Tonight was destined to be sleepless. Li’er concealed himself in a dark corner, watching the crowds amid the brilliant lantern lights. His entire body and heart were filled with peace. Festivals always made people joyful, especially when today could truly be considered a universal celebration.
He saw Li Zhi pulling Dou Sijie’s ice cart with a rope, running back and forth on the ice surface—the siblings both laughing happily. He also saw Li Tai with his arm around Hypatia’s waist, explaining to her the allusion of “riding dragons and leading phoenixes” while secretly sliding his hand toward Hypatia’s perky bottom. He also saw Xiao Ya riding on a giant ice-sculpted elephant, shouting loudly, with Consort Yin below looking extremely anxious. He also saw Li An and Shishi, one on each side, accompanying Consort Yang as they strolled through the river of lights. He saw the nobles’ uninhibited drinking spree, and also saw the noble ladies’ coquettish manner when whispering among themselves. He saw the smiles of the elders, saw the joy of young children, and also saw a powerful and prosperous empire.
He somewhat resented the surrounding high mountains that blocked his vision, preventing him from seeing all under heaven.
“Climb the mountain!” Li’er gave Duan Hong a concise order. He wanted to stand even higher.
When the emperor climbed a mountain, naturally ten thousand people would follow along. But Li’er didn’t want too many people sharing his state of mind at this moment. He only brought Yun Ye—or more accurately, he was forcing Yun Ye to accompany him up the mountain. Yun Ye was unwilling to go. On Eagle’s Beak Cliff, the cold wind whistled sharply enough to freeze a person into an icicle. Why must they climb the mountain in pitch darkness? Wouldn’t it be better to stay at the foot of the mountain and watch those noble ladies who, in order to display their supple figures, deliberately wore very little and were now frozen into turtle-like strange shapes?
The mountain path was filled with imperial guards—very pitiful. Wearing iron armor, they had probably already had all their body heat stolen away by the cold wind. Frozen stiff on the mountain path, they were no different from ice sculptures. Li’er governed the military extremely strictly, and Yan Song was even more of a man-eating demon. These officers and soldiers would rather freeze to death than deal with Yan Song, that demon king.
Seeing Cheng Chuliang standing at the wind gap with a waist saber and wielding an iron lance in imposing might, with snot running down his face, Yun Ye took off one of his three light fur coats and draped it over him. Serving the emperor was truly a miserable job.
Yan Song, who was similarly wearing iron armor and standing in the cold wind, immediately shot knife-like eyes at Yun Ye. Yun Ye had long been accustomed to this kind of intimidation. Even Li’er’s intimidation didn’t work on him—only violence would do. You’re just a commander of the imperial guards—what are you? So he took the wine flask from his waist and poured Cheng Chuliang a big mouthful.
When passing by Yan Song, he said in a low voice: “If my younger brother gets frozen and harmed, you’ll see how I deal with you.”
Yan Song’s body stiffened for a moment. Usually, this kind of talk was what he said to others. When it came to his own head, it was very uncomfortable. He glanced at Li’er in the small sedan ahead and said quietly to Yun Ye: “I’d like to see just how you’ll deal with this old man. I’ll send Cheng Chumo to guard the wind gap at Eagle’s Beak Cliff in return.”
“Good! Then I’ll have your younger brother go to the southernmost region and row boats with the Kunlun slaves. These past two years, the Great Tang has been short of manpower, and some slave traders are already preparing to go to distant places to capture some. If you dare make my younger brother guard the wind gap, I’ll dare make your younger brother stay in a furnace-like place. Believe me, getting hot is no easier than getting cold.”
“My younger brother is at the Court of Diplomatic Reception, not in your Lingnan naval forces. What can you do to him?”
“Young people always want to serve the country and establish merit, and so…”
“And so he signed up for the wandering fleet that civilizes vassal states? Damn it, instead of staying properly in Chang’an, why go to the great seas?” Yan Song said a few words resentfully, then very cleverly stopped discussing the matter of Cheng Chuliang wearing light furs and drinking strong liquor.
Cold was not an issue at all for the emperor. A small heated sedan solved all problems. Moreover, inside the heated sedan was a talented lady with a full figure. Yun Ye estimated that Li’er’s method of warming himself was extremely fragrant and beautiful.
They walked for a full hour and more before reaching Eagle’s Beak Cliff. The pavilion had long ago had fire dragons lit. Li’er emerged from the sedan and, with his hands behind his back, strolled around the brightly lit Eagle’s Beak Cliff. Leaning on the railing, he looked down at the river of lights below. It was indeed as Yun Ye had described—truly no different from the Milky Way in the heavens. Some flickering bright spots constantly moved—those were people walking while carrying ice lanterns. The shooting stars in the sky must be like this too, right? Li’er thought this as he gazed at the Milky Way in the nine heavens.
Compared to the brilliance of the river of lights, all of Chang’an tonight was also a city that never slept. The circle of torches around the city walls outlined the shape of the entire city in the night. The imperial palace on Dragon Head Plain was even more brightly lit. Li’er could imagine how lively the imperial palace would be tonight, especially with himself and the empress not in the palace—those consorts would definitely be even more delighted.
Vermillion Bird Avenue was simply a ribbon of light. Beneath that ribbon of light, there must surely be surging crowds of people. Every year on the Lantern Festival, it was Chang’an City’s most frenzied moment. The Tang people who loved dancing were surely engaging in the most frenzied dancing at this time.
Li’er couldn’t get enough of such beautiful scenery and wanted to see even more. He wanted to see Luoyang, see Jinyang, see Yizhou, see Yangzhou, see Yuezhou. He even wanted to pierce through the mountain ranges to see the most distant Yaizhou. He wanted to see whether all the royal lands under heaven were, like Chang’an, plunged into carnival.
Standing at different heights, one thinks about different problems. Yun Ye’s eyes were fixed on the Yun Family estate. Tonight, the Yun Family also had a lantern festival. Xinyue was leading all the people of the estate in setting up colorful canopies at the marketplace. The Yun Family had also made seven or eight lantern mountains. As the master of this family, he should be together with his own estate’s household managers celebrating the new year tonight, rather than standing on Eagle’s Beak Cliff blowing in the cold wind.
Li’er’s thoughts were of ascending to heaven—it would be best to travel eighty thousand li in a day while sitting, and patrol the heavens to gaze upon a thousand rivers. Yun Ye only thought about quickly descending the mountain so he could hurry back to the estate. While the children hadn’t yet gone to sleep, he could play with them a bit more.
“Eagle’s Beak Cliff has become too low!” Li’er muttered and prepared to descend the mountain. He had climbed Eagle’s Beak Cliff full of grand visions, but now his interest was exhausted. He only wanted to quickly descend the mountain—those officers and soldiers standing in the cold wind were suffering too much.
The delicacies from mountain and sea and various fruits in the pavilion were left uneaten before descending the mountain. The person had already burrowed into the heated sedan. Taking advantage of Yan Song shouting loudly while arranging the guards, Yun Ye darted into the pavilion. He filled a flask with warm wine, his left hand grabbed a roasted chicken, his right hand seized a pig’s trotter wrapped in lotus leaves, and he stuffed his mouth full of meatballs before following the procession down the mountain. In cold weather, not replenishing a bit of heat would really be letting himself down.
Walking halfway down, he saw Cheng Chuliang still standing there like a javelin—very cleverly, he had tied that light fur coat around his legs. The saying goes that people warm their legs, dogs warm their mouths. As long as the legs aren’t cold, the body won’t get too cold anywhere. The emperor was descending the mountain, but they still needed to remain on duty here until the emperor had completely left Eagle’s Beak Cliff. Yun Ye stuffed the pig’s trotter into Cheng Chuliang’s chest armor. He himself happily followed the large procession, alternating between mouthfuls of chicken and strong liquor.
They returned again to the Dongyang River. By now it was already midnight. The Tang people’s feasting and touring couldn’t end in just an hour or two—continuing through the night until dawn was what fit the Tang people’s character. Yun Ye’s two legs were already trembling like playing the pipa, yet those noble ladies and young ladies who had been enjoying themselves all night were still full of enthusiasm. One could understand why—being shut up at home all year round, it was rare to come out and play once, so naturally they wanted to have a good time. Even flying a kite in spring could be reminisced about for most of the year. Encountering the academy’s lantern festival, how could they not cherish it for a lifetime? Moreover, those handsome academy men were always reciting poetry…
The academy’s cooks were most domineering. They had set up tents on the riverbank, still doing large-pot dishes. The fatty, oily meat chunks tumbled in the pot, translucent red and shining. The potatoes were also stewed fragrant and soft. A large bowl of rice topped with meat sauce, then piled with some meat chunks and potato pieces—this was absolutely a delicacy of the mortal world. Moreover, the academy’s braised pork was already famous across the four seas. Quite a few Chang’an merchants relied on the “Academy Braised Pork” signboard to make their living.
The dishes at Huang Shu’s place were made exquisitely, and the maidservants were also pretty and pleasant. But of the important people who came to the Dongyang River tonight, there were few who liked going to his warm tent to eat. Most preferred to hold a large bowl and sit at rough wooden tables eating the academy’s braised pork rice. This had nothing to do with status—several imperial consorts also sat there eating. The food was all the same. The only thing they had more than others was a bowl of emerald green vegetable soup.
Empress Zhangsun was very accustomed to this because the academy’s food was exactly like this. She had eaten it countless times. Consort Yang stared blankly at the meat chunks in her bowl. Empress Zhangsun said with a smile: “You eat vegetarian food year-round, which isn’t very good for your body either. Tonight, break your vegetarian diet. This dish made by the academy’s cooks is a famous dish. The meat isn’t greasy at all. Even if you don’t like eating meat, at least eat some potatoes—they’re more fragrant than meat.”
Consort Yang frowned and bit into a potato, discovering the flavor was indeed not bad. Gritting her teeth, she ate a piece of meat and came to like that flavor—it was indeed vastly different from the taste of meat in her memory.
Dou Sijie really wanted to eat meat. Li Zhi only gave her lean meat, which made her very dissatisfied. She secretly ate a large piece of pork belly and discovered it tasted much better than lean meat. She felt that her older brother had taken advantage of her quite a bit in the past.
When Li’er lifted the curtain and walked into the tent, Dou Sijie immediately went with her rice bowl to greet her father, and even complained to her father about her brother’s evil deed of not allowing her to eat pork belly.
Li’er stopped everyone from performing courtesies. Smiling, he sat down and looked at his family members’ rice bowls. Turning his head, he ordered them to bring him a bowl too—with lots of meat sauce and full of meat flavor, no potatoes.
Yun Ye had eaten a whole chicken, and at this moment, even his burps carried the flavor of chicken meat. He asked for a bowl of vegetable soup to settle his stomach and was preparing to slip away when he saw Li Tai walking over unsteadily. Hypatia looked the same way. Both of them were quite drunk, and moreover, their clothing was very disheveled. Heaven knows whether the two had lost control of themselves or not.
“This way walk, that way walk, let’s drink from golden goblets…” Li Tai hummed Yun Ye’s unique post-drinking phrases, slapped Yun Ye on the back, and said: “How about it? Has my father emperor’s dream of flying to heaven been aroused?”
Yun Ye was shocked with alarm and immediately thought of that sentence Li’er had said on Eagle’s Beak Cliff: “Eagle’s Beak Cliff has become too low.” As the behind-the-scenes instigator of this entire lantern festival, Li Tai actually harbored such thoughts.
He hurriedly pressed Li Tai into a seat and said in a low voice: “His Majesty is right now in the tent. Your design was very successful. Tomorrow, if you report your dream of flying to heaven to your father emperor, you’ll definitely receive support. Right now, shut your mouth and drink this bowl of vegetable soup to sober up. If you continue talking nonsense and your father emperor hears it, you can go underground—forget about flying to heaven.”