Bamboo Horse

A man might 'live' to nine thousand years but once upon a time he was but a boy. 

Supervisor Liu Suzhi of the Department of Ceremonies would go to his grave one day knowing that history would forever record him as the unscrupulous eunuch who sullied the waters of Emperor Wenchun's harem. But no one would remember that before he had been sold into servitude by his wastrel of an uncle for drink coppers, before he had been subjected to the mercy of the callous blade in the castration room, he was but a boy. 

Before the man Liu Suzhi came a boy called Shen Xi.