Feng Qizheng and the other two set about hemming Ning Chen in and cutting him off.

Ning Chen did not get away. They caught him and marched him up in front of Old General Chen.

"You three can wait."

Feng Qizheng's eyes went wide. "Listen to him... You dare threaten us in front of the old general? I think your hide needs loosening."

Smack!!!

Old General Chen swung the feather duster and gave Ning Chen one across the backside.

"Stinking boy. Run again, will you?"

Ning Chen laughed dryly. "I won't run, I won't run...!"

Old General Chen gave Ning Chen several more across the backside, like a man who wanted better of the boy than he was getting. "You stinking boy, of all the women you could have slept with you had to sleep with the Wu Kingdom's woman emperor. Why can't you keep control of that thing between your legs?"

"His Majesty gave you every favor he had and betrothed the Ninth Princess to you on top of that. Is this how you repay His Majesty?"

Ning Chen gave a bitter smile. "Old general, I had no choice about it. I was drugged at the time."

"Mm?" The old general stared at him. "The Wu Kingdom's woman emperor drugged you?"

Ning Chen nodded.

"Old general, he's lying to you... What sort of person is the Wu Kingdom's woman emperor? It isn't as though the Wu Kingdom has run out of men. Why would she drug him?"

Ning Chen glared at him. "The Wu Kingdom is not short of men. It is short of men as fine as I am."

"Pah... Don't flatter yourself. Why didn't the Wu Kingdom's woman emperor drug me, then?"

Ning Chen: →_→

"You think the Wu Kingdom's woman emperor has no taste?"

"Taste? You mean you think you're better-looking than I am? You're so black you might be a lump of beast-gold charcoal. You're no better-looking than me."

Ning Chen had no words for it. "Looks aren't only what shows. Looks are an attitude. A feeling."

Up on the roof ridge, Xie Siyu was…