Ning Chen’s expression was not a pleasant one.

Because in the woman emperor’s plan he was just a tool.

She had drugged him and stolen the seed for two reasons. First, she coveted his blood, and wanted to leave the Wu Kingdom a capable sovereign in time to come.

Second, with the child as a hold over him, he would help her destroy Song Tiancheng.

Ning Chen looked at Silence. “How exactly does your mistress want me to help her?”

“A moment, marquis.”

Silence got up and went into the inner room, and came back before long with a letter, which he handed to Ning Chen.

Ning Chen asked nothing further. He opened it and read.

Fuck!!!

That dog of a woman. Not only mad, but hard enough for anything.

The woman emperor’s plan was very simple, and very mad.

She wanted Ning Chen to lead the hundred and some thousand men of the frontier straight at the Wu Kingdom’s border, and she would find a way to get Song Tiancheng to march out at the head of an army.

Once Song Tiancheng had taken the field, she would drown every one of his factions in blood behind him.

Then, on the pretext of coming to his support, she would take Song Tiancheng’s forces between herself and Ning Chen and wipe them out entirely.

What angered Ning Chen most was that this dog of a woman actually dared to threaten him… saying that she was not showing yet, but in another month or two her pregnancy could not be hidden.

Once Song Tiancheng found out, he would certainly pass the matter to the emperor of Great Xuan.

She also said Song Tiancheng might have caught the scent of it already, and told him to prepare early.

Above all the last line: Ning, dear, would not want to see our child die in the womb, would he?

Fuck!!!

The muscle at the corner of Ning Chen’s eye jumped with rage.

Our child now, is it? Did you notify me when you were stealing my seed?

And on top of that, this dog of a woman thought a great deal too highly of him. March a hundred and some thousand men out, and there had to be a reason for it, didn’t there?

Ning Chen moved the letter in his hand into the candle flame and turned it to ash.

Silence asked, “Marquis, what am I to write back to my mistress?”

Ning Chen thought it over. “Bring paper and brush.”

Silence set out paper and brush.

Ning Chen wrote fast, without stopping.

When he had finished he picked it up and looked it over, a dirty grin at the corner of his mouth.

But he took up the brush again almost at once and struck out the last part of it, the whip and the candle wax and Pan Jinlian on the grape trellis and all the rest.

Detestable as this dog of a woman was, the child in her belly was his own… If she read that, and it angered her, and it disturbed the pregnancy, that would not do at all.

He could leave it out of the letter. He would certainly be doing it later.

Ning Chen handed the letter to Silence.

“Does the marquis have a plan?”

Ning Chen glanced at him. “I’ll come and find you when I’ve thought it through.”

Silence nodded.

Ning Chen came out of the Carefree Escort House with a weight on him.

That dog of a woman really could hand him a problem.

Still, the help would have to be given.

But not to the dog of a woman. To the child in her belly.

That child was the future sovereign of the Wu Kingdom.

The thing would need careful planning.

He had meant to go home, but the weight on him was too much, and after some thought he turned toward the courtesans’ quarter instead.

“Ning, dear…”

Seeing Ning Chen, Yudie came to meet him, delighted.

Ning Chen walked over and sat down at the low table in front of the screen, and could not help a sigh.

“Ning, dear, doesn’t seem happy. Has something troubling happened?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “Court business.”

Court business was not for Yudie to ask about. She said softly, “Let this girl rub Ning, dear’s shoulders and take some of the tiredness off?”

Ning Chen made a sound of assent.

Yudie came around behind Ning Chen and gently kneaded his temples.

Of all these women it was Yudie who was the best of them — gentle, sensible, quick to understand, never any trouble to him.

The others were a long story, and not one of them a lamp that burned cheap oil.

The woman emperor of Wu above all.

“Where’s Zisu gone?”

Zisu had still been there when he came in, and he had looked away and she was gone.

Yudie shook her head gently. She did not know either.

Then she said, with her whole face happy, “Ning, dear, Sister Zisu has agreed to stay.”

Ning Chen’s eyes lit up.

“Sister Zisu means to open a practice in the capital.”

Ning Chen gave a roll of the eyes. He had thought Zisu had agreed to wait on him alongside Yudie.

Still, the decision was what he had expected of her.

After a while Zisu came back, carrying a bowl of medicinal broth, which she set down in front of Ning Chen.

So she had gone to decoct his medicine.

Ning Chen glanced at it. “Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source?”

Zisu nodded and made a sound of assent.

Ning Chen picked it up and smelled it. “There isn’t going to be a problem with this, is there?”

Zisu’s pretty face went flat. “Are you doubting my medicine?”

Ning Chen gave an awkward laugh, picked up the bowl, pinched his nose and drank it down in a few gulps.

Yudie thoughtfully picked up a candied fruit at once and fed it to him.

Zisu watched Ning Chen closely. “Well? Do you feel anything?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “I don’t feel a thing.”

“Wait a while longer. The medicine probably hasn’t taken effect yet.”

Ning Chen gave a flat oh.

The three of them talked on and off.

Ning Chen picked up the teapot to refill his cup and found it empty.

He was brought up short. He had drunk a whole pot of tea without noticing… and his mouth was still dry and he was desperately thirsty.

“Ning, dear, why is your face so red?”

“Is it? I feel very hot.”

Ning Chen only knew that his whole body was burning and hard to bear. At some point he had pulled his own collar open, baring his solid chest.

Yudie’s face filled with worry. She put out a hand and felt Ning Chen’s forehead. “Ning, dear, has a fever… Sister Zisu, come and look, quickly.”

Zisu put out a hand and touched Ning Chen’s forehead. It was scalding.

“These are the symptoms of a fever, certainly.”

“I feel as if I’m about to catch fire…”

As he said it Ning Chen pulled up his sleeve. The skin of his arm was red all over.

And not only that. Desire was rising in him now, the raw urge of it very strong, and he was close to not being able to hold himself in.

Zisu gave a sudden start. “This couldn’t be the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source, could it?”

“Couldn’t it?” Ning Chen’s eyes, faintly bloodshot, lifted to her. “Don’t you know what the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source does?”

Zisu shook her head. “It’s the first time I’ve seen the complete prescription, and the first time I’ve seen anyone take it.”

“Holy shit… you’re testing your medicine on your daddy? Is this thing really supposed to strengthen the body? Why does it feel to me like an aphrodisiac?”

“Impossible. The elder Lingxuzi was a Daoist master and never touched a woman in his life. How could it be an aphrodisiac?”

Ning Chen felt he was about to catch fire, and said through his teeth, “Well, I can’t fucking hold it in!”

As he spoke he stood, swept Yudie up crosswise in his arms and strode into the inner room.

He felt that if he did not let it out he was going to burst.

Zisu picked the medicine bowl up off the table and smelled it, muttering, “Strange. It shouldn’t be. How can this be?”

“The elder Lingxuzi was a Daoist master. He would never have created a drug for coupling… Can there be something wrong with the prescription?”

Zisu was still studying the prescription.

Inside, the guns were already going off without a pause.

The big bed rocked in a rhythm, and with it came Yudie’s stifled moans.

Zisu’s pretty face was so red it was nearly dripping blood, and her earlobes and her neck had gone red with it.

She was about to go out when she heard Yudie call, “Sister Zisu, come and look at Ning, dear, quickly. There’s something very wrong with him.”

Ning Chen’s whole body was scalding, like a stove.

Zisu froze where she stood, unable to go forward or back.

“Sister Zisu, come quickly…”

Zisu set her teeth and went into the inner room… and when she saw the state of things in there, she felt she was about to catch fire herself, exactly like Ning Chen.

“Sister Zisu, look quickly, what’s the matter with Ning, dear?”

Ning Chen was like a beast now. All he knew was to keep his head down and work.

Zisu lost her head too. It was the first time she had seen anyone take the Nine Yang Decoction for Nourishing the Source, and faced with this she did not know what to do with her hands or her feet.

“That — that is, I’ll go and get him some ice water to bring the heat down…”

Zisu was so agitated she could not get her words out, and she ran out at a stagger… The shame of it. A live performance!

(End of Chapter 336)