The officials of the court received the command and did not dare delay. They went into the palace at once.

Every one of them gathered at the doors of the Hall of Cultivated Heart.

“Lord Shen, do you know what His Majesty has called us into the palace in such haste for?”

Shen Min shook his head and turned to Li Hanru. “Does Lord Li know?”

“I don’t know either.”

“Does the Right Chancellor know what His Majesty has called us in for so urgently?”

The Right Chancellor shook his head. He was very much at a loss himself.

Summoning the whole court into the palace at evening was a thing that had never happened before… So everybody was curious, and they stood talking it over among themselves.

The Right Chancellor went up to Nie Liang. “Commander Nie, where is His Majesty?”

Nie Liang bent forward. “His Majesty is in the Hall of Cultivated Heart dealing with the affairs of state. If Your Excellency would wait a little.”

“Does Commander Nie know what His Majesty has called us into the palace so urgently for?”

Nie Liang shook his head. He truly did not know.

Eunuch Quan came back too, walking into the Hall of Cultivated Heart with his small quick steps.

“Your Majesty, Prince Fu has come!”

The Xuan Emperor stood up and started for the door.

“Ning Chen, you come too.”

“Yes!”

Ning Chen hurried after him.

The officials of the court were gathered at the doors of the Hall of Cultivated Heart, and since this was not a court session they were all over the place.

Seeing the Xuan Emperor come out, they hurried to make the full kowtow.

“Your subjects greet Your Majesty!”

The Xuan Emperor said nothing but “Rise,” and went off with Eunuch Quan and Ning Chen.

The officials looked at one another, every forehead filled with question marks.

But all of them understood that something must have happened.

And Ning Chen was with His Majesty on top of it.

This one was a walking source of trouble. Wherever he went, something went wrong there.

What was it this time?

Elsewhere, Ning Chen followed the Xuan Emperor to the imperial study.

This was also the first time he had seen Prince Fu.

Prince Fu was very like the Xuan Emperor about the brows, only fatter, and there was no color in his face or his lips. One look and you could tell the man was drained.

Ning Chen thought Prince Fu was the cleverest man of the lot. A prince with nothing to do, out of the business of the court, no small troubles to worry him, raised in silk and fed on delicacies all his life… more comfortable than being emperor.

“This younger brother greets his Imperial Brother!”

Prince Fu knelt and made his bow.

The Xuan Emperor walked over and sat down behind the dragon desk, looking down at Prince Fu and studying him. After a while he said, “Get up.”

Prince Fu stood, and glanced at Ning Chen.

The Xuan Emperor kept his eyes on him. “Prince Fu, do you know about immortal powder?”

Prince Fu’s eyes tightened, and a shiver went through his body.

But very soon a simple, honest smile came onto his face. “This younger brother does know… This younger brother even sent his Imperial Brother a memorial about it. Immortal powder is a fine thing. Take it and a man is a hundred times more alive.”

Every bit of Prince Fu’s reaction landed in Ning Chen’s eye.

The eyes tightening, the small shiver through the body… those were shock, and a guilty conscience.

So Prince Fu knew what immortal powder does.

And yet he was putting on the look of a plain, honest man, harmless to man and beast.

He knew what immortal powder does, and he recommended it to His Majesty anyway.

This Prince Fu was not simple. At the very least he was not as simple as he looked.

The Xuan Emperor frowned. “Has Prince Fu taken immortal powder?”

Prince Fu nodded. “This younger brother takes it often. When he is worn out, a few pulls at it and he is a hundred times more alive on the spot.”

A slight change went over the Xuan Emperor’s face.

“Prince Fu, do you know what immortal powder does?”

Prince Fu’s face was all confusion. “This younger brother does not. Does immortal powder do some harm?”

“Are you telling me you have never felt wretched all over when you have gone a long while without it?”

Prince Fu’s fingers trembled slightly. “There is a feeling of that kind. But after a few pulls this younger brother is bright and lively again.”

The Xuan Emperor’s brows locked together. “Where does your immortal powder come from?”

“This younger brother had nothing to do one day and went to a gambling house to play a few hands, and saw somebody taking the stuff. He asked, and learned it could make a man a hundred times more alive, and so he took a few pulls at it.”

“Imperial Brother, the stuff is truly wonderful. A few pulls and a man is clear in the head and easy in the body, a hundred times more alive. After that this younger brother went to buy it often… So this younger brother recommended it to his Imperial Brother. This younger brother thought it was something that could be developed in a large way.”

The Xuan Emperor’s face went sour.

“Which gambling house?”

Prince Fu thought about it, and said, “The Four Quarters gambling house.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew in slightly. Prince Fu was lying.

If he really went so often to buy immortal powder, he would not have needed all that time to come up with the four words Four Quarters gambling house when the Xuan Emperor asked him.

Prince Fu was overplaying it.

“You are a member of the imperial house. Going to a gambling house is one thing, but to smoke this stuff on top of it, you—”

The Xuan Emperor was too angry for a moment to get the words out.

Prince Fu’s face was all confusion. “Imperial Brother, what is wrong with the stuff?”

“What is wrong with it? It is poison.”

The Xuan Emperor was frantic and furious at once.

“Poison?”

Prince Fu stood where he was, stupefied, and went white in the face.

The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen. “Tell Prince Fu what this stuff does.”

“Yes!”

Ning Chen bent forward to take the order, and used it to step up close to Prince Fu and take a quiet sniff at him. He had his answer already.

Prince Fu had not been smoking immortal powder.

Immortal powder wrecks the workings of the body, and a man who smokes it a long time gives off a sour, foul smell… The smell comes out of the inside of him, and no amount of bathing touches it.

There was no such smell on Prince Fu.

Prince Fu had sent the emperor that memorial recommending immortal powder a long time ago… which meant he had been smoking it a long time, and the smell on him ought to have been heavy.

And Prince Fu, though he looked a little run down, was nothing at all like a man on a drug.

He knew what immortal powder does. He did not smoke it himself, and he recommended it to His Majesty… The little shit was harboring evil intent.

Ning Chen bent and bowed. “Ning Chen greets Prince Fu.”

Prince Fu looked at him. “So you are Ning Chen. This prince has heard your name long since. Heroes do come young, it seems.”

Ning Chen said modestly, “The prince flatters me!”

“Prince Fu, this immortal powder is nothing good. It is a violent poison.”

Ning Chen went through what immortal powder does.

When he had finished, Prince Fu’s face was a dreadful white and there was panic in his eyes.

His legs went under him and he sat down flat on the floor.

“It’s over, it’s over… Imperial Brother, save me. This younger brother is going to die. This younger brother does not want to die yet. Imperial Brother, save me…”

Christ!!!

This little shit belongs on a stage.

Ning Chen said it inwardly.

The Xuan Emperor was frantic and furious, and turned to Ning Chen. “This immortal powder — is there truly no medicine for it?”

Ning Chen nodded, and then said, “It is very hard to give up. Besides a will of iron, a man needs a hand from outside.”

“What hand from outside?”

“Tying him up when the craving comes on him. It is a terrible thing to go through… But there is no way but to hold out against it like that, time after time, until the craving weakens by degrees… Even so, an ordinary man who has given it up will go back to it later at the sight of the stuff, if his will is not strong.”

The Xuan Emperor’s face filled with a sullen anger. “Prince Fu, what is this emperor to say to you? You are of the imperial house, and to have so little care for yourself, you, you… You will be the death of this emperor!”

Prince Fu scrambled up and knelt again. “This younger brother knows he was wrong… But this younger brother truly did not know immortal powder did so much harm.”

The Xuan Emperor let out a long sigh.

“Go back. This emperor will send people to watch you and help you break the craving.”

“This younger brother thanks his Imperial Brother!”

The Xuan Emperor said shortly, “You should thank Ning Chen. If it were not for him, this emperor would not know either how much harm this immortal powder does.”

Ning Chen went numb.

Christ!!!

His Majesty is dumping all the hate on me.

Feng Cheng, the keeper of the Four Quarters gambling house, had said he had men above him, and men in high favor with His Majesty at that.

Anyone could see that the Xuan Emperor was still soft toward Prince Fu, too soft even to scold him.

They were brothers by the same blood. Who stood higher in His Majesty’s favor than Prince Fu?

Ning Chen now had strong suspicions that immortal powder had Prince Fu behind it.

There were two reasons. First, Prince Fu had never smoked immortal powder at all and had been acting the whole way through.

Second, he had just named the Four Quarters gambling house. Perhaps he already knew it had been searched and seized, and so he had simply pushed the whole business onto the Four Quarters gambling house.

There is something wrong with this Prince Fu.

Ning Chen glanced at the Xuan Emperor and thought what a pitiful thing it was to be emperor. He held the power of life and death over everything under heaven, and every man alive had his eye on the throne and was holding his breath waiting to finish him — including his own younger brother.

“Ning Chen, this prince thanks you here and now. This prince will not forget the kindness.”

Prince Fu’s face was full of gratitude.

But in Ning Chen’s ear it turned into a threat, as though the man were saying: this prince has your face now. Wait a while. Sooner or later I will finish you.

Ning Chen smiled bitterly inside and bent in a bow. “The prince is too good. This is only what a subject ought to do.”

“Quan Sheng, send several guards back with Prince Fu… When the craving comes on him, tie him up.”

Eunuch Quan bent forward and was about to receive the order when the Xuan Emperor said, “No. Prince Fu will stay in the palace for a while. This emperor will have people watch you, and you will go back when the craving is broken.”

Prince Fu’s brows drew together, but he had himself in hand again almost at once. “This younger brother receives the edict!”

Just then Nie Liang came in at speed to report that several officials had gone raving.

“Prince Fu stays here!”

The Xuan Emperor hurried off with Ning Chen and the others.

Prince Fu stared at Ning Chen’s back, his eyes dark and cold as a snake’s and full of hate.

Outside the Hall of Cultivated Heart.

Several officials were being held down hard by the inner palace guards. The men were fighting with everything they had, crying and shouting.

Every official there looked frightened, and none of them knew what to do.

These few had been perfectly well a little while before, and then all at once it was as though something had gotten into them. First they yawned without stopping and looked worn out, and then they started clawing at their ears and rubbing at their cheeks, and looked wretched.

More outrageous still, they were begging Nie Liang to let them out of the palace.

But His Majesty had said nothing, so who would dare let them out on his own?

When these men saw that Nie Liang would not let them go, they actually started forcing their way out.

And then the guards took them down.

But the men went on crying and shouting, for all the world as if something had gotten into them.

That put a real fright into the officials standing there.

“His Majesty the Emperor!”

Eunuch Quan’s thin, high voice went up.

The officials turned, and watching the Xuan Emperor come toward them they all went down on their knees together and said with one voice, “We greet Your Majesty!”

“Rise!”

The Xuan Emperor came through the crowd to the officials the guards were holding down, and his face was livid.

“Your Majesty, I beg you to let your subject out of the palace. Your subject will go and come straight back.”

“I beg Your Majesty to let your subject out of the palace. Your subject’s old mother at home is dying.”

“Your Majesty, let your subject out of the palace, I beg you, Your Majesty…”

The officials held down by the guards begged and begged, with snot and tears all over them.

The court was thoroughly frightened.

What sickness had come over these men?

The Xuan Emperor said coldly, “Well? Out of the palace to smoke immortal powder?”

“Your Majesty, let your subject have one pull at it, only one…”

“Your Majesty, I beg you, let your subject out of the palace.”

“I can’t stand it, I can’t stand it…”

One of the officials went so far as to beat his head on the ground, thud after thud, and the ground there was bluestone slab. A few blows and his head was split open and bleeding.

Seeing it, a cold went up the Xuan Emperor’s spine too.

To see a thing with your own eyes is not at all the same as hearing about it.

If the officials of the Great Xuan all got this immortal powder into them, then whoever supplied it could take hold of every one of them without trouble, and he himself would be an emperor in name and an ornament in fact.

The Xuan Emperor was frightened and furious at once, and his cold eyes went across the assembled court. “Who else has been smoking immortal powder? Stand out yourselves. If this emperor has to find you out, it is the entire household to the sword.”

The court was frightened and uneasy, and they looked at one another.

Some had confusion all over their faces. What was this immortal powder?

Others went white in the face, with sweat standing on their foreheads in the bitter cold.

One official dropped to his knees with a thud and said in a shaking voice, “Your Majesty, forgive me. Your subject… your subject smokes immortal powder.”

“Your subject smokes immortal powder too.”

Another official went down on his knees.

“Your subject has smoked it too!”

“Your Majesty, forgive me, your subject has smoked it!”

“I beg Your Majesty for mercy…”

In no time at all there was a great spread of them kneeling.

Ning Chen ran his eye across them and made it something over thirty.

Seeing it, the Xuan Emperor’s face was so dark it was nearly dripping, and the cold went up his spine and through the whole of him… Were there so many men smoking immortal powder?

If Ning Chen had not found it out, there might well have been more of them smoking the stuff… and by then what followed would be past imagining.

(End of Chapter 203)