Longcheng First Prison.
In the warden's office, Li Xuanji sat behind his desk, sizing up the two men before him — one powerfully built, the other lean as a rake.
During this period, most of the prisoners had been on their best behavior, some even showing genuine enthusiasm.
The imperial court kept shipping people to Longcheng, and the prison was struggling to keep its guard roster adequately staffed.
Longcheng's population was growing steadily, but then, where wasn't there a shortage of hands? Recruiting new staff was simply not going to happen overnight.
After some deliberation, they decided to have prisoners manage prisoners — a way to ease the burden on the administration.
So they called for volunteers among the best-behaved inmates, offering various incentives in return.
Liu Dadao and Li Datou had both distinguished themselves sufficiently to make the first round of candidates.
Liu Dadao made the list because of his imposing physique — he earned more work-points than most — and because he commanded real respect among the other inmates, which meant people would actually listen to him.
Li Datou, on the other hand, had shone in the nightly study sessions; he learned with remarkable speed and was always willing to teach the others.
For managing prisoners, basic literacy and numeracy were a considerable advantage — tallying work-points, for one thing, was far easier that way.
"Liu Dadao, Li Datou — you both claim to have management experience. What kind of experience, exactly?"
Liu Dadao raised his head. "Warden, sir, both me and Li Datou have served as emperor. Between us we've managed several thousand men."
Li Xuanji looked up in startled disbelief, then let out a short laugh. Well, that was something.
Come to think of it, all three of them had something in common — they'd each had a turn at being emperor.
"Fine. I'll approve you both."
"Send the next ones in."
…
The first cohort of a hundred prisoner-wardens was selected and would serve a trial period; if the results were satisfactory, the scheme would be expanded on a larger scale.
The hundred men were issued a different style of prison uniform and began working alongside the regular guards.
Their daily work-point allotment went up by two points, the duties were somewhat lighter, and they would be given priority consideration for sentence reductions when the time came.
After a full day's labor, Liu Dadao returned to the prison that evening and cashed in some work-points for a bit of money.
He went to the canteen, chose a large bowl of coarse-grain rice and a dish with meat in it, spent one yuan twenty, and ate with great, hearty mouthfuls.
Beside him, Fang Datou had taken only a small bowl of rice and a small plate of vegetable dish — three jiao, all told.
The cheapest meal available cost one jiao, and if you had no money it was simply deducted from your work-points — but the quality was poor, the taste worse, and the portions meager.
So prisoners, after a stretch inside, generally bought themselves a proper meal. Only when they were flat broke did they resort to what they cheerfully called slop.
Which meant that Liu Dadao this evening had spent one yuan twenty on dinner, plus a jiao on that midday slop — so had he essentially worked the whole day for nothing and come out one jiao in the hole?
Quite a talent, that man.
"Hey, Fang Danaodai, how come you eat so cheap every single meal? What are you saving up for — planning to sit the tongsheng exam again once you get out? Ha!"
"A man who gives no thought to the future will find trouble close at hand. Putting a little money away never hurts."
"Who gives a damn about all that. I'm already a convict — eat what you want, spend what you have, why think so hard about it."
"Dadao, don't forget — you've still got a wife and kids out there. And your old mother. You're just going to wash your hands of them completely?"
"Shut your mouth!" Liu Dadao shot Fang Datou a sharp, uneasy glare.
"Don't bring that up!"
After Liu Dadao had raised his rebellion and proclaimed himself emperor, he and Fang Datou had parted ways, though they'd stayed loosely in touch from time to time.
Fang Datou had once spelled out for him what the likely consequences were for men like the two of them.
Liu Dadao, whose capacity for deep thought was limited but whose nose for danger was not, understood perfectly well that he was playing a game that ended with heads rolling — his own if things went wrong, and his family's along with it.
So he'd taken some of the money he'd scraped together and sent it home, telling his family to go to the prefectural city and live there under new names, keeping their heads down.
If his enterprise succeeded, he would naturally bring them back to his side.
If it didn't…
"Liu Dadao!"
"Ah — Guard Zhou, you were looking for me? Don't tell me I made an error in the work-point ledger today?"
"No. Someone's here to visit you."
"Visit me?"
Liu Dadao followed the guard with a puzzled look, though a vague unease had begun to stir somewhere beneath his ribs.
"Go on in. I'll wait out here."
He was shown to the visiting room, close to the prison gate. He went in alone and found four people — old and young — waiting for him. His mind went blank.
"Ma! Oh, Ma — how did you get here!"
"Xiaoqin, what the hell were you thinking! You know damn well what I was mixed up in — the whole family could lose their heads over it! Are you trying to wipe out the Liu line entirely?"
"That's enough. Don't put on airs in front of your own family. It's not Xiaoqin's fault — I heard you hadn't died, that you'd been sold off to this Longcheng, and I was the one who insisted on coming."
"Ma — Ma, you're out of your mind!"
"Out of my mind nothing. This place looks perfectly fine to me."
"We've been here a while now. This old woman may be foolish, but she's not about to do anything that would harm her own grandchildren."
"We looked into things here carefully before we dared come to visit."
"If this place were full of the sort who eat people alive, I'd have given up on you long ago and counted you among the dead."
"I've found out the facts. You've all been sentenced to ten years, haven't you? And I hear sentences can be reduced. Work hard, get out early — and we can all live together again as a family."
"Don't worry about anything outside. It's safe here. You left us plenty of money; it's enough for us to live on."
"I've already enrolled your grandchildren in school. Their futures are looked after. You're the only useless wretch I still have to lose sleep over."
The old woman went on and on. Liu Dadao listened without a word.
His first instinct when he'd seen his family walk in was fear — raw, reflexive fear that something had gone terribly wrong.
But as he listened to his mother's rambling, the truth slowly worked its way through to him.
Of course. I'm already here. This is Longcheng. What's the imperial court's executioner going to do to me now?
"Husband, here — take this money. Buy yourself something decent to eat in there. Don't let yourself waste away."
"I didn't dare bring too much at once. If you need more, I'll bring it next time."
Liu Dadao's eyes lit up. He snatched the reddish-purple note from her hand. "Wasteful woman — do you know this is three months of my wages?"
"All right, all right, you can all go now. Xiaoqin — I gave you plenty of money. From now on, come visit me once a month and bring two notes for spending."
The old woman yanked off her shoe and started whacking him with it. "You good-for-nothing! From now on you get one liang of silver a month, no more!"
In the end, he was her only son. The love was still there whether she liked it or not.
"Ma! Visiting time's up — I'm going, I'm going! Please take care of yourself, wait for your son to come home and be filial to you…"
Before he'd even finished the sentence, Liu Dadao had bolted out the door.
A few moments later, in a small two-man cell, Liu Dadao came in carrying a jar of liquor and a stack of paper boxes.
"Your family came to see you?"
Liu Dadao said with a self-satisfied air, "That's right. The old woman worried I was suffering in here, so she brought some money over. Come on, eat up — don't be shy."
"Back in those days it was just the same — one of us would filch a bit of money, we'd buy some liquor and a handful of beans, sit down together and talk big. Ha. We got beaten plenty for it back then."
Fang Datou didn't stand on ceremony. He flipped open a few of the boxes and dug in.
The two men ate and drank, drifting quietly through their memories, so there wasn't much talk.
After a while, Liu Dadao took a sip of liquor. His eyes went red. "Datou… if only these days had come a few years earlier. Then my brother and sister wouldn't have died…"