Chapter 48: Xiaotao's Thoughts

  The housekeeper started to get tough, but just as he was about to shout, the servants didn't dare to take severe measures. Fang Xuanling saw it and his face looked very bad, snatched the small stick away, coldly shouted, "Take a hundred strokes yourself."

  The housekeeper's face suddenly turned sour, but he didn't dare to object. He hastily bowed and said, "Yes, sir." After that, he returned to the Fang residence to accept his punishment. As for running away, even if he had a hundred guts, he wouldn't have dared.

  Fang Xuanling gave Fang Yiai a look of "iron that cannot be made into steel", and then fiercely spanked Fang Yiai's buttocks.

  With a "slap" sound, Fang Yiai's buttocks instantly turned red, and an "ah" cry of pain immediately came out of Fang Yiai's mouth.

  "Bang, bang, bang." Fang Xuanling slapped Fang Yiai repeatedly, not showing any signs of age, the heavy and ruthless slaps causing the gathered crowd to quiet down as they watched Fang Xuanling punish Fang Yiai.

  Until Fang Xuanling had flogged Fang Yiai eighty times, Fang Yiai's buttocks were a mess of blood and flesh, which shows how ruthless Fang Xuanling was in his flogging. Fang Er was also flogged until he lost consciousness.

  Fang Xuanling's face didn't change color, he casually threw away the small stick, and bowed to the gathered common people, "I will request His Majesty to remove the rebellious son from office, banish him for three months, are you all satisfied?"

  The onlookers were already 80% appeased when Fang Yuan was knocked unconscious, and now that they heard Fang Xuanling say this, how could they not be satisfied?

  It was because of anger, plus some instigators, but now that I've calmed down, who would still want to stay here? With a few barely audible "satisfied" voices falling to the ground, the people quietly left in groups of three or five. Before long, they had all dispersed without a trace.

  "Hmm." Fang Xuanling let out a deep breath and said, "Go, find Lang Zhong."

  Jia Ding personally led the way, hastily rushing to find Lang Zhong to treat Fang Yu's injuries. Meanwhile, Fang Xuanling rode a carriage to hurry to the imperial palace. The gathered crowd was large and small, and naturally, Fang Xuanling did not dare to conceal anything.

  "Qin Gongzi?" Fang Xuanling sat in the carriage with a furrowed brow, deep in thought. "Could it be that Qin Yunfei?"

  The palace, after House Xuanling met with Li Shimin, he told the whole story from beginning to end. After listening to House Xuanling's narration, Li Shimin's face was very strange, and he asked after a moment, "Isn't this Qin Gongzi that Qin Yunfei?"

  "I humbly report to Your Majesty, I had some doubts previously, but now it seems that Qin Yunfei is indeed the one. House Xuanling said, looking at the books on Li Shimin's desk, only to see the three words 'Qin Yunfei' printed on them."

  Li Shimin fell silent for a moment before speaking up, "Since you have already been punished, let's consider the matter closed."

  "Your Majesty, the rebellious son's behavior is not upright and he does not deserve to be an official. Please dismiss him from his position." Fang Xuanling bowed down and said, without any intention of pleading for Fang Yu's love.

  Li Shimin saw Fang Xuanling insist, sighed, nodded and said, "So, first remove the official position of Yu Ai, wait for his injury to heal, observe his words and deeds, and then make a final judgment."

  "Thank you, Your Majesty." Fang Xuanling bowed and said.

  Fang Xuanling took a deep breath on his way home, with a faint smile on his face. It can be seen that Fang Xuanling was not really unwilling to have no official position for Fang Yai, but rather retreated in order to advance, calming down the gathering of people, pleasing Li Shimin, and also seeking a future path for Fang Yai.

  The villagers of Zhangjiacun saw their children, of course, this is only a part of it. Seeing the children eating well and drinking well, one by one plump and white, the villagers of Zhangjiacun all showed happy smiles.

  However, the children were no longer very happy. After all, the villagers were punished by Fang Yu'e and beaten severely, so it would be strange if the children could still be happy.

  Qin Yu settled the villagers of Zhangjia Village and then brought Xiaotao back to the backyard, asking about the affairs of Yongnian County.

  Xiao Tao carefully recounted the events on that side, and Qin Yu nodded, stroking Xiao Tao's little head, saying softly, "Good job, Xiao Tao."

  Xiao Tao's eyes were filled with excited tears, and she choked out the words, "Young master, it's not hard work, for young master, no matter how bitter or tired I am, it's all worth it."

  "Young master doesn't want you to exhaust yourself, huh. After returning, you can teach the villagers to read and write, so you can also take it easy." Qin Yu said with a smile.

  "Yes, young master." Little Peach smiled sweetly.

  "Alright, you go rest for a bit, I'll take a look at these books." Qin Yu said, casually picking up a book and preparing to read. At this time, Little Peach looked at Qin Yu with some hesitation, paused for a moment, then opened her mouth and said, "Young Master, Xiao Hong, Xiao Hong..."

  Qin Yu put down the book in his hand and looked at Xiaotao with a puzzled expression, asking, "What's wrong with Little Red?"

  Xiao Tao hesitated for a while, refusing to speak. Qin Yu furrowed his brow, just about to ask again when Xiao Tao finally spoke up, "Young Master, please don't punish Xiao Hong, okay?"

  Qin Yu was taken aback after hearing this and asked, "Punishment? Why punish her?"

  Xiao Tao organized her words and then spoke, "Young master, among the refugees, there is a young man who has a good relationship with Xiao Hong. Xiao Hong also treats him well, but...but Xiao Hong shouldn't have privately arranged her own marriage."

  Qin Yu shook his head with a mixture of laughter and tears, saying, "What's going on here? This is a good thing, why punish her? When she gets married, Master will prepare a thick dowry for her, and she'll marry off in style."

  Xiao Tao let out a long sigh after hearing Qin Yu's promise, and then Qin Yu continued to say, "You are the same, when you get married, Young Master will also prepare a thick dowry for you, guaranteed not to treat you unfairly."

  "No." Xiaotao suddenly said loudly, her emotions quite agitated. However, she quickly realized that this wasn't right and hastily lowered her head. Qin Yu looked at Xiaotao in puzzlement, unsure why she was reacting so strongly. Just then, Xiaotao spoke up softly.

  "Little Peach won't marry anyone, Little Peach will serve Young Master for the rest of her life." After saying that, she blushed and ran out with a red face.

  "Hmm." Qin Yu was stunned for a moment, looking at the departing Xiaotao's back, rubbing his chin and muttering to himself, "It's been a while since we last met, this little girl seems to have developed quite quickly."

  Qin Yu smiled and picked up the book that Lu Ziyuan had sent to Zhangjiacun for printing, and began to add punctuation marks to make the content more concise and clear, so as not to be misread or misunderstood.

  This is a troublesome and tedious task, it can't be completed in less than ten days or half a month. As for asking others to do the marking, Qin Yu had thought about it, but once he did, nine out of ten times, many versions would come out with vastly different meanings, which Qin Yu was unwilling to do.

  As for being ridiculed and misinterpreted by others, Qin Yu had thought about it before. The previous few books were not many in number and did not attract much attention, but once the number of books increased, it was inevitable that some readers would jump out to make trouble, especially those who understood things differently from Qin Yu.

  As for this, Qin Yu had also made preparations and added a page of explanation to each printed book: "A family's words, can be read or not."

  This way, those excited bookworms who wanted to find fault with Qin Yu couldn't do so anymore. It was all said in advance, if you still look for trouble, then that's a problem with your character. You don't agree? Fine, go print the books yourself.

  Of course, Qin Yu has more than one way to deal with those who provoke him.

  The Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Essay began to exert their influence, as time passed, a new generation of readers would emerge, these people naturally chose books annotated with punctuation marks by Qin Yu, this is the subtle influence.

  As time goes on, more and more people will stand up to charge forward with Qin Yu, debating with those who attack Qin Yu. Wen Wu is the first, no one will admit defeat, arguing until their faces are red and their necks are thick, this is what scholars are like.

  Of course, being picked on is the worst plan Qin Yu had made. To avoid this situation, Qin Yu also prepared to print some books without punctuation marks. At that time, you can read whichever one you like, and Qin Yu will be too lazy to care.

  To get back to the topic, gaining a reputation among book lovers isn't an easy task. Now that there are fewer books, people have high praise for Qin Yu, but once there are more books, opinions will differ and naturally, there will be more critics, however, Qin Yu is very confident about this.

  It's simple, the ordinary people who watch from the sidelines are the source of Qin Yu's confidence. When more and more people in the Tang Dynasty can read and write, Qin Yu's reputation will be like a vast ocean, and no one will dare to provoke him easily. Anyone who dares to attack Qin Yu will inevitably be drowned by others' saliva.

  Qin Yu read for a while and soon found his inspiration. He nodded slightly and instructed, "Grind the ink."

  The maid guarding the door hurried into the house to grind ink for Qin Yu.

  Qin Yu picked up his pen, dipped it in ink, and began to annotate the book with punctuation marks. He didn't stop until dusk, when he finally put down his pen, stretched his waist, and let out a long sigh. "Go tell Big Niu that we're having roasted suckling pig for dinner tonight, and ask him to clean it up a bit."

  "Yes, young master." The maid left and went to the kitchen to pass on Qin Yu's instructions.

  Qin Yu got out of bed, stretched his waist, pounded his numb legs, did a few chest-expanding exercises, and then couldn't help but laugh, "It's really exhausting."

  At this moment, the desk and chair were not yet ready, Qin Yu was annotating books on the kang table, which was not tiring at all.

  At this time, a maid came to report, "Young master, the carpenters have made a table and a chair. They want you to take a look and see if there's anything that needs to be changed."

  "Huh? Alright? It's quite fast, let's go take a look." Qin Yu said, and then headed towards the front yard where the carpenters were working. As soon as they returned, they immediately started work, and continued to do so until nightfall, even lighting lanterns to keep going.

  Qin Yu arrived at the front yard, looked through the lanterns at the finished purple-black table and chairs, turned around a few times, nodded his head in satisfaction, "Not bad, very good."

  The carpenters heard Qin Yu's words and let out a sigh of relief, one by one revealing their smiling faces. Being able to get Qin Yu's approval, how could they not be delighted?

  The table and chairs made of purple sandalwood, polished by the carpenters to be extremely smooth, were a deep purple color and emitted a faint scent of sandalwood that calmed one's mood. Qin Yu immediately ordered his servants to move the furniture into his own room.

  Looking at the purple sandalwood table and chairs in the house, Qin Yu smiled and said, "This is a real table, this is a real chair!" After finishing speaking, he sat down and stroked the smooth surface of the purple sandalwood table, feeling pretty good. Qin Yu nodded his head in satisfaction.