Ning Chen came to the main hall and found that besides Ning Ziming and his family there was a young eunuch, and several guards with swords at their belts.

That puzzled him. One look and you knew these people were from the palace. What did Ning Ziming want him here for?

The young eunuch looked him over. “You are Ning Chen?”

Ning Chen went still. This seems to be about me.

Strange. I’m a nobody. What does a palace eunuch want with me?

“I am Ning Chen, yes.”

“A spoken order from a princess,” the eunuch said. “Ning Chen will attend.”

The emperor’s word was an imperial edict. The empress and the noble consorts issued directives. A princess issued an order.

Ning Chen’s head filled with question marks.

What is this?

“On your knees,” the eunuch snapped.

Ning Chen frowned. The thing he hated most about this world was how quickly it put people on their knees.

There was nothing else for it. He knelt.

The eunuch said, “By order of the princess. Ning Chen has shown contempt for imperial authority. He is instructed to kneel a full four hours before he may rise.”

Ning Chen went completely blank.

Kneel for four hours? Is there something wrong with this princess?

I’ve never offended a princess. I don’t know any princesses… Christ. None of this makes any sense.

Ning Ziming and the rest looked at one another.

How had Ning Chen managed to provoke a princess?

How did he even know one?

Ning Chen frowned. “Has there been some mistake, Eunuch? I don’t know any princess at all.”

“Insolence. Can a princess make a mistake?”

Ning Chen had nothing left to say to that.

“Then may I ask, Eunuch, what crime I’ve committed? And which princess is having me punished?”

The eunuch’s voice went sharp. “Don’t you know your own crime? It is the Fifth Princess who punishes you.”

The Fifth Princess?

“Eunuch, I’m certain this is a misunderstanding… I don’t know the Fifth Princess at all.”

The eunuch made a cold sound. “That’s not my business. Kneel here quietly. Anything short of four hours, and the consequences are yours.”

Then he turned to Ning Ziming. “Lord Ning. I’ll take my leave.”

“Let me see you out.”

The unfairness of it sat in Ning Chen’s chest.

Has the Fifth Princess had her brains crushed between some man’s thighs? What is she coming after me for, out of nowhere?

Ning Chen looked at Chang Ruyue and her sons and narrowed his eyes. “This is your doing, isn’t it. Quite an achievement, getting a Fifth Princess to move for you… Why not have her kill me while she was at it?”

Chang Ruyue and her sons looked utterly blank.

“Ning Chen, don’t stand there spouting poison.”

Ning Gan said it angrily.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. He couldn’t think of anybody but the people in front of him who would want to make trouble for him.

Just then Ning Ziming came back.

“Chen’er. How did you come to provoke the Fifth Princess?”

Ning Chen laughed coldly. “Minister Ning, don’t play innocent. I’m a nobody. How would I ever get near a Fifth Princess… You should ask your wife. The Chancellor’s daughter. Ask whether she’s the one who got the Fifth Princess to work me over.”

Ning Ziming frowned. “That isn’t possible. Your mother is the Chancellor’s daughter, yes, but she keeps to this house and rarely goes out. She has no way of seeing the Fifth Princess.”

“Chen’er, think it through properly. Is there some way you offended the Fifth Princess without knowing it? This is not a small matter.”

Ning Chen lost his temper. “I don’t fucking know whether the Fifth Princess is round or flat. Where exactly would I have gone to offend her?”

“Insolence. Watch your mouth.”

Ning Ziming snapped it at him.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. He’d been put on his knees for no reason anybody could name, and now he wasn’t allowed to complain about it either?

The thing was strange, though.

If this really were Chang Ruyue’s work it wouldn’t have stopped at four hours on his knees. She’d have had the Fifth Princess put him to death.

Then something occurred to him.

“Minister Ning. How old is this Fifth Princess?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I want to see whether any woman I know could be the Fifth Princess.”

Ning Ziming said, “The Fifth Princess should be twenty-two this year.”

“Then it isn’t her,” Ning Chen muttered.

“Isn’t who?”

Ning Chen shook his head. He had been thinking of Prince Fu’s daughter, but that girl was only in her teens. She couldn’t be the Fifth Princess.

He turned it over and over and settled it. He did not know this Fifth Princess.

“Minister Ning, I’m certain this is a misunderstanding… I don’t know the Fifth Princess at all.”

Ning Ziming frowned. “Truly? You don’t know her?”

“I said I don’t. That means I don’t.”

“Then why is the Fifth Princess punishing you?”

“How would I know?” Ning Chen said sourly.

Maybe there’s something wrong with the Fifth Princess’s brain. Cerebellar atrophy or something.

He had thought of two possibilities, though.

First: somebody had offended the Fifth Princess and used his name doing it, and he had become the scapegoat for no reason at all.

Second: Prince Fu’s daughter. She could certainly get in to see the Fifth Princess, and she had told her every word he’d said about princesses that day.

If it was the second, he would be having a word with Prince Fu next time… They had agreed it was only chatting. How could she stab him in the back over it? That girl’s mouth was looser than the waistband on a pair of padded trousers.

“Enough,” Ning Ziming said. “Misunderstanding or not, a princess has given an order. Kneel.”

Chang Ruyue still wore the face of a loving mother. Inside, she was blooming with delight.

Ning Gan and his two brothers made no attempt to hide how much they were enjoying it.

“Ning Chen, it’s the Fifth Princess herself putting you on your knees. What a blessing. Other people couldn’t envy you enough.”

“That’s right, that’s right. We’d kneel if we could and never get the chance.”

“Only Fourth Brother. What luck the boy has.”

The three of them stood off to one side making their snide remarks.

Ning Chen’s face was dark. Inside, he paid his respects to the Fifth Princess’s ancestors, eighteen generations of them, several times over.

“Minister Ning. What happens if I don’t kneel?”

Ning Ziming’s face changed entirely. “Don’t do anything reckless. A princess’s order stands for the imperial house… Defy it and this whole household goes down with you.”

“Really? So when I die I get to take all of you with me? That’s wonderful… I’m not kneeling. Let’s all sit here and wait to die together.”

Ning Chen stood up and walked away.

It turned Ning Ziming and the rest of them white.

“Ning Chen, come back here… Get down on your knees.”

Even Chang Ruyue lost her composure.

Ning Ziming roared it in a lowered voice. “Ning Chen. Get back here.”

If word of this got out and reached the Fifth Princess, every one of them would be dragged into it.

Contempt for imperial authority is a serious crime.

“It’s late. Good night, everybody.”

Ning Chen waved a hand at them, easy about it, and walked off without looking back.

“Worthless. The unfilial wretch. Is he trying to get us all killed?”

Ning Ziming was so angry he was jumping where he stood.

Chang Ruyue moved quickly to calm him. “Master, keep your voice down. The servants must not hear this… If word gets out, we are finished.”

The anger had nowhere else to go, so Ning Ziming turned it on his three sons.

“You three worthless things. Useless at getting anything done and expert at ruining it. What did you provoke him for?”

The three of them were torn to shreds.

“Now hear this clearly. Whoever asks, Ning Chen knelt the full four hours. Do you understand?”

All three nodded and gave their word.

That bastard Ning Chen. Sooner or later we finish him.

Ning Chen, meanwhile, had gone back to his room and checked the bed over, and only let out a breath once he was sure there was nothing venomous in it. He was afraid of another snake coming out of the bedding, or a spider, or something worse.

He scattered Old General Chen’s snake powder under the bed, and got ready for a medicinal bath and then sleep.

As for the Fifth Princess and her four hours, he had put that out of his mind long since.

Damn it. Has somebody died around here? Everyone in this world loves putting people on their knees.

I’m not kneeling. Anybody who likes kneeling can go kneel.

He was betting Ning Ziming would never let this get out.

(End of Chapter 26)