Ning Chen's gaze came to rest on Fan Taihe, his face calm.

He had long since stopped being the Ning Chen who acted on hot blood alone.

Once, seeing forged letters like these, he would have been angry enough to draw his blade and cut Fan Taihe down.

"Lord Fan. Where did these letters come from?"

Fan Taihe said in a low voice, "The marquis need not ask that... This minister wants only to ask the marquis one thing. Did the marquis write these secret letters?"

Ning Chen shook his head. "And if I say I did not?"

"No matter. That is simple enough. The hand can be compared here and now... If the marquis has been wronged, this minister will take the punishment."

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes, covering the hard light in them. This Fan Taihe had come prepared.

Ning Chen turned to the Xuan Emperor and bowed. "Your Majesty, these letters are forgeries... Your subject never wrote them."

The Xuan Emperor's brows drew tight and he was about to speak, but Fan Taihe said loudly, "Your Majesty, your subject has no wish to wrong the marquis either... So your subject insists that the hand be compared here and now."

Ning Chen said flatly, "If they are forgeries, then naturally the work will be seamless... Lord Fan, forging a hand is not so hard, is it?"

Fan Taihe said, "Making a hand match is not easy either."

"The marquis says these letters are forged. Then let the hand be compared. Let the marquis clear his own name, and clear this minister's with it."

Ning Chen gave a cold laugh. "Let me ask Lord Fan something. With the standing Ning here holds now, why would he league with the Fourth Prince of Nanyue?"

Fan Taihe said in a low voice, "For gain, naturally."

Ning Chen said coldly, "That is absurd. Does Lord Fan think Nanyue is richer than my Great Xuan, or that Nanyue could give me more than His Majesty gives me?"

"By standing, I am a marquis of the Great Xuan, a General of the Second Rank,…