If objects cannot become ghosts after death, why can humans alone?
Xiao Zhuozi's story seemed to explain why.
Xiao Zhuozi, after going mad, was taken away, and no one knew where he was taken.
But Li Xuan believed he would never return.
In the imperial harem, so-called "truths" began to circulate, and the uneasy hearts of the people seemed to find the best comfort.
No story could soothe people's hearts more than one of retribution.
Later, the palace invited several Taoist priests to set up an altar and perform rituals in Yan Qu Hall to appease Nangong Talent's soul in heaven.
Everyone attended the ceremony that day, as if after this, Nangong Talent would no longer have any reason to resent.
In fact, just as they thought, the rumors of ghosts quickly subsided, and the palace returned to its usual tranquility.
Everyone was no longer anxious and began to have the leisure to continue their scheming.
...
One day, Li Xuan came to Yan Qu Hall to find Deng Weixian and unexpectedly stumbled upon a bullying scene in the imperial harem.
In a corner of the backyard, a palace maid was being bullied.
A group of palace maids surrounded her, punching and kicking, tearing at her clothes, pinching her, and wantonly humiliating her.
The palace maid being beaten protected her head, knelt on the ground, disheveled, making it impossible to see her face clearly.
"Told you to put on airs, told you to be arrogant, told you to be unreasonable..."
"Talent, right? Young lady from an official's family, right?"
"Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, have you heard of it?"
"This is called the wheel of fortune turning, you are also a palace maid now, how dare you still be arrogant with us!"
"I'll beat you to death."
"Sister Feng is mighty, eloquent; this little bitch probably hasn't heard so many good words in her life."
"..."
The bullied palace maid held her head, sobbing softly, not even daring to cry loudly.
Li Xuan was already accustomed to such scenes.
In the imperial palace, there were hardly any people whose minds weren't twisted.
Those with greater power bullied those with less power, pressing down layer by layer.
Those without power banded together to bully the lone one.
Here, the darkness in everyone's heart was like an unquenchable flame, constantly devouring one person after another, using them as fuel to make the flame burn even more fiercely.
"Father, save me..."
Li Xuan had intended to leave, but then he heard this voice and found it somewhat familiar.
"Your father has been demoted from the capital, forbidden to be an official for eternity, and you still expect him to save you?"
"Liang Chuchu, wake up!"
The robust palace maid, called Sister Feng, stepped forward, grabbed Liang Chuchu's hair, and lifted her from the ground.
Li Xuan saw that face, covered in bruises, and was immediately startled.
"It's really Liang Chuchu, what happened to her?"
"Didn't they say she was only punished to be a palace maid for a month?"
"How dare these palace maids bully her?"
"And what's with her father being demoted from the capital?"
"Why haven't I heard anything!"
Li Xuan's questions came one after another; he even wondered if he had woken up too suddenly that morning.
"It hurts, it hurts..."
"Let go of me."
Liang Chuchu had never endured such treatment; she was in pain and fear, tears streaming down her face as she cried and begged for mercy.
But the more pitiful she was, the more relieved the palace maids who bullied her felt.
"Hmph, when you used to beat and scold us at every turn, did you listen when we begged for mercy?"
"Now you beg for mercy from me, pah!"
Sister Feng spat a thick glob of phlegm onto Liang Chuchu's face, then violently threw her to the ground.
"You will always be a palace maid from now on, and we sisters will naturally treat you well."
"Go get the chamber pot!"
Hearing this, a look of panic immediately flashed across Liang Chuchu's face, and she kept shouting, "No, no..."
She struggled to try and get up to run away, but Sister Feng stepped on her back, rendering her unable to move.
"What are you afraid of?"
Sister Feng looked down at Liang Chuchu, her heart filled with satisfaction.
Just a few days ago, she had been wantonly humiliated, beaten, and scolded by Liang Chuchu just for being fat.
Now that Heaven had given her this chance to vent her anger, she naturally had to retaliate a thousandfold.
"Today your job is to scrub the chamber pot, just like Consort Wang said before, if you can't scrub this chamber pot until it can be used as a mirror, you won't get to eat."
Sister Feng was clearly deliberately making things difficult for Liang Chuchu.
Their chamber pots were made of wood; no matter how much you scrubbed them, they could never be used as mirrors.
These past few days, because Li Xuan was in a bad mood, he hadn't come to Yan Qu Hall to sneak food from Liang Chuchu.
He hadn't expected that Liang Chuchu was truly unlucky; with Li Xuan gone, she couldn't even eat her fill.
Sister Feng and the others lacked Wang Suyue's refinement; after speaking, they stepped back a few paces and poured all the dirty water and filth from the chamber pot onto Liang Chuchu.
"Here, let me fertilize you a bit, consider it your breakfast."
Liang Chuchu screamed repeatedly in fright, almost fainting directly.
Sister Feng and the others were still not satisfied; they threw the emptied chamber pot heavily onto Liang Chuchu's defiled body, laughing triumphantly as they left.
"And clean up the ground for me! If anyone finds out, I'll personally feed it into your mouth later!"
"Hahaha, sisters, let's go!"
Li Xuan silently watched everything unfolding from the wall.
After everyone had left, Liang Chuchu struggled and laboriously crawled out of that puddle of dirty water and filth.
But after crawling only a short distance, she had already used up all her remaining strength.
She crawled onto a clean patch of ground, lying there with vacant eyes, tears flowing uncontrollably, carving tiny clean lines through the dirt on her face.
In the end, the only thing on her that was still relatively clean was her tears.
There must be something hateful about a pitiful person.
At this moment, Li Xuan truly understood the meaning of this saying.
Looking at Liang Chuchu struggling out of the filth, he actually no longer wished to be involved with her.
At first, Li Xuan had hated this woman immensely.
If he had had a way to silently kill her without risk at that time, Li Xuan would have done it long ago.
Liang Chuchu wanted to use Jingyang Palace as a stepping stone, not hesitating to harm Princess Ankang and Yu'er, such pitiful girls with no connection to her.
In Li Xuan's opinion, Liang Chuchu's death would not be regrettable.
So during this time, whenever he found an opportunity, he would fully tease and make things difficult for Liang Chuchu.
But now...
Li Xuan suddenly lost all interest in revenge.
Or rather, Liang Chuchu, in her current state, seemed far more painful than death to him.
At this moment, Eunuch Wei Chengji from the Printing Room in Yan Qu Hall arrived at this spot.
He was on his routine inspection and saw the figure lying on the ground from afar.
"Eunuch, Eunuch..."
Liang Chuchu saw Wei Chengji, a glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes, and she stretched out her hand, calling out urgently with a voice hoarse from crying.
Wei Chengji paused, meeting Liang Chuchu's gaze.
But the next moment, their eyes crossed.
Wei Chengji turned his head away, pretending not to have seen her.
His face was grim; he said nothing, only silently leading his accompanying eunuchs away.
Liang Chuchu's outstretched hand instantly froze in mid-air, the faint glimmer of light that had just appeared in her eyes extinguished in an instant.
Wei Chengji quickened his steps, his figure rapidly leaving the area.
Only when he was sure there was no longer that burning gaze behind him did he stop, close his eyes, and his breathing couldn't help but become a little heavier.
Even though he had just resolved the big trouble in Yan Qu Hall, there was no hint of joy on the face of this Eunuch Yin.
Instead, the furrows on his face appeared even more weathered.
"As one gets old, the heart also softens."
"This palace is probably no longer suitable for me."
Wei Chengji reopened his eyes, looking at Yan Qu Hall, which he had patrolled for countless years, but a sudden, unfamiliar feeling arose within him