Chapter 287: Grief

Yanjing.

The Sixth Prince reached out and accepted a roast goose from a young eunuch, along with two taels’ worth of broken silver.

For an imperial prince—for a master—not only did he fail to take the initiative and reward these eunuchs, he actually squeezed them instead, stealing their snacks and extorting their silver.

As masters went, this one was truly shameless.

Eunuch Zhang had gone to Litian City.

The one following behind the Sixth Prince now was a younger eunuch, also surnamed Zhang. His name was Zhang Miannian. He was Eunuch Zhang’s godson, had only entered the palace recently, and came from a clean background.

Little Eunuch Zhang reached out and took the roast goose from the Sixth Prince’s hands to help carry it.

The broken silver, however, was not handed over.

That went straight into the Sixth Prince’s own pocket.

The eunuchs and palace maids inside the imperial palace had their own little jianghu.

There were always people stepping on others as they climbed upward.

And there were always people being dragged back down.

Of course, once you became a servant, ninety-nine times out of a hundred your future depended entirely on your master.

If your master was powerful, even a servant walked with a straight back.

If your master fell from favor, no one gave you the time of day outside.

Even palace maids looking for a eunuch companion would be too lazy to consider you.

Little Eunuch Zhang felt there could not possibly be a more shabby and miserable master in the entire palace than his own.

“Hey. Tomorrow, remind Little Chen that it’s his turn to show his filial devotion to this Prince.”

“Oh! Your Highness has a remarkable memory. This servant will go remind him later.”

“Heh. How could I forget? These days I never know where my next meal is coming from. I’m relying on all of you to feed me.”

“Your Highness exaggerates. Being able to show filial devotion to Your Highness is this servant’s good fortune.”

“I’m hungry. I’m going to eat.”

“Please enjoy your meal, Your Highness. This servant takes his leave.”

The Sixth Prince walked to a pavilion and sat down.

He gestured for Little Eunuch Zhang to spread out the roast goose, then tore off a goose leg and began gnawing on it.

After chewing for a while, the Sixth Prince noticed Little Eunuch Zhang was not moving.

Curious, he asked, “What are you staring at? Eat.”

Little Eunuch Zhang hesitated, then shook his head.

“What? Don’t tell me the food at the Xinzheku is so good now that you’ve started looking down on goose meat?

“Wait, that’s not right.

“The Xinzheku is a place for scrubbing chamber pots. Where would they get anything rich enough to eat?”

Little Eunuch Zhang’s face flushed red.

He shook his head and said, “Your Highness, they... they actually live very tightly too.”

“Who is ‘they’?”

“The ones... the ones from just now...”

“Oh.”

The Sixth Prince did not care.

He continued eating goose.

“Your Highness, this servant has only been in the palace for two years, but even I know that when other noble personages enter the palace, they treat everyone here politely—even the lowest little eunuch or palace maid.

“The chief eunuchs receive gifts all the time.

“But Your Highness doesn’t flatter anyone at all. You even extort them.”

“What else am I supposed to do? This Prince has no money for food.

“You expect me to starve?”

“Your Highness, my godfather still has quite a bit of private silver hidden away.

“This servant... this servant could steal it and bring it to Your Highness.”

I’ll steal my father’s silver to support you!

“No, no, no!

“What belongs to you is yours. I don’t need it.

“Calling out the eunuchs and palace maids from different residences every day and telling them to prepare food for me is actually quite comfortable.

“The dishes are different every day too.

“How nice is that?”

“But... but if Your Highness keeps doing this...”

Little Eunuch Zhang felt that even if his own Prince was the least favored of all the imperial sons, he still should not give himself up like this.

If he continued, he would offend people thoroughly.

Little Eunuch Zhang had served inside the palace before and understood one thing very clearly.

These eunuchs might not possess much power individually, but if they truly wanted to ruin your affairs, they had plenty of underhanded tricks.

Even whispering a few poisonous words about you in front of their own masters could cause more than enough trouble.

The Sixth Prince waved his hand unconcernedly and even sucked grease from one finger.

“No matter. No matter.

“Everyone in the palace knows this Prince is living in straitened circumstances these days.

“If you reward each of these eunuchs with a gold bean, they’ll smile and shout blessings to your face, but in truth they’re already used to such things.

“But if I have nothing to eat and wait for them to bring me food, then squeeze them for a little broken silver on top of that, not only will they not become angry, they’ll actually feel happier.”

There was another sentence the Sixth Prince did not say.

They would not merely feel happy.

Watching him eat the food they had brought, some of them would even feel touched.

Of course, one had to choose the proper targets when extorting people.

You could not simply beat the bamboo pole at random like an idiot.

There was an art to this.

The degree had to be grasped very carefully.

Little Eunuch Zhang did not understand.

The Sixth Prince did not bother explaining.

“If you’re not eating, then I’m finishing all of it.”

“Please do, Your Highness.”

“Heh.”

He had just resumed chewing when crying suddenly came from beyond the palace wall.

The Sixth Prince, who had been gnawing on the goose neck, jolted in fright.

Father has died?

For a moment, the Sixth Prince felt as if his heart had suddenly emptied out.

Fear.

Unease.

Confusion.

Shock.

And just the faintest trace of... relief.

Even so, the Sixth Prince forced his emotions back down before they could show.

He said to Little Eunuch Zhang, “Go over there and find out what happened.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Little Eunuch Zhang went to investigate.

Not long afterward, he came running back with red eyes and dropped to his knees at the Sixth Prince’s feet.

The Sixth Prince felt as if his head were about to explode.

No way.

The old man really died just like that?

Wouldn’t that mean Second Brother had barely warmed the Crown Prince’s bed before getting to sit on the dragon throne?

There is no affection in the imperial household.

That was the first thought that appeared in the Sixth Prince’s mind.

Of course, one could hardly demand that the Sixth Prince collapse into overwhelming grief at a moment like this.

When the son is unfilial, the father bears the blame.

That saying had been demonstrated with almost ridiculous perfection by this imperial father and son.

“Your Highness...

“Your Highness... the begonias in Grand Eunuch’s residence have withered.”

The moment he heard those words, the Sixth Prince felt like a drowning man who had suddenly been yanked above the surface.

His head spun.

He staggered backward and sat down again.

Haaah...

Father had not died.

His heart immediately settled a great deal.

Because the Sixth Prince understood one thing very clearly.

No matter how his father tormented him, no matter how he slaughtered his mother’s clan, leveled the ancestral hall, or stripped everything away from him at the very least, his father would not kill him.

Even Third Brother had committed such a terrible offense.

There might even have been State of Qian spies around him.

Yet now he was merely confined at the lakeside pavilion.

He had lost what was below, but the man himself was still alive.

If Second Brother ascended the throne, however... with Second Brother’s temperament, to tell the truth, not many of the brothers would end well.

And that even stronger, more formidable sister-in-law of theirs would soon be entering the capital.

If she entered Yanjing and immediately became Empress, then for the current generation of Ji Clan princes, there would truly be no hope left at all.

And yet, somewhere deep inside, the Sixth Prince discovered that he actually felt a trace of disappointment.

Father... didn’t die.

Immediately afterward, an extraordinarily treasonous thought surfaced in his mind.

Father... just how much longer can you hold on?

Little Eunuch Zhang naturally had no idea what forbidden thoughts were running through his master’s head.

He was still immersed in grief over the Grand Eunuch’s death.

The Grand Eunuch of the palace was the “teacher” in the hearts of all eunuchs.

In truth, very few eunuchs had ever been accepted by him and taught the art of qi refinement.

Only a tiny handful.

But he was like a beacon.

His existence had lit a thread of hope in the hearts of every eunuch living inside the palace.

Because their bodies were incomplete, eunuchs often developed extreme temperaments.

When they hated someone, they could hate that person down to the bone.

But put another way, if they truly felt gratitude toward someone, they could genuinely regard that person as their own “parent” sometimes even more than their actual parents.

After all, the overwhelming majority of eunuchs had been sold into the palace and castrated when they were children.

“Take care of yourself.”

The Sixth Prince sighed.

Then lowered his head and continued eating roast goose.

Where exactly the Grand Eunuch had gone, he did not actually know.

He had not dared investigate too deeply.

Every card remaining in his hand was now something that diminished each time he used it.

But there was one fact the Sixth Prince had known for some time.

The Grand Eunuch had already been away from the palace for many days.

Because when the two menial eunuchs serving in the Grand Eunuch’s residence brought him food, they had not secretly included any rice cakes.

Grand Eunuch... had died outside the palace.

...

The atmosphere inside the imperial palace abruptly became stagnant.

The corners of many eunuchs’ eyes were red.

It was genuine sorrow.

Emotion they could not suppress.

Inside the imperial study, the Emperor of Yan was reviewing memorials.

His complexion looked rather good.

There was even a healthy flush on his face.

At that moment, a young eunuch approached the entrance to the imperial study.

Wei Zhonghe, who was attending at His Majesty’s side, understood and stepped outside.

After hearing that the begonias had withered, Wei Zhonghe’s body swayed.

Then his gaze sharpened.

He lifted his head toward the sky and began forming seals with his hands.

A short while later, Wei Zhonghe returned to the imperial study.

“What happened?” the Emperor of Yan asked, setting down his imperial brush.

“Your Majesty...

“Grand Eunuch has ascended to Heaven.”

At those words, the Emperor of Yan leaned back.

He closed his eyes.

After a while, he spoke.

“Did it return?”

“Your Majesty, the fortune Grand Eunuch borrowed has all returned.

“There is even considerably more than before.

“Before leaving the palace, Grand Eunuch said that whether Your Majesty believed in such things or not, and whether Your Majesty cared about them or not, since he was a Qi Refiner of Great Yan, he naturally had to restore this portion of the state’s fortune to Great Yan.

“Other than making rice cakes, it was the only thing he could still do for Your Majesty.”

The Emperor of Yan waved a hand.

“Leave Us alone for a while.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Wei Zhonghe bowed and withdrew from the imperial study.

The Emperor of Yan remained leaning back in his chair.

No one could see what he was thinking.

No one knew how long passed.

Eventually, the Emperor of Yan forced himself upright again using the armrests.

He lifted his teacup.

The tea had already gone cold.

He did not care.

He drained it in one gulp.

Even the tea leaves inside went into his mouth.

Slowly, he began to chew.

But no matter how long he chewed, he could not taste the slightest bitterness.

A savage glint flashed through the Emperor of Yan’s eyes.

His five fingers clenched tightly around the edge of the imperial desk.

“You kept nagging in Our ear... saying that because Master Zang severed the dragon vein, Our health began deteriorating more and more.

“You said you would restore the fortune that had been cut away.

“Heh.

“So what if it lets Us live a few more days?

“We still won’t get to eat the rice cakes you made with your own hands again.”

“Cough... cough...”

The Emperor of Yan raised a hand to cover his mouth.

When the coughing fit passed, he habitually opened his palm.

Then he suddenly noticed the blood in his palm was only half as much as he usually coughed up.

[End of Chapter 287]