AMLFS Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Weakling!

After being pardoned, the little eunuch wandered around and found the young boy in a remote side hall.

Taking out the water chestnut cake from his sleeve, he handed it to the guarded boy in the corner, saying, “Are you hungry? Here, have this.”

He had secretly taken it from the Imperial Kitchen. This kind of pastry was quite common in the palace, and the nobles didn’t particularly like it. They, as servants, could occasionally get a taste.

Even the things discarded by the nobles in the palace were good things they couldn’t afford to eat in their entire lives.

Zhao Fangye had been hungry for a long time, and he snatched the pastry from his hand and stuffed it into his mouth. But there was no trace of gratitude in his eyes.

He still looked around warily.

Empress Wang detested him, and all the palace servants treated him like a dog. Disgruntled servants often beat and scolded him at the slightest provocation.

But they didn’t dare to kill him, after all, he was a prince. No one wanted to get into trouble.

Over time, they cut back on his meals, stole his valuable possessions, and forced him to live in a remote side hall.

Zhao Fangye was full of hatred for the people around him, but he didn’t want to die.

He firmly believed that as long as he was a prince, his imperial father would definitely stand up for him.

The little eunuch squatted beside him, looking him up and down. He thought the child in front of him was truly pitiful.

He looked about the same age as his younger brother.

“Hey, who are you? How did you end up here?”

“…..”

“Doesn’t anyone give you food?”

“……..”

“Your clothes are so dirty.”

“……..”

Seeing that the child was eating the pastry in his mouth without saying a word, with a pair of eyes that showed a coldness not befitting his age, the little eunuch felt helpless. He stood up and said to the boy on the ground, “I sneaked out. I’m going back now, I’ll come see you tomorrow.”

And so, whenever the little eunuch had time, he would come to find Zhao Fangye, bringing him water chestnut cakes and clothes his mother had sewn for him.

After spending two years together like this, their relationship gradually became close. Zhao Fangye finally reached the age to attend the school.

He went with years of anticipation, thinking that his imperial father would stand up for him, but he was doused with a bucket of cold water from head to toe.

After Zhao Fangye went to school, the two of them saw each other less often. One evening, the little eunuch was still waiting in the dilapidated palace.

Zhao Fangye was dressed in black, and his clothes had become more luxurious. But he had become even more silent and gloomy.

The two of them sat on the steps of the dilapidated palace, watching the full moon in the sky.

The little eunuch remembered his hometown, pointed at the moon and said, “The moon in my hometown is much prettier than this. It’s a pity you’ve never seen it.”

The black-clothed boy’s tight lips softened a little as he followed his finger to look at the moon in the sky, and asked, “Why did you enter the palace to become a eunuch?”

The little eunuch’s face was bitter: “My family was too poor to eat, so I asked a broker to sell me to the palace, saying that I could have enough to eat and wear in the palace, so I came.”

Zhao Fangye was silent, not saying a word. After a long while, he said, “Do you want to leave the palace?”

“Yes, I do.” The little eunuch said without hesitation, “I want to leave the palace to find my younger brother. He wasn’t as lucky as me, I don’t know which family he was sold to as a servant.”

Lucky? Zhao Fangye thought sarcastically, this place is simply rotten.

“I want to find him.”

A glimmer of light flashed in Zhao Fangye’s eyes: “Okay, I will help you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Just consider it as repaying your kindness, he muttered in his heart.

If it weren’t for the little eunuch, he would have probably died in this disgusting imperial palace long ago.

The little eunuch was still an inconspicuous eunuch in the palace, but Zhao Fangye was different.

The emperor intended to make Noble Consort Xiao’s son the Crown Prince.

The Chancellor’s faction naturally didn’t want the Xiao family’s power to increase, so they remembered the eldest prince Zhao Fangye, who had disappeared from people’s sight.

The Chancellor strictly disciplined him. Zhao Fangye had never attended any school before, so it was even more difficult to teach him, but the Chancellor didn’t care about his feelings.

He single-mindedly wanted to cultivate Zhao Fangye into a chess piece who could compete with Crown Prince Zhao Jingshuo and become the Wang family’s power. He was even more cruel to him, and would severely punish him for anything he didn’t do well.

It was at that time that Zhao Fangye became accustomed to wearing black clothes because he had too many scars on his body.

He didn’t want his miserable appearance to be exposed to others.

That time was too painful, and the only comfort was sitting with the little eunuch in the dilapidated palace, looking up at the sky.

Those were his few moments of ease.

It was because of this small glimmer of light that remained in Zhao Fangye’s heart that he didn’t go crazy. He remembered that he had promised the little eunuch to repay his kindness.

But even that last bit of light was extinguished in the deep palace.

When he once again failed to meet the Chancellor’s requirements, the Chancellor, contrary to his usual behavior, did not punish him.

Instead, he took him to a dilapidated palace. Looking around at the familiar scenery, Zhao Fangye’s heart trembled.

The Chancellor stood with his hands behind his back, his hawk-like eyes flashing with a sharp cold light: “Do you think this old man doesn’t know what you’re doing?”

With a wave of his hand, someone dragged out a person covered in blood and gore. A long trail of blood was dragged across the ground.

Looking at the little eunuch who had fallen in front of him, blood foaming from his mouth, Zhao Fangye’s mind went blank.

With a plop, Zhao Fangye knelt on the ground, his straight back bent: “Grandfather… I beg you to spare him! I will do it! I will do everything! Grandfather! Please spare him!!”

The Chancellor looked at him coldly, sneering at his appearance. He kicked him away with one foot.

“Just like your mother, a weakling!”

Zhao Fangye couldn’t hear anything. He hurriedly got up from the ground and knelt at his feet, grabbing his robe: “Grandfather! Please! Your grandson will listen to you in everything!! Please, spare him…”

“Has this old man not told you, don’t have weaknesses! Don’t be indecisive!” the Chancellor scolded angrily, kicking him away again, and said to the servants, “Beat him to death with clubs!”

Zhao Fangye didn’t know how long he sat in front of the corpse. The little eunuch’s face turned from blood red to blue-purple.

Finally, it was covered in corpse spots.

Perhaps those who approached him would be tainted with misfortune.

Suddenly startled awake, Zhao Fangye sat up. He reached out and pinched his brow. It was just that Song Huaixi had asked about water chestnut cakes.

And it had brought up old memories from many years ago.

From that incident onwards, Zhao Fangye had been avoiding getting involved with anyone.

But unexpectedly, many years later, another pair of pure eyes appeared by his side. These eyes belonged only to him, without sympathy, without exploitation, without disgust.

Without a trace of impurities, pure, clean, and focused.

His heart and eyes were full of him.

Song Huaixi was the heart that Zhao Fangye had waited for after becoming a corpse for many years, a heart that made him beat again.

Reason told him to stay away, but his heart couldn’t help but sink.

A soft head squeezed into his arms, and Song Huaixi hugged his waist tightly, sleeping soundly.

Zhao Fangye put his hand on the top of his hair, remembering what the Chancellor and the Crown Prince had done to Song Huaixi.

His eyes were dark and vicious.

This time, he was no longer that helpless boy.