Judging from his appearance alone, Liao Tingyan felt that this eunuch should have a name in the original novel.
So Liao Tingyan asked: "What's your name?"
The eunuch smiled and replied, "Changyou."
Chang You? Liao Tingyan thought about it carefully and found that there seemed to be no such person in the original novel. It seemed that he was indeed a passerby. Since he was not a character in the original novel, it meant that he would not trigger any messy plots at random. Liao Tingyan relaxed a little and said casually: "I don't need anyone to take care of me, you can go down."
Chang You said, "I dare not disobey the orders of the chief steward. I hope the lady will let me stay."
Liao Tingyan didn't like to embarrass others, so she didn't say anything more. After a while, Liao Tingyan turned her head and looked at Chang You, and met his eyes. This man was quiet and meddlesome, and he was a pretty pretty boy. The only shortcoming was that he kept staring at her for some reason. Liao Tingyan thought, could it be that the manager was worried that she would run away halfway, so he specially asked this man to stare at her
Is it necessary? We are watching for thieves. Liao Tingyan muttered to himself. He was bored in the car anyway, so he started talking to Chang You.
"Chang You, right? You serve His Majesty, right?"
Chang You's eyes flashed, and he replied, "I don't see your Majesty often." He was waiting for the girl in front of him to ask more about the Majesty, but Liao Tingyan thought for a moment and asked again, "Does the palace use a lot of ice in the summer?"
I didn't expect her to ask this question. Chang You was stunned for a moment. After a while, he recalled and said, "Several main halls in the palace use ice. There are several huge ice cellars inside and outside the palace. Ice is stored in winter. When the weather gets hot, a large amount of ice is delivered to various places in the palace every day."
Liao Tingyan thought that as long as she could get a good position, she would have endless supply of ice. After all, as the heroine, she should be able to do well.
Chang You looked at Liao Tingyan's face and found that her hair was a little wet with sweat. He immediately realized that she was afraid of heat. In fact, he also felt a little hot. This carriage was too stuffy.
"Wait a moment, young lady." Chang You jumped off the carriage and came back soon. He placed a bowl of ice with milk and chopped preserved fruits in front of Liao Tingyan, "Young lady, please enjoy."
What, why is there such a good treatment while the carriage is traveling? Liao Tingyan began to think that entering the palace might be a good idea.
She held up the ice bowl demurely and ate it in small bites. If Chang You wasn't here, she would have probably just held the ice bowl and ate it. Last winter, the river wasn't cold, so no one could store much ice. This summer, the heat lasted too long. It was already late summer, and ice was incredibly expensive, and there was nowhere to buy it.
Liao Tingyan was so absorbed in eating that she didn't notice that the eunuch Chang You was squinting at her, which was very scary. He stared at her with a smile on his face, his lips were red and his teeth were white, red like blood, white like cold, and he held a string of wooden beads on his wrist with one hand and gently rubbed them, making a slight rustling sound.
It was strange that he didn't dislike this Liao girl. Chang You watched her slowly finish the ice bowl and put down his hand that was stroking the wooden beads.
"Do you want more, girl?"
Liao Tingyan wiped her mouth and shook her head modestly, "No need, thank you." She felt like she was alive again, so cool!
Looking at Chang You again now, Liao Tingyan felt that he was much more pleasing to the eye, and was really a considerate eunuch. Because he was satisfied, Liao Tingyan no longer had a stern face, and smiled at Chang You, "Does the team have a special store of ice?"
Chang You was stunned by her laughter, and then he laughed too, "Yes, ice specially for noble people."
Liao Tingyan thought he was talking about herself, nodded, and looked much happier. Chang You noticed her thoughts, moved his fingers, and suddenly moved closer and said, "Miss, are you still feeling hot? How about I fan you?"
Liao Tingyan looked at him and found that the young eunuch had an extremely pale face without any sweat, and she was immediately envious. It was really good to have a physique that rarely sweats, unlike her, who sweats all over in summer. To be honest, although there is a term like "fragrant sweat dripping", it is still too bad for a beautiful woman to sweat all over.
Chang You rummaged around in the carriage and found a fan, and started fanning Liao Tingyan. The carriage was shaking, and there was a cool breeze, so Liao Tingyan fell asleep without realizing it.
When she fell asleep, Chang You sat down beside Liao Tingyan, crossed one leg, supported his leg with one hand and looked closely at her face. It was truly a flawless face - he had seen many such faces.
A strand of black hair on Liao Tingyan's cheek was blown against her cheek by the wind. Chang You suddenly frowned, stopped fanning, stretched out his fingers to lift the strand of black hair, looked left and right, and then he was satisfied.
The feeling of fingers rubbing against my cheeks was like touching warm jade. Human skin is more comfortable to touch when it is still on a person's body. Once it is peeled off, it will not feel good. Chang You sighed, and seeing that Liao Tingyan was still sleeping, he suddenly lost interest and jumped off the carriage with a fan in one hand.
Seeing him get off the carriage, the eunuch in the carriage behind immediately stopped the carriage and went forward to greet him. Chang You waved away the eunuch's hand, lifted his robe, and stepped on the shaft of the carriage. This carriage looked ordinary from the outside, but it was more luxurious and comfortable inside than Liao Tingyan's carriage. After getting on the carriage, Chang You sat down directly, raised his hand and pulled off the hat on his head, and threw it aside.
The eunuch who got on the carriage behind him was the chief steward among the envoys. He knelt carefully at his feet and poured him a glass of chilled wine.
Chang You took it, tilted his head back and drank it in one gulp, while fiddling with a fan with his other hand.
The eunuch continued to pour wine for him and said carefully: "Your Majesty, why do you have to do this..."
Before he finished speaking, a fan was thrown in front of him. It didn't make much noise, but it frightened him into silence. Chang You said casually, "Fan me."
Having served him for so long, the eunuch knew his character well and knew that he didn't want to hear anything at the moment, so he kept his mouth shut and picked up the fan to fan him obediently.
The man who used the alias Chang You and dressed up as a eunuch to serve others was none other than the current emperor Sima Jiao. The reason why so many people came this time was not so much to welcome Liao Tingyan as to protect Sima Jiao.
Sima Jiao was bored in the palace a while ago and suddenly wanted to go out for a walk. The ministers were naturally terrified and did not agree with the emperor leaving Luojing so rashly. However, the emperor was a tyrannical person who extremely disliked others opposing him. After killing several people, he still insisted on leaving the palace. Sima Jiao happened to hear about the reputation of Hexia Liao Meiren, so he became interested and simply went to Hexia to pick her up, and on a whim, he dressed up like this to approach her.
Sima Jiao always acted as he pleased. If his behavior of disguising himself as a eunuch were known by the ministers, it would certainly be another of his absurd deeds.
"Liao Tingyan..." Chang You-Sima Jiao suddenly said to himself, "She is not bad, she suits my taste."
The eunuch who was fanning him was moved. It seemed that Miss Liao would be favored for a while. However, he was not in a hurry to curry favor with her. After all, who knew how long Miss Liao could live? Their emperor was moody. Maybe in a few days, Miss Liao would do something to displease him. His Majesty could throw her into the forest to feed the wild beasts.
Liao Tingyan, who was totally unaware of this, took a nap and felt a sore back. She was the only one in the carriage, and she rubbed her back and legs with a grimace, and turned her neck. The road conditions were bad, and the shock absorption effect of the carriage was not very good. It was really a torture, and she didn't know how long she would have to travel like this.
Fortunately, she didn't get carriage sick, otherwise she would have vomited all over the place, which would have been really miserable. After opening the curtain, Liao Tingyan couldn't recognize the scenery outside. She didn't know which official road it was. There were almost no pedestrians on the roadside. In the distance, the rolling mountains were green and there was a gentle breeze. It was already afternoon, and it wasn't as hot as it was at noon.
Seeing her wake up, two female slaves came up to help her wash and dress. This time she went to Luojing alone, and wanted to bring a few servants with her, but the old eunuch with a smiling face looked easy to talk to, but he refused straightforwardly. There was no way, Liao Tingyan could only comfort herself, it was better this way, so that there would be no more people to die, they were all old people who had served her for some time, so she should stay in Hexia to enjoy her old age.
As it was getting close to evening, Liao Tingyan arrived at the post station and checked into the hotel. After dinner, she went to bed early in her room. After all, there was no bed in the carriage as comfortable as it was. Only when she lay on the bed did she feel relaxed.
Sima Jiao changed his clothes, leaned on the couch, and looked through the window at the closed door of Liao Tingyan's room opposite.
"How can she be so calm when she is a girl and has no one familiar with her?" Sima Jiao swung his long legs in boredom. "Isn't she afraid? She looks like a fragile noble girl. Or is it that my reputation has not spread to the lower reaches of the river? How can she still sleep? It's really strange."
Liao Tingyan not only fell asleep, but also slept very well, because before she fell asleep, the female slaves brought a basin of ice to her room.
The next day, Liao Tingyan continued her journey and saw the eunuch Chang You again. After he got on the carriage, he looked at her with a smile on his face.
"Girl, you are bored in the car, I am here to relieve your boredom. If you have anything you want to know, you can ask me."
Liao Tingyan thought about it. Her immediate superior Sima Jiao knew that she was going to enter the palace, but she should also know the situation of other beauties as her "colleagues". The original novel did not describe those beauties in detail. Anyway, every time a beauty appeared, she was going to die. So she said, "Then tell me about the beauties in the palace."
This question stumped Sima Jiao. He actually had no idea how many beauties there were in the palace. After thinking about it, he remembered a few faces full of fear, but they didn't seem to match their identities. He thought to himself, with a calm face, and began to talk nonsense: "Your Majesty has not appointed a queen, and the positions of the third lady of the first rank, the noble concubine, the concubine, and the virtuous concubine are all vacant."
It seemed that there was a Concubine De in the past, who was later killed by him. He didn't remember what he did to make him unhappy and want to kill someone. He only remembered that after killing Concubine De, several ministers quarreled in the court, which was really troublesome.
"There are... seven of the Nine Concubines of the Second Rank."
Sima Jiao started to think again, were there seven people? He suddenly remembered the one he had thrown into the Tiger Garden last month, who seemed to be one of the nine concubines, so there should be six people left now.
"There are twelve imperial concubines and beautiful women such as the talented Baolin, about a hundred in total." Probably, but he couldn't remember it clearly anyway.
Liao Tingyan thought that there didn’t seem to be as many as he had imagined. There might have been quite a few originally, but Sima Jiao killed so many that only these were left.
After waiting for a long time and not seeing her ask the emperor, Sima Jiao had to take the initiative to ask: "Why doesn't the girl ask about His Majesty's situation?"
What's there to ask? She doesn't want to fall in love with him. She just wants to live one day at a time in the palace. If she can't avoid him, she will definitely avoid the psychopathic male second as she avoids the male lead.
Sima Jiao looked at her steadily, "Aren't you afraid of your Majesty?"
Liao Tingyan: "You are quite courageous. You dare to ask such a question?"
Sima Jiao smiled, his handsome young face made him look harmless and sincere, "Because the beauties I met before cried when they learned that they were going to enter the palace, but you are so calm, which makes me very curious. Moreover, I think you will not blame me for this."
The boy is still too young. Liao Tingyan thought, it is no wonder that he has no name in the original book, otherwise he might not survive more than three chapters.
"I heard that His Majesty loves to kill people." Liao Tingyan said, "I was attacked by mountain bandits some time ago and saw them killing people with my own eyes. The scene was horrific. After returning home, I couldn't eat meat for half a month. I felt like vomiting when I smelled meat."
Sima Jiao: “…”
Liao Tingyan leaned close to him and asked softly, "When your majesty kills someone, will you let the beauties in the harem go to watch? If you don't force me to watch, that's fine."
Sima Jiao burst out laughing, "You are so weird, talking about your majesty killing people, you are neither surprised why your majesty kills people, nor do you show sympathy for those who were killed. I heard that you are a kind-hearted person, don't you want to dissuade your majesty from killing people?"
What's so strange about this? Does a psychopath need a reason to kill? And you're still advising a psychopath not to kill. She might be dying soon. Why think so much? The most important thing for a person is to know oneself. Don't cause trouble to others. The original heroine's identity does not mean that she is the center of the world and can have whatever she wants. She can't even save herself, so how can she save others
Liao Tingyan sighed and said to the overly naive and bold young eunuch: "Listen to my advice, do your own job and don't meddle in other people's business. Only in this way can you live a long life."