Whoever can strike me hard will be rewarded handsomely.

In prison, I couldn't tell the time.

Pei Lian stood with his eyes closed against the wall for an unknown amount of time.

His legs were sore and swollen, and his stomach was growling with hunger, when he was startled by a shout from the messenger who came to distribute food.

"Dinner's ready! Dinner's ready!"

The sound of wooden spoons striking wooden barrels abruptly roused the lifeless prison, and the prisoners began to stir rustlingly.

The clanging of chains and the rustling of clothes against straw were incessant.

Pei Lian opened his eyes and saw the messengers distributing food walking along the way. The prisoners stood guard by the fence like hyenas, clinging tightly to the earthenware bowls placed at the door with their hands stained with blood or mud, and feasting on the thin porridge that reflected their reflections and the hard, rock-like steamed buns.

Occasionally, one could hear the impatient shouts of the constables: "What are you robbing? Are you a starving ghost reincarnated?"

The bailiffs quickly arrived at Pei Lian's cell. They scooped some thin porridge from the bucket with a wooden ladle, poured it into a chipped earthenware bowl, pushed the bowl into the bars, and placed a steamed bun on top. That was it.

Pei Lian's gaze followed the bailiff's movements and landed on the bowl of porridge being pushed in from under the fence.

The steamed bun was half soaked in the porridge and half placed on the ground, covered with dust and a suspicious liquid of unknown composition.

Pei Lian's appetite vanished instantly; he had no desire to eat. Instead of going to the fence to get some, he closed his eyes again, fighting off the burning hunger in his stomach.

"You're already here, what are you pretending for?" A prisoner from some cell scoffed.

In the next cell, a disheveled, gaunt man, seeing that Pei Lian wasn't eating, patted the bars and pointed to the ceramic bowl on the ground, saying to Pei Lian, "If you're not going to eat, could you give it to me?"

Pei Lian glanced at him sideways, then looked back at the bowl of thin porridge and steamed buns on the ground, a jumble of thoughts popping into her head one after another.

How long will he be kept here?

How many days can he survive without eating?

Over time, will they become like other prisoners, only caring about a bite to eat, with no dignity whatsoever?

Thinking about it this way, Pei Lian lost her appetite even more, and clenched her fists under her sleeves.

He walked straight to the fence, bent down, picked up the bowl of porridge, and placed it within reach of the prisoner next door, without even bothering to give a glance or utter a word.

"Hmph—" A sound came from some cell, seemingly mocking him.

The prisoner next door quickly picked up his bowl of porridge and finished it in a few gulps. He even devoured the rock-hard steamed bun in no time, as if afraid the prisoner would change his mind.

Pei Lian returned to the wall and continued to rest with his eyes closed.

He had been standing for too long, and his legs were sore and swollen, but he didn't want to lie down on that straw "bed" that was probably teeming with lice and fleas. The wounds on his body, which were too embarrassing to talk about, also prevented him from finding a corner to sit down.

So he could only endure it, until he could no longer stand, until he compromised with his pride and dignity.

After an unknown amount of time, the harsh sound of chains once again roughly pulled Pei Lian out of his world.

He looked up and saw that the two messengers who had been distributing food had returned.

One person was carrying a lacquered wooden food box, while the other was holding two quilts, one thick and one thin.

The guards carrying food boxes took out the contents one by one and placed them on the dilapidated wooden table in the cell. The guards carrying bedding dragged in a door panel from somewhere, piled up a few bricks, put the door panel on it, and then laid bedding on it to make a makeshift bed.

The aroma of food wafted out and entered his nostrils, causing the hunger in his stomach to erupt almost instantly, making Pei Lian's Adam's apple move uncontrollably.

The constable wore a fairly polite smile: "Tell us what you'd like to eat next, and we'll bring it to you later. Anything that flies in the sky or swims in the water, as long as it's something we can buy for you within half an hour, it's all fine."

Pei Lian's eyes flickered slightly, and thinking of her senior brother who was still outside, she made a guess almost instantly.

A surge of warmth welled up, mixed with a bittersweet feeling that clashed and intertwined in my chest.

The bailiff's words stunned the other prisoners in the cell.

Where did this person with connections come from?

Even people in jail get to eat vegetables?

With such skills, how did you end up in the prison of the Five Cities Garrison?

Some people, skeptical, peered into the doorway and said, "Officer, they're all in jail, so why is he being treated so well? That doesn't make sense! Why didn't we order any food?"

The bailiff picked up a half-used brick and pretended to hit him, which frightened the complaining prisoner so much that he rolled away and slunk into a corner.

The constable cursed, "You bastard, you're dreaming! If you had a brother who could spend five hundred taels of silver in a flash, I'd run my legs off to buy it for you, so what?"

"Are you that lucky?"

The prisoner gasped upon hearing this, looking at Pei Lian as if he were seeing a golden Buddha.

Pei Lian's anxiety subsided slightly as he looked at the food on the table.

Since he can be taken care of, the teacher must be the same.

The constable forced a friendly expression onto his fierce-looking face and asked in a low, high-pitched voice, "Young master, what would you like to eat for your next meal?"

Pei Lian didn't have many requirements: "Ordinary is fine, no need for extravagance."

The constable chuckled and said, "Then I'll get right to it. Enjoy your meal."

After saying that, he locked the cell door again and left with his companion.

The prison was quiet for a few moments. After the guards left, someone said sourly, "So he's a rich man's young master. No wonder he didn't want to touch the porridge and cakes."

Some scoffed: "I used to cut down rich young masters like him with a single stroke. The way these nobles begged and pleaded under my blade... tsk tsk..."

Pei Lian had never seen such a vicious and ruthless person who took pleasure in showing off his killings.

He initially didn't want to pay attention, but unable to bear it any longer, he retorted sarcastically, "So, you've ended up in this jail too?"

"Fuck your mother!" The man sat up abruptly, spitting out the straw he was holding in his mouth, and grinned maliciously, "You better sleep with your eyes open tonight, just you wait."

Pei Lian's heart skipped a beat. He glanced at the wooden fences, which were thicker than his arm, and thought to himself: I wonder if the jailers of the Five Cities Garrison are reliable. Surely the prisoners won't find the key and run away?

He remained calm and even nodded slightly at the man.

Amid the prisoner's furious outburst, Pei Lian picked up her chopsticks and forced herself to remain calm as she looked at the dishes for the day.

His gaze swept across the area, but when it landed on a porcelain bowl containing a milky white liquid, he froze slightly, his face turning pale and then flushed.

Pei Lian stood up, picked up the porcelain bowl, and placed it by the fence next to him with a sour face.

The inmate in the next cell saw this and immediately rushed over. When he saw what was in the bowl, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets: "Good heavens, milk?"

He really lucked out on such a good thing!

He clasped his hands together and bowed obsequiously to the golden Buddha statue next door, hoping that the other party might slip some good stuff through its fingers later.

Pei Liansi ate his meal politely, not even glancing at him.

...

The first update is here; the second update should be around 1 PM.

We're still 650 short of generating this energy with love! Let's all keep going!