Once the shock had passed, Old General Chen’s face set hard and went grave.

“Lan Xing, I’ve seen only a handful of these in the capital in my whole life. For one of them to turn up in your bed — somebody put it there. I’d bet on it.”

“Here’s what we’ll do. Tell me exactly what happened.”

Ning Chen thought for a moment. “I was about to get into bed. I threw back the quilt and the thing came at me. Lucky I was quick… It’s dead. I’m not.”

He said it lightly. The rest of the room went still.

“Young Master Lan, I’m afraid somebody means you harm.”

“Where is your family’s house, Young Master Lan? How many people are in it? Do you have enemies? Think hard about it.”

Qi Yuanzhong pressed him.

Ning Chen knew all of that better than anyone. He also knew who had done it.

He kept it to himself because he didn’t want to drag Old General Chen into it.

It wouldn’t have helped if he had. He had no proof that Ning Gan and Ning Mao were behind it.

Ning Chen smiled. “Rare in the capital doesn’t mean they aren’t here. It could have crawled up there on its own.”

“Young Master Lan, don’t wave this away… You came through it untouched because you were lucky. The weather is cold, the Black King of Hell is close to hibernating, and it was slow. In warm weather it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “But I can’t think of a single enemy.”

“Young Master Lan, this is not a joke. Think about it seriously. It’s your life at stake—”

Old General Chen waved a hand, telling Qi Yuanzhong to leave it.

“Yuanzhong. Go and fetch plenty of snake powder for Lan Xing to take home with him.”

“Sir!”

Qi Yuanzhong went out quickly.

He was back shortly and set a white porcelain bottle on the table.

Old General Chen said, “Lan Xing, this is the snake powder our men carry as a matter of course. Scatter it under your bed when you get home. Snakes, insects, rats — none of them will come near it.”

“Thank you, Old General Chen.”

He nodded, smiling. “Good. Go and train. And don’t train too long. You have business to get to.”

Ning Chen grunted his agreement, took the snake powder, said his farewells, and left.

Once he was gone, Qi Yuanzhong couldn’t hold it in. “Old General. A Black King of Hell doesn’t come cheap in this capital. The only men who can get hold of one are the young gentlemen who keep hawks and hunting dogs, and only through channels that never see daylight.”

“And now one turns up in Young Master Lan’s bed. Somebody wants him dead. It’s plain enough.”

Old General Chen turned a hard eye on him. “Oh, you’re the clever one. I know somebody wants the boy dead. And Lan Xing knows it himself. That much is obvious.”

“Then why won’t he say so?”

“He won’t say because there’s something he’s afraid of… Enough. Leave this alone. I’ll decide what’s to be done about it.”

Near midday Ning Chen left the general’s residence and went to the Top Scholar Tower.

Tian Xuan was already waiting for him, in the same private room as before.

Ning Chen knocked.

“Come in.”

Tian Xuan’s voice came from inside, deep and rich.

Ning Chen pushed the door open and went in.

Besides Tian Xuan, the shrill one, and the big bearded man, there were two young people in the room, a man and a girl.

The man had a striking presence, and something about his eyes and brow looked a great deal like Tian Xuan.

The girl still had the softness of a child about her. She was beautiful, but Ning Chen glanced at her once and looked away.

As far as he was concerned she was a kid.

He bowed over clasped fists and greeted Tian Xuan with a smile. “Uncle. Have you come to buy poems?”

The crown prince looked him over, surprised. He had known the man who wrote that immortal work was a boy, but the boy was younger than he had pictured.

Princess Huai’an was studying him too, and there was some disappointment in her face.

She had assumed that a man who could write a work like that would be gentle as fine jade, graceful, a young gentleman worth the name.

The one in front of her was small and thin, barely taller than she was, and looked underfed.

Tian Xuan said with a laugh, “Are you really that short of money, boy?”

Ning Chen answered seriously. “A man with no rank, no pull, and no family behind him has to earn what he can, doesn’t he?”

The Xuan Emperor glanced at the Ninth Princess, then said to Ning Chen, “Nonsense. You’re overflowing with talent. Place first in the examination and His Majesty might well give you a princess.”

Ning Chen waved both hands hard. “Uncle, you can’t say things like that. If it reached His Majesty’s ears it would cost a head.”

Good grief. Prince Fu or not, don’t talk like that. Discussing the imperial family in private is a serious crime. You’re royalty. I’m one small commoner. Don’t get me killed. Ning Chen was ranting furiously inside his own head.

Tian Xuan laughed. “Everyone here is family. We’re only chatting. There’s no harm in it.”

“I remember you telling me you’re fifteen this year. The imperial examination comes around once every three years, so you’d be exactly eighteen for the next one… With gifts like yours, place first, and His Majesty might really take you for a son-in-law.”

Ning Chen waved both hands again. “Please, no. I’m one small commoner. I couldn’t reach that high… Besides, what normal man marries a princess?”

Princess Huai’an had been thinking the boy at least knew his own place. That last sentence darkened her expression.

Tian Xuan was thrown as well. “What do you mean by that? Would marrying a princess be such a hardship for you?”

“Wouldn’t it be?” Ning Chen shot back, and went on. “The way I see it, when two people marry there shouldn’t be a high one and a low one. You meet each other as equals. You treat each other with respect. You grow old together and you make a good life of it.”

“But marry a princess and you have to pay your respects to her three times a day, on schedule… She’s your own wife, and if you want to share her bed you have to put in a request and wait for her to allow it… And the real point is that you have to put it in several days ahead.”

“What kind of life is that for a man? And you have to swallow all of it. You’re not allowed to feel anything about it… Or His Majesty is displeased, and — snick — there goes your neck.”

In this world imperial authority stood above everything.

There was more to it than that. Marry a princess and you couldn’t take concubines either.

A modern man who had crossed over into this world was not going to be stupid enough to marry a princess.

A princess. Ha. A dog wouldn’t take one.

Ning Chen had gotten it all off his chest… The Xuan Emperor, the crown prince, and the Ninth Princess were all thoroughly uncomfortable.

The Ninth Princess most of all. If the Xuan Emperor hadn’t given her instructions beforehand she’d have had Ning Chen hauled out and beaten with the rod long since. Running his mouth about the imperial house — the sheer nerve of it.

Eunuch Quan and Nie Liang kept their heads down, cold sweat standing out on their foreheads.

Good grief. The boy had to have a death wish. Contempt for the imperial house, mocking a princess… They were seriously afraid the Xuan Emperor would lose his temper and have Ning Chen taken outside and shortened by a head.

“Hahaha—” The Xuan Emperor burst out laughing. “It does sound grim!”

Ning Chen nodded. “Doesn’t it… So I’d sooner die alone than marry a princess.”

Princess Huai’an was so angry her nose went crooked. If the crown prince hadn’t quietly tugged at her, she’d have gone over there and kicked him.

It was too much. A princess of the Great Xuan, turned down like that.

Ning Chen waved a hand. “Uncle, we should stop there. We’ve gone far enough… Any more of this and it’s treason.”

Nie Liang and Eunuch Quan let out a small breath. So you do know it’s treason. What you just said is enough to have you beheaded ten times over.

“Uncle, why don’t we talk poems and lyrics instead? What kind of poem do you want this time?”

(End of Chapter 23)