By the time Nie Liang got to the Inspectorate with his men, Ning Chen had already gone.

Ning Chen had not gone alone. Gao Ziping, Chen Chong and Feng Qizheng were with him.

These three animals were not helping for nothing… When the business was done, Ning Chen would owe them tea and music at the courtesans’ quarter.

The four of them mounted up, in plain clothes, and rode for the ruined temple outside the city.

The driver had told Ning Chen to be at the ruined temple late that night.

Ning Chen was not about to show up exactly on time, of course. He had to get there early, look the place over and make his arrangements.

They reached it as the sun was going down.

They hid the horses first, and then took cover in the dark and watched.

“Old Feng. Go in and see what’s there.”

The driver knew Ning Chen by sight, so he could not show himself yet.

Feng Qizheng nodded, made a show of passing by, walked a circuit around the ruined temple and then went in through the front of it in plain view.

He was back before long.

“Nobody inside!”

Ning Chen thought about it for a moment. “Anywhere in there to hide?”

Feng Qizheng shook his head. “The roof beams, the hay piled up inside, behind the god’s statue — a man could hide in any of them… but the men who came at you are skilled fighters. I doubt anybody could stay hidden from their eyes and ears.”

There was nothing for them to do but wait in the dark.

“It’s snowing!”

Gao Ziping said it under his breath.

Snowflakes had begun to come down out of the air, loose and scattered.

It was the first snow of the year.

Chen Chong pulled his cloak tighter around him. “It’s damned cold. When we’re through here, I’m going to the courtesans’ quarter for a cup of something to warm me up.”

Feng Qizheng’s face turned lecherous. “You mean you want a girl to warm you up.”

Chen Chong grinned. “Heh heh. Don’t you?”

“I don’t… I want two.”

Chen Chong swore at him, laughing. “Try acting like a human being, will you? You’re like an animal. Every time, the girl can’t get out of bed the next day. There’s not one girl at the courtesans’ quarter who’ll take you as a customer anymore.”

“Can’t be helped. Whose fault is it that I’m so strong?”

Feng Qizheng’s face was all self-satisfaction.

Then all at once he poked Ning Chen. “I’ve just had a rush of inspiration. I wrote a poem. Give me your opinion of it.”

The other three were astonished. This guy can write poetry?

Feng Qizheng was a coarse man in the true sense of the word. He could not have read a basketful of characters.

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Let’s hear it.”

Feng Qizheng waggled his head from side to side and said, “A girl’s backside is as white as the snow. I love the backside, I don’t love the snow… How’s that?”

The other three were struck absolutely dumb!

Feng Qizheng’s face was all self-satisfaction. “Ning Chen, you’ve got the talent. Give me your opinion of it.”

“Good. A good poem… A work for the ages. Those two lines of yours put down every poem I ever wrote… Old Feng, you’re a man of extraordinary gifts. My admiration!”

Feng Qizheng grinned so wide you could see his back teeth.

“So tell me — with these two poems, do you think I could knock at the door of a girl of the twelve houses?”

Ning Chen nodded and said, with a perfectly serious face, “Beyond a doubt… Setting aside Nanzhi and Yudie, the girls of the other ten houses would hear a fine work for the ages like that and be crying and begging you to take them to bed. Every well-born young lady in the capital would be fighting for the chance to marry you.”

Feng Qizheng threw a satisfied glance at Gao Ziping and Chen Chong.

“I’ll be the third man to knock at a door of the twelve houses, after the Chief and Ning Chen. Try not to envy me too much.”

“There’s nothing so hard about writing poetry. It’s the simplest thing in the world!”

“Old Gao, Old Chen… You two had better make up to me from now on. If I’m in a good mood I’ll write you a poem too.”

Gao Ziping and Chen Chong had their lips pressed hard together.

Ning Chen was having a hard time holding it in himself.

“Sh…” Gao Ziping made a sudden sign for silence and dropped his voice. “Somebody’s coming.”

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on the place, and saw a group of men appear at the door of the ruined temple.

“Those are the men who tried to murder me in the open street today.”

Feng Qizheng put a hand on his hilt. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s have them.”

Ning Chen was about to speak when the sound of hooves came.

A man wrapped from head to foot in a black robe came riding up and stopped at the door of the ruined temple.

“A pack of good-for-nothings!”

The man in the black robe did not dismount, and there was anger in his low voice.

The driver said coldly, “You did not tell us the man we were to kill was Ning Chen. Ning the Silver Coat.”

The man in the black robe said contemptuously, “A gang of jianghu bandits not fit to be seen in decent company. Do men like you care who it is you’re told to kill?”

“Ning the Silver Coat is a man of iron bones. He is a good man, and what he does he does for the country and the common people. There are not many like him left… Kill him, and we’d be spat on by the whole jianghu, and there’d be no place left for us to stand.”

The man in the black robe smiled coldly. “Good men don’t give you silver to spend.”

The driver said heavily, “That silver we would rather not earn!”

The man in the black robe made a cold sound in his nose. From under the black robe he took out a bundle and weighed it in his hand, and it made a chinking sound. It would be silver.

He threw the thing to the driver. “Take the money and get out of the capital!”

The driver caught the bundle and stared at him. “Who in the world are you? Why do you want Ning the Silver Coat dead?”

The man in the black robe gave an odd laugh. “The more you know, the sooner you die… Do you really want to know?”

The driver was about to speak when he let out a roar instead, threw the bundle away from him and flung his hand out hard, and a black spider the size of a copper coin went flying off it.

He looked down, and a black poison was already running fast across the back of his hand.

“Chief—”

The others shouted in horror and fury.

The man in the black robe let out a savage laugh, swept the black robe around, and silver needles as fine as ox hair came at the rest of them like driving rain.

Only the man with the sharp sword reacted in time. The sword brought up a sheet of cold light, and there was a ringing of metal on metal and sparks flew everywhere as the needles were knocked away.

“Chen Chong, bring the horses!”

Ning Chen was already out and running as he said it.

Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng were right behind him.

“Inspectorate on a case. All of you put up your hands and be taken. Anyone who dares resist will be cut down where he stands!”

Ning Chen roared it out, and as he ran he took the crossbow off the back of his belt with his left hand and sent a bolt at him without breaking stride.

The man in the black robe made a cold sound in his nose and went over backward until he was almost lying flat along the horse’s back, and the bolt went by him.

Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng raised their crossbows as well.

“Shoot the horse!”

Ning Chen said it heavily.

Whip, whip!!!

Two bolts turned into streaks of cold light and went at the horse under the man in the black robe.

But he hauled on the rein, and the horse’s forefeet came high off the ground, and both bolts passed under its belly and missed.

“Look out!”

Ning Chen roared.

The man in the black robe threw out a hand, and silver needles came at them thick as a swarm.

The three of them rolled clear, left and right.

The man in the black robe gave the three of them one contemptuous look, gripped the horse’s barrel with his knees and went off at a gallop.

Ning Chen got up and ran flat out.

“Ning Chen, get mounted!”

Chen Chong came up leading the horses.

Ning Chen swung himself into the saddle. “Old Chen, stay here… Old Gao, Old Feng, come after him with me.”

“Hyah!!!”

The three of them rode after him.

But what enraged Ning Chen was that the horse under him was one of the Ning household’s, and it had been a carriage horse to begin with… A horse like that has good staying power, but it is not fast enough.

If he had been on Diaochan, he would have run the man down long since.

Gao Ziping’s and Feng Qizheng’s horses were faster than his, and they had already left him a long way behind.

“Come on, run! I’ll give you an extra feed when we get back!”

But whatever Ning Chen did to hurry it, the horse held to its own pace throughout, and seemed to have a great deal of character.

In the outer city he could just about keep them in sight.

By the time they reached the inner city, the man in the black robe, Feng Qizheng and Gao Ziping had all disappeared without a trace.

Fuck!!!

Ning Chen was furious.

(End of Chapter 122)