Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 2 Wu Zetian Just Turned Twenty? [Please Add to Favorites]

This question really stumped Zhou Yi.

From a historical perspective, this was indeed the land of the Tang Dynasty, and it was even the capital region of Luoyang, the eastern capital. But now it is 2025 in the 21st century, and dynasties have changed many times.

I never thought cosplayers could be so obsessed… Zhou Yi was too lazy to play along, so he put down the wild onions and file folder he was holding and pointed to the sunset in the west:
"The sun is about to set, aren't you leaving yet? I don't provide accommodation here."

As he was talking, he felt that the Hanfu-clad women under the setting sun had an indescribable beauty, especially when paired with the unfinished main hall next to them, which gave them an extreme sense of imperfect beauty.

Thinking of this, he took out his phone and took a picture of the woman in front of him.

This action piqued the woman's curiosity once again:
"What are you doing? What is that in your hand... You don't look like a prisoner. Where is your hair? Why are you showing your face with a shaved head?"

Shaved head?

I first learned this term from the book "Lingao Wubaifei" in the Book of Changes.

Seeing the woman in Hanfu staring intently at his phone, he made a bold guess:

"You've never seen a cell phone before?"

The woman in Hanfu shook her head, the curiosity in her eyes genuine.

Zhou Yi scratched his head, his guesses becoming clearer and clearer, yet he found them utterly absurd.

I, Zhou Yi, a graduate of a top-tier university, have just taken over the Taoist temple passed down from my grandfather, and I unexpectedly encountered someone who seems to have traveled from the Tang Dynasty... Wu Zetian!

To verify this idea, Zhou Yi tentatively asked:

"Empress...Meiniang, may I call you that?"

"I am a fifth-rank concubine personally appointed by His Majesty. Please call me Concubine Wu. The title 'Meiniang' is too... too ambiguous. I am worried that His Majesty will punish you if he finds out."

It seems she really did travel from the Tang Dynasty... If it were a modern person, they would definitely call her Erfeng all the time, and wouldn't have this kind of respect.

Zhou Yi then asked:

"What year is it now, the Zhenguan era?"

"In the eighteenth year of Zhenguan, last year His Majesty deposed the Crown Prince and reduced him to a commoner, and executed the rebellious Prince of Han and Hou Junji, among others. He was heartbroken. This year, Princess Jinyang is also plagued by illness and lies unconscious in bed. In order to pray for Princess Jinyang's well-being, His Majesty granted a general amnesty to prisoners and exempted some from forced labor, but Princess Jinyang's condition has not improved at all..."

The story was so detailed and convincing that Zhou Yi was now convinced that the Wu Meiniang before him was from the Tang Dynasty.

He searched on his phone and found that Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, had lost his wife, his son, and the daughter he had raised himself was about to pass away. From then on, his personality became irritable.

If nothing unexpected happens, I'll start preparing for the imperial expedition against Goguryeo next year. I'll also use the example of Sima Zhongda being able to rebel at the age of seventy to put Li Jing, who is bedridden, in a bad light. I bet the doctor has cursed that old scoundrel Sima quite a bit in private.

Later, Li Erfeng returned from the Goguryeo battlefield, and her health deteriorated. Li Zhi took care of her at her bedside and gradually developed feelings for his stepmother, Wu Meiniang.

Once Wang Xuance, who single-handedly destroyed a country, returned to Chang'an with the sorcerer monk from the Western Regions, Li Shimin's lifespan would be truly entering its final countdown...

We've unexpectedly encountered Wu Zetian at this particular time; should we lend her a hand?

Looking at the information he found on his phone, Zhou Yi suddenly noticed Wu Zetian's age:
"In the twenty-third year of the Zhenguan era, Li Shimin passed away. According to the Tang Dynasty system, concubines without children were all sent to Ganye Temple to become nuns, chanting scriptures and praying for Emperor Taizong every day until their deaths... At the age of twenty-five, Wu Zetian was unwilling to spend her days with only the ancient lamp and Buddha, so she secretly wrote a poem for Li Zhi, and from then on, her life entered a new stage..."

Seeing this, Zhou Yi scratched his head and asked Wu Meiniang:
"You're...twenty years old this year?"

Wu Zetian looked puzzled:
"How do you know my age? What is that in your hand? Why is it glowing?"

"Twenty years old, I've reached the legal marriage age..." Zhou Yi showed off his phone:
"Now it is more than 1,300 years after the 18th year of Zhenguan. Society has made great progress, and science and technology are many times more advanced than in the Tang Dynasty... This is a mobile phone, a product of modern technology. It can also make remote calls through the Internet."

Zhou Yi didn't know how to interact with people from ancient times, so he simply handed the phone to Wu Meiniang and let her try it out first.

No matter how much you learn about technology products in theory, nothing beats hands-on experience. It was already late, so Zhou Yi briefly explained how to use the phone, set the font to traditional Chinese characters, and then walked through a series of unfinished halls to his small side courtyard, where he began washing rice and preparing dinner.

If he's eating alone, steaming some rice and having some scrambled eggs with wild scallions is enough for him.

But now that there's a tourist from over a thousand years ago, the food needs to be as plentiful as possible, lest Wu Zetian mistakenly believe that contemporary society is still struggling to find enough to eat.

He took out a few Cantonese sausages from the refrigerator, intending to stir-fry them with green peppers, and then pick two eggplants from the vegetable garden in the courtyard that his grandfather had grown, along with green peppers and potatoes, to make a super delicious dish of stir-fried potatoes, green peppers, and potatoes.

Finally, it was served with minced meat, chrysanthemum greens, and scrambled eggs with wild scallions. These four simple side dishes, though seemingly ordinary, were perfectly adequate for entertaining Wu Zetian. There was no stir-frying in the Tang Dynasty, and what might seem like simple dishes to modern people were delicacies in the eyes of the ancients.

Wu Meiniang, holding her phone, followed him into the courtyard. Seeing Zhou Yi personally washing the rice and vegetables, a look of surprise appeared in her eyes:
"Young master actually knows about cooking?"

Zhou Yi said with a smile:

"Poverty made me diligent and prevented me from developing bad habits like being waited on hand and foot... What illness does Li Mingda have? Why didn't you let Sun Simiao take a look?"

Wu Zetian's eyes widened in surprise once again:
"You actually know the name of Doctor Sun?"

"A legendary doctor whose name is etched in history; his book 'Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold' was even included in junior high school history exams."

This topic successfully piqued Wu Zetian's interest. She stopped looking at her phone and sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, subtly inquiring about matters concerning the Tang Dynasty:

"When I introduced myself just now, you looked surprised. Did I leave my name in the history books?"

Zhou Yi didn't hide anything, and said while he was busy:
"According to the course of history, Li Shimin will pass away in five years. At that time, you will become a nun at Ganye Temple. However, a year later, Li Zhi will bring you to the palace and make you a Zhaoyi. Then, you will gradually gain power. After Li Zhi dies, you will ascend the throne and become the only female emperor in Chinese history."

Wu Meiniang covered her mouth in surprise, her eyes wide open, her charming face filled with disbelief:

"Young master, are you perhaps just trying to amuse Meiniang? Since ancient times, emperors have always been men; how can a woman become emperor?"

Zhou Yi shrugs:

"How would I know about your own affairs? Anyway, you've become emperor... I'm giving you a spoiler in advance, so maybe I can get credit for your role in helping you rise to power?"

Wu Zetian simply didn't believe it:
"A woman becoming empress is unheard of. You think too highly of me, young master... Princess Jinyang suffers from asthma, has difficulty breathing, and is also coughing. The imperial physicians are at their wits' end but have no good solution."

Is it wheezing? Asthma?

If it really is this disease, it's easy to solve. We can just go down the mountain later and buy a bottle of asthma inhaler for Wu Meiniang to take back. Although it can't cure the disease for the time being, it can at least alleviate the symptoms.

But can Wu Zetian go back?

Zhou Yi put the washed vegetables into the basket and asked Wu Meiniang:

"Can you still go back?"

Wu Zetian continued playing with her phone:

“Before you came back, I tried to go back to the Great Buddha Hall, but every time I thought about going back, another voice would appear in my mind.”

"Damn it, did the Buddha manifest himself at the Taoist temple...?" Zhou Yi quickly asked.
"what sound?"

Wu Zetian cleared her throat and repeated in a mechanical tone:

"You have not obtained Master Yiyuan's permission and are temporarily unable to return to the Tang Dynasty world... This sentence was repeated several times. Does the young master know who Master Yiyuan is?"

Zhou Yi pointed to himself, looking completely bewildered:
"it is me!"

(End of this chapter)