Chapter 582

Seeing that it was Hong Chan who had entered, the head steward narrowed his eyes, sat up from the couch, and tightened the robe draped over his body.

"You little wench, you look sharp, but I didn't expect you to be so unappreciative of the situation," the head steward said, pinching his voice. "Didn't I tell you to come? What, do I have to invite you?"

Hong Chan lowered her eyes, bowed, and offered a salute: "This servant knows she was wrong. It's just... it's just... this servant was just serving the Young Master, and the Young Master said to tell the steward that tomorrow I am to go to the Young Master's manor."

Hmm?

The head steward was immediately stunned: "Young Master? Which Young Master?"

"It's... it's the Young Master who was in the master's main hall at noon..."

*Hiss. *

The head steward frowned, waved his hand helplessly: "Go, go, go, go, go do whatever you need to do."

Inside Yuan Kui's study.

Yuan Kui, holding an oil lamp in one hand, was looking down at a book inside an opened yellow package before him.

"Follow the Dao of Heaven and Earth, without losing a fraction, and you shall establish the Great Peace."

"Hmph, hmph."

Yuan Kui let out a cold snort, slammed the Book of Great Peace before him shut, and looking at Ma Yuanyi, said, "A bunch of ants, actually wanting to presumptuously discuss state affairs—it is simply a joke."

Ma Yuanyi, kneeling on the ground, looked up at Yuan Kui with resentment: "The Great Virtuous Teacher is a man who saves the world and the people."

"He is far better than you Confucian scholars!"

Ma Yuanyi straightened his neck and said: "The world has become like this, yet have you so-called Confucian scholars ever looked at the suffering of the people?"

"Besides fighting for power and profit with the eunuchs, not one of you has ever looked at the common people in the countryside!"

"You are born noble, while the people are born lowly."

"You have lived in luxury since birth."

"The people, from birth to death, are like weeds by the roadside—born unknown, sick unknown, old unknown, dead unknown!"

"Has anyone ever truly looked at the people of the world? Only the Great Virtuous Teacher!"

"Presumptuous!" Yuan Kui smashed the table before him in anger.

Ma Yuanyi's eyes reflected the light of the oil lamp Yuan Kui was holding, as if his eyes contained anger.

"Mayfly commoners, what do you know of the affairs of the world?"

Seeming to realize he had lost his temper, Yuan Kui took a deep breath and slowly closed the so-called Taiping Heavenly Book before him.

"I don't have time to waste words with you," Yuan Kui said after adjusting his mood. "You only need to do as I say, and your wife and son will live."

"What do you want me to say?" Ma Yuanyi frowned.

Yuan Kui narrowed his eyes and said: "Tell those who interrogate you that Zhang Jiao is conspiring to connect the world and raise an army to rebel."

"And that you came to Luoyang to prepare to coordinate with Zhang Jiao's uprising."

"Impossible!"

As soon as Yuan Kui finished speaking, Ma Yuanyi retorted loudly: "The Great Virtuous Teacher wants to save all the people of the world, to present the Taiping Heavenly Book to His Majesty to govern and save the people, not to rebel!"

"I say it is, so it is. It's not up to you!" Yuan Kui looked at Ma Yuanyi with narrowed eyes: "Unless you don't want your wife and child to live."

"Pah!"

Ma Yuanyi, bound as he was, turned his head and spat a mouthful of bloody water to the side: "Don't even think about it!"

"Even if you kill me, even if you kill my whole family, I will not say that!"

"The Great Virtuous Teacher has never thought of rebelling!"

"And don't you even think about framing the Great Virtuous Teacher for wanting to rebel!"

"My life, the lives of my whole family, were all given by the Great Virtuous Teacher."

"If it weren't for the Great Virtuous Teacher, I would have starved to death by the roadside long ago, and I would never have had a wife and children."

"You want me to slander the Great Virtuous Teacher? Don't even think about it!" Ma Yuanyi gritted his teeth and glared at Yuan Kui.

Yuan Kui's eyes, like those of an old wolf, were flashing with cold light.

"Drag him out and cut out his tongue." ===== CHAPTER 584 =====