Zangjie asked Xu Ji: “My lord knew from the very beginning what His Majesty intends to do — didn’t you?”

Xu Ji nodded. “Naturally.”

Zangjie continued: “And since my lord knows what His Majesty intends, has my lord ever considered — His Majesty also knows that my lord knows?”

Xu Ji glanced at him but said nothing.

This was precisely the question he could not yet answer — because he did not know whether His Majesty knew or not.

Zangjie smiled faintly. “If my lord underestimates a founding emperor, then my lord has been losing since the very beginning.”

“I have never underestimated His Majesty,” Xu Ji said. “When the heroes of the realm were contending for supremacy, every single one of them started from a higher position than he did — and he brought them all down, one by one. How could I dare underestimate him?”

Zangjie said, “Then why does my lord suppose His Majesty cannot guess what my lord ultimately intends?”

Xu Ji fell silent again.

“His Majesty intends to use my lord — openly and directly — to accomplish great things. Of course he will guard against the possibility that my lord has seen through this and is scheming in the shadows.”

“What exactly are you trying to say?” Xu Ji asked.

“What I wish to say to my lord,” Zangjie replied, “is something my lord has already turned over in his mind a thousand times. My lord simply still harbors the hope that he is wrong.”

He smiled — calm, unruffled. “Just now when I mentioned that there are men on immortal mountains who possess the elixir of eternal life, there was a light in my lord’s eyes.”

“Who wouldn’t be moved at the mention of such a thing?” Xu Ji said.

“And yet,” Zangjie said, “I could see clearly — my lord’s heart was not moved for your own sake. It was moved for His Majesty’s.”

He paced slowly as he spoke. “Every great conqueror, once the world holds no rivals for him — his only remaining rival is time itself. A man of His Majesty’s vision and talent — truly, in my estimation, ten of my lord could not surpass him. Only time can defeat His Majesty. Only time can kill him.”

“In my view, what my lord lacks is not intelligence or cunning — my lord is already among the finest minds in the world. What my lord lacks is courage.”

Xu Ji gave a cold laugh. “And you yourself just said: ten of me could not surpass His Majesty.”

“Yes — right now, in this world, ten of my lord cannot surpass His Majesty. But five years from now, twenty of my lord could not surpass him. Ten years from now — fifty, a hundred — still could not. So this present moment is already the best window there is.”

Xu Ji fell still. Something was clearly stirring within him.

“The only thing in this world that can make His Majesty afraid,” Zangjie continued, “is not any rival. Simply make the elixir something His Majesty finds compelling — and the matter is already seven or eight parts accomplished.”

“The Prince is still young. If something unexpected were to befall His Majesty, who do you think would be named First Auxiliary? Would it be you, as Chancellor?”

Xu Ji shook his head.

“Right now, in order to make use of my lord, and to avoid arousing too much suspicion, His Majesty has transferred all the great generals — including Grand Marshal Wang Tang Pidi — out of Chang’an. If my lord takes no action during this window, once the four frontiers have been consolidated and the Grand Marshals return to the capital… would my lord truly be willing to hand Tang Pidi your head on a platter?”

Xu Ji looked at him, still silent.

Zangjie pressed on. “So my lord’s one and only chance lies precisely in His Majesty’s confidence.”

“His Majesty believes my lord cannot amount to much within three to five years. And within that same window, His Majesty believes he can stabilize the realm — after which, dealing with my lord will be no great matter.”

“So the window my lord can exploit is not ten or twenty years. It is these three to five. In my estimation — no more than three years at the most.”

“His Majesty is supremely confident — confident to the point of not believing my lord has any means of turning the tables.”

Zangjie said softly, “Is this not an opportunity His Majesty himself has placed before my lord?”

Xu Ji said, “A man like His Majesty — how could he ever believe there are truly immortality-granting elixirs in this world? Even I don’t believe it.”

Zangjie said, “Neither do I. But — the hearts of rulers are undaunted by heaven and earth, yet quail before the thought of not living forever.”

He looked at Xu Ji. “This need not be a complicated scheme. My lord does not need to approach His Majesty directly and claim to have found such an elixir. Only let His Majesty come to know of it.”

“And how am I to let him know?”

“Does my lord truly imagine His Majesty has planted few informants at my lord’s side?”

Zangjie smiled. “I have already begun quietly spreading word in the shadows — the reason my lord took me along when leaving Shu Province is that I presented him with this elixir of eternal life, and that my lord has already been taking it.”

Xu Ji said, “A scheme this transparent — let alone His Majesty, even I find it laughably naïve.”

Zangjie said, “But what if my lord were to appear genuinely younger than before?”

Xu Ji paused.

“My lord, though your years are not truly great, the constant strain of exhaustion has made you appear more than a decade older than your actual age.”

He looked at Xu Ji — and Xu Ji, almost involuntarily, raised a hand to stroke his own beard.

In truth, Xu Ji had always feared that others would look down on him for his relative youth, which was part of why he had deliberately grown that long beard. And the weight of his labors had indeed carved more lines in his face than most men his age.

Zangjie smiled. “My lord — do you know why, when I was in Daxing City, so many nobles and officials were drawn to hear my lectures?”

“Because your exegesis was brilliant,” Xu Ji said. “Entrancing.”

“Not at all.”

“It was simply because what I lectured on was largely the art of preserving one’s appearance. And most of those who flocked to me in Daxing were women — including the consorts in the imperial harem.”

Xu Ji narrowed his eyes. “And what are you getting at?”

“After my lord returns to Chang’an — follow the regimen I prescribe for your health, and I guarantee my lord’s complexion will brighten and your bearing will grow more vigorous by the day.”

“My lord need not engineer any moment for His Majesty to notice. Simply allow a little private gossip to circulate. And while the entire court watches my lord grow younger before their eyes…”

Zangjie permitted himself a hint of satisfaction. “What need is there to question the rumor of the immortality elixir?”

Xu Ji’s gaze began to flicker.

The scheme, on its face, sounded far-fetched — after all, no one truly believes in immortality elixirs. His Majesty is a man of exceptional clarity and wisdom; surely he would dismiss such a thing outright. Furthermore, His Majesty was himself half a disciple of the Daoist tradition, and had the old Daoist Master Zhang of Dragon-Tiger Mountain at his side. If such arts of longevity truly existed and even Old Master Zhang didn’t know them — who would?

And yet Zangjie’s plan struck Xu Ji as entirely workable.

Because Xu Ji understood human nature too well. What Zangjie’s scheme was exploiting was not His Majesty’s desire for immortality — it was the seed of doubt.

Doubt, once it takes root in the mind, is beyond anyone’s power to control.

Take two friends, close as brothers, who go into business together. Before any suspicion arises, they are inseparable. But once one of them quietly begins to wonder whether the other has been taking more than his share — that suspicion will gradually transform both of them into different people.

Or a devoted married couple, with nothing wrong between them — but then one day, a passing suspicion enters one partner’s mind that the other might have someone on the outside. That thought, once born, only grows more uncontrollable.

Those who wield power wield, in the end, nothing but human hearts. Those who practice manipulation manipulate, in the end, nothing but human nature.

A man like Xu Ji understood human hearts and human nature far too well.

“You…”

He looked at Zangjie. “How certain are you that His Majesty will come to doubt?”

Zangjie, the moment he heard Xu Ji use the word *doubt*, knew Xu Ji had truly grasped his meaning.

He said, “My lord — who would dare put a number on something like this? Even if my lord pressed me for one, I could only say: less than one part in ten. And yet, my lord — is this not precisely what we are wagering on? That one part in ten that doesn’t exist?”

“Less than one part in ten…”

Xu Ji repeated the words, his gaze going distant.

“What else is there?” Zangjie said. “What does my lord propose to compete with His Majesty on? The hearts of the people? The support of the court ministers? Military strength?”

He shook his head. “Everything my lord possesses was given by His Majesty. His Majesty can bestow it effortlessly — and take it back just as effortlessly.”

Xu Ji exhaled heavily and nodded. “This affair… indeed has less than one part in ten odds. And yet — it is also the only scheme in existence that has less than one part in ten odds and still holds some glimmer of hope.”

Xu Ji looked at Zangjie and narrowed his eyes. “Why are you helping me so fully in this?”

“My lord — if I went to His Majesty instead, how would he regard me? He likely wouldn’t regard me at all. He’d consider this charlatan useless. I who once held sway over all of Daxing City — reduced to hiding in the deep mountains, scraping by in wretchedness…”

His voice turned earnest. “My lord, if this succeeds, my lord becomes the greatest power behind the throne in all of history — and I too can return to the life I once knew at its finest.”

“All I ask is my lord’s permission to build a temple in Chang’an. That is the greatest desire in my heart.”

Xu Ji nodded slowly.

How much of Zangjie’s words were sincere, he couldn’t say. He always felt Zangjie was concealing something deeper still.

This was a capital crime — nine familial exterminations. The fact that he dared to stand so plainly on his side, with no hesitation — without some far greater ambition behind it, Xu Ji would never believe it.

He could not, for the moment, uncover what Zangjie truly was, because Zangjie’s background was almost too clean — sitting there in plain sight.

But the men around Xu Ji who could truly help him were vanishingly few. Those with genuine minds, fewer still.

Especially of late — Xu Ji had felt it unmistakably: His Majesty was methodically stripping away his left and right arms.

That isolation — that creeping loneliness — made Xu Ji more afraid than he cared to admit.

Zangjie was right. He knew what His Majesty intended. His Majesty knew he would likely resist. Both sides simply hadn’t brought it into the open. But they both understood perfectly.

His Majesty had cultivated this opponent for himself because, truly, he no longer had any rival.

“Henceforth…”

Xu Ji looked at Zangjie. “Whenever there is something I need to consult you on, I hope you will not spare your counsel.”

Zangjie bowed. “I am already aboard the same vessel as my lord.”

At that moment, on the great river, the two of them were indeed on the same boat.

—