How to become a Taoist priest starting from a brothel

"Later, the villagers all followed suit, and the village became a notorious village of male prostitutes..."

"And then what? Since it caused such a huge uproar back then, why didn't we hear a single word from anyone when we passed through this place?" Wang Wenjun asked curiously.

Ming continued slowly, “Seventy years ago, this place suffered a severe drought, and nine out of ten houses were empty. Many villages in this area were relocated here later. Even if there were still people from the area back then, they either died or were too young to remember, so gradually no one mentioned this incident anymore.”

"And there's also the reason why Anling Village is no longer represented by its own village, right?" Mu Jiaxu suddenly interjected.

Ming looked up at him and slowly nodded: "Yes."

"Later, the villagers realized that doing these things would ruin the village's reputation and make it difficult for them to find suitable marriage partners. When they were migrants, they discovered that there were male brothels in the city's red-light district. So they secretly raised these children and sent them to male brothels when they were about the right age. This way, they could make money without affecting their reputation."

Everyone was filled with disbelief, pity, and anger: "How could they do this...?"

“I can’t afford to raise them…” Ming sighed. “Sometimes I wonder, is it better to be drowned at birth or to live and suffer humiliation?”

"Living is very important. It's best to live, because only by living can we see hope." Liu Yin's tone was somewhat ethereal, yet one could feel the firmness in her voice.

Ming looked at her, his eyes growing brighter, and the weariness in his voice seemed to have been washed away by Liu Yin's words: "Yes, that's why I met you."

Liu Yin smiled and looked at him, then at the students: "Tell me why such a human tragedy occurred?"

Tao Boyi and his group all lowered their heads in thought.

Before long, Wang Wenjun, unable to contain her impatience, raised her hand.

Liu Yin gestured, and Wang Wenjun quickly spoke up: "The people are too poor to raise children, so they can only reduce the pressure on their families."

"Yes, that's one reason, but why can't ordinary people afford to raise children?" Liu Yin nodded and continued to ask.

Wang Wenjun frowned, then remembered something again.

Zhuo Yongnian continued, "You don't have money, do you?"

"Then why don't you have any money?" Liu Yin continued.

"Because business and education are not things that ordinary people can access. My teacher once said that what makes a noble family a noble family is its mastery of the interpretation of knowledge. Business... is it because ordinary people don't have the capital?" Zhang Yong'an sat quietly beside him and asked in a low voice.

Although her voice was low, it was clearly audible in the quiet of the room, so no one paid any attention to it.

"If you're going to do business, big merchants all have powerful families backing them up. But you could also be a peddler, right?" A look of confusion flashed across Xu Jingheng's usually resolute face.

Tao Boyi distributed the piping hot dry rations to his companions, naturally offering them to Liu Yin first, but Liu Yin waved her hand and refused.

Hearing Xu Jinggeng's question, he said casually, "It's simple. Even being a small-time peddler is not something an ordinary household can do."

Everyone turned to look at him. He looked around in surprise, then glanced at Liu Yin, who smiled and nodded at him.

He then opened his mouth and said, "The big merchant Jing Heng has already said that even those small merchants who bought shops have connections in the county and towns. To us, the yamen runners are just a kind of errand boy, but to the common people, they are still very powerful officials."

"As for those who set up stalls, they may seem simple, but they all have some wealth, or one or two family-inherited skills, or unknown supply channels. They can't just tell others about them. Even the simplest person who makes steamed buns has at least some connections with local thugs to sustain their business in the neighborhood."

"As for peddlers, without good supply channels or enough vision and brains, even if they put in a lot of effort, they may only lose everything. Ordinary families don't have that kind of money for their descendants to waste."

The boys were alright. Although they all came from good families, they were often out and about. Even if they didn't pay attention, they could still know a thing or two. But the girls were all secluded in their homes, oblivious to the world. Even though they had experienced a lot on their journeys away from home, they still didn't have a thorough understanding of these things. Hearing this now, they couldn't help but feel a sense of sudden realization.

"When it comes to doing business, ordinary people have no money and no chance to try and fail. When it comes to studying, ordinary people have no connections, and the written language is controlled by powerful families, making it even more difficult. Ordinary people can only rely on their small plot of land, but land is not a permanent source of support. Do you know why?" Liu Yin continued, looking at the students.

Apart from Dou Yuanliang, who is usually quiet, whose eyebrows twitched slightly, everyone else shook their heads to indicate that they did not know.

Liu Yin looked at Dou Yuanliang: "Yuanliang, what do you say?"

Dou Yuanliang paused for a moment, then rubbed the corner of his clothes, took a deep breath, and as if to encourage himself, said, "In 'The Hereditary House' and 'The Slave,' the master said that in years of famine, when the land yields less, people have to sell their children or even themselves in order to raise enough money for the national tax."

"Hmm, that's right. Anything else?" Liu Yin nodded and continued to ask.

"There's...there's...there's more." Dou Yuanliang stammered a bit, but his hands stopped twisting the hem of his clothes. Instead, he slowly raised his head, looked at everyone, and continued, "In peaceful times, even if the harvest is excellent, merchants will deliberately lower the price of grain. After deducting the national tax, the people can only exchange the remaining grain for the worst coarse rice, which is barely enough for a family to eat for two or three months."

"What about the next few months?" Wang Yongxin, with her soft heart, quickly asked.

"Whether it's doing odd jobs or carrying heavy loads, you can always earn a little something, enough to keep you from starving," Dou Yuanliang said slowly.

"That's right." Liu Yin looked at him approvingly, then glanced at the other students. "What came to your mind?"

The group exchanged bewildered glances. Yu Weizhi, who was usually quiet, looked up and asked, "Teacher, can agricultural books really feed the people?"

Liu Yin looked at him and said, “I don’t know. I can only say that if the people are willing to listen, the harvest will be better than it is now. Farming is not something that one or two people can do. It requires everyone’s efforts to study how to grow crops better, increase yields, deal with pests, and most importantly, develop high-yield seeds that are cold- and drought-resistant.”

Yu Weizhi nodded: "Teacher, I once read in 'The Noble Families' that you said noble families were one of the culprits in the collapse of dynasties, but you didn't explain the reasons clearly. Could you...?"