Chang Ruyue and her sons were brought out.

The Left Chancellor gave Ning Chen a cold look.

Ning Chen gave him a brilliant smile in return.

He understood perfectly well that after this, the bad blood between him and the Left Chancellor was out in the open.

“Father—”

Chang Ruyue gave Ning Chen a poisonous look and was about to say something, but the Left Chancellor stopped her. “Anything you have to say can wait until we are home.”

“Lord Geng, this old man will take his leave, then!”

“Take care on your way, Left Chancellor!”

The Left Chancellor took Ning Ziming’s family away.

Only when they were out the door of the Inspectorate did the Left Chancellor drop his voice and ask, “You said nothing?”

“Set your mind at rest, Father. We didn’t let out one word.”

The Left Chancellor gave a slight nod. “Remember, as long as this chancellor is here, nothing will happen to you.”

“Father, that cursed seed grows bolder by the day… Your daughter is truly afraid he will learn how his mother died.”

The Left Chancellor made a cold sound in his nose. “He marches out soon… Blades and swords have no eyes on a battlefield. I doubt he comes back at all.”

A poisonous smile came onto Chang Ruyue’s face.

The Left Chancellor looked at Ning Ziming, his brows drawing together. “Not even able to keep your own son in hand. Useless.”

Ning Ziming bent over, in fear and trembling. “Calm your anger, my honored father-in-law!”

“Ning Ziming. If you let my daughter and my grandson suffer again, don’t blame this old man for what follows!”

Ning Ziming went white in the face. “Set your mind at rest, my honored father-in-law. It will not happen again.”

Just then Ning Chen came out of the Inspectorate.

The Left Chancellor and the rest broke off their talk and watched him coldly.

Ning Chen gave a mild smile, swung into the saddle and rode off on Diaochan in a cloud of dust.

He got back to the Ning residence ahead of them, packed up all the gold and the fine silks in the rooms, and left.

After he left the Ning residence he went first to a money house and changed all the gold into silver notes, which are easier to carry… and then made straight for the courtesans’ quarter.

When Yudie saw the fine silks heaped up on the table in a little hill, she stood there stunned!

“Ning, dear, are these all for this girl?”

Ning Chen nodded, laughing softly. He knew no other women. If not Yudie, then who?

A film of mist came over Yudie’s big wet eyes.

“Hm? What are you crying for?”

“This girl doesn’t know. She just wants to cry.”

Ning Chen took her small hand, pinched her cheek and said, smiling, “In three days I march out. Look after yourself while I’m gone.”

“Ning, dear is marching out?”

Yudie’s body went stiff, and her big eyes filled with worry.

Ning Chen nodded.

“Isn’t Ning, dear a silver coat of the Inspectorate? How is it he’s going onto a battlefield? Blades and swords have no eyes out there. It’s far too dangerous!”

Ning Chen shrugged. “What can I do about being this outstanding? I’m the General of the Northern Expedition now, named by His Majesty himself… Ah well. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.”

“When I come back this time, I’ll go and ask His Majesty to strike you off the slave register and give you your freedom.”

Yudie’s face was full of worry. “This girl would rather stay at the courtesans’ quarter her whole life, as slave or servant… than have Ning, dear out on a battlefield killing men. It is too dangerous.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “An imperial command is not to be disobeyed. Do you want me to defy an edict?”

“The truth is, a battlefield is my stage… There now, put these away. I’m going out for a while. I’ll be back soon.”

Ning Chen went out and found the old madam.

“My apologies. Business kept me. I’m a day late!”

“Here is a note for a thousand taels. Take it.”

Ning Chen laid the thousand-tael note on the table.

The old madam picked it up, looked at it, and handed it back to him.

Ning Chen raised an eyebrow. “What does this mean?”

“In a year a silver coat of the Inspectorate gets those few melons and couple of dates you call a salary. When I said a thousand taels, I only wanted to see whether you’d part with it.”

“Ning the Silver Coat had better take this silver back. Yudie has already paid your night’s fee herself… You ought to give this money straight back to her.”

Ning Chen gave a helpless laugh, took the note and turned to go.

“A moment, Ning the Silver Coat!”

Ning Chen stopped where he stood and turned back to the old madam.

The old madam went over to a shelf at the side, rummaged for a while, and came back holding a sheet of paper.

“Ning the Silver Coat, this is for you!”

Ning Chen took it and glanced at it. It was all medicines, like a prescription.

“What is this?”

The old madam said, “Some years ago a wandering swordsman of the jianghu came to the courtesans’ quarter. Ten days without getting out of bed, and better than a dozen girls through the room… The wretch had no money when he’d finished, so he settled the silver with this prescription.”

“By his account it wouldn’t be traded for a thousand in gold. It can be decocted and drunk or used in a medicinal bath… Either way it does the body a world of good. Builds up the frame, keeps the blood and the breath strong, makes a man lively as a dragon and a tiger. He made it sound miraculous, at any rate.”

“Afterward I had one of the big teapots downstairs try it, and it does work.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.

A wandering swordsman of the jianghu? That’s a jianghu lecher, plainly.

Then Ning Chen said, with an edge in his voice, “What are you giving me this for?”

There was mischief in the old madam’s eyes. “Ning the Silver Coat is thin and weak. Set against the other silver coats of the Inspectorate, your body is nothing much… This girl thinks Ning the Silver Coat is decent enough, so the prescription is a gift. No charge!”

Ning Chen went numb!

“Yudie told you my body was nothing much?”

The old madam laughed. “She did not. Yudie has never had another man, so she has nothing to compare you with… But set against those colleagues of yours, you are very ordinary.”

“The girls those colleagues of yours sleep with can’t get out of bed the next day. Sometimes it takes two girls to satisfy one of them… But Yudie is fresh as a daisy the next morning. Put the two side by side and the difference shows.”

Fuck!!!

This was the equivalent of taking his ultimate in the face at point-blank range.

What is more mortifying than a woman telling you to your face that you’re nothing much?

All the same, his body really was not up to Feng Qizheng and those animals.

Ning Chen said through his teeth, “Bullshit. In a thing like that what matters is quality, not time.”

The old madam said with mischief in it, “Ning the Silver Coat is only trading on being young… If you can’t match those colleagues of yours while you’re young, then by the time you reach their age I’m afraid you won’t have the quality or the time either.”

Ning Chen curled his toes into the floor with embarrassment.

He meant to give the prescription back to the old madam, for the dignity of men everywhere.

But he thought better of it and put it away. “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome! I’m only thinking of Yudie’s happiness in the years to come.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched, and he turned and left.

Back in Yudie’s room.

Ning Chen could not help asking, “Do you think I’m any good?”

Yudie stared for a moment and looked at him without understanding.

Ning Chen sighed… Damn it. Tonight it wasn’t about the buns. It was a matter of pride.

That night, to prove that he could, Ning Chen had the bed shaking for the whole night through.

When he woke the next day the sun was three poles high.

Fuck!!!

He had nearly forgotten. Today he still had to go into the palace and make a paper hawk for the emperor’s little brat.

Ning Chen washed at speed, ate something, and rode Diaochan straight for the palace.

He came to the Ninth Princess’s Fallen Phoenix Court.

The Ninth Princess’s maid was already waiting at the door.

“Young Master Ning. Good day!”

The maid made a graceful courtesy.

“Young Master Ning, please come with this servant!”

Ning Chen nodded and followed the maid inside, quietly rubbing the small of his back on the way… A man’s damnable will to win.

(End of Chapter 132)