Ning Chen had broken all four of the rat-eyed man’s limbs outright, and there was no telling how many ribs with them.

His face was swollen and bruised, his mouth was full of blood, and he lay on the ground making a low continuous noise.

The household men were frightened out of their bodies and shaking with it.

The family of the man who had been bringing up blood looked at Ning Chen with fear in it, and a great deal more gratitude.

The old physician’s eyes were full of astonishment.

Ning Chen got his breath back, went over and picked up another club, and swung it full circle into the household men… beat them until they were crying for their fathers and mothers, and the screaming went up all over the yard.

When he was tired of beating them, he stopped.

Ning Chen looked at the old physician and pointed at the man bringing up blood. “See to him quickly. Leave the rest to me.”

He meant to take these men and go and find the Empress’s brother.

If he did not take the whole of it onto himself, the Empress’s brother would never let the old physician and the rest of them alone.

He was a silver coat named by His Majesty. If even he could not carry the weight of this, the physician and the others certainly could not. They would be trodden flat like ants.

Something moved in the old man’s eyes, and after a while it was as though he had settled on something.

He bent and bowed over clasped fists. “My lord. Might I have a word aside?”

Ning Chen stopped short, then nodded slightly.

The old physician came through to the back of the house, asked Ning Chen to wait a moment, and went into a room by himself.

Before long he came out with a book in his hand.

The old physician stepped in front of Ning Chen and went down on his knees.

That startled Ning Chen, and he put a hand out quickly to lift him. “What is this? Get up. I can’t take this from you.”

“My lord can take it.”

“This old fellow’s eyes are old and dim, but he still sees a man clearly enough… My lord’s blood is up, and he is upright and good. So this goes to my lord.”

The old man held the book up in both hands.

Ning Chen asked, curious, “What is it?”

The old man said, “It is the evidence against every official in Chongzhou. From the prefect at the top to the magistrates of the counties at the bottom — the evidence of what they have taken and what they have done is all in this book.”

That astonished Ning Chen. “Where did you get a thing like this?”

The old man said, “It was left in my keeping by an old friend before he died, to be handed to somebody worth trusting.”

“He was the clerk of the county office in Zhenyuan County, and we played together as children… His conscience had not gone out in him, and he wrote down what every official in Chongzhou had done in this book.”

“He paid with his life for it… And now the book goes to my lord.”

The old man said it, and knocked his head on the ground to Ning Chen.

“My lord. The people of Zhenyuan County are in your hands.”

Ning Chen got him up in a hurry.

He knew perfectly well what this book was worth.

“Sir. Listen to me…”

Ning Chen lowered his voice and told him several things.

When the old physician had heard him out he nodded slightly. “Good. It shall be as my lord says.”

The dust was blowing along the street.

Ning Chen walked in front with his left hand on the hilt.

Behind him came a crowd of household men, bruised and swollen and limping, carrying the man who was half dead.

Ning Chen had not brought the book of evidence with him.

What he was going to face this time was the Empress’s brother — the Empress’s own younger brother.

He did not know whether he would come out of that house alive.

So the book of evidence could not be on him.

The gates of the house stood wide and bright, with a pair of stone lions in front of them, proud and imposing.

It was a building of seven courtyards, grand and enormously luxurious… and against the broken-down buildings all around it the contrast could not have been sharper.

And in the Empress’s brother’s house at that hour, a high stage had been put up for the opera.

Below the stage sat the Empress’s brother, the officials of Chongzhou high and low, and Pan Yucheng and his men, watching the play.

The common people could not fill their bellies and had eaten the bark off every tree… and on every table here were rare dishes and fine wine.

Women of unusual looks went through the crowd pouring wine and drinking with them.

These officials, fed until they were fat in the head and the guts, sat with their arms around scented women and passed the cups back and forth, and a fine noisy time they had of it.

“My lords. Let me drink to you all.”

“Pan the Gold Coat, you see what a poor out-of-the-way place this is. We’ve got nothing worth putting in front of you. Forgive us for entertaining you so badly.”

“Come, let us drink again to the great men from the capital.”

Pan Yucheng and a party of silver coats passed the cups back and forth with the officials of Chongzhou and made the polite noises.

The Empress’s brother was gorgeously dressed and enormously fat, and when he laughed it shook on his face.

His small eyes were narrowed to slits, and he was very pleased with himself.

He had held office in the capital originally, but his abilities were simply too poor for it — though at eating, drinking, whoring and gambling he was accomplished in every branch… and the Xuan Emperor had eventually sent him to Chongzhou.

Nominally he had come to Chongzhou to keep watch on the officials. In fact he had been given an empty post, sent there to see out his years, eat and drink and wait to die. He was the Empress’s own brother, after all. He could not simply be dismissed.

But once he reached Chongzhou, with heaven high and the emperor far away, he traded on the Empress’s name, did every wicked thing there was, and set himself up as a local emperor.

The Empress’s brother watched Pan Yucheng and the rest with his eyes half shut, contempt all over his face… The Inspectorate, was it? And hadn’t he settled them the same as anybody?

On Pan Yucheng’s first night in Zhenyuan County he had sent over money and beautiful women, and these men had taken the lot.

Just then a servant came up to the Empress’s brother and said a few words in his ear.

The Empress’s brother started, and then his face went dark.

“Go. Bring them in.”

He stood up and called toward the stage. “All of you. Stop.”

The gongs and drums stopped at once.

Everybody looked at him, not understanding.

But the Empress’s brother was looking at Pan Yucheng, and asked it with his eyes creased up in a smile. “Pan the Gold Coat. Do you have a silver coat under you by the name of Ning Chen?”

Something contracted behind Pan Yucheng’s eyes and his heart jumped. Has something happened to Ning Chen?

He nodded. “There is such a man.”

The Empress’s brother carried his great belly over in front of Pan Yucheng, and said it with a smile on his mouth and nothing behind it. “Pan the Gold Coat. That subordinate of yours doesn’t know his manners very well.”

Pan Yucheng had not yet worked out what he meant when he heard a rush of disordered footsteps.

Everybody turned to look.

A boy in a silver fish-scale coat, with a long sword at his hip and one hand on the hilt, was walking toward them.

Behind him came a crowd of household men with their faces swollen and bruised, and one man being carried.

All around them the house guards had their swords out of the scabbards, with the look of men facing an army.

The Empress’s brother was imperial kin and was permitted to keep house guards of his own… but the number was limited, and could not go above fifty.

Pan Yucheng and the others looked worried. How had Ning Chen turned up here without warning? And injured the Empress’s brother’s people… where were Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng?

Ning Chen looked around him at the gorgeous stage, the tables loaded with rare dishes and fine wine… and the fury came up in him and burned.

“Good. Very good… Outside, the people have nothing to cover them and nothing to fill them, and the bark has been eaten off every tree around this town… and here you are with a stage up, spending without any bottom to it.”

“The father and mother of the people. A fine father and mother you make… What I see is a pack of beasts wearing men’s clothes.”

Ning Chen had gone mad with it. He was past holding it in, and put his foot into a table and turned it over.

“I’ll fucking give you something to eat. I’ll give you something to drink—”

Ning Chen’s eyes were near enough throwing fire, and he turned over one table after another.

“My lord, calm yourself. What has happened? Is it worth so much anger?”

A fat official with a goat’s beard came up with a smile on his face to ask it.

Ning Chen turned his head and looked at him. “Who are you?”

“I am Ai Wenguang, magistrate of Zhenyuan County.”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes. “You are the magistrate of Zhenyuan County?”

“It is indeed this official!”

Ning Chen unhooked the long sword at his waist and brought it down hard on Ai Wenguang’s head.

(End of Chapter 54)