Ning Ziming was exchanging courtesies with a group of officials.

He caught sight of Ning Chen without meaning to. His face piled up with smiles at once and he waved him over. “Chen’er. Come here.”

He wanted Ning Chen beside him to make himself look good.

And Ning Chen actually came.

“My lords.”

Ning Chen bowed over his clasped hands. “My thanks to my lords for speaking up for what is right in the court just now. If the chance comes, Ning Chen will call at your gates and thank you properly.”

“Ning the Silver Coat is too polite. It was no more than we ought to have done.”

“Just so, just so. We all serve His Majesty. We could hardly stand and watch Ning the Silver Coat die with the wrong unanswered.”

“Ning the Silver Coat is brimming with talent and an immortal of poetry born again… If you do not think it beneath you, you are welcome at my house at any time.”

Ning Chen laughed. “I will. Let us see a great deal more of each other.”

Ning Ziming saw it. His face was all smiles, and he said at once, “Chen’er. From now on—”

Ning Chen turned his head and looked at him before he could finish. “Who are you? Do we know each other that well?”

Ning Ziming’s face went the color of pig’s liver.

Ning Chen put his fist into his palm and turned to the others. “My lords. I have business. I will take my leave first.”

With that he turned and went, saying to Gao Ziping and the others beside him, “Some men have no shame at all. A piece of human garbage who abandoned a wife and child, and he has the face to come and make up to me. A man doesn’t know his own ugliness and a horse doesn’t know how long its face is.”

Gao Ziping and the others nodded with entirely serious faces. Geng Jing had had them look into Ning Chen, so they knew something of his family business.

Ning Ziming’s face went through several colors and not one of them was good. It was quite a performance.

The officials looked at him strangely. Abandoned a wife and child?

“We all know Lord Ning’s principal wife is the Chancellor’s own daughter. Where does abandoning a wife and child come into it?”

“I had heard Lord Ning has three sons. Which one of them is this Ning Chen?”

“I have met all three of Lord Ning’s sons and Ning the Silver Coat is not among them… Lord Ning, who is Ning the Silver Coat’s mother? Nobody has ever heard of Lord Ning taking a concubine either.”

“Here — Lord Ning, don’t go. Stay and talk a little longer…”

Ning Ziming’s face was black, and he walked faster.

Unfilial wretch. The worthless thing. Rank treason. He means to be the death of me… If my political enemies learn I abandoned a wife and child and put in a memorial against me, then with the favor His Majesty shows Ning Chen, I am finished as Minister of Rites.

How did I ever father a worthless thing like this? Ning Ziming cursed him inwardly, in a rage.

“It seems Ning the Silver Coat has no use for Lord Ning as a father.”

“I remember somebody denounced Lord Ning once, saying he had abandoned a wife and child. The thing came to nothing in the end.”

The officials watched Ning Ziming’s back, something flickering in their eyes. They were turning it over, thinking they would go and look into the business… They might put Ning the Silver Coat in their debt by it, and if he were pleased he might make one of them a present of a matchless piece of work.

Ning Chen had made Old General Chen a present of a lyric, and it had lifted the general’s standing several levels.

Today he had made His Majesty a present of two lines, and His Majesty could not get his mouth closed for pleasure.

If he made me a present of a poem, my name would carry its fragrance for certain.

And at that moment the Xuan Emperor was already in the imperial study, writing fast.

What he was writing was the two lines Ning Chen had flattered him with.

When he had finished he looked it over for a while, and the more he looked the better he liked it. In letters you can take up a brush and settle the empire, and in arms you can mount a horse and set heaven and earth in order. Those two lines might have been cut to measure for this emperor.

Then he took up the brush again and added a line of small characters after it: Presented by Ning Chen to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Xuan.

He looked at that and still was not satisfied… so he worked three more words into it, and it became: Presented on his knees by Ning Chen to His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Xuan.

Now anyone who saw it would understand that the emperor was not praising himself, and that he could not possibly deserve such praise. But Ning Chen would not rise from his knees, and an emperor has consideration for his subjects, and so he had made himself accept it.

“Quan Sheng. Have these two lines mounted and hung behind this emperor’s dragon throne.”

Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Yes. This servant will see to it at once.”

Elsewhere, Ning Chen was walking out with Gao Ziping and the others.

“Ning the Silver Coat. A moment, please.”

Somebody was calling him from behind.

They turned and looked, and a young eunuch came running up out of breath.

“Eunuch. Is there something you want?”

The young eunuch said quickly, “Ning the Silver Coat. His Highness the Crown Prince asks for you.”

That stopped Ning Chen for a moment. Then he turned to Gao Ziping and the others. “You go back without me.”

Gao Ziping nodded.

Feng Qizheng worked his eyebrows and dropped his voice. “Don’t forget. The courtesans’ quarter tonight.”

“I won’t forget… When I’ve seen the crown prince I’ll come to the Inspectorate and find you.”

Ning Chen followed the young eunuch to an open pavilion.

The crown prince was tasting tea.

Ning Chen rubbed his arms. There is something wrong with this man’s head… Weather like this, and he goes out to an open pavilion to drink tea. Would anyone in his right mind do that?

“Ning Chen. Congratulations.”

The crown prince’s smile was mild.

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Ning Chen made a perfunctory bow.

What the hell did my getting clear have to do with you? In that hall the man didn’t so much as fart.

“Ning Chen. You got clear this time by Father Emperor’s mercy and the pleading of the officials, civil and military — and there is one more person you have to thank.”

Ning Chen asked curiously, “Who?”

“Huai’an.”

“Who is Huai’an?”

The crown prince: “???”

“Huai’an is the Ninth Princess.”

Ning Chen was completely lost. “The Ninth Princess? I don’t know her. Why would she plead for me?”

The crown prince had nothing to say to that. “You have met her. Once at the Top Scholar Tower, and once when I saw you off on your way to Zhenyuan County.”

Ning Chen thought about it, and it came to him all at once. “That little girl who was with you? So she’s the Ninth Princess.”

The corner of the crown prince’s mouth twitched. There was exactly one man alive who would dare call the Ninth Princess of the empire a little girl.

“That is right. She is the Ninth Princess, and the daughter Father Emperor favors most.”

Ning Chen was puzzled. “Why would she plead for me?”

“I asked her to… After you cut down the Empress’s brother, Father Emperor’s mood was very bad for days. I did not dare go myself, so I asked Huai’an to plead for you.”

Ning Chen gave him a strange look. You didn’t dare go, so you pushed your own sister out in front?

The crown prince smiled bitterly. “You don’t know how it is. Father Emperor calls me a dullard all the time — some days three times over. How was I to dare? He favors Huai’an above everyone, so there was nobody better to plead for you.”

Ning Chen nearly laughed. Being crown prince is no easy post either, then. He has a wretched time of it.

“And the main thing is that Huai’an’s nature is to settle her debts both ways. She knew exactly what kind of man the Empress’s brother was. That is why she went.”

Settles her debts both ways? Ning Chen was not so sure. I never did anything to offend her, and when she saw me my nose wasn’t a nose to her and my eyes weren’t eyes.

The crown prince took a sip of tea and smiled. “I think you should thank Huai’an to her face.”

Ning Chen nodded. Whatever else was true, the Ninth Princess had pleaded for him. Whether it had done any good or not, her heart had been in the right place, and a kindness like that had to be remembered.

“Very well. If the chance comes, I will give a dinner to thank the Ninth Princess, and Your Highness as well.”

The crown prince laughed. “You need not wait for a chance… If you want to thank her, I will take you to Huai’an now.”

That brought Ning Chen up short. “I’m an outside official. Can I go into the inner palace?”

“With this crown prince beside you it is nothing…” The crown prince stood up as he said it. “Come. I will take you to see Huai’an.”

(End of Chapter 70)