Chai Yinglu found Sun Simiao studying medicine in a mountain temple and brought him to examine the Emperor Emeritus at Da’an Palace. After the white-haired Medicine King’s initial diagnosis that “the Emperor Emeritus has no complex illness, just age-related decline – the imperial physicians’ prescriptions and treatments are appropriate,” Chai Yinglu was summoned by the Empress’s lady-in-waiting and taken directly to Lizheng Hall.

The Emperor was still absent. By Empress Zhangsun’s bedside stood two females – the taller was the pale, exhausted Crown Princess Su, and the smaller was… the Seventeenth Princess.

“Seventeenth Sister is back with the Empress?” Li Yuanji asked eagerly, joy and anxiety flooding his heart. “How does she look? Is she injured? Was she badly frightened?”

Chai Yinglu shook her head, saying the Seventeenth Princess appeared physically unharmed but was listless and silent, not answering anyone’s questions, which greatly worried the Empress. Before Chai Yinglu could finish kowtowing and apologizing, the Empress told her niece to “stop wasting time and check on your Seventeenth Aunt.” So the female Taoist went to check the young girl’s pulse, examine her tongue, and question her, but she remained unresponsive.

Then she suddenly remembered something and, with the Empress’s permission, sent for a nurse surnamed Liu from the Prince of Wu’s residence in the Seventeenth Prince’s quarters of Da’an Palace. This worked – as soon as Nurse Liu entered Lizheng Hall before she could even kneel to the Empress, the Seventeenth Princess’s eyes lit up and she ran to throw herself into her nurse’s arms, finally crying.

Nurse Liu held the twelve-year-old girl as they both wept. Empress Zhangsun’s eyes also reddened as she sighed and had them taken to the Princess’s old quarters in the rear palace for care. At her gesture, palace maids brought two woven stools by the brazier for Chai Yinglu and Su Lingyu to sit on.

Without much prompting, Chai Yinglu honestly recounted everything from Li Yuanji’s investigation and meeting with Kang Sumi to their collaboration with the foreigners in planning the night raid on Da’an Palace.

“You confessed everything?” Yang Xinzhi exclaimed. Chai Yinglu replied calmly: “Yes. Why?”

Yang Xinzhi and Wei Shubin both looked at Li Yuanji. The Tang prince, as the mastermind, considered for a moment and nodded:

“It was right. I would have done the same.”

Chai Yinglu gazed at him deeply. Wei Shubin asked beside her: “What did the Empress say?”

“After listening, the Empress was silent for a long time. Finally, she said: ‘Chengqian has wronged his Fourteenth Uncle and Seventeenth Sister.'”

Yang Xinzhi and Wei Shubin both sighed in relief, their faces showing joy, but Chai Yinglu and Li Yuanji showed no such ease. They understood too well the complexities of imperial family matters to think it would be resolved so simply.

“I think Empress Zhangsun will judge fairly – this disaster was caused by the Crown Prince,” Wei Shubin continued. Chai Yinglu smiled at her, with compassion and affection:

“Of course, the Empress understands the reasoning. But understanding and determining punishment are two different matters…”

“Indeed,” Li Yuanji replied gloomily. “The Crown Prince is the foundation of the state, which cannot be shaken. To assign responsibility, someone must be made an example of – I’m the most suitable to take the blame. Now that Seventeenth Sister is safe, I have no more concerns. I’ll return to the palace tomorrow to confess.”

Wei Shubin’s gasp was sharp and loud, but before she could speak, Chai Yinglu cut in:

“Fourteenth Uncle, before entering the palace, I cast a divination about you. Guess what the reading was?”

“What?” Why suddenly talk about divination at this moment?

“Small goes, great comes; after extreme adversity comes prosperity,” the female Taoist smiled. “Your fortune has turned. The Empress has changed her mind and wants to thoroughly reinvestigate the Linfen County Princess’s death, to discover exactly what the Crown Prince has done.”

In the warm fragrance rising from the incense burner in Lizheng Hall, Empress Zhangsun extended a thin, pitiful hand to Consort Su:

“Did you bring it?”

“Yes.” The Crown Princess took out a wrapped package from her belt pouch and presented it to her mother-in-law. Inside the silk wrapping was the blood-jade archer’s ring.

The Empress picked up the jade ring and held it before her eyes, a faint smile appearing on her lips:

“You clever children probably guessed – this item was originally my gift to Chengqian…”

The smile spread to illuminate her entire face. The Empress’s black eyes sparkled, suddenly making her seem twenty years younger:

“It wasn’t any precious family heirloom, just… In the ninth year of Daye of the former Sui, after His Majesty and I completed our wedding in the Western Capital, we were escorted by your parents, Yingniang, on the thousand-li journey to Zhuo Commandery to pay respects to the Emperor Emeritus and Empress Dou, who was overseeing military supplies for the Goguryeo campaign. Unfortunately, soon after I arrived, Empress Dou passed away. The family then escorted her coffin back to the ancestral home in Hedong for mourning… For three years after marriage, His Majesty and I barely spoke alone. On the day mourning ended, when he was preparing to follow the Emperor Emeritus to Taiyuan, I was packing his clothes and found this at the bottom of the chest.”

A wave of blush crossed the thin cheeks of the woman in her thirties, her gaze soft and sweet, seemingly recalling those tender memories:

“I was curious and picked it up to look. His Majesty came over and asked if I knew what it was. I had seen illustrations in books and guessed it was a jade thumb ring for drawing a bowstring. He then asked how to write the character for ‘zhi,’ saying he hadn’t used it in so long he’d forgotten, so I found paper and brush to write it for him…”

Her slender fingers turned the thick blood-jade ring as she gazed at it intently:

“His Majesty told me to keep this jade ring safe. I soon forgot about it – there were too many important matters, one after another… In the eighth or ninth year of Wude, when Chengqian was old enough, he began learning archery. I remember it was at Hongyi Palace, the training ground not far from the main hall. A child just learning archery naturally had tender fingers that would bleed and hurt from the bowstring. Chengqian was crying and throwing a tantrum with his instructor when his father saw him.”

“Did he get scolded?” Chai Yinglu asked. Given how father and son had interacted in recent years, a scolding seemed inevitable.

The Empress smiled and shook her head: “By chance, His Majesty was in a good mood that day and didn’t want to scold anyone. He corrected Chengqian’s drawing posture and even stretched out his hand to let his son feel the calluses at the base of his palm, saying everyone learning archery goes through the same thing – to become a master archer, one must endure the pain… At that moment, he was the best father in the world. In seventeen years, he has never been that close to Chengqian again. And I… wasn’t there.”

Tears glinted in the mother’s eyes as Chai Yinglu and Su Lingyu remained silent.

“Chengqian’s attendants came to tell me, and I also encouraged him to practice diligently. His grandfather and father were world-renowned archers – as the Crown Prince’s eldest son, he couldn’t disgrace their reputation… As I spoke, I suddenly remembered this jade ring. After having people search through chests and cabinets to find it, I gave it to Chengqian, telling him about this ancient jade object’s uses, mainly for warding off evil and prayer. At the time, he… clutched it tightly as he left, so happy, so delighted…”

The Empress stared intently at the jade ring in her hand as if seeing again that seven or eight-year-old mischievous child holding it and bouncing away:

“After that, I never saw this item again until… that day at Ganye Temple when Fourteenth Brother presented it to me. The color had changed somewhat, becoming redder, but I recognized it immediately… You said it was found in Yiniang’s dowry, and that child lost her life because of it… How could this be?”

Fingers closing together, the Empress gripped it tightly in her palm and sighed with closed eyes:

“I’ve thought about many things. The Emperor Emeritus always loved children, often having Chengqian, Yiniang, and other grandchildren come to the palace to play at his knee, staying for a while before being sent back… When Chengqian was twelve, His Majesty and I moved out of the Eastern Palace, leaving him all alone in such a vast palace compound. He was often ill, sometimes not seeing his parents for three to five days… In recent years, His Majesty has made many imperial tours, and I’ve accompanied him yearly, taking Qingque and Lizhi along to summer retreats, leaving only Chengqian in the capital as regent… He was young and playful, bold and mischievous, just like his father in every way, but no one dared discipline him properly. When he got carried away and crossed the line, I…”

As pain surged in her tone, Chai Yinglu instinctively reached out to touch the Empress’s hand, saying softly:

“This is only natural, Aunt, don’t blame yourself – after all, mother and son are connected at heart… Moreover, in recent years the Crown Prince’s regency has been well-regarded by court and commoners alike – that’s what truly matters. Young people are unstable in character, sometimes acting frivolously. Making mistakes is perfectly normal and can be corrected.”

“The Crown Prince may not have truly committed any grave offense against ethics,” Su Lingyu also comforted her mother-in-law. “Finding the jade ring at Ganye Temple proves nothing. Even if he did give it to Yiniang, it could have been because they were close as children and he gave it away while playing house…”

“You don’t understand.” The Empress smiled bitterly, shaking her head as she looked at her chosen daughter-in-law, the future mother of the Great Tang. “This matter with Chengqian showed signs years ago… It’s all my fault for not paying attention. Now, one mistake leads to another.”

Note: The “quanti” mentioned in the Empress’s quarters were common seats from the Northern and Southern Dynasties to the Sui-Tang period – essentially round woven rattan stools with a waist-drum shape narrowed in the middle. In Zhuangzi’s time, “quan” referred to bamboo fish traps and “ti” to rabbit snares, later becoming general terms for bamboo baskets and then seats resembling baskets, also written as “quanti,” “quantai,” “quanti,” etc. In the Southern Liang Dynasty, Liu Xiaoyi wrote “Thanks for the Crown Prince’s Gift of a Five-Colored Rattan Quanti,” mentioning “rattan gathered from Yanzhou, beauty exhausting ornate patterns.” A later annotation notes “Hou Jing always had hu chairs and quanti on his bed,” confirming its use as seating. This may be the ancestor of later high stools.