Chapter 40: Omniscient

  Yang 'Bo' slanted his eyes at the scholar and hummed: "Not bad, you've learned a new skill, you can run away now?"

  When they heard Yang Bo's voice, Tie Niu and others who had just got off the bus also gathered around.

  "No, absolutely not..." The scholar's face turned into a flattering expression "Everyone has three urgencies..."

  "None? Why did you beat him up if there's no calf?" Yang 'Bo' grunted and turned his head to the calf and dog, saying: "You guys keep an eye on him for me. If he dares to run away again, break his legs!"

  The young ox let out a loud bellow and rolled up his sleeves, glaring at the scholar with a challenging gaze.

  The scholar looked at the calf, his facial muscles twitched slightly, and this slight emotional fluctuation was quickly covered up by him. Yang Bo, however, saw a thread of deeply hidden evil from his flattering eyes, a kind of evil that he himself also had, very familiar.

  "You can't win my heart with such rough behavior..." The scholar expressed his inner grievances through his eyes.

  "The old master doesn't want your heart, just people..." Yang 'Bo' shattered the Confucian scholar's extravagant hopes with his actions.

  Under his instruction, Niu Zi took a hemp rope from the cart and, with the help of Tie Niu and others, bound up Xiū Cái.

  "Wait a minute," Yang 'Bo' thought for a moment, "Let's find another rag to stuff his mouth with. This guy is a scammer, don't let him fool you guys anymore. I spent 600 bucks and it can't be in vain."

  "Preposterous!" The scholar struggled with all his might and retorted, "Clearly, before I fainted, I heard that the price agreed upon with the tooth buyer was 700 wen!"

  The scholar's heart is already set on death, ten years of hard study in the cold window, although now being framed and demoted to a slave status, but his worth can't be lower than those beggars and dogs, right? How dare those toothless men sell a dignified scholar for only six hundred coins?

  He harbored a malicious vow in his heart: "If I ever achieve my lofty ambitions, I will definitely kill all those who have wronged me!"

  Yang 'Bo' glared at the scholar: "Originally, we agreed on 700 wen, that's correct, but who made you faint? I already told my servant to reduce it by 100 wen, what do you want?"

  The scholar let out a mournful cry, but could say no more, and was dragged back into the carriage with two lines of murky tears streaming down his face.

  The sudden little episode was soon calmed down, and several people drank some water by the roadside and ate some dry food before continuing on their way. According to the coachman, it would take about half a day's walk to enter the jurisdiction of Qingzhou Prefecture.

  "After all, he was a former Xiucai, how can he be humiliated like this? Know leisure, let it go." Bi Fangji shook his head and sighed: "A scholar can be killed but not humiliated, Know Leisure is humiliating him like this..."

  Bi Fangji was well-read in poetry and books, deeply influenced by Confucian thought. Yang 'Bo' treated a scholar like this so brutally, he couldn't help but feel uneasy at heart.

  Yang 'Bo' Hu 'Luang' knocked on his nose, and said viciously: "Father, this time I went to Qingzhou to join the army. As the saying goes, when a scholar meets a soldier, even if he has reason, he can't explain it clearly. Why should I talk to him about reason?"

  What can be said about a shameless and unreasonable person like Bi Fangji? One can only remain silent.

  "Don't worry, Father" Seeing Bi Fang's gloomy expression, Yang 'Bo' laughed and said: "The scholar will absolutely not resent me. Once he understands his situation, he will only be more loyal to follow me, at least on the surface. This is his logic..."

  Bi Fang was shocked and after a long while, he said: "What kind of absurd reasoning is this?"

  "I'll bet five hundred taels," Yang Bo rolled up his sleeves

  "May God forgive him." Bi Fangji shook his head, saying somewhat helplessly: "Why can't Zhi Xian be more lenient with him? Even if he builds a private school in the future, can't he let him teach 'Meng' studies?"

  Yang 'Bo' cleared his throat, trying to maintain his image: "I'm a man with no other merits, just speaking reason. Look, I've let him eat his fill, dress neatly and sit in the carriage... uh, tied up in the carriage. If it weren't for the fact that he's still somewhat useful, I would have thrown him into a brothel to be a pimp long ago..."

  "Is this your way of talking reason?"

  Yang 'Bo' saw Bi Fangji was stubborn and unyielding, somewhat annoyed, said: "Okay, Father, I have to say that for different people, the way of talking sense is also different, this way is more suitable for him"

  "Oh?" Bi Fangji curiously nodded towards Yang 'Bo' and asked, "It seems that Zhi Xian has an ulterior motive for doing this. There are different ways to reason things out, I'd like to hear more about it."

  Yang 'Bo' snorted and said: "This guy was caught by the county magistrate two days ago for doing something bad, do you know what he said? A scholar's matter, how can it be called stealing? That's called borrowing! Father, look at this, what kind of logic is this? The county magistrate used a stick to make him obedient, and yesterday he told me those crooked arguments again. I beat him with my fists until he was obedient, and today you see, he wants to use this twisted logic to persuade the others. Now, I'm using his logic to reason with him, isn't that right?"

  "No wonder, you didn't even ask about the cause and process of things..." Bi Fangji began to understand.

  "That's right" Yang 'Bo' said with a straight face: "I deliberately let that idiot Niuzi keep an eye on him. For someone who is mentally ill, even if Confucius himself were to be reborn and speak with a mouth full of flowers, it would still be useless, haha!"

  "What's wrong with your nerves?" Bi Fangji was bewildered

  "What? Neurosis is... uh..." Yang 'Bo' patted his head, unable to think of a way to explain it so the priest would understand.

  "This is what it's like to have a mental illness, huh? Look at me, Father..." Yang 'Bo' first stared blankly with a silly grin for a while, then made a drooling motion.

  "I understand." Bi Fangji nodded.

  Yang 'Bo' looked at Bi Fangji's slightly raised corners of his mouth with a hint of doubt, he felt that something was not quite right, and in a fit of pique, he decided to take back the scene.

  "Father, the long journey is sleepless and boring. Why don't we play a game of dice instead?" Yang 'Bo' took out three white jade carved dice and said to Bi Fangji

  "Zhi Xian actually likes this trick?" Bi Fangji smiled and leaned against the soft couch "Eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, swindling, cheating, stealing... Zhi Xian seems to be proficient in all of these?"

  "Just passing the time, how about it? Let's just make a small bet, one or two silver coins per round is fine." Yang 'Bo' somehow pulled out a matching white jade tube from somewhere and started shaking it in his hand. This set of things was something he had spent a lot of money to have custom-made.

  "May God forgive...God's followers absolutely do not get involved in these things." Bi Fangji shook his head like a rattle drum, pointing to the rear carriage way: "Zhi Xian, you can only go play with them."

  Yang 'Bo' felt somewhat depressed, why did I have nothing better to do than win their money? The silver on them was their own, wasn't it?

  Bi Fangji was still smiling at Yang 'Bo', who felt that his little secret had been completely exposed, and he was particularly uncomfortable. Just as he was about to start making something up to distract the priest, Bi Fangji spoke again: "Actually, I didn't want to play with you because your dice are filled with mercury..."

  Yang 'Bo' suddenly felt his temples aching...