When Li Zhixing had come back to himself he said hurriedly, “Marquis, this is not a thing to joke about. It is His Majesty’s own order.”
He thought Ning Chen was refusing to hand the man over in order to protect Ning Ziming.
Ning Chen sighed. “Everything I have said is true… Ask them if you don’t believe me.”
Pan Yucheng and Gao Ziping nodded.
Li Zhixing’s expression stiffened. “This — how did this come about?”
Ning Chen hid nothing. He told it through.
Li Zhixing’s face went serious. “This is plainly aimed at you.”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.
“Marquis, a word aside.”
The two of them went out into the courtyard.
Li Zhixing lowered his voice. “Marquis, this must be held down… Once it gets out, if you take the name of killing your own father, it will not only affect the marriage with the princess. I am afraid it will destroy your prospects entirely.”
“Let’s do this. I’ll find a way to put a condemned man in Lord Ning’s place—”
He had not finished before he saw Ning Chen wave a hand.
“I am afraid it won’t do. At a beheading the identity is verified, and once the thing is exposed that is the crime of deceiving the sovereign. You could hardly escape the blame yourself.”
Li Zhixing said, “I’ll put my own men in as coroner and executioner both… I guarantee there will be no trouble.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “And if on the day of the beheading the President of the Secretariat appears and demands that the identity be verified… what then?”
“This…” Li Zhixing did not follow. “Why would the President of the Secretariat do that?”
Ning Chen smiled. “I only put it as an example… If not the President of the Secretariat, then somebody else will show up and demand the identity be verified.”
Li Zhixing frowned. “Then what do we do?”
“Go into the palace, see His Majesty, and impeach me.”
Li Zhixing gave a start. “How can that be right?”
“Concealing it is the crime of deceiving the sovereign, and you would be dragged in with the rest… So report it to His Majesty exactly as it happened. Go on. Geng the Purple Coat has gone into the palace already.”
When Li Zhixing had been seen off, Ning Chen’s eyes turned cold.
The other side’s move was a hard one, and no mistake.
They wanted not only to ruin his name and destroy his prospects. They wanted to drag down everyone who stood close to him.
He had thought that with the Empress and the Left Chancellor dealt with he could sleep easy in the capital… He had not expected this man in the dark to be crueler still.
Who could this man be?
The President of the Secretariat?
The Fourth Prince?
There was certainly something wrong with this President of the Secretariat.
And the snake-toad poison pointed at the Fourth Prince.
Ning Chen was still turning it over when Feng Qizheng came storming in from the courtyard, his whole face furious.
“Weren’t you supposed to be watching the Heavenly Blessing Tower’s manager? What’s happened?”
Feng Qizheng said angrily, “Damn the Heavenly Blessing Tower’s manager… Something big has happened. It’s going around outside now that you’re a man out of his senses — that you poisoned your own father to climb the high branch, to marry the princess, to show His Majesty your loyalty.”
Pan Yucheng and Gao Ziping heard it too and came out of the room with their faces grim.
Gao Ziping said angrily, “Who the hell is spreading that? Bring him in and let him taste what the Inspectorate does to people. See if he still dares talk nonsense.”
Pan Yucheng’s face was iron dark. “Three men make a tiger. Poisoning his own father — heaven itself would not bear it… If this gets right out, I am afraid it will raise the people’s anger.”
“And then the hero of the Great Xuan becomes a man out of his senses… I am afraid it will affect your marriage to the princess.”
“The men spreading these rumors have to be arrested… We cannot let them turn black into white with a mouth full of lies.”
But Ning Chen burst out laughing.
The three of them looked at him, taken aback.
They were half frantic, and Ning Chen could actually laugh?
Ning Chen said, smiling, “They’ve told it with eyes and a nose on it… Poisoning his own father to marry a princess, for high place and fat pay. As reasons go, it stands up well enough.”
Feng Qizheng was flying off the handle. “You — you can still laugh?”
Ning Chen smiled. “Will crying solve it?”
Feng Qizheng said anxiously, “But we can’t sit here waiting to be killed and let them talk their nonsense. Ning Chen, you’re the clever one. Think of something, quickly.”
Ning Chen smiled. “Cheap tricks like these? One move breaks it.”
The three of them looked at him together.
Pan Yucheng said, “You had a plan already?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“What is it? Tell us!”
Ning Chen smiled. “Don’t worry. Is my good name a thing they can pull down with three words and two?”
“Old Pan, put every red coat in the Inspectorate out on the street… Have them go as common people and quietly track the rumor to its source.”
Pan Yucheng nodded. “And then?”
“And then?” Ning Chen thought a moment, then smiled. “And then I’m off into the palace to be scolded!”
“I’ll see you at the courtesans’ quarter tonight!”
Ning Chen waved a hand and went off, waggling his head from side to side.
He left Pan Yucheng and the other two looking at one another.
The Hall of Cultivated Heart.
The Xuan Emperor’s brows drew together slightly.
Geng Jing had only gone that afternoon, and here was Li Zhixing.
Both of them had come about the same thing.
The Xuan Emperor glanced at Quan Sheng. “What do you make of it?”
Eunuch Quan said hurriedly, “This servant is a dull creature and knows only how to wait on Your Majesty. He understands nothing else… But this servant does feel that Marquis Ning could not have done such a thing.”
The Xuan Emperor gave a snort of laughter. “Of course he would not do anything so stupid… Ning Ziming is to be beheaded in three days. For him to go and poison the man now, he would have to be sick in the head.”
“What angers this emperor is the man scheming against Ning Chen… This is meant to ruin his name entirely. It is as vicious as anything could be.”
Eunuch Quan asked carefully, “Then Marquis Ning has been schemed against?”
The Xuan Emperor said sourly, “You elm-block head. Isn’t it as plain as anything?”
“This servant is a fool. Calm your anger, Your Majesty… What — what do we do now?”
The Xuan Emperor said, low, “This emperor has already ordered Geng Jing and Li Zhixing to investigate. Ning Chen must be cleared… Find the hand behind it, and this emperor will have him flayed alive.”
“That anyone should dare frame the consort this emperor chose himself… Detestable!”
Just then a young eunuch came in with light steps and knelt. “Your Majesty, Marquis Ning begs an audience.”
The Xuan Emperor was brought up short. “Send him in.”
“Yes!”
The young eunuch withdrew.
Before long Ning Chen came in.
“Your subject greets Your Majesty!”
The Xuan Emperor kept his face flat. “You still have the face to come and see this emperor… Don’t you call yourself clever? How did you come to be schemed against?”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
Even a tiger dozes off sometimes, all right?
He ate at the Heavenly Blessing Tower all the time. The devil himself could not have guessed he would take it into his head to pack up some food there on the spur of the moment and find poison in it.
“Your subject knows he was at fault. Calm your anger, Your Majesty.”
Ning Chen looked perfectly meek. “Your Majesty does not suspect that your subject poisoned Ning Ziming?”
The Xuan Emperor’s hand went to the teacup on the table without thinking, and Ning Chen dodged aside without thinking.
And the Xuan Emperor only lifted it and took a sip.
The Xuan Emperor said sourly, “What are you twisting about for?”
Ning Chen: ???
Fuck!!!
You were about to throw that cup at me. Don’t think I didn’t see it… Ning Chen groused inwardly.
“This emperor has told Geng Jing and Li Zhixing to put everything into the investigation. You will be cleared… In future be more careful in what you do. Don’t have this emperor worrying every day over these trifles of yours.”
Ning Chen looked the picture of honesty. “Your subject is frightened! Your Majesty misses nothing, as ever. One look and you saw that your subject was wronged.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face twitched slightly. “Apart from an elm-block head like Quan Sheng, what man with eyes could fail to see you were wronged?”
Eunuch Quan: “……”
Ning Chen looked at Eunuch Quan, shot through the heart for nothing at all, and had to fight down a laugh.
The Xuan Emperor said, “This emperor has issued an order and held the matter down… Look into it yourself too. This man has some dark design, and he must be dug out for this emperor as soon as possible, before the news spreads and the common people believe it blindly, not knowing the truth of it.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Your Majesty, the news is already out!”
“What?”
The Xuan Emperor gave a start, and his face darkened at once.
(End of Chapter 340)