They all came out to the door of the Hall of Cultivated Heart.
Nie Liang had a big wolfhound on a leash.
“Commander Nie. May I trouble you to take the dog up to the doors.”
Nie Liang nodded and led the wolfhound up to the doors.
And the dog, which had been perfectly quiet a moment before, turned restless and savage all at once, and began barking furiously at the doors of the Hall of Cultivated Heart.
Ning Chen smiled. “Commander Nie. That will do.”
Nie Liang drew the wolfhound off a little way, and it went quiet again on the instant.
They all stared at the doors of the hall with the question in their eyes.
“They say a dog can see what people can’t. Is there a ghost on that door?”
The Ninth Princess said it with some fear in her.
Ning Chen gave her a look of pure distaste.
The Ninth Princess caught the look and set her small face, and was about to speak — and then Ning Chen changed to a smile and said, “There’s nothing to be afraid of, Princess. There’s no ghost on that door… There’s only blood.”
“Blood?” The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen. “Don’t keep it back. Tell this emperor what this is.”
Ning Chen said, “Your Majesty. Somebody has painted eel blood on the doors of this hall.”
Something went across the back of Immortal Master Qiu’s eyes that he could not hide, and it was panic.
Ning Chen went on. “Eel blood has a very strong smell. Mixed into the vermilion lacquer, part of that smell is covered, and the colors are close enough that it is very hard to see.”
“A dog’s nose is a great deal sharper than a man’s. It smelled the blood, and that is why it barked.”
It came to them all at once.
“I see it… The bats smelled the blood too. They wanted to drink it, and that’s why they kept hitting the door. Isn’t that right?”
The Ninth Princess said it looking straight at Ning Chen, with an expression that said, aren’t I clever?
Ning Chen smiled slightly, and then shook his head. “No.”
Her small face fell, and she gave him a hard glare.
“Then why did the bats hit the door?”
Ning Chen smiled. “Because the smell of the eel blood drew insects. The bats were catching the insects, and now and then one hit the door.”
“You’re making it up. It’s winter now. Where would insects come from?”
The Ninth Princess argued it, unconvinced.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Winter has come, but there’s been no snow yet. So there are still insects.”
The Ninth Princess wrinkled her nose and made a sound in her throat, and her cheeks puffed out with temper, like a pretty little goldfish.
The Xuan Emperor glanced at Immortal Master Qiu.
Immortal Master Qiu felt His Majesty’s eyes on him, and a small shiver went through him, and the sweat started out on his forehead in the dead of winter.
“Ning Chen. And the coughing in the grass — how do you account for that?”
Ning Chen looked to Nie Liang.
Nie Liang was about to speak when several guards of the imperial presence came up quickly from some way off.
One of them had a hedgehog in his hands.
“Commander Nie. We’ve found it.”
Nie Liang asked, “In the grass?”
“Yes!”
Ning Chen looked to the Xuan Emperor. “Your Majesty. What was coughing last night was this hedgehog.”
“A hedgehog?”
The Xuan Emperor did not follow.
Ning Chen looked to Nie Liang.
Nie Liang at once took the small bowl from the guard beside him and gave the hedgehog some water to drink.
Then he set the hedgehog down on the ground.
In no time at all the hedgehog was coughing, sure enough.
Every man there was struck dumb!
Eunuch Quan said, excited, “That’s it. That’s the sound from last night.”
The Ninth Princess looked at Ning Chen and opened her mouth, with the look of someone who had something to say and had stopped herself.
“Is the Ninth Princess wondering why it does that?”
The Ninth Princess nodded her small head.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “It’s simple enough. A hedgehog can’t drink sugar water… Give it sugar water and it makes that coughing sound, exactly like a person coughing. Sometimes what comes out sounds like a child crying.”
“When Commander Nie searched the grass last night, his men were only looking for a person. Who was going to care about a little thing like this?”
The Ninth Princess’s eyes were shining. “Wah… Ning Chen, you’re so clever!”
The rest of them were looking at Ning Chen with admiration in their faces as well.
Brimming with talent, accomplished in letters and arms both — the boy really is something.
Ning Chen smiled modestly. “Average, average — only the third cleverest man under heaven… The first is His Majesty, and the second is you, Princess.”
That made the Ninth Princess happy at once. Her small face lit up, and she looked as pleased with herself as a proud little hen.
The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen, and then at the Ninth Princess, and a smile came onto his face with a good deal behind it.
But a second later his face darkened, and he turned to Immortal Master Qiu. “And this is the evil presence you spoke of?”
Immortal Master Qiu went down on his knees with a thump in his fright, his old face chalk white as paper, the cold sweat running off his forehead.
“Your, Your Majesty… this small immortal, this small immortal… I beg Your Majesty’s mercy, I beg Your Majesty to spare my life…”
Immortal Master Qiu was frightened stupid, and had no idea how to argue for himself at all.
The Xuan Emperor’s face was ugly with it. “This emperor wasted his trust on you, and you spread this bewitching talk of ghosts and spirits about the palace and deceived him… and very nearly killed Ning Chen with it. Your crime deserves ten thousand deaths!”
“Spare me, Your Majesty, have mercy, Your Majesty…”
Immortal Master Qiu was out of his mind with fear, knocking his head on the ground, bang, bang, and begging.
The Xuan Emperor said in a fury, “Speak. Why did you set out to harm Ning Chen? Who put you up to it?”
Immortal Master Qiu went on knocking his head and begging, shaking as he did it. “Nobody put this small immortal up to anything. This small immortal’s art is imperfect, that is all, and he was mistaken about Ning the Silver Coat… I beg Your Majesty’s mercy.”
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose.
“Your art is imperfect? Every word you said was aimed at Ning Chen. You stopped short of giving his name… and you still call it a mistake?”
“Very well. You won’t say. This emperor does not believe your mouth can’t be opened.”
“Geng Jing.”
Geng Jing bent quickly. “Your subject is here.”
“Take this dog back to the Inspectorate for this emperor. You will question him yourself.”
“Your subject obeys the command!”
Geng Jing took Immortal Master Qiu by the back of the collar and lifted him straight off the ground.
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose, turned and walked into the Hall of Cultivated Heart, saying as he went, “Ning Chen. Come in with this emperor.”
“Yes!”
Ning Chen said it, and then turned and ran after Geng Jing.
“Lord Geng. Wait a moment.”
Geng Jing stopped and turned to look.
Ning Chen ran up to him and hit Immortal Master Qiu twice where he hung in Geng Jing’s hand, bang, bang, and then put a hard kick into his belly.
“Son of a bitch. You dared try to finish me… Wait till I get back. I’ll have you cut to pieces alive.”
“Lord Geng. Thank you for your trouble!”
Ning Chen said it, turned his head and ran.
The corner of Geng Jing’s mouth twitched hard several times, and he shook his head helplessly.
The guards of the imperial presence standing about were all struck dumb.
Ning Chen was the first man ever to raise a hand in front of the Hall of Cultivated Heart.
They looked to Nie Liang.
Nie Liang had his head up, looking at the sky, as though he had never seen Ning Chen hit anybody at all.
The guards were left with nothing to say.
Fine. A favorite has nothing to be afraid of. And who is favored by His Majesty, if not Ning Chen?
Ning Chen got to the door of the Hall of Cultivated Heart and was about to go in when he heard a thump behind him.
He looked back. Immortal Master Qiu was lying on the ground and not moving.
Ning Chen’s face changed, and he turned and ran back.
There was black blood coming out at the corner of Immortal Master Qiu’s mouth. The man was dead.
“Lord Geng. You killed him?”
Geng Jing’s face was cold. “He died of poison.”
Ning Chen looked at him with plain suspicion. “He was in your hand. He still got the chance to take poison?”
“It was a poison tooth. He had a deadly poison hidden in his teeth… And his death is a gift from you.”
“What has it got to do with me? I—” Ning Chen stopped halfway and could not go on, and asked with a guilty conscience, “Was it those two punches?”
Geng Jing looked at him with nothing to say. “You tell me.”
Ning Chen went numb!
Which was to say that those two punches of his had broken the poison tooth in Immortal Master Qiu’s mouth.
Ning Chen laughed drily. “He had a poison tooth in his mouth. He must have been ready to die, then?”
Geng Jing said, “Perhaps. But not every man has the courage to bite one open… Those two punches of yours meant that he had to die whether he wanted to or not.”
Ning Chen’s smile was worse to look at than crying. He had wanted to work off a little temper. How was he supposed to know it would kill the man?
(End of Chapter 105)