Two days later.

Li Chi looked at Xiahou Zuo, who was stubbornly rooted to his chair and refusing to budge, and said with a smile, “Sir Xiahou, General Xiahou, Grand Scoundrel Xiahou — it’s time to go.”

Xiahou Zuo looked up at Li Chi. “If I actually go to the Shen Medical Hall today as you all want me to — what face will I ever have in Youzhou again?”

Li Chi said, “If you act convincingly enough, they should drop the matter. Otherwise you’ll have this hanging over you indefinitely.”

He offered his advice in the manner of a genuinely helpful person: “Think about it — they may look a little silly, but their skills are clearly not poor, otherwise Old Tang wouldn’t have warned you about them so seriously.”

“Pah!”

Xiahou Zuo said, “He warned me? If he hadn’t gone around stirring up these entanglements himself, I wouldn’t have any of this trouble.”

He glared at Li Chi. “Today, if the lot of you can get my rear end off this chair, you can count that as a real feat.”

Li Chi said, “If we can get your rear end off the chair, you’ll go with us to the Shen Medical Hall?”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Show me what you’ve got. I’m glued to this spot today.”

Li Chi patiently counseled him: “Every situation has two sides. You can’t only look at the worse one.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Then tell me what the other side is.”

Li Chi said, “The other side is even worse.”

Xiahou Zuo: “…”

Li Chi said, “Looking at those young women, they don’t seem to wish anyone harm. If they did, Yu Jiuling rode that carriage and led them around the whole city. They had more than a few chances to act.”

Yu Jiuling nodded. “The key point is they’re good-looking.”

Xiahou Zuo turned to look at Yu Jiuling, who said, “I can’t argue grand principles, but my feeling is that any young woman that good-looking — if General Xiahou doesn’t think so — can only mean one of two things.”

Xiahou Zuo said, “Whether I’m interested or not doesn’t require all these reasons.”

Yu Jiuling said, “Oh, but it does. For a young woman that good-looking, if General Xiahou still doesn’t see her as worth a second glance, either: one, you’re not particularly drawn to women; or two, it might still be related to what happened on that trip to Yanzhou.”

Xiahou Zuo shot to his feet.

Yu Jiuling had already darted out through the main doorway in a single bound.

Xiahou Zuo grabbed his shoe and gave chase.

Yu Jiuling ran at full speed, glancing back every now and then. Xiahou Zuo was right on his heels — but without Gao Xining’s particular skill set, two thrown shoes missed in rapid succession.

By the time Yu Jiuling reached the courtyard and turned to shout back, “My lord! I’ve gotten General Xiahou out of his chair!”

Xiahou Zuo blinked, looked behind him, and only then realized he had already stepped out of the room.

He considered going back in, but Li Chi had already walked out carrying the chair.

It appeared there was no chance of that chair being set down anytime soon.

Li Chi applauded. “Yu Jiuling — a true champion among loyal comrades.”

Gao Xining burst out laughing.

Xiahou Yili, standing beside Gao Xining, asked, “Is she actually that beautiful?”

Gao Xining said, “I haven’t seen her myself, but if Yu Jiuling says she’s beautiful, she probably is.”

Xiahou Yili said, “I’ll head to the Shen Medical Hall first. If that young woman actually shows up, this matter needs to be addressed properly for her sake.”

“If she comes,” he said, “it’s either because she still wants to finish what she started and kill my brother — or because she genuinely wants to see how my brother is doing.”

Gao Xining said, “If it’s the latter, then yes, someone should help things along. That would mean the woman has a kind heart.”

Xiahou Yili squinted at her. “You people from the Four-Page Academy all seem to love playing matchmaker.”

Gao Xining said, “Well…”

She bumped her shoulder against Xiahou Yili’s. “Do you need me to play matchmaker for you?”

Xiahou Yili waved her off hurriedly: “Pah, pah, pah, a girl your age — have you no shame?”

Gao Xining said, “You’re the one who’s still a girl. I am a married woman.”

Xiahou Yili: “Ugh!”

Gao Xining said, “Just tell me whether you want my help or not. I’ve been in the matchmaking business for years now — I’m practically a veteran.”

Xiahou Yili said, “Have you ever actually succeeded?”

Gao Xining said, “Succeed? Well, no — but I’ve managed to lose one person in the attempt. What are you afraid of? At worst, it doesn’t work out, and I’ll have lost you too.”

Xiahou Yili: “Ugh!”

Gao Xining said, “Are you saying yes or not?”

Xiahou Yili strode quickly away. “Yes to nothing. I’m going to the Shen Medical Hall to check on that young woman — she might be my future sister-in-law, for all I know.”

Gao Xining quickened her pace to follow. “Let’s talk on the way. I think you’ve got real potential as a matchmaker yourself.”

Xiahou Yili walked faster. “No, no, no — stop following me.”

Then he stopped, turned to look at Gao Xining, and his expression said absolutely nothing of the sort.

—

Back in the courtyard, Xiahou Zuo looked at Li Chi steadily and said, “This whole thing has put that young woman in an awkward position. You all go — explain things to her.”

Li Chi said, “Explain what? That you were never actually shot?”

Xiahou Zuo took off his shoe. “I can’t hit Yu Jiuling — can I not hit you?”

He flung the shoe.

Yu Jiuling leapt in front of Li Chi and snatched it clean out of the air.

Yu Jiuling, the true champion of loyal and righteous men.

Yu Jiuling grabbed the shoe, pivoted, and ran. Xiahou Zuo hopped on one foot in pursuit. Li Chi said, “How are you going to catch anyone like that?” — stepped forward, hefted Xiahou Zuo onto his shoulder, and ran.

Yu Jiuling ran ahead, Li Chi carried Xiahou Zuo behind him, and before long they had maneuvered him into the carriage.

—

Half an hour later. The Shen Medical Hall.

The Youzhou branch of the Shen Medical Hall was spacious and well-appointed. Being a later construction than the original branches, it was both larger and more complete.

The Shen Medical Hall’s business model was uniquely its own in all of Dachu, and could by any reckoning be called a goldmine.

When Li Chi and his group arrived, the manager of the Youzhou branch, Yang Chenchen, was already waiting outside the door.

Yang Chenchen was somewhat different from the managers of the other branches, because she too had come from Yunyinshan.

Within Yunyinshan, there were many who had once walked the world and, upon returning, had retired in seclusion to the Peach Garden.

She had been on reasonably good terms with Shen Ruzhong in the seclusion compound. So when Shen Ruzhong sent someone back to ask, she had agreed to come out of seclusion and take charge of the Youzhou branch.

She was a year or two older than Shen Ruzhong, yet by seniority, she was Shen Ruzhong’s junior by a generation.

This was because Shen Ruzhong had gone out into the world at an extraordinarily young age, returning in her twenties, after which she spent several years in seclusion at Yunyinshan.

Yang Chenchen had gone out as a representative of Yunyinshan at age twenty, spent five years walking the world, and returned early from seclusion due to an injury.

So the two of them were, ironically, close in age.

“Prince Ning.”

Yang Chenchen saw Li Chi arrive and bowed.

Li Chi clasped his hands in return. “Senior Sister.”

Yang Chenchen immediately said, “Please don’t address me that way. Prince Ning is the Grand Elder’s most cherished disciple — by seniority, you would be our Little Ancestral Master.”

“Little Ancestral Master…”

Li Chi let out a sigh. That title truly made him feel ancient — if there was anything that could make one feel even older than “Little Ancestral Master,” it would probably only be “Old Patriarch.”

But then he caught himself and immediately asked: “Has Elder Li returned to the Yunyinshan gate?”

Yang Chenchen replied, “Yes, Little Ancestral Master. The Grand Elder is no longer as he used to be — shutting himself in the medicine valley and refusing to see anyone. Before I left Yunyinshan, he would occasionally go to the sect to give lectures, and he even went specially to visit our seclusion compound in the Peach Garden.”

Li Chi asked, “Has Elder Li had some kind of realization?”

Yang Chenchen said, “The Grand Elder heard that those of us who are world-walkers, upon returning, were not permitted to live within the sect and had to take up seclusion in the Peach Garden — he was furious.”

“He said… ahem… he said it was completely unreasonable. And so he set the Peach Garden on fire.”

Li Chi thought: Elder Li is absolutely the kind of person who would do that.

Yang Chenchen said, “The Grand Elder also said that world-walkers take on the most dangerous work, and they are the ones who preserve the succession of Yunyinshan’s legacy — supposedly they are given positions of honor, but in practice they are confined in the Peach Garden. He said there was no sense in that, and he intended to abolish the rule entirely…”

Li Chi said, “So Elder Li truly sees things clearly.”

“He does,” Yang Chenchen said. “The Grand Elder asked: he walked the world for all those years — does that mean he has been touched by outside corruption? If he had, then why would you people come and seek him out time and again to ask him to come out of retirement — while keeping everyone else behind closed doors?”

“He’s been walking the world since before any of you were born. If the world could genuinely taint a person, by this point he’d be thoroughly corrupted — black through and through, from inside out.”

As she mimicked the Grand Elder’s manner of speaking, she was remarkably faithful to the original — and Li Chi, listening, couldn’t help laughing aloud.

Elder Li had never constrained himself to propriety or convention — one might even say he was thoroughly ungovernable.

Yet in all of Dachu’s vast territory, no one could match the breadth of Elder Li’s learning. And his heart had never been soiled by the dust and grime of the mortal world.

For if it had, why would he have been content to return to Yunyinshan to raise pigs?

“Little Ancestral Master, please come in.”

Yang Chenchen invited him again.

As Li Chi and the others entered, Yang Chenchen continued to speak of Yunyinshan’s affairs while they walked.

“The Grand Elder returned to the sect to give lectures. He speaks nothing of medicine, nothing else either — only of what he has seen and lived through walking the world.”

She looked at Li Chi. “The Grand Elder said that of all the dazzling and gifted young people he has encountered in his lifetime, only Little Ancestral Master truly caught his eye, and may just barely be considered his disciple.”

Li Chi was genuinely pleased by this. In his heart, earning the recognition of someone like Elder Li was truly something to be proud of.

“Ah…”

Li Chi let out a long breath, a sense of clarity and elation opening up in his chest.

Yang Chenchen said, “So by seniority, Prince Ning is the Little Ancestral Master of our Yunyinshan. From now on, you must not call me Senior Sister — that would turn the seniority quite upside down.”

Li Chi looked at her sincere and earnest expression, and decided he could not make things difficult for her.

These disciples who had come down from Yunyinshan were all of simple and guileless character, as though they were blank pages. Once they had decided on something, it was not easy for anyone else to change.

“Were Elder Li’s lectures interesting?”

Li Chi asked as they walked.

Yang Chenchen smiled. “Genuinely vivid and interesting. If Ruzhong didn’t need me here, I would far rather have stayed at Yunyinshan to continue learning. Only…”

Li Chi asked, “Only what?”

Yang Chenchen said, “Only the Grand Elder is unwilling to say much to us beyond these personal accounts.”

Li Chi asked, “Did he lecture on pig-raising?”

Yang Chenchen said, “He did, actually.”

Li Chi thought: of course he did.

That is Elder Li’s one true love — raising pigs.

A man of such extraordinary talent for ordering the world, yet with absolutely no interest in doing so. His swordsmanship and blade mastery — who in the world could surpass him? Perhaps someone existed, but Li Chi did not particularly believe it. His learning and breadth of knowledge — in all of Dachu’s vast territory, there was most likely not a single person who could compare.

Li Chi sighed. “He’s just as he always was. As though all that ability — except for the pigs — is something he never truly wanted to learn.”

Yang Chenchen suddenly recalled something and laughed. “The Grand Elder did say one thing. He said that in his entire life, to this point, there is only one thing about which he has no doubt whatsoever.”

Li Chi asked, “What did he say?”

Yang Chenchen said, “The Grand Elder said: in swordsmanship, I may be the finest in the world — may be. In military texts and strategy, I may be the finest — may be. In music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, I may be the finest — may be. Everything is a ‘may be.’ I dare not state it with certainty. But in raising pigs — I am unquestionably the finest.”

Li Chi: “…”

Yu Jiuling, walking behind Li Chi, straightened up proudly. “I’m second.”

Yang Chenchen stopped mid-step, turned to look at Yu Jiuling, raised her chin with a trace of defiance, and said, “That may not be the case.”

Yu Jiuling: “Er…”