Chapter 33 Chief Eunuch of the Palace Prison
Chief Steward Huang was still recounting the trial of the two palace servants.
His voice was calm and unhurried, and his words were impeccable. Xiao listened for a long time but could not find anything inappropriate from the perspective of this Steward Huang.
The person did indeed commit a capital offense of defaming the royal family, and the sentence was indeed leniently given in accordance with the emperor's will and precedent.
But these two people were really unlucky.
So even if the emperor is benevolent, for them, there is only one outcome.
Xiao Qing's heart sank even further.
Because they had offended her, Zhao Youchen wanted to kill the two men on the spot.
Because they offended her, even though she asked for leniency, the palace prison still punished them to death.
After Steward Huang left, Xiao Qing lost all interest in playing with the cat.
A vague thought lingered in her mind. She couldn't quite make it out, but her intuition told her it was a terrifying monster that, once its form became clear, would open its gaping maw and devour her whole.
I still feel cold.
In the afternoon, Xiao Qing ate a small bowl of rice, picked out a few dishes, and went to bed early.
The dragon bed is large, and the mattress and bedding are mostly in bright yellow or warm yellow.
In the spacious bedroom, an incense burner was burning on an incense stand about three to five meters away from the bed. Faint smoke drifted out from the gaps in the lid of the small incense burner and rose slowly.
I don't know what kind of fragrance it is, but it has a light and refreshing scent that seems to bring a sense of peace to the mind.
Xiao Qing fell asleep without realizing it, and then seemed to fall into a deep dream.
She had a strange, contradictory feeling. Her body felt heavy, so heavy that it was difficult to take even a single step forward. Yet, she also felt incredibly light, so light that she could float into the air with just a light touch.
As she floated, she felt as if she had grown wings and turned into a bird.
The entire world was a vast expanse of white, as if it were after a snowfall. The world was pristine and clean, so pure it was breathtaking.
She flew joyfully through the snowy sky, her eyes searching for traces of snowmen on the ground.
Where's the snowman? How can such beautiful snow be without a snowman? Don't kids these days like building snowmen?
Why don't I just build one myself?
She flapped her wings and began to swoop down.
But just as she was about to reach the ground, a small arrow suddenly shot out from somewhere!
The arrow was fast and powerful, which frightened Xiao Qing so much that he flapped his wings and tried to escape.
But her downward momentum was too great, and the silver arrow came rushing towards her without warning.
Before Xiao Qing could escape, the small arrow was pierced into her mouth and forced down her throat. The pain made her shudder, and she screamed in terror and panic in her dream, "Ah!"
She sat up abruptly, instinctively reaching out to clutch her neck; the burning pain from her throat being pierced left her reeling for a long time.
Mei Shu tiptoed in from outside but quickly approached, and asked in a low voice, "Your Majesty?"
Xiao Qing's heart pounded, and it took her a while to finally see who it was.
She stared blankly at Mei Shu for a moment before asking, "Are you on guard outside tonight?"
Mei Shu nodded, noticing that Xiao Qing was covered in cold sweat and had a lingering panic in his eyes. After thinking for a moment, she asked in a low voice, "Did Your Majesty have a nightmare?"
Xiao Qing nodded slightly, without saying anything more.
Once she calmed down, she got out of bed.
Mei Shu quickly asked, "Is there anything Your Majesty needs?"
I want to go out for a walk.
Mei Shu quickly picked up the clothes on the side and was about to give them to Xiao Qing to wear.
Xiao Qing waved her hand, picked up her clothes, put them on, and then walked out.
She walked out of the bedchamber and stood in the moonlight, where she saw the flickering moonlight around her feet.
It was this sliver of moonlight that gradually warmed Xiao Qing, who was already feeling cold.
Mei Shu stood not far behind her, looked up at the moon, and then focused her gaze on Xiao Qing.
When the Grand Tutor came looking for her, she was not in the Inner Palace Bureau, but in the palace prison.
She was not initially willing to serve as a slave in the Nanhua Palace.
Everyone in the palace knew what the palace prison was like.
In the strictly regulated palace, the emperor was lenient, and the palace prison was the court of judgment for those who made mistakes; it could decide the life and death of a servant.
If the emperor is harsh, the palace prison becomes a pure hell. Sometimes it has nothing to do with whether you have made a mistake or not; what matters more is whether you unconditionally submit to a power and fate that may not be just.
Before the Xiao Dynasty moved south, many things in the Nanhua Palace were practically useless, including the palace prison.
Because of Emperor Tianhe's neglect, each palace and department in Nanhua Palace acted independently. Old palace servants could decide the fate of young palace servants at will, and the palace servant in charge of a palace could dispose of the servants under their command at will.
Yingying was originally in the Imperial Guard, but after being caught stealing from the Imperial Kitchen, the imperial chefs gave him a "purifying drink" without going through the palace prison, beat him up, and threw him out.
Zhao Youchen might think such a thing was impossible, but she knew it was possible.
Now that the Xiao Dynasty has established its capital in Nanhua, the Nanhua Palace, as the imperial palace of the Southern Xiao Dynasty, has seen its previously abandoned institutions and systems suddenly pushed forward like rusted gears. As the gears turn, layers of rusty debris fall off.
She was lost in thought when she suddenly heard Xiao Qing's voice.
"Does Attendant Mei also think they deserve to die?" Xiao Qing thought for a moment. "Or rather, did Attendant Mei realize that as long as they are sent to the palace prison, they will lose their lives?"
Mei Shu paused, then said calmly, "I didn't know before."
When did you find out?
"A palace attendant came to report that when he learned that the two palace attendants who had been beaten earlier had not survived the beating..."
Mei Shu did not hide anything at this point, and talked about related matters, from the palace prison to Chief Eunuch Huang, and then to the Inner Palace Bureau.
Xiao Qing was initially feeling down. Partly because, although she hadn't killed the two palace servants, they had died because of her. Partly, she felt an intangible sense of unease.
Even though she had decided to try to be a reasonably competent "emperor" within the limited time available—of course, her ultimate goal was not to become a great and wise ruler or anything like that.
But over the past few days, whether it was reading books and history or seeing and hearing things, all of this told her that, apart from some superficial etiquette, she had not even reached the entry level in this profession.
Before she could sense any danger, Zhao Youchen had already stepped in front of her, indicating that he would protect her no matter what.
She couldn't bear to see the palace servants who had just said some inappropriate things die, so she thought she was expressing her desire to save their lives in a way that was in line with the rules of this world. But in the end, neither Zhao Youchen, Mei Shu and others around her, nor the people in the palace prison, actually took it seriously.
Wait, she seemed to hear Mei Shu say something important.
"Your Majesty, the Palace Prison exists independently of the Inner Palace Bureau. In the absence of an empress or consort in charge of the palace, the head of the Palace Prison reports directly to Your Majesty, obeying only the imperial decree regardless of right or wrong."
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