In the late spring of the third month, the sun was warm and the wind was clear as orioles sang in Chang'an.
The dawn's light faintly emerged as the stars gradually disappeared. The towering and lofty drum tower atop the main gate of the Imperial City beat out the echoing sound that announced the break of day. Drum towers from the streets to the main roads followed in succession, the rumbling of the drums rolling across the hundred-plus neatly arranged city squares, rousing the majestic imperial capital from its sleep.
The night curfew was lifted, the gates opened wide. The cold, empty streets were soon filled with the rising and falling noise of people talking to one another as carts and wagons sped out of the heavily guarded gates into the dense, crowded flow of people on Zhuque Street.
Clouds rose from the horizon through the rose-tinted skies, the golden and dazzling morning sunlight breaking through the clouds and streaming down, enveloping thousands of families in a brilliant, glittering light. It was a scene of peace and prosperity.
Inside the Taiji Palace, maids carried gilded copper pots and dewy flowers plucked before sunrise through the winding corridors.
The ornaments on their bright skirts sweeping across the recently renovated flower tile floor produced a rustling sound akin to drizzling rain.
Chun Ru lifted the canopy curtain, entered the inner room, and put down the copper basin.
Just as she uncovered the incense burner to switch out incenses, a few pained murmurs came from behind the large, black lacquer landscape painting screen.
"Elder brother... elder brother...."
Chun Ru walked around the screen, lifting up the muslin screen, her sight falling on the face of the seventh princess with a frown.
"Princess?"
She wrung a handkerchief to wipe Seventh Princess Li Yaoying's face, softly calling her name.
The seventh princess was delicate and often had nightmares. Many doctors were invited to treat her without success. The maids had long been used to it.
Hearing Chun Ru's gentle call, Li Yaoying woke up from her nightmare.
A teardrop fell from her thick eyelashes and slid down her cheeks.
Chun Ru asked distressedly, "Did you have a nightmare again? Were you exhausted from the palace banquet last night?"
Li Yaoying's eyes were hazy with tears. She stared blankly for a while at the distorted shadows that freely penetrated through the screen onto the inner room's floor.
In front of her eyes was a magnificent bedchamber, not a battlefield that resembled purgatory on Earth.
The dream's gruesome scene of rivers of blood and mutilated body parts faded away.
Li Yaoying slowly sobered up. Smiling, she casually wiped her wet eyes and got up to get ready.
Nothing more than a nightmare.
Chun Ru picked up the blond Jialing Pinga patterned comb and combed her hair, smilingly saying, "His Majesty and Qin wang have won a big battle. The news of the victory has spread all over Guanzhong, so it won't be long until Qin wang will be able to return in triumph."
The seventh princess called for elder brother in her dream, so she must have been worried about the second prince, Qin wang, who was away on a campaign with the emperor.
Every time Qin wang went to battle, the seventh princess would have nightmares.
Li Yaoying picked up a semi-bloomed peony flower hairpin and pinned it on her temples. Smiling, she looked at her reflection in the circular bronze mirror inlaid with star anise: "I know. Second brother will certainly return safe and sound."
The scene she saw in her dream would not happen.
The young girl reflected in the bronze mirror had a smile on her lips. Although she hadn't applied any powder in the morning and her face still had traces of crying, she was nevertheless a national beauty, and her face was like a hisbicus.
The slightly red-rimmed eyes added a bit of loveliness that was difficult to describe in words.
Chun Ru looked lost in thought, feeling like half of her body had gone soft.
She wished she could sacrifice herself just to smooth out the princess's lightly knitted brows.
Li Yaoying smiled at her maid through the mirror, the flowing eyes revealing a naive attractiveness.
In this moment, her concealed charm all emerged: natural, pure and refreshing, cold and clear, but also sweet and moving.
Chun Ru returned to her senses, bowing her head in concentration to brush the seventh princess's hair.
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Half a shichen later, the marketplace increasingly began bursting with noise and excitement.
Li Yaoying, wearing a green gold-woven Huihu dress lined with pearls, a curtain hat on her head, rode through the noisy street and stopped in front of a secluded courtyard. She took off her curtain hat and looked back at the lively marketplace behind her.
Who would have thought that a few months ago, this glorious capital city of more than a hundred years was still a scene of chaos with dilapidated walls and devastation?
Li Yaoying dismounted off the horse, casually pulling out a soft whip to tap the dust on her riding boots. Smelling the rich fragrance of buttery pastries in the air, she faintly smiled.
Soon there would be peace.
Better to be a dog in peace than a man in chaos!
The previous dynasty's emperor was extravagant, cruel, and tyrannical. Frequently waging wars, oppressing the commoners; his reign of more than a decade led to chaos in the world with uprisings and rebellions erupting in every region. Noble families led armed rebellions one after the other.
This started the prelude to several years of chaos.
The Central Plains was in disorder. Nomadic groups seized this opportunity to invade the south, enveloping the world in the flames of war.
The year Li Yaoying was born, her father Li De, with the support of the noble families and influential clans, became a dominant figure who held millions of soldiers in his hands.
Fourteen years passed in a flash. Li De fought wars on all sides, defeating his enemies in the north one after another, and at long last, led his troops to occupy Chang'an in the twelfth month of the previous year.
The last emperor had died a few years prior at the hands of rebels as he fled to Jiangnan. Chang'an had changed masters one after another in the past few years. Even foreign tribes had proclaimed themselves king here: burning, killing, and looting the city.
After several wars, this magnificent capital city has long since ceased to be the thriving city of the past.
After the Wei army entered Chang'an, the military discipline was strict without committing the slightest offense against the civilian people. Li De unceasingly dispatched messengers to make friendly relations with the northern tribes, recaptured some of the lost territory, and brought in the local noble families and large clans, gradually stabilizing the people.
The long-ago divided world was united once again. After a few months of governance, Guanzhong was stabilized and all the tribes had cast themselves to their side. Chang'an began to regain its vitality, its former days of flourishing prosperity just around the corner.
The noble families and large clans, the famous scholars and the old and venerable common folk all joined together several times to present memorials requesting Li De to be named Emperor.
After repeatedly declining, Li De finally chose an auspicious day to officially ascend the throne and established the Wei Dynasty.
Li Yaoying was Li De's seventh daughter. When her father became the emperor, she became the precious as gold and beautiful jade seventh princess.
Having seen the troubled times in which the people were in terrible straits, without a home, and miserable having peace at last, Li Yaoying felt that she was very fortunate.
As a miss of the Li family, she had no worries about food and clothing and was protected by the house's abundant strong slaves and soldiers. It was her fortune to be able to grow up safely and smoothly in the midst of these troubled times.
Her mother was gentle and loving and her brother treasured and doted on her.
Inexplicably coming from the peaceful modern era into this strange and unfamiliar world, becoming the seventh young miss of the Li family couldn't be considered bad at all.
However, quite unfortunately, Li Yaoying soon discovered that she had a different mother from her eldest brother named Li Xuanzhen.
The famous Emperor Taizong of the Wei Dynasty Li Xuanzhen.
Li Yaoying had read the book "The Great Wei's Li Xuanzhen".
At the end of the novel, the male lead Li Xuanzhen led his troops to breach Nanchu, Xiyue, and a dozen other small nations. After triumphing, he immediately returned to Chang'an to force his father Li De to abdicate, ascending the throne as Emperor. He led troops to pacify the grasslands, completely unified the north and south, suppressed the noble families, promoted poor scholars, had civil and military power, and laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Great Wei Dynasty.
Confirming over and over again that Li Xuanzhen was truly her eldest brother, Li Yaoying shivered.
She and the male lead, Li Xuanzhen, were more than simply born from different mothers.
They were enemies.