Chapter 184: The Release Ceremony
As soon as Steward Shansier heard Gao Yiye's message, his mind clicked into gear. He instantly grasped the Tianzun's meaning. The convicts need an incentive. At first, being full was enough to make them happy. But now that the short-term workers are here, eating their fill AND earning wages... the convicts are starting to get a bit...
Li Dao Xuan laughed inwardly: A bit 'checked out,' right? Too bad there's no Ming Dynasty term for 'quiet quitting.' You're struggling to describe it.
Just as he thought this, he saw the steward put on his signature thoughtful expression and declare, with exaggerated gravitas: "They have grown... spiritually idle."
It was a masterful bit of bureaucratic spin—taking a classical Confucian ideal for virtuous scholars and recasting it as a diagnosis for convict listlessness.¹
Li Dao Xuan nearly choked on his imaginary bowl of cold noodles. Holy crap. You can describe modern slacker vibes with a classical scholar's vocabulary?! Note to self: I'm a cultural illiterate. Sorry, ancestors. Gotta read more to carry on your legacy of killer vocabulary.
Steward Shansier continued, "The Tianzun's meaning is clear. I understand what must be done and will see to it immediately."
Gao Yiye suddenly leaned in, lowering her voice. "Between you and me... the Tianzun looked... upset."
"Eh?"
"Right after you said 'spiritually idle.' His expression changed. He looked... pained. Disappointed."
The steward's face grew solemn. "I understand. The Tianzun's compassion for all living things cannot bear to see people lose hope. That phrase—a scholar's lofty virtue twisted into a convict's passive despair—must have saddened him. Having received the Tianzun's great grace, the only way I can repay it is to work harder here on his behalf. I will be the one to reassure the convicts. I will not allow the Tianzun to be distressed."
Yiye nodded. "That would be best."
Shansier's spirit ignited. This matter had actually caused the Tianzun grief? As the Tianzun's chief steward²—a title he wore with fierce, humble pride—he would move heaven and earth today to put a smile back on his divine face.
"Tan Liwen!" the steward bellowed. "Gather all the assistants! Round up every convict! This steward is holding an assembly!"
Tan Liwen's voice echoed from next door. "At once, sir!"
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It didn't take long. Steward Shansier, with his personal clerk Tan Liwen and about thirty village functionaries in tow, arrived at the reform village.
It was still early. The convicts had just finished their morning congee and were about to start the day's work.
The steward raised his voice in a commanding shout: "All convicts, assemble! A major announcement!"
The shout had an immediate effect. After months in the Gao Family Village reform system—months of being barely acknowledged, with orders barked at them before officials vanished—this call for a proper meeting was unprecedented.
The convicts surged forward, forming a crowded mass.
Li Dao Xuan had long forgotten what the five newer convicts looked like. But Shansier remembered. He pointed into the crowd. "You, you... and you. You five. Step forward."
The five named men stumbled out, confused and fearful. Their faces were etched with worry, afraid they'd done something wrong. Their only comfort was that the Steward had always been fair, not some cruel petty official from the county magistrate's office.
Shansier kept his tone deliberately gentle. "The five of you have been here for three months now, correct?"
The men hurried to answer. "Yes, Steward!"
"Do you understand your wrongdoing now?"
"We do!" they chorused. "When we first arrived, we didn't realize this was a place of good people. We raised our clubs, attacked someone, stole food... a terrible crime. Thanks to the Tianzun's mercy and the kindness of Gao Family Village, we've had food and shelter for three months. We now see how foolish we were... We shouldn't have attacked and stolen. If we'd just entered the village honestly and worked, we would have been fed."
The steward nodded. "Good. Understanding your error is the first step. By the Tianzun's decree, your three months of reform labor have repaid your debt. Effective immediately, your status as convicts is revoked. You are restored to common standing."
The five men stood frozen for a second, then—elation.
"Restored... to common folk? That means... we work, we get food and shelter, and we get paid?"
Steward Shansier allowed a smile. "Yes. You will be paid."
"WAAAAH!"
All five men jumped simultaneously, overcome with a joy they couldn't contain. They grabbed the nearest person—often each other—in bone-crushing hugs.
The steward continued, "Rooms have been prepared for you in the short-term laborers' village. You will move there today. What work you take, what you do, and what you earn from now on is your own affair."
Cheering and whooping, the five were led away by the assistants, toward their new lives.
Left in the square were nearly two hundred other convicts—the remnants of Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu's forces who had attacked the village.
Watching the five "released" men depart in jubilation, the eyes of the two hundred burned with envy so sharp it was almost tangible.
Steward Shansier turned to them. "You envy them."
Silence. After a long pause, Zhong Sowgrain spoke up, his voice rough. "Yes. Envy them till it hurts. Steward... what about the rest of us? When do we get our lives back?"
Shansier's voice turned cooler. "You attacked Gao Family Village with the intent to kill everyone here and seize all their grain. Your sin is far greater than those five."
The words landed like physical blows. Nearly two hundred heads bowed in shame.
Zhong Sowgrain spoke up urgently, "Steward, that's not quite right! We never wanted to kill everyone! Second Boss Zheng and Third Boss Zhong said... they said there was a rich landlord here. We'd rob him, take his money and grain, and recruit the ordinary villagers to our cause... That's what they said. That's what I believed when I followed them here."
The steward pressed, "And Wang Er? What of your betrayal of him? Where was your brotherhood and honor then?"
Many heads bowed even lower.
Zhong Sowgrain's face also flushed with shame. He clenched his fists. "We were deceived by Second Boss Zheng and Third Boss Zhong. They told us Big Brother Wang had been bought off by the rich, that he was siding with them... It wasn't until I'd lived here a few days that I understood. There is no cruel landlord here. Only the benevolent Tianzun, and villagers no different from us. All the food and money here... it doesn't come from some lord. It descends from the heavens, gifted by the Tianzun. I regret it... I regret it so deeply..."
One by one, the convicts' faces showed their remorse. They stood with heads bowed, words failing them.
This, Li Dao Xuan thought, watching the scene of collective shame, must be what Wang Er meant by being 'shamed unto death right where you stand.'
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Footnotes:
¹ History/Literary Fun Fact: The phrase Shansier is subverting is ān pín shǒu dào (安貧守道), a classical Confucian ideal praising scholars who remain content in poverty while upholding moral principles. Using this lofty term to describe convict apathy is a brilliantly anachronistic bureaucratic move, showing how officials could twist scholarly language to fit any situation.
² History Fact: The role of a steward (guǎnshì) was pivotal in late Imperial China. They were the chief managers of gentry estates, responsible for everything from finances and grain storage to labor discipline—effectively serving as the landlord's CEO on the ground. Shansier's position makes him the Tianzun's top earthly executive.