Pet official

After checking his whole body and confirming that there was no scabies, Master Li returned to the table and wrote the following letter: "Ruan Xiaoer, the son of Ruan Xing from Ruanjiazhuang, Fuping County, has been checked and approved to enter the palace. From the date of signing the deed, Life and death are all determined by the fate, and there is no repentance."

After drying the ink, Master Li signed the official seal, and then brought it to Ruan Xing for his signature.

Ruan Xing took the document tremblingly. He was illiterate, stared at it for a long time, then drew his name on the place Li Ye said, took the ink pad, dipped it, and pressed a blood-red mark on the name. fingerprint.

"It's done, the document has been established, and this child is a member of the palace. Baosheng, you take your relative to get the money. I will take the child to the back hall, and I will explain to him."

Ruan Baosheng laughed quickly: "Thank you, Master Li."

Ruan Xing also thanked him, followed Ruan Baosheng, and the two left the wing.

Xiao Er stared at his father's back, hoping that he would turn his head and look at himself again, but unfortunately, the hunched back went out of the room and disappeared into the depths of the corridor, without turning around again.

Xiao Er's heart was completely cold.

Even if he is abandoned, even if he is weak and pitiful, Xiaoer still wants to live a good life, but this time is different from the past, he no longer has to bear the guilt to his parents, and that paperwork paid off the upbringing that Xiaoer owed them From now on, this life is Xiao Er's own.

He wants to live on.Xiao Er pursed her lips, rearranged her clothes, lowered her head, and quietly waited for Master Li to leave.

Master Li stared at Xiao Er again, feeling a little surprised in his heart, it is really rare for a child to accept his fate so quickly.The number of children who have passed through him every day is countless. When they first arrived at the place where they were born, the adults in the family abandoned themselves and wanted to leave. When these children saw each other, they would either cry or make trouble. None of them was as calm and indifferent as Xiao Er. Surprised.

Master Li wondered, such a child is either heartless and doesn't know how to be sad or afraid; or, this child really has a heart of diamond iron, able to face oppression without yielding.

As for Xiao Er, it should be the latter.

But no matter what, it is a good thing for Xiaoer's future life.Master Li sneered, and thought to himself: This child, if you train him well, he will become a character in the future.

"follow me!"

Master Li greeted him and took Xiao Er to the back hall.

For the selection of officials, the back hall of the Department of Punishment specially set aside a courtyard for the children waiting to enter the palace. Here, these children have to go through the first gate of hell before entering the palace-purification.

As a man, if he wanted to enter the palace, he had to go for power.There are so many female relatives in the harem, apart from the emperor, I am afraid that even cats and dogs will be eunuched, otherwise the emperor is not at ease.

There are two kinds of net status, one is one size fits all, and the other is to cut half and keep half, no matter which one, it will leave permanent disabilities on the body.

Don't think that you have to go through such a cruel process to enter the palace. It will scare no one to come. The fact is just the opposite. Throughout the dynasties, eunuchs have been a very popular industry. Not only those who are too poor to survive, but even some down-and-out scholars , there are many people who have entered the palace through this method.

The job of eunuch is not noble, and no man would feel happy without such a thing. However, being an eunuch has one advantage, that is, he can be infinitely close to the master of a dynasty, and he can become the emperor's personal attendant and be in charge of the emperor's diet living.If one can gain the emperor's favor, the eunuch's value will rise accordingly, and promotion and fortune will be no problem. What's more, even the fate of a dynasty can be controlled.

The eunuchs in Dongli have a very detailed division of labor. There are twelve eunuchs, four divisions, and eight bureaus. There are a total of 24 yamen. Among them, the highest-ranking eunuch is in charge of all eunuch affairs in the palace. Wait, in addition to managing the punishment of all eunuchs, but also drafting imperial edicts and helping Emperor Zhu to approve memorials, he is the leader of the eunuch line.

After entering the back hall, he found the deacon and eunuch, Master Li handed over Xiao Er to him, confessed a few words, and went back to the front yard.

The deacon and eunuch took Xiao Er and asked him to follow him in.Go through the doorway and turn into a small yard.

This courtyard is much stronger than Xiaoer's thatched cottage. It is also a brick-and-tile house with glutinous rice water on the wall. There are three main rooms and two side rooms in a row. There is a big pagoda tree at the gate of the courtyard. The trunk is thick and strong, and it seems that neither of them can hug each other.

Xiao Er silently followed, his eyes swept over the locust tree and the gate.

The deacon eunuch was surnamed Wang, he didn't talk much, and looked gloomy, he took Xiaoer into the main room, and said: "You stay in this room first, no one will lead you, you are not allowed to go out of the room, and you are not allowed to speak loudly. Make a lot of noise. Violators will be killed immediately."

Eunuch Wang gave Xiaoer a number plate as he was talking. The wooden plate was rough and not even the stubble was scraped off. A number was written on the front with ink pen, and the word "Jing" was written on the back.

"Take this thing and use it when you cleanse yourself."

After finishing what he wanted to say, the deacon and eunuch turned around and left the room.

Xiaoer took the wooden sign and stood at the door blankly, neither entering nor exiting.

The room is quite big and spacious, and there are no other belongings, only two rows of large bunks are set up on the east and west walls. There are already many people lying or sitting on the bunks. Just now Eunuch Wang was here, and no one dared to speak. Eunuch Wang As soon as he left, there was a commotion in the room, a group of teenagers and half-children were all staring at the door, whispering at today's newcomers.

In a completely unfamiliar environment, no one is waiting for you to adapt, and no one will pity or pamper you. You can only force yourself to get used to it.

Fortunately, Xiaoer has already gotten used to the difficult life.

Xiao Er walked into the room under everyone's probing eyes, looked left and right, and found that there was still an empty seat in the corner, walked over to the corner, swept the dust on the bed, and sat down awkwardly.

Soon someone came to talk to them. The half-grown children had no intentions, and there was no entertainment in this room. Eunuch Wang didn't let them out of the room. They stayed here all day, and there was nothing to pass the time except chatting.

Xiao Er doesn't like to talk, but the kid who shares the same bed with him loves to talk and laugh. He dragged Xiao Er to chatter, and within a long time, he talked about the things in his family.

The child's name is Lian Zui, and according to what he said, he was given this name because his father was addicted to alcohol.

Lian Zui has a bright and lively personality, and the children in this room like him very much. When they see him talking to Xiao Er, they all come over to chat with each other. On the first day, when the children selected into the palace make up a hundred, it will be the day for them to cleanse themselves.

Purging didn't make Xiao Er feel much fear, but another news shocked and frightened him even more, that is, during these three days, they had no food, not only no food, but even water.

Xiao Er is particularly obsessed with eating. Maybe it's because he's been hungry a lot, which makes Xiao Er very concerned about every meal.Didn't you say that you can eat enough when you come here? Why don't you even eat porridge?

Not just Xiao Er, but all the children here find it unbearable. After nightfall, there are no lights in the empty house. The children curl up on the big bunk, and no one can sleep. At first, they still feel their stomach growling. After three meals, I was exhausted, my stomach felt uncomfortable, and my head felt dizzy.

Unable to sleep and famished, the children distracted each other by chatting.

"It's good to give saliva to drink, my mother lied to me, she said that there are countless delicious food in the palace, how can there be? There is no fart. No matter how poor the family is, there is still a mouthful of bran and rice bran to eat. It's good here, what are you doing?" Hungry. When will I be hungry?"

No one explained to them why they were hungry, just like no one cared whether they lived or died.

After starving like this for three whole days, after Xiao Er came, Eunuch Wang brought in a few more children one after another. Counting them, there were a total of twenty people living in their room.

Among these 20 people, Zhao Qing is the most calm and sophisticated, Lian Zui is the most loyal, Yun Xiu is the most gentle and shy, Ma Cheng is the most gluttonous, and the most taciturn is small two.

The days when there is nothing to do are the most suitable for developing friendship. In just three days, the five of them talked about everything, and they slept next to each other. Anyway, they were too hungry to sleep, so they just chatted all night long.

Lian Zui turned over, "Xiaoer, you will be cleansing tomorrow, aren't you afraid?"

Xiao Er shook his head, he didn't understand what was going on with body purification, how could he be afraid.

Ma Cheng on the left also turned around, and whispered: "I heard that the purpose of purifying the body is to cut off the little bird. Take such a long knife and cut it down. The blood will bleed. If it can't be stopped, someone will die on the spot. gone."

Ma Cheng stretched out his hands, gestured in the air, and drew a long arc, "It's so long."

"Ah? Such a long knife? If you don't cut it, you will be scared to death."

Yunxiu trembled, her voice trembled.He was brought up by his elder sister since he was a child, and he is shy. He unconsciously has a girlish tone and style in his actions.

The more Yunxiu was scared, the more excited Ma Cheng was. With a smirk, he crawled across the bunk, passed Xiao Er and Lian Zui, and lay down next to Yunxiu.

Yunxiu was so frightened that her face turned pale, and everyone in the room couldn't stop laughing, but it was Zhao Qing who pushed Ma Cheng, protected Yunxiu behind her, and said angrily: "What's ridiculous, you have to be cut." , could it be that you can escape?"

After saying this, everyone in the room couldn't help laughing. Xiaoer is only ten years old, and he doesn't know the difference between men and women, let alone the love between men and women, and he is also ignorant about cutting sparrows. He seems to understand but doesn't understand, he only knows that two taels of flesh will be cut off from his body, as for what harm it will cause and what impact it will have on his future life, he is still confused.

But Zhao Qing is different, he is fifteen years old this year, the same age as the crown prince, one year later, he will be old enough to discuss marriage.He has already understood that castration is a shameful and unbearable thing for a man. If he hadn't been forced to do so, he would never have come to this point.

Zhao Qing's words silenced all the people in the room. Tomorrow their bodies will no longer belong to them. From boys to eunuchs, once they step into the gate of the palace, they will become other people's slaves. There is nothing to laugh about.

A sad atmosphere suddenly surged up, and many children in the room cried out, "I want to go home."

"Why do you go home? You can still eat a full meal when you enter the palace, but when you return home, the grass roots and bark are all eaten away."

"My house was hit by a flood, and even the house was soaked in water, and I couldn't go back even if I wanted to."

There was suppressed crying everywhere in the room. The children didn't dare to cry loudly, so they could only cover themselves in the quilt, weeping muffledly.

Lian Zui really couldn't stand the atmosphere, so he jumped up from the Datong bunk with his bare buttocks, and shouted: "Why are you crying? The bear is dead! Get up, let's make a sworn marriage and live together for so many days, so we can't waste it." The friendship of the past few days, after entering the palace, if anyone gets rich, remember to pull the brothers, so that we can live together on the same kang for a few days when we still have birds."

The children all made him shout with pride, as if just to commemorate the fact that "there are still birds", they should do something.

Get up in twos and threes, and find friends who have similar temperaments these days. The twenty children are divided into several piles and kneel down on the common bunk.

There are no incense candles, no libations, only a sincere heart, "Zhao Qing, Qi Lianzui, Yunxiu, Ruan Xiaoer, and Ma Cheng, will become brothers with different surnames from today, share weal and woe, and never forget life and death."

The five children swore to the sky, kowtowed three heads, and sat down to tell their ages. It turned out that Zhao Qing was the oldest, Xiao Er was the youngest, Yun Xiu was half a year older than Lian Zui, and Ma Cheng was fourth.

None of the five children fell asleep that night. They squinted and cuddled each other, looking at the sunlight gradually filtering in through the panes.

Its daybreak.