Zisu looked at Yudie, dazed, and could not help wondering whether she had been too harsh on Ning Chen.

Ning Chen, for his part, was moved like a son of a bitch.

He had always said Yudie was the one best suited to being a wife — gentle, thoughtful, and quick to understand people.

“Ning, dear, receive the edict first. I’ll stay and talk to Sister Zisu a while.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly.

He turned and went out to the main hall.

The man who had come with the edict was Eunuch Quan.

Eunuch Quan saw Ning Chen and said, smiling, “Ning Chen, hear the edict!”

“Your subject receives the edict.”

Eunuch Quan unrolled the edict. “Ning Chen is possessed of both talent and virtue and has done service to the empire itself. After long and careful thought, this emperor restores him to his office… He is ordered to set out for the Wu Kingdom in three days’ time and bring the peace talks about. Do not disappoint this emperor’s hopes. Respect this!”

Ning Chen cried out, “Your subject thanks Your Majesty for this great kindness!”

Then he took the edict, stood up, and said, “Old Quan. Thanks for the trouble.”

Eunuch Quan’s face was all smiles. “Marquis Ning. Congratulations, congratulations.”

Ning Chen fished out a silver note and pushed it at him, smiling. “And to you, and to you.”

Eunuch Quan pushed it back. “You’ve only just been restored to your former office. This is exactly when you’re short of silver. Keep it and use it yourself.”

“I can spare this much.”

Ning Chen forced it into his hand.

Eunuch Quan did not refuse again. He put the note away in his sleeve and said, smiling,

“In all the Great Xuan, plenty of men have been restored to their former offices… but you are the first man to be restored to his former office in the space of a few months. His Majesty thinks highly of you. Don’t disappoint what he hopes of you.”

Ning Chen nodded, smiling.

Eunuch Quan drank a cup of tea, talked a while, and left.

“Congratulations, my lord!”

“Congratulations, Fourth Young Master!”

Uncle Chai and Gu Yichun were beaming, happy for Ning Chen.

Ning Chen said, smiling, “A tael of silver to every man in the house. Let everybody share the luck of it.”

Uncle Chai nodded. “Yes!”

Ning Chen turned and went back to the room.

Zisu and Yudie were sitting at the table.

Ning Chen looked at Yudie.

Yudie stood up and looked at the edict in Ning Chen’s hand.

Ning Chen said, “His Majesty has restored my office.”

Yudie’s face filled with delight. “Congratulations, Ning, dear!”

Ning Chen smiled, and looked at Zisu.

Yudie sighed and said, “Ning, dear, since Sister Zisu can’t get past it in her own heart and is set on going, then let her go.”

“Uh?”

Zisu stood up, went over and picked up her medicine chest, and made for the door.

Ning Chen blocked her. “Do you really have to go?”

“Congratulations to my lord on being restored to his former office. I ask my lord to raise his noble hand and let me leave.”

Ning Chen frowned slightly. “Doesn’t any part of you want to stay?”

Zisu lifted her small face. “My mind is made up. I ask my lord to raise his noble hand.”

Ning Chen let out a breath. “If you get tired out there, come back.”

Zisu made him a graceful bow, went around Ning Chen without a backward look, and disappeared through the door.

Ning Chen let out a long, deep breath. His spirits were low.

Yudie came over and said quietly, “Ning, dear, send men after Sister Zisu quickly, out of sight.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “Don’t worry. I’ll send men to protect her without her knowing.”

“That isn’t it! Sister Zisu means to draw out the man who sent the letter.”

“Hm?”

Yudie smiled faintly. “Sister Zisu has drifted through the jianghu since she was a child. She loves hard and hates hard… but she has a fine mind and a fine nature, and she is far cleverer than this girl.”

“Sister Zisu loves you very much too, and she cannot bear to leave you… And she has thought it through, and knows she should not have taken it out on you, so she means to make up for the fault with a service.”

Ning Chen was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

Yudie said, smiling, “Whoever sent this letter has some dark design. He set us against each other, and he must be aiming at you.”

“So Sister Zisu wants to draw the man out… As soon as Sister Zisu leaves the Ning residence, he may well come to Sister Zisu.”

Astonishment was all over Ning Chen’s face.

“So Zisu is only pretending to leave?”

Yudie smiled faintly and nodded.

Ning Chen stood stunned, then caught Yudie up and kissed her hard. “With a wife like this, what more could a husband ask?”

He did not know how Yudie had talked Zisu around, but the how of it did not matter. What mattered was that Zisu was not leaving.

Yudie’s small face went red. “Ning, dear, send men after Sister Zisu quickly.”

Ning Chen nodded. “I’ll see to it now.”

Ning Chen turned and went out, and came to a quiet room in the inner court.

This was Xie Siyu’s room.

For the last few days Xie Siyu had been investigating whether the head of one of the branches had acted on his own authority and had Old General Chen assassinated.

So far there had been no progress.

“Younger Brother.”

Ning Chen had no time for courtesies. “Elder Brother, do something for me.”

Xie Siyu nodded.

Ning Chen told him all of it.

“Leave it to me.”

Xie Siyu left those four words behind him and went.

Then Ning Chen left the residence too, on an ordinary horse, and came to the Carefree Escort House.

Silence cupped his fist. “Congratulations to Marquis Ning on being restored to his former office.”

“Your news travels fast.” Ning Chen needled him, then turned the talk. “Have you found anything out?”

I beat the grass today and told the Right Chancellor about the Elegance Garden. He has to move.

Silence shook his head. “The Right Chancellor came home from court and has not come out since.”

Ning Chen was surprised. “Nothing at all?”

Silence nodded.

“What about the rest of the Right Chancellor’s household?”

Silence said, “We have men watching everybody in the Right Chancellor’s household. Nothing has turned up so far.”

Ning Chen could not help frowning. “That old fox certainly knows how to wait.”

I named the Elegance Garden outright. The Right Chancellor ought to be going to the man behind him to talk it over, and there is not the slightest movement.

Silence said, “He may have guessed what you were after, and is keeping the troops still.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.

A man does not work his way up to the Right Chancellor’s place without a good head on his shoulders and hard methods behind it.

“Keep them watching. I don’t believe he’s a turtle who can stay in his shell forever.”

Silence nodded.

“A letter has come from the mistress.”

Ning Chen was slightly taken aback. “What does it say?”

“A moment, my lord.”

Silence went into the inner room, came out shortly after, and handed Ning Chen the letter.

Ning Chen took it, opened it, and his eyes went wide with shock.

“She’s had the child?”

After the shock came a wild joy.

The woman emperor has given birth.

Mother and child are both well, and everything has gone smoothly.

Silence nodded. “Congratulations, my lord.”

“Ha ha ha…”

Ning Chen could not help laughing out loud.

In three days he was setting out for the Wu Kingdom and the peace talks. In a month he would be able to see the two of them.

Some are glad and some are sorry.

Ning Chen was glad. But in a certain sealed room, the Right Chancellor and the plump, pale young man could not be glad at all.

“You weren’t followed on your way here?”

The Right Chancellor shook his head. “I came by the secret passage.”

The plump, pale young man nodded and said with his brows drawn together, “I never imagined it. All the trouble we went to. It took so much to drive Ning Chen out of the court, and after a few months he is restored to his former office.”

The Right Chancellor said heavily, “Given what he is to the woman emperor of Wu, the talks could go to nobody else… And the Wu army on the border was very likely at his word too.”

“We all underestimated him. It looks as though he had prepared his return to the court from the moment he left it.”

“And now that he is restored to his former office he will be harder to deal with than ever.”

The plump, pale young man went livid.

“Harder to deal with or not, he has to be dealt with. I have played the fool for more than ten years and schemed for more than ten years… Whoever it is, nobody is going to spoil this for me.”

(End of Chapter 406)