Chen Ji leaned against the bars of the cell, listening to the whimpering wind blowing through the prison hall.
The Ministry of Justice prison was desolate, as if it had been vacant for a long ti. In these tis, petty thieves were sent to the Five Cities Military Departnt prison, while officials were sent to the inner prison, rendering the Ministry of Justice prison sowhat redundant.
At this mont, the sound of keys clashing together rang out, followed by the sound of a key being inserted into a lock. With a click, the door opened.
Chen Ji turned his head and saw Wu Xiu entering the prison wearing a Python Robe.
Wu Xiu did not look like a suspect brought in for interrogation. He admired the Ministry of Justice prison, saying, "It's much better than the inner prison of my Ritual Supervision. Each cell even has a small air window. It's indeed small, but one can see the moon... in which cell am I to be confined?"
Chen Ji was taken aback, having thought Wu Xiu was there on official business, yet he didn't expect Wu Xiu to be captured by the Ministry of Justice?
The Prison Chief did not respond to Wu Xiu's words.
He silently led Wu Xiu forward, but Wu Xiu paused in front of Chen Ji's cell door and asked with a smile, "Could I trouble you to put in this cell?"
The Prison Chief replied with difficulty, "Lord Wu Xiu, you are involved in the sa case. By rules, you cannot be confined together to prevent conferring on testimonies..."
Wu Xiu's smile remained unchanged: "How is your family?"
The Prison Chief's expression changed, and he quickly opened the cell.
Wu Xiu walked into the cell calmly, surveying the surroundings, and after a glance, leaned against the wall opposite Chen Ji, not worrying about his Python Robe getting soiled in the dirty cell.
He waved to the Prison Chief: "No further need of you, you may leave."
The Prison Chief hurriedly retreated.
Once the footsteps of the Prison Chief faded away, Chen Ji turned to Wu Xiu: "How did Lord Wu Xiu end up incarcerated too?"
Wu Xiu replied with a relaxed expression: "The West Wind betrayed , saying I conspired with the Jing Dynasty spy Lin Chaoqing. Because I suspected you had evidence of my collusion with the Jing Dynasty, I supposedly ordered him to kill you to silence you."
Chen Ji frowned, quickly reflecting on the circumstances leading to this.
Wu Xiu lifted his robe and sat on the ground: "I know your mind is sharp, but you needn't dwell on these nonsensical matters, they are of no concern to you. If nothing unexpected happens, I'll probably be sent to Chongli Pass to work on the Great Wall. Fortunately, these years of cultivating the path might co in handy."
Once again, Chen Ji was surprised. This was the first ti he realized Wu Xiu was also an Executive Officer... Indeed, the Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Secretariat is only of the Standard Fourth Rank, which doesn't hinder one from cultivating the path.
Seeing Wu Xiu's relaxed deanor, he also sat down and looked at Wu Xiu opposite him: "I don't think I've ever seen Lord Wu Xiu flustered; coming to the Ministry of Justice prison seems like returning ho for you."
Wu Xiu thought for a mont leaning against the wall behind him: "Flustered... I've been flustered too. Thirty-one years ago, during the Lantern Festival, a few of us planned to go lantern-viewing together without waist tags or road passes, sneaking out from the Firewood Store. We blended into the crowd, entered the city through the Yongding Gate and passing through the city gate at Tianqiao Temple Fair, where the streets were full of lanterns..."
Saying this, Wu Xiu's eyes lit up: "Rabbit lanterns, lotus lanterns, carp lanterns, spinning lanterns, one after each hanging from one end of the street to the other. Red, yellow, green, purple lighting up the street like daylight. No, even more beautiful than dayti."
"The street was crowded with people. Sellers of sugar figurines, candied haws, masks, figurines, lanterns, those carrying baskets, pushing carts, setting up stalls, one next to another. People guessing lantern riddles, hoopla players, and onlookers watching magic tricks. Children riding on the shoulders of adults, holding rabbit lanterns, giggling. Young won walking in groups of two or three, wearing velvet flowers on their heads, their faces reddened by the lantern light."
Wu Xiu smiled at Chen Ji: "That year, I was six, standing at the street corner dumbfounded. It was Third Brother who pulled and said, 'Why are you dazing out, let's go...' Then we just walked into the crowd like that."
Wu Xiu's voice slowed, no longer looking at Chen Ji: "Packed crowds, people rubbing shoulders, sleeves brushing against sleeves. It was warm everywhere, mixed with the sweetness of roasted chestnuts, the charred aroma of grilled lamb skewers, and the oily sll of fried atballs. These scents penetrated into the nose, making stomachs growl."
Wu Xiu seed in no hurry to recount why he was flustered that night, continuing with other stories: "Third Brother nudged , saying, 'Look, look, there's soone on stilts.' I looked up, several people on stilts walked over our heads, dressed in opera costus, their faces painted, walking steadily. Behind them ca the lion dancers, the lion heads swaying and blinking their eyes. Further along, soone was setting off fireworks. The fireworks back then were even more beautiful than now. A fireball shot up, exploding with a bang into a flower. Red, green, golden, illuminating the sky."
Wu Xiu suddenly sighed softly: "I stood there, looking up, watching those fireworks burst open one after another, and suddenly I cried."
The cell fell silent.
Chen Ji was silent for a long ti, finally asking: "Why did you cry?"
Wu Xiu thought for a mont and chuckled lightly: "I don't know."
He lowered his head, looking at the Python Robe on his body: "Later on as we walked, we got hungry. The silver Second Brother brought from the palace was stolen by Old Rong on the street, and in the end, it was Eldest Brother who traded his hairpin for five hot lamb buns, which were very fragrant."
Chen Ji reminded: "Lord Wu Xiu hasn't yet said why you were flustered."
Wu Xiu leaned against the cell wall, looking up at the tiny air window overhead.
Moonlight seeped through the skylight, a thin thread landing on his knee: "Just as I was eating buns, the guards who ca from the palace to arrest my older brothers discovered us. Those four really didn't care about loyalty, leaving behind and bolting off. The guard caught and asked where the others went, and in panic, I wet my pants."
Chen Ji suddenly found it absurd.
At this mont, he was sitting in the Ministry of Justice Prison, actually listening to the leader of the Eunuch Party, the Chief Eunuch of the Imperial Secretariat, speaking of wetting his pants in panic at the age of six.
Chen Ji curiously asked, "Did Lord Wu Xiu give them up?"
"Of course not," Wu Xiu chuckled, "They later went to Chessboard Street again. Although it wasn't as lively as Tianqiao, it was more beautiful. Unfortunately, every ti we went to Chessboard Street on Lantern Festival night afterwards, they said it wasn't as beautiful as that night thirty-one years ago. It made anxious to see it. But that Lantern Festival night thirty-one years ago, no one can return to."
Chen Ji was pensive, "I wonder who Lord Wu Xiu is referring to as your older brothers?"
Wu Xiu did not answer.
Chen Ji was curious, "What was the reason Lord Wu Xiu entered the palace?"
Wu Xiu sneered, "Trying to get words out of ?"
Chen Ji adjusted to a more comfortable sitting position, "Idle chat is still idle chat; it's rare for Lord Wu Xiu to be willing to talk about past events, so I'll accompany you in discussion. When you head to Chongli Pass, there will be no one to talk to you."
Wu Xiu thought for a mont, "My family and the family of my third and fourth brothers were implicated because our fathers accepted the Imperial Concubine's bribes at the Observatory, falsified celestial signs and participated in the struggle for succession. Their families were the principal offenders, ending up with the entire families executed. Fortunately, old family ties intervened, so they only suffered palace punishnt and were sent to endure hardship at the Firewood Store. The Wu Family was a secondary offender, not implicated."
Chen Ji pondered for a mont, "Even grave cris like family execution can have the court show leniency, the advocate must be a considerable figure."
Wu Xiu replied aningfully, "Not so big figure, just a sharp-tongued old imperial physician."
Chen Ji was stunned.
He suddenly understood why Wu Xiu was willing to tell these things to him.
Wu Xiu ignored him, reminisced to himself, "The Firewood Store is outside the Imperial Capital, next to the moat. A row of low houses, made of mud bricks, with cracked walls, where wind cos in during winter and mosquitoes during sumr. A bunk bed for twelve people, too cramped to turn over."
"As for food, two als a day. Morning is thin enough to reflect one's shadow. In the evening, it's thick enough to see whole grains and count them. The dish is pickled vegetables, one piece per person, thinner than a finger. Hungry, always hungry, hungry enough to be unable to sleep at night, hungry enough to want a bite of anything you see. My third brother got so hungry he stole horse feed beans, was caught by the Chief and hung up and beaten for three days. If not for the old imperial physician, he probably would have died there... but he ended up with a leg disease."
Chen Ji listened quietly.
Wu Xiu looked at Chen Ji, "We suffered much more than you, every day we had to move firewood. Firewood chopped from the mountain, bundle by bundle, taller than a person. Two people carried it, bundle by bundle stacked in the shed. I was small then, couldn't do anything, my third and fourth brothers would help do it. I sat and watched them carry charcoal; charcoal burnt on the mountain, loaded into baskets, carried basket by basket from the mountain, three miles, running eight tis a day. Sumr heat made it hard to breathe, shoulders rubbed raw, blood stuck to clothes that couldn't be removed at night."
Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Weren't the older brothers from the Firewood Store?"
Wu Xiu glanced at him, smiled slightly, "We first t the eldest brother, then the second brother secretly followed the eldest brother out of the palace to play, and that's how we t the second brother."
Chen Ji asked subtly, "How did you et?"
Wu Xiu seed to lower his guard, "The elder brother wanted to find soone to teach the little eunuchs to read and write, but no scholar was willing to teach eunuchs, so the elder brother ca to the Firewood Store and taught us word by word, co rain or shine, for three years. Initially, I didn't want to learn, only cared that elder brother ca to the Firewood Store because every ti he would bring snacks, sotis palace sugar, sotis at, sotis cakes, the best being lamb buns."
Wu Xiu looked up at the sky outside the skylight as it gradually brightened, sowhat lost: "Later, elder brother said that only if we learn to read and write can we understand the principles in books, and when we understand the principles in books, we can enter the palace to work, and only by working in the palace can we co together again. That's when I began to study seriously, day and night. But when I grew up, I realized that the better we understood the books, the harder it is to reunite."
Chen Ji remained silent for a long ti, too much information converged in his mind, Wu Xiu seed to want to tell him many things through past, scattered stories today.
Before he could make sense of it, the sound of drums was heard outside the skylight.
It was 5 to 7 AM.
Sounds of keys turning were heard outside the Ministry of Justice Prison.
Wu Xiu got up and patted his backside, "Let's go, it's ti for the Three Judicial Departnts review... You have no business today, just watch."
Chen Ji hesitated, "Does Lord Wu Xiu know he would enter the Ministry of Justice Prison today? If so, why not prepare early."
Wu Xiu laughed slightly, "Because today, soone significant needs to bear the fury, of course, you might be blad too, but no worries, once the second brother calms down, he'll realize it himself."
The Prison Chief of the Ministry of Justice ca to the cell door: "Gentlen, court is in session."
Wu Xiu walked to the door, then turned to look at Chen Ji: "I know you bear grudges... Rest assured, there'll be a chance, but not today, today is a more important day."
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