The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

The steamed buns are very hot right out of the pot.

Xie Chong screamed and scalded himself, but he refused to let go. Even when his skin turned red from the heat, he didn't give up. After getting used to the heat, he couldn't wait to put it in his mouth.

The other prisoners, watching intently, swallowed hard and asked in unison, "Is it delicious?"

Xie Chong slurped and said, "Delicious, so delicious! There are even pickled vegetables and tofu in it. Heaven have mercy, I haven't eaten pickled vegetables and tofu for two years. I'd die happy after eating this."

After saying that, he wolfed down his food again, and all the prisoners looked at Guan Xing with longing in their eyes.

Guan Xing told them to line up to receive their food and kindly reminded them, "Eat slowly so you don't choke. If you choke to death, I'll be a murderer!"

That was incredibly rude, but the prisoners tacitly pretended not to hear it.

Xie Chong finished eating first, then asked curiously, "Young General, how are these buns made? They're absolutely delicious!"

Guan Xing laughed and said, "It's just ordinary food, nothing much to say. Let's get down to business first. Why did you all come in?"

This time, the prisoners broke their silence and looked at each other for a moment before speaking to a man in his early thirties: “This humble servant is Meng Jun, a man from Zhuojun, who was born a chivalrous knight. Half a year ago, I acquired ten warhorses from Luoyang, intending to transport them to Jianye to sell for a good price, and then go home to build a house and get married.”

"Who would have thought that the local gangs would be so unethical, taking the warhorse without paying me, and then fabricating charges to throw me in jail. They're utterly despicable."

Guan Xing laughed and scolded, "You should be grateful that at least they spared your life."

In times of war and chaos, order collapses, and double-crossing is commonplace. Without power, hoping to protect one's wealth is simply a pipe dream.

Meng Jun agreed with his statement, smiled but did not speak. A young man in his early twenties then spoke up: "Reporting to the young general, I am Ning Huan, a native of Danyang. My family owns a few acres of land and I have studied for two years."

“I have a childhood betrothal. I originally planned to continue my studies after marriage and try to enter officialdom. However, my fiancée has become more and more beautiful. As she has grown up, she has become more and more ambitious and looks down on me, a poor scholar who can't even be recommended for the civil service examination.”

"Her father was a man of his word and refused to break the engagement, so he forced his daughter to marry me. I thought that marriage would be the beginning of my happiness, but it turned out to be the beginning of disaster. That bitch somehow got involved with Gu Yong's second son, Gu Mu, and fabricated charges to send me to prison. The two of them got together."

Guan Xing: "..."

It's unbelievable that even in this day and age there are still melodramatic plots involving lovers framing husbands.

The world is indeed a makeshift stage, with all sorts of clichéd plots constantly repeating themselves in a loop.

The three men's accusations resonated with the other prisoners, who then began to share their own grievances.

Through conversation, I learned that among these prisoners, some were arrested as secret agents of the School Affairs Bureau, some were framed by their rivals, and some were forcibly sent by powerful families because they were unwilling to sell their fertile land at a low price. They were too lazy to even find a crime to charge them with. The ways they were imprisoned were incredibly varied.

Of course, there are real criminals, but they are a minority.

To Guan Xing's surprise, quite a few of them were literate, a total of eighteen.

I knew I made the right choice coming to prison.

Guan Xing was a loyal listener. After everyone had finished speaking, he smiled and said, "You've been living inside for so long, you must be homesick. Tell me, what do you want to do most when you get out?"

Ning Huan gritted his teeth and said, "Of course, we'll seek revenge on Gu Mu and that bitch. How can we not avenge the massacre of our entire family?"

Someone scoffed, "The Gu family is one of the four great families of Wu County. You can't even get through their gates. How are you going to take revenge?"

Ning Huan said angrily, "So what? No matter how powerful the Gu family is, they only have one life. I'll squat at the Gu mansion gate and beg for food. When Gu Mu comes out, I'll stab him. At worst, we'll both die."

"If I can't avenge him, I'll let my son do it. A true man should be able to avenge even a feud that spans ten generations."

The prisoners clapped and praised, "Well done! This is the spirit that a true man of the Han Dynasty should have!"

After a few sentences, the atmosphere became completely lively, and the prisoners' discussion became increasingly heated.

"I have no grudges to avenge. After I get out of prison, I'll find a wife, settle down, and have a bunch of healthy sons to carry on the family line."

"I need to go home to take care of my mother. I haven't seen her for many years. I wonder if she's still alive?"

"I continue doing what I used to do: finding ways to make a living for girls who can't survive."

Guan Xing was furious and grabbed a steamed bun, throwing it at him while cursing, "You bastard, how dare you describe human trafficking in such a refined and elegant way? Do you really think I wouldn't dare to kill you?"

This man, named Yan Shi, was an orphan who didn't even know his own surname. He made a living by finding women for brothels, which, to put it bluntly, meant trafficking women.

Yan Shi took the steamed bun and said with a smile, "Young General, I swear to God, I am a human trafficker, not a human slave trader. I have never done anything to force anyone to buy or sell. All the women I have handled were willing."

"Young General, you may not know this, but in the countryside, people eat up widows who have no children. Those widows who have lost their husbands and have no sons simply cannot survive in the village. If they are sent to a brothel, at least they will have something to eat. If they are left unattended, they will only starve to death."

The term "eating the widowed" refers to a situation where, after a woman's husband and son have died, her uncles and brothers in the village not only fail to help take care of her, but instead take advantage of her misfortune and rob her of everything. In the better cases, they might spare her life, while in the worse cases, they might send her directly to meet her deceased husband.

The practice of exploiting the descendants of the Jia family is prevalent across all social classes. Even Lin Daiyu was exploited to the point of having no descendants left by the Jia family, let alone ordinary people.

Guan Xing asked in surprise, "Don't they remarry? Why do they have to go to brothels?"

Yan Shi said, "Young General, you're just lying through your teeth. The Yellow Turban Rebellion has been going on for so many years now, almost all the men are dead. Who are you going to marry?"

“Our village is now full of women and the elderly. Even the stray dogs that pass by are not male, let alone men.”

This is a fact; the current male-to-female ratio in the Han Dynasty is very problematic.

Guan Xing, feeling frustrated, changed the subject, saying, "Gentlemen, you all have your own grievances and your own ideals. Moreover, most of your ideals are very simple: just want a few thatched huts and a few acres of land to live a peaceful life."

"To be honest, this ideal is already so low that there's no room for it to go any lower, but tell me yourselves, do you have any hope of achieving it?"

"Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste, while on the roads, the frozen dead lie scattered. Why has the world become like this? The world shouldn't be like this!"