Chapter 32: The Robber Zhi

  "Isn't it just pinching out the soap with your fingers?"

  When Qin Feng arrived at the kitchen, the chef inside had already started working. The vegetables were all washed and no one paid attention to what Qin Feng was doing squatting beside the sink.

  The old man had already dissolved the small piece of soap he threw into the water basin, and Qin Feng found another piece from the edge of the pool with the remaining soap and threw it into the face basin.

  Looking at the position of the soap, Qin Feng stretched out his index and middle fingers in a scissor shape, clamping down on that small piece of soap, but what made him disappointed was that the small soap seemed to be like a loach, slipping away as soon as it touched his hand.

  "I don't believe it!"

  After trying for half a day without success, Qin Feng also became stubborn, and his two fingers kept stirring in the water basin, but until that small piece of soap was completely dissolved, he still couldn't pick it up once.

  "Qin Feng, what are you up to?"

  The fat chef poured the half-cooked rice into a large basin, curiously patted Qin Feng's head, and this kid had been squatting for almost half an hour after coming in, but didn't know what he was doing.

  Qin Feng waved a small piece of soap in his hand and said, "Uncle Pang, it's nothing. Old Xia asked me to find some small pieces of soap to take back, saying that the soapy water is good for watering vegetables."

  When the soap is almost used up, the alkalinity becomes very small, and the kitchen often replaces a new one. In this way, many bottle cap-sized soap blocks are accumulated and thrown away by the sink.

  "There are over ten more pieces left, you can take them all." The fat chef didn't even look closely, poured some oil into the pot, took out two eggs and cracked them together, "Sizzle" a sound, a fragrance spread from the pot throughout the entire kitchen.

  The big ladle scooped up from the bottom of the pot, and two fried eggs landed steadily on it. The fat chef handed the ladle to Qin Feng, laughing: "Qin Feng, first day helping in the kitchen, Uncle Fat gives you two eggs to eat!"

  "Thank you, Uncle Bao. Next time you can teach me how to stir-fry dishes, and then you can sleep in a bit later in the mornings."

  Qin Feng lifted his head and smiled as he accepted the steamed egg, his eyebrows and eyes were very delicate, his hair had grown out a bit, looking like a shy child, those prison staff never really took him as an inmate.

  "That's great, your uncle loves sleeping the most!" The fat chef burst out laughing and found Qin Feng more and more pleasing to his eyes.

  The prisoner helped with the cooking, as long as he didn't leave the prison's warning area or break any rules, and went back to sleep at night. With Hu Dazhang's unreserved care, basically no one bothered Qin Feng anymore. Qin Feng, who had brought 20-30 small bars of soap, returned to the old man's courtyard again.

  "How's that? Is your kung fu good enough?"

  As soon as he entered the door, Zai Xi couldn't help but laugh. Some things can't be learned just by being clever, and he had deliberately chosen to let Qin Feng wash the soap first, also harboring the intention of wearing down Qin Feng's temper.

  Qin Feng shook his head and said, "Master, it's not good to practice. What's the trick in this?"

  "Go ahead, don't understand ask, children can be taught." After hearing Qin Feng's words, Zai Ye nodded in approval. A good teacher is not afraid of students being stupid, but rather afraid that students won't ask questions.

  This is also a question with great learning, many people think they are clever and often like to study by themselves when encountering things. This is certainly an advantage, but from another perspective, it's taking a detour.

  There are many things in this world that have been passed down since ancient times, condensing the wisdom of countless predecessors. There are established methods that can be learned, but instead, one insists on figuring them out for oneself. In my opinion, that is just foolish and inflexible.

  "Listen up, kid! I'm only demonstrating this once!"

  Let Qin Feng bring a basin of water and put it in front of him. Zai Yi casually threw down eight bottle cap-sized soap bars, stretched out his hands, and suddenly dipped them into the basin. Before Qin Feng could see clearly, Zai Yi's hands were already out of the water.

  "Is... is this for real?"

  Qin Feng suddenly discovered that in the eight finger gaps of Zai Yi's ten fingers, there were actually eight pieces of slippery soap stuck between them. With a stretch and a probe, Zai Yi not only found the location of the soap but also managed to pull all of it out.

  Qin Feng, the Thieves' Gate has a foundation scripture, inside there are twelve characters, which are "cover, cut, rob, collide, hook, separate, lift, exchange, color, hemp, squeeze!"

  "When you can master all twelve characters, this skill is considered accomplished. The move just now was a test of your coordination between eyes and hands, the key to it is..."

  Zai Ye didn't hide anything, and he began to explain the key points of "Zeijing" (the art of thievery) to Qin Feng one by one. Listening to this, Qin Feng nodded repeatedly, never having thought that a simple character like "steal" would contain so much knowledge.

  From the day he became an apprentice, Qin Feng's life suddenly became fulfilling. Every morning at 4 o'clock, he had to get up and help with washing dishes after dinner, then go to serve in the vegetable garden. Every day, his sleep was two hours less than others.

  After finishing all these, Qin Feng's time became abundant. Except for the daily required political and cultural classes, he basically stayed in Zai Dai's courtyard until lights out before returning to his dormitory to sleep.

  With Hu Bao's support and Qin Feng's diligence, the work of helping with cooking and gardening was never delayed. The discipline in the dormitory was basically lenient, and time passed quickly day by day.

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  "Master, why don't you go to the hospital and take a look?"

  In the blink of an eye, it's been more than seven months. The north has also entered the cold winter season. Last month, a big snow fell and a cold air came. Hu Zai, who had always been healthy, fell ill. The old man didn't want to go to the hospital for treatment, so he prescribed himself some medicine and asked Hu Baoguo to fetch more than 20 doses of traditional Chinese medicine.

  Qin Feng was currently decocting Chinese medicine for his master, but the medicine pot wasn't placed on the stove. Instead, it was being held in Qin Feng's hands. The water inside the pot had already started boiling and was making a "gurgling" sound, which gave an idea of just how high the temperature outside the pot was.

  Qin Feng was also a mortal, and he naturally couldn't withstand such high temperatures either.

  If you look closely, you can see that Qin Feng's hands are shaking constantly. His hands on the medicine jar almost touched and left immediately, but at such a fast speed that it was almost impossible for the naked eye to distinguish, the medicine jar was controlled on top of the stove, without touching the shelf on the stove at all.

  "Cough... Cough... Cough..."

  Lying in bed, Zai saw Qin Feng decocting medicine and a look of relief appeared on his face. After coughing several times, he said: "Western medicine takes effect quickly, but that's a tiger-wolf medicine, treating the symptoms not the root cause!"

  "Master, you've been coughing for over half a month now, this can't go on!"

  Qin Feng Kouzi spoke while his hands moved swiftly, his eyes fixed on the medicine jar. Suddenly, he lifted both hands up, and with a swift motion, his right hand grasped the lid of the jar and tilted it down. His left hand, seemingly out of nowhere, held a bowl, into which he poured the brewed medicinal concoction from the jar. After letting it cool for a while, he handed it to his master.

  "I know whether I can make it or not, and getting through this winter won't be a problem."

  Zai shook his head, took the Chinese medicine handed over by his apprentice, tilted his head and drank it in one gulp. Then he pointed to the piano in the corner of the room and said: "Play a Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto for Master!"

  This piano was moved here half a year ago, although it's second-hand and the tone isn't very accurate, but this is prison, at that time Director Hu was under great pressure to calm down the complaints of those in charge.

  However, three months later, at the August 15th evening gathering of the training center, Qin Feng fluently played a piece of music, and this matter was reported to the higher authorities as a successful case of using music to reform juvenile delinquents. Director Hu even received an award for it, and Qin Feng himself had his sentence reduced by four months.

  After that, the neighbors stopped paying attention to the piano sounds coming from Old Man Xia's house. Some people even felt uncomfortable if they didn't hear a piece every day.

  Every day's piano performance also became Qin Feng's required course, sitting in front of the piano, Qin Feng's ten fingers flew quickly on the keyboard, and this most difficult piano piece in the world rang out under Qin Feng's fingertips.

  Although the piano itself has some sound quality issues and is not satisfactory in many details, the grand and heavy atmosphere of "Third Piano Concerto" was perfectly performed by Qin Feng.