Li Shimin faked his death? Then I will be powerful enough to conquer the world!

Inside the Mingtang of Luoyang Palace, the scent of sandalwood and chilly air intertwined and spread across the golden brick floor.

Wu Zhao leaned on the gold-inlaid rosewood couch, her fingertips carelessly stroking the mutton-fat jade ruyi, but her eyes were like ice-hardened blades, fixed directly on Li Longji.

"Say it again?" Her voice was not loud, but it carried a pressure that penetrated the bone marrow, and the smoke rising from the bronze crane incense burner in the corner of the hall seemed to freeze.

Li Longji's hands, clutching the hem of his clothes, were covered in sweat. He could feel the eunuchs around him holding their breaths, and he could see his father, Li Dan's hand, trembling slightly at his side. But the child's stubbornness made him stiffen his neck and repeat, "Your son says that this palace wall was built by my Li family, and the plaque should be changed back to 'Da Tang'."

Before he finished speaking, the Fengge Minister standing at the bottom of the stairs suddenly knelt on the ground and knocked his forehead heavily on the gold brick: "Your Majesty, calm down! The Prince of Linzi is young and ignorant, he must have been playing a naughty joke-"

"A joke?" Wu Zhao sneered, and gently tapped the jade ruyi on the armrest of the couch, making a crisp sound. "When did my court become a place for children to joke?"

She slowly sat up straight and said, "Go check and see who taught him to say these nonsense."

In the evening.

When the bad guys' iron boots stepped on the bluestone pavement of Luoyang City, there was always a teeth-grinding sound.

This secret service agency controlled by Wu Zetian, like a group of wolves smelling blood, quietly surrounded Jicuiyuan where Li Longji lived.

The wind chimes hanging in the corridor jingled in the night wind, but they could not cover up the suddenly changing breathing of Dou Defei behind the window paper.

"Sanlang, come here."

Concubine Dou De pulled her son to the rosewood dressing table, and her face, which had suddenly lost its color, was reflected in the bronze mirror.

She frantically stroked her son's hair, the pearls on his golden hairpin trembling and making a small sound. "What did you say to the Queen Mother in the morning sun?"

Li Longji was playing with a jade hairpin in his mother's dressing box. Hearing this, he looked up and said, "I said the palace should be named after Li. Didn't mother say..."

"Shut up!" Dou Defei suddenly covered his mouth.

She looked at the dressing mirror behind herself in the bronze mirror - it was a glass mirror specially given by Wu Zhao, but at this moment it looked like a prying eye.

Three nights ago, she did say to the children under the lamp, "Emperor Taizong reviewed memorials here in the past, and the plaque at that time still had the word 'Zhenguan' on it." But who could have thought that Sanlang would chew these words into pieces and spit them out in front of Wu Zetian?

Just as the third watch clapper rang out, the red gate of Jicui Courtyard was violently thrown open. Unruly men in black boots rushed in, holding torches. The flames made the plaque "Jicui Liufang" on the pillars flicker.

Concubine Dou De held her three children tightly behind her and watched as the leading villain took out a yellowed piece of paper from his arms - it was the transcript of the palace maid's confession, with bloodstains still stained in the ink.

"Concubine Dou De, someone has accused you of privately discussing state affairs and recklessly discussing the will of heaven."

"Come with us."

"I didn't!" Dou Defei's voice was trembling, but she held the children's hands tightly, "Sanlang is young and his words are nonsense, how can we take them seriously——"

"Whether it's nonsense or not, we'll know when we get to Lijing Gate." Buliang Shuai sneered and waved his hand to signal his men to come forward.

The screams from inside Lijing Gate could penetrate the thick palace walls and reach the banks of the Luo River two miles away.

Zhou Xing, the cruel official sent by Wu Zetian, had already been waiting in the torture room. The walls were covered with pliers and branding irons, glowing dimly under the oil lamp.

When Concubine Dou De was chained to the rack, she looked at the moon outside the window that was cut into pieces by the iron bars, and suddenly remembered that when she was fourteen years old and married into the Prince of Xiang's Mansion, Li Dan had promised under the flowers that he would "protect you all my life."

"Tell me, who told you to teach the child to say those words?" Zhou Xing played with the copper iron in his hand, the red mark on the tip of the iron flickering in the darkness.

Dou Defei dug her nails deep into her palms: "I didn't instigate him, he just misremembered what I said."

When the branding iron pressed against her collarbone with a "sizzle", the severe pain made her vision go black.

She heard the sound of her own flesh curling under the heat, but she gritted her teeth and refused to make a sound. It was not until the third branding mark hit her chest that she finally cried out in pain, tears mixed with sweat streaming down her cheeks: "My husband is the heir to the throne, and my son is a prince. You can't do this to me—"

"The heir to the throne?" Zhou Xing sneered. "Your Majesty has said that even the heir to the throne must abide by the rules."

He suddenly leaned closer and lowered his voice to a whisper, "Dou, if you have the guts, just give Li Dan away and tell him he asked you to instill restorationist ideas into your children. You still have a chance to live."

Dou Defei suddenly raised her head, her bloodstained eyes blazing with anger. "Don't even think about it! My husband is loyal and devoted, and he has no second thoughts!"

Five days later, a signed confession was brought to Wu Zetian. The handwriting on the confession was crooked, with dark red blood spots mixed in with the ink. It read, "Dou confessed that he had told his disciples, 'The Wu family usurped the Tang Dynasty and should restore the Li family name.'"

Wu Zhao stared at the words for a long while, then suddenly threw the confession on the table, slamming the jade ruyi down on the gilded paperweight. "For a woman of virtue, you're quite tough."

"Your Majesty, Dou is shouting in prison that 'the Queen Mother usurped the throne'. Do you want to..." the chief eunuch asked cautiously.

"No need." Wu Zhao stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the Luo River outside the palace walls. "Proclaim my decree: Dou is guilty of treason and shall be executed immediately."

"Let my grandson see her."

The crabapple tree in Jicuiyuan had just sprouted new green leaves when it was suddenly stained dark by the smell of blood.

Li Longji was held down by two palace servants and watched helplessly as his mother's hands were tied with thick hemp ropes.

Concubine Dou De's hair was loose, and her originally gorgeous palace dress was covered with dust, but when she looked at her son, there was no hatred in her eyes, only shattered love.

"Sanlang, remember what mother said." She broke free from the hand of the bad man and rushed over to grab her son's wrist. The blood on her palm smeared on his brocade cuffs, like a sad red plum blossom. "Live, live well..."

"Mother! I won't let you go!" Li Longji cried like a young animal being strangled. He kicked his legs desperately, but he couldn't break free from the palace maid's grip.

He saw his mother being dragged out of the Moon Gate, still looking back at him, her lips moving, but her words were drowned out by the noisy footsteps.

For many years after that, he always heard his mother's last words in his dreams, but he could not remember the specific words. He only remembered the warmth left by those hands on his wrist, hot as fire.

Dou Defei's body was not sent back to the Li family's ancestral tomb, but thrown into a mass grave in Mang Mountain in the north of Luoyang.

That night, a drizzle of spring rain fell in Luoyang City. Li Longji lay on the windowsill, watching the raindrops dye the palace walls dark gray, and suddenly understood what his mother meant by "survive".

The seven-year-old child realized for the first time that some hatred cannot be expressed out loud, but can only be buried in the bones.

Half a month later, the imperial edict reached Jicuiyuan. Li Dan was stripped of his royal title and moved to a separate palace in the Eastern Palace.

Li Longji exercised the power of Prince of Linzi and left Beijing to take up his post three days later.

After the eunuch finished reading the imperial edict, he glanced at the child standing in the corridor out of the corner of his eye. He was wearing an old robe that was washed white, and in his hand was half a piece of almond cake that his mother had not finished eating. There was no expression on his face, only his eyes, which were as dark as a bottomless cold pool.

On the day of leaving Beijing, this team without any ceremonial guards marched slowly.

Li Longji was sitting in a blue cloth carriage. A corner of the curtain was lifted by the wind, and he could just see the "Wu Zhou" plaque on the palace wall flashing brightly in the sun.

He quietly took out half a piece of almond cake hidden in his sleeve. It was the one his mother had given him before she was taken away. Now it was as hard as a rock.

As the carriage passed over the Luoshui Bridge, he heard the old servant driving the carriage sobbing softly.

Li Longji rested his forehead against the cold carriage wall, his nails digging deep into the wood. He knew that after this trip to Linzi, he didn't know when he would be able to return.

But he knew even more clearly that he had to come back - not for the plaque, but for the last look his mother gave him, for the souls that dissipated in Lijing Gate, and for the blood of the Li family that soaked the palace walls.