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Hikigaya Hachiman scratched his head and said, "I just saw a dog about to be hit by a car on the road and wanted to save it, but in the end I was stopped by that Lord Ling."
"So that's why you think so highly of him?"
Ling Wuji nodded.
"That's surprising. I thought you were the kind of person who would look down on everyone."
"Well, I can't refute that, but I just think I can't be like him, equating my life to a dog's. That kind of courage is almost stupid, but it's clear enough, so I find it incredible that someone who can do such a thing can't make friends in high school."
Volume 3: Between God and Man: Chapter 11: Courage
"In your opinion, courage is a very valuable quality?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka was quite surprised.
This kid usually looks so unscrupulous and does whatever he wants, but he actually praises others' courage?
Ling Wuji also knew what she was thinking, so he said, "Teacher Hiratsuka, in your opinion, what is courage? Is it knowing the outcome of a thing and knowing what price you have to pay, so you can be reckless and resolute in the process? Or is it knowing what you want, so you move straight towards the goal, regardless of all the hardships in the process, even if it means sacrificing your life?"
"But some people call the latter reckless, like the wrong evolution of Zombie Tyrannosaurus."
"You actually also dabbled in seed-oriented animation?"
Ling Wu Ji thought that this teacher might be staying at home too much.
But Ling Wuji said, "But you should have heard about it, teacher? In recent years, there have been major breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence. In the field of Go, which was previously considered so complex that machines could not exhaust the results and therefore could not defeat humans, AlphaGo has completely defeated the strongest human being. This shows that within the existing fixed rules framework, artificial intelligence can even replace some of the work of humans..."
"what do you want to say in the end?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka said, no matter how you look at it, what you said has nothing to do with courage, right?
"Teacher, what do you think is the most fundamental difference between humans and AI?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka thought about it and shook her head.
Maybe she could give a general answer like whether there is "love" or not, but she knew very well that for people like Ling Wuji, this answer could not explain anything, so she could only listen attentively to Ling Wuji's remarks.
“In my opinion, it is whether the requirements can be updated by themselves and whether the algorithm for judging the priority of requirements is fixed.”
"This still has nothing to do with the courage you mentioned, right?"
"I mean, a machine's demand for a top priority that is algorithmically impossible to achieve will probably lead to a deadlock, but humans sometimes choose to give up, and sometimes they will throw themselves into an unknown field for a certain goal without hesitation. They don't know what difficulties lie ahead, nor do they know whether they will fall down halfway, but they only see that the goal is there. This is what I call courage."
"'The hymn of humanity is the hymn of courage'? I didn't expect a kid like you to watch JOJO?"
"No, I haven't seen that work."
But Hiratsuka Shizuka just clapped her hands, then looked at Hikigaya Hachiman who was too embarrassed to speak, and said: "Well said, but it's meaningless. No matter how much you praise his courage, it can't change the fact that he is a twisted brat."
Ling Wuji shook his head: "Of course I have no intention of interpreting reality unilaterally according to my own will, but I just want to say that if he has not made friends now, either he does not want to make friends at all, or he does not want friends of this level."
"Is it just this extent?"
"Similar to the mutual understanding in Gundam?"
Hikigaya Hachiman wished the ground would crack open so he could crawl into it.
It is really uncomfortable to have one's personal psychology analyzed so thoroughly by someone you have only met once.
"So, Hikigaya, do you think he's right?"
But Shizuka Hiratsuka turned around and asked him this question.
So he forced himself to look calm and said, "Yes, I am the kind of lonely and strong man who doesn't need friends!"
He also added a hollow laugh.
"You are such a twisted little devil!" Hiratsuka Shizuka sighed, then turned around and said to Ling Wuji, "So, in your opinion, do you have the chance to become spiritual friends?"
Ling Wu Ji shook his head decisively.
"Why, don't you have a great respect for his courage?"
"Aizen once said, 'Admiration is the emotion farthest from understanding.'"
Ling Wu Ji just made up an excuse and said.
Hiratsuka Shizuka pondered for a moment and then said, "To be honest, Ling, I think you are a very outstanding person."
"Excellent award?"
"But I don't understand your intention in judging Hikigaya like this."
Ling Wuji shook his head: "It's just a lesson from others."
"Learn from others? Is it what the Tang Taizong Li Shimin in your Chinese history said, 'Learn from others, you can know your gains and losses'?" Hiratsuka Shizuka said with interest, "Then, what are your gains and losses?"
Ling Wuji thought for a moment and said, "If I have to say something, it's probably that I'm not as brave as he is, and even if I'm not understood by others, it doesn't really matter."
“It sounds like two extremes.”
"well enough."
Ling Wuji just spoke absentmindedly.
"But," Shizuka Hiratsuka looked at the boy whose expression hadn't changed much from beginning to end, and said, "Even if you admire that kind of courage, don't you have the idea of becoming a person like him? Do you think that your essence has been fixed, so it's just a longing?"
Ling Wuji said casually: "So, what is a person's essence? How can we change a person's essence?"
Hiratsuka Shizuka was stumped by the question and did not give an answer for a long time.
"What a surprise," Ling Wuji said when she still didn't speak, "I thought that even if it was worse, you would still respond with Marx's words."
"But I don't think you accept this."
Ling Wuji slightly raised the corner of his mouth, which was regarded as his agreement with this answer.
"But no matter what, you still have to get along well, okay?"
But even though she said that, Hiratsuka Shizuka turned around and patted Hikigaya Hachiman on the shoulder, sighing heavily. She was obviously worried about the situation of this student who had been suppressed by Ling Wu Chi in some way as soon as he appeared in the club classroom. Hikigaya Hachiman also felt that his situation in this club was worrying, so he said: "Teacher, I still don't understand..."
"No, you don't have the right to refute this matter, okay?" Hiratsuka Shizuka smiled, but pressed her knuckles hard, making a crackling sound, obviously using violence to force the student to submit. "Or, do you want to use the courage that will be praised by your classmates to try to resist me?"
Hikigaya Hachiman naturally chose to submit obediently.
Then he looked at the two people in the room and couldn't help introducing himself: "Um, my name is Hikigaya Hachiman, may I ask your advice?"
Ling Wuji naturally had no reaction.
Volume 3: Between God and Man: Chapter 12: Human Observation
It is interesting to learn from others.
Ling Wuji used to have no interest in others and only cared about his own goals. But after the old Taoist priest proposed to him that he should use the unreal to cultivate the real, he began to deliberately observe others and try to analyze the nature of others. Although he had done the same thing to Arisa Kouin before, in his opinion, Arisa Kouin's nature was too shallow. Even though there were many more complicated things in that core, that sense of uneasiness completely overwhelmed the others, so her nature seemed extremely simple, which was to seek a sense of security.
The first victim of his "observation" was obviously Hikigaya Hachiman.
In his opinion, the essence of Hikigaya Hachiman, or his top priority, is that he wants to seek something "real", a relationship similar to that of a "confidant", a relationship in which they can fully understand each other, without any disagreements, and which will not change for any other reason. It may not be love, but he is no longer satisfied with the superficial relationship that has been hurting him for a long time.
The second person he observed was naturally Yukinoshita Yukino, who was in the same club.
However, perhaps because Ling Wuzhi's previous comments on Bikigaya Hachiman were too in-depth, Yukinoshita Yukino seemed to have doubts about him, so she had never communicated with him in the club.
But even so, Ling Wuji discovered from her daily bickering with Hikigaya Hachiman that she did not want to change the world or change humanity as she said.
She just needed a place to hold her.
In other words, her real goal is indeed the original intention of Shizuka Hiratsuka to establish this club: to let people in the same club make friends.
It’s just that Ling Wuji is not interested in her.
Maybe Hikigaya Hachiman, who usually bickers with her because his daily life conflicts with her way of doing things, can become her friend?
But the relationship between these two people does not seem to be so simple to summarize.
In fact, Hikigaya Hachiman also secretly regards Yukinoshita Yukino as his "idol".
Because he is still hesitant and confused, he regards himself, who was hurt in the past because of those hypocritical superficial relationships, as a flawed product, and regards Yukinoshita Yukino, who has always rejected others decisively, as an "idol" with an incredibly high degree of perfection.
But Ling Wu Ji also said, "Yearning is the emotion that is farthest from understanding."
It is obvious that what Yukinoshita Yukino needs is a place to stay, but Hikigaya Hachiman worships her as a god. So although the two of them seem to be acquaintances who can bicker with each other, this relationship hides a fatal crisis.
Of course, no matter how they develop, it has nothing to do with Ling Wuji.
He was just a bystander, occupying a corner of the club classroom, observing the students brought by Hiratsuka Shizuka. However, some of the students did not even have what could be called essence, or it could be said that their essence was too shallow. They were either constantly catering to the eyes and words of the people around them, unconsciously playing the role that their friends needed in their eyes or mouths, or they were as changeable as floating clouds, one moment like this and another like that in the next.
Although this statement seems too harsh for these middle school students whose values are yet to be determined.
But Ling Wuji sometimes wonders that after a person's three views are formed, his goals and way of thinking - or as he said in the comparison between AI and humans, the most basic needs and algorithms have basically been finalized. Is such an essence good or bad?
If the nature of mind that one needs to clearly see actually refers to a certain unchanging need, and in order to achieve that need, one can even constantly update one's algorithm, then, is the essence of one's self just a tool to achieve that goal?
And if the requirements and algorithms will not change, then isn't he just a machine in a sense?
"I think everyone has the right to choose the way of life they like. It doesn't matter whether they live like a machine or not. In history, didn't Spinoza, who wrote the Theological-Political Treatise, choose to stay away from the world and make a living by grinding lenses?"
Although Kamiya Kaoru didn't understand why Ling Wuji came to her, she still felt a little happy about the boy's arrival, so after thinking about it, she gave her own opinion and said:
"But no matter what the demand is or what the algorithm is, as long as it does not cross the bottom line set in your heart and does not cross the constraints of secular morality and law, no matter what kind of lifestyle it is, as long as it makes you happy, I think it's fine."
"So, you think the most important thing is the bottom line?" Ling Wuji thought for a moment and said, "Just like the name of your magic, 'helping those who cannot be saved'? Just like your principle of not killing people?"
Kanzaki Kaori nodded.
"That's going to be difficult," Ling Wuji muttered to himself, "My moral bottom line has always been very flexible."
Kamijou Kaori wanted to say something, but when she thought about what the boy had done, she had nothing else to say for a moment.
After all, that's the truth.
You will never figure out where this boy's bottom line is.
There are some things that you think he doesn't need to be so excessive, but he does it anyway. For example, he actually had many ways to seize the management rights of the Kurahashi family's land spiritual energy, but he chose to rob it. There are some things that you think he can't tolerate, such as the instigation of the Seventh God Slayer by the people in the Official History Compilation Committee, but he chose to do nothing.
It's completely unclear what he's thinking.
But even so, Kamiya Kaori still felt that Ling Wuzhi was a kind person.
"Maybe." Hearing Kamiya Kaoru's comment, Wu Ji was a little embarrassed to laugh, but still said, "Although I think that is essentially just self-satisfaction."
Hearing him say this, Kamiya Kaoru suddenly remembered the conversation they had when they first met, about what pure "good" and "evil" really are. She smiled at Ling Wuji for a moment, and then asked him seriously: "So, in your opinion, what is true 'good'?"
Ling Wuji shook his head and recited the Analects: "According to the law of Lu, if a Lu person becomes a servant or concubine of a prince, anyone who can redeem her can take the gold from the government. Zigong redeemed a Lu person from a prince, but he returned the gold and did not take it. Confucius said, 'You have made a mistake. From now on, Lu people will not redeem people. If you take the gold, you will not lose anything. If you do not take the gold, you will not redeem people.' Zilu rescued a drowning person, and the person offered him an ox as a gift. Zilu accepted the gift. Confucius said, 'Lu people will definitely rescue drowning people.'"
PS: Thanks to the two soaps from Seventeen No Books to Read... The author's words on Shuke are no different from the main text, so I usually don't want to write this kind of thing in the author's words, but after all, it's more than 30 yuan, which can buy many bottles of Coke...
Volume 3: Between God and Man: Chapter 13: Knowing and Doing