong Qing urged him on. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Si Ming didn't want to find out how terrifying a fanatic's anger could be when fueled by disappointment, so he immediately led Murong Qing toward the Mohist Knight Guard Administration.
His physical data had to be collected once a week, so Si Ming came to the base every few days. He already knew the place like the back of his hand, and he greeted quite a few Mohist Knight Guard members he knew along the way.
"Wow, so this is the Mohist Knight Guard's base! What a dreamlike style!"
After entering, Murong Qing's attention was easily drawn to the steampunk architecture. All sorts of gears and enormous steel machines looked impressive in ways she couldn't quite understand, full of mystery and power. It was as magical as a secret castle from a fairy tale.
"I'm beginning to understand why they built the base in this style," Si Ming remarked.
He worried that Jiang Zhengtai, that single dropping of rat shit, would spoil the whole pot of porridge. If his unorthodox ideas, which defied mainstream values, were exposed and brought into the sunlight, they might shatter a young girl's innocent dreams. So Si Ming made a point of avoiding the medical area.
They ran into Zhong Lingxiu along the way. The girl said, "Junior Brother Ming, you came at just the right time. Doctor Huang Guang has come out of seclusion. I remember you told me before to let you know as soon as he did."
Si Ming thought about it and remembered that he really had said that, though it had been three months ago. At the time, he'd been told the doctor would go into seclusion for a month to conduct research. He hadn't expected that four months would pass without a glimpse of him.
Recalling that his master had once suggested he meet the person in charge of the base, believing he could get some help, Si Ming nodded and asked about something that had been on his mind. "Isn't the doctor's name Wang Guang?"
Zhong Lingxiu corrected him. "You remembered wrong. The doctor's name is Huang Gang."
"Uh, that didn't sound like the name you just said."
Chapter 43: The Doctor with the Strange Name
"I heard you've been receiving instruction from Senior Yan these past few months, Junior Brother Ming. You must have learned a lot of amazing ultimate moves, right? Like the Invincible Sword of Thought in Heaven and Earth, or the One-Strike Killing Palm of the Eight Desolations and Six Directions." Zhong Lingxiu asked with boundless curiosity.