Dugong

Chapter 61 Arrogant at first and respectful at the end

The forty-sixth year of Wude.

The first month of the year has not yet passed.

Emperor Wude issued an edict ordering Prince Duan to return to his fiefdom.

The Pacification Office quickly raided Yongchanghao, Xinglong Money House, Heniantang and other businesses, confiscated the property of thousands of people and exiled them. All officials and nobles in the court were terrified.

It is like this that a tiger becomes more ferocious as it grows older.

……

In the chilly spring, the cold wind is the most bone-chilling.

Li Ping'an sat on the steps, holding the "Book of Rites" and reading it carefully. From time to time, he compared it with several volumes of annotations and explanations of ancient sages, and carefully pondered every sentence in the book.

After staying in the cold palace for more than two years, he has already memorized the Four Books and Five Classics fluently and is now delving into their in-depth studies.

According to the advice of Eunuch Chu, one must first thoroughly understand "ritual", which is considered as stepping into the threshold of officialdom. Then one must spend a lifetime comprehending "Yi" and exploring the way of change, so as to achieve the state of understanding the classics and applying them.

In recent days, Eunuch Chu rarely rested while lying down. Instead, he stood in front of the stone table and wrote on the rice paper.

This New Year's Eve banquet painting has been in the works for over a month. It is more than ten feet long and features hundreds of figures of all sizes, from civil and military officials to eunuchs and palace maids.

Only the main seat is left empty, and painting the holy face privately is a crime of great disrespect.

Li Ping'an was not good at painting, but he had seen many paintings when he was on duty, including landscapes, figures, flowers, birds, fish and insects, all of which were works of famous artists of the dynasty.

Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited, so I cannot appreciate the techniques and artistic conception of the painting, and can only evaluate it by "likeness" or "unlikeness".

Li Pingan asked curiously, "Grandpa, your painting of the nobles is so lifelike, but why are our servants so blurry?"

Eunuch Chu glanced at her and said, "You know you are a slave, how can you be treated the same as the other officials?"

Li Pingan flattered: "In the painting, all the officials have to greet you respectfully when they see you."

"That's not respecting us, but saluting His Majesty."

Eunuch Chu taught him a lesson: "Xiao Anzi, remember this: even if you gain power in the future and the royal family members respect you, you must always remember that we are just slaves."

Many eunuchs in the palace were favored by nobles. After relying on the power of others for a long time, they actually thought that they had become nobles themselves.

Only by keeping your own identity in mind can you remain cautious and sober.

"Grandson will remember your teachings."

Li Ping'an's heart trembled. Eunuch Chu would never give advice without reason. He must have done something to make him unhappy.

Maybe he was showing off in front of Xiao Wuzi and accepted two hundred taels of silver, or maybe he was relying on his grandfather's status to drive away the old eunuch who was peeping into the cold palace.

Eunuch Chu saw through his thoughts, but did not point it out, allowing him to think wildly, so that he could increase his majesty.

After using ink to outline the fireworks in the sky, he finally wrote the signature and stamped it.

"Finally, the painting is finished."

Eunuch Chu stroked the scroll and reminisced, "I still remember the first time we attended the New Year's Eve banquet. At that time, His Majesty was still in the palace and had not yet been given the title of King of Qin.

The eunuchs in the palace looked down on us and bullied us, so we could only hide in the corner of the side hall and wait. Decades have passed in the blink of an eye. It really seems like a fleeting moment!"

When we live in the present, we always feel that the past is hazy and distant when we recall it. The same is true when we recall the present several years later.

Li Ping'an had eaten white flour buns in the palace for several years, and his memory of the hardships he had endured in the village had become vague. He only remembered Sun Baopi and his vicious dog vividly.

"Grandpa has been with His Majesty for decades. If I send someone to let him know, he will definitely allow the portrait to be created. Perhaps this painting will be passed down for thousands of years to come."

"We are self-aware. Our tricks are too petty to be accepted in a high-class place."

Eunuch Chu took out a thin charcoal pencil, looked at the officials in the painting and pondered for a moment, then wrote numbers above their heads.

Among them, one and nine are the most common, with a few marked four, six, eight, etc.

Li Pingan looked at the nine characters above Minister Cui's head and said in a daze, "Are you sorting out the factions among the officials in the court?"

Eunuch Chu nodded and said, "A few years ago, all of this was in my head, and all the officials remembered it clearly. Now that I am old, I must draw it to avoid any mistakes."

Li Ping'an counted the number "one" and exclaimed in astonishment, "Your Majesty has carried out several purges, yet there are still so many followers of the deposed crown prince?" "Your Majesty truly cultivated him as the crown prince, but never imagined that over thirty years of hard work would be destroyed in an instant."

Eunuch Chu sighed helplessly. He had given the Queen his full support in the past, not only to repay her kindness, but also to make sure that the Crown Prince would inherit the throne.

Li Pingan glanced towards the main hall and asked in a low voice, "Why did the Crown Prince rebel?"

"I don't know."

Eunuch Chu frowned and said, "We have sent people to investigate. The deposed Crown Prince is in good health and there is no evidence that he would commit treason."

The palace coup that year was strange and sudden, and the Queen and Eunuch Chu were unaware of it, otherwise the Prince would not have been defeated and captured in a single hour.

After most of the officials had marks on their heads, Eunuch Chu stared at the Night Banquet Picture and made some guesses.

"It's a pity that I wasn't there on New Year's Eve. I've served His Majesty for decades and could detect even the slightest change in his expression. Now I can only guess!"

……

In the blink of an eye, spring goes and summer comes.

In May and June, the sun is scorching like fire.

Li Ping'an stood beside the queen, listening to her chanting Buddhist scriptures, gently waving a palm-leaf fan, and the cool breeze blew away the heat.

During the cold and hot seasons every year, the cold palace is the most difficult to endure.

Eunuch Chu has strong Qi and can still withstand cold and heat. The Queen's Qi is shallow and she is old and weak, so she is prone to catching cold and heatstroke.

So Li Ping'an used the Nine Yang Finger Power to warm the kang and massage in winter, and fanned the room for seven or eight hours in summer until it was cool at night.

At this time, he was waving a fan in his hand and contemplating the Four Books and Five Classics in his mind.

The true Qi flows naturally in the body, and with each cycle, a strand of it becomes more and merges into the Dantian, which has condensed into the substance of ice crystals.

Sunset.

There was a chaotic sound of footsteps outside the cold palace. An old eunuch in a green robe led twenty or thirty people, carrying various objects, and rushed into the cold palace in a hurry.

"My lady, I will go and take a look."

Li Ping'an bowed and left the main hall. Seeing Eunuch Chu lying there peacefully and dozing off, he felt relieved and took a few quick steps forward to ask.

"Greetings, eunuch. I am Xiao Anzi, a servant in the cold palace. May I ask what may I do for you?"

"Little Fanzi pays his respects to the old ancestor."

Eunuch Fan first bowed to Eunuch Chu, then turned to look at Li Ping'an, his wrinkled face trembling with laughter.

"Eunuch An, we have heard of your great name for a long time, and seeing you today is indeed extraordinary."

Li Ping'an didn't understand why, but seeing that Eunuch Fan was so approachable and attentive, he thought it was probably a good thing, after all, people in the palace were used to flattering the powerful and looking down on the weak.

Eunuch Fan said, "It's very hot in the palace this summer, and the queen is not feeling well. Eunuch Ye has ordered us to send some gauze clothes and ice mirrors."

Li Ping'an frowned. There were many eunuchs with the surname Ye in the palace, but there was only one who could be called "Eunuch Ye".

The Imperial Wardrobe Supervisor, Admiral Ye.

This person cannot be said to be from the Zhaoyang Palace faction, but he is definitely not under the command of Eunuch Chu, otherwise he would have replaced the cold palace with silk bedding long ago.

Li Pingan asked, "Isn't the Ice Mirror under the management of the Imperial Household Supervisor?"

"This is the allowance from the Imperial Wardrobe. Eunuch Ye was worried that the Empress would suffer from the heat, so he sent us here first."

Eunuch Fan said loudly to the main hall, "Eunuch Ye heard that the queen was devout in worshipping Buddha, so he specially found several volumes of Buddhist scriptures, all of which were handwritten by Buddhist monks."

The chanting in the hall stopped, and then the queen's kind and gentle voice was heard.

"Xiao Anzi, move your things in by yourself."

I forgot to paste after copying, and lost most of the chapter. I feel so bad, I will write it tomorrow...

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(End of this chapter)