"Some people say that this place is the underworld. People like us are ghost soldiers in the Temple of Yama. Nonsense, obviously nonsense! This is an extremely irresponsible slander from people who don't know us! This kind of prejudice and misunderstanding, It makes me and those who have worked hard and devoted themselves to their duties heartbroken."
The speaker was wearing a light blue soap suit, with an oilcloth crown slightly larger than his head on his head, an old red cloth ribbon around his waist, and a pair of ill-fitting shoes on his feet. White gang black-faced straight boots, this attire clearly looks like a prison guard.
However, standing in the dark cell of Xuanzi No. 1 Prison of the Criminal Department of Beijing City, facing the prisoners who had just been imprisoned, his tone and demeanor were as humble as those of the young men in the "Spring Breeze Building", who were soliciting business. It's just that there is a sweat towel missing from the shoulder.
He is very young, just at the age of transition from teenager to youth. He is neither tall nor short, with a moderate body shape, and his appearance is just above average, but his eyes are very lively with his willow-like eyebrows, especially his mouth with clear lip line and diamond-shaped lips, which makes him see clearly. It smells like red lips and white teeth.
He smiled lightly and gently, as gentle as a virgin: "My surname is Ye, Ye Xiaotian, when I was three years old, I hung out in the prison, and when I was sixteen, I officially took over my father's class and became the No. A guard. It’s been the eighth year of Wanli, and I’ve been working as an imperial envoy for three years. Thanks to the appreciation of the prison master, I’m now the head of the No. 1 prison. Xiaotian, I have a pure heart..."
As soon as Ye Xiaotian boasted, a jailer in his early thirties quickly walked up to him and whispered in his ear: "Boss, someone is causing trouble. They think our food is poor and the bedding is too damp. You look… "
Ye Xiaotian turned his head slightly, and asked in a low voice: "Which blind bastard is he, who dares to play tricks in a place like ours?"
The jailer replied in a low voice, "It's Guan Yun, the Prime Minister of the Right Temple of the former Dali Temple."
Ye Xiaotian asked again: "Have you found out about him?"
The jailer said: "He was greedy for more than 50,000 taels of silver, Mr. Shoufu nodded and arrested him personally, and his backstage was also arrested. There is no hope of getting out again."
Ye Xiaotian nodded, and slightly glanced at the prisoners who had just been locked in the left and right cells, his smile was still peaceful, the mouth with more beautiful lip shape and clearer lip line than many girls' voice was so soft that only the one standing beside him The jailer could hear it.
"This group of corrupt officials who gave birth to children without an ass hole, sixty taels of silver was enough to skin Hongwu Lord, but now they have embezzled fifty thousand taels of silver, and they still have to talk about this and that. This day, he is in prison for his retirement and happiness. Is it where he lives? It’s really embarrassing to him. Since he thinks sleeping on the kang is uncomfortable, then put him in the empty cell at the end of the prison and sleep on a haystack like a pig, and give him a nest and a bowl of water every day. , as long as you don’t starve to death.”
The jailer worriedly said: "Boss, what if he really wants to commit suicide?"
Ye Xiaotian sneered and said: "It's no wonder that poor and fastidious people in this place are willing to die. You don't need to beat him, and you don't need to scold him, just let him hang around like this. When he is willing to give in, he will be fined for emptying the toilet for a month." , I don't believe that he can't be cured!"
The jailer gave a sinister smile and took his orders and left.
Ye Xiaotian cleared his cough and faced the prisoners who had just been imprisoned, with a smile like a spring breeze blowing on his face, and his voice was even more gentle and amiable: "Everyone, you are all officials who live in eight seats and live in luxury clothes. So far, they are all great nobles, and Xiaotian will take care of them with all his heart, so that all the masters in my Xuanzi No. 1 Prison will feel like they are coming home."
After Ye Xiaotian finished speaking, he bowed to them with a smile, his eyes swept away, as if appearing on a corner stage, with just one glance, he took care of every "inspector", and then he calmly said Walking away, his demeanor and demeanor are like a patriarch who is patrolling his home.
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The prison of the Ministry of punishment, commonly known as the sky prison. The sky prison is divided into heaven and earth, Xuanhuang and four prisons. The Xuanzi supervisors are all officials who were imprisoned because of "Brother Kong Fang". The most one place.
However, the place where officials are detained is no different from ordinary prisons. It is difficult to say whether a person who is still a prisoner today will be able to return to his post tomorrow. Furthermore, even in prison, the identity of an official is different from that of an ordinary prisoner. If anyone wants to commit suicide or self-mutilation, the jailers will be in bad luck.
But if you want to indulge them blindly, let them be domineering, and even collude with inside and outside, and collude with the news, it will be bad luck for the prison guards. Therefore, it is the most difficult thing to be a jailer in the sky prison, and it is even more difficult to be a prison boss in the sky prison. You have to have great skills to deal with this group of elites.
Ye Xiaotian took over his father's job at the age of sixteen and became a jailer in the No. 1 prison in Xuanzi. He became the head of the prison in just three years, and his methods are evident.
On weekdays there is a new prisoner, and the jailer will introduce him to the situation in the prison. Ye Xiaotian does not need to show up in person, but in the past two months, Liu Fenghui, the head of the Sixth Division, wrote a letter to the emperor to impeach the two major leaders of the capital. Disasters: one is that the magistrates and servants destroy the people's homes; the other is that the noble relatives and assistants rob the people's interests, so that the people are destitute and miserable.
Emperor Wanli attached great importance to this memorial, and immediately issued an edict to check the preparations of the treasury bureau of the inner government and reduce them as appropriate, so as to reduce the burden of corvee on the people. At the same time, the Three Law Departments were ordered to strictly investigate the crimes of the ministers and noble relatives who harmed the people, so there were such a group of people in the sky prison, and more than a dozen criminals were imprisoned at once. .
"Little brother, the old man has studied the western astrology book you brought last time, and he has gained a lot of experience. Come here, let the old man calculate it for you."
Ye Xiaotian was walking out, when a greeting came from the cell next to him, at the same time, a dead branch-like arm protruded from the wooden fence, swaying enthusiastically towards him.
The wooden fences in this cell are all made of thick logs. After the new paint peels off, layers of cracked old paint inside are revealed, silently announcing its age to people. The gap between the fences was only a palm's width, but the prisoner's thin face seemed to be able to get through the fence without any effort.
He had an old face, sunken cheeks, and was wearing a very dirty prison uniform, which was so wrinkled that it was almost impossible to see the background color. The white hair on the head is sparse, almost completely bald, only a few white hairs are still stubbornly sticking to the flesh-red scalp, standing upright naked.
The name of this bald old man is Yang Lin, and he is a member of the Ministry of Officials, Wai Lang. Some big shots were involved, so he was imprisoned for three years and has not yet been sentenced.
This Yang Lin has always been obsessed with mystical art, and he didn't have much time to study it when he was an official. In the past three years, he had nothing to do in the prison, and studied Zhouyi Ghost Valley every day, but he became more and more obsessed with these magical things, so that he became a little neurotic. , was honored as "God Stick" by jailers and prisoners. '
Every time Yang Shengun has some experience in research, he always wants to find someone to try his skills, but the jailers and prisoners have never been interested in his nonsense, so his only experimental product is Ye Xiaotian. Feeling bones, divination, looking at faces, criticizing horoscopes...all tried on Ye Xiaotian.
Ye Xiaotian didn't really believe his nonsense, but he still pretended to be interested and squatted down in front of Yang Lin.
If these prisoners, especially the prisoners who have not yet been sentenced, have any good or bad, as the prison leader, he must bear the responsibility of dereliction of duty, so Ye Xiaotian always racks his brains for the prisoners who have the idea of committing suicide. There is a desire to live.
This Yang Lin was doomed not to be able to escape from birth, the difference is only in whether he dies sooner or later, it depends on the game of those big people above. Since he was sure that he would not be able to get rid of the crime, even his family members stopped visiting him.
For such a person, ill-treatment and punishment can only promote their early death, and good wine and tea cannot be the motivation for him to live. Fortunately, he likes to study mysterious arts, so Ye Xiaotian picked up what he likes and collected many books on this subject for him. Yang Lin is so obsessed with profound arts now, perhaps it is not without Ye Xiaotian's contribution to the flames.
Ye Xiaotian squatted down in front of the prison door, pretending to be very interested, and said: "Your Excellency Yang has gained something from his research? Ha, he is indeed an expert. I heard from the Western missionary that this constellation technique calculated by the solar calendar is It is difficult for us Orientals to study and understand."
Yang Lin stroked his sparse beard, and proudly said: "The old man is very knowledgeable, and the mere western astrology technique is more than one level inferior to my middle-earth Zhouyi technique. Come up with the horoscope."
Ye Xiaotian said the horoscope of the date of birth cooperatively, Yang Dashenzhu immediately fell into deep thought, and said: "Well, let me convert your birth date into the Western calendar first..."
Yang Lin pinched his fingers and muttered words for a while, then suddenly his expression lifted, and he said: "Yes! You, according to your birth date, should belong to the zodiac sign of Gemini. People of the zodiac sign of Gemini are very clever, but their temperament has two sides: movement and stillness Yin and Yang, mutual ebb and flow. Kindness and evil, happiness and melancholy, tenderness and cruelty all in one, complicated, complicated... "
When Yang Lin said this, he shook his bald head again and again. As a good listener, Ye Xiaotian lost no time in adding a sentence: "Then, what is the fate of the boy?"
Just at this moment, a very elegant and clear voice suddenly came from the next cell: "Little Ye Zi..." There is a business coming, Ye Xiaotian quickly waved his hand to stop Yang Lin, hurried over, rubbed his hands and said with a smile: "Huang Servant, what orders does your lord have?"
Huang Shilang took out some scattered silver and handed it out from the fence gate, and said slowly: "Please Ye Touer buy me a 'Tianfuhao' sauce elbow, the knife should be finer, and another 'Bone Fragrant' one Roasted chicken should be freshly out of the pot. This wine... is Huadiao, it needs to be more than five years old."
"Okay! Just wait a moment, the boy will be right back."
Ye Xiaotian took the scattered silver and weighed it, knowing that after buying the wine and meat that Huang Shilang wanted, there would be a lot of errand money left over. He didn't expect to make a small profit before he was about to leave work today. When he walked out, he didn't even walk. All a lot lighter.
Guarding Xuanzi No. 1 Prison, a high-walled courtyard, circling around the fallen officials, guarding, frightening, coaxing, deceiving, and getting a little money, this is Ye Xiaotian's happy life every day . He thought that such a "good life" could last his whole life, but he didn't expect that this was his last day in the prison.