Hua Zhi reached out and pulled her hand over, closing her palms to hold those thin, small, dry hands. If possible, she wanted to gently hold her heart. Maybe it wouldn't help much, but at least it could make her feel a little warmth at that moment, even if it was only for a moment, or just a little bit.
Looking up into the child's dark eyes, Hua Zhi tried to smile to make herself look less ferocious. "Were you sent here alone? How often do you send people here?"
"I was with a sister, and I got here after sleeping."
The little girl licked her lips and looked down at her toes. She didn't know much, but she instinctively felt that this person looked kind and wanted to seize this opportunity to save her life, so she tried her best to express what she knew, "Two people will be sent here every seven days or so."
Hua Zhi looked at her encouragingly. The little girl bit her lip and continued, "My family suffered from drought last year and we didn't get any food from the fields. It was already the twelfth lunar month and we couldn't even afford to eat. Then there was a man who looked different from us who said he was the steward of a noble family in the capital. The noble needed to buy a few servants with clean backgrounds to serve him. However, once you marry into a noble family, you can't come back, and you have to sever ties with your family. The price he offered was a sky-high price for a family like ours. My father said only landlords and wealthy families have that much silver."
The little girl lowered her head and moved her feet, changing to a slightly pigeon-toed standing position. "My father sold me, and the man bought four other people and brought us to the capital and settled us in a house. I don't know where it is. He didn't allow us to go out. He said that we were all from small places and didn't know the rules of the capital. If we were not careful, we would offend the noble and bring about a fatal disaster. He specially asked an old maid to teach us the rules. He also said that the noble liked the servants to be fat and white, so he let us eat a lot every day. At that time, I really thought there were masters with such good hearts in this world."
"Have you been with the others?"
"We live in the same house. Even though that person doesn't allow us to meet, we still find opportunities to talk secretly."
"Then they..."
"Dead." The little girl raised her head, her lips pursed bloodlessly. "There are five of us in total. I'm the youngest and I can't eat as well as they do. They are all stronger than me and came here before me. After I came, they secretly divided my food and only let me eat a little every day. I became thinner and thinner, and I fell ill a few days later. They probably disliked me, so they locked me in another room and let me out only after they made sure I was well. But one of my sisters passed away within a few days, and my older brother told me that she would never come back."
The little girl pulled a girl who was not as strong as her over and rolled up her sleeves to reveal the white fine cloth on her elbows. Red marks could be clearly seen in the hollows of her elbows.
Hua Zhi knew clearly what it was. She resisted the urge to turn her head away and watched the little girl untie the cloth bit by bit, revealing the bruises on her elbow. In that era, there were no advanced blood-drawing tools like needles, and there was no need to draw blood for normal medical treatment. Therefore, it seemed even more crude to do so. Those marks were caused by knife cuts.
"Is that true for everyone? How about you?"
"They come in turns. The strongest ones are the ones who were sent here not long ago, and the thinnest ones are definitely the ones who have the most blood taken. When they are no longer able to fight, they will be taken away, and never come back. I know they are all dead, but I didn't know where they were taken before. Now I know." The little girl had tears in her eyes. She looked up at the roof to hold back the tears. "They were taken to dig out the blood from their hearts."
The whole room was silent. Hua Zhi looked back. The Queen Mother had no expression on her face and did not give any instructions. She lowered her head for a moment and continued to ask, "What about you? How did they treat you?"
The little girl shook her head. "They didn't take my blood. Maybe they thought I was unclean because I was sick before. And I was always thin. If my four brothers and sisters hadn't shown at the beginning that they would feel better if I sang when they were in pain, I would have died a long time ago."
"After that, did you keep singing to the kids who came later?"
"Yes, my brother said that this way I would be useful and they would keep me."
Hua Zhi felt so upset, her heart was as cold as ice and as hot as fire at the same time. How could a person be so cruel just for his own selfish reasons!
If she was facing an enemy of equal strength, it would be fine and she would be considered brave, but they were not like that. They were just children of a few years old. They had never caused any harm to anyone and had no offensive power. How could she have the heart to do that to them!
"Can I see everyone's elbows?"
The little girl now had some trust in her, and silently brought the youngest one to her to help dismantle it. The other children also rolled up their sleeves and untied it for her to see.
The number of knife marks is determined by whether the person is strong or not. The thinner ones have more obvious knife marks, while the stronger ones look obviously better. Haoyue is raising pigs and only kills them one by one after they are fat.
Hua Zhi couldn't bear to know more. These children who knew about the dirty things in the palace would never be free again in their lives. There would always be people asking for more details. She hoped that the empress dowager was really kind enough and would not erase their existence in order to cover up the emperor's shame.
In this matter, she didn't even have the ability to beg for mercy.
The Queen Mother, who had been listening without saying anything, suddenly spoke up, "Who decorated this room? Why did they move all the furniture?"
The maid was about to reply, but the little girl, who thought the queen mother was asking her, spoke first, "There used to be furniture, but someone died from hitting the corner of the cabinet, and then they moved everything out of the house."
At this time, no one criticized the little girl for her lack of etiquette. Even though the Third Prince loved to act like a demon and considered himself cruel and ruthless, he still had to admit defeat when compared to Concubine Yue. This was really too cruel. How could a woman be so cruel
Looking at Hua Zhi again, the Third Prince secretly shook his head. When did women become so powerful? Haoyue was ruthless, but when it came to intelligence, Hua Zhi was even smarter than her. There was a difference between taking the right path and taking the wrong path.
Glancing at Xiao Liu'er from the corner of his eye, the Third Prince couldn't help but feel envious. How did he catch Hua Zhi's eye? If he had the support of the Hua family, then what would anyone else have to do with it!
Just like now, he also clearly felt that his situation was hopeless. It had nothing to do with the size of his power. His performance today was indeed much inferior to that of Xiao Liu'er. The ministers were not blind. Xiao Liu already had the support of the Hua family's network of relationships and the natural support of the Sun family. Today, he was valued by the neutral faction headed by Duke Dingguo. What kind of trouble could others cause
However, the third prince glanced at the fourth prince who had an ugly expression on his face. He could still tolerate it as long as this person was not in power.
And this is not the end of the story.
PS: Those who follow this show are all in true love.