Ning Chen hesitated, and then said heavily, “Old General, I think there is more to the crown prince than there looks.”

“And although he is the heir apparent, there is no strong backing behind him… The Third Prince has the Grand Tutor behind him, and whose hands that throne finally comes into is still an open question.”

“I am a rough man, and I don’t want to get into the fighting between them.”

“He came to the general’s residence with his purpose written on him. The old general has spent his whole life in the saddle and has only just come by a little peace. I want the old general to live out his years quietly, and I would rather we both stayed clear of this kind of thing.”

Old General Chen said, smiling, “This old man has stepped back from affairs now. He could not help if he wanted to.”

Ning Chen shook his head. “The old general may take no notice of these worldly matters now, but for standing in the army, not even the Grand Tutor comes near you.”

“The crown prince is weak in the army, and military power is the one thing above all that puts a man on a throne.”

“The old general has standing, but he has very little real power now… So let us stay out of this. You have worked hard all your life. Enjoy your old age.”

Old General Chen inclined his head slightly.

“Ning Chen, if the choice were yours, the crown prince or the Third Prince, which of them would you back?”

Ning Chen smiled. “I am one small silver coat. Even if I wanted to back anybody, I don’t have the standing for it.”

“Don’t put me off, boy… Who does not know you are His Majesty’s favorite now? When you come back from the southern campaign, a marquisate or a chancellorship is only a matter of time, and there will certainly be a place for you at court.”

“And by then, boy, your word will carry further than this old man’s.”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “The old general thinks far too well of me, and besides, the war has not been fought yet… I believe I can win it, but a battlefield changes from one moment to the next, and I would not talk large and say I am certain to win.”

Old General Chen’s face turned serious. “Ning Chen, this war against Nanyue has to be won… How every other country treats the Great Xuan afterward depends on it.”

Ning Chen nodded slightly. “Let the old general be easy. I will put everything I have into it.”

“There is one more thing. From now on, do not touch anything sent from the palace… anything that goes in the mouth above all.”

Old General Chen blinked. “What do you mean? Are you saying somebody wants to do this old man harm?”

Ning Chen said heavily, “To the crown prince, the old general is strong backing… but to certain other people the old general is a tiger in the road… So it is better to be careful.”

Old General Chen’s eyes narrowed and he inclined his head. “This old man understands!”

At midday Ning Chen stayed at the general’s residence and drank a few cups with Old General Chen.

Full of food and drink, Ning Chen took his leave and rode for the Inspectorate.

On the way, Ning Chen was turning things over in his head.

“I can fly, I can fly… I’m flying, I’m flying…”

A young man in reasonably fine clothes was flapping both arms and running unsteadily from one side of the street to the other.

Ning Chen reined in quickly. How many dishes did you have, to get in a damn state like this?

But the young man ran up in front of Diaochan and grinned foolishly at Ning Chen in the saddle. “An immortal. I have seen an immortal.”

Then all at once the young man’s face turned to terror. He dropped to his knees with a thump and knocked his head at Ning Chen over and over. “Save me, immortal. There are demons, there are demons trying to eat me…”

Ning Chen frowned and was about to swing down when several men in short jackets pushed through the crowd and came running over.

When they saw Ning Chen on the horse, fear came into their faces.

They were probably not afraid of Ning Chen but of the fish-scale coat he wore.

“Your pardon, my lord. Our young master has had too much to drink. We beg my lord to bear with us.”

One of them said it with fear all over his face and apologized to Ning Chen.

Ning Chen waved a hand. “Take him away. When a man has had too much he stays quietly at home and does not come out and make a spectacle of himself.”

“Yes. Thank you, my lord!”

Several of them came forward and got the drunk young man up between them.

The young man screamed in terror. “Save me, immortal. There are demons, there are demons coming to take me…”

Ning Chen frowned and looked the young man over. The face was pale, the eye sockets were sunken, and he had the look of a man worn out with too much of it… but there was a wildness in his eyes.

He fought them with everything he had and shouted that there were demons.

But in the end they carried him off.

Ning Chen shook his head and could not help laughing. That did not look like a man who had drunk too much. It looked more like a man high on a drug.

Then Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed to points.

In his last life he had helped the narcotics police take dealers, and men who had used were in much the same state as this young one.

And besides, he had not smelled any wine on the young man just now.

“Stop where you are!”

Ning Chen put his horse after them.

The men carrying the young man saw Ning Chen coming after them, dropped him where he stood and ran for the small alley at the side.

Ning Chen took the crossbow off his saddle and let fly without stopping.

Whip!!!

The bolt took the last of them in the calf, and the man screamed and went down.

The people watching all round screamed with him.

Ning Chen took the manacles and irons off his saddle, swung down, and ran over and locked up the raving young man first.

He was about to go and bring in the man he had shot through the calf when a sharp arrow came out of the alley and went straight into the middle of his forehead.

The man Ning Chen had shot in the calf died where he lay.

Ning Chen’s face changed. He looked back at the people scattering in fright, pointed at the raving young man and shouted,

“I am Ning Chen, silver coat of the Inspectorate. I must trouble you all to keep him safe for me, and to send word to the garrison. Thank you!”

Hearing it was Ning the Silver Coat, the people were not so frightened, and nodded readily.

Ning Chen came to the mouth of the alley, put his head around the corner to look and pulled it back fast.

There was nobody in the alley.

Ning Chen loaded a bolt into the crossbow, drew his dagger and went into the alley at a run.

The alley was too narrow. It was no place for a long blade.

He kept his eyes hard on what was ahead of him and went carefully deeper in.

At the end of the alley there was a wall.

Ning Chen took a run at it and jumped, and the moment he was up on top of it the crossbow was already raised.

There was more alley on the other side of the wall, and nobody in it.

Ning Chen came down off the wall and went on after them.

But the end of the alley was a main street, with people going both ways along it.

Ning Chen swept the whole of it with a hard eye, and finally sighed and shook his head… The man had certainly got in among the crowd and gone.

Ning Chen turned and went back.

The garrison had arrived. They had happened to be patrolling nearby.

“Ning the Silver Coat!”

The officer at the head of them bowed over his clasped hands.

Ning Chen nodded to him, and his eye went to the young man in the manacles and irons, who had gone quiet by now.

Ning Chen squatted down, leaned in and smelled him. There was a strange smell on the young man.

“Isn’t this Young Master Shao?”

The officer at the head of them said it, looking at the young man.

Ning Chen looked at him. “You know him?”

“Shao Hongbai, Secretary in the Ministry of War. This is Lord Shao’s son… Lord Shao is in charge of arms and equipment, and I saw this Young Master Shao once when I was exchanging weapons.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew in. “Does this Young Master Shao have the falling sickness?”

The officer shook his head. “I’ve never heard of it.”

Ning Chen said heavily, “Get me a basin of cold water.”

One of the garrison soldiers ran to a shop at the side and brought back a basin of cold water.

Ning Chen took it and threw the whole of it into Young Master Shao’s face.

The weather was freezing, and with a basin of cold water on him Young Master Shao shook with cold and came back to himself, though his eyes were still vague.

Ning Chen squatted down. “I am asking you. What did you take before this? Or what did you breathe in?”

Young Master Shao was shaking all over with cold, his face a dreadful white, saying that he was cold.

Ning Chen said, “Tell me what you breathed in, and I’ll send you somewhere warm.”

“I— I was at the Four Quarters gambling house. I took some immortal powder… How did I get here?”

Ning Chen’s brows locked together. If he had it right, immortal powder was opium or something of the kind.

He looked at the officer at the head of them. “I must trouble you to send men to take him to the Inspectorate, and then tell Pan Yucheng, Pan the Gold Coat, that I need support and that they are to come to the Four Quarters gambling house at once.”

“Good, no trouble at all!”

Ning Chen went on. “Does any of you know where the Four Quarters gambling house is?”

The officer at the head of them said, “I do!”

They patrolled the city every day. Nobody knew the capital better.

“Good. Take me to the Four Quarters gambling house.”

With the officer leading them, the whole party went straight for the Four Quarters gambling house.

A batch of men had already got away, and Ning Chen did not know whether going now was still in time.

Luckily the Four Quarters gambling house was not far. It was at the street corner ahead and around the turn… Otherwise Young Master Shao could not have got as far as he had.

They reached the Four Quarters gambling house.

Ning Chen swung down and said loudly, “Hold the door. Anybody may come in and nobody goes out. The rest of you come in with me.”

Ning Chen took his men in at a run.

Inside the gambling house it was all noise, and because the air did not move well and there were a great many people in it, the place was thick and foul and hard to breathe in.

The gamblers were crowded around one table after another, some of them red-eyed and beating their own chests and stamping, some of them shouting at the top of their voices like mad dogs, cursing each other’s mothers and fathers, all kinds of strange sounds going up one after another, the noise of it hard on the ear, everything at odds, and none of it comfortable to be in the middle of.

Some of them noticed Ning Chen and his men come in, and made very little of it.

Because gambling is not forbidden in the Great Xuan. Gambling is lawful.

Inside the capital there were more than a hundred gambling houses, large and small.

But officials of the court may not gamble, and may not go to the courtesans’ quarter either.

That stopped nobody at all, and the Xuan Emperor kept one eye shut about it, so long as it did not go too far.

Ning Chen put one hand on the hilt of his sword and shouted, “The Inspectorate is on a case. Everybody stay where you are… Anyone who disobeys, I cut down!”

The gambling house went quiet at once.

Every eye in it came to rest on Ning Chen.

Just then a short, fat middle-aged man in good clothes came over with several men behind him.

“This small man is Feng Cheng, and I keep this gambling house. May I ask how to address my lord?”

Ning Chen said sharply, “Take him for me!”

Two of the garrison started forward to take him.

Feng Cheng backed off a few steps and stared at Ning Chen with his brows drawn. “My lord, what crime has this small man committed?”

“Keeping a gaming house.”

Ning Chen said it without thinking, and regretted it the moment it was out… He had forgotten that the Great Xuan does not forbid gambling and that a gambling house is a lawful trade.

Feng Cheng stared at Ning Chen in astonishment. “My lord, this small man has never heard of that crime before.”

Ning Chen coughed, embarrassed. “A man attacked me in the open street just now and then went to ground in the Four Quarters gambling house… Since you keep the place, come back with me and assist the investigation. You have no objection to that?”

Feng Cheng said, with a smile on his mouth and nothing behind it, “This small man is only a small keeper here and cannot be much help to you. And besides, if I go it hurts the business, and who is to answer for the loss?”

“Though for anybody to have the nerve, past all measure, to make an attempt on my lord — and for the man to have run into my gambling house on top of it — this small man is willing to help my lord find him.”

Ning Chen’s heart sank. By the sound of that, the other side had made their preparations for him already.

“Very well. Then everybody stay where you are.”

Feng Cheng smiled. “My lord, search by all means, but do not hurt this small man’s business… Let everybody play their game, and my lord search as he likes, and neither of us in the other’s way.”

“That’s right. You want to find a man. What has that to do with us?”

“He’s right. I’ve lost dozens of taels and my luck has just turned. Are you going to stand between me and my money?”

“I’ve just won ten or twenty taels and my luck is running. Don’t stand between me and my silver.”

The gamblers would not have it and set up a shouting.

The people who came here were of every sort of rogue, and unlike ordinary people. These were men who made their living on the crooked side, bold to begin with, and they had none of the ordinary man’s respect for the law of the Great Xuan.

And besides, they had broken no law, so they were not much afraid of a silver coat of the Inspectorate either.

Feng Cheng said, with a smile on his mouth and nothing behind it, “My lord, you cannot go against a crowd’s anger… Better let them go on playing, and this small man will go around with you and look for your man. How would that be?”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at him. “You seem to have something behind you.”

(End of Chapter 200)