Chapter One Hundred Thirteen: A Night at the Lantern Festival

The family strolled through the streets. Li Xian took his two younger brothers to buy river lanterns and place them into the Luo River, watching as they drifted away with the current.

Though they had been well-behaved at the start, as time passed, they began to let loose and run off into the distance. It was only thanks to the Qianniu Guards, who remained no more than three feet away while blending into the crowd, that Li Zhi allowed them to stray out of his sight.

Li Yuechen constantly darted between her brothers and her parents, chatting with them while guiding them to observe the various folk customs. Although the surrounding commoners avoided them, they would still offer a warm, respectful smile whenever eyes met. Li Zhi, hiding his status as the Emperor, would smile and nod back, then continue his stroll while holding his wife’s hand.

Passing by the entrance of each ward, they could hear the vendors calling out their wares. Fried dough twists made with lard, freshly baked sesame flatbreads, steaming hot porridge—these were the treats that most commoners of this era could afford during the Lantern Festival. As for dishes like mutton in water basins, those were theoretically high-end delicacies that most people could not afford. Yet, despite this, every person passing by wore a smile, celebrating the only night market of the year.

Walking among the crowd, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian saw such a scene with their own eyes for the first time in many years, and for a moment, they felt a sense of novelty. Li Yuechen nudged her mother’s slender waist with her arm and whispered, "Mother, how is it? Isn't it nice to come out and see this?"

Wu Zetian nodded with a smile. "No matter how many reports I read, they are never as real as seeing it for myself."

Beside her, Li Zhi nodded and said in a low voice, "The Great Tang is now a prosperous age of peace. I... I can consider myself worthy of my ancestors."

Li Xian, who had just come over to ask Li Yuechen to watch a shaman dance, overheard this and immediately stepped in to make his presence felt. "Exactly! Father’s merits are vast and profound, and naturally, the Great Tang is strong!"

"Oh?" Li Zhi grinned and lowered his head to ask, "Then tell me, how are they profound, and where are they vast?"

"This..." Li Xian was suddenly at a loss for words. He had only come to butter his father up; he hadn't expected a follow-up question. Caught off guard, he fell into an awkward silence.

Li Yuechen, suddenly feeling a mischievous urge to tease him, winked at her parents and smiled. "Brother, are you trying to say they are profound in the present and vast for a thousand autumns?"

"Yes, yes, exactly that!" Li Xian, having found a lifeline, grabbed onto it and nodded repeatedly, looking up at his parents. "That is precisely what I meant! Yuechen understands my heart!"

"Hmph!" Wu Zetian snorted coldly. "If you read more books, you wouldn't be unable to even offer a proper compliment. In this regard, you are far behind Chen'er!"

Li Yuechen drooped her eyelids and puffed out her cheeks. "Mother, are you praising me or scolding me?"

"What do you think?" Wu Zetian retorted.

Li Yuechen pretended to think about it, then stroked her chin with a serious expression. "I think it must be a compliment! In that case, being the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue is a waste of my talents; I should be appointed as the 'Minister of Flattery' instead!" She nodded as if she were deeply convinced of this.

"You silly girl!" Wu Zetian raised her hand, pretending to strike her. "You have no shame!"

Li Yuechen opened her arms and hugged her waist, looking up with an adorable smile. "Because in my eyes, nothing is more important than the happiness of my parents! My serving as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue is also to share the burden for you. If not for that, I would have long since requested to retire and return to my hometown!"

Wu Zetian, who had been quite happy upon hearing the first half of the sentence, immediately pulled a long face and pushed her away by the head. "Retire? I see you've grown quite bold; you haven't lived long, yet you've learned to say all sorts of nonsense!"

Li Yuechen grabbed her mother's wrist and rubbed it against her own cheek. "Oh, Mother, don't be angry. That was just a metaphor, a common rhetorical device in poetry and prose..."

Wu Zetian was left between laughter and tears by her behavior. After pulling her hand back, she nodded. "Fine. In that case, give me a poem or a piece of prose. If it’s good, I won't be angry today."

*Oh, boy...* Li Yuechen felt a bit helpless. Her mother was very fond of literature and was steeped in it. Yet, this was exactly what she was worst at; to this day, she hadn't even finished reading the *Book of Songs*. *A mother knows her daughter best—she’s definitely trying to make things difficult for me on purpose.*

As she walked along with the couple, Li Yuechen racked her brain for poems she knew. She could recite the *Inscription on My Humble Abode*, but it was the Lantern Festival—the mood didn't fit! Seeing her daughter walking in a daze, Wu Zetian didn't remind her, but simply kept holding Li Zhi’s hand, leaving her daughter behind.

With a group of Qianniu Guards protecting them, and checking back on her occasionally, there was no need to worry about safety. Li Yuechen walked on, thinking about what kind of poem could fit the atmosphere. Unfortunately, she didn't know many, only a few scattered ones. While lamenting that she regretted not reading more when she had the chance, she sighed helplessly.

Suddenly, she saw the unmelted snow on a tree branch, and then looked at the moth-shaped hairpins worn by the girls around her. She felt as if she had an idea. For the Lantern Festival, most women from decent families wore moth hairpins. For commoners, they were wooden, fixed in place. But the ones on her mother’s head and her own were masterpieces from gold and silver smiths, with wings that fluttered up and down as they walked, lifelike.

*Got it!* Li Yuechen looked up at her mother, who was walking ahead, hurried to catch up, and whispered: "Moth-browed, snow-willow hairpins, threads of gold, laughter and chatter drift away with a faint fragrance. I search for her in the crowd a thousand times; suddenly, I turn back, and there she is, in the dim light of the lanterns."

As the words fell, the couple stopped in their tracks and looked back in surprise. Wu Zetian was wearing the moth hairpin, her silk robes reflecting the lantern light, and she carried a scent pouch. Furthermore, the angle from which Li Yuechen had looked over was precisely where the lanterns were dim—it fit the atmosphere perfectly. With her high level of literary appreciation, she was momentarily stunned by the surprise.

Li Yuechen looked up and smiled. "Mother, how is it?"

"Ahem!" Wu Zetian nodded slightly and continued strolling forward with Li Zhi, appearing nonchalant as she added, "Not bad... but the context doesn't seem to be for a mother, does it?"

"How could that be?" Li Yuechen didn't blush at all. "It is precisely my love and longing for my mother!"

Wu Zetian frowned in thought, finally shaking her head. "This poem seems to be only the second half, isn't it? What is the first half?"

"The first half..." Li Yuechen froze. *Damn it! I forgot!* What was the first half? Something about the East Wind? The "East Wind" missile? After a second of frantic thinking, she grinned. "The first half, I don't know either. It was just something I made up on the spot; I'll leave it to someone with a sense of fate to complete it later!"

Seeing Li Yuechen’s carefree yet slightly panicked expression, Wu Zetian nodded and didn't press the matter. She knew her daughter well—if she said she didn't have it, she really hadn't thought of it. However, she exchanged a glance with Li Zhi, and both hid their smiles. Their daughter usually wrote incoherent prose and poetry, but occasionally, she could produce a brilliant line. *Pitying the Farmers* had been the same.

Watching Li Yuechen run off to play with her brothers and sisters again, Wu Zetian suddenly turned her head. "Should we have Chen'er study poetry and prose more seriously?"

Li Zhi seemed tempted, but eventually shook his head. "Forget it. Chen'er’s ambitions do not lie there, and we need not force her."

"To be honest, Chen'er has talent in this area as well."

"Indeed. But as Chen'er said, all she wants is to make us happy. We should let her be happy with these things, too. Since she prefers martial arts over literature, let it be."

Li Zhi’s expression was very relaxed. Watching his daughter’s back, he continued to hold his wife’s hand, strolling gently under the dim lanterns.

...

None of the officials knew, nor did they expect, that the Emperor had taken his family out of the palace in disguise for this year's Lantern Festival. Perhaps because the secrecy was well-maintained and they were lucky, they strolled until late at night without encountering a single acquaintance.

The next day, Li Zhi still wore a pleasant smile, and he found it much easier to handle affairs with Wu Zetian. Li Yuechen, meanwhile, was thinking about finding an opportunity to tell her father to make the Lantern Festival a statutory holiday for the Great Tang. One day of lifting the curfew was too little; it should be three days. Lifting the curfew for three days—the day before, the day of, and the day after—would be much more interesting.

Two days later, Li Yuechen decided to go to the farm to tell the children that it was time to resume classes.

After arriving by carriage, the village head and the others came out to greet her, smiling as they pulled her to the side of the fields to show her the wheat seedlings, which were growing extremely vigorously. The fields were divided into several sections based on different planting densities, and the ones with higher density were doing surprisingly well.

Seeing the village head and the others beaming with joy, Li Yuechen nodded with a smile. "Though it looks good now, we must not let our guard down. Only when the harvest comes can we truly rest easy!"

"Your Highness, rest assured, this old man understands!" the village head promised with a radiant smile.

Afterward, Li Yuechen went to the courtyard, where Lu Zhaolin was already waiting. He quickly stood up to salute. "Greetings, Your Highness. Wishing you a peaceful and healthy New Year!"

"Alright, though the New Year has passed, I wish you a happy New Year as well!" Li Yuechen waved her hand with a smile and had Fulai present a bottle of canned fruit as a New Year gift. It wasn't that she was stingy, but she didn't want to reveal the recipe yet. If he wanted to eat more, he could go to the shop in the South Market and eat his fill for free, provided he wasn't afraid of the sugar.

The children also came up one by one to offer their respects and New Year wishes.

After the pleasantries, Li Yuechen sat down in the pavilion. "I came today to inform you that classes will resume in a few days... how has your review been?"

Zhang Lao Da stepped forward and replied respectfully, "Your Highness, please be assured. The students have been reviewing diligently, and Master Lu has been very helpful in clearing up our confusion."

"That’s good. Starting from the New Year, the curriculum will be slightly heavier, so be prepared!" Li Yuechen warned with a smile.

...

Before February, two pieces of news reached the palace.

The first was that Li Yuanyi, the Prince of Zheng and Governor of Jiangzhou, had passed away. Li Yuechen had only seen his name in the genealogy; she didn't know him at all and had no impression of him. He was her father’s uncle, a son of the Founding Emperor. When a member of the royal family passed away, the Emperor had to oversee the funeral arrangements. Li Zhi ordered him to be posthumously gifted the title of Minister of Works and Grand Governor of Jingzhou, with the posthumous name "Hui" and burial in the Xian Mausoleum.

The second matter was that while the Crown Prince Li Hong was overseeing the state in Chang'an, he saw the people suffering from famine and ordered the grain granaries to be opened to provide relief. Because the situation was urgent, there was no time to report beforehand; he had to act first and report later.

Upon hearing the news, Li Zhi didn't say much, only asking if the grain was sufficient and if any other help was needed. Li Yuechen, who had been corresponding with Li Hong, learned of this as well. On one hand, she was the Crown Prince’s sister, so they often chatted; on the other, she was the Vice Minister of Revenue, so she was supposed to be informed.

To be honest, Li Yuechen felt that this approach was somewhat ill-considered. It wasn't that she thought they should watch the people starve, but disaster relief required proper investigation to ensure that the grain was distributed to those in greatest need. Simply opening the granaries could attract people who still had grain at home to take advantage of the situation. In that case, those who were truly at their wit's end would have to compete with them, failing to maximize the relief’s effect.

...

In the Renshou Hall, Li Zhi took off his glasses as he looked at the report and rubbed his temples. "Meiniang, what do you think of this?"

"This action was somewhat ill-considered," Wu Zetian said, frowning. "Although the research into increasing grain yields has yielded results, it is still..."

"Sigh..." Li Zhi sighed. "Hong’er is a good child, it’s just a pity..." He didn't finish his sentence, clearly a bit disappointed.

Wu Zetian poured him tea and comforted him from the side. "It’s fine. Hong’er still lacks experience. You can teach him more in the future, Zhinu."

"Hmm!" Li Zhi nodded, reached out, and gently stroked her hand. He suddenly smiled. "Actually, this matter is not entirely unexpected..."

Wu Zetian didn't speak but nodded in agreement. Li Zhi had predicted something like this years ago. Now that it had truly happened as expected, both felt that the child just needed more tempering.