“Honored father-in-law. What brings you here? Send word next time and I’ll come to your residence.”
Ning Ziming bowed and scraped, his whole face flattery.
The Left Chancellor waved it away. “His Majesty called me into the palace to discuss some matters. I asked about Gan’er’s business while I was there, and came straight on afterward.”
He said it, and looked at Ning Gan.
He saw the swollen red of Ning Gan’s cheeks, and his eyes sharpened.
“Gan’er. What happened to your face?”
Ning Gan kept his head down and didn’t dare make a sound.
Chang Ruyue went straight into the performance. Her eyes reddened, tears came down her cheeks, and she wept out the whole story with a good deal added to it.
The Left Chancellor glanced at Ning Ziming.
Ning Ziming’s body gave a jerk. He bent at the waist and his face filled with fear.
“Where is Ning Chen?”
The Left Chancellor asked it.
He had been to the Ning residence many times and he knew Ning Chen existed. A small figure like that had simply never been worth keeping in mind.
Ning Mao pointed. “Grandfather. That’s Ning Chen.”
The Left Chancellor’s eyes moved across and settled on him — and only then did he notice that the whole yard was on its knees and this little mongrel was standing with his back straight. His brows drew together.
“He sees this chancellor and does not kneel… Somebody. Thirty strokes of the rod.”
The Left Chancellor was no brainless bully. A man does not reach the chancellorship without becoming something very close to a fox.
But dealing with a little worm like Ning Chen did not call for any of what he used on political enemies at court.
For a figure this small, thirty strokes was nothing. He could have had him killed and not one person would have dared ask him about it.
Ning Gan and his two brothers made no attempt to hide how much they were enjoying it.
At a moment like this, not even their father would dare speak for Ning Chen.
This was not a beating he was going to get out of.
Two guards stepped out from behind the Left Chancellor and came toward him.
Both of them moved on steady feet, and the temples stood out on their heads. One look told you they could fight.
Ning Chen’s eyes went cold. He asked it flatly. “May I ask the Left Chancellor what crime I have committed?”
Ning Mao jeered at him. “You idiot. Don’t you know the law of the Great Xuan? Seeing the Chancellor and failing to bow carries the rod.”
Ning Chen smiled slightly. “Could you wait a moment? I have something very important to present to His Excellency the Left Chancellor.”
The Left Chancellor’s eyes narrowed. “What thing?”
“A moment, Left Chancellor. I’ll fetch it now.”
Ning Chen turned and went into his room, and shut the door.
After a while the door opened and he came out.
Every face in the yard changed. They were all of them stunned.
Even something narrowed in the Left Chancellor’s eyes.
Ning Chen was in a silver fish-scale coat with a service sword at his hip.
Clothes make the man as the saddle makes the horse. In it, the thin body looked soldierly and out of the ordinary.
Ning Chen put his left hand on the hilt, lifted his chin, looked at the Left Chancellor and asked, “Left Chancellor. Shall I kneel to you?”
By the law of the Great Xuan the Inspectorate answers to the emperor alone… and its men kneel to no official outside the imperial family.
The color went out of the Left Chancellor’s face. High as he stood, he did not dare have an Inspectorate man kneel to him.
If Ning Chen knelt, what would that make him, if not the equal of the imperial family?
That is no longer overstepping rank. That is rebellion.
The Left Chancellor knew exactly where the Xuan Emperor’s lines were, and which places a man must never touch.
His control over himself was far beyond the ordinary and he never let his feelings show in his face… but at that moment his face went through several colors and not one of them was good. Quite a performance.
He had meant to finish off a little worm like Ning Chen — easier than pinching an ant to death… and the slap in the face had come out of nowhere.
That invisible blow of Ning Chen’s left his cheek burning.
The Left Chancellor turned a hard eye on Ning Ziming.
Ning Ziming’s face was utterly blank. He had no idea Ning Chen had entered the Inspectorate.
“Ning Chen, you— why are you wearing an Inspectorate fish-scale coat?”
Ning Mao’s whole face was disbelief.
Ning Chen looked at him with something that was almost a smile. “Shh… don’t shout it about. I stole the coat. I’m wearing it a couple of days to look impressive. Whatever you do, don’t let anyone find out.”
Ning Mao’s eyes went wide.
Ning Xing sprang up and pointed at him. “You— you have some nerve. Stealing an Inspectorate fish-scale coat, you’re a dead man… Ning Chen, you are a dead man.”
Ning Chen shut his mouth tight, afraid he would laugh out loud.
These two idiots. He was prepared to call the pair of them the Sleeping Dragon and the Fledgling Phoenix of the Ning house (TL Note: the by-names of Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong, the two most celebrated strategists of the Three Kingdoms era — proverbially the finest minds of their age.).
Ning Ziming’s brows drew hard together. How had he fathered two sons as stupid as pigs?
Ning Chen dared say it, and these two dared believe it.
Ning Chen was not a fool. Why would he risk his neck to steal an Inspectorate coat?
“Chen’er. What is this, exactly?”
Ning Chen said it flatly. “His Majesty named me personally, granted me the silver, and permitted me into the Inspectorate… Minister Ning. In future you will address me as Ning the Silver Coat.”
“Impossible. Absolutely impossible… You’re a bastard. How would you ever get near His Majesty?”
Ning Mao shouted it. He didn’t believe a word.
“Be quiet!”
Ning Ziming roared it under his breath.
He alone knew that His Majesty was not only acquainted with Ning Chen but showed him extraordinary favor.
Then Ning Chen turned to Ning Gan and said it hard. “Ning Gan. Do you know your crime?”
It made Ning Gan jump. “I— what crime have I committed?”
Ning Chen said it clearly, for the yard to hear. “The law of the Great Xuan. Forcing entry to a private dwelling, and stealing or destroying another man’s property: fifty strokes of the rod and a year in custody… In serious cases, branded as a slave and exiled three thousand miles.”
“Ning Gan. You wrecked my room and destroyed my property, and you admitted it out of your own mouth a moment ago… Come along. You and I are going to the Inspectorate cells.”
Ning Gan went white to the lips and shook from head to foot.
There was a hiss of steel.
The sword came out of the scabbard and the cold light of it flickered.
Ning Chen said the rest one word at a time. “Ning Gan. Come with me… Where a man resists, the Inspectorate has the right to execute first and report afterward.”
The fright nearly put Ning Gan on the ground.
The Inspectorate cells were the Hall of the King of Hell… Nobody who went in there came out alive.
“I won’t go, I can’t go… Mother, save me. Father, save me. I won’t go to the Inspectorate—”
Ning Gan kept trying to get behind Chang Ruyue.
Ning Chen made a cold sound and came on a step at a time with the sword in his hand, and there was a great deal of menace in it.
“Father, save me. Mother, save me… I don’t want to go to the Inspectorate. I don’t want to die—”
Ning Chen said coldly, “Let me see who dares stop me. Anyone who does will be charged with the same crime.”
Then the Left Chancellor made a cold sound and said, without warmth, “A little silver coat. And he dares swagger in front of this chancellor?”
Ning Chen turned his head and said it hard. “Left Chancellor. Do you mean to obstruct the Inspectorate in a case?”
“The Inspectorate acts by His Majesty’s leave, under imperial warrant… On what grounds does the Left Chancellor obstruct me?”
“I may be a small silver coat, but what I stand for is His Majesty… The Left Chancellor obstructs me. Does that mean he sets himself above His Majesty? Put it at its smallest, and that is disregard of imperial authority and an offense against the throne. Put it at its largest, and that is rebellion — beyond pardon, and punishable to the ninth degree of kin.”
Ning Chen clapped a hat on him the size of a house.
The Left Chancellor’s old face went livid and the veins at his temple jumped… A hat that size — never mind a chancellor, an elephant could not carry it.
(End of Chapter 41)