After Becoming a Eunuch

[This title got throttled, so I may change it when I start posting. Don't worry, dear readers who've sent tips, I will write it! I'm planning to build up a following and finish the whole manuscript before posting.] Zhao Yuning thought he was an ordinary person, and assumed he would live out an uneventful life like everyone else, muddling along in mediocrity. That changed when he suddenly became Zhao Fugui, lying in a dark, freezing room, drenched in sweat from a bone-deep agony unlike anything he'd ever felt. Staying ordinary was no longer a safe option in his life. Zhao Yuning began to claw his way upward, one step at a time. Kneeling at Xiao Heng's feet, he gently soothed the unreasonable little prince, the tip of his nose catching the strange scent of perfumed powder on his own body. He thought: This much-loved Prince Chen will surely give him a generous retirement fund after taking the throne. He would be able to buy a beautiful three-courtyard mansion in Jiangnan and spend every day eating meat and drinking wine. Zhao Yuning was only half right. The new emperor did give him a great deal of money, even handing over the contents of his private treasury, but he refused to let him leave. After all, the little prince had always been spoiled rotten, allowed to do whatever he wanted and have whatever he wanted. At first, Xiao Heng would only order people to drag him out and beat him with a paddle, aloof and indifferent. Later, he stopped ordering the beatings and instead deliberately tested him, often calling out flirtatiously, "Fugui, come up on the bed and keep me company for my afternoon nap." Eventually, Zhao Yuning was so fed up that he couldn't even be bothered to kneel anymore. Leaning against the warm couch, he told the truth: he didn't want to be that damn Zhao Fugui anymore. But Xiao Heng's eyes slowly reddened. He gently pressed his precious, noble face against Zhao Yuning's knees, covered in old scars. * Reader's Guide: - Zhao Yuning is the top. He is a eunuch top, based on the Ming dynasty system, and a true eunuch who cannot be restored (emphatically)! - The top has several exes; the bottom also has wives, concubines, and children. None of them are paragons of virtue. - The bottom pursues the top; the top has no heart. - Includes a groveling-after-the-breakup arc. Happy ending. [The author writes whatever they please, so please read the guide carefully before proceeding.] Theme: Keep striving upward, even in adversity.