Xinglong Temple, with red walls and blue tiles, faces the west corner of the Forbidden City across the wall, and is a temple with a lot of history. Among the eunuchs who left the palace in Jingyuan City, it can be called famous. In the temple, a stone tablet erected during the Qianlong period describes in detail the long history of this temple.

This temple was built in Gyeonggi City, Bukchangjie, was built in the Ming Dynasty, and according to legend, it was the "family temple" of Wang Zhen, the great eunuch of the Ming Dynasty. At one time, Xingryuji Temple was changed to the "Soldier Staff Bureau" and stored ordnance. This ancient temple with the appearance of wind and rain erosion, covers a large area, from the fifth courtyard of the Houzhai Hutong to the Qingfeng Ancient Temple.

It does not belong to the "descendants of the descendants" like the Baiyun Temple, but a "brother temple". All eunuchs who enter the temple must pay at least 100 yuan in the temple before leaving the palace, otherwise they will not even want to enter the threshold. After leaving the palace, he had to serve four years of compulsory labor here, and there was no misconduct, so that he could be officially accepted.

This is a rule that has always been broken, and no one can break it, once they return to the temple, no one can control anyone. There is no abbot here, only one "presiding". When you go out, as long as the police don't care, no matter what the temple does, no one interferes.

In the late Qing Dynasty, most of the eunuchs who lived in the temple were extremely wealthy at first. There are many eunuchs who are powerful in the palace and are allowed to live outside the palace. Later, when the emperor left the palace, the rich and unpaid eunuchs had no food, even if they didn't pay the money before leaving the palace, as long as they could afford to rent a room, they could make do with living here. According to the eunuch's words, Xinglong Temple became a "miscellaneous eight places" at this time.

Helplessly, the host of the temple went along with the square and set some rules. To put it bluntly, the so-called rules are only for poor eunuchs who have no money. A rich eunuch can hire someone to cook, eat three meals a day, and eat chicken, duck, fish, and meat, and the courtyard will be full of fragrance. If you are a poor eunuch, you have to pay a fixed amount in advance, and you can only live in the temple for three years before you can live in it, and you can barely go to the big kitchen to get a meal.

Naturally, the eunuchs in the temple are undoubtedly divided into three, six, and nine. Some are hungry and cold, while others are full of brains and intestines, and they have a lot of money. Some eunuchs were rich, and after marrying their wives, they were brought to live in the temple, and they were called "enjoying the blessings". What's more, three generations of children and grandchildren come to the temple to stay, in and out, people come and go, and the noise is more lively than a hotel. But no one can take care of it, what people have is money.

Stepping into the threshold of Xinglong Temple, Sun Yaoting, the former imperial physician of the "Chaoyuan Court", met his old friend Ma Deqing, and stepped forward and arched his hand: "Yo, I haven't seen you anymore, are you good?" ”

"Okay," Ma Deqing is a native of Yaozikou, Qingxian County, Tianjin, and speaks a strong Tianjin dialect: "Since I went home, I haven't fallen behind, no, I'm gone, I'm back to Xinglong Temple." He spread his hands and looked helpless.

Look at it, Ma Deqing is a lean man, more than a head taller than Sun Yaoting, with a high nose and big eyes, then again, which eunuch who entered the palace did not have good facial features? He didn't make a name for himself in the palace, otherwise he would never have entered the palace at the age of thirteen, and he only worked as a "former eunuch" for two or three years before leaving the palace. In fact, he has a good character, but he has the same temper. In the palace, he quarrels with other eunuchs at every turn, and he can't persuade him, only when he is angry.

It's not that his fate is bad, it's that he's overly stubborn. At that time, a group of elderly eunuchs in the palace were leaving the palace and wanted to sell their names for money, but he didn't buy them. "I don't buy it, I don't have any money! If you don't buy it, you can live the same, why spend that money? ”

No matter how much others persuaded him, he didn't listen, and in the end he was still a "black eunuch".

"If you suffer, you will lose this dog's temper." Sun Yaoting was straightforward with him.

"Now, it hasn't changed, that's all. What's the head? He didn't have too high hopes: "Living in this temple is considered to be a retirement send-off." ”

"Why are you coming home this time? I heard that your brother went to a foreign foreign company? Is there such a good thing? ”

"Ahem, why are you still mentioning that little bit of cold stuff? At first, I went to the Xingchun Xingyang store opened by the old man of the Wei family in Tianjin, and to put it bluntly, it was to pick the idea of foreign hair. I didn't give the two of you any money for a month, why don't you do it? Shame! ”

If you don't mention it, as soon as you mention this matter, Ma Deqing immediately became angry.

"But also, I wondered, if your brother mixes well, why do you go back to the temple?" …,

Although his temper is not good, he does not have any holiday with Sun Yaoting. The two have been together for many years and get along quite well.

"Yo, Shou'er, I haven't seen you."

"I went home a while ago." On the afternoon of the day he entered the temple, he met fellow villager Chi Huanqing again. The two haven't seen each other for a long time, and they are very close.

"Let's go up into the house." Ji Huanqing dragged him away.

"I haven't seen you these days, and you're still so old." In Chi Ye's house, the two gossiped.

"Oh, but I said, I'm a lot old. Ahem, people are old and useless. Ji Huanqing couldn't stop sighing.

When Chi Ye was young, he was a famous "pretty man" in the palace, with a thin figure and very handsome. The most valuable thing is that he is easy-going, never in a hurry, and is stable in trouble. Although he is six or seven years older than Sun Yaoting, he looks much younger.

"My life is not wrong, as soon as I entered the palace, I became a little eunuch for the Empress Dowager Longyu, cough" He said a few words and was silent.

"Yes, yes. When I entered the palace, you took it seriously for a long time. In our fellow countrymen, you are always serious! ”

"But in front of my eyebrows, I fell to this step, how sad it is!"

As soon as I heard it, I knew that this person who is usually not in a hurry or panic is sad today. At the beginning, when he was a little eunuch in the palace, he made a lot of money, but who knew that his father was a famous "bad master", smoking, playing money, and messing around all day long. Chi Ye is a strong person, he takes care of his head and face, and he has put his family property three times before and after, but he has made his father ruined.

He didn't like to be angry in his life, and that time, he was really angry: "Let him be bad? I'm a mess of myself! From then on, he smoked like a big cigarette until he was so poor that he couldn't control it.

The family was defeated, and he also left the palace. There was no way, so I had to go into Xinglong Temple to take shelter.

When the fellow saw the fellow, his eyes were full of tears. Chi Ye sat with him in tears, and his heart was calm, because he had quit smoking. If you don't have any money, you have to quit if you don't want to. Chi Ye has become wilted again, his popularity is very good, and everyone he sees is smiling. Sun Yaoting felt that he was strange and pitiful, but there was no other way, he didn't have a meal yet.

In the evening of the day he entered the temple, he went to the East House to see Wang Yuyue. Eunuch Wang is a native of Qingxian County, and he looks white and fat, if it weren't for the needless shaved face, he would seem to be a bit of an official. He had a culture in his belly, could write and calculate, and was a capable man in the eunuch pile, and he was serving as the presiding officer of Xinglong Temple at that time. Out of the palace, he opened a sedan chair shop in Tianjin Wei earlier, and it was full of prosperity, usually speaking, dripping water is not revealed, there are boards and eyes, a mouth is "well", but there is the same, too able to speak, so some people think that his mouth is too "poor".

"Is the old man here?"

"What? He's coming, and sometimes, I don't necessarily know it. As soon as he heard Sun Yaoting ask Xin Xiuming, Wang Yuyue was immediately displeased.

Among the many eunuchs, Sun Yaoting has drunk a little ink, and Xin Xiuming is naturally a well-known "showman" inside and outside the palace. Wang Yuyue Zheng is Xin Xiuming's apprentice brother, and he knows that Sun Yaoting's master has an unusual relationship with Xin Xiuming, and Xin Xiuming often takes care of Sun Yaoting. He was jealous in his heart, and when he heard that Xin Xiuming was mentioned, his face was full of displeasure.

It's really hard to mix in the temple. These eunuchs were all mixed up in the palace and the deceit, and now they are together, and there is no emperor, is it not a sky-high price to fight? Sun Yaoting lives in this kind of crack.

A few days later, Shin Xiuming entered Xinglong Temple. As soon as he heard this, he immediately rushed away, but who would have thought, Wang Yuyue Zheng excused him to buy something and took him away. He knew that this was done deliberately by Wang Yuyuezheng, but he couldn't think of any other reason, so he had to go first. As expected, when I returned to the temple, Master Xin was already gone. His face was full of displeasure, but Wang Yuyue was happy: "I believe that the old man is leaving, ......" deliberately lengthened his voice to anger him.

"Shou'er, didn't you go out?" The old man left, and one of his "Xiu" brothers, Zhang Xiuyue, came to Xinglong Temple to play again. He was very polite when he saw Sun Yaoting, he was much older than him, but he always called him "you", which seemed to be very respectful to Sun Yaoting.

"Yes, Master Zhang, please give you a greeting!" Sun Yaoting always gives up his hand at this time. …,

This Zhang Ye opened a dim sum shop in Dong'an Market, and the business was quite prosperous, so he often said jokingly: "This is because of the light of your Xinglong Temple, and it is prosperous!" ”

"What do you say? It's your old fortune. We are all nested in Xinglong Temple, and we are not prosperous, are we not poor? ”

Haha called, Sun Yaoting asked about the current situation of the old man. Xin Xiuming had a close relationship with his honest junior brother, and he saw that Wang Yuyue blocked Sun Yaoting from seeing Xin Xiuming, but Zhang Xiuyue often connected him with Xin Lao.

Most of the eunuchs who lived in Xinglong Temple were unsettled. Sun Yaoting is most familiar with Tian Bichen in Zhuoyuanzhou, he is five big and three thick, he is an illiterate old eunuch, at least ten years older than him, middle-aged "monk", kind person. He purified himself, but he couldn't enter the palace for even one day, so he had to work as a eunuch in the Taobeile Mansion and the Yulang Belle Mansion.

At first, he worked as an errand in the palace of Yulang, the governor of Jiumen, where he only had three meals a day, and he didn't even buy clothes and hats. After entering Xinglong Temple, he finally found a place to eat. When he mentioned his life in the Lambel House, he was angry: "He either has no money in the house, or he is too picky." With so little money I earn, I can't even afford boots! ”

Usually, he is dressed in tatters, people see him in the temple, an old blue robe has been worn for many years, not even a replacement, spring, summer, autumn and winter, he is always the same, never changed much!

(Lying on the bear_ provided by no beginning)