Feng Qizheng looked at them all rocking back and forth with laughter, and the pride went off his face by degrees.
Stupid as he was, he knew they were laughing at him.
“God damn it, what the hell are you laughing at? Is my poem no good?”
Feng Qizheng was getting angry.
Ning Chen held the laugh in and said, “It’s good. Very well written. They’re only jealous of you!”
“Really?”
Ning Chen nodded with a perfectly serious face.
Feng Qizheng glared at him. “Get out of it, I don’t believe you. The worst of the whole lot here is you, boy.”
Ning Chen’s face was all innocence.
“Don’t believe me, then!”
Ning Chen yawned. A whole day’s work, and he really was tired… He took Yudie by the hand and went upstairs.
Back in the room, Yudie had hot water brought.
She came around behind Ning Chen and worked the pressure points on his head gently for him, easing the tiredness out.
After the bath, Yudie’s face was flushed.
The two of them had been playing the game of opening clams underwater again.
Ning Chen picked her up and carried her to the bed.
He could not help marveling. Yudie really had grown well. She looked slender, but the flesh had all gone on in the places it ought to go on, and her skin was pale and fine and felt like silk under the hand, and there was a pair of long legs a man could not keep his hands off, and a bosom that looked down on every flower in the garden.
Ning Chen pressed himself gently down on her, and the exercise underwater turned into the exercise in bed.
When the cloud and the rain had passed, Ning Chen lay with his arms around that soft body a man could not have enough of, and warned himself over and over that this could not go on… his health mattered.
淫慾之歡片刻間， 後來災害重如山。 慧心劍斬淫魔去， 快樂逍遙似神仙。
The joy of lust lasts a moment only, and the ruin that comes after weighs like a mountain. Let the sword of a clear heart cut the lust-demon away, and the gladness of it is idle and free as an immortal’s.
Yudie heard Ning Chen muttering, and lifted her small face and looked at him with her whole heart in her eyes. “What did Ning, dear say? This girl didn’t catch it.”
Ning Chen looked at that soft bright little face of hers, with the charm coming off it in waves, and something moved in him. “I was saying… let’s change position and go again!”
The next day, early morning.
Ning Chen came out of the courtesans’ quarter, and Feng Qizheng and the others were already outside waiting for him.
There had been no small amount of snow in the night. Everything was white as far as a man could see, the whole world wrapped in silver.
The group of them rode for the Inspectorate.
On the way, a pack of animals discussed which of the girls at the courtesans’ quarter was good at the work and which had the better figure.
Feng Qizheng had pride all over his face. He had taken two of them last night, and those two girls could forget about getting out of bed today.
Ning Chen’s face was all envy. The animal really did have the constitution for it.
Just then a fast horse came up at a gallop.
The man on it was a guard of the palace.
He reined in and stopped in front of them.
“Ning the Silver Coat. His Majesty summons you to the palace!”
Ning Chen stared for a moment. What does His Majesty want with me at this hour of the morning?
Shouldn’t His Majesty be at the morning court at this hour?
Unless His Majesty knows I spent the night at the courtesans’ quarter and I’m being called in for a scolding?
Ning Chen followed the guard to the palace, to the imperial study.
“Your subject, presenting himself to Your Majesty!”
The Xuan Emperor looked at Ning Chen with his brows drawn tight. “You never leave off for a moment, do you?”
Ning Chen had no idea what any of that meant, but it sounded impressive.
“Yesterday morning, parading about in public with a woman of that trade and making a great scene at the Heavenly Blessing Tower… in the afternoon, an attempt on your life. In the evening, a ruined temple outside the city, and then a great scene at the Chancellor’s residence, and after midnight you still had it in you to go to the courtesans’ quarter. Are the twelve hours of the day enough for you?”
Holy shit!!!
He seriously suspected His Majesty had put a tracking device on him somewhere.
Though, put like that, there really was something of the master of time management about him.
“A silver coat of the Inspectorate, stinking of powder and paint. What sort of behavior is this?”
So His Majesty did not know he had gone to the courtesans’ quarter. He had smelled the powder and paint on him.
He had known it. His Majesty had called him in for a scolding and nothing else.
“Calm your anger, Your Majesty. Your subject knows his fault!”
Ning Chen’s face was all meekness.
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose!
Then he turned the talk around. “The three thousand muskets are assembled… This emperor has a thousand officers and men ready for you. In three days you will take them to the border.”
“The men on the border keep outsiders out… These thousand were picked over one by one for you by Old General Chen, and they already know how a musket is worked. They can serve as your personal guard. As to how you use them, that is your affair.”
Ning Chen had taught the master craftsmen how a musket was used some days ago.
Ning Chen bowed. “Your Majesty. Three thousand muskets ought to have three thousand officers and men to them, oughtn’t they?”
The Xuan Emperor gave him a look. “This emperor means to raise a firearms battalion in the capital, so you can only have a thousand.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. Is he taking a cut now as well? If you want them, what’s to stop you making more later?
“We thank Your Majesty!”
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Ning Chen. You are young, and this is the first time you have led troops. When you reach the border you will certainly be shut out… Are you ready for it?”
Ning Chen nodded. “Your subject is ready!”
“Good. Don’t disappoint this emperor and Old General Chen.”
The Xuan Emperor said it, and glanced at Eunuch Quan.
Eunuch Quan went over to one side and came back carrying a golden sword in both hands.
The sword was very finely made.
“Ning Chen. This emperor now bestows the imperial sword on you. To see the imperial sword is to see this emperor in person.”
Ning Chen’s eyes brightened. Isn’t this the famous imperial sword of legend?
“We thank Your Majesty!”
“Don’t be in such a hurry to thank this emperor. We must have an understanding first. To hold the imperial sword is to have the right to execute first and report afterward… but you may only use it three times.”
“Eh?”
Ning Chen was somewhat at a loss.
But he caught up quickly enough. His Majesty was afraid he would abuse the authority.
That was exactly what the Xuan Emperor was afraid of… Ning Chen had dared to behead the Empress’s brother. With the imperial sword in his hand and no limit on it, there was no telling what he might stir up.
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Ning Chen. Tomorrow this emperor will hand down an edict making you General of the Northern Expedition.”
Ning Chen’s eyes lit up.
The Xuan Emperor snorted. “Don’t be too pleased too soon. It is only for the time being… When you come back, you will be a silver coat of the Inspectorate again.”
Ning Chen wanted to roll his eyes and did not dare.
“This emperor recalls that your home is in Lingzhou, is it not?”
The Xuan Emperor asked it out of nowhere.
Ning Chen stared for a moment, then said quickly, “It is! Changshou Village, Yang’an County, Lingzhou.”
“A report came in yesterday. Yang’an County has a bad bandit trouble lately and the county office does not have the men for it. You are going to the border, and downriver you pass Lingzhou on the way, so go to Yang’an County while you are about it… And it will let this emperor see whether you really have the makings of a general, as Old General Chen says you do.”
Bandit trouble in Yang’an County?
Ning Chen was delighted. Those hill bandits will do nicely to get my hand in.
“Your subject receives the edict!”
The Xuan Emperor waved a hand and said with distaste, “That will do, get out… Go home and take a bath. The powder and paint on you is giving this emperor a headache.”
What nonsense. You’ve never smelled anything good in your life, have you? Yudie’s room is a faint scent of orchid, it clears a man’s head, there’s nothing overpowering about it, Ning Chen said inwardly, and he was raging.
Poor Majesty. He has probably gotten used to the old-woman smell coming off that old witch of an Empress.
“Your subject withdraws!”
“Ning Chen. Wait a moment!”
Ning Chen was about to withdraw when the Xuan Emperor called him back.
“Can you make a paper hawk?”
“Eh?”
Ning Chen’s face was blank.
The Xuan Emperor frowned. “You can’t?”
It’s only a kite, isn’t it? What’s hard about that? Ning Chen nodded. “I can. Does Your Majesty want to fly a paper hawk? Your subject will go home and see to it, and bring it to you when it’s made.”
“Not this emperor. Huai’an!”
Ning Chen made a small sound of acknowledgment. “Then your subject will go home and make one and send it to the Ninth Princess.”
“There’s no need to go to that trouble. Go and find Huai’an tomorrow morning… and teach her to make one.”
Fuck!!!
I’m a silver coat of the Inspectorate. I’m General of the Northern Expedition. I’m not the nursemaid who keeps that little brat of yours amused, all right?
“Well? You’re unwilling?”
“Uh… To be of service to the Princess is your subject’s highest honor!”
Only then did a satisfied smile come onto the Xuan Emperor’s face. “That will do. You may withdraw!”
(End of Chapter 127)