Ning Chen said his goodbyes to Uncle Chai and rode back the way he had come, Diaochan’s hooves going clop, clop, clop.

Pan Yucheng and the rest were back at the Inspectorate by the time he got there.

Pan Yucheng told him Hu Maode and Hu Qiang had both been put to death for their crimes, everyone connected with the house was in custody, and the Hu property had been sealed.

“That reminds me. That is for you.”

Pan Yucheng pointed at the table by the window. There was a tray on it with a yellow cloth over it.

The thing looked familiar to Ning Chen. “For me?”

“His Majesty’s gift to you.”

Ning Chen went over and lifted the yellow cloth. Under it, ingot on ingot, was gold.

Pan Yucheng said, “His Majesty’s order. Wu Dayuan: rape and evildoing. Beheading.”

“Chen Lezhang failed to keep his men in hand. A year’s salary forfeit, thirty strokes of the rod, with you to oversee the punishment.”

“Geng the Purple Coat was fined a month’s salary as well.”

“His Majesty says you are upright and unbending and utterly impartial… A thousand taels of gold to you.”

He looked uncomfortable saying the last of it.

His Majesty’s favoritism toward Ning Chen is too plain for anyone to miss.

Whatever Wu Dayuan had done, it was never Ning Chen’s place to punish him… By rights Ning Chen ought to be the one taking punishment, and instead of punishment he has been given a reward.

Does His Majesty really not worry about him presuming on favor?

Every cloud in Ning Chen cleared away at once and his whole face opened up in a grin. “His Majesty is a wise man. Next time I see him I’m going to knock my head on the ground for him!”

“Old Pan. When do I get to beat Chen Lezhang?”

The corner of Pan Yucheng’s mouth twitched. “You were told to oversee the punishment, not carry it out… Geng the Purple Coat has spoken. For now the punishment is set for tomorrow morning.”

Ning Chen nodded, cheerful about it.

“Old Pan, leave this gold here with you for the moment. I’ll come and get it when we let off.”

Ning Chen took ten ingots out of the pile and set them on the table in front of Pan Yucheng, and grinned. “That’s the storage charge.”

Pan Yucheng was about to refuse when Ning Chen got in ahead of him. “Don’t make a performance of it… It isn’t all for you. Give half of it to Lord Geng — that month’s salary he lost is on me.”

Pan Yucheng thought about it and said nothing more.

Ning Chen took another dozen or so, wrapped them in the yellow cloth and went along to the first department.

He came through the door and jumped straight up onto a table.

“Sons! Come here and call me Daddy!”

Every hand in the room stopped where it was. Some of them turned around, some of them looked up, and all of them looked at Ning Chen.

Then they looked at one another, and there was a certain worry in the way they were looking at him… Ning Chen did not seem entirely right in the head.

Ning Chen put a hand into the bundle, came out with two ingots of gold and threw them to the two silver coats nearest him.

Every eye in the room lit up on the instant.

“Tonight, the courtesans’ quarter, on me… Well, you unfilial wretches? Are you going to call me Daddy or not?”

“Daddy…”

Feng Qizheng got there first and came at a dead run.

Chen Chong was right behind him, hollering my own dear Daddy.

The rest of them saw it and swarmed in all together, falling over each other to get the word out first.

Christ!!!

A pack of animals with no dignity between them. Whoever has the milk is mother, and whoever has the money is Daddy.

Ning Chen hopped down off the table in a hurry and shouted, “One each! Everybody gets one!”

In the end there was one ingot of gold to a man.

An ingot of gold was not really so much, when it came to it. Ten taels of silver, and that was all.

Feng Qizheng sidled up to him. “Ning Chen. You might go a little easier with it. Spend the way you’re spending and the gold His Majesty gave you won’t last a week.”

“His Majesty gave me another thousand taels of gold. I can’t spend it. I can’t possibly spend it…”

Ning Chen’s whole face was troubled by it, and he waggled his head from side to side, and he had rarely deserved a beating more.

Feng Qizheng let out a howl of envy.

He got Ning Chen by the throat. “Out with it. Why is His Majesty so good to you? Are you some prince who got lost among the common people?”

Ning Chen was about to answer when he noticed the thing on Gao Ziping’s table.

He knocked Feng Qizheng’s hand away and went over to it.

There was a piece of vermilion-red ore lying there.

Ning Chen frowned. “Where did this come from?”

Gao Ziping said, “Picked it up at the Hu house. There was a sealed room with a good quantity of the stuff in it… We were just working out whether it might be a gemstone.”

“Gemstone my ass… That’s cinnabar ore. It’s poisonous!”

That gave them all a bad fright, because they had all just been handling it.

Gao Ziping asked quickly, “Ning Chen. Is it very poisonous?”

“Depends how you use it. Used right, the stuff is a medicine. Used wrong, it’s a poison… Don’t worry, though, the poison isn’t strong. Anybody who touched it, remember to wash your hands.”

That settled them, and off they all went to wash their hands.

Something was muttering away at the back of Ning Chen’s mind. What was Hu Maode doing with that much cinnabar?

He put the whole business out of his head soon enough, though.

When they let off, Ning Chen did not go to the courtesans’ quarter.

He went straight back to the Ning residence with the gold on his back, riding Diaochan.

The thousand taels of gold the Xuan Emperor had given him before, and the hundred bolts of fine silk, were sitting in the Ning family’s main hall.

The last two days had been a torment for Ning Ziming and the Chang woman and her sons.

Every one of them stared at the stuff and drooled, and none of them dared touch it.

These were things given by the emperor’s own hand.

Not only did they not dare touch them, they had to put men on to guard them. If anything went missing, the crime would be a serious one.

Word came that Ning Chen was back, and the whole family hurried to the main hall.

One look at their faces and it was plain they had come to get a piece of it.

Never mind the gold — the silk alone was imperial stuff, and every bolt of it was worth a small fortune.

“Chen’er is back?”

Ning Ziming’s face was heaped with smiles.

This unfilial wretch is in His Majesty’s favor now. He cannot afford to offend him.

Ning Chen ran his eyes over them and made a flat sound of acknowledgment.

Then he took the bundle off his back, set it on the table and opened it.

Ning Ziming’s whole family went bug-eyed.

The bundle was gold all the way through.

Ning Chen took the gold out and put it with the gold he had been given before, muttering as he did it:

“It’s too much. I can’t spend it. I can’t possibly spend it…”

The Chang woman and her sons had their features twisted out of shape with jealousy, and it was a near thing that they did not throw themselves at it.

Ning Ziming coughed and said, “Chen’er. You are still young, and it isn’t safe to keep this much money about you… Let your father keep it for you.”

“Yes, yes, exactly so. And all this silk — you could never use it up on your own. Put it in the storehouse for now.”

Chang Ruyue said it with her mouth watering.

Damn it!!!

Do you people have no shame at all? Ning Chen said it inwardly.

Ning Chen said with a cold smile, “Not safe? These were given by the emperor’s own hand. Who would dare steal them?”

“And as for the silk, if I can’t use it up I can always give it away.”

Ning Ziming’s face stiffened, and Chang Ruyue’s with it.

“Chen’er. I hear you have a sweetheart at the courtesans’ quarter?”

Ning Chen looked at him. “Minister Ning is very well informed.”

Ning Ziming’s face went hard. “I am warning you. I will never permit a woman of that trade through the gate of this house and bring the Ning family name into disgrace.”

Ning Chen looked at him the way a man looks at a moron. What is this supposed to be? Is he threatening me?

“Minister Ning. Yudie may be a woman of that trade, but she is untouched, and a great deal cleaner than a piece of human garbage who threw away his wife and abandoned his son… Disgrace the family name? With you in it, this family has no name left to disgrace.”

“And another thing. You can keep Yudie out of the Ning house, that’s fine. I’ll marry into hers instead.”

Ning Ziming shook with rage, pointed at him and shouted, “Unfilial wretch! You worthless thing, defying your elders, rank treason—”

Ning Chen said contemptuously, “Minister Ning, you’re supposed to be a literary man of sorts. Could you put a little depth in the dialogue? It’s the same few lines every time… If you can’t curse properly, I’ll teach you.”

“Ning Chen. Is that how you speak to Father?”

“Father feeds you and clothes you… and this is how you repay the old man for raising you?”

Ning Gan had jumped in and started on him.

“Ning Chen. These things may have been given to you by His Majesty, but you are of the Ning house, and that makes them the Ning family’s.”

Ning Xing jumped in to back him up.

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes slightly. “It all comes down to the same thing, doesn’t it — you want this. You want it, then have it. It’s all yours. Take it.”

The whole family froze and stared at him, unable to believe it.

Ning Gan asked, testing him, “Ning Chen. Do you mean that?”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth lifted. “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it away again.”

“This belongs to the house of Ning. What right have you to take it away?”

Ning Chen said nothing. He turned and walked toward the door.

Ning Gan and his two brothers threw themselves at the gold in an ecstasy and began snatching up the ingots.

Ning Chen reached the doorway, and turned around all at once, and put one hand on the hilt of the saber, and came back in long strides.

His left thumb flicked, and three inches of the long blade came clear of the scabbard, and cold light flickered along it, and his voice came out hard. “Inspectorate business. Nobody moves from where he stands. Anyone who disobeys will be cut down!”

Ning Chen stepped up and kicked Ning Gan and his two brothers off their feet, one kick apiece.

“Information has been received that Ning Gan, Ning Xing and Ning Mao have stolen and seized goods given by the emperor’s own hand, in contempt of the imperial authority. The crime is of the worst. You will come back to the Inspectorate with me for questioning.”

(End of Chapter 102)