Chapter 44: A Fury That Shatters The Crown

  A burst of rage that makes one's hair stand on end

  After listening to Yao Fan's poem, Huang Jin stood behind the Golden Mountain in silence, savoring the flavor of the words without speaking.

  After listening to Yao Weng's poem, Zhou Xiuzong nodded and praised: "Brother Yao's poem has the heroic spirit of moving mountains and covering the world! Compared with Li Qingzhao's sentence 'Born to be a hero among men, dead also a brave ghost', it is not inferior.

  Yi An's poem is too sad, but Brother Yao's poem is majestic. Even compared to Li Hongzhang's two lines "A man with a single hand holds the Wu hook, three thousand miles away seeking a marquis", it is not inferior! Reading it really makes one's blood hot!

  I'm not aware, brother, where did Yao's phrase "red flag" come from? I think it would be better to change it to "grand vision", which is more suitable and fitting. When the grand vision unfolds, Yao's goods will spread throughout the world, and that's when he'll truly feel carefree and joyful.

  Yao Fan smiled and said: "Brother Zhou, your revision is good. Indeed, poetry is all about refinement."

  Yao Wenyuan would naturally not go and change the Red Flag into a grand blueprint. In this chaotic world, an individual's grand blueprint is inferior to the revolutionary red flag in the hands of the masses by ten million eight thousand li.

  Guo Jixiu suddenly looked gloomy, his nose wrinkled in disdain, and said: "The great Qing dynasty is the imperial family's, the Eight Banners take yellow as the most honorable, the emperor is also of the Plain Yellow Banner, naturally the universe takes yellow as noble, but you, Yao Feng, want to spread red everywhere, truly a madman without any sense of ministerial etiquette!"

  Yao Fang didn't get angry, and smiled: "Hong Manzi is delighted, red is the only good color. China has always used red to represent auspiciousness and celebration, representing spring and beautiful things; red sleeves, red apricot blossoms, red maple leaves; red wedding dresses, red clouds and misty light, all these are represented by red. The whole world being red, represents a scene of universal joy and harmony, the prosperous trend of the Great Qing dynasty's flourishing fortunes.

  "If it's as Brother Guo said, the whole world would be yellow everywhere. Wouldn't that mean there are people rebelling everywhere? Each and every one of them wearing dragon robes and claiming to be emperors? I think Brother Guo is truly dark-hearted and has been plotting rebellion for a long time. He can be described as having no integrity, lacking humanity. His wild and absurd words are chaotic, with the intention of making the world yellow!"

  Guo Jixiu never thought that he would be counter-attacked by Yao Fan, and instead used his own words to infer rebellion, falsely accusing him of having a dark heart with evil intentions. This is truly adding insult to injury.

  He was good at distorting facts and turning black into white, but no one present was willing to help him, not even with a single word. This made Guo Jixiu so angry that he stood up immediately, refusing to continue the banquet, and it seemed like he was about to explode.

  As expected, Guo Jixiu waved his sleeve and shouted sharply: "You, Yao Fan, you merchant's whelp! You only know how to use your glib tongue to humiliate the literati! I'd rather not sit at the same table with you, lest I lose face as a scholar! As for that broken shoe earlier, I didn't want it anyway, since it fits you so well, take it!"

  Having said that, he immediately bowed his head to Zhou Xiusong: "Brother Xiusong, I'm not talented, goodbye!"

  Yao Feng clenched his fists tightly, his face as cold as a thousand-year-old ice. But if you looked closely, you would see that his eyes were filled with fierce flames, burning fiercely and emitting a sharp, murderous aura. If not for consideration of Zhou Xiusheng's face, Yao Feng would have rushed up to him on the spot and struck him with his old fist.

  At this time, no matter how Zhou Xiusheng persuaded him, Guo Jixiu was already furious - the breath he had endured today had accumulated to the extreme, and now it burst out, where would he be willing to stay.

  Zhou Xiuzong had no choice but to follow Guo Jixiu and see him out the door.

  Yao Feng saw Zhou Xiu Song return with a pale face and knew he must have been scolded by Guo Ji Xiu.

  Yao Fang sneered in his heart, thinking who asked you to come and kiss the cold butt? If you want to be a peacemaker, you must have the identity to calm down the scene.

  Yao Fanyi nodded and said, "Brother Zhou, I still have things to attend to at my store, so I'll take my leave first. Later, He Wannian will probably come to pay his respects again, asking you for a bowl of noodles to eat. At that time, just tell him I've already been here and left early."

  Zhou Xiū-sōng thought that as a man of his standing, things not only hadn't been smoothed over, but had instead blown up even bigger. Truly a loss of face, he could only sigh and escort Yao Fǎn out the door.

  Yao Fan gathered a group of people at the entrance of Zhou's house, pushing his bicycle and bidding farewell to Zhou Xiu Song.

  Zhou Xiuxiang stood outside the gate of Zhoujiazhuang, watching as Yao Feng led his team on bicycles, riding off into the distance. He gazed after them from afar, shaking his head in confusion: "A strange person?... A weird person?... A foreigner?... The heavens are falling and he's holding it up, the world is collapsing and he's propping it up straight...... What a huge ambition......"

  The aluminum alloy handlebars of the mountain bike shone with a strange metallic luster in the sunlight at noon, and the fashionable fluorescent yellow and light green car paint dazzled people's eyes. Whoever saw such a team of bicycles in the space-time of 1875 would suddenly feel a visual impact with violent aesthetics.

  Yao Fan didn't ride far before asking: "Shi Cheng, what direction is Guo Family Village?"

  Beside him on horseback, 28-year-old Nong Yong said: "Go straight south for two miles, there's a fork in the road that turns east, follow it to the end, and about six miles away is..."

  Yao Feng heard this and shouted loudly: "Comrades, stop the car!"

  When Yao Fan ordered the car to stop, the drivers immediately applied the brakes and got out of the cars one by one, standing there looking at Yao Fan, not knowing what he was going to do.

  Yao Feng kicked down the car rack and propped up the car. Seeing that his fellow workers were all staring at him, he walked into their midst with a satisfied expression and said:

  "Friends, you must be wondering why I stopped the car here and want to have a conversation with you."

  I'm telling you this because I know you were just bullied and humiliated from behind.

  In June, the wheat in the surrounding fields had ripened, but each ear was empty and couldn't be filled with milk. Yao Fan didn't know how much his partners had gained from the stories he told every night.

  The wheat ears are swaying in the wind like listeners.

  Yao Fan swept his gaze over everyone, and the bright eyes that shone with understanding were like a gentle breeze in the countryside, blowing away the sultry heat and annoyance from the hearts of his companions.

  "You may think, why would the master care about my grievances? The master sits inside and watches the play, while the apprentice squats outside and waits. This inequality is common sense, and some of you may even think it's heavenly reason."

  "I'm telling you, I understand your grievances. Do you believe me? Do you think there can be understanding between people of unequal status?"

  Li Haoniu said with a serious tone: "I believe it! The master has always had us in his heart! I can see it!"

  "Other people's servants, which one of them has been invited into the garden to watch a play? Only our servant gets to follow the master and gain benefits, entering the theater!"

  He pushed aside the two people standing in front of him with both hands and stood enthusiastically in front of Yao Fang, saying:

  "That's right! We smashed the Zhou family's bowl, but the landlord didn't blame us. The landlord is a living Bodhisattva, knowing what we lower-class people are thinking!"

  Yao Fan heard this and was moved in his heart, saying: "No matter what you thought before, I didn't ask, nor did I explain to you, but now I'm telling you, I care about you very much!

  In my eyes, you guys are my brothers, my left and right arms! If you have a thousand people, I am the Thousand-Handed Guanyin! If you have ten thousand people, I have ten thousand strong arms! If you have a hundred thousand people, I can save all living beings in the world!

  In the future, you will join hands with me and roam the world together.

  "Every day, the sun shines on us with equal warmth, and shines in our bowls with equal food. This is fairness!" Yao Feng exclaimed, unable to help but shout out the two words "fairness".

  Li Haoniu's dark face was sunburned to a deep red, his blood had been boiled by Yao Feng's words, he shouted loudly: "Master, you are good to us! We can see that!"

  Everyone saw that, right? The Zhou family's housekeeper was fined a month's worth of silver, but what about us? We didn't get any punishment! And you still ask Shi Cheng to come and comfort us, telling us not to hold a grudge against the Zhou family.

  "We all know it, Master! You have us in your heart!"

  The workers heard this and nodded enthusiastically, the head of the carpentry team, Li Jun, exclaimed: "Boss treats us well! I can see that boss regards us as his own people! Boss even eats with us in the yard, boss! We understand your heart!"

  Yao Fandao: "Your eyes are bright, your heart is clear, this point is no different from me. I hope you will always be like this, living with open eyes!"

  "But you know what? There are some people in this world whose eyes are blind, they don't treat others as human beings! Their hearts are black! They treat people like animals to be humiliated and slaughtered!"

  Yao Wengao waved his fist and shouted: "That Guo Jixiu! He's a black-hearted wolf who has blinded the eyes of the people!"

  From the moment I arrived in Qingdao, he wanted to get rid of me! Just now at Zhou's house, it was clear that we were on opposite sides. I reckon he is about to take action against me!

  "Think about it, if he really screws me over, what will happen to you all in the future?"

  Wang Gui heard this and became agitated, shouting: "Whoever wants to get our master killed is trying to get us fired! That means we'll all go hungry!"

  "Damn it! That Guo guy is really something else! Next time I get the chance, I'll beat him to death!"

  Yao Fan nodded and said, "We were originally living freely, selling goods in our shops, everyone working hard, earning a hard-earned income, seeing the days getting better day by day.

  We have no grudge against that Guo fellow, but he can't bear to see our prosperity. He's plotting against us, spreading rumors and sabotage. Brothers, do you think I should sit down and cry or wait for him to bring people to destroy the newly built Yao Family Village?

  He Shicheng suddenly jumped up and shouted: "Master Dong, you can't take this insult! Does that surnamed Guo dare to slap us in the face?"

  "If he dares to come, we'll beat him up!"

  All the men shouted: "Has the surname Guo gone mad? There are over 300 of us in our village! If you dare to come, we'll kill this turtle grandson!"

  Li Haibull stared at Yao Fang carefully and felt that there was something behind his words: "Master, what's your idea? Just say it, we'll all listen to you."

  Yao Fan revealed his true thoughts, saying firmly: "I'm going to chase him down and give that kid a good beating, let him know my strength. Since we've already fallen out, might as well fight it out thoroughly!"