Ning Chen shook his head and tossed the gold in his hands to them.
“Split it between you.”
The three of them were delighted, grinning with their big front teeth showing.
Feng Qizheng said, laying it on thick, “Ning Chen, from now on you’re my own father.”
Ning Chen rolled his eyes at him.
The four of them rode to the courtesans’ quarter.
Once through the door, the four of them split up.
Ning Chen, carrying the silk and the medicine, went upstairs to find Yudie.
Yudie was sitting at her dressing mirror, chin propped in one hand, in low spirits.
Ning Chen hadn’t come back since that night.
Yudie had decided he was a faithless, fickle sort of man.
“Miss, Young Master Ning is here!”
Yudie’s personal maid came in and said it softly.
Yudie’s big, glistening eyes lit up at once, and her pale, delicate little face turned radiant.
She looked herself over in the mirror, straightened her clothes, and asked the little maid, “How does my makeup look?”
The maid hid a smile. “Miss is lovely as an immortal. You’d look good with makeup or without.”
Yudie brightened with delight. “Quick, show Young Master Ning in!”
The little maid went out.
Before long, she came back leading Ning Chen in.
“Ning, dear…”
Yudie’s smile was restrained and radiant at once, and she came forward with light steps to meet him.
Seeing this, the little maid tactfully made to withdraw.
“Don’t go yet…” Ning Chen handed her the medicine. “Have this brewed for me.”
As he said it, he pressed a few odd bits of silver into her hand.
Yudie’s face filled with worry. “Ning, dear, you’re hurt?”
“A small injury. Nothing to it. A few doses and I’ll be fine.”
Yudie said quickly, “Xiaoxing, go brew Young Master Ning’s medicine right away.”
The little maid said yes and hurried off with the packet of medicine.
“Ning, dear, you’re injured. Sit down, quickly!”
Ning Chen laughed. “I’m not that fragile… By the way, I brought you two bolts of silk. See if you like them?”
Yudie was delighted at that — it meant Ning Chen had her in his heart.
“Oh… this is Xiuzhou brocade.”
Ning Chen didn’t know anything about that sort of thing.
“What of it? Isn’t the silk any good?”
Yudie said, delighted, “Xiuzhou brocade is the very finest there is… Only the imperial relations and the great and powerful can afford cloth like this.”
Ning Chen made a noncommittal noise. None of that interested him much.
“So long as you like it.”
“This girl likes it very much. Thank you, Ning, dear!”
Ning Chen smiled and went to sit on the low couch by the little table, picked up the teapot without ceremony and poured himself a cup.
“Ning, dear, that tea’s gone cold… let this girl fetch you a hot cup.”
“Never mind that.” Ning Chen patted the seat beside him. “Come here.”
Yudie set down the brocade and came, a little shy, to sit close beside him.
Ning Chen put an arm around her slender waist, bent his head and kissed her soft red mouth.
Yudie gave a small, low cry, and her already soft body went softer still.
After a while Ning Chen let her go.
Yudie’s face was flushed, her big glistening eyes full of shyness.
All at once her little nose wrinkled, and she leaned in and sniffed at him.
“Ning, dear, shall this girl draw you a bath?”
Ning Chen lifted his arm and sniffed himself, and his brow creased.
Several hours in the cells will do that to a man.
“All right.”
Yudie got up and went out, and had a bathing tub brought in and filled with hot water, with flower petals scattered over it.
Winter had come by now, so the petals were ones picked in summer and dried and kept.
Yudie reached out and tested the water, and said sweetly, “Ning, dear, come and bathe?”
Ning Chen answered and started undressing as he walked, and by the time he reached the tub he was stark naked.
Yudie’s face went red.
Ning Chen ran a hand over his own stomach and shook his head. “Christ… all this training and still no abs? Looks like I’ll have to put in overtime tonight. Some serious push-ups.”
With that, he stepped into the tub.
Yudie gently pushed up her sleeves, baring her pale, soft arms, and washed Ning Chen’s back with light strokes.
“Yudie, get in and wash with me… I’ll teach you a move, underwater. It’s called shucking the oyster.”
Yudie’s face went a rosy pink and she said softly, “Ning, dear’s medicine will be ready soon. Let this girl see you drink it down first, and then this girl will join you.”
Ning Chen nodded and grunted.
This is the life.
Yudie was a girl of the pleasure houses, but she was sweet-tempered and obedient and knew how to read a man, and she was still untouched… an absolute treasure.
Thinking back on his last life — scraping and selling everything a family owned across generations just to buy a house and a car, and then, if he was lucky enough to land a wife at all, who knew how many hands she’d already passed through?
If your luck was good you married a woman who knew how to run a household.
If your luck was bad you brought home a little empress who couldn’t do a thing, expected to be waited on hand and foot, and nagged you besides, and your whole life turned into one long mess.
Just then a knock came at the door.
“Miss, Young Master Ning’s medicine is ready!”
Yudie answered and went to open the door.
After a moment she came back carrying the medicine bowl and said softly, “Ning, dear. Time for your medicine.”
Holy shit!!!
A jolt went through Ning Chen.
That line sounds awfully familiar.
Ning Chen looked at the bowl in Yudie’s hands and had the sudden feeling there was poison in it.
He looked at the door too, half suspecting Old Mother Wang might be hiding just outside it. (TL Note: Old Mother Wang is a stock go-between from the classical novel Water Margin*, best remembered for handing a woman a bowl of medicine moments before that woman poisoned her own husband.)*
Seeing something wasn’t right with Ning Chen, Yudie blinked her big glistening eyes. “Is Ning, dear afraid it’ll be bitter? This girl has some candied fruit ready. Have your medicine, then a bit of the fruit, and it won’t taste bitter at all.”
Ning Chen shook his head and shook every last one of the ridiculous thoughts out of it.
“Nothing’s wrong. Just remembered something, out of nowhere.”
Ning Chen took the bowl and drank a mouthful, and nearly threw it back up. It was unbelievably bitter.
“Ning, dear, have a piece of candied fruit. It won’t taste bitter after.”
Ning Chen shook his head, pinched his nose shut and poured the rest down.
Yudie held up a piece of candied fruit to his lips.
Ning Chen ate it, and that just barely held down the urge to retch.
He suddenly stood, and swept Yudie up into the bathing tub with him.
Yudie gave a soft cry. “Ning, dear, this girl’s clothes—”
“Never mind. They’re coming off anyway. I’ll help you out of them… Yudie, you’re about to have a very hard night of it.”
The two of them fought their way from the tub all the way to the bed.
Not until the sky had barely begun to lighten did Ning Chen finally drop off to sleep, with an utterly spent Yudie in his arms.
And at that very hour, His poor Majesty had already gone in to morning court.
In the great hall.
“Whoever has business, speak now. If there is none, court is dismissed!”
Eunuch Quan’s shrill voice rang through the hall.
The Left Chancellor turned his head and glanced at one of the censors.
The man stepped forward at once.
“Reporting to Your Majesty. Your subject has business… Your subject wishes to impeach Ning Chen, silver coat of the Inspectorate, for putting a blade into a colleague. It is a vile act and deserves severe punishment.”
“Reporting to Your Majesty. Ning Chen has no regard for the law and presumes on favor. If he is not severely punished, it will be difficult to satisfy the court.”
“Your subject also has business to raise. Your subject wishes to impeach Lord Geng Jing of the Inspectorate for failing to discipline his men. He ought to bear the same guilt as Ning Chen. Your subject asks Your Majesty to punish him severely, that the law of the land be upheld.”
A whole crowd of censors began jumping in, one after another.
Eunuch Quan glanced quietly at His Majesty.
His Majesty’s expression was perfectly calm, and it set Eunuch Quan quietly worrying.
Yesterday, when Geng Jing had come into the palace to report on Ning Chen’s situation, the Xuan Emperor had only said, “This emperor knows,” and sent him away.
When Eunuch Quan himself had come back and told His Majesty that Ning Chen was hurt, His Majesty’s reaction had been just as flat — only, “This emperor knows,” and nothing further after it.
Could Ning Chen have presumed too far on His Majesty’s favor, and worn out his welcome?
(End of Chapter 95)