Lin Wen finished the letter and handed it to Ning Chen.
Ning Chen was about to leave when something occurred to him. “The Master Director won’t be able to get out of the palace for the next few days, will he?”
“This old man was just about to speak to you of that. With His Majesty lying unconscious, this old man cannot leave… this old man is afraid he will not be able to go to Miss Yudie.”
Ning Chen nodded. “Is there another imperial physician who could use the needles in the Master Director’s place?”
Lin Wen shook his head. “His Highness the crown prince has given orders. The physicians of the Imperial Physicians’ Bureau are not to leave the palace for the present, and are to hold themselves ready at any hour.”
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed a little.
Lin Wen said, “Miss Yudie’s condition is a great deal improved, and the truth is that the needling is not difficult. This old man will give you the needling chart, and you may find any doctor you like to go on using the needles on her.”
Ning Chen bowed low. “My thanks to the Master Director.”
Lin Wen gave Ning Chen the needling chart. It was in fact a diagram of the vital points of the body, with Lin Wen’s own notes on the method written beside them.
Ning Chen thanked him again, and then went toward the gate of the palace, limping, leaning on his blade.
“Ning Chen?”
Hearing the voice, Ning Chen frowned a little. He knew it for the crown prince’s voice.
He turned and bowed.
“I greet the crown prince.”
The crown prince came over and saw him leaning on his blade. “You’re hurt?”
“Thank you for Your Highness’s concern. A small hurt, nothing serious.”
The crown prince nodded slightly.
He looked Ning Chen over. “You were gone in the blink of an eye just now. Where did you go?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Nowhere at all… My lords were all there, and there was nothing I could help with. And my leg is hurt, and I really could not stand any longer, so I was going home.”
The crown prince narrowed his eyes. “You have been gone a good while. How is it you have only gotten this far?”
“My leg is hurt. I can’t walk fast.”
The crown prince made a sound, and turned the talk. “The Father Emperor is fonder of you than of anyone. Won’t you go and see him?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “I know nothing of medicine… I would do better to go home and burn incense and pray for His Majesty, and ask that he may wake soon.”
“Come along. The Father Emperor has shown you nothing but favor. Hearing your voice might do his sickness some good.”
Ning Chen swayed a little on his feet. “Your Highness will forgive me, but your subject’s leg hurts more than he can bear… Let him come and see His Majesty another day.”
It was not that he did not want to see His Majesty. It was that he did not dare go alone.
Geng Jing and the others would have seen him by now. If Ning Chen went in alone, and the crown prince quietly killed His Majesty and laid it at his door, then he could have a mouth in every inch of him and still not talk his way clear.
The crown prince watched him with his eyes narrowed.
“Ning Chen, it seems you did not take to heart what I said to you last time.”
Ning Chen looked back at him, his whole face bewildered.
The crown prince gave a cold snort. “You promised last time that you would help me, did you not?”
Ning Chen said quickly, “I have kept Your Highness’s words in mind all along… Whatever the crown prince needs, he has only to give the order.”
The crown prince said heavily, “In that case, why did you not hand the Medicine King over to my man last night?”
Ning Chen looked surprised. “So that eunuch really was His Highness the crown prince’s man?”
“Why? Did he not tell you who he was?”
Ning Chen said, “He did say he was of the Eastern Palace. But he had no waist tally and nothing else to prove it… How was I to dare believe he was Your Highness’s man? And if he had been from some other palace, and I had handed the man over, would I not have done Your Highness harm?”
Something moved in the crown prince’s eyes. There was reason in what Ning Chen said.
“In that case, hand the Medicine King over to me now.”
Ning Chen’s eyes went wide. “Does the crown prince not know?”
“Know what?”
“The Medicine King has been taken off us.”
The crown prince started. “What did you say? Who could take a prisoner out of Geng the Purple Coat’s hands?”
Ning Chen shook his head with a bitter smile. “Geng the Purple Coat was not there at the time. He had heard there were assassins loose in the palace, so he had me take men and bring the Medicine King back to the Inspectorate under guard… and he went into the palace himself with Pan the Gold Coat to catch the thieves.”
“On the way, two men came bursting out at us, and their skill was of the first order… The men of the Inspectorate were no match for them at all, and I am wounded, so I could only stand and watch them carry the Medicine King away.”
The crown prince’s eyes fixed on Ning Chen and held. “Is that the truth?”
“How would I dare deceive Your Highness… And there were a good many men of the Inspectorate present at the time. If the crown prince does not believe it, he has only to ask them and the whole of it will be clear.”
The crown prince was silent a while, and then said, “Very well. I understand.”
“Then if there is nothing else, I will take my leave. My leg hurts too much to stand on.”
The crown prince nodded slightly.
Ning Chen turned, and went away limping, leaning on his blade.
The crown prince stared coldly after him.
Lu Yan bowed and said, “Your Highness, the man is far from honest. This subordinate does not think what he says can be trusted.”
The crown prince nodded slightly. “Get word to our people in the Inspectorate and have them find out whether what Ning Chen says is true.”
“Yes.”
Ning Chen came out of the palace, limping.
Gu Yichun helped him up into the carriage.
“The Ministry of War.”
“Yes.”
Gu Yichun drove for the Ministry of War.
Inside the carriage, something moved in Ning Chen’s eyes.
There was one thing he could not work out.
Why make His Majesty unconscious? Why not simply kill him?
Kill His Majesty with a snow-chill worm and nobody could find anything amiss.
With His Majesty passed from the world, the crown prince is the heir apparent, and his coming to the throne would follow as a matter of course.
So there is only one reason for it. His Majesty lying unconscious has nothing to do with the crown prince… It is Prince Fu’s work, or the Empress’s.
And Prince Fu is the likelier of the two… Perhaps Prince Fu knew the immortal powder case had been traced to him, and simply put His Majesty to sleep instead.
Killing His Majesty outright would only have made a present of it to the crown prince.
So they made him unconscious instead… His Majesty cannot wake, but as long as he lives the crown prince cannot take the throne.
But how do they make sure the crown prince won’t use the chance to do away with him?
With His Majesty lying as he is, killing him would be no hard thing for the crown prince… and once His Majesty is dead he comes to the throne without trouble.
The crown prince has not moved, and it is certainly not out of kindness.
Ning Chen rubbed at the space between his brows. There must be something else in it that I haven’t seen.
The truth was that none of it mattered just now.
Whether it is the crown prince, or Prince Fu, or the Empress who comes out on top… in the end there is no escaping death for me.
So the thing that matters most now is to save His Majesty first. That is the only way to save myself.
And at that hour the crown prince had come to the Hibiscus Palace.
With the Xuan Emperor lying unconscious, the Empress was the mother of the nation and had to come forward and take the direction of things, so the Hibiscus Palace was no longer closed.
“Your child greets the Mother.”
The crown prince made the full kowtow.
The Empress looked at him levelly. “Get up.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
“The crown prince should be at His Majesty’s side at a time like this. Why have you come here?”
The crown prince bowed. “Your child came on purpose to thank the Mother… Your child has now begun to hold the regency. Without the Mother’s planning, with the Father Emperor’s constitution, your child might have waited another ten years and more for it.”
The Empress smiled slightly. “You are the heir apparent. This Great Xuan is yours by destiny. It was never anything but a question of when.”
The crown prince hesitated, and then said, “Mother, your child would like to know. Could the Father Emperor wake all at once?”
“Your child only fears that if the Father Emperor were to wake all at once… everything we have planned for so long would be poured away east with the water.”
The Empress glanced at him and said levelly, “The crown prince may set his mind at rest.”
“If the Mother says so, your child’s mind is at rest… Your child has one thing more. The Imperial Seal of State has still not been found.”
Even if His Majesty passed from the world and he came to the throne without trouble, without the Imperial Seal of State the thing would never be altogether in order. He suspected now that the Empress and Prince Fu had gotten to the Seal ahead of him.
And if the Imperial Seal of State had truly fallen into the hands of the Empress and Prince Fu, then even with the throne under him he would never sit steady on it.
(End of Chapter 226)