Immortal Travel of Longevity

Chen Changsheng placed the book back on the shelf. Stepping aside, he saw the old eunuch's face clearly in the moonlight spilling into the room.

He was incredibly old, his face mapped with heavy wrinkles and his eyes slightly protruding. An ordinary person would surely have jumped in fright, but eunuchs were all like this. Men whose roots had been severed aged into something vastly different from ordinary people.

"This Chen is looking for books on ancient history. Do you know where they might be?"

The old eunuch paused, then said, "Follow me."

He led Chen Changsheng over.

He pulled out a few books and handed them to him.

"Thank you."

The old eunuch asked, "Are you not leaving? We are about to close the doors."

Chen Changsheng looked at him and said, "It only just got dark, and you are already closing the doors?"

Chen Changsheng paused before saying, "Very well, then This Chen will return tomorrow."

"You may take them back with you."

"Did you not just say they could not be taken away?"

"If you want to take them, I could not stop you anyway."

Chen Changsheng smiled. Seeing the eunuch's rigid, by-the-book demeanor, he decided against it. He set the books down and said, "Never mind. I can just as easily read them here. It is quiet."

Under the old eunuch's watchful gaze, Chen Changsheng strolled out of the Library Pavilion.

The eunuch was somewhat bewildered. Just who was this person, treating the Imperial Palace like his own home?

Over the next few days.

Chen Changsheng visited almost every day.

Almost as soon as the sun rose, he would appear punctually in the Library Pavilion.

Over time, the old eunuch grew accustomed to the man's presence. Whenever he had a bit of extra food, he would share it with Chen Changsheng. Through their idle chatter, he learned the man's name.

Chen Changsheng.

A truly grand name. At the very least, the old eunuch had never met anyone with the characters for 'Changsheng' in their name.

Chen Changsheng loved reading history books. In his back-and-forth visits over the past few days, he had flipped through almost every historical text in the Library Pavilion.

The old eunuch said, "The books in the Library Pavilion are not necessarily all true. This is especially so for the histories. Some were collected from the common folk—unofficial accounts that cannot be taken as fact. You must not let them lead you astray."

"But unofficial histories are interesting in their own right, aren't they?" Chen Changsheng chuckled.

The old eunuch paused, then nodded with a smile. "That they are."

Chen Changsheng asked, "History books rarely record palace affairs. You are a veteran of the palace; have you heard any interesting tales that were never recorded in the annals?"

The old eunuch paused. He sat down and said, "There are far too many to count. The things inside this palace are much wilder than any unofficial history..."

"For example?"

"For example, some consort having a secret affair with a lowly servant, or a prince secretly entangled with a palace maid, or perhaps another consort. Beyond those amusing tales, the rest are mostly dark secrets. Someone suddenly dying, someone else turning up dead—it is all schemes and plots, and even consorts have lost their lives to them."

"Ever since His Majesty focused entirely on court affairs, he has never set foot in the Imperial Harem. The eunuchs' authority has gradually grown, until they practically wield absolute power here."

The old eunuch rambled on about these matters. Goodness only knew how many of these stale tales he had bottled up inside. For years, he had nowhere to share them. Meeting this man, however, he was more than happy to talk. After all, Chen Changsheng did not belong to the palace.

Chen Changsheng listened, finding the tales quite amusing.

The old eunuch then added, "Let me tell you a true secret. I do not know if it is real or not, but when I first heard it, I was utterly shocked."

"What secret?"

"An old eunuch told me this. It happened back in the previous dynasty."

"Back then, Emperor Shuncheng had four imperial sons. After Emperor Shuncheng died, those princes fought over the throne, which gave our Majesty an opening. He fought his way from the Border Pass all the way to Shangjing City, seizing the throne in one fell swoop! A monumental achievement!"

"This rumor has to do with our Majesty."

The old eunuch continued, "After our Majesty ascended the throne, the eunuchs in this palace were almost entirely purged and replaced. But a few were left behind. The most senior among them was a eunuch named Hongyuan. On his deathbed, he revealed some things to me."

"Actually, our Majesty is not the supposed Heir of Prince Yu, but the son of Emperor Shuncheng and a side consort. Rumors claimed that the child died during a difficult labor, but that old eunuch told me the infant never died. Instead, he was smuggled out overnight and adopted by Prince Yu, raised as his heir."

The old eunuch sighed. "I only heard this story, so I do not know if it is true or false. I have pondered it for years, but I just cannot figure out what the point of sending that child away could have been."

Chen Changsheng froze. The book in his hand gave a slight tremble.

Chen Changsheng murmured in a daze, "Emperor Shuncheng..."

The old eunuch said, "Just treat it as an amusing tale, but do not spread it around. Heads will roll for talk like that."

He paused, catching himself, and gave a helpless smile. "Though I suppose you are not afraid."

Chen Changsheng snapped back to reality and said, "I think that story is probably true."

The old eunuch was suddenly taken aback. "How could it be true?"

"You have never left the palace, so there is much you do not know."

Chen Changsheng closed the book, slid it back onto the shelf, and said, "When it comes to Emperor Shuncheng, This Chen knows quite a bit more than you do."

"Oh?"

Chen Changsheng said, "Back then, a very small number of people knew a certain secret. Emperor Shuncheng was the emperor of Great Xiang, but in reality, his surname was Yan."

Hearing these words, the old eunuch's eyes instantly widened.

"What did you just say?"

...

As Chen Changsheng prepared to leave, the old eunuch's eyes were still filled with shock, seemingly unable to recover from his words.

But a single sentence from Chen Changsheng dragged him back to the present.

Chen Changsheng said, "Thank you for everything these past few days. This Chen has finished reading almost all the books in the Library Pavilion. From now on, we can only meet again if fate allows."

The old eunuch blanked for a moment after hearing this. "You are not coming tomorrow?"

"No."

Hearing this reply, the old eunuch parted his lips. Somewhat lost, he murmured, "Oh..."

Truth be told, he had assumed Chen Changsheng would stay here for a long time.

In these twilight years, Chen Changsheng was one of the very few people who had brought him a measure of joy.

At the moment of parting, he was inevitably somewhat reluctant to see him go.

"Farewell."

Chen Changsheng said.

In the end, the old eunuch only said, "If you ever wish to read again, then come back here."

"I will."

Their encounter had been nothing more than a chance meeting. Those brief days had felt peaceful, but they passed in a flash.

The old eunuch understood that he would likely never see this man again in his lifetime. Such was the nature of life. Sometimes, when a person walked away, a single glance was all it took to know in your heart that it was the final parting.

But it was undeniable that Chen Changsheng had brought a different sort of flavor to his dull, uninteresting twilight years.

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