A hall of desolation, a courtyard overgrown with weeds.
Li Yuangui sat on the edge of the sitting platform in his own residence, legs dangling, gazing at the piles of wrapped bundles and wooden crates scattered across the floor. The wild grass in front of the hall steps had already grown waist-high. He sighed wordlessly, too listless even to order the servants to clean up.
What was the point? In just a few more days, after the Supreme Emperor's Funeral Ceremony, he would set off again for the Western Regions. The same people, the same destination, the same mission. The luggage would be tied onto carts and animals once more, everyone would change into traveling attire again, and the horses would be saddled and bridled for the journey.
He wasn't afraid of the hardships along the way, nor did he fear the unpredictable dangers awaiting him in Gaochang. What unsettled him were the many people and matters in Chang'an he couldn't let go of. He sensed that many mysteries were on the verge of being unraveled, yet he had to leave at this very moment—how utterly frustrating.
After Wei Shufen and Yang Xinzhi accompanied the Fifth Princess to the Temple of Compassionate Harmony, there had been no news. Yang Xinzhi never returned to the Seventeenth Prince's Residence in the Great Peace Palace to report, so the mystery of his origins naturally remained unresolved for now. Li Yuangui did visit Prince Consort Chai's residence once to see Chai Yingluo, but his niece, who had been sent back to her family home, was out again. He didn't meet her and only spent half a day discussing the fake Tuyuhun prince with his third brother-in-law.
Chai Shao was already aware of his daughter's entanglement with the Crown Prince. Sighing, he repeatedly called it a "fateful calamity" and mentioned his plan to send Chai Yingluo back to their hometown in Linfen, Hedong, where she could build a Taoist retreat and live in seclusion for a few years. Perhaps this was the safest solution, and Li Yuangui agreed. In a few years, once the Crown Prince's Palace had produced an heir and Li Chengqian's marital life was stable, and once the Son of Heaven and the Empress were less anxious about the Crown Prince's marital fate, Chai Yingluo might return to the capital and resume her former life.
Chai Shao planned to wait until after the Supreme Emperor's Funeral Ceremony before requesting the Son of Heaven's permission to send his daughter home, which would surely be granted. The brothers-in-law comforted each other, and Li Yuangui returned to his own residence, the Prince Wu's Mansion in the Great Peace Palace. After a day of socializing with his brothers, once the guests had left and he was alone, he felt desolate and bored.
A dark-haired figure moved below the hall—it was the mixed-blood foreign girl Fen Dui, cautiously checking if her master was free.
Li Yuangui called her up and asked what she wanted. Fen Dui had just returned from Kang Sabao's residence in Buzheng Ward. She had been sent to deliver a message to Kang Su-mi but was pulled aside by another foreign girl, Mi Wei, in the residence. Mi Wei asked her to secretly inform the Fourteenth Young Master and Yang Dalang that Kang Su-mi was conspiring with the Tuyuhun prince Sang Sai to plot against the Tang Emperor.
"Against the Tang Emperor?" Li Yuangui frowned, hardly believing it. The Tuyuhun war was over, the Murong rulers were dead, and their power had dissolved. Kang Su-mi, that old fox who always knew which way the wind blew—why would he risk helping Sang Sai scheme against Emperor Li Shimin now? What could Sang Sai possibly offer him?
"Mi Wei overheard it while serving them at night. Sang Sai promised that if they could kill the Tang Emperor and return to Fuqi City with Kang Sabao to seize the khanate in the chaos, he would appoint Kang Sabao as state preceptor, establish the holy religion as the state religion, and hand over all trade in the southern Qinghai route to Kang Sabao," Fen Dui relayed earnestly.
Li Yuangui merely laughed, still unconvinced. Sang Sai, that naive noble youth, might think this way and make such promises, but for Kang Su-mi to take such a huge risk for him? That would be truly unbelievable.He wasn’t actually suspicious that the two foreign girls would deceive him. Fen Dui was already a maidservant in his Prince Wu’s residence, her life and death entirely in his hands. As for Mi Wei, heavily pregnant with Yang Xinzhi’s child, her only concern now was how to safely deliver the baby, ensure Yang Xinzhi acknowledged the child, and reunite the family to live together. Li Yuangui had already decided that if Kang Su-mi remained stubborn, he would plead on Yang Xinzhi’s behalf—even if it meant adding Mi Wei’s price to his own debt contract. After all, drowning in debt left little room for worry...
“When Mi Wei overheard Kang Sabao discussing with Sang Sai, did she hear Kang Sabao seriously agree to Sang Sai’s plan? Even if he did, how exactly do they plan to ‘kill the Tang Emperor Li Shimin’?” Li Yuangui asked Fen Dui.
Months earlier, Sang Sai had a group of loyal warriors at his disposal and even Li Yuangui as an inside accomplice, yet they still failed to assassinate the Supreme Emperor Li Yuan. Now, with only himself left, how could he possibly attempt to kill the more heavily guarded Emperor of the Great Tang? It was pure delusion.
That Tuyuhun prince had been extraordinarily lucky. On the journey back from Qinzhou to Chang’an, Li Yuangui interrogated Kang Su-mi and learned that Sang Sai’s father, King Sky Pillar, and his aunt, the queen, both held him in high regard. Sang Sai’s trip to Chang’an for secret scheming had been his own reckless decision—neither his uncle Fuyun Khan nor the court officials had approved it. But once he sneaked away, first his family retainers, then his father King Sky Pillar, and finally the queen herself, repeatedly sent capable warriors to Chang’an—both to protect him and to bring him back to Tuyuhun.
Enslaved warriors like the one who went by the alias “Qibi Luo” could hardly defy their noble-born princely master. Helplessly obeying his orders, they became the executors of his assassination plot, only to perish entirely on Cuifeng Peak in the Great Peace Palace. Sang Sai might have lacked many skills, but his quick wits for survival were undeniable. That night, seeing the Great Peace Palace guards closing in while Qibi Luo stalled them by holding Li Yuangui hostage in front of the watchtower, Sang Sai faked his escape by making it seem as though he had climbed back down the cliff via the rope at the rear. In reality, he hid among the corpses on the watchtower’s first floor, feigning death.
After the palace guards dealt with Qibi Luo, they searched the watchtower and its surroundings. Naturally assuming the remaining assassins had descended the cliff via the rope, they split their forces—some pursuing down the cliff, others tending to the wounded nearby. For a brief window before dawn, the watchtower’s first floor was left unguarded. Seizing the moment, Sang Sai rose and slipped out of the Great Peace Palace under cover of darkness, fleeing through the desolate wilderness of the forbidden garden.
His conspiracy had failed, his followers were all dead, and he himself was wounded—humiliated, furious, and ashamed. He no longer dared to trust Li Yuangui or the merchant families like the Ans. Afterward, he retreated into the wilds to recover while making his way toward Longxi to rejoin his Tuyuhun tribe. Only after traveling alone as far as Qinzhou did he reunite with old acquaintances and stay briefly. It was there he heard news of his homeland’s defeat and the transport of his captured kin—the rest needed no explanation.Based on Li Yuangui's understanding of his Emperor brother and Sang Sai, even if given the chance for a one-on-one knife duel without interference, the young lad Sang Sai would hardly last ten rounds against his second brother. That was a battle-hardened Emperor who had survived countless wars, leading charges on horseback and itching for action if he went a few days without hunting bears or tigers. If an assassin suddenly rushed at him, His Majesty might even be delighted—though the imperial guards would probably have to collectively commit suicide to atone to the heavens...
"When Kang Sabao and the other were discussing their plans, they lowered their voices. Mi Wei only caught bits and pieces, but she heard two crucial points," Fen Dui told Li Yuangui. "First, Kang Sabao mentioned something about 'the Tang Emperor's father's coffin being transported for burial, and the foreign envoys' and so on."
Ah, Li Yuangui thought, this must refer to the Funeral Ceremony the day after tomorrow. From the Supreme Polarity Hall to outside the Shuntian Gate, the Son of Heaven, the imperial princes, relatives of the imperial family, civil and military officials of the ninth rank and above, former officials with regular court attendance, foreign chieftains, and envoys from various countries would all have their designated positions to participate in the ceremony and bid farewell to the founding Emperor of the Great Tang... Could it be that Kang Su-mi planned to take advantage of the crowd and chaos to have Sang Sai blend in among the foreign envoys and launch a sudden assassination attempt on the Son of Heaven?
Did he think the officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Southern Bureau Sixteen Guards were all dead?
"Second, Kang Sabao also mentioned that there was a Tang prince—or the Crown Prince, in short, a young prince—supporting them from behind, ensuring they could escape unscathed after killing the Emperor."
"What?" Li Yuangui was genuinely shocked this time. "Was it a prince or the Crown Prince?"
"This servant asked Mi Wei the same thing, and she said she really didn't know. Fourteenth Young Master, please understand, Kang and Sang were speaking the Tuyuhun language. In their tongue, the sons of the khan and princes aren’t distinguished—it’s the same word. Unless they emphasized 'the prince who is to inherit the throne,' outsiders wouldn’t understand..."
Fen Dui explained timidly, and while Li Yuangui grasped her meaning, his mind grew increasingly muddled. At first glance, "young prince" made him think of himself, but he hadn’t gotten involved in this treasonous mess again—was Old Hu Kang just deceiving Sang Sai?
Or... had Kang Su-mi truly colluded with Crown Prince Li Chengqian, Prince Yue Li Tai, or some other imperial brother with designs on the throne to carry out this heinous act?
Well, he didn’t exactly have the moral high ground to judge others either... The Li family was rather adept at entertaining such thoughts and deeds.
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