“From this moment, anyone may enter the Ning residence and nobody may leave.”
Ning Chen came to the door of the room with long strides, drew his long blade and leveled it at Ning Ziming and the rest, and said sharply, “Take them in hand for me. If any of them dares resist, cut him down where he stands!”
Pan Yucheng was at the head of them, but the orders were Ning Chen’s.
Feng Qizheng, Chen Chong and Gao Ziping rushed into the room, drew their long blades, and ringed Ning Ziming and his family.
Ning Ziming was frightened and furious at once. “Unfilial wretch, what do you think you are doing?”
Ning Chen smiled coldly, and turned and walked out.
Ning Ziming looked at Pan Yucheng. “Pan the Gold Coat. I am Minister of Rites, a great officer of the Second Rank… You break into my residence with armed men and no cause given. What is your object?”
“If Pan the Gold Coat does not give me an account of this that satisfies me, this old man will certainly lay a complaint before the throne and ask His Majesty to see justice done.”
Pan Yucheng put fist to palm and said mildly, “Calm your anger, Minister Ning. When the matter has been looked into, you will have an account of it that satisfies you.”
Ning Ziming said angrily, “What is it you are looking into?”
Just then Ning Chen came back.
“Unfilial wretch. You unfilial wretch… What is it you mean to do?”
Ning Chen’s face showed nothing, and he said it one word at a time. “Today I went into the palace, and His Majesty bestowed the imperial sword on me… When I came into the ancestral hall a little while ago, the imperial sword was still with me. Now it is gone.”
“Minister Ning. What would you say the penalty is for stealing an imperial sword?”
Something roared in Ning Ziming’s head!
He had no attention to spare now for why His Majesty should have bestowed an imperial sword on Ning Chen at all.
Stealing an imperial sword. The entire household to the sword!
He remembered dimly that Ning Chen had come into the ancestral hall carrying something, and had set it down behind the door.
His head came around sharply toward Chang Ruyue and her sons.
Nobody else would dare go into the ancestral hall. With the imperial sword gone, the answer was plain enough.
Chang Ruyue and her sons had been frightened out of their wits long before this.
They had never dreamed the thing could be an imperial sword.
Every one of them was chalk white, shaking from head to foot, with the cold sweat coming out on their foreheads.
“Where is the imperial sword?”
Ning Ziming roared it.
These idiots. They dared steal an imperial sword?
“It’s, it’s…”
Ning Gan was too frightened to get the words out straight.
And Ning Chen had no intention of giving them the chance to speak.
“Take all of them back to the Inspectorate.”
Chang Ruyue and her sons nearly went down on the floor with fright.
Ning Ziming was in an absolute panic himself by now. Once a man went into the Inspectorate, he came out short of a layer of skin if he came out alive.
“Ning Chen, about this—”
Ning Chen said coldly, “Lord Ning. You had better save what you have to say until we reach the Inspectorate.”
“From this moment, anyone who wastes another word had better not blame the blade in my hand for not knowing faces… Below fifth rank, a gold coat has the right to execute first and report afterward. Minister Ning is a great officer of the Second Rank, but these few hold no office and no post. Killing them shouldn’t cause any difficulty, should it?”
“Pan the Gold Coat, will you take them back to the Inspectorate first? I’ll take men and search for the imperial sword.”
Pan Yucheng nodded slightly.
Ning Chen had told them all what had happened on the way over.
Once, they would have thought Ning Chen was going too far.
Now they understood him.
This Minister was not fit to be a father to anyone… and still less fit to be a man.
Ning Chen took men and began to search the rooms of Chang Ruyue and the rest.
Pan Yucheng took men and brought Ning Ziming’s family back to the Inspectorate.
Ning Chen searched Chang Ruyue’s room himself.
He did not find the imperial sword, but he found a good deal that was worth money, and it was all packed up and carried off.
The really good things in the Ning residence were all in the storehouse, and Ning Ziming had the only key.
Otherwise Ning Chen would have carried the storehouse out empty for him.
There was no hurry about it, though. All of it would be his sooner or later. Chang Ruyue and her sons were afraid of him taking a share of the family property, weren’t they? Ning Ziming was greedy for his own rank and riches, wasn’t he? Then take away every last thing they cared about most.
In the end the imperial sword turned up under the bed in Ning Gan’s room.
The idiot. He truly does not know how to hide a thing.
With the imperial sword found, Ning Chen took his men back to the Inspectorate.
Pan Yucheng saw him and asked quickly, “Did you find it?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“Are they all in the cells?”
Pan Yucheng said, “Chang Ruyue and her sons are in the cells. Minister Ning is with Geng the Purple Coat.”
Ning Chen’s brows drew together.
Pan Yucheng explained. “The others hold no office and no post, but Lord Ning is a great officer of the Second Rank in this court… Without an edict from His Majesty he may not be confined and he may not be put to the question.”
Ning Chen made a sound of assent to show that he understood.
Then he went straight down to the cells.
Feng Qizheng and the others were waiting at the door of the cells.
“Ning Chen, do you really have the same father as those clowns?”
Ning Chen raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“The one called Ning Mao wet himself on the way back… and the other two cried and howled with fright.”
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Young gentlemen raised in silk and fed on delicacies. How many of them have hard bones in them?”
As they spoke, Ning Chen walked on into the cells.
From a long way off he could hear Ning Gan and the others wailing like mourners!
Ning Chen came to the front of the cell and saw the three brothers huddled in the corner, shaking in a heap with fright, crying as though their own father had died.
Chang Ruyue was shut in the cell opposite, her eyes gone glassy with fear and her whole body trembling.
Ning Chen signed to the jailer to open the door of the cell the three of them were in.
The door opened, and he walked in with long strides.
“The cells of my Inspectorate. Not a bad place, is it?”
Ning Chen looked at them with contempt all over his face.
“Ning Chen, let us out. We were wrong, we beg you, let us out—”
“We were wrong, I apologize to you, I’m begging you, let us out, won’t you?”
“Ning Chen, I’m begging you, we’re all one family, you can’t treat us like this—”
The three of them saw Ning Chen and went down on their knees, begging him bitterly.
Ning Chen watched them with cold eyes. “Come, now. My mother’s tablet can’t even get into the Ning family’s ancestral hall, and if Minister Ning hadn’t taken pity on me I couldn’t get in at the Ning family’s door either… How is the bastard you all talk about fit to be one family with you?”
“You are all young masters of the Ning residence. Don’t kneel… I liked you better the way you were in the ancestral hall — proud and unbroken, shaming my mother and me.”
“Take these three to the torture room for me. I mean to question them myself.”
The three of them were frightened out of their souls.
“I won’t go, I won’t go—”
“Ning Chen, we know we were wrong, our mouths are filthy, we aren’t human, let us off, won’t you?”
Ning Chen’s eyes were cold, and he said mildly, “You don’t know you were wrong. You are only afraid.”
“I won’t go, I won’t go to the torture room, don’t touch me—”
“Mother, save us, save us—”
Three young gentlemen without the strength to truss a chicken were dragged out by a few jailers with no trouble at all.
“Ning Chen?”
Ning Chen was about to go to the torture room when Chang Ruyue threw herself against the door of her cell. “Ning Chen, they are your brothers. Blood is thicker than water. You cannot treat them like this.”
Ning Chen’s face was calm. “I am a bastard. You said so yourselves… Where would a bastard get brothers? Claim me for kin, and aren’t you afraid of fouling that noble bloodline of yours?”
“Ning Chen, I know I have neglected you all these years and there is bitterness in you over it… Whatever it is, come at me. Don’t make it hard for them.”
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Everything you have done for me all these years is written down in my heart… Madam Ning needn’t be in a hurry. When I have finished questioning them, it will be your turn. The Inspectorate has instruments in plenty. There’s no fear of us running out before we get to you.”
(End of Chapter 129)