[Sweet Romance and Child-Rearing + Travel Between Two Worlds + Tang Dynasty Infrastructure + Adorable Homophone-Talking Kid + Prince of Equal Rank]
Lin Yichen had just graduated at twenty-three when, one early morning, he found a little bundle of joy falling from the sky.
She was three and a half, dressed in a brocade jacket with her hair tied into two little buns. She threw herself into his arms and called him in a sweet, lisping voice, “Deh-deh!”
One look at her jade pendant and Lin Yichen froze on the spot. This little girl was Li Mingda, Princess Jinyang, the beloved daughter of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin. The history books said she would die young at twelve.
From then on, overworked office worker Lin Yichen was forced onto the path of fatherhood:
She called electric lights “night pearls,” toilets “white jade basins,” strawberries “little red fruits,” and ice cream “medicine balls.”
He taught her to say “older brother,” and she said “deh-deh.” He taught her to say “flower,” and she said “fah-fah.”
She was a walking machine for making adorable sound-alike puns.
Then one day, when blood touched the jade pendant and it began to glow, Lin Yichen discovered that the little girl could take them both between the Tang Dynasty and the modern world!
In the modern world, he took her out to eat, drink, and have fun, sent her to kindergarten, rode the Ferris wheel with her, and taught her how to live in modern times.
Once she was familiar with it, the little girl dragged him back to the Tang Dynasty during the Zhenguan era, where she showed him the real Chang’an.
Lin Yichen was used to modern life, and he needed a certain standard of comfort wherever he lived:
No toilet? Build one! No heating? Install it! No running water? Set it up! No ice cream? Absolutely must have it!
So, starting with a single flush toilet, he ended up giving the Tang Dynasty a complete infrastructure overhaul:
Glass, cement, papermaking, printing, railways, telegraphs, hospitals, schools…
All so he could live a little more comfortably.
Before he knew it, he had become a prince of equal rank to the emperor in the Zhenguan court.
