The false emperor looked at him sidelong, contempt all over his face, and laughed coldly. "Five hundred taels? Are you fobbing off a beggar?"

Ning Chen's hand came up without warning and cracked against the back of the false emperor's head. "Don't flatter yourself. You're worth less than a beggar."

A smothered noise came out of the false emperor. His feet went from under him, carried him a few lurching paces forward, and he all but pitched headfirst onto the floor.

He looked at Ning Chen in a fury.

Ning Chen stepped up and kicked him.

BANG!!!

The kick sent the false emperor flying a good ten feet. The pain turned his face chalk white and brought the sweat out on his forehead.

Ning Chen walked over to him, crouched down, and laughed coldly. "Can we have a proper talk now?"

"You may have the same face as my dad, but you know what? I don't feel the least bit bad about hitting you."

The false emperor could not hold his rage in. "What I suffer, you will suffer twice—"

SMACK!!!

Ning Chen's hand knocked the rest of it back down the man's throat. He knew what this creature was going to say.

"I warn you. If my dad is short one hair, I will put you on a wooden donkey and walk you around the capital."

"Make the most of this chance, while this prince is still willing to talk to you... And if you won't talk properly, that's fine... I will put men through every street in the city and dig three feet into the earth, and I will find His Majesty." (TL Note: 掘地三尺, "to dig three feet down" — to search a place exhaustively, leaving nothing unturned.)

The false emperor's eyes fastened on Ning Chen and would not let go. Then, out of nowhere, he was laughing coldly. "Ning Chen, if I don't tell you, you will never find him."

Ning Chen said contemptuously, "Trying to bluff me? Are you about to tell me His Majesty isn't in the capital?"

"No, he is in the capital...…