The Empress checked in mid-step, and that big pancake face was so dark it was nearly dripping.
“Give the Seal to this empress.”
The crown prince glanced at Ning Chen, and his confidence rose. “Mother, I am the heir apparent of the Great Xuan, and I hold the regency besides. This Seal ought by rights to be kept by me.”
Prince Fu said furiously, “Crown prince, do you mean to rebel?”
“This crown prince is the heir apparent of the Great Xuan, and the throne belongs to me in the first place. Where is the rebellion in that?”
Prince Fu laughed coldly. “You have neither ability nor virtue. You are not fit to inherit the throne at all.”
The crown prince laughed coldly back. “I am not fit? Then let the Imperial Uncle say who is. You? Or the Third Prince?”
Prince Fu gave a cold snort. “Does the crown prince think his wings have grown hard?”
“We were able to lift you into the heir apparent’s place, and we are able to pull you down out of it.”
The Empress said, right after him, “Does the crown prince really imagine this Seal will keep him steady on the throne?”
“This empress has said it. Who inherits the throne next is for this empress to say.”
The crown prince held the box tight against him, and his eyes turned steadily more savage.
“Mother, if we are talking about the heart of a wolf cub, I am certainly no match for you and Prince Fu.”
“I understand perfectly well. You never once meant to let me sit on the throne… I am only a piece on the board to you.”
“But from this day forward, you may give up threatening me… Ning Chen, take them for me.”
Ning Chen bowed. “Yes.”
As the words left him he waved a hand, and ten muskets were leveled at the Empress and Prince Fu.
The faces of the Empress and Prince Fu changed on the instant, in alarm and in fury both.
“Ning Chen, you dare rebel alongside the crown prince?”
The Empress roared it.
Ning Chen smiled slightly. “The crown prince is the heir apparent already, and the emperor of the Great Xuan to come. Where is the rebellion in that?”
Prince Fu’s eyes fixed on Ning Chen and held. “Do you truly imagine a thousand men of the musket battalion can do anything against this prince?”
“I am not afraid to tell you. The Dragon Guard’s right camp, the garrison, the imperial guards, the inner palace guards — every one of them is ours now.”
“At one order from this prince you could be dead with nowhere left to bury you.”
Ning Chen’s face was calm, but the crown prince went white in the face with fright.
The Empress fixed her eyes on him and said sharply, “Crown prince, do you suppose Ning Chen’s thousand men of the musket battalion can hold off the tens of thousands we have?”
“This empress gives you your chance. Hand the Seal over and this empress can leave you one way out.”
The crown prince wavered.
He looked at Ning Chen without meaning to.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Has the crown prince forgotten? These thousand men of the musket battalion cut their way through the North Royal Court and took the King of the Left Court alive.”
The crown prince’s eyes brightened.
Ning Chen went on, “What of tens of thousands? The crown prince is the heir to the throne, and the name is right and the words follow.”
“And another thing. Of all the things you should not have done, the worst was to come in front of me with no more men than these… Once I have taken you two, will those tens of thousands still dare to move?”
“And if the crown prince only tells every soldier out there, to their faces, the filthy business the two of you have been at — do you suppose those soldiers will still rebel at your backs?”
Ning Chen’s the two of you struck the color out of Prince Fu’s face and the Empress’s.
Even Eunuch Quan was struck dumb.
The Empress said furiously, “Ning Chen, what are you talking nonsense about?”
Ning Chen’s whole face was innocent. “I am not the one who said it. The crown prince told me… that the two of you commit adultery.”
“Prince Fu, you must have been starving indeed. You are not particular at all — you can get a hand on stinking fish and rotten shrimp and never blink… I salute you for a real man.”
The faces of the Empress and Prince Fu went dark and cold, and they looked at the crown prince.
Having heard Ning Chen out, the crown prince got his confidence back and laughed coldly. “Empress, did you truly think I did not know about those sordid doings of yours and Prince Fu’s?”
“Every time Prince Fu comes into the palace to pay his respects to Her Majesty the Empress, he pays them all the way into the bed, does he not?”
“If this got out, the whole realm would spit on you, and you would stink for ten thousand years… And if those tens of thousands knew the sordid things you have been doing, would they still rebel at your backs?”
Prince Fu and the Empress went white in the face.
If this got out they were finished altogether.
Crown prince, if you can talk, then talk a little more, Ning Chen said inwardly.
He stole a look at the inner room, feeling some pity for the Xuan Emperor.
His son is in revolt.
His wife is carrying on with his brother.
The Xuan Emperor is shamming the faint, and by now he must really have fainted away out of pure rage.
Ning Chen glanced at Eunuch Quan again, and saw nothing but blankness on his face… He has been stuffed full by this scandal fit to shake heaven too, by the look of him.
The truth was that he had been the same. When he had eaten this scandal himself, it had been a long while before he came back to his senses.
The Empress forced herself to be calm.
Today, not one person in this room could be allowed to leave it alive.
That she and Prince Fu committed adultery absolutely could not get out.
The Empress looked at Ning Chen and forced some semblance of a smile onto her face. “Ning Chen, the crown prince has an empty mouth and white teeth and not one piece of hard proof. Who do you imagine will believe him?”
“Before we came, we gave our orders. The Dragon Guard is very likely closing on the palace city by now… Every official of the court, high and low, is in the garrison’s hands, and the imperial guards in the palace and the inner palace guards are all ours.”
“You are an intelligent man and you must see it… Even if you take Prince Fu and me, your chances are not good. Why not join with us instead?”
Ning Chen shook his head and refused her outright. “You are too filthy. To be the Empress and commit adultery with your own husband’s younger brother — I can’t trust you two… And I killed the Empress’s brother, and you have wanted me dead more than once.”
“It seems to me it is safer to stay with the crown prince.”
All at once a dark smile came out on the Empress’s face. “Ning Chen, this empress will tell you a secret… It was the crown prince who killed the Second Prince.”
“Now that you know that secret, do you suppose the crown prince will keep you alive when the thing is done?”
Ning Chen made a show of being shocked. “The murderer of the Second Prince was the crown prince?”
Eunuch Quan had only just come back to himself, and was struck dumb all over again, and went back to standing there like a stupid goose.
Ning Chen truly felt for the Xuan Emperor.
If he wasn’t sent into a faint by rage a moment ago, he certainly is now.
The Empress said, “The Second Prince died of snow-chill worms, and that jar of wine was the crown prince’s own gift to him.”
Ning Chen looked at the crown prince.
The crown prince stared at the Empress and said, flying off the handle, “I am wronged. That jar of wine was one you had me pass on to the Second Prince, and I had no idea at all there were snow-chill worms in it.”
The Empress laughed coldly. “And what of it? The Second Prince dropped dead without warning after drinking the poisoned wine you gave him.”
“The crown prince need not put on an act. I imagine you knew perfectly well at the time that there was something wrong with that jar, and you gave it to the Second Prince all the same… because you understood that while he lived you could never be the heir apparent.”
The crown prince looked like a man whose mind had been read, and he roared, “I did not. You are talking nonsense… You framed me.”
The Empress paid no more attention to him and looked at Ning Chen instead. “This empress can promise you that if you will help this empress, the killing of the Empress’s brother can be let go and never raised again… and when the thing is done, this empress will see you have rank and riches.”
The crown prince panicked. If Ning Chen went over to the Empress, he was finished altogether.
“Ning Chen, don’t believe her. She is a poisonous woman without shame in her, and not one word of hers can be trusted… If you help her, the first thing she does when the thing is done will be to kill you and close your mouth.”
“Ning Chen, there is no great hatred between you and me. Help me be rid of them… I can swear it to heaven. When the thing is done I will never treat you shabbily.”
Ning Chen’s whole face was troubled. “But I know your secret about killing the Second Prince. Won’t you kill me and close my mouth?”
“I swear before heaven that I will not.”
“Let me think. How am I to choose? Which of you should I help?”
Ning Chen sank into thought.
The great hall went quiet on the instant. The crown prince, the Empress and Prince Fu all watched Ning Chen with strained attention.
Because whether they won or lost turned now on a single thought of Ning Chen’s.
Only Eunuch Quan had still not come back from the business of the crown prince murdering the Second Prince. His eyes were blank and he stood there like a stupid goose.
(End of Chapter 230)