padmè

a baby fox with a kitten 🦊🐱

“Well?”

I’ve been thinking about Eunuch Li’s existence a bit recently (mostly because I’ve started obsessing over another somewhat obscure character with proximity to Zhuo Qing), and it’s occurred to me: could Eunuch Li have been Xiao Zhongjing’s companion eunuch growing up?

The reason for Jin Xuan becoming the Grand Eunuch after Zhuo Qing is said to be because he was Xiao Ruojin’s study companion growing up. However, Zhuo Qing and Xiao Zhongjing have roughly a twenty-four year gap in age—Zhuo Qing may even be younger than Xiao Zhongjing’s first son. By no stretch of the definition could Xiao Zhongjing be said to have grown up with Zhuo Qing.

The notable thing that Zhuo Qing did do, however, is follow him onto the battlefield, serving him and protecting him on his military expedition. At this time, Zhuo Qing would have likely been a teenager (given that he was roughly around 18 when the era of Taihe, Tai’an’s reign, began). He would have been studying the incomplete manual given by Consort Shu for only a few years. The Xuhuai Art is a devastating skill, but Zhuo Qing was inexperienced and vulnerable, and likely would have died without Baili Luochen saving him back then.

Could Xiao Zhongjing have been so grateful for the risks Zhuo Qing took for him, or so impressed by his growing ability, that he chose to name Zhuo Qing as his Grand Eunuch, passing over Eunuch Li in the process? It wouldn’t be the only time that Xiao Zhongjing changed the rules for Zhuo Qing’s sake: the novel mentions that Xiao Zhongjing gave Zhuo Qing a special pardon so he didn’t need to kneel when meeting an emperor, let alone a prince.