Great Tang: Changle Goes Undercover to Sample Delicacies, and Li Er Is Tempted

In the fifth year of the Zhenguan era, Emperor Taizong of Tang decrees that Princess Changle, Li Lizhi, is to marry Changsun Chong. Heartbroken, Changle leaves the palace in disguise to clear her head and happens upon a restaurant called Half a Day’s Leisure. After that, Li Shimin notices that his usually well-behaved darling daughter has changed! Not only does she sneak out every day, she keeps taking Gaoyang and Little Xizi to the same place outside the palace, and she’s growing increasingly cold toward Changsun Chong! Furious, Li Shimin roars, “Scoundrel! You’ve bewitched my precious daughter with sorcery! I’ll shut down your shop and wipe out your entire clan!” Li Shimin immediately goes undercover to investigate, but the very next moment, everything takes an unexpected turn. In a private booth at Half a Day’s Leisure, he sees Changle, without a trace of her usual princessly airs, happily digging into a dessert called Snow over Chang’an. Outside, Changsun Chong rages: “Showing your face in public and indulging in food! What kind of behavior is that?” Empress Zhangsun of Tang, however, has tears in her eyes. Wiping them away, she says, “Erlang, look how happy Lizhi is. Since you arranged her marriage, she hasn’t smiled like this once in the palace.” At a dining table in the main hall, he sees Little Xizi, who used to be sickly, wolfing down a bowl of medicinal soup made by Lin Chen, her cheeks rosy and glowing. Sun Simiao and the assembled physicians of the Imperial Medical Bureau are left questioning everything they know: “Food therapy can outperform a century-old celestial herb? Shopkeeper Lin is truly Hua Tuo reborn!” Meanwhile, Lin Chen says to Li Shimin, who is disguised as a merchant: “Old Li, don’t you know marrying a close relative can make the woman die young? You’d be sending her to her death.” At that moment, Li Shimin changes his mind completely. “I’m relieved to let Lizhi stay here every day!” “As for the marriage… to hell with Changsun Chong!”