Chen Ji was puzzled, "Wu Xiu has a family background, so why did he enter the palace to serve?"
Qi Zhenzhuo explained, "The Wu family was implicated in a case earlier, and their family fell."
Chen Ji asked curiously, "What case?"
Qi Zhenzhuo lowered his voice, "It was back when the previous emperor was in power. An Imperial Concubine gave birth to a child and bribed the Sacrificial Official Xu Shi of the Observatory with silver to alter the constellations. The Empress Dowager discovered this, resulting in the adult males of the Xu Family being executed, the women exiled to Lingnan, and the unmarried males subjected to palace punishment and dispatched to the Inner Court's Firewood Store to guard the hunting grounds. The Wu Family got involved somehow, leading to Wu Xiu's father being exiled to Lingnan, dying on the way, and Wu Xiu being subjected to palace punishment and sent to the Firewood Store."
