Deep Palace past events

Everyone sat bored for a while, and Zhang Xiaomao asked everyone: "They told us all to prepare to go ashore in the middle of the night. Maybe they want to turn us into eunuchs overnight?"

Zhang Xiaomao asked Peng Xiaowan again: "Hey, didn't you tell us that day: before being turned into a eunuch, you have to 'hang your crotch' and worship a master? Why is it different from what you said?"

Peng Xiaowan said: "I've only heard some people who have been cleansed say this, how do I know what's going on?"

Gao Zhaohui interjected: "I think what you said is true, but the situation of those people is a little different from ours."

Wei Zhi asked, "What's the difference?"

Gao Zhaohui said: "The people Peng Xiaowan mentioned were all voluntary cleansing, and they all followed their own adults to find a cleansing master to learn from them, but we were bought by Daojiazhuang. Naturally, there are some differences. For example: According to what Peng Xiaowan said, a pig's head or a fat chicken should be given to the master when he is apprenticed, and before the operation, the knife maker will let the person who has been cleansed eat delicious food for ten days But we are all penniless, how can we afford to send pigs and fat chickens? In addition, the good meat and rice that we all eat these days are not from the knife maker, but from their knife family... "

Wei Zhi agreed: "Yes, there are many differences."

Gao Zhaohui said again: "I heard that Daojiazhuang has been doing this kind of business for more than ten years. I think they have their own way. Maybe we don't need to 'hang the crotch' and worship the master in this situation? Or they Daojiazhuang Arrange all of these for us, we just need to get stabbed, and don't care about other things."

After hearing this, everyone felt that his analysis was reasonable, and felt a little uneasy for a while.

Yang Fan lay down distractedly, using his hand as a pillow, thinking wildly in the dark. "Hey, at this point, there must be no chance of escaping. Did I travel here just to be a wife supervisor?"

Just as I was in a state of confusion, I suddenly heard Zhang Xiaomao, Wei Zhi, and Peng Xiaowan sitting on an empty bed talking in low voice:

Zhang Xiaomao: "I heard that the operation is very painful. Tell us about it first, so we can prepare mentally."

Peng Xiaowan hesitated for a moment, then whispered: "Alright, I'll just tell you what I've heard. It is said that the operation is divided into two steps, and the first step is..."

Yang Fan was startled and couldn't help but listen carefully.

But I don't know if he didn't want to be eavesdropped by Yang Fan and Gao Zhaohui, or he was too nervous, Peng Xiaowan's voice was trembling and small, although Yang Fan listened carefully, he could only hear part of the words intermittently:

"The knife makers cut two deep slits across the bottom, and then squeezed them hard with their hands. This is the most painful time! ... The knife smiths have their unique trick. Before squeezing, they will peel a boiled Eggs stuffed in your mouth, stuffed in your throat, so you can't scream, and you can't hold your breath...

"The knife maker took advantage of the moment when you were desperately struggling, and squeezed out both of your penis... and then put the pig gall that had been cut in half on your wound to stop the bleeding...

"At this time, you are sweating all over your body, even the roots of your hair are covered with sweat, and your whole body is so soft that you have no strength at all! This first step is the end, and the second step is to cut off your lifeblood..."

Several children were frightened and turned pale when they heard the sound of the lock being unlocked outside the door, so they stopped talking.

After the door opened, five Zhuang Ding entered in a file with single swords in hand.When the children saw this battle, they were startled and suspicious, and they heard the leader named Daohu say: "Everyone, line up quickly and go ashore with us."

Zhang Xiaomao asked in horror: "What are you doing going ashore so late?"

"Don't ask so many questions, five of you will go ashore with us first."

"Why did five of us go ashore first?"

Daohu said impatiently: "Because there are only five body-cleaning masters, everyone enters the clean room in batches. Madam ordered, first start from your cabin at the stern!"

"Let them go first, I... have a stomachache..." Gao Zhaohui said tremblingly.

"Stop making excuses and stand still! The five of you go first!" Without further ado, Zhuang Ding served one by one, and took Yang Fan and other five children out of the cabin.

When everyone came to the shore, they saw Mrs. Tian, ​​Xiang Di, Tang Biao, and Hu Yunzhi standing in the grass and talking in low voices.Gao Zhaohui said again: "I have a stomachache, and I want to go to the bathroom, so please change to another person..."

Before he could finish speaking, Mrs. Tian came over and slapped two crisp slaps on the face, staggered, and almost fell into the river.

Mrs. Tian spat into the water, and told the two Zhuang Ding behind her: "Go and drag Zhulou here, whoever dares to yell and refuse to listen to you, put him in the Zhulou, sink into the water and drown alive !"

The two Zhuang Ding agreed, and dragged two bamboo pigs from the grass behind them to the bank of the river.

All the children were horrified when they saw that there were several big stones in the pig's building, and they all thought: "Forget it, it doesn't make much difference if you get stabbed first and then again. It's a matter of heart to have the operation sooner."

Although Yang Fan has a different state of mind from the other children, he knows that Mrs. Tian is cruel and ruthless, and he is now someone else's fish on the anvil, contradicting him is only asking for trouble.

Madam Tian saw that everyone was too frightened to disobey her, she turned pale, and said to Xiang, Tang, and Hu, "You guys go, be careful."

Xiang Di said: "Junior Sister, you guard the boat by yourself, so be careful."

So everyone still lined up in a line as before, and moved forward under the leadership of Hu Yunzhi.

After passing through a piece of barren grass, some low-eaves households appeared in front of them, and they were obviously poor.After walking for a while, I walked into a small street. It was already early morning, and people on both sides of the street had already gone to bed.

A group of people stepped on the ancient road paved with bluestone slabs, twisted and turned for half a stick of incense, and then arrived at "Daoerhu".

Originally, this cleansing workshop was opened by Daojiazhuang, and Hu Yunzhi was just a nominal owner. The workshop should not be named after him, but because those who voluntarily cleanse themselves are more superstitious about "ancestral knife makers", they use the knife in the capital. Artisans like to flaunt their families to show their ancestral heritage.In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, there were some well-known body purification workshops in Beijing, the most famous of which were "Dao Hai Hua's", "Dao Er Liu" and "Dao Er Chen".

The crowd bypassed a courtyard wall and arrived in front of the gate. It was the first time for the children to come to the cleansing workshop. Seeing the magnificent construction of this courtyard, they all added a little fear.

Hu Yunzhi knocked the shiny door knocker on the gate a few times, and soon a young man came to open the gate.

After everyone entered the door, they saw a large rectangular courtyard surrounded by brick houses with white walls and black tiles. There were nearly ten doors on all sides, and every fifth door there was a wooden pillar. A red lantern is hung on each pillar.

With the help of the red light of the lantern, you can see that each door has a white lacquered board nailed horizontally, with the room number written on it with a brush: clean room one, clean room two, clean room three...

"Unexpectedly, in just three years, the clean room has doubled in size!" Xiang Di stood in the courtyard, looked around for a while, and praised with some exclamation.

Hu Yunzhi said with some pride: "Our original old workshop is behind this new workshop, and with this newly built one, there are three entrances in total. Last month, my sister wrote in a letter saying that it is estimated that we can fill up [-] children, so I decided to The two big courtyards in the front were purposely vacated for vacant seats, and all the other customers were arranged in the old courtyard at the back."

Tang Biao said: "It would be even better if the old workshop behind has so many clean rooms!"

Hu Yunzhi smiled and said: "The business can't be finished. If all the business is robbed by us 'private knife makers', then the government will not be happy. They have to give up the bulk to their 'official knife makers'."

It turned out that the castration of eunuchs was originally undertaken by the Ministry of Internal Affairs designated by the imperial court, so the Ministry of Internal Affairs had several knife makers, but because of the endless prohibition of private business, the imperial court could only acquiesce in their existence in the end, so People call the knife makers under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "official knife makers", and the knife makers in private workshops are called "private knife makers".

Xiang Di nodded and said with a smile: "It's true. People are not enough to swallow elephants, and business can't be done. Everyone has money to make, so they can live in peace."

Sighing for a while, he said again: "The night is too late, everyone is very tired, so I won't talk much tonight. Brother, can you arrange a place for everyone?"

Hu Yunzhi said: "This has already been arranged. You two bosses go to the upper room at the back to rest. These five children live in the rooms on the east side of the second courtyard—that is, from No.40 to No.40. No. [-]. Take a good rest for a day, and you can do it the next morning..."

After coughing, he said to Daohu and other Zhuang Ding: "Daohu, because you are responsible for monitoring them, you have to be wronged and sleep in the clean rooms next to them. Are you unhappy?"

Dao Hu chuckled, and said loudly: "The guest is up to the owner, how dare we be angry with Boss Hu?"

The children have been listening to them in unease and silence. They are both surprised and happy to hear that the operation will not be performed until the day after tomorrow.Yang Fan thought even more excitedly: "An extra day will give me an extra chance, I hope I can have a chance to escape in these three days!"

The five children were escorted by Dao Hu and others to a courtyard with exactly the same layout at the back. When they saw a boy standing in front of the door of "cleaning room 41" waiting for everyone, Dao Hu said: "Little brother, please help me." You. Give me the keys to these houses, and go to sleep by yourself."

The little boy was eager to have such words, and after handing the key to Daohu, he yawned and left.

Dao Hu ordered a Zhuang Ding to open the doors of the five clean rooms, and said to the children: "One room per person, you can choose one to live in. There are candles and fire boxes on the cabinets to be lit. Do it yourself. But don't delay too long, blow out the candles and go to bed at once."

So the five children each walked into a clean room.

The children suspected that whoever had the first room number would have the surgery first, so they didn't choose clean room 41.Only Yang Fan didn't think of this because he was out of mind, so the room belonged to him.

After the children entered the house and lit it, the Zhuang Ding locked the door of the room again, opened several doors next door, and each lived in a clean room.

Yang Fan walked into the cleansing room for the first time, so he was naturally curious.I saw that the room was very narrow, less than two feet long and wide.There is a small window in the wall facing the door, and under the window is a brick kang, with a chest-high black narrow chest-high cabinet on each side of the kang, and nothing else.

Although I was a little curious about the few furnishings in the house, I was most concerned about the issue of escape, so I first went to the window to check.The window is roughly square and very small, even with Yang Fan's thin body, it is difficult to squeeze out.Besides, there are two window posts.It was as thick as a child's arm, and the wood was as solid as iron. After trying to shake it a few times, Yang Fan realized that he could not break it with bare hands.

Sighing a few times, he put his face on the window post and looked out, only to see a big pond under the window.The pond water is dark, with a layer of green duckweed floating on it, and moss grows on the surrounding stone walls.An ugly, huge toad was floating on the surface of the pool, and there was a small toad on its back. They floated motionless on the surface of the pool, as if they were examining their own "paradise".

"This pond looks wide and deep. I don't know how to use water. Even if I try to break these two window posts, I will drown if I fall into the water!"

After being in a daze for a while, he went to look at other things in the room.Immediately found a strange thing: there is a door panel on top of the brick kang head, the door panel is very narrow, just enough for a person to lie on it.Both ends of the door panel are padded with two blue bricks, about four or five inches above the kang, straw is spread around the door panel, and a clay pot is placed under the door panel, which seems to be used as a bedpan.

"What is a door panel on the kang for?" Yang Fan said to himself.After a closer look, it was discovered that this door panel was different from ordinary door panels.Not only is it half narrower than ordinary door panels, but there is a round hole in the middle, and a small wooden board is placed on the hole, which seems to be able to open and close.

Yang Fan tried to push it, and it turned out that the small wooden board was a trap, if you push it up, it will cover the round hole, otherwise, it will reveal the round hole.

Yang Fan looked at it in wonder for a while, and saw that the earthen basin was just placed under the round hole, and suddenly his heart moved: "Maybe this round hole is specially reserved for easy relief? Well, it must be so, it was made just now. People who have undergone this kind of surgery must have a lot of inconvenience in their movements, so designing this mechanism and round hole that can be opened and closed will make it much more convenient to relieve their hands."

After looking at the bed, he looked curiously at the two medicine cabinet-like cabinets arranged side by side on both sides of the kang.But after pulling out several drawers in a row, they were all empty, and I lost interest immediately.

Seeing that there was nothing to see, he just sat down on the edge of the Kang.After sitting silently for a while, the voice of Daohu came from outside the door again: "Everyone blow out the candles and go to sleep. If the one doesn't sleep, we will immediately ask the master to operate on that one!"

As soon as the voice fell, there were no lights in the rooms.

Because there is no futon in the house, I can only sleep with my clothes on.Fortunately, it's summer now, so I won't catch a cold.

Yang Fan lay on the door panel and thought wildly for a long time before getting tired. Just about to close his eyes, he suddenly heard a huge thunderous snoring sound from the next room, just like an old sow growling.

Yang Fan knew that none of the children could make such earth-shattering snores, so he knew that the person next door must be a Zhuang Ding.

Yang Fan was so noisy that he lost sleepiness, and was sighing his own bad luck, when suddenly, under the cover of that terrifying snoring, there was another voice——

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!" The voice was very faint, and it was completely suppressed by the snoring. If you didn't pay attention, you wouldn't hear it.

Yang Fan listened intently for a while, and was suddenly surprised that the voice came from under the door of his own room.It looked like something was trying to get in through the crack in the door.

"Isn't it a snake?!"

Shocked, Yang Fan quickly took out the flames on his body, jumped off the ground lightly, and lit the candles in the room again.Only then did I see that there was no snake under the crack of the door, but a note slowly being pushed into the door.

Yang Fan froze for a moment, then suddenly thought: "Could it be that masked man came to save me?"

He ran forward excitedly, and asked in a low voice, "Hey, who are you?"

The person outside the door didn't answer, and the note stopped moving forward.

Both sides were silent for a while, and then the note crawled into the room with difficulty and tenacity!

Yang Fan saw that the note had been inserted a lot, so he reached out to catch the note.He asked again in a low voice: "Hey, may I ask that you are... the one wearing the mask?"

The person outside the door still didn't answer.

Yang Fan felt strange, so he looked for a gap on the door.He quickly found a gap and hurriedly put his eyes on it, but is there anyone outside the door?

"Could this person have already left? Why didn't I hear footsteps at all?" He looked at the empty courtyard outside and was in a daze for a while, before he took the note under the candle to read in wonder, and saw that it read:

We are trying to save each other, so don't worry too much.

Not named.Although there are only ten short words above, but these ten words are tied to my own destiny.Yang Fan looked at the mysterious handwriting on the note, and his expression changed momentarily.

He was dazed for a while, and then he woke up to burn the note, so he took the note to the candle and lit it, then threw it on the ground, watched it burn into a mass of black ashes, then carefully picked up the ashes of the paper with his hands, and threw it into the In the pond under the window.