Chapter 734: Mr. Great Righteousness

That day, Yang Qing came back.

Chen Hong pulled him to the study.

"Old man, come quickly and look at this."

Yang Lao, tired after a day, came back just wanting to rest.

He didn't want to move at all, yet Chen Hong dragged him into the study, half-dead, half-alive.

Chen Hong flung Yang Qing into the computer chair, pointing at the news on the screen and said.

"Old man, look, this kid clearly did a good deed, helping up an old man who had fallen, yet he's being slandered as having bumped into him."

"The judge ruled that he must compensate."

"Look at what the judge said—if you didn't bump him, why did you help?"

"If this continues, who will dare to help others in the future?"

Yang Qing had no interest at all.

I don't know how many people say he's a saintly mother, a great sage.

(My books are mostly like this—cultivating oneself, regulating the family, governing the state, bringing peace to the world; in reality I'm just a small-time nobody, so putting on airs in the books is also a kind of false self-improvement.)

(As a web novelist, speaking frankly I'm a bit aloof and willful; I'll try writing some milk-head pleasure products for fun later, but frankly I'm not good at it, my ability is limited, it all depends on your support.)

He's just an old man—can he really manage all this?

He retorted.

"If it was him who bumped, wouldn't he deny it?"

Chen Hong was stunned.

"How could that be possible?"

Yang Qing added another sentence.

"How can you prove it wasn't you who bumped?"

Chen Hong was once again left speechless by his question.

Chen Xueru couldn't bear to watch anymore.

She came over and gave Yang Qing a slap.

"Following your logic, how can you prove it wasn't him who bumped?"

Yang Qing is quite a bachelor.

"I cannot prove it."

"Since it cannot be proven, the presumption of innocence applies—naturally it cannot be judged this way."

Yang Qing gave a hehe laugh.

"Then if it was him who bumped, should we let him go free just because there's no evidence?"

"And let an old man bear the loss?"

"This..."

Chen Xueru, for a moment, didn't know how to answer his question.

The art of sophistry is just that—studying the Thirty-Six Stratagems a bit and you'll get it.

Those who argue with reason can never win against sophists.

Just like men and women.

You talk money with her, she talks feelings with you; you talk feelings with her, she talks money with you.

Anyway, whatever you say, it sounds reasonable.

Anyone who is even a bit genuine will be completely manipulated by such people.

Chen Hong and Chen Xueru are still people who argue with reason.

Qin Huairu listened to their words and wasn't drawn into the rhythm.

"Old man, according to your logic, if a young man sees an old man fall and goes to help, seeing it as righteous courage, does he deserve to be extorted?"

"Just because he's young and kind, he should suffer misfortune."

Yang Qing knew this was a case of 'the wife says she's right, the husband says he's right'.

Debating here is meaningless.

"This isn't about whether to help or not; extortion through false bumping is a widespread social problem."

(Back then there really were many; you could run into them just by going out, especially near train stations, markets… places crowded and chaotic.)

"Often, when they extort through false bumping, they can produce material evidence if needed, produce witnesses if needed; the bad guys are intent on extorting you, many people can't escape because they judge people very well."

"You haven't been whipped by reality."

"Such things in society are too numerous to count."

"Relying on police, relying on the court, cannot solve this problem."

"The only way to solve this problem is to raise one's own vigilance."

"Especially for ordinary people, encountering it once may very well change your life."

"Let's not talk about right or wrong for now."

"Let's just say, after this incident occurs, can it increase everyone's vigilance?"

"Our ancestors long ago told us how to be a person."

"Cultivate oneself, regulate the family, govern the state, bring peace to the world."

"Self-cultivation comes first; this cultivation isn't to make you a saintly mother, but to give you a basic understanding of this world."

"We no longer advocate the belief that human nature is inherently good at birth."

"Dialectically speaking, humans possess divinity, humanity, and beastliness—three natures."

Divinity represents all the beauty in the world. Human nature represents the experience of the seven emotions and six desires, which can be good or bad, depending on how one handles it. Animal nature is the basic survival instinct we possess as living beings; greed lets us know to gather survival resources; killing gives us the ability to protect those resources; cruelty, on the battlefield of survival, whoever hesitates perishes...

"This is also why some say that losing animal nature means losing everything."

After hearing Yang Qing's words, Chen Hong felt mixed emotions.

"After this, who would still dare to do good deeds?"

"If everyone thinks this way, how cold will our society become?"

Yang Qing rubbed their brow.

There is no win-win solution in the world.

If you take care of this, you cannot take care of that.

"I reiterate, I do not think such a judgment is correct."

"I only say that, as for the impact of such a judgment, from one aspect, whether it has value or not."

"I just ask you: in this society, each year, are there more elderly who fall and cannot get up, with no acquaintances nearby, or more elderly who are victims of extortion scams?"

"Do you know why, back then, no one dared to provoke the deaf old lady in our courtyard? Why was she supported by so many people?"

"Because everyone was afraid; if something went wrong, they'd be blamed and then have to serve her in her next life."

"Whenever encountering such a thing, one must exert their conscience."

"As long as you know how much money a random illness or injury costs for an elderly person going to the hospital, you will know what cruelty is."

"When faced with one's own vital interests, to speak of conscience? Can conscience withstand the test?"

"Is it that the elderly have conscience, and their family members also have conscience?"

"Do you know how low that probability is?"

"Don't encourage ordinary people to provoke the elderly; this is something that can affect a person for their entire life."

"It's very easy to be struck by heavenly thunder."

"From this perspective, sacrificing one young man benefits all the people under heaven."

"The countless victims' cries; please, sir, go to your death."

Yang Qing's words simply shattered one's worldview.

Three women, none of them expected Yang Qing to understand the matter in this way.

Please, sir, go to your death?

This old lady will beat you to death.

This matter is quite sad.

From a practical standpoint, this matter's direction is benign.

But from the perspective of human feelings and morality, this is practically the source of all evil.

For the morality of the entire Daxia, it is a huge test.

"In that case, isn't human morality deteriorating severely?"

Yang Qing also knew it would be this way; the people of Daxia have come through those years.

Back then, leaving doors unlocked at night was not just talk; everyone's sense of morality, integrity, and sense of responsibility were all very strong.

Not only in Daxia, even in the whole world, throughout all of human history, there has been nothing like it before or after.

If we do not consider the material aspect, back then everyone's spiritual level had already entered utopia.

This is also why, even after so much time has passed, most people still deeply miss those years.

Without considering material aspects, we were once the country closest to the ideal in the whole world.

But now, we are integrating into the global family.

Going abroad, others are too complex, while we are too simple.

The overall morality of the whole country is not as strong as ours.

As for Western hypocrisy, truly, does kindness still go around beating this and killing that every day?

Truly kind, would they still ignore so many vagrants?

Truly kind, would they still create so many genders?

Truly kind, would they still allow drugs to proliferate?

Truly kind, would they still treat prisoners as commodities, becoming the world's largest producer of blood products?

Daxia people lacking self-protection awareness are very easy to be targeted.