Chapter 8: You Despicable Wretch!
Chapter 8: You Despicable!
Entering the hall, Li Shimin, expressionless, flung Wu Meiniang aside.
Li Zhi looked distressed, wanting to approach, but dared not move a step under Li Shimin’s imposing aura.
Li Shimin remained relatively calm, much to Li Qing’s surprise; he had expected Li Shimin to lash out instead of holding back.
“Zinu, you’ve really come into your own,” Li Shimin said coldly, weighing a boot in his hand and snorting.
Li Zhi didn’t dare breathe, nervously peering around like a cornered animal.
His behavior was utterly outrageous—explosive even by the standards of the most chaotic times, let alone in ancient days.
“Looks like you’ve inherited not only my throne but also my consort,” Li Shimin’s eyes flashed with a chilling glint.
“Your Majesty, I dare not, I dare not…” Li Zhi wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
“Dare not? I see you dare all too well!” Li Shimin roared furiously. “Today you consort with her in secret; tomorrow you intend to crown her Empress?”
“Oh, Brother Li, you really know how to recognize talent!” Li Qing slapped his thigh. “Guess what? The Empress to be crowned at tomorrow’s ceremony is none other than Wu Meiniang!”
“What?!” Li Shimin’s face flushed red with rage. He shouted and lunged at Li Zhi, “I’ll cut you down, you wretched beast!”
Li Qing pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds from the system and sat down, watching the scene of fatherly affection with great relish.
Li Zhi was no fool—he immediately turned and fled like a quail, with old Li chasing after him.
“Li Zhi! Stand still!” Li Shimin bellowed, furious beyond measure.
“Better to take a beating than be unjustly condemned, Father!” Li Zhi shouted over his shoulder, not looking back.
“Stop!”
“No!”
“Stop!”
“No!”
After a few steps, perhaps overwhelmed by that last outburst, Li Shimin clutched his head and staggered, collapsing heavily to the ground.
“Brother Li!” Li Qing tossed aside his seeds and hurried over to support Li Shimin, calling out to the system in his mind, “System! Help!”
“Scanning... detected high blood pressure attack. Host need not worry,” came the electronic voice. “Recommend using ten emotion points to exchange for Calm Heart Pill.”
“Hurry, it’s a matter of life and death…”
Just as Li Qing finished speaking, a pure white pill appeared in his hand. Without waiting for water, he pinched his lips and forced it into Li Shimin’s mouth.
“What did you give my father?!” Li Zhi suddenly snapped to attention, stopping in his tracks and shouting.
“Shut up!”
Before Li Qing could finish, Li Shimin slowly regained consciousness.
His chest heaved violently a few times, then he grasped Li Qing’s arm, his voice pleading.
“Dear brother, help me teach this wayward son a lesson!”
Li Qing, ever loyal, helped Li Shimin sit down and turned to face Li Zhi.
“What? You still dare to strike?” Li Zhi cowered and retreated.
“Hey, today I’m not just hitting ‘someone,’ I’m hitting you!”
With that, Li Qing launched four heavy slaps, two on each cheek.
Afterwards, he clicked his tongue, wondering if history would ever record “Emperor Taizong’s brother, Qing, struck the emperor four times.”
Frankly, it was quite a statement—far more impressive than Cui Jishu, since Emperor Gaozong of Tang was a monarch of some substance, unlike that Yuan fellow who was nowhere near comparable.
“How dare you strike me! Outrageous!” Li Zhi sat on the ground, clutching his face, utterly aggrieved, yet dared not protest—after all, Qing’s beating was ordered by his father.
“I hit you out of love!” Li Qing crouched and patted his cheek. “Look at how you’ve angered Brother Li. Do you even know who Wu Meiniang is? You want to make her Empress?”
“She’s your father’s consort! By rank, she’s even your aunt! And you dare lay a hand on her? Are you beast or man? Do you seek to overturn the heavens?”
“But I love her!” Li Zhi said stubbornly, his neck stiff with grievance.
“Nonsense! That’s not love!” Li Qing scolded, poking his head. “You’re just lusting after her body—you’re despicable!”
“Brother, enough!” Li Shimin, now recovered from the pill, stood and drew his treasured sword from the wall, tossing it in front of Li Zhi.
“I’ll give you one chance: take this sword and kill Wu Meiniang for me, and I will pardon you.”
“I and Meiniang truly love each other, Father!” Li Zhi knelt, banging his head on the ground. “I will marry no one but her in this life. Please forgive me, Father!”
“Is that so?” Li Shimin’s anger flared.
Li Zhi said nothing, remaining prostrate.
“Good, good! Truly my good son!” Li Shimin seized the boot and began striking Li Zhi’s head. Li Zhi knelt silently, enduring the blows.
“Enough, enough, Brother Li, stop!” Li Qing intervened once Li Shimin had vented enough. “It’s about time we left. Perhaps in a few days, our eldest nephew will come to his senses.”
“He? He’ll come to his senses?” Li Shimin glared fiercely at Li Zhi. “Look at his recklessness—over a woman, of all things…”
“I’ll give him an offer he cannot refuse,” Li Qing said with the bearing of a true godfather.
He was not blindly confident—judging by Wu Meiniang’s actions after Li Zhi’s death, if Li Zhi could still hold out, he’d be on par with Fei Yangyang, Double-faced Turtle, and You Tanzhi.
Seeing Li Shimin hesitate, Li Qing leaned in and whispered, “In time, just as I brought you here, I’ll take our eldest nephew through time to the future world to see for himself. He will surely come to understand.”
“Really?”
“Don’t you trust me?” Li Qing patted his chest.
“If that’s the case, I’ll let him off today,” Li Shimin said, casting a glance at Li Zhi. “If not for your pleading, Qing, I’d have broken his legs this very day!”
“Thank you, Father. Thank you, Uncle Qing!” Li Zhi smiled obsequiously.
“I’m leaving—take care of yourself,” Li Shimin said, unable to resist kicking Li Zhi once more.
Helpless, since this was his own father and he was clearly in the wrong, Li Zhi could only hold his nose and accept it.
“We’ll be back in time,” Li Qing said, snapping his fingers. Then, to the ghostly expressions of Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang, he vanished from the Hall of Governing.
...
In the eleventh year of the Zhenguan era, Luoyang Palace.
Li Shimin sat on the dragon throne, recalling what he had just witnessed in the sixth year of the Yonghui era, growing angrier with each thought.
“Shall I tell you a joke, Brother Li?” Li Qing tried to lighten the mood.
“What’s a joke?” Li Shimin asked, puzzled.
“A little story that lifts one’s spirits,” Li Qing explained.
“Oh? Then tell me quickly!”
Clearing his throat, Li Qing began: “In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, His Majesty led troops to personally campaign in Liaodong. The court ordered the painter to create a work titled ‘His Majesty’s Campaign Against Goguryeo’ to commemorate the expedition. Reluctantly, the painter accepted under pressure. When the painting was completed, Fang Xuanling came to inspect it, only to be shocked: the scene depicted a man and a woman meeting secretly in a garden, with the background showing Luoyang Palace.
“‘What is this? Who is this woman?’ Fang Xuanling demanded furiously.
“‘She is His Majesty’s consort, Lady Wu.’
“‘And the man?’
“‘Crown Prince Li Zhi.’
“‘Then where is His Majesty?’
“‘His Majesty is campaigning against Goguryeo.’”
Li Shimin immediately lost his composure.
(End of chapter)