PQE Chapter 1

The scorching sun was directly overhead, and the heat waves rolled in. Looking around, large areas of scorched gray-black land had cracked into chunks, with the surface soil curling up.

Fu Chen had been walking for several hours, and the blisters on his feet forced him to slow down. Not far away, a farmer was hunched over on the ground, his skinny body seemed like it would break with a bend. His reddish-brown skin was like old tree bark, and his dried-up thin claws were digging the ground, trying to find some tree roots to stave off hunger. The sight of blood mixed with soil was somewhat shocking.

Such situations were not uncommon. Fu Chen could no longer muster any extra sympathy. His situation was not much better than the farmer’s. Compared to hunger, the lack of water was the main cause of his energy loss.

He didn’t know what tripped him, and he fell to the ground in a skewed manner. He was so weak that he didn’t get up again.

He was panting like a dried-up fish, and despair and fatigue were gradually eroding his persistence and endurance. How nice it would be if it could rain at this time.

Drip, drip.

The sensation of liquid dripping on his face was very real. Could it be that the prayer worked?

He felt the most sincere gratitude. If it weren’t for the fact that his tear glands had long since dried up and couldn’t secrete any water, he would have been moved to tears!

At this moment, nothing made him more ecstatic than rainwater. This was the best gift from God! He struggled to open his eyes, but what he saw was a rake. The person holding the rake was the old man who had been digging the ground just now. He didn’t realize that he had woken up. The old man seemed to be looking for a place to strike, hoping to kill with one blow.

And the rainwater he thought was the blood flowing from the old man’s thin claw wound.

The old man’s forehead veins emerged, shaking violently. The protruding Adam’s apple was rolling, especially obvious on his shriveled neck, indicating that he was waiting for the food that was about to reach his mouth.

In a flash, Fu Chen realized that he was the food in the old man’s eyes!

The shadow of death brought about by hunger made the last bit of humanity shaky.

He quickly kicked away the rake, squeezed out the last bit of strength in his body under the threat of life, rolled to the side to avoid the fatal blow, stood up and ran wildly, without looking back.

His eyelids were jumping all the way, his heart seemed to explode, and his throat was getting more and more burning and painful, but he dared not stop.

He was lucky enough to come across a pile of wormwood on the road. His experience in his previous life told him that this plant has a high medicinal value, mainly for malaria, heatstroke, etc. Most importantly, it can be eaten. He didn’t care about his image and ate several handfuls, finally alleviating his thirst. He picked all the rest and put it in his pocket, ready to give it to his brothers and sisters at home.

When he returned, he saw a never-before-seen ox cart leaving the yellow earth outside the house, stirring up dust. The ox cart was a rare thing in the impoverished Gaozhou. The person sitting on the cart was his eldest sister. She was sixteen this year, but long-term malnutrition made her look like eleven or twelve. She was so thin that a gust of wind could blow her down. Her eye sockets were deeply sunken, making her big eyes look lifeless. When she saw her younger brother Fu Chen chasing the ox cart, she broke her voice, like a leaking speaker: 

“Go back, Xiao Chen, don’t chase…we…we have food to eat!”

The blood and mud on Fu Chen’s face flowed down, his upper and lower teeth were trembling, and he stared at his elder sister getting farther and farther away with his eyes open.

This was the last thing his elder sister said to him. His elder sister was sold to a widowed lame man in Zhaoxi Village, Fuxian County, Yuzhou. Yuzhou is rich and has not been affected by the drought. It was originally a good place to go, but the lame man was already at the end of his life and had many bad habits. How could it be a good end? The depression in his chest lingered for a long time. He hated his powerlessness. When he saw the bag of millet placed in the corner of the earth house, his eyes were sour. 

This grain had exchanged his sister’s life.

Several months passed, and the grain that his elder sister had exchanged for was almost eaten. It was not yet dawn, and Fu Chen had already got up, ready to go out and find something to eat.

But he faintly heard his mother’s sobbing outside the door, and the intermittent conversation came.

“Second child agreed…”

“…He will be sent to the palace tomorrow…”

“No matter how poor…we can’t sell children!”

The mother was so sad that she seemed to be out of breath. The sound of exhaling and inhaling was already uncontrollable, and there was the father’s long sigh on the side.

“I’ll go instead of second brother.” Fu Chen heard himself say that. He walked in front of his parents without hesitation. Facing his mother who was crying and panting, he slowly knelt on the ground.

“Little one, what are you talking about!! You are still young, you don’t understand…you won’t be a man in the future…” The crying stopped, and Mother Zhao looked at Fu Chen, who was only eight years old, incredulously.

“Mother, I am smarter than my second brother, and the second brother is too old, they may not want him!”

“Silly boy, the palace is a place where people eat people. I heard a few years ago when I went to the town that the old Zhang family sold their third son in. In a few years, they rolled up the mat and threw it outside the city’s chaotic burial mound, and they couldn’t even find the corpse…” The father’s eyes were also red, and his dry hand covered his eyes, unable to speak. If they had the ability, which family would be willing to sell their children? They would rather starve to death themselves, but they couldn’t harm several children together.

Zhao, who was originally reluctant to send her child to the palace as a eunuch, cried loudly when she heard this. She hugged Fu Chen into her arms, “Don’t go, you and the second child won’t go, we won’t sell children anymore! Let’s get your elder sister back, she won’t marry! We are a family, always together!”

In ancient times, it was taboo to say the word “death”. The meaning in Zhao’s words could not be more obvious. She was willing to give up her life to protect these children.

The hot tears fell on Fu Chen’s face, and even his heart seemed to be scalded. Fu Chen reached out to hug his thin mother, stroking the texture on her spine. This woman, who was not as old as he was in his previous life, had a hard life but never thought of harming her children. The word “mother” was called out without any psychological obstacles.

A few years ago, when Fu Chen came to this era, he carefully played the role of this young child. In this era of belief in ghosts and gods, any out-of-the-box behavior could be burned to death. He did not do anything beyond this age and era, and gradually integrated into it. He had seen the woman from the old Hua family at the entrance of the village muttering a few words, and she was considered to be possessed by the devil. According to local customs, her stomach had to be cut open to purify her soul.

For a long time, he was incompatible with this era and this family, and he lived as a bystander all the time. But unknowingly, he had regarded these people as his real family. When this heavy affection poured into his heart, even a person with a heart of iron and stone would be moved.

“I’ll go! Dad, mom, believe me, my age is just right, and I can get a good price.” He knew that most dynasties had age restrictions for selecting eunuchs, and the same was true for the Jin Dynasty, which did not exist in his memory. It was best for children to be at an age where they were still confused about their gender. Moreover, the palace also had simple requirements for children selected into the palace, such as appearance and speech. Compared with his second brother who is taciturn, he believed that his price would be higher, but he never expected that he would have to calculate how much he could be sold for one day.

The most important thing is that he might be able to avoid that damn knife.Translator's Note:Castration

“Take this silver and redeem my elder sister. We must all survive.”

Only by surviving can there be hope.

…

…

“Chenzi, Chenzi, wake up!”

Fu Chen woke up from the small bed with cold sweat on his back as his body was pushed around. The person who pushed him was Chen Goudan, but the eunuch in charge thought the name was not nice, so he changed it to Chen Zuoren. He was in charge of inspecting the candles. Because he was young and had a somewhat eccentric personality, his personality complemented Fu Chen’s, and the two had a good relationship.

“What’s wrong?” Fu Chen’s voice was still hoarse, obviously not awake.

Outside the Supervisory Courtyard, the sound of “dong-dong, dong, dong” came, one slow and three fast, indicating that it was one o’clock in the morning.

The outer shirt was sticky on his body, making him uncomfortable. Bathing was impossible. As a low-ranking eunuch who swept the floor, he could only get a pitiful amount of bathing quota.

“I just came back from patrol and saw you sleeping restlessly, mumbling something. Were you having a nightmare?” Chen Zuoren didn’t mention that when he first came in, he saw Fu Chen trembling all over, his face pale, and the sight was quite frightening.

“I don’t remember much…” Fu Chen hadn’t had a dream about entering the palace for a long time. It had been three years, and those vivid faces were still clear. He glanced at the little eunuchs sleeping on both sides of the bunk, and they were not awakened by their movements. The snoring sounds were particularly loud in this small room.

“You’re fine, that’s good. You were really scary just now.” Chen ZuoRen patted his chest in fear.

“Thanks to you for calling me, otherwise I might have been scared.” Fu Chen also responded politely.

“Who are we, why be polite!” Chen Zuoren was about to go to bed after undressing, but he heard some movement outside.

The two looked at each other and quickly exchanged a few words. In the palace, most people were shrewd, and those who lacked shrewdness often didn’t live long.

Soon, there were hurried footsteps outside the door. It was not difficult to hear in the quiet of the night. Before Fu Chen had time to get dressed and get off the bunk, there was a slight knock on the door.

Fu Chen stopped Chen Zuoren, analyzed the situation in a few seconds, judging from the frequency of footsteps just now, it was an urgent matter, but he didn’t want to make a big fuss, they should need manpower.

Fu Chen and the others opened the door, and saw Li Xiangying standing outside, a third-rank eunuch in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, followed by several small eunuchs from the Li faction. This Li Xiangying is a shrewd man, known for his ruthlessness. He killed a dozen small eunuchs and palace maids every few months. He came in such a low-key manner this time, it must not be something that could be seen in the light.

Fu Chen raised a naive smile, which was in line with his age, and played the effect of one plus one greater than two. Although he was a small and thin person, he always smiled when he met people. His black and bright eyes made people not hate him.

He lowered his voice and asked, “Master Li, what’s the matter?”

Li Xiangying had some impression of this handsome little eunuch. He was honest and diligent. He slightly bent over and said, “Find a few tight-lipped ones and come out quickly, don’t alarm too many people.”

T/N: Please read the author’s note in description and tags before you fall into this pit. I usually don’t like to read plot-heavy novels where romance isn’t the main focus but, this one, I couldn’t put it down. It is a slow burn. So take it as you see. You will see gong with other characters but there’s no emotions involved. Fu Chen is the Gong. The second half leans more romance-heavy for those of us who need it to keep reading, lol.