Ning Ziming saw that Ning Chen had gone quiet, and assumed his words had gotten through.

He’s only a child, after all. A little coaxing and he’ll come around.

“Chen’er. Have you met anyone recently?”

Ning Chen blinked, not following.

“Minister Ning, since I came to the Ning family I’ve barely been out the door. Lately I’ve either been sick or badly injured. The people I’ve seen are the few in this house. Who is it Minister Ning is asking about?”

He was more baffled than ever. This was exactly the part he couldn’t work out.

Ning Chen had hardly been outside the gate. How could he possibly know His Majesty?

He didn’t dare ask it outright. He could only be vague about it. “I don’t mean the household. I mean strangers.”

Ning Chen laughed coldly. “I don’t even know everyone in this household. Where would I go to meet anyone else?”

He found it stranger still.

But he couldn’t ask directly.

Ning Chen looked at him. “Minister Ning. Since you won’t allow me to leave the Ning estate, there’s another matter I mean to see through to the end.”

“What matter?”

“Ning Gan took a hundred taels of silver from me.”

Ning Ziming frowned. “Where would you get a hundred taels of silver?”

“That needn’t concern you. Ning Gan did take my silver, and I’d ask Minister Ning to make him give it back.”

Ning Ziming’s face went dark as iron. “Chen’er, your father has promised to make it up to you. But these bad habits of yours have to change. Slandering your elder brother, poor character — I won’t let that pass lightly either.”

Ning Chen looked at him with ice in his eyes.

Then he gave a small, self-mocking laugh. “I knew it would go like this. Minister Ning, pretend I said nothing. I’m tired. Minister Ning may go.”

Ning Chen knew perfectly well the hundred taels was never coming back.

He’d held on to a little hope anyway.

He had overestimated his place in Ning Ziming’s heart. The man was still the same cold, faithless Ning Ziming. If there had been a scrap of feeling in him, he would have looked into it — instead of laying the blame on his son without asking who was right and who was wrong.

Ning Ziming snorted.

To this moment he still believed Ning Chen’s change of character was a tactic, a way of getting his attention.

What the boy doesn’t understand is that behavior this monstrous only makes me detest him more.

If it weren’t for the Xuan Emperor, he wouldn’t have wasted a glance on Ning Chen.

His face still hard, Ning Ziming flung his sleeves back and walked out.

At the door, Steward Wu came up bowing and scraping.

“Master. Your breakfast is ready.”

Since they couldn’t eat before morning court, they all ate after it.

Ning Ziming’s face was cold. “Steward Wu. How long have you been with me?”

Steward Wu thought about it and answered quickly, bobbing as he spoke. “This old servant has followed the master more than ten years now.”

“Followed me that long. Then you should understand how I think. Steward Wu — Ning Chen’s surname is Ning, when all is said and done. I don’t want anyone playing games behind his back again.”

“Remember this always. A master out of favor is still a master, and a servant is still a servant. A servant who offends his betters — the Ning estate has no room for that kind of man.”

“Steward Wu. From now on, the food that goes to Ning Chen is to be nourishing. And clean.”

He finished, put his hands behind his back, and left.

Steward Wu stood rooted where he was, his old face white, cold sweat breaking out all over him.

He understood perfectly well. The master was warning him.

How does the master know I put something in Ning Chen’s breakfast?

What he failed to account for was that Ning Ziming had spent a long career at court. Getting where he was had taken more than the Left Chancellor’s support — the man’s own ability was considerable.

Ning Chen had forced Steward Wu to eat that food. How would Ning Ziming not have seen what was underneath it?

The warning wasn’t for Ning Chen’s sake, of course. It was to protect his own authority. A servant humiliating someone surnamed Ning was a servant slapping Ning Ziming in the face.

And Ning Chen, meanwhile, had picked up a thread of his own in Ning Ziming’s strange behavior.

Because Ning Ziming had asked whether he’d met any outsiders lately.

These past days, apart from the people in the estate, the only person he had seen was Tian Xuan.

Tian Xuan had had a eunuch with him. He had to be imperial family.

Tian Xuan carried himself like no ordinary man. Ning Chen suspected he was Prince Fu.

Prince Fu was the only brother of the reigning emperor who lived in the capital.

Ning Ziming’s complete change of attitude — could it have something to do with Prince Fu?

But that doesn’t add up. I used a false name. Tian Xuan doesn’t know who I really am.

Though he could have sent men to follow me and find out.

Even so, there’d be no reason for him to lean on Ning Ziming over a boy like me.

And besides, Prince Fu was an idle prince with no real power. Imperial family, yes — but Ning Ziming had the Left Chancellor behind him, a man of high rank and real authority. There was no need to fear Prince Fu at all.

Ning Chen rubbed the space between his brows. Maybe there’s some other reason behind it.

Never mind. Leave it for now. Heal up properly first, then find a way out of the Ning estate.

Ning Ziming only ignored him. The real threat was Chang Ruyue and her sons.

And behind Chang Ruyue and her sons stood the Left Chancellor — a man with only the emperor above him and the whole empire below.

If he didn’t get out of the Ning estate, standing alone with nothing behind him, they would finish him sooner or later.

A month went by, and Ning Chen’s injuries were more or less healed.

The food had been good these past weeks. He’d put on a little weight and there was color in his face.

He had actually been able to get out of bed by the seventh or eighth day, and had gone to see Uncle Chai. Thankfully the old man was all right — otherwise he and Ning Mao would not have been finished with each other.

Ning Chen decided to go back to selling poems for money.

The hundred taels Ning Gan had taken was almost certainly gone for good.

But his intention to leave the Ning family hadn’t changed. For the sake of his own neck, he had to go.

From Ning Ziming’s attitude, though, he wasn’t going to be let go easily. And where had the man hidden his registration papers? He’d slipped into Ning Ziming’s study yesterday to look, and hadn’t found them.

Even with the papers he’d have to wait until sixteen to leave. A few months of hard earning, and he wouldn’t have to suffer once he was out.

Ning Chen went over the wall again, out of the Ning estate, straight for the Top Scholar Tower.

Let’s hope I’m lucky today and run into Tian Xuan.

Because Tian Xuan paid generously.

The weather was turning colder and colder. Ning Chen pulled the thin shirt tighter around himself.

He didn’t know whether Ning Ziming had forgotten or whether Chang Ruyue was working behind the scenes. He had eaten and drunk well these past weeks, but nobody had gotten him a set of warm clothes.

The new clothes he’d bought had been taken by Ning Gan and his men. All he had was the old thin shirt.

He jogged the whole way to the Top Scholar Tower.

The place was as lively as ever, people coming and going.

Ning Chen looked around for any sign of Tian Xuan.

If he couldn’t find him, he’d have to sell the poem to somebody else — and that would not fetch a good price.

While Ning Chen was still searching, a pale, beardless man came up behind him in quick little steps.

“Young Master Lan. I’ve found you at last.”

Ning Chen turned, and his whole face lit up. It was the shrill one.

He didn’t find the shrill one the least bit annoying now. He was almost endearing.

Because if the shrill one was here, Tian Xuan was here. Another payday.

Seeing Ning Chen in a thin shirt, shivering with cold, Eunuch Quan couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “You really are an iron rooster — not one feather to be plucked out of you. You earned all that silver and you won’t even buy yourself a warm coat?”

Ning Chen had no patience for the needling just then. He said helplessly, “Don’t get me started. I did buy a set of warm clothes. The clothes and the silver were both taken from me.”

Eunuch Quan’s face changed completely.

That silver counted as a thing bestowed by the emperor. To rob a man of something the emperor had given was a beheading offense. Who was so tired of living?

“Taken from you? By whom?”

“A vicious dog at home. Never mind. What good does telling you do? Is Uncle here? Does he want to buy a poem?”

Eunuch Quan gave a single nod. “Come with me.”

(End of Chapter 12)