Chapter 89: I Want to Go Home

The eunuch wasn't wearing eunuch's clothes, so he clearly didn't want to be seen while he came to invite Madam Huo to the palace. But he didn't look like the Grand Eunuch serving the Emperor, so why was he given such a task?

Su Zhenzhen came up with an answer: this job must be something bad, and going on it would only lead to trouble, so they had to send a minor character out as cannon fodder.

The eunuch was so anxious he was about to cry, but unfortunately, ghosts don't have tears. His eyelids were so wrinkled they could trap a fly, yet not a single drop of water fell.

"Don't get agitated. Think carefully. Is there anything else you can remember?" Su Zhenzhen coaxed patiently, afraid that the eunuch ghost would turn into a ferocious creature if he got emotional.

Although the possibility of a ghost wandering for many years and then turning into a malevolent spirit is extremely small, some things cannot be deduced by common sense.

Su Zhenzhen was always worried that even a prodigy like Jiang Sijin had appeared, so who knew what other strange creatures might emerge? She had to be careful, so she had to appease the little eunuch.

The eunuch looked bewildered, his eyes vacant and lifeless. "I want to go home. His Majesty said he would let me go home."

Su Zhenzhen instinctively felt this was a clue, so she gently coaxed, "What else did His Majesty say?"

"His Majesty said I can go home and he'll give me lots and lots of money." The eunuch stared blankly at the sky. "Go home, and lots and lots of money."

Did you get the money?

The eunuch paused for a moment, then shook his head frantically, "There's no money. His Majesty said we'll only get paid if the job is done."

Su Zhenzhen was still a little confused, but the comments section was already buzzing with discussion.

[It must have been that emperor who promised to release the eunuch from the palace and reward him with countless gold and silver treasures after the deed was done, but the eunuch was silenced because he knew too much.]

[The analysis upstairs makes a lot of sense. How could a eunuch possibly leave the palace? The emperor even offered to let him go home—that's clearly just empty talk.]

The comments gave Su Zhenzhen some ideas. It wasn't impossible to collect the eunuch's ghost and slowly investigate his injustice, but the problem was that there weren't enough storage slots, so it wouldn't be appropriate to release any ghost alone.

Right now, we can only try our luck and see if this little eunuch was wrongfully killed because the emperor broke his promise.

"Think carefully, wasn't it the emperor who ordered you to secretly invite Madam Huo to the palace, and then you failed to do the job well, so the emperor ordered your execution?"

The eunuch was stunned again, his soul drifting away, looking extremely pitiful.

"Or perhaps..." Su Zhenzhen thought this was unlikely, but she still wanted to ask, "Did Madam Huo think you had ill intentions, so she killed you?"

The eunuch's empty eyes slowly focused. "I think I remember now. Madam Huo told me to wait, so I waited for her in the courtyard..."

The eunuch's eyes grew brighter as he spoke. "Then I smelled smoke, yes, it was smoke! I saw the kitchen was on fire, and I wanted to go put it out. His Majesty said that Madam Huo must be brought into the palace alive. But for some reason, I had only taken a few steps when I suddenly lost consciousness, and then I knew nothing more."

Su Zhenzhen carefully examined the eunuch's clothes and found no signs of burning, meaning he probably wasn't burned to death.

"His Majesty only sent you to invite Madam Huo? How did you get out of the palace?"

"His Majesty sent several secret guards with me. At the time, the guards carried me and flew out of the wall." The eunuch recalled this, and at the time, he felt it was both terrifying and exciting.

General Xuan's wife entered the palace late at night, but didn't use the main gate. Was she trying not to leave any trace?

This action itself is highly suspicious.

"Do you think there's a possibility?" Su Zhenzhen asked cautiously, "that those guards stabbed you when you were preparing to put out the fire?"

The eunuch had been dead for a long time, and if it was a fatal knife wound, it would be difficult to show up in his soul. Only those like General Huo, whose bodies had suffered countless blows from swords and spears in life, would have their souls remain in the state they were in before death.

Su Zhenzhen originally approached the matter with a try-it-out mentality, but unexpectedly, the causal threads on the eunuch's body began to loosen.

"Why?" the eunuch asked blankly. "Why did they want to kill me? His Majesty clearly said that I could leave the palace and go home."

“Because,” Su Zhenzhen said, word by word, “that so-called Emperor never intended to let you go home in the first place.”

Su Zhenzhen's tone suddenly sharpened, "On the contrary, he truly wants you dead. You may not understand the political situation at court, but you should know basic human ethics, right? The emperor letting his minister's wife into the palace late at night—what kind of sage or benevolent ruler would do that? Do you think General Huo would let you off if something happened to Madam Huo?"

"Snap!" Unlike the causal threads on other ghosts that unraveled, the eunuch's causal threads shattered into pieces and disappeared into the void.

As the thread of cause and effect disappeared, the eunuch's expression became clearer. "I remember now. His Majesty originally intended for his chief eunuch to invite Lady Huo, but the chief eunuch declined, saying His Majesty couldn't be without someone to serve him, so he sent me instead. His Majesty said that if I could bring Lady Huo into the palace, he would let me return to my hometown and reward me with gold and silver. The secret guards were sent by His Majesty, saying he was afraid Lady Huo would run away. I went to the Huo family and explained my purpose to Lady Huo. Lady Huo told me to wait a while, saying that she would make me a midnight snack since I had made the trip so late at night. Then I saw the kitchen on fire. Then, I called for the secret guards to put out the fire, but I had only taken a few steps when someone knocked me unconscious from behind."

The eunuch knelt down before Su Zhenzhen. “I know it was you who summoned me. After I died, I was in a daze. When I saw the path of reincarnation open, I wanted to go in with those ghosts, but I was always bounced back. The more times I did this, the more confused I became. I’m afraid that one day I will forget who I am. I want to go home. I want to be reincarnated. Please let me go home and be reincarnated.”

Seeing how pitiful he was, Su Zhenzhen couldn't help but ask, "Do you have any other wishes?"

The eunuch raised his head, looking weak and innocent. "Could you burn some paper money for me? I've never seen money in my life. My parents took the money I earned from selling myself. I want to have my own money."

[Waaaaah, so pitiful! In ancient times, if a family sold their son, they definitely wouldn't have survived.]

The barrage of comments was moved by the story of the eunuch, and many people contributed money and effort.

Su Zhenzhen's points account immediately surged.

Perhaps influenced by the previous incident of Hensheng's memorial service, many of his fans prepared incense and paper money at home and sent them to Su Zhenzhen as a reward.