The Ninth Princess came to the Hall of Cultivated Heart carrying a food box.
“Father Emperor works so hard. I brought you the lotus-seed soup you like best.”
The Xuan Emperor’s mood these last few days had been as bad as it could get.
Seeing the Ninth Princess, the daughter he loved most, lifted it a little.
He set down the memorial in his hand, took the small bowl she held out, and asked with a smile, “Have you come to your father about something?”
The Ninth Princess shook her head and said, coaxing, “Of course not. I only missed Father Emperor!”
The Xuan Emperor said, smiling, “Really nothing?”
The Ninth Princess stuck her tongue out, pretty and young. “Father Emperor, Ning Chen is so pitiful!”
“Hm?” The Xuan Emperor checked. “How is Ning Chen pitiful?”
“There is nobody left in the Ning house now but Ning Chen, all alone. Isn’t that pitiful?”
“Father Emperor, the servants of the Ning residence had done nothing, and Ning Chen’s second and third brothers too. They are as stupid as pigs and they know nothing at all… Couldn’t Father Emperor let them go?”
The Xuan Emperor’s face darkened slightly. “Did Ning Chen send you to plead for them?”
He did want to bring Ning Chen and Huai’an together, but if Ning Chen was using Huai’an to get something, that he would not stand for.
The Ninth Princess shook her head again and again. “No. Ning Chen said nothing at all… I only thought he was pitiful, and I wanted to pay him back.”
The Xuan Emperor was surprised. “Pay him back? For what?”
The Ninth Princess said, laughing prettily, “Ning Chen wrote me a poem, and built me a snowman, and told me a story… so I want to pay him back!”
The Xuan Emperor’s face eased, and he asked with a smile, “Ning Chen came into the palace to see you?”
The Ninth Princess nodded. “Yesterday Ning Chen came into the palace to see me, to ask me to help him find somebody… Today it was I who asked him to come.”
The Xuan Emperor asked, curious, “Whom did he ask you to help him find?”
“A eunuch. Ning Chen said he was in a hurry when he came into the palace yesterday and knocked the man down by accident, pretty hard, and he wanted to apologize to his face.”
“What sort of eunuch?”
The Ninth Princess said, “A eunuch with a black mole below his earlobe… But when I found him, he was already dead!”
The Xuan Emperor’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Dead?”
The Ninth Princess nodded and made a small sound of assent. “He fell into a well by accident and drowned.”
The Xuan Emperor said “Oh,” and then asked, smiling, “Huai’an, you have been very close to Ning Chen lately.”
The Ninth Princess’s small face went red. “I have not.”
The Xuan Emperor’s eyes and brows were smiling. “Huai’an, what do you think of Ning Chen?”
The Ninth Princess shook her head. “Nothing much.”
“Hm?” The Xuan Emperor checked, then let out a small laugh. “Well, if Huai’an doesn’t like him, your father will tell him to stop bothering you.”
“Ah? But…” The Ninth Princess was a little flustered. “Father Emperor, he’s pretty good, really. He can write poems and tell stories, and most of all he can carry some of Father Emperor’s burdens. For Father Emperor’s sake, I don’t dislike him.”
The Xuan Emperor could not hold back a laugh.
The Ninth Princess’s small face was pink, and she was all bashfulness.
“All right. Your father will think about what you have said… Your father still has business to see to. Go on back, and in a few days he will come and see you.”
The Ninth Princess made a sound of assent and went off hopping, carrying the food box.
The Xuan Emperor shook his head and laughed. “Nearly fifteen, and still no more settled than that.”
Then, as though something had come to him, he turned his head and asked Eunuch Quan, “Huai’an’s birthday is coming up, isn’t it?”
Eunuch Quan bent quickly and said, “It is. In another half month it will be the Ninth Princess’s birthday.”
“How fast the time goes. Huai’an is old enough to marry in the blink of an eye… When she was newly born she was only this big, like a kitten.”
The Xuan Emperor measured it out with his hands as he spoke.
“With Huai’an’s birthday so near, it would indeed be better not to kill too many people.”
“Quan Sheng, go and hurry Geng Jing along. This emperor gives him three days to get to the bottom of it… Huai’an’s birthday is close, and the envoys from the Nanyue Kingdom are close as well. This cannot drag on any longer.”
“This Geng Jing. He gets less reliable by the day… To let a man escape out of the Inspectorate’s own prison, and a gold coat in it besides. Disgraceful.”
Eunuch Quan kept his head down and did not dare make a sound.
Geng Jing had come to ask for punishment a little earlier, and His Majesty had torn him to shreds.
Still, by the look of it, His Majesty trusted Geng Jing well enough and would not move him from his post for now.
The Xuan Emperor pointed at the memorials on the dragon desk and said angrily, “These wretches. Not one of them gives this emperor any peace. The Left Chancellor’s place is barely empty and they are already pressing him to appoint another one.”
“Look at what they put forward. Censors and the Grand Commandant would be one thing… but the Commandant of Justice and the Privy Treasurer have gotten in on it too. Do they have any idea what they’re worth?”
“This emperor wants to make Ning Chen a marquis and they block it every way they can… When it is their own turn, every one of them is a jackal that has smelled blood.”
Eunuch Quan kept his head down and did not dare make a sound.
This was not a thing a eunuch could get into… In serving His Majesty, the most important rule was to say little and do much.
The Xuan Emperor rubbed the space between his brows. “Ning Chen took the King of the Left Court alive, and the merit this time is too great… Even now this emperor does not know how to reward him.”
“There is a gold coat’s place open in the Inspectorate, but the post is really rather small. It does not match what he has done.”
The Xuan Emperor was silent a while, then sighed. “It seems the only thing left is to make it up to him some other way.”
“Quan Sheng?”
“This servant is here!”
The Xuan Emperor said, “Go and look into that eunuch with the black mole below his earlobe… Ning Chen does not investigate a man for no reason.”
“Your Majesty, didn’t Young Master Ning say he knocked him down by accident—”
The Xuan Emperor made a small sound in his nose and gave him a sidelong look. “Short-sighted. Don’t you know Ning Chen’s character by now?”
“He is a man who settles a kindness or a grudge before nightfall. If he had really knocked somebody down, he would never have put the apology off until afterward.”
“And if he truly wanted to apologize, he would not have asked Huai’an to look into it… You run the Household Office. Wouldn’t it be easier to ask you directly?”
Shame filled Eunuch Quan’s face, and he said quickly, “This servant is slow-witted… This servant will go and look into it now.”
“Wait a moment. Quan Sheng… What do you say to putting Ning Chen in charge of receiving the Nanyue envoys?”
Eunuch Quan bent quickly and said in his thin voice, “This servant knows nothing of such things.”
The Xuan Emperor glared at him and said, laughing, “Go on playing the fool, then.”
“Nanyue comes with no good intent this time, and the Fourth Prince of Nanyue is among them. They say the young man is accomplished in letters and arms both, and skilled in war and stratagem, a talent seldom seen.”
“Somebody has to make the Nanyue party think twice. Ning Chen took the King of the Left Court alive and stands high just now. There is nobody better to send.”
“This emperor would also like to see which of them has the better hand — this genius Fourth Prince of Nanyue, or Ning the Silver Coat of our Great Xuan.”
“Quan Sheng, draft the decree for this emperor. Ning Chen is appointed to receive them, with Li Hanru, Director of the Hanlin Academy, and Shen Min, Vice Minister of Rites, to assist him in receiving the Nanyue party.”
Eunuch Quan bent quickly. “Yes. This servant will see to it at once!”
And Ning Chen, just then, was fast asleep in an inn.
From the moment he found the Left Chancellor gone he had not shut his eyes once, and he could not hold out any longer.
He had meant to go to the courtesans’ quarter, but he was afraid he would not be able to keep himself out of the bed.
His life mattered more.
So he simply found an inn at random and started making up his sleep.
He slept straight through to the next morning.
He felt like himself again at last, and his spirits were up.
Coming out of the room, Ning Chen stretched and was about to go downstairs.
But the stretch was only half done when he stopped short.
He had seen a man in coarse hemp cloth, bent over at the shoulders, slip into a room at the end of the corridor.
He had only seen half the face, but Ning Chen had the feeling he knew it. Where had he seen the man before?
Ning Chen put his head down and thought, and then all at once his eyes fixed.
He had it. This man belonged to the Left Chancellor’s residence.
When he had first joined the Inspectorate, the Left Chancellor had come to the Ning residence once, and this man had been at his side.
He and the Left Chancellor had quarreled that day, and this man had shown his teeth at him like a dog guarding its master, which was why Ning Chen remembered him at all.
He would not have thought the man could avoid arrest when the chancellor’s residence was searched and seized.
By rights, with the residence seized, this man should have run. Hiding in an inn like this — something was certainly wrong.
Perhaps he knows where the Left Chancellor is hidden?
All at once Ning Chen was excited.
A handsome man really does have heaven on his side. He goes to find a place to catch up on his sleep and lands a fish this size.
Ning Chen drew his blade, went to the door of the room, held the blade in one hand and knocked with the other.
“Who is it?”
A low man’s voice came from inside.
Ning Chen pinched his throat. “Hot water for you, sir.”
“Wait a moment!”
As the footsteps came toward the door, Ning Chen’s eyes turned hard, like a hunting leopard gathered to spring.
The man inside was probably no fool with his hands. He would have to be careful.
With a creak, the door opened a crack.
Before the man inside could see clearly, a sharp long blade came in through the gap.
The man inside went white with shock and jerked backward by reflex.
But he was a step too slow, and the blade went into his belly.
The man was not bad with his hands. He seized the back of the blade with both hands and held it from going deeper.
Ning Chen dragged the blade out, and the man staggered back holding his belly, blood welling up between his fingers.
Ning Chen pushed the door open, walked in and hooked it shut with his heel.
The man plainly recognized Ning Chen, and his face changed instantly.
Ning Chen watched him and said, teasing, “There really is no place in life where you don’t meet again. I never thought I’d run into you here. We must be fated.”
“I remember you had no moles on your face before, and now you’ve stuck two false ones on… A pity. I have no other talent, but my memory is good. I would know you if you were burned to ash.”
The man was staring hard at the wound in his belly, blood still welling out between his fingers.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “That wound won’t hold out long. If you don’t get a doctor soon you’ll bleed to death.”
“So let me come straight to the point. Tell me where the Left Chancellor is and I’ll let you go and find a doctor.”
The man shook his head. “I truly don’t know where the Left Chancellor is.”
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes. “Loyalty worth praising. Then we’ll talk it over slowly… It makes no difference to me. How much blood do you have to spare?”
The man’s face grew more and more frightened. This was the fear of dying… At this rate he would not last long before he bled out.
“Ning the Silver Coat, I have offended you often in the past. Bear with me… I can tell you everything I know. I only ask you to leave me a way to live.”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Now that’s a clever man! Tell me. Where is the Left Chancellor?”
“I truly don’t know where the Left Chancellor is.”
Ning Chen’s face darkened. “Are you playing with me?”
“Every word this small man says is true. I don’t know where the Left Chancellor is, but I can tell you something more important.”
“What more important thing?”
The man said, “The reason this small man is taking the risk of staying here is to wait for the Nanyue envoys and make a trade.”
Ning Chen started. “Trade what?”
“The defense maps of the southern border.”
Ning Chen’s eyes contracted. “The Left Chancellor means to sell the southern border defense maps to the Nanyue?”
The man nodded.
Christ!!!
The Left Chancellor, that animal, was out of his senses.
If the southern border defense maps fell into Nanyue hands, what came of it did not bear thinking about. There was no telling how many soldiers of the Great Xuan would die at Nanyue hands.
“Where are the maps?”
The man said, “I can hand the maps over. I only beg Ning the Silver Coat to leave me a way to live.”
Ning Chen nodded. “All right. I agree!”
“I would ask Ning the Silver Coat to swear it.”
Ning Chen looked at him and said with a cold smile, “You are in no position to make terms with me. All you can do now is trust me… And if you keep on not talking, then even if I let you go you won’t live to reach a physician.”
The man set his teeth, lifted the hem of his coat, tore it open and pulled the defense maps out of the lining, and threw them to Ning Chen.
Ning Chen caught them, opened them for a look and asked offhandedly, “How much were these going to Nanyue for?”
“A million taels of silver.”
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Once you had the silver, how was it to reach the Left Chancellor?”
The man shook his head. “His Excellency arranged all of it long ago… Only nobody expected that His Excellency would come to grief before the trade could be made.”
“I don’t know where His Excellency is. The reason I took the risk of staying was that once I had traded with the Nanyue I meant to take the silver and go far away and live under another name.”
“But fortune plays with a man. I never expected Ning the Silver Coat to find me… May I go now?”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly, and stood out of the way.
He did not believe the man. Letting him go and following him in secret might lead to the Left Chancellor.
“My thanks to Ning the Silver Coat!”
The man held the wound in his belly and started for the door.
But at the door his sight went black from all the blood he had lost, and he pitched headfirst to the floor.
“Ning, Ning the Silver Coat, save me… save me…”
The fear of death dragged the plea out of him.
Ning Chen sighed. He knew the man was past saving.
A man whose blood loss reaches thirty percent is in danger of his life. This man had lost far too much, and there was no such thing as a blood transfusion in this world. Even carried to a physician he could not be saved.
When Ning Chen looked down again the man had already passed out — gone into shock, in fact.
He would not last long.
Ning Chen shook his head, turned and went out, pulling the door shut behind him.
He looked left and right, saw nobody, and quietly left the inn.
He had no intention of reporting the defense maps.
He decided to make the trade with the Nanyue envoys himself, sell them a false set of maps, and pocket the silver while he was at it. Two birds with one stone.
When he got back to the Inspectorate, everybody who saw Ning Chen stood frozen for three seconds.
Ning Chen looked down at his own clothes. They were a little creased, but there was nothing strange about them.
“Ning the Silver Coat, you’re back at last!”
Ning Chen’s forehead was one large question mark.
“Has something happened?”
“Uh… weren’t you carried off by bandits?”
Ning Chen’s whole face was at a loss. “Me?”
“Ning the Silver Coat, go and find Lord Geng, quickly. Nobody could find you anywhere and everyone has been half out of their minds.”
It came to Ning Chen all at once. Could it be that while I was hiding in an inn catching up on sleep, everybody thought I had disappeared?
He hurried off to find Geng Jing.
Seeing Ning Chen come back safe and whole, Geng Jing and the others let their breath out, and at the same time badly wanted to beat him.
“Where did you go?”
Geng Jing set his face.
Ning Chen scratched his head, embarrassed, apology all over his face. “I’m sorry! I was simply too tired, so I found an inn and slept.”
Geng Jing and the others: →_→
“If you wanted to sleep, why not go to the courtesans’ quarter? What were you doing at an inn? And even if you went to an inn, couldn’t you have said a word first?”
“You vanish for a night and everybody is half out of their minds… His Majesty has decreed the city gates sealed.”
Ning Chen’s mouth fell open. “It can’t be that bad? How does His Majesty know?”
“Eunuch Quan came yesterday with a decree, and waited until dark without a sign of you. How could His Majesty not know?”
“The Left Chancellor is down and the rest of his people have not been rooted out. What if they take it out on you… Have you no sense of danger at all?”
Geng Jing said it sourly.
The Left Chancellor had escaped and a gold coat had been in it, and yesterday the Xuan Emperor had torn him to shreds.
If anything happened to Ning Chen, never mind his post — whether he kept his head would be an open question.
“Sorry, sorry… I didn’t think it through and I worried everybody. My apologies to you all!”
Ning Chen apologized with his eyes down and his manner meek.
Geng Jing said sourly, “Never mind apologizing to us. Get into the palace and see His Majesty.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Do I have to go?”
If he went he would certainly be scolded.
“What do you think?”
Geng Jing, Pan Yucheng and Gao Ziping said it together.
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “All right! I’ll go now.”
Ning Chen rode Diaochan to the palace.
He had Pan Yucheng’s waist tally on him, and reached the Hall of Cultivated Heart without any trouble.
Nie Liang saw him, checked, then came over quickly. “Are you all right? Who carried you off?”
Ning Chen dug his toes into the floor in embarrassment. Nobody carried me off. I carried myself off.
“Thank you for your concern, Commander Nie. I’m all right… Would you announce me, please?”
Nie Liang made a sound of assent!
Then he went into the Hall of Cultivated Heart.
A little later he came out. “His Majesty says you are to go in!”
Ning Chen walked into the Hall of Cultivated Heart and was about to kneel when the Xuan Emperor said, “No ceremony. Rise!”
The Xuan Emperor watched Ning Chen closely. “Are you all right? Who kidnapped you?”
Ning Chen went numb!
He knelt down quickly and said with his eyes down and his manner meek, “Thank you for Your Majesty’s concern. Your subject is all right… The truth is that nobody kidnapped your subject.”
The Xuan Emperor’s eyebrow went up. “Nobody kidnapped you?”
Ning Chen nodded. “Reporting to Your Majesty. From the Left Chancellor’s disappearance until yesterday afternoon your subject did not shut his eyes once, and was too tired to hold out. So he found an inn and slept.”
“Your subject knows he did wrong. I beg Your Majesty’s mercy!”
The Xuan Emperor’s expression stiffened slightly.
Eunuch Quan looked at Ning Chen with nothing at all to say.
Ning Chen let his head hang and waited to be scolded.
But he waited a good while and heard nothing from the Xuan Emperor. He looked up in secret… and saw the Xuan Emperor studying a memorial in his hand with great attention.
Hm? Why isn’t he scolding me? Ning Chen muttered inwardly.
The whole hall was silent, with only the sound of the Xuan Emperor turning pages and now and then drinking tea.
Very soon an hour had gone by.
The Xuan Emperor still showed no sign of speaking.
Ning Chen’s legs had gone numb from kneeling.
Christ!!!
That sly old bastard is doing it on purpose.
Corporal punishment is against the law, Ning Chen said inwardly.
(End of Chapter 180)