Small cleverness may seem advantageous now, but after two or three moves you’ll realize it was actually a bad move.

Wei Xiaobao recruited a group of military officers and remembered their names after winning money gambling. Because he knew that when he was sucking up to his superiors in the past, he deliberately lost money, and losing was also a way to make them remember his name.

Chen Jiannan cured Wei Xiaobao of the poison administered by Eunuch Hai. Touched, Wei Xiaobao immediately pulled out all the banknotes he carried and offered to fund the Tiandihui’s cause. Most people, at the brink of life and death, would say they’re willing to scatter their wealth to save their lives, just like at the summit of Mount Everest, where you’d pay any price for a bottle of oxygen. But once they make it down the mountain, how many would renege on their promises, and how many would regret parting with their silver? People are all the same—they’re good at finding excuses. Wei Xiaobao could find excuses too: Chen Jiannan is a great hero; how could he care about silver? Forget it, maybe he doesn’t need to pay after all.

Chen Jiannan didn’t care about silver, but these little details, one by one, would let him see what kind of person Wei Xiaobao truly was. If Wei Xiaobao cut corners in this situation, he would do so in others as well. For example, he might have embezzled the entire confiscated property of Oboi for himself, giving nothing to his subordinates, which could lead to being reported, discovered by the Kangxi Emperor, losing favor, and ultimately ruining his future.

So would a person with such a personality really be suitable for going undercover? Or could he really infiltrate the Qing court and rise rapidly?

Everything is a chain reaction.