Ning Chen waited a while in his room, and Steward Wu brought his supper up.

There was a finely made wooden case with it.

“What’s that?”

Ning Chen asked it, curious.

Steward Wu bowed and scraped. “This old servant was just about to report it to the Fourth Young Master… The Fifth Princess sent a man over with it a moment ago, and the master told me to bring it along with the food.”

Ning Chen’s brows drew together. The Fifth Princess again.

She had ordered him to kneel four hours for no reason anybody could name, and he had only gotten home today, and here she was sending things over.

Is there something wrong with this Fifth Princess or what?

Then a thought went through his head. Could the Fifth Princess have learned it was a misunderstanding, and sent the case as an apology?

If she had, there would be something good in it.

She was a princess, after all. She would not be stingy about it.

Ning Chen opened the case in high expectation.

When what was inside came into view, Ning Chen thought nothing much of it. Steward Wu let out a shriek, sat down hard on the floor, and turned the tray over, putting the food down his own front.

Inside the case was a mask. A horrible one — a ghost’s face, teeth bared in a snarl, fresh blood running from the corner of its mouth.

Ning Chen’s face was terrible to look at. Has the Fifth Princess had her brains crushed between some man’s thighs?

He picked the mask up off the floor and looked it over. There was nothing remarkable about it. Vicious and frightening, and the blood at its lip was paint.

Ning Chen glanced at Steward Wu, who was shaking from head to foot, and said it flatly. “It’s only a mask.”

“Only a mask, was it?”

Steward Wu hadn’t gotten his nerve back yet. He wiped the cold sweat off his forehead.

Then he scrambled up and went straight to his knees. “This old servant deserves to die. I’ve overturned your food. This old servant will have another meal made for the Fourth Young Master at once.”

Ning Chen didn’t hold any of it against him. He made a sound of agreement and then added, “Send someone to clean this up.”

“Yes!”

Ning Chen held the mask, his brows drawn together, and mostly what he felt was bafflement.

He had never so much as met the Fifth Princess. What did the woman actually want?

First she orders him to kneel four hours. Now she sends a ghost mask over to frighten him… You could beat me to death and I still wouldn’t believe there’s nothing wrong with that woman’s head.

Ning Chen got up, went over to the mirror, put the mask on and looked at himself in the bronze. He laughed. “That is fairly horrible. It’d do for frightening people.”

“Fourth Young Master. Steward Wu sent us to clean.”

A maid’s voice, outside.

“Come in.”

Two young maids pushed the door open and came in.

Ning Chen turned his head without thinking. The two of them stared at him in horror, went white with fright, and screamed at the same moment.

Only then did Ning Chen remember he still had the ghost mask on.

He got it off in a hurry. “Don’t be frightened. It’s only a mask.”

The two maids hadn’t gotten their nerve back either, and it was all over their faces.

Ning Chen gave them an apologetic smile and put the mask away.

Those two are standing there right now deciding I have a nasty sense of humor.

The two maids finished cleaning and Steward Wu brought the food up again.

Ning Chen ate and drank his fill, took a medicinal bath, and went to bed.

Ning Chen left the Ning residence early the next day.

He ate on the road and went straight to the general’s residence.

He would not be able to come and train often from now on, and he had to say something to Old General Chen about it. The man had looked after him all along.

He got there.

Old General Chen was at breakfast.

“Ning Chen. Have you eaten? Sit down and eat with me if you haven’t.”

Ning Chen laughed. “I ate on the way.”

“Then what have you come for?”

“I won’t be able to come and train often any more. I’ve come to say so to everybody.”

Old General Chen nodded, then let out a long breath, his whole face regret.

Ning Chen asked, curious, “Why does the Old General sigh? Is something troubling you? Can I be of any help?”

Old General Chen said, “Ning Chen. You have the makings of a general… I had meant to watch you make a great blaze of yourself on a battlefield.”

Ning Chen felt some of it too.

He would far rather go to a battlefield than be one of the imperial family’s hawks and hounds. He had been a soldier. A battlefield was his ground to stand on.

“Ning Chen. You’ve entered the Inspectorate, so do the work well… I believe that with your abilities you will make a great blaze of yourself wherever you are.”

Old General Chen paused, and went on. “There are still a few things I want to say to you.”

Ning Chen bowed over clasped fists. “Say them, Old General.”

Old General Chen said, “First. Your nature is free and you don’t like being bound by the ordinary rules. But toward the imperial house, keep enough respect.”

“Second. The Inspectorate belongs to His Majesty alone. From now on keep your distance from the officials of the court, civil and military, so that nobody gets a handle on you.”

“Third. The Inspectorate watches the officials and handles the great cases and the grave ones of the empire. Hold to your own heart. Don’t let power or money eat it away.”

Ning Chen nodded, hard. “Thank you for the teaching, Old General. Ning Chen will hold to his own heart and not forget why he began.”

“Good!” Old General Chen’s face filled with satisfaction and he laughed out loud, then said, “Ah — and I have a gift for you.”

“I had meant to send it to the Ning residence, but since you’ve come, take it back with you yourself.”

He said it and glanced at Qi Yuanzhong.

Qi Yuanzhong nodded, turned, and went out.

Ning Chen was curious. What gift? Why all the mystery?

Before long there were hooves in the yard.

Old General Chen got up on his crutch and said, smiling, “Come on. Let’s go and look.”

Out in the yard, Ning Chen saw Qi Yuanzhong leading a tall black horse.

It was a magnificent animal. Black over every inch of it, not one hair of another color, its coat like satin, its legs thick and powerful… One look told you it was a fine horse.

Old General Chen said, laughing, “This one was foaled by the mount I rode in my day. It can run a thousand miles between dawn and dark, and this breed is called the Ink Qilin… Today I’m giving it to you.”

“It ought to be running into the wind. Not shut up in a place the size of this one, the way I am.”

Ning Chen could hear what was underneath it.

To die in the field and come home wrapped in a horse’s hide — that would be the end the old general wanted, wouldn’t it. Not this, where he needs a crutch to walk across a yard.

Ning Chen bent and made his bow. “Thank you, Old General.”

“Ning Chen. Give it a name.”

Ning Chen went over and looked at the beautiful black horse in front of him. Call it Red Hare? That’s the one both Lord Guan and Lü Bu rode.

Then something else occurred to him, and he laughed so hard it came out of him in a snort.

Old General Chen looked at him, not following. “What is it?”

Ning Chen said, laughing, “Old General. I’ve thought of a good name. Call her Diaochan.” (TL Note: Red Hare was Lü Bu’s warhorse; Diaochan was the woman he took from his own patron. Both are famous from the Three Kingdoms — and Ning Chen is naming a mount after the second rather than the first.)

And when somebody asks him where his Diaochan is, he can tell them she’s underneath him.

Old General Chen asked, curious, “Diaochan. Is there some story behind it?”

Ning Chen shook his head. “No story. Diaochan just means beautiful. Lovely.”

Old General Chen said, “Ah.”

Ning Chen looked at the big black horse and said, smiling, “From now on your name is Diaochan.”

The big black horse let out a whinny and rubbed its great head against Ning Chen, as though the name suited it very well.

Old General Chen laughed. “It seems the two of you were meant to meet.”

Ning Chen patted the black horse on the head and said, smiling, “Nothing under heaven is settled yet. You and I are both dark horses… From now on the two of us work together, and we’ll make a great blaze of ourselves.”

The big black horse let out a loud whinny.

(End of Chapter 43)