The next day Ning Chen slept until the sun was three poles high.

Then, with Yudie waiting on him, he dressed and ate, and only after that did he leave the courtesans’ quarter.

He rode his beloved Diaochan to the Ministry of War, hooves going clop, clop, clop.

His Majesty’s order had reached Ji Mingchen, the Minister of War, and he had been waiting for Ning Chen a good while.

Ji Mingchen was another man accomplished in letters and arms both, and stood deep in His Majesty’s trust.

“Lord Ji.”

Ning Chen put fist to palm and bowed over them.

“Ning the Silver Coat need not stand on ceremony. His Majesty has told me to give you every assistance… Ning the Silver Coat, come with me.”

Ji Mingchen took Ning Chen to a room in the rear courtyard.

In the middle of the room stood a long table, and on it were the parts of the muskets.

“Ning the Silver Coat, three master craftsmen will come in shortly… His Majesty’s meaning is that the assembly be divided into three stages.”

Ning Chen nodded to show he understood.

Divided into three parts — one man to assemble the front half, one man the back half… and the last of them to put the rest together and finish it.

This was to keep any one man from holding the whole of the musket’s making.

“Ning the Silver Coat, if you are ready, I will call them in.”

Ning Chen nodded. “Send them in.”

Ji Mingchen withdrew.

In a little while came a knock at the door.

“Come in!”

Ning Chen called it toward the door.

The door pushed open and a dark-skinned fellow came in.

Ning Chen wasted no words on him and simply taught him the assembly.

The man’s grasp of it was good, and he was a master craftsman to begin with, and he had his portion of the assembly learned very quickly.

“Good, you can go out now… Call the next man in.”

In less than two hours Ning Chen had finished teaching all of it.

His task was done, and he meant to leave.

But Ji Mingchen would not hear of anything but that Ning Chen stay for the midday meal.

Ji Mingchen’s heart, of course, was not in the cup.

He was another man with a great love of poetry.

Ning Chen’s name as an immortal of poetry was one he had admired for a long time, and he had sent men to the Ning residence several times, and every time they had come away empty.

Ning Chen had no way out of it and had to agree.

Through the meal Ji Mingchen raised his cup again and again.

He also brought out poems he had written himself and asked Ning Chen to instruct him in them.

Every poem of Ning Chen’s had come to him for nothing, and he had no real skill of his own. What business had he instructing anybody?

All he could do was praise — a fine poem, a fine verse — and pile on a great heap of polite noises, and he got through it somehow in the end.

Ning Chen sat through that meal unable to sit still.

Because Ji Mingchen, openly and by hints, was angling for a poem.

To put it plainly, he wanted one for nothing.

The one thing Ning Chen can’t stand is a freeloader. Himself excepted.

He had memorized the Three Hundred Tang Poems, and had studied a good many poems and lyrics, but after he left school most of it went back to the teacher… The ones he could remember whole were not many.

One for nothing here, one for nothing there… and before long he would have no poems left to use. How was he supposed to swagger then?

Ji Mingchen was in more of a hurry about it than Ning Chen was. He had Ning Chen cornered at last, and if he let a chance like this slip — a chance that does not come in a thousand years — then asking for a poem later would be harder still.

But hint as he might, openly and otherwise, Ning Chen simply played deaf.

Was it possible his hints had not been broad enough?

“Lord Ji, I still have to report back to His Majesty. I can’t stay. I’ll take my leave.”

Ning Chen got up, ready to slip away.

Ji Mingchen grew anxious, and hurriedly had his steward fetch a finely made wooden case.

He opened it. Inside lay a jade pendant, warm and soft in color and beautifully carved… worth a small fortune at a glance.

“Ning the Silver Coat, a trifling gift. I hope Ning the Silver Coat will not think it beneath him.”

Ning Chen shook his head again and again. “Lord Ji, this won’t do at all. The thing is far too valuable. I can’t take it.”

Ji Mingchen said, entirely serious, “Ji admires Young Master Ning’s gifts. If Ning the Silver Coat will not take it, then Ning the Silver Coat looks down on Ji.”

Holy shit!!!

Why does that sound exactly like some of the morons I met at drinking tables in my last life? Always the same line — if you don’t drink, you’re looking down on me, you’re not giving me face.

When Ning Chen met that sort, he would tell the man straight out that his face was cheap indeed, worth precisely one cup of wine — and a face he had to ask somebody else for, at that… and then finish with: dumbass, get out.

But Ji Mingchen was giving him a present, which was a different matter.

Ning Chen hesitated, and said, “My thanks, Lord Ji. It would be discourteous to refuse.”

But just as Ning Chen was about to take the case, Ji Mingchen said, smiling all over his face:

“If Ning the Silver Coat feels awkward accepting it, you might leave a line or two of your brush in exchange. Ji would be endlessly grateful.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.

This Ji Mingchen really knew his business. Ning Chen had spent half the day dodging and had not dodged it after all.

“Very well then. Ning Chen will make a fool of himself.”

Ning Chen said it, and took the case without any change of expression.

Ji Mingchen’s eyes were burning, and his whole face was full of expectation as he watched Ning Chen.

Ning Chen thought a moment, happened to catch sight of the saber at his own waist, and smiled. “Lord Ji is accomplished in letters and arms both, and loyal to His Majesty to the bone, steadfast and true… I’ll take that for my subject and write a poem. I ask Lord Ji to set me right.”

With that, Ning Chen drew the saber straight out, which gave Ji Mingchen a considerable fright.

Ning Chen brought the long blade level and said clearly, “I hold my blade crosswise and laugh up at the sky—”

Ji Mingchen’s eyes lit up, and he waited for the next line without patience enough to bear it.

And with Ji Mingchen’s eyes full of expectation on him, Ning Chen went on, just as clearly, “and when I’ve finished laughing, I’ll go to bed.“

Ji Mingchen’s expression froze on the instant, and the whole man turned to stone.

I hold my blade crosswise and laugh up at the sky, and when I’ve finished laughing, I’ll go to bed?

There was some real force to that first line. But the second was thin as water. What in the world was that?

Even the steward standing beside him had distaste all over his face. He was very likely saying inwardly that this name of Ning Chen’s, an immortal of poetry, was a name the reality did not answer to, all surface and nothing under it.

Ning Chen burst out laughing all at once. “Lord Ji, that was a joke just now. Don’t take it amiss.”

In fact it had not been a joke at all. It was because the line that followed had two Kunluns in it… and there is no Mount Kunlun in this world.

“Listen properly now, Lord Ji—”

我自橫刀向天笑， 去留肝膽兩玉龍。

I hold my blade crosswise and laugh up at the sky; go or stay, my liver and my gall are the two peaks of Jade Dragon.

East of the capital stands Mount Jade Dragon, and it is on Mount Jade Dragon that the imperial house holds the great sacrifice to heaven.

Ning Chen had changed Kunlun to Jade Dragon on the spot.

Ji Mingchen said it over several times, and his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

“A fine poem, a fine poem… Ning the Silver Coat does no dishonor to the name of an immortal of poetry. Ji is full of admiration!”

“Ning the Silver Coat — and the last two lines?”

Ning Chen was a little embarrassed.

Those were the only two lines of the poem he could remember.

Getting things for nothing takes a good memory too.

“Er… bear with me, Lord Ji. There has been a great deal on lately, and last night was very tiring on top of it, and my well has run dry. For the moment I can only manage these two lines. The other two I’ll send to Lord Ji when they come to me.”

Ji Mingchen understood as well as anyone that a poem needs its moment… That Ning Chen could produce two lines as fine as those on the spot had astonished him quite enough.

“Then Ji will wait to hear from you.”

Ning Chen left the Ministry of War and rode his beloved Diaochan back to the Inspectorate.

Chen Chong saw Ning Chen come back and came over quickly. “Ning Chen. The courtesans’ quarter tonight, and I’m paying!”

Ning Chen looked at him with plain suspicion. This henpecked creature, with spare money to stand them all a night at the courtesans’ quarter?

“Where’s all this generosity from, all of a sudden? Found money in the road?”

Chen Chong’s face was all astonishment. “You don’t know? We took the Elixir Bureau last night and His Majesty has a reward for it… Every one of us silver coats has five hundred taels of gold and fifty bolts of fine silk… His Majesty dotes on you the way he does, your reward is bound to be bigger.”

Ning Chen shook his head. “I’ve been busy the whole time. I truly didn’t know about it… Where’s my reward?”

Chen Chong said, “With Geng the Purple Coat, most likely?”

“Right, I’ll go and find Geng the Purple Coat first, then.”

Ning Chen went off in high spirits to collect his reward from Geng Jing… He had taken the Elixir Bureau, the merit was mostly his, and His Majesty was bound to have given him a great many fine things.

His Majesty really was too good to him. Rewards all the time. He couldn’t spend it. He couldn’t possibly spend it.

(End of Chapter 114)