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

Chapter 203 Never discuss anything in front of Buddha, he'll eavesdrop! [Requesting monthly votes]

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! I'm going to fall! I'm going to fall!"

At the main gate of Hunyuan Palace, Gongsun Da Niang was trying to ride her newly bought red mountain bike, but she fell several times on her bottom. Fortunately, Wu Meiniang had forced her to wear a helmet and protective gear such as elbow and knee pads before she started practicing, so she was not injured.

The girl was really into it; she stood up, holding onto her bicycle, and continued practicing.

Li Bai picked it up quickly. Less than half an hour after getting the black and white two-tone Softail, he was already able to perform a drift while holding the brakes... Even Zhou Yi envied his eldest disciple for his talent.

Wu Zetian chose a seemingly ordinary chariot, but the disc brakes and chainring gave it a wilder look. Her Majesty the Empress was carefully wiping the chariot with a towel, reluctant to ride it.

Li Qingzhao chose a folding bicycle. She planned to ride it around Bianliang City when she wasn't busy, and when she got tired, she would fold it up, put it on a horse-drawn carriage, and then leisurely go home.

Folding bicycles are generally not very good for off-road or mountain biking, but they are convenient.

Everyone chooses bicycles based on their preferences, but Xi Shi is different. In the bicycle shop, she first looked around and then carefully inquired about how to choose between bicycles for long journeys on mountain roads or dirt roads.

Finally, on the shop owner's recommendation, I chose a heavy-duty off-road mountain bike with a reinforced frame, wider tires, front and rear racks, and reinforced handlebars. It can carry a lot of equipment, and the bike also has strong expandability, such as water bottle cages and handlebar racks, which can be used to install other equipment.

While Gongsun Da Niang was practicing riding her bicycle with great fanfare, Xi Shi sat to the side, listening attentively as Li Qingzhao explained the bicycle instruction manual.

After listening to the instructions, she asked Wu Meiniang to find videos on the history of bicycle development and mountain bike races on the tablet computer, and she watched them carefully.

For her, she wouldn't dare to start practicing until she fully understood the basics of cycling.

While everyone was busy, Zhou Yi took out the fish that Zhao Wei had given him yesterday morning. Although the marinated and dried fish was not as fresh as the live fish, it had a firmer texture and more tender flesh. If cooked properly, it would still be delicious.

He stewed the fish head and pork belly slices in an iron pot to extract the collagen from the fish head, which he would later eat with fried dough sticks.

When "A Bite of China" was airing, he was particularly craving fish head stew with flatbread. During his summer vacation during his freshman year of college, he went to Beijing and ate it twice in a row, finally satisfying his craving.

In the evening, dinner was finally ready.

Fish head stew with flatbread, fish chunks in casserole, sweet and sour fish slices, fish tail stew with tofu... The ancient people who ate instant noodles for lunch were all attracted over, their mouths watering.

Xi Shi tugged at Gongsun Da Niang's sleeve and asked:

"Was the feast this lavish every day when Zhou Fangshi was around?"

"Not at all, this is not a feast. We've been too busy lately. In the past, we had at least ten dishes per meal. Those generals have big appetites, and there weren't enough dishes to go around."

Zhou Yi took off his apron, wiped his hands, and pointed to the clay pot on the stove, saying:
"How many more minutes until the fish tail stew with tofu is ready? Xi Shi, do you know your own birthday?"

Xi Shi nodded and mentioned a date from the reign of the first ruler of Yue, Yunchang. Wu Meiniang and Li Bai searched through the perpetual calendar app on their phones for a while before finally finding the year Xi Shi was born—505 BC, on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month.

After using the I Ching to deduce his birth chart, he took out his phone and called the tailor. It rang more than ten times before the other person finally answered.

"What? Didn't you say not to call me this year?"

Zhou Yi chuckled:
"Nothing else, I just wanted to thank you. All three Taoist robes fit you perfectly. Should I send you a banner by express mail?"

The tailor was speechless.
"Alright, alright, do you want to have a Taoist robe made again? Let me make this clear first, my schedule is full. If you want a Taoist robe made, you'll have to pay extra."

Zhou Yi was too lazy to pay, so he directly quoted a price:

"Two conditions, are you in or not?"

The tailor's voice betrayed a secret delight at having the Book of Changes in his grasp:

"Then I'll reluctantly let you cut in line... What are your birth details?"

Zhou Yi read out Xi Shi's birth date and time, and the tailor immediately gasped in astonishment:
"Seriously, bro? Your methods have gone this far?"

The Book of Changes does not offer a definitive answer:

What color suits this person's birth chart?

The tailor took a sip of coffee and said:
"This person's birth chart is suited to lotus white, which is white with a hint of pink, and also cloud blue... It's actually a light blue with a hint of gray, and also the color of moss..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Yi chose lotus white, because a lotus fairy should wear a Taoist robe of this color.

As for the colors of cloud blue and moss, they are clearly colors of drowning. Now that Xi Shi's fate has changed, there is no need for her to have any further contact with these unfortunate colors.

The tailor said:

"Okay, then it'll be Lotus White. I'll send it to you by express delivery once it's finished. I might need your help with something before the New Year, so don't refuse." Zhou Yi agreed.
"OK, no problem."

After hanging up the phone, the fish tail stew with tofu was ready. Zhou Yi carried it to the dining room and placed it on a heat-resistant mat. Wu Meiniang started serving rice, while Gongsun Da Niang brought half a basket of steamed buns and fried dough sticks from the kitchen. Li Qingzhao took a bucket of juice and a small bottle of sweet water, and Li Bai was busy setting out the tableware...

Everyone had something to do, but Xi Shi realized she had no work to do, so she quickly arranged the dining chairs neatly.

After taking his seat, Zhou Yi said with a smile:

"This meal is to welcome the Lotus Fairy back home. I don't know if you can get used to it."

Xi Shi became familiar with everyone and spoke less timidly:
"It's even better than the food in the royal palace. Only the nobles of Yue can eat all kinds of sauces to increase the saltiness. At noon, Sister Meiniang cooked instant noodles for us. It was the first time I realized that there was something more delicious than the royal banquet."

During the Spring and Autumn Period, people mainly ate various kinds of porridge with sauce. The salt-making methods at that time were relatively crude, and the salt had a strong bitter taste. Nobles usually made it into sauce and removed the bitterness from the salt through fermentation... Soy sauce was accidentally invented under these circumstances.

Sauces were quite rare, especially meat sauces. Historical records even mention that the Zhou emperor wept bitterly because his sauce had gone bad, which shows the status of sauces among the nobility.

While the revelry continued, in the Kaiyuan World of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji, dressed in plain clothes, entered the Yiyuan Temple and saw Princess Taiping sitting alone in the hall chanting scriptures. He bowed respectfully.
"Nephew greets Aunt. Haven't Fairy Pomegranate and Immortal Green Lotus returned yet?"

Princess Taiping said:

"My aunt and second uncle want to ask the immortal for the bicycle. They probably won't be back for another day or two."

Li Longji walked confidently to the corner, opened the refrigerator door, took out a small crispy cone, and ate it while praising it:
"In the sweltering summer, having a refrigerator is such a treat, it's a pity the palace doesn't have one..."

Princess Taiping put down her scriptures, looked at her nephew with a half-smile, and asked:

"want to?"

Li Longji sat cross-legged on the futon beside him and nodded, saying:

"I'd like to, but surely the immortal wouldn't give it to me?"

"Next year, the Tibetans will invade Longxi. If you can fight a brilliant battle, I can shamelessly ask your grandmother to bestow a set upon the palace. I heard from my aunt and second uncle that the Immortal Master considers himself a narrow-minded nationalist. He hopes that all dynasties will show overwhelming power over foreign races. Our Tang Dynasty's policy of treating foreign races well is wrong. You must adjust it in time."

When the conversation turned to serious matters, Li Longji immediately sat up straight, forgetting all about eating his crispy snack:

"Are we to expel all the officials from other ethnic groups who are currently serving in our court?"

Princess Taiping shook her head:

"Once they become Tang officials, they are Tang people. No matter what their past status was, they can only be Tang people from now on. If they are obsessed with their origins and try to gain benefits by claiming to be of a different race, such officials should be dismissed or beheaded without hesitation. If you continue to appoint people like Wang Maozhong from Goguryeo, the Immortal Master will not be pleased."

Li Longji cupped his hands and said:
"Thank you for your guidance, Aunt. In the future, I will try my best to limit the number of officials from other ethnic groups and promote more people from Guanzhong and the Central Plains... Now that the court is becoming more stable, I want to reorganize the army, but I don't know where to start?"

Princess Taiping rubbed her temples and offered a sound piece of advice:

"Guo Yuanzhen likes to form cliques and is not good at military affairs. He needs to be replaced and promoted to generals who value military discipline and are eager for military achievements. Since the founding of our dynasty, the Minister of War has always been a person who has served as both a general and a prime minister. You can choose more specific candidates. You should learn to select talents without being bound by convention. People from aristocratic families, poor families, or commoners, as long as they are talented, can be given important positions."

Li Longji originally just wanted to come and have a small crispy cone to satisfy his craving, but he didn't expect to be taught a lesson by his aunt. He bowed and asked:
"Nephew, how about you come to Yiyuan Temple to have dinner with your aunt every time you have a day off?"

Princess Taiping did not refuse:

"You are the emperor, you can come and go as you please, there is no need to ask me for permission."

Upon hearing this, Li Longji immediately shamelessly offered to set up a permanent prayer mat for himself in the palace, to demonstrate that he was also a member of the Yiyuan Temple.

The aunt and niece chatted until dark before ending their conversation. By then, dinner at Hunyuan Palace had also been finished.

Gongsun Da Niang led Xi Shi to the small square in front of the Sanqing Hall and had her dance under the solar-powered streetlights. Zhou Yi and Wu Meiniang strolled around, and when they passed the Mahavira Hall, the two sat on the threshold and chatted about Wang Xuance:
"When do you think it would be appropriate to bring Wang Xuance here, Immortal Master?"

"Let's wait a bit longer. I'll try writing his name on the statues of the Four Heavenly Kings at the main gate and see if I can summon him... It's a pity I can't contact Xuanzang. If I could persuade him to become Wang Xuance's deputy, everything would be solved."

When Xuanzang went on his pilgrimage to India, he left hundreds of Indian monks speechless with his arguments. The reason he was able to bring so many Buddhist scriptures back to the Tang Dynasty was entirely due to his victories in these debates. Otherwise, how could the scriptures that people had painstakingly compiled be given away so easily?

When Zhou Yi was reciting Xuanzang's name, the Buddha statue behind him seemed to come alive, its eyes becoming much brighter.

At the same time, in the Indian suburbs of the Great Tang Dynasty's Zhenguan era, a middle-aged monk, eight feet tall, was packing his luggage in the temple hall when a gentle breeze suddenly blew by, and he dozed off in a daze.

Upon waking, the monk turned in astonishment to look at the statue not far away, muttering to himself in disbelief:
"Buddha actually appeared to me in a dream... Who is Wang Xuance? What does it mean that Buddha ordered me to unconditionally help this person conquer India?"

(End of this chapter)