Eunuch's Declaration of Loyalty

Chapter 11

Qin Shu had already got up when it was still early, and the light blue color in front of his eyes was particularly conspicuous.After a while, he looked at the heavy sky outside, guessing that the Empress Dowager should have had breakfast, and then he set off for the front hall.Contrary to his unhurried footsteps, his somewhat impatient heart.

It's just that he didn't see the empress dowager for a day, and he missed her face and her voice so much.

Every winter in Yujing, the capital of the country, the cold wind is like a knife, which makes people's bare skin painful.Covering up the cloak newly issued this winter, Qin Shu set his eyes on the flowers and trees on both sides of the corridor.The eunuchs who served the flowers and trees in the palace were very dedicated. There were still camellias blooming there. Although they were already in full bloom, they still burned the fiery red flames vigorously on the branches.The red was as bright as blood, or like the lip color of the Empress Dowager at a New Year banquet.

Qin Shu suddenly remembered that the Empress Dowager talked to him the day before yesterday and told him her name.She said that she loves the tough weeping willows more than the thousands of flourishing flowers.

In fact, Qin Shu had always felt that the empress dowager was somewhat similar to this camellia.Although no matter how you look at it, the elegant and luxurious peony should be the most suitable for the empress dowager, but Qin Shu has that feeling that the most similar to the empress dowager is actually the burning red camellia.

Although the peony is luxurious, it lacks the unique agility of the empress. Although the willow is tough, the empress not only has this toughness, but also has a dazzling brilliance that makes people dare not look directly at it.

After blowing in the cold wind for so long, when I stepped into the warm palace again, I felt like I was alive again.Qin Shu stayed in the outer hall for a while, before he dared to enter the inner hall after the cold air from his body was exhausted.

Compared with the cold outside, the inner hall is as warm as spring.Zhui Yi was reporting something in a low voice, while the Empress Dowager listened casually, humming from time to time.Still holding a book in his hand, he leaned on the bed a little sleepily.

Qin Shu tried his best not to keep his eyes on the empress dowager, forced himself to turn his eyes away to stare at the carpet, and greeted him calmly and respectfully.

Zhuiyi stopped talking at the right time and smiled at Liu Qingtang: "The servants will be ready, please rest assured, the servants will go down and prepare." After she finished speaking, she bowed and walked out without looking sideways.

There were only two people left in the tent. Thinking of what he saw last night, Qin Shu felt a little uncomfortable all over, standing there like a wooden stake.

Liu Qingtang looked at him with raised eyebrows and said, "Why did you become more reserved, Qin Shu, after a day of not seeing each other? Come here, it's closer to Ai's house..." At this point, Liu Qingtang paused, and changed his words: "Come closer to me. "

This is the second time Qin Shu heard that the Empress Dowager did not call herself Aijia, but called herself me.Last time he could say that the Empress Dowager was ill and forgot, but what about the specially changed title now?Qin Shu was thinking as he walked over.

Seeing him approaching, Liu Qingtang dropped the book in her hand and sighed with some complaints: "I've been lying on the bed for three days, but I still won't let Ai go... When I got out of bed, I was dressed like an old mother. It's just better than Ai... I'm only three years older." Liu Qingtang said something awkwardly, subconsciously said Aijia a few times and then changed it to me.

Qin Shu hesitated for a while and asked, "What's wrong with your mother?"

"What's wrong?"

"The empress used the word 'I' to the servant, and the servant was flattered."

A little interest appeared on Liu Qingtang's face, and she flipped out the book she had just casually thrown over from the bed, and showed Qin Shu the cover. "This story was originally found by Suiyi to... I am bored. It is about a love story between an emperor and a little court lady."

"Slandering the royal family indiscriminately, this kind of forbidden book may be inappropriate for the empress to read." Although Qin Shu said so, his expression did not change.

Liu Qingtang was used to this man's boring temper, so she ignored his words.Self-conceited: "There is a passage in which the little court lady asked the emperor who fell in love with her not to call herself 'Zhen' to her, because she felt that they were equal, and if the emperor really respected and loved her, he had to change in front of her. call."

"Gong Duan would not have such an ignorant and rebellious slave. If she really loved the emperor, how could she make such an unreasonable request. Besides, people are divided into three, six or nine classes. Equality is always the same. It's impossible." Qin Shu said bluntly, not knowing whether he was answering Liu Qingtang's words, or telling himself not to think too much.

After hearing this, Liu Qingtang couldn't help but glared at him. It's no wonder that she didn't like him in her previous life and spoke so directly to spoil the fun.She doesn't want to put him by her side and make trouble every day when she does things again.I don't know if her head was broken when she was reborn, but she thinks that Qin Shu like this is also very interesting.

Liu Qingtang supported his forehead and said slowly: "This book is written by those folk who yearn for the royal family. How they know about the affairs of the palace is just random guesses based on hearsay. It's just something to relieve boredom, so why bother to pursue it so seriously. It's this passage that makes Aijia... I suddenly thought, Qin Shu, do you want me to do the same?"

"Slaves absolutely dare not."

"But I changed my words, so what do you do?" Liu Qingtang found that looking at such a polite and inflexible Qin Shu, she wanted to play tricks.Because this kind of Qin Shu is very stubborn, and it doesn't make sense to reason with him. When he was in a hurry, he knelt down to plead guilty and refused to listen to anything he said.It's the most convenient way to play tricks, as long as she cheats, he has no choice but to choke there helplessly and can't say anything, it's really interesting.

"Your Majesty, you can't take it seriously, besides, your Majesty is in a different situation than me..." Qin Shu frowned and thought for a while, finally knowing what he should say.

Liu Qingtang didn't want to hear what he had to say.Pulled his hand directly and dragged him down on the bed.

Qin Shu was pulled so suddenly, and his whole body threw himself on the brocade quilt, with the empress dowager under him across the quilt.How could he remember what he was going to say in such a situation, not to mention he couldn't help but think of what he watched last night, he just felt his heart beating wildly, probably the loud empress dowager could have heard it.

She wanted to stand up in a panic, but Liu Qingtang held his hand tightly.Qin Shu didn't dare to pull out his hand forcefully, for fear of bringing the empress dowager down, so he could only back up by himself and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Liu Qingtang laughed out loud for the first time, raised his hand and said, "Qin Shu, you can try pulling your hand back..."

Qin Shu really wanted to sigh helplessly, but seeing her smiling so happily, he felt that no matter how embarrassed he was. "The slave dare not."

"You walk slowly, I just wanted to pull you over, who knew you would pounce on you just by pulling like this." Liu Qingtang was still smiling, shaking Qin Shu's hand.

Qin Shu sat upright, watching the movements of the empress dowager, and felt that her happy smile really melted his heart.Just because he was the empress dowager, he didn't have any defenses, and subconsciously didn't use any strength.

"Well, Qin Shu, is your hand frostbitten?" Liu Qingtang laughed enough and suddenly found that the hand she was holding was cold, and the fingers and part of the back of the hand were a little red and swollen, so she couldn't help asking in surprise.

Seeing that the Empress Dowager simply grabbed his hand with both hands and looked over and over again, Qin Shu tried a little hard to pull out his ugly, red and swollen hand, but failed as expected.He could only explain under the questioning eyes of the empress dowager: "Half of the servants in the palace have frostbite on their hands and feet in winter. Once this frostbite occurs, it will easily regenerate every year. This year is fine, but It's a little red and swollen."

When he was just a little eunuch before, he didn't have a charcoal fire to use in winter, and he didn't like to huddle with other people to keep warm. Winter was the hardest, and he often slept all night without being able to warm the bed.Chilblains occurred every year, and in the worst year, both hands were chapped and pus leaked out.The same is true on the feet, where the broken skin sticks to the shoes, and I have to do errands to walk around, which is extremely painful. When I take off the shoes and socks at night, I have to tear off a piece of skin.

In recent years, working in Ci'an Palace has been much easier. Although I still suffer from frostbite every year, it is not as serious as before.Even more so now, Bingbi eunuch is a very easy position, and he doesn't need to brave the cold wind to walk around, his hands are only a little red and swollen but not purple.

If the skin was really broken, Qin Shu would never show such an ugly hand to the empress dowager.Even today, before coming here, he repeatedly soaked in hot water for a long time, so that his hands could look better.

Liu Qingtang squeezed Qin Shu's hand lightly. Although she didn't say anything, she secretly decided to let Taoye dress up and give him more good charcoal fire and cotton clothes.

"I've had this frostbite too. Don't get frostbite anymore. Come and keep warm under the quilt." Liu Qingtang said, ignoring Qin Shu's weak protest, and grabbed both of his hands and covered them. into the quilt.

Qin Shu just pulled his hand out subconsciously, but Liu Qingtang pulled him back closer to him, and even pressed him under his thigh.No matter what, he didn't dare to move anymore, fearing that the empress dowager would do something else, Qin Shu could only maintain the posture of sitting on the edge of the bed with his hands stretched forward, and continued to listen to the empress dowager chatting with him.

"I still remember that when I was young, I was fond of playing. When it snowed in winter, I dismissed those waiters when I was practicing calligraphy, climbed out of the study window to play in the snow, and made a snowball and took it back to the study. That time I was playing with the snowball I made when my father came in suddenly, and I hid the snowball in my clothes in a hurry." Liu Qingtang recalled these things with a happy expression on his face.

Qin Shu originally felt uneasy because his hand was pressed under the empress dowager, but after hearing what she said, he couldn't help being attracted.Quietly looking at her face full of nostalgia.

"I thought my father would leave soon, but he didn't. Instead, he wanted to watch me practice calligraphy. I could only sit there pretendingly, with a cold snowball in my arms and began to practice calligraphy. Later, the snowball slowly It melted, wet my clothes, and made me shiver all the time, so my father found out."

"My father taught me a lesson. He already knew that I ran out to play, because there were marks on the windowsill, there were water stains under my desk, and my hands were red, and the reason why he didn't leave was because he wanted to see I told me not to go out to play, but I didn’t expect that I would put the snowball in my clothes and be frozen like that.”

"He was very angry, but then my hands and stomach were red and swollen from the cold, and he felt very distressed. He woke up in such a cold winter night and came to my yard to see me several times. He thought I was asleep. I don’t know, in fact, the place where I was frozen was itchy and I couldn’t sleep, so I saw it.”

After Liu Qingtang finished speaking by herself, she shook her head and laughed when she thought of the scene of her majestic father running up and down in front of her door without sleeping in the middle of the night.

Turning around and seeing that Qin Shu didn't intend to speak, Liu Qingtang blinked and said, "Qin Shu, why don't you speak?" Could it be that she was bored by this?

Qin Shu, who was greedily looking at her expression, was taken aback, and said, "Damn the servant."

"Forget it, since you don't want to listen to me talking about it, I'll test your ability to read these days."

It's not that he doesn't want to hear what the Empress Dowager said, on the contrary, he is very happy to know about her childhood, but he just doesn't know what to say, he is afraid that what he said will anger the Empress and spoil her interest.Hadn't it always been like this, and he knew it himself.Qin Shu opened his mouth and closed it again, feeling a little dejected, thinking that he must have made the empress dowager feel unhappy again.

Liu Qingtang didn't know what he was thinking, so he casually took the book of books that Qin Shu called a forbidden book, turned to a certain page, pointed to a certain word and asked, "What does this word read?"

"Qing." Qin Shu answered quickly.

"What about this one?" Liu Qingtang pointed at another one.

Qin Shu stared at the word "Tang", unable to say anything.Qingtang is exactly the boudoir name of the Empress Dowager, and he didn't call her what she wanted that day, but the Empress actually remembered it until now.

"Why, don't you know such a simple word? It really disappoints me."

After Liu Qingtang finished speaking on purpose, Qin Shu felt anxious and subconsciously spit out the word "Tang".

"How about reading it together?"

"Qing... Tang."

(End of this chapter)