Eunuch's Declaration of Loyalty

Chapter 5

Qin Shu suddenly became a celebrity in front of the empress dowager. Not only did he become the eunuch of Bingbi, which no one had ever served before, but he also went to serve in front of the empress dowager every day.This naturally caused a lot of speculation, and some servants always looked at Qin Shu in a strange way in private.

But it's not their turn to show off who the master depends on, no matter how jealous those people are, they can only whisper a few words in their hearts, and they absolutely dare not say it in the open.The rules in the palace are strict, and if they are discovered, they will be fined and punished.Qin Shu didn't care about those gazes at all, and responded with his usual gloomy expression, doing his own thing well every day.

The only thing he has to do every day is to grind the ink for the queen mother, and then quietly stand by and watch her review the papers.

Sometimes the empress dowager would talk to him, and Qin Shu always felt extremely annoyed at such times.There was never a moment when he was so tired of his sullen temper, unable to be funny or nice to say.

Every time the empress dowager talked to him, he would worry that he would disappoint her.

Qin Shu still clearly remembered that three years ago, he was assigned to Ci'an Palace at the beginning of the year, and he followed several young eunuchs who came in together to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager.She inspected several people, and frowned when her eyes stopped on him, obviously not liking his gloom.

At that time, his heart that was jumping for joy because he finally saw her again sank into the dark underground.

Afterwards, whenever the empress dowager was present, he always bowed his head and lowered his eyebrows, fearing that he would offend her, and also afraid that he would be stabbed by her disgusted eyes again.

When he was alone, Qin Shu also tried to imitate those people and put on a better expression, but his expression was always distorted, no matter how he looked at it, he felt gloomy no matter whether he was smiling or not.

Maybe it was because of what happened when he was a child and being abused next to the old eunuch when he entered the palace. He has been in misery, and his heart is full of darkness. Later, he forgot how to smile without any haze.

He will never forget the boundless physical torture and psychological depression, those dark days, the deep-seated hatred and helplessness.Perhaps only one day when he no longer cares about those injuries can he change his current unpleasant appearance.But he knew that day would never come.

Liu Qingtang put down the vermilion pen, only feeling that her head was muddled by those trifles in court.In the past ten years or so, she was fortunate enough to be able to watch the long speeches of those ministers every day.When she was reborn, she slackened off a lot. She let go of some of the most important things, and paid more attention to things that she didn't care about.

Turning her head to see the silent Qin Shu, Liu Qingtang found that just like the rebirth these days, seeing him instantly sobered up a lot, and the inexplicable irritability in her heart was also silenced.This person has never changed, which makes her feel at ease.Qin Shu was her obsession before death, she was grateful to him, and now this obsession is getting bigger and bigger.Liu Qingtang also noticed it, but she didn't want to change the situation.

"Qin Shu, loosen Aijia's wrist."

"Yes."

Liu Qingtang seemed to like the feeling of being held carefully by Qin Shu.After looking at his normal face, and at the imperceptible redness under his ears, Liu Qingtang stretched out the brows that were frowned just now because of reading the scriptures, and put on a very faint smile on his mouth.

"Qin Shu, Ai's family is tired. You can approve these papers on behalf of Ai's family." Liu Qingtang said lazily. She had felt a bit heavy in her head since she woke up in the morning, and now she was even more sleepy.She didn't have much rest these nights, and when she closed her eyes, she would have nightmares all night. Sometimes it was the pain in her belly after drinking dove wine in Ci'an Palace, and sometimes it was Qin Shu lying on the bleak palace road covered in blood. For a while, it was her soul floating in the gloomy prison and seeing her father and brother dying.

When I opened my eyes in the morning, I didn't know whether I had slept or not last night.

"The slave doesn't know much about the affairs of the court, so he dare not make decisions on behalf of the empress." Qin Shu said, pressing her wrist and fingers moderately with his hands.He has done this kind of thing a lot these days, and he was finally able to stay awake while touching the empress dowager, instead of being in a state of chaos in his mind.It's just that I still feel that my heart is trembling badly, that I am satisfied but not enough.

"It's just a small matter, how can you be so cautious."

"But, the slave is illiterate." Qin Shu lowered his head unconsciously after speaking, he was afraid of seeing the disappointment on the Empress Dowager's face.Qin Shu couldn't help but blame himself for only knowing ten or twenty characters. If he could know more, he would be able to share the worries of the empress dowager.He also saw that the empress dowager's complexion is not very good these days, and she always looks not very interested.If he can read and write, he can replace the empress, so that she doesn't have to read these densely packed notebooks all the time.

After listening to Qin Shu's words, Liu Qingtang did not show any disappointment on his face, but he was extremely surprised.

The chief executive she knew in her previous life, Qin Shu, was literate, and her cursive hand, although not as good as hers, was not bad.She remembered that she had seen it several times, and even praised it casually.Thinking about it now, maybe Qin Shu was very happy at that time, but she never paid attention.

Could it be that Qin Shu was really illiterate at this time?She thought that Qin Shu was literate early in the morning, because some eunuchs had attended school before entering the palace.Thinking about it this way, Liu Qingtang realized that she didn't know how old Qin Shu entered the palace at all, and never cared about his affairs.The communication with him in her previous life was only when she ordered him to do things, and then he was busy with what she ordered most of the time, and he was often invisible.

It is not easy to learn that skill by oneself in this deep palace, I am afraid I have suffered a lot.Thinking of the tall and thin figure of Qin Shu in the previous life, Liu Qingtang suddenly felt a little guilty in her heart, and said softly, "As the eunuch holding the pen of the Ai family, how can he be illiterate. In the future, when the Ai family approves the papers, you will draw red on the sidelines." .”

When Qin Shu came to serve the pen and ink the next day, Liu Qingtang pointed to another chair next to his chair. "Just sit next to Aijia, and Aijia will give you pointers after finishing the papers."

"Yes." Qin Shu lowered his voice as much as possible, so as not to let the empress dowager see his gaffe in his joyously distorted voice.Ever since the Empress Dowager personally promised to teach him how to read yesterday, he felt a huge sense of unreality. He was so happy that he was almost tripped by the threshold when he went out yesterday. He rarely lost his composure like this.

He was so happy more because he felt that the Empress Dowager actually cared a little bit about him and thought of him.What a joyful thing this is, the empress dowager doesn't hate him, she even cares a little bit.This was enough, and he was willing to give up his life just because he cared about this.It was the empress who saved his life back then, even if the empress didn't notice him as a worthless person at all, he still wanted to do his best to do something for her.

To appease his over-excited emotions, Qin Shu opened the red-painted notebook in front of him.The moment the words inside came into view, he was deeply stunned.He is very familiar with the words on it. These days, he can see it in the empress dowager's writing every day.Was this book of tracing red actually written by the Empress Dowager herself?He is an ordinary slave, how can he be worthy of being the empress dowager to write these things for him by herself.He inspected those words obsessively, only feeling that his heart was soft and outrageous.

"What's the matter? Don't want to learn running script? But Aijia only knows how to run script."

"No, running script is very good. I want to learn it. I will definitely not disappoint the Queen Mother's expectations." Qin Shu replied hastily.

Seeing the expression she was expecting to see, Liu Qingtang stopped deliberately teasing him, and quietly read the booklet.

Qin Shu took a deep breath, quietly held down his trembling hand, picked up a pen and covered the handsome handwriting with ink.

He was very serious about every stroke, as if with the strength of that stroke, that person was deeply written in his heart over and over again.Even if you cut out your heart, you can't get rid of it.

When he was not serving Liu Qingtang, Qin Shu would dip his fingers in water and recall those words on the table. He wanted to write the same words as hers like crazy, and wanted to see her look satisfied with him.

On the bed at night, he unconsciously scratched the words written during the day on the quilt, recalling every moment with the empress dowager again and again, and then fell asleep with peace of mind.

In the middle of the night, when everything was quiet, the inner hall of Ci'an Palace suddenly became noisy.

Qin Shu was woken up by a sudden knock on the door. When the little eunuch told him in a panic that the empress dowager had suddenly developed a high fever and that the two aunts in the inner hall, Xiuyi Taoye, asked him to accompany Feng Jia, he was only taken aback. Impatiently, he got out of bed and walked outside.After walking two steps, the little eunuch stopped him, and found that he was only wearing obscene clothes, so he hurriedly turned back to put on his clothes, and hurried out.

The belt was tied indiscriminately, and the hat was not put on properly.But Qin Shu, who always valued these things the most, didn't notice at all. The little eunuch said that the empress dowager had a high fever, and her feet became more and more anxious.He staggered down the steps and knocked his toe, Qin Shu didn't care about the pain.

After rushing all the way to the empress dowager's dormitory, Qin Shu felt a little strange when he saw the empress dowager sleeping in it with her eyes closed, and the two maids who were favored by her coming in and out in an orderly manner.Before, he was too anxious and didn't think much about it. Now that he thought about it, even if the empress dowager was ill, it would not be his turn to take care of a eunuch, so why was he summoned?
This question was quickly answered. The maid in charge of the empress dowager's daily life and sleeping, Xiuyi, came out to see him, and explained in a low voice: "The empress dowager is in a coma due to high fever. She was just talking nonsense and kept calling Liu Guo. Zhang still has...your name, that's why we called you here, you can go and serve your mother now."

After Zhuiyi said this, he couldn't help looking at Qin Shu with more probing and complicated eyes.At first, she just felt strange that the master suddenly got close to this Qin Shu, but now, when she found that the master was calling his name even when he was unconscious, she couldn't help but re-estimate the value of this Qin Shu in the master's heart .

No matter how close she is to the master, she dare not probe into the master's mind.Zhui Yi saw the changes in his master these days, and the complexity in his heart was beyond words.She couldn't believe the bold guess in her heart, but now it seemed that the most impossible guess was really possible.

Her master who is the empress dowager actually likes such an eunuch.With a complicated expression, Zhui Yi asked Qin Shu to enter the inner room to take care of him, and called another court lady, Tao Ye, to go to the gate of Ci'an Palace to meet the imperial physician together, leaving room for Qin Shu.

Qin Shu reached out to push aside the thick curtain and walked in, staring blankly at the unconscious Liu Qingtang.

The empress dowager kept calling him by his name when she was in a coma. This sentence undoubtedly had a huge impact on him. He couldn't imagine why the empress dowager would call him by his name under such circumstances.

He was afraid that once he had that kind of extravagant hope, he would no longer be able to control it, and he would wishful thinking that the empress dowager actually had... that kind of feeling towards him.This illusion is too dangerous, he will harm the empress dowager.

"Qin Shu..." The person on the bed with closed eyes and frowning murmured unconsciously, instantly making Qin Shu's mind go blank.

This inaudible sound was like a big stone pressing heavily on his heart, making him breathless, and he couldn't help breathing rapidly.

"Qin Shu."

Hearing her call again, Qin Shu couldn't help kneeling on the pedals with his legs limp.He put his hand on the side of the bed, very close to her hand, but he didn't dare to touch it at all. In the end, he could only clenched his fist, looked at her face and responded in a trembling voice: "The servant is here, mother, Qin Shu it's here."

(End of this chapter)