The garrison came up.

Ning Chen and the others took Du’e back to the Inspectorate first, and the garrison stayed to clear up.

Back at the Inspectorate, Geng Jing sent Ning Chen and the rest to the sixth department to have their hurts seen to.

Ning Chen looked at Du’e. “Geng the Purple Coat, this man is far too important. Nothing whatever must go wrong with him.”

The corner of Geng Jing’s mouth twitched. “Get off and have your wounds seen to. Do I need you to teach me my business?”

Ning Chen gave a dry laugh, and he and Feng Qizheng and the rest came to the sixth department holding one another up.

Meng Jianbai saw to their hurts himself.

The wounds on Ning Chen’s back and leg both needed stitching.

When Feng Qizheng was being stitched he screamed like a pig under the knife.

Ning Chen and the rest laughed themselves sick at him.

Ning Chen was next.

“Ning the Silver Coat, this will hurt a little. Bear it.”

“Go on. A real man never cries out.”

Meng Jianbai took strong spirits and poured them over Ning Chen’s wounds.

There is no such thing as disinfectant in this world.

“Aah…”

Ning Chen let out a yell and the pain turned his eyeballs red.

Feng Qizheng and the others stood by and laughed without a shred of feeling.

And after that, when the stitching began, Ning Chen cried out worse than Feng Qizheng had.

By the time the stitching was done and the medicine was on, Ning Chen was wrung out altogether… like something a hundred men had taken turns on.

When everyone had been dressed and Ning Chen was about to go to the cells to question Du’e, Meng Jianbai kept him back alone.

“Ning the Silver Coat, there’s an answer on that jar of wine you brought me today.”

Ning Chen said quickly, “What did you find?”

Meng Jianbai said heavily, “There are snow-chill worms in that wine.”

“Snow-chill worms?”

Meng Jianbai nodded. “A worm that lives on the snow mountains of the western regions. Transparent all through, and the size of a needle point. If you don’t look closely you’ll never find one.”

“The creature loves cold and shade. As a rule you can drink them down in wine and take no harm at all… But heat the wine and the snow-chill worm gives off its poison, and the poison of two or three of them will drop a grown man dead on the spot.”

“And the most remarkable part is that once the man is dead and the body cold, the poison cannot be found at all… unless you heat the blood. Then you can find it.”

Ning Chen’s chest tightened. Vicious enough, in all conscience.

“Ning the Silver Coat, where did that jar of yours come from?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Meng the Gold Coat had better not ask. Leave the jar here with you and I’ll come for it later.”

Meng Jianbai asked no more, and only nodded.

Ning Chen’s leg was hurt and walking was awkward, so he simply used his blade for a stick and came limping out of the sixth department.

His eyes had no focus in them. He was plainly turning something over.

The crown prince had said the Empress gave that jar to Old General Chen.

But there was no telling… perhaps the jar was the crown prince’s own, and he had said the Empress gave it in order to draw Ning Chen and Old General Chen to his side.

None of that mattered, in fact. What mattered was that it had put him in mind of something else… the Second Prince.

The Second Prince had dropped dead without warning, and only then had the crown prince had his chance to become heir apparent.

He suspected now that the Second Prince had drunk wine with snow-chill worms in it, and that was why he had died as he did.

Something flickered in Ning Chen’s eyes. I shall have to ask how the Second Prince died.

Still turning it over, Ning Chen came to Geng Jing’s room.

Geng Jing looked at him. “You’re wounded. Why aren’t you at home resting? What are you doing here?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Questioning Du’e, of course.”

“Now?”

“Lord Geng, this man is far too important… I’m afraid of a long night and many dreams (TL Note: an old saying — the longer a thing is left, the more can go wrong with it.). Better to question him tonight.”

Geng Jing thought a moment and inclined his head slightly.

The two of them came to the torture room in the cells and had Du’e brought over.

Du’e was awake.

Ning Chen had him chained to the frame.

Leaning on his blade, Ning Chen came limping up in front of him. “Master Du’e, let’s talk. Talk civil or talk rough — you may choose for yourself.”

“Talk civil means we talk it over quietly and in good temper. I ask, you answer.”

“Talk rough is simple enough. You see all these instruments? You get every one of them, one after another… and by then I won’t have to ask. You’ll tell me everything you know of your own accord.”

Du’e looked at Ning Chen with contempt.

“Ning the Silver Coat, you and I are old friends by now… I know your methods and I know the Inspectorate’s. I never expected to come out of this place alive. Bring out whatever you have.”

Ning Chen looked at him. “You say we’re old friends. What do you mean by that?”

Du’e gave a savage laugh. “Every attempt on your life was made by men I sent.”

The muscle at the corner of Ning Chen’s eye twitched slightly. “Is that how you treat an old friend? Never mind, I forgive you. And since we’re old friends, tell me something true.”

Du’e smiled coldly. “What do you want to know?”

“Start with who is behind you.”

“Behind me?” Du’e’s expression was mocking. “Behind me is the frame. Ning the Silver Coat has gone blind very young, to take a frame for a man.”

A slight change went over Ning Chen’s face and it darkened.

He shook his head with contempt. “Do you think this makes you a hero? I think you’re a fool… Provoking me at a moment like this does you no good at all.”

“Since you want to talk rough, you’ll have it as you wish.”

Ning Chen waved a hand. “Beat him. Beat him until he wants to talk.”

A red coat stepped up, swung the whip and brought it down across Du’e hard.

“Good. That’s a pleasure… Haven’t you eaten? Put some strength into it. Ha, ha, ha…”

Du’e laughed like a madman and taunted them without stopping.

The red coat ground his teeth and swung the whip and laid it on harder.

Before long there were welts across Du’e every which way, the skin split and the flesh open.

The red coat threw the whip down and rubbed coarse salt into the wounds.

“A pleasure, a real pleasure… Is this all you can do? Have you nothing worse?”

“Whatever you have, bring it out. If I so much as frown, I’m a son of yours.”

Du’e taunted them like a madman.

Ning Chen’s face went livid. “Take his nails off for me. One at a time.”

The two red coats set to it together.

The nails of both hands were torn off one at a time.

“That’s all? They say the Inspectorate is the hall of the King of Hell. Hearing a name is nothing to meeting the man — is this the best you can do? It isn’t as hard as what this old man used on the men sworn to die when he trained them… It seems the Inspectorate is all show and nothing behind it. A pack of useless creatures.”

The veins stood out on Du’e’s forehead with the pain and he shook like a sieve of chaff, and still he went on taunting them like a madman.

The two red coats were provoked too.

They took up the branding iron heated red and burned him until the black smoke came off him.

But Du’e only laughed aloud and went on taunting them.

Ning Chen’s brows locked together.

He waved a hand. “It seems all this is child’s play to Master Du’e… Let’s try the wooden donkey. It was made for women prisoners, but it does for a man too. The master is in luck.”

Two red coats dragged the wooden donkey over.

Du’e laughed like a lunatic. “Good, good, good… Be quick about it, let this old man try it. This old man can hardly wait.”

Ning Chen stared.

The fellow must be twisted.

Prisoners before this had been frightened out of their minds at the sight of the wooden donkey.

Geng Jing said heavily, “Stop!”

The two red coats who were about to cut Du’e down stopped.

“Why have you stopped? Don’t stop, go on… This old man still wants to try that wooden donkey.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.

Christ!!!

The fellow is absolutely a man who likes being hurt.

Geng Jing said in a low voice, “There’s something wrong here. He keeps trying to provoke us. He is plainly asking to be killed.”

Ning Chen was taken aback for a moment, and then nodded. “So he is. Who is it, that he’ll spend his life protecting them?”

Geng Jing shook his head. “I don’t know. But we can’t question him any more today… A man who is set on dying is the hardest of all to open by torture.”

“Let him hang two days. Tomorrow we’ll question those men sworn to die and see whether we can find a weak place in him.”

Ning Chen was disappointed, but for the present there was nothing else for it.

Geng Jing said, “Take him back to his cell and keep a close watch on him.”

“Yes!”

Du’e laughed wildly. “Is that the end of it? Is that all you can do? Some Inspectorate — not worth a dog’s fart… every last one of you God damn useless.”

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on Du’e as he shouted, and all at once something seemed to come to him.

“Master Du’e, Li Quanhai sends you his greetings… He says he has gone on ahead and will wait for you in hell.”

Du’e, who had been shouting a moment before, stopped short. He fixed his eyes on Ning Chen, and then all at once began to fight like a madman, dragging the iron chains until they clashed and rattled, and he roared:

“What did you say? What do you mean by that?”

(End of Chapter 219)