Ning Chen came to the Inspectorate and went straight to Geng Jing’s room.

“I hear you’ve taken a drug merchant.”

Geng Jing wasted no words either. He stood up and said, “Come on. I’ll take you to see him first.”

On the way Ning Chen asked, curious, “Have you got anything out of him?”

Geng Jing shook his head.

“As hard-mouthed as that?”

“You’ll see when you meet him.”

In one of the cells Ning Chen came face to face with the drug merchant they had taken.

Ning Chen studied the man through the cell door.

He was on the plump side, somewhere in his thirties, with clean pale skin, and he looked harmless to man and beast.

Ning Chen rapped on the cell door and said sharply, “What is your name?”

The drug merchant looked at Ning Chen with fear all over his face, opened his mouth and made a sound of aah, aah, aah.

A slight change went over Ning Chen’s face, and he looked at Geng Jing. “A mute?”

Geng Jing sighed. “His tongue has been cut out.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s eye twitched.

“Then he can at least write?”

Geng Jing shook his head. “It seems he can’t read.”

Ning Chen: “???”

“You’re joking. A drug merchant who can’t read?”

Geng Jing smiled bitterly. “He isn’t a drug merchant. At the most he’s a man who delivers the drug.”

“I have questioned the people who drew the officials into smoking immortal powder. This is not the drug merchant any of them saw.”

“My guess is that the drug merchant only shows himself at the beginning, drawing in those stewards with heavy money. Once the officials have the immortal powder in them he doesn’t appear again… and he sends men like this, men with pieces of them missing, to deliver it.”

“These men can’t speak and can’t read… and it does no harm if they are taken.”

Ning Chen frowned. “Then what did you send for me for?”

Geng Jing spread both hands. “I am truly out of ideas. Your head is a quick one, and I wanted to see whether you had any good notion of it.”

Ning Chen had nothing to say to that. The man can’t speak and can’t read. What notion am I supposed to have?

Ning Chen rapped on the cell door. “You. Look at me.”

With that Ning Chen began making shapes with both hands.

Geng Jing asked, curious, “What are you doing there?”

“Sign language. The way the deaf and dumb talk to one another.”

“You know that as well?”

Ning Chen nodded. “A little of it.”

But Ning Chen made shapes for a good long while, and the man in the cell only looked blank, his eyes frightened and stupid, and it was plain at a glance that he had not understood a thing.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Don’t put on not understanding for me.”

The man in the cell still had the same dull look.

Ning Chen gave it up. Modern sign language, he supposed, did not suit this world.

Never mind different worlds. Even in one world the differences are great — the official signs and the signs of particular places are very far apart.

Ning Chen frowned. “Lord Geng, how do you suppose these people talk to each other ordinarily?”

Geng Jing said, “They don’t talk to anyone.”

“How do you know?”

“He said so.”

Ning Chen’s forehead filled with question marks. “I thought he couldn’t speak?”

Geng Jing said, “But he can shake his head and nod.”

Ning Chen went numb.

Geng Jing said, “I have looked into who this man is. There is no such person on record.”

“My guess is that he is an orphan too, and perhaps came from the Nurture Hall… Of those children, some were trained into men sworn to die, and some had their tongues cut out and were trained to carry the drug.”

Ning Chen’s face was cold. “Living animals, that’s what they are… These people’s lives were hard enough already, and on top of it they must be maimed living, made cripples, trained into men sworn to die.”

Geng Jing sighed. “So we must get to the bottom of this whatever it costs, and drag out the real criminal behind it.”

Ning Chen thought a moment and asked, “Where was this man taken?”

“Near the residence of the Vice Minister of Justice. The man was skulking about and our people took him… I had the steward of the Vice Minister of Justice’s household identify him, and this is the man who was bringing him the immortal powder afterward.”

Ning Chen frowned. “Which street is the Vice Minister of Justice’s residence on?”

“Changxuan Street, the same street as your Ning house… though his residence is at the end of it.”

Ning Chen put his head down and thought for a while… and all at once a notion came into his mind.

“Lord Geng, I have no good plan either for the present… Let’s go out and talk it over.”

The two of them came out of the cells, and Ning Chen said, “Could we release this man and have our people follow him without being seen, and follow the vine to the melon?”

Geng Jing nodded. “I had thought the same thing… I had only wanted to see whether you had anything better. As it looks now, that is the only way to do it.”

Ning Chen hesitated a long while.

In the end he spoke all the same. “Lord Geng, send a few men who are good at a stakeout to watch the prince’s residence without being seen.”

Geng Jing gave a start. “Watch the prince’s residence? What do you mean?”

“You surely don’t suspect Prince Fu of being the one behind it?”

Ning Chen shrugged. “I never said so… In any case, setting men to watch does no harm.”

Geng Jing fixed his eyes on Ning Chen. “Are you keeping something from me?”

Ning Chen shook his head.

There was certainly something wrong with Prince Fu.

But whether it had anything to do with the immortal powder case he had no evidence for yet. It was only a suspicion.

Putting himself in the other man’s place: if he were Prince Fu, harboring evil intent and meaning to seize power and usurp the throne, the first thing he would need was the support of the court… and controlling the court with immortal powder was a short cut.

Ning Chen talked with Geng Jing a little longer and then left the Inspectorate. It was past the middle of the night by the time he got home to sleep.

The next day Ning Chen came to the Inspectorate.

He did not go to the first department. He went to the sixth, carrying a jar of wine in his arms.

The gold coat of the sixth department was called Meng Jianbai.

Meng Jianbai was ordinary enough with his hands, but he had a thorough knowledge of drugs.

“I greet Meng the Gold Coat.”

Ning Chen bowed over his clasped hands.

Meng Jianbai was somewhere in his forties, small and rather thin, with a goatee, and he looked like a little old man.

He looked at Ning Chen cheerfully. “How is it Ning the Silver Coat has time to come to my sixth department?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “There is something I would like to ask Meng the Gold Coat’s help with.”

“No need to stand on ceremony with me, Ning the Silver Coat. Say what it is.”

Ning Chen held out the wine in his hands. “Have a look at this jar for me, Meng the Gold Coat. Is there anything strange about it?”

Meng Jianbai took the wine jar and opened the clay seal.

A heavy, rich smell of wine floated out.

Meng Jianbai swallowed. “Good wine!”

Ning Chen rolled his eyes. One look was enough to tell that Meng Jianbai was a man fond of his drink.

Meng Jianbai poured out a bowl of it, first smelled it, then carried it over to the door and studied it a long while in the sunlight.

“Meng the Gold Coat, is there anything strange about this wine?”

Meng Jianbai nodded. “There is. This ought to be a jar of thirty-year Western Spring, and to have kept so well. Remarkable!”

The corner of Ning Chen’s eye twitched.

“Meng the Gold Coat, I suspect there is poison in this wine.”

Meng Jianbai said in anger, “Poison? This is thirty-year Western Spring… Isn’t that a waste of a good thing?”

Ning Chen had exactly nothing to say to that.

Meng Jianbai fetched a silver needle and tried it. There was no reaction at all.

“It seems the ordinary methods won’t bring it out… If Ning the Silver Coat is not in a hurry, give me a little time and I’ll have an answer for you later.”

Ning Chen nodded. “I’ll trouble you for it, Meng the Gold Coat.”

“There really may be poison in this wine… whatever you do, don’t drink any on the sly.”

Meng Jianbai laughed. “However fond of wine I am, I can’t very well drink poisoned wine.”

Looking at how you’re licking your lips, I’m honestly afraid you won’t be able to hold out, Ning Chen said inwardly.

“Then I won’t keep Meng the Gold Coat any longer. I’ll take my leave!”

Meng Jianbai nodded.

Ning Chen reached the door, and then all at once stopped and turned back. “Meng the Gold Coat, the man who gave me this wine said it has its flavor only drunk warm… Meng the Gold Coat might try heating it and see.”

Meng Jianbai was taken aback for a moment, and then nodded, smiling.

(End of Chapter 214)