The Xuan Emperor’s eyes fixed coldly on the Empress and the madness in her face, and he said sharply:

“You poisonous woman. You still dare threaten this emperor at a time like this?”

Prince Fu understood too that there was no road left him now but to stake everything on one throw.

He too picked himself up off the floor.

“Imperial Brother, what does it matter that you have woken? The whole capital is in my hands now… I want you to yield the throne to me.”

The Xuan Emperor was so angry that he laughed. “This emperor really did think too little of you… After this emperor came to the throne, of them all you seemed the least of a threat to him, so he kept you at his side… And you have given him a great surprise.”

Prince Fu shouted, “Don’t stand there putting it on. You kept me in the capital only because you did not trust me.”

“What is the use of saying any of this now? Imperial Brother, if you know what is good for you, yield the throne to me… I can announce publicly that you died of overwork on the business of the state, and leave you a good name.”

The Xuan Emperor shook his head, and his whole face was disappointed.

“Prince Fu, Prince Fu. This emperor thought far too highly of you… You are being led by the nose by this poisonous woman from beginning to end, and if the throne fell into your hands, the empire of the Great Xuan would very soon be changing its surname.”

The Empress had the Grand Tutor behind her. The most Prince Fu had done was win over a few officers of the Dragon Guard. Once the Grand Tutor brought his army home, how many days could Prince Fu sit steady on the throne even if he got it?

Prince Fu’s whole face was savage, and his eyes were on the Xuan Emperor. “Enough of your talk. Yield the throne to me… or at one word from me the army will come killing its way into the palace.”

The Xuan Emperor gave a cold snort. “You may give the order and see.”

Prince Fu said furiously, “Imperial Brother, you are still striking attitudes at this hour. Do you truly imagine Ning Chen’s thousand musketeers can turn this around?”

“This throne is mine. I mean to have it.”

The Xuan Emperor sighed and shook his head. “If you really had the means and the strategy in you, what would it matter to let you sit on the throne?”

“But you are as stupid as a pig. You are led by the nose from end to end and do not know it, and if the empire of the Great Xuan were handed to you, what face would I have to meet the ancestors of our line with when my hundred years are done?”

As he spoke the Xuan Emperor came to the dragon throne, and passed his hand over the back of it, and said heavily, “Do you truly imagine this dragon throne is a comfortable seat? This emperor will tell you. It is not comfortable at all.”

“Sit in this chair and you hold the power of life and death over the whole realm. A man whose will is not firm becomes a tyrant, with a taste for killing.”

“Sit on this dragon throne and what you carry on your shoulders is the empire of the Great Xuan, and the living of the common people, and memorials that are never finished, and a lifetime shackled inside these deep palaces.”

Prince Fu laughed coldly. “Imperial Brother, enough of that. If sitting there is such hard labor, why not let me sit on the dragon throne instead?”

The Xuan Emperor looked at him. “This emperor has said it. If you really had the means and the strategy in you, what would it matter to let you have the dragon throne? But you have not, and for the empire of the Great Xuan and for the common people, this dragon throne absolutely cannot be given to you.”

“Never mind… Saying any of this to a creature as stupid as you is playing the lute to a cow. You will never understand it.”

The Empress smiled darkly. “Whether you yield it now is not for you to say, is it?”

The Xuan Emperor looked at her with disgust in his whole face. “Then who is it for? You? Or Prince Fu?”

The Empress’s smile went mad. “The whole palace city is in our hands now. Who would you say it is for?”

The Xuan Emperor sat down on the dragon throne, shook his head, and said:

“Do you truly imagine that winning over one Guo Pengyi, a commandant of the Dragon Guard, and one Yan Yuxiang, deputy commander in chief of the inner palace, is enough to hold the whole palace city?”

The faces of the Empress and Prince Fu changed on the instant, and turned to alarm.

The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Your men. This emperor gave the order and they have been beheaded… The army moved by this emperor’s edict, not by yours.”

The Empress and Prince Fu went white in the face, and the cold sweat came out on their foreheads.

“Impossible. It is absolutely impossible… How could you know any of this?”

The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “Prince Fu, Prince Fu. This is why this emperor says the empire of the Great Xuan must never be put into your hands.”

“You did plan it a long while, and you prepared well enough… but you rose at the wrong time. This emperor supposes it was the immortal powder case — Ning Chen traced it to you, and in your alarm you rose without thinking.”

The Empress and Prince Fu looked at Ning Chen with poison in their eyes.

The Xuan Emperor was not wrong. Their plan had been to rise once the Grand Tutor brought his army home.

But Ning Chen had pressed them too hard. First he wiped out the men sworn to die they had been at such pains to train, then he took Di Shan, and then he traced it to the Medicine King.

If they did not rise, it would very soon be traced to them.

So in their alarm they had taken this poor course and risen early.

Ning Chen, for his part, turned a brilliant smile on the two of them, and it very nearly killed them with rage.

The Xuan Emperor looked tired. “This emperor truly never thought that his brother, his Empress, his son… would want to overturn the empire of the Great Xuan for the sake of this chair, and to have this emperor dead.”

He turned his head to Ning Chen. “Go and call Nie Liang in for this emperor.”

“Yes.”

Ning Chen went out.

In a little while he came back with Nie Liang.

At the sight of Nie Liang, Prince Fu and the Empress sat down hard on the floor, the color of dead ash.

When they came, they had sent word to Yan Yuxiang to kill Nie Liang.

Nie Liang standing here now proved that everything the Xuan Emperor said was true.

Their men had all been put to death.

The Empress stared at the Xuan Emperor. “You say we wanted you dead for the sake of that chair… And have you not been guarding yourself against us at every turn?”

The Xuan Emperor gave a cold snort. “If this emperor had no means in him, the empire of the Great Xuan would have changed hands long ago… It is only that this emperor was unwilling to use his means on his own family. And you would have it so.”

“Nie Liang. Hear the command.”

“Your subject is here.”

The Xuan Emperor was silent a long while, and then said in a tired voice, “The Empress has taken power and usurped the throne, has done murder on a prince of the blood, and has failed in her private virtue. Take her back to the Hibiscus Palace… Every person in the Hibiscus Palace is granted the poisoned cup.”

The poisoned cup meant poisoned wine.

Every person in the Hibiscus Palace was to be put to death.

The Empress went the color of dead ash, with the face of somebody who had buried both their parents.

The Xuan Emperor spoke again. “Prince Fu has taken power and usurped the throne, has done murder on loyal men with immortal powder, has failed in his private virtue, and is guilty of rank treason. Throw him into the death cells… Further, search and seize the prince’s residence, and throw every person concerned into the death cells. There is to be no questioning. In three days they are all to be beheaded.”

A stink of urine spread through the room.

Prince Fu had actually wet himself in fright.

He was in the last extremity of terror, and all that fat on him shook and would not stop… He knelt on the floor and knocked his head like a man pounding garlic. “Imperial Brother, spare me. Imperial Brother, spare me…”

The Xuan Emperor did not so much as look at him.

He said coldly, “The crown prince has committed treason and done murder on a prince of the blood. Throw him into… Hold him in custody for the present, and close the Eastern Palace at the same time. Take every person concerned and throw them into the death cells. There is to be no questioning. In three days they are to be beheaded with the rest.”

Ning Chen saw it. The Xuan Emperor had meant to throw the crown prince into the death cells too, and changed it to custody with the words already at his lips.

He was his own son in the end, the heir apparent he had brought up with his own hand, and blood is thicker than water… He could not bring himself to do it after all.

Still, Ning Chen had seen at last what an emperor’s means looked like. Thunder and wind, and not a trace of mud and water dragging behind.

The Xuan Emperor said wearily, “Drag them all out of here for me.”

“Your subject obeys the command.”

Geng Jing got up and went to the door and called in a body of inner palace guards.

The Empress, Prince Fu and the crown prince were all dragged out.

The Empress knew her life would not be long, and before she was dragged away she fixed her eyes on Ning Chen with poison in them and screamed, “Ning Chen, this empress regrets only that she did not make an end of you sooner… This empress will not let you go even if she has to come back as an angry ghost.”

(End of Chapter 232)