It was a late Wednesday afternoon when someone realised that a certain flower garden in the imperial palace contained withered plants. It was almost sunset, and this servant was supposed to go for his weekly Dharma class outside the capital.
Then the Empress issued a decree, disallowing the servants to leave the palace grounds. The servants had no say totally, and all alternatives that they came up with were put down. The servants had to put aside whatever they were doing, and put all their heads together to help with the problem. Oh, it was actually a problem that need not require their brains! It, however, required their hands and legs pretty much -- the servants had to sow seeds in the flower garden overnight!
And so they worked their asses off, through the night, hoping that all the seeds would be planted properly and no one would have noticed that there had been withered plants the night before. They worked and worked, however tired they were.
The Empress, however, was still not happy. Even while knowing that the withered plants were not caused by the poor servants, she lashed out at them, giving them stress, as if it would help to make the flowers bloom faster. The servants, too, were not happy but they would only want to finish with the seeds and return to their bunks as soon as they could.
Some servants were sick. Some were really tired. Some were very hungry. This servant was all of that. Sick, tired, hungry, and sad to have to miss an appointment outside the capital. The Empress had thought of importing some food from outside the palace grounds for these hungry servants, but on learning that the horse-carts would take an hour to reach the palace, she decided against it eventually. So the poor servants carried on in hunger, without (verbal) complaints, until the seeds were all done.
On the way home before midnight, this servant told some of his mates from another part of the imperial palace that he was 'super super super unhappy'. He also thought hard about many things, and asked himself many questions. It was definitely not the first time that he had certain thoughts, but to him, that night was the last straw.
人生是黑白的.
10:35 PM <3
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