Every man there was stunned by what he was watching!

Ning Chen fought filthy. Kicking a man in the crotch, gouging his eyes… every one of them a dirty trick that men who train in the martial arts despise.

“Insolence! Stop this!”

The Left Chancellor roared it, and his face went livid.

Pan Yucheng saw Ning Chen still jumping up to stomp down on the man, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “What are you all standing there for?”

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong rushed in and took Ning Chen by the shoulders, one on each side.

Ning Chen was about to shake the two of them off when he found that he had not jumped and his feet were off the ground already.

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong had hold of his arms and were lifting him, for fear Ning Chen was not getting high enough or coming down hard enough.

Now that is friendship! All those times he had stood these two animals a night at the courtesans’ quarter had not gone to waste.

With the two of them helping, Ning Chen got higher and came down harder.

“Ning Chen, stop, will you—”

“Old Chen, put your back into it!”

“I am. I can’t hold him.”

“Old Gao, get over here and help… We can’t hold Ning Chen.”

Gao Ziping made a small sound of acknowledgment, ran over to help and got his arms around Ning Chen’s waist… not pulling him back. Hauling him up.

Well. More hands, more power. Ning Chen got higher still.

The Left Chancellor’s face went livid, and he roared, “Are you all dead men? Get them apart for me.”

Steward Ding came at a run with a crowd of house guards behind him.

Gao Ziping and the other two saw them coming and hauled and dragged, out of breath, and got Ning Chen off him at last.

There was no telling how many bones were broken in the man with the long thin face. His face was covered in blood, he lay on the ground groaning, and his body twitched a little.

The Left Chancellor’s face was as ugly as a face could be. “Ning Chen, you have a great deal of nerve, turning violent inside this chancellor’s own residence… Somebody take him.”

“One moment!”

Ning Chen shouted it, and looked at the Left Chancellor and said, smiling, “My lord Left Chancellor, he said it himself just now. As long as it settled my anger, I could punish him however I liked, and even kill him if I wanted… It’s the first time I’ve ever heard a request that shameless, so naturally I had to grant it.”

“He drove a carriage into me. Giving him a beating is hardly out of line, is it?”

“If my lord Left Chancellor is not willing, I can stay here at the residence. But that man is under suspicion of attempting to murder me, and he will have to go back to the Inspectorate with my colleagues for questioning.”

The Left Chancellor’s face went livid, and his eyes went dark with malice.

The cells of the Inspectorate were the King of Hell’s own hall… There were not many men who could hold out under the Inspectorate’s tortures.

He did not dare gamble on it. The man was one of his trusted men, and he knew too much.

The Poisoner had already drawn the fire onto him. This man absolutely could not be allowed into the Inspectorate.

“Steward Ding. Have him taken away and get a doctor to treat him.”

“Yes!”

Steward Ding had the half-dead man on the ground carried off without losing a moment.

The Left Chancellor’s eyes fixed on Ning Chen, cold. “It is getting late. I will not keep you gentlemen any longer.”

Holy shit!!!

He can swallow even this? The Left Chancellor could fairly be called a Ninja Turtle. (TL Note: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The joke rests on a pun that does not survive translation — the character for ninja is the same character that means to endure, so “he can endure this” slides straight into “Ninja Turtle.”)

“My lord Left Chancellor. When we were tracking the thief, he abandoned his horse and fled… and that horse is a horse of this residence.”

Ning Chen said it out of nowhere.

The Left Chancellor said coldly, “Ning the Silver Coat is mistaken. That is not a horse of this residence.”

“Is that so? But your residence’s own doorkeeper has already confirmed that it is a horse of the residence.”

The Left Chancellor made a cold sound in his nose. “He was wrong!”

Ning Chen made a small sound of acknowledgment. “Then I wish my lord Left Chancellor sweet dreams. We take our leave!”

Ning Chen had never expected one horse to get him anywhere. He only wanted to turn the Left Chancellor’s stomach a little and give him something to choke on… The Left Chancellor was not likely to sleep tonight.

The group of them walked out of the Chancellor’s residence.

Feng Qizheng could not help saying, “The Poisoner is certainly hiding in that residence. Why don’t we ask for an edict and search the place from top to bottom?”

Pan Yucheng shook his head. “It’s no use! That is the Left Chancellor. His tree is big and its roots run deep. He served the late emperor, he is an elder of two reigns, and he has a war record on top of it… Without hard proof, His Majesty will not hand down an edict.”

“As it stands, only taking the Poisoner might shake that particular tree of his.”

Chen Chong’s face was all puzzlement. “I still don’t understand it. A Left Chancellor, of all men. Why would he shelter a jianghu bandit like the Poisoner?”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “What’s hard to understand about it? He is the Left Chancellor, so he has all the more need to keep up appearances… Which means that for some of the dirty work, the heavy work, the things that can’t stand daylight, a jianghu bandit like the Poisoner is simply handier to use.”

Pan Yucheng waved a hand. “That’s enough, no more wild guessing… Without evidence, every guess we make can be turned into a frame-up.”

“I’ll put men on the residence quietly… It’s late. All of you go and get some rest. What we do next, I’ll talk over with Geng the Purple Coat, and then we’ll make our plans.”

Ning Chen and the others nodded slightly.

“Bad luck! A whole night’s work for nothing.”

Feng Qizheng complained.

Chen Chong said, smiling, “It wasn’t quite for nothing. The Poisoner dropped out of sight for several years and he has finally shown his face. That counts as good news!”

“And Ning Chen gave the man who drove a carriage into him a savage beating and got a good deal out of his system. That’s this evening not wasted either.”

Feng Qizheng rubbed his arms. “This devil of a weather, it’s cold… If a man had a girl to hold and warm himself on, now.”

He said it with his eyes sliding sideways at Ning Chen.

Chen Chong breathed out a cloud of white and rubbed his hands together. “It is cold. My hands are frozen stiff. If there were something warm and soft to get hold of, now.”

Ning Chen had absolutely nothing to say to that.

“Degenerates… Come on, then. The courtesans’ quarter. On me!”

The two degenerates’ eyes lit up, and they gave lecherous little laughs.

“Ning the Silver Coat, allow me to call you my sworn father, just to express what I am feeling at this moment.”

There was a low look all over Feng Qizheng’s face.

Ning Chen shook his head. “Old Pan, come with us?”

Pan Yucheng shook his head. “I have to go and find Geng the Purple Coat. You go on!”

Ning Chen looked at the other silver coats. “The courtesans’ quarter. On me!”

The whole pack of animals let out a cheer on the spot!

It was Daddy with one breath and sworn father with the next.

Apart from a few silver coats who had to keep a quiet watch on the Chancellor’s residence, the rest of them made straight for the courtesans’ quarter.

At the courtesans’ quarter, Ning Chen gave Feng Qizheng and the others the several dozen taels of silver he had on him, and a few ingots of gold as well.

Yudie heard that Ning Chen had come, and came down the stairs to meet him with her skirts gathered up in her hands, delighted and half skipping.

“Ning, dear.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “What are you doing down here? I was just coming up to find you.”

Yudie glanced at Feng Qizheng and the others and went a little shy, and said in a small voice, “This girl was missing Ning, dear.”

One sentence, and it set the whole pack of animals howling, with envy and jealousy and hate.

“Yudie presents herself to my lords!”

Yudie made a graceful courtesy.

Feng Qizheng came rushing over, put his head up, and said with pride all over his face, “Miss Yudie, I’ve written a poem… Help me think which of the girls of the twelve houses I ought to give it to.”

The rest of them were all curiosity too. Feng Qizheng, a big rough guy like that, could write poetry?

Only Ning Chen, Chen Chong and Gao Ziping quietly covered their faces.

Yudie said sweetly, “My lord, please.”

Feng Qizheng put his head up, put his hands behind his back and said loudly, “A girl’s backside is as white as the snow. I love the backside, I don’t love the snow… I haven’t thought of the last two lines yet.”

“How’s that? Wouldn’t you say my talent is no worse than that degenerate Ning Chen’s?”

When Feng Qizheng had finished, the whole second floor went quiet.

Yudie had frozen where she stood, her pretty face crimson, and she spat inwardly… And that is supposed to be a poem?

When the rest of them came back to themselves, they looked at one another, and then burst out laughing… every one of them laughing until they were squealing like pigs.

(End of Chapter 126)