Ning Chen panicked. There was no sense in being tortured half to death right before he died anyway.

He fixed a cold eye on Pan Yucheng and said angrily, “You, Pan. If you’ve got the guts, give me a clean end… What kind of guts does it take to play these petty little tricks?”

Pan Yucheng’s face was dark. “Ning Chen. This is not a place where you take liberties.”

Ning Chen laughed coldly. “I know it. From my first day in the Inspectorate you couldn’t stand the sight of me, and now a petty man like you has finally gotten his chance to work me over.”

“It seems there’s no getting out of the torture today. Bring out whatever tricks you have. If I so much as knit my brow, I’m not your father.”

“But you listen to me, Pan… Men do, and heaven watches. Sooner or later every torture I take here is going to come down on you.”

Pan Yucheng’s face went livid with anger and his chest was heaving.

“Hahaha… I win.”

Feng Qizheng suddenly let out a cheer.

“What did I tell you? The boy has hard bones in him… No dodging, any of you. A tael each.”

Feng Qizheng put out his hand. The others rolled their eyes and dug bits of silver out of their clothes and tossed them over to him.

“Twelve taels altogether. Four apiece for us.”

Feng Qizheng dealt out four taels each to Gao Ziping and Chen Chong.

Chen Chong weighed the silver in his hand and winked at Ning Chen. “Ning Chen. If you come out of this alive I’ll take you to the courtesans’ quarter to hear the music.”

Feng Qizheng laughed. “I’ll buy you dinner.”

Gao Ziping put his silver away. “Then all that’s left for me is the drinks.”

Ning Chen was lost.

“What… what is going on?”

Feng Qizheng grinned. Heh heh. “We were messing with you. We wanted to see whether you’d piss yourself.”

Ning Chen: “???”

He was furious. They pulled that on me for a joke? Don’t they know a man can be frightened to death?

“Who is joking? Tie him up. Put him to the torture.”

Pan Yucheng said it with his face set and no expression on it at all.

Ning Chen turned a cold eye on him.

Feng Qizheng laughed. “Chief. Stop trying to frighten him… The boy has hard bones in him. It’s no use.”

Pan Yucheng made a cold sound.

He really did want to give Ning Chen a beating now. What the boy had just said was too ugly to hear, and the anger of it had nearly killed him.

Pan Yucheng said, “A share of that silver is mine.”

Feng Qizheng shoved the silver in his hand into his robe. “On what grounds?”

Pan Yucheng said, with his face set, “I also bet the boy wouldn’t piss himself.”

“You didn’t say a word while the rest of us were betting.”

Pan Yucheng said, perfectly serious, “I said it inwardly. You didn’t hear it.”

Feng Qizheng’s forehead was full of black lines.

“Chief. That’s a bit of a dodge.”

Pan Yucheng said, “Then suppose I put him to the torture and beat him until he pisses. Does that make all of you the losers?”

The corner of Feng Qizheng’s mouth twitched. He gave in. “Fine. A share for you. Will that do?”

Pan Yucheng said, “Remember to put it on my desk later.”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes hard. What the fuck kind of people are these? Betting on my life… A pack of things with nothing human left in them.

His eyes came to rest on Pan Yucheng.

Pan Yucheng glared at him, then said to Gao Ziping, “Bring the food. Let him eat and drink his fill so he can be on his way.”

On his way?

Ning Chen jolted. “Is this the beheading?”

“No.” Feng Qizheng looked at him. “There is an imperial edict. At the morning court today His Majesty means to question you himself.”

“Ning Chen. Last night we rushed the Chongzhou officials through questioning, high and low. These pieces of human garbage have crime piled on crime — there isn’t bamboo enough in the world to write it all down. The Empress’s brother above all. What he did was enough to die for a hundred times over… Going by those charges, we figure there’s a chance you come out of this alive.”

Chen Chong came over and clapped Ning Chen on the shoulder. “That is as much as we can do. When the time comes, make the best case you can for your own life.”

That stopped Ning Chen where he stood.

So the questioning that had run all night had been to buy him a chance to live.

Chen Chong said, “Ning Chen. Don’t hold anything against the Chief… He’s had no proper rest in days over your business.”

“It was the Chief who led the men that brought the Chongzhou officials in, high and low… And when he got back he questioned them all night, right up to now, without stopping long enough to drink a mouthful of water.”

Ning Chen looked at Pan Yucheng and could hardly believe it. Have I had him wrong this whole time?

He was about to say something when Pan Yucheng said, mildly, “Save the thanks until you’re alive to give them.”

Ning Chen had nothing to say. Can the man not talk like a normal person?

Pan Yucheng spoke again. “Ning Chen. When His Majesty questions you himself, don’t be clever and don’t go adding to it… Tell it straight. That is all.”

Ning Chen nodded and said, “Mm.”

“Eat and drink your fill and we’ll take you to the palace. Whether you live comes down to your own fate… And if you die, at least you’ll go as a well-fed ghost.”

Ning Chen had absolutely nothing to say to that. The man truly cannot hold a conversation.

The Left Chancellor’s residence. In a sealed room, a figure wrapped from head to foot in a black robe stood facing the Left Chancellor.

“The Third Prince forced his way into the Inspectorate and His Majesty is in a fury… To protect the Third Prince, Her Majesty the Empress has agreed not to pursue Ning Chen. There is nothing further she can do from her side.”

The man in the black robe spoke, and though his face was covered, the voice told you at once that he was a eunuch.

The Left Chancellor stood with his big belly out in front of him. “Then what is Her Majesty’s meaning?”

The voice inside the black robe was thin and high. “Her Majesty says Ning Chen must die… The Left Chancellor should know what to do.”

The Left Chancellor bowed over his clasped hands. “Tell Her Majesty that this old subject arranged it long ago. Ning Chen will not reach the court alive.”

He was not doing it only for the Empress. He was doing it for himself.

What Ning Chen had done was a crime punishable to the ninth degree of kin. The Ning house and the chancellor’s residence were related by marriage, and the business would reach him too.

Only with Ning Chen dead was there any room to turn it around.

The black robe said, in that high voice, “Left Chancellor. This Chongzhou business will not touch Her Majesty?”

The Left Chancellor bowed. “Tell Her Majesty to be easy. It will not touch anyone.”

At the mention of Chongzhou his teeth itched with hate. He would have swallowed Ning Chen alive and skinned him.

Years of painstaking work, and Ning Chen had ruined all of it.

The black robe said, “There is nothing left worth scraping out of Chongzhou. Cut it loose… But the Third Prince needs a great deal of silver to keep his connections up, and Her Majesty says the Left Chancellor will have to put his mind to that.”

“This old subject understands.”

“Then I will not trouble the Left Chancellor further. I take my leave.”

Elsewhere, Ning Chen ate and drank his fill and was brought out of the Inspectorate for the palace, with Pan Yucheng leading the escort himself.

“Ning Chen. Is there any wish you haven’t seen to?”

Gao Ziping asked it low.

Ning Chen glared at him. “You say that like I’m certain to die. Weren’t you the ones telling me there was a chance I’d live?”

Gao Ziping gave an awkward laugh. “Just in case, that’s all. It was His Lordship the Empress’s brother you killed, after all. Human garbage or not, the man was a relative of the imperial house by marriage.”

“If there’s a wish you haven’t seen to, tell me… I promise I’ll see it done.”

Ning Chen thought about it. “I’m still a virgin. I’ve never slept with a woman… Can you see to that one for me?”

Gao Ziping scratched his head. “That… there’s nothing I can do about that. How about a different wish?”

Ning Chen: “…”

Feng Qizheng leaned in. “What’s hard about that? When Old Gao and I used to go to the courtesans’ quarter we only had one woman each… From now on, when we go, we’ll have two apiece. The extra one is on your behalf.”

Ning Chen’s forehead was full of black lines. He laughed and swore at them. “Get lost… Try acting like human beings, would you?”

Chen Chong and the others had heard it too and burst out laughing.

(End of Chapter 64)