The Sage of Confucianism and Taoism

The Double Ninth Festival Literary Festival focuses on chrysanthemums. Looking around, there are chrysanthemum pots everywhere, like a golden ocean.

The tables and chairs of the banquet are covered with bright red silk cloth, which is more festive against the golden color.

The Literary Festival was crowded with people. Many people brought their whole family, young and old, and children were seen playing and running everywhere.

This is a mountainous area, not a flat land. The Literary Festival site is divided into three layers of flat ground, one higher than the other, like three huge stairs.

At the deepest part of the third layer, there is a literary platform for people to write poems after the Literary Festival begins.

Most of the women here wear festive red robes, while the men's clothes are relatively orderly, almost corresponding to their positions.

The men on the first floor are mostly wearing black robes and juren clothes, mixed with a few blue robes of scholars. On the second floor a little further away, there are many white embroidered swords and jinshi clothes, and occasionally some black robes. The highest floor is mostly white and black plum Hanlin clothes, and blue-robed university scholar clothes are also mixed in.

There were no names on the dinner table at the venue, and no one guided them, but everyone knew where they should sit.

The only exception was the old people on the third floor. Those old people were of different ranks and their white beards and hair were very eye-catching.

"Where should we sit?" Yang Yuhuan looked at the dark venue and didn't know how to choose.

"Go straight ahead and walk to the highest point." Fang Yun said.

"Oh."

Fang Yun's tone was very flat, but Yang Yuhuan felt a force in her body after hearing it, and she couldn't help but straighten her body and raise her chin.

The two walked forward slowly, and Yang Yuhuan looked back at the masked woman, who was getting off the chair. There was some confusion in her eyes, and then she turned back and continued to walk with Fang Yun.

There were too many people in the Chongyang Literary Meeting, and the more they walked forward, the louder the buzzing sound in their ears.

Before they had walked a few steps, someone on the right suddenly bowed and saluted: "Meet Fang Wenhou!"

Fang Yun looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was a student from the academy, so he smiled slightly and bowed in return.

"Ah? Is it really Fang Wenhou?"

Then everyone sitting around stood up, regardless of gender, age or young.

Even the children who were playing and running became surprisingly quiet, looking at Fang Yun together, wanting to see if this person who they could hear every day had three heads and six arms.

"Hello Fang Wenhou."

"Hello Fang Zhenguo!"

...

At first, only the people near Fang Yun stood up, and the people next to him soon knew and stood up quickly. Most people were happy, but a few were reluctant to stand up slowly.

"Is Fang Wenhou here?"

"Fang Zhenguo? Get up quickly..."

Soon, all the tens of thousands of people on the first floor stood up.

The voices greeting Fang Yun came one after another, and they didn't stop since Fang Yun appeared.

"Fang Yun greets you... Fang Yun greets you..." Fang Yun kept bowing to both sides while walking, and Yang Yuhuan followed nervously behind him, lowering her head, not daring to look at those people.

The little fox was crazy about people, jumping around with Fang Yun, and especially liked this kind of scene.

There was no gap between the first and second floors except for a three-foot drop and some stairs. The people on the second floor soon knew that Fang Yun was coming.

Many people stood up involuntarily, stretched their necks to look down, wanting to see what kind of person Fang Yun was.

Soon, the people on the third floor stopped chatting, stood up one after another, and looked down from a high place.

Some of the people on the third floor were smiling, some were surprised, some were gloomy, and some were expressionless.

When Fang Yun walked up to the second stone steps, the people on the third floor had all stood up, even those blue-robed university scholars were not sitting.

Then, many people changed color.

In this literary gathering, unless the great scholar came in person, even if Li Wenying, who was in the limelight, came here, he would not make the whole audience stand up.

But a scholar could make the people present stand up on their own initiative. This influence was terrifying, even if Fang Yun was in the capital for the first time.

Those with gloomy faces looked even more unbearable, and a few even snorted and sat down.

Under the gaze of tens of thousands of people, Fang Yun walked forward calmly, smiling and bowing to the people on both sides.

When Fang Yun walked to the middle of the second floor, the people on the first floor had not yet sat down.

A thunderous voice suddenly sounded like a bell.

"Good! As expected of Fang Zhenguo, he not only suppressed the state of Qing State, but also suppressed all the people in this Chongyang Literary Meeting!"

Fang Yun immediately looked over and saw a middle-aged man in white sword clothes smiling at him in the crowd on the first floor. His smile was very kind.

The discussion suddenly arose, and Fang Yun's ears rang with a buzzing sound like mosquitoes and flies.

"Who is that person? How come I haven't seen him before? Jingguo will never have such a Jinshi."

"From his accent, he is not from Jingguo either. He dares to sow discord at this moment, so he must be at least from a semi-saint family."

"That person's Jinshi clothing does not seem to be from Qingguo either. It seems to be from Jiaguo?"

"Jiaguo makes sense. That person has a lot of accessories on him. Except for the people of the Lei family, other scholars don't like to wear messy things."

"Lei family? It's over, it's over. This one is more difficult to deal with than an ordinary semi-saint family. It's better to offend a noble family than the Lei family. When did Fang Yun offend such a big family? It is said that it won't be long before the Lei family can leap from a wealthy family to a noble family. Given the relationship between the Lei family and the dragon clan, Fang Yun may be regarded as a thorn in the eyes of the dragon clan."

Before Fang Yun could speak, a familiar voice sounded from the crowd on the first floor.

"I don't know whether Fang Yun is suppressing or not, but once Nangong Daru comes, he will definitely suppress our Jingguo. Lei Yuanting, if I guess correctly, it is your Lei family who invited Nangong Daru, right?"

Fang Yun took a closer look and found that it was the Minister Sai who went to Yuhai with the Queen Mother's secret order that day, and he was also an official from Jiangzhou.

"Our Lei family did invite Nangong Daru, but he came here just by the way, and it has nothing to do with our Lei family. What I said just now..."

"Okay, everyone sit down." The voice of Cao De'an, the Grand Secretary and Right Prime Minister, came.

Lei Yuanting looked at Fang Yun hatefully and sat down with the others.

Fang Yun bowed for the last time, then took Yang Yuhuan's hand and continued to move forward.

The women present saw this scene and all showed envy. A man was willing to hold a woman's hand here, which was more intoxicating than any sweet words.

Those unmarried girls even had a look of longing in their eyes, whether they longed to become Yang Yuhuan or wanted their future significant other to take them to such a place.

The road was in the middle, with tables and chairs on both sides.

Fang Yun took a glance, and saw that the left prime minister's loyal dog assistant prime minister Si Yueqing, Lei Yuanting who intended to sow discord, the little Duke of Guo and others were on the left, while the right prime minister Cao De'an and Sai Shilang and others were sitting on the right.

Near the Wentai, there were five large tables on the left and right, each of which could seat ten people, but none of them was full.

Fang Yun stepped onto the third floor, and everyone on the third floor was silent, staring at him silently.

The atmosphere at the scene became dull.

The road separating the two sides was obviously very ordinary, but in Fang Yun's eyes it was like a natural chasm that no one could cross.

Fang Yun was about to go to the right, and saw an old Hanlin in white and black plum clothes standing at the second table on the left. Fang Yun was slightly stunned, this person looked familiar, but he had never seen him before.

"I, Tong Luan, greet Fang Wenhou. This table is vacant. Why don't you come and sit here?" This man was smiling, with gray hair on his temples. He was a kind old man.

Fang Yun's eyes tightened. During the scholar examination, he had bet with a man named Tong Li on who could climb the Book Mountain higher. In the end, he won and Tong Li committed suicide. Tong Li's grandfather was Tong Luan, the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War of Jing State. His status in the Ministry of War was second only to the Minister of War. He was a senior official of the third rank and a "cabinet walker" like Fang Yun.

Fang Yun had received news that after Tong Li's death, this left assistant minister Tong Luan left the capital and went south to enter Yuhai City, but was finally forced back by Li Wenying.

Tong Luan had made many military achievements and killed countless barbarians in the northern border. He was the best candidate for the next Minister of War. He had great potential and at least 15 years of official career.

Fang Yun sighed in his heart. Tong Luan was originally a neutral faction in the army, but because he was stopped by Li Wenying and could not avenge his grandson, he turned to the left prime minister's camp in anger and added strength to the left prime minister.

The two of them were now full of hatred.

Fang Yun bowed and said, "Fang Yun meets Master Tong, but the wind is strong on the left, so I'd better sit with Minister Sai."

Everyone on the right stood up to greet him, and the atmosphere improved.

Right Prime Minister Cao De'an, who was at the first table on the right, smiled and said, "Fang Wenhou, you can sit here."

Fang Yun smiled and said, "I really want to sit there, but I'm not like you. Your wives are devoted to you. I'm not married to the one next to me. I'm afraid she'll run away. I have to sit with her. We can't be separated."

Everyone laughed.

Cao De'an pointed at Fang Yun and said to everyone with a smile: "Look at this Fang Yun. To put it nicely, he is a good man who loves his wife. To put it bluntly, he is a pervert who can't extricate himself from the land of tenderness!"

A university scholar next to him joked: "Prime Minister Cao, if you had a Xi Shi from Beijing as your wife, you might not have the strength to climb the mountain. In this respect, Fang Yun is ten times better than you."

The people on both sides laughed.

Yang Yuhuan blushed and stamped her feet in shame, secretly cursing a group of old hooligans in her heart.

Cao De'an laughed and didn't care. He said to Fang Yun: "Then you can take your Jiangzhou Xi Shi to the third table. There are fewer people there."

Fang Yun saw that the people at the first and second tables were either senior officials from Beijing or important figures from semi-saint families. Among them was the university scholar of the Chen family whom Fang Yun had met. The people at the third table were indifferent, not like those in the officialdom. Fang Yun vaguely guessed that they should be the heads of several wealthy families, so he walked over with Yang Yuhuan.

As Fang Yun walked to the table, before the heads of the families could introduce themselves, a young man from the banquet on the left could be heard talking.

"Minister Tong invited Fang Yun but was rejected. He went to the right and not the left. It really makes us sad. How about we decide the champion of this literary gathering?"

Even Yang Yuhuan looked over in surprise. "Deciding the champion" is not a good thing. Generally, only when people from different countries meet at the same literary gathering, will the "champion" be decided before the literary gathering begins.

Even families of the same country with enmity often decide the champion, but it is extremely rare to decide the champion at such a super-large literary gathering.