Da Tang Si Zi: My Six Super Rich Little Nuggets!

Chapter 236 Governing with Naïve Minds: A Glimpse into the Tang Dynasty (Part 2)

Little Si's fingertips shimmered with starlight, and seven jade abacus beads jingled together, forming a Big Dipper necklace: "Wonderful! This is far more elegant than Northeastern barbecue skewers!"

Suddenly, she tossed the flowing light towards Sanlang: "'Zhizhi' is just like the willow tree of Weiyang Palace—having seen countless sails, it still retains the will to sprout new branches. Isn't that precisely your true soul, wearing the skin of Li Zhi?"

The candle wick crackled and sparked. Little Si gazed at the palace lantern tassels swaying in Sanlang's hair and suddenly remembered the morning dew by Xie Gong's pond.

The candle wick crackled and burst open, revealing several golden stamens that made Gao Lishi's eyes shimmer like shattered stars.

Xiao Si suddenly reached out to catch the shimmering light: "When the morning dew at Xie Gongtang wets your clothes, have you ever heard the name Zhen Xiao Si?" She hooked the tassel of her necklace and swayed it. "Just like when I transmigrated into Princess Li Mingda of Jinyang, was your first body... my young servant?"

As Gao Lishi nodded, he dipped his brush in tea and began to draw new buds on the sandalwood table... "Yes, I briefly became your brother, and at that time, Aye and I tried to protect you, this 12-year-old girl who never ages."

Gao Lishi's hand holding the teapot trembled, and tea stains seeped into the sandalwood table, leaving blue marks: "I am merely borrowing General Gao's shell. As for you, you are a twelve-year-old skin containing a thousand-year-old unicorn spirit beast. Back then, how much effort did our father put in to preserve your youthful appearance—" He dipped his wolf-hair brush in the water and tried to outline the new buds he had drawn for his sister back then.

Xiao Si was very confused, pondering this strange transmigration. She had transmigrated into the body of Xiao Si, the Princess of Jinyang who died at the young age of 12, yet she had survived. And her brother, Zhi Nu, was actually Xie Zhizhi. Then why did Zi An later become Emperor Li Zhi, while she became Mei Xiao Si and became Empress…?

Xiao Si decided to stop thinking about it and just continue enjoying the present moment. She said to Gao Lishi:

“According to the course of history, you should be an old eunuch by now, but you are so young, and…” Xiao Si glanced at the eunuch’s robes.

Gao Lishi blushed, his eyes darting around in his heartbeat. Could it be that Xiao Si had discovered he was still a man?

Little Si didn't ask any more questions. With her eyes lowered, she began writing on the silk cloth. Look at this character '稚' (zhì). The light filtering through the palace lantern shimmered on Little Si's eyelashes. "When the spring grass is just sprouting, it can't even hold back the dew..."

Xiao Si: "Your surname is 'Xie,' which inherently carries the meaning of farewell. 'Zhi Zhi' means knowing the ways of the world without being worldly! I like this name... Saying goodbye to worldliness, returning still a youth!"

A glass butterfly adorned her temple as she lifted the lid of the gilded incense burner, letting the wisps of smoke swirl around the Big Dipper in the air: "You know, this time-travel thing is even more ingenious than the foreign merchants in Chang'an's West Market—historical records clearly state that Princess Jinyang died young at twelve, yet I'm stuck with a little rhinoceros shell, living the life of an old witch inside..."

Xiao Si was very confused. She clattered the incense burner lid onto the sandalwood table. "Zhi Nu, who was supposed to be Xie Zhizhi playing the emperor's brother, how did Zi An Lang Jun end up here?"

A ripple spread across the celadon cup on Gao Lishi's wrist: "Back then, he rested his head on the Emperor's lap and said he wanted to see the peonies of Luoyang, and the tortoise shell of the Imperial Observatory cracked with three lines... Perhaps that's when the connection was established?"

"Who cares!" Xiao Si suddenly leaned closer, her grapevine earring dangling past his crimson ear tips. "But General Gao—" The brush tip lightly tapped his waistband, "History records you should be an old eunuch with a face full of autumn frost, how come you look like this..." Xiao Si's voice trailed off with a mischievous charm, startling the jade Pixiu on the table so much that it almost rolled off!

Gao Lishi hurriedly went to prop up the jade Pixiu dripping pot that was about to tip over.

The little rhinoceros suddenly blew the character "稚" (childish) onto the Chengxintang paper, and the long-bristled sheep's hair brush fluttered with ink like butterflies:

“Strongman, look, these rice seedlings, covered in morning dew, are determined to break through the frozen soil of the Yonghui era.” She dipped her brush in rouge and drew a few peony petals, “The character ‘谢’ originally meant ‘a departing guest’—”.

Xie Zhizhi dipped a wolf-hair brush in gold leaf and covered the last stroke.

Xiao Si looked into his eyes and said, "To be worldly-wise yet not cynical, to still retain a spirit of innovation... isn't that the naive young man who dances on the edges of history books?"

Just then, Sanlang came down from court and saw Xiao Si and Gao Lishi chatting so intimately. A pomelo flew through the air, but Xiao Si caught it, pressed it directly onto the table, and peeled it! Even more amazing, she condensed the pomelo's fragrance into a cloud of mist, twirling it around her fingertips and playing with it...

Sanlang Zian's embroidered dragon sleeves swept across the Boshan incense burner in the wind, when suddenly he noticed a blue paper kite on the table: "Has my Ganlu Palace become a private room in Pingkang Ward?"

Before she could finish speaking, Xiao Si's wide sleeves billowed as she caught a string of jade-like fruits—green kumquats—her fingers flying like a pipa playing a zither: "Your Majesty, try this! It's far better than the Western Region grapes you secretly gave to Xiao Si in Jinyang back then!"

The palace lanterns cast a flickering light on the flower ornament between Xiao Si's eyebrows, making it appear as if a glass butterfly carrying stardust was fluttering its wings.

Zi'an, still wearing her nine-tasseled crown, stared at the small orange tree the woman offered, and in a daze, he saw again the celestial maiden of the Buddhist cave smiling as she picked a flower. "With such a wicked concubine's behavior, the Censorate will probably have to commit suicide by crashing into a pillar tomorrow."

"Has the Emperor finished court? How was it? Were the arrangements all right?" Zi'an saw that the palace lantern in Xiao Si's hair reflected the corners of her upturned eyes, making her look just like a fairy maiden stealing peaches from a Dunhuang mural!

"No problem, everything you said will be made public, saving us from working overtime. We've even issued rural drinking etiquette, to be held every December. The local officials should act like hosts, selecting respected local people as guests, and everyone will bow, compose poems, and recite them together!"

"What a good emperor! In this world, we'll live according to our own will!" Then he pulled Gao Lishi over, "Zi'an, little Gao used to be my young servant. We're both transmigrators..."

Zi'an: "Hello, so you're saying we both traveled through time to the same emperor?"

“They should thank Benqin.” Xiao Si suddenly stuffed a pomelo segment into Xie Zhizhi’s slightly parted lips. “If they knew that the head eunuch was actually…” Her last words were cut off by a kumquat thrown by Sanlang.

Xie Zhizhi's Adam's apple bobbed slightly as he swallowed the sweet liquid: "I merely stumbled upon a bowl of Meng Po's soup in the cycle of reincarnation, unlike you two who are so carefree..." He used his wolf-hair brush to draw a comical soy sauce jar on the edge of the inkstone, "Even when we transmigrate, we end up as twin lotus blossoms on a love story..."

"Wrong, wrong!" Little Si used a pomelo as a football. "Then who did you travel through time to after that?"

Xie Zhizhi shook her head: "I don't remember either, so why don't you do it during Qingming Festival..."

The little rhinoceros lightly flicked its toes, and the golden ball swept across the table, spinning wildly, saying, "Don't worry about having no friends on the road ahead."

"Who in the world doesn't know you!" Sanlang Zian caught the falling green orange balls.

The glass reflected three swaying shadows in the lamplight. "After all..." Little Si laughed, tossing the green tangerine ball towards the starry river outside the hall, "This game of chess across time tonight should be savored under the moonlight with wine..."

"Stop being so pretentious! Eat more grapefruit to help metabolize the excessive fried food you had for lunch!"

Xiao Si chuckled, stepping onto a stool and getting closer to the astrolabe that Zi An and Xie Zhizhi were fiddling with. "We're just pretending to be ignorant, aren't we? Just like these old palace lanterns, illuminating the annotations of generations of supervisors hidden in the mortise and tenon joints, yet we insist on playing the innocent card while traversing time..."

The night wind blew through the window, causing the markings of "Ziwei Lihuo Doushu" on the astrolabe to flicker.

Zi'an stuffed orange segments into Xiao Si's bulging cheeks, and Xie Zhizhi gently swung the palace lantern on the beam, which happened to pass by the newly opened magnolia flower near her ear.

As the water clock dripped, the steam from the tea rose and drifted over their smiling faces. The three figures gradually faded into the shadows cast by the bronze lanterns…