After Shen Qianyu and Song Wan passed away, Wan Xiao and Ji Rong would sit in the small courtyard all day drinking together in silence. Because the late Emperor had left an edict that funeral affairs should be simplified, after twenty-one days passed, no more sounds of weeping could be heard in the palace.

Wan Xiao reclined in his chair, still wearing white mourning clothes that were somewhat wrinkled but reasonably clean.

It seemed that after Shen Qianyu’s departure, he and Ji Rong no longer knew how to live.

The Emperor had Liu Yao to look after him, and Dong Chang had been taken over by Cui Xing. These two old bags of bones now truly had no purpose left.

“The sun is fierce today—it’s baked my bones until they’re soft.”

Ji Rong sat beneath the eaves, murmuring softly.

Hearing this, Wan Xiao let out a scoffing laugh: “How is it baked soft? Clearly we’ve just grown old and useless.”

He gripped the wine flask in his hand and swayed it leisurely.

“We… should also find a place to spend our retirement.”

Standing up with difficulty, Ji Rong walked to Wan Xiao’s side and said quietly: “This courtyard is no longer suitable for you and me. Based on my understanding of His Majesty, he’ll likely seal this place up. We shouldn’t remain here delaying His Majesty’s time.”

Hearing this, Wan Xiao’s fingertips unconsciously twisted together.

The two of them indeed should not remain here any longer, but if not here, where else could they go?

Though there were other courtyards in the palace, having stepped down from high positions, if they were sensible they should no longer remain in the palace but should make way for Liu Yao and Cui Xing.

As for leaving the palace…

Both he and Ji Rong had residences outside the palace, but those vast, empty mansions held no appeal for them.

Wan Xiao turned to look at the room where Shen Qianyu and Song Wan had once lived and let out a long sigh.

Now that room’s doors and windows were tightly closed, yet he seemed able to hear Shen Qianyu’s voice. As if in the next moment, Shen Qianyu would come staggering out from the room to mock him a few times.

Thinking of this, Wan Xiao chuckled.

“Tell me, where should we two go to live?”

“I don’t know. I was just about to ask you.”

Moving stiffly, Ji Rong crouched down to sit on the white jade steps, tilting his head to look at the clear sky with a faint smile.

With their status, they had nowhere to go.

Eunuchs were different from ordinary men—the older they got, the more their bodies failed them. He thought that at least he and Wan Xiao could keep each other company, so they wouldn’t die alone in solitude.

“You and I have neither relatives nor siblings—we two brothers can only depend on each other.”

Ji Rong rubbed the grass seeds he’d plucked from the ground with one hand while murmuring unconsciously.

Years ago, Heng Wu had left the palace to marry and now had a house full of children and grandchildren. After the mourning period for the Retired Emperor and Retired Empress ended, Heng Wu had someone bring Heng Zhi back to her home.

Some time ago, Heng Zhi had sent word to them that she was doing well outside and told them not to worry.

“Do you have anywhere you want to go?”

Ji Rong shook his head, not knowing where his future path lay.

From the time he was seven or eight years old and had memories, he had served as a eunuch in the palace. He knew nothing of his own surname or given name, where his home was, or who his family members were.

Naturally, he had nowhere in particular he wanted to go now either.

Wan Xiao knew his circumstances and said no more, only asking if Ji Rong would be willing to return to Baoding Prefecture with him.

He had been born in Baoding Prefecture. Now that decades had passed, he wanted to return to see if the old sites of the Zhang and Li residences still remained.

While the two were conversing, Cui Xing entered from outside the courtyard.

Cui Xing had unremarkable features and a very ordinary appearance, but his temperament pleased Wan Xiao greatly.

This person didn’t complain against heaven and others during difficult times, nor did he show off ostentatiously when wealthy and successful. No matter what circumstances he found himself in, he could maintain composure and calm.

“Foster Father, your child has come to see you.”

He carried wine and meat in his hands, and after entering the courtyard, he naturally placed them on the table.

Ji Rong looked on and laughed heartily: “We three can drink together perfectly. I’ll go get bowls and plates.”

Yielding the space to father and son, Ji Rong turned and entered the room.

“You haven’t changed your outer garment these past few days?”

As he spoke, Cui Xing took a thin blanket from the bamboo basket placed beneath the eaves and covered Wan Xiao’s legs with it.

“Change what? It’s still clean enough.”

“What did you come here for today?”

“There’s nothing in particular. I just came to see Foster Father.”

Cui Xing’s family had been poor with many brothers. At just a few years old, his father had sent him into the palace to be castrated. At home, he had never eaten a full meal. Though he could eat his fill in the palace, someone of his lowly status inevitably suffered bullying even while keeping to himself.

Only after Wan Xiao brought him to his side did Cui Xing enjoy a few years of peaceful days.

Though Wan Xiao was strict with him, Cui Xing regarded him as a birth father.

Though he hadn’t birthed him, giving him a chance at life was as gracious as creating him anew. Calling him “father” was no loss at all.

Seeing Wan Xiao with eyes closed, not even glancing at him, Cui Xing smiled faintly: “I purchased a residence outside the palace. I want to bring you and Master Ji Rong there to spend your retirement.”

“With your child there to serve you, you two won’t feel bored.”

Hearing this, Wan Xiao slowly raised his head. After thinking for a moment, he said he wouldn’t go.

“I won’t trouble you. What if after keeping us for a day or two, you find us two burdensome? What then?”

“If I found you two burdensome, your child would simply buy another residence and move out.”

Cui Xing smiled, only feeling that Wan Xiao was throwing a baseless tantrum again.

When people aged, they always had some quirks. Since reaching old age, his Foster Father’s temperament had become increasingly difficult. But even so, Cui Xing wasn’t annoyed. His tone remained gentle as he spoke.

“The residence is located on Qianjin Street—a quiet place far from the bustling markets. The entire street has only four residences, and directly across from this one is the home of Garrison Commander Li Chengzu.”

As soon as these words fell, Wan Xiao opened his eyes to stare directly at Cui Xing.

“Years ago, because their family was large, the Li Family moved here. It just so happened that a household on Qianjin Street received an outside posting and left the capital, so your child purchased that residence.”

“There’s nothing in the residence that needs changing, and the house has already been cleaned and repaired. Your child has already mentioned to His Majesty the matter of bringing Foster Father out of the palace for honorable retirement. If you agree, today your child can bring you and Master Ji Rong to live there.”

Wan Xiao frowned: “Why did you think to buy a residence here?”

Cui Xing said: “These years, Foster Father has been secretly helping the Li Family. I presume they are your old acquaintances. Now that you’re leaving the palace for retirement, being near them would likely give you more peace of mind.”

He had never been able to discover the connection between his Foster Father and the Li Family. Logically, holding Dong Chang, he shouldn’t be unable to find even a trace of evidence about such a small matter. Having come up empty-handed meant either that his Foster Father had given orders or had erased the connection between himself and the Li residence.

There must be some unusual relationship between his Foster Father and the Li Family, but he had no intention of prying.

“Old friends not seen for decades—though you cannot go forward to acknowledge them, it’s still good to observe them from nearby.”

“These words are correct. You should listen to Cui Xing.”

Ji Rong came over carrying wine and meat. After arranging everything, he said: “Go take a look. They probably don’t remember who you are anymore.”

“We’re all so old now. If we die, there’ll be nothing left. Don’t be afraid to go see.”

“The Li Family has many children and grandchildren. Living beside them, we can also enjoy some liveliness.”

“I’ll go pack Foster Father’s things.”

Regardless of whether Wan Xiao agreed, Ji Rong and Cui Xing settled the matter.

The two moved efficiently to pack everything neatly and within days had moved into the residence on Qianjin Street.

Qianjin Street was outside the prosperous areas of the capital, making it very suitable for quiet retirement. Moreover, the Cui and Li Family gates faced each other directly. Though they were three-courtyard residences, they didn’t feel empty. If both families’ main gates were open, one could even see into the other’s courtyard.

When Wan Xiao and Ji Rong moved in, a young errand-running eunuch lived in the courtyard.

“Honored ancestors, this one is called An Kang—wishing you two elders peace and health.”

Ji Rong smiled: “Just call us Master. What’s this ‘honored ancestors’ business?”

He had An Kang take his bundle into the room, then stood beside Wan Xiao to look toward the Li residence with him.

“In Baoding Prefecture, there’s a prosperous place called Wangchun Street. The entire street has only two households—one surnamed Li, one surnamed Zhang.”

“Do you know why that street is called Wangchun?”

Ji Rong smiled and shook his head. Wan Xiao said: “When spring flowers bloom on the mountain in spring, standing on Wangchun Street you can see spring arriving at a glance. Therefore, locals all call that place Wangchun Street.”

“The Zhang and Li Families were both renowned scholarly merchants in the area and leaders of merchant guilds. Over the years, they donated money and goods to help countless people in difficulty. Back then in Baoding Prefecture, when mentioning the Zhang and Li Families, everyone had to say they were good.”

Wan Xiao pointed to a banyan tree planted at the head of the street and smiled: “This tree looks familiar. I think we had one like it at home in my childhood.”

Ji Rong looked toward that banyan tree, already withered beyond recognition, and sighed inwardly.

“This place… is quite good.”

Turning around, Wan Xiao slowly walked into the courtyard and casually found a room to enter for a brief rest.

The next day when he emerged from the room, he saw a huanghuali wood rocking chair carved with crabapple flowers placed in the courtyard. The chair sat in the middle of the courtyard, directly facing the banyan tree at the Li Family’s entrance. Seeing this, Wan Xiao smiled faintly and sat down.

Serving the two of them required little work. An old woman handled the washing, and An Kang was only responsible for keeping them company daily and providing some amusement.

On days when Wan Xiao was in a good mood, An Kang would simply sit quietly beside him for companionship.

Today, for some unknown reason, the neighboring Li residence had been bustling and noisy since morning. A group of children chattered and chased each other about—it sounded quite lively.

An Kang, afraid of disturbing Wan Xiao, was preparing to close the courtyard gate when he was stopped.

“Go back inside. I’ll sit here alone and collect my thoughts.”

After An Kang left, Wan Xiao reclined in the rocking chair, staring in a daze at the group of little children running back and forth at the Li Family’s entrance.

Among them was a girl wearing a small red and blue embroidered jacket with the character for “fortune.” She appeared only three or four years old. Yet whenever any child caught sight of her, they would hurriedly run past, causing the little girl to burst into tears again and again.

Her voice was loud and clear. Wan Xiao felt this little girl’s crying hadn’t stopped all morning.

“Play with me, play with me…”

The little girl frantically tried to grab her companions nearby. Unable to catch them, she angrily lifted a large stone by the entrance and dropped it on the ground with a thud.

Seeing this scene, Wan Xiao suddenly stood up.

The large stone was not small. When it hit the ground, it left a shallow pit. The group of little children were startled and scattered in all directions with a whoosh.

Seeing this, Wan Xiao let out a humming laugh.

The little girl heard his laughter and toddled over toward him with tiny steps.

“You’re laughing at me…”

“I’m not.”

The little girl’s mouth turned down, about to cry again, causing Wan Xiao to quickly crouch down and say: “I wasn’t laughing at you. It’s good for a girl to have great strength—in the future, she can protect herself.”

Bean-sized teardrops hung on her face. The little girl sniffled twice, wiped her face, and then smiled again.

She had caught sight of the rocking chair behind Wan Xiao.

“I…”

“I go…”

The little girl extended a short, chubby white finger, pointing at the chair while tugging at Wan Xiao’s trouser leg. Wan Xiao lifted her onto the rocking chair and stood to the side, smiling continuously.

This little girl truly had tremendous strength, but her mind was not too sharp, just like Tao Qian’s.

“An Kang, bring the young lady a plate of malt candy.”

A plate of malt candy was placed before the little girl. Wan Xiao handed it to her, and the little child began eating with relish.

Small children tire easily. One moment she was still sucking on candy, the next her eyelids grew heavy and she fell asleep in the chair. Wan Xiao watched quietly for a good while before having An Kang go to the Li residence to find someone.

Before long, a man hurried out from the Li Family. Upon seeing Wan Xiao, he immediately bent at the waist to apologize.

“This little granddaughter of mine is quite mischievous. I didn’t expect she’d run over to your residence, sir. Has she troubled you this whole time?”

“Not at all.”

Li Rui stepped forward to pick up the little girl and again apologized to Wan Xiao for the intrusion.

As he was about to leave, Wan Xiao suddenly said: “This little girl is quite endearing. I see her strength is remarkably great—truly extraordinary.”

“Not extraordinary at all.”

Li Rui said with a smile: “This little child takes after her great-grandmother. Since childhood, she’s possessed divine strength.”

Speaking of this divine strength, Li Rui’s smile was full of pride. From just this simple sentence and his slightly smiling eyes, Wan Xiao knew that this child Tao Qian was filial.

He smiled with curved lips: “Has she been given a name?”

“She has. She’s called Yun Xiang.”

Hearing this, Wan Xiao slowly nodded.

Seeing he was amiable, Li Rui chatted a bit more. As he left, little Yun Xiang blinked her drowsy eyes, looking at Wan Xiao as if about to cry but not quite crying, suddenly reminding Wan Xiao of many old memories.

His father and Tao Qian’s father had been childhood friends. Father Zhang had died early, leaving behind orphans and a widow who often worried about their livelihood. The Li Family had always been somewhat wealthier than the Zhang Family, so his father frequently provided assistance to Madam Zhang and her son in their youth. This assistance continued for many years.

Later, when Old Madam Zhang passed away and Uncle Zhang finished his mourning period, he said he wanted to go out and make his way in the world. His father couldn’t bear to see Uncle Zhang leave without means, so he sought out a loan shark and advanced thirty taels of silver to Uncle Zhang.

Wan Xiao still remembered when his father would drink with Uncle Zhang, he would often reminisce about this matter.

“You don’t know—that day when I returned from Jiangnan, I found your father beaten black and blue. He had borrowed usury money he couldn’t repay and was chased into hiding here and there, unable to find peace for years.”

Getting excited in his storytelling, Uncle Zhang would even pat his father’s shoulder and shed a few tears.

Later, Uncle Zhang made his fortune away from home. Upon returning to Baoding Prefecture, not only did he repay the astronomical usury money the Li Family owed, he also divided the property he had built up over the years in half.

Thus, both families were able to distinguish themselves in Baoding Prefecture within just over a decade.

The marriage arrangement between him and Tao Qian had also been settled when both families were at their most prosperous.

Seeing little Yun Xiang today, Wan Xiao felt as if he were seeing the childhood Tao Qian again.

He was five or six years older than Tao Qian. Uncle Zhang had always struggled to have children. By the time Tao Qian was born, he already had four older siblings.

With no one suitable, this marriage arrangement fell to him.

When Tao Qian was first born, she was delicately carved like jade. At an extremely young age, her hands were already very strong. When he played with her, he would be grasped by her soft little hands so firmly he couldn’t break free.

By the time she reached Yun Xiang’s age, she could already carry copper basins around everywhere on her own.

With her great strength and not knowing her own power, she would often injure children her own age. To watch over her, he would place the tiny Tao Qian on his back and take her wherever he went.

But these peaceful days didn’t last long. That year when disaster struck the Li Family, it came very suddenly.

So many years had passed that he could no longer remember the details clearly. But Wan Xiao vaguely knew that at the time, both families had somehow acquired some business venture in the capital. That business should have borne both family names, but Uncle Zhang said he would make it part of Tao Qian’s dowry and send it to the Li Family in advance. Thus, only his father’s seal was affixed.

Wan Xiao still remembered that on the day of the incident, it was already deep night—a time of bright moon and sparse stars. He lay on his bed unable to sleep no matter what. During the day, Tao Qian had broken the pearl bracelet on her hand, scattering the pieces all over the kitchen floor with a clatter.

It wasn’t any precious item, but that night he felt compelled to retrieve them, so he went to the kitchen alone.

He was crouching in the kitchen searching everywhere when he heard low sobbing sounds from outside.

Wan Xiao no longer remembered what exactly happened then. He only knew that by the time he came to his senses, the entire Li Family household had been slaughtered.

He had witnessed with his own eyes as those people threw the corpses of his parents and siblings into carts and transported them away overnight.

As for him and several even younger cousins, people had strangled their necks and forcibly knocked them unconscious.

In just one night, his family was destroyed and everyone killed.

Later, he was brought into the palace to be castrated and made a eunuch. The several cousins who entered the palace with him, because they were young or for various other reasons, couldn’t endure that blade and died one after another in the castration room.

His eyelid twitched, and Wan Xiao smiled mockingly.

The palace truly was a man-eating place.

When he arrived, he was not yet ten years old, yet he nearly lost his life several times. Later, he learned that to survive in the palace, he could only see himself as a beast, not as a person.

To survive, he took a supervising eunuch in the palace as his master. From that day on, he abandoned his identity as a son of the Li Family, became a low-ranking eunuch in the palace, and changed his name to Wan Xiao.

After many years of wandering, he finally learned the reason for the extermination and knew who had caused his family to be destroyed, leaving people indistinguishable from ghosts.

Laughably, the Li Family was annihilated merely because the Zhang and Li Families had established a restaurant in the capital—the very Cuiwei Restaurant that later fell into Duan Yiting’s hands and eventually passed to Shen Qianyu.

Back then, Duan Yiting wanted to purchase it at a low price. His father had refused. So overnight, all hundred members of the Li Family household perished without a single survivor.

Rubbing his fingertips, Wan Xiao lowered his eyes, unable to help the dark expression on his face.

That year when he saw Tao Qian again in the palace, he was quite astonished.

Because he had once imagined what might become of Uncle Zhang’s family.

At that time, he thought Uncle Zhang would probably search for them for a few days, but after three to five years, seven to eight years, or even ten years, they would forget the Li Family and forget the marriage arrangement made with the Li Family.

And Tao Qian would find another good husband and live an ordinary life.

After all, at that time the Zhang and Li Families had extensive connections in Baoding Prefecture. He thought the accumulated good karma over the years would certainly protect the Zhang Family. Even if the Li Family ceased to exist, those who had once received kindness from both families would still help Uncle Zhang along his way.

But Tao Qian entered the palace, and he knew that those who had received their kindness not only failed to extend a helping hand but likely had even added insult to injury.

Hearing Tao Qian describe what became of Uncle Zhang’s family pained his heart even more.

That little girl with divine strength who should have lived a prosperous life, treasured in her parents’ palms, had ultimately been reduced to servitude.

This he could neither bear nor accept.

He owed Uncle Zhang’s family. Protecting Tao Qian and ensuring her a worry-free life was the debt he should repay.

Wan Xiao sat in the huanghuali rocking chair, looking at the main gate of the Li residence across the way, and smiled faintly.

Tao Qian had lived a very good life. With his protection, she had never suffered any grievances.

Now she had a house full of children and grandchildren. Though she had other troubles, in the end, the little girl who had grown up on his back had not suffered worldly hardships.

For him, this was enough.