Deep Palace past events

That night Yang Fan tossed and turned on the narrow door, thinking wildly about the dawn, and finally fell asleep.But after not sleeping for a long time, he was woken up by the quarrel between Zhang Xiaomao and Daohu——

"Hey, we are all hungry, why don't you bring us food?"

"What are you arguing about? To tell you the truth: you can't eat today. Not only today, but also tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. There is no food for these three days."

"Fuck you! How did we offend you? You have to go without food for three days in a row!"

"Kid, keep your mouth clean! If you dare to curse again, not only will you have no food, but I will tear your mouth apart!"

"Hey, please speak clearly, why didn't you give us food for three days?" Gao Zhaohui was afraid that Zhang Xiaomao would suffer, so he took over the conversation.

"Why? Because you are going to cleanse tomorrow morning."

"You are not allowed to eat for three days after purifying yourself? What is the reason for this?"

"What an idiot!" Daohu was about to curse, when suddenly Hu Yunzhi's voice came from the courtyard behind him: "Daohu, stop arguing, let Yuliang explain to them."

Daohu didn't dare to contradict him, and went back to his room resentfully.

I only heard a brisk footsteps walking towards these clean rooms, and when I reached the door, I heard the man say in a clear voice: "Please open the doors and let everyone gather in 'clean room 45' to talk. .”

Hearing the voice, this person seemed to be a half-grown child, Yang Fan and others couldn't help guessing: "It's probably a boy in the clean room."

Zhuang Ding opened the doors of each clean room, and let the five children go to "clean room 45" where Wei Zhi lived.Standing in the courtyard with a single knife to watch.

Although this Yu Liang is a boy in the cleansing room in name, he is actually Hu Yunzhi's disciple.I have studied in a private school for several years, and I grew up in a place like a cleansing workshop. I have read countless people, and I have seen far away from everyone, so my words and deeds are much better than these country children, just listen to him speak freely : "Let me introduce myself first. My surname is Yu, and I am 14 years old. I am an apprentice in this workshop."

The children saw that he spoke freely and freely, without restraint and shyness, their eyes could not help showing a bit of curiosity and admiration.Listen attentively to what it says:

"Everyone is new here, so it's not surprising that you don't understand many things. In fact, what the uncle said just now is not completely correct. It's not that you are not allowed to eat for three days, but only the day before the operation. Stool, because it hurts the most in the first three days after the operation. If you have a bowel movement, you will feel more uncomfortable. So in order to reduce everyone’s pain, you are not allowed to eat the day before the cleansing. Because your cleansing day is set for tomorrow morning, So I can't eat today."

Zhang Xiaomao said: "You said that you are not allowed to eat for one day, which means that you can eat after the operation tomorrow? But...you may have to relieve yourself after eating."

"Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, although you can eat something, you can't eat dry rice. Instead, you can only eat some stinky porridge and porridge that we specially made for you."

"What is stinky?"

"Stinky □□ is the most important medicine for purifying the body. We use its leaves to make soup and let everyone drink it before the operation. It can play a role in anesthesia, which is equivalent to the Mabosan they use in Langzhong. After the operation, because the first three days...was a bit painful, so I had to drink some every day, which could relieve a lot of pain."

The children were silent for a while.

After being silent for a while, Wei Zhi asked timidly, "After three days, won't the pain go away?" Seeing everyone looking at him, his face flushed with embarrassment.

Seeing that he was ashamed like a little girl, Yu Liang smiled slightly and said, "For the sake of everyone's age, let me tell you the truth: in the three days after the cleansing operation, it was The most difficult thing is that you have to stay in bed all day, in order to prevent everyone from touching the wound with your hands and causing infection, so your hands and feet must be tied for these three days.

"You must have noticed that there are pins at the top, middle and bottom of the two sides of the door you are sleeping on, which are designed to prevent people from touching the wound with their hands. Both the thigh and the thigh are bound in the set, which not only makes it easier for the master to operate, but also ensures that everyone will not be infected.

"In the three days after the operation, the master has to help you stretch your legs three times a day... To tell you the truth, stretching your legs is very painful, and you may tremble from the pain, but it is also for your own good, because if If you don't stretch your legs, your waist will be bent, and you will never be able to straighten it for the rest of your life.

"So no matter how painful it is, you must grit your teeth and endure it. As long as you endure these three days, you can go to the ground, and the pain will be greatly reduced in the future. After seven days, the fine path will be sealed, and the wheat can be removed after twelve days." No matter, the wound will heal after 21 days, and you can go to the ground after [-] days, and the day you go to the ground will be the day when you 'come out of calamity and become enlightened'."

"What's a straw?"

"The straw is a short piece of straw. Because after your 'potential' is cut off, in order to allow you to urinate, a straw is inserted into your urethra. At the same time, this is also to prevent the granulation here from growing together. Otherwise, you won’t be able to urinate in the future.”

"What is potential?"

"It's what you call life root, we call it power."

After listening to the silence for a while, Peng Xiaowan suddenly thought of an important question, and asked with some concern: "You have five cleansing masters here, right? Are their skills good? We won't... die after cleansing, right?" ?I've heard of some people dying after doing it before!"

"Don't worry, our clean room masters here are all very skilled, and no one has died in our workshop."

This is not a nonsense, because the success rate of body cleansing surgery is mainly determined by the skill of the knife maker, so the technical requirements for the knife maker are quite high.

Logically, given that there were no good disinfection equipment, good surgical instruments and drugs, or even assistants and nurses at that time, the success rate should be very low, but in fact the success rate is quite high.

Therefore, many people suspect that the swordsmith has some "secret technique". However, judging from the various materials at present, these are groundless suspicions.

In fact, not only for Chinese medicine, but also for Western medicine, the skills of knife makers have always been a difficult mystery.

During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because the king of heaven Hong Xiuquan did not believe in Chinese knife makers, he invited many famous western doctors from Guangzhou to perform castration operations on his palace servants.He thought that Western doctors had advanced medicines and equipment, and had assistants, and their conditions were better than Chinese knife makers, so he was very superstitious about them. Unexpectedly, none of the hundreds of boys survived after the operation!

Seeing that the children were a bit skeptical, Yu Liang hesitated for a moment, and suddenly said in a low voice: "Tell everyone something that shouldn't be said: let alone those who paid five taels of silver, even those who only paid two taels of silver didn't die. Pass one, so those who pay five taels of silver actually suffer."

It turned out that every body shop had two prices for surgery fees: one price for keeping alive, and the other price for not keeping alive.In Hu Yunzhi's workshop, the price of keeping alive is five taels of silver, while the price of not keeping alive is two taels of silver.

After hearing this, several children were confused except for Peng Xiaowan. When Peng Xiaowan saw this, he explained on behalf of Yuliang: "He said it is indeed a business rule. It doesn't matter which body purification workshop is the same. There are two kinds of prices. One price for those who live, and one price for those who don’t.”

Zhang Xiaomao asked: "But we don't have money, will it be...?"

Yu Liang smiled and said: "Your situation is different from those people. For the time being, Daojiazhuang will pay your surgery money in advance. Don't worry, it's all five taels of silver advanced, which is the price to keep alive."

"What? It's just a temporary payment for us? Does that mean we have to pay it back later?"

"Yes, Mrs. Tian or Boss Tang or Boss Tang will explain this to you in two days. But I can tell you in advance: because everyone is poor—if it weren't for being too poor, who would be willing to self-harm ?

"So we negotiated with Daojiazhuang. Your expenses for file registration, body cleaning, recuperation, food and drink, and medicine will be temporarily paid by Daojiazhuang to our workshop, but everyone has to sign a loan.

"The deed will be kept by our workshop. After you enter the palace, it will be deducted from your monthly payment and handed over to our workshop, and then we will hand it over to Daojiazhuang. The deed will be returned to you."

"Damn it! So we have to pay for the money ourselves! They Daojiazhuang are so stingy!" Zhang Xiaomao scolded him angrily.

Yu Liang smiled and said nothing.Of course he couldn't tell the truth: In fact, this workshop was run by Daojiazhuang, and there was no advance payment in Daojiazhuang.

"Yes, we have to pay them five taels of silver back after we enter the palace!" Peng Xiaowan chimed in with dissatisfaction.

Yu Liang sighed softly, and comforted him: "If you are selected into the palace, it is not very difficult to pay back five taels of silver."

"What if you don't choose to enter the palace?" Wei Zhi asked worriedly.

"Probably not. I heard that nine out of ten children brought into the capital by Daojiazhuang were selected into the palace last time, so you should have no problem."

When several children were sold to Daojiazhuang, they also heard that Daojiazhuang had connections in the capital, so they were a little calm.

Just as he was talking, suddenly the little boy came into the room last night, and all the children were very curious to see what looked like a stack of paperwork in his hand.

Yu Liang introduced to everyone: "He is my senior brother, named Tao Zui."

He took those documents from Tao Zui's hand, and continued: "These are the documents such as the "Volunteer Will", "Security Agreement" and the loan agreement that you are going to put your name on now. The contents of the documents have already been written, and you only need to Just put your name on it."

Zhang Xiaomao said: "I don't know how to write, can someone else write it for me?"

Wei Zhi also said, "I can't write either."

"It doesn't matter if you don't know how to write, but it's the same if you have a fingerprint."

He took out a "Volunteering Knot" and said: "Let me read this "Volunteering Knot" to everyone first. If you have no objection after listening, you can sign your name and get your fingerprints."

Clearing his throat, he read: "Party A: Hu Yunzhi, the master of Daoerhu Jingshen Workshop. Party B: XX. After friendly negotiation between A and B, this voluntary agreement is hereby made. The specific terms are as follows: [-]. Party B is voluntary. Purification.... [-]. After the cleansing operation, Party B has no right to get back the power and sex, but it belongs to our cleansing workshop..."

"What? You... the power you just said is ours... why should it be kept by you?"

"This is the rule. According to the rule, you are not allowed to take back these things yourself, but have to be managed by our cleansing workshop. Every eunuch must redeem the original things after a hundred years. .So we will keep it safe for you until you are all middle-aged or even old, and redeem your things with silver.

"Of course we hope that everyone can be promoted step by step after entering the palace, and that they can have money to redeem them, so that they can 'return their flesh and blood'. Let me tell you: for every eunuch, the greatest joy in life is to be able to 'return their flesh and blood to their hometowns'." '. If anyone fails to 'return their flesh and blood', they will have no face to meet your ancestors, and they will not be worthy of being buried in their graves.

"So we will wrap the cleanliness contract that you are going to stamp with oiled paper and put it in a liter dedicated to each of you, then wrap the liter with a big red cloth, tie it tightly, and put it on the roof beam , which means 'red cloth high rise', which means wishing you all a 'red step high rise' in the future (sheng: it is a kind of instrument for measuring rice).

"As for how much ransom money is needed? It depends on the individual. If you become famous in the palace in the future, of course we will ask for more ransom money. At that time, I think you will not be stingy. If you really don't get along well , we can also reduce the ransom a little at our discretion. Of course, we hope everyone is happy: you can all prosper, and we can charge a few taels more ransom."

"By the time we are all middle-aged or elderly, it will be decades later, and our things will be rotten long ago! What a waste of redemption!" Zhang Xiaomao spat.

One sentence made the children who were already frowning laugh.

"Don't worry, we have our own way to keep it safe, and we guarantee that it will not break for three to fifty years, or even hundreds of years. Isn't there a saying: No diamonds, no porcelain work."

"Well, I believe you on this point, but there is another problem. After 20 or even 30 years, when I come to you to redeem it, how can I guarantee that the redeemed thing is my own?" Gao Zhaohui, who was silent, suddenly asked.

"There is no mistake. We will pack each of your things into a liter, and we will have a number for each liter. A piece of oiled paper will be pasted on the outside of the liter, and 'potential' must be marked on the paper." Your master’s name, age, place of origin, guarantor’s name, date of cleansing, and your birth date, so you will never make a mistake.” After speaking, he pointed to the two black cabinets beside the brick kang: "Those two cabinets, one is the medicine cabinet, and the other is the promotion cabinet."

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Yu Liang read the other two documents again.These clauses have already been written, and it is just a meaning to read it. The children have already accepted their fate, so they signed their names and stamped their fingerprints as required.

Although Yang Fan had no intention of entering the palace, but if he didn't want to be named, it would only increase troubles and variables, so he also signed and stamped the three documents.

After completing the formalities, the children were sent back to their respective rooms.Five body purifiers were already sitting in the room waiting for them, because they were all children sent by Daojiazhuang, so there was no need to "hang the crotch" and "touch the crotch". After the master asked a few questions at random, they Ask the child to kneel down and pay homage to the teacher.

In short, it's just a thought, compared to some other body purification workshops, their apprenticeship ceremony can be regarded as extremely simple.

After the ceremony, the five masters left immediately, and the door was locked again.