Ning Chen looked at the Xuan Emperor, whose eyes were urgent and anxious at once, and half wanted to laugh.

“Your Majesty. We’ve been eating actual poison… those other things hardly signify, do they?”

The Xuan Emperor understood him well enough then… He went white in the face, everything in his stomach turned over, and he half wanted to be sick.

And after that came anger without any end to it.

These dogs had dared to feed him dung. And urine.

The more the Xuan Emperor thought about it the sicker it made him, and the murder in him grew.

But he was still holding on to one last thread of hope, and he asked:

“Ning Chen. Is there any possibility at all? That the pills they gave this emperor had none of those things you named in them?”

There isn’t. There is absolutely no possibility, Ning Chen said inwardly.

“Your Majesty, it truly doesn’t matter… Those things are medicines to begin with. Lord Geng and Commander Nie have eaten them as well, and look how they’re leaping about, and how happy they are.”

The Xuan Emperor said nothing!

Happy, were they?

Then why was it that he had seen Geng Jing very nearly bringing up his own gall?

“Your Majesty. You’ve given pills to the officials of the court too, haven’t you?”

The Xuan Emperor nodded. He had given elixirs to a good many ministers who had earned them.

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Then everybody’s eaten it. Nobody’s in a position to laugh at anybody.”

The corner of the Xuan Emperor’s mouth twitched several times.

If the historians got hold of this and set it down in the histories… In the Rende years of the Great Xuan, the Xuan Emperor led the officials of his court in eating dung and drinking urine — then he, an emperor, would become the greatest joke of the Great Xuan’s several hundred years.

And if the emperor of an enemy state heard of it, he would suppose the Great Xuan too poor to afford food.

No. This must on no account get out.

Fortunately Ning Chen had dropped his voice when he was saying it, and only he and Quan Sheng and Geng Jing and Nie Liang had heard.

The Xuan Emperor set his face. “Ning Chen. You know what to say once you are outside?”

“I do!” Ning Chen said, entirely serious. “Once I’m outside, I’ll say Your Majesty didn’t eat those things on purpose, and it was all the fault of those detestable fake holy men.”

The Xuan Emperor’s face went black. “Quan Sheng. Take him out and behead him!”

Eunuch Quan had just finished making the tea, and hearing this he was at a loss for a moment.

Ning Chen had a bad fright of it. His Majesty could not take a joke at all.

He said quickly, “Your Majesty’s pardon. Your subject knows what to say.”

“Once outside, your subject will say only that the elixirs were poisoned, and will not mention one word of the rest.”

Only then did a satisfied smile appear on the Xuan Emperor’s face, and he signaled to Eunuch Quan to hand Ning Chen the tea.

Eunuch Quan came over carrying the cup. “Young Master Ning. Your tea.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you, Eunuch Quan…”

Ning Chen took it and sipped at it carefully. He had been hard at it all night and his throat was smoking.

“Ning Chen. Do you believe those men of the Elixir Bureau really had the nerve to murder this emperor?”

Ning Chen glanced at the Xuan Emperor and saw that his eyes had gone cold, with murder flickering in them.

It seemed His Majesty was truly angry this time.

Those men of the Elixir Bureau would very likely not have one life left among them.

Ning Chen said quickly, “Reporting to Your Majesty. Your subject is not familiar with the Elixir Bureau, so it is hard to say.”

The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose.

“Hard to say, or not wanting to say?”

“You could go from one piece of cinnabar ore to the thought that this emperor’s elixirs were poisoned… This emperor doesn’t believe you have no ideas about it.”

“You needn’t hold anything back. This emperor permits you to speak your mind freely.”

Ning Chen thought about it. “Your Majesty. Then your subject really is to say it?”

“Say it.”

Ning Chen nodded and bent. “Reporting to Your Majesty. That crowd of fake holy men in the Elixir Bureau certainly knew the elixirs were poisoned. But what they were after was money, not death… To murder Your Majesty — they haven’t the nerve for it.”

“And going back ten thousand steps, even if they had it in mind to murder Your Majesty, they are jianghu diviners. They could never have gotten near Your Majesty at all.”

“So how did they come to see Your Majesty? How was the Elixir Bureau set up inside this palace? And who gave them the nerve to send poisoned pills to Your Majesty to eat?”

Something moved in the Xuan Emperor’s eyes, and he sank into thought.

After a while he spoke. “Ning Chen. Go on.”

Ning Chen said, “Your subject has said all he has to say. What matters most now is this — whoever recommended these jianghu diviners to Your Majesty is the one under suspicion of meaning to murder Your Majesty.”

The Xuan Emperor’s eyes were cold. It seemed he already had the answer in his mind.

“Ning Chen. This emperor must thank you properly this time.”

Something leaped in Ning Chen, and he said quickly, “Then may your subject choose his own thanks?”

Eunuch Quan’s face changed. “Ning Chen, you forget yourself… You dare put requests to His Majesty?”

The Xuan Emperor waved a hand, looked at Ning Chen and asked, smiling, “Very well. This emperor permits you to make one request.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

“Say it, then. What do you want?”

Ning Chen hesitated, and said, “Your subject begs Your Majesty’s mercy — that Miss Yudie and Miss Nanzhi of the courtesans’ quarter be restored to free standing.”

The women of the courtesans’ quarter were mostly the family of convicted officials.

He had heard from Pan Yucheng that Yudie and Nanzhi were both daughters of convicted officials.

There were only three ways for them to buy themselves out.

First, to endure in the courtesans’ quarter until they were fifty, when they were past making any trouble, and then to pay over a great sum of ransom money and be restored to free standing.

Second, to be there when His Majesty proclaimed a general pardon across the empire, and to pay over a great sum of silver, and so buy themselves out.

Third, to be pardoned by the Xuan Emperor’s own mouth.

There was in fact a fourth way, which was to prove that the convicted official had been wronged and to restore his good name, upon which his family would be pardoned as a matter of course.

But the third way and the fourth were both far too hard.

Hearing Ning Chen’s request, the Xuan Emperor’s face went dark by degrees.

He had supposed Ning Chen would ask for gold and silver and treasure, or for rank and office.

He had never imagined this good-for-nothing would plead for the daughter of a convicted official, a woman of a pleasure house.

“If this emperor pardons her, is it your intention to take her home as a wife?”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up. “Is Your Majesty going to grant your subject a marriage?”

The Xuan Emperor’s face grew uglier still.

This emperor offered you a princess and you wouldn’t have one, and turned up your nose at every one of them, and now you want this emperor to grant you a marriage with a woman out of a pleasure house? Is there something the matter with your head? the Xuan Emperor cursed inwardly.

“Finish your tea and get out!”

The Xuan Emperor said it out of temper.

Ning Chen said quickly, “Has Your Majesty agreed to your subject’s request?”

The Xuan Emperor said nothing.

Ning Chen raised his head to look, and saw His Majesty with a dark face, and was thoroughly at a loss… Was that a yes or was it not? By the look on him it was no.

“Your Majesty—”

Before the rest of it was out of Ning Chen’s mouth, he saw Eunuch Quan shaking his head very slightly at him, telling him to say no more.

Ning Chen’s forehead was one large question mark.

A thing as simple as this — His Majesty had only to give one nod. Why would he not agree to it?

Ning Chen could make nothing of His Majesty’s mind for the moment. He went over and set the teacup down on a table at the side, and bent. “Then may Your Majesty rest early. Your subject withdraws.”

The Xuan Emperor’s eyes went over him. “Wasn’t your throat so dry it was smoking? How is it you’ve drunk this little… Finish it and then get out!”

Ning Chen shook his head. “I won’t have any more, it tastes terrible… You’d do better with plain hot water.”

The Xuan Emperor frowned. “Ning Chen. Are you losing your temper with this emperor?”

“Eh?”

Ning Chen was at a loss, and had no idea what any of that meant, but it sounded impressive.

Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Ning Chen, no wild talk… This is tribute tea. The finest leaf in the whole of the Great Xuan.”

Ning Chen’s face was blank with astonishment. “This? Then Your Majesty really ought to look into your own Household Office… The tea I drink at the courtesans’ quarter is better than this.”

Eunuch Quan’s face changed on the instant. Was the fellow truly not afraid to die? To say that the imperial tea His Majesty drank was not as good as the tea in a pleasure house?

(End of Chapter 112)