What Was Written

After leaving home, Li Wei spent his last Copper Ring on half a loaf of black bread with a Siberian Labor Camp flavor.

He soaked it in a free public fountain to soften it, and that was enough to get through a dinner.

"You're very kind to that child," Janna suddenly remarked as he ate.

"It was her brother's dying wish," Li Wei replied.

"I'm starting to believe you now, Summoner. You don't seem like an evil sort."

Compared to before, Janna's hostility had faded considerably.

It wasn't just because of Li Wei's care for the girl, but also because of the article he had co-written with her.

An evil person couldn't write words like those—

"Zuan: Where Did It Come From?"

It seemed like nothing more than a popular science article on history.

And indeed, the article followed the timeline like a standard history textbook, combing through everything from ancient times to the present: the Tribal Civilization Era after the Great Human Migration 7,000 years ago, the Shuriman Empire Era starting 6,000 years ago, the Warlord and Kingdom Era beginning 3,000 years ago, the Council City-State Era starting 300 years ago, and the Twin Cities Split Era over 200 years ago—the entire history of the land called Zuan.

Janna had never been interested in such articles before.

After all, she herself was a living history textbook thousands of years old. How could those histories, cobbled together by mortals grasping at shadows and blind men feeling an elephant, compare to what she, an eyewitness to history, knew?

But Li Wei's article shook Janna.

Not because Li Wei had unearthed some hidden, novel historical material, but because he offered a completely new perspective.

Before Li Wei, Runeterra's historians—and even Janna herself—only knew how to tell history from a "ruler's perspective," or a "hero's perspective."

For example.

If the old Janna had been asked to recount the birth of the Shuriman Empire, she would have definitely said:

"Ascended Empress Setaka, guided by the Celestial Titans, was purified by the Sun Disc to become the first Ascended in history. With the immense power of the Ascended, she wiped out and absorbed all the tribes of Shurima, establishing the first unified slave empire in human history."

But Li Wei treated that part as mere story background. What he focused on was:

"With the development of productive forces, the increase in the quantity of goods led to a surplus relative to survival needs. This turned tribal war captives from being killed outright into economically profitable slaves. Tribal chieftains transformed into slave owners, while others gradually became slaves."

"Driven by economic interests, tribal slave owners, including Setaka, plundered, annexed, and allied with one another, constantly strengthening themselves. Human civilization gradually moved from individual tribes to tribal alliances, and from tribal alliances to slave kingdoms."

"..."

These words nearly overturned Janna's understanding of the world.

She had firmly believed that humanity's rise from a savage collection of primitive tribes to the civilized Shuriman Empire relied on the great power bestowed by the Celestial Titans and the Sun Disc.

But Li Wei argued that even without the Celestial Titans and the Sun Disc, humanity would have eventually moved from tribes to slave kingdoms.

The appearance of the Celestial Titans and the Ascended was merely an external boost that greatly accelerated the process.

At the root of it all, it was still the progress of productive forces.

Yes, productive forces—Janna had learned many new terms from Li Wei and encountered an entirely new system of thought and theory.

And after absorbing this knowledge, questions she had rarely pondered or couldn't figure out before suddenly became clear.

Why was the slave system already crumbling by the end of the Shuriman Empire?

Why did feudal kingdoms replace Shurima after its fall?

Why did the Kingdom of Zuan, once ruled by a king and nobles, gradually develop into a commercial city-state controlled by a council of magnates?

It all seemed to have an answer now.

But then...

What use was knowing this?

Could promoting this history, which few cared about, really win followers and inspire faith?

As she thought it over, Janna couldn't help but feel puzzled.

So she couldn't resist asking:

"Summoner, I still don't quite understand. What you're promoting seems more like... a scientific theory? Not a faith."

"Can simply teaching theories and knowledge really attract followers?"

"Of course it can," Li Wei said firmly. "Only by mastering this knowledge can you read the past. Only by reading the past can you understand the present."

"What Zuan's people lack most right now is thought—they need to seriously consider why Zuan is the way it is."

"If they can figure that out..."

"Then they're already your followers."

Meanwhile, in the rented room.

Lina was utterly captivated, reading the article with such devotion that she forgot to eat or sleep.

Now she truly believed that Li Wei had been blessed by Goddess Janna, enlightened with wisdom.

Otherwise, with her brother's educational level—barely scraping by with prenatal lessons—there was no way he could have written something like this.

"What's really going on? Did my brother actually meet Janna herself? I'll have to ask him properly when he gets back tomorrow."

Lina worried about Li Wei for a good while at first, then turned her attention to the article's content itself:

"So there are all these hidden secrets in Zaun's past history too."

Unlike Janna.

Janna's existence transcended the mundane, her vision encompassing all directions. The moment she read this article, she realized Li Wei wanted to share not the history itself, but the analytical tools for dissecting it.

But as a Zaunite struggling to survive in Piltover, Lina's first reaction to reading this article was:

"Those damned Piltovans—so they were never any good from the start!"

What Lina cared about most were the various historical secrets mentioned in the article.

Especially Piltover's dark history.

In Piltover's official textbooks, the city was founded 300 years ago by a group of merchants pursuing freedom and democracy.

They united to overthrow the evil rule of the old Zaun Kingdom, establishing Runeterra's first Parliamentary Independent City-State, bringing unprecedented freedom and prosperity to the people of this land.

As for those great merchants who pursued freedom.

How they had amassed the immense wealth needed to topple a kingdom—the history books glossed over it with a single stroke.

But with Janna's help, Li Wei laid out their wealth-accumulation process in clear detail:

"With the rumbling roar of Steam Machinery, Zaun Kingdom's scarce resources, land, and population were swiftly devoured by that gradually awakening beast. A small, sparsely populated Zaun could never satisfy its insatiable appetite."

"Zaun's merchants, who had lived by maritime trade since ancient times, soon cast their gaze across the ocean toward the Shuriman continent, which had lain desolate for a thousand years."

"In the centuries that followed, Privateer Ships armed with guns gradually filled the seas, and coastal Colonial Outposts spread like smallpox pustules, almost covering every inch of Shurima's skin."

"Shurima was reduced to a commercial hunting ground for slave labor. The indigenous people were exterminated, enslaved, and buried in mines, factories, ports, and anywhere else they could be squeezed for profit."

"The virus even spread from Shurima to the rest of the world. Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Bilgewater—wherever there was profit to be made, the merchants dared to appear on any shore, at the risk of their heads, to prey on any nation."

"..."

The great warriors who overthrew the kingdom's rule over 300 years ago, the Ancient Merchant Families who still held power in Piltover's Council today.

When their rise to wealth was laid bare, almost every line reeked of blood and filth.

"These Piltovans actually have the nerve to call us barbarians? When they're nothing but a bunch of pirates' descendants!"

After reading this article, Lina felt she'd been deceived all along.

She'd hated Piltover before, but only hated the Piltovans' arrogance, hated their discrimination against her.

But in her heart, Piltover was inherently better than Zaun.

Piltover was so civilized, progressive, and prosperous; Piltovans were so gentle, kind, and elegant.

While Zaunites would slaughter each other over a few Silver Wheels, Piltovans would pull the city's main power switch to save a little bird tangled in wires.

Zaun didn't value human life at all, but Piltover treated every life as human.

Maybe that was why Zaun could never compare to Piltover.

That's what Lina used to think.

But now, as for why Zaun was backward, she seemed to have a new answer:

The Enforcers of Piltover still firmly controlled Zaun, and every factory in Zaun was backed by Piltover's capital—wasn't that a form of colonial plunder?

Her brother came to Piltover as an apprentice worker—how different was that from the slaves plundered 300 years ago?

"It's all these hypocritical Piltovans' fault!"

"If Zaun could break free from Piltover's rule, maybe we'd have a chance to live like Piltovans too."

Lina couldn't help but have this thought.

But when she thought a little further, she felt like she'd missed something:

Li Wei's article didn't seem to be just cursing the Piltovans or exposing those old nobles' dirty secrets.

He seemed to be using the dissection of this brutal, real history as an opportunity to impart some deeper knowledge.

"What could it be?"

Lina still couldn't figure it out.

Just then, the novel theory Li Wei used in analyzing history finally began to catch her attention.

She suddenly realized something:

"Ah! It's almost six o'clock."

"Professor Jayce's assessment interview is at six-thirty. If I don't leave now, I'll be late."

Lina snapped awake.

She couldn't spare any more thought for it.

She haphazardly stuffed Li Wei's notebook into her bag and hurried out of the house.