The reason Yun Ye couldn’t return home wasn’t because the Emperor wouldn’t release him or the Empress wouldn’t permit it, but because he had encountered a difficult problem. The Crown Prince of Great Tang, Prince Wei, and he—the three of them—needed to solve an enormous trouble for Great Tang’s most beloved princess, Princess Li Mingda, Princess Xizi: her doggy wouldn’t eat.

Yun Mu considered himself quite experienced in this matter and brought his own large dog to see why Princess Xizi’s doggy wouldn’t eat. However, he returned very quickly, and Wang Cai also tucked his tail tightly, looking quite bedraggled. It appeared Princess Xizi’s doggy was no simple creature—to frighten the fierce Wang Cai so badly, it must be a ferocious beast.

In Chang’an, wealthy families keeping lynxes and leopards was nothing unusual anymore. For Great Tang’s most beloved princess to raise two rhinoceroses wouldn’t be anything remarkable either.

One should know that at the academy, teachers with nothing better to do had already begun breeding the third generation of miniature lynxes in order to reduce the lynx’s body size. They had already achieved initial success—at least the tuft of fierce fur on the ear tips had disappeared, the body size had decreased, and their temperament had become gentler. According to the academy teachers, in another two generations, the bred lynxes would only weigh ten pounds. Even so, Yun Ye couldn’t imagine the scene of a sweet young lady strolling through a garden holding a ten-pound lynx.

The palace nobles’ favorite was Persian cats. There had even emerged merchant caravans specifically transporting cats from Persian lands. Cats that should have been used for catching mice had now become beloved pets on noblewomen’s laps.

“Doggy won’t eat!” Xizi was already beginning to sob, pulling at Li Tai’s clothes and shaking them constantly. Li Tai struck himself heavily on the forehead and said to Xizi, “Xizi, Fourth Brother has always believed that iron-eating beasts shouldn’t eat iron—they should eat something else.”

Hearing Li Tai’s words, Yun Ye spat out the tea in his mouth and urgently asked, “Say that again—what thing? What thing eats iron?”

“Three flower bears ran out from the Qinling Mountains and were captured by commoners. They were sent to the palace by the local government, said to be ancient mythical beasts called iron-eating beasts. It’s been half a month now. Xizi has been feeding iron to the iron-eating beasts, but they refuse to eat it. Even the finest hundred-times-refined steel they won’t eat. The palace has had these creatures before, but they all refused to eat anything and starved to death.”

Yun Ye was already stunned listening to this. A terrifying scene had already appeared in his mind—a pink, chubby little girl with tears in her eyes, holding a large chunk of iron and trying to feed it into a weak and feeble panda’s mouth. This couldn’t be real. Pandas had never eaten iron, never once. Thinking of this, Yun Ye felt somewhat frantic. He must rescue the pandas. Surrounded by a group of cruel tyrannosaurs in the palace, they absolutely wouldn’t survive this winter.

He hurried to Xizi’s dog cage to look. Sure enough, three pandas—two large and one small—lay weakly in the cage. The small one was already nearly dead from starvation. All three pandas were very weak and pitiful-looking. If this were in later generations, no matter how cute Xizi was, she would be scorned by people worldwide. Just looking at those shiny steel rods thrown in the cage made it clear—absolutely fine steel materials. To facilitate the pandas’ feeding, the Imperial Workshop had specially cut the huge steel ingots into small strips. It seemed the pandas still had no appetite. Two palace attendants had even innovatively smeared honey on the steel rods, hoping the pandas would eat the steel rods along with licking the honey.

“I also think flower bears eating iron is somewhat ridiculous. Even if they’re called iron-eating beasts, it’s the same—just like how your horse is called Wang Cai and my cat is called Wind Shadow. They should all just be nicknames.” Li Chengqian scratched his hair and turned to say to Yun Ye.

“The palace has kept these creatures before? Did I really never explain their origins to you?” Yun Ye asked strangely. Since ancient times, Guanzhong, Shu, and southern Gansu had been pandas’ habitats. People all called them flower bears. The palace had many rare and exotic beasts—how could there not be pandas?

“Oh right, Lan Ling kept them. Now Lan Ling is always at the academy, or else busy with her own cream candy business. She’s nowhere to be seen all day. Xizi is young, so not knowing is natural.”

Li Tai himself put on the air of a know-it-all, nonchalantly explaining to Yun Ye the pandas’ tragic experiences in the palace, though he himself didn’t actually know either.

Fortunately, there was arrow bamboo in the palace. Yun Ye had attendants go cut some tender branches, which he stuffed into the cage all at once. The pandas immediately perked up, hugging the bamboo and beginning to eat ravenously. They ate quickly, clearly quite hungry. As for the iron rods, Yun Ye had already instructed the attendants to take them away. He didn’t know who had come up with such a stupid idea.

Xizi clapped her small hands and laughed. After laughing a while, she stopped and wanted Yun Ye to specifically come to the palace to help her raise her doggies. Even now, she stubbornly still called the pandas doggies.

Although being a panda keeper wouldn’t be bad, Li Chengqian held Xizi and said, “Yun Ye can’t go raise doggies for you. He needs to find ways to help Father Emperor feed all the people under heaven.” The kind-hearted Xizi finally reluctantly parted with them, entrusting her three flower doggies to Yun Ye to raise at the academy, saying she would visit every month.

The students were all on vacation. The academy was cold and deserted, with only some students from distant places still remaining to continue their studies. A month and a half wasn’t enough time for them to make a round trip from home to the academy.

The first through the fifteenth days were when the entire nation celebrated. The students remaining at school inevitably felt some homesickness. However, this sentiment that had inspired countless beautiful poems was completely scattered by three adorably naive pandas.

The mountains were still a vast expanse of white. The bamboo had all been broken by the heavy snow. Unable to find feeding grounds in winter, the pandas had come down from the mountains. All animals need salt. When pandas broke into commoners’ homes and discovered the weak salt residue on the iron woks, they continuously licked the iron woks. Some impatient pandas even bit through the woks and licked the iron fragments. When commoners saw this, they mistakenly believed pandas were monsters that ate iron.

At the academy, naturally, such tragic iron-eating incidents would no longer occur. The remaining students, hearing of the pandas’ ordeal, felt strongly moved to care for them. Everyone received cake during New Year’s—they would rather drool from the sidelines themselves than save their cakes to feed the pandas. As for arrow bamboo, the bamboo groves around the academy were out of luck. Only tender, fresh bamboo could be fed to the pandas. Diligent students specifically helped the pandas search for winter bamboo shoots.

Pandas perhaps truly were only suited to living within human care. In just one short month, the three pandas had recovered their roly-poly figures. Even if chased away, they were unwilling to leave the academy. All day they wandered around the academy, occupying an artificial mountain as their base. They even knew to pull students’ bedding hanging outside into their cave to line their nest. They lived carefree days.

Their wild nature was no longer visible. They couldn’t bear to see students holding food bowls. As soon as they heard the dining hall bell ring, the family of three would go wait at the dining hall entrance. They dared not enter the dining hall—that plump cook would chase them out with a large broom.

The cooks, seeing the pandas were quite sensible, also added two more bowls of millet when cooking porridge daily. The extra pot, once cooled to lukewarm, was poured into a very large pig trough for the family of three to enjoy.

Xizi had come to visit several times. Yun Ye wouldn’t let her get close to the pandas. Who knew when they might go berserk—better not to provoke them. Xizi always wanted to saddle the pandas like Yun Mu did and ride them around everywhere. Unfortunately, her frail body, combined with her congenital heart disease, always caused her wish to fail.

Little Xizi’s eyes always had traces of red bloodshot veins, and her ten fingernails always presented an unhealthy bluish color. Sun Simiao had used many medicines, but none were very effective.

Yun Ye knew this child wouldn’t live past twelve years old, so he gave her the greatest tolerance. Li Er, Zhangsun, Li Chengqian, and Li Tai all knew that as long as this little sister wanted something, they would pluck down even the stars from the sky for her.

Whatever Yun Mu had, Yun Ye prepared a share for little Xizi. He also found her the gentlest of the family’s large dogs. Li Chengqian found the best leatherworker to craft a very beautiful saddle and tack set for her that could be fitted on the dog. Although she couldn’t charge into battle riding Wang Cai like Yun Mu did, under the attendants’ guidance, slowly walking a circle was still possible.

Even in such an indulgent environment, Xizi still hadn’t been spoiled. The five-year-old girl was already diligently studying calligraphy, and moreover, she was naturally intelligent. Her kind nature made everyone in the palace dote on this child even more.

Princess Jinyang was her title. Li Er had given this most precious designation to his frail daughter, hoping the empire’s mighty prestige could help her live a long and healthy life.

Time always slipped away inadvertently. When Xizi discovered more and more people at the academy, she realized the new semester had begun. She didn’t like the cold and cheerless palace. She liked the youths at the academy, and white-bearded Li Gang, because the old man always placed her on his lap and, pushed by servants, idly strolled around the academy sunbathing. Sometimes watching her three doggies sleep, she would also drowsily fall asleep.

“Yun Ye, are you truly helpless regarding Xizi’s condition?” Li Gang sometimes looked at the already-sleeping child and would ask Yun Ye this question. This time was already who knows which time asking.

“There’s no way. Her illness is congenital developmental deficiency, and moreover, it’s the most terrifying kind—a disease of the heart meridian. Daoist Sun has researched many prescriptions. Although they can temporarily boost her vital energy and blood, they don’t address the root cause. If my master were still here, he might be able to open her chest cavity and repair her heart meridian properly. But us? There’s no way.”

The master Yun Ye spoke of referred to the advanced medical care of later generations. In later times, with such an enormous family background, hearts could be replaced. A heart repair surgery shouldn’t be too difficult.

Li Gang patted the chair armrest and sighed for a while, then began scolding Yun Ye for not learning anything good from that strange person, wasting food in vain, only learning some useless eating, drinking, and playing.

To this, Yun Ye had nothing to say in response.