In the great prison, beautiful female prisoners were used as maidservants. Of course, it wouldn't be just a simple matter of suffering and hardship. But Lin Xie didn't trust this Long Sun Geng either, nor did he believe that Zhou Shi De, Jiang Jin, Cao Shang, and others would let Long Sun Geng reveal all the dirty secrets in the prison without any reservations. Maybe Long Sun Geng was unwilling to be tainted by the same brush, but now wasn't the time for Lin Xie to get to the bottom of things on Prison Island. When Lin Xie heard Long Sun Geng's words, he had a hunch, but he also cut off Long Sun Geng's speech decisively, smiling and saying: "If there are any details you want to report to me as the prison warden, such as treasures or not, I'm not very interested. Those two beautiful female prisoners, if you're interested, you can take one back with you, just be careful not to let her escape..."

  Chang Sun Geng's face suddenly turned red with rage as he slapped the table, barely containing his anger. He said: "So, sir, you came to the island seeking wealth? Forgive me for being unable to inform you, I won't disturb your meal any further... Excuse me for taking my leave..."

  "Alright," Lin Tie said, "Later on, bring over the ledgers for prisoner rations and clothing. When it's quiet at night, I'll take a look. Lord Ge just left with a pat on his butt, I don't want him to leave behind a big hole for me to fill."

  "Understood." Zhang Sun Geng stood up and left, but he was a bit hasty. His sleeve knocked over one of the cups on the table, shattering it into powder on the brick floor.

  Zhao Hu stood outside the door, thinking something had happened, took a knife and pushed open the door to come in. Lin Xie smiled and said: "Nothing's wrong, just broke a cup, you clean it up."

  After Zhang Sun Gong left, Lin Tie said to Zhao Hu: "There must be something going on in Jiangdao Prison. Ge Zuoxin, the former prison officer who just left the island, is definitely involved. I'll write a letter and you take it tomorrow to find Gu Wudian first. Only Gu Wudian can come up with a reason to arrest Ge Zuoxin. What details of Jiangdao Prison can't be asked from Ge Zuoxin's mouth? But before getting evidence from Ge Zuoxin's mouth, absolutely no wind must be leaked to the island. Tell Zhou Pu and Wu Qi that I want them to work harder these days, take people to ambush at the Jin River estuary to monitor the island, and stop others from secretly landing or leaving the island..."

  **************

  Chang Sun Geng stormed out of the central courtyard where Lin Xie was residing and headed straight for the front hall. Zhou Shi De and Jiang Jin emerged from the shadows, smiling as they asked: "How did Chang Sun's toast with Lin go?"

  "You've met another good boss!" Chang Sun Geng said indignantly.

  "Huh, Long Sun Shu is speaking nonsense! Zhou Shi De coldly laughed and said, "These female prisoners in the jail aren't they all guilty of adultery and should be punished by being thrown into a pig cage according to the ancestral law? Why do you sympathize with them, Long Sun Shu? Not to mention that you're just a newly appointed ninth-rank prison officer, but what about the time when you secretly passed on the petition to the Jiangning Prefect's office?"

  "You..." Zhang Sun Geng stared at Zhou Shi De with wide eyes.

  "We're nothing," Zhou Shide sneered, "do you know why we've tolerated you until today? All crows under the sky are equally black, the great prison in the city can't hold you, and they kicked you over to this side. We'd like to see just how long Long Sun-geng can remain lofty."

  Zhang Sun Geng was so angry that he gasped for breath, knowing that Zhou Shi De and the others were ruthless and cunning. He didn't argue with them, but simply said: "The new superior wants to investigate the accounts of prisoner rations and clothing, let's see how you explain it?"

  "More than 200 people's bitter food and cold clothes can touch a few dollars, some losses are also difficult to explain? Besides, if there is a hole here, it is also the responsibility of Zhang Sun-geng." Zhou Shi-de smiled and said, and then let Jiang Jin leave with peace of mind.

  Chang Sun Geng looked at the sky shrouded in thick clouds, devoid of sunlight, and let out a long sigh. He went to the front hall to fetch the account book for Lin Xuan, his heart no longer holding any expectations for this young new superior. After returning to his room, he drank several cups of bitter wine before falling into a deep sleep.

  Although life on the island was simple and hard, there was no need to get up at a fixed time every day. There were no regular tasks to attend to, so one could sleep in as late as they wanted. The next morning, when the sun was shining brightly, Zhangsun Gan was still lying in bed, listening to people talking in the courtyard.

  Zhang Sun Geng didn't know what had happened, got out of bed and put on his clothes to go to the courtyard, where he heard others talking about it, and only then did he learn that the new superior had gone to the riverbank early in the morning with two servants and caught fish.

  "What is he joking about?" Zhang Sun thought to himself, the weather had been extremely cold since the New Year's festival, and he was shivering with cold as he put on his padded jacket. Why would their new superior go fishing in the water? Looking at Zhou Shide and others also putting on their clothes, although they had conflicts with Zhou Shide and Jiang Jin, but when the new superior acted strangely, the clerks who were not on duty still rushed to the riverbank to see what was going on.

  I don't know where Lin Tie found two broken nets, and rushed to the riverbank. Zhangsun Gong only saw Lin Tie and his servants standing barefoot in the shallow water with nets, scooping up fish from the water. Two attendants were afraid of the cold and didn't dare get their hands wet, one holding Lin Tie's black leather boots, and the other carrying a large wooden bucket. Zhangsun Gong thought to himself: Can they really catch any fish like this? Even if they want to eat fish, can't they just have some sent over from the shore every now and then?

  Lin Xie saw Zhangsun Gong and Zhou Shide walking over, he tossed the net to Zhao Hu, sat on a rock by the river, washed off the mud from his feet, and said to Zhangsun Gong and others: "This river water is really cold..."

  "It's not that, sir, you'll catch a chill, but if we get scolded by the higher-ups because of you, hurry up and put them on, please do it for our sake. If you want to eat fish, let the servants jump into the river to catch some, it's better than you going in yourself!" Zhou Shide hastily took the thick woolen socks and black leather boots from the attendant's hands and walked over to Lin to hand them over.

  "How can you be called the first to enter the water if you don't try the temperature of the river?" Lin Xie's face was full of smiles, feeling that the knife at his waist was in the way, he took it off and put it on a stone, then looked up at Chang Sun Gong and said, "There are some rotten rice in the granary, I'll take it out as bait and scatter it in the shallow water. These river fish are stupid, they eat food and forget that I have a net waiting for them..."

  "Adults are wise..." Zhang Sun Geng said coldly, at this time a splash of water splashed out from the large wooden bucket, Zhang Sun Geng looked in and was startled, more than ten white flower-shaped fish, each several feet long, crowded the bucket to the brim, wondering if his new superior was a scholar or a fisherman.

  Lin tied up his shoes and socks, stood up, looked at the clerks who were not on duty rushing to the riverbank, took out his waist knife and tied it around his waist, saying: "When a new official takes office, he must light three fires, I also have my own new rules..."

  Chang Sun-geng, Zhou Shi-de and Jiang Jin stood up straight, hands clasped together in respect, waiting quietly for instructions.

  "From now on, rotten rice is not allowed to be mixed with grain for steaming and feeding prisoners. You want to eat it, I don't care, I don't want to eat it either," Lin Fu ordered as if it were a trivial matter. "Also, each meal will provide soup and water for the prisoners, each bucket needs to add one spoon of oil and half a spoon of salt, and double the amount of vegetables, no deduction is allowed. The fish caught today, half will be provided to the prisoners, and half will be provided to the prison guards..."

  Zhou Shide, Changsun Gong and others all responded in unison, what new rules can this be considered? Even if there is a shortage of rice, grains, oil, or salt in the future, it will be up to the new superior to beg the higher-ups for an increase in the fixed quota.

  "There is another matter, today you will have to work hard to move all the prisoners to the Yiziming room. You are always walking around in the Jiazi room every day, don't you feel that it smells bad and is unbearable? Many prisoners get sick, most of which come from this. Also, I see that there are extra straw mats in the warehouse, so I will give each prisoner an additional straw mat to keep warm at night... You go and open the meal for the prisoners first, after the meal, let them rest in the courtyard, and then change rooms."

  Everyone saw Lin Xie just being transferred from one prison cell to another, although it was a bit more troublesome. The so-called new rules didn't seem like a big deal, and they should be easy to follow. No one noticed that Lin Xie's servant had left the island on the morning boat.

  Chang Sun Geng, before noon, had over 200 bundles of straw mats distributed to the attendants to prepare the Yizihao prison. He then counted the amount of rotten rice in the warehouse and found that it was roughly one-fourth of the total quantity, which was a huge loss.

  The prisoner's rations were mixed with rotten rice, which was not their responsibility, but was forcibly matched when they went to the Grand Granary of the Pacification Commissioner's Office to receive the prisoner's rations. The rest were mostly miscellaneous grains. The difference in profit was all embezzled by the warehouse supervisor who managed the granary for the Pacification Commissioner. They had no choice and reprimanding them was also useless.

  Chang Sun Geng thought that even if Lin Xie didn't have the intention of thoroughly reforming the Jiang Island Prison, he still had a lingering feeling in his heart. By removing the rotten rice, adding oil and salt, changing the prison cells, and adding a layer of straw matting, the prisoners' lives could be greatly improved. However, this would create a deficit, which was a headache for him. He took the account book to the main hall to find Lin Xie, who was sitting at his desk listening to Zhou Shi De and Jiang Jin report on the defense situation of the prison guards.

  "What's wrong?" Lin Xie asked Zhang Sun'geng.

  Chang Sun Geng didn't care about Zhou Shi De and Jiang Jin being present, and directly reported the deficits to Lin Xian: "Just for the rotten rice alone, there is a deficit of over 100 stones every year; the oil and salt seem like small things, but if you really add one spoonful of oil and half a spoonful of salt to each bucket of soup, the deficit is equivalent to that of grain; if the vegetables are doubled, the deficit increases even more..."

  "About a hundred taels of silver need to be added every year, right?" Lin Fu asked Zhang Sun Geng.

  "...Long Sun Geng didn't expect Lin Fu to have calculated the accounts so clearly, and he probably hadn't slept much with the account book in hand. He nodded and said, "About right, when Ge Da Ye was here, to make up for the deficit, even the prison guards' meals were deducted from their wages, and they had to pay eight cents for every catty of rotten rice."

  "Alright, I know," Lin Xie said indifferently, "the cafeteria should be serving food now, let's go take a look."

  ********

  PS: Red ticket, collection, next chapter is coming soon.