The three of them did not stay long. They took their leave of Shang Lu and came out of the apothecary, and were about to head back when Zisu came running out after them, medicine case in hand.
Light on her feet, skirts flying.
She came up to Ning Chen, tipped her head back to look at him, her smile bright and lovely, and said with a sweet laugh:
“Young Master Ning, give me a ride.”
Ning Chen asked, “Where to?”
Zisu put out the tip of a pink tongue and ran it lightly over her red lips, then laughed sweetly. “To the Mei residence, of course, to treat the young master.”
Ning Chen felt the heat go through him.
He was about to say something when Zisu walked over to Feng Qizheng’s horse and held out the medicine case. “Much obliged, sir.”
Feng Qizheng’s eyes lit right up. Zisu meant to ride double with him.
He took the case from her in a hurry and was about to invite her up, only to see Zisu go back to Ning Chen and lift that small face to look at him.
Ning Chen dismounted, helped Zisu up, and swung back into the saddle after her.
Watching Zisu nestle against Ning Chen, Feng Qizheng looked down at the medicine case in his hands and could not help baring his teeth in a grimace. So he was just a tool.
“Chief, it isn’t right!”
The whole way back, Feng Qizheng was seven parts indignant and eight parts sore about it.
Pan Yucheng turned his head to look at him. “What isn’t right about it?”
“You tell me one way Ning Chen beats me. He isn’t as tall as I am, he isn’t as strong as I am, his brains aren’t as — well, that one’s about the same. So why does Miss Zisu ride double with him?”
Pan Yucheng looked at him seething there, thought about it, and said, “That only proves there’s something wrong with Miss Zisu’s eyesight.”
Feng Qizheng nodded and nodded, like a man who had found a kindred spirit. That was exactly what he thought too.
Back at the Mei residence.
Zisu came to Ning Chen’s room to change his dressings.
When the dressings were done and Miss Zisu lowered her head, Ning Chen reached out and caught her by that sharp little chin.
He sat up, narrowed his eyes at her. “Why is Miss Zisu doing this?”
Zisu blinked those big eyes at him and gave a lovely, faint smile. “Because I want to.”
Ning Chen looked at her pretty little face. “A woman as fine as you, putting herself out like this — there’s something you want from me, isn’t there?”
Zisu pushed out her red lips in a pout, the picture of injured feelings. “So in the young master’s eyes, Zisu is a scheming woman with some ulterior purpose?”
Ning Chen smiled. “Short of that, I can’t for the life of me figure out why Miss Zisu would do it.”
Zisu laughed sweetly. “Can’t it just be that you’re very charming?”
“The immortal of poetry of Great Xuan, the boy general — there is no shortage of women in all of Great Xuan who admire Ning the Silver Coat, and Zisu is one of them.”
“Only Zisu has been luckier than the rest of them. She’s actually met Ning the Silver Coat.”
Ning Chen gave a light laugh.
“In that case — Miss Zisu has waited on me for three days. Today, let me wait on you!”
Zisu shook her head. “No.”
“Why not?”
“Ning the Silver Coat is the patient and I am the physician. Looking after you is what I ought to do. Whoever heard of the patient looking after the physician instead?”
Ning Chen smiled. “So does Miss Zisu look after every patient this attentively?”
Zisu laughed sweetly. “Ning the Silver Coat is the only exception.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re Ning the Silver Coat.”
Ning Chen frowned. What kind of answer was that?
But before he could press her on it, Zisu put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him gently down onto the bed.
“Lie still, Ning the Silver Coat. Zisu will treat you.”
Half an hour later, Zisu picked up her medicine case and left.
Ning Chen was still savoring it.
This Miss Zisu really was very strange.
Say she had a purpose? Every time, she gave a display of her unpracticed mouthwork and then left, and she had never once asked him for anything.
Say she had no purpose? A beauty who could topple a kingdom — what would bring her to this?
Ning Chen got up, dressed, and went out to the front hall.
Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng were both there.
Feng Qizheng could not hold it in a moment longer. He came charging over and glared at Ning Chen. “What are you doing in that room with Miss Zisu every day?”
Ning Chen smiled. “What the hell business is it of yours?”
“Ning Chen, that’s not right! Are we brothers or aren’t we?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“Well, if we’re brothers — you have Miss Yudie, the boss has Miss Nanzhi, and both of them are as pretty as they come. As your brother, is it too much for me to want a pretty woman of my own?”
Ning Chen smiled. “Not too much.”
“Then what do you think about me and Miss Zisu?”
Ning Chen was taken aback. “You’ve set your sights on Miss Zisu?”
Feng Qizheng nodded.
Ning Chen shook his head, smiling. “You don’t have a shot.”
“Why not?”
Pan Yucheng said mildly, “Do you really have to ask why? Ning Chen and Miss Zisu are alone together in one room, a man and a woman, day after day. I doubt it stops at treating wounds.”
Feng Qizheng’s eyes went wide. “Ning Chen — you’ve slept with Miss Zisu?”
“Ah… it hasn’t gone that far.”
Feng Qizheng brightened. “So you haven’t slept with her. That’s all right, then!”
Ning Chen said, “She slept with me.”
The happy look froze on Feng Qizheng’s face — and then he lost it completely, howling with rage.
“The animal…”
Ning Chen nodded. “Very true. Miss Zisu is a complete animal. An innocent young lad like me, and she just went ahead and slept with me.”
Feng Qizheng, flying off the handle, jabbed a finger at Ning Chen. “Pah. Do you have any shame left at all?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “None. I have one face already. Any more and I’d have two.”
Feng Qizheng: “……”
And it was not only Feng Qizheng — even Pan Yucheng turned a look of contempt on him.
Ning Chen clapped Feng Qizheng on the shoulder and said, with a perfectly straight face, “Old Feng — you have money, you have looks. How can you act like this over one woman?”
“The settled life doesn’t suit you. The courtesans’ quarter is where you belong. You don’t belong to any one woman — you belong to the girls of the courtesans’ quarter.”
“A man as outstanding as you must never give up the whole forest for the sake of one tree.”
Feng Qizheng rubbed his big rough face and felt that Ning Chen had a real point.
A man as outstanding as he was must never give up the whole forest for the sake of one woman.
He nodded and looked at Ning Chen, perfectly serious. “You’re absolutely right!”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth gave a twitch. This blockhead. His one standout quality was how easy he was to talk around.
Pan Yucheng said suddenly, “Ning Chen — the battle’s over and everything’s been put in order. Shouldn’t you be sending His Majesty a memorial?”
Ning Chen gave a slight nod.
“I’ll go write it now.”
Pan Yucheng hesitated, then went ahead and warned him anyway: “Don’t lay it on too thick!”
Ning Chen went to the study, thought long and hard, wrung out every drop of milk in his brains, and set about writing the memorial.
Ning Chen’s memorial brought out two things above all.
First, it laid the flattery on the Xuan Emperor as thick as it would go.
Second, it made as much of his own merits as it possibly could.
The memorial written, he had it sent back to the capital by fast courier.
Then Ning Chen went to find Pan Yucheng.
Pan Yucheng said, “I was just about to come and find you.”
“What is it?”
Pan Yucheng said, “Miss Zisu sent a man over with word just now. They’re leaving Mangzhou tomorrow.”
Ning Chen’s brow creased slightly. He had come to Pan Yucheng meaning to have him look into this Miss Zisu — to find out what her purpose in getting close to him actually was.
And now she was leaving tomorrow?
Pan Yucheng said, “Aren’t you going to ask her to stay?”
Ning Chen was quiet for a while, then shook his head. “Never mind. Things are in enough disorder as it is — it’s just as well she’s going.”
However much they had shared by way of mouth and tongue, this Miss Zisu had appeared far too suddenly, and everything about the way she behaved was strange.
He carried the weight of holding Mangzhou now, and there was no room for the smallest slip.
Until he understood this Miss Zisu completely, the less he had to do with her the better. Call it a passing romance, a marriage made of dew.
(End of Chapter 264)