Jinzhou was not a large city, but by Dachu’s administrative regulations, a prefectural governor still held a position of full fifth rank.

When the Ning army had swept south, most of Jinzhou’s officials had fled at the first rumor of its approach, not daring to remain, fearing they would be killed.

Only Zhou Qixi had stayed — bearing on his person the official seals of every official who had run — and stood outside the city gates to welcome the army.

That solitary figure had been witnessed by many at the time, and many had sighed over it.

Some had said of him that he was an opportunist, skilled at maneuvering for advantage.

Yet regardless of what people said, it was precisely because of this that the man had been kept on and elevated to prefectural governor of Jinzhou.

Jinzhou administered nine counties, and judging from his record over the past two years, Zhou Qixi had apparently governed Jinzhou quite well.

This northern inspection was not the first time Li Chi had looked into local officials — he had already dispatched three separate rounds of covert investigators.

The reports concerning Zhou Qixi described a man of strong ability who handled affairs steadily. The annual evaluation Master Yan had given him was also Excellent.

Under the rules Li Chi had established, if a local official received Excellent ratings three years in a row, arrangements were to be made for their promotion.

Zhou Qixi had already received Excellent ratings two years running. One more Excellent year and his name could be submitted to Li Chi for consideration of reassignment and advancement.

However, just a few months earlier, the covert investigators Li Chi had dispatched to various regions reported that when local residents of Jinzhou were questioned, several had said that Zhou Qixi had problems and ought to be used with caution.

Master Yan had brought this man up to Li Chi a few months ago, and at the time Master Yan’s exact words were:

This man has received two consecutive Excellent ratings without incident. Now, in his third year, something has arisen. The matter should be handled with care.

Master Yan had also said: some people, are prone to envy.

The column arrived outside the gates of Jinzhou city. When those eight hundred soldiers in black armor with red capes appeared, both the townspeople at the gates and the local garrison troops were startled.

Black-armored Censorate troops — and so many of them all at once.

“Prince Ning has arrived.”

A Censorate soldier produced his command tablet and handed it to the garrison squad leader at the gate: “Please go and inform Prefectural Governor Zhou. We will await him at the prefectural yamen.”

The squad leader didn’t dare delay, quickly clearing the way before sprinting off toward the prefectural yamen.

By the time the Censorate column arrived outside the prefectural yamen, Zhou Qixi had already gathered all the yamen officials and, in a state of visible anxiety, was waiting at the gate.

The moment the carriage stopped, all the officials stepped forward at once.

The instant Li Chi descended from the carriage, everyone bowed together in unison.

“We respectfully greet Prince Ning.”

Li Chi smiled: “Rise, all of you. Arriving unannounced like this — I must have given you all quite a fright.”

Prefectural Governor Zhou Qixi bowed and said: “Indeed, it gave all of us quite a fright. We were unable to come out to meet you from afar…”

Before he could finish, Li Chi smiled and said: “It’s not your fault — I deliberately didn’t send word ahead. I was heading to Yanshan Camp for a visit and merely passing through.”

He strode forward, and all the officials moved aside to make way.

The bystanders among the gathered townspeople were also somewhat frightened, though most of them were simply curious.

The people had long been accustomed to fearing those of high station — it was something ingrained to the bone. All the more so given the stories of the Heaven-ordained sovereign, which made them both fearful and respectful of Prince Ning Li Chi, and curious besides.

“Why has Prince Ning come so suddenly?”

Someone in the crowd said in a lowered voice.

An elderly man beside him shook his head: “Hard to say… Could it be that our efforts have had some effect, and Prince Ning has come to investigate and deal with Prefectural Governor Zhou?”

The middle-aged man who had spoken first pondered for a moment, then said: “Whether or not they’ve had any effect, the Prince’s arrival is an opportunity for us.”

The old man nodded: “As long as we find a way to let Prince Ning know, Zhou Qixi won’t be getting that transfer to Jizhou.”

The middle-aged man pulled at his sleeve: “Elder Guo, let’s go back now and gather everyone to discuss this.”

The one addressed as Elder Guo turned and moved with him, and together they squeezed out of the crowd.

Once they had cleared the throng, both men looked back at once. On either side of the main street, people were packed shoulder to shoulder, a dense sea of bobbing heads.

“I hope Prince Ning doesn’t disappoint us this time.”

The old man let out a quiet sigh: “Let’s hope. Come, let’s go back.”

Jinzhou prefectural yamen.

Li Chi glanced around. If he were to sit up on that main dais while all the officials stood below listening, that was a setting Li Chi found rather disagreeable.

“Prefectural Governor Zhou — how large is the rear courtyard?”

Li Chi asked.

Zhou Qixi promptly bowed and said: “The rear courtyard isn’t small, it’s just… just that there isn’t much of a place to settle in.”

Li Chi smiled: “If it’s not small, then why can’t we settle in it? Let us go to the rear courtyard.”

He stepped forward, and everyone bent at the waist and followed closely behind.

Li Chi looked back and shook his head: “No need to bow. Junior officials bowing before senior officials, this habit of stooping — that’s an old tradition from Dachu, and not a good one.”

He walked and talked as he went: “When the rules of protocol call for it, so be it — but there’s no need to be perpetually hunched over. If one has no guilty conscience, there’s nothing to fear. Stand tall and walk upright, even in my presence, or indeed behind my back.”

“Yes, yes, of course…”

The assembled group nodded while bending their waists.

Zhou Qixi straightened himself and said: “By Your Highness’s command.”

Once they reached the rear courtyard, Li Chi understood at last what Zhou Qixi had meant by saying there wasn’t much of a place to settle in.

The rear courtyard was indeed not small — but it was planted from end to end with growing things. Here there were chives, there string beans, and other crops besides.

Divided along left and right, the left side was planted with vegetables, and the right side with grain.

Li Chi immediately thought of Master Yan’s vegetable garden back at the academy.

He turned and looked at Zhou Qixi with a smile: “Whose idea was this?”

Zhou Qixi bowed: “In reply to Prince Ning — it was this official’s idea.”

Li Chi asked: “What prompted you to plant all this?”

Zhou Qixi said: “The rear courtyard was in a state of disrepair at the time. I had originally meant to do it up, but after having craftsmen come for a thorough assessment and drawing up an estimate, it would have taken roughly a thousand taels of silver to restore it properly. This official felt that was too costly, so I thought — why not just plant vegetables instead? No need to spend money leveling and relaying the ground, and it also solves the matter of feeding the people who work in the yamen.”

Li Chi gave a sound of acknowledgment and pointed at one of the plants: “What is this one?”

He knew perfectly well what it was.

But Li Chi had long been acquainted with certain tricks of officials, ever since his days wandering the jianghu with his master, who had told him about such things.

The most famous of these was the tale of the patched official’s robe from the early days of Dachu.

The story went that the Dachu emperor was conducting a covert inspection of the regions when he came to a certain place and found that the local official’s robe had patches on it. The emperor felt somewhat displeased at the sight, taking it as a deliberate affront to the court’s dignity.

He sent people to investigate, and only then learned that this official was a first-rate exemplary servant — he devoted his salary to repairing school halls and providing for the elderly. Because he had no money to spare and couldn’t bring himself to spend what little he had, he kept wearing that same official’s robe, stitching it up wherever it wore out.

When the emperor returned to the capital, he showered praise on this official at court and, bypassing the usual procedures, had him transferred from his regional post directly to the capital, where he was elevated to Deputy Minister of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance — a position of the greatest possible importance. It was the great steward of the entire realm, with control over all inflows and outflows of revenue, grain, and resources.

To be elevated in one leap from a regional official to Deputy Minister of Finance, the second-highest position in that ministry — all the officials were stunned.

They said to themselves — so this sort of thing works, does it? And immediately began to emulate it.

From that point on, officials from the court to the provinces, every last one of them, wore a robe with patches.

It reached the point where even wealthy households and local magnates, though holding no official titles, would wear garments patched upon patches whenever they went out.

People even took pride in who wore the most patches.

One of Li Chi’s well-known preferences was farming — something many officials throughout Jizhou were aware of. After becoming Prince Ning, Li Chi had done a great deal to restore agricultural production, and on multiple occasions in Jizhou he had personally gone into the fields to work alongside the common people, planting crops and vegetables.

Going further back, when Li Chi was at Yanshan Camp, he had personally overseen and worked in the fields cultivated along the mountain’s base.

In Jizhou, there were officials who knew of Li Chi’s affinity for this. When Li Chi came to visit, one of them had claimed that the vegetables in a certain plot had all been planted by his own hands alongside his subordinates.

Li Chi had been pleased at first and offered a few words of praise, then asked that official the names of the various vegetables.

The official was left completely dumbfounded — he couldn’t answer a single question.

That incident had occurred not long before Li Chi departed Jizhou, so the officials here in Jinzhou most likely hadn’t heard about it yet.

When Li Chi asked Zhou Qixi about the vegetables, Zhou Qixi assumed the Prince was testing him, and promptly launched into an explanation.

Each vegetable’s name, what season it was best planted in, what season it was harvested — he went through each one in turn.

Li Chi smiled and nodded, then gestured toward the vegetables: “This is what we’ll eat for lunch today.”

He looked at Zhou Qixi: “Prefectural Governor Zhou, could you have some people bring out tables and chairs? We’ll eat right here in the vegetable garden — a hot pot, I think.”

He looked at Yu Jiuling: “The vegetables, Prefectural Governor Zhou has provided. As for meat — no need for Prefectural Governor Zhou to spend any more, go out and buy some.”

Yu Jiuling responded at once and turned to go.

Li Chi stepped to one side and watched as Zhou Qixi directed people to bring out tables and chairs and set them up in the garden.

These people moved with care at every step, and not because it was Li Chi’s instruction — they had no intention of disregarding the growing vegetables. They made a point of placing the furniture only in spots where it could be set down without causing damage, and not a single person trod on anything as they went in and out.

Li Chi quietly felt a weight lift from his chest. He knew Master Yan had been right — Zhou Qixi’s two consecutive Excellent ratings were not without basis, and whatever had arisen in this third year was clearly not simple.

Small details reveal a person’s character.

If this were a case of toadying and flattery, after Li Chi said he wanted to eat in the vegetable garden, the subordinates would have given no thought whatsoever to the plants.

What’s more, to avoid trampling the garden, they hadn’t brought out tall tables and high chairs — they had used low tables and small stools instead.

Li Chi called Zhou Qixi over, and Zhou Qixi promptly came to stand nearby.

Li Chi said: “Before I left Jizhou, Master Yan specifically came to speak with me about a matter — one that concerns you directly.”

Zhou Qixi’s heart tightened, and he bowed promptly: “Please speak, Your Highness.”

Li Chi said: “Starting from a few months ago, roughly six or seven anonymous letters arrived in Jizhou — one after another, all of them concerning you.”

Zhou Qixi’s color immediately drained somewhat from his face. He glanced up at Li Chi, then quickly lowered his gaze again.

Li Chi asked: “Prefectural Governor Zhou — are you aware of this matter?”

Zhou Qixi’s expression shifted, and his head lowered still further.

“In reply to Your Highness — this official was unaware.”

A man like Li Chi could never have failed to see that Zhou Qixi was lying.

Changmei the Daoist had once told Li Chi — if you wish to understand the human heart, you must first learn to read expressions and observe manner.

As a Daoist wanderer who had walked the jianghu for the better part of his life, what manner of person had Changmei not encountered? His insight into the human heart was exceptional, and every last bit of that insight had been passed on to Li Chi.

But Li Chi did not expose him. Even though he could see plainly that Zhou Qixi was lying, and that Zhou Qixi certainly knew about the letters denouncing him, he held his tongue.

Li Chi smiled: “No need to be tense. Master Yan said that he understands you well — though they have never met in person, he knows your ability and your character.”

Li Chi glanced at the vegetables, paused briefly, then said: “There is no perfect person in this world, just as there is no truly flawless piece of jade.”

“If a person appears to have absolutely no faults, not a single blemish, it must be something they have exhausted themselves putting on in front of others.”

Before Li Chi had finished speaking, Zhou Qixi suddenly fell to his knees with a heavy thud.

“Your Highness, this official is guilty.”

Li Chi frowned slightly: “Guilty of what?”

Zhou Qixi raised his head and looked at Li Chi, then after a pause of two or three breaths, answered: “Whatever the charge may be, whatever fault has been reported about me — this official admits to it. I ask Your Highness to mete out punishment.”

Li Chi’s frown deepened.

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