Sima Guang was a very frugal person by nature and hated extravagance and waste. Unless he was going far away, he usually did not take a carriage. Even if the weather was very hot, he would still walk home.
Slowly returned to his small house.
The old servant who had followed him from his hometown immediately came to greet him.
"Mr. Junshi is back."
"Uh-huh?"
Sima Guang nodded, and suddenly turned his head to look at the old servants, "What did you call me just now?"
The old servant said, "Mr. Junshi."
Sima Guang wondered, "Who told you to call me that?"
The old servant said embarrassedly: "Mr. Su told me that you have been promoted to deputy prime minister, but you can no longer be called a scholar."
All along, the old servant had respectfully addressed him as Junshi Xiucai, and had not known that Sima Guang had been promoted to the position of Canji Zhengshi.
...
...
It's outrageous!
Sima Guang frowned and asked, "Su Zizhan?"
The old servant nodded.
Sima Guang asked again: "When did he come?"
The old servant said, "He just came and is now reading in the room."
"I'll go find him."
Sima Guang went straight to the study.
Sima Guang was like Wang Anshi. His food, clothing, housing and transportation were similar to those of ordinary citizens. Even his small house was not as good as Xu Zun's. However, his salary was not low. He knew how to spend the money. On the one hand, he used it to help refugees, and the rest was used to collect books.
In the past, Su Shi often went to his house or Ouyang Xiu's house to borrow books.
When they arrived at the study, Sima Guang questioned Su Shi, "Su Zizhan, why did you teach my servant bad things?"
Su Shi was stunned at first, but then he reacted and said with a smile: "Mr. Sima, you are too indifferent to fame and fortune. You have been promoted to the position of Vice-Chancellor, but even the old servants at home don't know about it. You keep calling me scholar. If people hear it, I'm afraid they will laugh at you."
"You are really nosy."
Sima Guang glared at Su Shi, and suddenly seemed to remember something, and asked: "You came at the right time, I have a question that bothers me."
Su Shi asked: "What's the problem?"
Sima Guang asked: "Which is easier, keeping virtue or keeping the law?"
Without even thinking, Su Shi said, "Of course it is easier to keep virtue."
Sima Guang said, "Not paying back debts is immoral, but not necessarily illegal. How can it be easy to be virtuous?"
Su Shi laughed and said, "Whether it is illegal or not can be determined by the law, but whether it is moral or not is often difficult to determine."
Sima Guang pondered for a moment and sighed, "That's what happened!"
Su Shi asked, "Why did Mr. Sima ask this?"
"Just asking."
Sima Guang waved his hand and changed the subject: "Are you coming to my house today to borrow books?"
Su Shi smiled and said, "That's not the case."
Sima Guang asked, "What do you want?"
Su Shi smiled and said, "I am here to recommend myself."
"Recommend yourself?"
Sima Guang was stunned and asked, "You want to go to the Court of Judicial Review?"
Su Shi nodded.
Sima Guang asked: "Why?"
Su Shi said seriously: "To be honest, sir, I was inspired by the previous lawsuit."
Sima Guang was excited, "Really? I'd like to hear more about it."
Su Shi sighed, "In court, Wei Yushan said it clearly. Everyone evades taxes. If he doesn't, he's a fool. No one abides by the existing laws. It's meaningless to talk about reform."
Sima Guang nodded and said, "You are right. It seems that we are really aiming too high!"
Why do we talk about morality instead of law? It’s not because morality is superior to law, but because we have to compromise.
According to normal logic, morality is actually a higher realm, and law is the bottom line. We must first maintain the bottom line before we can talk about morality.
But the reality is to erase the bottom line and only talk about morality. This is like covering one's ears and stealing the bell, deceiving oneself and others.
The reason is that if you violate morality, you will only get education, for example, it is wrong to do so, so don't do it next time.
There is a lot of wiggle room here.
If you break the law, you will be punished, and there is very little room for maneuver.
You just don't dare to punish, so you talk about moral education.
If sharing wealth with the people is based on morality, it is actually based on compromise.
In other words, you know that you have no control over them at all, so if the wealth is controlled by them, you will never get a stable result.
The way of truth is simple.
In fact, the truth is very simple. You just can't do it, so you come up with some high-sounding things to cover up this fact.
If you ignore the facts, you will not succeed.
Su Shi also discovered this problem. If everyone does not abide by the law, reform will be just a pure struggle for interests. First of all, we must abide by the law before we can talk about the gains and losses of the reform.
......
But Zhang Fei was a layman after all, and he would not dwell on this issue too much. After Sima Guang left, he began to check the store's accounts.
One word to describe it: appalling.
I made a little money from Ma Tianhao and others before, but I haven't had much income since then.
However, the expenses are increasing.
Just as Fan Li entered the hall, Zhang Fei asked, "Mr. Fan, the income of our store is really going from bad to worse. We can't go on like this."
Fan Li sighed, "There's nothing we can do about it."
"What are you talking about?"
Zhang Fei said angrily: "Can't they find a lawsuit to sue us now that we are so famous."
Fan Li said: "It is because we are so famous that this lawsuit is difficult to handle."
Zhang Fei asked: "What do you mean?"
Fan Li opened his mouth first, then said: "Wait a minute."
As he spoke, he took out a document from the file room and handed it to Zhang Fei, "Take a look at this lawsuit."
Zhang Fei took it, opened it and took a look. The lawsuit was actually very simple. It was about an old lady who passed away in the First Tianshui Lane, and there was a dispute over the property she left behind.
The old woman had a son who had always lived in the west of the city. He was in the silk business, but he had never taken care of his bedridden mother. It was a neighboring aunt who sold pancakes who had been taking care of the old woman. After the old woman died, she gave the house to the neighboring aunt.
As a result, her son believed that the house should be passed down to him and should not be left to his neighbor, so he decided to file a lawsuit and came to the Bian Jing Law Firm for help.
After reading it, Zhang Fei said, "This lawsuit is great! You can make a lot of money. Aren't you sure about it?"
Fan Li immediately said, "That's not true. The old lady is a kind and honest person. She would definitely win if we fought. But the fact is that her son is a piece of shit. He lived in the same city with his mother. When she was sick in bed, he never came to take care of her. It was not until she died that his family came to hold a funeral. They could say it was a funeral, but in fact they were just occupying the house. I estimated that the house left by the old lady was worth at least a thousand strings of cash, which is not a small amount of money."
Zhang Fei looked at Fan Li in confusion and said, "When did you become so conscientious? I remember you were very cruel before."
Fan Li said unhappily, "Our industry used to have a bad reputation, and everyone was just trying to make money, so it didn't matter. But now... Sanlang, you have made our Bian Jing Law Firm's reputation so good, and you don't charge money for helping poor people with lawsuits. If I take this case, and if I win, wouldn't that ruin our reputation?"
Zhang Fei sighed, "I earn my reputation in order to use it to make money. If I can't make money, what's the point of this reputation? We just need to use legal means and don't have too much psychological burden."
Fan Li said, "If you don't mind, then we can take over the case. The son of that household said that if you, Sanlang, come forward to help him fight the case, he is willing to pay a hundred strings of cash."
"One hundred strings of cash! Then why are you still hesitating? Of course..."
Zhang Fei suddenly scratched his head and glanced at the document. "Uh... Let me think about it first. Can I win?"
Fan Li smiled and said, "I can win this lawsuit. Our dynasty's laws clearly stipulate that relatives are superior to neighbors. This is his family's ancestral home, which will be passed down to future generations. Even my mother may not have such great power to give it to outsiders."
Zhang Fei saw that he was making a convincing argument and said, "Then you help the son and I'll help the aunt, let's compete."
Fan Li immediately said, "Then I can't beat him."
"Yes! It can be seen that this is...this is difficult." Zhang Fei said.
Fan Li nodded: "Yes, Sanlang is right, it is quite difficult, you take your time to think about it, I will go to get busy first."
"Go! Go!"
After Fan Li left, Zhang Fei looked at the document, feeling extremely conflicted. He scratched his cheeks and head, and said madly, "Zhang Fei, Zhang Fei, what are you hesitating about? You are a lawyer, not a thief. You opened a shop to make money, not to help the weak. Do you still need to consider this? You must take it! This lawsuit is a sure win. Am I crazy?"
Just then, someone suddenly asked, "What are you mumbling here by yourself?"
Zhang Fei looked up and saw Xu Zhiqian walking in. He blinked and said truthfully, "I'm studying a lawsuit."
"What lawsuit?"
Xu Zhiqian came over immediately.
Zhang Fei handed the document to Xu Zhiqian.
After reading it, Xu Zhiqian suddenly looked at Zhang Fei, "You don't want to answer it?"
Zhang Fei said: "This is not a question of whether we want to or not. We are open for business, and we cannot refuse people's requests for help!"
Xu Zhiqian said excitedly: "This son is completely heartless and hopeless. He lives in a big house in the west of the city. His mother is bedridden. He has never visited her, let alone taken care of her. Now, for money, he even slanders the kind-hearted aunt with sweet words and deceives her.
He lied to his mother and plotted to take his ancestral home. This is simply abominable. If you help him, wouldn't you be aiding and abetting the evil?"
Zhang Fei retorted: "If a bad guy goes to a blacksmith's shop to buy a knife, won't the blacksmith sell it to him?"
Xu Zhiqian said: "If you didn't know he was a bad guy, then it's understandable. If you knew, and you still sold the knife to him, you would be an accomplice."
"You... OK, OK, OK, you always have a point. You're not letting people make money. Why don't you become a bodhisattva? You're being a spy. This is ridiculous. I'm going to pee. I'm so pissed."
Zhang Fei stood up and left angrily.
"You are such a stubborn person!"
Xu Zhiqian glared at him fiercely.
As soon as Zhang Fei left, Fan Li walked in with a smile.
Xu Zhiqian turned around and glared: "What are you laughing at?"
Fan Li smiled awkwardly and said, "Madam Xu, you really misunderstood Sanlang. We can win this lawsuit. If he wants to take it, he can let us fight it quietly without you knowing."
Xu Zhiqian was stunned for a moment, "Are you saying that he was deliberately trying to piss me off?"
Fan Li hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, I think he just wants you to stop him so that he can get away with it."
Xu Zhiqian said: "It's right not to answer, why do you want me to stop him?"
Fan Li said: "We open a shop to make money!"
Xu Zhiqian said: "This money is enough, it's fine. Even if you earn so much, you won't be able to spend it all."
Fan Li smiled awkwardly and didn't say anything.
Xu Zhiqian's eyes turned and she said, "Mr. Fan, please ask someone to find that auntie. We will help her get the house back. It's really unreasonable to teach that unfilial son a lesson."
I knew it was like this. Fan Li asked quietly, "How much do you charge?"
Xu Zhiqian blinked: "Is it okay not to accept it?"
Fan Li said awkwardly: "After all, we are open for business, you......"
Xu Zhiqian thought for a moment and said, "Then... let's charge 500 coins... one guan of money. I don't think the aunt is taking care of the old woman just for the sake of the house, so we shouldn't ask her for too much money."
"...Then, it's better not to do it."
"That would be great."
"......?"
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[Please do not transcode the reading (similar to Baidu) or the content will be lost]
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