During summer, the Emperor and Empress would either go to Jiucheng Palace to escape the heat or go to Yushan to escape the heat—in any case, they would leave Chang’an. But this year, the Emperor and Empress hadn’t budged at all. Especially the Emperor—he rarely left Wanmin Palace.

Now suddenly mentioning a gambling event made Yun Ye feel very strange. He didn’t know why they wanted to give the gambling event a name like “Sorrowful People.” Yuan Shoucheng, as the fourth person to attend this gambling event, was a candidate Yun Ye pushed forward at the last moment. Who knew the Emperor and Empress would actually agree?

Li Zhi’s rebellion was like a stone thrown into a large lake. Although it stirred up frightening waves, as time passed, the large lake slowly became calm again.

Zhangsun carried a food box. Yun Ye reached over to take it from her, while Li Er walked ahead with his hands behind his back. Duan Hong led the way at the very front. This was the direction toward Taiye Pool. Yun Ye didn’t know why Zhangsun wanted to personally carry the food box—when he offered to take it, she even hesitated.

There were many guards along the way. Not a single pleasure-seeking consort could be seen. Li Er’s six underage princesses were also nowhere to be seen. Following a sloping path, they slowly walked underground. For the first time, Yun Ye knew the imperial palace had such a massive underground structure.

“It existed since the Former Sui. When Yang Jian built Daxing City, there was already such a tunnel. However, His Majesty later expanded it and it became this way. You’re the first external minister to come here—don’t speak of it outside.”

As Yun Ye and Zhangsun walked, she explained to him the tunnel’s origins.

There was nothing surprising about this. Even if there was a tunnel leading directly outside from the imperial palace, Yun Ye wouldn’t feel strange, because the Yun family had such a tunnel. If the imperial palace didn’t have such standard measures, that would be strange.

“You don’t seem very surprised?”

“Nothing to be surprised about, Your Majesty. Back when excavating Wude Hall, the construction period was over a year longer than expected. This subject understood the imperial palace must have a place similar to Wude Hall.”

Li Er chuckled: “You really dare say anything. But now I can only hear a few true words from your mouth. Do you know why we came here? It’s because of that allusion about not meeting until the Yellow Springs.”

Yun Ye was greatly alarmed: “Could it be Pheasant Slave is imprisoned here?”

“Unexpected? I come every day to look at this rebellious son!”

Hearing Li Er’s words, Yun Ye wanted to run. Just as he was about to withdraw from this terrifying prison visit group, he heard Li Er say again: “Too late. If you had this alertness at Wanmin Palace, you might have managed to escape. Since you’ve already arrived here, go see your brother-in-law, see this brother-in-law who wholeheartedly wanted to kill off the imperial clan. If we’re going to be sorrowful, let’s all be sorrowful together. It’s too unfair if only the Empress and I are sorrowful.”

Yun Ye’s face was nearly purple as an eggplant. At this time, the one who should come here was Li Chengqian. At the very least it should be Li Tai. Why would it be him?

“If Chengqian saw Pheasant Slave, he would immediately kill him. If Qing Que saw Pheasant Slave, he might beat him to death. You’re his brother-in-law—perhaps you can have more patience with him.” Zhangsun said while wiping tears. This was the first time seeing Zhangsun’s most vulnerable side.

“Your Majesty, I also very much want to beat him to death. He destroyed all my beautiful expectations for the Great Tang.”

“I knew it would be like this—every single one of you wants to kill my Pheasant Slave. Try touching a single hair on his head!” Zhangsun’s shrill voice produced a great echo underground.

The current Zhangsun was simply a mother who only knew how to protect her child, not that wise and intelligent empress. She snatched the food box from Yun Ye’s hands in one motion, afraid Yun Ye would poison the food.

Li Er looked at Yun Ye and Zhangsun, sighed sorrowfully, and stepped forward. Yun Ye had no choice but to continue following.

“Mother Empress, you’ve come! What delicious food did you bring today? Please tell Father Emperor that your child has written six pages of large characters. Ask him to let your child go out, will you? Pheasant Slave won’t be naughty anymore.”

The sunshine-faced Li Zhi walked out from a very bright room, happily took the food box from Zhangsun’s hands, and couldn’t wait to open it. He reached his hand inside to fish out a golden-yellow fat chicken and began gnawing at it ravenously, completely ignoring the Emperor and Yun Ye.

Zhangsun intimately put her arm around Li Zhi’s shoulder, watching him eat the roasted chicken, even helping him wipe his mouth. After eating a few bites, Li Zhi embarrassedly raised his head, tore off a small strip of meat and stuffed it into Zhangsun’s mouth. Zhangsun opened her mouth to bite the chicken meat, coaxing Li Zhi like coaxing a child: “Pheasant Slave be good. Mother Empress doesn’t like eating chicken. Pheasant Slave eat more.”

Li Er sat on a chair opposite watching their motherly love and filial piety as they ate. Yun Ye discovered his own legs were also a bit weak. Leaning against the wall, he slowly slid down to sit on the ground. This scene was too eerie.

The room was very bright, like daylight, because jade plaques hung from the ceiling. No wonder Wanmin Palace had recently been pitch black at night—turns out these things had been sent here.

“Everything in the room was moved from Pheasant Slave’s traveling palace, exactly the same as when he was young. The people serving him also look exactly like that group from back then, their names also unchanged. I am the Emperor—I can only do this much. Even so, Pheasant Slave will still suddenly go mad, and no one can control him…”

Li Zhi, who had been eating sweetly, suddenly threw away the chicken meat in his hand and shrieked: “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” Then he rolled under the bed in one motion, hugged his arms, trembled violently, and called out softly: “Mother Empress save me! Mother Empress save me!”

Zhangsun also crawled under the bed, tightly hugged Li Zhi, patted his back with tears streaming down her face as she consoled him: “Pheasant Slave don’t be afraid, Pheasant Slave don’t be afraid. Mother Empress is right here, Mother Empress is right here.” While speaking, she even slapped the bed board making crackling sounds, as if fighting the monsters that terrified Li Zhi.

The stubborn and proud monarch had unconsciously become tear-stained. Yun Ye looked at Zhangsun with her hairpins and rings in disarray and tightly closed his eyes, unable to bear watching anymore. This was what the empire’s two most honorable people experienced every day. No wonder Li Er was sorrowful, no wonder he was tyrannical, and no wonder white hairs appeared in Zhangsun’s hair. When being parents reached this point, what difference was there between the noble and the lowly?

“Vines grow beneath the yellow terrace, melons ripen and seeds scatter. One picking makes the melon good, two pickings make melons sparse, three pickings still acceptable, four pickings return embracing vines.” In his ears hearing Li Zhi’s upper teeth hitting lower teeth making clicking sounds, Zhangsun slapping the bed board and murmuring comfort to Li Zhi, in his mind he couldn’t help but think of this “Yellow Terrace Poem.”

Perhaps he unconsciously recited it aloud. Li Er laughed bitterly: “I won’t pick, I won’t pick any…”

Zhangsun finally coaxed Li Zhi to sleep. Immediately palace attendants came over to carry Li Zhi out from under the bed, place him on the bed, and cover him with blankets. After Zhangsun carefully inspected everything, only then did she follow Li Er out of the room.

“Yun Ye, is there any method? Every day at noon, his symptoms flare up. Only when this palace feeds him does he become peaceful. The rest of the time he’s like a six-year-old child. Do you have any method to cure him?”

“Basically none. He became this way because he suffered extremely strong stimulation. He hypnotized himself into a childhood state because he believes only by returning to childhood will he be safe. So he’s unwilling to wake up and won’t wake up.”

“This subject suggests just leave it like this. As long as he slowly no longer feels terror, he can maintain this state and live well. Even if this subject cured him, it might be even more difficult for him. And how would Your Majesty and Her Majesty handle it? What about those innocently wronged and dead people? Your Majesty must give them an explanation. Better to just leave it like this. Let Chengqian and Qing Que come see too. Why should only we three need to suffer such torment?”

“As long as we don’t speak, I’d like to see who dares speak about punishing Pheasant Slave.”

Zhangsun nodded to show agreement, then said gratifyingly: “Finally showing some of a senior minister’s domineering spirit. I thought you planned to pass this lifetime so weakly.”

“For many matters, His Majesty and I aren’t suitable to step forward. It’s best if you three step forward.”

Hearing Zhangsun’s words, Yun Ye really didn’t know what to say. Thinking of Old Jiang and Old Xia’s deaths, Yun Ye’s heart felt oppressed as if blocked by a thousand-pound boulder. Li Zhi deserved his fate, falling to this state of neither human nor ghost. But those innocent lives could never return.

“What have you all done?” Yun Ye irritably howled once in the underground palace.

“Irritated? I’m irritated too. Kid, endure it. My son wanted to kill me and I didn’t loudly shout like you. What does your little irritation count for!” Li Er looked at Yun Ye and for the first time didn’t use the royal “we,” speaking his inner depression.

He truly should feel depressed. Killed his elder brother, killed his younger brother, imprisoned his father, and now encountered his son rebelling. Most of his sorrow came from fear of retribution.

If there was no Yun Ye in this world, Zhangsun would have died long ago. Truly becoming solitary, after Li Er encountered so many troubling matters in history without going mad, his inner strength was simply suffocatingly powerful.

Now at least Li Chengqian was very obedient, Li Tai was very promising, his daughter’s days were thriving, and Wei Zheng hadn’t been dragged from his grave—this was already tremendous fortune.

The Emperor and his wife dragging him to see how miserable they were was to gain sympathy. That couple never did things without purpose. They wanted to use his mouth to tell the ministers: stop urging the Emperor to kill Li Zhi. This child was beyond saving—killing or not killing made little difference.

Yun Ye paid his first visit to the Eastern Palace in a year. Not doing anything else—upon entering he demanded alcohol. Li Chengqian brought out lots of wine, placed it on the table, and silently watched Yun Ye drink.

“Since you want to drink, why not choose those strong liquors? That way you get drunk faster, and forget troubles faster too.”

Yun Ye glanced at Li Chengqian and smiled viciously: “When I’m in a bad mood, how could I spare you and Qing Que? It’s all your family’s rotten affairs. When Qing Que arrives I’ll tell you both, then immediately get drunk—not slacking for even a moment.”