The Xuan Emperor finished his bath and went to bed early.

He had held himself at full stretch for days, and now that he had let go the tiredness came over him in a wave.

Ning Chen withdrew from the room quietly and came outside.

Pan Yucheng was keeping watch at the door.

The want to know was written all over his face.

Ning Chen sat down on the step by the door and told the thing through, short and to the point.

Pan Yucheng heard him out and turned to stone where he stood.

So His Majesty in the palace was actually the dead Prince Duan?

The thing was so twisted and strange that it was past anything anyone could imagine. (TL Note: 曲折離奇, "winding and bizarre" — said of a course of events that keeps doubling back on itself and ends somewhere nobody expected.)

The two of them were still talking when Feng Qizheng came back.

Ning Chen asked, "How did the questioning of the Ghost Doctor and the peddler go?"

Feng Qizheng said contemptuously, "That Ghost Doctor is a coward through and through. We never even put him to the instruments and he told us everything."

"Ning Chen, clever as you are, you would never guess who that one in the palace is."

Ning Chen smiled. "Prince Duan."

Feng Qizheng shook his head. "No."

Ning Chen's face went blank in an instant. He traded a glance with Pan Yucheng, then turned to Feng Qizheng and asked, not sure of it, "Not Prince Duan?"

Feng Qizheng said, "I told you. Clever as you are, there is no guessing it."

Ning Chen's face was all astonishment. "Stop keeping it back. Tell me who he is."

Feng Qizheng said, "Fang Pu. One of the Seven Luminaries of Xiliang's Wind and Cloud Hall."

Ning Chen's face went blank. "What in the world is that?"

Pan Yucheng, for his part, looked shaken. "One of the Seven Luminaries, of all people?"

Ning Chen looked at him. "You know of them too?"

Pan Yucheng said, "It is no great secret... The Xiliang Kingdom has…