Spring Dawn at Lishan
Just after Grain Rain, the crabapple blossoms at Lishan Palace are in full bloom, their pink and white petals covering the bluestone path.
Wu Meiniang was sitting at the sandalwood desk by the window, writing down her medical records. Suddenly, she felt a warmth on her shoulder and turned around to see Li Zhi draping a honeysuckle-patterned silk cloak over her shoulders.
His slender fingers, which used to tremble slightly, stopped tying the ribbon and instead lingered on her neck for a moment.
"Your Majesty's breathing was more stable today when you practiced the guiding exercises than yesterday." She smiled as he tightened the ribbon, her fingertips brushing against his lips, which had regained their color.
Before the words were finished, the palace doors were flung open with a bang, and eight-year-old Li Xian burst in like a little firecracker, his hair ornament askew and his brocade robe stained with grass clippings: "Mother! Second Brother has hung my paper kite with the crane on the pine tree!"
"It's clearly your skill that's inferior!" Ten-year-old Li Xian chased in, holding a kite covered in pine needles, half a kite string still dangling from his jade belt hook. "My swallow kite can soar through the clouds, but your eagle darts into the treetops!"
Before Wu Zetian could speak, the thirteen-year-old Crown Prince Hong strode in carrying a medicine basket, shaking his head with an air of maturity beyond his years: "The Book of Rites says, 'One should not speak while sleeping or eating.' Second and third brothers, why are you making such a racket..."
Before he could finish speaking, a soft, warm little dumpling was suddenly stuffed into his arms—three-year-old Taiping appeared out of nowhere, holding a piece of osmanthus cake to feed his older brother.
Li Zhi, lying on the couch, suppressed a laugh and coughed lightly, then pulled his youngest daughter to his lap: "It's alright, listening to the lively music actually makes me more energetic."
He held Wu Meiniang's hand and pressed it against his heart, saying, "The beating here is so strong; it's all thanks to the Empress."
Seeing this, Taiping also placed his chubby little hand on top and mimicked, "Taiping...you deserve credit!"
(OS: These mischievous monkeys are more invigorating than Sun Simiao's prescriptions, but... it's really good to see them causing such a ruckus.)
Suddenly, a mountain breeze swept in, carrying crabapple petals. Li Zhi instinctively turned to pull his wife and daughter into his arms.
This habitual protective gesture startled all three of them. Wu Meiniang leaned on his shoulder and pointed out the window, saying, "Your Majesty, look! Our little princess's jade rabbit is chasing butterflies all over the mountain!"
As dusk settled over the glazed tiles, a family brewed medicinal tea by the white marble hot spring pool.
Taking advantage of the palace servants' inattention, Li Xian secretly replaced the Coptis chinensis with licorice. Just as he was about to succeed, Wu Meiniang lightly tapped the back of his hand with a silver chopstick: "If Your Majesty cannot taste bitterness in today's calming tea, tomorrow you will be punished by copying the 'Preface to the Orchid Pavilion' twenty times."
Li Zhi slowly used a palm-leaf fan to part the rising medicinal mist: "Use your left hand."
The younger son immediately looked distressed.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Taiping took out some candied fruit from her third brother's purse, stood on tiptoe, and stuffed it into her father's hand to curry favor.
Li Zhi bent down and picked up his daughter along with the jade pestle she was clutching tightly, and suddenly hissed.
Wu Meiniang immediately reached out to check his pulse, but he grabbed her hand instead: "I had this solid medicine pestle grinding against me."
Taiping was still tightly holding the jade pestle for pounding medicine in her other hand, as if she were holding some kind of treasure.
(OS: This clever little devil, she might become a female prime minister someday?)
The misty vapor blurred their faces, and Li Zhi suddenly asked softly, "Mei Niang, if I really..."
"No ifs." She tossed the prepared medicine pouch into the hot spring, and the aroma of ginseng and astragalus instantly filled the air. "Master Sun said this morning that His Majesty's pulse is like a silkworm spinning silk, gradually stabilizing."
He glanced at Li Xian, who was smirking, and said, "If some people stop switching the medicine, we can stop taking the medicine after another six months of treatment."
(OS: Modern preventative medicine + Tang Dynasty medical techniques + preventing mischievous kids from causing trouble – finally, the deadlock was turned around!)
He gazed at her silhouette, blurred by the medicinal mist, and suddenly tears fell into the hot spring: "I always dream of you standing alone in the Zichen Palace, the dragon throne behind you empty..."
Wu Meiniang wiped away his tears with the corner of her sleeve, just as he had wiped away her tears at Ganye Temple years ago: "Then Your Majesty must live well, lest I truly have to sit on that cold dragon throne."
Turning her head, she saw Taiping imitating her actions, standing on tiptoe to wipe the sweat from her brother, the Crown Prince, who was decocting medicine, and she couldn't help but smile.
Seeing this, Li Xian quietly slipped the Book of Han to Li Xian, and the two brothers sat down together to read the book, a rare moment of peace.
(OS: In history books, Wu Zetian ultimately reigned alone, but this time it won't be like that.)
Late at night, when Wu Zetian was writing a supplement to "Qianjin Fang" (Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold), a candle flame suddenly burst out.
Li Zhi quietly approached and tucked a newly picked weeping crabapple blossom behind her ear: "Back then at Ganye Temple, we promised to give you a garden full of spring colors; now, I'll make up for it with just one branch."
Suddenly, she pointed to a spot and chuckled, "The Empress wrote 'liver yang rising' as 'liver fire raging,' perhaps remembering how Xian'er dismantled Xian'er's Luban lock during the day?"
She looked up and saw a long-lost slyness in his eyes.
The three sons were huddled together by the carved door, peeking out. Taiping was riding on the prince's shoulders, clutching half a piece of osmanthus cake that hadn't been given away yet in her little hand.
(OS: It's so nice to be able to banter with each other.)
As dawn broke, Wu Meiniang awoke amidst a table full of medical books and found herself covered with a dragon-patterned cloak.
Li Zhi was practicing the Five Animal Frolics with his three sons in the courtyard. Taiping, riding on the prince's shoulders as the referee, saw his mother come out and waved his little hands, which were covered in flower juice, shouting, "Mother! Father can imitate a little monkey now!"
Amidst the fluttering crabapple petals, Li Zhi reached out to her, his sleeve damp with morning dew and the scent of medicine: "Mei Niang, come and see the 'Monkey Show' I've just learned."
He led three boys to imitate monkeys stretching their arms, and Taiping, perched on his elder brother's shoulder, laughed so hard he bent over backward, startling a whole tree of sparrows.
(OS: This isn't a monkey show, it's clearly a picture of an old father taking care of his child.)
As he pulled her into the morning light, the imperial physician came forward with a medical record, reporting, "His Majesty's pulse today is like the first ripples of spring water."
Looking at her children laughing and playing amidst the shower of petals, Wu Zetian said softly, "Once His Majesty has recovered, let's go to Luoyang to see the peonies. I've heard that the twin lotus blossoms are particularly beautiful this year."
Li Zhi tucked a stray strand of her wind-blown hair behind her ear, his laughter startling a pair of swallows under the eaves: "Alright, take these troublemakers with you. Let Taiping see how prosperous the Grand Canal policy her mother proposed in Luoyang has become."
(OS: The capital of the Wu Zhou Dynasty will only be our destination this time. — But we must bring these troublemakers along first, after all, this prosperous era was originally created for them.)
——
[Zhi's Recovery Diary]
by: Li, pampered by the whole family
April 5th, the third year of Xianqing
Today, when Meiniang was recording the medical records, I draped a cloak over her again.
When tying the ribbon, he deliberately brushed against the mole on the side of her neck, and the tip of her ear turned red.
(This woman is still so adorable.)
The way Xian'er and Xian'er fought, and the way the kite got stuck in the tree, was just like Chengqian and Qingque back then.
But my sons are luckier; their mothers watch them fool around with a smile.
April 8
Taiping held the pestle like a treasure, and its weight almost made me strain my back.
Meiniang's nervous expression reminded me of when she was newly pregnant with Taitai, and she had the same expression when I helped her down the steps.
(It feels so good to be cared for.)
April 12
He almost said something discouraging by the hot spring, but she stopped him with the scent of medicine.
She knows my body better than I do now; she can even tell from the color of my tongue that I reviewed two extra memorials last night.
(I need to get Hong'er learning how to govern quickly. I want to take Meiniang to Jiucheng Palace to stay for half a year.)
April 15
Late at night, I discovered that she had filled her medical books with annotations, her handwriting as neat as the grain transport policy she had written at Ganye Temple years ago.
It turns out that during the nights I was away, she would study medicine for me like this.
(Suddenly I understand why Emperor Taizong favored Empress Zhangsun so much.)
April 20
This morning, I took the children to practice the Five Animal Frolics. Xian'er fell down while trying to pounce on the tiger, but Xian'er didn't laugh at him.
Taiping sat on Hong'er's shoulders to encourage me; this little girl is better at giving orders than her mother.
(If only it could always be like this.)
April 25
Mei Niang said she wanted to go to Luoyang to see the peonies.
I know she actually wanted to see the results of the canal transport reform, just like back in Bingzhou, when she always went to the fields to see the effects of the new farm tools.
(An empress like this deserves a thousand pages of writing in the history books.)
Now, when I take my medicine, Taiping will wipe the corners of my mouth like Meiniang does.
Even the bitter medicine tasted sweet.
(Perhaps this is what the Book of Songs refers to as "suitable for living and making a good home"?)
However... let Wu Zetian wipe it herself next time.
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