Do not lean against the west railing to lock in the clear autumn - Chapter 14
“There are no adults here,” I replied.
"Then why did you just wander here?" Uncle Wen's tone became a little impolite.
"Can't I sell myself?" I said, feigning grievance. "My father is dead, my mother is sick, and my younger brother is still so young. If I don't sell myself, we won't have any money to pay for my mother's medical treatment."
Everyone looked at me with pity, and Song Zhixuan also glanced at me.
Uncle Wen brought over two indentures, and Song Zhixuan and I pressed our fingerprints on them. We saw that the price written on them was twenty taels, which seemed quite high.
Song Zhixuan's father took the silver and thanked him profusely. Uncle Wen glanced at him and said, "You should thank your son for being good-looking. Ordinary maids and servants would be lucky to sell for three or four taels of silver. But these are to accompany the young prince in martial arts training and will be his personal bodyguards in the future. So naturally, they were carefully selected. Even if they weren't one in ten thousand, they were one in a thousand. Didn't you see how many people came recently? Only a few were chosen in total."
Song Ziheng's father repeatedly said yes, and was taken away without Song Zhixuan even glancing at him.
Holding my twenty taels of silver, I didn't know what to feel. The treasures Mu Shaoting had given me before were worth a hundred or eighty taels each, but now I was selling myself for twenty taels and still felt like it was a great favor.
Uncle Wen asked a servant to take us to our lodgings. I quickly stepped forward and asked, "Uncle Wen, after we're sold here, are we allowed to go out occasionally?"
"As long as Master agrees, you can go out one day a month." Uncle Wen, who had already reached the door, turned back and replied, "What do you want to do?"
"I hope I can go home to see my mother and younger brother occasionally," I said, holding the silver.
"Oh, you need to get a pass when you go out. Just look for me when you're coming home," Uncle Wen said before leaving.
We followed the servant named Ah Qi to a fairly tidy courtyard. There were three rows of houses in the courtyard. Ah Qi said that this courtyard was specially arranged for the young prince's teachers and sparring partners to live in. Directly opposite the courtyard gate were the rooms for the martial arts instructors. The rooms for us were on the east side, three people to a room. The kitchen and bathhouse were on the west side. It was quite well-organized.
Ah Qi led us into a room on the east side. It looked like someone was already living there, but hadn't returned yet. Ah Qi said that Uncle Wen would send someone to deliver our clothes, blankets, and other necessities later, and that he wanted to explain the rules to us first.
So I learned that Uncle Wen's surname wasn't Wen, but Chen. He was the son of the old steward of the Prince's mansion, and was in charge of all the affairs of the young prince. After the old steward died, his other children also took care of the affairs of other courtyards in the Prince's mansion. They were a very dedicated family.
I have a general understanding of the situation at the Prince's Mansion. Prince Qing is the fifth son of the late emperor, and the current emperor is the second son. Prince Qing has four wives and four daughters, but only one son, so he cherishes him dearly. Whether he will have new wives and children in the future is unknown.
The young prince, named Shen Haoyu, is the second son and nine years old this year. He originally only enjoyed playing, but after returning from a trip to the southwest with Prince Qing last year, he suddenly changed his ways, diligently practicing martial arts and spending more time in the study. Prince Qing was overjoyed and recruited many renowned teachers. He also found about ten strong and similarly aged young men within the palace to accompany the young prince in his martial arts training. Later, the young prince felt there weren't enough people and said he wanted to find more; he wanted to train a personal guard. So, the palace began recruiting over a month ago, and several thousand people came to the door, but only eight were selected today. This is the information I gathered in detail, because it's most relevant to my current life.
Seeing that it was lunchtime, Ah Qi led me and Song Zhixuan to the dining hall on the west side.
Do not lean against the west railing to lock in the clear autumn. Chapter 013
Chapter word count: 3816 Update time: 09-07-25 14:01
The children who had been practicing in the martial arts field gradually entered the dining hall. They glanced at me and Song Zhixuan sitting to the side with curiosity. After a while, two boys brought their food and sat down opposite us.
"Did you just arrive today? I arrived five days ago, my name is Lin Zhao," the boy named Lin Zhao said, pointing to the boy next to him.
"His name is Shi Nan, and he arrived two days earlier than me."
Shi Nan smiled shyly at us.
Lin Zhao seemed very talkative, saying non-stop while eating, "No one has come in for several days, but I didn't expect two to come today."
Seeing that Song Zhixuan didn't seem inclined to speak, I had no choice but to say something to keep him from feeling awkward: "My family only found out yesterday that the Prince's Mansion was hiring, otherwise we would have come much earlier."
Lin Zhao smiled brightly, and I continued, "Haha, I also have the surname Lin, and my name is Lin En. His name is Song Zhixuan."
Lin Zhao said happily, "That's great! I have a younger brother at home, who looks about your age. But practicing martial arts here is very hard. I'm in pain all over every day. You're so thin and small, I'm afraid you can't handle it."
They didn't have much time to eat, and after finishing, they had to go to the training ground. After a short rest, they would continue practicing. Song Zhixuan and I went back to our room, where we found two quilts and two bundles. I opened the bundles and saw two sets of winter clothes inside, the same ones worn by the children at the training ground.
After making the bed, I noticed that Song Zhixuan had been sitting by the window ever since he came in, without even changing his posture.
I clapped my hands, sat on the stool next to him, and rested my head on the table to watch him.
"What are you looking at?" After a long while, Song Zhixuan finally couldn't help but speak.
“Aside from when you were with the young prince, you haven’t said a word,” I said with a smile. “We came in together, can I call you brother?”
"casual."
Do you hate your father?
“It’s none of your business,” Song Zhixuan said resentfully.
I sighed and said, "Actually, my father didn't die. He just had too many women and kicked my mother out."
Song Zhixuan glanced at me and finally said, "My father is a gambler. He lost everything. He sold my mother a few days ago, and today he sold me too."
"Then why aren't you happy? Now you're your own person."
"Isn't it the Prince's mansion now?" Song Zhixuan asked in confusion.
I laughed and said, "They belong to the Prince's mansion, but we're about to learn skills, aren't we? The skills we learn will be our own, and who knows, we might have a chance to make a name for ourselves someday?"
Song Zhixuan then nodded.
That evening, another person returned to the room; it was none other than Lin Zhao.
"I knew you guys lived here." Lin Zhao jumped onto the bed excitedly.
The three of us lay side by side on our beds, listening to Lin Zhao tell us how he had been these past few days. He also mentioned that his whole body ached, so I got up and went to his bed to massage him. He would cry out in pain one moment and then cry out in pleasure the next.
From Lin Zhao's words, we learned that not all of these children were sold because their families were poor. Lin Zhao's father was a small merchant, and his family was relatively well-off. He sold him in order to toughen him up and see if he could make something of himself by following the young prince. If all else failed, they could see if they could redeem him later.
It seems they've all turned Prince Qing's mansion into a free training school. But this kind of life really makes me feel like I'm back in school, or even more like during military training, only I'm not free anymore.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, I was awakened by a sharp whistling sound. Lin Zhao urged Song Zhixuan and me to get dressed quickly and get up, saying we were going to the training ground. He jumped out of bed first, found a flint and lit a candle, and then I found my clothes, got out of bed, washed up a little, and followed Lin Zhao to the training ground.
Later I learned that this was the sound of Master Kong, the same Brother Kong who fought with Mr. Qi, waking people up. It was said to be produced using internal energy. For me, this howling sound was a nightmare that tormented me for years, just like the school's wake-up bell that rang when I was sound asleep, something I deeply loathed. I thought I would say goodbye to those days forever after graduation, but now it's started again.