Dugong

Chapter 7 No Mercy
The next day.

Li Ping'an went to Neiwu Hall with a pig-headed face and received all kinds of care and comfort from the young eunuchs.

Xiao Zhuozi covered his chest with his hands, tears streaming down his face. His round face was actually a little red and swollen. "Eunuch An, your appearance makes our family feel so distressed..."

The words have not yet fallen.

The other eunuchs scattered like birds and beasts, and the small table was facing the door. The tears stopped instantly and he slid back to his seat like a loach.

Eunuch Zhou's figure was erratic, leaving behind a few afterimages, and in a blink of an eye he landed beside Li Ping'an, his cloudy and sunken eyes emitting a dangerous light.

"Xiao Anzi, what's wrong with your face?"

"In reply to your father-in-law..."

Li Ping'an's lips moved with difficulty, and his words were unclear: "We didn't learn the rules well... "

Eunuch Zhou stared at the bruised face for a long time, revealing a hint of disgust, and squeezed out two words in a shrill voice.

"idiot."

One of Li Ping'an's eyes was so swollen he couldn't open it, but the other eye, which could still see, was filled with pleading: "Grandpa, I will study the rules carefully."

Eunuch Zhou ignored him and opened the Lotus Sutra to recite.

“…A single thought of purity illuminates the spiritual platform, the Qi is absorbed into the Purple Palace, and the spirit returns to the true womb!”

Perhaps he was in a bad mood, or perhaps he had other things to do, so he quickly read it twice and then walked away, leaving everyone to figure it out on their own.

At lunch time.

Because his cheeks were severely swollen, his mouth could only open slightly. Li Pingan filled a bowl of porridge and sipped it in small sips.

The aroma of white flour steamed buns kept drilling into my nose.

Resentment rose in Li Ping'an's heart. Every time he ate less white flour bun, his hatred for Eunuch Zhou deepened.

In this world, those who feed our family with white flour buns are good people, and those who do not are unforgivable evil people!

Pfft!
A figure fell at Li Ping'an's feet, rolled several times, and hid under the dining table with his head in his hands and his legs curled up.

Li Ping'an recognized that it was Xiao Haizi who was often bullied.

Several burly eunuchs surrounded him, rolled up their sleeves and started punching and kicking him, swearing and cursing.

No matter how they beat him, Xiao Haizi remained silent.

Li Pingan silently changed his seat to eat to avoid trouble, without any sympathy in his eyes.

The suffering he had endured was a hundred times more miserable than Xiao Haizi's. If he could eat white flour buns by being beaten, ordinary people would probably have to wait their entire lives for a chance to join the team.

What's more, sympathy and compassion are cheap and useless!
After a while, the leading eunuch was tired of beating him, so he waved his hand and said, "Let's go. We'll come back tomorrow to teach this kid a lesson."

Only after the people had gone far away did Xiao Haizi let out a painful groan.

……

Small square.

Eunuch Xu swept his sinister eyes over everyone, and when he saw Li Ping'an with a bruised face and nose, he raised the corners of his mouth slightly and spoke in a shrill voice.

"As the sage said, review the old to learn the new. First, slap your face twenty times, and then we'll teach you the new rules!"

The eunuchs did not dare to disobey the order and counted while slapping the emperor in the face.

Li Ping'an vaguely felt that Eunuch Xu seemed to be targeting him, so he raised his hand without hesitation and slapped his cheek hard.

"This servant deserves a beating..."

His already swollen face felt a burning pain, and his mouth tasted of fresh blood.

After twenty slaps, Li Ping'an's head was buzzing, his ears were ringing, and the world was spinning in front of him, and he couldn't tell east from west.

Eunuch Xu clapped his hands and said, "Very good, very good. Today I will teach you how to walk."

Everyone looked puzzled. Kneeling, kowtowing, standing properly and other etiquette need to be learned, but everyone knows how to walk, so why bother learning it?

"When we walk in the palace, the most important thing is to keep our heads down, not listen or look, and be as inconspicuous as the weeds on the roadside..."

Eunuch Xu stood up, his figure suddenly shortened by half a head, and the cold aura on his body disappeared completely, transforming him into an insignificant country old man. "But learning to be humble is just the beginning. If you want to be a qualified eunuch, you must walk without making any noise, so as not to disturb the noble's rest."

Eunuch Xu held a lit candle in his hand and walked forward along the seams of the floor tiles. His footsteps landed silently, and his wide cuffs, robe corners, and back hem did not move at all.

After walking a long circle, the candle in his hand burned quietly, and the flame did not waver.

"When you master the skill of 'Quiet Candle', it will be like learning the rules of walking!"

At this time.

Xiao Quzi led a few eunuchs from the Palace Guards and brought two large boxes, one filled with candles and the other filled with strangely shaped shoes.

The soles of the shoes are made of hardwood and the toes are decorated with copper bells.

Li Ping'an lined up to get a candle, lit it and held it in his hand, then changed into wooden bell shoes, which made tapping and ding-ding-ding sounds when he walked.

Eunuch Xu ordered, "Xiao Quzi, take them for a walk."

Xiao Quzi held a candle, bent his body, and led the way in front, followed by a long line of eunuchs.

When you lift your foot, the bell will swing, and when you step on the ground, the soles of your shoes will hit the ground, and the jingling sound will continue in the square.

Eunuch Xu waved his sleeves, scattering hundreds of soybeans, which hit the ankles of all the eunuchs with a crackling sound.

"Touch the ground with your toes first, like a dragonfly touching the water, and spin to release the force..."

"One step, two feet and two inches; less is better, not more..."

"You can't hold or support the candle in your hand. You must hold it with your thumb tucked inwards. This is 'hiding the edge'..."

"When moving forward, lift your right foot first, and when moving backward, do the opposite. This is the retreat of yin and the advancement of yang. When you step with your left foot, exhale, and when you step with your right foot, inhale. This is the principle of the transformation of yin and yang..."

Huang Dou kept beating, and Eunuch Xu kept chattering, carefully instructing on the etiquette of walking.

However, the steps involved too many details and the control of strength was too precise. Unlike the easy-to-learn kowtows and slaps in the face, almost no one among the hundreds of eunuchs could walk silently.

The candle in his palm flickered, and half of it went out before he had walked half a circle.

Eunuch Xu was always strict with his teaching rules. When he had used up all the soybeans he brought with him, he ordered someone to bring a jar of soybeans and sprinkled them all over the sky with a flick of his sleeves.

Li Ping'an was hit dozens of times, many of which hit his face and chest.

The power contained in the soybeans was much greater than before, and it also contained a trace of cold and cruel true energy, which cracked his jaw and ribs.

Li Ping'an grimaced in pain, but didn't dare to complain.

Last night, when Xiao Zhongzi saw the injuries on Li Ping'an's face, he did not offer comfort or sympathy, but instead gave him a serious warning.

No matter how Eunuch Xu tortures you, remember not to say anything.

Eunuch Xu follows the orders of His Majesty and teaches the rules. Anyone who dares to complain is considered "disloyal" and deserves to be beaten to death on the spot.

By the time most of the soybeans were spilled out, Eunuch Xu had used up a lot of his energy and waved his hand with an unsatisfied look on his face.

"I'm tired today. I'll continue learning to walk tomorrow."

The eunuchs were treated as if they had been pardoned. Many of them could not bear the pain of broken bones and collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath, feeling grateful for having survived a disaster.

On the way back to the palace.

Xiao Quzi supported her godfather and asked curiously, "Isn't it too early for you to teach me how to walk now?"

According to convention, new eunuchs learn to kowtow and kneel in the first month, and learn etiquette, titles, and official positions in the second month.

Two months is enough time for them to recite the Lotus Sutra, and the more diligent ones have already started meditating and practicing.

When you teach him to walk at that time, it will be much easier to control the strength because he has the true energy in his body.

Eunuch Xu said, "Things in this world never follow a fixed order. You might encounter an unparalleled demon when you first enter the martial arts world."

Xiao Quzi didn't understand why. Although his godfather seemed to do things as he pleased, in fact, every action was full of deep meaning.

Eunuch Xu's eyes flashed with resentment, but he said with a smile on his face.

"We must give young people some opportunities. If we sow good seeds today, we may reap good fruits in the future..."

(End of this chapter)