Ning Chen kept his eyes fixed hard on Du’e coming at him.

Du’e was on him quick as lightning, and a palm came down at his head.

But before the blow landed Ning Chen dropped stiff and straight to the ground.

That savage stroke of Du’e’s went into nothing and carried him forward.

And Ning Chen came up off the ground like a spring, got both arms locked around the man’s legs and heaved.

Du’e was flung clean over and came down hard on the ground.

Feng Qizheng came at him like a mad bull and kicked him off the ground.

Before he could get up Ning Chen went at him like a hunting cat, put the dagger straight into his thigh and came down on top of him with his whole weight.

“Aah…”

Du’e let out a scream.

He fought with everything he had to throw Ning Chen off.

But Ning Chen had his neck locked hard and came near to breaking it.

Du’e rolled where he lay.

The two of them went over and over together.

“Aah!!!”

Ning Chen roared, driving with both arms, the veins standing out on him.

Du’e’s eyes rolled up white under the choke and the blood came up into his face.

He would not sit still and wait to be killed, and drove his elbow again and again into Ning Chen’s side.

Ning Chen roared and put everything he had into his arms.

Du’e’s resistance came weaker and weaker, until his legs kicked out once and he went out under the choke.

Geng Jing and the others ran up, shock all over their faces.

When this fellow’s blood is up, he is a frightening thing.

“Ning Chen, let go. He’s out already.”

Feng Qizheng patted Ning Chen’s arm to gentle him down.

Ning Chen was drawing great breaths, his eyes crimson, and he let his arms open slowly. “Look in his mouth. See whether there’s a poison tooth.”

Feng Qizheng dragged Du’e off him, pinched his mouth open and looked a while, then pushed one thick finger into Du’e’s mouth, bore down, and tore a tooth bodily out of him.

Then he fetched the manacles and irons and locked Du’e up in them.

The battle was over.

Apart from Du’e and four or five of the killers taken alive, the rest were all killed.

The truth was that taking Du’e was what mattered most.

Which was why Ning Chen had risked his life to choke him out.

Geng Jing sent two red coats back to the city to have the garrison come and help.

Feng Qizheng and Chen Chong and the others gathered round and sat down on the ground beside Ning Chen.

Every one of them had taken wounds, and they were worn out.

“Old Ding, it’s neither New Year nor a feast day. What’s the great obeisance for?”

Feng Qizheng looked at a silver coat who was kneeling on the ground and said it to tease him.

The man rolled his eyes at him and swore back, laughing, “Piss off… Some son of a bitch put a blade into my backside. It hurts like death.”

They all roared with laughter.

“Let me have a look. Which cheek?”

“Come on, come on… a wager. I say the left.”

“I say the right… Whoever loses stands the drinks at the courtesans’ quarter tonight. How’s that?”

Chen Chong looked at Ning Chen. “Which do you back?”

Ning Chen grinned wickedly. “I back the middle.”

They were blank for a moment, and then laughed until they were squealing like pigs.

The silver coat with the wounded backside glared at Ning Chen. “You’re the worst of the lot of us, boy.”

Ning Chen struggled up to sit, and everything on him hurt.

Feng Qizheng grinned wickedly. “Ning Chen, that stroke on your thigh was a near thing… three inches over and the nest would have been split open.”

Ning Chen had nothing to say.

Chen Chong had a low, dirty grin on his face. “Lucky Ning Chen’s is small… In that spot, at our length, wouldn’t half of it have come off?”

They all howled.

Ning Chen was angry enough to kick him with his good leg. “Do you take yourself for a donkey?”

Gao Ziping came over. He had hardly been hurt at all and had been off counting the men.

Seeing how grave his face was, Ning Chen could not help asking, “How many did we lose?”

Gao Ziping sighed. “Seven red coats dead. Ten or more wounded.”

They all fell silent.

The fight had been a bitter one.

Ning Chen said, “Double the payment to the families of those seven red coats afterward. I’ll cover what’s over.”

“It was my carelessness. I didn’t think it through. We should have brought more men.”

Feng Qizheng glanced at him. “What has that to do with you? Geng the Purple Coat turned out himself. How much more seriously could it have been taken?”

“These fellows were all men sworn to die, fierce and with no fear of dying… As it is we can call it a complete victory.”

“The Inspectorate looks fine enough from outside, but the work we do is the most dangerous there is… Nobody can say what day his head will part company with his shoulders.”

“That’s the reason I don’t take a wife and get children… I’d be afraid of being gone one day and leaving a widow and orphans behind me for other people to push around.”

Chen Chong put on a low look. “Should I find you a woman like your sister-in-law? If you died, nobody would dare push those orphans and that widow around.”

Feng Qizheng’s face changed and he shook his head over and over again.

“It’s bad enough that you suffer yourself. Now you want to drop your brothers in it… Are you even human?”

Chen Chong grunted. “What’s wrong with my wife? Gentle and thoughtful… And after I’m dead nobody would dare push them around.”

Feng Qizheng said inwardly, Gentle and thoughtful — picking you up by the legs and slamming you into the floor?

Ning Chen stared. “Did that really happen?”

“It certainly did… Old Chen went to the courtesans’ quarter once and his wife caught him at it. A thorough beating — picked him up by the legs and threw him down on the floor… He was three days getting out of bed.”

Ning Chen stared at Chen Chong, struck dumb. He knew Chen Chong’s wife was his senior sister in the school and very good with her hands, but he had never thought she was as violent as that.

Chen Chong quietly covered his face.

Ning Chen could not hold it in and laughed until he was squealing like a pig.

Chen Chong looked at Ning Chen, hesitated, and then said, “There’s something I’ve never told you, as a matter of fact.”

“What?”

“My wife says I’m to ask you to come and eat at our house. I’ve never had the face to say it to you.”

Ning Chen was puzzled. “Why ask me to dinner?”

“My wife admires a hero more than anything. You cut your way through the North Royal Court and took the King of the Left Court alive… My wife thinks the world of you. She’s set on my bringing you home to a meal.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “Certainly. I’ve never paid you a visit at home.”

Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng both coughed at the same moment and waggled their eyebrows at Ning Chen.

“You’ll all come. I’ll have my wife make a few more dishes… Old Gao and Old Feng are to come as well.”

Feng Qizheng shook his head over and over. “I can’t come. I’ve something on that day.”

Chen Chong said sourly, “I haven’t said what day it is yet.”

“Whatever day it is, I’ve something on.”

Ning Chen said, amused, “Old Feng, you seem very frightened of your sister-in-law.”

“The last time Old Feng got a beating, Old Gao and I were standing right there… If we hadn’t run fast the two of us would have been three days in bed too.”

“It was Old Chen who wheedled and wheedled to come with us to the courtesans’ quarter… and then the moment his wife found out, the little shit turned around and sold us — told her we’d dragged him there.”

Feng Qizheng said it sourly.

Chen Chong covered his face and said awkwardly, “If I hadn’t said that, I’d have been more than three days in bed.”

“We’re all brothers, don’t hold a small thing like that against me… Come and eat at my house this time and call it my apology.”

Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng said with one voice, “Get out! I’m not going.”

Chen Chong looked at Ning Chen. “You’re going anyway. You’ve promised me already and you can’t take it back.”

“Er… let me think about it!”

Ning Chen smiled bitterly, sorry now that he had agreed so readily… after hearing Feng Qizheng and Gao Ziping talk like that he was uneasy about it, and no wonder the two of them had been throwing him looks. It was a pity he had understood it a little late.

He was at the courtesans’ quarter every day of his life. If Chen Chong’s wife came to hear of it… then he would stop being the hero she worshipped and become something she wanted to be sick at.

(End of Chapter 218)