Li Shimin knew she was referring to what happened in Honghua Prefecture. He took a light breath and said coolly: “Until now, I still occasionally dream of Xuanba, dream of him calling me Second Brother, dream of us sparring together in martial arts, but every time I wake up, there’s only me alone.”

His words caused Yunyi’s expression to darken, and she said in a low voice: “I understand. No matter what I say, I cannot make up for the mistakes I made in the past, but I still want to say… I’m sorry.”

Li Shimin waved his hand: “There’s no need. The grudges between you and me have long been impossible to calculate clearly, but this time… should be the final intersection between us.”

His words caused Yunyi’s heart to ache. Li Shimin… was he severing ties with her? Well, that made sense. One of them surnamed Yang, the other Li – even without the matter of Honghua Prefecture and Li Xuanba, there shouldn’t be any intersection between them.

Although Yunyi tried her best to hide it, Li Shimin still saw the look of loss in her eyes. He suppressed that inexplicable twitch in his heart and said: “What are your plans for the future?”

Yunyi crouched down, cupped a handful of stream water in her hands, then watched the water flow out from between her fingers, returning to the stream, repeating endlessly. “Ruhui just told me to go with him to Taiyuan.”

Li Shimin nodded: “Taiyuan is the place of origin for our Li clan. We’ve always had troops stationed there to guard it. The situation there is relatively stable now, so going there would be a good choice.”

Yunyi smiled without speaking. After a while, she raised her head: “How is your wound? Have you applied medicine?”

“Wound?” Li Shimin was stunned for a moment before reacting that Yunyi was referring to the injury he sustained last night from catching arrows barehanded. He looked down and said casually: “In the rush, I forgot to apply medicine. It’s just a flesh wound, nothing serious.”

Yunyi frowned: “Even so, since the skin is broken and bleeding, the wound could be serious or minor. If it becomes infected, that would be troublesome. Let me take a look.”

“I already said it’s fine, no need to trouble yourself.” Faced with Li Shimin’s words, Yunyi said nothing, only silently looked at him. After a moment of eye contact, Li Shimin sighed lightly and extended his injured hand.

Li Shimin had not only failed to apply medicine, he hadn’t even done the simplest bandaging, leaving the wound exposed. The wound was red and swollen, with pale yellow pus seeping out. Yunyi frowned: “Good thing I looked, otherwise it really would have become infected. You’re really something – not thinking to treat your wound for so long. Did you really want to wait until it became serious before treating it?” As she spoke, she took out her handkerchief, dampened it with stream water, and cleaned Li Shimin’s wound. When she was about to apply medicine, she encountered a difficulty – neither she nor Li Shimin had brought wound medicine. Finally, Yunyi could only return to the military camp to get medicine. After applying medicine to Li Shimin’s wound, she tore strips from her silk scarf to bandage it. After finishing all this, she smiled: “Although it looks rather ugly, at least it’s bandaged, and quite securely. Remember to change the medicine daily, and it should heal quickly.”

Li Shimin looked at his right hand, which was bandaged like a bear’s paw and couldn’t even move, not knowing whether to cry or laugh. He nodded: “Many thanks, Princess.”

“You were injured saving me, so if anyone should be thanking, it should be me.” As she spoke, Yunyi had already washed her hands clean. She raised her eyes to look at the setting sun about to disappear behind the mountains, saying with emotion: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a beautiful sunset.”

Li Shimin followed her gaze: “Isn’t the sunset from Ziwei Palace beautiful?”

“Ziwei Palace…” Yunyi murmured softly, recalling the palace where she had lived for over ten years, and smiled lightly: “The sunset at Ziwei Palace is beautiful, but there’s a feeling of being trapped. Coming and going, it’s always the same place, not magnificent and purely beautiful like here.”

Li Shimin was silent for a moment, then said: “May I ask the Princess a question?”

Yunyi turned back: “You want to ask why I went to Honghua Prefecture to assassinate Duke Li that year, don’t you?”

Li Shimin lowered his eyes: “The Princess is perceptive. Indeed, this is exactly what Shimin wanted to ask.”

Yunyi smiled slightly and said slowly: “Peach and plum blossoms, don’t speak, yellow swans fly around mountains, circling in flower gardens – Second Young Master, have you heard this folk song?”

“I have.” After Li Shimin answered, Yunyi continued: “Yang Guang not only heard it, he also had a dream. He dreamed that when yang flowers finished blooming, li flowers would bloom. He was very frightened and summoned Angjiatuo to interpret his dream. Angjiatuo said this dream, like the folk song, foretold that the Li clan would replace the Yang clan and become rulers of the world. If Yang Guang wanted to continue being emperor, he would have to kill all people surnamed Li in the world. Among these Li surnames was your Longxi Li clan. However, because Duke Li was responsible for guarding the Central Plains, if he were executed, the Central Plains would very likely fall into chaos, so Yang Guang hesitated.”

“I guessed as much, but Princess, you are of noble imperial blood. Logically, he shouldn’t have sent you to assassinate my father.” Faced with Li Shimin’s words, Yunyi smiled: “You’re right. No matter how you calculate it, it shouldn’t have been my turn, so… that operation was my own initiative, without anyone’s knowledge.”

Li Shimin frowned: “Why would the Princess do such a thing?”

“Why?” Yunyi laughed self-mockingly: “Because I wanted to help him pacify the world, hoped for Great Sui’s stability, hoped the people wouldn’t suffer from warfare, hoped…” Her voice paused, then she shook her head: “But I was wrong. The chaos in the world stemmed from Yang Guang. If he didn’t die, the people would never have good days. Fortunately, I didn’t kill Duke Li then, otherwise I would have made a grave mistake.”

“I see.” Li Shimin nodded, then frowned: “Then why do you and Meixue look so similar? Not to mention us, even Wu Laosan, who raised Meixue for over ten years, couldn’t tell you apart.”

Yunyi stared at him for a moment: “Do you really want to know?”

Li Shimin saw the struggle in her eyes: “If it’s inconvenient for the Princess to say, then forget it.”

Yunyi took a deep breath and looked at the last ray of colored clouds in the sky: “There’s nothing inconvenient about it. Actually… Meixue and I are twin sisters.”

Li Shimin said in surprise: “Twin sisters? This means Meixue… she also surnamed Yang, and is also a princess?”

Yunyi smiled indifferently: “Meixue should indeed be surnamed Yang, but she is not Yang Guang’s daughter, and neither am I.” Under Li Shimin’s astonished gaze, she continued slowly: “Back then, the person the late emperor favored to inherit the throne was not Yang Guang. He used despicable means to seize the throne from the crown prince and ascend to power. In fact, what he seized was not just these things, but also Mother Empress.”

Li Shimin calmed the shock in his heart and probed: “This means both you and Meixue are descendants of the Prince of Fangling?” After Yang Yong’s death, he was posthumously granted the title Prince of Fangling.

“Correct. After Yang Guang learned of mine and Meixue’s existence, he agreed on the surface, but actually conspired with imperial physicians and midwives to kill us both at birth. Fortunately, Heaven took pity – I was saved by Mother Empress, while Meixue was picked up and raised by Father. However, I only learned of this after returning. When I was in Honghua Prefecture, I didn’t know my relationship with Meixue.”