"Really? He is no longer a scholar. He became a juren in a place called Shengxu. I was stunned when I heard that. A juren in Shengxu, he can be said to be a disciple of Confucius!"
"You are not lying to me, are you?" Old man Zhang rushed out and tried to snatch Xiao Shao's "Wen Bao".
Xiao Shao hesitated for a moment and handed the "Wen Bao" to Old Man Zhang.
When Old Man Zhang opened the newspaper, he was immediately shocked by the headline on the front page.
“A bounty of 100 bloods, Fang Yun is on the list of hunting masters!” “Fang Yun becomes a pre-saint!” “Fang Yun’s writings overwhelm the Qing Kingdom!”…
Old man Zhang often buys Wen Bao, but this is the first time he has seen such a thing on the front page.
Afterwards, Old Man Zhang carefully watched Fang Yunwen's fight against Yizhou. He became happier and happier, and finally he couldn't help grinning.
"Good! Good! You have guts! Well done! When I saw Fang Yun before, I said he was a dragon among men. I didn't expect that I was right!"
Xiao Shao curled his lips and said, "Uncle Zhang, when Master Fang came to Yuhai City, he was already a scholar before the emperor and a dragon among men, so you don't need to tell me."
"Haha, that's true, that's true... Alas, you are really stupid, why don't you buy a few more copies of Wen Bao? I have to watch the fruit stall, so I can't buy anything even if I want to. I can only buy it in the evening!" Old man Zhang complained.
"I really want to buy more copies! But as soon as I bought one, I was pushed away. The person behind me didn't even give me a chance to buy a second copy. Didn't you see the people selling Wen Bao? They were so busy."
"That's true. More people buy Wen Bao than Sheng Dao. I always read Wen Bao, but not Sheng Dao. I only read the poems in it occasionally. But as long as there are poems by Mr. Fang in it, I will definitely buy it."
"There will definitely be Mr. Fang's poems next month."
"Of course! We are all so close, and this one word will be known to the world. It will definitely be published in the Holy Way! You go and do your work. I will try to find someone to bring back a copy of the Wen Bao for me." said Old Man Zhang.
"Then I'll leave." Xiao Shao left happily.
Old man Zhang looked at the fruit stand with a frown on his face. Then he looked up in the direction of the temple, and then looked at the fruit stand again. He looked back and forth several times, and finally decided that making money was more important.
"It's not too late to buy it in the evening. It's not like we can't buy it." After saying this, Old Man Zhang continued to look at the fruit stall.
However, whenever he met someone he knew going to the Wenyuan, he would ask them if they were going to buy the Wenbao, and if they did, he would bring a copy for them. It was not until he asked the seventh person that Old Man Zhang got what he wanted. He generously handed the other person two oranges.
Old man Zhang no longer had the heart to sell things, and he no longer shouted and chatted with people approaching like he used to. Instead, he kept looking in the direction of the Academy of Literature, hoping to see Fang Yun's literary competition again.
A quarter of an hour later, Old Man Zhang let out a sigh and saw hundreds of people coming from the direction of the Academy of Literature, most of them carrying things in their hands, including vegetables, cloth, chickens, ducks, fruits, and the four treasures of the study.
Those people were of all kinds. There were old people, children, women, and scholars. Some were dressed in brocade, some in coarse cloth, all kinds of things. It was as if everyone on the same street went out shopping together and came back together.
Old man Zhang was puzzled and wondered in his heart, these people didn't look like they were shopping together, but rather like they were visiting relatives together. But it was too strange for hundreds of people to visit relatives together.
Seeing those people coming together, Old Man Zhang was a little wary, but he soon relaxed because most of these people were in high spirits. Some of them had red eyes, as if they had just cried, and they didn't look like they were going to cause trouble.
When those people came to the fruit stall, Old Man Zhang opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, repeating it several times. His desire to make money finally prevailed, and he whispered, "Fruit for sale! Big, sweet pears, big, sweet apples, big, sweet... You shouted the wrong thing."
Old man Zhang found that several people were looking at him. His face turned red and he said shamelessly: "I'm selling fruit! Fresh and delicious fruit, a must-have for visiting relatives and friends! It's not good to carry vegetables..." Old man Zhang looked at the women carrying vegetables with a guilty conscience.
Some of them had nothing with them and came over immediately.
"Give me a pound of oranges."
"Give me two pounds of pears!"
Old man Zhang was delighted, thinking he had met some fools. These people were not dressed well, and they didn't even ask the price but just told him the weight. They were obviously fat sheep, and he usually liked people like this who didn't know how to buy things.
"Everyone, please line up and wait. Come one by one. There are a lot of things. Weigh them slowly. The portions are sufficient!" Old man Zhang immediately began to weigh oranges for the first customer, with the scale bar tilted high. Old man Zhang has his own persistence. Although he sells fruits as gifts at a high price, the portions are sufficient. People have always said that he is expensive, but no one has ever said that he is shortchanging them.
After weighing a pound of oranges, Old Man Zhang put them into a gorgeous paper bag, handed it to the man, and said, "Thank you for your patronage. Ten cents."
The man was stunned for a moment, but said nothing. He silently took out some copper coins from his pocket, counted out ten coins and handed them over.
When Old Man Zhang saw the copper coin, he frowned slightly. It was badly damaged and the man's hands were a little dirty with many scars on them. But he said nothing. He just smiled and said thank you, then continued to weigh pears for the second person.
The second person received the same amount of money, which was twice the market price.
Then, Old Man Zhang weighed two kilograms of apples, packed them and handed them to the third customer, saying casually, "Here, Chenghui, twelve cents. Where are you going?"
The middle-aged man in coarse cloth smiled naively and said, "I heard this morning that Fang Zhenguo was better than Qingguo in literature. I was very happy. He finally helped our Jingguo to fight for his country. It was so satisfying! I thought I should do something at that time. I happened to hear that some scholars said they knew where Fang Zhenguo lived and were going to send him a thank-you gift, so I followed him. My family is poor and we have nothing. I don't know what to buy on the way. Now we are almost there. I can't go to see Fang Zhenguo empty-handed, so I bought it from you. This is twelve coins."
Old man Zhang was stunned, his hand suspended in the air, watching the twelve cents fall into his hand. Somehow, he felt that these twelve cents were heavier than a mountain, pressing him to the point that he could hardly breathe.
Old man Zhang looked at the middle-aged man again. There were several puddings on his clothes, and his cloth shoes were worn out and stained with mud. The man's skin was very rough, and the wrinkles on his forehead and the premature white hair at his temples showed that he was a middle-aged man who was burdened with a heavy life.
Old man Zhang felt a pang in his heart and wanted to slap himself. He thought that those who came here to buy his fruits as gifts in the past were at least relatively wealthy people, and there had never been poor people. But these people came to buy things without even asking the price, which was obviously unusual. He actually ignored it because he was only thinking about making money.
"Thank you." The middle-aged man turned and left.
"Wait!" Old man Zhang kept the three coins in his hand and forced the other nine coins onto the middle-aged man. "There is a rule in my stall. Fruits delivered to Mr. Fang Yun are sold at cost price. I don't make a penny! I didn't know you were buying for Mr. Fang before. I'm sorry! Don't refuse. This is a rule. I can't break the rules when doing business! Those who buy oranges and pears, you two, wait."
Old man Zhang grabbed a handful of dirty copper coins, ran towards the two men, and forced the extra money into their pockets, effectively charging them only the cost price.
After giving the money away, Old Man Zhang ran back with light steps, smiling all the way, as if he had pushed away the mountain that was pressing on his heart.
The middle-aged man didn't say anything, but just gave a thumbs up with sincere gratitude and respect in his eyes.
Old man Zhang felt more and more relieved, and he simply opened his voice and shouted: "Selling fruit! Anyone who gives gifts to Master Fang Yun will sell it at cost price! Not making a penny! Anyone who makes money like this will be struck by lightning!"
"Good job, old man!" a young man shouted.
"Look, this is our Jing people, they have straight spines and hard bones!" said a big man.
“There are still many good people in the world!”
"I'll have two pounds of oranges, too."
Old man Zhang straightened his back involuntarily, looking even younger.
These few hundred people were just the beginning. Later on, more and more people came, some carrying things or empty-handed. Many people asked along the way. Some people didn't know how far they had gone or how many people they had asked before they got here.
Many people come to Old Man Zhang to sell things, and he is very happy with his sales. This is the first time in his life that he is very happy selling things even though he is not making any money.
The fruit on the stall was decreasing at a very fast rate, and soon there were only a dozen apples left, but there were still many people queuing up.
"We don't have much left. Each person can buy at most four. No, four Geely apples, at most three." Old man Zhang said as he weighed the apples.
Seeing that there were only five apples left, Old Man Zhang was about to weigh them all, but he suddenly froze for a moment, put down the scale, gave the last young man an apologetic smile, and said, "I'm sorry, I won't sell these apples."
"Ah? What's wrong? I'll give you money. I'll give you double the money!" The young man was anxious.
Old man Zhang smiled, holding the paper bag in his hand, and said, "I haven't given Mr. Fang a gift yet. This is my share."
The young man's expression softened, he nodded, and began to look around for a place to sell things.
Old man Zhang packed five apples, packed up the wheelbarrow, and pushed it towards Fang Yun's house.
When he got closer, Old Man Zhang saw Fang Daniu and the doorman at the door constantly apologizing to everyone with their fists clasped while speaking in low voices.
"I'm sorry, everyone. Our master just came back from Kongcheng and is sleeping. He can't see you. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!"
"The master is too tired, and we don't have the heart to call him. I'm sorry, everyone!"
An old man also said in a low voice: "You don't have to be polite. We don't have to see him. We have come here and presented gifts. Just let him know our intentions. No matter how the treacherous officials in the court treat him, we, the people of Jing, are of the same mind as Fang Yun!"
An old woman was carrying a small bundle and said, "I thought so too. This is the steamed bun I made. I'm not asking him to eat it, but I wanted to send it to him so that he can see that the people of Yuhai City are thinking about him!"
"When Qingguo invited the river monster to harm people, my father was killed. This is the basket I wove myself. I give it to Fang Zhenguo to thank him for avenging me! I won't bother him anymore." The young man in his early twenties put down the basket woven with rattan and turned to leave.
Old man Zhang sighed softly, revealed a comfortable smile, then lowered his head and wiped the corners of his eyes. (To be continued...)