Chapter 57: Forced to Play a Corpse

Fang Ning took a deep breath, forcing herself to focus on the book, and finally managed to get absorbed in reading.

Out of the corner of his eye, Si Yuheng glanced at Fang Ning, an indescribable emotion surging within his heart.

In his past life, ever since he was found by that person, he had devoted his heart and soul to that person's grand cause. He had never kept a woman by his side; he dealt exclusively with men, yet he had never harbored any romantic thoughts toward men.

Yet the soul hidden inside this young child's body before him had, in just a short span of time, established a presence more overwhelming than anyone else!

The sound of Fang Ning turning the pages pulled Si Yuheng back to his senses.

He cast aside the strange thoughts in his mind and went back to making annotations.

Fang Ning quickly finished reading an article, then naturally turned to discuss it with Si Yuheng: "Young Master, I feel the underlying message of this piece shares a wondrously similar subtlety with some ancient texts I've read before."

Si Yuheng turned his head slightly: "Oh? Tell me about it."

Fang Ning thought for a moment, then said: "I can't recall the whole article, but I remember this specific line: 'To cultivate oneself, one must first put one's family in order; with the family in order, the state is governed well; and with the state governed well, there is peace throughout the realm.' To sum it up, it's about cultivating oneself, regulating the family, governing the state, and bringing peace to the world!"

"Cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to the world?" Si Yuheng murmured the phrase softly. "A person's moral cultivation is indeed crucial, yet most people merely speak of it rather than putting it into practice!"

The two discussed this statement for a full hour.

Fang Ning had never engaged in such a profound discussion regarding strategies for governing a country.

Yet Si Yuheng's profound knowledge, broad horizons, and ideological depth left Fang Ning utterly astounded.

It turns out she had underestimated the ancients!

It was also the first time Si Yuheng had expressed his philosophy with such uninhibited fluency.

He found that many of his own thoughts coincided precisely with Fang Ning's.

Moreover, as Fang Ning spoke of these matters, her expression was radiant and full of soaring spirit, giving Si Yuheng the illusion that he was looking at his former self.

What a pity, he was facing a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"Young Master, what is the matter?" Fang Ning noticed Si Yuheng staring blankly, lost in thought, and waved her hand in front of his eyes.

Si Yuheng looked at Fang Ning and uttered something that left her utterly baffled: "Every bit of sincerity ought never to be betrayed."

Fang Ning: "..."

"It is getting late; we should rest." Si Yuheng stood up, walked outside, and fetched a basin of water to wash his face.

Fang Ning was right in the middle of her flow, only for the conversation to end as abruptly as an unfinished note.

"How boring!" she muttered, tossing the book aside and climbing into bed.

A moment later, Si Yuheng came back inside.

He was still holding a basin of water.

"Wash your hands and face before going to sleep."

Fang Ning froze.

An odd sense of a seasoned, old married couple instantly washed over her.

Fang Ning: "..."

What on earth was she thinking?

Seeing that Fang Ning didn't move:

"Come here."

Si Yuheng commanded in a deep voice.

Fang Ning curled her lips in a pout and climbed back down from the bed.

Under Si Yuheng's watchful gaze, she washed her hands and face before she was finally allowed back onto the bed.

Si Yuheng carried the basin out to empty it, then returned, lying down stiffly and properly right beside Fang Ning.

Except for the very first night when he slept with his back facing her, he had slept this way every night since. Throughout the entire night, he wouldn't even budge an inch, and the blanket was always tucked in with pristine neatness.

Fang Ning had once mocked him for looking like a corpse, only to find herself forced to act like a corpse right along with him.

Because Si Yuheng had sealed her acupoints!

From that day onward, Fang Ning never uttered another word about his sleeping posture.

"Are you sleepy yet?" Si Yuheng suddenly asked.

"Not yet. Does the Young Master have any instructions?"

"The mental cultivation technique. I shall recite it once; see how much you can retain."

"Internal energy?"

"Mn. Once the road to Futian Village is paved, I will teach you lightness skills."

Mentioning this completely chased away any drowsiness Fang Ning might have had.

She truly envied Si Yuheng's lightness skills, which allowed him to come and go as freely as the wind.

The cultivation manual consisted of merely forty-eight characters, and Fang Ning memorized it entirely after Si Yuheng recited it just once.

Not only was her memory for the mental technique astonishingly fast, but after Si Yuheng offered just two pointers, Fang Ning instantly grasped how to practice it—a fact that particularly surprised him.

...

The following day.

Fang Ning followed Yu Dong and the others to Shichong to observe how they constructed the pillars supporting the bamboo framework.

As soon as they arrived at Shichong, they discovered that people from Xujia Village were attempting to vandalize the stones they had laid the previous day.

Yet, no matter how hard those men pushed or kicked, the stones remained completely immovable. On the contrary, the man who had kicked the stone cradled his foot while hopping on one spot, shrieking in pain.

"Well, well, Xujia Village! We didn't cross into your fields, yet you come here to sabotage us? Tie these two men up and make Xujia Village give us an explanation!" Yu Dong was incandescent with rage, never expecting the people of Xujia Village to be petty to such a malicious degree.

Seeing the people of Futian Village arrive, those few men turned tail and ran.

Fang Ning picked up a few pebbles and hurled them toward the backs of their knees.

"Yowch!"

The fleeing men instantly collapsed to the ground in agony.

Yu Dong rushed forward with his men and pinned them to the earth in a flurry of motion.

"Sons of bitches! What harm did our fields do to you? You bully us time and time again—do you think everyone in Futian Village is already dead?"

"I'm warning you, let us go right now, or I'll have Scholar Xu write a formal complaint and sue you all into the ground at the county yamen!"

"Go ahead and try! Does old man here look like he's scared of you sons of bitches?"

With that, a Futian Village villager gave one of the men a kick.

The man let out a miserable howl.

"Let us go! We just wanted to see if your pillar was sturdy or not. What right do you have to hit people?"

Fang Ning walked over, picked up a small hammer, and smiled faintly yet ominously: "You came to test it with a hammer? How about I test whether this hammer works well by smashing it against your skull?"

"Y-You dare?" The man from Xujia Village instantly turned pale as a sheet, scared out of his wits.

The trauma left by Fang Ning's previous display of violence had yet to fade from their minds!

They believed from the bottom of their hearts that Fang Ning would actually do it.

"You ride roughshod over our heads, yet we aren't even allowed to trample you underfoot to do as we please?" Fang Ning retorted, the hammer in her hand gently resting against the man's head.

"D-Don't do it! Scholar Xu made us do this! If you want to settle accounts, go find him. If we didn't do this, he wouldn't let our children attend his school!"

Terrified by Fang Ning, the man shrieked!

Fang Ning's gaze turned icy.

This Scholar Xu again?

"What else did Scholar Xu order you to do?"

"H-He said... as long as all the rice paddies in Futian Village's Shichong are scorched and ruined, he'll charge us less tuition fees in the future..."

Yu Dong was instantly filled with righteous fury: "To think he is an educated scholar! How can he be so venomous? Ningning, you don't understand—some people's fields are right here in Shichong! If all the crops wither away, what are they supposed to eat? Are they expected to starve to death?"

Fang Ning sneered coldly: "Uncle Yu, don't be angry. I will settle this score with Scholar Xu. You all get back to work, and send someone to Xujia Village to summon their village chief. If he refuses to come, we'll take this straight to the county yamen and charge Scholar Xu with plotting murder for financial gain!"

Yu Dong acknowledged the order and immediately dispatched a young man to run to Xujia Village to fetch people.

Fang Ning offered a warning with a chilling, teasing smile: "You'd better not move around recklessly. If a little child like me fails to hold onto this hammer properly, someone's head might just blossom open! When you turn into ghosts, don't blame me."