Ning Chen looked at the Xuan Emperor and explained, with nothing else for it:
“Your Majesty. Your subject knows nothing about tea, but even so, he knows that a good tea smells fresh and pleasant, and leaves a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth after drinking.”
“But this tea of Your Majesty’s has no fragrance to smell, and a stale taste when you drink it — all bitterness and no sweetness after. So your subject judges this to be old tea, kept a very long time.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face was dark. “You mean to say that somebody has been passing off the inferior as the superior, swapping old stock for new… that what this emperor drinks is not the finest tea at all?”
Ning Chen thought about it and said, “Your Majesty has been to the Top Scholar Tower. Think back carefully — isn’t the tea there more fragrant than this imperial tea?”
The Xuan Emperor’s face had gone livid, and he said nothing more.
The tea at the Top Scholar Tower had also been sent for by his own order.
He had never paid it any attention before, perhaps out of too much confidence — he had assumed the tea at the Top Scholar Tower could not possibly be better than his own imperial tea. Now that he thought back on it, it really was as Ning Chen said.
Seeing that the Xuan Emperor had nothing more to say, Ning Chen bent in a bow. “Your Majesty, your subject will take his leave now.”
Once Ning Chen had gone, Eunuch Quan looked at the Xuan Emperor with great care, and his heart gave a lurch.
His Majesty’s face showed nothing, but Eunuch Quan knew this for the stillness before the storm.
It looked as though the Household Office was about to suffer for it.
This Ning Chen really was a living King of Hell, walking the earth… wherever he went, somebody had to die.
The man could get people killed just by drinking a cup of tea. It was really something.
Eunuch Quan was screaming it inwardly.
“Very good, very good… they’ve all taken this emperor for a fool, is that it?”
“First the pills of poison… and now even the tea leaves this emperor drinks are false goods. Is there anything left in this palace that is genuine?”
“Quan Sheng. Draft an edict… Have Geng Jing get to the bottom of the Elixir Bureau, whatever the cost. This emperor wants to know who it is that wants his life.”
Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Yes!”
“And another thing. Order Nie Liang to look secretly into the Household Office. This emperor wants to know how much more they have been hiding from him.”
“Yes!”
There was no telling this time how many more would die over it. Or how many would be dragged in with them.
The Xuan Emperor thought a moment, then went on. “The Inspectorate has earned merit in saving this emperor. Nie Liang and Geng Jing are each rewarded five thousand taels of gold and five hundred bolts of fine silk.”
“The gold coats are rewarded a thousand taels of gold and a hundred bolts of silk.”
“The rest of the silver coats are each rewarded five hundred taels of gold and fifty bolts of silk.”
Eunuch Quan bent and listened, and after waiting a good while and hearing His Majesty say no more, he raised his head, puzzled. “Your Majesty. And Young Master Ning—”
Before he had finished, one look from the Xuan Emperor frightened the rest of the sentence back down his throat.
“That worthless thing. This emperor meant to give him the Ninth Princess in marriage… and what does he do but plead for the daughter of a convicted official, a woman of a pleasure house. It’s as well I didn’t have him given thirty strokes of the rod for it!”
“Go and see to it… Ning Chen gets nothing, this time.”
Eunuch Quan said quickly, “Yes. This servant will go and see to it at once!”
The Hibiscus Palace. The old eunuch had come back.
The Empress kept a calm face on the outside, but inside she was frightened half to death, and could not sit still.
Seeing the old eunuch return, she asked urgently, “Have you found out?”
The old eunuch dropped his voice. “Your Majesty. The immortal masters of the Elixir Bureau have all been taken, every one, and thrown into the Inspectorate prison.”
The color went out of the Empress’s face. “What exactly happened?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty. Ning Chen found that the elixir His Majesty was taking was poisoned, and joined with Nie Liang and Geng Jing, and took the whole Elixir Bureau.”
The Empress went blank.
Then, grinding her teeth, she said in a fury, “That Ning Chen again. What manner of monster is he? One small silver coat, and time and again he stirs up trouble on this scale… How did he come to know the elixir was poisoned?”
“This servant overheard a little of it. They say Ning Chen found cinnabar ore at the house of Hu the degree-holder outside the city, and traced it quietly, and the trail led to the Elixir Bureau.”
The Empress’s eyes went cold. “The one who was Qiu He’s distant relation?”
“The very one. He had been secretly buying up cinnabar ore all along, and selling it to the Elixir Bureau at a high price.”
The Empress was silent a while, and then said, “So then. It wasn’t that our side let something slip?”
“It was not.”
“Good, then.”
The old eunuch said, “Your Majesty. All the same, this business needs settling quickly… We were not directly involved, but if the Inspectorate should turn up anything at all, it could go very badly against Your Majesty.”
The Empress gave a small nod.
“Go to the Chancellor’s residence. Have the Left Chancellor see to this properly… and see that none of it touches this empress.”
“Yes. This servant goes at once.”
The Empress’s face had gone livid, her eyes dark with malice, and she said through her teeth, “Ning Chen… very well. Sooner or later, this empress will see you dead with nowhere left to bury you.”
And at this hour, Ning Chen had already arrived at the courtesans’ quarter.
The Inspectorate’s men would certainly be working overtime just now, questioning those fake holy men.
Go back there now and he would certainly be put to hard labor.
So he had come to the courtesans’ quarter instead, to find Yudie and do something suitably wretched.
Word came that Ning Chen had arrived.
Yudie ran to the door at once in delight to greet him.
Yudie dressed quite modestly these days.
The clothes on her were newly made from the silk Ning Chen had given her.
Her old style of dress had marked her at a glance for a woman of the wind and dust.
Her dress now made her look like the daughter of a good family.
“Ning, dear?”
Ning Chen put an arm around her willow waist and pecked her once on her soft red mouth.
“Pour me some water, quickly. I’ve been hard at it all night and my throat is smoking.”
Yudie told Xiaoxing at once, “Bring Ning, dear a fresh pot of hot tea.”
“Never mind that. Cold is more thirst-quenching.”
Ning Chen went over, picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a bowl, and emptied it in two swallows.
He drank three bowls straight down before he felt any better.
“Water really is a fine thing… just like Yudie.”
Yudie looked at him, not understanding.
Ning Chen pulled her into his arms and said low in her ear, “They say a woman is made of water. Yudie, you’re a cut above the rest — more water than most.”
Yudie’s small face went red clean through.
Ning Chen’s hand went, without quite meaning to, toward the front of Yudie’s collar, and did not get in.
There were too many buttons on it.
Her small face red, Yudie obediently undid a few of the buttons, so that Ning Chen’s hand could go in without trouble.
Ning Chen, feeling the softness and give of it under his palm, found his breath coming heavier.
Yudie gave a soft cry, her whole body gone weak, and sank against him.
“Ning, dear… let this girl draw you a bath…”
Ning Chen played a while longer before he gave a nod and a grunt and drew his hand back.
Yudie’s legs had gone weak under her, and it took her a few tries to stand, her thighs pressing together without her meaning them to… She had only just bathed, and it looked as though she would be bathing again.
She had a tub brought and scattered with petals, and saw to Ning Chen’s bath herself.
Ning Chen pulled her straight down into the tub with him… and under the water, the shucking of the oyster began.
That night the Xuan Emperor did not sleep.
The Empress sat in fear and dread, terrified that it would touch her.
The Inspectorate had more on its hands than it could manage, and in the torture room of the prison the screams went on, sharp and unbroken, the whole night through.
Word reached the Left Chancellor and his legs went weak under him with fright, and he passed the night in a panic, his heart in his throat.
Word reached a number of the ministers too, and they passed a night unable to sit still.
Everyone understood perfectly well how large this thing had grown.
To plot against the emperor’s life was a crime punishable to the ninth degree of kin.
Every man of them was afraid, and feared it might reach back to him — because most of them had, at one time or another, gone quietly to the Elixir Bureau’s immortal masters and asked for an elixir… and once a man’s name was tied to this business, there was no question of surviving it.
(End of Chapter 113)