Ning Chen went in by the main gate.

Uncle Chai and his family came in by the side door.

Gu Yichun and the rest had arrived long since.

Gu Yichun had brought a whole band of his brothers with him, twenty men counting himself.

Ning Chen, Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong each tried the men out, and they were all very good.

Every one of these men had heard of Ning the Silver Coat, and they were plainly excited to be working in Ning Chen’s household.

Ning Chen was well satisfied with them.

Then he had everyone assembled.

Maidservants and menservants, with Gu Yichun’s people, came to very nearly a hundred.

Ning Chen said, “I’ll introduce myself first. My name is Ning Chen. I am a silver coat of the Inspectorate, and I am the master of this house.”

Then he had Gu Yichun step out. “This is Gu Yichun. From now on the safety of the Ning house is his.”

Then he had Uncle Chai step out, and said, “This is Uncle Chai. From now on he is the steward of the Ning house.”

“Uncle Chai, the rest is yours. Tell everyone the rules of the Ning house… Go by the rules of the old household.”

Ning Chen opened his mouth in a yawn, called out to Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong, and made ready to go to the courtesans’ quarter and catch up on his sleep.

Every one of them was at a loss.

That was it?

It was far too brief. He had said only a few sentences from beginning to end.

Ning Chen had gone a little way when his step stopped short, and he turned back and beckoned to Gu Yichun.

Gu Yichun hurried over.

“Young Master Ning, what are your orders?”

Ning Chen said, “Pick me out two men who are good with their hands and can be trusted.”

“Yes!”

Gu Yichun ran back, and very soon brought two men over.

“Young Master Ning, these two are brothers of mine of many years. These two were among the men who guarded you in secret at Changshou Village in those days.”

Ning Chen looked at the two of them and asked, smiling, “What are your names?”

“Reporting to Young Master Ning, this servant is called Jiang Daniu.”

The one who said it was thin and tall.

The other, a strongly built fellow with the muscle standing out on him, bent forward. “This servant is called Tian Jiang.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.

“I have a task for the two of you now.”

The two of them bent forward quickly and said with one voice, “Young Master Ning has only to order it.”

Ning Chen took out two silver notes and handed them over, two hundred taels in all.

“Take this silver and go to the courtesans’ quarter to hear the singing and drink tea.”

The two of them stood there at a loss, staring blankly.

“I have a woman at the courtesans’ quarter called Yudie… The two of you take this silver, go to the courtesans’ quarter, pass yourselves off as guests, and guard her without being seen. Understood?”

The two of them looked at Gu Yichun.

Gu Yichun said, “What are you looking at me for? What Young Master Ning says, you do.”

The two of them bent forward quickly and said with one voice, “This servant obeys!”

Ning Chen said flatly, “I am sending you to the courtesans’ quarter, and it is not to sleep with women. Do not forget what you are there for… If anything goes wrong, don’t blame me for showing you no consideration.”

“This servant understands!”

Ning Chen nodded slightly, then left the notes with them, turned and went.

“Ning Chen, are you worried somebody will move on Miss Yudie?”

Chen Chong asked it.

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “There was an attempt on me last night. There is no saying somebody won’t move on Yudie, so it’s better to guard against it.”

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong nodded.

“By the way, when do you mean to open the household? Have you settled on a day?”

Ning Chen shook his head.

Feng Qizheng said, “Leave it to me. Give me the eight characters of your birth. I know a good geomancer and I’ll have him pick out a lucky day.”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent.

As they talked the three of them came out of the Ning house.

Chen Chong looked at Ning Chen. “You’re going to the courtesans’ quarter?”

Ning Chen nodded, smiling.

“Then we’ll go home. Go in broad daylight and there’s no girl to keep us company anyway.”

The three of them went their separate ways.

Ning Chen rode hard to the courtesans’ quarter.

“Ning, dear looks very tired.”

“I was questioning prisoners all night. I’m worn out!”

Yudie said softly, “Then I’ll have something made ready for Ning, dear to eat, and afterward he can have a good sleep.”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent.

When he had eaten and drunk his fill, Ning Chen also drank a bowl of medicine. He meant to go straight to bed, but thinking that he had been a whole night in the torture room and the smell of blood was all over him, he made himself hold out and took a bath.

When he had bathed he pulled Yudie into bed, and slept heavily with his arms around her.

He woke to find it dark already.

Ning Chen could not be bothered to get up either. If anything came up, Geng Jing would send somebody to tell him.

A full belly and a warm back turn a man’s mind to lust.

With Yudie’s soft body in his arms, how was Ning Chen to hold out? He pulled her over and set about the piston work.

The next day Ning Chen got up.

He ate a little, with Yudie waiting on him, and then rode Diaochan straight for the Inspectorate.

Everything His Majesty had granted him was still at the Inspectorate, and now that he had a house of his own it had to be moved home.

He got a few red coats to help, loaded everything onto a carriage and had it carried back to the Ning house… and then Uncle Chai counted it all, entered it and put it in store.

By the time Ning Chen got back to the Inspectorate it was already the middle of the afternoon.

He went to Geng Jing’s room.

“Well? Anything to go on?”

Geng Jing shook his head. “Nothing yet… But of those officials shut up in the cells, three died today.”

Ning Chen was startled. “How did that happen?”

Geng Jing said heavily, “They killed themselves. They could not bear what the craving put them through.”

“I never thought the stuff could be as terrible as this. That it can work a man until he kills himself.”

Ning Chen sighed. “Touch a thing like that and you have one foot through the gate of the dead. Dying is only a question of when.”

“Killing themselves outright is a release for them, if anything… Otherwise in a few years they would be living worse than dying, going down slowly in torment without end.”

While the two of them were talking it grew dark without their noticing.

And by now the courtesans’ quarter had come alive, and the girls were busy greeting one guest and sending off another.

A young man in a long gown with the sleeves bound, handsome in the face, came up from the second floor with a box in his hands and made straight for the third.

But the attendant on watch at the head of the third-floor stairs stopped him.

“Young sir, to go up to the third floor you must have an invitation from one of the girls of the twelve houses.”

The young man took a waist tally from his belt. “Look at it properly. I am of the Inspectorate, sent by Ning the Silver Coat to bring something to Miss Yudie.”

Hearing that it was a man sent by Ning Chen, the attendant let him by at once.

The young man came to the door of Yudie’s room on the third floor and reached out and knocked.

The door opened, and it was Xiaoxing who opened it.

She had thought it would be Ning Chen, and finding a stranger there she asked warily, “Who is it you want?”

The young man smiled a little. “I am sent by Ning the Silver Coat, to bring something to Miss Yudie.”

“Xiaoxing, is that Ning, dear?”

Yudie’s soft voice came from the inner room.

“No, it’s a colleague of Young Master Ning’s. He says Young Master Ning sent him to bring something for you, miss.”

Yudie came out from inside.

When the young man saw Yudie, something went across the bottom of his eyes that was close to wonder.

Yudie looked at the young man outside the door. “Ning, dear sent you?”

The young man held up the box in his hands. “Yes! Ning the Silver Coat sent me to bring something to Miss Yudie.”

“And where is Ning, dear?”

“Ning the Silver Coat is at the Inspectorate questioning prisoners and cannot get away, so he sent me.”

Yudie said oh.

“Miss Yudie, could I come in and say it inside?”

Yudie said politely, “If you have business, say it here.”

She had seen every one of the silver coats about Ning Chen, and this man was a stranger. Yudie was very much on her guard.

The young man looked left and right, and then something went across the bottom of his eyes that was murderous, and his hand shot out like lightning and closed on the throat of Xiaoxing, who was standing in front, and shoved her straight inside.

The color went out of Yudie’s face, and Xiaoxing knocked her flat.

With the wooden box held up in one hand and Xiaoxing’s throat in the other, the young man hooked the door shut with his heel.

And before Yudie could call out, he said, “Miss Yudie, don’t call out, whatever you do… or I’ll break her neck.”

Yudie got up off the floor in disorder and looked at the young man in fear. “Don’t— don’t do anything wild… I’ll give you as much silver as you want. Don’t hurt her.”

Xiaoxing had waited on her with all her heart, and Yudie had long since come to think of her as a younger sister.

The young man looked Yudie over and made an odd laugh or two through his teeth. “They say every one of the girls of the twelve houses of the courtesans’ quarter is a rare beauty. Hearing a hundred times is nothing to seeing once… Ning Chen is a lucky man in his women.”

Yudie was frightened past bearing. “Don’t— don’t do anything wild… Ning, dear is not a man to trifle with.”

“I know perfectly well that Ning Chen is not a man to trifle with… Miss Yudie need not worry. I have come to bring you something good.”

As he said it he came over with Xiaoxing in his grip and opened the wooden box in his other hand… and it was full to the top with silver notes.

The young man smiled wickedly. “Miss Yudie, there are a hundred thousand taels in notes in here. Please accept them.”

Yudie was startled and puzzled at once.

But she understood that no pie falls out of the sky for nothing.

“You give me this much silver. What do you want me to do?”

The young man gave an odd laugh. “Miss Yudie is not only lovely to look at, she is clever too.”

“I’ll say it plainly… This is only the earnest money. Help me be rid of Ning Chen, and when the thing is done there will be two hundred thousand taels of silver more… And I can promise you besides that you will be given back your freedom. How would that be?”

Yudie’s eyes went wide with shock, and she said in anger and alarm, “You are dreaming. I will never let you hurt Ning, dear.”

The young man’s eyes turned dark and vicious. “Miss Yudie, think it over before you speak.”

Yudie looked at the young man’s dark, cold eyes and was terribly afraid… but the thought that this man meant to hurt Ning, dear made it a thing she would never allow to happen.

“Is what you say true? Two hundred thousand more when the thing is done, and my freedom given back to me besides?”

The young man narrowed his eyes slightly. They were right upstairs. This woman really is greedier than the common run of women of that trade.

“So long as Miss Yudie can help me be rid of Ning Chen, I promise I will keep my word.”

Yudie hesitated, and then clutched the wooden box with the notes in it to her breast and looked at the young man. “Very well. I agree… But what am I to do?”

Something like contempt went across the bottom of the young man’s eyes. Women of that trade. Not one of them who doesn’t love money.

“What are you to do? I’ll tell you that in good time… But so that Miss Yudie does not go back on it, you will have to give something up.”

Yudie watched him warily. “Give up what?”

The young man let out a burst of lecherous laughter. “Miss Yudie’s body, of course. I have paid out all this silver, so Miss Yudie must make me comfortable… They say you were Ning Chen’s first woman. If you change your mind later, I will tell Ning Chen about it.”

“Miss Yudie may rest easy. I will go over your body carefully and remember every mark on it… If you go back on your word, I will tell Ning Chen the whole of it in detail.”

Yudie’s face changed completely, and went a dreadful white.

She set her teeth hard and nodded slightly. “Very well. For the silver’s sake, I agree… Come in with me.”

The young man watched Yudie greedily, his eyes burning.

Yudie turned and walked toward the inner room.

The young man followed her in with Xiaoxing’s throat in his grip.

Yudie set the box down on the dressing table and stood with her back against it, watching the young man come in. “Let her go now. I promise I won’t call out.”

The young man looked at Yudie’s lovely face and her fine figure, and could not help swallowing… and then brought the edge of his hand down on Xiaoxing’s neck.

Xiaoxing went limp and dropped.

Yudie’s face changed completely.

The young man said, laughing lecherously, “Don’t worry. She has only fainted.”

As he said it he walked toward Yudie in long strides.

Yudie was shaking all over with fear, and just as the young man reached her and put out a hand to touch her face, Yudie let out a cry and shut her eyes tight and drove her right hand forward with everything in her.

In that hand she was gripping a pair of scissors.

(End of Chapter 207)