"The place is the same, but the people are not. It's always like this."
Standing before the ruins of the Library Pavilion, a place of crumbling walls covered in scorch marks, Su Chen clutched a food box, his expression dazed.
It had been three years.
It was his first time back at the Library Pavilion.
Unfortunately, Zhang Gui was dead.
Xu Xiaohan had also been implicated and exiled to the border, his fate unknown.
Even the Library Pavilion had been burned to the ground by Emperor Jianwu, with tens of millions of volumes turned to ash. If the Martial Pavilion Book Collection Tower hadn't been so important, Emperor Jianwu would have likely put it to the torch as well...
"Master Xu?"
Just then, a surprised voice called out from within the Library Pavilion. The heads of seven or eight little black-robed eunuchs peeked out, and they trotted over to gather around Su Chen.
In the Imperial Palace, the lives of low-level servants had always been cheap.
They weren't able to summon an Imperial Physician.
Nor could they leave the palace for treatment.
They were always just sent to the pharmacy to grab some medicine. If they lived, they lived; if they didn't, they died.
Over the years, Su Chen had saved countless palace maids and eunuchs. As a result, he had made a name for himself among the low-level staff, who respectfully called him "Master Xu."
Having read every book in the Library Pavilion, his medical skills were immeasurably superior to those of Chen Ge, the previous medicine dispenser.
"What's going on here?"
Su Chen glanced at the courtyard. He saw not only the black-robed eunuchs but also a group of bricklayers and carpenters, along with shovels, tree seeds, and other supplies. It looked as if the Library Pavilion was about to be rebuilt.
"Master Xu, you're always in the pharmacy, so you probably haven't heard."
"Vice Chief Steward Xu, the one who was exiled to the border to serve in the Border Army, has returned. I heard he refused all of the Little Emperor's rewards. He only asked to rebuild the Library Pavilion and to have the nationwide arrest warrant for that person in the red robe rescinded..."
'Xu Xiaohan is coming back?'
A complex look filled Su Chen's eyes.
He had heard back then that Emperor Jianwu wanted to exterminate everyone connected to Zhang Gui and himself. Xu Xiaohan was naturally on that list. If he hadn't earned merit by protecting the Prince and Princess during the upheaval, and if Empress Dugu hadn't desperately vouched for him, he would have been sentenced to death long ago.
But in the end, he still suffered the fate of being exiled to the border to serve in the Border Army.
With imperial authority on the decline, the border generals had long since stopped respecting the throne. They had used the excuse of rampant banditry to kill countless Military Supervisors sent to oversee them. It must have been difficult for Xu Xiaohan; it was a miracle he had survived until now.
"There are fewer and fewer familiar faces."
Just as Su Chen was lamenting this,
HUMMM!
The ground trembled slightly.
In the distance, a figure in a half-red, half-cyan robe galloped toward them, cracking a whip. Behind him, a group of elite Forbidden Guards followed, their expressions deeply respectful.
Around thirty years old, dressed in the half-red, half-cyan robe, his eyes were deep, and his every move exuded a calm and steady air. It was none other than Xu Xiaohan, though he was no longer the boy who had once kowtowed before Su Chen like a pestle pounding garlic.
"We greet the esteemed personage!"
Inside the Library Pavilion, everyone from the craftsmen to the eunuchs was kowtowing.
Only Su Chen, who had no desire to bow, kept his distance.
"Do you have any wine?"
Xu Xiaohan looked at the Imperial Guard behind him.
"Chief Eunuch, I fear this will arouse suspicion!"
"The first thing you should do upon entering the palace is pay your respects to His Majesty, not come to this Library Pavilion to pay tribute to that Purple Robe and that red robe..."
The Imperial Guards' faces were grim as they offered their cold advice.
"Hahaha!"
"So what if I'm thrown in prison!"
"I've always been Zhang Gui's godson, the Xu Xiaohan who stood by Master Su's side! I wonder how Master Su has fared these past three years. I hope all is well with him..."
At this, Xu Xiaohan roared with laughter. Reaching out a hand, he used his Gang Qi to snatch an object from afar, seizing Su Chen's food box. He then walked over to the broken hibiscus tree in the ruined courtyard.
He placed one exquisite dish after another onto the stone table. Closing his eyes, Xu Xiaohan bowed three times toward the table, then poured a full bottle of White Confucian Wine before the hibiscus tree. Without a word, he mounted his horse and departed.
"What's he doing?"
The little eunuchs muttered among themselves.
"The three bows were for the one in the red robe. Pouring the wine was to pay respects to the traitor Zhang Gui!"
"Heh!"
"A Castrated Dog is always a Castrated Dog!"
One of the Imperial Guards sneered and stayed behind, scribbling in a small notebook. He was clearly preparing a secret report on Xu Xiaohan.
In response, Su Chen sighed.
With a flick of his finger,
BOOM!
A crossbeam from the ongoing construction, along with hundreds of pounds of bluestone tiles and mortar, came crashing down. In an instant, the Imperial Guard who was writing the report was crushed into a bloody pulp.
"Holy shit!"
"Talk about bad luck."
The little eunuchs were terrified.
"Tell me about it."
After saying this, Su Chen left with his now-empty food box. As it happened, he wasn't busy at the pharmacy today, which was the perfect opportunity to go and retrieve his stolen silver and medicinal herbs.
「Three days later.」
The Little Emperor personally renamed Xu Xiaohan to Xu Han! He was appointed Chief Eunuch of the New Eastern Depot (formerly the Western Depot) and commanded to hunt down and exterminate all remnants of the old Eastern Depot. He was also granted a Second-Grade Anger Gang Pill and permitted to cultivate in the Tianwu Tower to break through to the Second Grade.
This time, it wasn't just the Imperial Palace that was thrown into an uproar.
The entire imperial court was in an uproar. Countless civil and military officials, along with other nobles, pounded on the doors of the Imperial Study, wailing that this was the second coming of a "Nine Thousand Years" who would bring chaos to the Great Liang dynasty!
Less than a month after his return, Xu Xiaohan was already showing signs of wielding monstrous power, no less than that of the rapidly rising Zhang Gui in his heyday. There were even hints that he might surpass him.
In the pharmacy, Su Chen pulled a clay pot out from under his bed. He dropped in pieces of blood-stained silver, one by one. After counting them, he smiled in satisfaction.
"Three hundred taels."
'Elder Chen has taken good care of me all these years,' Su Chen thought. 'With three hundred taels, at outside prices, he should be able to live out his retirement in peace after he leaves the palace...'
He wasn't sure if it was because he was simulating Xu Ge and had been influenced by the simulated personality, but Su Chen felt that his three years in the pharmacy had been far more interesting than his nine years in the Library Pavilion.
At least, he felt more like a human being.
Then he went back to grinding herbs.
Outside, two little eunuchs, both feverish and waiting for their medicine, were chatting.
"The Imperial Palace has been getting so chaotic lately. I heard that last night, two Hidden Guards on duty died suddenly in their posts for no apparent reason. Their gold wasn't touched, only some silver was missing."
"Your medicine is ready."
"Take it as prescribed!"
Just then, Su Chen emerged from the pharmacy, carrying their packaged medicine.
"Master Xu, could we possibly pay for this later...?"
The two little eunuchs looked troubled, stammering as they pulled out only a few copper plates.
"Of course."
"Next time you come, just tell me some more interesting gossip from around the palace. You can owe me the money for now, it's no trouble. I know it's not easy for low-level eunuchs like you to save money with all the exploitation you face."
"Thank you, Master Xu!"
Su Chen saw the two little eunuchs off.
"Cough, cough..."
A violent cough echoed from the inner room.
It was the eleventh month of the tenth year of Jianwu's reign. The weather was growing cold, and Elder Chen had fallen ill.
By the bedside, Su Chen fed the prepared medicinal soup to Elder Chen, but it had no effect.
In the end, Elder Chen would not live to see his release from the palace next year.
'Why is this happening...'
'Elder Chen's life force was clearly normal. He should have had at least ten good years left. Why did a simple cold bring him to the end of his days overnight?'
Su Chen sat by the bed, an uncharacteristic panic and unease on his face.
It was as if he had truly become Xu Ge, about to send off the old man who had looked after him for a decade.
"Xu Ge, it's you I worry about most. In this Imperial Palace, for low-level little eunuchs like us with no cultivation... don't think too much. Just watch over the pharmacy and don't get involved in any conflicts..."
"Just be good, endure until you can leave the palace, and save up some silver. For us castrated men, if we adopt a son to carry on the family line, we have to leave something behind for them..."
Chen Ge was frail and senile, his body giving off a decaying aura. Like a family patriarch on his deathbed, he grasped Su Chen's hand, giving his final words of advice as if to his own kin.
Chen Ge's hand fell limp.
「Tenth Year of Jianwu. Winter.」
It was snowing outside!
Great flakes of snow, like goose feathers, blotted out the sky and sun as a deep cold descended upon the Human World.
Elder Chen was dead.
PS: Didn't get cut off. I'll be pulling an all-nighter to catch up on updates. I've had a lot going on lately which caused a delay, and I'm very sorry about that. I'll release two more chapters to count for today, and then two more tomorrow.