The ox cart’s interior was far less luxurious than the Prince’s mansion carriage and much smaller in area. A mili veil hung on the wall, long enough to cover one’s entire body, with its lengthy gauze draping onto the carpet.

Though Li Yuanying wore women’s clothing, he still sat upright with imposing bearing. Huo Qi Lang had never seen such a coldly magnificent beauty and was mesmerized, yet intimidated by his overwhelming radiance, becoming unusually restrained. Before meeting this person, she often wondered whether the world’s greatest beauty would be male or female—never imagining it could be both.

She couldn’t help thinking: the mysteries of creation are beyond mortal comprehension.

After sitting opposite him in a daze for a while, three knocks came from the front wall of the carriage. Li Yuanying blew out the candle. Then the carriage door was pulled open with figures moving outside. The gate captain at the east gate routinely inspected vehicles, seeing shadows of two beautiful women vaguely seated behind the gauze curtain. The patrol soldiers dared not look further and closed the door again.

The ox cart swayed through the east gate, traveled two li, then turned south.

As the city walls gradually receded from view, Li Yuanying removed his false hair, shed the women’s clothing, and pulled out a plain round-collared casual robe from Madam Yu’s prepared bundle, restoring his male form.

Before she could look her fill, Madam Jing had vanished. Huo Qi Lang felt quite regretful, helping him adjust his clothing slightly. Seeing he’d forgotten the flower ornament on his forehead but not reminding him, she only asked: “The court forbids Your Highness from leaving Youzhou City. Before I came, to avoid surveillance by the Prefect and Military Commissioner, Your Highness began disguising yourself as a woman to leave the city by carriage, didn’t you?”

Li Yuanying nodded slightly: “If I hadn’t inexplicably fallen ill, I wouldn’t have needed another body double—I would have been sufficient myself.”

Huo Qi Lang sighed: “The secrets Old Seven learned today would be enough to lose my head ten times over, wouldn’t they?”

Li Yuanying said coldly: “Keep it for yourself. That hollow, clanging, superficial head of yours wouldn’t be of much use to me anyway.”

Huo Qi Lang asked again: “Where are we going now?”

Li Yuanying didn’t answer. After a long silence, he said solemnly: “The fewer people who know secrets, the safer it is, but when only one person knows the truth, accidents become more likely. What I’m about to tell you, neither my two wet nurses nor any other confidants know the full picture. I must tell you everything now, in case something happens to me in the future…”

He paused, thinking that his schemes involved many parties. Though he had planned carefully, no one could guarantee complete success. If he unfortunately failed, the person who might escape alive would perhaps only be this skilled martial artist before him.

He continued: “If something should happen, you must relay this matter to Bao Zhu.”

Huo Qi Lang was startled: “There’s an even greater secret? Could Your Highness actually be an immortal descending to earth, about to return to heaven?”

Li Yuanying didn’t follow her words, saying gravely: “This matter may concern the truth behind my birth mother’s death.”

Huo Qi Lang’s heart tightened. She “oh”ed and carefully warned herself to truly keep silent.

Li Yuanying thought calmly, organizing the clues buried deep in his heart for years, saying slowly: “The origin of everything begins before my birth, with the Jingyuan military rebellion in Chang’an, when Prince Liang fled to Shu. When it happened, that man was coincidentally hunting in the imperial park outside the city…”

Huo Qi Lang listened silently, thinking that Prince Liang was the current Emperor, Li Yuanying’s biological father. In his mouth, he had become ‘that man,’ which sounded quite resentful.

“He had brought his eldest son Li Chengyuan and dozens of retainers. Hearing that rebels had attacked the capital, he abandoned his household of wives and children and fled directly southwest with his men in panic. Prince Liang’s mansion was ransacked by rebels. From the Princess Consort down, dozens of concubines and children all died at the hands of bandits, their bones lost forever.”

Huo Qi Lang had seen the tragedy of fallen cities and lost lives. Her mood heavy, she asked quietly: “Since the Noble Consort survived, Prince Liang should have brought her along?”

Li Yuanying shook his head: “Mother was abandoned in Chang’an like the other women. During their flight, Prince Liang’s party wandered in hardship for over ten days. One midnight, servants discovered a white fox had entered their camp and couldn’t be driven away no matter what. It kept crying as if trying to lead people to follow. Prince Liang took men to follow the white fox. After crossing several mountain peaks, outside a hidden cave, the white fox cried once and stood motionless.

He ordered men to investigate the cave and incredibly found Mother, Lady Xue, hiding alone inside. She said she’d been rescued by a martial artist nun with high skills. That fairy-like woman seemed to possess divine powers—she carried Mother out from the chaos and hid her there, then sent the white fox to notify Prince Liang to come fetch her. Though Mother appeared frightened and haggard, she was completely unharmed, still wearing the pomegranate-red skirt from the day they were separated, without any damage.”

Hearing such a legendary story, Huo Qi Lang couldn’t help thinking that with lightness skills as strong as the Scholar in Green or Dong Zhenzi, rescuing someone from chaos might be possible. But if their martial arts were slightly inferior, even the strongest expert couldn’t withstand military formations’ arrow rain and spears. Calculating from Li Yuanying’s age, was there really such a fox-keeping Taoist nun in the martial world twenty-odd years ago?

Li Yuanying continued: “After bringing Mother back to camp, Prince Liang had no other women beside him and treasured her greatly. Seven and a half months later, I was born in Shu. Calculating backward, conception should have occurred in Prince Liang’s mansion.

What followed is known throughout the realm. Prince Liang was favored by the Shence Army Commandant, Grand Eunuch Cheng Shou, for his timid and easily controlled nature. After several maneuvers, he was pushed onto the throne. Li Chengyuan, born to his primary wife, was established as Crown Prince. Mother was made Noble Consort. Through her elevated status, I also received favor, being enfeoffed as Prince while still in swaddling clothes and given the milk name ‘Little Fox’ as commemoration.

Unfortunately, Cheng Shou didn’t understand the Li Tang princes’ skill at playing weak to catch the strong. Two years later, he mysteriously died in a dark alley in Xuanyang Ward, appearing to have drunkenly fallen into an open channel and drowned.

After emperors gain power over life and death, they become superstitious about metaphysics beyond their power’s reach. Because of the miraculous events of the fairy’s rescue and white fox’s guidance, he believed Noble Consort Xue’s return was an auspicious omen, a symbol of his destined succession. Therefore, he extremely treasured Mother.

After several years, Mother bore Bao Zhu. She was clever and adorable, lively and lovable, resembling Father considerably. The Emperor’s affection for her even exceeded that for princes. Children of the Noble Consort all received importance. As I grew older, the Crown Prince’s position became less secure. With succession still distant and pressure from the favored consort’s son, Li Chengyuan began acting wildly. The court gradually voiced opinions about deposing the Crown Prince and establishing another.

Rumors emerged from somewhere saying that though Noble Consort Xue was naturally beautiful, during the Prince’s residence period she had a dull, obedient personality—quiet and not particularly favored. For a lone young woman to escape unharmed from chaos, then seemingly be reborn as an extraordinarily intelligent, versatile beauty who maintained undiminished favor past age thirty, firmly grasping the monarch’s heart with a single glance that could drive people to serve her—it seemed she’d been possessed during her disappearance by some heart-bewitching demon… perhaps that fox spirit.”

Hearing this, Huo Qi Lang interjected: “This theory is even less believable than martial experts. At least the Setting Sun Courtyard has several real masters, but no one’s seen an actual fox spirit.”

After saying this, she secretly glanced at Li Yuanying, thinking this person’s milk name was Little Fox and he was indeed unnaturally beautiful, but his temperament was serious and reserved, unromantic, wasting such rare good looks. If the Noble Consort had been charming and versatile when alive, absolutely no one could have resisted her allure.

Li Yuanying smiled coldly: “Such absurd rumors were obviously fabricated from nothing. When they reached the Emperor’s ears, he merely laughed them off. But after another two years, another rumor appeared with more specific purpose: someone said Prince Shao was frail and small at birth, much smaller than ordinary newborns, seemingly not full-term.”

Huo Qi Lang couldn’t help making a disgusted “hmm” sound: “Wasn’t this rumor deliberately slandering the Noble Consort and questioning Your Highness’s bloodline?”

Li Yuanying nodded: “Mother was separated alone in the war chaos for over ten days—this experience was known throughout the palace. If calculated by women’s ten-month pregnancy term, then I was conceived in the Prince’s residence. But if I were premature, the gestation time would be uncertain.

This time the Emperor was furious, ordering investigation into who spread the rumors. The source traced back to an old woman from the former Prince’s residence who had luckily escaped with Prince Liang and attended Mother during my birth.

This person was executed by waist-cutting with her clan exterminated. The rumors seemed to die down, but the only one who could benefit from these stories was Crown Prince Li Chengyuan. The Emperor understood clearly—the later edict deposing the Crown Prince included phrases like ‘harboring resentment, speaking rebellious words,’ condemning him for slandering the beloved consort and causing embarrassment.”

Li Yuanying, usually taciturn, had never spoken so much at once. He stopped to catch his breath. The carriage temporarily fell silent.

After a while, Huo Qi Lang’s eyes filled with regret as she tentatively said: “I roughly guess why Your Highness couldn’t become Crown Prince and was instead sent to serve as an official in Youzhou.”

Li Yuanying said: “Let me hear it.”

“Old Seven doesn’t understand the complex rules of court and harem, but men’s jealousy is very strong. Because they cannot bear children themselves, they have an obsession with bloodline legitimacy. I imagine the Emperor couldn’t escape this pattern either. With these rumors repeatedly appearing, even knowing someone was fabricating them, he would eventually suspect you.”

Li Yuanying laughed coldly: “Your thoughts always focus on strange places.”

Huo Qi Lang smiled sheepishly.

Even feeling displeased, he had to admit her speculation was correct. Li Yuanying said wearily: “When Mother was alive, this suspicion was suppressed by her powerful presence, but after her death, the Emperor’s buried doubts gradually surfaced.

When selecting her posthumous title, the Ministry of Rites presented numerous honorific characters. The Emperor first decided on the character ‘zhen’ for chastity. Empress Zhenci—her body was chaste, her conduct benevolent, steadfastly righteous, boundlessly loving. He truly cared about what happened during Mother’s disappearance, especially whether his eldest son was his biological child. Later I was forced to leave Chang’an because when succession was again discussed, a close minister told him the prophecy ‘string removing the central vertical transmits the realm.’

He clearly knew Huo Qi Lang was illiterate, slowly drawing on the carpet to explain in detail: “The character ‘string’ (串) with the middle vertical removed becomes ‘lü’ (吕). First Emperor Ying Zheng’s mother Zhao Ji was once Lü Buwei’s concubine, later given to Prince Chu, bearing son Zheng, who later destroyed the six states and unified the realm. Folk rumors always claimed he was actually Lü Buwei’s bloodline, not the Qin king’s heir. Ban Gu directly called Ying Zheng ‘Lü Zheng’ in the Book of Han.

This prophecy completely triggered that man’s suspicion. Perhaps seeing my resemblance to Mother, he couldn’t bear to find excuses for execution, so he exiled me far to the frontier, confined in Youzhou City—out of sight, out of mind. The story to this point is what Bao Zhu knows, but what I’ll say next, she knows nothing about.”

Li Yuanying pulled out a bamboo-green brocade pouch from his chest, sighing softly: “That was the real reason for my falling out with the Emperor.”

Author’s Note: Tang emperors were truly parkour masters, creating the record of “nine imperial flights, six capital falls.”