Volume 1 Princess Taiping Grows Up Chapter 20 A Fulfilling Life
After returning to Chengxiang Palace, Li Yuechen asked Xiaohe to prepare writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone, while he sat on the couch and began to think.
When writing a novel, what should I write first?
Forget about reciting The Investiture of the Gods. This is a special period and many civil and military officials in the court are dissatisfied with the Empress's behind-the-scenes rule.
At this time, the Investiture of the Gods suddenly appeared. No matter whether Li Yuechen had that intention or not, at least in the eyes of others, it was equivalent to implying that Wu Zetian was Su Daji.
Now Li Yuechen can imagine the flushed cheeks of all the civil and military officials in the court after the book came out.
To ensure your own safety, forget about reading this book.
It's not impossible to write it, but you'll have to make large-scale changes.
For example, it could be changed to King Zhou going to the Nuwa Temple to write an inscription to express his gratitude for the difficulties faced by women due to their low social status.
When Nuwa came back and saw this, as a woman she felt the same way. She counted on her fingers and found that King Zhou's country only had 28 years of good fortune left. So she asked the three nine-tailed fox monsters to protect him for the last 28 years and let him die of old age.
However, King Zhou was unwilling to give up. Even with the help of the nine-tailed fox, he still died in the end...
In this way, King Zhou will become a tragic hero, and Su Daji will become a positive character.
This is not impossible. After all, it is a novel, not a historical record, so some fictional elements can be added.
For example, the Xuanwu Gate Incident could be written in the novel as Crown Prince Li Jiancheng being betrayed and besieged by his subordinates, and Emperor Taizong risking his life to block the arrows for his brothers... he was just a step too slow and failed to block the arrows.
Having said that, Li Yuechen still doesn't plan to write this because it's not the right time.
Intellectuals are good at making up stories with their imaginations. Even if I write this now, they might accuse me of predicting the country's fall.
So it’s better to just write Journey to the West. There aren’t many elements involving Taizong, so as long as some minor details are changed, it won’t affect the entire story line.
Anyway, this is ultimately a story about a monkey fighting monsters, and those monsters with backgrounds have been rescued. Maybe this can also be used to satirize the corruption of some people in the court.
Of course Li Yuechen would never admit it. This princess is still a child. She just wanted to write about monkeys. She didn’t have any ulterior motives at all!
Moreover, as long as a little bit of writing is done, the reputation of His Majesty Taizong can be further enhanced. Li Zhi will definitely not object!
Thinking of this, Li Yuechen raised her hand and snapped her fingers. I'm so fucking smart!
Xiaohe placed the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the desk, and Zheng next to her started to grind the ink very cooperatively.
Shangguan Wan'er was sitting next to her mother very obediently, but her two big eyes were secretly looking at the various decorations in the palace.
While Zheng was grinding ink, she raised her head and asked carefully, "What article do you want to write, Your Highness?"
"It's just a fantasy novel," Li Yuechen smiled and handed Shangguan Wan'er a piece of cake. "I read The Great Tang Records on the Western Regions a while ago and found it very boring. I thought it would be interesting if I added some gods, ghosts, monsters and demons to it."
Shangguan Wan'er looked at the pastries handed over by Li Yuechen, staring at them intently with her big eyes.
Living in the Ye Ting Palace since childhood, where did she get snacks? But because of her strict family education, she didn't dare to reach out to take it, so she could only turn her head and look at Zheng.
Before Zheng could refuse, Li Yuechen stretched his hand forward a little more: "This is a gift from me, just take it!"
Zheng also nodded: "Your Highness, please continue with your reward."
After getting her mother's approval, Shangguan Wan'er stretched out her hands to take the cake handed over by Li Yuechen, and bowed, "Thank you, Your Highness!"
Zheng was about to ask how to write it, but saw Li Yuechen waved his hand: "Not today, I need to do some sorting first. You and your daughter will wait for me here for the next few days."
"Yes!" Zheng agreed, but then raised her head and asked, "May I ask, Your Highness, in my free time, can I borrow the writing brushes and books here to teach my daughter?"
Zheng was just taking a gamble by daring to make a request to this person.
The servants in the palace often gossip about each other, and the most common thing they say about the little princess Li Yuechen is that she is kind-hearted and treats the servants very well.
Normally in the Ye Ting Palace, Zheng would also teach her daughter to read and write, but there were very few books to read there, and it was difficult to afford pens, ink, paper and inkstone.
Today, the princess finally needs them, so she wants to take a gamble and make a request.
From the time they first met until now, Zheng found that the little princess was indeed as the rumors said. Not only was she adorable in appearance, but she was also very humble.
So he made the request, and then looked at her carefully. If he noticed that she was angry, he would be ready to change his words immediately.
But Li Yuechen didn't care about this at all, and nodded and said: "Children's education is the most important thing, yes!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
…
In the following few days, apart from exercising every day, Li Yuechen basically spent the rest of his time in the room writing a slightly modified version of Journey to the West.
More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was August in the blink of an eye.
Li Yuechen has already written about the Bodhisattva Guanyin appearing in the Tang Dynasty and enlightening Xuanzang to go on a journey to obtain Buddhist scriptures.
However, we need to make some changes here. We must not write that Li Shimin kneeled down to greet him, etc. Instead, we should change it to Guanyin Bodhisattva treating the Emperor with courtesy, and both sides saluted each other.
Then Taizong sent Xuanzang on his way, gave him a cup of wine from his hometown with some soil in it outside the city gate of Chang'an, and asked him to come back as soon as possible.
It writes about Xuanzang coming to the Five Finger Mountain, where his two followers were killed by a tiger, and they were rescued by a hunter, and then they encountered a monkey trapped under the mountain.
After calculating the date, I decided that today was the day to go visit Mrs. Rongguo, so I put down my pen and went out with Xiaohe.
Anyway, there are many Jinwu Guards accompanying him, so his safety is guaranteed, so it doesn’t matter whether Eunuch Fu goes or not.
…
Today, Li Zhi and Wu Meiniang unexpectedly finished reviewing the memorials after lunch, and both felt a little uncomfortable.
After discussion, we decided to go see our daughter.
Usually it is the daughter who comes over on her own initiative. Li Zhi likes his daughter very much now and always feels that as a father he should take the initiative to visit his daughter.
After arriving at Chengxiang Hall, Eunuch Fu saw her from afar and trotted over: "Greetings, Your Majesty!"
"Well, where is Chen'er?" Li Zhi asked casually.
"Your Majesty, your highness has just left the palace to visit Mrs. Rongguo."
Li Zhi seemed a little unhappy, "It seems like this is not the right time..."
Wu Zetian, who was standing next to him, found his look a little funny, so she turned around and asked, "What have you been doing these days?"
"Your Majesty... His Highness is writing a fantasy novel." Eunuch Fu looked a little embarrassed.
This is mainly because in this era, the significance of writing is to record knowledge, and novels are considered unpopular.
Wu Zetian frowned suddenly, and Li Zhi beside her raised his head: "Go and get it!"
“Yes!”
Li Zhi and Wu Zetian entered the palace and sat down. After a while, Eunuch Fu came in with a large stack of papers covered with words and handed them over respectfully.
When I looked down, I saw the words "Journey to the West" first, followed by: Chapter 1, The Monkey King is born.
Now that Li Yuechen was not around, Li Zhi and his wife had nothing to do, so they picked it up and read it slowly.
The further you look, the slower the health ball in Li Zhi's hand spins, until it stops completely in the end.
Zhang Chengxin asked Eunuch Fu to bring the frying pan and start making tea so that the couple could read novels quietly.
…
When the sun was about to set, Li Yuechen also came back.
Before coming in, Li Yuechen saw that there were a lot more palace maids at the door. He immediately knew that it might be his parents coming.
He took off his shoes and walked into the palace, thinking to himself, "As expected." The couple were sitting on the couch drinking tea, but Li Yuechen knew that they must have read the pile of manuscripts on the desk next to them.
"Greetings, my Lords!" Li Yuechen bowed casually, then ran to sit next to Li Zhi, "Grandpa and Mom, is there anything you need from me?"
Wu Zetian looked a little unhappy. Holding the manuscript of Journey to the West in her hand, she asked, "Chen'er, what is this?"
Li Yuechen explained obediently that because she felt that the novel "A Record of the Western Regions in the Great Tang Dynasty" was too boring, she made some changes and wrote a fantasy novel.
Wu Zetian was about to say something but was interrupted by Li Zhi.
He had a curious expression on his face: "Chen'er, what is this?"
When Li Yuechen saw where he was pointing, she suddenly felt a headache.
I had actually forgotten this, so I could only explain obediently: "This is... punctuation marks... When my child reads various books, he finds them obscure and profound, and he doesn't know where to break the sentences, so he uses this method to break the sentences."
This was a real mistake. In fact, Li Yuechen didn't intend to do this, and it was not used in normal calligraphy practice.
However, since it was my first time writing a novel, I used it subconsciously out of habit.
I wonder what those scholars would think when punctuation marks appear in this era.
If the attitude is welcoming, then everyone will be happy. If the attitude is unwelcome, I'm afraid people will start to compose poems and criticize.
Although there was no literary inquisition in the Tang Dynasty, it was not uncommon for people to write poems to criticize others. The most typical example was the hot-tempered Luo Binwang.
In the past, Prince Dao Li Yuanqing liked to collect talents. Luo Binwang worked under him for several years. One day, they found that they were assigned a task to introduce themselves.
When Luo Binwang heard this, he said, "I've been working for you for five or six years, and you don't even know who I am?"
So without saying anything else, I wrote a poem to criticize him harshly and then quit my job!
It is said that Du Fu also liked to write poems to criticize the emperor, but it is not clear whether it is true or not. After all, Du Fu seemed to have not been born yet in this era.
Li Yuechen can only pray that these literati do not reject punctuation marks. Otherwise, if someone really writes a poem to criticize her, she will be helpless.
However, Wu Zetian seemed to agree with this and nodded: "Although I am not well-educated enough to write such a fantasy novel, the punctuation marks are good. It can obviously reduce the difficulty of learning for children..."
Li Zhi on the side nodded lovingly: "Well, you are worthy of being my daughter! This thing should be promoted!"
The emperor has made the decision. What can Li Yuechen say? He can only take it one step at a time.
Li Zhi didn't say anything about the content of Journey to the West, but from his expression, it was obvious that he didn't care about it.
After all, his father Li Shimin could communicate directly with all the gods and Buddhas in the sky, which was considered a highlight moment.
After dinner, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian got up and left.
Li Yuechen sent them to the palace gate and said, "Goodbye, my lords."
Mother Wu Zetian suddenly cleared her throat and said, "Well, when the subsequent chapters are written, please bring them to me and your grandfather for review as soon as possible."
Holy shit, what's going on? Readers asking for more?
But it seems normal when you think about it. People in this era lack entertainment. Although they look down on this kind of novels on the surface, most of them will still say that they are really good in the end.
Li Yuechen suppressed his laughter and bowed obediently: "I obey your command!"
After watching the two leave, Li Yuechen's mood instantly improved. Since the emperor and the empress liked reading it, there was no problem and he could write it with confidence.
In a good mood, Li Yuechen turned around and skipped back to Chengxiang Palace, humming a little tune as he jumped.
"I'll accompany you to watch the meteor shower falling on the earth~~~~See the railway being built to my hometown~~~~"
The two people who had already walked out were talking about another topic.
"Your Majesty, the name Chen'er..."
"Well, the pen tip is like a knife, and the font is sharp. No wonder he has been fond of martial arts since childhood!" Li Zhi commented while smiling and stroking his beard.
Wu Zetian shook her head: "But for a woman to have such a personality, it seems..."
Li Zhi gently pulled her hand and said, "Don't worry, Mei Niang. Chen'er is not a domineering person. Besides, with you and me here, how can she be bullied?"
…
After more than ten days of getting along, Shangguan Wan'er obviously became familiar with Li Yuechen.
At this moment, while helping her grind ink, he asked, "Your Highness, which of these two Sun Wukongs is the real one and which is the fake one?"
“Don’t ask! You’ll know the answer once the subsequent chapters are written.” Li Yuechen refused to reveal the spoiler with an unfathomable look on his face.
Li Yuechen's calligraphy is not good enough now, so after the draft is written, Zheng will basically need to help with copying.
But even though she hasn't quite mastered it yet, her handwriting can now clearly be seen to be different from mainstream calligraphy.
Perhaps because of her own aesthetic taste and other reasons, her handwriting is now increasingly tending towards Lao Zhao's Slender Gold style.
I don’t know if it’s because there’s less work to do here and she’s less tired, but Zheng’s complexion has been noticeably better in the past few days.
At least the tired feeling on my face has disappeared and I look much more energetic.
While Li Yuechen was practicing martial arts , she was teaching Shangguan Wan'er to read and write in the room.
There are a large number of classics available here, and Shangguan Wan'er is smart, so she can see great progress almost every day.
As time went by, Li Zhi said in the court that the princess had invented punctuation marks and asked the ministers whether it was worth promoting.
Led by Xu Jingzong, as well as Wu Zetian's think tank Beimen Xueshi, they all said that punctuation marks do help children in the world to learn and should be promoted.
Punctuation marks began to be popularized, and coupled with the princess's plow mentioned earlier, all the civil and military officials in the court were very clear about it. Even with just these two things, it was enough for this princess to go down in history!
At this time, Li Yuechen had no idea that he was gradually becoming famous.
He still practiced martial arts and kept fit every day, and would visit his master Liu Rengui and grandmother, Madam Rongguo, every now and then.
When he had nothing to do in the evening, he would usually take Shangguan Wan'er and her two sisters to play together. Occasionally, he would go to the outer court to play with his brothers and watch them fight cocks and the like.
Life may seem monotonous, but it is actually very fulfilling.
