Ning Chen swung down off the horse and walked toward the two boys.

The big constable saw it and moved quickly to block his way, respectful about it. “My lord. Bandits are vicious. You don’t want to be hurt.”

Ning Chen said it flatly. “Stand aside.”

“My lord, this is a case belonging to the capital magistrate’s office, so if you would—”

Ning Chen cut him off before he finished, cold with it. “What of it? Does the Inspectorate have no right to look into a case of the capital magistrate’s office?”

“That— of course my lord has the right to look into it.”

“Then stand aside.”

Ning Chen said it without any expression at all.

Cases the capital magistrate’s office can handle, the Inspectorate may handle. Cases the capital magistrate’s office cannot handle, the Inspectorate may handle as well.

Which is to say there is no case under heaven the Inspectorate may not handle.

That is by His Majesty’s own leave, under imperial warrant.

The big constable did not dare stand in Ning Chen’s way any longer. He put his head down and moved aside.

Ning Chen came up to the two boys.

Boys, he called them, but they looked several years older than he was.

“You two. What wrong have you suffered? Who are you laying a complaint against?”

One of them looked at Ning Chen as though he had caught hold of the last straw there was, and said quickly:

“My lord. We’re from Zhenyuan County. We want to lay a complaint against the magistrate, Ai Wenguang. He invents pretexts for new levies, he fills the jails with the innocent, he takes by force and seizes by power, he treats a human life as so much grass. The people have no way left to live. We beg my lord to see justice done for us.”

Zhenyuan County?

Ning Chen’s eyebrow went up.

“Wasn’t the magistrate of Zhenyuan County killed?”

The boy said furiously, “The old magistrate was killed, that’s true. We thought we’d have a decent life after it… And then the new magistrate, Ai Wenguang, turned out crueler than the last one. My lord, the people of Zhenyuan County cannot live.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew together slightly. One corrupt magistrate might be a single case.

But a second one exactly the same is no longer a problem with the magistrate… It may be that the roots have rotted through the whole of Chongzhou.

Something moved in Ning Chen’s eyes. This was an opportunity.

The Xuan Emperor had put him in the Inspectorate, so he would have to produce something and prove what he could do.

He was a silver coat, but he had nothing under him… and the rank is not worth much. In the Inspectorate you could grab a handful of them.

What he was at present, put plainly, was a paper tiger. No real power. Good enough for frightening people, and no good at all the moment anybody played it for real.

So he had to show results and build strength… and best of all catch His Majesty’s eye and get a firm hold of the Xuan Emperor’s leg. Only then could he stand against Ning Ziming and the Left Chancellor.

If he could settle Zhenyuan County, there was a good deal in it.

First, it would prove what he could do.

Second, pulling the common people out of the fire was certain to make him a name.

“My lord. I have a petition of ten thousand names on me… I beg my lord to save the people of Zhenyuan County. They truly cannot live.”

Ning Chen looked at the constables holding the boy and said coldly, “Let go of him.”

Ning Chen was not old, but the silver fish-scale coat on him was the genuine article. The constables did not dare go against it and let the boy go.

The boy dropped to his knees in front of Ning Chen with a thud.

He pulled a filthy square of white cloth out of his shirt, lifted it above his head and shouted, “I beg my lord to see justice done for the people of Zhenyuan County.”

Ning Chen took the cloth and opened it… Names on it, and fingerprints in blood. It turned the stomach to look at.

If there had been any way left to live they would not have come to the capital at the risk of their lives to lay a complaint.

Ning Chen folded the blood petition away and looked at the two of them. “You’ll come with me.”

“My lord, these are prisoners of the capital magistrate’s office. This isn’t according to the rules, surely?”

The big constable blocked Ning Chen’s way.

Ning Chen fixed him with a hard eye. “Listen carefully. The Inspectorate is taking this case… From this moment it is an Inspectorate case.”

“Try to stop me again, and I’ll take you for tea in the Inspectorate cells.”

The man’s face went white. There is nobody who is not afraid of that place.

Ning Chen motioned the two boys to come with him.

A few steps on, Ning Chen stopped. He did not turn his head. He only said it flatly. “The capital magistrate’s office has remarkable abilities. Under the Son of Heaven’s own feet, and you can turn a case like this into a theft. What is there you wouldn’t dare do?”

“I’ve marked you. And the capital prefect with you… When my hands are free I’ll pay you both a call.”

One sentence, and the cold sweat came out on the big constable’s forehead. Having the Inspectorate take an interest in you was nothing good. Handled badly, it meant a head coming off.

Ning Chen said it, took the horse’s rein, and left with the two boys.

“Eat. Don’t stand on ceremony.”

For safety’s sake Ning Chen had taken them straight back to the Ning residence.

The Inspectorate had let off by then. He meant to give the two young men a night’s rest and take them in the morning.

The pair dropped to their knees and knocked their heads on the floor. “Thank you, my lord. Thank you, my lord—”

Ning Chen got them up in a hurry.

“Eat. The food will go cold.”

They were half starved, and they set to wolfing it down.

Ning Chen looked at the rags on them and the bones showing through, and something turned over in him.

There had been a time when he was exactly the same. Never enough to eat, never enough to keep warm.

While they ate he asked a few questions.

It turned out they were not the only ones who had come to the capital to lay a complaint.

The magistrate of Zhenyuan County had sealed every road out, precisely to stop anyone reaching the capital.

So they had picked seven strong swimmers, crossed a wide river running fast, and got out over hills and ridges.

Even so they were found, and hunted the whole way. By the time they reached the capital only these two were alive.

They had thought that reaching it would mean justice.

Instead there was still no door to take a complaint to. If they had not met Ning Chen they would be in the cells of the capital magistrate’s office now.

The next day Ning Chen brought the two of them to the Inspectorate.

He was barely through the door when Gao Ziping came to meet him.

“Ning Chen. The case is broken.”

Ning Chen stopped short. “Squire Zhang’s case?”

Gao Ziping nodded, smiling. “Exactly as you worked it out. Not a hair different.”

Ning Chen smiled and said, with a small sigh, “Adultery has always ended in killing.”

“Ning Chen. I apologize for how I treated you yesterday. I underestimated you.”

Before Ning Chen could get a polite word out, the rest of them crowded around.

“Ning Chen, you’re something. We questioned the concubine’s personal maid first, and it was exactly as you said.”

“The two of them were hard-mouthed at the start. One good fright and they gave us the lot.”

“Ning Chen, how did you ever think of the two of them having an affair?”

Ning Chen’s face filled with resignation. “Which of you would you like me to answer first?”

“All right, all right… There’ll be chances enough to ask you later.”

Gao Ziping paused, and went on. “This case is broken and the first credit is yours. When the reward comes down you take the large share.”

Ning Chen shook his head, and kept shaking it. “The credit belongs to all of us. I only turned up a thread. I’m not claiming it.”

Gao Ziping said, “In the Inspectorate rewards and punishments are clear. What belongs to a man belongs to him.”

Ning Chen shook his head, stubborn about it. “If you insist on giving it to me, then I won’t argue… But I won’t touch the money. I’ll take everyone out to eat and drink and spend the whole of it, down to the last coin. How’s that?”

A cheer went up at once.

“Ning Chen, good man!”

“That’s generous.”

“Good brother—”

“I propose the courtesans’ quarter. Tea and music. What do you say?”

“The courtesans’ quarter is all you ever think about. I propose a pleasure house. The girls are prettier.”

They roared with laughter.

“How the money gets spent is up to Ning Chen… All right, back to work, all of you. Stop crowding him.”

Gao Ziping drove them off.

Their attitude to Ning Chen had turned a hundred and eighty degrees.

Even Feng Qizheng, who had jeered at him all through the previous day, gave Ning Chen a smile with real approval in it.

Only then did Gao Ziping notice the two boys standing in the doorway in rags, frightened and uneasy.

“Who are those two?”

Ning Chen said, “Let me go and see Pan the Gold Coat first. I’ll explain when I come back.”

Gao Ziping struck his own forehead. “With this lot making a racket I nearly forgot… Pan the Gold Coat said that the moment you arrived you were to go to him.”

“Ning Chen. You haven’t offended Pan the Gold Coat, have you? His face isn’t a pleasant sight.”

Ning Chen spread his hands. “When has his face ever been a pleasant sight? A coffin-lid face. He doesn’t seem to know how to smile.”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Pan the Gold Coat is cold in the face and warm underneath… Though his face does stink a bit, it’s true.”

(End of Chapter 46)