Tang Dynasty: Father, if you don't rebel, I will!

"Quickly! Invite them in!"

Li Chengqian looked anxious.

Li Shimin sat on the bed, bewildered and confused. He had lost even the basic ability to judge what was happening to him.

She even began to doubt herself, wondering if she had truly gone mad...

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Majesty..."

"Alright, alright, you two Taoist priests, stop with these formalities. Come up here quickly and let my father see if he has really encountered something unclean."

Li Chengqian showed the appropriate anxiety, but Li Shimin frowned upon hearing this.

"Chengqian, that's not something unclean, that's your imperial aunt! She's my imperial elder sister!"

Li Chengqian's lips twitched.

Aunt Pingyang has really done a good job raising you, her younger brother...

Yuan Tiangang's eyes were grayish-white, and he still looked like a blind man. However, judging from his free and easy movements, it was more like he was wearing a layer of grayish-white colored contact lenses.

"Hehe, Your Highness, do not worry, let this old minister examine Your Majesty..."

Then, just like the previous imperial physicians, Yuan Tiangang took Li Shimin's pulse and asked him questions. After reviewing the imperial physicians' diagnosis, he nodded slightly.

"Master Yuan, how is it?" Li Chengqian asked anxiously.

Yuan Tiangang shook his head slightly, adopting a hesitant, almost manipulative manner, as if all wandering Taoist priests would do.

Li Shimin, however, looked both expectant and nervous.

"Taoist Master, did I really see my imperial sister?"

Yuan Tiangang remained silent, appearing as if it were a matter of great importance, and respectfully addressed the Crown Prince beside him.

"Your Highness, please dismiss everyone else..."

Li Chengqian waved his hand: "Wang De, take the rest of you and go out to wait. No one is allowed within fifty paces of the sleeping quarters!"

"Yes!"

The crowd dispersed in a flurry, retreating to a distance of fifty paces outside the hall.

Upon seeing this, Yuan Tiangang stroked his beard and said slowly, "Your Majesty, you did indeed see Princess Pingyang!"

Li Shimin's eyes widened in excitement: "Then, that means my imperial sister is not dead?!"

His eyes seemed to be filled with tears at that moment.

Despite having been severely beaten by her "eldest sister," she felt an urge to cry tears of joy.

However, the next second, Yuan Tiangang shook his head again.

"Your Majesty, you are mistaken... The person you saw was indeed Princess Pingyang, but Princess Pingyang has passed away, and the dead cannot be brought back to life."

Li Chengqian chuckled inwardly. Yes, that's right!

This is the taste!

It was as if they said something, yet it was also as if they said nothing at all!

They create a false impression, then deliberately mislead, to pass off the truth as reality...

Li Shimin looked utterly astonished: "No, you..."

Li Chunfeng, standing to the side, performed a Taoist salute.

“Your Majesty, this is no joke. When a person dies, it is like a lamp going out. This is the rule of Heaven, and none of us can defy it. However, as Zhuangzi said in the chapter ‘The Great Master,’ ‘I dream of being a bird and soaring in the sky, I dream of being a fish and sinking into the abyss.’ Daoists have the saying that one can attain enlightenment in a dream. It is precisely because the self in a dream is the true self.”

"Your Majesty's dream of Princess Pingyang can only mean that Your Majesty has been hoping for Princess Pingyang's appearance recently."

Li Shimin looked bewildered.

Yuan Tiangang chuckled and stroked his beard, saying, "Your Majesty need not be nervous. The idea of ​​being appeared in a dream is not so much a divine transmission from our ancestors, but rather a state of being in a realm of heaven and man. The entanglements and confusions that occur during the day are caused by evil thoughts of greed, anger, and ignorance, or by entanglements with worldly affairs, which cause people to become confused and lost."

"When all emotions reach their peak, one enters the realm of heaven and man, and sees one's true self."

"Your Majesty might consider when Princess Pingyang instructed you during her lifetime?"

Li Shimin pondered for a moment: "That would naturally happen when I'm either slacking off in martial arts practice, neglecting my studies, or doing something foolish..."

Yuan Tiangang nodded: "Your Majesty, this is the crux of the matter. In the past, Princess Pingyang admonished Your Majesty. Did Your Majesty disagree or feel resentful at the time?"

Li Shimin shook his head, his expression solemn.

“My elder sister is like a mother. My mother has never been in good health. My elder sister has taken care of most of the affairs of my brothers and me. As for the silly things I did, I was well aware of them at the time, but I just couldn’t control myself.”

Yuan Tiangang smiled and asked, "Now that Princess Pingyang has passed away, has Your Majesty received any admonitions in recent years?"

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin glanced subtly at his crown prince.

"This might have happened in Chang'an, where Wei Zheng was also present..."

He was stubborn as a mule and would never admit that he had been disciplined by his own son.

Li Chengqian saw through it but didn't say anything, just quietly watching from the side.

"And what happened after Your Majesty went to Chengdu?"

Li Shimin shook his head slightly.

Li Chunfeng bowed again, saying, "Your Majesty, the five colors blind the eye, the five sounds deafen the ear, the five flavors dull the palate, and galloping and hunting drive the mind mad."

"Your Majesty possesses innate wisdom, perhaps influenced by the teachings of Princess Pingyang. Therefore, even without supervision, Your Majesty can still distinguish right from wrong. However, although Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, you are not perfect. You may know you are wrong but find it hard to resist temptation, and after the fact, you may not take it to heart."

"But in the end, it broke the Daoist cultivation, or you could say it bred inner demons."

Li Shimin frowned immediately: "Are you saying that what I saw was not my imperial sister, but my inner demon?"

Immediately, Yuan Tiangang hurriedly shook his head.

"No, no, Your Majesty. To knowingly commit an impossible mistake is called a demon in one's heart, while to hold fast to the righteous path and punish oneself is called self-reflection. The Princess Pingyang in your dream is precisely the virtue you have cultivated since childhood, a form of self-salvation!"

"Because you have been disciplined by Princess Pingyang since childhood, and you regard Princess Pingyang as your mother, when you know that you have made mistakes, but find it difficult to reflect on yourself or are ashamed to examine yourself, the incident of Princess Pingyang admonishing you in your dream occurred."

Li Shimin's brows furrowed even deeper.

He pointed to his injuries.

"But what about all these injuries I have?"

Yuan Tiangang smiled, his eyes filled with admiration.

“Your Majesty, there is a record in the ‘Liezi: King Mu of Zhou’ that King Mu of Zhou dreamed that Bian Que cured him and he was cured after waking up. However, it is hard to say whether King Mu of Zhou was really sick or... he thought he was sick. But being cured in a dream can be considered as his mind being clear and the disease disappearing on its own.”

"Your Majesty's injuries could not possibly have been inflicted by the late Princess Pingyang..."

Li Shimin: "Who did that?!"

Yuan Tiangang smiled, but instead of answering, he asked a question.

"Your Majesty, I wonder if you encountered any great difficulties before today? If it is simply a matter of self-reflection, you should have done so when you were in Chengdu, but it seems that you only started to do so now that you have arrived in Taiyuan?"

Li Shimin glanced at Crown Prince Li Chengqian, who stood to the side with a face full of worry and self-reproach.

Taking a deep breath, he hesitated for a moment before finally recounting the grand ambition the Crown Prince had mentioned the day before.

Upon hearing this, both Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng gasped in shock.

Yuan Tiangang, in particular, was trembling slightly with his hands.

Your Highness, you seem to be going a bit too far!

Let His Majesty swear an oath to Heaven and make a grand vow.

To make all barbarian tribes sincerely submit to China, to make barbarian lands Chinese lands, to spread virtuous teachings, and to benefit all people... Your Highness, you are not simply asking His Majesty to become some kind of Emperor Taizong Wen, but clearly, you want His Majesty to achieve a position of worship as a god in the human world!

Li Chunfeng swallowed hard.

Even though he had seen a lot, he felt a blankness in his mind at this moment.

Fortunately, Yuan Tiangang withstood the immense shock. He coughed lightly, and his gray eyes seemed to be filled with a hint of excited fervor.

"Your Majesty, you just said that before you met Princess Pingyang, you couldn't sleep at night and took a walk in the palace garden late at night... What was it that made you unable to sleep?"

"Does Your Majesty feel that you are incapable of fulfilling such a grand ambition?"

Li Shimin: "......"

Although he didn't say anything, judging from his current appearance, Li Er was clearly tacitly agreeing to some extent.

"Hehe, Your Majesty need not be nervous. If such a great undertaking could be accomplished by just anyone, how could it be called a grand ambition?"

"Your Majesty, as the saying goes, the perfect man has no self, the divine man has no merit, and the sage has no name. Your Majesty is currently at a bottleneck in your enlightenment, clearly seeing your true self, and disciplining yourself to seek the truth."

"Your Majesty understands the difficulty of this grand ambition, but Your Majesty has not been afraid or given up. You are only hesitant about whether your own virtue is worthy of such a great undertaking. Your Majesty loves the people and is afraid that if you fail in your duty, you will cause the people to suffer disaster."

"Therefore, Your Majesty began to see your true nature and reflect on your virtues, and it is precisely because of this that Your Majesty has encountered this situation today."

He smiled slightly, looking at Li Shimin, who seemed to be deep in thought.

The words are astonishing.

"Your Majesty, the one who harmed you was not a human being, but Emperor Taizong Wen, who achieved his great ambition!"

"The one who criticizes your moral conduct is not the departed Princess Pingyang, but Your Majesty's own reflection on your wise and virtuous conduct!"

"Your Majesty has clearly seen your true heart; you will surely achieve unparalleled merit! We, your subjects, congratulate Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty, we, your humble servants, offer our congratulations!!!"

Looking at Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng, who were bowing deeply to him with expressions of reverence, as if they were looking up to a god, he was struck by their demeanor.

Li Shimin stared blankly at his son beside him, somewhat incredulous.

"Chengqian... are all these injuries I sustained by my own actions?"

Li Chengqian was somewhat embarrassed.

This Yuan Tiangang is actually going to improvise?!

"This, perhaps, maybe?"

Li Shimin frowned and pondered for a long time, then nodded slightly.

"I don't believe there is any woman in the world who could beat me so helplessly. Moreover, if she really wanted to assassinate me, why didn't she kill me without alerting anyone?"

He took a deep breath and squinted slightly.

"I never imagined that even though my elder sister has passed away, she could still serve as a mirror for me, guiding me to improve my virtue! My dissolute behavior in Chengdu this time truly makes me unworthy of being called a ruler!"

Li Chengqian awkwardly dug his toes into the floor.

Li Shimin, however, seemed to have gradually achieved self-consistency in the face of this mysterious confidence in his own strength and his grand ambition to secure the southern border.

"Chengqian! Prepare a train for me to go to Chang'an. I... want to apologize to the Empress with a bundle of thorns on my back!"