Ning Chen left the palace carrying two big parcels of medicine.

He rode Diaochan back to the Inspectorate, clop, clop, clop.

What Ning Chen had not expected was a piece of good luck waiting for him.

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong were back!

The half of the gold and silver and jewels he had held back on his own authority had come down under their escort, a few days behind him.

“They tell me you brought the Left Chancellor down?”

Feng Qizheng’s eyes were full of shock.

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “I brought him down, but not all the way down. The bastard got away!”

Chen Chong said, “Do you know how it hit us, hearing that when we got back? Ning Chen, you really are something. I give up!”

Ning Chen grinned wickedly. “Then get down and kowtow to me.”

“Piss off!”

Ning Chen laughed, then turned it around. “Is everything safe?”

The two of them nodded.

Feng Qizheng said, “It’s at my house!”

Ning Chen thought about it. “The two of you just got back, so I’m giving you a day off… Between the two of you, find somebody and turn the whole lot into silver notes.”

Chen Chong said, “Ning Chen, our positions make it awkward. A batch of gold and silver that size can’t go straight into a money house… Once anybody notices, we’re in real trouble.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. He had kept the gold and silver back on his own authority, and it was a thing that would not bear the light.

But if it was not turned into silver notes, he could hardly haul a few chests of gold out to the camps and hand it around to the soldiers.

“What ideas have you got?”

Feng Qizheng said, “We can go to the black market… I know a man there. He can absolutely swallow a batch this size.”

Ning Chen was surprised. “You have that kind of connection?”

Feng Qizheng laughed. “All these years in the Inspectorate — from great officials and titled men at the top down to every sort of rogue at the bottom, you pick up a few of each.”

Ning Chen asked, “Is it safe?”

“Don’t worry about that. Every trade has its own rules… Though I’m afraid the rate will come out a little lower.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “A little lower is a little lower. As long as it isn’t outrageous!”

“Then I’m leaving this to the two of you.”

Feng Qizheng gave a low laugh. “Aren’t you afraid the two of us will help ourselves?”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. “Get out of here… Oh — the courtesans’ quarter tonight. My treat!”

The two animals howled with excitement.

Feng Qizheng shook a fist in the air. “Tonight I want three of them.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. Aren’t you afraid you’ll spend yourself to death?

He sent the two animals on their way.

Ning Chen went to Pan Yucheng’s room.

Pan Yucheng was not there. He was probably questioning prisoners with Geng Jing.

Ning Chen waited more than two hours, got bored with nothing to do, and left the Inspectorate for the courtesans’ quarter.

“Ning, dear, are you all right?”

Yudie was overjoyed to see him.

Ning Chen asked in surprise, “Me? What would be wrong with me?”

“They said Ning, dear had disappeared?”

Men from the Inspectorate had come here looking for Ning Chen and told her he had gone missing, and she had worried through a whole night without sleeping.

Ning Chen said with a smile, “I’m all right… I only went out of the city on business and forgot to tell them.”

Yudie let out a small breath of relief, and her little face was bright and lovely. “As long as Ning, dear is all right!”

Ning Chen set the medicine in his hands down on the table.

“Yudie, have somebody boil this down for me… Oh, and don’t throw the dregs out. Put them in the tub when I take my bath.”

Yudie’s face filled with worry. “Ning, dear is hurt?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’m not hurt… It’s a medicine to build up the body. It’s called Beauty’s Delight!”

Yudie’s face filled with curiosity. “Beauty’s Delight?”

Ning Chen grinned wickedly and murmured a few words in her ear.

Yudie’s little face went crimson on the spot.

“But… but Ning, dear is already very good!”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Not good enough. Set against those animals I work with, I’m a long way short.”

“I don’t ask for much. Only two things — three meals a day and I’m satisfied! If I can’t manage even one of them, then I’m good for nothing.”

Yudie’s forehead was one large question mark. “Three meals a day — isn’t that one thing?”

Ning Chen shook his head and grinned wickedly. “No. Two things!”

Yudie thought about it, and her little face went redder still.

Then she sent Xiaoxing off to boil the medicine for Ning Chen.

After a while the medicine was ready.

Ning Chen picked up the bowl and drank it down in one go.

Men are all like this. Ordinarily they will not eat this and will not eat that, but tell a man a thing is good for the kidneys and he will swallow anything short of shit.

Yudie thoughtfully fed him a candied fruit.

A while after he had drunk it, the medicine seemed to take hold.

Ning Chen felt a current of warmth spreading out from his belly, and his whole body went warm with it.

So the medicine did work.

If it really was as strong as the old madam said, it was a gospel for his fellow men.

Ning Chen had it all planned out. If the medicine really worked, he would open an apothecary shop of his own that sold nothing else, and he would make money hand over fist — and the first dose would be sold to the Xuan Emperor.

Though it would go hard on the women of the Great Xuan when that day came!

Yudie covered her mouth and yawned.

“Sleepy?”

Yudie made a small sound of assent. “They said Ning, dear had disappeared, and this girl worried through the whole night without sleeping.”

It hurt Ning Chen a little to hear it. He took her hand. “Come on. I’ll lie down with you a while!”

Once they were in bed Yudie really was worn out. She curled into Ning Chen’s arms like a kitten and was asleep almost at once.

Ning Chen had meant to do something about it, but seeing how tired she was he let the idea go, and drifted off himself.

The next day, when Ning Chen left the courtesans’ quarter, Feng Qizheng’s and Chen Chong’s horses were nowhere in sight.

He rode back to the Inspectorate alone.

He had barely reached the first department when Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong pulled him into a corner.

“Ning Chen, it’s done!”

Ning Chen had no idea what they meant. “What’s done?”

“That batch of gold and silver.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up. “That was fast. You’ve settled it already?”

Feng Qizheng grumbled, “With that much gold and silver sitting in my house I couldn’t rest easy until it was dealt with… I never even went to the courtesans’ quarter. Took care of it that same night.”

Ning Chen laughed. “How much silver did it come to?”

Feng Qizheng held up one finger.

Ning Chen frowned. “Don’t tell me ten thousand taels.”

Feng Qizheng snapped back, “Can you count? Is that a one? That’s a seven.” (TL Note: the Chinese count one through ten on a single hand, and the sign for seven is made by pinching the thumb and first two fingers together into a point — nothing at all like one finger held up straight.)

Ning Chen looked at that finger standing bolt upright and had absolutely nothing to say. “You call that a seven?”

“This finger got hurt. It won’t bend!”

Ning Chen badly wanted to kick him. Who on earth could tell?

“Seventy thousand taels? That’s far too little.”

Feng Qizheng gave a low laugh. “Not seventy thousand taels. Seven hundred thousand.”

“Holy shit!!!”

“That much?”

Ning Chen was taken aback.

Feng Qizheng said, preening, “Those few chests of gold looked like a lot, but they didn’t fetch much… The real money was in the pearls and the gemstones and the jade.”

Ning Chen laughed. “Beautifully done… Where are the notes?”

“With the Chief.”

Ning Chen said, “Come on, let’s go and look!”

“Heh heh heh… time to split the loot!”

Feng Qizheng’s mouth split in a low, dirty grin.

Ning Chen gave him an irritated kick. “Can you use a different word? What do you mean, splitting the loot? We fought for that with our lives. We earned it.”

“Right, right, right… we earned it, we earned it… heh heh heh!”

Ning Chen shook his head with nothing to say, and the three of them went to Pan Yucheng’s room.

Pan Yucheng said not a word. He took a wooden case out of the cabinet behind him.

Ning Chen opened it and looked. There was a thick sheaf of silver notes inside.

Ning Chen took the notes out and set a hundred thousand taels aside first. “This is divided evenly among the soldiers. A hundred taels a man.”

“That leaves six hundred thousand… Myself, Old Pan, and the two of you, a hundred thousand each. Yuan Long and Qi Yuanzhong, fifty thousand each. Of what’s left, fifty thousand to Lord Geng, and fifty thousand for Old Gao and the brothers in the first department. When there’s something good going, you don’t forget them.”

Pan Yucheng hesitated. “Isn’t that too little for the soldiers?”

Ning Chen smiled. “It’s not too little. Their pay is only a few taels a year. A hundred taels is enough for a man to take a wife and have children, and there’ll be enough left over to buy a decent little house.”

“Give them too much and you fatten their appetites, and something goes wrong later on.”

Pan Yucheng thought there was sense in it and nodded slightly.

Ning Chen went on. “One more thing. The silver can’t go to them yet… Once His Majesty’s gifts come down, we hand it over in our own names.”

“Otherwise that much silver appearing out of nowhere makes people wonder.”

“Old Pan, you keep the silver for now!”

Pan Yucheng laughed. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll run off with it? This is seven hundred thousand taels.”

Ning Chen smiled. “Run wherever you like. I brought the King of the Left Court back. Where do you imagine you’re going to run?”

Pan Yucheng made a sound. “Then bring the Left Chancellor back and let me see it.”

Ning Chen: “…”

“Old Pan, you really can’t hold a conversation!”

Ning Chen turned it around. “Do either of you know a house broker?”

A house broker is the same thing as a real estate agent today.

Feng Qizheng said, “You’re buying a house?”

Ning Chen nodded. “The Ning estate has been searched and seized. I’ve nowhere to live now, and I have to have somewhere to put myself.”

Chen Chong grinned wickedly. “Aren’t you doing well enough living at the courtesans’ quarter?”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. “Bullshit… I can hardly go to the courtesans’ quarter to investigate a case every single day. People would talk.”

Pan Yucheng asked, “How big a house are you planning to buy?”

Ning Chen thought about it. “Two courtyards will do.”

Houses in the Great Xuan go by courtyards. One courtyard is a small yard and comes in under a thousand taels… but every courtyard you add costs another thousand, and a garden or a paddock or anything of that kind is reckoned separately.

Feng Qizheng teased him. “You’re rich now. A house that small doesn’t suit your standing.”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. “I’m living in it alone. What do I want with a house that size?”

Even a two-courtyard house ran to the better part of three thousand taels… and in a good district the price went higher.

An ordinary man could work several lifetimes and never earn that much silver.

Feng Qizheng said, “I know a few house brokers. I’ll ask around and bring you anything suitable.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly.

Pan Yucheng said, “You two go out first. Ning Chen stays.”

“Yes!”

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong went out.

Pan Yucheng looked at Ning Chen. “We came out of this northern campaign with real credit. With the hundred thousand taels you’ve just given me, and His Majesty’s gifts on top of it, I have close to enough in hand. I want to buy Nanzhi out.”

Ning Chen paused a beat, then said, “Silver won’t do it. Miss Nanzhi is the same as Yudie. They are both daughters of convicted officials… They’re on the slave register. They can’t buy themselves out.”

Pan Yucheng said, “I want to petition His Majesty to pardon Nanzhi.”

Ning Chen thought about it. “Better to wait a while yet!”

“The truth is I asked His Majesty before, to pardon Yudie… and got shouted out of the room for it.”

“This is a season of troubles and His Majesty’s temper is not good… So now is not the time to petition.”

“When the right moment comes I’ll petition His Majesty again, and speak for Miss Nanzhi while I’m at it.”

Pan Yucheng thought for a while and nodded slightly. “Thank you!”

Ning Chen laughed. “What the hell are you being polite to me for?”

The truth was that asking His Majesty to pardon Yudie would be harder than Nanzhi.

The Xuan Emperor’s whole mind was set on matching him with the Ninth Princess. He had refused several times, and it was plain enough that the Xuan Emperor had still not given the idea up.

So the Xuan Emperor was not going to let a woman of a pleasure house through the Ning family’s door ahead of the Ninth Princess.

Ning Chen sighed and let it go.

Just then Feng Qizheng’s voice came from outside the door. “Chief, Ning Chen… somebody’s here from the palace!”

Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng hurried out to receive the edict.

The man who had come was Eunuch Quan, with a party of palace guards, and with them one big chest after another, and trays covered over with yellow cloth — there was no telling what was under them.

Ning Chen understood at once. His Majesty’s gifts had come down.

“Pan Yucheng, Ning Chen, Feng Qizheng, Chen Chong, receive the edict!”

The four of them knelt on the ground and said it together. “Your subjects receive the edict!”

Eunuch Quan’s thin, high voice went up. “Ning Chen marched far into the northern border and came back victorious from battle, and his labor and his merit are great. He is specially granted ten thousand taels of gold, gold and silver and jade pieces in quantity, a thousand bolts of fine silk, a thousand acres of good land outside the city, and one residence on Changxuan Street.”

“Pan Yucheng, having merit in accompanying him, is granted a thousand taels of gold, gold and silver and jade pieces in quantity, a thousand bolts of fine silk, and five hundred acres of good land outside the city.”

“Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong are granted a thousand taels of gold, gold and silver and jade pieces in quantity, a thousand bolts of fine silk, and a hundred acres of good land outside the city.”

Eunuch Quan closed the edict and came over to stand in front of Ning Chen. “Young Master Ning, take the edict and give your thanks!”

“Your subject thanks Your Majesty for his boundless grace!”

Ning Chen took the edict and got to his feet.

He went to one of the chests and opened it without ceremony. It was packed full of gold ingots.

“Old Quan. These are all mine now, aren’t they?”

The corner of Eunuch Quan’s mouth twitched, and then he nodded.

Ning Chen scooped up several ingots of gold, came over, and pushed them into Eunuch Quan’s hands.

“Young Master Ning, this really will not do…”

Eunuch Quan had nothing at all to say. The man is doing this right out in the open.

“Take it, no ceremony… Everybody who sees it gets a share!”

Ning Chen forced the gold on him, then went back, scooped up more, and threw it to the palace guards.

“Come on, come on… no ceremony from anybody. Everybody who sees it gets a share. Any man who won’t take it is refusing Ning Chen his face, and I’ll go and lay a memorial against you in front of His Majesty.”

Ning Chen talked while he scooped up ingots and threw them around him, and every silver coat and red coat there had a share… He did not stop until the chest was empty.

It was not that Ning Chen was foolish with his money. There were a great many advantages in doing it this way.

A man nobody envies may be a mediocrity, but the more men envy you, the more pits there are in your road… and a few small favors can fill a great many of them in.

(End of Chapter 182)