The four words "I don't eat women" pierced into the hearts of many men present like a needle.
The old man was like a rooster with feathers standing on end and said angrily, "Young man, you should use your brain when you speak. Women eat our food and wear our clothes, so naturally they have to listen to men."
"May I ask what were you thinking when your mother was raising you?" the young man asked.
"How dare you, young as you are, talk to an old man like that?" the old man said angrily.
"Now let's talk about women, nothing else. Please act like an elder." The young man counterattacked bluntly.
A man who looked like a rich man said with a smile: "Please stop arguing. This matter is very simple. In this world, people are often unreasonable. Whoever has the bigger fist will be obeyed. Fang Xusheng is so powerful, but didn't he still bow to Liu Shan in the past? Isn't he still under the control of the Li Palace now? So, when women are as strong as men one day, they don't have to listen to men anymore."
The young man said, "You are right. But the biggest problem now is that Jingguo and the human race have given women the opportunity to become stronger, but many men are still trying to stop them. This is a bit too much."
"The human race is still making progress. Even if it's not possible now, it will be different in a few years. Why bother arguing over such things and hurting the harmony?" The rich man laughed.
Zong Weixiong then opened his mouth and said: "Among the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, the ruler is the bond of the ministers, the father is the bond of the sons, and the husband is the bond of the wife. Why can't men control women?"
The young man said, "This was said by Dong Zhongshu, a great sage during the Han Dynasty. Confucius never said this. This tells us a truth: people today don't have to blindly follow the ancients."
"Oh, are you comparing yourself to Dong Sheng?" said the old man.
The young man smiled and said, "If a great man who is as famous as Dong Sheng appears in the future and wants women to catch up with men in status, will you do it or not?"
The old man said, "If a semi-saint does this, what else can we say? Even if we are resentful, we can only listen. No matter what happens in other families, in our family, men have the final say!"
Zong Weixiong said: "From what I know, the status of women in Ning'an City seems to be constantly improving. Now many women no longer tolerate it when they encounter problems, but go to the government office to sue the officials. The government office in Ning'an City is also quite interesting. When trying cases, they completely treat women as men, so in the end women often win the case."
The old man said angrily: "Ning'an City is now in chaos! Women want to make trouble? I think it's too early! Those officials are all bad guys!"
Zong Weixiong smiled and said, "I heard that this was all Fang Xusheng's idea."
The restaurant suddenly became quiet.
After a while, the old man muttered in a low voice: "Fang Xusheng is a henpecked man, but he implicated us. It's really annoying..."
Several people in the restaurant almost laughed out loud, but they didn't dare to really laugh, because every household in Ning'an City said that Fang Yun was henpecked, and there were many jokes circulating.
A man in a boy's robe asked, "Don't you see the benefit of women doing work?"
"What good can it do? They are just small arms and legs, what can they do!" said the old man.
The young student said, "After the Ning'an War, the number of men in Ning'an decreased significantly. Some heavy physical jobs urgently needed male workers, and the remuneration increased, so many male workers switched to heavy physical jobs. Later, some jobs that did not consume much physical energy began to be short of people. Under the decree of Fang Xusheng, many women came forward and began to do those lighter jobs, which prevented Ning'an City from having major problems. I also discovered this problem after listening to a few friends' discussion, so I deduced that if more women joined the workshop and took over some of the men's work, then more men could do other jobs, and more men could serve as soldiers and fight the enemy. I'm sure you can all see how much benefit this will bring to the human race."
Many people in the teahouse remained silent, while a few nodded slightly.
"The more you argue, the clearer the truth becomes. Yes, I now understand that Fang Xusheng raised the status of women not only out of sympathy, but must have had considerations in this regard. If every woman can be like a man in the future, the human race will definitely become stronger." Zong Weixiong said.
"You, a foreigner, actually care about our Ning'an." The old man couldn't argue with the young man and the student, so he turned to look at Zong Weixiong.
Zong Weixiong smiled and said, "I am from another place doing business, so of course I have to care about Ning'an. I found that since the establishment of the well-connected waterways, Ning'an City has become more and more lively. I walked along the way today and found that people here seem to only care about money. This atmosphere seems to be different from other countries."
The old man immediately showed a look of contempt and said, "As long as you come from a legitimate background, what's wrong with recognizing money? When our Jing country was poor, people from other countries laughed at us for being poor. Logically, you should be praising us for being rich now. Why are you starting to laugh at us for only recognizing money? Then can we also say that you only recognized money back then?"
Zong Weixiong looked embarrassed. He did not expect the old man to point the sword at him. He said hurriedly, "A gentleman loves money but gets it in a proper way. I understand this principle. I am not against Ning'an people making money, but it seems that people love money too much now."
The old man was stunned for a moment, thinking for a while and not knowing how to refute. The young man smiled and said, "What this stranger said is that everything is excessive. It is not good to be poor, and it is not good to value money too much. In fact, the core of this matter is not the money itself, but how you think."
"Oh? Please explain the reason behind this, young man." Zong Weixiong said with a smile.
The young man said, "Money is a dumb thing. It is a dead thing. We make money differently, spend money differently, and have different views on money. Let me give you an example. There are two rich men who are equally rich. One is rich but unkind, but never talks about money and even pretends to be poor. The second rich man is kind and generous. He not only talks about money frequently, but also praises himself for making money and encourages his fellow villagers to make money. What do you think, who is better, the second rich man who values money or the first rich man?"
"To be honest, the second rich man is better." said Zong Weixiong.
"Let's take another example. Two people both like to say that they are rich and both like to show off occasionally. One is really rich and the other is pretending to be rich. Apart from that, everything else is the same. They are even nice to you and have never offended you. If both of them are your acquaintances, who would you hate more?" asked the young man.
Zong Weixiong hesitated for a few breaths and said helplessly: "I really hate people who have no money but like to pretend to be rich."
The young man said, "You see, from your perspective, if you don't care about money, would you hate those who pretend to be rich? So, you care about money too. From another perspective, the two people just like to show off, and they haven't committed any crime. The key is that they haven't harmed others. Why do we have different views on the two people? Obviously, the reason you hate them is not because of money, but because of their character. Even if money is replaced by other things, you will still hate them, such as knowledge, learning, and literary status. Can you say that pursuing these is not good?"
"That makes sense." said Zong Weixiong.