Hypocrites

12 years ago.

"...all the young people under the age of 15 in the city are here, please take a look at it, Your Majesty..."

The front of the hall is full of drooping heads, and the black hair of children is soft and shiny.A feeling of panic and horror permeated among them. Many children had the experience of being selected, but they had never been selected by someone who was honored as His Majesty the Emperor in the grand hall.

The pair of silk clothes embroidered with pictures of mountains and rivers came to the front, slowly walking past the rows of lush young people.

"Orphans don't..."

"Don't give up..."

"Not from outside..."

The silk shoes stopped. "I want a local child with both parents alive."

The guard pointed to a young man and said, "Then he meets the requirements. He lives in a dark street, and his parents are both craftsmen, but their skills are not good enough. He can't get a good job. The son has to sell himself to earn money."

"Keep your head up," said the Emperor.

A boy of twelve or thirteen years old, with a docile and harmless face like a white sheep.

"What's your name?"

The child's face was pale, afraid of the holy power, and he dared not speak.The guard answered for him: "Father's surname is Zhou, but the son has no name."

A name is the first gift at birth, and a child who does not get a name from his parents has no foundation and can only wait to be sold to the master's house in the future to be given a name by the master.

The emperor said to Zhou Shiwei: "When you see me, don't you know how to salute?"

Zhou was still in a daze.

"It's too dull," the emperor was dissatisfied, "you need to be smart."

When the team was neutral, a child plopped and knelt down, shouting to see His Majesty, and His Majesty will live forever.

"Do you have a name again?"

"My servant's name is Qianli!" The child spoke much more articulately, and his eyes rolled around.

The emperor was about to move, when suddenly Zhou Ye's knees touched the ground, although he still didn't speak, he kowtowed, his forehead was red.The emperor refused to leave, and Qianli immediately cast a look of hatred.

Zhou and Qianli were both kept by the emperor that day.

Emperor Wenshen was a gloomy person, and because of his poor health, he was even more depressed. At first, the two thought that His Majesty just needed the company of a smart child.But it soon turned out that wasn't the case.

"People in Wangcheng can set up a family business in Beilu as long as they have money, but you two can't," the emperor asked, "Do you know why?"

Qianli had the most flexible mind, and immediately replied respectfully: "Because the servants are all slaves, they cannot leave the dark street."

Zhou shook his head.

The emperor sneered and said: "Because you two are disobedient, your parents will be the ones who will be punished. If a person loses his family, he is like water without a source and a tree without roots. If you can't complete the tasks I entrusted, you will never leave the dark street. down life."

After being purged and sent to the Qiu Mansion, Zhou understood exactly what the emperor's mission was.Even a stupid kid like him knows what happened when his companion was picked up every night and sent back full of scars in the morning, let alone a smart kid like Qianli.

Qianli asked him: "Are you afraid? I think, if we fail to complete the task, we will be tossed to death by adults!"

"I don't know," Zhou said.

"Even if the task is completed, the emperor will let us die!"

Zhou still said, "I don't know."

"You idiot!" Qianli scolded, "You can die alone!"

After saying that, Qianli disappeared at night, sometimes came back during the day, and sometimes did not see anyone during the day.His treatment has improved significantly, he has an independent courtyard in Qiu's mansion, and several companions who were sent into the mansion together became his subordinates.

Zhou's situation was completely opposite, and it was even worse, because he suddenly went crazy, and once someone approached his room at night, there would be continuous screams, so loud that everyone couldn't even pretend to be asleep. I had no choice but to treat him as a transparent person and ignore him.

One day, Qianli came to Zhou with a bloody ear.

"Is this your mother's ear?"

Zhou did not speak.

"Is it your father's ear?"

Zhou said, "No."

Qianli then nodded: "Oh, that belongs to my parents. You have to be careful, that's what happens to disobedient people. Your Majesty will not show mercy."

"Why don't you listen to His Majesty?"

Qianli once again showed Zhou's familiar, resentful eyes. He always has hatred for everything: "He threatened me with my father and mother. It's ridiculous. No father or mother in the world would sell their son for money. I didn't Parents, I don’t want to protect them either, I just want to live in a big house and have endless money. Your Majesty wants me to live in a dark street for the rest of my life, but Qiu Gong promised me a status. I have never made such a simple choice.”

"Think about it, too," Qianli laughed at him, "But you are a fool, and you don't know how to please people."

Sure enough, Zhou was quickly abandoned by the Qiu family, and took his burden to find the next master.He thought that since then he should have lost his use to His Majesty, but unexpectedly he was summoned.

"It doesn't matter." Emperor Wenshen was very tolerant, "Qiu Zhiyuan is very suspicious, so of course he won't trust you easily. However, he dare not use you, but he is also reluctant to abandon you. If you want to spit it out, just wait for the iron hook to pierce your chin."

Zhou's next master is the East Palace Prince in the year of Zongjiao.

The emperor said: "After the crown prince becomes an adult and inherits the great power, one day Qiu Zhiyuan will question his life experience. Since Qiu Zhiyuan dares to speak out, he has ironclad evidence in hand. At that time, as his confidant in the East Palace, you can go along with it." It means that you admit that you have committed the crime of stealing the day and changing the day. The day the prince falls from the horse is the day you succeed."

Zhou didn't know what His Majesty wanted to do, his intuition was not something he could bear, and his stomach cramped with fear.

The emperor then made a promise: "Don't worry, I will arrange it properly, and I will release you when everything is done, and your life will not be hurt." Yuxi's team organized it, so stay tuned.

What the emperor was afraid of, although Zhou never got an explanation, but he was not really stupid, and he had a vague guess.It was a power controlled by the three permanent servants in the palace, and the emperor could not get rid of it all his life.

Sometimes he would secretly speculate in his heart, His Majesty has spent a lot of trouble and set up a net, at what moment will it be triggered?

When that day came, after many years, he was privately called into the prison again.The emperor described it bleakly. Consumption had damaged his body and spirit, and he seemed to be dead soon, but he wanted to hasten his own death.

"There is my confidant in the southern army. You go with him to the imperial medical office to get the wine of poisonous pepper. You only say that you are ordered by the three generals in the doctor to execute the criminals in the army. The southern army has the convenience of obtaining poisoned wine. The medical officer will For you guys."

People who plan for heaven's secrets count thousands and thousands, even counting the date of their own death.

The emperor coughed twice. He looked completely different from the young emperor who snatched up the youths in Wangcheng. Zhou felt suffocated deeply, as if the Zhangyi Palace was a huge net he had woven, and he was only one of the triggers. bug.

"Unexpectedly, in the end it was you, a little eunuch, who shared the secret with me," the emperor said flatly, "I will not die, and my son will not be protected."

He showed the only smile in his life: "Have you ever seen my son?"

During the winter festival, the pepper wine banquet, the emperor drank the fine wine prepared for himself, and looked at the prince's seat not far away with blurred eyes.Zhou Shi stood behind the crown prince, knowing that the emperor was not looking at the prince, but his son, even though his son could not appear on the golden palace during his lifetime.

But after his death, the three eunuchs will retrieve the bone ring from the thousands of troops in southern Sichuan. As Liang Xuan's parent and son, he will be defeated in this king Qin incident, but fortunately that is just a substitute.Afterwards, the double was wiped out together with the eunuchs and rebels, and the real emperor took his place.The emperor star is clean, and the world is peaceful.

All the turning points were in the pepper wine that the emperor drank.

Zhou walked the road back to the Chu Palace countless times, and each time was longer than the first time he came.If he had never known His Highness, he would not have accumulated suffering in his heart.Before the arrival of Xiaohuangmen, there were maids in the East Palace who took care of His Highness, and made the child delicate and noble, and fluttered butterflies in the garden.

The child was white and fluffy, not as high as his waist, holding a silk fan in his hand, unable to catch the butterfly, he fanned it higher and higher.

The shrewd little Huangmen saw that the opportunity had come, so he threw himself on the butterfly and pressed the butterfly under him, only to find out that he had crushed the flower fairy to death.His Highness pursed his lips and was about to cry immediately.

Zhou knelt down beside him, gently opened his clasped hands, and inside was a white butterfly.The butterfly fluttered its wings and flew from the palm of his hand to the hem of His Highness's clothes.His Highness immediately fell in love with him.

The way a child likes a person is to share secrets with him.The little Highness said: "Don't tell others, I stole this fan from my mother, boo! Boo!"

Zhou asked cooperatively: "Whatever your Highness likes, you can just let the empress want it. There's no such thing as stealing."

"Mother wouldn't give it to me," His Highness said seriously, "I trust you so much, you can't betray me!"

Zhou said: "Your Highness knows what trust is?"

Of course His Highness doesn't know.Zhou picked up a cup of tea and poured it down the steps.

"Trust is a precious thing, once lost it can never be regained."

He obviously overestimated the child's psychology, and he didn't understand why His Highness, who was talking to him a moment ago, suddenly burst into tears.The crying attracted the elder sister of the maid, who scolded him while coaxing him: "I asked you to play with His Highness, why did you make His Highness sad? What's your name?"

Zhou was terrified: "The slave is guilty!" He wanted to kneel again.

He thought to himself that the princes and royal family were really hard to serve, he couldn't even handle a child, so he wanted to find another family?

The child ran over with short legs and poured him another cup of tea, brought it full, and ordered, "Drink!"

Zhou drank up the water.

"Although you don't want my first glass of water, I will give you the second glass." The child said triumphantly with tears hanging down his face, "how about I am amazing".

"What's your name?"

"Slaves...slaves are called Zhou..."

"state?"

All people and things are blurred and reversed in the mirror palace of time, only this moment is as clear as lightning.

Shinshu got its name on this day.