Steward Wu’s face stiffened.

Ning Chen looked at him. “Still here? Would you like to go and drink tea in the Inspectorate’s cells as well?”

Steward Wu went white in the face and said quickly, “Forgive me, Fourth Young Master… The Master says — do you not want your registration papers, then?”

Ning Chen’s face darkened. “The man is human garbage… Very well. I’ll go and see him, and find out what he thinks he can do to me.”

Ning Chen pulled the door shut behind him and went to the main hall with long strides.

He came in and only then saw that the Left Chancellor was there too.

The three brothers were not. They had taken a whipping in the cells and would not be leaving their beds for some days yet.

Ning Chen’s eyes came to rest on Ning Ziming, flat and without interest. “Minister Ning wanted me?”

Ning Ziming’s face twitched and he said sharply, “Unfilial wretch. On your knees.”

Ning Chen burst out laughing, with mockery all over his face.

“Minister Ning. I am General of the Northern Expedition by His Majesty’s own appointment, and I have the silver coat of the Inspectorate on my back. Are you certain you want me kneeling?”

Ning Ziming’s face went stiff. For a moment the answer knocked the words out of him, and his old face flushed red with holding it in.

Chang Ruyue saw it and said through her back teeth, “However great an office they’ve given you, this is your home. Is that the manner you take with your father?”

“Ning Chen, I am not your own mother, but I hold that I have never treated you badly… How could you bring yourself to lay so foul a hand on your three brothers?”

“Blood is thicker than water. You have no father and no mother in your eyes, and you took your three brothers into the Inspectorate’s cells and put them to the question… You are too cruel. You are out of your senses altogether.”

Ning Chen’s eyes came to rest on her, full of mockery.

“You hold that you never treated me badly? Ha ha ha… The care you took of me, I keep it in my heart.”

“I am a silver coat of the Inspectorate, and I take a burden off His Majesty… You had a dog’s gall reaching to heaven, daring to steal an imperial sword. Not beheading you was mercy on my part.”

“If you insist that I am out of my senses… then all I can say is that when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam grows bent.”

That one line about the upper beam very nearly killed Ning Ziming with rage.

Chang Ruyue’s features twisted a little. “Don’t imagine we don’t know you left that imperial sword in the ancestral hall on purpose. So young, and already so base and underhanded.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “And if it was on purpose? And if it wasn’t? Go and accuse me in front of His Majesty, if you have it in you.”

“Truly, once a man is shameless enough there’s no beating him. Where I put the imperial sword is my own affair. Did I beg you to steal it? Base character — that runs in the root.”

Chang Ruyue shook from head to foot and pointed at Ning Chen. “You — you—”

That line about the root brought the blood into the Left Chancellor’s face as well.

Ning Ziming looked at Ning Chen, and there was a great deal in his eyes.

“Chen’er, we are all one family. Why must you do this? What is there that we cannot sit down and talk over properly… You had your mother and the others taken into the Inspectorate. Did you give a thought to the face of the Ning residence?”

“You are of the Ning family too. His Majesty thinks well of you now, and you ought to be thinking of bringing honor to the gate of the Ning house—”

Ning Chen could not hold it in and laughed until he was rocking back and forth.

“Minister Ning. When did we become one family? Does it not prick your conscience to say such a thing? And besides… how can this be my fault? When they were thieving an imperial sword, did they give a thought to the face of the Ning family?”

Ning Ziming’s tongue stopped, and for a moment he could say nothing at all.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “That reminds me. Minister Ning had Steward Wu ask me just now whether I wanted my registration papers. That is what I came to tell you… I don’t want them. Keep them yourself.”

Did they still take him for the frail boy anybody could push around?

One worthless set of papers.

Once he was back from the campaign, he could have as many of them as he liked.

The first thing he would do when he came home in triumph was move out of the Ning house, and this time not even the King of Heaven himself could stop him.

Ning Ziming looked at him with a great deal in his eyes and said nothing.

The Left Chancellor gave a light cough and waved a hand. “Ziming. Ruyue. The two of you withdraw for now. I have something to say to Ning Chen alone.”

Neither dared go against the Left Chancellor’s wish. They made their bows and withdrew.

The Left Chancellor looked Ning Chen over, his face showing nothing.

Ning Chen met his eyes, his own expression calm.

“Ning Chen. This old man must admit it. You are the one man in my life I have misjudged.”

“I never thought a scrub hen out of a mountain gully would turn into a phoenix.”

“A boy still wet behind the ears, with that much depth in him. Hiding your light and biding your time, storing up thick to spend thin… catching your chance, and one flight straight to heaven.”

Ning Chen smiled mildly. “The Left Chancellor flatters me.”

The Left Chancellor waved a hand. “This old man means what he says. You are a fit hunter. You know how to endure, you have patience, and you are good at seizing an opening.”

“For depth and for endurance, nobody of the younger generation can stand beside you… And of the men at court, there are not many who could match you either.”

“But you are still too impatient!”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at him. “How so?”

The Left Chancellor’s smile was grim. “Do you truly think that joining the Inspectorate and being thought well of by His Majesty lets you sleep easy… that it makes you fit to be this old man’s enemy?”

“You are far too innocent… Even if you come home in triumph this time, in front of this old man you are still an ant. If this old man wants you crushed, it is no more trouble than blowing away ash.”

There was mischief in Ning Chen’s eyes. “I run fast!”

“Mm?”

The Left Chancellor did not follow, and looked at him doubtfully.

Ning Chen said, mocking him, “Even if I am an ant, I can run when I can’t fight… The Left Chancellor wouldn’t be able to catch me, I imagine?”

The Left Chancellor’s face went dark on the instant. He had understood. Ning Chen was laughing at him for being fat.

He rose slowly to his feet and fixed his eyes coldly on Ning Chen. “A young hero, the Great Xuan’s immortal of poetry, General of the Northern Expedition… and a pity his days are numbered. A great pity indeed!”

“Ning Chen. Live well. Don’t die too quickly, or there will be no interest in it.”

“Still, this old man would advise you to die on the northern border and be done with it. At least then you would leave a fine name behind, dying for your country… Come back and you die anyway, and die for nothing at all.”

With that the Left Chancellor gave a cold laugh and moved his fat body toward the door.

Ning Chen turned and watched the Left Chancellor’s back, and said loudly, “I shall respectfully follow the Left Chancellor’s teaching! Ning Chen will do his very best to stay alive… and when the day comes, he’ll go dancing on your grave, laughing all the way.”

The Left Chancellor looked back at him, his eyes cold, murder stirring in them.

Ning Chen’s face darkened too, and his eyes went keen.

This time it was a complete break.

Between him and the Left Chancellor it had come to the point where one of them had to die.

So this northern campaign had to be won… and not only won. Won handsomely.

Only a war record big enough would carry him into a contest with the Left Chancellor and a fight to the death.

Ning Chen did not linger at the Ning residence. He went back to his room, picked up his things and left.

Out of the Ning residence, he put his horse to a gallop for the courtesans’ quarter.

Who would have thought that in the whole of the capital, for all its size, the only place where he could set his mind at rest was the courtesans’ quarter.

Yudie was delighted to see him, as she always was.

She busied herself pouring tea and carrying it over, and busied herself getting somebody to prepare food for him.

“Ning, dear looks so tired. Sit down and let this girl work on you a little.”

Ning Chen let out a slight sigh, went over and sat down, and said offhandedly, “I went out to the army camp this afternoon, so I’m a little worn.”

Yudie’s big wet eyes dimmed, and there was worry between her brows… She knew Ning Chen was marching out, and her heart was full of it.

She had him lay his head on her lap, and worked gently at the vital points on his head.

Ning Chen had been worn out all day, and drifted off to sleep without meaning to.

(End of Chapter 137)