I've already heard about it from the head steward on New Year's Day.
Today is the anniversary of the death of Xiao Changqi's mother.
Consort Wen committed suicide out of fear of punishment, and therefore did not receive the cenotaph that a palace concubine should have. Instead, she was wrapped in a tattered mat and thrown into a mass grave by the soldiers of the Imperial Clan Court.
In a stinking mass grave littered with corpses and swarming with insects and mosquitoes, a young child, with a cold and numb expression, rummaged through the bodies, some rotting and others just dead. A fleeting look of fear and unease crossed his dark eyes.
As dawn broke, after searching half of the mass grave, the child finally found a female corpse covered in bloodstains, her face pale and lifeless.
The child knelt beside the female corpse, solemnly kowtowed three times, then tied the bamboo mat together with the corpse with a rope, slowly stood up, gripped one end of the rope, and laboriously and slowly pulled the bamboo mat forward.
Just then, a light drizzle began to fall. Eunuch Zhou, who was taking care of the Seventh Prince, was awakened by a slight noise. When he opened his eyes, he found that the child, who should have been sleeping in bed, was nowhere to be found.
Eunuch Zhou was anxious and hurriedly went out to look for the young prince, but he couldn't find him anywhere in the palace. His young master didn't have any playmates in the palace, so he probably wouldn't have gone to other palaces.
At this moment, Eunuch Zhou suddenly remembered that the chief eunuch had come to the palace yesterday to inform him of Consort Wen's death. A sudden thought made his scalp tingle, and he hurriedly walked towards the palace gate.
He didn't dare ask the palace guards at the gate if they had seen the Seventh Prince, only saying that he had to go out to do some things for his masters.
Guard: "Which palace are you from?"
Eunuch Zhou answered cautiously, "From Wenfeng Palace."
Isn't Wenfeng Palace the palace where the disgraced seventh prince lived?
I heard that the seventh prince's birth mother committed suicide yesterday at the Imperial Clan Court out of fear of punishment...
The guard hesitated for a moment, then Eunuch Zhou quickly took out a silver ingot and stuffed it into the guard's hand: "The Seventh Prince is clamoring to eat the pastries from that shop at the west end of the street. This servant has no choice but to ask for your help. I hope you will be lenient."
The guard weighed the silver in his hand, giving him an expression that said, "Since you've said so, I'll take pity on you." He said, "Go ahead, but you must be back before 11 PM."
Eunuch Zhou agreed repeatedly, but after leaving the palace, he did not go to the west street entrance, but went straight to the mass grave.
In such a vast mass grave, finding the dead is not easy, but finding the living is simple. Zhou Gonggong noticed children's footprints on the ground, and his guess was immediately confirmed. He followed the footprints to find them.
After all, Zhou Gonggong was an adult, and his pace was much faster than that of the small-legged child dragging a corpse. He caught up with the child in no time.
"Oh my, my little darling!" Upon seeing the dirty and smelly child, Old Man Zhou almost knelt down before him. "What are you doing here all alone?"
The child stared at him expressionlessly, his eyes vacant and unfocused, coldly gazing at the bamboo mat.
Following his gaze, Eunuch Zhou lifted a corner of the bamboo mat in confusion, revealing a dead man's face.
"Smell...smell, Master." Eunuch Zhou was so frightened that he fell to the ground with a thud.
The child ignored the eunuch who was terrified and turned pale, and silently pulled the bamboo mat forward.
When Eunuch Zhou came to his senses, he hurriedly scrambled to his feet and asked in a trembling voice, "Young Master, where are you taking Master Wen?"
"Bury him." The child already knew that the dead should be laid to rest, and his tender voice was a little hoarse from not sleeping all night.
When Consort Wen was a palace maid, she once saved the life of a young eunuch named Zhou, who had just entered the palace. The young eunuch was grateful and couldn't help but tear up when he heard the child's words: "This servant...this servant will go with you."
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