The years I was in the human world

After registering their names, Lu Zhouxue stood and waited for a while with several other young men who had also sold themselves into the palace. He saw that most of those who came to register were children from poor families, and most of them could not even recognize their own names. He vaguely felt that something was wrong.

But before he could react, the eunuch who was registering the names had recruited enough people, closed the bamboo slips, and called out to them: "Follow us."

The eunuch said this and walked ahead. Lu Zhouxue followed without thinking too much. After all, he entered legitimately. The process was a little strange but it was harmless. He thought calmly and followed the leading eunuch into the palace.

The leading eunuch first took them to the ceremonial room to register their identities, and then went to the bathhouse. There were a total of 17 people, and each of them was given a brand new set of eunuch clothes. The eunuch said, "I will give you one stick of incense to wash yourself clean. I will take you to cleanse yourself later."

Cleanse, cleanse yourself?! Lu Zhouxue was pushed into the bathhouse in a daze. Seeing the little kids around him taking off their clothes and taking a bath, each with a look of resignation and numbness on their faces, he realized belatedly that he had been tricked by the boy.

He said that when he was registering outside just now, those people looked at him strangely, and it turned out that he came here to be a eunuch. Lu Zhouxue couldn't help laughing at his own stupidity, and the chuckles rang out in the bathhouse. Others thought he had suddenly gone crazy and silently moved away from him.

Lu Zhouxue: “…”

After an incense stick of time, the people who had changed their clothes were taken to the bathroom by the leading eunuch. The so-called bathroom was just an ordinary servant's room with a row of wooden beds. The only difference from the eunuch's usual residence was that the space under the bed was empty and a toilet was placed there, and there was a hollow hole on the bed board at the buttocks position.

From the time of castration until the wound healed completely, they had to lie on the wooden bed, and their excrement would go out through the holes in the bed. They were not like the nobles in the palace, and their toilets were not emptied often. After a long time, the smell of feces and urine could be imagined.

They were not the first to come. In front of them, there was already a row of naked boys lying down and screaming. As soon as Lu Zhouxue entered, she frowned, not because of the stench, but because the environment of the toilet was so bad. The smell of feces and urine was secondary.

Flies were flying around. To prevent infection, the wounds of the teenagers were directly exposed, with a thin bamboo tube inserted on top to prevent urethral blockage. Because of this, flies bit them. In such a situation, countless people would die from the worsening of their wounds before their wounds could heal.

Lu Zhouxue frowned and lay on the wooden board, anxiously thinking of a solution. He could use his magic power to save the people in this room, but there was no way to save the people who came later and those who had been infected and died before. How could God save the people? He suddenly fell into confusion on this issue.

While he was thinking, the doctor in charge of the cleansing walked up to Lu Zhouxue with a knife in hand, and saw that he had not taken off his pants yet, lying there in a daze. The two of them stared at each other, and after a moment, the doctor reacted first and said, "What are you doing? Take off your pants!"

Lu Zhouxue: “…”

Lu Zhouxue looked into the doctor's eyes and blinked slowly. The doctor felt dizzy for a moment, then thought he had cleaned Lu Zhouxue's body. He washed the knife with strong liquor out of habit and walked straight to the next person.

Lu Zhouxue was the second to last. Those who had been cleaned in front of him were busy howling and screaming, and had no time to care whether he had cut it or not. The last one saw it clearly, looking at Lu Zhouxue in shock, then he turned around and made a hushing gesture to her, and then he forgot everything.

After the doctor had treated the last person and left, the only sounds in the bathroom were those of groans of pain. Lu Zhouxue had no time to waste on lying on the wooden board. He had already received his identity documents as an official of the Left and Right Imperial Household Department, so he could just take them and report directly to the Imperial Household Department.

Before leaving, he casually cast a small spell on everyone in the room, so that they would suffer less. After doing this, Lu Zhouxue walked out of the bathroom with his things.

If they had followed the rules obediently, once they had recovered from their injuries, someone would come to take them to various positions and give them instructions on what to do and where to go. However, Lu Zhouxue did not follow the rules and no one took him with him. He was dumbfounded when he left the bathroom. In such a huge palace, he could not tell the directions.

After wandering around the palace for a long time in a daze, Lu Zhouxue finally gave up. He was not a man of worldly origin and had no fear of imperial power. He sat down on the steps of the palace path rather unruly, and sighed as he looked at the stacked buildings in the distance.

……

The third prince felt rather aggrieved today, for no other reason than that the old scholar, the Grand Tutor, actually said that he was not as good as his mediocre elder brother. Although he knew that the Grand Tutor was only using his elder brother to stimulate him out of frustration, Chu Zhaoli was so incompetent that the third prince felt insulted even when being compared to him.

"Your Highness, calm down, calm down. Everyone knows that the Crown Prince is useless. The Grand Tutor was just speaking in anger. Why are you so angry that you hurt yourself?" The companion who followed him advised him kindly, flattering the Third Prince, "Everyone knows that you are talented and intelligent. How can the Crown Prince compare with you?"

"Of course. My elder brother only relies on the friendship of the late queen." The third prince snorted and turned his eyes to see Lu Zhouxue sitting on the stone steps not far away. He looked like a eunuch in the palace, but which eunuch would be so bold as to sit directly on the palace road?

Not afraid of offending the noble, the Third Prince walked towards Lu Zhouxue while thinking: "Who are you?"

Hearing someone asking questions, Lu Zhouxue did not stand up to greet, but just sat there and turned to look over, only to see a young man who looked somewhat like Chu Zhaoli standing there, looking at him with a curious expression - Chu Zhaoli was the prince, so this man should be one of the princes in the palace.

The few rules of etiquette in Lu Zhouxue's mind came into play at this time. He at least asked him to stand up and bowed to the Third Prince in a not particularly humble manner, saying: "Greetings, Your Highness. May Your Highness be well."

Lu Zhouxue neither called herself a slave nor knelt down. According to the old palace rules, she could have been dragged out and beaten to death. But the third prince was in a special situation. His biological mother died early. Although he was raised by Concubine Xie Shu, his mother was suspected of framing the late queen.

Concubine Xie was on good terms with the late empress and did not like him. The third prince had benefited from the help of the Xie family in the previous dynasty, but had no one to protect him in the harem. In order to avoid the attack of the Du family, he acted in a low-key manner and often pretended to be lenient to the outside world.

At this time, his study partner was still there, and he couldn't afford to embarrass himself and make things difficult for Lu Zhouxue. In addition, the latter's face was really pretty, so the Third Prince's original anger was rarely relieved: "Which palace do you serve in?"

Lu Zhouxue thought, if I knew which palace I served in, would I still be groping in the dark? Although he was thinking, he still said nonsense seriously: "Your Highness, I am not on duty in any palace, I just do some odd jobs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

Since she was doing odd jobs, her treatment would not be better than serving nobles in the palace. It was a pity for such a beautiful girl to do odd jobs. The third prince looked at Lu Zhouxue's painted face and asked, "Would you like to serve in my palace?"

The fact that the superior is willing to accept it is already a gift, how can it be refused? The Third Prince asked this question just to appear friendly, but in fact, it was a foregone conclusion that Lu Zhouxue would serve in his palace.

Lu Zhouxue was brought back to the palace by the Third Prince. It was noon, time for dinner, and the food was already laid out on the table in the palace. The Third Prince seemed to like Lu Zhouxue's face very much, and he actually asked him to sit down and eat with him, smiling with curved eyebrows, and he looked as if he was doting on him.

Lu Zhouxue had been fasting for many years and didn't like to interact with people, so he naturally refused. He also made up a decent excuse: "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness, but this is against the rules."

"You were so bold just now, but now you know the rules?" The third prince raised his eyebrows when he heard this and looked at him with amusement. He thought that this was really a wonderful person. He said respectful words but acted as he pleased. This was only the case here. If it was in someone else's palace, he would definitely be punished.

Thinking about it, the Third Prince's smile deepened. He waved at Lu Zhouxue and said, "What's the big deal? Come and use it with me. Don't be shy."

As he spoke, he asked the maid to bring another set of bowls and chopsticks. The maid responded and left. When she left, she couldn't help but look at Lu Zhouxue. The Third Prince did this, and Lu Zhouxue had no choice but to sit down and let the Third Prince put food into his bowl, and all of them looked unpalatable.

His hopeless look amused the Third Prince, who gently put down his chopsticks and said half-jokingly: "How many people dare to let me serve them? You, on the other hand, not only don't cherish it, but you even despise it."

The Third Prince did not mean to blame her. This palace was filled with people who were servile and obedient. No matter how beautiful a person was, they would be boring to look at. Lu Zhouxue acted willfully with a face like a banished immortal, but she was someone the Third Prince could control. It was just a little temper, not a big problem, so he was naturally happy to indulge her.

Listening to the indulgent and doting tone of the Third Prince, Lu Zhouxue instinctively felt that something was wrong. He subconsciously looked into the latter's eyes, and then understood what was wrong: that was an attitude towards treating a toy, being extra lenient because of the toy's beauty, and otherwise, using thunderous means.

The common people are completely different from Chu Zhaoli. Lu Zhouxue thought calmly that it was enough for his Ah Zhuo to love him. As for others, he didn't care. He casually put the bowl full of food from the Third Prince back in front of him. Facing the Third Prince's puzzled look, Lu Zhouxue said calmly, "Your Highness, please."

Lu Zhouxue's refusal to accept the Third Prince's offer was a disguised way of going against him, but he was not annoyed. Instead, he became even happier. He looked at Lu Zhouxue with sparkling eyes, just like treating a precious cat. Lu Zhouxue shuddered when he stared at her, and looked at him with an indescribable look, determined to run away quickly.

There are many inhumane privacy in the palace, but there are no secrets in the palace. In the morning, the third prince brought a eunuch back to the palace, and everyone in the harem knew about it in the afternoon. This is not a big deal, but in recent years, the Du and Xie families have been fighting openly and secretly, and there are many undercurrents between the third prince and the fifth prince.

Madam Du was worried about how to place people in the Third Prince's palace. Now, when she heard that he had brought a young eunuch whose background she didn't know, she suddenly became suspicious. Before the afternoon, visitors came to the Third Prince's palace in waves.

The second princess came first. At that time, the third prince was practicing calligraphy in the study. Lu Zhouxue stood beside him quietly grinding ink for him. She glanced at the words he wrote on the paper. Although he deliberately imitated the writing style of a great calligrapher, he was still a little too conventional. Well, not as good as his Ah Zhuo.

Lu Zhouxue glanced at him for a few seconds and then quickly looked away. The Third Prince noticed his little move and looked up to see him with his head lowered, quietly grinding ink. He was moved and couldn't help but ask, "What do you think of my handwriting?"

How many eunuchs working in the palace, unless they were descendants of criminals, had read books and were proficient in calligraphy? He had asked such questions before, but most of them were ignorant and just praised the beauty. The purpose of the third prince asking Lu Zhouxue this was nothing more than to pretend that Lu Zhouxue was not proficient in calligraphy and wanted to hear the beauty praise him randomly, so that he could steal her beauty's favor under the pretext of teaching her calligraphy.

The plan was good, but Lu Zhouxue understood it and didn't want to protect his reputation as a prince. Hearing this, he frowned slightly and reached out to take the pen and ink from the Third Prince. The Second Princess came in at this time: "Third brother, are you still studying? The weather is nice, why don't you come out for a walk?"

As soon as the second princess opened the door, she saw the two people inside looking up at her. Lu Zhouxue was still leaning over to take the brush from the third prince. The two looked quite intimate. Seeing this, she raised her eyebrows and said, "I was wondering why the third brother stayed indoors on such a nice day. It turns out that he has a beautiful woman in his arms."

"Second sister." The third prince put down the brush in his hand, gently pushed Lu Zhouxue away, stood up and explained with a smile, "Don't tease me, there is no beauty in my arms, I just saw that he didn't know calligraphy, so I explained a few things to him."

I don't know calligraphy? Lu Zhouxue raised her eyebrows and said nothing. Instead, the second princess came forward and said with a smile, "If it weren't for the beauty in your arms, you would have the leisure to teach others. Why did your third brother deceive me?"

"You go first." The Third Prince instructed Lu Zhouxue, who left in response, enjoying the peace and quiet. After he left, the Third Prince said to the Second Princess, "What beauty or not, my sister is not here to tease me today, is she?"

"It's a nice day, so I told you to go out and play in the wind." The girl pointed at the sky outside and winked at him playfully. "Third brother, you study all day long, don't you want to play? Have you really become a fool?"

"Royal sister, it's not that I don't want to play, you don't know that the Grand Tutor just scolded me today. If I go out to play again, I will really be no match for my eldest brother tomorrow." The third prince said bitterly when he heard it.

The second princess snorted when she heard this, and said disdainfully: "That master is just exaggerating. Third brother is extremely intelligent, how can he be compared to that stupid Chu Zhaoli? Good third brother, go play with your sister, and combine work and rest, ok?"