The Xuan Emperor waved a hand and let Geng Jing withdraw.
Once he was gone, the Xuan Emperor looked at the crown prince. “For the next few days, don’t go down to the cells to see the boy.”
“The Fifth Prince may have been a fake, but he didn’t know that, and he still dared to take him hostage and beat him. No regard for the law. No regard for imperial authority… He needs taking down a peg.”
The crown prince said quickly, “Your child obeys.”
Old General Chen couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Your Majesty. There is still no word of Lan Xing. This old subject wishes to send men to look for him, and asks Your Majesty’s leave.”
The Xuan Emperor stopped. No word of him? Then who does he think we have been talking about?
Then it came to him. Old General Chen didn’t know who Ning Chen was.
“Old General. The Ning Chen we have been discussing is Lan Xing. Lan Xing is Ning Chen. They are the same man.”
Old General Chen’s mouth came open and stayed there.
The Xuan Emperor said, “Ning Chen is in fact the fourth son of Ning Ziming, the Minister of Rites. Though the boy does not seem to stand very high in his father’s favor.”
It was a long moment before Old General Chen got hold of it.
He still didn’t understand it. “Lan— Ning Chen has gifts beyond the ordinary, and his character is nothing to complain of either. Letters and arms both. Why is he out of favor?”
The Xuan Emperor said heavily, “This emperor has some idea of the reason, but is not certain of it, and has men looking into it… When it is clear, the Old General will be told.”
Old General Chen nodded. There must be something wrong with Ning Ziming’s head. Not to like a boy like that.
“Your Majesty. This old subject doesn’t understand. Since Ning Chen has been found, why put him in a cell?”
The Xuan Emperor made a sound. “He dared take the Fifth Prince hostage and beat him. No regard for imperial authority. If he isn’t taken down a peg, before long he won’t count this emperor as anything either.”
“But that Fifth Prince was a fake.”
The Xuan Emperor said, “Ning Chen did not know he was a fake at the time, and he struck anyway… So it does not matter whether the man was real. What matters is that the boy has no fear of the imperial house in him at all.”
Old General Chen said, “The boy is very quick. Perhaps he had already worked out that the Fifth Prince was a fake, and that is why he struck.”
“Then why did he run?”
Old General Chen said nothing.
The Xuan Emperor waved a hand. “The Old General can stop making his case for him. The boy has no fear of the imperial house, and he has to be taken down a peg.”
“He took the Fifth Prince hostage and beat him. He forged your order to get a warhorse out of you. He fled to escape the charge… If he isn’t given something to remember this time, before long he won’t know a subject from a sovereign.”
Old General Chen let out a breath. Ning Chen really had gone too far this time. A little sharpening of the memory would do him no harm.
Geng Jing came down to the Inspectorate cells.
He wanted a word with this Ning Chen, to see why His Majesty thought so highly of him.
The cells were dark and cramped and the air in them was foul.
Ning Chen was in the last one at the far end.
He had raked some straw together and was sitting in the corner, and he had fallen asleep.
The corner of Geng Jing’s mouth twitched at the sight of it. Is the boy not afraid of dying at all?
He knocked on the bars.
Ning Chen came awake.
Outside the bars was a tall middle-aged man with a square face, heavy brows and large eyes. Ning Chen’s first thought was that they had come to question him.
The man’s position was a high one, because his fish-scale coat was purple.
Rank in the Inspectorate could be read off the color of a man’s coat.
Ordinary men wore red. Above them came silver, then gold, and last purple.
Purple was the highest there was.
“Have you come to question me? I confess. Let’s not waste each other’s time.”
Geng Jing narrowed his eyes slightly. “Lan Xing. Do you know what it is you’re charged with?”
“I do. Taking the Fifth Prince hostage and beating him. A crime that puts a man’s entire household to the sword.”
“As a matter of fact, I had somebody behind me when I did it.”
Something jumped in Geng Jing. An accomplice?
“Who put you up to it?”
Ning Chen said, “Ning Ziming, the Minister of Rites.”
Geng Jing’s face twitched. He had been looking into Ning Chen on the emperor’s orders these last days, and he knew perfectly well how far out of favor the boy was in that house.
He’s trying to drag Ning Ziming down with him.
“What is Ning Ziming to you? Why would he put you up to taking the Fifth Prince and beating him?”
He asked it knowing the answer.
Ning Chen lifted his chin. “Nothing at all. I’m an assassin. I take money and do the work… Ning Ziming gave me money to kill the Fifth Prince.”
“When your men took me they found a hundred taels of silver on me. That was Ning Ziming’s.”
Geng Jing’s expression went strange. There isn’t one true word in this boy’s mouth.
“You’re an assassin.”
Ning Chen nodded, entirely serious. “Ten paces, one man dead. A thousand miles, and nothing in his way. The work done, he shakes out his robe and walks off, and buries his name along with himself… That’s what I live by.”
Geng Jing’s breath stopped. He couldn’t help himself. “A fine poem. A good deal of killing in it.”
Ning Chen said, “I’m an assassin. What kind of assassin has no killing in him?”
“A pity about this one, though. I bungled it. I didn’t manage to kill the Fifth Prince, and that animal is still alive. I’ve let Lord Ning down.”
Geng Jing’s face changed all at once. He said it low. “You dare. You dare insult the Fifth Prince?”
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Insult him? Insulting him isn’t worth a damn. I meant to kill him… An animal like that, every man alive has the right to put him down. Even if Lord Ning hadn’t hired me, I’d have found a chance to do it myself.”
“A son of the emperor, taking a common girl by force in broad daylight, destroying the people he’s supposed to protect. Lower than a pig or a dog… With sons like that, the Great Xuan is finished.”
Geng Jing’s anger came up all at once. “Insolence. Are you not afraid to die?”
Ning Chen lifted his chin and said it loudly. “Since the world began, what man has not died? Leave a loyal heart behind to light the pages of the histories.“
“The common people are the water. The imperial house is the boat… Water carries a boat, and water turns it over.”
“Kill me and kill Lord Ning, and there will be ten thousand more of me and ten thousand more of him standing up behind us. Can you kill them all?”
Geng Jing was shocked and furious at once. Has the boy got a death wish? He opens his mouth and treason comes out of it.
And what he writes is extraordinary. He opens his mouth and immortal lines fall out of it.
“Lan Xing. Death is on top of you and you’re still talking nonsense… I hope you’ll still be this hard when they take your head off.”
Ning Chen made a cold sound. “Wait and see. If Lord Ning or I so much as blink on the day, neither of us is a man.”
“You can’t bear a few words from me? When Lord Ning’s family shut the doors and curse the emperor, they curse him in the foulest way they can find.”
Geng Jing finally understood why His Majesty wanted the boy taken down a peg.
His nerve had no bottom to it. There was no fear of imperial authority in him at all.
He pointed at Ning Chen — wait there — turned, and left.
He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, Ning Chen would say something worse.
Ning Chen shouted after him at the top of his voice. “Lord Ning, I’ve failed you… It’s my own poor craft that’s to blame. I couldn’t kill that animal of a Fifth Prince and I’ve dragged you down with me… In the next life I’ll be your ox and your horse. I’ll pull grass with my teeth and feed it to you.”
Geng Jing listened to it coming down the passage behind him, and his face was a very strange thing to see.
The lengths this boy will go to, to drag Ning Ziming in with him.
But a son who hates his father this much… how badly does a boy have to be wronged before it gets to that?
(End of Chapter 32)