The middle-aged man had come within an inch of having an arrow through his head. The cold sweat broke out on him and his face went white.

But before he could get his wits back—

Whip! Whip! Whip!!!

Arrow after arrow came shooting in with a sound of tearing air.

The middle-aged man and the woman could handle themselves. The two of them rolled where they stood and got behind the tree.

Out of the darkness came seven or eight men in black, their faces covered with black cloth and sharp blades in their hands, and they went straight at the two of them.

The two drew their own blades and closed with the men in black.

One of the men in black did not join the fighting.

He stood at a distance, raised a crossbow and looked for his chance.

Whip!!!

The bolt shot out and took the middle-aged man cleanly through the calf.

The middle-aged man cried out with the pain. His body dropped and he went down on his knees.

One of the men in black seized the moment and kicked him flying.

The middle-aged man hit the ground and rolled over several times, and was getting up when two long blades came down across his neck.

The woman did not last long either, and was overpowered and taken.

“Who are you people?”

The middle-aged man demanded it furiously.

The man with the crossbow made a signal.

The middle-aged man and the woman were knocked senseless.

The man in black with the crossbow came over, glanced at Pan Yucheng in the chest, and put the lid back down.

At the Inspectorate, Ning Chen sat in Geng Jing’s room enjoying his tea.

Geng Jing could not stand it any longer. “What is it you actually want to do?”

Ning Chen said, unhurried, “Wait.”

“Wait for what?”

“For news.”

“News of what?”

“Good news.”

Geng Jing: “……”

Before either of them noticed, four hours had gone by.

Ning Chen suddenly stood up.

Geng Jing stood up with him. “Is it time to move?”

“No. I’ve drunk too much tea. I’m going to the privy. Do you want to come?”

Geng Jing was flat out of words.

Ning Chen was on his way to the privy when a young voice came from outside the door. “Reporting to Geng the Purple Coat. Pan the Gold Coat and Feng the Silver Coat are back.”

Geng Jing was badly startled.

Ning Chen was already across the room and opening the door.

The red coat outside saw Ning Chen and bowed quickly. “I greet my lord!”

“Where are Old Pan and Old Feng?”

The red coat answered, “In the first department!”

Ning Chen and Geng Jing hurried to the first department.

In the courtyard of the first department stood a cart with two opened chests on it, and a middle-aged man and a woman.

Along with them there were several men of the garrison.

Chen Chong came hurrying up and gave him the gist of what had happened.

These men of the garrison had the city gate watch tonight. They had found this cart, opened the chests, and found a man inside in a gold fish-scale coat. They had not dared delay and had rushed it to the Inspectorate.

Ning Chen fished out a ten-tael silver note and handed it to one of the garrison men, smiling. “You’ve all had a hard night. Get yourselves a drink on your rest day.”

The garrison men were delighted. They bowed with cupped fists. “Thank you, my lord!”

“All right, you can go back now.”

When the garrison men had gone, Ning Chen went forward — and his brows shot together and he backed off a few steps with a hand over his nose.

Good God, the smell out of those chests. It was worse than the privy.

He gave quick orders to get Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng out.

Several red coats lifted Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng out and cut the bindings away.

Both of them were badly weakened, and they had been curled into one position so long that they could not straighten their legs.

Ning Chen had the two of them taken to the sixth department.

As for the middle-aged man and the woman, Ning Chen had them put into the cells under close guard.

It took Meng Jianbai’s needles before Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng could straighten their legs.

Luckily both of them were fine fighters with good constitutions. An ordinary man would have been finished.

The washing alone took the two of them more than two hours, and the bathwater was changed bucket after bucket.

Ning Chen had food made ready.

Feng Qizheng ate like a wolf and made a feast of it.

Pan Yucheng ate only a very little.

Ning Chen poured Pan Yucheng a cup of wine and said, to comfort him, “Old Pan. Don’t dwell on it. It’s over.”

He knew Pan Yucheng for a proud man, steady in himself and first-rate with his hands… To have taken a loss as big as this, he was probably close to choking on it.

Pan Yucheng drank it down at a gulp and said nothing, but the wine cup in his hand was close to being crushed.

Geng Jing looked at Ning Chen, something flickering in his eyes, and there was no telling what he was thinking.

In the end he could not hold it in. “Ning Chen. Come outside with me.”

“Old Pan. A man is iron and his food is steel. If you want your revenge you have to get your body right first… And don’t forget, Nanzhi is still at home waiting for you.”

At the sound of Nanzhi’s name Pan Yucheng’s eyes softened a little. He let go, and set down the wine cup he had almost crushed.

Ning Chen got up and went outside with Geng Jing.

Geng Jing looked at Ning Chen straight on.

“Say what you want to say. Don’t look at me like that, it’s unsettling.”

Geng Jing said heavily, “You had Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng brought out. That was your arrangement.”

Ning Chen nodded.

Geng Jing went on. “You said earlier — drawing the snake out of its hole.”

Ning Chen nodded again.

Geng Jing hesitated, then said, “The way you behaved at the palace gate today was very strange, and there was nobody there but you, me and the Fifth Prince… Drawing the snake out of its hole. Who is the snake?”

Ning Chen looked at him and smiled easily. “You’ve guessed it already. Why ask me?”

Geng Jing’s face changed sharply, and his eyes filled with disbelief… He had had his suspicions, but Ning Chen saying it outright was like a thunderclap going off beside his ear, and for a moment his mind was blank.

It was a long time before he said, unable to believe it, “Impossible. This is impossible… He’s simple and dull in the head. How could it be him?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Since you’ve guessed it, I won’t hide it from you… He plays the fool. He isn’t one.”

“When I was reduced to commoner and going to Xiuzhou I was ambushed again and again, and the times I’ve nearly died since — every one of them is the work of this simple, dull-witted man of yours.”

Geng Jing was struck dumb. He could not have been more shocked.

“This is impossible. How could it possibly be?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “It’s usually the impossible thing that’s most likely… He has been playing the fool all along. In fact his mind is dark, his methods are cruel, and he is very deep.”

Geng Jing said nothing for a long while, working to take it in.

“Why would he do it?”

Geng Jing could not make sense of it. Why would a man play the fool for more than ten years?

Ning Chen said flatly, “For the throne, of course… Perhaps at the start it was to keep himself alive. There has never been family feeling in an imperial house, after all; where that seat is concerned, brothers killing brothers is the ordinary thing, and even a prince with no thought of the succession is an easy target once he is grown.”

“So being an idiot is not a bad thing. Even grown, who is going to worry about an idiot taking the throne away from him?”

“It may have begun as self-preservation, but later he found he had it in him to reach that seat too, so he has been scheming in the dark all this time and waiting for his moment.”

“Now the heir apparent’s seat is empty, and all these years of lying low in the dark have left his wings full-grown, so naturally he cannot sit still.”

“But he was still a child when he began playing the fool, and a child could not possibly have a mind that deep… There is somebody behind him, and somebody of real ability.”

(End of Chapter 426)