The people worth watching for are interested in each other, [Jia Xu replied with a knowing grin. Like knew like. The rank and file warriors and the generals who were drinking in earnest were worth taking in, a true genius underestimated no one, but that was a standard exercise. This was a little spicier.

He gestured widely out with the cup at the men and women around them.] Lord Cao does have a talent for gathering unusual men, [he mused.] Whichever Lord Cao we're talking about. [That was something that fascinated the young strategist. The man so alike in so different places: what could it be, but Heaven's sign?]

The circumstances don't lend themselves to it. But I doubt that any of them are really fools.