"Why?"
Gu Xinchao could not help frowning.
He had forgotten that he was currently an infant. A delicately sculpted baby frowning like that brought a warm smile to the face of Noble Consort Lan beside him.
"Such an old head on young shoulders."
Noble Consort Lan smiled gently, lightly tracing his brow.
"Giggle..."
Gu Xinchao chuckled.
Why?
This question still had no answer.
According to Wei Xiaobao, this was a temporary assignment.
As a member of the night-soil collection team, Wei Xiaobao had been busy all night and should have been resting during the day, but Wu Dafu had sent someone to wake him up.
He had no idea why the Cold Palace needed a thorough cleaning.
Laifu lacked tact and brought up this question, only to receive a fierce scolding from Wu Dafu. Naturally, Wei Xiaobao and the others wisely kept their mouths shut.
After pondering for a long time, Gu Xinchao came up with a few hypotheses.
First: it was just a routine event.
Not everyone in the Cold Palace was like Noble Consort Lan; there were also those who had failed at palace intrigue and possessed powerful maternal clans. Perhaps such people were dissatisfied with the conditions in the Cold Palace and had lodged complaints.
The authorities in charge might be planning to make some changes.
Cleaning up and organizing the interior beforehand was therefore only to be expected.
This possibility was extremely high.
Second: this was merely a superficial gesture.
In reality, the mastermind behind the scenes might be feeling uneasy.
After all, Consort Yi was dead, and her corpse was proof, but what about himself? Whether he was dead or alive, she or he had not witnessed it with their own eyes.
Feeling somewhat insecure, they were using the opportunity of a general cleaning...
This possibility was low, but one could not say it didn't exist.
Noble Consort Lan held Gu Xinchao, gently rocking him while humming a Yuezhou folk lullaby, the tenderness on her face impossible to conceal.
Gu Xinchao could not help sighing inwardly.
Aside from going to the restroom, Noble Consort Lan accompanied Gu Xinchao every moment without leaving his side for even a single step. Gu Xinchao seemed to carry a hook on him, constantly drawing her gaze so that she could not bear to look away for even an instant.
The Cold Palace was having a deep clean.
Lengxiang Palace naturally could not be an exception.
The area assigned to Wei Xiaobao was not Lengxiang Palace, but somewhere else, so it seemed impossible to use him to pull any tricks.
Ah!
Gu Xinchao sighed again.
Of course, in the eyes of Noble Consort Lan, he had merely yawned.
"Want to sleep?"
"My child, have some milk before you sleep, won't you?"
Without further ado, Noble Consort Lan moved to open her bodice.
Gu Xinchao averted his face.
An expression of utter disdain crossed his features.
With vital energy nourishing him, who needed milk...
Enough was enough!
...
Laifu straightened his gauze cap, muttering under his breath with silent complaints—complaining about Wu Dafu, complaining about his companions, and complaining about himself...
"Damn this rotten luck!"
His luck was bad, and he had been assigned to Lengxiang Palace.
To eunuchs like them, the rumors of Lengxiang Palace being haunted were no mere gossip, but an absolute fact.
Even in broad daylight with the sun high in the sky, Laifu still felt a chill in his heart at the thought of going there.
"Xiaobao, how about we swap?"
He grabbed Wei Xiaobao and said in a low voice.
Wei Xiaobao was dim-witted and foolishly easy to bully. In Laifu's view, as long as he made the request, Wei Xiaobao would most likely not refuse.
Wei Xiaobao was stunned.
"Agree to him!"
A voice in his mind seemed to be saying.
This was his persona, and he couldn't afford to lose it. Therefore, even knowing that someone was trying to take advantage of him, he could only...
Just as he was about to nod, Wu Dafu appeared silently behind them.
"What are you whispering about?"
"Why aren't you going already!"
"Yes, Godfather!"
Wei Xiaobao smiled foolishly.
He followed behind his companions toward their assigned area, turned the corner of the corridor, and disappeared from Wu Dafu's sight.
Laifu took a deep breath, holding back a string of curses.
"Godfather, I'm going right now."
"Luo Wei, wait for me..."
He shouted, breaking into a trot to catch up.
...
Laifu was a native of Jizhou.
Luo Wei was a native of Jizhou.
The two were fellow townsmen. One year, a great darkness befell their hometown. For a full month, a thousand miles around was shrouded in perpetual gloom, cut off from the sun. In the darkness, evil spirits and fiends roamed, while wicked men took advantage of the chaos to wreak havoc...
The two fled with their families to the capital.
The hardships need not be mentioned; in short, the reason they managed to survive was thanks to that period when Gu Xinchao's father, Emperor Shenwu, was constructing the Zhaotian Palace on Bajing Mountain. A massive number of eunuchs had been drafted, creating a severe shortage of manpower in the palace.
As long as one was of the right age, one could undergo the knife and enter the service.
However, although the two were fellow townsmen whose home regions were only a hundred or two miles apart, they had not known each other before entering the palace, nor could their relationship be considered close afterward.
Laifu was the lay-flat type.
He cut corners in his work, dreaded hardship and death, and although he had attended the Inner Academy, he learned few characters, dodging martial arts training whenever possible. He even resold the pills issued to him to others. A month later, having failed to even cross the threshold of martial arts, he was kicked out of the Inner Academy.
Luo Wei was different.
He was the grindstone type.
Among Wu Dafu's disciples, he and Xiao Guizi were neck-and-neck, but compared to the smooth and adaptable Xiao Guizi, Luo Wei had a more upright and stubborn personality, somewhat resembling a martial arts fanatic. Therefore, even though he had already reached Body Tempering Realm Perfection, he was not as favored by Wu Dafu as Xiao Guizi.
Although they were fellow townsmen, their temperaments did not mesh well.
Laifu could not stand Luo Wei's disposition; being arrogant and relying on one's talent within the imperial palace was no good thing and usually led to an early death.
Luo Wei could not stand Laifu's personality either.
Cutting corners, fearing death, fond of gambling, greedy for petty advantages, borrowing money without returning it—such a person was destined to roll in the mud for the rest of his life.
Assuming he even lived a full life, that is.
When it came to bickering, Luo Wei was no match for Laifu and was frequently left speechless.
Unable to best him with words, Luo Wei would resort to fists.
Consequently, Luo Wei often beat Laifu up.
At that moment, the two fellows stood at the entrance of Lengxiang Palace, staring at the half-open main doors, looking at each other in dismay and hesitating to step inside.
Laifu tightly clutched the cleaning tools in his hands.
He looked at Luo Wei and stammered.
"Luo Wei, you go clean the courtyard, and I'll clear the outside..."
Before he could finish, Luo Wei glared at him and clenched his fists.
"Noble Consort Lan is still alive; she's not dead. Even if the place really is haunted, it just means the ghost isn't fierce and won't come out during the day..."
Laifu hurriedly offered two sentences of explanation.
"You're a martial artist with abundant vital energy, and the three fires atop your head burn as bright as the sun and moon. In broad daylight, even evil ghosts and vicious spirits wouldn't dare approach you!"
"You go sweep the courtyard. If there's no problem, I'll finish cleaning outside and go inside with you to clean the rooms. If something does go wrong, you alone can escape quickly. If I'm in there too, wouldn't I just become a burden to you?"
Laifu looked at Luo Wei with an expression of profound sincerity.
"Luo Wei, we're old townsmen. Taking petty advantages of you normally is fine, but when it comes to life and death, I can't afford to mess around!"
"The only reason I'm dividing the work this way is simply because I don't want to drag you down."
"Think about it carefully—am I right or not?"
Luo Wei frowned and thought it over.
Thinking until his head hurt, he took off his gauze cap and scratched his scalp hard, causing snowy flakes of dandruff to shower down and cover both his shoulders.
"Damn your mother!"
"I'll listen to you, you turtle's grandson!"
With that, he put his gauze cap back on, picked up his cleaning tools, and strode inside.