Chapter 3 Beauty Presents Treasure
"Your Highness, a woman is requesting an audience outside the mansion. She says that the Prince of Qin once helped her and she has come to repay his kindness."
Upon hearing this, Princess Changsun Linglong, who was sitting on the couch playing with Li Chengqian, put down the cloth tiger in her hand and turned to ask the maid, "When did the Prince of Qin save her?"
"According to her, when the King of Qin was returning to the capital in triumph, she fainted by the roadside. The King of Qin had the army doctor treat her and left her travel expenses, which is why she received this life-saving grace."
"It's nothing serious. Tell her that the King of Qin is kind without expecting anything in return, and let her go back and live a good life."
"yes."
Don't blame Changsun Linglong for her slightly cold attitude; she'd seen far too many people like this. People frequently tried to curry favor with the Prince of Qin's household under various pretexts, with "repaying a life-saving debt" being the most common. The Prince of Qin had an excellent reputation; he was always ready to help those in need, and every few days people would come to his door "to repay a debt of gratitude." If it weren't for the Prince of Qin's reputation, these visitors would mostly never even have the chance to reach her.
Changsun Linglong didn't take this incident to heart at all, and simply ordered her maid to send the person away as usual.
Sure enough, after a while, the maid reported that the man had left, but had left some gifts, hoping to pass them on to the King of Qin.
Changsun Linglong glanced at the items and, seeing that they were nothing more than ordinary objects with nothing prohibited, instructed her maid to hand them over to the guards for inspection to check for poison or hidden weapons. If there were no problems, they were placed in the Prince of Qin's study, to be disposed of by the Prince of Qin upon his return to his residence.
She had no idea what kind of tremendous changes this package would bring to the Tang Dynasty.
Inside the bundle were gifts carefully prepared by Wang Yi: a set of maps covering Eurasia, a packet of high-yield corn seeds, and a blueprint for a curved plow.
After delivering the gifts to the Prince of Qin's residence, Wang Yi hired a carriage and headed straight for the Xuandu Temple in Chang'an.
It wasn't that she believed in Taoism, but rather that in this era, without a household registration, one could hardly move an inch. Currently, she hadn't yet established contact with the Prince of Qin and couldn't return to the modern world; she needed to wait in the Tang Dynasty for Li Shimin to actively seek her out. However, she currently lacked household registration, making renting a house or staying at an inn impossible. Furthermore, Chang'an had a curfew, and if she had nowhere to stay after nightfall, she would surely be arrested by the patrols. She also couldn't conveniently remain in this world during the day and disappear at night—if the Prince of Qin did indeed come looking for her, she would have no way to explain her whereabouts at night.
A review of modern historical records reveals that in such circumstances, one either had to choose a place with a large floating population and looser regulations to temporarily reside, or rely on a legitimate force. In the early Tang Dynasty, the only legal places to accommodate refugees were temples and monasteries, or to become tenants or retainers of local gentry. The latter was incompatible with her gender, and the former was not an option for her to become a nun, so naturally, she could only choose a monastery.
As the saying goes, when you're out in the world, you choose your own identity. Since she intends to use "Penglai" as a backdrop, she needs to play her part convincingly. Moreover, Taoism is clearly a better fit for the "Penglai Immortal Island" persona than Buddhism.
Xuandu Temple is not far from the Prince of Qin's Mansion; it takes about an hour and a half by car to get there.
Upon arrival, Wang Yi paid the fare with ordinary rice she had brought from modern times—she didn't use currency because the current monetary system was chaotic. The Kaiyuan Tongbao coin was only minted in July of the fourth year of the Wude era of the Tang Dynasty (621 AD). Based on this time, the mother coins were probably only recently made, meaning Li Yuan's edict to mint coins was a recent event. Currently, the Sui Wuzhu coin is still the mainstream currency, but because the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, a currency change was not completed, and old coins from the Northern Zhou, Northern Qi, and even earlier periods are still in circulation. Being from a later era, she wasn't an expert in identifying ancient coins, so she simply bartered. Two yuan a pound of rice was enough to cover the fare, and the driver even got a good deal.
After the coachman left, Wang Yi went straight into the Xuandu Temple.
The temple was quite popular with worshippers. After searching around, she saw an old Taoist priest with a white beard talking to a richly dressed woman at the divination desk. After a short while, the woman left, and Wang Yi walked towards the old Taoist priest.
Standing before the old Taoist priest, Wang Yi bowed respectfully with his hands clasped, following the Taoist etiquette he had learned in modern times, and began to speak:
"May you be blessed with boundless happiness. I am a Daoist from Penglai Island in the East Sea. I am moved by the flourishing imperial aura and the prosperity of the Dao in the Central Plains, and have come here to pay my respects. I have heard that there is a sacred place called Xuandu in the capital, so I have come to Baoguan to stay and study. I would like to ask you to introduce me to the elder in charge or the guest master so that I may have a meeting with you."
After hearing what Wang Yi said, the old Taoist lowered his eyelids slightly and a polite but distant smile appeared on his lips.
"May you be blessed with boundless happiness. Fellow Daoist, you have come a long way and must be tired. Please come to the guest hall for tea and rest. This matter needs to be decided by the head of the guest hall. Please wait here for a moment while I go and inform him."
"I'm sorry to bother you."
Wang Yi followed the old Taoist priest deep into the temple, arriving at a courtyard that was clearly not open to the public. The old Taoist priest led her into the main room, instructed a servant to serve tea, and then left.
While Wang Yi sat quietly inside, sipping tea, the old Taoist priest hurriedly went to find the guest master. Fortunately, the priest was free at the moment, and the old Taoist priest repeated what Wang Yi had said before standing quietly to the side awaiting instructions.
"From Penglai?" The Taoist priest pondered for a moment, then lightly flicked his whisk. "Then I really must meet him."
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