On the night the Imperial Guards surrounded the Jiang residence, the entire household wept in grief.
Only Jiang Yao knelt at the back. Before she had even wiped away her tears, she was already sneaking glances at the man in charge.
Lu Chi, the Director of the Western Depot, was a eunuch who had climbed over heaps of bones to reach the top. He held power over the court and was ruthless.
She was terrified of him, but his face was so handsome that she couldn't help looking a few more times. Only when the heavily bloodstained python robe stopped in front of her did Jiang Yao belatedly lower her head.
A jade pendant slipped from his waist and fell to the ground.
Jiang Yao thought for a moment, picked it up, and held it out with both hands, trembling. "Eunuch, you dropped something."
Everyone present went pale. What did she mean, he had dropped something? For eunuchs, those were the words they feared most!
Only Lu Chi didn't get angry. Instead, he smiled at her. "Second Miss Jiang, don't worry. Even without that thing, I can still make sure to satisfy you."
He wasn't lying.
Later, night after night, Jiang Yao would beg him for mercy with red-rimmed eyes and a hoarse voice.
He would agree every time, and never stop.
The hand that killed without hesitation stroked her cheek. His thin lips kissed away the tears at the corners of her eyes, his voice like a spell, like a curse.
"Yao Yao, you called me the wrong thing again. You should call me husband."
*
The day Lu Chi emerged alive from the castration chamber, he stopped expecting to be treated like a person. Eunuch, lackey: he had heard it all so often his ears had grown calluses, and his heart had grown hard.
But he had never imagined that, after six years in charge of the Western Depot, anyone would dare expose his deepest wound to his face.
The Jiang family's youngest daughter was said to have been slow-witted since childhood. Looking at her now, she really did seem like a fool.
She was beautiful, though, and pitiful enough to make anyone feel for her.
He ought to be angry. He ought to cut out her tongue so she could never again utter such reckless words.
But as he watched her kneeling there, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes, looking entirely unaware of the foolish thing she'd said, even a heartless man like him found himself feeling a little reluctant to hurt her.
It would be a shame if she couldn't speak. He could take her home and keep her as a plaything. It might even be amusing.
But as he kept her, things began to change.
Until one day at a banquet, Jiang Yao was mocked by someone.
Amid the laughter filling the hall, only Lu Chi slowly raised his eyes.
"I am her lapdog. You can go die now."
Everyone said a single word from him could decide life or death, and a single sentence could topple the court.
Only Lu Chi knew that his lips and tongue must have been made for Jiang Yao.
All the tenderness and affection of his life poured from his lips, as he bowed his head to her and gave his heart to her.
Reading Guide:
1. One-on-one romance, both leads are each other's first and only partner. The male lead is a real eunuch. The female lead is a silly beauty, not actually stupid.
2. Eight-year age gap: the man is 24, the woman is 16.
3. Purely written to indulge my tastes!!!
Theme: Everyone has the right to love
