At dawn, the red sun rose in the east.
Red walls and green roof tiles gleamed in the morning light. Eunuchs and palace maids hurried silently along the paths, their heads slightly bowed. Only the soft rustling of fabric sounded one after another, with scarcely any other noise.
An unassuming ox cart had stopped outside the palace gates early that morning. Ma Shunde, the senior eunuch who had long since begun acquiring properties and residences outside the palace, wore a new set of clothes. As soon as he alighted, a young eunuch stepped forward to support him.
When he strode proudly through the palace gates, he stood out like a crane among chickens, drawing attention from every direction.
It was not merely that clothes made the man. More importantly, he carried the vigor of someone who had recently won the emperor's deep trust, and the allure that came with the power of the chief eunuch.
"Greetings, Eunuch Ma!"
"Respectful greetings to Eunuch Ma!"
As he walked along, eunuchs and palace maids bowed to him. Almost everywhere he looked, he could see nothing but the backs of heads. The muscles in Ma Shunde's face could not help twitching, and a measure of smugness crept over him.
A true man-no, a great eunuch-should be just like this!
How could he not feel pleased?
That fellow Zhao had kept him down for so many years. Though he, too, had been a senior eunuch, he had never managed to become chief eunuch. Now Zhao had finally stumbled, while he himself had transformed into the chief eunuch the emperor trusted most!
There were two other senior eunuchs whom the emperor trusted as much as Eunuch Zhao, but neither regularly attended the emperor, so they posed little threat. Ma Shunde was now the foremost man at