Zhenguan

Hearing Empress Zhangsun's inquiry, Li Shimin remained silent, his face full of sorrow.

Meanwhile.

Inside Little Sizi's room, Qin Ning appeared out of thin air, bringing her and Jiang Yanran along.

Looking at the antique furnishings in the room, Qin Ning and Jiang Yanran's faces were filled with novelty.

"Sizi, is this where you live?" Jiang Yanran asked.

"Yesh."

Little Mingda nodded with a smile, her pink little hands holding a piece of cake on a paper plate.

"It should be July of the sixth year of Zhenguan right now," Qin Ning said, briefly explaining the timeline and such to Jiang Yanran.

Little Sizi held the cake and said in a milky voice, "Little Mister, give to Mama to eat."

"Alright, then let's go find Sizi's Mama now."

Qin Ning smiled, then picked her up and walked out of the room with Jiang Yanran.

Not far outside the door, a maid was standing guard. Hearing voices inside, she hurried over and bumped right into Qin Ning's group of three.

The maid was stunned at first, but upon seeing Li Mingda in Qin Ning's arms, her face instantly lit up with joy. "Little Highness! The Little Highness has returned!"

Saying that, she quickly turned around and ran toward the Taiji Palace.

"What?"

"Sizi is back?"

In the Taiji Palace, Li Lizhi and Li Shimin, who were comforting Empress Zhangsun, heard the maid's report from afar.

"Where is Sizi?"

Empress Zhangsun stood up excitedly, but soon her body went limp and she sat back down.

Li Lizhi quickly supported her. "Mother, just sit here. I will go bring Sizi over."

"Good, good," Empress Zhangsun replied.

However, before Li Lizhi could set off, she saw a large group of armed soldiers outside the door. They seemed to be surrounding someone and were slowly retreating in this direction.

"Release the Little Highness at once!" one of the imperial guards shouted loudly.

Because at this moment, Little Sizi was being held by Qin Ning. These two people were of unknown origin and dressed strangely. In their eyes, they were likely assassins of some sort who had taken the little princess hostage.

"Who are you? Why have you taken Sizi hostage!"

Li Shimin also arrived outside the hall. His face was full of majesty as he signaled the guards not to act rashly, preventing these two strange people from hurting the little princess.

"Papa."

But he was clearly overthinking it. Qin Ning gently set Little Sizi down.

The little girl ran excitedly toward Li Shimin, still holding a piece of cake in her hand.

"Sizi!"

Li Shimin quickly picked her up and let out a long sigh of relief. Then he frowned and looked at Qin Ning and Jiang Yanran. "Who exactly are you?"

Obviously, these two didn't look like assassins.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have let Little Sizi go so easily.

"Papa, it's Little Mister."

The little princess said with a grin, and then added, "And Little Big Sister too."

"Wow, is this Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin? Qin Ning, we are seeing a living Emperor Taizong!"

At this moment, Jiang Yanran suddenly cried out in excitement. As a history student, no one could understand just how thrilled she was right now.

Emperor Taizong of Tang?

A living Emperor Taizong?

As soon as these words came out, Li Shimin's face instantly darkened.

What Taizong?

A posthumous title?

He wasn't even dead yet, so how could he be Taizong?

And just as Li Shimin was about to lose his temper, he saw Jiang Yanran taking large strides toward him. She reached out her hand and said, "Hello, hello, are you Li Shimin? My name is Jiang Yanran..."

"Audacious!"

The imperial guards' expressions changed drastically. Upon reacting, they prepared to strike.

"Buzz!"

The space vibrated slightly. With a gentle wave of Qin Ning's hand, a terrifying pressure descended, directly freezing these guards in place, unable to move a single inch.

Li Shimin was greatly alarmed. He obviously noticed something was wrong with the guards and looked at Qin Ning with a face full of disbelief.

What was going on with this young man?

With just a wave of his hand, he made all the guards unable to move?

"Hello, my name is Qin Ning."

At this time, Qin Ning also came in front of him, smiling and extending his hand.

Li Shimin naturally could not understand the handshake greeting of later generations, and couldn't help but look at Qin Ning and Jiang Yanran with an extremely strange expression.

"Mother!"

While he was dazed, Little Sizi had already run into the hall with the cake and arrived in front of Empress Zhangsun.

"Sizi, where did you go?"

Empress Zhangsun hugged her. After making sure she was unharmed, she finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Sizi, what are you holding in your hand?"

"Itsh a cake."

Little Sizi said with a grin, "It's yummy."

Meanwhile, outside the door, Qin Ning had already withdrawn the pressure. Li Shimin waved his hand, ordering the guards to step down, and brought the two of them inside as well.

Although he still didn't know the origins of these two people.

But judging from Qin Ning's move just now, they were clearly not ordinary people, or rather, they had already exceeded his understanding of mortals.

Moreover, the other party hadn't actually taken Sizi hostage. From this point alone, Li Shimin could be certain that they at least harbored no ill intent.

"Hello, are you Empress Zhangsun?"

Jiang Yanran's big eyes curiously examined everything in the hall. Then she noticed Empress Zhangsun sitting right in front, enthusiastically walked over, and extended her hand again.

Empress Zhangsun was slightly taken aback and subconsciously reached out her hand as well.

"Wow, I shook hands with Empress Zhangsun!"

Jiang Yanran said excitedly, then noticed Li Lizhi to the side. "Princess Changle?"

In the sixth year of Zhenguan, Li Lizhi was not even twelve years old yet.

But it is said that ancient people matured early. At this moment, she looked no different from those eighteen or nineteen-year-old college students of later generations.

"Mother, eat cake."

Little Sizi learned to use a fork to take a small piece of cake, then offered it to Empress Zhangsun's lips.

Empress Zhangsun didn't open her mouth, but asked curiously, "Sizi, is this food?"

"Mhm, it's yummy. Sizi already ate some."

She tried hard to stand on her tiptoes, attempting to feed the cake into Empress Zhangsun's mouth. "Mother, eat."

Looking at her adorable appearance, Empress Zhangsun hesitated no longer and opened her mouth to take a gentle bite.

To the side, Li Shimin and Li Lizhi watched with some concern.

"So sweet, it has a milky flavor." Empress Zhangsun's eyes lit up as she couldn't help but speak.

"This is a cake. It's normal that you people of the Tang Dynasty haven't eaten it before," Jiang Yanran laughed.

"People of the Tang Dynasty?"

Hearing this, Li Shimin couldn't help but ask, "Do you mean you are not people of my Great Tang? Could it be that you are foreign merchants from the Western Regions?"

"Accurately speaking, we are not people of this era," Jiang Yanran spoke again.

Hearing these words, Li Shimin and the others couldn't help but exchange glances, seemingly not quite understanding.

Jiang Yanran explained once more, "We don't belong to this era. We time-traveled here. We should be from about one thousand four hundred years away from today's Great Tang."

"Time-traveled?"

Li Shimin, Empress Zhangsun, and Li Lizhi were all stunned. "What does time-traveled mean?"

"What it means is that we come from the future."

Qin Ning smiled and took a step forward. "Think of it like this: if you were to travel back to the Qin and Han dynasties, to the people of that time, you would be from the future."

"Does the young master mean to say that your era is fourteen hundred years after our Great Tang?" Li Lizhi was the first to react, speaking up in absolute astonishment.