When the sharp-mouthed, hollow-cheeked young man heard that, the blood drained from his face. Sweat sprang out on his forehead and he took to his heels.
But he had barely set one foot over the threshold when a teapot came flying after him.
Bang!!!
The teapot caught him square in the back.
The sharp-mouthed, hollow-cheeked young man let out a yelp and pitched headlong to the floor.
The customers nearest the door grabbed him by the legs and hauled him back inside.
The customers in the shop swarmed him, fists and feet flying, tables, chairs and benches going over everywhere.
“You black-hearted thing, slandering Marquis Ning — we’ll beat you to death!”
“This one might be a spy for an enemy state.”
“That’s right. No one who wasn’t an enemy spy would work that hard at framing and slandering Marquis Ning.”
The customers cursed him and beat him at the same time.
Once the spy’s hat was on a man’s head, you could beat him to death and answer for nothing.
Under the laws of Great Xuan, spies, slavers, thieves and bandits could be beaten to death without any crime committed — and there was a reward on top of it.
The sharp-mouthed, hollow-cheeked young man clutched his head and howled under the blows.
“Brother, could you let me get one kick in?”
“Stop shoving, stop shoving… you’ve shoved my shoe right off.”
“Haven’t you eaten today? Hit him harder… or don’t drink with me again. I won’t have a brother like you — I couldn’t stand the shame of it.”
There were too many of them.
Some wanted to get in and land a few kicks of their own but could not squeeze through at all.
One man finally forced his way in and landed one kick, only for the press to trap his leg; by the time he had worked it free his shoe was gone.
The manager of the Heavenly Blessing Tower stood up on the counter, roaring at them to beat the man to death.
“Stop! Stop at once… I am a red coat of the Inspectorate.”
“Inspectorate business — every one of you, stop!”
Two red coats who had been working in plain clothes on a quiet investigation showed their badges and shouted themselves nearly hoarse before they got the room under control.
Everyone came to a halt.
The two red coats stepped up for a look, and their faces twitched.
The sharp-mouthed, hollow-cheeked young man had been beaten out of any human shape — vomiting blood at one end and pissing blood at the other.
“My lords, this man was here at the Heavenly Blessing Tower yesterday too, saying foul things about Marquis Ning the whole time. He must be a spy for an enemy state.”
So said the manager of the Heavenly Blessing Tower.
The two red coats nodded.
One of them said, “Our thanks to you all for stepping in. We’ll take this spy back and question him hard, and find out who his associates are.”
“Only a spy would blacken Marquis Ning’s good name. Who in all Great Xuan doesn’t know Marquis Ning is a man of noble character?”
Was there a red coat in the Inspectorate who had never had a kindness from Ning Chen?
Any ordinary day, if he ran into them, Ning Chen would press a little silver on them and tell them to go buy themselves a drink.
The two red coats dragged the half-dead young man away.
The manager of the Heavenly Blessing Tower, his whole face alight, shouted, “Everything all of you have had today is on me… Bring out the wine. It’s been a long time since I drank, but I’m happy today, and nothing’s going to keep me from a few cups.”
And it was not only at the Heavenly Blessing Tower. The same thing was happening in the capital’s wine houses, its inns, its roadside stalls, all up and down the streets.
Not one of the men who had spoken against Ning Chen and blackened his name got away.
Anyone they caught, they beat half to death.
The red coats of the Inspectorate, the garrison, the runners of the capital prefect’s office were run off their feet… it was a death here, or a man about to be beaten to death there.
It was evening before the storm gradually died down.
At the Inspectorate, in Geng Jing’s room, Ning Chen sat with a cup of tea, sipping it at his leisure.
Geng Jing shook his head and laughed. “Good God. If this goes on much longer, the cells of our Inspectorate are going to be packed to bursting.”
From that afternoon until now, the men brought in numbered several dozen.
And not one of them was in one piece; the people had beaten every one of them out of any human shape.
“Ning Chen, that really was a formidable move of yours… Now nobody in the whole capital will dare say a word against you.”
“But next time you have a way of handling something like this, could you tip me off beforehand? You had us worried sick.”
Ning Chen smiled apologetically.
Geng Jing asked, “What do we do with the men we’ve brought in?”
Ning Chen’s eyes went hard. “Question them, then leave none of them alive!”
Geng Jing gave a slight nod.
Pan Yucheng said admiringly, “I’d guess whoever wanted to ruin Ning Chen’s name is sitting there right now with regret deep enough to split his guts.”
“All this uproar hasn’t damaged Ning Chen’s reputation in the least — it’s made the people love him more.”
Pan Yucheng had it exactly right. At that moment, in a room in a certain great mansion, the candle flames wavered and two figures showed against the window paper.
“So this was your fine idea? This was supposed to ruin Ning Chen’s name? It’s made his name for him, that’s all it’s done.”
The man who spoke was dressed in rich brocade, plump and pale.
The other was an older man, lean in the face, with a goatee.
He let out a long sigh and said, “I underestimated how much weight Ning Chen carries with the common people… This move was a mistake — a bad one.”
“I truly never thought His Majesty would cover for Ning Chen.”
The plump, pale young man’s face was still as water. “Ning Chen has to be dealt with somehow. The man is a monster… Made a marquis and a chancellor inside a year. That kind of speed is terrifying!”
“He’s a marquis now, but he’s a marquis of another surname, and we still have some chance of bringing him down… Once he marries the Ninth Princess he’s imperial kin, and moving against him will be far harder.”
The lean-faced old man nodded slightly. “Just so. His Majesty favors him far too much… If we mean to accomplish anything great, Ning Chen has to be dealt with first.”
“The boy is a monster, no question. The Left Chancellor, the Grand Tutor, Prince Fu, the Empress, the deposed crown prince, the Third Prince… every one of them fell at his hands, whether he did it himself or not.”
“If we don’t deal with him, I fear nothing great will come of us.”
The plump, pale young man frowned. “Could we try to bring him over?”
The lean-faced old man shook his head. “Hard… Ning Chen is a clever man. He knows everything he has came from His Majesty.”
“So long as His Majesty is on the throne, his high office and his rich pay and his wealth and glory are all assured… which means he will guard His Majesty with his life.”
The plump, pale young man narrowed his eyes. “Do you think he has any thought of taking that seat himself?”
“No. At the very least, not now.”
“Why?”
The lean-faced old man said, “First, his wings aren’t grown.”
“Second, the deposed crown prince and the Third Prince may be finished, but His Majesty has other sons. It would never altogether be in order, so the thought won’t take hold in him.”
“Third, His Majesty’s favor is a boundless blessing and a set of shackles both… If he dared rebel, the common people wouldn’t stand for it, the whole court wouldn’t stand for it, Old General Chen would be the first on his feet to cut him down — and he’d have ruined his own name on top of it.”
The plump, pale young man nodded slightly and was about to say something when there was a knock at the door.
The lean-faced old man went over and opened it, and came back a moment later with a rolled-up slip of paper.
He opened it, and one glance was enough — his pupils contracted sharply.
“What is it?”
His expression was strange. “It says here that Ning Chen has been carrying on with the Wu woman emperor.”
The plump, pale young man’s eyes flew wide. “That— that… Is the report reliable?”
The lean-faced old man shook his head. “The report is reliable, but there’s no proof. Our man is looking into it.”
“How— how did he end up tangled with the Wu woman emperor?”
“They say the two of them met while he was at the frontier, and spent four hours together in her tent.”
The plump, pale young man could not hide his shock. “That— that’s beyond belief. One meeting and he’d bedded the Wu woman emperor? What sort of magic does the boy have?”
“He wasn’t brazen enough in his lust to drug the Wu woman emperor, was he?”
(End of Chapter 344)