"These days, there aren't many people who still dare to talk about the study of things in public. This person is really brave."
On the other side of the auditorium, a girl who seemed to be in her early teens whispered. Compared with the careless adults around her, her exquisite dress and dark long straight hair looked out of place. And the way she sits with her hands folded across her chest and one leg flat on the other also has a temperament that does not belong to her peers.
"Shhh..." Fang Yanni quickly made a low-pitched gesture, "There are all Jinxia people here, if they hear it..."
"So what if you hear it?" The black-haired girl raised her head slightly, "If the truth is not allowed to be questioned, the truth itself will lose its meaning. I think Mr. Xia will not be so narrow-minded. What do you think? , Qianzhi?"
Qianzhi rarely shrank his shoulders, "Qianzhi... I don't know."
This is really rare, Fang Xiandao raised his eyebrows, to be able to let Qianzhi, who is good at everything, say such words.
This person is the new living dead sent by the old lady, Qian Yan.
Fang Xiandao has stayed in the Fang family for more than ten years and has heard many rumors about Qian Yan, but this is the first time he has actually seen him.
Among all the living dead, Qian Yan can be said to be the most special one. Her age is unknown, and she seems to have been born in her ancestors. During the battle against the rule of Yongguo, many living dead died permanently, but Qianyan survived. Not only that, she has never "sleeped". In other words, she has all the memories from her birth to the present.
In the Fang family, every living dead will become the guardian of the alchemist, with the exception of Qian Yan. She rarely showed up, and would speak to the old lady and the old man alone if she had any needs. She never showed up during battles, so there was a joke among the disciples that the living dead protected the Fang family, and the Fang family protected Master Qianyan.
Unexpectedly, the old lady would send this special living dead to Jinxia because of her letter. When the senior sister introduced the other party as Qian Yan, he was really surprised.
Could it be that something happened in Lingzhou that he didn't know about
But with the two family heads in charge, there shouldn't be any big problems.
"Why does no one dare to discuss the investigation of objects nowadays?" Fang Xiandao asked, tilting his head. No matter what, this person is a living annals of history. It is not easy to meet him. It is always right to ask more.
"The so-called investigation of things to gain knowledge is to explore the truth of all things. It is to ask questions from things. But what is Tao? There has been no unified answer for thousands of years." Qianyan said in a cold tone, "Let's study it at a smaller level, one step at a time. There is nothing much to say about wood, bricks and stones. Maybe the farmers in the village know more than you. If you look at the big picture, it is everything, the universe, luck... and even the way of heaven. Except for the last one, the rest are just for viewing. If you can't see or touch something, your research for most of your life will be all lies, and it's easy for others to find loopholes and make your arguments useless. Therefore, over time, few people have mentioned the investigation of things."
"Um...how long ago did you mean it lasted forever?" Fang Yanni asked cautiously.
"Probably more than a hundred years ago. At least when Yong Guo was still there, almost no one among the major sects talked about the study of things. After all, it is easy to say that it is easy to see the big things from the small, but what we really want to do is to find out the relationship between the vegetation, the masonry, and the universe. How can it be so easy to connect with others? In the final analysis, we humans are just mayflies living in this world."
"One, more than a hundred years ago?" Fang Yanni's eyes widened in surprise, "Isn't that older than Master? Should I call you... Grand Master?"
Read books and get cash/coins every day!
When Qian Yan looked at the chief disciple of the Fang family, his eyes softened a little, "You don't have to be so reserved. The living dead exist to protect the Fang family, and age is not the key."
"But you mentioned the exception of Heavenly Dao just now..." Fang Xiandao frowned, "Isn't this nothing false?"
"At least it's not some empty talk." Qian Yan stretched his waist, "otherwise Yongguo wouldn't have perished because of it."
"Can you be more specific?" he asked. "The books I read all attributed its destruction to the brutal rule of King Yong."
"This summary is not wrong, but it can only be said to be superficial and internal to the actual reasons. As for the more specific reasons, we can wait until you become the head of the family."
"How am I qualified to be the head of the family?" Fang Xiandao shrugged, "The head of the family will definitely choose from senior sister's generation. It depends on who can win the favor of senior sister."
"Oh? But I don't think she is—"
"Sir Qian, Qian, Qian, Qianyan, look, Xia Fan has started teaching!" Fang Yanni stammered and interrupted.
"He finally started speaking." Fang Xiandao immediately focused his attention on the podium, and then the eldest disciple secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"I want to ask you a question." After a few brief introductions, Xia Fan went straight to the point. "Not only the children, but also everyone present, do you think this square is empty or crowded?"
The adults were still reserved, but the children had already raised their hands to answer.
"open!"
“Crowded!”
"The people sitting on the chairs are crowded, but the people sitting on the straw mats are empty!" Finally, someone summed up the best of both worlds and concluded.
"Why?" Xia Fan asked with a smile.
"Because they have people next to them and we don't have people next to us."
"In other words, if there is only one person in this square, it is empty, right?"
The children nodded in unison.
"What on earth did he want to say?" Fang Yanni asked curiously.
Qian Yan closed his eyes indifferently, "Probably it's the theory that there is reality within the imaginary, and the imaginary and the real depend on each other. It seems like a great truth worth thinking about, but if you taste it carefully, you will find that it says nothing."
"But I want to tell you -" Xia Fan looked around and said loudly, "you are not surrounded by empty space, but like fish, living in abundant water. It's just that you can't see this 'water' . Usually, people call it air."
The concept of air is not unfamiliar to everyone. Some people have realized very early that what people breathe is air, and the lack of air will lead to suffocation. This is not a novel statement. But the world's basic understanding of qi is only conceptual.
"So, when I walk back and forth, I am actually swimming; turbulence and eddies will be formed where I walk, and waves will be generated in front of me due to the collision with the gas. If you run, you can clearly feel it. You get this collision—normally we would call it wind. But actually, you're tearing apart layers of obstacles and pushing the gas forward together."
"Don't underestimate this resistance. If you go fast enough, it will even become as solid as a wall. If you hit it head-on, the air can kill someone."
Everyone couldn't help but show expressions of disbelief.
"Xia...Teacher, are you telling the truth?"
"But even if I run as fast as I can, I can't feel the air holding me back."
"That's because you're not fast enough." Xia Fan smiled, "Why don't you think about it from another angle, how do you think fish would feel in the water?"
"It feels heavy!" A child raised his hand and said - I have to say that the previous morning's lessons and guidance made everyone invested a lot, "At least... I feel heavy. It's hard to breathe when soaked in water! "
There was a burst of laughter at the scene.
"That's because the water is very heavy and is pressing on you." Xia Fan nodded, "The same is true for the air - it also has weight and is pressing on us all the time."
"Hey, is there one?" Fang Yanni stretched out her hand to hold it up, "Why can't I feel it?"
Qian Yan also opened her eyes with a slight surprise. She vaguely realized that what the other party said seemed to be very different from the past Ge Wu.
"Next... I will prove this to everyone." Xia Fan took out a large glass and placed it on the podium.