Chapter 299: Persuading Lao Zhou to surrender
To celebrate the cooperation between Raohu Village and Xuri to establish "Xudong Pure Water Co., Ltd.", the company and Dongli Town held a grand signing ceremony on January 10, the second year of Shangzhou.
The signing ceremony was scheduled in the afternoon. This was my idea. Water flows to the lower place. If it is scheduled in the morning, the water will be difficult to flow up and a pump will be needed. If it is scheduled in the afternoon, it will be allowed to flow on its own.
After the signing, a dinner was held.
I said to Secretary Tian, "We need to change the slogan. The original 'If you can't get married, come to Dongli and drink a bottle of water' was a bit ambiguous. Now we should change it to 'If you want to have a beautiful baby, drink Dongli water.' What do you think?"
When Secretary Tian heard this, he clapped his hands and said, "Yes, this is good."
The water plant's affairs were handed over to Qing Ruo, known as Party A's representative. The four villages of Raohu were coordinated by Party Secretary Wei, known as Party B's representative. It was only when I signed the agreement that I learned Party Secretary Wei's full name was Wei Zifan.
At the dinner, I raised my glass to Secretary Wei and said, "The character 'Zi' is associated with water, and the character 'Fan' is associated with water. You were born to be in the water business."
Everyone was surprised and asked, "What a coincidence?"
"What's even more coincidental is what's next. I pointed at Qing Ruo. The character Qing belongs to metal, and the character Ruo belongs to wood. Metal generates water, and water generates wood. The two of them working together is a match made in heaven."
Everyone laughed. Secretary Tian said with a smile, "I wish you a happy cooperation and a happy baby."
Under the persuasion of everyone, Secretary Wei and Qing Ruo drank three cups in a row.
Everyone was very happy and the party lasted until seven o'clock.
I was just about to go home when I received a call from Lao Zhou: "Teacher Wan, I admire you very much and want to have a Chinese character predicted for myself."
"Let's do it another day. I've had some wine. I want to rest."
"Teacher Wan, this matter is a bit urgent for me. Can you please give me ten minutes?"
"Oh—the old place then."
As soon as I opened the door, Lao Zhou called out, "Teacher Wan——"
I glanced at him.
He immediately explained that he had been upstairs and the young man in the next room told him that Teacher Wan was in the banquet hall on the fifth floor, so he had been waiting in the lobby.
I got straight to the point: "What word do you want to guess? Tell me."
He said, let’s guess the word “nothing”.
“Which aspect should I test?”
"Do you really need to tell me which aspect it is?"
I smiled and said, "You don't have to mention the other characters, but this character 'nothing' is vast and boundless. The ancients said, 'Existence arises from nothingness.' It encompasses all things in the world. Therefore, there must be a direction."
He nodded and said, "Business."
I wrote a word on the paper and he came over to look at it.
This is a wordless oracle bone script. What was its original meaning? It means that when two people are having a dispute or signing a contract, a person of high moral character (the character for "人" in the middle) is needed to mediate or act as a witness.
Old Zhou nodded.
I continued, "In ancient times, the word 'wu' (meaning "nothing") was synonymous with the word 'wu' (meaning "dance"). It means that through the mediation or testimony of an adult, a matter was successfully concluded, and both parties would shake hands, celebrate, and dance."
So according to the wordless divination, I personally think that you have been in trouble in your business recently and need a middleman to mediate.
He took a long breath and said, "Indeed."
I smiled in my heart. Based on my many years of experience, Lao Zhou was definitely not here to predict business matters. It should be related to his friend A who was in trouble.
After a pause, I typed, "However, this word 'wu zi tong wu' doesn't mean that everything ends in good fortune or joy. It could also end in a quarrel and unpleasantness."
He asked, “Why is that?”
I said, "Sometimes mediation fails and ends in a fight, because jumping up and down and cursing is also a form of dance."
He was shocked: "Is there such an ending?"
"Everything has two sides. Are you sure this is really a business matter?"
He blushed and turned pale for a long time before he stammered out the truth: many years ago, he had done a business deal through his friend A and gave A 20,000 yuan. Now that A's crime had been exposed, would he confess? If so, what punishment would he receive?
Ever since his friend was arrested, he'd been having nightmares about it. Then he'd comfort himself, hoping his friend wouldn't betray him, and then he'd go back to sleep, only to have another nightmare. He'd lost several pounds.
I said, "This is bribery, but the amount is not large. If we want to investigate you, you can be held criminally responsible according to Article 390 of the Criminal Law."
He was startled and asked, "You even know Article 390?"
"Well, you're not the only one who consults me about this."
"Then what should I do?"
"If you turn yourself in and admit that this happened, your punishment will be reduced."
"But is this fair to my friend? If he doesn't confess, and I expose him, wouldn't that make his crime even more serious? I came here to guess the word 'no' just to stay safe, but now that you've exposed it, please give me some advice."
What Lao Zhou said is true.
I said, "You decide for yourself about this matter."
Old Zhou was a little excited and said, "Master, I just came to ask for some advice. You must give me some guidance."
I was also in a dilemma. Looking at Lao Zhou's face, which was distorted with pain, I said, "This matter depends on whether he confesses or not. If he confesses, you are guilty. If he doesn't, you can get away with it.
"Since this is the case, it's a matter between two of us. Let's do a blind test. You decide what to do based on the results, okay?"
He became excited when he heard it: "What is a blind test?"
I went to the study, took out a book, flipped through it, and found it had 427 pages. He walked out and said, "This book has 427 pages. Just tell me a page number, a line number, or a word number."
He thought for a long time and said, "Page 166, line 6, word 6."
"You're thinking of good luck, everything going smoothly. Then go find that word yourself."
I handed him the book. He carefully flipped to page 166, as if uncovering a treasure, and counted the characters several times before confirming, "It's the word 'wait'."
His face regained its spirits and he asked, "Can you wait a moment?"
I was not as optimistic as him, so I wrote the word "wait" on the paper. Pointing at it, I said:
"The most basic original meaning of this character is 'neatly arranged bamboo slips.' Ancient books were carved on bamboo slips, called bamboo slips. There's a bamboo radical on it, right?"
Although Lao Zhou didn't understand what I was saying, he still understood the above sentence and said, "Yes, wait until there is a bamboo head."
"Why is there a bamboo head? It's because the character for "deng" is related to bamboo slips. First, the character for "deng" doesn't exist in oracle bone script; it appeared after bamboo slips were invented. Second, the "si" below the character for "deng" doesn't refer to a temple, but a place where books are stored.
For example, if this book contains 300 bamboo slips, you have to collect all 300 pieces before binding them, which is called "waiting".
So there is an idiom called "view them equally", which means that you have to wait until all the bamboo slips have arrived and been bound before viewing them.
In your friend's case, the case can only be closed if all the contents of the file are complete. Missing pages are called concealment, and being unable to view them means the case cannot be closed.
After hearing this, Old Zhou looked frightened again and asked, "What about me...?"
I said without hesitation, "You should surrender immediately, and your punishment will be reduced."
"What if my friend didn't confess?"
I laughed out loud. "Old Zhou, let me tell you something: everyone has lust. But those who are obsessed with lust are weak-willed. They're the same kind of people who like to boast. Once they get in, they'll spill the beans. You have to be one step ahead."
Old Zhou jumped up and said, "Master, you have pointed me in the right direction. I will go and surrender myself."
After saying that, he put down five hundred yuan, clasped his hands and left.
Lao Zhou is gone. I know he will come to see me again in the future.
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