Court broke up at one end of the city, and at the other end Ning Chen was only just waking up in a beauty’s bed.

He looked at Yudie, sweet-faced and still fast asleep, and smiled without making a sound.

This life… I wouldn’t trade it for being emperor.

His Majesty is probably still at morning court about now.

He gently moved the pale, soft arm off his chest and got ready to get up… and careful as he was, Yudie woke anyway.

“Is Ning, dear going on duty?”

Fresh out of sleep, Yudie was sweetly drowsy and altogether appealing, her voice soft and thick.

Ning Chen nearly failed to hold himself back and pull her into a little morning exercise.

But he managed it in the end. Last night had been wild enough. He couldn’t be too free with himself. The body mattered.

Ning Chen grunted. “This poor wage slave has to go be an ox and a horse for those wretched capitalists again.”

Yudie’s big, glistening eyes were clear and uncomprehending. She hadn’t followed a word of it.

“This girl will help Ning, dear dress.”

Ning Chen sat up and wrapped the quilt around her, smiling. “You’d better rest. You must be worn out after last night.”

Yudie’s little face went red and she buried it in the quilt in embarrassment.

Ning Chen got dressed.

Xiaoxing had been up a long while, waiting in the outer room.

Seeing Ning Chen up, she immediately brought in wash water and wood ash.

Wood ash was what you brushed your teeth with. There was no toothpaste in this world.

Salt would do for it too, but almost nobody did that.

First, salt production in this world was small and salt was expensive.

Second, for technical reasons the salt was coarse, and it cut up the inside of your mouth easily.

Ning Chen had considered producing fine salt before, and had thought about the laws of the Great Xuan and dropped the idea immediately.

Salt mines and iron mines and the rest were controlled by the state. Touch salt and it was a capital crime.

Try making toothpaste, then? Ning Chen thought.

Brushing your teeth with wood ash is genuinely unpleasant. Get toothpaste made and it would be hugely popular. There’d be serious money in it.

“Young Master Ning, have some breakfast before you go on duty?”

Xiaoxing came in carrying food and said it, breaking into Ning Chen’s train of thought.

Ning Chen grunted.

After breakfast, Ning Chen came out of the courtesans’ quarter… and there were Gao Ziping and the other two, waiting for him, exactly as expected.

“Come on, breakfast is on me.”

Feng Qizheng said it.

Ning Chen took the reins Chen Chong held out, swung up onto the horse and said, smiling, “I already ate in Yudie’s room. You lot go and eat.”

That had the whole pack of animals twisting their features out of shape with envy.

“By the way, I’m not going back to the Inspectorate just yet… If Old Pan asks, tell him I’ve gone to work a case.”

Ning Chen finished, and found Gao Ziping and the other two looking past him with odd expressions.

Not understanding, Ning Chen turned to look.

Pan Yucheng was coming out of the courtesans’ quarter, stretching, and hadn’t noticed Ning Chen and the others at all.

A man who never so much as cracked a smile was standing there with his big front teeth showing, grinning all over his face like a lecher.

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at him. From the look of Old Pan, he’s making fast progress with Miss Nanzhi. He may well have drawn first blood already.

“Old Pan, morning!”

Ning Chen called it out, smiling.

“Morn—” Pan Yucheng answered before he thought, and only in the next second did it catch up with him. He turned his head and his face went stiff by degrees.

Only yesterday he had told Ning Chen, in the most high-minded terms, that as a gold coat, running off to the courtesans’ quarter day after day — what would that look like?

And here they were.

Pan Yucheng dug a toe into the ground in embarrassment.

Ning Chen’s face was all mockery. “Old Pan, who was it who told me yesterday, in such high-minded terms, that a gold coat of the Inspectorate mustn’t be running off to the courtesans’ quarter?”

Pan Yucheng’s old face went scarlet.

He coughed with pretended gravity. “I came to investigate a case.”

“Investigate a case? Looks to me like you came to investigate a hole.”

Pan Yucheng: “……”

“Ahem… It’s getting late. Get back on duty, quickly.”

Ning Chen let him off it and said, “Old Pan, I’ve got something to take care of… I’ll come in to the Inspectorate later.”

“Official business or personal?”

“Personal!”

Pan Yucheng set his face. “Personal business is forbidden during duty hours… Or would you care to say that again?”

Ning Chen had absolutely nothing to say.

“I’m going on official business.”

“Good. Off you go.”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. What a bore.

He said his goodbyes and rode off on Diaochan.

Ning Chen rode out to the outer city, to the North Market.

The houses here were low and run-down… the roads were mud.

This was the equivalent of a slum.

Uncle Chai’s home was here. In the memories he had inherited, this world’s Ning Chen had come here once with Uncle Chai.

Going by memory, Ning Chen came to the outside of a small yard behind a wicker fence.

From some way off he could already see a crowd standing around the gate of the yard, pointing and talking.

The fence was not high, and mounted, Ning Chen could see clearly what was going on in the yard.

The yard was in chaos.

Seven or eight big, thick-set men were laying into two people lying on the ground with fists and boots.

A little boy of three or four, round-faced and sturdy, stood to one side wailing in terror.

“Uncle Chai?”

Ning Chen realized that one of the men being beaten was Uncle Chai.

He swung down off the horse, ran, jumped, put one hand down and vaulted the fence.

“Stop!”

Ning Chen roared it.

The men doing the beating turned to look without thinking.

They saw a young man in a silver fish-scale coat, one hand on his hilt, coming toward them in long strides.

Every one of their faces changed.

A fish-scale coat. Inspectorate.

One of them, a horse-faced man of about thirty, took it in, and his eyes moved. He hurried forward, pulling the purse off his belt as he came, and held it out with a face full of smiles. “My lord, I—”

Bang!

He hadn’t finished when Ning Chen kicked him off his feet.

“Inspectorate business. Every one of you on your knees. Anyone who resists will be cut down where he stands.”

The pack of them, wolves and tigers a moment ago, went white to a man and dropped to their knees.

Ning Chen had no attention to spare for them. He went quickly to Uncle Chai. “Uncle Chai, how bad is it?”

Uncle Chai’s eyes were swollen shut from the beating. He forced them open, and his face filled with shock, as though he couldn’t believe it. “Fourth Young Master?”

“It’s me… Uncle Chai, how bad is it?”

“Don’t worry about it, Fourth Young Master. This old servant is all right.”

Uncle Chai’s eyes were fixed on the silver coat Ning Chen wore, and his whole face was full of gladness. “The Fourth Young Master has made something of himself. That’s good… this old servant always knew the Fourth Young Master would make something of himself—”

“Uncle Chai, what happened here? Tell me. I’ll set it right for you.”

Beside them, the young man who had been beaten black and blue struggled up onto his knees. “My lord, save my wife, I beg you… I’m on my knees to you!”

Ning Chen knew the man’s face. He had seen him once before. He was Uncle Chai’s son, Chai Dazhuang, if he remembered right.

“Don’t panic. Take your time… What’s happened to your wife?”

Chai Dazhuang said through his tears, “My wife worked in Squire Hu’s household. But Hu Qiang, Squire Hu’s son, has shut my wife up and won’t let her leave… and he sent men here with a writ of divorce, forcing me to put my wife aside.”

“My lord, save my wife. The boy’s small. He can’t be left without a mother!”

Ning Chen’s face darkened.

He had seen Chai Dazhuang’s wife once as well. A hardworking woman, and not without looks. It seemed this Hu Qiang had seen her and wanted her.

“Set your mind at rest. I’m going to go and bring your wife back right now.”

“Thank you, my lord, thank you—”

Ning Chen helped him up and gave him a few taels of silver. “Look after Uncle Chai. Get him a doctor… I’ll be back.”

(End of Chapter 97)