Early the next morning.

Ning Chen got up, washed, and got ready to go to Old General Chen’s residence.

He no longer ate breakfast in the house. He was afraid Chang Ruyue or her sons would poison him.

He usually bought something on the way. A few coins filled him up.

Sometimes he timed his arrival at the general’s residence to mooch a meal instead.

He stepped out the door and ran straight into Ning Gan.

Ning Gan was in a brand-new set of official’s robes, radiant with it.

Today was the day he took up his post.

The night before, thanks to Ning Chen, the three brothers had been torn to shreds by their father.

So the sight of Ning Chen did nothing for Ning Gan’s expression.

“Ning Chen. Out early, back late, sneaking around every day. What exactly is it you’re doing?”

“I’m warning you. The Ning family is not some small household. Don’t do anything that drags us into trouble.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth went up in a brilliant smile. “Don’t worry. Why would I ever do anything to harm the Ning family? Out early and back late — I’m only digging up your ancestors’ graves.”

Ning Gan’s expression froze and his face was terrible to look at.

Ning Ziming came out just then, heard it, and was so angry there was practically smoke coming off the top of his head.

“Worthless. You unfilial wretch… Is the Ning house not your house?”

Ning Chen laughed coldly. “Is it my house? Then hand me the deed.”

“You— unfilial wretch. Your madness clearly isn’t cured yet, raving first thing in the morning.”

“Today your eldest brother takes up his post. Could you not manage two words of congratulation?”

Ning Chen made a cold sound and simply turned and walked off.

What rotten luck. As though I wanted to see any of you first thing in the morning.

Two words of congratulation, is it. Then I wish your career a pothole at every step and a ditch on every road.

“Worthless thing. Worthless thing…”

Ning Ziming was hopping with rage.

Ning Gan watched Ning Chen’s back with cold eyes. He couldn’t understand it. Ning Chen’s manner was as bad as a manner could be, and their father put up with it. Why?

Ning Chen couldn’t be bothered with what any of them thought.

He ate on the way, then reached the general’s residence and started his day’s training.

He trained straight through to midday.

He was about to go and mooch a meal from Old General Chen when Qi Yuanzhong told him somebody was at the gate asking for him.

Ning Chen went out to the gate, puzzled.

A luxurious carriage stood in front of the residence.

The driver was a powerfully built middle-aged man.

While Ning Chen was still wondering about it, the carriage curtain lifted and a face of obvious breeding appeared.

“Lan Xing. Get in.”

Ning Chen went still. Xuan Hong. The young prince.

“Young Master Xuan. Did you want something?”

The crown prince smiled. “Do you have time just now? Let me buy you a meal.”

Ning Chen hesitated. “I have training this afternoon. Let’s skip the meal.”

“It’s nothing. Just a plain meal. It won’t hold you up.”

“All right, then.”

Ning Chen jumped up and climbed into the carriage.

“Drive on. The Heavenly Blessing Tower.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up. The roast duck at the Heavenly Blessing Tower was the finest thing in the capital, and he had never once tasted it.

He said, smiling, “Young Master Xuan, you want something from me, don’t you?”

The crown prince smiled back at him. “Why would you ask that? Can a friend not simply buy you a meal?”

Ning Chen looked doubtful. “Really nothing?”

“Simply a meal.”

Ning Chen shrugged. “All right. I thought you’d come to ask me for a poem.”

“And if I had?”

“There. I knew you wanted something… Go on, then, what sort of poem? Since you’re buying the meal, I’ll give you a discount.”

The crown prince laughed. “You’re still charging me?”

Ning Chen looked at him the way you’d look at a moron. “My friend. Even brothers keep clear accounts. Friends are friends and business is business… The one thing I can’t stand is a freeloader.”

Present company excepted, obviously.

The crown prince asked, curious, “Are you really so short of money?”

“Of course I am. Who isn’t?” Ning Chen dug out some odd bits of silver. “Look at that. Everything I own.”

“You have five hundred taels on deposit with my father. Don’t imagine I don’t know about it.”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. “My friend, is five hundred taels a lot? Every last person in my family is dead. There’s only me now… I have to buy a house, don’t I? Houses in the capital are far too expensive. Five hundred only buys you something out on the edge of the city.”

“And I’ll have to marry and have children eventually, won’t I? Don’t I need the bride price ready in advance? Look at me. Without money, what family’s daughter would have me?”

“It’s money at every turn. Five hundred taels doesn’t begin to cover it.”

The corner of the crown prince’s mouth twitched.

Every last person in his family is dead?

Ning Chen’s life in the Ning house must be very bad indeed. A man does not say a thing like that otherwise.

The crown prince said, smiling, “With your gifts, you need only stand up and admit that you are Lan Xing… There is no telling how many young ladies of good family would be fighting each other to marry you.”

“Please, no… A man fears fame the way a pig fears getting fat. The tree that stands out in the forest is the one the wind breaks… I only want to make money. I don’t want a name.”

Good grief. If that dog Ning Ziming knew what one poem of mine sells for, he’d squeeze me dry before he ever let me out of that house.

If he was going to have a name, it would have to wait until he had moved out.

Then Ning Chen looked at the folding fan in the crown prince’s hand and snorted with laughter.

The crown prince had no idea what had caused it. “What’s funny?”

“You sons of great houses are a funny lot, that’s all. Weather like this and you’re still carrying a fan… Surely playing at refinement has a season?”

The crown prince stopped, looked down at the fan in his hand, and shook his head, laughing in spite of himself.

“There’s something in that. Then this fan… is yours.”

“What?”

Ning Chen caught the fan as it came at him, thoroughly blank.

He recovered fast. Tucking it inside his coat, he said, “How can I possibly accept this?”

The jade pendant on the fan was smooth and clear all the way through. One look told you it was good jade, and worth a great deal of money.

Ning Chen thanked him over and over, then quietly looked away… His eyes might have been playing tricks on him, but a few words had appeared on Xuan Hong’s forehead: the rich man’s idiot son.

They were still talking when the carriage reached the Heavenly Blessing Tower.

Ning Chen had assumed they would eat downstairs with everybody else. Xuan Hong had reserved a private room.

The two of them went up, sat down, and waited for the food.

Waiters came filing in soon after and covered the table with good things.

Among them was the roast duck Ning Chen had been thinking about the whole way there.

Ning Chen swallowed. “Young Master Xuan. May we start?”

He had trained all morning and his stomach was against his backbone.

The crown prince laughed. “It’s only the two of us today. No need to stand on ceremony. Please.”

“Then I won’t.”

Ning Chen reached out, tore off a duck leg, and set to.

“If you had a thin pancake for this, with the sauce, and cucumber cut into strips, and the white of a scallion, and rolled the whole thing up — that would be perfect.”

The crown prince laughed. “I didn’t expect you to have studied food as well.”

“No, no… I’m just greedy.”

He had barely finished speaking when the door banged open and a young woman ran in. Seventeen or eighteen, her clothes disordered, her face streaked with tears.

Ning Chen was sitting nearest the door, so it was him she went to, sobbing. “Sir, save me. Please, save me…”

(End of Chapter 27)