“Father, you should never have brought that bastard back to the Ning house. You should have let him beg on the road. You should have let him die in some corner somewhere.”
“It’s because of him that I lost my post on my first day. There’s no future in the service for me now. I’m the joke of the whole capital.”
“Why did you bring him back… The boy is a curse.”
Ning Gan had drunk too much. It was the first time in his life he had shouted at his father.
Ning Ziming was too stunned by it to answer, and stared at him.
Ning Gan had never been anything but respectful to him.
Ning Chen dared push his luck because the emperor was shielding him. Now Ning Gan was shouting at him too. Where was a father’s authority in that?
A blind fury came up in him, and Ning Ziming swung his hand and struck Ning Gan hard across the face.
“You worthless thing. What kind of manner is that? You lost your post. What has that to do with Ning Chen?”
Ning Gan held his cheek and shouted through it. “Because the first two lines of that poem I gave His Majesty came out of Ning Chen’s room.”
“If it weren’t for those two lines of his, His Majesty would not have called me a man fishing for a name he hasn’t earned, all show and nothing behind it… He would not have taken my cap and turned me out of my office.”
Ning Ziming’s eyes went wide and his whole face was bewilderment.
When Ning Gan had produced that poem the dragon countenance was greatly pleased, and he had been made a Compiler of the Hanlin Academy on the spot. Ning Ziming had taken his share of the glory of it.
That very night he had thrown a banquet at the Top Scholar Tower.
Then on the day Ning Gan was to start, he was told the Xuan Emperor had sent him home to await appointment.
And eight characters had come with it. Fishing for a name he hasn’t earned. All show and nothing behind it.
He had never understood what those eight characters meant.
He had wanted to ask the Xuan Emperor and had not had the nerve.
He had even gone and asked his father-in-law, the Left Chancellor… The Left Chancellor could not read the emperor’s meaning either.
Now, at last, he understood. Ning Gan had copied Ning Chen’s poem.
And Ning Chen knew the emperor, which was a thing Ning Gan did not know.
Which meant that the Xuan Emperor had already known the first two lines were not Ning Gan’s, and that was why he had been turned out of his office and sent home to await appointment.
And await appointment meant: wait, and go on waiting.
Ning Ziming’s old face went white. Stealing another man’s poem and passing it off to the emperor is the crime of deceiving the throne… For the emperor not to have issued an order and had Ning Gan beheaded on the spot was extraordinary mercy.
“You worthless thing. Treason. You dared deceive His Majesty… I said myself the last two lines had the meter wrong and didn’t make a damn bit of sense.”
Ning Ziming was past holding himself in, and open-handed blows came down on Ning Gan’s face as though they cost nothing.
Ning Gan went down under them, and most of the drink went out of him.
Ning Ziming’s hand hurt by the end of it. Ning Gan’s face was swollen.
Fear came over Ning Gan’s face. It was only now that he understood what he had said.
Ning Xing and Ning Mao stood to one side shaking.
“Worthless thing. I taught you your letters with my own hands. I put you through the classics. I thought you would bring honor to the gate of the Ning house… And what have you done?”
“You treasonous creature. You dared practice a deception on the Son of Heaven… Do you want the whole Ning house buried alongside you?”
“I, Ning Ziming, have been a clear-headed man my whole life. How did I father an idiot like you?”
Ning Ziming had gone mad with it. The emperor’s anger was on them, and Ning Gan would hold no office now.
Years of hard teaching, all of it poured into a river and gone.
Who would bring glory to the ancestors of the Ning house?
Ning Xing?
Ning Mao?
No man knows his sons like their father. Neither of those two was made for study.
Then he thought of Ning Chen.
The emperor’s favor toward Ning Chen was extraordinary, and he had been willing to take a Second Rank minister down a peg for it.
Ning Chen was the only one left who could do it.
He turned his head and looked at Ning Chen, and forced enough of a smile onto his face to ask, “Chen’er. Those first two lines. Were they truly your work?”
Ning Ziming was full of doubt about it. Ning Chen had wandered the roads as a small boy and had only begun to read and write after he came to the Ning house. How could he have produced lines like that?
Ning Chen said it flatly. “You heard him, didn’t you?”
Ning Ziming’s eyes lit up. If those two lines were not copied from somebody else, then this son of his was a prodigy.
A boy who could produce lines that fine, brought on properly, had a future worth waiting for. He might come home a Top Scholar… and bring honor to the gate of the Ning house.
Ning Chen was only fifteen, after all. There was time enough for all of it.
“Chen’er. Where have you been this half month? Your father hasn’t slept a night for worry… Seeing you home safe sets my mind at rest.”
Ning Chen looked at that false face and felt like being sick.
“I disappear for half a month and Minister Ning can’t sleep a night… Or was it that you were too pleased to sleep? Or perhaps—”
He had meant to go on and get a few more in, but he had not finished when a rush of disordered footsteps came toward them.
Somebody had evidently carried word of all this to Chang Ruyue.
Chang Ruyue came hurrying in with several maids and waiting women behind her.
The sight of Ning Gan on the ground with his cheeks red and swollen set her off on the spot, and she did not trouble herself with keeping up the image of the virtuous and gentle lady. She pointed at Ning Ziming and shouted.
“Master. All this time Gan’er has honored you and looked up to you and never once gone against you… He is your own son. How could you raise your hand to him? Are you trying to beat him to death?”
“That bastard is your son. Is Gan’er not? And for his sake you have beaten Gan’er into this.”
That lit Ning Ziming’s temper all over again. “A doting mother ruins a son. Ignorant woman… Do you have the first idea what your precious boy has done?”
Chang Ruyue gave no ground. “And what if my Gan’er has done wrong? His grandfather is the Left Chancellor of this court. Who can touch him?”
“Ning Ziming, I’ve known for a long time there was something wrong with you. Endless patience for that bastard, and harder and harder on me and my sons… Do you mean to turn us out of the Ning house and leave everything to him?”
Ning Ziming shook from head to foot. He pointed at her and roared, “You— you, you— Ignorant woman. Hold your tongue.”
Ning Chen stood off to one side, watching the dogs bite each other with a smile on his face.
Then a servant came running in.
“Master. My lady… the Left Chancellor is here.”
The fight went out of Ning Ziming at once, and something like fear crossed his face.
Ning Chen saw it, and the contempt in him was complete. Human garbage. No loyalty in him, frightened as a rat, false to the bone — put every one of those words together and they still don’t cover the man.
Chang Ruyue’s fight rose in the same measure. “My father is here. Bring him in.”
An old man came toward them then, heavy-bodied, in loose and costly brocade, his hair and beard going white, a crowd of guards around him.
This was the Left Chancellor. Below one man in this court, and above ten thousand.
A wide flat face, features that were nothing in particular — but the eyes in it had an edge on them. A man who has held high place a long time does not need to be angry to be feared.
Ning Ziming and the rest went quickly forward to meet him.
“Your son-in-law greets his honored father-in-law.”
“Your daughter pays her respects to her father.”
“Grandfather…”
The Ning family made their bows respectfully.
The household men and the maids went down on their knees where they stood, all over the yard.
Only Ning Chen stayed standing, his back as straight as a pine.
(End of Chapter 40)