The Ministry of Justice’s cells were dark and cramped, the air damp and foul.

“Watch your step, Minister, Ning the Silver Coat!”

The head jailer went ahead with a lantern, all eagerness and flattery.

The jailers inside had been slacking off, and at the sound of him they hurried to stand up straight.

Zisu was held in the deepest part of the cells.

And the deepest part was where they kept men under sentence of death.

Zisu had attempted Prince Duan and killed Xiuzhou’s Governor and Prefect… barring something unforeseen, she would certainly die.

In the cell across from Zisu’s, several men awaiting execution had hold of the bars, faces forced into the gaps and squeezed out of shape, leering at her and laughing.

“Little lady, stand up and let your elders have a look.”

“Little lady, your elders are taking the last road in a few days. Take your clothes off and give us something to look at.”

“Little beauty, look over here…”

Vile, sickening laughter echoed through the depths of the prison.

These were all condemned men, killers and robbers, the worst of the worst, with nothing left to hold them back.

Ordinarily, apart from bringing food, even the jailers preferred not to come down to the deep end.

There had been a case once of a jailer strangled to death by a condemned man.

The condemned man had waited for the food to be handed out and used the chain between his manacles… which is why the chains between manacles and leg irons were shortened afterward.

There were very few women in these death cells.

And fewer still as beautiful as Zisu.

So the sight of her had sent the condemned men wild.

Every one of them was saying filthy things, and some had gone so far as to take their trousers off, in every kind of ugliness.

In this the Ministry of Justice’s cells fell short of the Inspectorate’s.

Condemned or not, in the Inspectorate’s cells they broke a man in and made him docile. So you aren’t afraid to die? Fine. Are you afraid of wishing you were dead?

Because the Ministry of Justice did keep to the rules, and did everything by the regulations.

The Inspectorate’s cells had no rules at all. Anything that would open a prisoner’s mouth was fair, and if a man died, he died, and nobody cared.

Once you were in the Inspectorate’s cells, nobody came out alive. The only question was whether you wanted to die quickly.

Which is why the Inspectorate’s cells were called the hall of the King of Hell.

Zisu was huddled in the corner with her head down, like a puppet with no life in it, deaf to the whole chorus of it.

“Shut up. All of you, shut your mouths!”

The head jailer roared at them.

Far from being frightened, the condemned men howled back, jeering at him… some of them started in on his mother.

Ning Chen came to the door of Zisu’s cell, and his eyes narrowed.

The beauty who had been like carved jade was crouched in the corner, her white dress covered in blood. It looked as though she had been put to torture.

The image rose in Ning Chen’s mind of a woman all in white, fine as jade, carrying her medicine case, her smile like a flower… his chest gave a sudden twist and his fists closed without his thinking about it.

Ning Chen turned around, looked at the condemned men displaying themselves in the cell behind him, and said mildly, “Open it.”

The head jailer looked at Li Zhixing.

At the same moment Zisu raised her head. She had heard a voice she knew.

Looking out through the bars at that straight-backed figure, Zisu blinked several times, and something came back into her empty eyes.

Li Zhixing looked at Ning Chen. “These men go to the block in the spring. They’re the worst of the worst. There’s no need for Ning the Silver Coat to pay them any attention.”

Ning Chen looked at him and said mildly, “On a battlefield I’ve seen men a hundred times worse than they are… I’ll trouble Lord Li to have him open the door.”

Li Zhixing frowned slightly, but in the end he gave the head jailer a nod.

The head jailer came forward carefully and opened the cell door.

The condemned men inside stared for a moment when they saw the door open, and then a savage light came into their eyes and they came howling out.

Bang!!!

Ning Chen stepped in and kicked the first one clear off his feet, and the two behind him went down where they stood.

Ning Chen charged into the cell and dropped a man with one heavy punch, knocking several teeth loose.

He turned, caught another by the arm and put him into a clean shoulder throw, slamming him against the cell wall hard enough to shake the whole room.

One of the men on the floor was getting up when Ning Chen kicked him in the face, shattering his nose and driving his teeth through his lip. He screamed.

Ning Chen turned, hauled a man up off the floor by the hair, and hit him in the face, punch after punch, until it was pulp.

Ning Chen unfastened the service sword at his waist and laid into them with it, head and shoulders, putting his whole strength behind every stroke.

The screaming in that cell chilled the blood.

The head jailer broke out in a cold sweat and stood shaking. These Inspectorate men were far harder than anyone in his own ministry.

He said unsteadily, “Minister, if this goes on much longer, somebody’s going to be killed.”

Li Zhixing glanced at Zisu, then looked back at Ning Chen, something moving behind his eyes.

He thought for a moment, then said, “Ning the Silver Coat—”

“Aaah!!!”

A scream drowned out the rest of it.

The head jailer went white with fright, his legs shaking, and nearly dropped the lantern.

Li Zhixing had gone pale too, and his knees snapped together.

Because Ning Chen had cut away the son’s root of the man who had dropped his trousers.

Then Li Zhixing’s face changed and he called out sharply, “Ning the Silver Coat, you can’t—”

Before he could finish, the screaming stopped short. Ning Chen’s blade had gone straight through the man’s neck.

Ning Chen pulled the sword out and walked toward the next one.

The condemned men, who a moment ago had feared nothing in heaven or earth, shrank back from him and screamed in terror.

“Ning the Silver Coat, stop. Stop this now—”

Li Zhixing shouted it.

But Ning Chen’s blade came down and cut the man dead.

Ning Chen swung again.

One stroke, one man.

In a few moments all six of the condemned men in that cell were dead by his hand.

Li Zhixing stood with his mouth open, not knowing what to say. Anything he said now would be too late.

The head jailer was too frightened to stand. If he had not had the wall to hold onto, he would have been down on the floor.

Ning Chen shook the blood off the blade, put the sword away, and walked out of the cell.

Seeing him come out, the prisoners in the neighboring cells who had been hanging on their bars to watch shrank back in a hurry.

Li Zhixing looked at Ning Chen. “You’re putting this official in an impossible position. Condemned men or not, there are rules to follow… this official should never have brought you down here.”

Ning Chen turned to the head jailer and said with a smile, “Brother jailer, would you fetch me a basin of water?”

“Yes—yes, right away!”

The head jailer’s legs went out from under him, and he stumbled off at a run.

Only then did Ning Chen look at Li Zhixing, smiling. “My apologies. Ning here has just come off a battlefield. There are some aftereffects. It takes a while to get out of it.”

“I’ll trouble Lord Li to send up a memorial to His Majesty. Say these men insulted me, that Ning here has just come off a battlefield and couldn’t hold his temper, and that he cut them all down.”

Li Zhixing’s face twitched. Sure enough—a favorite has nothing to be afraid of.

Ning Chen was fresh back from the war with a brilliant record, and with His Majesty’s favor on top of it. Never mind a few condemned men. He could probably kill another Empress’s brother and come to no harm.

Just then the head jailer came back with a basin of water.

Ning Chen washed his hands clean, shook them dry, took out a silver note and pressed it on the jailer. “Would you have someone see to the bodies, brother jailer. And don’t put anyone in that cell for the time being.”

“And one more thing. It’s dark and cold down here—would you bring in a few thick quilts. I’m a man who takes pity on a pretty face, and I can’t stand to see a beauty suffer, even one under sentence of death.”

The head jailer was close to tears. He liked silver, but this note he truly did not dare take.

And on top of that—if you’re going to bribe a man, at least cover it up a little. Slipping me a silver note in front of my own superior, are you trying to get me thrown out of my job?

But he didn’t dare refuse either. This gentleman killed men without blinking, and if he refused, would he be cut down where he stood?

He turned a miserable face toward Li Zhixing, and then stared.

Li Zhixing had turned his head away, as though he had seen nothing at all.

(End of Chapter 288)