My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

Li Tai tightened his gray cotton robe. His waist, which had been somewhat bloated due to his weight gain, now looked like that of a wealthy shopkeeper who frequently traveled the Western Regions in his ordinary merchant attire.

Two guards from the Prince's Palace, now in civilian clothes, followed behind him and closed the side gate behind them.

"Your Highness, why are you going to that dirty and chaotic place like the West Market instead of tin cans in the side courtyard on such a snowy day?" The guard lowered his voice, cautiously looking around while opening an oil-paper umbrella for Li Tai.

Li Tai raised his hand and pushed the umbrella handle open.

Snowflakes landed on his chubby face, which was still covered in grime, turning into cool water droplets. He took a deep breath, the icy air filling his lungs through his nostrils, but it couldn't suppress the rising heat in his chest.

"I will naturally see with my own eyes what the things I create look like when they are used in the homes of ordinary people."

He strode forward with his strong legs, stepping through the snow, his feet sinking deep and sinking shallow, heading towards the West Market.

At this time of year in previous years, the outer neighborhoods and alleys where poor people lived in Chang'an were always lifeless.

Every now and then, a few hard, stiff objects wrapped in tattered straw mats would appear by the roadside. The guards responsible for cleaning the streets would often cover their mouths and noses and drag the frozen refugees onto oxcarts like rotten logs.

But today, when Li Tai stepped into Yanpingfang on the edge of the West Market, the scene before him made him suddenly stop in his tracks.

The wind and snow continued to rage.

The low, dilapidated thatched huts and mud-brick houses are lined up in one area.

Yet, amidst this desolation, faint blue light emanated from under the eaves and behind the half-closed doors of every household.

The air was not filled with the pungent, choking smoke of burning damp firewood as usual; instead, it was filled with a faint, earthy aroma from the baking of yellow earth.

"Glug glug..."

The sound of boiling water traveled with the wind and snow from all directions into Li Tai's ears.

Several children dressed in coarse cloth coats were squatting next to a steaming tin can, warming their little hands, which were red from the cold, over the flames.

Their little faces were flushed red by the firelight, and they giggled happily, completely devoid of the despair of huddled in a corner waiting to die that they had experienced in previous winters.

Li Tai stood in the snow, staring blankly at the scene.

His chubby hands, hidden in his sleeves, trembled slightly involuntarily.

"Let's go over and ask for a bowl of water."

Li Tai swallowed hard and led his guards to a tea stall covered with a tattered oilcloth.

The owner of the tea stall was an old woman with a face full of wrinkles and a back hunched over like a fully drawn bow.

She was tending to a newly purchased tin stove. The ventilation plate at the bottom of the stove had been partially opened, revealing a dark, glowing honeycomb briquette burning bright red, while a large iron kettle on top spewed out white steam.

"Old man, the snow is too heavy. Buy me a bowl of hot soup to warm yourself up." Li Tai sat down on the bench with an air of authority and casually took out a few copper coins and placed them on the table.

The old woman glanced back at him, wiping her calloused hands on her apron.

She deftly took a rough earthenware bowl, poured boiling ginger soup from the iron kettle, and carefully presented it to Li Tai.

"Sir, are you from out of town and here in Chang'an to do business?" The old woman chuckled and pushed the copper coin back. "In this snowy weather, everyone is having a hard time. A bowl of ginger soup is nothing; just consider it to warm yourself up."

Li Tai picked up the earthenware bowl, and the scalding ginger soup went down his throat, instantly dispelling the chill from his body.

He pointed to the iron stove next to the old woman, which was hissing and emitting heat, and asked casually.

"Old man, the fire from burning this black mud is quite fierce. This stuff must have cost a lot of money, right? Can your small business afford it?"

The old woman was wiping the corner of the table with a rag when she heard this, and she stopped what she was doing.

She raised her head, and a strange light suddenly shone in her originally cloudy eyes.

"Outsider, you just don't understand!"

The old woman straightened her hunched back, pointed at the stove, and her voice revealed an undisguised pride and fervor.

"This isn't some kind of black mud lump, it's called a honeycomb briquette! It's a divine object bestowed upon us poor people by His Highness Prince Wei of the Great Tang Dynasty, who specially requested it from an immortal!"

Li Tai's hand holding the ceramic bowl suddenly stopped, and his breath caught in his throat for a moment.

"Three copper coins!"

The old woman held up three withered fingers, her eyes welling up with tears. "Just three copper coins! In the past, that wouldn't even be enough to buy a small handful of low-grade charcoal! But now, not only have they given me a sturdy iron stove, but they've also given me ten honeycomb briquettes!"

The old woman turned around, her rough hands gently stroking the outer shell of the tin stove, the movement as tender as if she were caressing her own grandson.

"Last night, I turned off the metal plate underneath, and the fire actually smoldered until dawn! My little grandson, who has been weak since childhood, didn't wake up from the cold in the middle of the night for the first time last night."

As she spoke, tears streamed down her deeply lined cheeks.

The old woman suddenly turned around, facing the direction of Taiji Palace, and knelt down in the snow with a "thump".

"His Majesty the King of Wei is a living bodhisattva! If it weren't for him creating such a divine object, my entire family would probably have frozen to death in this heavy snow this year!"

The old woman kowtowed heavily, her voice hoarse but resounding.

"Every morning when I get up, the first thing I do is burn three sticks of incense at the longevity tablet that His Highness Prince Wei has set up! I pray to Heaven to bless His Highness Prince Wei with a long life and many descendants!"

Clang!

The rough pottery bowl in Li Tai's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

The scalding ginger soup splashed onto his boots, but he seemed completely unaware.