Mikago

The rare treasures on the altar made the eyes of the men who came from poverty straighten.For the first time, a colorful light was reflected in those eyes that were as black as a swamp.

Only Ye Zuolan was still staring at the stacked longevity tablets.

Those eunuch names, long and short, slipped through his mind one after another.Some are very unfamiliar, but some have been seen in books.

However, no matter whether they were familiar with each other before or not, at this moment, Ye Zuolan felt that they were very kind.It's as if hundreds or even thousands of years ago, these people on the tablet once stood here, waiting anxiously for the moment of purification.

Finally, his gaze fell on the tablet in the highest corner of the north wall.This dusty longevity tablet is older than the surrounding ones, and the words engraved on it are not commonly used today.

Ye Zuolan struggled to identify it for a while, and finally asked Lu Yinger helplessly.

"Hey, is there something you don't understand?" Lu Ying'er clicked her tongue: "This one is called Bird and Insect Book. It is a kind of writing in the early Qin Dynasty."

He went on to name a eunuch that Ye Zuolan was no stranger to.

This person was the powerful official who once overshadowed the sky with one hand during the Qin Dynasty, and was favored by the First Emperor.However, after the death of the first emperor, this person set off a palace coup, abolished Fusu, established Huhai, and finally buried Daqin's Guozuo with his own hands.

Looks like a heinous traitor.However, Ye Zuolan had also heard another rumor about him—it was said that this person was originally the son of the royal family of Zhao State. After Zhao State was destroyed by Qin State, he came to Qin State in exile.In order to avenge the hatred of the country and the family, he even endured the humiliation, and he did not hesitate to eunuch himself into the palace, and finally succeeded in strangling a generation of dynasty at the time of take-off.

Such a powerful generation of heroes who are so powerful and difficult to distinguish between good and evil can actually occupy a corner in this small ancestral hall of the East Courtyard... Ye Zuolan was a little surprised, but at the same time he had some understanding. go forward.

On the back of the shrine, on the wall facing north, there is a portrait of Qiu Gong, the Minister of Internal Affairs.Instead, I found a good painter and carefully framed it.

In the painting, Duke Changqiu is wearing a boa robe and a bean crown decorated with three-color pearls and jade. He has a handsome appearance and a high spirit.But from Ye Zuolan's point of view, the beauty and elegance of the person in the painting is far less than one ten-thousandth of that of Qi Yunchu himself.

After passing the main room, there is another yard with herbs in the sun.There are many dandelions growing in the corners, with brilliant bright yellow flowers.

There are several tile-roofed houses on the other side of the yard. Although the doors and windows are closed, you can still feel a strange smell, which is constantly permeating from the cracks.

Ye Zuolan couldn't help covering her mouth and nose, and the men who were waiting to be cleansed also looked at each other in blank dismay.Lu Ying'er sneered, "Don't look at the disgusting taste, but it's your life-saving straw!"

After speaking, he asked those people to stand again in front of the tile house.Leaving Wa'er and Liu'er as helpers, Ye Zuolan was sent away.

Ye Zuolan didn't want to stay here for a long time either, so she hurriedly walked outside.Back in the courtyard outside, Zhu Zhu'er had already prepared hot water boiled with wormwood leaves, mixed well water and poured it on him, which could be regarded as dispelling the evil spirit in the middle man's land.

After flushing, Ye Zuolan hurried back to the house and changed into clean clothes.Just as he was getting dressed, he suddenly heard a heart-piercing wail from the east courtyard.

The voice started very suddenly, rushed to the peak, but stopped abruptly, as if someone had cut off the throat in an instant.

Ye Zuolan was terrified immediately, he instinctively wanted to run out to have a look, but stopped abruptly, turning his head away.

Zhu Zhu'er gave him a job just now, asking him to copy ten documents from the Ministry of the Interior.After finally having a chance to pick up a pen and write, he turned around and came to the desk.

The ink is not the fine ink sticks used in the Imperial College, but a pile of coal-like debris.The paper is also straw paper with uneven thickness and full of impurities.Ye Zuolan pushed the toner away on the plate with the broken pen with few bristles left, but first wrote the five characters "Heaven, Earth, Monarch, Parent, Teacher" on the paper.

I haven't written for a long time, and my wrist is already shaking a little.The lessons of the ancients that are kept in my head seem to be becoming blurred.

Ye Zuolan stared at the handwriting that gradually became blurred due to excessive moisture, and couldn't help but fell into deep thought.

Just at this time, there was a second short scream from the east courtyard.

He came back to his senses suddenly, and quickly began to copy the contents of the document.

Different from the "Purification Document" he was in charge of distributing just now, the document in front of him is specially prepared for those who have completed their purification.Excluding the decorative language, it mainly tells about the division of responsibilities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the important duties, daily life and a series of codes of conduct of internal servants and eunuchs.Finally, there are legal rules related to the eunuchs in the palace.

Ye Zuolan copied word by word, from the beginning to the end, and summed up a few sentences——

As an eunuch, he should serve the royal clan wholeheartedly.In the inner city of Miyagi, don't see anything wrong with it, don't speak anything wrong with it, and don't listen to anything wrong with it.Do not interfere in the government affairs outside, do not confuse the harem inside, be humble and simple throughout your life, and have no desires or desires.

It is like the eminent monk who has entered the samadhi and the lotus temple who has obtained the Tao, worshiping devoutly at the feet of their respective gods.

Ye Zuolan put down her pen, wondering which eunuch in history had fulfilled all the treaties in the document.

But for some reason, what came to his mind was the tablet engraved with the names and taboos of the eunuchs of the Qin Dynasty in the corner of the main room in the east courtyard.

Until the evening of that day, there were a total of fifteen screams from the east courtyard.

While having dinner, Ye Zuolan saw Wal.Wa'er's face was exhausted, and although he had washed his body, there was still a lingering smell of herbal medicine. There was also some fishy smell mixed in with the medicine smell, but Ye Zuolan couldn't figure out what it was.

Zhu Zhu'er asked about Lu Ying'er's progress throughout the day, but Lu Ying'er said that the newcomers were not as good as one group, and after the mowing was over, there were already three people who might die.Right now, Liu'er and the others are helping each other to watch, and they will go to have a look the next morning, and if it doesn't work, they will collect the body.

Just as Ye Zuolan heard this, she felt Ye Yueshan kick him under the table and wink secretly.

He knew what Ye Yueshan meant, so he took the initiative to ask: "Then... when can we leave the city?"

Lu Ying'er and Zhu Zhu'er looked at each other, and Zhu Zhu'er unexpectedly stretched out her chopsticks to pick up food for Ye Zuolan: "Hurry up, let's talk when we're full..."

On the side of the east courtyard, moaning and crying sounded faintly, accompanied by a cool breeze blowing all night.

Early the next morning, Wal knocked on the door of Ye Zuolan's room, asking him to help clean the east courtyard.

Ye Zuolan followed Wa'er, walked around the main room, crossed the open space, and came to the door of the few brick houses she saw yesterday.But Wal asked him to put down the broom and dustpan, and first covered his mouth and nose with a cloth towel soaked in moxa juice.

After tying it up properly, Ye Zuolan followed Wa'er into the house.I saw an oil lamp like a bean burning in the palm-sized shabby room.The dim light revealed five couches piled up with bricks, on which lay five men who had washed their bodies, moaning intermittently.

Because the doors and windows were closed, the room was extremely hot and humid, making it suffocating.

Even though she was covering herself with a cloth towel, Ye Zuolan could still smell the stench of herbs, filth, and blood very quickly.

All these horrible smells mingled and stirred in his stomach.He finally suppressed the precursor to vomiting, and Val began to assign him real tasks.

"This person is dead. You raise your head, I raise my feet, and move him out."

Val refers to the man lying on the third brick couch.At first glance, he curled up and looked extraordinarily quiet, as if he had fallen into a sweet sleep.Ye Zuolan was in a daze for a moment before realizing that in the east courtyard, only death could be so silent.

Ye Zuolan followed Val and approached the dead man. He saw that the man was only in his early twenties, with sunken cheeks.The corpse's face was pale, and the slightly opened eyes had begun to cloud, making it look particularly frightening.

Val motioned Ye Zuolan to grab the straw mat under the head of the dead body, and the two of them simultaneously lifted the dead body together with the straw mat.The dead man was much lighter than Ye Zuolan imagined, as if only a handful of dry bones remained.

Two young men carried the emaciated corpse to the temporary mortuary at the back of the east courtyard.

Next, they had to carry the second one.

The result of the cleansing was much worse than what Lu Yinger had expected - after counting this morning, five of the fifteen people had already hardened, and three of them fell into a coma.

By the time the third corpse was carried, the cloth covering the face had lost its effect.Ye Zuolan was drowsy from the stench, and when she went out, she staggered and nearly fell to the ground.The corpse on the straw mat also jolted, and a small red and green object fell out from between the tightly clenched hands.

Lu Ying'er passed by here, bent down and picked it up, but it was a baby's tiger-toed shoes.

I'm afraid this means that there are already wives and children in the house?Why do you want to come here to purify yourself!

Ye Zuolan's heart skipped a beat, but she heard a wry smile from the purifier who carried the body with Liu'er.

"Before entering the door, everyone signed the paperwork readily. But there are some selfish things hidden in everyone's heart. Since you can't protect them with your own hands, what is the dignity of a man?" What’s the use? It’s better to exchange it with the usual monthly money for the first month in the palace, at least you can buy a few buckets of white rice and a few bolts of coarse cloth, so that the two of you can live a better life.”

After saying this, there was only dead silence in the east courtyard.No one else made any sound.

The author has something to say: ① This eunuch is actually Zhao Gao, but because there is no conclusion on whether Zhao Gao is an eunuch or whether he has his family history, he will not be named in the article.