Li Tai ate alfalfa sprouts and drank snake porridge, nodding his head with satisfaction. Then he asked Yun Ye: “Does that banquet the people of Chang’an call the Heroes’ Gathering have a place for you? I heard they’ve already been widely distributing hero invitations—there’s quite a jianghu outlaw atmosphere to it. I wonder if you have a spot?”

“I had one originally, but then I didn’t. My son took the invitation and folded it into a paper airplane. That paper, neither too soft nor too hard, is best for folding paper airplanes. So I didn’t stop him. I heard that without an invitation, you can’t enter the venue, so I can’t go.”

As Yun Ye spoke, he lovingly rubbed his son’s little head and helped wipe the grease from his mouth. He hadn’t wanted to go anyway, and now his son had given him a perfectly reasonable excuse.

“I’m not going either, but Hypatia really wants to go, so I gave her the invitation. She says she likes eating snow dragon meat—you can’t get it anywhere else besides there.”

“If we brothers want to eat snow dragon meat, we can just have them send it directly. Who has time to join the excitement? Actually, the only thing I’m curious about is that new Yuan Shoucheng. I also want to hear how Yuan Tiangang addresses this young man.”

Li Tai laughed heartily and said: “You have no grounds to mock Yuan Tiangang. To maintain Daoism’s mystique, even kneeling and kowtowing would be acceptable. Although the Bureau of Waterways has already discovered that this Yuan Shoucheng is actually Yuan Tiangang’s youngest son, he refuses to admit it to the death. You have no recourse, and we have no need to make ourselves an enemy. Just turn a blind eye to it.”

“I’m not planning to expose him. I just want to see if Heaven will strike with thunder when a father kneels to his son.”

“Forget it. Just consider it doing me a favor—let’s both go. Isn’t this about legitimizing Hui’er’s status? This swindler still has his uses. Besides, don’t you want to see those two lammergeiers you caught back then?”

Li Tai’s words successfully aroused Yun Ye’s curiosity. After those two lammergeiers were brought back to the Central Plains that year, they immediately became half-dead. There was no choice but to hand them over to the Daoist sect to take the lammergeiers back to the Great Snow Mountains. Those two young lammergeiers couldn’t yet adapt to Guanzhong’s climate.

Suddenly hearing that the lammergeiers had been brought back to the Central Plains, Yun Ye felt it necessary to make the trip.

Wang Cai was rather unlucky. Yesterday he saw a hedgehog, and overcome with curiosity, took a bite. As a result, half his mouth was pierced with countless small holes from the sharp quills. Now he was chewing alfalfa sprouts with one side of his mouth. Yun Lu had applied white medicinal powder to Wang Cai’s mouth, so now he looked very comical. Seeing Yun Ye preparing to go out, he immediately ran over. These days he basically never left Yun Ye’s side.

Some days ago, when the grooms planned to replace Wang Cai’s iron horseshoes and used a knife to trim his hooves, they discovered that Wang Cai’s hooves weren’t growing much anymore. This was calcium deficiency. Yun Ye had them go to the small river to collect some shells, bring them back to steam and boil for disinfection, grind them into powder with a mill, and have the grooms mix this shell powder into Wang Cai’s feed. He had seen this trick used on hens laying soft-shelled eggs before. He didn’t know if it would work on Wang Cai, but fortunately Wang Cai still liked eating it. This meant it was the right treatment.

The banquet was being held at Qingniu Temple. This was an imperial Daoist temple. Only after requesting permission from Li Chengqian did Yuan Tiangang obtain the right to hold the banquet here. The Daoist sect had spent a full year preparing for this grand gathering. Without thinking, it would certainly be luxurious to the extreme.

The main character was the fake Yuan Shoucheng. Li Chengqian had deep favorable feelings toward Yuan Tiangang. After the Bureau of Waterways discovered this news, aside from very few people who knew, he imposed a gag order on the Bureau of Waterways. The imperial family didn’t interfere in Daoist affairs, but neither would they openly support them. The game of balance—Li Chengqian now played it very skillfully.

They say that when upright men fill the court, that’s the atmosphere of enriching the country and strengthening the people. But now in Li Chengqian’s court, there were all treacherous men. Zhangsun Chong, Dugu Mou, Xu Jingzong, plus the recently promoted Li Yifu—a group of treacherous men had managed to govern the country with great success and national peace and prosperity, to the point that someone submitted a memorial requesting the Emperor not to easily change the country’s current situation.

Whether these treacherous men would feel ashamed after seeing such documents was unknown, but that the Great Tang’s national power continued to rise was an undeniable fact.

Qingniu Temple had already been heavily guarded by soldiers. Naturally, unauthorized people couldn’t enter. A majestic-looking young foreign man, gripping the long blade at his waist, checked everyone’s invitations one by one. It looked like he didn’t plan to let a single imposter through.

“This person is Suo Yuanli. I heard he’s famously dutiful. When my Aunt Gaoyang wanted to enter the imperial palace and hadn’t obtained Uncle Emperor’s permission beforehand, this fellow would rather be beaten half to death by my aunt than let her pass. Later, only after Uncle Emperor found out and issued an order allowing aunt to enter the palace—by then, that fellow had already been beaten half to death.”

Li Hui was a quiet young man. Although his black hair and pair of light blue eyes gave him a kind of demonic beauty, this child’s nature was actually very good. He helped Yun Ye hold Yun Lei and explained this foreign man to the two elders.

“This fellow will become a harsh official in the future. People who don’t know flexibility are inevitably severe—this has been said since ancient times. Zhang Tang and Zhi Du were such people. The saying about ‘strong-necked officials’ has a long history. This fellow has actually achieved it. How did your elder brother recruit subordinates—all of them are a group of exceptional characters?”

Yun Ye slightly lifted the carriage curtain and peered at the young foreign man ahead. Suddenly he said to the coachman: “Drive straight in. If blocked, kill him!”

Li Tai quickly stopped Yun Ye and said quietly: “Gaoyang was in the wrong in this matter. We don’t need to help Gaoyang. Killing someone directly like this would make my elder brother lose face terribly.”

Seeing Li Tai’s intervention, Yun Ye no longer insisted. He lay back on his seat and said to Li Tai: “If you don’t kill him now, you’ll regret it in the future—very much so!”

Li Tai dismissed this carelessly and said: “Killing such a person would disgrace our status. If he wants to make me regret it, he must first have the qualification.”

Yun Ye smiled mysteriously, patted Li Tai’s arm and said: “I hope you’ll still be able to laugh in the future!”

The carriages crowding before Qingniu Temple, seeing Prince Wei’s carriage approaching, all gave way. Gaoyang, who had just been mentioned, unexpectedly leaped from her own carriage onto Li Tai’s carriage. Fang Yiai, sitting at the front of the carriage, couldn’t help but twitch his face. How could a woman nearly forty years old never learn propriety? But Fang Xuanling, sitting behind, chuckled and didn’t think his daughter-in-law had done anything wrong.

Li Tai’s carriage was immediately filled with fragrant wind. Yun Ye frowned and said: “Butterfly-Attracting Fragrance—this perfume was just developed by Chengxin. Its scent is the strongest. Pour one drop on your body and it will attract bees and butterflies. You could kill someone with this fragrance now. Did you pour a whole bottle?”

Gaoyang giggled and said: “Brother-in-law, you’re so funny. I only used a little. Your family’s perfume is outrageously expensive. Talk to Sister Xinyue and have her give me a few bottles.”

Yun Ye covered his nose and said in a muffled voice: “I don’t recall you ever paying money to buy perfume from my family. You always go directly to snatch it. Your Sister Xinyue dislikes the name of this perfume and doesn’t plan to sell it. What you’re using now was also snatched.”

“Be careful! Right now it’s the season when the vitex flowers bloom around Qingniu Temple. The whole world is full of bees. Let me tell you, since this perfume can attract butterflies, it can also attract bees. Don’t end up getting stung by bees into a pig’s head.”

Having been scolded by Yun Ye, Gaoyang felt somewhat unwilling. Seeing Li Hui laughing on the side, she went forward and grabbed Li Hui’s handsome face, kneading it forcefully while saying: “Yun Xiang hasn’t even married you yet, and you’re already eating from the bowl while looking at the pot…”

Li Tai wanted to reprimand her, but ultimately just clicked his tongue and said nothing. Gaoyang was terribly domineering now. Father Emperor and Mother Empress doted on her, Elder Brother Emperor doted on her, and the Fang family regarded her as a treasure. Even if she offended others through her arrogance, others would overlook it for Fang Xuanling’s sake. So now she had become so unrestrained—the type of person that even dogs would run from.

The coachman was very capable. He didn’t present any invitation or anything of the sort. Earlier, Duke Chu had originally wanted to kill this Suo Yuanli. Although the Prince had stopped him, the coachman wanted to see if this person really dared to block the Prince’s carriage. If he dared, the coachman wanted to severely whip him with his horsewhip. The Prince’s carriage didn’t need inspection even when entering the imperial palace.

This time Suo Yuanli was very aware of propriety. He personally led the horse’s head and escorted the carriage into Qingniu Temple. Before leaving, he even knelt on one knee to pay respects—very polite.

Hearing Suo Yuanli outside announcing his name, Gaoyang’s eyebrows immediately stood up, ready to fly into a rage. Li Tai pressed her onto the seat and said one word—”Quiet”—and Gaoyang made a face like she was about to cry.

Li Tai said helplessly: “How old are you to still throw childish tantrums? My elder brother values this person highly and will have use for him in the future. Just ignore him from now on. I don’t believe he’d dare to provoke you on his own initiative.”

Inside the main gate of Qingniu Temple was a spirit path. Li Tai’s carriage didn’t travel the middle spirit path. That road was only for the Emperor to walk. Although no one would say anything if Li Tai walked it, Li Tai had always been very rule-abiding. The etiquette he should observe, he would never make the slightest mistake with. This was very different from when Li Er was Emperor. Back then, the imperial paths inside the palace—he and Yun Ye didn’t know how many times they had walked them. As for stepping on the dragon heads on the cinnabar steps of the Hall of Ten Thousand People, they had done that plenty too. After Li Chengqian’s enthronement, Li Tai hadn’t done a single transgressive thing.

After Li Tai, Yun Ye, Gaoyang, Li Hui, and Yun Lei descended from the carriage, a handsome young Daoist priest walked over. He saluted with one palm raised and said: “This poor Daoist Yuan Shoucheng pays his respects.”

Li Tai smiled and returned the courtesy: “This solitary prince returns the courtesy!”

Yun Ye and Gaoyang ignored such formalities. Both circled around Yuan Shoucheng. Yun Ye’s eyes were full of mockery, while Gaoyang’s large eyes were full of surprise.

“Why does Duke Chu look at this poor Daoist with such amazement?” Yuan Shoucheng saluted again and asked.

“Nothing, nothing. I’m just surprised that when you were young, you were actually so handsome. When you won my money, you said you’d take me to a brothel. Does that still count or not? Don’t think that just because you’ve become young again, you can renege on this debt.”