Ning Chen was surprised. "You said just now that things were hard at home? But Commander Nie stands high in His Majesty's favor... When he tells you that, isn't it really that he doesn't want you throwing silver away on the girls of the courtesans' quarter?"

Nie Feng shook his head with a bitter smile, and for fear Ning Chen would not believe him, he laid the whole situation out.

It turned out that Nie Liang was not nearly as well off as he looked.

He might stand high in His Majesty's favor, but his yearly salary and allowances together came to no more than two thousand-odd taels.

And his parents at home had been bedridden for years. The cost of physicians and medicine alone was an enormous outlay... Add in all the other expenses of the household, and his salary barely stretched far enough to live on.

Nie Feng was at home waiting on their parents and had no income of his own, so things were tight.

The truth was that a man as high in His Majesty's favor as Nie Liang could have raked money in with no trouble at all.

But perhaps it was simply his character: he had never taken silver from anyone.

Part of it was his post, too. When an ordinary official took silver, it was no more than bribery, and the crime did not carry death.

Nie Liang was another matter. He was answerable for His Majesty's safety, and if he took silver and it ever came out, it became a thing that endangered His Majesty's life... The entire household to the sword would be getting off lightly.

So he did not dare.

Ning Chen looked Nie Feng over. The clothes on him were not new, and the hems had been washed pale at the edges... which meant he was not lying.

Nie Feng bent from the waist and pleaded. "I beg Ning the Silver Coat to keep this quiet for me. Last night some old classmates pressed the invitation so warmly that I could not refuse, and that is the only reason…