The dispute over the succession of the previous dynasty was not completely revealed, but a glimpse of it can be seen.
In mid-October, the Northern Pacification Office arrested 12 people in Beijing who had "made irresponsible remarks about the succession."
Yang Lun stood in front of the Yunya Hall. A fir-wood central pillar in the hall went straight to the top. Four eaves pillars stood on the four sides of the central pillar, and eaves were placed between the eaves pillars. Four levels were carved from three meters above the base of the central pillar. Cross-beams connected the horizontal central pillar, eaves pillars, child pillars, and melon pillars into one. The structure was so complex that if one point was wrong, the whole building would collapse (1).
Deng Ying was wearing a gray shirt. In the fine dust raised by the autumn wind, he looked up at the roof tile work, pointed at the eaves and talked to the craftsmen. His sleeves dropped and his arms were exposed, and the marks left by the shackles on his wrists were clearly visible.
"Mr. Deng, please bring the food over to the stove."
"Okay, everyone come down to eat."
After he finished speaking, he lowered his arms, turned around and walked back. When he looked up, he saw Yang Lun.
After their eyes met, they tacitly avoided each other.
"Come on."
Deng Ying followed suit and greeted him.
Yang Lun nodded and glanced at the tripod in front of him.
"Let's finish the work soon."
"yes."
Deng Ying replied, "Just these two days." After that, he stood side by side with Yang Lun and looked towards the top of the hall.
The late autumn wind blew down from above, blowing the robes of the two men.
Yang Lun said from the side: "I came here today to tell you that the Ministry of Justice has concluded the Qingtian Temple's elixir case, and His Majesty has summoned Cao Peilin for questioning."
Deng Ying lowered his head and said, "What did he say?"
"He said that the pillars of the Yunya Palace tower penetrate the sky and connect to the Yellow River, and it can protect your majesty's life and determine the fate of the world. There is something vital in these words."
Deng Ying was silent and lowered her head.
"What does your majesty say?"
Yang Lun brushed off the dust on his robe and said briskly, "You wait here for the emperor's order. It will only take a day or two."
Deng Ying didn't ask any more questions, just nodded and said, "Okay."
Yang Lun looked up at the top of the hall again and said calmly, "After the Tongjia Massacre, you stepped on the corpses of those people to climb up to the position of the eunuch commander of the East Factory. The officials of the Inspectorate and the Six Departments hated you to the core. Now you want to go back to your old ways. Don't you want to tell me something in advance?"
Deng Ying smiled.
"say what?"
His face was a little pale, but his voice was calm.
"Tell me what you can do."
"snort."
Yang Lun snorted coldly and turned his back.
Deng Ying's voice came from behind, "Zi Xi, this is the path you wanted to take, and you have walked it steadily. Now that you recognize this friend of yours, and your teacher is willing to call upon the spirit of the talisman, all your dreams have become reality, and you have no regrets."
Yang Lun stopped.
"What about my younger sister?"
He turned around and looked at Deng Ying. "She is only twenty-one years old. Her reputation has been ruined by you. She has never had a good day in her life."
Deng Ying did not answer immediately. He looked at the dust on the ground in silence for a while, then said: "Zi Xi, after being castrated, the only thing I can think of is that from now on, as a slave, I can be submissive to Yang Wan."
Yang Lun clenched his hands.
When Deng Ying mentioned the word "humble and obedient", for a moment, Yang Lun couldn't tell whether it was Deng Ying who was more pathetic or Yang Wan who was more pathetic.
The two were just in silence when an official from the Ministry of Works came to look for Deng Ying and said that someone from the Imperial Household Department had come to summon Deng Ying back to the palace to receive an imperial decree.
Deng Ying turned around and replied calmly, "I'll be there after I change my clothes."
After that, he said to Yang Lun: "The cabinet can submit the document."
"You don't have to tell me."
Deng Ying didn't say a word and just smiled bitterly.
**
The two men said goodbye in front of the Yunya Palace. Deng Ying followed the people from the Imperial Household Department into the palace and listened to the emperor's orders outside the Yangxin Palace.
The emperor exempted Deng Ying from the punishment of exile to Nanjing as a slave, and exempted him from the eighty canings, on the grounds of his meritorious service in building the Yunya Palace. He was still appointed as the Junior Supervisor of the Imperial Household. After Deng Ying received the imperial decree, the Yangxin Palace ordered him to be brought into the palace for questioning. Deng Ying walked into the inner palace and saw Emperor Zhenning, who was dying and leaning on the imperial couch.
Deng Ying knelt in front of the couch. Emperor Zhenning extended a hand to him and asked, "Is Yunya Palace safe?"
"Your Majesty, I have reinforced the cross beams based on what the teacher built before. Now all the eaves columns, child columns, and cross-core columns are embedded in the cross beams."
Emperor Zhenning said: "To protect it is to... protect me."
"yes."
"Deng Ying..."
"The servant is here."
"I treat you fairly, don't I?"
"yes."
Deng Ying knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, you have pardoned me twice from death. I will never forget your kindness to me."
The emperor coughed several times and said in a hoarse voice: "Although the cabinet has not submitted a document, I know what they are thinking. I have given my son to them for more than ten years, and they think they have taught him well enough. But..."
Emperor Zhenning held up half of his body, "But I am not dead!"
After he finished saying this, Emperor Zhenning felt his internal organs churning and he couldn't help coughing violently for a while.
The whole hall was filled with eunuchs who served him in food and daily life. After hearing what their master said, they all knelt down.
Deng Ying stood up and glanced at the eunuch in the palace, "You must not show your sadness in front of His Majesty."
After hearing this, the eunuchs tried hard to suppress their sadness.
Deng Ying knelt down and walked two steps closer to the imperial couch. "Your Majesty is ill, and Your Highness the Crown Prince is worried."
"I know..."
As he spoke, he leaned on the couch and sat down with a breath.
"I have tolerated the cabinet for decades, thinking that they are also full of sincerity for the country, and I will pardon those who can be pardoned... But I have to support my family, and I have to make the decision! I can't give it to them to make up for the scattered money. Deng Ying, the Eastern Jishi Factory, I still leave it to you to control..."
Deng Ying raised her head and asked, "Can I ask your Majesty a question?"
Emperor Zhenning swallowed a breath of hot and fishy air, "You ask..."
"Why is your majesty willing to use slaves again?"
Emperor Zhenning looked down at Deng Ying who was kneeling in front of him. "Because you are willing to endure, I let you be sentenced to death for the Tian case, but you didn't say anything. I tried you in the prison, but you didn't open your mouth. I watched you for two years. You, a slave, just mean the word "stable". That's it. There are so many slaves supervised by the Sili, and none of them can understand it clearly. I know that the people who serve me should have some money and dignity. I think of their hard work and how much they think about me, so I didn't punish them. However, I can only maintain my reputation while I am alive. After I die, these slaves will ruin my reputation!"
After Emperor Zhenning finished speaking, he was almost exhausted, and the breath in his throat made a hissing sound, stirring up the old phlegm that he couldn't cough out.
He paused for a while before saying to Deng Ying, "Go back to the Imperial Household Department and think carefully about what I said to you..."
"Yes, I'll take my leave."
Deng Ying came out of the Yangxin Palace and went straight to the Silijian.
While waiting to return to the duty room by the moat, it was almost dusk.
Deng Ying changed into the official uniform of the eunuch commander of the Eastern Depot. Li Yu did not recognize him at first sight. He looked at him for a long time with the broom in his hand before he ran over happily.
"Are you reinstated?"
"yes."
Deng Ying nodded with a smile.
Li Yu clasped his hands and said, "That's great. A few days ago, Chen Zhangyin and I were worried that the eighty strokes would kill you. Who would have thought that you wouldn't have to suffer, nor go to Nanjing for war. I guess we can now get together and eat together."
Deng Ying smiled and said calmly, "I feel a little tired. Go back and get some sleep."
Li Yu stopped him with a broom in hand and said, "Hey, wait a minute."
"Um?"
Li Yu glanced into the room and said, "Yang Wan is in there. There has been no sound for a long time. I'm afraid she is asleep."
Deng Ying asked, "When did she come?"
"I came here at 7:00 am. I have been helping you clean up the house and haven't eaten yet."
Deng Ying glanced towards the moat and asked, "What did you have for lunch?"
Li Yu said: "Fry a bowl of green vegetables and eat it with rice."
"Is the stove off?"
Li Yu said: "No, I secretly hid an egg and wanted to cook a bowl of egg custard for my sister."
After he finished speaking, he hesitated for a while, took the egg out of his arms, and said, "Give it to Yang Wan."
Deng Ying took the egg and said "Thank you" with a smile.
Li Yu waved his hand and said, "Let's go to work."
Deng Ying pushed the door open and walked into the room. Her face was a little wet from the water sprinkled on it.
The books on the bookshelf were neatly arranged, and the positions of the pens, inkstones, and papers were also well-arranged. Yang Wan was lying on his bed wrapped in a blanket, and the candle on the bedside was almost burned out.
She was lying on her side, with her arms pressed outside the mattress and a book underneath her.
Deng Ying squatted down and wanted to pull out the book, but when she pulled out one edge of it, her body suddenly stiffened.
The book belongs to Chen Hua, but its contents are too shameful to mention.
Chen Hua said that the author of this book was a eunuch during the reign of Emperor Taizu. When he was old and left the palace, he had no money or support, so he drew pictures of himself having sex with women in the palace, added text, and sold them to private printing houses. In this book of erotica, Deng Ying's identity is revealed. Most of the scenes in the book are eunuchs kneeling on the ground, sucking on women's genitals. They raise their thin arms to support women's buttocks, with sad expressions, but very relieved.
This is a delicate eunuch's aesthetic of his own body. For Chen Hua, it is boundless fantasy, and for Deng Ying, it is introspection. When he was alone, he lit a lamp and sat in front of the desk to read it many times.
At this time, Yang Wan had already turned the inner pages, and the page she stopped on had a "note" paper signature inserted by Deng Ying. He felt a little guilty and wanted to quickly pull the book out, but Yang Wan exerted force and pushed the book down. She leaned on the pillow, opened her eyes, and smiled at Deng Ying.
"Come back?"
"… "
Deng Ying stood up subconsciously.
Yang Wan sat up on the bed, tidied up her hair that was hanging on her shoulders with her backhand, closed the book and placed it on her lap.
"Where are you going? Bring a stool over and sit down."
"Wan Wan..."
"Take off your official uniform and put on the shirt I made for you."
"Wan Wan..."
"What are you doing? I didn't say I was going to scold you."
Deng Ying stood beside Yang Wan, untied the belt on his official uniform, took off his outer robe, folded it on the bed, then took the shirt made by Yang Wan from behind the door and put it on.
Yang Wan propped up her chin and watched Deng Ying's movements, and asked calmly, "You changed into your official uniform, so did His Majesty summon you?"
Deng Ying lowered her head and tied her hairband, not daring to speak.
"At least you can say something, so that I can rest assured."
Deng Ying turned her back to Yang Wan and nodded, "I have summoned you."
"That's great. Qin Wende and the others will be happy for a while if they know about this."
"Um."
He still answered reluctantly, and his hands moved slower and slower.
Yang Wan looked at his back. Even though he was wearing a jacket, his shoulders and back still looked thin under the grey shirt.
Yang Wan tapped the book on her knees, and Deng Ying's hands stopped moving for a moment.
"You are waiting to ask you what book this is, right?"
"no… "
"What book is this?"
Yang Wan interrupted Deng Ying, "The paper is too thin for you to turn over."
"I won't watch it anymore."
"Come and sit down once you're dressed."
Deng Ying was at a loss as to what to do. She moved the stool in front of Yang Wan, lifted her robe and sat down, clasped her hands on her knees, and stared at the back of Yang Wan's hands.
Yang Wan placed the book on Deng Ying's lap, raised her head and asked, "Do you want to do this too?"
Deng Ying shook her head and then fell silent.
Yang Wan stood up straight, "Deng Ying, I'm not forbidding you to do this, but I just can't let you live like Chen Hua."
She held up the pages of the book and said, "This book is beautifully illustrated, but the people who illustrated it and the people who read it are all very pitiful people. Deng Ying, you are not a patient now, so you don't need to hide away and read it secretly. I will teach you."
Deng Ying nodded quietly.
"Give the book to him tomorrow."
"Let's go now."
As he was about to get up, Yang Wan grabbed his sleeve and said, "Wait."
Deng Ying stopped and turned around to see Yang Wan smiling helplessly at him, "You've only seen half of it, Deng Ying."