“You girls go on out for now!”
The Fourth Prince waved a hand, and the girls who had been waiting on him left the room.
Then he poured Ning Chen a cup of wine and said with a smile, “A fair number of men at court have been impeaching me lately for loose living and for haunting the pleasure quarter.”
Ning Chen turned the cup over in his fingers. “And you still dare come?”
The Fourth Prince raised his cup and touched it against Ning Chen’s, smiling.
“I spend the whole year with the army, surrounded by rough men, and I’m not married… I finally get back to the capital. Is it too much to come here and have a few girls keep me company?”
“If they like writing memorials, let them. Once you and Huai’an are married I go back to the western frontier anyway.”
Ning Chen smiled. “Then you have only a few days left.”
His Majesty had told him the wedding with the Ninth Princess was set for the seventh of next month. Counting generously, that was seven or eight days.
The Fourth Prince looked thoroughly unhappy about it. “I’d like to stay longer. But my mother the Consort insists I go back to the western frontier as soon as I can.”
Ning Chen smiled. “You’re at the western frontier all year. I suppose the turn of the year is the only time you get back to spend with Her Ladyship Consort Zhao?”
The Fourth Prince nodded and complained, “Exactly. Every year I come back wanting to stay longer and see more of my mother the Consort… and every year she hurries me out the door.”
“If you weren’t marrying Huai’an this time, I’d have been shipped back to the western frontier long ago.”
“Why is that?”
The Fourth Prince looked utterly glum. “Who knows what my mother the Consort is thinking? Something about the western frontier needing me and how I should hurry back.”
“Other princes’ mothers are busy arranging marriages for their sons. Mine doesn’t ask and doesn’t care… Huai’an is getting married and I’m still a man alone in the world.”
A light moved in Ning Chen’s eyes.
This Consort Zhao was interesting.
The Fourth Prince picked up his cup. “Enough of that. I hear that on this trip to Wu you not only dug out that traitor Li Hongzhuo, you finished off the Wu Prince Regent too.”
“How did you do it? They say the Wu Prince Regent held half the power in Wu, and that he had a great name on the battlefield, bold and a fine fighter… And you killed him.”
“When I heard, I was stunned.”
Ning Chen smiled. “I was only lucky.”
The Fourth Prince shook his head. “Don’t be modest. That was not luck… Ning Chen, no wonder my imperial father favors you the way he does. You deserve it.”
“If you weren’t about to marry Huai’an, I’d want to drag you off to the western frontier to fight alongside me.”
Ning Chen smiled, touched his cup against the other, drank it off in one swallow, and then asked, as though it were nothing:
“Speaking of Li Hongzhuo, how much does the Fourth Prince know about him?”
The Fourth Prince shook his head. “I’m with the army all year. I don’t know everyone at court even by sight… I met Li Hongzhuo a few times, but we hardly spoke. I didn’t know him well.”
“When I did meet him I thought he seemed a decent enough man… And it turns out the dog dealt with the enemy and betrayed his country. If I’d known, I’d have cut him down on the spot.”
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he said suddenly, “Li Hongzhuo was only the piece out where you could see it. There is somebody behind him.”
“Who?”
Ning Chen stared at him and said nothing.
The Fourth Prince touched his face. “What is it? Have I got something on my face?”
Ning Chen said it one word at a time. “Li Hongzhuo told me the man behind him was you.”
It was Pan Yucheng who had told him this… that Li Hongzhuo, before he died, had tried to win him over and had named the Fourth Prince as the man behind him.
Ning Chen had never more than half believed what Li Hongzhuo said.
Li Hongzhuo was a deep and calculating man. Why would he give up the name of the man behind him so easily?
The Fourth Prince went blank.
“He said it was me?”
Ning Chen nodded.
The Fourth Prince said, puzzled, “Why would he say it was me?”
Ning Chen: “???”
“The deposed crown prince is down. The Third Prince is down. The place of the heir apparent is empty… Has the Fourth Prince really never thought of sitting in it?”
The Fourth Prince frowned. “One foot in the sky and one foot in the dirt — what are you talking about? We were on Li Hongzhuo. How did we get dragged to the heir apparent?”
It came to Ning Chen suddenly that this guy really was simple, and that it did not look put on.
“As things stand, the Fourth Prince is the man closest to the place of the heir apparent. Have you truly never thought of sitting in it?”
The Fourth Prince took a mouthful of wine and said glumly, “I have thought about it… After I got back I even raised it with my mother the Consort, and she gave me a filthy scolding for it.”
“My mother the Consort told me not to let the thought into my head. Said I am not crown prince material at all… I ask you, is there another mother anywhere in the world with that low an opinion of her own son?”
“It’s only being crown prince. I can fight a war. How hard can being crown prince be?”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
He was beginning to believe what Silence had said — that the Fourth Prince was bold and a fine fighter, but all courage and no plan.
The Fourth Prince talked on to himself. “Never mind. If my mother the Consort won’t have it, then I don’t want it… What I want is to be the kind of man Old General Chen is.”
Ning Chen smiled. “The Fourth Prince is bold and a fine fighter. He will certainly become the kind of man Old General Chen is.”
The Fourth Prince nodded. “I certainly will!”
Ning Chen stood up. “Then enjoy yourself, Fourth Prince. Everything tonight is on me.”
“A true friend!” The Fourth Prince stuck up a thumb. “Don’t worry. If Huai’an asks, I’ll say I never saw you.”
Ning Chen felt a headache coming on.
If you don’t tell her, why would Huai’an ask in the first place?
This guy really was simple. A complete blockhead… If he was putting it on, then Ning Chen yielded, beaten and glad to say so.
“My thanks, Fourth Prince!”
“No need for that. We’ll be family soon enough.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched, and he turned to go.
“You’re going to find that girl Yudie, aren’t you?”
Ning Chen looked back at him, eyes narrowing slightly.
The Fourth Prince stuck up his thumb again. “I’ve seen her. She could topple a kingdom with her beauty. You lucky dog.”
Ning Chen: “???”
Ning Chen came out of the private room and went upstairs to Yudie’s room.
“Ning, dear?”
Seeing Ning Chen appear out of nowhere, Yudie was startled and delighted at once.
“When did Ning, dear, get back?”
Ning Chen pulled her into his arms, kneading at her backside, and looked around the room without finding Zisu.
“Only got back today… Where’s Zisu?”
Feeling the warmth of Ning Chen’s palm, Yudie’s breathing quickened a little. She was about to answer when Zisu came in from outside.
Seeing Ning Chen, she gave a start in spite of herself. “When did you get back?”
“Just now!”
Zisu glanced at the hand Ning Chen had on Yudie’s backside, and at how close the two of them were standing, and her pretty face went a little red. “It’s enough that you’re back safe… I’ll leave you to it. I’ll sleep with Xiaoxing tonight.”
“Sister Zisu, you can’t go.”
Zisu looked at her. “Look how impatient he is. Wouldn’t I be in the way of your good time?”
Yudie said softly, “Ning, dear, is too much for me now. I can’t manage on my own… Sister Zisu, help me?”
Ning Chen was delighted. That was hugely satisfying to his pride.
Yudie was such a good, sensible girl.
“You—”
Zisu had no words at all. She went numb.
(End of Chapter 365)