“The Cao Garden’s sheer scale has truly opened my eyes.”

Li Chi settled into his seat and said with a smile: “Before seeing the Cao Garden, I never knew how limited my horizons were. No wonder the late Emperor of Great Chu lodged here three out of his four inspection tours — this place truly makes one reluctant to leave.”

The Cao family members scrambled to agree, though inwardly they thought Li Chi was a country bumpkin. On the surface, however, they remained deferential and respectful.

After all, this was the kind of performance they were well-practiced in — they could put it on naturally, without leaving a trace.

Only Cao Lie sat there looking as though he was lost in thought, though in truth he was wondering: how exactly would Li Chi make his move?

From the Yangtze south to the north, every great noble family had cursed Li Chi up and down. From south to north, every great family knew Li Chi was insatiably greedy.

When other men raised their banners, they desperately sought the backing of noble families. But Li Chi alone kept plundering them — he didn’t even bother maintaining appearances. His greed had earned him a reputation for shamelessly disgraceful conduct.

Precisely because everyone knew this, the Cao family knew it too — and so when they looked at Li Chi, their hearts harbored a measure of resentment.

And contempt.

Cao Lie’s third uncle, Cao Dengke — a man of considerable standing within the Cao family — smiled and said: “Your Highness, if you enjoy this place, please feel free to stay here for the duration of your time in Yuzhou.”

He looked toward Li Chi and added: “It would be an honor for the entire Cao household to have Your Highness take up residence in the Cao Garden.”

Li Chi replied: “I’ll pass — we’ve taken up arms against Chu, and this is the late Emperor’s private imperial garden in Yuzhou. If I were to move in…”

“It isn’t!” Cao Lie immediately interjected. “Though this estate once received the late Emperor of Great Chu, it is not an imperial property. From its construction to its upkeep, everything was funded entirely by the Cao family — not a single coin of the court’s money was spent here. So it belongs neither to the court nor to the imperial family.”

Li Chi looked toward Cao Lie.

In Cao Lie’s eyes, he saw an intense, almost desperate desire for self-preservation.

Cao Lie had been waiting for a trap in Li Chi’s words. A single phrase like *”this is an imperial garden”* might have prompted Li Chi to issue an order sealing the estate immediately.

Though Cao Lie suspected Li Chi wouldn’t resort to such a blunt and crude tactic, it was still better to be cautious.

Li Chi smiled. Tang Pidi, seated beside him, also smiled.

This Cao Lie — in military terms, he had been advancing step by step ever since Li Chi first set foot in the Cao Garden.

Li Chi rose from his seat. “If dinner isn’t pressing, I’d like to take a stroll through the grounds — if that’s all right?”

Cao Lie hurried to say: “Allow me to accompany Your Highness.”

Li Chi nodded. “That’s much appreciated.”

As he rose, the Cao family members all scrambled to their feet and followed.

Li Chi made his way through the Cao Garden, and the further he walked, the more interested he appeared — and the further he walked, the more alarmed Cao Lie grew.

Li Chi lingered before a celebrated painting here, paused before an antique curiosity there. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to eat at all. Everything he had examined since the tour began would have been worth hundreds of thousands of taels combined, at the very least.

At first — Cao Lie aside — the rest of the Cao family hadn’t thought much of it. The more Li Chi looked, the more they felt he simply had no culture.

But as it went on, most of them began to sense something was off.

The longer this continued, the more Li Chi gave off the impression of: *this one catches my eye, that one catches my eye, all of these catch my eye.*

Cao Lie said: “Your Highness, the meal has long been ready — perhaps we should eat first.”

Li Chi replied: “Dinner isn’t urgent. Let me take my time and learn something.”

Cao Lie muttered inwardly: Li Chi wasn’t making any direct demands, yet he wore an expression of boundless fascination. This reaction left Cao Lie unable to read the situation at all.

“Yu Jiuling.”

Li Chi suddenly turned to look at Yu Jiuling and said: “In your estimation — given my current standing and station — if I were to build a garden like the Cao Garden, would the common people curse me for it?”

Yu Jiuling replied: “Of course not. Why would the common people curse Your Highness? As the lord of two provinces, building a garden is perfectly fitting.”

Li Chi said: “Good. I only worried the common people might say I’m indulging in pleasure and extravagance.”

Yu Jiuling replied: “Your Highness need not worry about that. Even if we were to build such a garden, we couldn’t possibly fill it with treasures like these. Your Highness knows as well as anyone how poor we are.”

Li Chi: “…”

He pointed toward a foyer display: “Take this decorative piece here, for instance — it looks as though it was born to stand in this foyer. But do we have anything like it? If we put in a fake, anyone who saw through it would laugh at us.”

Cao Lie’s heart gave a sharp twinge.

Li Chi said: “True enough — the garden can be built, but if we furnish it with imitations, we’ll inevitably invite mockery. And I, for one, despise forgeries.”

Even Yu Jiuling’s conscience stung at those words.

*My lord*, he thought, *you’ve conned people out of so much money using Master Songming’s forged calligraphy — does your own conscience not trouble you at all?*

Yet he declared with righteous solemnity: “Your Highness’s integrity commands my deepest admiration. I, too, despise forgeries above all things — and forgers most of all.”

Tang Pidi thought to himself: *I wonder if these two would dare say any of this in front of the Daoist Changmei.*

Cao Lie let out a heavy breath and said: “Your Highness, let’s drop the pretense, shall we?”

Li Chi said: “Oh? What do you mean by that, young Marquis?”

Cao Lie glanced back at the Cao family members trailing behind and said: “The rest of you, return to your places. I have important matters to discuss with His Highness.”

The family members bowed in unison, then retreated with lowered heads.

Li Chi said: “Surely you don’t think I’m here to covet all the treasures and curiosities in your Cao Garden.”

Cao Lie replied: “How could I think such a thing of Your Highness?”

Li Chi said: “Exactly right.”

Cao Lie replied: “I simply think Your Highness intends to scrape away the very earth the garden sits on.”

Li Chi laughed out loud — entirely unembarrassed.

Cao Lie said: “I understand what Your Highness wants. As for the medicinal trade, the military manufacturing, and all businesses connected to military affairs — I haven’t sought an audience these past two days because I’ve been organizing everything. It’s all ready now. Shortly, I’ll hand over all the account ledgers, property deeds, and itemized inventories.”

Li Chi asked: “You’re just giving them outright?”

Cao Lie countered: “Do I have a choice?”

Li Chi said: “The fact that you’re just handing them over is actually making me feel a little embarrassed.”

He turned to Yu Jiuling and said: “That business about building a garden — perhaps we should put it on hold for now?”

Yu Jiuling replied: “Yes, yes — I agree, this really isn’t the moment to build a garden.”

Cao Lie let out a sigh.

Watching this display, Li Chi couldn’t help but laugh. Then he said: “What if I told you — I never once intended to simply reach out and take these assets from you?”

Cao Lie replied: “Your Highness, why must you toy with me like this?”

Li Chi burst out laughing.

He looked toward Cao Lie and said: “I genuinely never planned to take them that way — you’ve misread my intentions.”

Cao Lie’s expression turned puzzled: “Then what does Your Highness intend?”

Li Chi said: “Starting today, all of the Cao family’s medicinal operations will be converted to military pharmaceutical supply — exclusively serving the Ning Army’s needs. Starting today, the armament workshops under the Cao family name will forge weapons and armor to the Ning Army’s specifications — likewise exclusively for the Ning Army. As for all military procurement, I will pay the full market price, without a single delay.”

Cao Lie’s expression shifted through several changes. He thought in silence for a long while before the picture became clear.

“And then Your Highness will announce to all under heaven that the Cao family is fully committed to supporting you.”

Li Chi asked: “Is that not a good arrangement?”

Cao Lie replied: “If so, the imperial court will come to despise the Cao family utterly. Countless people will curse us for ingratitude and treachery.”

Li Chi said: “True — a great many people will curse you. But it will make me very happy.”

Cao Lie fell silent again.

After a long pause, he looked toward Li Chi and said: “If I agree — will Your Highness protect the Cao family, their people, and their assets?”

Li Chi replied: “Naturally.”

Cao Lie nodded. “Then I agree.”

Even Tang Pidi hadn’t anticipated that Li Chi would arrange things this way.

“My thanks to you, young Marquis.”

Li Chi clasped his fists together in a bow. “Now we can go eat.”

He walked a few steps, then stopped before a jade-green decorative piece, shaking his head and sighing: “I really do want to take it.”

Cao Lie thought: *With your position, could you not manage just a shred of dignity?*

“Mm…”

Li Chi turned back to look at Cao Lie and said: “I nearly forgot one important piece of business. My main reason for coming today was also to borrow the prestige of your Cao family name.”

Cao Lie’s chest tightened again. “What does Your Highness mean?”

Li Chi said: “I’d like to trouble the young Marquis to send out invitations on my behalf — I intend to meet with Yuzhou’s local gentry and village elders in seven days’ time, at the old Yuzhou Military Commissioner’s residence.”

Cao Lie said: “That won’t be difficult.”

Li Chi said: “You may find it costly.”

Cao Lie asked: “How costly?”

Li Chi replied: “We’ll see when the time comes. You know how greedy I am…”

Cao Lie asked: “Your Highness, perhaps you could simply tell me — what is the purpose of this gathering in seven days at the Commissioner’s residence?”

Li Chi held out his hand: “Yu Jiuling, give me the document.”

Yu Jiuling reached into his robe and produced a sheet of paper, which he handed to Li Chi.

Li Chi unfolded it and passed it to Cao Lie. “This is what a recent survey has turned up: within Yuzhou, in areas now under Ning Army control, there are hundreds of thousands of displaced people in desperate need of aid — all waiting to be resettled.”

“The upper reaches of the Yang River have a breach. The flooding is causing endless devastation. I intend to use these hundreds of thousands of people who need resettlement to rebuild the riverbanks and address the flood — but I don’t have enough silver.”

After reading through the document, Cao Lie’s expression shifted.

He had known only that Li Chi’s appetite for silver seemed bottomless — he hadn’t known that every tael Li Chi secured was spent right back out.

The comfortable lives the common people now enjoyed in Jizhou — how had they come about?

Had Li Chi not exhausted his ingenuity to raise funds, and strained every effort to improve people’s livelihoods — treating river management as a priority, distributing grain seed when it was needed — those things would never have happened. Those who only knew how to talk would say these were simply what officials were supposed to do, nothing worth praising.

But where did the silver come from?

If Li Chi hadn’t been willing to play the villain, that silver would never have been raised.

Everything was in ruins and needed rebuilding — and rebuilding was no simple thing.

Being the Prince of Ning meant hemorrhaging money every single day.

He had indeed brought in a great deal — from what he carried back from Xiaoyao, from what was discovered in the underground vaults — but the combined total from both sources hadn’t been enough to cover the cost of the Jizhou flood management alone.

Li Chi said: “I’ll be honest with you — I intend to hold an auction. If the Yuzhou gentry and elders have the means, they can help me. I can also tell you in advance what I plan to put up for auction, and if any of it interests you, I can reserve a piece for you.”

“Ning and I each have a prized horse, gifted to us by the Great Khan of the Nalan Steppe — they will be auctioned in seven days. If you want one, you may purchase it in advance.”

Cao Lie was shocked: “The fine horses presented to you by the Great Khan of the Steppe — to sell them off just like that, Your Highness, wouldn’t that be… improper?”

Li Chi replied: “There’s nothing improper about it. Those horses, in my keeping, are simply being kept and fed. If they can be exchanged for silver, that’s at least the grain ration for thousands of people.”

“When need demands it, those two horses can be sold to relieve displaced refugees. When greater need demands it, they can be slaughtered as provisions.”

Li Chi looked toward Cao Lie and said: “In my reckoning, no possession is worth a human life.”

Cao Lie replied: “But if those refugees eventually flee to some other region — they won’t be Your Highness’s subjects anymore.”

“They’ll still be subjects of the Central Plains.”

He looked out beyond the window and said, one word at a time: “This land is in turmoil — but wherever the Ning banner flies, the people will eat their fill and have clothes on their backs.”

Cao Lie looked at this man who was roughly his own age, and felt a storm churning within him.

He didn’t know what to say. But he knew what he now understood.

In Jizhou, in Youzhou, Li Chi had looked like a ravenous beast — tearing silver from the hands of noble families.

All to feed the people. And he had never feared the cursing.

—