Pan Yucheng was struck dumb and staring.
“The President of the Secretariat may be high in rank and heavy in power, but he isn’t grand enough to hook the Prince Regent of Wu, is he?”
Ning Chen gave a slight nod. “So you’ve thought of it too… That’s right. There’s someone else behind Li Hongzhuo. He’s only the piece they’ve put out in the open.”
Pan Yucheng asked, “Who’s behind him?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “I have a few suspects, but who exactly it is isn’t clear yet.”
“Li Hongzhuo may know about me and the woman emperor, but he has no proof.”
Pan Yucheng said, “So he’s come to Wu this time to look for proof?”
Ning Chen gave a slight nod. “He certainly has that in mind.”
“Then this man…”
Pan Yucheng did not finish. He made a throat-cutting gesture instead.
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth lifted, and he nodded slightly. “Keep a close watch on his movements for me.”
Pan Yucheng made a sound of assent. “Rest easy. Leave it to me!”
The next day.
Ning Chen and the others were up early.
Having arrived in Wu, the first thing to do was of course to present themselves to the Wu woman emperor.
Fu Lu and Li Ruishi were already waiting outside.
Not everyone needed to go.
Ning Chen, Pan Yucheng, Li Hongzhuo and Shen Min had to.
Feng Qizheng and the rest did not — to put it plainly, they were not of high enough standing.
“Did you gentlemen rest well last night?”
Fu Lu had gone back to his crinkling smile — a textbook case of a blade hidden in a laugh.
Li Hongzhuo nodded, smiling.
“My thanks to Lord Fu for his concern. I slept very well!”
Ning Chen shot the two of them a glance.
He could be certain now: Fu Lu was the Prince Regent’s man.
At the banquet last night, Fu Lu and Li Hongzhuo had been making eyes at each other, and later one of them had gone out on the pretext of visiting the privy.
Fu Lu smiled. “It’s nearly time. Will you gentlemen come with me into the palace?”
The party followed Fu Lu toward the Wu palace.
“You all right?”
On the way, Pan Yucheng had noticed Ning Chen rubbing his stomach.
Ning Chen shook his head. “Might be something I ate last night, might be that the water and soil here don’t agree with me. My stomach’s a little off.”
Wu produced salt in abundance; its salt trade was better developed than Great Xuan’s.
At the banquet last night the food had been salty to the point of choking, and he had drunk a great deal of tea. His stomach had been unhappy all night and he had made several trips to the privy.
“Can you hold out?”
Pan Yucheng asked.
If he broke wind up and down the hall while presenting himself to the Wu woman emperor, that would be far too shameful.
Ning Chen said, “Rest easy, it’s nothing!”
As they talked, the party arrived at the palace gates.
The Wu palace was much like Great Xuan’s, though somewhat smaller.
Fu Lu brought them to the doors of the Hall of Sacred Might.
The Hall of Sacred Might was the equivalent of Great Xuan’s Golden Hall — the place where court was held.
After a short wait, a young eunuch came running out to announce them.
Under the eyes of Wu’s officials, civil and military, Ning Chen and the others walked into the great hall.
The arrangement inside was much like Great Xuan’s too.
The woman emperor sat high on the dragon throne.
The one difference was that a chair had been placed beside the dragon desk… and a man of about forty was sitting in it.
He was upright of build and refined of feature, and he wore a python robe like Ning Chen’s own — only the color was different.
The Prince Regent, Song Tiancheng.
Song Tiancheng narrowed his eyes and looked Ning Chen over, expressionless.
Ning Chen shifted his gaze and let it come to rest on the woman emperor.
Damn it. This is the woman. Drugged me and stole my seed.
But he could not make out the woman emperor’s expression.
Because the woman emperor’s crown… that is, the hat she wore, had strings of jade beads hanging in front of it, like a curtain, and they covered her face.
Ning Chen cupped one fist in the other and bowed, saying in a clear voice, “The Idle Marquis of Great Xuan, Ning Chen, presents himself to Your Majesty the woman emperor!”
“The envoy of Great Xuan may rise!”
The woman emperor raised a hand, and her clear voice rang out.
Ning Chen straightened, and his eyes went to the woman emperor’s belly.
Four months along. How is there nothing to see at all?
Is it possible this woman isn’t pregnant? Or has she bound up her waist?
The woman emperor stared at Ning Chen through the bead curtain before her face and frowned faintly, thinking: what is he gawking at?
“Marquis Ning, we meet again!”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. He thought: yes, we do. The first time we met, you drugged me and robbed me of my seed. This time you’ve tricked me into coming to Wu.
The peace talks were real enough.
But there was another purpose besides, and that was to be rid of the Prince Regent.
Ning Chen smiled. “Last time we met, you and I were enemies… This time I have come so that our two kingdoms may live side by side in peace.”
The woman emperor said, “That depends on whether the envoy of Great Xuan has brought any sincerity with him.”
“That we came at all is the greatest sincerity there is.”
The woman emperor said evenly, “Wu and Great Xuan have campaigned against each other year after year. If we could live side by side in peace, that would naturally be best!”
Ning Chen nodded. “Great Xuan thinks the same.”
The Prince Regent, Song Tiancheng, stood up abruptly.
He came down from the high dais and walked at an unhurried pace until he stood in front of Ning Chen.
“They say Great Xuan’s Marquis Ning is accomplished in both letters and arms. Seeing him today, he is truly a fine figure of a man!”
Ning Chen smiled. “You are too generous, sir. How should I address you?”
“Song Tiancheng, Prince Regent of Wu.”
Ning Chen cupped his hands. “The Prince Regent — forgive my discourtesy!”
This Song Tiancheng had actually dared to cut the woman emperor off mid-sentence, and dared to walk about freely in front of the woman emperor. That was gross disrespect.
No wonder the woman emperor wanted the man gone.
He had grown arrogant past all bounds.
The crucial thing was that not one of the officials of the court, civil or military, seemed to find anything wrong with it.
It seemed at least half the men in this court were Song Tiancheng’s.
“All the world says the world of letters flourishes in Great Xuan, and that Marquis Ning is an immortal of poetry reborn… As it happens, we of Wu have an immortal of poetry too. To meet is to be fated, and if two immortals of poetry were to meet as friends in letters here at court, it would surely be a tale worth telling.”
The Prince Regent finished, and without giving Ning Chen the smallest chance to refuse, said, “Ask old Master Xu to come in!”
To the sound of footsteps, an old man in scholar’s robes came in from outside the great hall, supported on either side by two study attendants.
Ning Chen frowned faintly.
It was not that he feared this immortal of poetry of Wu’s. He simply disliked being maneuvered.
Old Master Xu came forward and gave Ning Chen a glance out of his clouded eyes, his contempt too plain for words.
The two study attendants were just the same, and the look they gave Ning Chen was full of contempt.
Ning Chen’s face gave nothing away. Was it possible this Wu immortal of poetry had never read those poems he had stolen?
Men of letters do think little of one another.
But those poems, free as they had come to him… were the essence distilled out of several thousand years of history, every line of them a song for the ages.
If this Wu immortal of poetry had read them, would he be looking at him like that?
Ning Chen suspected one of two things: either somebody had shut off all news of him from this Wu immortal of poetry, or this Wu immortal of poetry had a great deal of confidence in his own learning.
“This humble commoner, Xu Shuhan, presents himself to Your Majesty!”
The woman emperor looked coldly at Xu Shuhan through the bead curtain before her face.
This Xu Shuhan had a considerable name in Wu and was a great man of the world of letters… but he had attached himself to the Prince Regent, and often used poems to burnish the Prince Regent and spread his fame for him.
The woman emperor said distantly, “Rise!”
The Prince Regent looked at Ning Chen. “Marquis Ning, let me introduce you. This is our Wu immortal of poetry, old Master Xu Shuhan.”
“Old Master Xu, this is Great Xuan’s immortal of poetry, Marquis Ning Chen!”
“Old Master Xu is an immortal of poetry, and so is Marquis Ning… Why should the two of you not meet as friends in letters here at court, and let us see which of you is the true immortal of poetry?”
“I am sure this will become a tale for the ages in days to come.”
(End of Chapter 351)