It was late by the time Ning Chen came out of the Hall of the Four Barbarians.
He rode Diaochan to the courtesans’ quarter, clop, clop, clop.
Yudie saw the state of his face, bruised and swollen, and her eyes went red with pity for him. She fetched the medicine at once and put it on for him.
“Who did this to Ning, dear? That is too much.”
Ning Chen gave a low laugh. “The Fourth Prince of Nanyue. He came off worse than I did.”
When the medicine was on, Ning Chen drank a bowl of Beauty’s Delight.
The stuff worked. When he was fighting Kang Luo today he could feel plainly that there was a good deal more strength in him than he had had before.
“Yudie, everything hurts. You’re on top tonight.”
“Ah?”
Yudie blinked, and then saw the dirty grin at the corner of Ning Chen’s mouth and understood all at once. Her pretty face went red and she said softly, “Yes. This girl will do as Ning, dear says.”
Ordinarily Ning Chen was on top. He liked having the running of it.
But everything hurt now. That dog’s whelp Kang Luo had hit far too hard… Tonight he had no choice but to lie there and let Yudie do what she liked with him.
The next day Ning Chen slept until the sun was three poles high.
Yudie had a good meal made ready for him.
He was in the middle of eating it when Feng Qizheng turned up.
“Have you been out since last night, or did you come here to find me?”
Feng Qizheng said, “I’ve just come from the Inspectorate. His Majesty’s order is that you go into the palace at once!”
Ning Chen felt a twinge of guilt.
What did His Majesty want with him at this hour?
It couldn’t be about fighting Kang Luo yesterday, could it?
If it was, he was in for another scolding.
Ning Chen shoveled down a few mouthfuls of rice, then went out and rode to the palace.
The Xuan Emperor was generally in the imperial study at this hour, working through memorials.
Ning Chen came to the imperial study.
“Your subject greets Your Majesty!”
“No ceremony. Rise.”
The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen as he stood up, saw the green and purple patches on his face, and frowned slightly. “Does it hurt?”
“Ah?”
Ning Chen blinked, and only when he had his wits back did he understand that His Majesty meant the marks on his face. He shook his head. “Thank you for Your Majesty’s concern. Your subject is all right!”
The Xuan Emperor said, “Have an imperial physician look at it later, all the same.”
Ning Chen said oh. By the sound of it His Majesty did not blame him for fighting Kang Luo.
The Xuan Emperor picked up a memorial and had Eunuch Quan carry it to Ning Chen.
“Ning Chen, look at this.”
Ning Chen took the memorial Eunuch Quan brought over, opened it and read for a while, and could not help laughing coldly out loud.
“They can dream on.”
The memorial was Li Hanru’s, and it set out Nanyue’s demands.
What Nanyue meant was that if the Great Xuan would cut the Thirty-Mile Corridor off and hand it over, Nanyue would guarantee three years without conflict with the Great Xuan.
The Xuan Emperor said with a cold face, “At court today, most of them were in favor of ceding the land and making terms.”
Ning Chen laughed coldly. “Is there something wrong with their heads?”
“Give up thirty miles of land for three years of peace… And after three years? Cede more land and beg for more peace? Nanyue’s ambition has no bottom. In the end they will want the imperial capital itself.”
The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen with great satisfaction.
He patted the thick sheaf of memorials on the dragon desk. “Every one of these is an impeachment of you.”
Ning Chen’s expression stiffened.
“You went hand to hand with the Fourth Prince of Nanyue yesterday, and it has displeased a great many people.”
Ning Chen’s face was all contempt. “They’re afraid that my beating Kang Luo has ruined the peace talks, is that it?”
“Spineless things. It’s from being too well fed and too warmly dressed. They’re afraid a war would spoil the silk-and-delicacies life they lead.”
Ning Chen went down on his knees suddenly. “Your Majesty, your subject asks to lead an army out, and to let Nanyue learn how sharp the weapons of the Great Xuan are.”
“Your subject will stake his life on a pledge—”
黃沙百戰穿金甲， 不破南越終不還。
A hundred battles in the yellow sand have worn my golden armor through; until Nanyue is broken I will not come home.
The Xuan Emperor was moved, and could not help saying, “Until Nanyue is broken I will not come home. There is a fine line.”
“Ning Chen, this emperor grants you leave to take an army out… He hopes you can tell Nanyue by what you do what a sovereign is and what a subject is.”
“When you come home in triumph, this emperor will make you Idle Marquis.”
Ning Chen said in a ringing voice, “Your subject thanks Your Majesty for his boundless grace!”
He had heard about the marquisate.
His Majesty had wanted to make him one and the court would not have it.
You sons of bitches, you wait, Ning Chen thought, and mischief was already building in him, and an idea with it.
“Get up off your knees. Stand up and talk.”
Ning Chen got to his feet and glanced at Eunuch Quan. “Your Majesty, could Eunuch Quan step outside?”
Eunuch Quan’s expression stiffened.
The Xuan Emperor said, smiling, “Say what you have to say. Quan Sheng has waited on this emperor for more than ten years. This emperor trusts him.”
Eunuch Quan was pleased with himself at once, and looked at Ning Chen with a smug little face, as if to say — hmph, so you have His Majesty’s favor, do you? This eunuch has His Majesty’s trust.
Ning Chen looked at the smug little expression on Eunuch Quan’s face and gave him a flat look.
Then a dirty grin came onto his own. “Your Majesty, how about you and I put one over on the whole court together?”
The Xuan Emperor blinked. “Meaning what?”
Ning Chen said, “Your Majesty, a war takes money and grain… Let’s get the officials, civil and military, to put up a subscription. Look at them, every one of them fat in the head and the guts and so rich they drip with it. They won’t do any of the fighting. It isn’t much to ask them for money.”
The Xuan Emperor smiled. “With all these years of rest and recovery, the Great Xuan’s treasury is full. You don’t need to worry about money or grain.”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Better not to spend the treasury’s money if we don’t have to… Grain in the house, no panic in the heart.”
“Weren’t those soft-boned ones shouting for terms? Then let’s put one over on them… Otherwise your subject won’t feel right about it.”
The Xuan Emperor wanted to laugh. In fact Ning Chen was not the only one who did not feel right about it. Neither did he.
“This emperor is the sovereign of a country. How can he go about making mischief with you?”
Ning Chen said with a perfectly serious face, “Sending an army out is a great matter. How is that making mischief? The treasury is empty and the state has no money. It’s time those soft-boned ones did a little something.”
The Xuan Emperor was silent for a moment, then nodded slightly. “It’s true. A war is a great matter… Everybody ought to put a share in.”
“How exactly would it be done?”
Ning Chen gave a low laugh. “They want to make terms with Nanyue, don’t they? So we say your subject beat the Fourth Prince of Nanyue, and Kang Luo is in a rage now and won’t talk.”
“And that at the end, with Lord Li and Lord Shen coaxing him, Kang Luo has put a new demand: besides cutting the Thirty-Mile Corridor off for them, we have to pay them a million taels of silver.”
“But the state is poor now and can’t find that much money. Everybody will have to subscribe… Those soft-boned ones will squeal about the money, but they’ll certainly agree.”
The Xuan Emperor asked, curious, “And then?”
Ning Chen smiled. “And then we send the Nanyue embassy packing… We say Nanyue took the silver and then turned around and denied the whole thing, and that this is bullying us past what any man can stand… When a man can bear no more, there is no need to bear any more. At that point Your Majesty simply sends me out.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face twitched. It was a wicked trick!
Eunuch Quan watched Ning Chen warily. This boy is bad news. I had better keep my distance in future, or he will talk my little bit of coffin money out of me one day.
The Xuan Emperor said, “And how exactly is it to be worked?”
Ning Chen went on at length.
“Your Majesty, all you have to do is act a scene with me when the time comes.”
The Xuan Emperor nodded slightly. “Ning Chen, you know that if this succeeds, men will hate and envy you for it.”
Ning Chen said, entirely serious, “For Your Majesty and for the Great Xuan, never mind carrying a bad name. If Your Majesty wanted your subject’s life, he would give it gladly.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face filled with satisfaction.
Eunuch Quan made a small face on the quiet. Shameless. He really does know how to work a chance for flattery.
“Very well. Then this emperor leaves the business to you and rests easy about it!”
Ning Chen said, “Your subject receives the edict!”
Then Ning Chen hesitated, and said, “Your Majesty, your subject has one more thing, and asks Your Majesty to allow it.”
“What thing?”
Ning Chen said, “Your subject would like to change to a smaller house.”
The Xuan Emperor frowned slightly. “What is this? The house this emperor granted you does not satisfy you?”
“The house Your Majesty granted is too big. Maids and servants and upkeep and repairs would come to ten thousand taels a year at the least… Your subject is poor. His salary is a few hundred taels a year. He truly cannot carry it.”
“Your subject begs Your Majesty to grant him a smaller house.”
The Xuan Emperor had nothing to say to that. “Everyone else complains that his house is too small. You are the other way around. You complain that yours is too big.”
“Your subject is one man. A house that size stands empty around him. He can ease Your Majesty’s burdens just as well from a smaller one.”
The corner of the Xuan Emperor’s mouth went up and he smiled. “Enough! Live in it and be easy. This emperor will send you some serving women from the palace later, and you don’t need to pay their wages, and the upkeep and repairs are not your concern either.”
Ning Chen’s eyes brightened. Not out of his own silver. That was a hell of a deal.
“Your subject thanks Your Majesty for his boundless grace!”
The Xuan Emperor smiled. “Any other problems?”
Ning Chen hesitated. “Your subject has one more thing.”
“Say it.”
“Your Majesty, a house that size, with your subject living in it alone, is a little empty… Your subject begs Your Majesty to pardon Yudie, strike her from the slave register, and restore her to free standing.”
The Xuan Emperor, who had been smiling a moment before, went dark by degrees.
Ning Chen knew inwardly that this was bad.
Sure enough, the Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Get out.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly to himself. He had known it would go this way.
“Your subject obeys the command. He is getting out now!”
Ning Chen reached the door and still would not give it up. He turned back to the Xuan Emperor. “Your Majesty, would you think about it again?”
The Xuan Emperor’s face went tight, and he said coldly, “If you don’t get out this moment, this emperor will reward you with thirty strokes of the heavy rod.”
“Uh… let Your Majesty’s anger cool. Your subject is getting out.”
Ning Chen was gone in a streak.
The Xuan Emperor set his face and said furiously, “This good-for-nothing. Defying this emperor over a woman of that trade.”
Eunuch Quan kept his head down and did not dare make a sound.
“Quan Sheng. Have you ever seen this Yudie?”
Quan Sheng was about to speak when Ning Chen came back in.
The corner of the Xuan Emperor’s mouth twitched. “Ning Chen, have you no manners at all? Do you really think this emperor is too soft-hearted to deal with you?”
Ning Chen’s face was all flattery. “Let Your Majesty’s anger cool. Your subject only wanted to tell Your Majesty that the medicine works. The effect is very plain.”
The Xuan Emperor’s eyes brightened a little, but he kept his face set and said with an edge in his voice, “This emperor knows. Get out.”
“Your subject withdraws!”
Once Ning Chen was gone, a smile came onto the Xuan Emperor’s face.
“Quan Sheng. Have a few doses of that medicine made up for this emperor too — the same as the lot you got for Ning Chen.”
Quan Sheng said quickly, “Yes!”
“Where was this emperor?”
Eunuch Quan said, “Your Majesty asked whether this servant had ever seen Miss Yudie.”
The Xuan Emperor nodded. “Have you?”
“This servant has not!”
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Put men on it and look into her. Find out the woman’s age, her character and her conduct, all of it, for this emperor… And remember, do it quietly. Ning Chen is not to know.”
“This servant obeys the command!”
Ning Chen came out of the imperial study and walked toward the palace gate with his head down.
He had known His Majesty would not agree to strike Yudie off the slave register, and he had still not been able to leave it alone. He had wanted to try.
The Xuan Emperor’s whole mind was set on matching him with the Ninth Princess.
But a man who marries a princess cannot take a concubine… and what became of Yudie then?
Yudie was his first woman, beautiful and gentle and good and quick to understand him. Set against a princess, he naturally liked Yudie better.
Marry the princess and he lost Yudie.
Refuse the princess and Yudie could never be restored to free standing.
Ning Chen scratched his head, out of temper. What the hell kind of arrangement is this?
“Ning Chen?”
A voice came out of nowhere.
Ning Chen looked toward it, and his eyes narrowed. It was the crown prince.
Since he had come back from Beilin Pass and brought the Left Chancellor down, the crown prince had not once come to find him.
The crown prince looked as mild and honest as ever, and his smile was as gentle… but a guard had gone up in Ning Chen against him already.
(End of Chapter 189)