The young man continued with a smile, "The point of this matter is that you only see money, but in the eyes of us Ning'an people, money is just an ordinary tool. What we care about is not money, but whether we can feed our wives and clothe them, whether we can let our children study well, whether we can let our parents not have to worry about their old age, whether our relatives and friends can live a good life, and whether we can be happy. These are our ultimate goals. Sometimes we also use money to measure some things, but we don't do it to see who is easier to bully. We just don't want to live worse than others! Therefore, the reason why we Ning'an people are obsessed with money is not because of how bad our Ning'an people's morality is, but that you want to attack us Ning'an people and deny our efforts and progress. The people of Jing made the same mistake back then, and accused the wealthy Qing country of extravagance and greed. Therefore, we Ning'an people don't do such things."
Zong Weixiong stared at the young man and praised him, "Ning'an is indeed a place where crouching tigers and hidden dragons are everywhere. An ordinary young man has such insight."
"This is not some opinion. This is something that we Ning'an people all know. Fellow villagers, don't you agree?" asked the young man.
"Of course!" Many Ning'an people responded proudly.
Chong Weixiong saw the gleam of confidence in their eyes.
Zong Weixiong was silent for a moment before he said, "Ning An is indeed extraordinary. I came to the right place."
The old man smiled and said, "That's right, you are a teachable kid! When you stay in Ning'an for a while, you will understand that our Ning'an is the best place for the entire human race!"
"Keep a low profile, keep a low profile, there is still a Holy Temple." Someone laughed.
Everyone burst into laughter.
Zong Weixiong pondered for a long time, stood up and paid the bill, then glanced around the teahouse and found that the student was still there, but the young man had disappeared. He frowned slightly, but could not remember what the young man looked like, so he no longer cared and left the teahouse.
Not long after, the boy left the teahouse. Before he reached home, he saw his wife looking around at the door. When she saw him, she excitedly ran towards him with her skirt lifted up.
Tongsheng looked at his wife lovingly and said, "Wait a minute, what good news made you smile like this?"
"A high-ranking official came to the county and said that Ning'an County will soon be promoted to a prefecture, and the county government is recruiting talents. A village head recommended you, so he gave you a letter of appointment. I can't read, but he read it to me and said that your salary is equivalent to that of a ninth-rank official. If you make meritorious contributions, you can be promoted, and it won't delay your imperial examination. This is a great joy!"
"Really? Let me take a look at the county documents." The student hurriedly took the county documents and read them carefully.
The neighbors not far away looked at the student with envy, knowing that this usually inconspicuous student had a promising future.
Zong Weixiong continued to inspect Ning'an County. The more he learned about the current situation, the more complicated he felt.
In his opinion before, even though Fang Yun had achievements in many aspects, he could not be an all-rounder. What was on the list or publicized by Jingguo was nothing more than something to show off. There must be many dark secrets in the darkest places of Jingguo.
However, after several days of investigation, Chong Weixiong discovered that the policies issued by Fang Yun might be controversial, might not have had good results, and might even have had some negative effects in the short term, but if viewed from a long-term and developmental perspective, all of Fang Yun's policies were very correct.
Zong Weixiong even carefully deduced Fang Yun's reforms and decrees, and found that everything was almost perfect, almost completely transforming Jingguo. And everything in Ning'an City also proved that Fang Yun's reforms were feasible.
"Is the old ritual more important, or is the innovation that benefits the human race more important?"
Zong Weixiong thought for a long time, and suddenly remembered Fang Yun’s previous retro etiquette. He was stunned for a long time and sweated profusely.
"Did he foresee what would happen today when he was revering etiquette and restoring the past?"
Zong Weixiong let out a long sigh. He never expected that Fang Yun had set up a huge trap so early.
A scholar may not have a conscience, but a scholar with a conscience cannot go against his conscience.
When Zong Weixiong was in the Li Hall, he took it as his responsibility to be fair and uphold etiquette. As he got to know Fang Yun and Ning An more deeply, he gradually felt that Fang Yun's reforms not only did not violate etiquette, but were of great benefit to the human race.
However, this was not the result that Lidian wanted.
Therefore, Zong Weixiong wavered between his conscience and the rites of the palace, and finally remembered Fang Yun's respect for rites and restoration of the past. Suddenly, he discovered that Fang Yun pretended to respect rites and restoration of the past and prohibited the indiscriminate restoration of the past, but in fact he had established an indestructible monument.
Chong Weixiong previously believed that Fang Yun's chaotic restoration of ancient rituals was wrong and was playing nonsense, and agreed with Fang Yun's subsequent ban on chaotic restoration of ancient rituals. So, his current situation is actually subtly similar to that of Fang Yun at that time.
To support the Hall of Rites is to disrupt ancient rituals, and to support conscience is to face up to ancient rituals.
If there were no Fang Yun's activities to honor rituals and restore the past, Zong Weixiong could have chosen to support the Li Temple. At most, he would feel guilty, but he could alleviate that guilt by doing some good deeds and reading more scriptures of the saints in the future.
However, the movement to respect rituals and restore the past has left a deep imprint in Zong Weixiong's cognition. If he now supports the Lidian's punishment of Fang Yun, it would be tantamount to going against his conscience and what he has learned. At the very least, his literary courage will be tarnished, and at worst, his literary courage will be broken.
"This Fang Xusheng is really making trouble for me..." Zong Weixiong could only smile bitterly, there was nothing he could do.
After a long time, Zong Weixiong regained his spirit, took a deep breath, and said slowly: "Forget it, whether there is Fang Xusheng or not, as a scholar, we should stick to our conscience and not go against our heart."
Afterwards, Chong Weixiong wrote down what he had seen and heard during those days, and truthfully wrote down his thoughts, and submitted it to the Ceremony Hall.
At about the same time, officials from the Palace of Rites sent to various places in Jing State submitted their inspection documents one after another.
After receiving all the documents in the Rites Hall, some ministers were furious.
A few officials in the Hall of Rites reported their summaries truthfully, and almost all of them praised Fang Yun.
There were also many officials who reported from a very neutral standpoint. Although they summarized Fang Yun’s inappropriate behavior, none of it could be considered a crime or even a fault, and it seemed like they were helping Fang Yun.
Only a very small number of officials in the Hall of Rites harbored evil intentions and found fault with everything. In the end, they even concluded that Fang Yun was unforgivable and guilty of heinous crimes. If Fang Yun was not killed, the human race would inevitably suffer a devastating disaster.
The inspection results of the officials in the Hall of Rites account for at least 30% of the decision-making of the cabinet ministers!
The Li Hall was originally planning to punish Fang Yun with great fanfare and even conduct a strict investigation, but now this is the result, and it has all become a joke.
Although those ministers were angry, they did not lose their minds. They also knew that many of Fang Yun's practices were correct. However, in order to protect the Confucian doctrine and the dignity of the Hall of Rites, they had to do this and they had to curb the Hall of Punishment.
Just when the Li Hall was hesitating, the Wenxin Academy, which was composed of eclectic scholars, announced that in view of the fact that many eclectic disciples of Jing State believed in Legalism and violated the sacred doctrine of eclecticism, from now on, Wenxin Academy would terminate all cooperation with eclectic scholars of Jing State.
At the same time, the Academy of Literature and Letters announced that it would send officials from the Miscellaneous School to Jing State for investigation. If it was found that the officials from the Miscellaneous School had betrayed the Holy Way, they would use the Miscellaneous School’s Holy Way treasures to expel them from the Miscellaneous School!
One stone can cause a thousand ripples!