Xu Duofu didn’t have a single scratch on him.
The eunuch who escorted him to school was named Wang Yuanyuan. While the name sounded quite delicate, he was actually a trained martial artist. With an unremarkable appearance, he was the type who would be hard to pick out from a crowd of eunuchs. He was of average height and usually kept his back bent, making him appear even shorter.
He was about twenty-some years old.
It was this very “old eunuch” who, in the midst of the chaotic Chongming Hall, moved so fast that no one saw how he reached Xu Duofu’s side the moment Tian Wenhe raised his hand. He snatched up Tian Wenhe as easily as catching a chicken, all while shouting in a shrill voice, “Young Master Tian is hitting someone!”
Xu Duofu had also managed to scratch Tian Wenhe several times.
It was a total victory.
Then came the part where he sprawled on the floor, playing the victim. Tian Wenhe’s father was shameless; in the novel, he would reverse black and white during the morning court session two days from now. Since Duofu was currently a child, he didn’t need to worry about his own dignity. He had intended to just act lazy and flop onto the ground, but he felt something soft behind him—he was caught in Wang Yuanyuan’s arms.
When their eyes met, in a flash of inspiration, Xu Duofu had a sudden epiphany and feigned a faint.
Zhao Erxi arrived at Chongming Hall with his disciples in tow, demanding to know where the young master and the imperial physicians were.
“The young master was knocked unconscious. The physician is in the back checking his pulse.”
Even though autumn had begun a while ago and the weather was cool, Zhao Erxi felt his head spinning as if from heatstroke, nearly fainting himself. His disciples rushed to support him, calling out “Master.” Zhao Erxi steadied himself and said, “Lead the way, quickly.”
He rushed straight to the backyard.
Zhao Erxi had been full of anxiety and worry, but once he reached the backyard and spotted Wang Yuanyuan standing in the corner, he calmed down significantly. This fellow’s skills were more than enough to get him into the Eastern Depot; he was one of those who had followed the Prince to fight their way into Shengdu alongside the Supervisor.
They exchanged a brief, meaningful look.
Is little Duofu hurt?
Check if I’m dead yet.
The meaning was clear: as long as he wasn’t dead, it was impossible for anyone to hurt Duofu.
Zhao Erxi was completely at ease now. After a moment’s thought, he understood everything. There was a reason he could hold the position of Head Eunuch; not only was he good at judging the situation, but he also knew certain “secrets” that could not be spoken aloud. If His Majesty and the Supervisor didn’t mention them, he would feign ignorance, but he had to be mindful of their underlying importance.
After that, it was all a show—questioning the physician and cleaning up the situation.
The physician said a great deal about how Young Master Xu had suffered an extreme shock and needed quiet rest, and so on. Zhao Erxi nodded and then went back into the main hall to ask what had happened.
The small group led by Tian Wenhe saw Eunuch Zhao and spilled everything like beans from a bamboo tube.
Zhao Erxi listened with a calm expression, showing no emotion, but in his mind, he was straightening out the facts. The one who had rushed forward was little Duofu, and the one who had struck first was also little Duofu. This matter needed a different narrative.
“Are you saying that Xu Duofu suddenly stood up and hit Tian Wenhe for no reason at all? There was no verbal dispute whatsoever?” Zhao Erxi asked.
the young student nodded. “That’s right.” He had just said as much.
“Tian Wenhe said nothing, and Xu Duofu just attacked him? Then why is it Xu Duofu who fainted and is seriously injured, while Tian Wenhe is perfectly fine?” Zhao Erxi asked again, his face darkening. “Tell me the story from the beginning, exactly as it happened.”
“Do not shield anyone.”
Upon hearing the word “shield,” Du Chong’s heart began to race. He vaguely felt that something was wrong… Eunuch Zhao sounded as if he had come on behalf of His Majesty to investigate the fight in Chongming Hall, but his words seemed biased toward Xu Duofu.
Then again, Zhao Erxi was also a eunuch, and one who had come from Wuzhou.
Eunuchs helped eunuchs.
Du Chong felt both disdain and anger, but the atmosphere was wrong, and he didn’t dare speak up rashly for fear of involving his father. Other students shared his thoughts.
After a tense standoff, one of the royal clansmen finally stood up and said, “Eunuch Zhao, the truth is that while Xu Duofu and Tian Wenhe fought today, the reason for it goes back several days.”
Zhao Erxi let out an “oh” and looked at the boy. He was the grandson of Princess Pingchang, from the line of the Great Ancestor’s eldest son. He was indeed clever. Zhao Erxi’s expression softened, and his tone became polite. “Please tell this old servant the details.”
Li Ang was delighted, feeling he had guessed correctly. He was only eleven, and even though he was precociously intelligent, his expression still revealed a bit of his inner thoughts. Seeing this, Zhao Erxi gave him an encouraging look to continue.
…
The more Zhao Erxi heard, the more his eyes darkened. Once the story was finished, he nodded, preparing to go back and report.
To everyone’s surprise, before he could leave, a eunuch entered the hall to announce an imperial decree.
Everyone knelt to receive the imperial word. Emperor Ningwu had two orders: first, Tian Wenhe, son of Tian Ming, was to be expelled from the Palace School for his “crude, reckless, and frantic behavior” in the hall and was ordered to reflect on his actions behind closed doors at home. Second, Xu Duofu was to rest and recover.
Du Chong’s eyes were vacant, his heart cold.
The Head Eunuch, Zhao Erxi, hadn’t even gone back to play favorites for Xu Duofu yet. Why had His Majesty punished Tian Wenhe first instead of reprimanding Xu Duofu, when it was clearly Xu Duofu who had struck first?
He didn’t dare think that His Majesty couldn’t distinguish right from wrong—that was a treasonous thought.
He vaguely remembered what Xu Duofu had said: How do you know if Ming Yi is a traitor or a loyalist?
Du Chong’s mind was a mess. He was still young, but at this moment, it felt like he had glimpsed something. What appeared on the surface and what was actually happening were complex and intertwined; he couldn’t see through it.
He no longer understood who was right and who was wrong.
Palace School was dismissed for the day, and eunuchs escorted the young masters out of the palace.
Xu Duofu was carried back in Wang Yuanyuan’s arms.
When Zhao Erxi saw little Duofu’s thin, small frame and thought of what Li Ang had just said, his eyes turned red with anger. Duofu had suffered such a great injustice; the poor child.
Xuanzheng Hall.
The officials who had been discussing politics had already withdrawn. The fifth-rank official who had pleaded for Ming Yi had been imprisoned—immediately after, every department in the capital learned that Tian Wenhe, the son of Minister Tian, had beaten Xu Duofu in Chongming Hall.
The water was stirred even muddier. The civil officials who had been verbally attacking Xu Xiaoman, the Supervisor of the Eastern Depot, now fell silent. They couldn’t quite tell who was in the right or wrong and didn’t dare to blindly take a side.
It seemed like a minor incident of children fighting, but… it could not be underestimated.
“Nothing that happens in Taiji Palace is a small matter. Don’t take a side yet. The Tian family has been overbearing in Shengdu lately…”
“His Majesty’s iron-fisted methods carry the shadow of the Great Ancestor.”
The Great Ancestor… several officials thought of something at the same time, looked at each other, and didn’t dare think any further.
Zhao Erxi entered the hall to report, first stating that the young master was fine.
“I know that with Wang Yuanyuan guarding him, nothing can go wrong,” Zhong Cheng said.
Zhao Erxi thought to himself that His Majesty said this, but he was clearly worried; he had even stopped writing when Zhao Erxi entered.
“Your Majesty, there is a reason the young master caught a cold and fever after being in the rain four days ago…” Zhao Erxi recounted everything he had just heard. “According to Li Ang, during a debate in the Palace School, Tian Wenhe took the lead in using veiled insults to call Supervisor Xu a traitorous official who brings disaster to the country. Young Master Xu is filial; being ganged up on by everyone and unable to win the argument, he ran out into the rain.”
Looking at His Majesty’s face, Zhao Erxi didn’t dare say certain things.
Zhong Cheng’s knuckles turned white as he gripped his brush.
“I see.” His voice was cold and stern.
Zhao Erxi knew His Majesty was enraged. Where the Supervisor was concerned, even a few words were a grave matter. To be honest, while Xu Xiaoman’s hands were stained with blood from killing, he had no choice. In war, it was kill or be killed. Some people deserved to die, but his treatment of the displaced commoners was truly beyond reproach.
Perhaps it was because they both came from poor backgrounds. If a family had any way to survive, who would sell their son into the palace to become a eunuch?
Naturally, there were villainous eunuchs, but—
As the folk saying goes, “Two people who share a blanket aren’t different types.” His Majesty was a benevolent ruler who loved the people like his own children; even if he was a bit bloodthirsty toward officials sometimes, they were corrupt and deserved it.
Xu Duofu didn’t know that his one punch had turned the outside world upside down, leaving the officials of Shengdu walking on eggshells and speculating wildly. He no longer had the reader’s perspective, so he was just a little worried about whether his father would continue to be mistreated for another two chapters. Probably not.
He wasn’t afraid of his own cleverness backfiring.
If he didn’t know he had transmigrated into a novel, didn’t know the plot, and didn’t have a God’s-eye view, he would certainly be terrified for his life.
Because he and his father were clearly destined for the miserable end of cannon fodder.
First: He was the son of a eunuch.
Even as a science student, Xu Duofu knew that in ancient history, nine out of ten eunuchs were villains, and none of them met a good end—usually something quite gruesome.
But wait—
In the novel, the top leader of this era, the Emperor, was his father’s “love-addled brain” lover. Hehehe.
Xu Duofu rolled over and crossed his legs.
Second: According to the title The Tyrant’s Eunuch Male Empress, this country was destined to fall. But that was because his father died, and the Emperor eventually became a tyrant emperor. However, his father wasn’t dead yet. He remembered the exact date his father was supposed to be ambushed and assassinated.
He remembered it very clearly.
Xu Duofu uncrossed his legs and straightened his expression.
Third: There was actually a huge secret that no one else knew. He, Xu Duofu, wasn’t actually a child picked up from a trash heap by the “Nine Thousand Years” Xu Xiaoman.
He was his father’s biological child!
When Xu Duofu first read that chapter, he had been in a daze. he had switched to the main page and scrolled to the very bottom of the synopsis, only to see the two words “Childbirth Novel” like a bolt from the blue.
A childbirth-themed novel.
Huh?
What did that mean?
Who gave birth to whom?
Are you saying the man—no, the eunuch Xu Xiaoman—gave birth to someone?
With whom?
Xu Duofu’s hands had trembled as he typed those words. Very quickly, that comment thread grew into a tall building.
[??? A childbirth novel? Tell me who the father is.]
[Go check the character list for that “adulterer” next to Xu Xiaoman.]
[Hehe, Zhong Cheng is a total closet pervert. He really loves to sneak into Xu Xiaoman’s eunuch quarters at night and do the… deed.]
[Zhong Cheng looks so dignified, who knew he liked such thrills behind closed doors?]
[Xu Xiaoman seems to like it too.]
[Hehehe, I like reading it too.]
Xu Duofu knew all of this, but he couldn’t quite wrap his head around it. How could a man—a eunuch—give birth, especially when the other person was also a man?
Right now, the name of the third Emperor of the Sheng Dynasty, the Ningwu Emperor, was: Zhong Cheng.
Xu Duofu was satisfied. Xu Duofu lay back down. Xu Duofu crossed his legs again.
This meant that as long as his father didn’t die, this country wouldn’t fall—
I, this Prince, have plenty of good days ahead.
In reality, in the later stages of the novel, when Xu Duofu was being tormented so much he cried like a baby—the “shou” died first. There was a heart-wrenching plot point there: Xu Xiaoman’s death was very sudden and unexpected, and he didn’t have time to tell Zhong Cheng the truth about the child. Back then, there was even a “running away while pregnant” plot. Halfway through running, Xu Xiaoman realized his stomach was huge. At first, he thought he had a terminal illness. After giving birth in a daze, he heard the commoners say that the King of Wuzhou had rebelled. Xu Xiaoman was sick with worry that Zhong Cheng was courting death, so he took the baby and ran back.
It was a total tragedy, though it had a few shards of sugary glass mixed in.
Zhong Cheng actually knew all along that Xu Duofu was his and Xiaoman’s child. In a state of half-madness and half-lucidity, he had issued an imperial decree revealing Xu Duofu’s bloodline and naming him the Crown Prince.
It was just that the court officials didn’t believe it, thinking the Ningwu Emperor had gone mad.
Xu Duofu was the child born to the eunuch Xu Xiaoman and the Ningwu Emperor while they were in Wuzhou.
Huh?!
Who would believe that?
Does that even make sense?
The Ningwu Emperor had a batch of those who didn’t believe him executed.
From then on, his reputation as a tyrant emperor was cemented.
Of course, the act of posthumously conferring the title of Empress upon the Nine Thousand Years also cemented the Ningwu Emperor’s reputation as a mad emperor.
The author has something to say:
Xu Duofu: Hehehe, I am the little Crown Prince [Hands on hips.jpg]
Revised Li Ang’s identity; he is the grandson of Princess Pingchang, not her son.