Flowers bloomed on trees in the late spring of the third month while orioles sang in Chang’an.
The daylight flickered hazily as the morning stars gradually faded. The first dawn drum resonated from the drum tower at the majestic imperial city’s main gate. The drum towers along the imperial street and major roads followed in sequence. The thunderous sounds of bells and drums rolled across more than a hundred precisely arranged wards, awakening this sleeping imperial capital.
As the night curfew lifted and ward gates opened wide, the cold, empty streets quickly filled with rising voices and chatter. Ox carts and horse carriages rushed out from heavily guarded mansions with high gates, merging into the dense crowds on Vermilion Bird Avenue.
At the horizon, clouds and rosy clouds steamed upward. Golden morning light broke through the clouds and poured down, bathing thousands of households in dazzling radiance—truly a scene of prosperous peace.
Inside the Taiji Palace, maids carried gilt copper basins and dew-covered fresh flowers picked before sunrise through the winding corridors.
Their beautiful skirts swept across the recently maintained tiled floor, making rustling sounds like fine rain.
Chun Ru lifted the curtain and entered the inner chamber, setting down the copper basin.
Just after she had opened the incense burner to change the incense, several painful moans suddenly came from behind the large black lacquered screen inlaid with landscape and figure scenes.
“Brother… Brother…”
Chun Ru walked around the screen, lifted the gauze curtain, and her gaze fell on the Seventh Princess’s face, her brows tightly furrowed.
“Princess?”
She wrung out a handkerchief to wipe Princess Li Yaoying’s face, softly calling her name.
The Seventh Princess had a delicate constitution and often had nightmares. Many doctors had been called to treat her, but none could help. The maids had grown accustomed to this.
Hearing Chun Ru’s gentle call, Li Yaoying awoke from her nightmare.
Tears fell from her thick eyelashes, sliding down her fragrant cheeks.
Chun Ru asked with concern, “Did you have another nightmare? Were you tired from the palace banquet last night?”
Li Yaoying’s tear-filled eyes gazed at the dappled sunlight filtering through the screen into the inner chamber. She remained dazed for a while.
Before she was the magnificent bedchamber, not the battlefield that resembled hell on earth.
The terrifying scenes from her dream of flowing blood and scattered corpses gradually faded.
Li Yaoying slowly came to her senses, smiled, casually wiped her wet eyes, and rose to wash up.
It was just a nightmare.
Chun Ru picked up a golden comb decorated with Kalavinka patterns to brush her hair, saying with a smile, “His Majesty and the Prince of Qin won a great victory. The news of triumph has spread throughout Guanzhong. The Prince of Qin will return victorious soon.”
The Seventh Princess called for her brother in her dream—she must be worried about the Second Prince, the Prince of Qin, who was campaigning with His Majesty.
Every time the Prince of Qin went to war, the Seventh Princess would have nightmares.
Li Yaoying picked up a half-bloomed peony and pinned it in her hair, looking at herself in the eight-sided copper mirror inlaid with mother-of-pearl, smiling gently: “I know, Second Brother will return safely.”
The scenes she saw in her dream would not come to pass.
The young woman in the copper mirror had a smile on her lips. Though she had just risen and wore no makeup, with traces of tears still visible, she possessed heavenly beauty, her face like an immortal flower.
Her slightly reddened eyes added an indescribable charm.
Chun Ru was mesmerized, feeling half her body go numb.
She would willingly sacrifice everything just to smooth the Princess’s slightly furrowed brows.
Li Yaoying caught her maid’s eye in the mirror with a smile, her glance conveying a playful innocence.
At that moment, all seduction vanished, like a lotus emerging from clear water, naturally unadorned—cool and pure, yet gentle and moving.
Chun Ru came back to her senses and lowered her head, focusing on arranging the Seventh Princess’s hair.
……
Half an hour later, the streets grew more bustling.
Li Yaoying wore a green damask robe woven with gold roundels and linked pearl patterns in the Uyghur style, with a veiled hat. She rode her horse through the noisy long street, stopping before a secluded courtyard. She removed her veiled hat and looked back at the bustling wards behind her.
Who could imagine that just a few months ago, this capital that had flourished for over a hundred years was still a scene of broken walls and ruins, wounds everywhere from the chaos of war?
Li Yaoying dismounted, casually pulled out her soft whip, and knocked the dust from her black leather boots. Smelling the rich aroma of sesame oil flatbread in the air, she smiled slightly.
Peace would come soon.
Better to be a dog in times of peace than a person in times of chaos!
The previous dynasty’s last emperor was extravagant and cruel, frequently waging wars and exploiting the common people. After just over ten years on the throne, he caused the realm to fall into chaos, with uprisings breaking out everywhere and noble families rebelling in succession.
This opened the prelude to several years of chaos.
As the Central Plains fell into disorder, nomadic tribes seized the opportunity to invade from the north. War raged everywhere, beacon fires burned continuously.
In the year Li Yaoying was born, her father Li De, with support from great noble families, became a hegemon commanding hundreds of thousands of troops.
Fourteen years passed in a flash. Li De campaigned north and south, successively defeating enemies entrenched in the north, finally leading his army to occupy Chang’an last winter.
The last emperor had died at the hands of rebels several years ago while fleeing to the south. In these years, Chang’an had changed hands many times, with even foreign tribes once ruling and plundering here.
After repeated warfare, this magnificent capital had long lost its former prosperity.
After the Wei army took control of Chang’an, their strict military discipline meant no hair was harmed on civilians’ heads. Li De continuously sent envoys to befriend northern tribes, recovered various small forces, won over local noble families, and gradually stabilized people’s hearts.
In the great trend of history, division leads to unity. After several months of governance, the hearts of people in Guanzhong settled, tribes from all directions came to submit, and Chang’an began to recover its vitality bit by bit. The former prosperity and flourishing would return soon.
Noble families, distinguished scholars, and elderly commoners repeatedly submitted joint memorials requesting Li De to ascend the throne.