Xie Huainan hurried to the door and found a simply dressed young man standing outside alone, without a single attendant by his side.

Even so, Xie Huainan immediately went to greet him, bowing forward while still some distance away.

“I pay my respects to Prince Ning.”

As he bent down, Li Chi had already reached out to steady him. “What if you’ve mistaken me for someone else? Wouldn’t that be embarrassing if I’m not who you think I am?”

Xie Huainan replied, “If I’m wrong, the worst that happens is embarrassment — and I don’t fear embarrassment. But if I’m right and I don’t dare acknowledge it, that would be truly frightening.”

Li Chi found himself liking Xie Huainan a little more after those words.

“Your Highness, please come in.”

Xie Huainan bowed and gestured for him to enter.

Li Chi stepped through the door and looked around the residence. It wasn’t large, and somewhat worn with age, but it had been swept and tidied spotlessly clean.

In the courtyard stood a middle-aged man who appeared to be an ordinary person at first glance. Li Chi let his gaze pass over him briefly, then looked away.

Qiu Qing bowed in greeting, and as he did, he recalled how Li Chi’s eyes had swept across him — fleeting yet deliberate, lingering for just a moment on his hands.

He instinctively looked down at his own hands, and couldn’t help but feel a measure of admiration for Li Chi.

For a first meeting, and with only what seemed like a casual glance, he had looked precisely where it mattered.

Qiu Qing’s hands were unlike those of ordinary men. His index finger, middle finger, and ring finger on both hands were all the same length.

Not by birth — but shaped that way through training.

He had practiced martial arts since childhood, with seven-tenths of his skill residing in those two hands. From the age of seven or eight, he had thrust his fingers into iron sand every day, then into crushed stone. By the time he reached his mid-twenties, his fingers had become completely unlike those of a normal person. The tips looked unsettling to behold — but if you ever saw him strike, you’d discover they could be even more unsettling.

After they entered the reception hall, Li Chi glanced at Qiu Qing again. Qiu Qing appeared perfectly courteous, yet he had not moved from his position behind Xie Huainan.

“Why don’t you wait for me outside,” Xie Huainan said to Qiu Qing.

Qiu Qing asked, “You alone?”

Xie Huainan said, “Is His Highness not alone as well?”

Qiu Qing was quiet for a moment, then replied with complete sincerity, “I can tell His Highness can fight. Better than you.”

Li Chi couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Xie Huainan tried to reason with him. “We have important matters to discuss.”

Qiu Qing still seemed reluctant. He walked toward the doorway and stopped. Xie Huainan’s expression had taken on a hint of pleading, so Qiu Qing finally stepped outside.

Li Chi smiled and asked, “A friend of yours?”

Xie Huainan answered, “Yes. A friend.”

Li Chi made a sound of acknowledgment. “In a person’s life, having even one friend like that is no easy thing. That means you’re already someone others can envy — and so is he.”

Xie Huainan looked over at Li Chi. Li Chi caught his gaze, smiled, and said, “I don’t envy you. I have friends like that too — more than you, far more.”

Xie Huainan smiled as well.

Li Chi said, “Do you know why I’ve come? Don’t rush to answer — I want you to guess. I’ll give you three chances.”

The expression on Xie Huainan’s face turned grave.

He thought for a long while, then rose to his feet, stepped back two paces, lifted the hem of his robe, and knelt down. “It’s because I deceived Mr. Yan.”

Li Chi smiled. “You guessed it on the first try. Very good.”

He went over and helped Xie Huainan to his feet. “If you hadn’t guessed it in three tries, I would have simply left. And if you had needed all three guesses, I would have left as well.”

Xie Huainan felt a wave of lingering fear wash over him, a cold sweat breaking out along his spine.

Prince Ning had given him three guesses, yet Xie Huainan understood perfectly well — Prince Ning had come here directly, rather than arranging a formal audience. There had to be a reason for that.

And that reason could not be because Prince Ning had any hesitation of his own. This was Yuzhou City, territory under Prince Ning’s rule. What concern could Prince Ning possibly have about meeting a visitor from elsewhere?

If it wasn’t Prince Ning’s hesitation, then it could only mean Prince Ning was thinking on his behalf. But… thinking about what on his behalf?

Though his contemplation hadn’t taken long, his mind had turned through a thousand twists and turns in those brief moments.

He quickly understood: Prince Ning was a man of extraordinary wisdom. His coming here was not on behalf of the entire Xie Family — and Prince Ning had perhaps already reasoned that out for himself.

So if this had occurred in a formal setting with many people present, and Prince Ning had exposed him there, it would have been utterly humiliating.

Moreover, in such a scenario, even if Prince Ning reluctantly kept him on, the other people under Prince Ning’s command would look down on him — or even resist him outright.

If he had made that one wrong choice, his plan to serve Prince Ning and save the Xie Family would have had no chance of going forward.

Li Chi sat down. Xie Huainan, however, did not dare to take a seat.

Li Chi gestured toward a chair. “Sit and speak freely. Your courage should not be so lacking.”

Xie Huainan bowed in thanks, then sat down.

Li Chi took a sip of tea, but said nothing more. Xie Huainan felt that Prince Ning was waiting for him to speak first on his own initiative.

So Xie Huainan proceeded to explain the Xie Family’s current situation in full, without the slightest concealment or omission.

He understood clearly — any deception at this moment could become a pit he dug for himself, and the only ones who would fall into it would be himself and the Xie Family.

Li Chi simply listened in quiet stillness. After Xie Huainan had laid out all of his deductions, Li Chi appeared outwardly calm as ever — yet inwardly, he was bursting with delight.

Every one of Xie Huainan’s deductions aligned perfectly with Li Chi’s own arrangements.

Li Chi had indeed dispatched Xiahou Zuo’s forces on a flanking maneuver to cut around behind the enemy. Barring the unexpected, it would not be long before An Nuan’s hundred thousand troops under the Destiny Army’s great general found themselves as meat in the pot.

Xie Huainan finished speaking and apologized once more.

Li Chi said, “Considering this situation from the perspective of your position, you did nothing wrong — not even in the smallest detail. So you have no need to apologize…”

Li Chi paused, then asked a question in a tone that was gentle yet unmistakably grave.

“Can you temporarily forget that you are a member of the Xie Family?”

Xie Huainan’s expression visibly shifted. He took about two breaths to consider the meaning behind Prince Ning’s words.

After those two breaths, he answered, “I can.”

Li Chi rose to his feet, laughed heartily, and walked out.

Xie Huainan hurried after him and escorted Li Chi all the way to the front gate. Li Chi didn’t turn around — he simply raised a hand and waved it. “Go back. No need to see me off any further.”

And just like that, he left, as casually as he had arrived. From the moment he stepped through the door to the moment he walked away, only a few words had passed between them.

Qiu Qing rushed over to ask Xie Huainan, “Well? How did it go?”

But Xie Huainan didn’t answer right away. He kept watching until Li Chi’s figure had disappeared into the distance.

After a long silence, Xie Huainan let out a long, heavy breath. “I couldn’t have spoken a single false word. Prince Ning was only here for those few moments — yet he took me somewhere.”

Qiu Qing was puzzled. Those two had clearly been sitting in the reception hall the entire time. Where could they have gone?

Xie Huainan murmured as if to himself, “It feels as though Prince Ning led me to a fork in the road — one path going left, one going right.”

Qiu Qing asked, “And then?”

Xie Huainan said, “If I had made the wrong choice in that moment… the path I walked down might have been lined with the bodies of the Xie Family.”

Qiu Qing frowned. “Prince Ning said that?”

Xie Huainan shook his head. “Prince Ning would never say such things outright — and he would never move directly against the Xie Family. He simply used two questions to let me see what might happen in the future.”

“If I had chosen wrong, Prince Ning would have cast me aside, then ordered the Ning Army to withdraw back to camp. The Xie Family would then be truly finished.”

Qiu Qing asked, “But Xie Xiu still has an army of one hundred fifty thousand, doesn’t he?”

Xie Huainan said, “The moment the Ning Army withdraws, Xie Xiu would be caught in a pincer attack from front and back. He couldn’t win — and he couldn’t possibly surrender to Yang Xuanji a second time, so it would inevitably become a fight to the death. The more desperately he fights, the more brutal the retaliation against the Xie Family. In the end, Xie Xiu falls, and the Xie Family falls with him…”

Qiu Qing also let out a long, heavy breath. He thought to himself — being clever must be exhausting.

If Prince Ning had asked him two questions, there was no way he would have seen all those layers of twists and turns within them.

The two had barely returned to the courtyard when visitors arrived outside again. This time it was not one or two people — it was an entire company of three hundred sixty Ning Army soldiers.

The moment those troops appeared, every member of the Xie household tensed up.

The Ning Army officer at the head of the formation dismounted, walked to the entrance of the Xie residence, and clasped his fist to the person who came out to receive them. “I am Company Officer Ma Zhao. By order of Prince Ning, beginning today I and my men are placed under the command of Administrator Xie.”

This time, Xie Huainan was truly stunned.

In the brief moment after he’d learned the Ning Army had arrived, he had thought for an instant that Prince Ning had decided to abandon him after all.

Company Officer Ma Zhao asked, “Which one is Administrator Xie?”

Xie Huainan stepped forward. “I am Xie Huainan.”

Ma Zhao said, “Prince Ning asked me to convey a message to Administrator Xie… Being made head manager of a money exchange house would be beneath you. Whatever small tasks you see fit, send whoever you like to handle them — but not yourself. Tomorrow morning, go to the office of the Jiedushi and see Mr. Yan.”

Xie Huainan bowed deeply to the ground. “Your servant thanks his lord!”

The very next morning, Xie Huainan arrived early to wait outside the Jiedushi yamen. He had not gone in — and when he arrived, the sky had not yet even brightened.

No sooner had he arrived than a servant boy came out from the Jiedushi yamen, saying that the Jiedushi wished to invite Administrator Xie inside.

This time, Xie Huainan genuinely hadn’t expected that.

After entering, he was led directly to the rear study, where Yan Qingzhi saw him come in and laughed heartily. “Come, come — eat breakfast with me, then follow me to take care of some business.”

The sky was still dark, and yet the Jiedushi was already heading out to attend to matters.

As though he had anticipated that Xie Huainan would arrive early, the table was clearly set for two — two bowls of congee, a few dishes of pickled and salted vegetables, a plate of fermented tofu, a plate of steaming white steamed buns, and a few salted duck eggs.

This was the breakfast of a provincial governor?

Xie Huainan was inwardly struck with a sense of awe.

“Sir, where are we going just now?”

Xie Huainan didn’t waste any time on pleasantries. He sat down and picked up a steamed bun and began to eat.

He was clever enough to see plainly — the Jiedushi was a man of decisive action who valued his time greatly.

If he spent time fussing with polite niceties, he would be wasting the Jiedushi’s time, and that would not sit well.

“Lord Wu is leaving Yuzhou today to take up his post as Jiedushi of Qingzhou. We’re going to see him off. Oh — I forgot to mention: Lord Wu was Yuzhou’s Jiedushi before me. I’m only serving in an acting capacity.”

Mr. Yan spoke while eating. “After we see off Lord Wu, you’ll come with me to familiarize yourself with things. With Lord Wu gone, there will be a great deal to manage, and I can’t handle everything myself — I’ll need your help.”

“Understood!”

Xie Huainan responded at once, then lowered his head and ate quickly.

Before long, Mr. Yan and Xie Huainan were seated inside a carriage — and then Xie Huainan felt another wave of astonishment. Inside the carriage were stacked many scrolls of documents.

The moment he sat down, Mr. Yan pointed to one pile of scrolls. “You read those. I’ll read these. Our time on the road is limited — read as much as you can.”

Xie Huainan opened the scrolls and began reading. At that moment, he was truly struck with awe — the kind that upended one’s entire understanding of the world.

The scrolls he was reading had been submitted from various regions. Of every ten, at least eight contained records, stroke by stroke, line by line, all pertaining to the lives of the common people.

He stole a glance at Yan Qingzhi. Mr. Yan read quickly, setting each document aside after finishing it — but not in a single pile. He sorted them into three separate stacks.

Xie Huainan understood. He followed suit, reading each document and setting it aside, also divided into three stacks.

Mr. Yan glanced over at him, then couldn’t help but smile.

When they arrived at their destination, Mr. Yan picked up one of his stacks, stepped down from the carriage, and handed it to an official at his side. “See to these matters immediately. I’ve already noted my instructions.”

He held out his hand toward Xie Huainan. “Give me yours.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xie Huainan handed over one of his stacks.

Light matters. Weighty matters. Urgent matters.

Xie Huainan drew a slow, deep breath, and looked up.

The sun had just risen in the east, burning a brilliant red.

How beautiful.

—