Ning Chen came out of the palace and did not go to the Inspectorate. He went back to the Ning residence.

He had to get that thousand taels of silver over to the old madam at the courtesans’ quarter without delay.

Otherwise the old madam would certainly take him for the sort of human garbage who cheats a woman of her money and her body.

“Fourth Young Master. You’re back at last, are you?”

Ning Chen was on his way to his own courtyard when Steward Wu came running up.

Ning Chen gave him a sideways look. “What is it? Somebody died in the house?”

“Fourth Young Master, that is not a thing to joke about… Today is the day of the ancestral rites. The Master said that when the Fourth Young Master came back you were to go straight to the ancestral hall.”

Only then did Ning Chen remember. The first snow of every year is the day when every household in the Great Xuan honors its ancestors.

Ning Chen had not meant to go.

But then he thought that since he had come into this world he had never once made an offering to his mother.

Something went dim in him. He seemed to have half forgotten that he had crossed over into this world at all.

Ning Chen followed Steward Wu to the ancestral hall.

In the old days he had not been fit to set foot in the ancestral hall.

Inside it stood rows upon rows of spirit tablets, and before every tablet burned an eternal lamp, so the room was very warm.

“Unfilial wretch. So you do know the way home? Today is the day of the sacrifice. Where have you been?”

Ning Ziming said it in a rage.

“Does the Inspectorate’s business have to be reported to Minister Ning now?”

Ning Ziming’s face went livid at the answer.

“Ning Chen, what kind of attitude is that? How can you be so ill-mannered in front of your elders’ tablets?”

Ning Gan jumped in to make himself useful.

Ning Mao said in that snide voice of his, “Just so. Not a particle of manners about him… Does he really think that because he is a silver coat of the Inspectorate now he can defy his elders?”

“Ning Chen, that temper of yours really does need mending… Father says these things for your own good.”

“Just so. We are your brothers, and everything we say to you is for your own good… With an attitude like that, people will call you a country brat raised in the fields with no upbringing, and it is the Ning residence that loses face by it.”

The three brothers dressed Ning Chen down between them, a word from one and a word from the next.

“That will do! Don’t be so hard on him. Ning Chen grew up in the country, in some poor backwater, with nobody to bring him up, and it is only to be expected that he doesn’t know some of the proprieties… He can be taught by degrees from now on.”

Chang Ruyue put it on and smoothed it over.

Ning Chen set the cloth-wrapped imperial sword down beside the door and paid no attention to their dogs’ barking.

His eyes were fixed on the spirit tablets on the altar.

“Minister Ning. Doesn’t it strike you that there is a tablet missing here?”

Ning Ziming’s face was all puzzlement. “Whose?”

Ning Chen held the anger down and said it one word at a time. “My mother’s tablet!”

Ning Ziming had been a poor scholar to begin with, and eight generations back every one of his people had been common stock.

To make it plain to everyone that he had risen in the world, he had set up tablets for every dead relation of the Ning family, some of them so distant you could not have reached them with a pole.

And in all of it, the one tablet missing was Ning Chen’s mother’s.

Ning Ziming’s face changed all at once.

“Ning Chen, what nonsense are you talking? This is the ancestral hall of the Ning family… Your mother bore you before she was ever married. What right has she to come into the ancestral hall?”

Ning Gan said it with mockery all over his face.

“Just so. Your mother did not so much as count as a concubine. No name and no standing. By what right does she come into the Ning family’s ancestral hall?”

“Only the principal wife of the Ning family may come into the ancestral hall. Your mother had no shame in her, bearing you before she was married and blackening Father’s face for him… It is only that Father took pity on you, or you would have no right to come in at the Ning family’s door either.”

Ning Chen’s face went livid, and the anger burned in him.

“Good. Very good… Remember what you have said. You’d better not regret it!”

“Ning Ziming. My mother loved you her whole life and waited for you her whole life… And you can stand there and listen to your own sons shame her without batting an eye?”

“I thought you were a beast. I never thought you’d be worse than a beast.”

Ning Ziming was furious. “Worthless. You dare abuse your own father?”

Ning Chen only smiled coldly, then turned and walked out with long strides.

“Worthless thing, you unfilial wretch… Today is the day of the ancestral rites. Where do you think you are going?”

Ning Chen stopped where he stood and looked back, and his eyes were cold on Ning Ziming and his family. “You’ll know soon enough!”

Ning Ziming looked at how cold Ning Chen’s eyes were, and an uneasiness rose in him.

Ning Chen had Diaochan brought out, swung into the saddle and rode straight for the Inspectorate.

Ning Ziming was angry enough for smoke to come out of his ears. He held it down, and left as soon as the sacrifice was finished.

Chang Ruyue and her sons looked at one another and smiled, with satisfaction all over their faces.

“Did you all see Ning Chen’s face just now? Livid, absolutely livid. It nearly killed him.”

“That bastard really thinks that because he is a silver coat of the Inspectorate now there is nothing we can do about him… As long as we make no mistakes and he gets hold of nothing against us, there is nothing he can do to us.”

Chang Ruyue smiled coldly. “Cheap seed out of a cheap woman, and he wants his mother in the ancestral hall. It is laughable.”

The four of them made for the door, mocking him as they went.

Ning Mao was walking last, and all at once he noticed the thing Ning Chen had left behind the door.

“What’s this?”

Ning Mao went over and picked it up, and then opened the cloth around it… and inside, of all things, was a golden sword.

“That’s cast gold, isn’t it?”

The eyes of all four of them lit up at once, full of greed.

“This looks like Ning Chen’s?”

“That bastard certainly got it by graft and bribes.”

Ning Mao looked at Chang Ruyue. “Mother, what shall we do? There must be dozens of taels of gold in it… Look at these jewels on it. Anyone can see they are worth a great deal.”

Ning Gan said with greed all over his face, “Hide it… That bastard cost me a jade flute at the courtesans’ quarter last time. This gold sword can stand as compensation.”

“And if Ning Chen comes back looking for it?”

Ning Gan smiled coldly. “It is certainly graft, and if he’s lost it he won’t dare make any noise looking for it… He forgot it himself on his way out just now. He may not even remember where he put it. As long as we deny it, all he can do is swallow it in silence.”

The four of them talked it over and decided to hide the gold sword.

Of the four, only Ning Gan had ever seen the Xuan Emperor… The rest did not even know what the Xuan Emperor looked like, let alone what the imperial sword was.

Today was the day of the ancestral rites, so the midday meal was a lavish one.

Chang Ruyue and her three sons had come by a gold sword into the bargain. Their spirits could not have been brighter and their appetites were excellent.

But just as they were enjoying themselves, a clamor went up outside.

Steward Wu came running in beside himself with fright, and tripped over the threshold on his way through the door and went down in a heap.

Ning Ziming’s brows drew tight together and he said angrily, “What are you in such a flurry about? How many times have you been told? This is a Minister’s residence. Things are done here with composure. Every word and every act of yours stands for the face of the Ning residence.”

Steward Wu picked himself up off the floor in a sorry state. “Master, it’s bad… The Fourth Young Master has come charging in with the Inspectorate’s men.”

“What?”

Ning Ziming’s eyes nearly came out of his head with the shock of it.

Chang Ruyue and her sons could not get a word out either.

“Inspectorate on a case. Persons with no business here will stay where they stand… Anyone who resists will be killed on the spot!”

Just then Ning Chen came charging in at the head of his men.

The servants and household men of the Ning residence were frightened onto their knees the length of the floor, shaking.

Ning Ziming turned his head to look, and his face changed, because Pan Yucheng, a gold coat, was among them.

Chang Ruyue and her sons were frightened clean out of their bodies.

(End of Chapter 128)