Ning Chen led his men on, riding hard the whole way, and did not stop until well after midnight.

He shook his head. He knew perfectly well… they were not going to catch him.

Once the Left Chancellor was out of the capital, the sky was wide enough for any bird and the sea broad enough for any fish.

Ning Chen gave the order to rest a while and then go back the way they had come.

He reckoned Geng Jing had not caught them either.

Ning Chen could not help a bitter laugh. He had won this fight, but he had not won it thoroughly enough.

That trick of the Left Chancellor’s, the golden cicada slipping its shell, was a fine piece of work. It had fooled every one of them.

On the way back Ning Chen kept turning it over… who exactly had gotten the Left Chancellor out?

The Empress?

The crown prince?

Whoever it was — if they were afraid the Left Chancellor would bring them down with him, they could simply have had him killed. Why get him out?

The only explanation is that the Left Chancellor is still worth something to them.

The Left Chancellor’s power ran through the whole court, and he has been building in secret for a long time. For all anybody knows, the bastard has tens of thousands of men quietly quartered somewhere nobody has heard of.

It was nearly light by the time he got back to the capital.

The men were worn out and the horses with them.

But Ning Chen did not dare rest. Back at the Inspectorate he went to find Pan Yucheng at once.

Before Ning Chen was through the door he heard Chen Lezhang’s voice.

“Pan the Gold Coat, what exactly do you mean by this? You bring me here for no reason at all and I sit here all night… You and I are both gold coats. This is hardly according to the rules, is it?”

Pan Yucheng’s voice was level. “This is Geng the Purple Coat’s doing.”

Ning Chen made a quiet sign for silence to the red coat at the door, and then backed away on tiptoe.

A little while later Ning Chen came back with several silver coats of the first department.

He looked at the red coat at the door and said loudly, “Where is Chen Lezhang?”

The red coat’s whole face was at a loss. When he came back to himself he said quickly, “In, in Pan the Gold Coat’s room!”

Inside the room, both Pan Yucheng and Chen Lezhang heard what Ning Chen said.

Pan Yucheng’s head came around sharply toward Chen Lezhang.

And alarm went across Chen Lezhang’s face.

“You men, hold the door.”

As he spoke Ning Chen put his left hand on his hilt and took manacles and leg irons in his right, went forward, kicked the door open and strode in.

Once inside, Ning Chen’s hard gaze fixed on Chen Lezhang.

Then he threw the manacles and leg irons down at Chen Lezhang’s feet and said sharply, “Put them on yourself. If you dare resist, I’ll kill you where you stand!”

Shk!!!

The long blade came out of the sheath.

Chen Lezhang’s face changed instantly, and he watched Ning Chen with the weather crossing his face.

Pan Yucheng asked, curious, “What’s happening?”

Ning Chen said it one word at a time: “The Left Chancellor has been caught!”

Pan Yucheng was wild with joy. “Excellent!”

Then he looked at Chen Lezhang. “It was he who let the Left Chancellor go?”

Ning Chen watched Chen Lezhang’s face go slightly white, and said with a contemptuous cold smile, “Then you rate him far too high. He is one link in the business and no more.”

“The Left Chancellor changed his face and counterfeited death… Chen Lezhang only found a way to have the body carried out of the city.”

Ning Chen said sharply, “Chen Lezhang, do you know your crime?”

Chen Lezhang’s face went white and sweat came out on his forehead.

Ning Chen said furiously, “You are a gold coat of the Inspectorate. You eat the sovereign’s pay and you were meant to carry His Majesty’s burdens for him… Instead of gratitude, you conspired with outsiders and let a serious criminal go. The crime is of the worst and the entire household should go to the sword!”

Pan Yucheng came around from behind the desk and said heavily, “Chen Lezhang. Will you not put up your hands and be taken?”

Chen Lezhang’s face was the color of dead ash, and sweat came out on his forehead.

He watched Ning Chen with poison in his eyes. “I never thought that after a lifetime of good judgment, Chen Lezhang would come down in the end at your hands.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth lifted. “A lifetime of good judgment? You are nothing but a brainless bully… Dealing with you scarcely took any thinking at all.”

“Chen Lezhang, put up your hands and be taken… Pan the Gold Coat is standing here. You are not getting out of this.”

Chen Lezhang looked at Pan Yucheng and begged, “I had no choice in it. You and I have worked together for years. Can’t you let me off?”

Pan Yucheng made a cold sound in his nose!

“You are a gold coat of the Inspectorate, and you do a thing like this… Chen Lezhang, you have failed His Majesty’s trust, and you have failed the coat on your back.”

There was poison in Chen Lezhang’s eyes. “All right… I’m finished. I admit it!”

He reached down and picked up the manacles and leg irons from the floor — and then flung them suddenly, and they came at Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng with a hard wind behind them.

“Ning Chen, I won’t let you go even as a ghost…”

Chen Lezhang roared it, hysterical, his voice full of hatred.

Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng slipped aside from the flying irons, and Ning Chen swung the blade up to cut Chen Lezhang down — and the next second his mouth fell open and the blade stopped in his hand.

Because Chen Lezhang was slumped in the chair with a dagger in his chest, blood running down over the gold coat, and blood welling steadily out of his mouth as well.

He had killed himself!

Ning Chen came out of it with a jolt and went over quickly. “Tell me, who is the man behind you? Who had you help get the Left Chancellor out? Where is the Left Chancellor now?”

The light was going out of Chen Lezhang’s eyes, and all at once they fixed hard on Ning Chen.

Pan Yucheng was staring at Ning Chen too, astonishment all over his face.

Ning Chen’s voice came fast. “Say it, quickly. Who is the man behind you?”

“You… you were bluffing me?”

Chen Lezhang got it out with difficulty, and blood welled up in his mouth with every word.

“Uh… that isn’t important! Tell me quickly, who put you up to it? Otherwise you will have died for nothing.”

Chen Lezhang put a hand out toward Ning Chen, snarling, trying to get it around his throat.

“Ning, Ning Chen… you will never know who he is. But I promise you, you will die at his hands, and you will die worse than I have.”

Ning Chen took a step back out of reach of the hand, something flickering in his eyes, and said, “My guess is that you were threatened. What did he threaten you with? Your family?”

“Chen Lezhang, tell me who he is. Otherwise I will put it about that you confessed the whole thing… And if the man behind you hears that, he will certainly take it out on your family, and they will die about as badly as anyone can.”

Chen Lezhang stared hard at Ning Chen, blood pouring out of his mouth, and let out a low snarl: “You, you…”

Ning Chen frowned, and his voice came fast:

“Say it, quickly. You’re killing me here… Tell me who he is. I’ll find a way to get your family out.”

“Chen Lezhang, think about it. The Left Chancellor’s crimes reach heaven, and letting the Left Chancellor go is a thing of that size. If it is ever traced, not even the crown prince could carry a crime that big.”

“So even if you had not killed yourself, the man behind you would kill you to close your mouth. And your family — do you imagine he would leave them alive? Right now the only man you can trust is me, and there may still be a way to keep your family whole.”

Chen Lezhang stared hard at Ning Chen, and a good deal of the hatred went out of his eyes. He got the words out with difficulty, his voice no more than a mosquito’s: “Save, save my family. The man who put me up to it is… is the crown prince.”

The veins stood out at Ning Chen’s temple. He had had his own guess already, but having the guess confirmed still shook him badly.

Pan Yucheng had gone rigid where he stood. What had he just heard?

The crown prince?

How was that possible?

The crown prince is kind-hearted and generous, mild and honest… Chen Lezhang is lying. He must be lying.

By the time the two of them came back to themselves, Chen Lezhang had no breath left in him.

Ning Chen let out a sigh, and thought that at least the man had gotten it out, and had not died halfway through the sentence like somebody in one of those trashy television dramas. (TL Note: another of the author’s modern references, a few centuries early. The joke is that Ning Chen is the only man in the room who has ever watched one.)

Ning Chen turned his head and looked at the silver coats outside the door.

“What did you hear just now?”

The silver coats looked at one another.

One of them said, “We heard Chen the Gold Coat say you were bluffing him… After that his voice was too low. We couldn’t make it out!”

Ning Chen looked at them a while, and then took his eyes away.

Whether they had truly not heard or were pretending not to, any ordinary man would keep his mouth shut about a thing that could get him killed.

Ning Chen searched Chen Lezhang’s body carefully, but found nothing useful.

He looked at the silver coats in the doorway and said:

“Take his body out… And send word to Gao Ziping. He is to take men to Chen the Gold Coat’s house at once and go through it thoroughly.”

“Yes!”

Chen Lezhang’s body was carried out.

Ning Chen turned around and found Pan Yucheng staring straight at him.

Ning Chen watched him warily. “What kind of look is that? I’m not Miss Nanzhi.”

Pan Yucheng said heavily, “Do you believe what Chen Lezhang said?”

“What did he say? Did Chen Lezhang say anything? Old Pan, Chen Lezhang simply had no nerve. He had a guilty conscience, I bluffed him once and he killed himself. He didn’t say a thing.”

Pan Yucheng watched Ning Chen. “I understand. You want to keep yourself clear of it.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. “You understand shit… Christ, you coarse fighting man. Did you shoot your brains out into Nanzhi?”

Pan Yucheng glared at him.

“What could Chen Lezhang’s word alone possibly prove? And the man is dead now, so there is nobody left alive to testify… So the right thing to do is to act as though we know nothing.”

Pan Yucheng said, “So you do believe what Chen Lezhang said.”

Ning Chen nodded. “Yes. I believe it!”

Pan Yucheng’s face changed slightly. “The crown… What does he stand to gain? This whole world will be his one day.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Are you thinking it doesn’t follow? That it makes no sense at all?”

Pan Yucheng nodded.

Ning Chen said, “Sometimes a thing making no sense doesn’t mean it isn’t so… The stranger a thing is, the likelier.”

“Old Pan, the reason we can’t work it out now may simply be that we have too little to go on.”

“Who he is puts him out of the ordinary. Until we have hard proof, we act as though we know nothing.”

Pan Yucheng let out a deep sigh and made a sound of assent!

Ning Chen stretched and complained, “Christ… what a night that was, I’m worn out. I’m going to the courtesans’ quarter to investigate a case. Coming?”

Pan Yucheng gave him a sidelong look. “You’re on duty in a minute. Stop running back and forth. Find somewhere here and shut your eyes for a while.”

“No. The case at the courtesans’ quarter concerns several hundred million lives… Besides, somebody has just died in this room of yours. I’m not staying here. Bad luck.”

The corner of Pan Yucheng’s mouth twitched. “Get lost!”

“Sure thing!” Ning Chen turned to go, then stopped in the doorway and turned back to look at Pan Yucheng. “Hold on, that’s not right. I’m the head of the Inspectorate at the moment. You dare tell me to get lost? That’s a subordinate offending against his superior.”

Pan Yucheng shook out his sleeve and two pebbles appeared in his hand.

Seeing it, Ning Chen not only did not run, he came back. “Old Pan, what do you think of the way I’ve treated you?”

Pan Yucheng looked at him and said nothing.

Ning Chen said, “Look. I’m the one who helped you carry off the beauty, aren’t I? Without me you’d still be Miss Nanzhi’s lapdog.”

“So shouldn’t you pay me back?”

Pan Yucheng looked at him sideways. “What mischief are you sitting on now?”

“Nothing, nothing… I only want to learn that trick of yours with the pebbles.”

Pan Yucheng flicked a hand, and two pebbles flew out with a sharp shriek of air.

Ning Chen turned to look, and saw that the two pebbles had gone into the wall.

“Old Pan, teach me, teach me, quickly…”

Pan Yucheng said, “A child’s trick. If you want to learn it, I can teach you!”

Ning Chen nodded over and over. “I want to, I want to… Teach me, quickly!”

“Now?”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent!

“Weren’t you going to the courtesans’ quarter to investigate a case?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “The case at the courtesans’ quarter isn’t urgent. It can wait a while.”

(End of Chapter 178)