“This eunuch looks a little familiar to me. Haven’t we met somewhere?”
Ning Chen said it with his eyes fixed on the old eunuch.
The old eunuch looked at him. “Ning the Silver Coat has most likely mistaken his man.”
“Has he? The last time I went to the Nurture Hall, I remember the two of us meeting.”
Those three words, the Nurture Hall, put a stir in the old eunuch’s eyes.
“Ning the Silver Coat has certainly mistaken his man. This old servant has never been to the Nurture Hall.”
Ning Chen said oh. “Then I have it wrong, perhaps… This eunuch is handy with his hands, I should think.”
“This old servant knows nothing of fighting. He is an ordinary man.”
Ning Chen smiled a little and bowed toward the Empress with his hands together. “Since the silver was not Her Majesty the Empress’s bounty, your subject withdraws.”
The Empress nodded.
Ning Chen turned and left.
He could be all but certain of it now. The men who had come to kill him, and the man who had hurt Yudie, had been sent by the Empress.
When Ning Chen had gone the Empress’s face turned dark and cold. “That little mongrel has certainly found something.”
The old eunuch inclined his head slightly. “Your Majesty is right. Otherwise he would not have come to the Hibiscus Palace.”
The Empress ground her teeth. “A way must be found to be rid of him. This empress has a feeling about it. Sooner or later that little mongrel will spoil the whole business for us.”
The old eunuch said heavily, “Your Majesty may rest easy. This old servant will certainly find a chance to be rid of him.”
The Empress waved a hand. “We cannot send anyone to kill him again for the present. The last few attempts have all failed and Ning Chen will certainly be on his guard… If we are to be rid of him, it must be from some other quarter.”
“What does Your Majesty mean?”
“In a few days it is Huai’an’s birthday. That is a chance for us, and this empress will make her own arrangements when the time comes.”
Elsewhere, Ning Chen and the Ninth Princess walked out of the Hibiscus Palace.
“Princess, your subject will withdraw.”
“Eh? Going already?”
Ning Chen looked at her, at a loss.
The Ninth Princess hesitated, and then said, “Ning Chen, is Miss Yudie all right?”
Ning Chen’s eyebrow went up slightly. “Has the princess heard something?”
“What do you mean?”
Ning Chen looked at her for a moment and then said, “Your subject is too quick to suspect… Yudie was attacked last night and is badly hurt.”
The Ninth Princess gave a start. “Attacked? How is she now?”
“She came near to being crippled. Luckily the palace physicians are very skilled, and in a while she should be able to get out of bed.”
The Ninth Princess waved both hands. “It certainly wasn’t me.”
“Mm?”
“Don’t play the fool. That look on your face just now was plainly you suspecting me.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Your subject is too quick to suspect. I have never suspected the Ninth Princess… And the Ninth Princess has no reason to hurt Yudie.”
The Ninth Princess lifted her chin. “You’re clever, then.”
“Your subject withdraws.”
The Ninth Princess nodded, a little unwilling to let him go.
Ning Chen turned and left, but he did not leave the palace. He went to the imperial study.
“Ning Chen, how is Miss Yudie?”
The Xuan Emperor looked at him as he asked it.
Ning Chen bent forward. “Thanks to Your Majesty sending the imperial physicians in time, she should be well again before long.”
The Xuan Emperor inclined his head slightly. “Have you some business with this emperor?”
“Your subject has come to see Eunuch Quan.”
Eunuch Quan gave a slight start.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Eunuch Quan, might I have a word aside?”
Eunuch Quan looked at the Xuan Emperor.
The Xuan Emperor gave a single nod.
Only then did Eunuch Quan follow Ning Chen outside.
“Old Quan, you are Chief Eunuch of the Inner Palace. I want to ask you about somebody… The eunuch who waits on the Empress. Do you know him?”
Eunuch Quan said, “You mean Li Quanhai?”
“I don’t know his name. An old eunuch, well on in years.”
“Then it is Li Quanhai.”
Ning Chen nodded and asked, “Does he know how to fight?”
Eunuch Quan nodded. “He does. He is very good with his hands.”
Ning Chen’s eyes tightened.
Eunuch Quan asked, curious, “What do you want with Li Quanhai?”
Ning Chen shook his head and bowed over his clasped hands. “Nothing. I only asked in passing. He struck me as a formidable sort… Old Quan, I’ll be off. See you again!”
Eunuch Quan was left baffled, and turned and went back into the imperial study.
The Xuan Emperor glanced at him.
Eunuch Quan said at once, “Young Master Ning was asking this old servant whether Li Quanhai, who waits on Her Majesty the Empress, knows how to fight.”
The Xuan Emperor frowned. “What does he want that for?”
“This servant asked. Young Master Ning would not say.”
The Xuan Emperor thought a moment and said, “Ning Chen does not ask about a man for nothing. Look into this Li Quanhai on the quiet and see whether there is anything strange about him.”
Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Yes. This servant obeys the command!”
That afternoon Ning Chen came to the palace again.
And he brought somebody with him — the young man he had taken.
Nie Liang was on duty that afternoon, and when he saw Ning Chen arrive with a man covered with wounds he was all curiosity.
“Ning Chen, what’s this?”
“I have come to lay a complaint before the throne itself. Is His Majesty in?”
Nie Liang nodded. “One moment. I’ll go in and report it.”
Before long Nie Liang came out.
“His Majesty says you may go in!”
Ning Chen handed the young man over to Nie Liang to hold, and then went into the imperial study.
The moment he was inside Ning Chen dropped to his knees with a thud. “Your Majesty, your subject wishes to lay a complaint.”
The Xuan Emperor looked at him and could not help laughing.
“Get up and speak. Tell this emperor who has been bullying you and this emperor will see you righted.”
Ning Chen stood up, his face serious. “Your Majesty, your subject was in the palace looking into the immortal powder, and on his way back there was an attempt on his life.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face darkened. “This emperor knows of it. Geng Jing has already reported it… and this emperor has already ordered him to look into it.”
Ning Chen went on. “Last night somebody passed himself off as a man of the Inspectorate and tried with threats and bribes to make Yudie help him be rid of your subject… When Yudie refused, he went at it like a man out of his senses and tried to burn her to death.”
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “This emperor knows of that too… This emperor hears that the man who hurt Miss Yudie happened to be taken by you. Have you got anything out of him?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, your subject has it from that killer’s own mouth… Somebody has been using the Nurture Hall as cover all this while, training children with nowhere to go into men sworn to die.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face went thoroughly dark.
“Your Majesty, your subject has brought that killer with him… By his account, the one who trained them is a eunuch, and an old one.”
The Xuan Emperor frowned, thinking of Ning Chen asking Quan Sheng about Li Quanhai a little earlier.
“You are telling this emperor that the man training these homeless children into men sworn to die is inside the palace?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“You suspect the Empress?”
Ning Chen gave a start, and looked at the Xuan Emperor, taken aback.
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Quan Sheng. Go and fetch Li Quanhai.”
“Yes!”
Eunuch Quan went out with his small quick steps.
Ning Chen understood it all at once. He had asked Eunuch Quan about Li Quanhai, and Eunuch Quan had turned around and told His Majesty.
And if it really was Li Quanhai, then the one behind him was the Empress.
The Xuan Emperor had not hesitated for a moment. He had sent for Li Quanhai to be faced with it… Has His Majesty been thinking of moving against the Empress all this while?
“Ning Chen, which do you think fitter to succeed to the throne, the crown prince or the Third Prince?”
The Xuan Emperor came out with it suddenly, and Ning Chen’s chest tightened.
What does His Majesty mean by that?
There was no time to think it through. Ning Chen could only pull a long face and say, all humility, “Your Majesty, your subject is only a very small silver coat. Your subject has no standing to speak on such a matter at all.”
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose.
“Play the fool, then, boy. The crown prince is mild and honest and kind. The Third Prince has courage and no plan… This emperor leans toward the crown prince, but the crown prince is weak in his backing.”
Christ!!!
The crown prince, mild and honest and kind?
You really don’t know that son of yours. He’s a dark one inside.
Ning Chen said it inwardly in a fury.
But he had seen through to His Majesty’s mind too.
That one phrase, weak in his backing, said the whole of it.
Behind the Third Prince stood the Empress, and the Grand Tutor besides, who would soon be bringing his army home.
Set beside that, the crown prince was weak indeed.
No wonder the Xuan Emperor had not hesitated to send Eunuch Quan for Li Quanhai to be faced with it. If the Third Prince came to the throne, with a strong mother and a weak son, the trouble after would never end.
So His Majesty did indeed mean to move against the Empress, to clear the road for the crown prince.
Or perhaps His Majesty had simply had enough of her. A woman uglier than an old palace nurse for an empress was a disgrace to the dignity of the state.
But why move against the Empress now?
It had to be remembered that the Empress was the mother of the nation. Once she was touched, a great deal came with it.
Ning Chen could not quite make out the Xuan Emperor’s mind.
“Your Majesty is in his prime. Isn’t it early to be thinking of such things?”
The Xuan Emperor smiled. “Some things have to be settled early… Otherwise, if this emperor should pass from the world one day, the Great Xuan would fall into disorder.”
Ning Chen stared. “That Your Majesty can speak the words pass from the world as calmly as that — your subject is full of admiration.”
“Why should this emperor not say them? This emperor is a man too, not an immortal, and the day of age and sickness and death comes to him in the end… This emperor would like to live forever too. But is it possible?”
“Look through all the dynasties there have been. Which sovereign among them ever lived forever and never grew old?”
Ning Chen admired the Xuan Emperor from the bottom of his heart. To hold all the power under heaven and still face death as steadily as that — sovereigns like that were not often met with.
As they spoke Eunuch Quan brought Li Quanhai in.
“This servant greets Your Majesty!”
Li Quanhai knelt and knocked his head on the floor.
The Xuan Emperor glanced at him, and then his eyes went to Ning Chen. “Where is the man you brought?”
“Outside, in Commander Nie’s keeping.”
“Bring him in!”
“Yes.”
Ning Chen went out and brought the young man in, and pressed him down onto his knees.
When Li Quanhai saw the young man his face changed completely.
The Xuan Emperor looked the young man over and pointed to Li Quanhai. “Do you know him?”
The young man was frightened and uneasy. He plainly had never expected to see the emperor with his own eyes in this life.
He turned his head and looked hard at Li Quanhai for a while, and then all at once called out, “Pa?”
Li Quanhai went white in the face, and sweat came out on his forehead in beads the size of peas.
His voice tried to be fierce with nothing at all behind it. “Who are you? I don’t know you at all.”
“Pa, save me, Pa, save me… Your son truly cannot bear any more. He burned your son’s root with a hot iron and made your son ride the wooden donkey, Pa, save me…”
The corner of the Xuan Emperor’s mouth twitched, and he glanced at Ning Chen.
If this emperor remembers rightly, the wooden donkey is for women prisoners, and this boy has gone and used it on a man. No wonder the killer is frightened into a state like this.
Ning Chen said sharply, “You are certain it is him?”
The young man nodded with everything in him. “It is him. He has no beard now, but this small man still knows him.”
The Xuan Emperor said sharply, “Li Quanhai, what have you to say for yourself?”
Li Quanhai was shaking from head to foot, and said in a shaking voice, “This servant is wronged. This servant does not know this man at all… I beg Your Majesty to see it clearly.”
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose. “Li Quanhai, training men sworn to die takes a great deal of time, does it not? This emperor need only send men to look at the record of your leaving the palace, and the whole of it will be plain.”
Every time a eunuch left the palace it was written down.
For Li Quanhai, as the Empress’s man, to leave the palace was ordinary enough… but to leave it often was another matter.
Li Quanhai’s face went chalk white and the cold sweat stood out on his forehead.
The Xuan Emperor said in anger, “Who set you to training men sworn to die? And who set you to killing Ning Chen? Li Quanhai, will you not tell the truth?”
Li Quanhai turned his head and glanced at the young man beside him, and his eyes turned slowly murderous. “This eunuch kept you in food. This eunuch kept you in drink… You useless creature. You botch the work, and then you have the nerve to turn and bite this eunuch.”
The words were hardly out when his hand shot out. Two fingers went like a blade, quick as lightning, into the young man’s throat, and killed him at a stroke.
Ning Chen was greatly startled. He had never thought Li Quanhai would dare raise a hand in front of His Majesty.
He drew his blade in an instant and cut at Li Quanhai.
But Li Quanhai rolled where he was, out from under Ning Chen’s stroke, came up with the roll, drove off both feet — and threw himself at the Xuan Emperor.
(End of Chapter 212)