The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 31 Teachers and Students
The family of three's quality of life improved dramatically after moving to a smaller single room.

Zuo Wenkang is still a restless person.

I found some fine cotton cloth to make clothes for my unborn daughter.

His needlework was quite skillful.

Gan Minglan had some guesses about his background.
at the same time.

The Drunken Moon Pavilion in the eastern part of the city is only three streets away from the Cheng'an Prefecture government office.

The three deputy sect leaders of the Heavenly Eight Sects are arguing.

One of the deputy sect leaders looked aggrieved, barely suppressing his anger:

“Vice Sect Leader Hong, this deal was handled by our Thieves Sect! We invited the Life-Taking Sect to assist us.”

Vice Sect Leader Hong completely disregarded the other party's anger, his tone extremely arrogant:
"It's all because your Thieves' Sect members aren't skilled enough. Such a simple task, yet you've lost three inner disciples and still haven't succeeded. Given our Soul-Snatching Sect's style, why go through all this trouble?"

The only female sect leader among the three, she also had a fiery temper:
"Before the Life-Taking Gate acts, please consider the safety of our Orchid Gate as well."

You killed someone, set fire to the place, and ran away. My Drunken Moon Pavilion is still under the jurisdiction of the government!

Once a murder occurs, we become the focus of investigation.

"With them investigating cases every day, how are we supposed to keep our business running? We're in a business that makes a fortune every day!"

The deputy leader of the Thieves' Guild nodded hastily:
"We dare not disturb the business of Zuiyue Tower! Originally, this deal was only for theft, not for taking lives. We just wanted to avenge our three inner disciples while completing the mission."

The other side has a highly skilled hidden expert, but unfortunately, we haven't seen his true face. That's why we want to ask the Soul-Snatching Sect to find this person for us.

Most of them have now been transferred to the Cheng'an Prefecture prison. I wonder if Vice Sect Leader Hua can pull some strings inside? I'd like to send in a few unfamiliar brothers who haven't yet performed the finger-cutting ceremony to find out their backgrounds.

The deputy sect leader had an arrogant look on his face:

"Why not? The Cheng'an Prefecture government office is the most interesting place. As long as you give the prefect enough money, even a death row inmate can be tricked into doing something else."

Vice Sect Leader Hong rolled his eyes at the two of them.

People from these two schools tend to take a roundabout approach to things, unlike the Life-Taking School which is more direct and straightforward.

They didn't have many inner disciples to begin with, so they could just transfer a master of the second rank to serve the thieves' sect.

The three of them finally reached a consensus.

The following evening, several thugs went to Zuiyue Tower to cause trouble.

They not only disrupted the plans of some wealthy merchants in Cheng'an Prefecture, but also gave the prefect's favorite girl, Shishi, a good fright.

The madam of Zuiyue Tower reported all these hooligans to the state government.

The prefect could not bear to see his confidante wronged, so he issued a city-wide arrest warrant that very day.

In just one afternoon, the main culprits were apprehended.

Once inside the state prison, they were first given a beating.

A man who had been beaten to a bloody pulp was assigned to the same cell as Zuo Wenxuan.

Zuo Wenxuan and four other men and two women entered a day earlier.

The two women were taken in by the cell boss that very night.

Now he's lying there, contemplating suicide.

Zuo Wenxuan and the other men were being disciplined by the cell leader, and they were trembling with fear, not daring to disobey orders.

Seeing that another newcomer had arrived, the group secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The cell boss's henchman went up and kicked the newcomer to the ground:
"Newcomer, quickly report your situation! How old are you? Where are you from? What crime have you committed?"

The newcomer struggled to his feet and grinned, saying:
"I am Cao Liu, just turned twenty, and I am from Cheng'an Prefecture."

A brother of mine took a fancy to Shishi, a girl at Zuiyue Tower. He spent all his money on her, hoping to redeem her. However, she accepted my brother's money but refused to leave the tower.

"We brothers were naturally furious, so we went to their door and ruined Miss Shishi's good time. Now, we've been arrested and brought here." The cell leader gave the man a disdainful look:
"I thought he was some kind of hero! They say prostitutes are heartless and actors are unrighteous, yet you, brother, actually believed the promise of a courtesan."

The other party looked regretful: "Alas, it's too late to regret it now! We would go to great lengths for our brothers, but they abandoned us at the crucial moment."

Upon hearing this, the others looked at him as if he were a fool.

"Tsk tsk, turns out he's just a scapegoat!"

"Pah! What kind of bullshit brother is this?"

"Oh dear, look at his pitiful state!"

A righteous yet pitiful scapegoat, he's not unpleasant to people in a prison cell.

In addition, this guy named Cao Liu was quite perceptive and took the initiative to spend money to add chicken legs to the big shots' dinner.

He quickly became friends with everyone.

It was his first time in prison, and he found the mixed-gender prison system quite novel.

Someone advised him: "Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask. She's our boss's new favorite. You should call her 'elder sister-in-law' and 'younger sister-in-law'."

He wisely kept quiet.

He turned around and befriended the men of the Zuo family, showing them respect for scholars.

“I grew up in the mule and horse market. My father only taught me how to look at mules and horses, and I only knew the first three lines of the Three Character Classic!”

Cao Liu admires you the most, those who study diligently day after day for decades.

If I knew a few more words, I wouldn't have been so easily taken advantage of.

I only regret that it's easy to get in but hard to get out now. I have a fifty-year-old mother to support and a two-year-old daughter to feed.

I regret it so much, I'm so incredibly regretful.

Zuo Wenxuan didn't know how to comfort the poor Cao Liu.

He hesitated for a long time before asking the other person if they would like to learn to read with him.

He was also encouraged:
"The entire Three Character Classic only has 1,145 characters. You only need to learn 50 characters a day, and you can finish learning it in less than a month."

Cao Liu was naturally pleased to hear this, and quickly bowed to him, saying, "Master, please accept my bow!"

Zuo Wenxuan waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it."

The cell boss and the others didn't interfere with the two men's behavior because Cao Liu had treated them to chicken legs.

There are no writing brushes, ink, paper, or inkstones here, so the conditions for reading and learning to read are limited.

After pondering for a while, Zuo Wenxuan decided to teach the students to memorize the texts first.

And then a magical scene unfolded.

The sound of Lang Lang reading aloud could be heard coming from inside the prison.

Even prisoners with a rudimentary understanding of literature could recognize that the content was the "Three Character Classic".

The nearby cells were abuzz with discussion, wondering what had gotten into the two men.

The teacher and student, however, paid no attention; one taught diligently, and the other studied attentively.
The others performed differently compared to Cao Liu.

Some people were very curious about the Zuo clan's "crime of aiding the enemy" and couldn't help but ask about it during casual conversations.

Some people went in and said a few wrong things, angering the crowd, and were beaten half to death.

Each day is wonderful in its own way.

They only began to act when it was late at night and all was quiet.

(End of this chapter)