Ning Chen smiled. “How am I not the same?”
Yuan Zishi was entirely serious.
“You’re Ning the Silver Coat, who wouldn’t bow to power and cut down the Empress’s brother for the common people. You’re the hero who cut his way clean through the North Royal Court for the people of the frontier… and they’re nothing but the emperor’s hawks and hounds.”
Cutting down the Empress’s brother was my brain going out on me, and living through it was a miracle. Cutting my way through the North Royal Court was because I needed war merit to keep me safe. I’m an ordinary man, and don’t go thinking so well of me, Ning Chen said inwardly.
But none of that could be said aloud. A reputation that hard to build could not be allowed to collapse.
Ning Chen sighed. “Elder Brother Yuan, don’t be so bitter about the world… not everyone in the Inspectorate is a bad man.”
“Think about it properly. The Inspectorate exists to watch the officials. Without the Inspectorate to put the fear into them, how many more corrupt officials and crooked clerks would there be in this world?”
Yuan Zishi frowned. “You won’t kill the three of them?”
Ning Chen had nothing to say to that. “Elder Brother Yuan, don’t be so quick to kill… Those three are good brothers I’ve gone through life and death with. Even knowing what we are to each other, they’ll keep it for me.”
Yuan Zishi shook his head. “You trust them. I don’t.”
Ning Chen said evenly, “I trust them. I don’t trust you.”
Yuan Zishi stared at him, taken aback.
“Younger Brother Ning, we’re brothers in the school. I would never do you harm.”
Ning Chen laughed lightly. “And how long have we known each other? Set against you, I trust them more.”
Yuan Zishi could not help frowning. “Younger Brother Ning, for your own safety, those three have to die.”
Ning Chen’s face turned grave, and he said it one word at a time. “Elder Brother Yuan, touch them and I’ll bring soldiers and wipe out the Ghost-Shadow Sect.”
Yuan Zishi was badly startled. “You—you—”
“Elder Brother Yuan, don’t doubt what I can do… So the Ghost-Shadow Sect is the first assassins’ organization in the jianghu. What of it? Will you stand up to the armies of Great Xuan?”
“If I choose to, a thousand armored horsemen under me will flatten any power in the jianghu.”
“Elder Brother Yuan, trust between men has to be built up over time. It doesn’t come of an empty mouth and white teeth.”
Ning Chen said it with his face perfectly grave.
Yuan Zishi was silent.
After a while he raised his head. “You trust them that much?”
What a stupid question. If I don’t trust them, am I supposed to trust you? Ning Chen said inwardly.
He nodded. “Elder Brother Yuan, once I’m back, I’ll find a way to take the Ghost-Shadow Sect off the Inspectorate’s wanted list.”
“Don’t think so poorly of the Inspectorate. I hear you’ve assassinated a few officials of the court, and I’m sure not one of them was a good official… but the Inspectorate has killed a great many more corrupt officials and crooked clerks than you have.”
“The Inspectorate and the Ghost-Shadow Sect shouldn’t be enemies… And if you really make the Inspectorate angry, making one jianghu power disappear is not a hard thing for it to do.”
“You don’t have to trust the Inspectorate. But you ought to trust my character… I don’t misjudge the men I trust.”
Yuan Zishi was silent a while, then nodded slightly. “All right. I’ll do as you say.”
Ning Chen smiled. “Elder Brother Yuan, how did you find me?”
Yuan Zishi said, “Our Ghost-Shadow Sect is good at tracking… I followed you from Yangping County all the way here.”
Ning Chen asked, “You came on the hoofprints?”
Yuan Zishi nodded. “You’re riding a black-maned horse. That kind is bred to pull a cart, so the hooves are heavy and the prints go deep and wide, and the stride between them is short when it runs… And there’s the dung. Your horses were fed good grain at the county yamen. It isn’t hard to tell.”
“It seems our uncle never had time to teach you any of this. If you want to learn it, when you have a chance to come back to the school you can learn it at your leisure.”
Ning Chen made a sound of agreement.
“Elder Brother Yuan, who sent you to kill me?”
“Gao Xiuming.”
“Who is Gao Xiuming?”
“The steward of the prince’s household.”
“Prince Duan’s household?”
Yuan Zishi nodded, and then said, still shaken, “Thank heaven I recognized your bladework. If I really had killed you, I doubt I’d have gotten home without my master beating me to death.”
“And if it got out among our fellows in the jianghu, the Ghost-Shadow Sect would be drowned in spit.”
Ning Chen laughed. “Elder Brother Yuan, don’t be so confident… You may all be first-rate, but the four of us aren’t soft in the leg either.”
“We’re all men who came through fighting on a battlefield. If it had really come down to killing, the ones who died would have been you… Recognizing my bladework saved your own lives.”
Yuan Zishi said, “…”
Ning Chen said, “Don’t doubt it. What you people do is small stuff. If you don’t believe me, go and try a battlefield… The blood runs like a river, and hell itself is nothing worse.”
Yuan Zishi had no answer to that.
Set against a battlefield, killing one man or two really was small stuff.
Yuan Zishi said, “Younger Brother Ning, since your elder brother nearly killed the wrong man this time, he owes you something back… Wait for word from me. I’ll go and finish Gao Xiuming.”
“The son of a bitch actually lied to us… Even if you weren’t my younger brother in the school, Ning the Silver Coat of Great Xuan is not a man anybody may kill. He meant to make us faithless.”
Ning Chen’s eyes flickered, and he nodded. “Good. I’ll wait here for Elder Brother Yuan’s good news.”
Yuan Zishi nodded, stood up and made a sign to the assassins a little way off, and then the whole company left quickly.
Feng Qizheng and the other two came running over.
“How is it they’ve gone?”
Chen Chong asked it.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “They’ve gone to see to something.”
Yuan Zishi had offered to kill Gao Xiuming, and the reason Ning Chen had not refused was that he wanted to test whether these men could be relied on.
If they really did kill Gao Xiuming, he was willing to try trusting this Ghost-Shadow Sect… It was the first assassins’ organization in the jianghu after all, and there would be great use for it later.
Feng Qizheng rubbed his belly and swore. “Those bastards. I hadn’t been able to go for days, I finally got some feeling in me, and I was half done when an arrow damn near went into my ass… I never even got to wipe. I came running with my trousers in my hand.”
The three of them looked disgusted.
Chen Chong planted a kick on his backside. “Do you have any idea how disgusting you are?”
“A dozen sharp arrows coming at you and you’d have time to wipe your ass? You three talk. I’m going back to squat a while. A job’s worth finishing.”
Feng Qizheng went off rubbing his belly, and did not forget to turn his head and say, “Don’t any of you peek.”
The three of them rolled their eyes. The shameless creature.
Gao Ziping sat down on the rock beside Ning Chen, glanced at him, and started to speak and stopped.
Ning Chen glanced back and grinned wickedly. “Say it straight out. Are you bound up too, like Old Feng?”
The corner of Gao Ziping’s mouth twitched hard several times.
“Ning Chen, I think you’d do better to keep your distance from the Ghost-Shadow Sect… An ordinary jianghu power would be one thing. But the Ghost-Shadow Sect has assassinated officials of the court. His Majesty was furious and issued an edict for the Inspectorate to deal with them hard.”
“Mid-year, Geng the Purple Coat was preparing to wipe the Ghost-Shadow Sect out completely… It was only put off because too much else came up. Once his hands are free, Geng the Purple Coat will certainly settle with them.”
Ning Chen frowned. Against the vast machinery of a state, the Ghost-Shadow Sect could not take a blow.
He nodded slightly. “Set your mind at rest, I know what to do. And keep this between us.”
Chen Chong laughed. “That depends on what it’s worth to you.”
“What do you want it to be worth?”
Chen Chong held up two fingers. “Two nights at the courtesans’ quarter, on you.”
Ning Chen laughed. “I’ll round it up for you… ten.”
“Sworn father above, receive your son’s obeisance!” Chen Chong cupped his fists and went down on one knee, and did not forget to pull Gao Ziping along with him. “Old Gao, don’t just stand there. Come and pay your respects to our sworn father.”
“Ha ha ha… I heard you say courtesans’ quarter. When are we going?”
Feng Qizheng stood up from behind a clump of grass some way off, showing half a big black backside.
Ning Chen felt for a stone and threw it at him. “Go take your shit!”
(End of Chapter 311)