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A matter succeeds through secrecy yet fails through leakage of words. It may not be the persuader himself who leaks secrets, but if his speech touches on what the ruler conceals, he will be endangered.
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In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Su is often depicted as a mild-mannered, even gullible figure—caught awkwardly between the brilliance of Zhuge Liang and the ambition of Zhou Yu. This portrayal, however, grossly misrepresents the historical Lu Su. Far from being a passive bystander, he was a strategic visionary on par with Zhuge…