The color went out of Ai Wenguang’s face, and out of the faces of the men with him.
Ning Chen was a hard man who had dared cut down the Empress’s brother with a sword.
Ai Wenguang above all. He had not forgotten the day Ning Chen had very nearly beaten him to death with the flat of a blade, or the several days he had spent in bed afterward before he could stand up again.
Shut in with a hard man like that, they would be finished off before they were ever brought up for questioning.
“My lord. Don’t shut us in with him. I beg you.”
“Let us out. Let us out… We won’t stay in here with him.”
“My lord, have mercy. He’ll kill us…”
They clung to the bars of the cell door and wailed out into the passage, so desperate they would have squeezed themselves out through the gaps if they could.
“What is all this noise? Every one of you shut your mouths.”
Gao Ziping came over, contemptuous. “Do you think you are still great men in your own districts? You are prisoners now… Shout like that again and your tongues get cut out.”
That frightened them into silence.
Gao Ziping looked at Ning Chen. “These are serious prisoners, every one of them. Don’t beat them to death… They still have to be questioned.”
Ning Chen grinned.
When the Inspectorate men had gone, the corner of Ning Chen’s mouth curled into something ugly.
He was in manacles and leg irons himself, but there was no comparing him with these officials, raised soft.
He walked over, came up behind Ai Wenguang, got the chain between his manacles across the man’s throat, threw him over his shoulder, and slammed him into the floor.
Ai Wenguang let out a shriek that did not sound like a human being anymore.
Ning Chen sat astride him, closed both fists, and hammered them down on his head.
Ai Wenguang screamed like a pig on the block.
The other officials were frightened out of their skins and shrank into the corner, shivering.
The officials in the cell across the passage watched in horror… and at the same time counted themselves lucky not to be in a cell with Ning Chen.
“Help. Help… Murder. Murder…”
Ai Wenguang screamed and begged for his life at the same time.
But the Inspectorate’s jailers might have been deaf. Not one of them came to stop it.
“Ning Chen. I haven’t been questioned. No guilt has been fixed… This is private punishment. I’ll lay a complaint against you. I’ll go and lay a complaint.”
Ning Chen raised both fists and hammered them down on his head again.
“Lay a complaint against me? Go and lay it… I’m under sentence of death myself. Do you think I care about one more charge on the list?”
Ai Wenguang’s head was split and bleeding and his face was swollen and bruised.
Ning Chen let him alone for the moment and walked toward the officials in the corner.
“My lords. Your turn.”
He aimed a kick at one of them as he said it, but the chain between his leg irons was too short and he nearly went over himself.
So he used his hands instead and hammered at their heads.
The beasts in official dress howled under it and cried for their fathers and mothers.
Before long every one of them had a face swollen and bruised and a head split and bleeding.
Ning Chen stopped. He was out of breath and his mouth was dry… Beating people is tiring work too.
He went over, drank several mouthfuls of water, and sat down on the straw in the corner.
Ai Wenguang and the others lay on the floor in pain, groaning steadily.
“Stop your fucking noise… Make it again and I’ll pull your tongues out.”
“I’m going to sleep. Don’t disturb me… When I wake up we’ll go again.”
Ning Chen leaned against the wall and shut his eyes to save his strength.
But he was not going to get another turn at them.
The sound of the cell door opening woke him.
Two jailers dragged Ai Wenguang out.
So this was the questioning.
An hour later Ai Wenguang was dragged back and dropped on the floor.
Ning Chen looked at him and drew a breath in through his teeth.
There was nothing human left in Ai Wenguang. Both legs were broken. Every tooth had been pulled out. He was covered in whip marks with the flesh turned open, and he lay there without moving, one breath left in him.
No wonder they all called the Inspectorate the Hall of the King of Hell.
There were not many men who could stand up to the Inspectorate’s tortures.
But Ning Chen felt not the smallest pity for Ai Wenguang. What these men had done to the common people was crueler than this.
“Ai Wenguang. When you were treating a human life as so much grass, when you were ruining the common people, did you ever once think you would see a day like this?”
Ning Chen gloated at him from one side.
One of the jailers looked over. “No talking… Do you want to be brought up for questioning too?”
Ning Chen jolted and shook his head over and over.
“I’ll shut up. I’ll shut up… You go on with your work. Pretend I’m not here.”
Ning Chen went off obediently to the corner to draw circles on the ground.
He was already under sentence of death. He had no wish to be put through all of that first.
The two jailers looked at each other and laughed, and then took another man away.
All that night the jailers came and went.
Man after man was taken out and brought back half dead.
The questionings got shorter and shorter.
Ai Wenguang, for one, had tried to hold out at the start, refusing to confess, and had been tortured half to death for it.
The ones after him had had the nerve frightened out of them long before, and poured out every one of their crimes like beans out of a bamboo tube before a hand was laid on them… and now and then more came out than anyone had asked for.
Somewhere around dawn two jailers walked into Ning Chen’s cell.
“Ning Chen. Come with us.”
Ning Chen went blank.
“Is this… are you questioning me?”
One of them nodded.
Ning Chen looked at Ai Wenguang and the others, tortured out of any human shape, and jolted where he stood.
“I— there’s no need to question me, is there? I confess. Whatever the charge is, I confess to it.”
One of the jailers said, without any expression at all, “That is not yours to say. It is not mine either… Don’t drag your feet. Come along.”
In the torture room at that moment were Pan Yucheng, Gao Ziping and the rest.
“What do you say — will Ning Chen piss his trousers when he comes in?”
“I say no. Never mind how young he is, that boy has hard bones in him.”
“I say he will. If you don’t believe me, put money on it.”
“Money it is… I’m betting Ning Chen doesn’t piss himself.”
“Count me in. I say he doesn’t either.”
“I say he does.”
Just then there was a knock at the door.
Every man in the room turned serious on the instant.
“My lord. Ning Chen is here.”
Pan Yucheng said, “Bring him in.”
Ning Chen was brought in.
The air was full of a sharp smell of blood, thick enough to turn a man’s stomach.
The floor was black-red all over, from years upon years of blood soaking into it.
The whole room was dim and cold and haunted.
One wall was hung all over with instruments of punishment, and on some of them the blood was not dry yet.
Ning Chen’s scalp crawled and he shivered before he could stop himself. This place is terrifying.
He looked at Pan Yucheng and the others. There was no expression on any of them, and they were looking at him the way men look at a dead man.
“Hi… Good to see you all. Long time no see. I’ve missed you terribly.”
“Where is the charge sheet, please? I’ll confess and put my mark on it right now… It’s late, and you must all be tired. Get home early and rest. Look after your health.”
Ning Chen was all obedience and politeness… smiling like a dog, fawning.
They stared at him coldly.
In fact one or two of them were already past holding it in. The corners of their mouths were shaking hard and they were on the point of laughing out loud.
Pan Yucheng brought his hand down on the table and said coldly, “Ning Chen. Stop the grinning. Look around and see where you are. Mind your manners.”
The smile on Ning Chen’s face came down a little.
“Pan the Gold Coat. Is there something wrong with my manners? I’ve said it — whatever the charge is, I confess to it… What more do you want me to do?”
Pan Yucheng’s face was set. He said coldly, “Still not honest. Somebody. Put him to the torture.”
(End of Chapter 63)