Chapter 90 Public Opinion
"Amazing! Brother Su, this is definitely the script you wrote!" Liu Xiong gave a big thumbs-up and praised. "I've read it once, and it still gave me chills this time. I was terrified that Mr. Min was being framed. It's clearly the same story, so why does it seem even more thrilling? Did you really write this?"
Su Fengzhang smiled and said, "It's absolutely true."
Liu Xiong praised her a few more times, but then frowned and asked, "But even if you write about this case and act it out, it won't make those rumors go away, right?"
"You'll know after a few days." Su Fengzhang said with a smile.
Liu Xiong wanted to ask for clarification, but seeing that the man was unwilling to elaborate, he could do nothing. He felt as if many ants were crawling around in his heart.
Wang Huan, however, seemed to be lost in thought after reading it. He gave Su Fengzhang a half-smile, then patted him on the shoulder and said, "A writer's pen is more powerful than a murderous knife."
After saying this, he left with his men without caring about Su Fengzhang.
Liu Xiong asked curiously, "Brother Su, who is this person?"
Su Fengzhang simply explained: "Just someone I know."
After reaching the outside of Wangchun Garden, Wang Huan turned around and asked the guard beside him: "What do you think of the scene just now?"
The guard answered truthfully, "It's quite good. The singing is good, the acting is good, and the writing is also very good."
Wang Huan laughed heartily and said, "They say it's better to offend a gentleman than a villain. I think it's better to offend a villain than to offend a scholar, especially a scholar who can write."
The guard didn't quite understand what he was saying and asked, "Your Majesty, are you praising Scholar Su or scolding him?"
"I appreciate his cunningness." Wang Huan said with a smile.
"Cunning is not a nice word," the guard complained.
However, after watching this scene, Wang Huan finally did not delay in Hushan County and prepared to set off back to Beijing. This made the guards around him almost burst into tears of gratitude. If they did not go back, they would probably lose their heads.
In order to make the prince feel at ease, the guard even took the initiative to say: "Prince, if you are worried about Su Xiucai, why don't you go and help him deal with the trouble so that you can go back with peace of mind."
Wang Huan smiled this time: "Come on, he doesn't need you."
After thinking for a moment, he added, "Before you leave, send someone to deliver the box in the room and tell him a message."
Su Fengzhang received the box early in the morning of the next day. Inside the box lay a wooden sign safely. The wood was black, but had faint golden lines in the sunlight, and it smelled of a lingering fragrance.
"The master said that if Su Xiucai comes to Beijing in the future, he can use this wooden plaque as a token to find him at Wangji Rice Shop in the east of the city."
"Thank you very much, Uncle Wang." Su Fengzhang said with a smile and put the wooden sign away temporarily.
The moment he saw the wooden sign, Su Fengzhang felt that Wang Huan's identity might be more noble than he thought, otherwise he would not be so arrogant. The capital city is a place full of nobles.
Wang Huan came and went without a trace, and except for a few people, he did not bring any impact to Hushan County.
"Song of the Year Flower" was different. The play became popular at lightning speed. Every performance at Wangchun Garden was packed, and even the corridors were filled with people coming to watch the show.
Not long after, other opera troupes also began to sing this play "Sui Hua Yin". They were certainly not as good as the Min family's, but the price was cheaper, so there was no shortage of people coming to watch the show.
The vernacular version of "Sui Hua Yin" also appeared in the study rooms on the street. Scholars were willing to buy a copy to see the wickedness of human hearts and what kind of brilliant poetry could make people willing to kill for it.
Literate businessmen and shopkeepers were also happy to buy a copy to kill time, wanting to see how the judge tried the case and what twists and turns the case would involve.
Even the ladies in the boudoir would like to buy a copy and read it. When they saw the evil people making false accusations, they cried out in shock. When they saw the Jedi’s counterattack, they felt relieved. In the end, they even wanted to catch Mr. Min and bring him home to perform operas with him every day.
It seemed that overnight, the play "Suihuayin" spread throughout Hushan County and even began to spread outside.
Everyone knows that "Sui Hua Yin" is adapted from a true story. Even though they know that the events may not be exactly the same, they can't help but put themselves into the story. After watching it, everyone gritted their teeth at Mu Wei.
So one day, when Mr. Cai returned home, Mrs. Cai hurried over to look for him and asked, "Master, do you know about the poem theft case?"
Lord Cai thought it was something serious, but when he heard it, he frowned and asked, "How did you know this? Could it be that this rumor has spread all over the county government office?"
"Is it true?" Mrs. Cai said in surprise. After hearing about it, she thought someone was using the name of the county government.
Lord Cai frowned and said, "No matter what you hear, don't believe it easily."
Madam Cai pressed the issue, "Master, this Mu Wei stole Lin Changqing's famous poem and brutally murdered him. Then, it was the villain who filed the complaint, first accusing Su Fengzhang of stealing the poem and then falsely accusing him of murder. Could this be a lie?"
Upon hearing this, Lord Cai was surprised and asked, "This is true. How did you know? Aren't you always uninterested in government affairs?"
Mrs. Cai gnashed her teeth and cursed, "How could there be such a cruel and shameless person in the world? Humph, it's a good thing Wangchunyuan sang this play, otherwise he would have been deceived."
"What the hell is going on!" Lord Cai felt puzzled. It was not until he saw "Suihuayin" that he finally understood.
Lord Cai was a little unhappy at first. After all, a student was killed in the county school, and the one who killed him was another student. This incident was actually a scandal for Hushan County. Lord Cai wished that this incident had never happened.
But this story seemed to have magic. He suppressed his displeasure and read it from beginning to end. After finishing it, he sighed deeply and thought to himself that this story was really well written. This Su Fengzhang was not only smart, but also quite resourceful.
Of course, Mr. Cai would not admit that he was happy because the county magistrate in the story was wise and brave, upright and fair, and served the people. Instead, he was simply happy that Su Fengzhang had solved a big hidden problem.
When "Suihuayin" spread throughout Hushan County, the previous rumors became insignificant. The rumor first started from the county school, but now which student would mention Su Fengzhang when he returned home?
His sisters, mother, sister-in-law, and even his father and brother would all ask, "Is this Su Fengzhang, the one who was framed for stealing poems and murder, and only confronted someone in court to reveal the truth?"
In fact, in "Suihuayin", the names of Su Fengzhang and Lin Changqing are pseudonyms and have nothing to do with the real people. Only the character of Mu Wei still has the surname Mu, but Hushan County is so small that it was soon dug out.
The power of public opinion is enormous. Some people had previously privately suspected Su Fengzhang, but now, after seeing and hearing what others had said, they were influenced by others and began to grumble, thinking that he must have been wronged.
Even several people who had previously vowed to do so fell silent. One even went to personally apologize to Su Fengzhang, saying, "I shouldn't have doubted Brother Su's character based on a few gossips. Brother Liu already told everyone the truth, but we still believed the rumors."
Liu Xiong was surprised to hear this and asked privately, "This is really strange. Before, I told them everything but they didn't believe me. Now, after listening to a few performances, they believe it without a doubt. What's wrong with this person's brain?"
Su Fengzhang smiled and said nothing. This is actually not difficult to explain. People have group effects. When the group has the same thinking and everyone around has the same thinking, the opposite ideas will not be understood.
This is common in the progress of history, and Su Fengzhang took advantage of this trend of public opinion.
The best way to dispel rumors is to let the correct ideas take root in people's minds. Once this goal is achieved, no matter how powerful the rumors are, they will disappear.
However, he had not expected that "Song of the Year Flower" would be so popular that the speed of its spread far exceeded his expectations. What made him feel embarrassed was that as the play spread more and more widely, some people actually found Lin Changqing's grave and began to pay homage to him.
What Su Fengzhang didn't know was that he originally wrote the storybook just to dispel rumors. Who would have thought that the storybook would spread more and more widely, and even be remembered through the ages, becoming an enduring work.
Many, many years later, literary scholars generally believed that "Suihuayin" was a vernacular adaptation from a real person, and Lin Changqing, who wrote the most classic verses in it, was lamented for his untimely death.
But the people who are in a more difficult situation than Su Fengzhang are definitely the Mu family.
The local customs can be seen from the fact that the Mu family abandoned the body and refused to take Lin Changqing back to his hometown for burial.
The most promising son of the Mu clan leader is in prison and will be executed in the autumn. He hates Lin Changqing to the core and hates himself for not being cruel enough and failing to stop Lin Changqing from leaving the village.
If we were to say who he hated the second most, it would definitely be Su Fengzhang. If he hadn't been eloquent and eloquent, he wouldn't have been able to get rid of suspicion and how could Mu Wei be exposed? If he were to say, Su Fengzhang should have taken the blame and died obediently.
So after leaving Hushan County, Patriarch Mu couldn't help but do some small tricks. He couldn't do anything to Su Fengzhang, but he could secretly destroy his reputation to see how far he could go in the future. If his son couldn't become an official, no one else could either.
But what Patriarch Mu did not expect was that Su Fengzhang did not suffer misfortune, but bad luck lingered on the Mu Village.
I don’t know when it started, but the people in the surrounding villages looked at them with something strange in their eyes. This shouldn’t be the case. Mujia Village is the richest village in the surrounding area and has always been envied.
Finally one day, a member of the tribe came to visit and Chief Mu finally found out what had happened.
Fingers trembling as he flipped open the storybook, Chief Mu cursed repeatedly, "It's fake, all fake! He's slandering me. I'm going to the county government to sue him for slander."
The visitor didn't believe it and reminded him, "Uncle, come on, he didn't mention anyone by name, can you win the lawsuit?"
"Besides, others may not know about Ah Wei's affair, but we still don't know the details. Didn't he kill someone just to steal a poem from Lin Changqing? I have to say, this is too unkind of him."
"Uncle, you know exactly how Lin Changqing's mother died. Why bother making things difficult for him?"
"Alas, the seedlings that were originally so good are now all ruined. Ah Wei is also too much. He just robbed them, but why did he kill people? Now the whole village is embarrassed because of this. He shouldn't have..."
"Get out, get out..." Before he could finish, Chief Mu grabbed a broom and drove him out.
The man left. Clan leader Mu opened the book again. When he saw the words in which the county magistrate scolded Mr. Mu Wei for being a bad parent and unworthy of being a father, he felt a black screen in front of his eyes and fainted.
Mujia Village was shaken, and the Mu family members were clamoring to replace the clan leader. Su Fengzhang, who was far away in Hushan County, knew nothing about it. He also didn't know that there were millions of gossips behind the death of Lin Changqing's mother.
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