Carter and Fez stormed off angrily- they were afraid they wouldn't be able to control themselves and attack the commoners.
"That idiotic Liu Feng is a disgrace to us nobles for being friendly to those untouchables and giving them so much for their salary," Fez said. In his mind, the commoners were meant to be exploited, and being able to work for nobles was the biggest reward they could get.
"Why would you care so much about what the untouchables say? You’re just lowering your status by doing so,” Carter said. Although he said that, he was also pissed that the commoners thought that Liu Feng was better than him.
"True, only nobles approved by other nobles are real nobles; nobles that are approved by untouchables are lowly and fake nobles," Fez said. He was basically saying that without his approval, Liu Feng wasn't a noble.
Many nobles had the same beliefs as Carter and Fez. They believed commoners were basically cattle and sheep and that their role was to feed and take care of the nobles.
In this era, if a noble was approved by another noble and praised as a good noble that understood etiquette, then they would become famous pretty quickly and would easily integrate into the noble circle.
"Humans in beginning, nature is kind, dogs don't bark, cats don't jump..."¹
Carter's group was walking when they heard a voice. What the hell were those last two phrases?
Carter and Fez looked at each other, but before they could say anything, they heard an angry voice.
"You stupid kid, I've taught you for 5 days already! How could you still mess up? Go out and stand there as punishment!"
"Okay, teacher!" Shortly after, a boy with a runny nose walked out of the room and stood in front of the door obediently. He mumbled, "Why does Lord City Lord give us phrases that are hard to memorize? Dogs don't jump, cats don't purr is so much easier to memorize."
Fez and Carter were confused. Liu Feng could write poems? Wasn't that a skill exclusive to scholars?
"Little boy, did the city lord really write the poem that you were just reciting?" Carter asked, squeezing out a smile.
"Who are you? Lord City Lord taught us to not talk to strangers or we would be abducted." The boy took two steps back and looked at them warily. His eyes were literally saying "human trafficker".
The corner of Carter's mouth twitched. Liu Feng taught what again? He quickly took out a piece of pastry from his pocket and said, "As long as you tell me, this pastry will be yours."
To Carter's surprise, rather than taking the pastry, the boy took a step back and suddenly burst into tears. "Waaaaaa... father! The human traffickers that Lord City Lord had taught about had appeared... waaaaa..."
"What? Traffickers? Us?" Carter and Fez were both confused.
"Human traffickers? Where?" An anxious voice came out of the house.
Carter and Fez quickly ran away with their group. If it wasn't because they didn't want to reveal their identity, they would have already beaten up the little boy.
The little boy looked at the people that ran away and wiped his eyes and nose. He said proudly, "Hmph! Lord City Lord was correct. Human traffickers pretend to be good people and give pastries to eat, and then knock children out and abduct them to be sold."
"I knew they weren't good people as soon as I saw them. Will Lord City Lord come today to give us a lesson? I want to hear the story of the Three Kingdoms. Is the face of Knight Guan Yu really red?"
"Ba Dou, what are you doing? Where is the human trafficker?" Luma asked.
"Uh... he he he... Lord Father, I scared away the human traffickers," Ba Dou said, scratching his head as if he wanted Luma to compliment him.
"Is that so?" Luma asked, his eyes narrowing. He shook the ruler in his hand and asked, "What did that human trafficker look like?"
"Large red face with a long beard," Ba Dou said. "Wait, no, that was wrong, that was Knight Guan Yu's descriptions, not the human traffickers' descriptions." Ba Dou hurriedly shook his hands, failing to notice that Luma's face had darkened.
"Oh? Is that so? Then how about you take a few hits from my "Green Dragon Crescent Ruler!"² Luma picked up Ba Dou, pulled down Ba Dou's pants, and under Ba Dou's frightened eyes, raised the ruler in his hand and...
"Human traffickers your head! How many times have you done this? Every time I make you stand outside as a punishment, you would cause me trouble! Last time when you ran away to play with someone, you said that you had been abducted by human traffickers! And now it's human traffickers again?"
"Do you still dare to do it again? Lord City Lord is kind enough to open an academy- uh, an elementary school for you guys to study in, and you won't even come here to study on your own?"
"Wuuuuu... I won't do it anymore... I'll go study obediently..."
Luma was so angry that he almost exploded. He was angry at the fact that his son only wanted to play and never wanted to study. He was the first teacher of the elementary school ran by Liu Feng, so he was very strict with his sons.
In the city, children under 15 years old all came here to read. Liu Feng had said that since no one needed to worry about the food anymore, the children should go to school to study; the school would take care of the children's lunch.
The school was filled that day, and Luma became the first teacher of the school. Liu Feng was the principal and would occasionally come to the school and stay for an hour or two to ̶b̶r̶a̶i̶n̶w̶a̶s̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶k̶i̶d̶s̶ tell stories.
¹ 人之初，性本善，狗不叫，猫不跳. The first six words means that humans are kind when they are born, basically, they are good by nature. Last six means dogs don't bark and cats don't jump.
² 青龙偃月尺. Reference to Guan Yu's weapon 青龙偃月刀, which translates to Green Dragon Crescent Blade. The weapon is a Guan Dao (关刀). Oh, and I don't know who made the official translation for 青龙 Azure Dragon, but azure is a bluish color while the dragon is green, not blue.