Chapter 10: with translation of chapter title

~16 min read 3,041 words

Eunuch 10 (Character: Jiang Yuner and the Fifteenth Prince)

After hearing the system's discovery of Character: Jiang Yuner and the Fifteenth Prince's process, Jiang He also felt a sigh.

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This line is a note about image paragraph. We translate literally: "This paragraph is an image paragraph; please visit the correct website, turn off ad-blocking, and exit reader mode." Keep as one line.

After the original host grasped power, he once sent people to the countryside to search for Jiang family members who had luckily escaped the Old Emperor's massacre; unfortunately, until his death, not a single relative was found, not even a lucky escapee from the Jiang family's branch.

Item: System Cat exclaimed admiringly: 'Host, the Jiang family's genes are really not bad; Character: Jiang Yuner is also quite smart. At that time, her meeting with the Jiang old lady was accidentally witnessed by someone; if she hadn't decisively fled into Lenggong, she would likely have met the same fate as other Jiang family members.'

The people of Huangong have hearts as scheming as a sieve; although Character: Jiang Yuner hadn't yet had the chance to meet the Jiang old lady, her occasional encounters with her were still noticed by those watching her.

Character: Jiang Yuner was favored at the time, and there were many who wanted to bring her down; just this point alone could be used to make a big fuss.

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Same as line 3. Translate same.

Jiang family members are indeed clever; although the original host had a troubling halo, relying solely on that halo, he could not have reached that step.

Moreover, the other Jiang family members are not only skilled in marching and fighting, but also never stupid.

If it weren't for the Old Prince acting too swiftly then, catching the Jiang family members off guard, perhaps the Jiang family would not have collapsed so quickly.

"Wait!" the system suddenly called out, 'I remember that three days ago, this youngster was grinding an iron rod about as thick as his pinky; how could it become a fishhook in just three days?'

It felt something was off; the Three-Colored Cat's two eyes stared at the boy's simple fishhook in his hand.

Jiang He also widened his eyes and exclaimed, 'That fishhook doesn't seem to be made of iron...'

To avoid drawing the child's attention, he stood farther away; plus, at dusk the light was dim, making it even harder to see, so he needed to get closer.

Translate: "To avoid drawing the child's attention, he stood farther away; coupled with the dim light of dusk, it became even harder to see, so he needed to get closer." Need glossary: none specific. So: "【15】 To avoid drawing the child's attention, he stood farther away; coupled with the dim light of dusk, it became even harder to see, so he needed to get closer."

The system's scanning function is better than human eyes, and it quickly determined what the little boy held in his hand.

"It's actually a hook made of plant thorns!" it said happily, 'This youngster is truly smart; surely he thought of this to get me to eat fish.'

Translate: "\"It turns out the hook is made of plant thorns! \" it said happily, \"This youngster is really clever; surely he thought of this to get me to eat fish. \"" Need glossary: none. So: "【17】 \"It turns out the hook is made of plant thorns! \" it said happily, \"This youngster is really clever; surely he thought of this to get me to eat fish. \""

The system also likes smart and well-behaved children; compared to those hopeless princes, the Fifteenth Prince who hasn't gone astray is practically a little angel, making it worthwhile for it to treat him to fish.

Jiang He neither affirmed nor denied, continuing to watch the child by the river.

Hard work pays off; the boy finally caught a fish.

Translate: "Hard work pays off; the boy finally caught a fish." Need glossary: none. So: "【20】 Hard work pays off; the boy finally caught a fish."

He excitedly took the fish off the hook, his thin hand holding a fish nearly one jin in weight, and happily ran toward the corner of Lenggong's wall.

At the corner of the Lenggong's wall there was an inconspicuous dog hole; Li Mingzhi crawled in, then placed a flowerpot piled at the wall base, missing a corner piece, into the small hole beneath the dog hole. The flowerpot held a common dense plant that just covered the dog hole, and then he spread a layer of fallen leaves beside it, so no one could tell there was a hole here.

Hearing the pat-pat-pat of footsteps fading away, Jiang He finally walked over.

He brushed away the fallen leaves, picked up the pot, and upon close inspection realized the dog hole was not originally this large; it had been gradually widened by someone over time, allowing even slightly frail women to crawl out.

Jiang He restored the dog hole, then climbed over the wall and entered the Lenggong.

Most of the present Huangong was built by the previous dynasty; the Lenggong has two sections: one is the Greater Lenggong, the other is the abandoned Cold Palace.

The Greater Lenggong was built in the present dynasty; though the houses are dilapidated, they are still habitable, and most of those confined there are mad concubines, with at least food still being supplied to the concubines of the Greater Lenggong.

The Cold Palace was the burial site of countless former-dynasty concubines and palace maids when the previous dynasty fell; it is said that beside the large lake next to the Cold Palace, several hundred palace maids were chased there by rebel forces and all jumped into the lake to drown themselves.

Especially the well inside the Cold Palace, where corpses were piled so full they reached the well rim; although the founding emperor of the present dynasty ordered it cleaned, no one dares to drink the water from that well, nor approach the lake.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Jiang He would have thought this was a graveyard; the houses are so dilapidated they're uninhabitable, yet people still live there.

Jiang He came to the window, and through the window lattice lacking paper, he looked toward the sole inhabited house.

A woman whose clothes had been washed to a pale white picked up a fish with hands so thin they resembled skin and bone, her expression hesitant and strained.

Compared to that emaciated woman, the little boy could be considered healthy.

The woman asked, "Mingzhi, isn't your fishhook not properly sharpened? How did you manage to catch such a big fish?"

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"Host?" the Three-Colored Cat tilted its head, "Isn't it good to have fish to eat? Why does she seem unhappy?"

Jiang He stroked the Three-Colored Cat, whose fur was sleek and shiny, and answered it in his mind: "The lakebed outside the Cold Palace should be sunken with corpses." Moreover, there are not a few; otherwise, with so many eunuchs and palace maids in the palace who cannot afford fish and meat, why has no one thought of coming here to fish?

The System Cat suddenly realized: "I remember hearing that when the previous dynasty fell, hundreds of corpses were thrown into the lake… From the previous dynasty to now is almost two hundred years, so the corpses have long turned to bone—no, the bones are almost turning to mud; eating a fish wouldn't matter, would it?"

The water in this lake is flowing; given how long it's been, there shouldn't be any effect.

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The corpses I'm talking about are from the present dynasty! To be precise, over these years they've never stopped; every so often, corpses are thrown into the lake to destroy evidence." Jiang He said this cruel fact in a gentle, soothing voice: "People often go missing in the palace; what do you think happens to their bodies?"

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This feudal-era Huangong can be said to be the darkest place in the world, twisting human nature; many who suffer mental collapse and can no longer go on ultimately choose death.

Although the System is not human, it knows that humanity has many faces—can be gentle, can be vicious; the Huangong is the place where serial killers are most easily born, and even a gentle, kind girl will be shaped by the great environment into knowing how to kill without spilling blood.

He swallowed his saliva and said sensibly, "Mother, let's eat mixed-grain porridge! Save the rice for you to boil rice soup; rice soup nourishes."

The kind-looking old lady always tells Jiang Yuner to lose weight moderately, after all, in the Liang Kingdom women consider slimness beautiful; Jiang Yuner's stocky build does not meet the capital's standard for slim beauty.

The memory of the youthful, cute chubby girl contrasted with the emaciated woman before him made Jiang He's heart clench painfully.

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Jiang He continued, "Speaking of which, there are many abandoned wells in the palace." He lowered his brows, his voice devoid of warmth, "You can go check whether those wells were truly abandoned due to lack of water, or for other reasons."

Who sent them here? The old emperor? Those princes? Or the concubines of the Hougong…

Back then, the girl with chubby cheeks, resembling a mischievous elf, made a face: "Whatever, I won't marry from now on; let Jiu Lang support me for life!"

At this moment the sunset had already slipped behind the mountain, the light dim; she couldn't see clearly the appearance of the person standing at the doorway, but from his stature she could tell it was a young man.

Before she could finish thinking, she heard the person at the doorway speak in a choked, suppressed voice: "Yun-jie, it's me…"

The System finally realized: "So Jiang Yuner knows the fish in the lake aren't edible, but her son really wants to eat fish, which is why she gave him an iron rod to grind?" It scratched its feline face with its paw, "I was saying, that little iron rod would take till the Year of the Horse and Month of the Monkey to become a fishhook—turning a sewing needle into a fishhook would be far more convenient."

It felt a little panicked; this was its first time following its host into a mission world, and it was still in the learning stage, not really understanding humans.

The Jiang clan rose to prominence in the present dynasty; their ancestor was originally just a hoodlum, the Jiang clan had no genealogy, and after becoming wealthy they once pretended to learn aristocratic ways and fabricated a genealogy, the given name for the next generation being "Ming".

Seeing the woman speaking softly and gently inside the room, Jiang He couldn't help but fall silent.

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Finally, as the woman rose holding the fish, Jiang He pushed the door open.

If one starves to death, then truly there is nothing left.

Jiang Yuner shouted alertly, stared at the door, and instinctively blocked in front of the child.

To survive, one can only be forced to be stained with blood and assimilated by the environment.

After a moment, she stopped coughing, a few traces of sickly red appeared on her face, her tone still gentle: "Mother is already fine, no need to drink soup, give Mingzhi some rice porridge!"

Jiang Yuner seemed to have made up her mind, trembling as she took the fish, her face full of gentleness, she praised the boy repeatedly: "Mingzhi, you're great! Today we'll have fish slice rice porridge!"

Though she was extremely thin, her spine remained straight; no matter where or what situation the Jiang family members found themselves in, they could never bend their spines.

Therefore it truly could not understand why Jiang Yuner was like this.

She could not let the Jiang family's sole bloodline die silently in this man-eating Lenggong.

For the sake of survival, one's bottom line can be lowered without limit.

Although Li Mingzhi is precocious, he is still young, and he has not met many people these years, so he cannot understand the complexity on his mother's face.

Although they had fled to Lenggong, Jiang Yuner never let down her guard, fearing that someone would discover her and the child's identities and attack them.

Who?

Jiang He looked pityingly at the emaciated woman and child inside the house, and explained softly: "That's because she can barely hold on; in the face of death, everything can be given up."

But whenever she mentioned it, the chubby little girl would beg, and the old lady couldn't bear it, so she would again order the kitchen to make them something delicious.

She raised her head to look at the dilapidated roof; when it rained, the roof leaked, winter was the hardest time for them mother and child, the mother and child could only huddle on the icy wooden bed, shivering, worried they wouldn't survive this winter.

Even if they jumped into a well, there aren't that many wells to jump into, let alone those who were forced to die; they always need to find a place to destroy the corpses and erase traces.

The woman was about to say something when she suddenly turned her head, covered her mouth, and coughed several times.

"I don't want to!" the equally chubby little kid exclaimed, "You'd better not dream of fighting me for meat all your life!"

Jiang He touched his own heart, and the original host's memories surged again in his mind.

Seeing this, the System Cat didn't understand either: "Host, didn't you say this fish couldn't be eaten? I feel like she actually wants to eat this fish."

Thus, over all these years, she has never let down her guard.

The old lady doted most on this pair of siblings; every time she saw them eat like little piglets, she would laugh and then feel helpless, saying, "You two little piglets, eating until you're chubby, what will happen if no one wants you in the future?"

In his memory, among the vast Jiang family, the relationship between Jiang Yuner and the original host was the best; both were obsessed with food, often sneaking snacks in Old Madam Jiang's courtyard—this was a game between the siblings.

What supported her survival was not only revenge, but also the Jiang family's sole bloodline.

Her heart suddenly surged with joy, as well as anguish and regret……

Because if they didn't do that, the one who would die would be themselves.

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