"Killing evil is doing good." Fang Yun said.
The county magistrate said, "No evidence! Xiang Wenxuan only had evil intentions towards Yang Yuhuan, but he didn't actually kill her. What you did was murder!"
"By the time he takes action, it will be too late." Fang Yun said.
The county magistrate slammed the gavel again and asked, "Do you admit your guilt?"
"According to the laws of Jingguo, I have committed the crime of murder, so I am aware of the crime."
"Then you are ashamed."
“No shame.”
"How dare you!" the county magistrate shouted.
Fang Yun looked at the county magistrate calmly without saying a word.
"If everyone is as bold as you, where is the law?"
"At least there will be fewer bastards who steal other people's wives and daughters."
"Come here, take him to jail and wait for the case to be investigated!"
Fang Yun was handcuffed and shackled and taken into a dark prison.
No one came to ask for several days, but on the third day, the prison head Pang Bantou suddenly came with good wine and food, loosened Fang Yun's handcuffs and shackles, and placed tables and chairs in Fang Yun's cell.
"Mr. Fang, I hope you can forgive me for not taking good care of you these days. But I haven't done anything wrong to you. I'm just doing my duty. Please don't blame me." Pang Bantou asked with a smile.
Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, "I don't understand what Pang Bantou means."
Pang Bantou coughed lightly and said, "The child bride in your family is not a simple person. She is from the Yang family, a wealthy family in Beijing. The old patriarch is a great scholar. It is said that the Xiang family has completely collapsed, and someone will come to take you out soon."
Fang Yun looked at Pang Bantou in disbelief. After a long while, he suppressed his excitement and said, "We can't make a conclusion until the last moment."
Two days later, a document came from the court, in which the great scholar of the Yang family used the military merits of the Holy Academy to reduce Fang Yun's sentence and sentenced him to three years of hard labor.
Three years later, Fang Yun and Yang Yuhuan went to the capital to get married.
Five years later, Fang Yun and his wife returned to Ji County with their two-year-old son, and Fang's Company was established.
Another year, Fang Yun was traveling in Ji County and found a crow standing in front of a stone cave in Jiling Mountain and refusing to leave. Curious, Fang Yun went into the cave and found an ownerless treasure, including various cultural relics and magical objects, worth tens of millions of taels of silver.
In the year 216 of the new calendar, Fang Yun was 30 years old and became a famous businessman in Jing State.
During these years, Fang Yun encountered many things. Even though he was not a scholar, he still read every day, used the standards of a scholar to strictly demand himself, and exercised self-discipline and self-respect.
In the autumn of the 226th year of the new calendar, Fang Yun was reading in his study.
"Father! Please, save my child!" Fang Yun's son Fang Zhixue suddenly broke into the study, knelt on the ground, hugged Fang Yun's legs and cried.
"Why are you so panicked?" The mature Fang Yun looked down at his son, his expression not changing at all.
Fang Zhixue said with tears in his eyes: "I... I accidentally burned down the Liu family's house in Dongmen. All three of them died in it. Now the county government is probably looking for me. I hope my father can save me!"
Fang Yun lowered his eyelids. The veins on his hand holding the scroll bulged. After a long while, he said, "You just came from your mother's place?"
Fang Zhixue lowered his head, nodded, and said, "My mother just cried. She said she couldn't help me and asked me to come to you."
"Oh? Did you really get burned by mistake?" Fang Yun sat on the armchair and looked down at his son kneeling below.
"Yes, father! The Liu couple slandered me. I was so angry that I wanted to set fire to scare them, but I accidentally burned them to death."
"Well, then you go with me to the county government office." Fang Yun stood up and said.
"Ah? People from the county government are looking for me." Fang Zhixue said.
Fang Yun scolded: "How can a scholar be so timid? I have been friends with Magistrate Ji for many years. I will go and plead for you and get you off the hook!"
"Thank you, father! Thank you, father!" Fang Zhixue burst into tears.
The two of them took a carriage to the county government office. Fang Yun walked in, and County Magistrate Ji came out quickly to greet him. He said with a smile, "Brother Fang, I am very grateful for your visit. Please don't be offended if I fail to welcome you from afar."
Fang Yunchong clasped his fists towards Magistrate Ji and said, "My son Zhixue has committed a heinous crime. Although I am not a scholar, I will not protect him. Magistrate Ji, please try this case impartially. If my son killed the three members of the Liu family, he must pay with his life!"
"You lied to me!" Fang Zhixue turned and ran away.
Fang Yun said calmly, "Please ask Magistrate Ji to arrest the suspect and bring him to justice."
"I'm sorry." County Magistrate Ji said this and stopped Fang Zhixue with a sharp tongue.
Fang Zhixue fell to his knees and cried out, "Father! Father! Save me, save me! All you have to do is write a letter and ask my great-grandfather, the great scholar, to come forward and commute my death sentence, just like he did back then. Father, I am your son."
"I killed those who deserved to be killed back then, and I will never let anyone who deserves to die live today! Thank you for your help, Magistrate Ji." Fang Yun bowed to Magistrate Ji and left expressionlessly.
"Father, father..." Fang Zhixue shouted.
Fang Yun got on the bus without looking back. After entering the car, he seemed to be blinded by the sand and wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeves.
Three days later, the case was concluded. Fang Zhixue, the son of Fang Yun, failed to rob a woman from a decent family and forced three people to death. Magistrate Ji sentenced Fang Zhixue to death according to the law.
Fang Yun personally went to the victim's parents' home to apologize, buried the family of three with great honor, and was responsible for supporting the two elderly people. He did not resist despite being insulted by everyone.
In the 228th year of the new calendar, Fang Yun opened a clan school, and all the children of the Fang family in Dayuan Prefecture could study in the clan school.
In the year 232 of the new calendar, Fang's academy spread throughout Jiangzhou and became the academy with the lowest tuition among all the academies in Jiangzhou, even covering all expenses for outstanding students.
In the year 245 of the new calendar, the head of the Yang family committed treason, and the great scholar of the Yang family had passed away, and all members of the Yang family were imprisoned.
Fang Yun ignored all suspicion and spent all his family wealth to run around to rescue the elderly, children, women and children of the Yang family.
In the spring of the 248th year of the new calendar, the Yang family's political enemy, the Ai family, asked Fang Yun to sever ties with the Yang family. Fang Yun said that he could draw a clear line with the head of the Yang family, but would never sever ties with the Yang family.
The next year, Fang Yun was falsely accused of colluding with the head of the Yang family and was arrested and imprisoned. Because there were rumors that Fang Yun would be executed, Yang Yuhuan hanged herself to death.
In the 256th year of the new calendar, Fang Yun was 71 years old. The case of the great scholar of the Yang family was rehabilitated. It turned out to be a vicious plot by the traitorous literati, and Fang Yun was released.
After being released from prison, Fang Yun secretly operated for ten years. At the age of 81, he made the evidence of the Ai family's crimes public and destroyed the Ai family in order to avenge the death of his beloved wife Yang Yuhuan and the seven years in prison.
The Fang family gained great prestige and became one of the richest families in Qing State, with many children and grandchildren and old friends all over the world.
On his 82nd birthday, Fang Yun obtained a 20-year-old longevity fruit. He was about to take it in front of his children, grandchildren and guests when the doorman announced that someone was visiting, claiming to be an old friend from Jiling Mountain.
Fang Yun, who was old and frail, immediately sat up and went out to greet him. He saw an old man in black with white hair and beard. The old man in black was tall and had clear eyes, which seemed to have a hint of hatred.
The old man in black smiled slightly, hiding the hatred in his eyes, and said: "You have stolen my Jiling Mountain treasures for many days, are you willing to return them today?"
Fang Yun was stunned, then burst into laughter and said, "You can take all the countless wealth of my Fang family, but you can't take away my reputation, nor the thousands of students trained by Fang's Academy. You can't take away the longevity tablets set up for me by hundreds of thousands of families in Jing Country. This longevity fruit can also be yours." After saying that, he threw the longevity fruit to the old man in black and returned to the bedroom with a smile.
That night, the 82-year-old Fang Yun closed his eyes and passed away.
Fang Yun opened his eyes blankly and found himself standing on a green meadow with blue sky and white clouds in the distance.
Fang Yun felt a slight headache and was filled with doubts. He had just entered the light gate of the seventh mountain, but it seemed like a lifetime had passed. His heart was empty, as if he had lost something.
Fang Yun felt the corners of his eyes were wet and hot. He reached out to wipe them, but there was nothing. Only then did he realize that he was only thinking and his body had not entered the mountain of books.
A strange voice suddenly sounded.
"Stupid scholar, stupid scholar, not even a scholar, but you are still so stubborn! I wanted to take your wife from Xiang Wenxuan. If you didn't move, you would regret it for the rest of your life. If you moved, you should feel guilty. I never thought you didn't. I used the treasure as a trap to make your life glorious, and finally took your wealth. If you didn't give it up, you would be greedy. If you couldn't give it up, you would be infatuated. But you actually gave it up. I used your son as bait. If you protect him, you are immoral. If you don't protect him, you will be indecisive. But you gave up the idea with a few tears. As for saving the people of the Yang family, you still didn't change your original intention. This kind of stubborn scholar is annoying!"
Fang Yun listened to the voice and vaguely guessed a possibility. He smiled away all the doubts and inexplicable reluctance in his heart.
"This matter is not over yet, I will come looking for you again! It's strange, this Saint can obviously arouse the deepest fear and reluctance in people's hearts, but why can't I make you surrender? Strange! Strange! Strange!"
Fang Yun's vision shattered, and then he found himself still standing on the seventh mountain.
"You can actually pass the seventh mountain?" Old Man Shushan appeared, with some curiosity in his eyes.
Fang Yun smiled and said, "Maybe it's just luck. I don't even know what's on the test in the mountain of books. It's probably some illusion."
"The Seventh Mountain is not an illusion, it's a mountain of books." The old man in the Book Mountain looked melancholy.
"Oh?" Fang Yun said.
"The last time you entered Shushan, you didn't forget the experience. Today is different. It doesn't matter if you tell me." The old man from Shushan kicked the ground with his foot, and the ground cracked.
Fang Yun looked down and saw that the cracks were full of books, some new, some old, some thin, some thick. A foul smell emanated from the books, and some of them even had signs of being eaten by insects.
Fang Yun couldn't help but frowned, took a step back, and said, "Are all nine book mountains like this?"
"No, only the Seventh Mountain is it." said the old man Shushan.
Fang Yun said: "I just heard someone inside say that he will come to me again in the future. Can he really do it?"
The old man Shushan smiled and said, "Every great scholar hates him to the core. Li Wenying went to the Holy Academy just to deal with him. You must be careful in the future. I'm afraid that when you become a great scholar, he will come looking for you."
"What is that?"
"It cannot be said." Old Man Shushan shook his head.
Fang Yun stopped asking questions and looked towards the eighth mountain.
There was nothing between the Seventh Mountain and the Eighth Mountain. There was no rope bridge, no passage, only the strange wind that had turned into substance.
"How do we get to the eighth mountain?" Fang Yun asked.
"You can walk when you can." Old Man Shushan disappeared.
Fang Yun walked to the edge of the seventh mountain, and after a brief exploration, he realized that without a literary talent who had reached the second level of perfection, it would be impossible to resist the strange wind between the two mountains. (To be continued...)