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

Behind the pearl curtain of the Changsheng Palace, Wu Zetian slowly sat back on the phoenix couch.

The hand under the brocade quilt tightly grasped a red gold token, and the word "bad" engraved on the token shone coldly in the candlelight.

She looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar figure outside the curtain, and let out an almost inaudible sneer from her throat - Li Xian had finally come, bringing with him Zhang Jianzhi's group of old bones, and the resentment accumulated from fifteen years of exile, but he didn't know that her spies were buried under every inch of the floor tiles in this palace.

"Your Majesty, do you want to summon the Bad Man?" Wan'er, the personal maid, knelt in front of the couch. The silver bracelet on her cuff was poking at her wrist. It was given to her by Wu Zetian herself three years ago. Five small words "In charge of the palace's secret affairs" were engraved on the inside of the bracelet.

Wu Zetian opened her eyelids, and a sharp light suddenly flashed in her cloudy eyes: "What's the rush? Look at my third son, he dared to break into the Hall of Eternal Life with a sword. Doesn't that mean he has some of the Li family's blood?"

She raised her hand to stroke the white hair at her temples, and her fingertips rubbed a jade hairpin.

Outside the curtain, Li Xian was being helped to stand up by Zhang Jianzhi. The crisp sound of his sword falling to the ground startled the bronze crane in the corner of the hall and trembled slightly.

He looked at the tightly closed pearl curtains, and suddenly heard the sound of armor rubbing against each other behind him - five hundred Yulin Guards had stood with their swords drawn, and the sound of their boots rolling over the floor tiles was like spring silkworms gnawing on mulberry leaves, so fine that it made one's scalp tingle.

"Your Highness, please ask His Majesty to quickly draft the abdication edict!" Huan Yanfan stepped forward, and the snow water on the black armor dripped through the gaps in the armor plates, forming small puddles on the gold bricks.

The tiger-head badge on his waist flashed with a cold light. It was the token of leadership of the Yulin Guard personally granted by Wu Zetian, but now it became a weapon to force her to abdicate.

Before Li Xian could speak, a burst of orderly footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall.

Unlike the heavy, ferocious footsteps of the Imperial Guards, these footsteps were as light as a cat's, yet carried the oppressive feeling of impending storm. Zhang Jianzhi's face suddenly changed. He had seen this kind of footstep before when he was the Chief Secretary in Jingzhou. It was the "shadow-footing step" unique to the Unruly, capable of silently taking a head within 300 steps.

"Who's outside?" The fish bag that Zhang Jianzhi held at his waist suddenly tightened. The copper token for mobilizing troops in the bag was like a branding iron at this moment.

"The bad guy Wei Suizhong, under the order of His Majesty, protects the emperor!"

A hoarse voice came from outside the hall, followed by the sound of armor plates - three hundred black-clad guards filed out from behind the hall pillars, wearing dark tights covered with soft armor as thin as a cicada's wing, and wearing uniform horizontal swords on their waists. The copper rings on the scabbards shone coldly in the candlelight.

Their hair was tied up with black cloth, revealing only their sparkling eyes, which were all staring at the Yulin Guards brought by Li Xian.

The Imperial Guards were thrown into disarray. Jing Hui gripped his sword hilt tightly, his knuckles turning white. Although the five hundred men under his command were veterans of countless battles, they had never seen anything like this.

The bad guys were all thin and lean, standing there like swords hidden in their sheaths. Although their number was nearly half of theirs, their imposing presence made the Yulin Guards unable to raise their heads.

"Bad Guy?" Li Xian took a half step back, bumping into the dragon-patterned pillar behind him. He suddenly remembered that when he was in Fangzhou, there was an old firewood seller who always lingered under the window. Wei Shi once whispered to him, "He was sent by the palace to see if we were doing anything unusual."

It turns out that the daily life of those years was already soaked with my mother's eyeliner.

The pearl curtain was lifted with a swish, and Wu Zetian walked out leaning on a dragon-headed cane.

The hem of the phoenix robe swept across the floor tiles, and the phoenix embroidered with gold thread seemed to come alive, flapping its wings and ready to fly under the candlelight.

She stopped in front of Li Xian and slammed her cane on the ground. "Li Xian, you brought a knife into the palace. Do you know that according to the law you should be executed?"

Li Xian clenched the jade pendant tightly, his fingertips digging deep into the jade flesh: "Your son only knows that the two Zhangs are causing chaos and endangering the Li Tang Dynasty!"

"Two Zhangs?" Wu Zetian suddenly laughed, her voice thick with phlegm. "They are just my pets. If you had told me you didn't like them earlier, I would have killed them. Why would you resort to violence?"

She turned to look at Zhang Jianzhi, "Prime Minister Zhang, when we were in Jingzhou, you taught me a lesson: water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. In today's world, do you want the surname Li or the surname Wu?"

Just as Zhang Jianzhi was about to speak, there was a sudden noise outside the hall.

Pei Tan tumbled in, his robe stained with blood. "Your Highness! The Imperial Guards are here! General Zuo Yulin has brought three thousand cavalrymen to surround the Ziwei Palace. They say they want to protect the Crown Prince and clear his court!"

Wu Zetian's cane thudded even louder, and she suddenly raised her voice, "Let him in!"

General Zuo Yu Lin strode in quickly, and the snow water on his black armor flowed down the soles of his boots into small streams.

He knelt on one knee, the sound of his armor hitting the ground shaking the candlelight. "I am late in coming to your rescue, Your Majesty. I hope you will forgive me."

When Li Xian saw that his men were surrounded, he suddenly panicked.

Zhang Jianzhi hurriedly stepped forward to stabilize the morale of the troops.

"Your Majesty, please return this Tang Dynasty to Li Tang."

"Restore the Li Tang Dynasty?" Wu Zetian sneered. "Do you know how many corpses of Wu family members are buried within the three hundred steps of this palace? When Xu Jingye rebelled against Yangzhou, it was Wu Sansi and his servants who guarded the city gates."

"When the Khitans invaded Youzhou, Emperor Wu Yizong personally went to the front lines. Now they are outsiders?"

She suddenly began coughing violently, her back doubled. Wan'er hurried forward to pat her on the back, but she pushed him away. "Li Xian, look up at the beams in the Hall of Eternal Life—that's the plaque inscribed with 'Ji Shi An Min' by your grandfather, Emperor Taizong. Your father swore an oath beneath it to ensure the people would not suffer from hunger and cold."

"What about you? You've been in Fangzhou for fourteen years. Have you ever seen the famine?"

Li Xian raised his head suddenly and met his mother's cloudy but sharp eyes.

He recalled the year when Fangzhou's mountains were closed due to heavy snow. The villagers cooked Guanyin soil to satisfy their hunger. A woman holding a child knelt in front of his door and begged him for half a steamed bun.

At that time, he was hiding behind the door and trembling. It was Wei who distributed the last bag of brown rice to the villagers.

"Your son has seen it." His voice trembled. "Your son also knows that the people don't care whether the emperor's surname is Li or Wu. They only care about whether they can have enough food and warm clothes."

"Not completely lost at least." Wu Zetian nodded, pulled out a bright yellow edict from her sleeve, and threw it on the floor in front of Li Xian. "This is the abdication edict. I wrote it long ago."

Li Xian was stunned, and Zhang Jianzhi was also stunned.

The ink on the edict had become somewhat dark, and it was obvious that it had been written for more than one day.

"Do you think the Bad Guys and the Imperial Guards are here to stop you?" Wu Zetian panted, her voice growing fainter. "I'm old, and I keep dreaming of your father at night. He asks me if I've managed to protect the Li family's kingdom."

She looked at the gradually brightening sky outside the palace and said, "This world will eventually belong to your Li family. I have guarded it for so many years, it is time to take a break."

She suddenly grabbed Li Xian's hand. His hand was as withered as a stick, but his knuckles were as hard as iron. "Remember, water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. If you dare to let the people down, I will not forgive you, even in the underworld."

Li Xian looked at the white hair on his mother's temples, and suddenly remembered how she taught him to write the word "people" when he was a child.

Her hands were still warm at that time. She held his little hand and wrote stroke by stroke on the sand table, saying, "These characters are the backbone of the people. They cannot be broken."

"Your son... obeys your order." He bent down to pick up the imperial edict. His fingertips touched the cold silk, and suddenly tears fell on it, blurring a small spot of ink.

Zhang Jianzhi led all the ministers to kneel on the ground, and the shouts of "Long live the emperor" made the beams of the palace vibrate.

The bad guys put away their swords, the imperial guards retreated from the palace walls, and even the wind and snow outside the palace stopped.

Wu Zetian was helped back to the phoenix bed by Wan'er. When she closed her eyes, she saw herself standing on the high platform of the Wanxiang Temple twenty years ago, accepting congratulations from all nations.

At that time, she was wearing the emperor's crown and thought she could hold the throne for the rest of her life.

But now I understand what Emperor Qianwu said. This world has never been anyone's private property. It is just that generation after generation has taken over the task of protecting the people's food and clothing.

When Li Xian walked out of the Changsheng Palace, the morning light was shining through the eaves of the Ziwei Palace, casting a golden glow on the snow.

He looked back at the palace and suddenly felt that his mother had never left - she was like every brick and tile in the palace wall, and had long been integrated with the world.

"Go to the Imperial Ancestral Temple." He gripped the imperial edict tightly in his hand and strode forward. The officials behind him followed closely on the still-melted snow. The sound of their boots crunching through the ice was like a prelude fifteen years late, slowly playing in the rising sun.