Ning Chen watched the Right Chancellor’s back with narrowed eyes and gave a small, contemptuous laugh.
“Hurry off and talk it over with your master.”
Ning Chen said it under his breath.
Beating the grass to startle the snake was exactly what he wanted.
The man behind the Right Chancellor was buried too deep. Without beating the grass and startling the snake, it would be hard to make him jump out.
When court broke up, the Xuan Emperor did not go to the imperial study. He went to a room.
The old man in the room saw the Xuan Emperor and rose in a hurry to make his bow.
“Enough of that. Your legs are bad. There is no need for it.”
As he spoke, the Xuan Emperor walked over and sat down. “This emperor restored Ning Chen’s office a little while ago.”
The old man brightened. “Then can this old subject go home?”
“Not yet.” The Xuan Emperor shook his head. “When Ning Chen comes back from the Wu Kingdom, this emperor has one more thing that needs doing.”
The old man’s face fell.
“Your Majesty. It is two months to the Wu Kingdom and back. Is this old subject to hide in here for two months?”
The Xuan Emperor said, smiling, “The man who really tried to kill you has not been found. Go outside and you are still in danger. Sit quietly here.”
The old man’s face went sour.
Out of the palace, Ning Chen rode to the Inspectorate.
“Young Master Ning!”
The red coats at the Inspectorate gate saw Ning Chen and their faces filled with delight. It had been a while since anyone had seen Ning Chen.
Ning Chen swung down from the saddle. “Call me marquis. I’ve been restored to my former office.”
The men brightened.
“We greet Marquis Ning!”
Ning Chen laughed and tossed them some odd bits of silver. “When you’re let off, take the brothers out for a drink on me.”
“Thank you, my lord!”
Ning Chen walked into the Inspectorate, smiling, and made his way to the first department.
“Ning Chen?”
At the sight of Ning Chen, the whole first department came pouring over at once.
They had not seen Ning Chen in months.
When they heard Ning Chen had been restored to his former office they were all delighted for him, and were soon shouting about celebrating at the courtesans’ quarter that evening.
“Pah… I’m a decent man. What decent man goes to the courtesans’ quarter?”
Ning Chen traded jokes and abuse with them for a while, put down a hundred-tael silver note, and left.
He had come to the Inspectorate on real business.
After seeing Geng Jing and Pan Yucheng, Ning Chen lifted a jar of wine from Geng Jing’s room and carried it down to the deepest part of the Inspectorate’s cells.
“Open the door!”
The jailer opened it and withdrew.
Ning Chen carried the wine in.
“Your Highness. It’s been a long time.”
Ning Chen looked the deposed crown prince over as he said it.
The deposed crown prince was in fair spirits. He was of the imperial line after all, and though he was no longer the heir apparent, the charges against him had not been settled, so the Inspectorate had looked after him well enough.
The deposed crown prince looked at Ning Chen and smiled. “It’s been a long time.”
“It has. How have you been lately?”
The deposed crown prince said, smiling, “Well enough. No plotting and scheming every day, no men cheating one another… This kind of life suits me.”
“If you knew that, why go to all the trouble in the first place?”
The deposed crown prince shook his head. “You don’t understand. Born into an imperial house, a man has no choice but to fight.”
“The place of heir apparent is not like the throne, which cannot be shaken. From the day I sat down in the place of heir apparent I had to defend it with my life. There were too many men who wanted to pull me off it.”
“Because once you fall, there is no coming back from it — like me now, shut in a cell, with not long to live.”
“Ning Chen, you’re clever enough. You must know there is nothing on earth so heartless as an imperial house.”
Ning Chen smiled, sat down on the floor, and poured out two bowls of wine.
“A drink?”
The deposed crown prince came over and sat down, lifted his bowl and knocked it against Ning Chen’s, drank a mouthful, and asked, “You’ve shown up out of nowhere. You want something from me, don’t you?”
Ning Chen nodded slightly.
“A few months ago I was reduced to commoner. Did you know about that?”
The deposed crown prince gave a start, then shook his head. “A man with not long to live stopped caring about the court long ago.”
Ning Chen said, “Somebody attacked me and caught me unprepared… His Majesty had no choice but to reduce me to commoner.”
The deposed crown prince was taken aback. “Who has that kind of reach?”
“Your war record is a blaze of merit, your standing now is high, and Father Emperor favors you. Who could touch you?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “I don’t know. The man is buried very deep, and for now I have nothing to go on. Help me think it through.”
The deposed crown prince nodded. “Tell me how it happened.”
Ning Chen told him all of it.
The deposed crown prince’s face filled with shock.
“Ning Chen, this man is no ordinary man.”
“The Right Chancellor, the Censor-in-Chief, the President of the Secretariat — all of them his… Ning Chen, this time you have met your match.”
Ning Chen looked at him. “How do you mean?”
The deposed crown prince’s face was grave. “Do you know that I once tried to win those three over myself? I was still heir apparent then, and they would not give the heir apparent the smallest courtesy.”
“So they had already gone over to somebody by then… They would not attach themselves to me, the heir apparent, and they attached themselves to him instead. That means the man’s ability and his methods are far beyond mine.”
“To put it exactly, they thought his chances of coming to the throne were greater than mine, and I was the crown prince.”
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Can you guess who?”
The deposed crown prince thought for a time, then shook his head a little.
Ning Chen asked, feeling his way, “Could it be the Fourth Prince?”
“No.”
The deposed crown prince said it with absolute certainty.
“Why?”
The deposed crown prince said, “The Fourth Prince’s mother the Consort was of low birth, and was only made a consort because of her son… To win over officials of the court you need a lot of money on top of an illustrious position.”
“They have neither of those… And the most important point of all is that once a prince is out with an army, he is as good as finished for the throne.”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.
“Then who do you think it is?”
The deposed crown prince thought for a long time, then shook his head with a bitter smile. “Apart from Prince Fu, my other Imperial Uncles are all far from the capital. Their reach does not extend this far.”
“Fifth Brother has been a little simple since he was a child. Sixth Brother keeps to himself, and spends all day with a book for company, and even Father Emperor does not like him. Seventh Brother had his cheek burned by fire as a boy, so his face is spoiled and the throne was never for him… The other princes are all still young. Nothing will come of them.”
The light shifted in Ning Chen’s eyes.
By that account, the only one it can be is the Sixth Prince.
The deposed crown prince says the Sixth Prince keeps to himself and spends all day with a book for company.
A man who keeps to himself has an easy time hiding. A man who lives with books breeds schemes of his own.
Ning Chen stood up. “I’m going.”
“Going already?”
The deposed crown prince was reluctant to let him go.
Ning Chen said, teasing him, “You’re no use to me. Isn’t staying here a waste of my time?”
The corner of the deposed crown prince’s mouth twitched.
“Ning Chen. I often think — if I had been honest with you earlier, if I hadn’t thought myself clever and schemed against you… would today have come out differently?”
Ning Chen was silent a moment, then sighed. “There is no medicine for regret in this world.”
The deposed crown prince smiled bitterly.
“His Majesty is merciful, though. He has no intention of killing you. You probably won’t die.”
The deposed crown prince gave a start. “Have you heard something?”
“Does anyone need to tell me? Prince Fu and the Empress have grass six feet high on their graves, and you are still shut up in here. That means His Majesty does not want to kill you.”
“His Majesty is a merciful ruler, and there aren’t many of those… If I’m not mistaken, His Majesty is pressing me and the Ninth Princess to marry soon so that he can seize the occasion for a general pardon across the empire. And the chief reason for it is to pardon your capital sentence.”
The deposed crown prince sat stunned.
His eyes reddened. “It is I who failed Father Emperor. I let him down.”
Ning Chen said nothing more, and turned and left.
Born into an imperial house, a man always has too many things he can do nothing about.
Ning Chen came out of the Inspectorate and rode his beloved Diaochan back to the Ning residence, clop, clop, clop.
Yudie saw Ning Chen come in, her face full of worry. “Ning, dear, you’re back at last?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Sister Zisu got a letter, and after she read it she cried… Then she shut herself in her room, and no matter how I call her she won’t open the door.”
(End of Chapter 404)