Chapter 5: In the Imperial Kitchen
[Host, I don't understand. Doing this has nothing to do with the mission we're trying to complete.]
Yan Xuanyu was sipping his tea leisurely. "Oh? I never said I wanted to follow your system's arrangements and become a tyrant."
The system seemed to be stunned for a moment. No one knew what was going on in the system's head that was piled with data. After a while, Yan Xuanyu heard the system's voice coming from his mind again.
[The host's point is, the system is a Tyrant Card Drawing System, and the condition for the host to obtain a second life is to complete the Tyrant Quest.]
The system was like a newborn, or perhaps it had stayed in the void for too long. Yan Xuanyu had originally thought that the system was high above, issuing tasks and drawing energy from the host, but he had not expected that his system also had a chat function.
"Who said that you will become a tyrant after completing the task of becoming a tyrant?" Yan Xuanyu said slowly.
Isn’t it? The system wondered about the cat head.
What the system was talking about was the small "reform" in the palace that Yan Xuanyu had just instructed Li Zhongxian to carry out.
During the Zhou Dynasty, palace maids and eunuchs only received "salary" but no "income", and their living conditions and treatment were very poor.
What the palace has the most is palace maids and eunuchs. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. Especially in the palace, there are more distinctions between different classes. There are countless secret affairs, such as bribery, embezzlement, and harming others.
Young palace maids still had hope; as long as they lived to the age of leaving the palace, they could find a husband to live with for the rest of their lives. Eunuchs, on the other hand, spent their entire lives in the palace. While they could certainly enjoy a good life if they were favored by their masters, they were inevitably reduced to the lowest class of people in old age, living a miserable life. This was one of the reasons why senior eunuchs adopted godsons.
This is the palace. When you are inside, all you can feel is the gloomy atmosphere, the strict hierarchy, the harsh rules, and... a fate like that of an ant.
If this continues for a long time, people will become numb and no longer consider themselves as "human beings".
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In the distant corners hidden by the tall palace, there are some low houses. The passages between these houses are extremely narrow. After passing through a few doors, you will reach the cold palace.
"Xiu Yu, are you feeling better?" A girl who looked like a fourth-class palace maid pushed open the door and walked in.
The palace maid was named Xiu Bi. She entered the palace at the same time as Xiu Yu and was one of the six palace maids in Xiu Yu's room.
As Xiubi pushed open the small wooden door, the whole picture of the house was revealed -
There were six beds crammed together in the room, leaving barely any room for feet. There was only one small paper-covered window in the entire room, so the room was dim even during the day.
The palace maid Xiuyu's voice was still hoarse. She stood up and said, "Sister Xiubi, you are back..."
"Ahem, I'm much better now." She quickly covered her face with a coarse cloth, fearing that the disease would spread to Xiubi.
Xiubi frowned and sighed. She raised her hand, and Xiuyu realized that she was holding a food box.
"Look what I brought you." Xiu Bi placed the food box on the only wooden table in the room, opened the lid to reveal the steaming white porridge, a few broken pieces of pastries, a plate of stir-fried vegetables that had long lost their heat, and a plump white steamed bun.
Xiuyu was surprised: "Is this what the imperial kitchen gave us today?"
"I asked Eunuch Xu to get this porridge. The people in the imperial kitchen fed our food to the animals, and the animals wouldn't eat it!" said Xiu Bi.
A few rotten vegetable leaves and a hard, yellowed steamed bun were usually enough for them to eat, but now that Xiuyu was sick, Xiubi took out her monthly allowance to go.
Xiuyu had been taken away by a nanny a month earlier, and later heard that she had been chosen by General Li to serve in the Imperial Court. They all thought Xiuyu was lucky. But who knew that this would happen? Although His Majesty spared Xiuyu's life, she was still frightened and fell ill upon her return.
For low-ranking palace maids like them, no one would take care of them if they fell ill, and they had to rely on themselves to survive. Xiuyu was considered lucky. Steward Li brought a message to the nanny, and the nanny knew that Xiuyu had made an appointment with Steward Li, so she gave her face and called a doctor to see her and prescribed some medicine.
Xiuyu looked at it for a while, then suddenly groped under her pillow and took out a small bag - which contained all her monthly allowance.
She grabbed a handful from it, stood up and insisted on stuffing it into Xiubi's hand.
Xiu Bi said: "Xiu Yu! What are you doing!"
"Sister Xiubi, if you hadn't taken care of me, I might have... I don't have anything worth giving away... just take it." Xiuyu pursed her lips.
She had nothing but the monthly allowance. People like her saved the monthly allowance for use when they left the palace.
Xiu Bi didn't refuse anymore.
Xiuyu sat down at the wooden table and saw Xiubi reach out and take out the porridge and put it in front of her.
Xiu Bi was a palace maid who did rough work. Her hands were very rough and swollen. Now that winter had just passed and the weather was getting warmer, Xiu Bi's hands, which had been suffering from frostbite, began to itch and turn red.
As the two little palace maids were talking, Xiu Bi kept scratching her hands in her sleeves.
"Bang!"
The door was flung open.
"Why are you two still here?!" The nanny in charge of them shouted at the door with full force.
The two of them didn't expect anyone to come in, and they were so scared that they stood up. Xiuyu quickly hid the food box behind her.
"Mammy, what happened?" Xiuyu asked anxiously.
The nanny snorted, "Chief Eunuch Li has ordered that all the maids in the palaces go to the Eunuch's Office to register."
After saying this, the nanny left in a hurry without caring about anything else.
The two people behind her looked at each other.
Before entering the palace, palace ladies have to go through layers of screening, and their family background and hometown have already been known clearly.
What does the "registering" that the nanny is talking about now mean?
After arriving at the Eunuch's Office, the two were asked their names. The young eunuch took out a booklet to check it and then asked, "What do you do?"
Xiu Yu and Xiu Bi stood there in a daze.
"The palace maid who washed clothes."
…
The two of them walked out of the eunuch's residence in a daze. They knew what the young eunuch had just said separately, but why didn't they know what he said when they were put together?
For example, "If you do nothing wrong for a month, you will receive a monthly bonus of xx", and even said that there would be "subsidies" at the end of each month, such as grains, snacks, cloth, silver, etc.
What surprised them even more was that even a maid like Xiu Bi, who did menial work like washing clothes, could receive "hand oil" every year! She just had to register.
That's hand oil! Given their status, these things in the palace were hard to come by. Even the maids were reluctant to use them much in the winter, and palace maids like them could only make do with them.
The Imperial Household Department said that this was the emperor's decree that from now on, all palace maids and eunuchs, regardless of their rank, would receive "salaries" and "benefits."
If it were true, they would be much better off!
"Anyway, even if these things are distributed, the nanny will be greedy for them." Xiu Bi was happy at first, but now she thought of something else.
"No." Xiuyu shook her head. "Since it's the emperor's order, they wouldn't dare."
And the eunuch from the Internal Affairs Office just said that you have to register yourself when you receive anything, which sounds very strict.
But what made them even more nervous was another thing - the young eunuch just said that everyone's house needed a major renovation.
The young eunuch also said that the craftsmen in the palace were busy preparing for this, and the rest was still unclear.
Xiuyu was sick and the nanny had not arranged any errands for her, but Xiubi had to go. On the way back, whenever she met palace maids who had no errands and had time to get together, nine out of ten times they were talking about this matter.
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Imperial kitchen.
As soon as Chen Baocai entered, several young eunuchs rushed over.
Some people brought him a chair, and some served him tea.
"This tea is very valuable. Xiao Xiazi is very thoughtful." Chen Baocai took a sip and said with a sigh.
The eunuch serving tea chuckled and said, "Just your words will do the trick!"
"Eunuch Chen, this is the chicken that was just marinated today. I saved a pot especially for you!"
"Look, this is the ginseng soup I made for you yesterday!"
Chen Baocai ate so much that his belly was bulging and oil was dripping from the corners of his mouth. He looked around triumphantly, but just as he was about to leave, he saw several eunuchs breaking into the imperial kitchen.
"What are you doing?!" Chen Baocai was shocked, and then he was furious, "You dare to barge into the imperial kitchen? Are you trying to kill yourself?!"
Dare you cause trouble right under Chen Baocai's nose?
Unexpectedly, these eunuchs were not afraid at all. They grabbed Chen Baocai and held him down.
"Let's see who is desperate today."
A laughing voice came from behind the group of eunuchs.
It’s Li Zhongxian!
"So it's Manager Li." Chen Baocai forced a laugh. "I wonder what you mean by suppressing me right away?"
"This eunuch has been in charge of the imperial kitchen since the time of the previous emperor, and until now, he has never done anything wrong. You, Li Zhongxian, just come here and arrest people. Even if we go before His Majesty, we will have an explanation!"
"Eunuch Chen is right. We are arresting people on orders from the emperor." Li Zhongxian said with a smile.
Chen Baocai was fat and could not stand the heat. Now there was steam in the imperial kitchen, and Chen Baocai was frightened by the sudden arrival of Li Zhongxian. He broke out in cold sweat and looked greasy.
When he heard that he was ordered to arrest people, he was shocked at first, but then he quickly calmed down. He had forged those account books long ago, and even the Jade Emperor couldn't find out anything.
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