Pan Yucheng stood up and asked sharply, “How many of you are there?”
The young man answered in a shaking voice, “Thirty-odd.”
“What are you people, exactly? Why were you hiding in the Nurture Hall?”
“Iā we all grew up in the Nurture Hall from small, and from small there was somebody teaching us to fight.”
Pan Yucheng said heavily, “Who?”
The young man shook his head. “I don’t know his real name. We all called him Papa… He wore a false beard, but I could tell. He was a eunuch.”
That gave Pan Yucheng and the others a jolt.
A eunuch. Then this touched the imperial house.
“What sort of eunuch?”
Ning Chen asked it.
“About your height, but heavier than you, with a long thin face, and getting on in years.”
Ning Chen asked heavily, “Would you know him if you saw him?”
The young man nodded. “I would!”
Ning Chen gave orders to two red coats. “Put him back in his cell and keep a close watch on him.”
“Yes!”
Ning Chen looked at Pan Yucheng, who took his meaning at once and nodded.
They came out of the cells, drew a body of red coats and made straight for the Nurture Hall in the outer city.
On the way they came across a patrol of the garrison, and Ning Chen called them along too.
The Nurture Hall was in the outer city, a run-down two-courtyard house.
They came up to the Nurture Hall.
Ning Chen gave the order and the garrison men put a ring around the place.
Bang!!!
Feng Qizheng stepped up and kicked the gate in, and Ning Chen and the others went through.
Pan Yucheng said sharply, “Search it. Whoever they are, take every one of them.”
“Yes!”
They spread out and searched.
Ning Chen looked around him with cold eyes.
All at once there was the sound of children crying in the inner court.
Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng ran for the inner court at once.
A dozen or more children in worn-out clothes were being brought out of a room.
These were the orphans the Nurture Hall had taken in.
Feng Qizheng came running over. “It looks as if we’re a step behind. All we’ve found is these children.”
Just then a red coat came running up. “Pan the Gold Coat, nothing found on my side.”
“Nothing on mine either.”
Chen Chong came running over too and pointed off at a few rooms. “We’re a step behind them right enough. All these rooms have been lived in, and there’s nobody in them now.”
“It looks as if they pulled out ahead of us and left only the children too young to take.”
Pan Yucheng sighed. “Keep searching. See whether there’s a hidden room or a secret passage anywhere.”
“Yes!”
They spread out again and went over the place carefully.
Ning Chen came up in front of a small, thin boy and smiled at him. “Don’t be frightened. I’m not a bad man… Tell me. Where are the others who were here?”
The little boy’s face was full of fear and he did not make a sound.
A red coat said, “Ning the Silver Coat, when we found these children they were still sound asleep… The rest of them most likely went while the children were sleeping.”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.
From taking the young man to getting the Nurture Hall out of him, several hours had gone by… The other side had had time enough to pull out.
It looked as if the trip had been for nothing.
Still, the young man had said the one who trained them was a eunuch, and that pointed straight at the imperial house.
Who would it be?
The crown prince?
The Empress?
He leaned toward the crown prince. Before he went on campaign he had taken the crown prince to Yudie’s for a drink.
But there was no telling. It would be the easiest thing in the world for the Empress to find out that Yudie existed.
Whoever it was, he could not go on sitting still and waiting to be killed.
This time Yudie had been lucky, because he had happened to send Jiang Daniu and Tian Jiang to guard her without being seen.
But the next time?
He would absolutely not allow a thing like this to happen twice.
Just then the searchers came back.
This search too turned up nothing at all.
Pan Yucheng said heavily, “It looks as though somebody has been using the Nurture Hall as cover and training the children here into men sworn to die.”
“The men who came at you that night may well have come out of this place.”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “The children of the Nurture Hall are all orphans. Give them one full meal a day and you can train them into men sworn to die.”
“God damn it, these animals… These children have had a hard enough life already, and now they’re to be trained into men sworn to die. It’s lower than an animal. Don’t let me catch them. If I do I’ll chop them up and feed them to the dogs.”
Feng Qizheng was cursing in a fury.
Ning Chen looked at Pan Yucheng. “Old Pan, there must be a good many of them who pulled out. Have the garrison keep their eyes open and see whether anything turns up.”
Pan Yucheng nodded.
Ning Chen frowned. “What’s to be done about these children? We can’t leave them here to live or die as they may.”
Pan Yucheng said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll go to the capital prefect’s myself tomorrow… The Hall wardens here are all appointed by the capital prefect.”
A Hall warden is the same thing as the head of an orphanage.
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed to points. “The Hall warden is appointed by the capital prefect?”
Pan Yucheng said, “I know what you’re thinking. Don’t worry, I’ll look into the present Hall warden while I’m about it.”
Ning Chen thought for a moment and said, “Old Pan, why not make the trip now?”
Pan Yucheng considered it a moment and said, “That will do. The rest of you go back, then. I’ll take a few men to the capital prefect’s now.”
Ning Chen fished out a thousand-tael silver note. It had been meant for Lin Wen the imperial physician, and the man had refused it.
“Old Pan, pass this on to the new Hall warden. Call it something from me.”
Pan Yucheng said, “Better come yourself another day. We don’t know yet what sort of character the new Hall warden is, and that much silver very easily puts greed into a man.”
Ning Chen thought it over and agreed, and put the silver away. He would come himself in a few days.
The trip had been for nothing.
By the time they came out of the Nurture Hall it was growing light.
Pan Yucheng took a few men and made straight for the capital prefect’s.
Ning Chen and the rest went back to the Inspectorate.
The next day, in the forenoon.
Ning Chen went into the palace and came to the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau.
Lin Wen was taken aback all the same when he saw him.
“I never thought Ning the Silver Coat would really come.”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “My word has always been good.”
Lin Wen looked at him. “Do you truly mean to kneel and pour this old man his tea and apologize?”
It has to be remembered that on the face of it Ning Chen was only a very small silver coat, but anyone who knew him knew he was an immortal of poetry, the General of the Northern Expedition, and His Majesty’s favorite.
Lin Wen had taken it for talk, and had never thought he would really come.
Ning Chen only smiled, and then sent for a cup of tea.
He took the cup, and in front of every physician there, he knelt.
Lin Wen was pushing seventy. Kneeling to him took nothing from Ning Chen.
And besides, whether Yudie stood again still depended on Lin Wen.
“Master Director, last night care made me lose my head and I said things I should not have. I hope the Master Director, being a great man, will not count a small man’s fault against him… Master Director, please drink your tea.”
Lin Wen took the cup, drank a mouthful, set it aside, and helped Ning Chen up.
“Ning the Silver Coat’s word is worth nine bronze tripods. (TL Note: the nine tripods were the ancient regalia of the realm, the heaviest things a ruler owned. To say a man’s word weighs as much is to say it cannot be moved.) This old man is impressed.”
“The truth is that this old man went back last night and looked into himself a long while. Ning the Silver Coat was right. A healer’s heart is a kind one, and this old man should not have hesitated over what Miss Yudie is.”
“Long years in this deep palace, and this old man had let himself forget the heart he began with when he took up medicine. It is this old man who was narrow.”
“Ning the Silver Coat may rest easy. This old man will certainly cure Miss Yudie.”
Ning Chen bent and bowed. “My thanks, Master Director!”
Out of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau, Ning Chen came to the Fallen Phoenix Court.
The Ninth Princess was extremely bored, and when she heard that Ning Chen begged an audience her small face lit up ā and then very quickly she pulled it straight again.
“Let him in.”
After a little while Ning Chen came in behind one of the maids.
“I greet the Ninth Princess.”
The Ninth Princess was in a red gauze skirt, her small face bright, though she was working hard to look serious.
“What do you want with this princess?”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Your subject has come to thank the Ninth Princess.”
The Ninth Princess was puzzled. “Thank me?”
“That pair of stone mortars the princess sent your subject. Your subject likes them very much.”
The Ninth Princess’s eyes went wide, looking at him. “Youā you know all about it?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“Are you angry?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Your subject likes that pair of stone mortars very much and exercises with them once every morning and evening… Look, princess. Your subject has made himself a slab of muscle.”
The Ninth Princess’s face was full of defeat. “That’s wrong. You’re supposed to be angry… Otherwise I played the trick on you for nothing. There’s no satisfaction in it at all.”
Ning Chen: “???”
There’s something not right in the head with the Ninth Princess, Ning Chen said inwardly.
He turned the talk. “Princess, your subject has something to ask of you.”
“What is it?”
“Your subject would like to see Her Majesty the Empress.”
The Ninth Princess started, and then asked, curious, “What do you want with my mother the Empress?”
“Her Majesty the Empress sent me a great gift, and I would like to thank her for it face to face.”
The Ninth Princess was astonished. “My mother the Empress gave you something? She’s never given me anything… What did my mother the Empress give you?”
Gave me a few dozen butcher’s knives and very nearly took my life, Ning Chen said inwardly.
“Her Majesty the Empress gave me some money.”
There had been a hundred thousand taels in notes in the wooden box the young man who tried to kill him had been carrying.
If that man really was the Empress’s, then she had bestowed a great deal of silver on him after all.
The Ninth Princess said oh. “Then go and see my mother the Empress directly. What do you want with me?”
“Your subject doesn’t know where Her Majesty the Empress lives.”
It was not that he did not know. It was that he did not dare go directly.
His Majesty had allowed him to come to the Fallen Phoenix Court whenever he pleased, but had not allowed him to walk into the inner palace whenever he pleased.
If he went without leave and the Empress got a handle on him, she could charge him with forcing his way into the inner palace, and might very well have him killed on the spot.
The Ninth Princess stood up with her hands on her hips and mocked him. “You really are stupid… Come on, this princess will take you.”
“My thanks, princess!”
The Ninth Princess took Ning Chen off toward the Hibiscus Palace.
The Hibiscus Palace.
The Empress had a piece of pastry between her fingers and was eating it in small bites, and seemed to be in a very good humor.
The old eunuch was waiting on her at her side.
Last night their people had pulled out one step ahead and the Inspectorate’s men had come down on an empty house.
The Empress felt she had beaten Ning Chen at last, and her spirits were high.
A little palace maid came in and knelt on the floor. “Your Majesty, the Ninth Princess and Ning Chen, Ning the Silver Coat, beg an audience.”
At Ning Chen’s name the Empress’s face changed, her hand jerked, and the pastry fell on the floor.
Without thinking she looked at the old eunuch beside her… Has Ning Chen found something? Why else would he come?
She thought a moment, steadied herself and said flatly, “Let them in.”
“Yes!”
The little palace maid got up and withdrew.
Before long the Ninth Princess and Ning Chen came in.
“I greet my mother the Empress!”
“Your subject greets Her Majesty the Empress!”
A smile went up on the Empress’s big pancake face. “Huai’an, it’s been some time since you came to your mother’s palace.”
The Ninth Princess put her tongue out mischievously. “My father the Emperor says I’m a noisy creature and told me to come and trouble my mother the Empress less.”
The Empress smiled, and her eyes went to Ning Chen. “Has Ning the Silver Coat some business with this empress?”
“Your subject has come to thank Her Majesty the Empress for her bounty!”
The Empress looked at him in astonishment. “Thank me? For what bounty?”
Ning Chen bent forward. “Her Majesty the Empress bestowed a hundred thousand taels of silver on your subject. Your subject ought properly to come and give thanks for it.”
A slight change went over the Empress’s face, but she was herself again very quickly.
But that small reaction of hers landed whole in Ning Chen’s eye.
The Empress looked at the Ninth Princess and said, smiling, “Huai’an, go and wait outside a little… This empress has something to say to Ning the Silver Coat.”
The Ninth Princess said oh, turned and went out.
She did not like the Empress anyway. There was always something creepy about her.
If Ning Chen had not been coming, she would never have come to the Hibiscus Palace at all.
The Empress fixed her eyes on Ning Chen and said flatly, “When did this empress ever bestow a hundred thousand taels of silver on you?”
Ning Chen smiled a little. “Great people have short memories… Last night somebody gave my woman a hundred thousand taels in notes, and she would not take them… But the hundred thousand went round about and came into your subject’s hands all the same.”
The Empress said coldly, “This empress does not know what you are talking about. This empress has never bestowed silver on you.”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Then perhaps your subject has it wrong.”
As he spoke, Ning Chen’s eyes kept going to the old eunuch at the Empress’s side.
The young man he had taken had said the one who trained them was an old eunuch.
(End of Chapter 211)