Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at Fang Pu, and then all at once he smiled. "Good. Done."

Fang Pu nodded. "The Prince Who Holds the Realm is a man who has killed on the battlefield, and his word is worth nine bronze tripods... I believe you."

"Trouble yourself for paper and a brush, and I will write down everything I own."

Fang Pu said it, and then all at once he was taken aback.

Ning Chen saw at once that something was off. "What is it?"

Fang Pu shook his head. "Nothing... I just realized I made one wrong move."

"Meaning what?"

Fang Pu shook his head and gave a bitter laugh. "The truth is I could have brought it off... A pity that at the time I thought of nothing but guarding myself against all of you. I did not dare have much to do with you, and I dared even less to go into the inner palace."

"I could perfectly well have gone into the inner palace. Three thousand beauties in the inner palace, and if I had favored a few of them and a child had come of it, that child might one day have gone up to the throne — and then the Great Xuan would have changed its surname to Fang."

The corner of Ning Chen's mouth twitched hard.

Fang Pu shook his head. "I should have learned from you. It just never came to me before."

"Learned from me?"

"Is the Wu Kingdom not going to take the surname Ning from here on?"

Ning Chen: "..."

"Cut the crap and talk business."

Ning Chen said it as he put the paper and brush down in front of Fang Pu, and ground the ink for him himself.

Fang Pu took up the brush and began to write.

When he had it down he handed it to Ning Chen.

Ning Chen took it and ran his eye over it, and it shook him — this fellow's holdings ran to a long list.

Fang Pu said, "That is all I can call to mind. For what I…