Mystery: The Stars Returner

Today's Professor Wayne obviously has something on his mind, otherwise he would not have said such words just now and asked himself to cooperate with him.

He vaguely guessed some of Professor Wayne's thoughts from this behavior.

Workhouses are nominally charitable institutions that house and provide relief to the poor.

After the introduction of the George III Poor Law, workhouses were built in various places under the watchful eye of the gods.

In addition to each kingdom itself, a workhouse will be established near each church of the Seven Orthodox Churches to assist the poor and at the same time promote the love of God.

This starting point is of course good and worthy of recognition, but the greed of people will make them even want to get involved in charitable institutions such as the workhouse.

It would be the greatest irony when philanthropy becomes a sharp weapon against the poor.

Hastur believes in the goodness of people as well as their ugliness.

From what he has seen so far, and from some of Professor Wayne's words, he can foresee that there is definitely a problem with this workhouse.

Professor Wayne insisted on eating in the same restaurant as the children, probably because he wanted to find out what was wrong with this workhouse.

No matter how well the other party does on the surface, as long as there is something really wrong, it will definitely leave traces.

And children often can't hide many things.

Soon, an administrator came and said that the dining table on the first floor had been set up and it was also time for the children to have lunch.

"Our place is relatively simple, and some of the food is not that exquisite, which may not suit your appetite." Dean Dahn's smile seemed to contain deep meaning.

Professor Wayne said calmly: "I also came from a poor family, and every piece of food deserves respect."

"I'm just worried about a bad reception."

Dean Dahn said nothing more and led the three Hasturs downstairs.

On the way, Hasta observed the surroundings carefully. It was already noon. He walked out of a nearby house. There were many people coming here to eat. Most of the children were between eight and twelve years old, fifteen or sixteen years old. There are very few children.

According to the provisions of the Poor Law promulgated in the era of George III, anyone with sound limbs and able to support themselves outside cannot always occupy the resources of the workhouse, and is not allowed to stay in the workhouse overnight.

In order to show kindness and care for different groups of people, adults can come to the workhouse to receive food once a day, and children who do not live in the workhouse can come to receive food twice a day.

The so-called poverty relief food can be freely adjusted and arranged according to the economic conditions of the local workhouse.

In most almshouses, you can get dairy products and bread. In the almshouses with better conditions, you can sometimes eat meat. In the very well-off almshouses, you can even eat meat openly, and occasionally beer is provided.

Such living conditions are better than those of some working-class families.

Of course, there are only a few workhouses with such favorable conditions.

Most workhouses can barely keep people full. Some workhouses with poor conditions only provide food such as soup and water, which is not enough to eat at all. And they may only have one meal a day, leaving them hungry the rest of the time.

The children there don't have to wash the dishes after eating because their bowls have been licked extremely clean.

After every table in the restaurant was filled with people and filled with food, a manager rang the bell in his hand and shouted at the same time: "No talking, no playing, and no behavior that affects others while eating!"

After the eating rules were read out, the children began to eat quietly.

The main food at noon today was a generous portion of white bread and a glass of milk, as well as a large bowl of sweet soup that was slowly simmered.

Although there is no meat to eat, compared to black bread, having white bread as a staple food is already very good, and there is also milk, which can already meet the nutritional needs of children.

From the outside, at least from the lunch meal, there wasn't much to fault.

"It's such a touching scene."

Lecturer Foulen sighed with emotion. In his opinion, it was already remarkable that a workhouse could feed poor children.

"Yes, I hope all children can grow up healthily." Professor Wayne was also very moved.

Hastur did not comment on the scene before him. His eyes fell on the clothes on the children.

Their clothing looks similar to that of the children in the dock area. They wear gray and black old coats, loose knee-length bloomers, and some also wear round-brimmed felt hats. This is a very normal dress in the workhouse.

What made Hastur a little confused was that their clothes were loose and messy, as if someone had temporarily put them on.

Another point is that these children's behavior is too calm.

Logically speaking, children of this age like to play and learn new things the most. When facing people like themselves, even if they don't show interest, they will secretly take a few glances, right?

But since I walked through the door, every child I met along the way behaved very calmly and well-behaved, not even talking loudly or playing around.

This is not normal.

"Let's have lunch too." Dean Dahn greeted, and the administrator brought lunch.

Their lunches were similar to those of the children, except for a small extra piece of steak.

Folan looked hesitant and said, "Isn't this bad?"

It would be a bit excessive for the children to eat white bread while I eat delicious steak.

Dean Dahn looked embarrassed and said apologetically: "I didn't think carefully enough."

As he spoke, he ordered the administrators on the side to order them to distribute all the steaks at noon to the children.

"Dean Dahn, you are really a kind person." Folan was very satisfied with Dean Dahn's approach.

Professor Wayne and Hastur just watched quietly without commenting.

Adhering to the eating rule of not talking during sleep or eating, Hastur and the others did not speak aloud. After lunch, Dean Dahn asked someone to take them around the workhouse.

The entire workhouse can be roughly divided into five areas, living area, residential area, teaching area, work area, and confinement area.

The living area refers to an area where you can move and play freely. Children can move freely in the living area for a certain period of time after finishing their classes and adults finishing their work.

The residential area is divided into three parts. The first part is where children under the age of fourteen live. The second part is where the workhouse administrators, cooks, workers, etc. are located. The third part is where children who are over fourteen years old live. and the area in which a person who had a job in the workhouse lived.

The place where the children live is in the innermost part of the building on the left. The workhouse administrator and others are in the middle, and the staff are on the outermost side.

There are iron gates between each other. Except for the guards responsible for patrolling, ordinary people can enter and exit without keys.

Once someone is caught crossing the border, the punishment will be very severe. This is also to protect those children from being harmed as much as possible.

The teaching area is where children learn knowledge in class. The teaching here is very basic. If you can learn and use Rune script, and add and subtract within 100, you can be considered a graduate.

In addition, there is another kind of teaching, which is to learn some skills that can be used to find jobs, such as basic survival skills such as sewing clothes, pasting matchboxes, and washing clothes.

The work area is an area that can only be entered by people over the age of fourteen. The workhouse will take some simple jobs from outside and let them work. Firstly, they can exercise their work ability, and secondly, they can earn some money to subsidize the workhouse. The third reason for finance is to keep these people occupied and avoid causing other bigger troubles.

Take the workhouse here as an example. Because it is built halfway up the mountain, it is convenient to quarry stone. Many workers' daily job is to dig stones from the mountain. Women who are smaller or in weaker health are responsible for secondary processing of the transported stones. .

The confinement area is used to detain people who have made mistakes, such as noisy children or workers who get into fights.

This area is mainly located in the basement so as not to affect normal life on the ground.

After walking around for an entire hour and a half, Professor Wayne told the administrator that he would stay here tonight.

After receiving the news, Dean Dahn smiled and agreed to the matter and said that they could stay in the workhouse as long as they wanted.

At around three o'clock in the afternoon, Professor Wayne led Lecturers Hastur and Foren, as well as two administrators of the workhouse, out of the workhouse to the dock area.

This time, Professor Wayne came to the dock area. In addition to resting at the Sunrise Workhouse for a night, he also wanted to popularize legal knowledge for the unfairly treated workers here during the day, and also provided certain legal knowledge for free. assistance.

Professor Wayne told Hastur that during this period, the Kingdom of Loen had revised its laws many times regarding workers and the economy in an attempt to improve the treatment of workers. This information was very valuable to the workers in the dock area. .

If they do not know certain legal knowledge, they will not know how to fight for corresponding rights and interests for themselves. This will keep them being squeezed, and the harder they work, the harder it will be.

Professor Wayne is an idealistic lawyer?

With in-depth contact with Professor Wayne, Hastur felt more and more from him his compassion for the poor people.

Since the first contact, he felt that Professor Wayne was a little different.

Commonly speaking, when dealing with noble children like myself, many teachers teach in a perfunctory manner, and generally do not expect a nobleman to concentrate on being a lawyer.

After all, the profession of lawyer cannot be compared with a noble title.

But Professor Wayne still taught very seriously, and also consciously told himself that there were many injustices in the current law.

It was both bold and fearless to tell a nobleman that there was something wrong with the laws that protected the nobles.

As they walked and chatted, a few people came to the area where workers lived in the dock area. Two workhouse administrators were responsible for notifying nearby residents who were free to come here to attend free classes.

Instructors Hastur and Foren moved in two tables and a dozen benches.

Professor Wayne found a blank board and a piece of burned charcoal.

After about twenty minutes, people came one after another out of curiosity to see what these outsiders were going to do here.

When more than twenty residents came to watch, Professor Wayne started his small class to popularize legal knowledge.