The three old men had come to Shu, and clearly not for sightseeing. They hadn’t said why yet, but Li Chi thought he could probably guess.

They must have worked out that Li Chi would be heading from Shu toward Ji Prefecture. And — aware of their own guilt — they’d come to make sure Li Chi and Gao Xining didn’t give them the slip and go through with the wedding on their own.

Of course this was all Li Chi’s reading of the situation. Whether those three old men actually felt any guilt about their own behavior was quite another question.

Put it this way: if they’d had even the slightest awareness of their own transgressions, could they have done the things they’d done?

Of the three, Dean Gao was the most solemn. The very first thing he asked about upon arriving was the state of Shu’s governance.

Li Chi had just finished discussing this with Lu Chonglou, so he repeated everything faithfully for the Dean.

Dean Gao listened, thought for a moment, and then asked, “You believe Lu Chonglou has great talent. Why then did you go to such pains to guide him?”

Li Chi smiled. “Dean — talent and capability are two different things. Together they make a person’s strength. Talent is the foundation of capability. Lu Chonglou’s talent is beyond question, but his practical capability still needs guidance.”

Dean Gao, a man of his caliber, already understood Li Chi’s thinking. He simply wanted to confirm that his future grandson-in-law’s mind was running along the same channel as his own.

“Lu Chonglou,” Dean Gao said, “is a man of pure loyalty.”

He spoke with a touch of regret. “I don’t know when it happened, but the measure of whether a person — especially an official — is truly capable somehow became first and foremost a matter of social performance. Smoothness. Flexibility.”

He looked at Li Chi. “That you give a man like Lu Chonglou a chance — it makes me glad.”

In Dean Gao’s view, what Lu Chonglou lacked was simply the chance to grow. His background was modest — a tavern keeper’s world — and his horizons hadn’t fully opened yet.

Li Chi let out a quiet sigh. In his own mind he was thinking: I give chances to all kinds of people. It’s just that some of them mistake the chance for permission to run wild.

The Military Intelligence Office and the Censor’s Office had reported multiple times now: Xu Ji, Military Governor of Yue Prefecture, was colluding with factions and building a personal power base. Not merely packing offices with his own people and pushing out others — his methods were particularly ugly.

He had also been secretly cultivating close ties with the great landowning families of Yue Prefecture — which was a line he had crossed. This was the same instinct that had led him to secretly communicate with Yang Xuanji back when he’d been in Yu Prefecture.

And while Xu Ji had shown some restraint back in Ji Prefecture — knowing the Prince of Ning’s network there was deep, since Ji was where Li Chi had risen — once he arrived in Yue, he’d let himself go entirely. Increasingly unguarded.

Perhaps he’d convinced himself that Yue, freshly pacified, hadn’t yet been woven through with Li Chi’s eyes.

Which showed the limits of every person’s perspective. Xu Ji seemed to have forgotten that even the most efficiently conquered territory was still conquered territory — and before the army moved, Li Chi would have sent agents ahead to prepare the ground.

Those agents’ identities, their numbers, their placements — how could Xu Ji possibly have found all of them?

When you are surrounded by darkness, you remain alert to whether unseen eyes are watching from the shadows. When you stand in full light, you feel as though you can see everything clearly — and forget that the sun itself, the very source of that light, is the eye looking at you.

After a while discussing official matters, Dean Gao fell quiet and returned to his tea.

He had been responsible for starting the conversation. What came next was the Long-Brow Daoist’s turn.

The Long-Brow Daoist had been listening — not really listening, but preparing. He knew his disciple. He knew what Li Chi was likely to say.

Li Chi would probably say: You three — why did you suddenly come running here? Don’t you feel guilty?

So the Long-Brow Daoist intended to strike first. He would demand to know why, now that Shu had fallen and Li Chi was heading north back to Ji Prefecture for the wedding in Chang’an, Li Chi hadn’t sent anyone to collect them—

“Little Dou!”

The Long-Brow Daoist looked at Li Chi, his emotions primed.

Li Chi shot to his feet. “Shifu! How could you! Why didn’t you wait for me to send someone for you?!”

The Long-Brow Daoist: “Hm?”

Li Chi: “The three of you — do you have any idea how old you are? From Daxing to Shu, the roads are terrible. The travel is grueling. What if something had happened? You’d be condemning Xining and me to a lifetime of guilt!”

“You could have waited and I’d have sent an escort to bring you to Ji Prefecture. But no — you came to Shu instead. What kind of elders behave like this?”

“Shifu — I—”

The Long-Brow Daoist: “I was wrong…”

Dean Gao and Old Master Zhang exchanged a look of wide-eyed disbelief.

“Pff.”

They both made a sound of quiet disdain at the same moment.

The Long-Brow Daoist stood there a beat, then thought: blast it all.

Li Chi said, “I still have military matters to attend to. You three rest here and reflect on your behavior.”

Then he headed for the door, shooting Gao Xining a look that said: now or never.

Gao Xining leaped to her feet. “Li Chi! How can you talk to the three elders like this — don’t you know you’re the younger generation here?”

Li Chi gave a dismissive sound and walked out.

Gao Xining: “Don’t you run away from me — if I have something to say to you, you’ll hear it even if I have to chase you down!”

And she followed.

The three old men sat looking at each other.

Then all three of them burst out laughing.

Dean Gao looked at the Long-Brow Daoist. “For Little Dou turning out this way, you bear a great deal of direct responsibility.”

Long-Brow Daoist: “I accept that… but Xining is this way too — that’s nothing to do with me, surely?”

He looked at Dean Gao. Dean Gao hemmed and hawed. “Xining being this way — that naturally has nothing to do with me either. She clearly learned all her bad habits from Little Dou. Which ultimately is your fault.”

Old Master Zhang began to applaud.

The Long-Brow Daoist: “Fine, fine. If you insist, I’ll accept the blame.”

Dean Gao: “Whatever we decide, even if we carry our wickedness through to the end, we must make those two hold the wedding in Chang’an. You both just heard him — he said he’d send someone to bring us to Ji Prefecture. He said it without thinking, which means it reflects what’s actually on his mind.”

Long-Brow Daoist sighed. “Those two young ones — all they want is to get married in that little courtyard in Ji Prefecture.”

He looked at Old Master Zhang. “It was you who calculated it — that if they marry in Chang’an, the Great Ning dynasty will enjoy lasting fortune, and central China will know lasting peace…”

Old Master Zhang curled his lip. “You two didn’t dare say this to their faces, so you wanted me to play the villain for you — and now you’re pushing the whole thing off on me? Wishful thinking.”

Dean Gao: “That’s not quite fair to say. Whatever mischief we’ve done, it was based on your calculations, wasn’t it…”

Long-Brow Daoist sighed again. “Those two young ones — the feeling they have for that little courtyard, we all understand it. We can all feel it. So being the villain here really isn’t easy…”

Dean Gao looked at Old Master Zhang. “Just tell us plainly — have you worked out in your head how to handle this?”

Old Master Zhang said, “The Prince of Ning and the Xining girl have their hearts set on marrying in that little courtyard in Ji Prefecture. If the three of us force the matter, it won’t sit well — and frankly, the two of you, for all your talk of playing villains, won’t be able to hold firm when you see those two upset. You’ll cave the moment they look sad.”

Dean Gao: “So then what?”

Old Master Zhang: “So let them get married in the little courtyard. What else is there to do?”

Dean Gao: “But didn’t you say Chang’an would be better?”

Old Master Zhang: “We can allow the wedding to happen there — but not the consummation. As long as the marriage is not physically consummated, it doesn’t truly count as a proper wedding…”

Dean Gao blinked. He looked at the Long-Brow Daoist. The Long-Brow Daoist muttered, “And they say you’re a proper Daoist. Honestly.”

Old Master Zhang: “Pah! I knew all along you two wouldn’t dare be the villains yourselves, so you’d use me as your shield…”

Long-Brow Daoist smiled. “If this approach can work, then so be it.”

Dean Gao: “But young people — when it comes to that moment — not consummating is going to be very… difficult, I imagine.”

Long-Brow Daoist slapped his own chest. “Leave it to the venerable Daoist.”

Old Master Zhang: “What?!”

Dean Gao: “You slap your own chest and say leave it to him. Why?”

Long-Brow Daoist glanced at Old Master Zhang: “If I slap his chest, I might knock the old man dead.”

Old Master Zhang: “Even if you killed me, it’d be from sheer exasperation at you.”

Out in the courtyard, Li Chi and Gao Xining walked side by side. Gao Xining said as they went, “Don’t you feel like those three came here with bad intentions?”

Li Chi: “Look at you — how can you suspect your own dear grandfather, my own dear shifu, and a genuine ordained Daoist of the Dragon Tiger Mountain? You shouldn’t suspect. You should say with certainty: those three are absolutely here with bad intentions.”

Gao Xining: “You’re right, I was wrong. The question mark was disrespectful to them.”

She asked, “But what bad thing could they possibly come up with now?”

Li Chi walked and thought. After a while: “I don’t think it can be anything too unusual at this point. Most likely they’re just worried we’ll get married behind their backs, so they’ve come to keep watch.”

Gao Xining: “That does seem likely… but I still feel a little unsettled.”

Li Chi: “If you didn’t know your grandfather so well, you wouldn’t feel unsettled.”

Gao Xining: “And you’re different?”

Li Chi: “I am different. I’ve watched my shifu’s ways since childhood — I’ve already made my peace with it. Calm, composed, detached.”

Gao Xining: “I give them maybe one day before they show their tails.”

Li Chi: “Not necessarily. A crafty old fox, when it doesn’t want its tail seen, will cut it off beforehand.”

Gao Xining: “Is that a joke?”

Li Chi: “My jokes landing this badly — I must also be feeling… unsettled.”

They looked at each other and both felt rather pitiful.

Just then, the Long-Brow Daoist sent someone to fetch Yu Jiuling. Before Yu Jiuling even arrived, he had a bad feeling.

Those three old fox spirits — that is, those three venerable and esteemed elders — summoning someone like him? Nothing good could possibly come of this.

He came prepared for mischief. But he could never have anticipated just how terrible the thing they asked him to do actually was.

Something that struck right at the heart of Yu Jiuling’s conscience.

Which is why he listened with the greatest of pleasure.

—