"Okay, that's just 50%. In addition to these tangible things, there is another very important aspect, which is the character. A person's character is influenced by innate factors and partly determined by blood, but it can be changed later. Lu Zhan spends most of his time at home, in the grocery store and private school. He occasionally goes out for a walk, but he basically never leaves the scope of Ji County. The places he has been to, the people he has met, and the things he has experienced are as few as possible and as ordinary as they can be. Tell me where you have been, who you have met, and what you have seen when you were a child." Fang Yun said.
Zeng Yuan said: "We, the children of the Zeng family, were often taken by our elders to travel around the country to see the mountains, rivers, and cultural sites. The thing I remember most vividly is the first time I saw Kongcheng and Daofeng Mountain from the sky. It is unforgettable."
Fang Yun said with emotion: "So far, Lu Zhan has never seen Kongcheng or Daofeng Mountain. Please continue."
Zeng Yuan continued, "As for the people I met, they were all elites from various families. I also often saw great scholars and even great Confucian scholars. I even saw a semi-saint. Of course, what I saw was not a saint. As for the things I experienced, there were too many and too complicated. The Zeng family is a large family, a sub-saint family, so I can't be quiet. I still remember some things that happened when I was a child."
Fang Yun sighed and said, "Everything a child encounters in his childhood will have a huge impact on him. To give the simplest example, we will find that children nowadays are smarter than we were back then. In addition to the continuous improvement of their bloodlines and the improvement of human life, more importantly, these children are exposed to much more information than we were back then. Especially the children in Ning'an City, their changes are the most obvious. Compared with you, Lu Zhan's childhood was mostly wasted, so that he had to work a thousand times harder to catch up with you later. But the problem is that you didn't waste time later, so the possibility of him catching up with you is very small."
Zeng Yuan also had some emotion, and said, "Students think that everything they experienced in their childhood has more than 10% influence on my and his grades, and it may be more than 20%. I have completely understood that it is not that I am inherently better than him, and it is not that he is so stupid and lazy, but that everything I have is much more than him. As you said, he has to work a thousand times harder than me to be on par with me. And if his efforts can really reach a thousand times of mine, he will be exhausted to death in half a year at most, so he can't surpass me."
Fang Yun said: "Whether it is diet, heaven and earth vitality, teachers, educational resources, environment or experience, they have a great impact on the two of you, but it is not an unbridgeable gap, nor is it an absolutely insurmountable chasm. Even if I lag behind you in school, once I grow up, it is still possible for ordinary people to narrow the gap. The gap in school is not terrible. The truly terrible, the most insurmountable, and the most powerless thing for ordinary people is that after leaving school, you, the children of aristocratic families, directly deprive us ordinary people of the opportunity to make further progress!"
"What do you mean?" Zeng Yuan asked in surprise and found that Fang Yun's tone was extremely heavy and far more serious than before.
"As far as I know, after you failed the Jinshi examination for five consecutive years, you had to give up temporarily and planned to find other ways out while preparing for the Jinshi examination. And you chose to disguise yourself as an ordinary person and work as a clerk in a shop of Zeng family. Is this true?" Fang Yun asked.
"Indeed." Zeng Yuan felt a little proud, because the elders of the Zeng family often used this incident to educate other children.
"If Lu Zhan lived in the same place as you, and if Lu Zhan had finally defeated other competitors after going through untold hardships, then, just because you wanted to start from the bottom and chose there, Lu Zhan lost a precious opportunity and could only work as a waiter in a worse place. You deprived him of the opportunity and status that he could have obtained through hard work." Fang Yun said.
Zeng Yuan stood there in a daze, unable to speak for a long time.
He really wanted to say that this was just an if, but when he thought about it carefully, he chose to be a clerk in that shop just because he asked someone to pass on a message. It was so simple that it couldn't be simpler. But now he thought that he might have snatched away an opportunity that originally belonged to someone else.
Fang Yun continued, "You have been a clerk for half a year and have a good understanding of this store, so you choose to be the shopkeeper. At the same time, if the shopkeeper is Lu Zhan, or Lu Zhan was originally going to take over as the shopkeeper, then you have deprived Lu Zhan of an opportunity."
Zeng Yuan remained silent.
"You have been promoted step by step. Whether it is you, your brothers, or your relatives and friends, you are scattered all over the human race. Some of you want to be civil officials, some want to be military generals, some want to be businessmen, some want to open workshops, and so on. The first step you took deprived countless Lu Zhan of opportunities, not because you are better than Lu Zhan, not because you are smarter than Lu Zhan, not because you have read more books than Lu Zhan, but simply because you have good parents and you inherited their power. You think you deserve everything, you think you are better than us ordinary people, you think earning 100 million taels of silver is just a small goal, but I can point at each of your noses and say that if you had not deprived thousands of Lu Zhan of their opportunities and had not been protected by your predecessors, the number of you who can achieve what you have now would be less than one in ten thousand."
Zeng Yuan didn't dare to breathe, not only because Fang Yun was a virtual saint, but also because Fang Yun's words almost cut open his heart and made him feel ashamed.
Fang Yun's expression eased and he smiled, "When I say this, you may think I am blaming you. No, looking back at your ancestors, there is always one who stood at the same starting line as our ancestors. At that time, there was no difference between our ancestors, but your ancestors achieved great achievements and power through hard work. His power and achievements will not disappear with his death, but will have an effect on you. This is a gift from your ancestors, and it is indeed what you deserve. You should accept it calmly, and even accept it proudly, and be proud of your ancestors' achievements."
Zeng Yuan was puzzled and didn't understand why Fang Yun said such contradictory things.
However, Fang Yun changed the subject and said, "But there is one thing you have to remember. The advantages you have now are not enough for you to laugh at us ordinary people, because most of what you have comes from your ancestors. Lu Zhan is not as good as you, not because he is stupid, not because he is lazy, not because he deserves it, but because he does not have ancestors like you. If you must laugh at Lu Zhan, if you believe that Lu Zhan is stupid, lazy and deserves everything he has encountered, then only when you surpass your ancestors will you be qualified to say so. Otherwise, you are just a rich dog hiding under the robes of your ancestors."
"Student, I understand!" Zeng Yuan broke out in sweat on his forehead.
"Very good. If you can really figure this out, your achievements will reach a higher level. So, let's get back to the topic." Fang Yun said.
.(To be continued.)