Li Chutian hesitated for a moment. Thinking back to how that damned girl A-Li had been so overbearing and unreasonable earlier, the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
If he didn’t let A-Li suffer a little, she would only become even more unrestrained in the future!
“I see that the place that girl is staying in is actually much cleaner than an ordinary cell. But our family isn’t some wealthy or noble household. She’s rough-skinned and thick-fleshed—how could she deserve such preferential treatment? There’s no need to be so polite to her. Whatever the other cells have, she can endure too,” Li Chutian reminded them.
As soon as he said this, the jailers understood. They simply nodded, without agreeing outright.
Seeing this, Li Chutian grew anxious inside. Gritting his teeth, he took out another tael of silver. “I’ll trouble you.”
These jailers were truly greedy like locusts—just to handle such a small matter, they dared to ask for so much!
“It can’t be done during the day. When night comes, we’ll make the arrangements ourselves. As for what happens afterward, that won’t be something we can decide. If her luck is bad and she catches some rat-borne filth or disease, don’t push the blame onto us,” the jailer said bluntly.
Hearing this, Li Chutian immediately nodded, relieved.
He knew his daughter well. She had been timid since childhood. This prison was gloomy and damp, and at night it would feel even more terrifying. When the time came, as long as the jailers put on a little act—playing tricks like ghosts and spirits—she would surely be frightened out of her wits.
At the thought of suppressing his daughter’s lawless arrogance, Li Chutian felt his chest ease, his anger subsiding. After exchanging a few polite words, he left.
Li Shu, after all, was in prison, her freedom restricted.
But to Li Shu, this state wasn’t unpleasant—there was food and drink, and few people bothered her.
She wasn’t in a death row cell. The prisoners were still in decent spirits, so she could hear inmates in other cells chatting. Through this, she learned more about the world.
The Great Zhou Dynasty was not very stable. It was said that the new emperor was young, and taking advantage of this, the barbarians beyond the borders had begun to oppress them. In the past two years, warfare had been frequent. Ganhe Town, as a border town, would surely be reduced to devastation with no path to survival if Yunjing Pass were breached.
Even if she got out of prison, she couldn’t expect to live peacefully.
She had to store as many supplies as possible, just in case.
Of course, it would be best if Yunjing Pass could remain secure. But it was said that in recent battles, Great Zhou had only won by narrow margins. If even one future battle ended in a slight defeat, the cost would be countless lives. Therefore, she had to be prepared to flee at any time—she could not afford to let her guard down.
At night, the prison quieted.
The oil in the lamps along the corridor walls was running low, illuminating only a small stretch of ground. The cells grew even darker.
In the middle of the night, Li Shu heard faint rustling sounds—different from the noises made by prisoners.
The sound was very close to her, more like metal scraping. Someone seemed to be opening a cell door. She didn’t get up, instead lying there pretending to sleep, occasionally squinting her eyes. Vaguely, she seemed to see a dark shadow moving about in the neighboring cell.
That afternoon, the jailers had taken away the prisoner next door. It should have been empty. Even if they were going to put a new inmate in, they wouldn’t wait until the dead of night.
After a while, the cell door was locked again.
But Li Shu felt something crawling into her cell—more than just one or two.
When it got closer,借助 the faint light, she finally saw clearly: rats. And not just a few—chittering and squeaking, at least ten of them.
The jailers had no personal grudge against her. Unless they were instructed to do so, they wouldn’t deliberately cause her trouble. And in just one night, the rats wouldn’t kill her at most—they’d only frighten her. This sort of tactic was exactly the kind of thing Li Chutian would do.
In the original owner’s memories, Li Chutian had done things like this before.
When the original owner’s grandfather was still alive, life had been tolerable, and the stepmother didn’t dare to scheme. But after the grandfather passed away, the stepmother began speaking ill of her in front of Li Chutian. After hearing it often enough, Li Chutian grew annoyed and came to see her as a disobedient child. His methods for dealing with such children were simple—letting her go hungry, or making her endure winter snow and summer mosquitoes, kneeling in the courtyard for hours at a time.
Day after day of cold stares. Only after the original owner, still just a child, had apologized countless times would he casually grant forgiveness.
He rarely beat people, because there was no need.
The original owner lived by relying on her father, at his mercy. With just one sentence from Li Chutian, she would have no place to stand.
And now it was the same again—letting her know that she was in prison, where others held the knife and she was the fish on the chopping block, so she should learn to restrain herself.
Li Shu had no interest in catching rats. She got up and took out a lamp from her spatial storage. The next moment, she lit a wisp of dry grass and threw it directly onto the bed in the neighboring cell.
“There’s a fire—!” Li Shu shouted at the top of her lungs, without the slightest concern for decorum.
In this prison, only the corridor walls had lamps. Because the cells were small and the air poorly ventilated, if a prisoner committed self-immolation, it could easily cause a major disaster. Thus, Li Shu’s shout instantly startled everyone awake.
The small flame she threw was weak, but in the darkness of night it was strikingly obvious.
Seeing the dim fire showing signs of growing, the prisoners who noticed it began shouting, pounding on their cell doors. The commotion immediately drew the jailers over.
The fire wasn’t large, and it was discovered in time. Two buckets of water extinguished it completely.
But the matter had escalated.
An empty cell catching fire was not easy to explain.
Several jailers looked at each other, while the chief jailer’s face darkened.
Li Shu spoke softly, “Just now it seemed like someone sneaked into the neighboring cell, acting suspiciously. But who it was… I couldn’t see clearly. Could it be that a prisoner can move around freely? What kind of intentions would that person have—could they be trying to burn everyone to death?”
“…”
The jailer who had released the rats panicked internally and looked at Li Shu in disbelief.
Li Shu sighed again. “The cell that was set on fire is closest to mine. If someone were going to kill anyone, they’d be trying to kill me. If I died, this case… wouldn’t even need to be tried anymore. It would save a lot of trouble…”
“…”
The chief jailer’s mouth twitched. He cast a cold glance at the other jailers. “Search all the cells immediately. If even the slightest spark is found again, the ones going to prison will be you!”
Li Shu fell silent.
A prison fire wasn’t something the chief jailer could simply cover up. If a prisoner ever let it slip in the future, the higher-ups would still hold someone accountable.
Someone would have to take the blame.
Prisoners didn’t have the means to start a fire. Such a huge mess had to be caused by one of their own. So after ordering a thorough search of the cells, the chief jailer immediately summoned everyone involved.
The jailers responsible for night duty and patrol had no chance of escaping responsibility.
Li Shu looked at the big rat in the corner and thought how fat it was—who knew what it had been eating to grow like that. After everyone left, she took out some leftover steamed bun from the daytime and tossed it over as bait, successfully catching one.
She tied the rat up with grass and hung it on the cell door.
Kill the chicken to warn the monkeys—so that no blind rats would dare come and bite her again.