That earns Claudius another warmly fond look, not exactly a smile but something close to it. If Lan Wangji's regard for him can ease the built-up fears left behind by the sticky hands of that cutthroat court, then that is all the better. "I would prefer to say that reputations do not matter at all," he says, "but Wei Ying was cast out for his and died for a rumor he could not control." His own reputation was spotless, until he married the Yiling Patriarch. He would do it again a thousand times. "Still, even the most skilled social architect I have known could not attain complete mastery of the hearts and minds around him."