The Xuan Emperor said nothing for a long time.

Inside the Hall of Cultivated Heart there was a dead silence.

Geng Jing’s back was soaked through with cold sweat.

Eunuch Quan had his head down as well, and did not dare draw a full breath.

Only Ning Chen kept raising his head to steal a glance at the Xuan Emperor… His leg was hurt, kneeling hurt too much, and he was hoping the Xuan Emperor would tell him to get up.

The next time Ning Chen raised his head to sneak a look — he had lost count of how many that made — the Xuan Emperor happened to be looking straight at him.

Their eyes met, and Ning Chen put on an awkward, foolish grin.

A muscle jumped at the corner of the Xuan Emperor’s eye. “Get up.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Ning Chen braced himself on the stool, got up, sat down on it, and said with the same foolish grin, “Your Majesty, there’s really no need to be so angry about it… What house doesn’t have a few rotten children in it?”

Geng Jing’s heart and Eunuch Quan’s gave a violent jolt… What kind of thing is that to say?

Is the crown prince to be measured against the children of an ordinary household?

The Xuan Emperor let out a deep sigh, and his face did in fact ease a good deal.

He rubbed at the space between his brows, out of patience.

“If the crown prince really did this… then this emperor will have to look at him with new eyes.”

All at once the Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Geng Jing. Hear the command.”

“Your subject is here.”

“This emperor commands you to take men, this instant, and search the prince’s residence.”

“Your subject receives the command.”

Ning Chen said quickly, “Your Majesty, your subject asks to go with Lord Geng.”

“You stay where you are. This emperor has more to ask you.”

Geng Jing glanced at Ning Chen, and then withdrew.

The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Ning Chen, this emperor asks you: do you believe what that Di Shan said?”

Ning Chen said, his whole face serious, “Your subject half believes it and half does not.”

“Mm?”

Ning Chen said, “The crown prince is the heir apparent of the Great Xuan. Until there is hard proof of it, your subject does not believe he is that kind of man.”

The Xuan Emperor murmured under his breath, “Heir apparent of the Great Xuan? But if the Second Prince were alive, he…”

Ning Chen did not catch the rest of it.

He could guess at it, though. What the Xuan Emperor meant was that if the Second Prince were alive, the place of heir apparent would never have fallen to the crown prince.

The Xuan Emperor let out a deep sigh, and the whole of him looked tired. “Ning Chen. Would you say this emperor has made a failure of it?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Your subject truly thinks Your Majesty is a good emperor… From the earliest times until now, how many emperors have known men and used them well, kept loyal ministers near and treacherous ones at a distance? Your Majesty is an enlightened ruler for the ages.”

Eunuch Quan gave him a sidelong look. You’ve laid the flattery on so thick there’s none left for me to lay on.

The Xuan Emperor smiled bitterly. “Enlightened? What this emperor wanted was peace for the Great Xuan, the common people living settled and content, elder brothers kind and younger brothers dutiful, households at peace with themselves. And it appears he has not managed one of them.”

“Ning Chen. Would you say this emperor has been too greedy?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “What Your Majesty asks for is what the common people of the realm want, and it goes with the heart of the people… It is only that some men will not be content to keep to their own place, and none of that is Your Majesty’s fault.”

The Xuan Emperor really was a good emperor — merciful, hardworking, and very able… but the fault in him was just as plain. He was not decisive enough about killing. Put plainly, he was not hard enough.

The merciful do not command troops; the honorable do not handle money.

The Xuan Emperor held the power of life and death over the whole realm in his hand, and he thought too much of family feeling, and there were times when that came to raising a tiger that would turn on him.

From the way he had reacted just now, it was clear enough. His Majesty must know there was something wrong with Prince Fu, and had never yet moved against him.

The Xuan Emperor sighed slightly. “Ning Chen. Are you willing to look into this business of the crown prince for this emperor and get it clear?”

“Your subject is entirely at Your Majesty’s command.”

The Xuan Emperor was silent a while before he spoke. “Ning Chen. Get to the truth of it for this emperor.”

“Your subject obeys the command.”

In his own heart the Xuan Emperor still could not quite believe it. Would the crown prince, who had always been so honest and mild, do a thing like murdering his own brother?

Ning Chen said suddenly, “Your Majesty, Di Shan let slip one thing more.”

“What thing?”

“The Left Chancellor may have fled to Mangzhou.”

“Mangzhou?” The Xuan Emperor thought for a moment. “This emperor will send down an edict at once and have the Governor of Mangzhou set an investigation going and drag the man out.”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Your Majesty. What worries your subject is that the officials of Mangzhou, high and low, are the Left Chancellor’s men… Setting them to investigate would only beat the grass and startle the snake.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded. There was sense in what Ning Chen said.

“What do you have in mind?”

Ning Chen said, “Your subject thinks men might be sent to Mangzhou in secret to find out what they can… Once it is certain the Left Chancellor is in fact in Mangzhou, it will not be too late to move then.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded. “Do it the way you say. Talk this over with Geng Jing, and send men to Mangzhou in secret.”

“Your subject obeys the command.”

The Xuan Emperor rubbed at the space between his brows, out of patience. “Ning Chen, the night is far gone and this emperor is tired… You may go. Anything else can wait until tomorrow.”

“Yes. Your subject takes his leave.”

“Ning Chen. Do you want an imperial physician to look at that wound?”

Ning Chen said with a smile, “Thank you for Your Majesty’s concern. Your subject is all right. They doctor well enough in the Inspectorate’s sixth department.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded slightly and waved a hand.

Ning Chen withdrew.

The Xuan Emperor sighed lightly. “Quan Sheng. This emperor truly never thought he would come to this in the end.”

“Has this emperor not given him enough? On his deathbed the Father Emperor took this emperor by the hand and made him promise to treat them well… This emperor has done it all this time. Why can they never be satisfied?”

Eunuch Quan kept his head down and did not dare say a word, though in fact it was all as clear to him as a bright mirror.

The Xuan Emperor sat there blankly a while.

Then all at once he spoke. “Quan Sheng. Draw up an edict.”

Quan Sheng said hastily, “Yes.”

In a little while the two imperial edicts were drawn up.

The Xuan Emperor looked at the two edicts, and his eyes hardened by degrees. “Quan Sheng. These two edicts are to go out of the palace in secret. One to Old General Chen. One to Ning Chen.”

“This servant obeys the command.”

Eunuch Quan went at once to see to it, and the two edicts were sent secretly out of the palace.

“Your Majesty, the edicts have gone out.”

Eunuch Quan had come back to report it.

The Xuan Emperor inclined his head slightly. “Quan Sheng. You and Nie Liang will come with this emperor to look in on Prince Fu.”

And at that hour, in the Hibiscus Palace.

The Empress burned the slip of paper in her hand to ash. Her face was a dreadful white, and that big pancake face was full of terror.

She was confined, yes, but she had been building her position in the palace a long time, after all. Word could still be passed in to her.

The word she had just had was that the men sworn to die she had trained had been taken, the whole pot at once.

Di Shan had been taken.

And Geng Jing and Ning Chen had gone into the palace at dead of night.

She had a foreboding of it, a constant sense that some great disaster was coming down on her head, and she could neither sit nor stand still.

And at that same hour, a young eunuch pushed a small slip of paper through the crack of a door, into the room where Prince Fu was being cleared of the drug.

Prince Fu had been staying in the palace of late to break the habit.

But he had never taken immortal powder at all, and the craving that came over him every day was put on.

Prince Fu took the slip of paper and opened it and read: Di Shan taken. Geng Jing and Ning Chen into the palace at dead of night. Geng Jing left first.

Prince Fu’s face filled with alarm on the instant.

Frightened and uneasy, he paced back and forth in the room.

Di Shan taken. Ning Chen and Geng Jing into the palace at dead of night to stand before the emperor.

They must have turned something up. Otherwise they would not go into the palace in the middle of the night and disturb His Majesty.

The Medicine King was hidden in his residence, and it was Di Shan who had sent men to escort him there.

Prince Fu stopped where he stood, all at once, and his eyes turned dark and vicious.

He went to the candle flame and burned the slip of paper, then blew the candle out, lifted it down, went over to the bed, and with the jade pin from his hair made a small hole in the candle a little below the top of it.

Then he tore open the corner of his robe, took out a piece of wood the size of a fingernail, crushed it small, poured it into the hole he had made in the candle with the jade pin, took a little of the wax that had run down the side, stopped the hole up with it, and smoothed it flat.

When all that was done he set the candle back on its stand, in its place.

Prince Fu looked at the candle he had tampered with, and his eyes were dark and vicious.

“His Majesty is here!”

Just then Eunuch Quan’s thin, high voice came from outside, and Prince Fu’s body gave a violent shudder and he went white in the face.

(End of Chapter 222)