Chapter 39: The mess left by the predecessor

Early in the morning, Chen Guanlou stepped into the Jia-block prison with high spirits.

They were all familiar faces, and everyone greeted each other.

"Chen Guanlou, come here."

Prison Clerk Wan suddenly appeared, looking haggard and gloomy, and called Chen Guanlou into the office.

"I have seen Prison Clerk Wan!"

Chen Guanlou followed the rules, saluted, and greeted him, looking like a workplace novice.

Prison Clerk Wan stared at him fixedly.

Just when Chen Guanlou felt the other party was about to explode, Prison Clerk Wan said: "Since you've come to the Jia-block prison, work hard in the future. Prison Warden Fan thinks highly of you, and it just so happens that we are short of a squad leader, so you fill the spot."

"I'll be the squad leader?" Chen Guanlou doubted he had heard wrong; was the swordsman's threat that effective? Or was the other party trying to roast him on a fire?

"There are so many seniors in the Jia-block prison, they should be more suitable than me."

"They only barely know a few words, while you have properly studied. Prison Warden Fan said that the Jia-block prison needs talent like you. Why, do you have objections to the decision made by me and Prison Warden Fan?" Prison Clerk Wan used his power to suppress others.

Chen Guanlou hurriedly denied, "The official misunderstood. I am worried that others will not be convinced."

"That is your own problem. How to make others convinced of you, think of a way yourself. This is the shift schedule, take it. From now on, work according to the time on this. Put more heart into it, this is not the Bing-block prison, not a place where you can be presumptuous at will, don't bring the atmosphere of the Bing-block prison over here."

Prison Clerk Wan despised the Bing-block prison in every sentence. How much did he look down on his colleagues? They were all prison guards, yet they had to be divided into three, six, and nine grades; wasn't it tiring?

Chen Guanlou silently took the shift schedule and left the office.

He first went to the office to meet his subordinates, totaling only four people.

The short one Chen Quan, Liu She. The fatty Qian Fugui, and the middle-aged greasy, lecherous man Wu Jin.

This was his team.

Everyone met and introduced themselves.

Chen Guanlou saw at a glance that these four belonged to the type of prison guards who muddled through their days, didn't want to manage things, didn't want to take responsibility, and just wanted to slack off every day.

There was no sense of responsibility; they wouldn't commit major mistakes, but minor mistakes were constant.

He coughed lightly and began to lecture.

"You all know that because of the gathering to gamble, the higher-ups cleaned up the Heavenly Prison severely. Many people were forced or voluntarily left the Heavenly Prison. Those who could stay must have their own merits, and luck is also a kind of strength. I am that lucky one in everyone's mouth, transferred from the Bing-block prison to the Jia-block prison to be your squad leader.

I have no other requirements; patrol when you should patrol, be on duty when you should be on duty, and I don't care what you do at other times, nor do I want to ask. However, if anyone causes trouble, it's best to solve it yourself. If you can't solve it, pray for your own good. It's not easy for everyone to earn some hard-earned money, so there's no reason to wipe someone else's ass. However, when I can cover for you, I won't decline. The premise is that you are willing to trust me. Alright, dismissed!"

Dismissed just like that?

The four prison guards looked at each other, no show of power? No establishing authority?

Seeing that the four people were still standing there, Chen Guanlou asked: "Any problems?"

"Chen Tou, everything as usual?" Perhaps because they shared the same surname, Chen Quan was the first to open his mouth.

Chen Guanlou hesitated for a moment, "How were you on duty before?"

"Patrolling in groups of three." Still Chen Quan.

Chen Guanlou immediately said: "Our group doesn't have enough personnel, temporarily in groups of two. Liu She, you and Qian Fugui in a group. Chen Quan, you and Wu Jin in a group. Anything else unclear?"

"That..." This time it was the fatty Qian Fugui, who swallowed and opened his mouth after finally gathering the courage.

"Anything else?"

"When Zhao Tou was here before, he once collected a sum of money." Qian Fugui finally gathered the courage.

Chen Guanlou raised his eyebrows, "What does Zhao Tou collecting money have to do with me?" The sword of the previous dynasty cannot cut the officials of the current dynasty. The mess left by the predecessor had nothing to do with him.

Did Qian Fugui understand the rules?

He retorted very unhappily.

Wu Jin interjected: "Everyone has a share of this money."

"Make it clear." Chen Guanlou kept a straight face, his majesty beginning to show. Long-term martial arts practice made his eyes exceptionally firm and spirited; compared to a group of mixed-up prison guards, he was much more spirited.

Wu Jin hurriedly explained: "Chen Tou, the situation is like this. When Zhao Tou was here, he collected silver from an official from the Ministry of Works who had committed an offense, promising to take care of him and help pass a few words to his family. Of course, we don't want Chen Tou to pass words. It's just that only half of the money was collected. As for the remaining half, Chen Tou, what do you think?"

Chen Guanlou finally understood what the prison guards meant: pulling him into the group to share the silver. If he didn't accept the silver, the four of them wouldn't dare to openly take care of that official from the Ministry of Works.

Chen Guanlou frowned and stepped on a chair, "Tell me about the rules of the Jia-block prison first, and how it is different from the Bing-block prison."

The four people exchanged glances and quickly reached a tacit understanding. It was still Wu Jin who spoke, "The rules of the Jia-block prison have been changed several times. Before, it was divided according to the government office, with four squads, each squad collecting money from the officials who committed offenses in their respective offices. Later, everyone thought this method was not very fair; some offices had many offenses, some had few, and the silver everyone got was different, which was not conducive to our internal unity.

So it was changed to each squad being responsible for a section of the prison cells. Whichever cell the person was locked in, that squad would collect the money. As for the distribution of money, 40% is handed over to Prison Clerk Wan, 30% goes into the public account of the Jia-block prison to issue money to everyone. The remaining 30% is divided privately among us."

"The squad leader takes 10% alone." Liu She added.

"The squad leader takes 10%?" Chen Guanlou was secretly surprised. He really didn't expect that the squad leader of the Jia-block prison could take 10% alone; no wonder the gambling games in the Heavenly Prison were the most high-end, atmospheric, and high-grade in the Jia-block prison, with the most abundant gambling capital.

"Yes, yes. This is the old rule." Liu She seemed to have misunderstood, thinking Chen Guanlou thought it was too little, and hurriedly emphasized that this was the rule of the Jia-block prison.

Chen Guanlou gritted his back teeth, "The squad leader takes 10%, do the higher-ups have no objections?"

"Chen Tou doesn't know, the prisoners in the Jia-block prison have unusual identities, and often need the squad leader's care. When the higher-ups don't want to come forward, they also need the squad leader to act as a middleman."

No wonder the prison guards of the Jia-block prison were required to be able to read and write. Acting as a middleman, officials all like to talk around and around, roundabout and tortuous, various subtle and implicit, just refusing to speak directly. If you haven't studied, you can't even understand what is being said, how can you act as a middleman?

Chen Guanlou coughed lightly and asked a question, "Do you all know how to read?"

"I know one hundred characters."

"I know three hundred."

"I am stronger than them, I can finish reading the 'Thousand Character Classic'."

Chen Guanlou:...

Damn it, the so-called literacy really just means knowing characters!

He had properly studied, and among this group of prison guards, he was indeed standing out from the crowd.

"Back to the money matter, you only collected half of the money before, which means the money you handed over is not enough, and now you need me to make up for it?" ===== CHAPTER 40 =====