I am leaving, so as not to be an eyesore in your presence.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

Not long after setting aside his memorial tablets, Li Shimin had gone to the side hall to rest. Before he had even untied his robes, an urgent voice rang out from outside the door.

Huang Chun, the attendant on duty, hastily lowered his head, bowed, and hurried to open the door.

Just outside the main hall, he was about to reprimand the intruder when a towering figure loomed before him.

Startled into a panic, he dropped straight to his knees. "This humble servant pays respects to Your Majesty."

"Move aside!"

With a heavy frown, Li Yuan kicked him roughly out of the way.

Taking the blow without daring to cry out, Huang Chun scrambled hastily to the side.

Inside the side hall, Li Shimin had already caught the words "Your Majesty."

His expression shifted instantly. Turning his head toward the cross-blade resting by the head of the bed, he grasped the hilt and drew it free.

Why would the Emperor, his father, come here?

Could it be... No, that is impossible!

For a fleeting second, Li Shimin suspected betrayal.

Yet he dismissed the thought almost as quickly.

The grand局 was already settled; it was no longer up to his father to arbitrarily choose the Crown Prince.

Throughout Chang'an, the sixteen imperial guards of the Great Tang had been replaced by his own men in the span of a mere two days.

Unless his father possessed absolute confidence in his ability to control the ensuing chaos following his son's death, he would never dare take such a step.

With this realization, Li Shimin slid the blade back into its scabbard and strode toward the main hall.

Entering the hall, he scanned the surroundings for Li Yuan, only to find the latter seated precisely where he had been reviewing memorials moments before.

Seeming to notice Li Shimin, Li Yuan casually tossed the memorial he had been reading to one side.

"Making you Minister of the Secretariat all these years has certainly honed you. These memorials are reviewed quite conventionally."

Lifting his gaze slightly, Li Yuan locked eyes with Li Shimin.

"Did you mean to patricide?" Li Yuan suddenly narrowed his eyes.

Startled, Li Shimin looked down and realized he was still clutching the cross-blade.

He immediately cast the weapon aside and bowed deeply to Li Yuan. "This son pays respects to Your Father and Emperor. This son harbors no disrespect whatsoever; the sudden commotion just now merely startled me."

"Startled you? Heh." Li Yuan offered a cold laugh before rising to his feet, stepping down from the imperial dais one slow step at a time.

Gazing at Li Shimin, he gave a faint huff. "After slaying your elder brother and slaughtering your younger brother, you can still sleep soundly? You butchered the entire household of the First Prince, turning the Eastern Palace into a river of blood. Will you truly rest easy living in the Eastern Palace from now on?"

His accusatory question plunged Li Shimin into silence.

The surrounding attendants lowered their heads in unison, quickly retreating a hundred paces away.

"This son's conscience is clear."

Li Shimin stood ramrod straight, his gaze fixed on Li Yuan, brimming with unyielding resolve.

Looking at him, Li Yuan felt as though he were once again gazing upon the Prince of Qin, ever-victorious on the battlefield.

He stood in silence, studying the son before him.

In truth, he should have foreseen this outcome long ago.

This Great Tang realm, after all, had been forged by the sword of his second son.

"A fine 'conscience is clear.'" Li Yuan sighed deeply, appearing to age decades in a single breath.

He walked unsteadily until he stood right before Li Shimin.

"After tomorrow, you shall be the Crown Prince of the Great Tang. Merely proclaiming it within the Eastern Palace would inevitably breed suspicion. Tomorrow, at the Taiji Hall, I shall personally announce you as Crown Prince."

"I am tired. Have the Bureau of Historiography calculate an auspicious time, and let it be held in the Taiji Hall. I will abdicate the throne to you; there is no need for the tedious routine of officials urging me to step down—the mere sight of them irritates me now."

Hearing this, Li Shimin froze in astonishment.

He had never imagined his father would make such a decision.

"You no longer blame me?"

"Not blame you?" Li Yuan let out a sudden, booming laugh, his eyes bloodshot as he grabbed Li Shimin by the lapels.

"The First Prince and his entire family died a tragic death at your hands—how could I not resent you, how could I not hate you!" Tears welled in Li Yuan's eyes; when the news had first reached him, he had wept bitterly.

Yet, in truth, he had known all along. The moment Li Shimin appeared at Xianchi Palace, he knew Empress Zeng and the children of Li Jiancheng could not be saved.

"Yet the Great Tang cannot be without a Crown Prince, nor can it do without you. I am weary. Perhaps I should never have fought for this throne in the beginning."

He loosened his grip on Li Shimin's robes and shoved him aside.

Though drained of his aged strength, Li Shimin yielded to the momentum and stepped back a few paces.

"Father."

Looking upon his father, Li Shimin felt his own eye sockets grow hot.

Li Yuan paused in his tracks, releasing a long, drawn-out sigh.

"The prophecy of that youth proved true. Venus crossing the meridian has appeared once more; perhaps this is Heaven's will."

"You said that youth hails from future generations, and brought the prophecy that you would lead the Great Tang into a golden age. Very well, I shall watch."

"I shall watch and see if the Great Tang you seized upon a foundation of blood and bones truly becomes the golden age of which you speak."

Turning back to look at Li Shimin, his face was already streaming with tears.

Li Shimin stared back in lingering silence, his hands clenched tightly into fists.

"Furthermore, have that person from future generations brought to the palace tomorrow. House him in Hongyi Palace—it was originally built for you by my decree, but since you have no use for it now, you may as well let me live there, lest you find him an eyesore here."

With that, Li Yuan flicked his sleeves, refusing to wait for a reply, and strode out of the Liangyi Hall.

Long after he had departed, Li Shimin remained rooted to the spot, only slowly snapping back to reality.

With tears streaming down his face, he breathed a soft whisper: "Father."

He understood that Li Yuan's sudden arrival at Liangyi Hall seemed like an interrogation and a reprimand.

In reality, however, his father had thrown him a vital ladder to climb.

Only by having Li Yuan personally proclaim Li Shimin as Crown Prince tomorrow in the Taiji Hall could the ambitious schemers across the realm be stripped of any pretext for opposition.

Henceforth, he would be the undisputed, legitimate heir apparent to the Great Tang.

This night, Li Shimin was destined for sleeplessness.

When the pale light of dawn illuminated the outer gates of Liangyi Hall,

he pushed the doors open with a radiant spirit, clad still in the ceremonial robes of a prince.

Yet mere hours from now, he would don the imperial vestments of the Crown Prince.

Meanwhile,

inside the Manor of the Prince of Qin, a person who had woken up at nearly the exact same time as Li Shimin was currently nursing a face full of grievances.

Looking at Zhangsun Wuji, who was glaring at him with burning eyes, and Duan Zhixuan, who stood nearby grinning broadly, Wen He wore an expression of utter despair.

"Why have you two come so early? What hour of the night is this?"

Wen He had been rudely yanked straight out of bed by a pair of maids.

He had even experienced the decadent treatment of the privileged ruling class, standing passively while maidservants washed his face and dressed him.

"I've come to the Prince of Qin's manor to escort the Princess and the three young princes. Though we aren't entering the palace just yet—not until afternoon or so."

Duan Zhixuan chuckled good-naturedly, only to be hit with a stern glare from Zhangsun Wuji.

"Talk nonsense and you'll find yourself disciplined. You are here to provide an escort."

"Yes, yes, yes, here to escort them," Duan Zhixuan corrected himself hastily.

The Prince of Qin had not even been formally invested as Crown Prince yet, and here you were, in an unseemly rush to bring people into the palace. If word got out, it would give others grounds for criticism.

Yet such behavior was the very definition of redundancy.

The common folk cared not a whit about who the true Crown Prince might be.

As for the landowners, nobility, and powerful aristocratic clans, they were all well aware of what truly transpired beneath the surface.

To put it bluntly, the Prince of Qin wanted to preserve both his substance and his facade.

He only wondered what expression Li Shimin would wear if he ever learned that in the future, he would be forced to ascend the throne within the Eastern Palace because his father stubbornly refused to vacate the Taiji Palace.

If memory served, it wasn't until the third year of Zhenguan that Li Yuan was reluctantly pressured into leaving the Taiji Palace.

The proclamation today would likely take place within the Eastern Palace as well.

Right now, Li Shimin was surely harboring resentment toward Li Yuan in his heart.

At the thought of soon gazing upon a gloomy Li Shimin, Wen He's early-morning vexation instantly evaporated.

Nowadays, his only remaining amusement in life was watching Li Er swallow his frustrations before his own father.