The treatment of transmitted readings can be illustrated by expiation for a broken oath. The Qurʾān specifies fasting for three days in the relevant circumstance. A reading transmitted from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd includes the wording mutatābiʿāt—consecutively.
فَصِيَامُ ثَلَاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ مُتَتَابِعَاتٍ
Then fasting three consecutive days.
Hanafi argumentation invokes this transmission in support of requiring consecutive fasts. Other schools differ in the evidentiary weight and legal effect they give that transmission. The example requires a distinction between the canonically established Qurʾānic text and an inference drawn from a non-canonical reported reading.
The disagreement, therefore, does not simply concern the number of days. It also concerns the type and authority of the evidence used to specify how they must be observed.