Ning Chen looked at the madness on Du’e’s face and said, one word at a time:

“I said Li Quanhai is dead. And he died very badly.”

Du’e shook his head and roared, “Impossible. Impossible… He is—”

Seeing him stop, Ning Chen smiled coldly. “You want to say he was the Empress’s man. Is that it?”

“Let me guess. You must have met Li Quanhai often, so all those men sworn to die you trained knew him by sight.”

“I took one of them a while ago. He could not bear the questioning, and named Li Quanhai in front of His Majesty himself.”

“And the one behind him, afraid of being drawn in, put the whole of the guilt on Li Quanhai’s head… His Majesty was furious and gave the order to have him beaten to death under the rod. The man was beaten to a pulp. He died as badly as ever a man did.”

Du’e roared and fought like a madman, dragging the iron chains until they clashed and rattled.

“I don’t believe it, you’re lying to me… Ning Chen, you can’t lie to me.”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Believe it or not as you please… It’s only that you’ve been hiding outside the city all this while, or you’d have known about it long ago.”

“And in your own heart you know perfectly well that every word of it is true… You were hiding outside the city, and by rights Li Quanhai should have come out to you. Hasn’t he stayed away all this time?”

“By the way, at the end he said something over and over… Run, Elder Brother, or was it Run, Younger Brother? I didn’t hear it very clearly.”

Du’e went rigid all over and his pupils shrank.

Some moments later Du’e let out a cry fit to tear his heart out of him. “Elder Brother…”

Geng Jing glanced at Ning Chen, taken aback.

How does Ning Chen know all this?

Du’e wept aloud.

Ning Chen said flatly, “Take him down. We’ll question him another day.”

But Du’e’s head came round hard. “What do you want to know? I’ll tell you all of it.”

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth lifted, and he waved the two red coats outside.

He looked at Du’e. “I imagine you want very much to talk now. Say whatever you like.”

Du’e was silent a while, and then said slowly:

“My real name is Di Shan. Li Quanhai was my elder brother in the school. We grew up together from childhood and took the same master and learned the same trade.”

“After our master died the two of us drifted through the jianghu, and afterward, because I killed the young lord of a certain fellowship by mischance, we were driven to flee to the capital… And even so they hunted us all the way, and we came out of it alive more than once by no more than a hair.”

“We hadn’t a coin between us then, we had neither food enough nor clothes enough. To keep the two of us alive my elder brother hardened his heart and went into the palace as a eunuch.”

“He was good enough with his hands, so he was quickly given work of consequence, and we got a footing in the capital.”

“After that you know it all… My elder brother came to the Empress’s notice and trained men sworn to die for her in secret.”

Geng Jing’s chest tightened. “You say he trained men sworn to die for the Empress. Have you proof of it?”

Du’e — no, Di Shan — shook his head slightly. “My elder brother told me all of it. I have never seen the Empress, and I have no proof.”

Ning Chen and Geng Jing looked at each other, disappointed.

Di Shan said suddenly, “But I know where the drug merchant you are looking for is.”

Ning Chen asked quickly, “Where?”

Di Shan looked at him. “If I tell you, you must agree to a condition of mine.”

“Say it.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know, but you must agree to make it quick for me.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “Very well. I agree. When it is over, I will make it quick for you.”

“Tell me. Where is the drug merchant?”

Di Shan smiled coldly. “I’m afraid that even if I told you, you wouldn’t dare take him.”

Geng Jing smiled coldly. “Then you think a great deal too little of my Inspectorate.”

Di Shan’s eyes turned strange. “The man is inside the prince’s residence. Do you dare go and take him?”

Geng Jing’s face changed all at once.

His head came round hard at Ning Chen… Ning Chen had told him to set men to watch the prince’s residence before this.

It seemed Ning Chen had suspected Prince Fu all along.

Ning Chen asked flatly, “And why should I believe you? You say the drug merchant is at the prince’s residence… If it were me, with the immortal powder case made this much noise about, I’d have killed the drug merchant and closed his mouth long ago.”

Di Shan gave a jeering laugh. “Do you suppose immortal powder is easy to refine? Nobody but that man can make it at all… and even if another made it, the effect would be very much weaker.”

“The place where he refined the immortal powder is in fact a sealed room under the Nurture Hall… And after the thing broke, it was I who sent men to escort him to the prince’s residence myself.”

“The man has great gifts. Prince Fu cannot bring himself to kill him.”

Geng Jing and Ning Chen looked at each other, and neither of them spoke.

This business reached as far as Prince Fu.

If they took the drug merchant, well and good. If they did not, and had falsely accused a prince… that was no joke at all. One slip and a man’s head parts company with his shoulders.

“What is this drug merchant called?”

Di Shan shook his head. “I don’t know. He never said… We all called him the Medicine King.”

Pah. Poison King would be nearer the mark, Ning Chen said inwardly.

Di Shan gave an odd laugh all at once. “There’s another thing I know that you are certain to be interested in.”

“What thing?”

Di Shan said, “Give me a mouthful of wine.”

Neither Geng Jing nor Ning Chen refused him.

They called a red coat to fetch a jar of wine.

Ning Chen poured out a bowl himself and held it to Di Shan’s mouth.

Di Shan pulled several great mouthfuls down and laughed aloud. “To have Ning the Silver Coat feed me wine with his own hand in this life — it was worth it!”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “So long as you can tell us something of use, never mind feeding you wine… I’d feed you your dinner as well.”

Di Shan fixed his eyes on Ning Chen. “Do you know how the Second Prince died?”

Geng Jing said, without thinking, “Wasn’t he killed by the Left Chancellor? Is there something more behind it?”

Di Shan said with contempt, “The Left Chancellor was only a scapegoat. The real hand behind it… was the crown prince.”

Geng Jing’s face changed on the instant, and so did Ning Chen’s.

It was not that Ning Chen had never suspected the crown prince. But to hear it with his own ears was another matter.

“Was it snow-chill worms?”

Di Shan looked at Ning Chen, taken aback. “You actually know the Second Prince died of snow-chill worms?”

Geng Jing looked at Ning Chen, taken aback too. How many secrets is this boy carrying?

Di Shan said, “Since you know it already, I’ll say no more about it… Take these secrets and go and claim your credit. Though I doubt you’ll dare bring the thing out into the open. It is a scandal of the imperial house. Do you dare?”

Ning Chen fixed his eyes on him. “What else do you know?”

Di Shan said, “That’s the whole of what I know. Put plainly, I am only a piece on the board myself… Even this much I have only because my elder brother told me.”

“Ning Chen, give me another mouthful of wine.”

Ning Chen poured a fresh bowl and held it to his mouth.

Di Shan pulled several more mouthfuls down and called out, “That’s the thing… Ning the Silver Coat, I have one more secret, but I’m not at all sure of it. Do you want to hear it?”

“If it’s a secret, I’m interested!”

Di Shan said, “The last time I drank with my elder brother we got on to the Left Chancellor… My elder brother let Mangzhou fall from his mouth, and when I asked him he would say no more.”

Ning Chen’s eyes tightened slightly. “You mean the Left Chancellor is hiding in Mangzhou?”

Di Shan shook his head. “I don’t know… I am only telling you what I know.”

Ning Chen inclined his head slightly. “My thanks.”

Then Geng Jing called the red coats back in and had Di Shan taken down and kept under close guard.

Ning Chen said, “Take this wine down with him, and have the sixth department come and treat him… Keep a close watch on him, but he is not to be ill-used.”

“Yes!”

The two red coats took the order and did it.

Di Shan looked at Ning Chen. “Ning the Silver Coat, if it were not that each of us serves his own master, I think we should have been very good friends… The men of the jianghu have a great admiration for Ning the Silver Coat.”

Ning Chen smiled and said nothing.

But in his own mind he was perfectly certain that he would never be friends with an animal who maimed the living.

(End of Chapter 220)