The two names Tianshi and Taiwei came from the Three Enclosures in celestial phenomena.

The Purple Forbidden Enclosure, the Supreme Palace Enclosure, and the Heavenly Market Enclosure.

Based on their birth dates and hours, Old Master bestowed these two names upon them respectively.

Tianshi was bought into the Zhu estate from outside at four years old, initially serving by the head steward’s side.

Later catching Old Master’s eye, he was given the name Tianshi.

Tianshi stayed by Old Master’s side for five years. At nine years old, he was assigned to the Wutong Courtyard when Fourth Master was merely three.

According to ancestral rules, to prevent growing up in women’s hands, Zhu estate boys left their wet nurses at three. Those attending them were only male servants.

A young master’s future prospects were the servant’s future prospects.

Tianshi had no father or mother. To get ahead in the future, Little Fourth Master before him was key.

Little Fourth Master actually had two other servants, but Tianshi was too capable—sweet-mouthed, clever-minded. Within a few months, he surpassed those two.

Little Fourth Master needed Tianshi to carry him everywhere.

Taiwei arrived at Wutong Courtyard when Little Fourth Master turned six.

His ancestors had all served the Zhu family. He couldn’t disgrace his ancestors, so he served Little Fourth Master with genuine sincerity.

Because he was destined to be released in the future, Tianshi didn’t squeeze him out like the others but was instead pleasant to him, guiding him in everything.

He had wondered about this. After telling his grandfather at home, Grandfather laughed coldly: “He’s plotting your future. This person is good at scheming. Stay away from him.”

But he didn’t listen.

Staying away from Tianshi meant staying away from Little Fourth Master. Staying away from Little Fourth Master—what if Old Master saw and didn’t teach him true skills?

Just like this, he and Tianshi became Little Fourth Master’s right and left arms.

Each time they helped Little Fourth Master do something bad, Little Fourth Master would secretly teach them some fortune-telling and feng shui skills.

So whatever Little Fourth Master wanted to do, they never stopped him.

Besides, if Fourth Master became family head and controlled the Directorate of Astronomy, how impressive would they servants be?

With their three-way cooperation, Fourth Master finally became Master.

After Master took charge of the household, he and Tianshi were indeed impressive.

Among everyone in the estate, high and low, who didn’t curry favor with them? Even Head Steward Zhu Jing had to be polite when he saw them.

Tianshi’s ambition was to replace Zhu Jing as the next head steward of the Zhu estate.

Unfortunately, he was too young, his foundation not yet stable. With so many branches of the Zhu family, even with Master’s support, he needed at least several more years of grinding.

When Master became family head, Tianshi had already been married for many years to a maid from the estate surnamed Huang.

Whether due to too many evil deeds, Huang consecutively bore three daughters but couldn’t produce a son.

He was even more unlucky.

His family arranged a wife for him. Unable to endure keeping an empty chamber, she had an affair outside and was divorced. He remarried, but the woman had difficult childbirth—one corpse, two lives.

Master cast a divination for him. The hexagram showed he was fated to have neither wife nor son—a destiny of solitary aging.

Seeing this hexagram, he gave up all thoughts.

At this time, Master formally assumed the position of Directorate of Astronomy Director.

Actually, after the family head position was settled, Master had already been accompanying Old Master in and out of the Directorate. He had the fortune to follow Master inside a few times—truly an impressive office.

But now, only Tianshi alone followed Master in and out of the Directorate.

He didn’t envy this.

He and Master had privately agreed—study by Master’s side for three more years, then be released to work independently after three years.

Moreover, he was helping Master with an extremely important matter—renovating the Zhu estate.

This matter not only had profit but also contained many secrets that couldn’t be known.

Especially Madam Mao’s courtyard—Master wanted him to personally oversee it, not missing a single detail.

That was the happiest, most triumphant year of his and Tianshi’s lives.

Until one day, Huang secretly came to find him, asking if Tianshi was keeping a mistress outside. Three out of five days he didn’t come home, and even when he did return, his body reeked of rouge.

Because Huang had borne three daughters, her position wasn’t solid. She feared her husband not only kept a mistress outside but had also fathered bastards, so she wept and begged him for help in persuading Tianshi.

Huang shared some past friendship with him, and her youngest daughter even acknowledged him as godfather. So he invited Tianshi for drinks, wanting to probe indirectly.

Who knew that after drinking too much, Tianshi started spilling everything himself—sometimes saying so-and-so gave him silver, sometimes saying so-and-so invited him to drink flower wine.

Which brothel’s young ladies were most skilled at service in bed, which brothel’s young men had the softest, most graceful figures…

He listened dumbfounded: “You’re even playing with young men now?”

“As if I wanted to play.”

Tianshi said drunkenly: “It’s other people taking me to play.”

He chuckled, pointed at his own crotch, then made a cutting motion.

“A eunuch?”

His voice rose in shock: “Which eunuch are you mixing with?”

Tianshi waved his hand: “Don’t ask.”

How could he not ask?

The Zhu family’s house rules stated that once the family head entered the Directorate of Astronomy, he could only be loyal to the Emperor alone. If it was a eunuch beside the Emperor, that would be one thing.

But if not…

No, he had to ask clearly.

Seeing Tianshi refuse to say more, he plied him with drinks, saying all sorts of pleasant things.

Seeing he was drunk enough, he began probing indirectly.

“Next time you and that eunuch go drinking flower wine again, bring me along too. Let me broaden my horizons.

All my life, I’ve never seen a eunuch. I hear they’re all like women—voices thin and high-pitched, even raising orchid fingers.”

Tianshi shook his head like a rattle-drum.

“It’s not that your brother is stingy. That person doesn’t easily meet outsiders. I also encountered him by chance and caught his eye.”

“He’s just a eunuch!”

He deliberately sneered coldly: “What’s so special about him? Refusing to meet outsiders—who’s he trying to fool?”

“Brother, he’s not an ordinary eunuch. This person has a huge background.”

“What background?”

Tianshi’s face was full of pride: “The number one man before Prince Zhao.”

Like tens of thousands of firecrackers exploding simultaneously beside everyone’s ears.

Everyone was blasted until their souls scattered, their courage shattered—just one step short of ascending to heaven.

Before the current Emperor ascended the throne, he was granted the title Prince Zhao.

After Yan Ruxian designed the frame-up of Tang Qiling for the Spring Examination cheating scandal, he rose to become the number one person beside Prince Zhao.

Therefore.

The eunuch mixing with Tianshi was Yan Ruxian!!

This…

This, this…

This, this, this…

Everyone looked at each other, all feeling a cold current traveling through their meridians and eight vessels. Their hearts turned ice-cold.

Especially Zhu Yuanmo, breathing rapidly, as if trying to expel the unease and fear from his heart.

Xie Zhifei’s soul was the first to return to its place.

He glanced at Yan Sanhe and asked with trepidation: “When Tianshi drank with Yan Ruxian, did Zhu Xuanjiu know or not?”

Having written so much, Taiwei was clearly exhausted to the extreme. His teeth chattered continuously, his lips turning blue-purple.

Xie Zhifei suddenly regretted driving Uncle Pei away.

What if halfway through writing, this person suddenly gave out? There wouldn’t even be anyone to save him.

But Taiwei nodded to him, then lowered his head to write three more characters: “Read on.”