"Otherwise, when the traffickers die, they will go to the eighteenth level of hell, with their noses gouged out and their ears scratched. Most of the boys they kidnapped are sent to the palace to serve others."
Including Shunxi, when he was rescued, he was bundled on a boat bound for Kyoto, preparing to be transported to the palace to be castrated and serve as an internal prison.
In the imperial city, there are either powerful people, superiors, or low-class people who are as humble as ants.
The palace maids were better off, and could be released from the palace to marry when they were old enough to meet Ensheng. The chamberlains were eunuchs and could only die of old age in the palace for the rest of their lives. Even if one or two climbed to high positions, they would not have the shame to drag their mutilated bodies back to see their parents.
Others can return home in fine clothes after becoming famous, but they can only live in the palace for months and months. They are lucky enough to live to old age without making mistakes, and they have no children or grandchildren to take care of them. When they die, there is no one to pay homage to them. How desolate it is.
Except for those families who cannot survive, no one is willing to send their sons to the palace to suffer.
There were not enough manpower to serve in the palace, and over time an industrial chain of child abduction and trafficking was spawned.
Xiangyun was held in Lin Silang's arms, and he sat in the courtyard and listened sadly.
His mouth was so big that he even soaked the towel with saliva and didn't notice it.
They just turned around and looked at Huzi and Shunxi who were having a good time. They might not know what kind of crime they had been spared.
Lin Tianci was the eldest among the children and had reached a sensible age. He looked at the two with a touch of sympathy in his eyes and pulled out most of the winter dates picked on the mountain and pushed them in front of them.
Hu Zi also grew up playing in the mountains. His impression was that this fruit was very sour and not tasty at all. Seeing Lin Tianci happily eating it one bite at a time, he said curiously.
"Brother Tianci, don't you feel sour to this fruit?"
Tianci shook his head and bit into the green peel. The sweet pulp spread in his mouth, which was refreshing and appetizing.
"No, it's very sweet. It grows on a tree in the back mountain. You can try it."
Shunxi shook his head. He knew that tree. All other fruits bear fruit in spring and mature in summer. Only the fruit it bears in late summer are still sour. They grow tall and are inconvenient to pick.
After finally waiting for the peel to turn red, people in the village thought it was ripe and it would no longer be sour. When I picked it and tasted it, I found that it was completely rotten inside and had a weird taste.
As time went by, everyone forgot about it, and only the small animals in the mountains shuttled through the woods holding dates in their arms from time to time.
Manman was bored in the house for several days, and was finally allowed to go out and walk around today. It was also the first time that she saw this kind of green fruit, and she was hesitant to eat it.
Lin Tianci saw that the three of them refused to eat, so he invited Tianji and Tianrui to share one piece with each other.
Huzi saw that the two boys were making a clicking sound, as if all the sweetness was coming out, so he couldn't help but taste one.
His small eyes suddenly narrowed into slits: "It's so sweet, different from what I had before!"
Seeing this, Shunxi hurriedly took a bite: "It's true, these dates are so delicious. In previous years, no one would eat them if they fell on the ground and rotted. What a pity."
Huzi became energetic and suggested going to the mountain to pick some more fruits. He completely forgot that he had sworn to his parents some time ago that he would never run around again.
The boys were making a fuss, and when one person made a suggestion, the others immediately agreed.
While the adults were busy preparing lunch, they walked up the mountain in small groups.
Manman and Tianfu were left staring at each other. They disliked each other and turned away without saying a word.
When Cao Tongguang and others discovered that the boys playing in the courtyard were missing, they thought they were playing in the room.
But when lunch was ready and put on the table, there were still no traces of a few boys, and then I realized that they were missing.
Mr. and Mrs. Cao Tongguang and Shunxi's father and mother were worried about the sequelae these days. They had to look at the child from time to time while working, for fear of not paying attention and losing the child again. Now their hearts were in their throats.
"Could it be that the philanderer slipped through the net and came back to abduct the child?" When Shunxi's father thought of this possibility, he ran out in a panic, almost tripping over his left foot and falling to the ground.
Fortunately, Song Yin was there to support him.
"Don't panic. There are so many children. They may have gone somewhere to play. Those gangsters have been sent to prison long ago. They were sentenced to death after death, and none of them escaped."
Manman was watching Lin Silang put on a new saliva towel for Xiangyun in the side room. When he heard the noise in the courtyard, he trotted out.
"They went to the back mountain to pick fruits, which are green and sweet fruits." She stretched out her palm, and there was a bitten date lying on it.
When Cao Tongguang heard this, he was very angry. He pulled out a wooden stick from the corner and rushed up the mountain aggressively.
When several people arrived under the jujube tree, they saw five boys.
Tianci is tall and has long arms. He has already jumped up the tree in twos and twos: "You guys stay below and I'll knock it down with a pole."
Tianji is also an expert at climbing trees and follows closely behind.
Huzi and Shunxi took off their coats and held them above their heads, waiting for their friends in the tree to throw dates down. They didn't care about the cold wind on the mountain, and all they could see were the red and green dates on the branches.
Only Tianrui was the smartest. He ran not far away and pulled out a large palm leaf. He raised it high above his head and heard the sound of dates hitting the leaf.
Not long after, he caught a full leaf of winter dates. The two people climbing on the tree couldn't even keep up with his speed of picking up the dates.
On the other hand, Huzi and Shunxi were jumping up and down like the two monkeys, but they didn't catch a few winter dates, and there were a bunch of them scattered around.
Cao Tongguang and Shun Xi's father, who were standing not far away, looked at the scene not far away with their arms folded. They both felt that their children's IQ was worrying.
In the end, Huzi saw them first. When he saw the stick thicker than his thigh in his father's hand, he was so frightened that he lost his mind. The forgotten memory finally came back to life.
He was so frightened that he jumped up and hid behind Lin Laosan, leaving only his two eyes to look at his angry father.
"Dad, I was wrong, I never dare to do it again."
Cao Tongguang ignored him, pulled him out by the neck, took out the stick and beat him twice on the buttocks.
"I want you to lose your memory. How many times have I told you not to run around? Don't run around. You've forgotten everything I told you, haven't you?"
Until the son cried out in pain, he didn't let him go.
It hurts no more, and I don’t have a long memory. I have to clean up today.
Seeing this, Shunxi's father also pulled out fallen branches from the grass and hit his son.
All of a sudden, there was a lot of cries and cries in the forest. Even Lin Tianji was frightened and cried. He squatted on the branches and did not dare to come down.
Tian Rui was the calmest and still had the time to pick up the winter dates that fell on the ground.
Because according to the rules of the Lao Lin family, if a small one makes a mistake, the big one will be punished, and if the big one leads the small ones to mess around, they will be severely punished.
So after Tianci returned home, he was immediately punished by Zhang to kneel down and confiscate all the winter dates. He knelt down until his knees were bruised before letting him get up. Tianji and Tianrui watched him being punished. Zhang said this was to scare the monkeys.
