Ning Chen came back to himself and forced himself calm.

“Doctor, you said just now that Yudie may never stand again… Does that mean there is also a chance that she will?”

The doctor inclined his head slightly. “The chance of her standing again is very slight… but there is some chance of it. It is only that this old man’s skill is not equal to it, and there is nothing more he can do.”

Ning Chen said nothing, turned, and walked out.

Everyone there was struck dumb. Where had he gone?

Had he heard that Yudie might never stand again, and run?

The old madam’s face was full of scorn. “Pah… Men are all the same breed. Faithless and heartless, every one of them — the moment he hears she can’t stand, he takes to his heels, and Yudie gave him her whole heart for nothing.”

Ning Chen came out of the courtesans’ quarter and rode hard, straight for the palace.

At this hour the palace gates had long been shut.

The guards at the gate saw a fast horse bearing down on them and leveled their spears at once.

“Who’s there?”

Ning Chen came on at a gallop and swung down. “Ning Chen, silver coat of the Inspectorate. I have urgent business and must see His Majesty… Open the gate at once.”

“So it is Ning the Silver Coat. Wait a moment, please, while I report it.”

“I’ll come with you.”

The palace was too big. There and back would take better than an hour, and Ning Chen could not wait that long.

“Ning the Silver Coat, this is against the rule.”

Ning Chen said heavily, “In an emergency the rule bends. If anything comes of it, it’s on me.”

The guard hesitated. Ning Chen was His Majesty’s favorite these days, and on good terms with their own chief, Commander Nie, besides. Coming at this hour, he must have real business.

“Then I must trouble Ning the Silver Coat to give up his weapons.”

Ning Chen did not hesitate for an instant. He handed over the service sword and dagger and crossbow at his waist.

Then he went in with the guard.

On the way Ning Chen kept hurrying him, and the two of them went half at a trot.

They came to the Hall of Cultivated Heart, but the Xuan Emperor was not there.

The two of them went on to the imperial study.

The Xuan Emperor was not yet asleep and was reading through memorials… He was a very diligent emperor.

It happened that Nie Liang was on duty that night.

Hearing that Ning Chen had urgent business and wanted an audience, and knowing it must be real, he went in at once to report it without wasting words.

He came out again quickly.

“His Majesty says you may go in.”

Ning Chen said his thanks and went into the imperial study in quick strides, and knelt at once. “Your subject greets Your Majesty!”

The Xuan Emperor was sitting behind the dragon desk, and said, smiling, “Rise and speak. What has happened, that you come to see this emperor so late?”

Ning Chen did not rise. He said, pleading, “Your Majesty, your subject wishes to borrow a few imperial physicians.”

“Imperial physicians?” The Xuan Emperor was startled. “Are you hurt?”

“Not your subject. Yudie.”

A thing like this could not be hidden, or it would be the crime of deceiving the throne.

The Xuan Emperor’s face went dark at once.

What is an imperial physician?

The one word imperial said it all — reserved for the imperial house alone.

And now he was being asked to send an imperial physician to treat a woman of the courtesans’ quarter. What manner of thing was that?

“Your Majesty, Yudie was hurt on your subject’s account, and hurt badly… The doctor says she may never stand again.”

“Your subject begs Your Majesty. Save Yudie!”

The Xuan Emperor had already guessed as much. If it were not serious, Ning Chen would not have come into the palace in the dead of night to beg him.

“Ning Chen, and if this emperor refuses? Will you hold it against him?”

Ning Chen answered without the least hesitation. “I will!”

The Xuan Emperor’s anger flared. “Ning Chen, you have your nerve. Are you not afraid this emperor will have you killed for it?”

Ning Chen said, smiling bitterly, “If your subject cannot even protect his own woman, what is there left to say about protecting Your Majesty, protecting the Great Xuan? It would be nothing but empty talk.”

“The whole of the Great Xuan is Your Majesty’s. Whether your subject lives or dies may weigh little with Your Majesty… but Yudie has only me.”

The Xuan Emperor was moved.

“Ning Chen, if a day should come when this emperor is in danger, what would you do?”

Ning Chen answered without the least hesitation. “The first man to see your subject fed, when he came to the capital, was Your Majesty. The first to see him clothed against the cold was Your Majesty too.”

“If a day comes when Your Majesty is truly in danger, your subject is willing to stake his own life to protect Your Majesty, and die a hundred deaths without regret.”

Something like comfort crossed the Xuan Emperor’s face.

“Quan Sheng. Carry this emperor’s order to the head of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau. Have him take a few men and go with Ning Chen.”

Eunuch Quan bent forward. “This servant obeys!”

Ning Chen bowed his head hard to the floor before the Xuan Emperor. “Your subject thanks Your Majesty for his boundless grace!”

Out of the imperial study, Ning Chen thought Eunuch Quan far too slow and kept hurrying him along… and in the end simply took him by the arm and half ran the whole way to the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau.

The head of the Bureau received the order and at once set out, bringing two physicians of great skill with him.

Lin Wen, the head of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau, was pushing seventy and could not walk fast.

Ning Chen was in such a fever to get there that he could have carried the man on his back and run.

“Master Director, a life is at stake. Let’s move faster.”

Lin Wen did his best to quicken his pace. “Ning the Silver Coat, who is it that’s hurt, that you’re in such a state?”

“My woman!”

Lin Wen muttered under his breath that it figured.

“Where is the injured party?”

“The courtesans’ quarter!”

Lin Wen’s step stopped short all at once. “Ning the Silver Coat’s woman is a woman of the courtesans’ quarter?”

“Yes! Master Director, why have you stopped? Are you too tired to go on? Should I carry you?”

Lin Wen’s face went hard. “This old man is the head of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau and no less, and Ning the Silver Coat would have this old man go and treat a woman of the courtesans’ quarter. You are insulting this old man and ruining a lifetime’s good name.”

Ning Chen’s face darkened. “Master Director, she may be a woman of the courtesans’ quarter, but before she met me she was untouched.”

“She is a woman of that trade regardless.”

Ning Chen’s fists clenched. If he had not needed the man’s help he would have flattened the old fool with one blow long ago.

“Master Director, this is an imperial edict!”

Lin Wen shook his head. “This old man will not see decades of good name ruined in a single night.”

“You mean to defy the edict?”

“This old man is willing to take the punishment.”

Ning Chen was past holding his temper. “Every physician, on being called, goes at once, high station or low, near or far, and does not choose… Did the Master Director study medicine only to treat the imperial kin and men of rank and power? Is it all for some worthless good name?”

Lin Wen’s face set hard.

“Whatever Ning the Silver Coat may say, this old man will absolutely not go and treat a woman of that trade.”

Ning Chen’s eyes went cold, and he said, one word at a time:

“The Master Director has surely heard my name. If my woman comes to harm for want of timely treatment, I cannot promise what I might do.”

A chill went through Lin Wen. He felt, unmistakably, the murder in Ning Chen.

This was a hard man who had dared cut down the Empress’s brother with a sword.

But Lin Wen was a stubborn mule too, and he stiffened his neck. “Ning the Silver Coat, are you threatening this old man?”

“And if I am?”

By reflex Ning Chen went to draw his blade, and found nothing there. His weapons had all been given up to the guard on the way into the palace.

Lin Wen noticed the motion and said angrily, “What, does Ning the Silver Coat mean to kill this old man now?”

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on him coldly, drew a long breath, and said flatly, “Go home.”

Lin Wen was taken aback.

Ning Chen said, mocking, “I had long heard the Master Director’s skill in medicine was beyond the ordinary. I never thought he was a man fishing for a name he hasn’t earned.”

Lin Wen flared up. “What did you say?”

Ning Chen said flatly:

醫者，披肝瀝膽赤誠心，敬佑蒼生入杏林。

A healer opens his liver and spills his gall for a true and honest heart, and enters the groves of apricot to watch over the common people.

(TL Note: “the groves of apricot” is an old name for the medical profession, from a physician who asked his cured patients to plant apricot trees instead of paying him.)

“And you do not deserve to be called a healer.”

“Tomorrow I will write a poem and paste it up in every street and alley in the city, and let the whole capital know that Lin Wen, Master Director, is nothing but a hack — no skill and no conscience, and got where he is today purely by flattery.”

Lin Wen’s fingers shook with rage. He pointed at Ning Chen. “You— you dare call this old man a hack?”

“Isn’t that exactly what you are? You won’t treat my woman — not because of what she is, but because your skill isn’t equal to it, and you’re afraid you’ll fail!”

Lin Wen was shaking with cold rage. He had practiced medicine his whole life, and this was the first time anyone had ever called him a hack.

He also knew very well that Ning Chen’s gifts ran deep — any poem he happened to toss off became a thing sung down the ages — and if Ning Chen wrote verses to abuse him, he would be nailed to the pillar of shame and a lifetime’s good name would be gone in a night.

“Very well, very well, very well… This old man will see today what sickness there is that this old man cannot cure.”

“Ning Chen, if this old man cures your woman, what then?”

Something like triumph at a scheme come off flickered in the bottom of Ning Chen’s eyes. “Whatever the Master Director asks of me, I’ll do it.”

“Is that your true word?”

“Ning here always keeps his word. I never go back on it!”

Lin Wen said, “If this old man cures your woman, this old man will have you kneel before every physician of the Bureau, pour this old man tea, and apologize, and give this old man back his good name.”

“Done. That’s a promise! But if you fail to cure my woman, don’t blame me for writing a poem that nails you to the pillar of shame and leaves your name stinking for ten thousand years.”

Lin Wen’s face changed slightly, and then he made a cold sound in his nose. “Lead the way.”

“After you, Master Director!”

At the courtesans’ quarter, in the old madam’s room, Yudie lay on the bed with a dreadful white face.

Several girls close to Yudie were there too.

Yudie’s eyes kept going to the door, hope in them.

Everyone there knew who she was hoping for.

But that man, hearing she might never stand again, had turned on his heel and run.

The old madam looked at Yudie with pity and said angrily, “Don’t look. He isn’t coming back… Every rotten man under heaven is cut from the same cloth.”

“We can live without any man… This old woman will look after you from now on. So long as I have a bite to eat, you’ll never go hungry.”

Yudie shook her head. “Ning, dear isn’t a man like that. He must have urgent business. He will come back.”

“And you’re still speaking up for him at a time like this? Have you no sense? The moment he heard you might never stand again, he turned tail and ran.”

The old madam ground her teeth in anger. “I thought he was a man to be relied on, and that was why I let myself trust you to him… And here he turns out just like every other man. Faithless and heartless.”

“Little sister Yudie, don’t think about it any more. Rest and get well… Women like us, how many men ever mean what they say to us? We sisters will look after you from now on.”

“They say Ning the Silver Coat has a name for chivalry, and a good name besides… Who would have thought he was a man like this?”

“Hmph. The man’s an immortal of poetry, General Ning, a silver coat of the Inspectorate… Why would he ever throw away a future like that over the likes of us?”

Yudie shook her head with everything in her, her eyes still fixed on the door, still hoping. “Sisters, please don’t say such things about Ning, dear. He is not a faithless, heartless man. I know he’ll come back to see me.”

Nanzhi spoke up. “I don’t think Ning the Silver Coat is a man like that either.”

The others shook their heads and sighed. Nanzhi and Yudie were still too innocent for this world.

Ning Chen was young and gifted, with the road ahead of him wide open… how could he wreck a future like that over a cripple?

“You two…” The old madam was thoroughly out of temper. “Still speaking up for him? If he truly cared for Yudie in his heart, he would set aside the greatest business in the world for her — not turn on his heel and run.”

“Nanzhi, from today you’ll have less to do with that Pan the Gold Coat too… There isn’t a decent man in the whole Inspectorate.”

Nanzhi was just about to speak up for Pan Yucheng when a voice came from the door. “Who says there isn’t a decent man in the whole Inspectorate? I can’t speak for those animals, but I count myself a decent one.”

The words were hardly out before Ning Chen came in with the imperial physicians behind him.

Everyone in the room froze and looked at one another.

They had never expected Ning Chen to come back.

And behind him were three men carrying medicine chests.

So he had gone to fetch a doctor after all.

“Make way, make way, don’t crowd… Master Director, this way, please!”

Master Director?

Everyone in the room froze again.

These three were imperial physicians?

Because only the head of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau may be called Master Director.

Ning Chen had gone into the palace in the dead of night and brought back physicians of the imperial house?

“Ning, dear?”

Seeing Ning Chen, Yudie wept for joy.

Ning Chen came to the bedside in quick strides and took her hand tenderly. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I didn’t protect you…”

“Out of the way. Do you know how to treat her?”

Before Ning Chen could finish, Lin Wen cut him off.

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched, and he had no choice but to step aside… This old man’s temper was nothing ordinary. He had cursed Ning Chen out the whole way here.

But for Yudie’s sake, all of it could be borne.

Lin Wen looked at Ning Chen, his face set hard. “What are you still standing here for? Out.”

“I—”

“Is there any use in your staying here?”

Ning Chen, thoroughly out of temper, said, “Fine. I’ll go, then!”

“Yudie, don’t worry… These gentlemen are all imperial physicians…”

“Out. Too much talk. If you hold up her treatment, will you answer for it?”

Ning Chen was furious enough to nearly give the old man a kick, but in the end he slipped out all the same.

(End of Chapter 209)