The imperial doctors Xu Hao and Gao Tinghe saw the person coming, and they both recognized him. It was Liu Jin and Eunuch Liu from the East Palace. The imperial doctors were in and out of the palace, and the prince had a headache and fever.
Ask them to treat me. So I naturally got to know Liu Jin.
"Eunuch Liu, why are you here?" Gao Tinghe put down the small medicine scale in his hand and saluted.
Xu Hao also bowed his hands in salute.
"Hello, you two." Liu Jin smiled and handed over his hands: "That's it, the ginseng in the East Palace has been used up, and His Highness the Prince has no ginseng soup to drink. I'm here to get some."
"Ginseng? Didn't you just send two boxes a few days ago? Ginseng is a great supplement. Eating too much is not good. Normal people should not eat too much." Gao Tinghe said.
Liu Jin smiled and said: "Your Highness has not eaten much. In the past few days, he has cooked some ginseng porridge and sent it to the Queen to express his filial piety. During this time, the Queen was undressed and serving the Emperor, and she did not eat much. The Prince felt sorry for the Queen, so he ordered someone to
I have cooked ginseng porridge several times and delivered it. Therefore, I eat it faster than usual. What? Can’t I take some in advance and use it?”
"That's not true. It turns out that His Royal Highness has shown his filial piety. The ginseng is stored in the warehouse. I will go and get two boxes. After a while, my father-in-law will sign on the receipt book, and I will go to the warehouse to get it."
Tinghe smiled.
"Thank you." Liu Jin bowed his hands and said.
Gao Tinghe nodded with a smile and said to Xu Hao: "You talk to Eunuch Liu here, and I will go to the warehouse to get the ginseng. These medicines will be prepared later."
Xu Hao nodded in agreement, and Gao Tinghe handed over to Liu Jin and went to the inner hall warehouse to get ginseng. Naturally, valuable medicine like ginseng could not be placed in the medicine cabinet in the hall, so it was stored in the inner hall warehouse.
After Gao Tinghe left, Liu Jin looked around and said with a smile: "There is no one in the east hospital today. Where have all the doctors and gentlemen gone? I see that there seems to be no one in the public rooms on the west side."
Xu Hao smiled and said: "Eunuch Liu doesn't know something. Judge Liu is considerate of everyone's hard work recently, so he gave everyone a half-day leave today to let them go home and have a good rest. Only Dr. Gao and I are on duty today. That's why Eunuch-in
No one was seen."
Liu Jin nodded and said with a smile: "I see. That's right. The emperor suffered a severe cold this time. Fortunately, he was treated in time and was cured. This is all your hard work. You should rest and rest."
Xu Hao smiled and said: "Thank you for your consideration, father-in-law. Some people are inconsiderate and say that our imperial doctors have nothing to do and only earn white-collar salaries. It is my father-in-law who knows how hard we work."
Liu Jin said with a smile: "Those are all ignorant. In fact, everyone hopes that you can have nothing to do. Once you get busy, wouldn't it mean that someone is sick? If you are free, everyone will be healthy.
Isn’t this a good thing?”
Xu Hao praised loudly: "Eunuch Liu is really a sensible person. We doctors have a saying: If people in the world are not sick, why not put medicine on the shelf to make people dust? This is the truth. Unfortunately, many people don't understand.
Doctors are kind-hearted, so it’s better if they don’t have food to eat. Hahaha.”
Liu Jin smiled and said: "This is exactly the gift."
Xu Hao was not familiar with Liu Jin at first. He only met Liu Jin and others around the prince when he went to the East Palace to treat the prince's illness, but he was not familiar with them. After chatting with Liu Jin for a few words today, he suddenly felt that this Eunuch Liu was
On the contrary, he is very sensible, reasonable, and kind-hearted, and I can't help but feel good about him.
"Eunuch Liu, please sit down. There are several doors to the warehouse. Doctor Gao won't be back soon. Sit down and rest your legs. It's so cold, and it's a long way out of the palace." Xu Hao said with a smile.
Liu Jin nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you, I'm really a little cold."
Xu Hao said: "It's a pity that I can't leave, otherwise I would make a cup of tea for my father-in-law to warm his hands."
Liu Jin waved his hand and said, "How dare you work?"
Xu Hao smiled and nodded. Liu Jin looked at the small piles of medicines on the yellow paper on the table, reached out to grab a handful and smiled: "Who are these medicines for?"
Xu Hao hurriedly stopped him and said: "My father-in-law, don't move. This is the medicine for the emperor. There are all well-prepared medicines. They will all be wrapped up and sent to the palace in a while."
Liu Jin shrank his hands and said with a smile: "It turns out this is medicine for the emperor. Isn't the emperor's illness almost cured? Why are you still taking medicine?"
Xu Hao smiled and said: "The emperor still has the last dose of medicine tonight, and we will stop it tomorrow. Not a single dose of the decoction should be missing. If it is missing, the last bit of the disease will not be eliminated. The emperor is not willing to drink it, but
Of course we, the imperial doctors, cannot let the emperor do this, we have to take all the medicine."
Liu Jin nodded and said, "That's right."
Liu Jin looked at the rows of tall medicine cabinets with hundreds of names of herbal medicines posted on them, and exclaimed: "It's not easy to be a doctor. Look at the names of these medicines. I can't even recognize the characters on them, let alone say
It’s the medicinal materials. To remember so many medicinal materials and to prepare prescriptions for treating diseases is really difficult for a person without intelligence. What our family admires the most is you people, each and every one of you is like a god."
Xu Hao said with a smile: "Eunuch Liu is overly praised. He is the number one scholar in his practice. If he studies every day, he will naturally master it."
Liu Jin nodded with a smile, turned to look at the name of the herbal medicine on a medicine cabinet and read: "Dang...gui. The name of this medicine is so familiar. It seems to be used in many prescriptions, but I have never seen it with my own eyes."
Xu Hao smiled and said: "It's nothing special, just shriveled root slices. If Eunuch Liu wants to see it, I'll give you a few slices to take a look at."
Liu Jin said: "I don't have to do anything for you, I'll just take a look myself."
As she spoke, Liu Jin reached out and grabbed the medicine drawer and pulled it out. There was a loud crash, and Liu Jin used too much force and pulled out the medicine drawer. The drawer full of Angelica slices suddenly fell to the ground, everywhere.
"Ouch! That's amazing. Sorry, I used too much force." Liu Jin said hurriedly.
Xu Hao smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. This thing won't break as long as it doesn't touch the water, and the ground won't be dirty. Father-in-law, please don't move. I'll just pick it up."
Liu Jin apologized and retreated. Xu Hao stepped forward and bent down to pick up the medicines scattered on the ground. Liu Jin moved quickly, took out a few pieces of white herbs from his arms, quickly put them into a pile of already weighed medicines, and quickly used his hands to
After fiddling with it twice, it was mixed with the pile of herbs of similar color.
Just after finishing all this, Xu Hao had already picked up the angelica scattered on the ground and stood up.
"Oh, I really don't know. Our family shouldn't be careless. We should just sit obediently and don't dare to touch anything." Liu Jin blamed herself.
Xu Hao smiled and said: "Eunuch Liu, don't mind. Angelica is just a common medicine, so don't worry."
Liu Jin smiled and said: "That's good, that's good."
While talking, there was a sound of footsteps inside. The curtain moved and Gao Tinghe came out holding two boxes of ginseng.
Liu Jin hurriedly stood up, took the two boxes of ginseng, thanked her profusely, and left.
Gao Tinghe said to Xu Hao: "This Liu Jin is also strange. He came here in person with a ginseng. He is very arrogant in the East Palace. All the eunuchs in the East Palace are under his orders. He usually doesn't come to collect medicines himself."
Xu Hao smiled and said: "Perhaps ginseng is a valuable thing and he doesn't worry about the people below."
Gao Tinghe smiled and said: "It's possible. By the way, did he sign the booklet for ginseng?"
Xu Hao said: "Oops, I forgot to ask him to sign. I will go after him."
Gao Tinghe waved his hand and said: "That's all, he won't default on the debt. Just ask him to sign it next time. We have to quickly prepare the medicine and send it to the palace. It's not too early. It will take a while to boil the medicine.
What's the time? You have to take the last dose of medicine before meals. Tomorrow, you and I can have a day's rest. Liu Yuanping agreed."
Xu Hao nodded and said with a smile: "Yes. I have to accompany my wife to the street to buy some things. I haven't been home for more than ten days, and I will probably be scolded when I get home. I bought some clothes, gouache, rouge, etc. to calm her down.
.”
Gao Tinghe chuckled and said, "That's not true. Women, just give her some sweet treats."
While the two were chatting, Gao Tinghe picked up the small scale and started weighing the herbs again.
…
It was dusk and after the sun went down, the weather was extremely cold.
Liu Jin went to bed early and went to bed early. Originally, he had to wait for Zhu Houzhao to go to bed every night before going to bed to rest, but today, Liu Jin requested to rest earlier on the grounds of feeling unwell.
Lying in bed, looking at the dark sky outside the window paper, and listening to the howling night wind outside, Liu Jin felt frightened. There was a brazier in the room, and it should have been very warm, but at this moment Liu Jin felt that there was nothing in the bed.
Hot air, biting cold.
More than forty years ago, I was one of two sons of a family named Tan in Xingping County, Shaanxi Province. There were seven brothers and sisters in the family, and he was the youngest boy. It was also on such a bitterly cold night that he
He was pulled out of bed, and in a daze he was taken away from his hometown to the capital and sent to the palace.
Later he learned that because of the family's difficulty in making a living, his father sold him to the palace as a young eunuch. The palace had a special organization to train a group of young eunuchs to serve the master in the future. Liu Jin still remembers the day of purification.
Situation. He is naked
The boy was tied to a stool, his legs crossed, and he was shivering from the cold. He didn't know what he was about to face. Until someone walked in with a sharp knife and looked at his *** with a smile.
At a young age, he suddenly realized what was about to happen.
The pain of purging his body has been his lifelong nightmare. The pain is as painful as bone marrow, a pain that makes life and death impossible. Every time he thinks of that day, Liu Jin breaks out in cold sweat, trembles and panics. It was from that day on,
He lost what a man should have and became a eunuch who was neither male nor female.
Later, he met Liu Shun, an old eunuch who had some power in the palace. Liu Shun became his godfather, which gave him support in the palace. The eunuchs in the palace were intrigued by each other, one was more perverted than the other, and the other was more powerful than the other.
A vicious man. Liu Jin saw with his own eyes that many of the little eunuchs who entered the palace with him died within a few years. Others were brought around by those old eunuchs, who made them cry every day, but the old eunuchs laughed.
happy.
Fortunately, Liu Shun is not that kind of person. Liu Jin has a good life following Liu Shun. However, in a place like the palace, especially as a eunuch, the only way to survive is to climb up. If the climb is not high enough, then
You will suffer misfortune. This is what Liu Shun told Liu Jin, and Liu Jin always remembered these words.
More than forty years have passed, but Liu Jin has not been doing well. He almost died several times, but fortunately, he is smart and quick to recognize opportunities. And he knows how to seize opportunities. Therefore, he, Liu Jin, has not been doing well even though he has lived to this day.
When he arrived at the prince's side, he used all means to make the prince happy and make the prince inseparable from him, just to gain a foothold and to seize the opportunity one day.
Now, between worrying about gains and losses, between the pressure of internal and external situations, and in the hopeless waiting day after day, he Liu Jin finally took a step. He did something treasonous and unethical. Just like what his godfather Liu Shun once told him
Like myself, when working in the palace, sometimes we have to survive in death and risk everything. Liu Shun himself did not do it, but Liu Jin did it.
Liu Jin was lying on the bed shivering, listening to the sounds outside with his ears open. He was waiting and afraid. A bottle of poison was placed next to his pillow. If there was an unexpected situation, he would drink it without hesitation.
This poison. But what Liu Jin expected was another situation.
I don't know how long it took, but it seemed to be the second or third watch when Liu Jin heard the noise outside. He stood up and listened carefully, holding the bottle of poison in his hand.
Then he heard the panicked voices of Ma Yongcheng and others: "Eunuch Liu, Eunuch Liu, the prince is going to Qianqing Palace, and I want you to accompany him there. Eunuch Liu, get up quickly. Something happened... something big happened."