A kind word warms for three winters, while harsh words chill in June.
At this moment, the prisoners in the cell could hardly believe their ears.
They had all come to terms with being absorbed into the "Analects" study group, but they never expected this.
The moment they surrendered, Lester promoted one of them to a small leader.
And then he ordered this leader to stab him twice when there was nothing else to do. Was this even a human job?
Thinking about what they had just done, pushing the scar-faced man forward, many of the prisoners turned pale with fear.
They were just wizard criminals. A stab would hurt.
Ignoring the confused prisoners, Lester spoke to himself, "Later, when the prisoners next door are reading the Analects, you all will follow along."
"I hope you can study well. When you're out of prison, be good people!"
He then nodded at the newly promoted group leader and ordered, "Watch them closely. If they make a mistake, stab them once."
"If anyone resists, tell me, and I'll deal with it."
Hearing Lester's ruthless words, the scar-faced man dazedly nodded.
Now he understood why there had been a trace of weeping in the voice of the prisoner next door reading aloud earlier.
Seeing Lester's cruel demeanor, the scar-faced man suddenly understood where the crying had come from.
He hurriedly nodded in agreement, and from under his pillow, he pulled out a small knife, the same kind as Lester's.
As the cell head, he naturally had his own weapon.
"Study hard, I have high hopes for you," Lester patted the scar-faced man's shoulder, looked at him for a moment, then turned invisible again.
He had business to attend to, and didn't have time to waste on these prisoners.
When he entered prison a few days ago, he had carefully observed the layout of Azkaban's cells.
As the only prison in the British wizarding world, Azkaban housed all kinds of criminals.
Because it was the only prison, it contained everyone from the notorious Death Eaters to petty criminals like Hou San.
If these criminals weren't segregated based on their crimes, there would likely be murders every day.
So light criminals like Lester were usually kept in the outer cells, while the worst dark wizards were locked in the innermost cells, where they lived with Dementors.
From Hou San, Lester learned that there were 10 cells for light criminals like him in Azkaban, and they were all connected, forming a line that stretched across the outer area of the prison.
This meant that Lester, with his ability to phase through walls, could easily move between all the light criminal cells.
Without hesitation, after seeing that the scar-faced man and others were submitting to his control, Lester was satisfied and phased back into his own cell.
Inside, Hou San and the other five were kneeling on the floor, staring at each other, waiting for his return.
"Alright," Lester deactivated his invisibility and slowly appeared before them. "The problem is solved."
"You've been reading the Analects all day. You can take a break now."
When the prisoners heard Lester's command to rest, they immediately collapsed to the floor.
But after reading the Analects all day and being stabbed every time they made a mistake, you'd probably be exhausted too.
"Hou San," after everyone had relaxed, Lester walked over to Hou San and asked, "Why haven't I seen any Dementors today?"
Lester was a bit curious. He had two main goals for having these prisoners read the Analects aloud:
1. To stab them when they made mistakes, gaining fear points.
2. To attract Dementors with their loud reading, so he could also gain fear points.
This way, he could gather a lot of fear points in just a year.
But to his surprise, despite having the prisoners read aloud, he hadn't seen a single Dementor today.
"This…" Hou San stammered, "We light criminals are all guarded by a Dementor."
"The Dementor that was here yesterday sucked up a soul and is now in a resting state."
Hearing this, Lester finally understood. It wasn't that the Dementor wasn't coming; it was just in a resting state. He had been worried for a moment.
Now that his confusion was cleared up, Lester patted Hou San's shoulder and said, "You can rest for an hour. After that, we'll start reading again."
Then, Lester turned invisible again and phased through the walls once more.
He had other cells to visit, to continue his "study group" recruitment.
Since everyone in Azkaban would spend their days in misery, Lester figured it was better to get them to study the Analects.
After all, when they got out, they could turn over a new leaf.
So, the kind-hearted Lester began his tireless recruitment plan.
With practiced ease, he passed through the walls into another cell.
Once inside, he wasted no time. He drew his knife and stabbed each prisoner, regardless of gender or age, right in the kidneys.
No matter how much he tried to reason with them or kindly ask them to join his Analects study group, they always treated him like a fool.
So Lester chose the quickest, most straightforward method: stab first, explain later.
[Ding! Congratulations, the host has gained +100 Fear Points from Mona Li.]
[Ding! Congratulations, the host has gained +100 Fear Points from Oubi Liao.]
[...]
Soon, Lester had accumulated 800 fear points.
Afterward, he appeared in front of the prisoners, who were staring at him with a mixture of fear and confusion, and smoothly added them to his "Analects Study Group."
He even enthusiastically gave it a name: "White Tiger Study Group."
The prisoners who had been stabbed for no reason could only stare in disbelief.
Looking at Lester, who was so concerned about them joining his study group, they felt incredibly frustrated.
Why couldn't he just speak nicely? They hadn't even refused to join his group, but he had to stab them in the kidneys first. Wasn't that a little too rude?
Helpless, they all gave in, knowing they had no way to fight back. Lester could go invisible and pass through walls, while they didn't even have wands.
So, in the end, they all joined Lester's Analects study group.
Whether they truly wanted to or not, only they would know.
After all, getting unexpectedly stabbed in the kidneys really hurt.
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