It's probably also a good thing for Ye Baiyi that Ouyang wasn't the sort to brag when compliments were paid to him. The secret lives and dies between them.

"As long as I can remember," he replied. "After..." there's a slight, unnatural pause. "After I turned ten, there was nothing else for me to do but hone my skills." After the slaughter of his family and his own castration, he had to do anything he could to survive. Even with all his accomplishments, the shame of his status always followed... but not here. He doesn't go around bragging that he's a eunuch.