The woman emperor’s eyes were full of shame and anger, and she glared at Ning Chen.
“How did your skill get this good?”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Because I have great responsibilities now. I have to protect you, and I have to protect the child.”
The woman emperor said, smiling, “Then come to the Wu Kingdom and help me.”
Ning Chen blinked, then shook his head gently. “Wait a while. When I can’t make my way in the Great Xuan any longer, I’ll come and throw myself on you.”
The woman emperor made a sound. “The Great Xuan emperor has shown you nothing but favor. Reduced to commoner and restored to your former office in two months — it has never happened before in the whole history of the Great Xuan. You, unable to make your way in the Great Xuan?”
Ning Chen’s smile was brilliant. “I owe getting my office back so fast entirely to my wife playing her part so well.”
The woman emperor had long been used to his nonsense. She only glared at him.
Ning Chen looked at her, and his eyes were gentle. “This army of yours taking the field must have eaten up a lot of supplies.”
“All the way here I saw a lot of broken armor on the Wu Kingdom’s soldiers. Has the Wu Kingdom’s treasury run into trouble?”
The woman emperor’s fine brows drew together, and there was worry in her face.
“The Wu Kingdom has been at war year after year, and the treasury is empty… Song Tiancheng spent without limit and made war for the sake of war. The people are drained dry and the whole nation is worn out.”
“Everything in the Wu Kingdom is waiting to be built up again. To get its strength back it will need several years of rest and recovery, I am afraid.”
Ning Chen smiled, reached into his robe and brought out a thick sheaf of silver notes.
“Three million taels. Take it and use it.”
The woman emperor gave a start. She had never imagined Ning Chen could produce so much silver.
The truth was that these three million taels had all but emptied Ning Chen out… While he was in Mangzhou he had drawn on part of the treasure the Left Chancellor left behind, and only so had he made up the three million.
“It seems you’ve done plenty of squeezing in the Great Xuan.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. “This is what I saved out of hard work and hard trading and going short on my own food and clothes. It has emptied me out.”
“You woman, you really don’t know how to talk to a person… Do you want it or not?”
The woman emperor said quickly, “I want it.”
The Wu Kingdom really was very poor now. Three million taels would settle a lot of things.
Ning Chen, all smiles, pushed his face forward.
Smack!!!
The woman emperor’s hand came up and landed flat on Ning Chen’s face.
Ning Chen covered his face, his eyes full of injury.
“You… I bring you silver and you hit me?”
The woman emperor blinked. “You pushed your face forward. Was that not for this emperor to hit?”
Ning Chen’s forehead filled with black lines.
“Am I sick in the head? I meant for you to give me a kiss.”
The woman emperor was a little embarrassed. “Then this emperor mistook you. The trouble is that it has become a habit. You always have that cheap, sly look about you, as though you were asking for a beating, and this emperor cannot help wanting to hit you.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
“You did that on purpose.”
The woman emperor shook her head. “No. Truly not. I’m just in the habit of hitting you.”
It made Ning Chen’s teeth itch.
He came forward in one stride, put one arm around the woman emperor’s willow waist and one hand behind her head, and kissed her hard.
The woman emperor struggled with everything she had, and could not get free… and then she seemed to give it up, and after that she began to answer him.
The two of them kissed until heaven and earth went dark.
Not until Ning Chen’s hand went somewhere it had no business going did the woman emperor come to herself with a start.
Without thinking she drove a fist at Ning Chen’s stomach.
That really was no fault of Ning Chen’s. It is a gift a man is born with… In the middle of a kiss he can climb the mountains with one hand and ford the rivers with the other.
Ning Chen was ready for it this time and caught her by the wrist. “Again? Do you know this is beating your husband?”
The woman emperor’s cheeks were crimson, her breath came fast, and it came sweet as orchids.
Ning Chen looked suddenly at the dragon throne, a dirty grin at the corner of his mouth. “I’ve never tried it on a dragon throne. How about —”
“Do you want to die?”
The woman emperor said it with her face stiff.
The man really has no awe of imperial authority at all. His nerve is past all measure. He is actually thinking of doing that on a dragon throne.
Ning Chen shrugged and said, entirely serious, “You and I are both soldiers. We ought to have the spirit of opening new frontiers and taking new ground. We cannot confine ourselves to a bed. We have to learn to open up a new battlefield.”
The woman emperor pressed her lips together. She very much wanted to hit him.
Ning Chen stopped teasing her and pushed all the silver notes into her hands.
“By the way. Have the things I gave you last time been made?”
The woman emperor nodded slightly.
“Mingzhu. Bring the things.”
“Yes.”
Mingzhu left, and came back before long with several things.
They were glass, toothpaste, and fine salt.
Ning Chen picked up a vase made of glass, and a dish, and inclined his head slightly. “Finer than I expected.”
The woman emperor said, “These have spread a little in the Wu Kingdom’s capital already, but the ones buying are mostly great officials and men of rank. The sales are too small.”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Don’t worry. I came this time to make money for you… I’ll take these back to the Great Xuan and open a market for them.”
“After that you have only to see to the making, and I’ll see to the selling… There are far too many rich men in the Great Xuan. Husband and Wife of One Mind — we’ll cut their chives for them.”
The woman emperor did not follow. “What does cutting chives mean?”
“It means getting the money of the rich men of the Great Xuan into our pockets by whatever way we can.”
“Trust me. Inside a year the Wu Kingdom’s finances will ease, and in two you’ll never have to worry about money again.”
The woman emperor’s mouth curved. She thought that the best decision she had ever made in her life was to steal Ning Chen’s seed.
She thought her eye for a man was very good indeed.
“Ning Chen. If one day the Great Xuan emperor ordered you to lead troops against the Wu Kingdom, what would you do?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “That will never happen. The Great Xuan emperor is a merciful ruler of his age and does not like war.”
“And if this emperor told you to kill the Great Xuan emperor?”
Ning Chen’s face darkened at once. “While I am alive, nobody touches the Great Xuan emperor… not you either.”
“The Great Xuan emperor has shown me nothing but favor, and more than that, he took me for what I was worth. Without him there would be no Idle Marquis today.”
“So as long as he sits in that seat, I will protect him with everything I have.”
The woman emperor made a sound.
Ning Chen softened his voice. “You and he are both rulers of a country, and what matters most is that the people are happy. Only then can a country be at peace for a long time.”
“In a war it is only the people who suffer… A ruler who can make his country strong and his people settled and content without ever drawing a blade — that is a truly enlightened sovereign.”
The woman emperor glared at him. “Are you teaching this emperor her business?”
Ning Chen gave a dirty grin. “What I’d like to teach you is how to make love.”
The woman emperor did not understand it, but she could tell from the dirty grin on Ning Chen’s face that it was nothing good.
“Envoy of the Great Xuan. You may withdraw.”
Ning Chen made a face. “You’ll send somebody for me tonight, won’t you?”
The woman emperor was all smugness. “That depends on this emperor’s mood.”
Ning Chen said, grinning, “I’ll wait for you, then. Until tonight.”
Ning Chen turned and left.
The woman emperor watched him walk out of the great hall before she took her eyes away, her legs rubbing together without her meaning it… Filthy man. Now I have to bathe again, and I only bathed before court.
Ning Chen took Pan Yucheng back to the Hall of Martial Honor.
Night fell.
Mingzhu came, and took Ning Chen away with her.
She was the favorite at Her Majesty’s side, and nobody dared say or ask anything.
(End of Chapter 415)