“Geng Jing. This emperor told you to take care of Ning Chen. Is this how you take care of him?”

“This emperor does not care how you do it. Ning Chen is to eat.”

The bitterness of it. Prying a prisoner’s mouth open to get the truth out of him — that he was good at.

Prying a man’s mouth open to make him eat was another matter entirely.

“Your subject has the order.”

It was hard, but he had no right to refuse an emperor.

The Xuan Emperor waved a hand. “Enough. Go.”

Once Geng Jing had gone, the Xuan Emperor said, “Quan Sheng. Fetch the crown prince.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Eunuch Quan went off on his small quick steps.

The Xuan Emperor looked at the poem on the paper and said it to himself. “The boy overflows with talent. As young as that. How does he do it?”

“It is time, though, that he knew who this emperor is.”

The Xuan Emperor knew perfectly well that Geng Jing had no way of making Ning Chen eat.

On the evidence of the last few days, the boy was a mule.

Ning Chen’s temper was wrong for the factional fighting at court… It suited the Inspectorate far better.

The boy had courage and a head for strategy, but he was too hard, and he had no fear of power. There was nowhere he would fit so well… In time he could take Geng Jing’s place.

The next day Geng Jing came down to Ning Chen’s cell with several men.

The food on the floor had not been touched, and the sight of it gave him a headache.

He had his men open the door.

“Lan Xing. Out.”

Ning Chen looked at him and asked it flatly. “Is it the market crossing?”

Geng Jing nodded and pointed at the food. “Your last meal. You’re sure you won’t have any?”

“All these days waiting, and it’s finally my turn.” Ning Chen got up and came out, and held both hands out for the manacles and leg irons.

Geng Jing frowned. “Are you truly not afraid to die?”

“If I said I was, would you not kill me?”

Geng Jing had nothing for that.

“You’re certain you won’t eat something?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “No. When I’m dead and come back as an angry ghost, I’ll call at your house at night and ask for a meal.”

The corner of Geng Jing’s mouth twitched, and underneath it he was impressed.

Ordinary prisoners went weak in the legs at the end. Some of them let go at both ends entirely.

For a boy this young to have no fear of living or dying was a rare thing indeed.

Geng Jing said, “Lan Xing. You’ll go without the manacles and irons… But I warn you. Don’t try anything. That scrap of skill of yours is not worth mentioning in front of me.”

Ning Chen nodded. “I know.”

The man’s fish-scale coat was purple. His position was a high one, and there was no need to wonder about his skill. A master among masters.

“Come.”

Geng Jing took Ning Chen out of the cells.

Ning Chen took several greedy breaths of clean air. Half a month in a dark, cramped cell, and he had forgotten what it tasted like.

Outside the cells stood a carriage.

“Get in, Lan Xing.”

Ning Chen looked doubtful. “Shouldn’t it be a prison cart?”

Geng Jing didn’t explain.

Ning Chen didn’t press it. He climbed up.

The carriage went out of the Inspectorate and east.

He could hear crowds outside, a great noise of them.

“Don’t look around.”

Ning Chen went to lift the curtain and Geng Jing stopped him.

“Nearly at the market crossing?” Ning Chen asked, and didn’t wait for an answer. “What’s your name? Where do you live?”

Geng Jing looked at him and said nothing.

Ning Chen grinned at him. “Don’t worry, I don’t mean anything by it… I’m only afraid that when I come back as an angry ghost I won’t be able to find you.”

Geng Jing’s mouth went tight, and he still said nothing.

About an hour later the carriage stopped.

“Get down.”

Geng Jing said it, and climbed down first himself.

Ning Chen lifted the curtain, came out, and stopped dead.

This was not the market crossing. It was the Heavenly Blessing Tower.

And there were imperial guards on every side of it.

Ning Chen looked at Geng Jing, baffled.

Geng Jing didn’t explain. “With me.”

Ning Chen jumped down, his head full of question marks.

“What is this supposed to mean? Why bring me to the Heavenly Blessing Tower?”

“Is that human garbage of a Fifth Prince taking the law into his own hands? Is he going to cut my head off here?”

Geng Jing’s face changed. He said it low. “Ning Chen. Mind how you speak.”

Ning Chen went rigid. “So you’ve known who I am all along.”

“Which is fair enough. If the great Inspectorate couldn’t turn up a thing like that, it wouldn’t be fit to be the emperor’s own hawks and hounds.”

Geng Jing’s face darkened. What he wanted was to stop that mouth. The things it said were unbearable.

Ning Chen took two quick steps and caught him up. “I hid who I was, but there’s one thing I didn’t lie about… Ning Ziming really did put me up to taking the Fifth Prince and beating him.”

The corner of Geng Jing’s mouth twitched, and he couldn’t help himself. “Shut your mouth.”

“Every word of it is true.”

Geng Jing pretended not to hear.

“Pah… So much for the Inspectorate being fair and without favor. Officials cover for officials, that’s all it is.”

Geng Jing looked back at him, coldly.

What are you looking at? I’m a dead man walking. You think I’m frightened of you?

Geng Jing took him to the door of a private room on the second floor of the Heavenly Blessing Tower.

Ning Chen frowned. It was the same private room where Tian Xuan had bought him a meal.

The Fifth Prince has a long memory. Where he lost, that’s where he has to get it back.

Ning Chen glanced at the two men beside him in red fish-scale coats. Those two would be ordinary.

When I see the Fifth Prince, get a blade away from one of them and chop the bastard down.

Human garbage like that, left alive in the world — there’s no telling how many people suffer for it. I’m dying anyway. Take him down to hell with me.

Ning Chen laid it out quietly in his head.

The two imperial guards at the door pushed it open and motioned Geng Jing and the rest of them inside.

Ning Chen followed them in and stopped where he stood.

There was no Fifth Prince.

Three men were sitting around the table. One was Tian Xuan, one was Xuan Hong, and one was Old General Chen.

The shrill one stood respectfully behind Tian Xuan.

“Uncle? Old General Chen?”

Ning Chen’s whole face was astonishment.

As for Xuan Hong, Ning Chen couldn’t be bothered with him at all. A man who clings to his own skin was not worth looking at straight.

The crown prince saw the disgust in Ning Chen’s eyes as they passed over him, and put his head down with a bitter smile.

Ning Chen looked at the good things on the table and smiled. “Uncle. Old General Chen. So you’ve heard they’re taking my head off. And you’ve laid out a condemned man’s last meal this size for me… That’s decent of you.”

Geng Jing said it heavily and hard. “Ning Chen. No insolence.”

Then he crossed quickly to the table and went down on his knees to the Xuan Emperor. “Your subject Geng Jing, presenting himself to Your Majesty.”

Ning Chen’s eyes went wide. His mouth came open far enough to take an egg. His mind stopped altogether.

Your Majesty?

That’s the emperor.

Uncle is the emperor?

The Xuan Emperor and the others watched his reaction with enjoyment.

It was a considerable relief to Geng Jing as well. The boy is afraid of nothing under heaven. Frightened stupid now, though, isn’t he.

It was a long while before Ning Chen came back to himself. He got it out in shock. “Uncle. Aren’t you Prince Fu? How did you turn into the emperor? Did you seize power and usurp the throne?”

One sentence, and every person in the room except the Xuan Emperor went white, with the cold sweat coming out on them.

Has the boy got a death wish? He opens his mouth and rebellion comes out of it.

(End of Chapter 36)