Eunuch Su, Eunuch Su!

Eunuch Su stayed in Yongshou Palace for a long time. He watched the palace servants change all the flower offerings and fruit offerings on the late Empress's table. He also checked around and saw that there were no mistakes. Only then did he call Huiming, preparing to go back.

Although Huiming took advantage of the opportunity of the King of Xin's appearance to learn the reason why Eunuch Su was involved in the battle between the two kings, and even got a guarantee from Eunuch Su that "it will not be so," she did not relax at all. Instead, her heart became heavier because of the previous exchange. But at this moment, she didn't say anything, but just responded with a smile. It was as if nothing had happened, and she followed Eunuch Su out of the magnificent but deadly silent Yongshou Palace with a normal expression.

On the way back, Huiming didn't bring up the previous topic with Eunuch Su. On the one hand, she didn't want to remind Eunuch Su of his sadness. More importantly, from Eunuch Su's last words, she had already seen that Eunuch Su would never give up revenge, and he was not sure whether he could get out of the fight between the two kings. With the lives of his entire family at stake, even if she continued to ask, it would only force Eunuch Su to lie and deceive her, and it would have no practical effect.

In fact, although in the eyes of outsiders, she had the title of Eunuch Su's "partner," Eunuch Su was only a benefactor to her. At best, he was just more familiar with her and had a closer relationship with her. In what capacity and qualification could she interfere with Eunuch Su's plans and decisions?

However, in this way, wouldn't everything be no different from her previous life? Following behind Eunuch Su, Huiming couldn't help but frown tightly. She had finally learned the reason, but she had come back to life. Could it be that all she could do was to watch Eunuch Su repeat his mistakes after knowing the inside story?

No, it couldn't be said that she knew everything. She only knew the old events and reasons, but she didn't know what Eunuch Su had done in the middle and what his plans were for the future. She just didn't know what Eunuch Su's cause of death was in her previous life. Did he die at the hands of the rebels, or was he liquidated by His Majesty afterward?

If she could find a way to make Eunuch Su hide on the day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, would he be able to survive?

Su Jin, who was in front, naturally noticed Huiming's silence and depression behind him. However, he couldn't give her any comfort or guarantee about this matter. At this moment, although his heart was aching like a knife, they both walked back to Jing Alley in silence.

Yuanbao didn't dare to say a word because of the inexplicably gloomy atmosphere between the two of them. As soon as they entered the house, they hurriedly said that they were going to make medicine for their master and hurried out.

No matter what was going on in her mind, Huiming still remembered that Eunuch Su's cold had not yet healed. She personally went to the kitchen to prepare hot soup and lunch. After waiting for Eunuch Su to take the medicine and persuaded him to finish his meal, she saw that it was almost time. She urged him to change his clothes and take a good nap in the sun.

Su Jin was also particularly obedient at this time. Huiming told him to eat, and he ate everything without leaving a single bite. When she told him to sleep, he lay down on the couch and closed his eyes immediately.

Seeing this, Huiming didn't bother him anymore. She got up and went back to her room. She sat on the bed in a daze for a while, but she couldn't calm down because she had something on her mind. Just then, she caught a glimpse of the chess manual that she had asked Eunuch Su to collect for Seventh Prince on the long table. Thinking that two days had passed, she simply got up, took the chess manual, and went to Changxing Palace.

When she arrived at Jingfang Hall, it was not yet noon. Seventh Prince had just finished his meal and entered through the curtain door when he saw Nanny Wang closing the door and retreating with the food box.

"Nanny Wang!" Huiming hurriedly called out and went up to her. She asked with some guilt, "How is Little Prince these two days? Is he angry with me?"

In fact, Huiming herself was not sure what Seventh Prince's reaction would be. In her previous life, firstly, taking care of the prince was her duty, and there was nothing more important than this. Secondly, she felt sorry for Little Prince and paid twelve points of attention to him.

As before, due to various reasons, it was rare for her to delay Little Prince like the previous time, and it had never happened like now, where she broke her promise twice in a few days.

Seeing that it was her, Nanny Wang also showed a smile on her face. She first asked if there was anything wrong with her asking for leave, and then replied, "It's also strange. I didn't see you yesterday, and His Highness didn't change his clothes or eat breakfast late. He insisted on waiting for you to come. But yesterday, he didn't see you either. His Highness didn't make a fuss. He just waited for a while in the morning. These two days, it's like he's forgotten about it. He's currently nestled in bed, pondering over chess."

Nanny Wang said it casually, but Huiming felt more and more uneasy when she heard it. The last time he waited for her, it meant that Seventh Prince had acknowledged her and regarded her as one of his own. But now, he acted as if nothing had happened, which meant that Little Prince already regarded her as an irrelevant person who didn't need much attention.

Nanny Wang didn't think much of it and just smiled. "You go in first." Then she continued to walk out, leaving Huiming standing there for a while. Finally, she took a deep breath. After entering the door, she first stood at the door and called out, and then she walked inside lightly.

At a glance, there was no sign of Little Prince in the entire room. Huiming thought of what Nanny Wang had just said about the prince pondering over the chess manual on the bed. She paused for a moment and then continued to walk towards the bunk bed placed in the corner.

Sure enough, before Huiming could get close, she saw the gray bed curtain in front of her tremble slightly. Obviously, Seventh Prince inside moved slightly, but instead of coming out, he shrank further inside.

His Highness is hiding from her. Huiming's footsteps stopped abruptly. Although seven points of her mind were still worried about Eunuch Su's life, when she saw this scene, her heart suddenly shrank, as if she had been pricked by something.

In her two lifetimes, not to mention the initial unfamiliarity, Seventh Prince had always been very close to her after they got acquainted. Especially in her previous life, because Nanny Wang had left early, from beginning to end, Seventh Prince only regarded her as his only support and reliance. It was always her who took the initiative to protect the little Seventh Prince behind her and dodge others together.

Huiming had never imagined that one day, Little Prince would be like this. Little Prince would treat her as a stranger and try to avoid her.

However, it was true that she had broken her promise twice. Little Prince was timid and sensitive. It was her own fault that he treated her like this…

"Your Highness."

Although Huiming thought so, when she opened her mouth slightly, her voice still carried a trace of difficulty. "These two days, because of more important matters, I didn't come to see Your Highness. It was my fault. Your Highness should blame me."

It was quiet inside the bed curtain, without even a tremor. If Huiming hadn't just seen Little Prince's clothes corner, she wouldn't have been sure if there was really someone inside.

Huiming waited for a while, knowing that the more she said, the more nervous Little Prince would be. So she just took out the few chess manuals she had brought and gently placed them on the corner of the bedside. She continued, "Your Highness should have read all the previous chess manuals. I brought a few new ones. These two are endgame diagrams, with chess games drawn on them. Your Highness can read them by yourself. The other one is not a diagram. There are words written in it. Although it's also about chess, I'm afraid Your Highness doesn't recognize it, and there are many words that you don't understand. I was thinking, I'll read it to Your Highness slowly in the future. Since Your Highness doesn't want to talk to me now, I'll come back later?"

That's right, Seventh Prince, because his situation was different from others, had not yet entered school. Naturally, no one had taught him how to read and write. It wasn't until he ascended the throne and became emperor that he met a very patient old grand tutor who taught him how to read word by word.

The reason why she said "perhaps" was because the little emperor at that time didn't speak or express himself, so no one knew if he had really learned it.

But Huiming had learned it. After all, Seventh Prince's situation at that time was much more serious than it was now. Especially when he saw strangers, he could hardly leave her side for a moment. The old grand tutor taught him so carefully that even a fool would learn a little, let alone her who had been accompanying him. Although she couldn't write, she had thoroughly learned the usual children's enlightenment, the Four Books and Five Classics.

After saying that, Huiming put down the chess manual she had brought, slowly stood up and turned around, walking towards the door.

However, Huiming didn't really go out. She deliberately made some footsteps and walked to the door. She stood in the room and opened and closed the door. Then she tiptoed to the wooden pillar in the room and hid. She only tilted her body and quietly looked at the few chess manuals she had placed on the bedside.

There were bursts of unknown birdsong outside the window. In the peaceful and quiet room, Huiming waited for two quarters of an hour. Finally, she saw the gray bed curtain move slightly. A thin and small but white and smooth palm slowly stretched out, as if it were a cub of some animal. It grabbed the few chess manuals on the bedside and quickly retracted.

Seeing this, Huiming couldn't help but smile. She was worried that if she stayed any longer, Little Prince would see her when he came out. So she sneaked back to the door step by step, slowly lifted the curtain, and squeezed out.

It wasn't until she stood at the door and gently put down the curtain that Huiming let out a long sigh of relief. She took a few steps back and waited at the door for a while. When Nanny Wang came back, she said that she would come back tomorrow after work and asked her to go in and tell Little Prince. Seeing that Nanny Wang agreed, she left with a relieved heart. ————

However, when Huiming returned to Jing Alley, she didn't see Eunuch Su, who was supposed to be taking a nap at noon. Not only Eunuch Su, but even Yuanbao was nowhere to be seen.

However, seeing Huiming come back, the cook who was in the kitchen came out and told her, "Someone from the palace came and said that there was something urgent, so they called Eunuch Su over. Chief Steward Su left in a hurry. I was afraid that you would be worried, so he specially arranged for me to tell you."

Huiming was also a little worried when she heard this. "Did they say what the urgent matter was?"

The cook looked around and lowered her voice. "I happened to hear a sentence. It seems that His Majesty is not feeling well again! He fainted again."

This matter was indeed quite serious, but Huiming immediately felt relieved after hearing it. She was a person who had lived a new life, so she naturally knew that this was just another false alarm.

His Majesty had fallen ill because of a stroke. He was old, and this illness was not easy to cure. Although he had woken up now, he had relapsed many times in the past year or two. When it was the most serious, he was almost paralyzed in bed, his mouth and eyes were slanted, and his saliva was flowing uncontrollably. But he had survived time and time again. This was far from the time of his death.

Because of this, Huiming no longer took this "urgent matter" to heart. Apart from being a little worried that Eunuch Su's cold had not fully recovered and he had to go to the imperial court to work, she just nodded casually and called the cook back to rest.

She had also asked for leave today, but Eunuch Su was not around, so she had nothing to do. She had something on her mind and couldn't rest even if she lay down. After thinking about it, she simply went out and brought in a basin of warm water, thinking of taking advantage of this half-day to clean up the house.

Her own room on the east side was cleaned up every day when it was empty, but Eunuch Su's side, in the past few days when Eunuch Su was there, she wanted to clean up every time, but Eunuch Su would always stop her. Taking advantage of today, Huiming wrung the cloth and went straight into the west compartment where Eunuch Su lived.

Eunuch Su had indeed left in a hurry. Even the bedding on the couch was thrown there casually and had not been packed up. Seeing this, Huiming went forward to fold the quilt and smooth the bedding. However, when she was tidying up the pillow, she found a pouch under the pillow.

It was a dark blue satin with bamboo embroidered on it, which was exactly what Huiming had personally made and given to Eunuch Su. She smiled and picked it up. Just as she was about to put it away, she saw half of the Ruyi knot falling out of the pouch.

Huiming paused, then sat down by the bed again, took out the somewhat familiar Ruyi knot from the pouch, and looked at it carefully in her hand. The style and technique were the most common ones issued by the palace. Many palace servants would wear them, so it was not worth paying attention to.

The one that had been hanging on Eunuch Su's Ruyi knot was this one. Not to mention the ones on other people's bodies. She had seen no less than a hundred of them, so it was natural for her to find it familiar. But for some reason, Huiming felt that the "familiarity" she felt seemed to be more than just that.

The corners were slightly worn, showing that it had been worn for a long time. But there was not a single stain on it, and it was properly kept in a pouch and placed under the pillow. It must be very cherished by its owner.

Huiming frowned. The only thing wrong was this. A knot was nothing. In the palace, they were changed every year according to auspicious colors and styles. Even ordinary palace servants had new ones. With Eunuch Su's status, why would he always wear an old knot?

Huiming slowly recalled. She came from the Sizhi Bureau. When she was just an embroiderer, she naturally did a lot of work for the palace people, such as making these rough knots. Brown, Ruyi knot, this should be the style from four years ago? No, that's not right. Although it looked familiar, she had never made this before. It should be five years ago, the year she had just entered the palace.

The thought of just entering the palace was like finally finding a thread in a mess. Huiming's heart skipped a beat. After all this time, she finally found a ripple in her long-gone memory.

She looked at the Ruyi knot in her hand again and couldn't help but widen her eyes.

URGENT: Our Google Ads account was blocked due to violations. We'd deeply appreciate your support through donations to help us continue our work. Or we won't be able to continue the translations.

ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ

Love what you read?