The receptionist took out some document scrolls and jades and looked through them, skimming mostly until he found a scroll with still fresh ink on it. He looked at Ji Li as he replied “We have just gotten back the deed of one of the most wanted yards.
It was owned by a Senior Eunuch, honour him for his service, for he had just passed away. It is one of the few medium-sized yards that are in close proximity to the Main Palace, it has a good structure and a large garden, if you ever want to plant something.”
Normally, any yard in close proximity to the Main Palace would be very much sought after and sometimes even saved by the receptionist for those they played favourites with, although that wasn’t done too much inside the Eunuch Palace, everyone had someone they liked more, just like Ji Li would give all good things he had to Shixuan and Qianyu.
Ji Li didn’t bother to ask deeper questions, as he understood that it was because the other eunuch thought well of him, that he gave him this favour. If he asked and accidentally offended him, then even if he got the deed in the end, the person would hold a grudge against him.
For these reasons, Ji Li just nodded happily as he said, “Sure, let’s do that!” Ji Li truly felt like today was a stressful day, so drinking tee and having a good talk was calming. The only thin remaining now would be for him to rank up in his cultivation suddenly, and he might declare it the best day of his life.
Obviously, such a thing was no way close, he had barely just entered the Essence Awakening Stage, how could he even dream of ranking up in his cultivation? This was just his wishful thinking. Ji Li only proceeded to talk nicely and mark the Eunuch that gave him the deed, planning to pay back someday.
Knowing the map, Ji Li only needed to look at the address before he knew where to go, so he just walked out and slowly left behind the grandiose Main Palace, looking back at it, he felt hopeful for it to someday also be his residence.
Ji Li went down the road that he originally came from and soon left the perimeter of the Main Palace fully, as there were still some buildings around it outside for different purposes. Then, Ji Li looked up and ahead to see where he is, also looking left and right, he oriented himself on the map in his mind and took several steps forward before he turned left and walked for a kilometre.
At that distance, he was already away from the entrance of the main Palace, which was pretty much where the more prominent eunuchs lived at. Of course, technically he could enter the Main Palace from all around, but the main entrance was very grand, not only for practical reasons as it was the centre of the orientation, but also for the aesthetics of such a solemn and grand palace.
The left side where Ji Li was, was where many residences were all around. The reason was simple, it was parallel to the large garden that one was able to enter by simply leaving their residence and crossing the street. Many people wanted to be here, especially senior ones.
The right side was parallel to the administrative buildings, so it was much more lucrative for those that worked there, to compensate the lack of the garden, they also had larger yards to accommodate larger gardens. In comparison, the residences on the left side had many more medium-sized yards so that the senior-rank members were able to pick a home and have close access to the public garden.
They would usually meet and gather at the garden and drink tea together, in all honesty, it was not much different from a retirement home at all. The residence might be smaller, but it still had a small garden, just the garden might not really be used for gatherings. At most one could have a group of around 5 sitting together and enjoying he slightly richer atmosphere.
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Of course, having the public garden in front of their residence, most eunuchs used the garden in their own home to plant and grow fruits or other things they would present to the others.
Ji Li thought very highly of such behaviour, he wanted to also someday just live in the top floor of the Main Palace, have his own garden he took care of, go down whenever he wanted and socialize in a public garden in front of his own home and then took a few steps to come to his workplace.
For some, Ji Li’s behaviour was very restricting, as not everyone was introvert such as he was. But he only planned to do all he had in mind when he was able to live in the highest floor of the Main Palace, how long would it take to reach that? He didn’t know, but what he knew was that he would be taking many adventures and experiencing the world as much as he wanted before he retired.
After some more minutes, Ji Li finally stopped. He turned around, away from the garden that was right in front of him by now and looked across the road towards a yard. The yard might be called ‘medium-sized’ but in truth, it was more than enough to house a family or two, at least that was what he guessed from the outer arch-gate.
Ji Li, like a true learned person, looked left and right at the road before he went across it. He would never do something such as endanger himself just to save a second. Across, he slowly moved towards the arch, slow steps as he was enjoying the view of his new home, as well as thinking about how he should change the entrance and at least make a signboard and name the yard.
The yard would normally stay with the eunuch until he gave it away, but Ji Li did not plan to do that, at least not until he truly needed a larger residence, which wasn’t the case now. The essence density wasn’t any different across the whole Eunuch Palace Complex, of course there were grounds where it was very dense, such as, once again, the peak of the Main Palace.
But for anything else, there wasn’t truly anything. If it was like that, then Ji Li would have never gotten even the chance to live so closely to the Main Palace. It was more likely that he would have to leave the proximity of it fully and go live in a residence area, there were plenty of them as well and all of them had their unique style and features, so it wasn’t really worse than his home.
As he entered from the arch gate, he saw in inside view of the courtyard, which was a bit of green ground and several bushes of flowers that were growing and positioned next to the path, leading it while also looking very well. It lead towards the entrance of the receiving and guest building, where guests would stay to eat with the host when they visited.
It was normal to have such a building, and Ji Li also saw that the building, that obviously divided the inner courtyard, and the outer courtyard was very humble in appearance. The eunuch that lived here previously probably never expected high ranking visitors, or did something much more probable, which was invite the guest to stay in the inner courtyard.
Now that wasn’t something truly bad, but just something that gave Ji Li the ick, as he really disliked having strangers walk around his own home, even if they were servant. For that exact reason, he never intended to have servants but taught Shixuan and Qianyu how to do all chores. Although his stay in his own apartment wasn’t too long, he still learned how to do everything on his own.
The worry of Ji Li, that there were already assigned servants to this palace intensified when he saw a middle-aged man standing and waiting at the entrance of the receiving building. The man wasn’t wearing any eunuch robe, so he could only be a servant. Ji Li was thinking of how to reject and send the man out, when said man approached him and bowed.
The servant said respectfully “I have been sent by the Resident Assignment Office just a few minutes ago. I am supposed to welcome you to your yard and introduce you to everything, as well as fill some documents for the servants you will be hiring and such.”
Ji Li was happily surprised when the middle-aged man told him that he still had to fill in documents, as that meant that theoretically, this yard of his didn’t have any, and he didn’t need to reject anyone. He could simply just say that he didn’t want any.
And so, he did, as he calmly looked at the man “I have no interest in any servants, and you also do not need to introduce me to the yard, I wish to see it on my own. If you have nothing to do, you may leave. There is no need to be to proceed any further.”
The man was slightly shocked, but still nodded. Although it didn’t happen too often, there were still many eunuchs that enjoyed doing their own chores… that was the case for the previous owner too, but what had shocked him was that such a young man would be saying that.