Shen Medical Hall.

The people of Shen Medical Hall had been watching the fight outside the rear courtyard all along. They hadn’t come to help because, in truth, their help wasn’t needed.

Shen Rujian sat in the parlor drinking tea. When she saw Li Chi enter, she rose and took a few steps forward to greet him.

“Miss Shen.”

Li Chi cupped his hands in greeting.

Shen Rujian smiled and said, “The master needn’t worry. That young Daoist’s injuries are nothing serious — all surface wounds are easy to treat.”

She gestured for him to sit. Li Chi took a seat in the guest’s chair.

Shen Rujian asked, “They came for you?”

Li Chi nodded. “I thought that since I wasn’t yet a great tree, I wouldn’t draw the wind.”

Shen Rujian said, “You only think you’re not a great tree yet. Let me count up your current standing — third master of Yanshan Camp, proprietor of Yongning Tongyuan, Shen Medical Hall’s largest business partner to date, sworn brother to General Xiahou Zuo of the northern frontier army, and the future grandson-in-law of Gao Yuanzhang, the headmaster of the Four-Page Academy.”

She glanced at Li Chi. “And that’s still not a great tree?”

Li Chi let out a sigh. “In my own eyes, I’m barely a tender little sprout that’s just managed to break through the soil.”

Shen Rujian turned the words over carefully. On the surface, this ought to have been a modest remark — and yet, for some reason, it struck her as just a little shameless.

Then again, given Li Chi’s age, calling himself a tender sprout wasn’t really an exaggeration.

She wasn’t sure why, but the moment “tender sprout” crossed her mind, a somewhat indecorous thought surfaced along with it.

Utterly nonsensical.

Then she caught herself — whenever people spoke of tender sprouts, there was usually an old ox somewhere in front of it, with the word “grazing” in between.

That she had let such a frivolous thought distract her at a moment like this — and not because she had actually entertained the notion.

“Miss Shen, over the next few days the people ought to begin moving into the underground palace in batches,” Li Chi said.

Shen Rujian gave a soft sound of acknowledgment and pulled her thoughts back from their wandering. She nodded. “Starting tomorrow, I’ll send people over in stages.”

Li Chi rose to his feet. “Nothing else to discuss. I’ll send someone tomorrow to help with the arrangements.”

Shen Rujian rose with him. As Li Chi walked toward the door, she watched his retreating figure and thought to herself that Gao Xining really did have excellent taste — that frame alone was already something worth admiring.

And beneath that fine exterior, there was also a remarkably interesting soul.

“You’re currently my largest business partner at Shen Medical Hall,” Shen Rujian suddenly said. “So what would it take for me to become yours?”

Li Chi’s steps stopped. He turned to look at her, smiling. “I hope Miss Shen will always let me remain your largest partner.”

Shen Rujian considered the meaning of that reply, then smiled and nodded.

Li Chi went into the inner hall of the clinic and found Zhang Yuxu lying in bed, staring blankly at the ceiling. He was probably still thinking about those men.

Li Chi sat down beside him. Zhang Yuxu sighed and asked, “Why can people be so insatiably greedy?”

Li Chi asked, “Why do you ask that?”

Zhang Yuxu said, “Fang Yuzhou was my master’s senior fellow disciple — my martial uncle. When I was still at Dragon Tiger Mountain, I heard about what happened between my master and him. The two of them entered the Dragon Tiger Mountain Daoist monastery only two days apart. Fang Yuzhou was the senior, and at the time my master was the only one close to his age, so the two of them were very close.

“From childhood, Fang Yuzhou had a habit of keeping the good things for himself. Whatever he didn’t want was what he’d pass to my master, and whatever he liked, he’d ask my master for — and my master had an easy-going nature, so he agreed to everything.

“Later, Fang Yuzhou went to my master and said that the position of sect master could only pass to one of the two of them, and told him to yield it. He said he would make a better sect master.

“My master had already yielded in so many things over the years — but this time he didn’t. He said: ‘Everything that is mine, I can give you, because those things belong to me and I can decide. But the position of sect master is not mine to give away. I have neither the right nor the standing to do so. If our master chose me, it was because I was most suited — to hand it to you would be to show disrespect to the Dao tradition. What is mine is yours, but the succession is not mine, nor yours; it belongs to the Dao lineage.’

“Fang Yuzhou then decided that my master had been coveting the position of sect master all along. He thought it over and over — within Dragon Tiger Mountain, only my master could compete with him — and so he resolved to poison him.

“What he didn’t know was that my grandmaster had never actually intended to pass the position to him. He had always known that Fang Yuzhou was not of good character. When Fang Yuzhou put poison in my master’s food, my grandmaster saw it happen.”

Li Chi couldn’t help but sigh when he heard this.

The story of Fang Yuzhou and the Dragon Tiger Mountain sect master, put simply, amounted to this: you kept giving to me, and then one day you stopped — naturally, that means you wronged me. And since you wronged me, naturally I can justify killing you.

Zhang Yuxu said, “My master says that Daoists cannot save the world, because no matter how fervently they preach the Dao, they cannot save the human heart.”

He looked at Li Chi and said, “My master also says: it is not the Dao that saves the human heart. It is the law of the land.”

Li Chi’s heart stirred.

Zhang Yuxu continued, “A human heart without restraint — how could it ever be a good heart? The Dao counsels people toward virtue, but counsel alone cannot move them. The law of the land is what provides restraint. Of all the laws under heaven, only the law of the land is truly divine.”

Only the law of the land is truly divine?

That phrase moved something in Li Chi again.

He nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

Zhang Yuxu blinked, not understanding why Li Chi had suddenly thanked him.

“The sect master’s words are words of gold and jade,” Li Chi said. “A human heart without restraint cannot overflow with goodness of its own accord.”

Zhang Yuxu gave a soft nod, then said, “Then why did you still give those two people time to run?”

Li Chi answered, “Because there are certain things in my heart I cannot let waver. If I let them waver, I’m afraid I’ll become someone… terrifying enough that even I couldn’t keep myself in check.”

Zhang Yuxu turned that over in his mind slowly — half understanding, half not.

Li Chi smiled. “Rest well. In a little while I’ll arrange a carriage to take you back. I’ve already spoken with Miss Shen — she’ll send someone to check on you at the carriage house tomorrow.”

Zhang Yuxu nodded in thanks. “Thank you, Master.”

—

The rear courtyard of Shen Medical Hall.

Tang Pidi sat looking at the half-demolished wall, and after a moment he smiled. “I’m starting to think that Elder Ye wasn’t really fighting anyone. He was just looking for an excuse to tear down the wall — because tearing it down without a fight would have seemed odd.”

Ye Zhangzhu smiled and said, “Tearing down a wall — it really is satisfying.”

Tang Pidi burst out laughing.

Ye Zhangzhu asked, “Do you know why Li Chi agreed to that villain’s terms?”

Tang Pidi nodded. “I do. It wasn’t blind-hearted generosity, and it wasn’t posturing. It’s because he knows which things inside himself cannot be touched.”

Ye Zhangzhu asked, “And what are they?”

“I can’t put it into words.”

Tang Pidi tried several ways to phrase it, but none of them felt right.

“But I can understand him,” he said. “It’s complicated — but one part of it is this: when that eldest senior brother from the northern steppe fought with everything he had, even at the cost of his own life, just to protect his junior siblings — Li Chi recognized something in that. He could affirm that one thing.”

Elder Ye said, “I understand it too. What Li Chi affirmed was only that one thing, and nothing more.”

Tang Pidi said, “He is following his own conscience. If there ever comes a day when he can set aside that conscience and follow only the pursuit of gain…”

He left the sentence unfinished. Ye Zhangzhu picked it up. “Then he would be a ruthless warlord — the kind of warlord no one in this age would dare to cross. Perhaps not even he himself.”

Tang Pidi said, “So isn’t he something of a stubborn sort?”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “Xiahou Zuo’s sworn brothers are all stubborn.”

Tang Pidi laughed again.

Ye Zhangzhu said, “Then why did you have Yu Jiuling tell Dantai to disregard Li Chi’s arrangement — rather than waiting two hours, to pursue immediately?”

Tang Pidi said, “Because I have no wish to become a ruthless warlord.”

Ye Zhangzhu froze.

The sentence seemed weighted with deep significance — and yet it was so clean and plain it appeared to carry only one meaning.

He turned it over for quite a while, and then it dawned on him: this one sentence had caused his respect for Tang Pidi to rise sharply and without warning.

“There’s a light in Elder Ye’s eyes,” Tang Pidi said with a grin. “Are you thinking of treating me to a meal?”

Ye Zhangzhu immediately shook his head. “Even if I admire you greatly right now, I still won’t treat you to a meal — because that is Li Chi’s business.”

Tang Pidi said, “Then what if I were to treat Elder Ye to a meal?”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “Let’s go.”

Tang Pidi stared. “Didn’t you just say that was Li Chi’s business…”

Ye Zhangzhu said, as a matter of course, “Treating you to a meal is Li Chi’s business. Treating me to a meal — that’s anyone’s business.”

Tang Pidi cupped his hands. “I stand corrected.”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “What do you need to be corrected by me for… all of this I learned from Li Chi.”

Tang Pidi sighed. “I’ve always been learning from Li Chi. I just never imagined the day would come when even Elder Ye would become someone I needed to learn from.”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “That doesn’t quite sound like a compliment.”

Tang Pidi said, “Remove the word ‘quite.'”

Ye Zhangzhu laughed for a moment, then fell quiet. After a long pause he said, his voice very soft, “So — to take today as an example: Li Chi said he would wait two hours, so he was bound to keep his word. But you didn’t have to. Yu Jiuling didn’t have to. Many people didn’t have to.”

Tang Pidi said, “Even Gao Xining didn’t have to — if she’d been here today, she would have made the same call I did, because none of us are Li Chi. As long as Li Chi holds fast to his original heart, that’s enough. Because he is the one who…”

He trailed off instinctively.

Ye Zhangzhu said, “You’re not saying it — are you leaving it to me to imagine something grand?”

Tang Pidi gave a faint smile, rose to his feet. “Come on. Let’s figure out how to get tonight’s dinner out of Li Chi.”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “I have a brilliant scheme. If it works, you give me one tael of silver. If it doesn’t, I give you one — payable immediately.”

Tang Pidi asked with curiosity, “What scheme could possibly make a man as tight-fisted — ahem — as Li Chi willingly foot the bill tonight?”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “I can’t say just yet. Wait until we see Li Chi.”

As they were speaking, Li Chi came over from the front courtyard, walking toward them and saying, “The carriage is ready up front. Let’s head back.”

Tang Pidi looked at Ye Zhangzhu, his eyes full of anticipation.

Ye Zhangzhu smiled, and started walking toward Li Chi. As he walked, he rubbed his stomach and said, “We can finally go back. My stomach is about to give out from hunger.”

Li Chi said, “There should already be food waiting when we get back.”

Ye Zhangzhu said, “There certainly will be. One of the staff came by just now to say that Miss Gao heard how hard we worked today — so she brought her friends along and cooked the meal herself. Every dish made with her own hands, all of it waiting for us to come home.”

Li Chi’s footsteps stopped.

What followed was a demonstration of high-level maneuvering.

He threw his own coin purse on the ground and let out a startled cry.

“Oh! I found some money!”

He picked the purse back up and said, with great sincerity, “The elders always say that money you find must be spent immediately — otherwise it’s bad luck. I’ve always taken the elders’ wisdom to heart. So let’s find somewhere to spend this.”

Tang Pidi unclipped his own purse, fished out a small piece of silver, and handed it to Ye Zhangzhu.

Ye Zhangzhu pocketed it without ceremony.

Li Chi looked at the two of them, and felt that something was not quite right.

—