A wide room, Geng Jing sitting and Ning Chen standing.

Geng Jing had made himself a cup of tea as well, and sat behind the long table taking his time over it.

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. He knew Geng Jing was doing it on purpose.

About a quarter of an hour later a thin, very tall middle-aged man came in.

The man’s face was cold and his mouth was held shut, and one look told you he was not easy to get along with.

This was Pan Yucheng.

“Geng the Purple Coat. You wanted me?”

Pan Yucheng bowed over clasped hands as he came in.

Geng Jing nodded and pointed at Ning Chen. “His name is Ning Chen. He’s under you from now on.”

Pan Yucheng looked at Ning Chen — thin, weak, like some frail young scholar — and his brows drew together. Whose son is this, sent here to get himself gilded?

“Geng the Purple Coat. This subordinate has men enough… Put him under one of the other gold coats.”

Ning Chen’s mouth went sideways. Pan the Gold Coat plainly thought nothing of him.

Geng Jing smiled. “Pan the Gold Coat. Ning Chen is a silver coat named by His Majesty himself. He is under your command, and we have settled the matter very happily.”

Something jumped in Pan Yucheng.

Named by His Majesty?

What is this Ning Chen?

He wanted him less than ever. Named by the emperor — how was he supposed to use a man like that? Take him back and put him on a shelf?

He glanced at Geng Jing, who was smiling at the corner of his mouth. You have settled it happily. I am not happy in the slightest.

Geng Jing looked at Ning Chen. “Pan the Gold Coat handles surveillance and the arrest of wanted men… He is the treasure of my Inspectorate. You will learn from him properly. Understood?”

Surveillance and the arrest of wanted men.

That’s a detective.

When he was a soldier it had been part of the daily training. He knew that work.

Ning Chen nodded. “This subordinate obeys.”

There was a nasty little smile at the corner of Geng Jing’s mouth. Field work was the hardest and the most miserable duty there was. Sometimes a stakeout meant days and nights without closing your eyes. There’s a bitter taste coming for you, boy.

Pan Yucheng’s brows stayed drawn together and his whole face was displeasure.

Ning Chen made his bow and said, “Pan the Gold Coat. Give me whatever orders you like.”

Pan Yucheng frowned and made a sound.

Inside he was full of contempt. A young gentleman like you. Can you stand that kind of work?

Geng Jing gave the order. “Pan the Gold Coat, take Ning Chen to draw his coat and his sword. He starts tomorrow.”

“And the hundred taels we confiscated from him, and the rest of his property. Return all of it.”

Pan Yucheng said it without a scrap of willingness in him. “Yes.”

Then he looked at Ning Chen and said, cold as anything, “With me.”

Once the two of them had gone, Geng Jing refilled his cup, well pleased with himself, and said under his breath:

“Ning Chen, Ning Chen. You’ve fallen into my hands. Don’t blame me for curing you of that filthy mouth.”

As long as he didn’t go too far, His Majesty should not hold it against him.

Elsewhere, Ning Chen followed Pan Yucheng down a long corridor.

Pan Yucheng walked fast and did not trouble himself over whether Ning Chen was keeping up.

There was nothing Ning Chen could do about it. “Pan the Gold Coat. I can take hard work, as a matter of fact. I won’t claim my skill is anything much, but it’s fair enough.”

Pan Yucheng didn’t break stride. “Things get done by doing them. Not by talking about them.”

Ning Chen had no answer to that.

Pan Yucheng took him to the storehouse.

He had a silver fish-scale coat made ready for Ning Chen, and the service sword and waist tally that went with it.

“Go home. Come and find me tomorrow morning to start.”

Pan Yucheng said it and left.

Ning Chen shook his head. This was not going to be an easy man to work under.

He shouldered the bundle they had made up for him and went out of the Inspectorate.

Ning Chen had been gone half a month.

The moment he came back, every servant in the house was stunned.

The talk in the household these past days had been that Ning Chen had died out there somewhere.

Coming back this way was like watching a corpse sit up. It gave people a fright.

“Afternoon, everybody. Hu Hansan is back.” (TL Note: a stock catchphrase in modern China, from a film villain announcing his triumphant return. Nobody in this world has any idea what he is talking about.)

Ning Chen waved at them all and went to his own room with a spring in his step.

As soon as he was through the door his face went dark.

The table and chairs were on the floor, the bedding had been thrown down, and the whole room was wrecked, as though bandits had been through it.

The Chang woman and her sons. It has to be.

He turned and went back out to demand an accounting.

He had barely gotten out the door when he ran into all three brothers.

Ning Chen frowned at them.

All three of them stank of wine in broad daylight.

Ning Gan’s eyes had nothing behind them and his hair was loose and disordered, and the whole man looked ruined.

Ning Chen remembered the day he had left. Ning Gan had been starting at the Hanlin Academy in a brand-new set of official’s robes, radiant with it. How had he come to this?

“Ning Chen. So you do know the way home. Half a month. I thought you’d died out there.”

Ning Mao opened his mouth and shit came out of it.

Ning Xing came straight after him. “Half a month away from the house and not so much as a word… Do you have any regard for Father at all?”

“Ning Chen. Everybody was saying you’d died out there… Then you should have died out there. What did you come back for?”

Ning Chen’s face darkened.

“Shut your filthy mouths. I’ll still be alive when the lot of you have rotted… I’ll ask you one thing. Who wrecked my room?”

“I did. What of it?” Ning Gan’s face was full of hatred, and he pointed at Ning Chen and shouted. “You bastard… It’s because of you that I lost my post. I’m the joke of the whole capital.”

Ning Chen stopped short. Lost his post?

It had been days. Days, and Ning Gan’s cap was already off his head?

Ning Chen couldn’t hold it in. He laughed until he was squealing like a pig.

Did my curse work? On the day he left he had wished Ning Gan a career with a pothole at every step and a ditch on every road, and the wish had come true.

“What are you all shouting about now?”

Ning Ziming happened to be home on his rest day, and had come hurrying over when he heard Ning Chen was back.

Ning Chen had been gone half a month, and Ning Ziming had spent the half month with his heart in his mouth.

Not out of concern for Ning Chen’s safety. Out of fear that the Xuan Emperor would ask after him.

He was being kept in his post on probation. If the emperor learned Ning Chen had vanished, he would strip him of his office… and possibly of his head as well.

“Unfilial wretch. So you do know the way home.”

The sight of Ning Chen was more than Ning Ziming’s temper could hold, and he pointed at him and swore at him.

Ning Chen watched him work himself into a state, and smiled coldly.

“You imagine I want to be here? If Minister Ning gives me leave to go… I’ll leave the Ning house this minute and never set foot in it again as long as I live.”

“Minister Ning. Your fine big son has wrecked my room… It seems the Ning house doesn’t want me. Good day.”

Ning Chen turned and started for the gate.

“Stop— you unfilial wretch. Are you trying to make me die of it?”

Ning Chen looked back at him and said it flatly. “If it really did make you die of it, would that count as ridding the people of a menace? As justice for my dead mother?”

Ning Ziming shook from head to foot.

Ning Xing and Ning Mao made no attempt to hide how much they were enjoying it. The worse Ning Chen behaved, the more their father detested him, and that was what they most wanted to see.

Then Ning Ziming rounded on them and roared, “Which of you wrecked Ning Chen’s room?”

The smiles froze on Ning Xing’s and Ning Mao’s faces. They pulled their heads down and did not dare make a sound.

Ning Gan said, “I did.”

Ning Ziming stared at him. “Worthless. Why would you do such a thing?”

(End of Chapter 39)