Indulging in Carnal Desire

“Godfather, please don’t. I’m getting up now!”

Chu Jiao pushed herself up, like a carp standing upright, and leapt off the bed, smiling brightly at the person threatening her.

A middle-aged man, who was wearing the uniform of an inner servant, stood before her. No, to be more precise, he couldn’t be called a man, but a eunuch.

The eunuch’s face was deathly pale while his round face sported a pair of squinty eyes, looking slightly comical.

At once, Chu Jiao received the original owner’s memories and knew to not fear him. Instead, she leaned forward with a smiling face and mischievously hammered his back.

Even though her amiable appearance usually brought joy to the people around her, the eunuch, instead, flicked her forehead and chided her, “What are you smiling for all day? Be mindful that you don’t break proper etiquette in front of the nobles. Otherwise, I won’t be able to save a careless brat like you!”

“I know, I know, godfather. Let’s go! Which nobles are we serving food to today?”

Even though Chu Jiao still possessed a girl’s body, she was now dressed up as a little court eunuch. The eunuch in front of her was called Zhang Shun, who was the original owner’s biological maternal uncle.

The original owner was merely a common citizen of the Imperial City, but due to a harsh famine that struck, the original owner’s maternal grandparents weren’t able to sustain themselves and could only reluctantly sell their daughter off, even their son was also sold to the palace for money. However, they didn’t expect that Zhang Shun would successfully get by the palace for 10 years without dying but also rise through the ranks and becthe Chief Directorate for Palace Delicacies.

One time, Zhang Shun was conferred a reward from a noble to be able to leave the palace and find his kin, but in the end, apart from an already married sister, he realized that his family had gone.

His long lost sister married a peddler, who made steamed buns for a living, and they had given birth to a lovely daughter. Zhang Shun often visited his sister’s in-laws, harboring concern and hope. He was incapable of siring an heir in this life, so all he could do now was pass on his hope of carrying the ancestral line to his niece, who was the original owner.

However, good things never last long.

When the original owner had reached 11 or 12 years of age, she had bloomed into a lustrous and charming person, just like a delightful flower. The original owner often helped her parents out at their shop, selling steamed buns, but one day, she unfortunately caught the eye of Marquis Weiyuan’s heir, the ignorant and incompetent young overlord, Yun Cong.

Yun Cong was merely 15 or 16 years old but had already gone through many girls. Coincidentally, he took fancy in the plain and simple original owner and said that he was to take her in as his personal maid in the Marquis’s manor for 20 taels of silvers.

Even though the original owner’s parents were dirt poor, their will was still sound. Due to having experienced being sold off herself, the mouth of the original owner’s mother bitterly hated this behavior, so even if 20 taels of silver was enough for the couple to live on for several years, she still tactfully rejected his offer.

Nonetheless, Yun Cong had always gotten whatever he wanted since he was a child, so he couldn’t stand being refused of what he desired. After a few days had passed, the original owner’s family store was completely destroyed by someone who claimed to have gotten a stomach ache from their food. Her parents were also beaten up badly into a pulp.

When Zhang Shun hurried over from the palace, he could only catch the scene of the original owner sullenly burying her parent’s bodies.

Even though Zhang Shun was pretty influential among the eunuchs, he was still but a mere slave, so how could he storm down to Marquis Weiyuan’s manor and provoke him. Despite loathing Yun Cong for his nefarious actions, he could only take his niece away to avoid calamity. After thinking about it back and forth, he concluded that the palace was the only safe place for his niece. If he cast his niece into the capital to fend for herself, she definitely wouldn’t be able to escape Yun Cong’s wretched claws. However, even if she entered the palace, since Consort Hui was Marquis Weiyuan’s daughter, the Marquis’s children were able to go in and out of the palace whenever they wanted. If his niece were to becan inconspicuous palace maid, there might still be a possibility that she would be called to serve them, which would only put her in harm’s way.

Before Zhang Shun rose to becChief Directorate for Palace Delicacies, he was merely responsible for the cleaning rooms, but now, the one responsible for that was his current subordinates. After Zhang Shun took things into consideration, he still felt it safer to have his niece where he could see her.

In the previous dynasty, ‘exchanging the crown prince for a wild cat’¹A legend story that happened in Song dynasty. The story is long so you can read a summarised translated version here https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/16664/what-does-%E7%8B%B8%E7%8C%AB%E6%8D%A2%E5%A4%AA%E5%AD%90-mean, Zhang Shun thought of an extremely daring idea, which was to erase the existence of his niece all together and turn her into a ‘court eunuch’ that was sold by his poor family to enter the palace! Because small kids grew up quickly, after just a few years, her appearance would grow unrecognizable, and as long as the overlord, who quickly got bored of his things, knew that ‘Chu Jiao’ was dead, he certainly wouldn’t put two and two together.

Just like this, the original owner finally entered the palace after surpassing many twists and turns, becoming a small eunuch of the Chief Directorate of Palace Delicacies, and even acknowledging Zhang Shun as his ‘godfather.’

She appeared clever, and even though she was dressed as a man, she was still very charming. Zhang Shun taught her at his side, becoming both her godfather and master. When the palace maids and eunuchs at the side saw them, they could only lament how the original owner was born with a good appearance and had met such a reliable godfather.

“Today, we’ll be going to Consort Rong’s Qiu Xi Palace (Autumn’s Dusk Palace), so you better behave yourself!”

“!” Chu Jiao put on a serious face, obediently receiving the meal box from Zhang Shun and following him to the Dong Liu Palace.

[Completed]